Have you heard the word breathwork recently, and curious to know more about it?
Nowadays, Breathwork is one of the hottest therapeutic modalities in the world, and the science behind it is very real.
It provides you with a free, immediate, and powerful tool for telling your nervous system to slow down. The number of searches for the term “breathwork” has risen over 3,233% in the past 15 years. What makes breathwork for healing so effective is that your breath is the only physiological process in your body that is both automatic and consciously controllable.
But simply taking a random deep breath is not enough to see real changes. There are types of breath work that focus specifically on what you are feeling.
What Makes Your Breath So Powerful?
Your nervous system can be in either of two modes. The first is the sympathetic mode, your fight-or-flight state. When it is on, your heart increases, your digestion slows down, the muscles tense, stress hormones are released into your body, and your brain shifts into survival mode. This system will actually help in case of real emergencies.
The other one is the parasympathetic branch, your rest-and-digest branch. This activates and makes your heart rate go down, your stomach works better, your body’s immune system balances, your muscles relax, and your brain enters a clearer, calmer thinking pattern. This is where real healing occurs.
Your breath sits at the intersection of both systems. It is the only physiological process that can be automatically executed or consciously controlled. When you change how you breathe, like inhale to exhale, you directly signal your nervous system to shift modes.
A slow, long exhale activates your parasympathetic system. On the other hand, rapid, rhythmic breathing may briefly stimulate the sympathetic system in a controlled way, which then leads to a profound parasympathetic rebound.
Key Breathwork Types
All breathing exercises are not equal. Each pattern will affect your body and mind differently. Let’s take a closer look at four breathwork practices, what they do, and how you can use them.
1. Box Breathing
Box breathing is the go-to technique when you’re feeling overwhelmed or lost in your thoughts.
It is also known as square breathing or four-four-four breathing. It is a breathwork technique that employs equal breath counts for inhale, hold, exhale, and hold. Four seconds in. Four seconds hold. Four seconds out. Four seconds hold. Repeat.
It’s the structure that makes it powerful. Box breathing helps the mind break the cycle of anxious thinking because you can’t catastrophize and count at the same time.
It provides a feeling of safety and stability in your body. When you become highly anxious, your breathing becomes shallow. Box breathing encourages deep, even breaths that tell your body that you are safe.
How to do it:
- Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
- Hold your breath gently for 4 seconds
- Slowly breathe out for 4 seconds
- Pause for 4 seconds without breathing
- Do this 4-6 times
What is it used for?
Box breathing is best for when you are feeling anxious, panicked, overwhelmed, nervous about a meeting, angry, unable to stop thinking about something, or when you know you need to be calm and clear-minded right now. It can also be used as a midday reset; only 3-5 minutes of box breathing following lunch can boost your concentration and performance in the afternoon.
2. Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing is also known as belly breathing or deep breathing. It just refers to breathing in a manner that maximizes the use of your diaphragm to expand your belly outwards when you inhale, and not your chest and shoulders.
Diaphragmatic breathing is shown to reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and other physiological indicators of stress.
How to do it:
- Sit or lie down comfortably.
- Have one hand on your chest and the other hand on your belly.
- Take a deep breath in through your nose.
- On that final inhale, take a quick, short one through your nose at the top of the inhale.
- Exhale slowly and long out of your mouth.
- Repeat 2 or 3 times.
You can repeat this 5 times after waking, before a stressful situation, or throughout the day when you feel overwhelmed or tense.
What is it used for?
This type is useful for stress management, lowering baseline anxiety, boosting concentration throughout the business day, controlling hypertension, and improving sleep.
Additionally, if you are new to breathwork, this is the best exercise to begin. When you get used to diaphragmatic breathing, all other types of breathwork become easier to access.
3. 4-7-8 Breathing Technique
The 4-7-8 technique was developed by Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine. It is specifically formulated for deep relaxation, sleep induction, and anxiety reduction. Breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 7 counts, and breathe out fully for 8 counts.
