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After experimenting with a ton of practices and modalities on my personal growth journey for nine years, here is my verdict:

Breathwork is one of the most powerful and influential practices I have ever come across.

The practice of Breathwork is in my Top Three along with Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work and meditations, as well as my experiences with plant medicine.

This article will go into the details of Breathwork in general, as well as my experiences in particular.

The breath —

Something we take for granted.

It’s just something our bodies do, right?

I didn’t even know I had a breath until I started meditating and doing Yoga back in 2012.

It was a Eureka moment when I first became aware of it:

“Wow, holy shit, I have a breath!”

I am pretty sure I am not the only one who was breathing unconsciously for most of her life without thinking about it twice or stopping to observe. It is not something we are taught growing up.

However, after my first discovery, it took another several years to realize the real transformational power my breath has.

Even though I had learned and practiced a fair amount of different Pranayama breathing techniques as a yogi and especially also during my yoga teacher training in 2015, I really only got familiar with the deep transformational effects of Breathwork about two and a half years ago.

Before I share my personal story and experience, let’s zoom out.

What is Breathwork?

Breathwork is an active meditation, in which we use the breath along with music to help the mind release and connect to the body.

It is the practice of changing your breathing pattern to change your mental, emotional and physical state.

As you take deep circular connected breaths continuously and without break, you enter a self-induced trance state (a non-ordinary state of consciousness) where memories, pictures, emotions or body sensations can surface to be reviewed, released and integrated.

Most Breathwork techniques involve deep belly breaths, also called slow abdominal breathing or diaphragmatic breathing, which stimulates the vagus nerve and lowers our stress response and inflammation in our bodies.

It is usually done with a facilitator lying down, in either a group or 1-on-1 setting, with music that guides the experience. There are also guided Breathwork meditations online that you can do on your own – however, I recommend getting started with a facilitator.

Here is a great little explanation video by Michael Stone, who runs in-person and online Breathwork sessions.

The Benefits of Breathwork

The benefits of Breathwork are seriously wide-ranging and many resources make it sound like it’s a magic medicine for basically everything.

However, I am a fan of focusing on my own personal experience.

Let me tell you in a nutshell how I have benefited from Breathwork thus far:

It has helped me release sadness, stress and anxiety, find more peace and clarity, opened me up to more creativity and amazing ideas, and feel more joy.

Overall, Breathwork helps me release unprocessed emotions, access the wisdom in my body, and open my heart.

Considering that the average modern human in 2019 is deeply disconnected from their emotional pain and trauma stored in their bodies, from the ways their bodies are communicating with them, and from their intuition – Breathwork is an amazing practice to reconnect with all of these parts.

If all this sounds a little over the top to your rational brain – well, your breath is incredibly powerful and still highly underrated. But hey, times are changing. More and more people are being blown away by the effects and share the message.

I personally find it an amazing opportunity to process and release emotions, old trauma, blocked energy in the body and to tap into my higher self for new insights and downloads. Afterwards it feels like a reset and I experience more mental and emotional clarity.

The History of Breathwork

Breathwork has been used therapeutically in ancient traditions for years, including Pranayama practices in Yogic traditions and a variety of breath-centered meditation practices in Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism and Christianity. It’s nothing new really, it is just experiencing a revolution in a new way.

However, most of the Breathwork therapy used today got its start during the consciousness-raising era of the 1960s and 1970s.

An important man who brought Breathwork in a new way back on the map in the 60s and 70s was Stan Grof – he is a psychiatrist and one of the founders of Transpersonal Psychology.

Grof did groundbreaking work investigating the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness, specifically with LSD.  After LSD was banned, Stan Grof developed “Holotropic Breathwork”, a healing modality which uses breath and music to allow participants to access the healing potential of non-ordinary state of consciousness. Experiences can include re-experiencing and releasing childhoold trauma, perinatal experiences, sensory experiences that release energetic blocks in the body and transpersonal experiences such as a satori type of  breathing experience of union and connection with the universe.

Another important figure in the development of Breathwork is Leonard Orr, who developed Rebirthing Breathwork in the 1970s.

