What is Breathwork?

Unless you’ve been living off the grid for the past couple of years, you’ve no doubt seen or heard the term ‘breathwork’. But what dies it actually mean?

Simply put:

Breathing intentionally, to alter your state of being.

State can mean many things, it could be physical, mental, or even spiritual.

Depsite the current surge in popularity, breathwork isn’t a new thing, far from it. The earliest recorded evidence of someone partkaing in controlled breathing, in a stone carving that is at least 4500* years old, made by the Indus Valley civilization (whose descendants eventually started Hinduism).

*Some believe it could even be as old as 10,000 years. Stone is hard to date, so there is some disagreement

Even all those years ago, people had identified that breathing is a key to unlocking our full potential.

These early practices paved the way for what we know today as yoga and pranayama. The same foundations for most of the breathwork I practice, and teach.

But it wasn’t just isolated to India, we see similar occurences in tribes and cultures across the globe. For centuries, humans innately knew, they could use the breath to access altered states of being.

Etymology can highlight just how much ancient cultures revered the breath. In several languages, breath and life are the same word. For example in Sanskrit, the first part of the word pranayama, ‘prana-‘, is defined as both ‘breath’ and ‘life force’. We see the same with ‘chi’ or ‘qi’ in China, and ‘spirare’ in Latin.

For centuries these practices have flown under the radar amongst the masses, even in their countries of origin, to some extent.

Only recently have we seen breathwork surging in popularity, thanks to the wide adoption of yoga, and larger-than-life character like the Iceman himself, Wim Hof.

The internet means we’re spoilt for choice, with hundreds of different forms of breathwork, and schools of thought. Countless styles, techniques that take a few minutes, some that go on for hours, cathartic and intense, or slow and therapeutic.

It can be overwhelming knowing where to start, but luckily I’m here to be your guide.