In this method, you inhale for four seconds, hold the breath for seven seconds, and exhale for eight seconds. The extended exhale, twice as long as the inhale, is the main move. This method helps regulate the nervous system and can lead to improved mental and physical well-being.
How to do it:
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
- Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose for a count of 4.
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound, for 8 seconds.
- Do this cycle 4 times.
What it does for you:
4-7-8 breathing produces one of the deepest relaxation responses of any breathwork technique. Many people report feeling drowsy at the 4th cycle, which is the exact point of doing this to fall asleep.
What is it best for:
4-7-8 breathing is most effective for sleep, anxiety before sleep, breaking the cycle of worry or racing thoughts, acute stress, emotional reactivity, and recovery from cortisol dysregulations.
It’s also great for women going through hormonal changes during perimenopause.
4: Activating breathwork Wim Hof and Holotropic Breathing
This is an entirely new category as compared to the first three. The box breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, and 4-7-8 all work by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. Breathwork techniques, such as the Wim Hof Method or Holotropic Breathing, are entirely different from the relaxing methods listed above. They are powerful, rapid, and designed to help displace any stuck emotional energy.
What it does
This kind of breathing doesn’t soothe you down; it wakes you up big time. It opens a continuous cycle of accelerated, deep breathing, which can trigger physical sensations, tingling, or even strong emotions. It’s a deep releasing of sadness, frustration, or a lot of tension that’s been stuck in your body.
How to do it:
- Sit or lie in a comfortable position.
- Do 30 deep fast breaths through the nose or mouth and allow the exhale to happen.
- Maintain a regular tempo
- At the end of the exhale, pause as long as you can comfortably do so
- When you need to breathe, take one deep, full breath in and hold it for 15 seconds, then release
- Repeat this three times
What is it best for?
Activating breathwork is best for deep emotional release, processing stored trauma, building stress resilience and mental toughness, boosting immune function, and reducing chronic inflammation.
This type of breathwork is not for everyone or every situation. It is not recommended during pregnancy or in individuals with cardiovascular disease, epilepsy, or untreated severe mental illness. It is always advisable to use a trained facilitator for holotropic breathwork.
Breathwork can be a helpful part of healing, and our functional care team is here to help you find the right approach for your needs.
Simple Daily Breathwork Practice
Breathwork is most effective when you practice it on a regular basis, rather than doing it when you get into a crisis.
Morning: Do 5 minutes of Diaphragmatic Breathing. Before you check your phone or start your day, five minutes of this belly breathing balances your cortisol and reduces your baseline anxiety.
Midday: Do 3 minutes of Box Breathing. Three to five rounds of box breathing will help reset focus, clear the mental fog, and stop cortisol buildup that causes the afternoon crash at lunch, between tasks, or at the end of the day.
Evening: Do 4 cycles of 4-7-8 Breathing. Four cycles of 4-7-8 breathing 10-15 minutes before sleep are a signal to your nervous system that it is time to wind down for the day. This greatly helps with sleep.
Weekly: Take part in a 1-Activating Breathwork session. A Wim Hof session, 3-4 rounds per session, once or twice a week, brings the deeper immune, emotional, and resilience benefits that daily slow breathing alone does not give.
It’s a full protocol that will take you less time than scrolling your phone. Over time, the impact of its effects on your nervous system, hormonal health, mood, and sleep can accumulate in very real ways.
Bottom Line
The concept of functional medicine is to provide your body with the proper tools for healing from the inside out. Breathwork is one of your most basic tools. There is no special equipment, gym membership, or prescription required to begin breathwork for healing.
You can choose one of these breathwork types and give it a try for 3 minutes now. Please note that diaphragmatic breathing is safe and beneficial throughout pregnancy. But activating breathwork techniques that involve breath holds and hyperventilation are not recommended during pregnancy.
At Kairos, Lola, one of our functional health providers, works with patients to build personalized health plans that address the root causes of stress, hormonal imbalance, sleep dysfunction, and chronic disease.
If you have a medical condition or you are considering starting a new health practice, always consult a licensed health care provider first.