Both Grof’s and Orr’s approaches to Breathwork were developed independently around the same time and are, according to their founders, not directly based on Pranayama techniques, but were created through their own personal and group experiments.

Since then the field has grown a lot. Two women who both studied with Grof and Orr developed their own styles of Breathwork, who became very well known: Judith Kravitz created Transformational Breath and Jacquelyn Small founded Integrative Breathwork.

Types of Breathwork

Apart from my own experiences with Breathwork, working with different teachers and modalities, and taking part in a Breathwork teacher training, I have been studying the practice and everything about it in depth.

In the morning, the more research I did into Breathwork, the more confusing it got to be honest. There are so many types and techniques out there and many Breathwork facilitators have come up with their own versions and brands.

[Of course, there are many Pranayama techniques (eg. square breathing, Nadhi Sodhana or Kapalabhati) that are rooted in Yogic practices and are thousands of years old. Many of them or aspects of them serve as basic components for today’s breathwork techniques. However, in this article, I want to focus on the more therapeutic styles of breathwork]

Due to the fact that Breathwork is currently getting more and more popular, new styles are being developed quickly. Many teachers mix different techniques or alter some slightly and then give them a new label. In one way or another, they all seem to be offsprings from either Grof, Orr or Pranayama.

Here is a list of the more known styles of Breathwork:

• Holotropic Breathwork by Stan Grof

• Rebirthing Breathwork by Leonard Orr

• Transformational Breath by Judith Kravitz

• Wim Hof Breathwork by Wim Hoff

• Integrative Breathwork by Jacquelyn Small

• SOMA Breathwork by Niraj Naik

• Shamanic Breathwork

• Neurodynamic Breathwork by Michael Stone

• Clarity Breathwork

• Ecstatic Breathwork by Scott Schwenk

• Biodynamic Breathwork by Giten Tonkov

Some more respectable names that seem to come up a lot in the Breathwork community (apart from those already mentioned):

• David Elliott (Healer Training)

• Dan Brule (Breath Mastery)

• Robin Clements (Breathwave)

What distinguishes all these various techniques and styles?

• Different belief systems and spiritual frameworks.

• Some breathing techniques are slower, some faster.

• The type and composition of music played differ.

• The length of the breathing practice varies.

• Some involve breathing exclusively through the mouth, others through the nose and others use a combination of both.

• The settings differ (group breathing circles or 1-on-1)

• The involvement of the facilitator during the session varies.

As much as I am a fan of and have practiced different kinds of Breathwork, I am currently more interested in the healing potential, mystical experiences and emotional processing that more intense and longer-practiced Breathwork styles can provide me with.

Today, the field of breathwork continues to evolve. Lots of of models and certification programs are available. Many organizations contribute to the training, research, and expansion efforts of Breathwork therapists around the world. These include:

• The Stanislav and Christina Grof Foundation (formerly called the Association of Holotropic Breathwork International (AHBI))

• Rebirthing Breathwork International (RBI)

• The Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA)

• The International Breathwork Foundation (IBF) 

Breathwork and Science: The Healing + Transformational Power of the Breath

Let’s go a little deeper and look at what actually happens in the body and brain during a Breathwork session.

Scientific research around Breathwork is still in its infancy, but it is slowly being explored more and more. I found a few studies, especially around Holotropic Breathwork that are supporting the claims of the potential healing effects (this article summarizes them well).

However, since there is not much money to be made with breath, cause breathing is free, not much money is invested in researching it. 

The fact of the matter is that the breath has been known since ancient times to be used by humans for healing purposes.

What happens when you “hyperventilate” in a controlled manner is similar to when you use plant medicine: It slows down the default mode network (DMN) of the brain. The DMN is a group of brain structures found in the frontal and pre-frontal cortex. According to research, the default mode network is primarily responsible for our ego or sense of self; it is responsible for the brain’s control mechanisms and a lot of our rigid, habitual thinking and obsessions. It takes about 10-22 minutes of breathwork until it affects the default mode network.

With the ego out of order, the boundaries between self and world, subject and object dissolve. It helps relax the part of the brain that leads us to obsess, which makes us calmer. This allows us to break free from typical thought patterns, we can experience a transcendence of time and space, a sense of unity and sacredness and a deeply felt positive mood.  

Since fast breathing loosens psychological defenses and the ego temporarily vanishes, our brains are free to explore more unconscious material. Childhood memories and many others that were long forgotten can come up because our DMN doesn’t have any restrictions in place anymore.

In our day to day lives, we normally suppress a lot of emotions and memories, during breathwork, our subconscious starts to release. 

During a session, we welcome everything to come up and often the fast deep breathing creates physical and emotional symptoms that are intensified – giving us an opportunity to process and release them.

In a study on Holotropic Breathwork from 2007, they found that voluntary hyperventilation results in disinhibition of previously avoided or suppressed stimuli.

When you do breathwork regularly, it strengthens the neuropathways to our inner intelligence and subconscious and allows for easier access to it on a day to day basis. This has definitely also been my experience after practicing it several times a week for a couple months.

This is a great talk by Edward Dangerfield on trauma recovery and the nervous system “How We Breathe Is How We Think“.

How I Discovered Breathwork: My Story

I first came across Holotropic Breathwork through Aubrey Marcus. He kept on mentioning it in his podcast. Since I am a big fan of experimentation when it comes my personal and spiritual growth as well as inner healing process, I was immediately curious.

So I googled it and found a man named Michael Stone who does workshops in Los Angeles. I signed up to an introductory group session in his Venice Beach house in March 2018.

I came out mind-blown.

Here is what happened at the intro session:

After Michael explains the workshop, how the breathing works and what is going to happen, we all get eye masks handed.

We all sit on chairs, there are about 50 people. We put on the eye mask and the music starts. The room is dimly lit. (In all other breathwork experiences I’ve had, you lie on the floor or on the bed)

You breathe deeply into your belly through your mouth in a circular way without pausing. It’s quite rapid, a little like hyperventilating, but in a more controlled manner and consciously into your belly rather than your chest.

The actual breathwork session lasts about an hour. He plays a series of songs that start out slow, work up to a climax, a peak, and then gradually lead you into the integration phase.

As we go deeper into the session and states of consciousness start to shift, people start crying, shouting and making other noises. I did too. Essentially, you just let go, give up control and allow the body to express itself the way it wants.

Check out this video to see what the breathing looks like.

You know, I had done plant medicine before this. I had done lots of drugs in my teenage years and early twenties.

And now I was accessing altered states of consciousness by just breathing and listening to intense music with a group of people wearing eye masks. I was fascinated that I was able to do that with breath alone.

For some reason however, I didn’t look further into breathwork this time around. It would take another while before I fully dove into it and got hooked…

[I want to clarify that this was just a comprehensive intro workshop – a regular Holotropic Breathwork workshop is facilitated either 1-on-1 or done in pairs in a group setting and lasts a whole day. The breathing phase usually lasts two to three hours.]

[Also, if you have any medical conditions or are pregnant, please consult a medical doctor before engaging in deep Breathwork]

My Deep-Dive Into Breathwork + Becoming a Breathwork Facilitator

I then properly re-discovered breathwork in October of 2019, about one and half years after my first experience.

I was going through a big transition in my life due to a recent breakup. I wanted to consciously process my emotions and sadness and thus decided to explore more body-based somatic work again.

I generally don’t believe we can figure deep stuff out and heal trauma by staying on the surface level of the mind. We have to work with all dimensions: mental, emotional, physical, energetic, spiritual.

This time around, I started to experiment with different styles and teachers:

Being in Bali, I naturally started looking for body workers and breathwork facilitators. In the Canggu Community Facebook group, people kept recommending the same two or three people and I chose one female teacher.

I decided to attend one of her open group breathwork circles in town, after which I booked a private session with her at my house and after that I went to her group sessions twice a week.

The type of breathwork she taught was based on the three-part breath developed by David Elliot:

You first inhale through the mouth into your belly, then into your chest and then out through the mouth again. It’s called a three-part breath and it’s quite rapid.

I consciously approached the sessions with her to process my breakup – and it was amazing. I shifted a lot of pain and anger that we naturally experience when going through a rough time like this. I always felt re-born and relieved after each session.

I then went to visit my family in Germany for a coupe weeks. I didn’t have access to any breathwork classes there, but I remembered that Michael Stone also offered online group breathwork sessions almost daily. So I signed up for his paid breathwork subscription and started participating in two of those every week.

Because Holotropic Breathwork is done in person only, he developed a simplified style of breathwork that he teaches mainly online called Neurodynamic Breathwork. The breath is similar to what I experienced in the intro session in LA: Deep breaths into the belly through the mouth in a circular way without pausing.

Usually anywhere between 70 and 300 people tune in live from all over the world.

After an introduction, he explains the process and then off we go into 50 minutes of breathing listening to powerful, evocative music. Once the breathing part is done, he devotes a lot of time to answer questions and connecting to the group.

I have very deep and insightful experiences every time I do these online sessions, sometimes even deeper than in a live group setting, maybe because I allow myself to have more authentic experiences without anyone around me.

Then I came back to Bali and ended up at a talk by Edward Dangerfield at my co-working space Dojo right when I got back. He took over another breathworker’s breathwork circle while she was away. His approach is called “Conscious Connected Breathing”, which is much more gentle than the other two experiences I had. He brings his own experience and background as a nervous system expert into the group session. He and two other facilitators also support the breathers with some bodywork and loving guidance.

I also had a private session with Edward, which is an opportunity to go even deeper with him. It was very special experience – so healing and it really helped me to process a lot of very old childhood sadness that I had stored in my body.

I then also participated in a breathing circle by two German women in town, who also guide the session using conscious connected breathing. Before we lie down to breathe, we are invited to do about ten minutes of dancing while breathing through the mouth as a preparation for the session and to connect to our bodies.

Beyond that I have done a lot of online sessions with different teachers and did sessions on my own.

Eventually, it became clear that becoming a breathwork practitioner is my path, my dharma. I attended a introductory breathwork practitioner training in March 2020 in Canada, but then Covid hit and so I signed up to Michael Stone’s online training, which kicked off in July 2020.

I currently breathe about once or twice a week (besides my shorter morning breathing practice that consists of various techniques).

Currently, I am offering private 1-on-1 breathwork sessions (also virtual) and I regularly run online and in-person workshops (sign up to my newsletter to find out when they happen).

What I Experience During Breathwork

What I love the most about Breathwork is that it gets me out of my head and connects me fully to my body.

It feels like a very primal way to release trauma and process emotions.

It usually takes about 5-10 minutes of breathing to really let the body take over, going from me breathing to my body breathing me. Then the body takes over and I open the door into this altered state of consciousness and the ride begins. I lose track of time and space and it’s hard to believe how quickly time goes by.

During a session, I often times go through a lot of waves of sadness and anger that I my body releases by crying, making sounds and moving. At times, this became really uncontrollable and I felt like I was moving a lot of old trauma in my body. After those kind of intense sessions, I usually feel a deep release, which is amazing.

Sometimes, I have memories from my childhood come up or other memories I had totally forgotten.

Other times, I have more subtle and relaxed experiences and then a variety of things can come or even downloads from my higher self around life and business.

These moments remind me of doing plant medicine, when it is almost as though you are in a totally connected higher state to receive messages.

Towards the end of the session or sometimes after the music and my breathing reached its peak, I usually end up drifting into a trance-like meditative state for a while. I assume that’s when my brain waves slow down to theta, because I am not fully asleep but also not quite there. It’s this in between space of consciousness. It’s awesome, especially when I drift back into beta brainwaves at the end.

I also usually experience tightness in my hands and it gets a little uncomfortable. At times I also get the tightness in other areas of the body, like my mouth or neck. It’s a normal symptom and subsides as I slow down the breathing.

I want to add two important things:

1. Every session is different, not one is ever the same (kind of similar to plant medicine experiences – you never know what you get beforehand, it always varies)

2. Every person has different experiences. The more inner work you have done on yourself and the more open you are to fully experience yourself and your emotions, the deeper it will be. I regularly hear breathers say they didn’t feel much. For some people it might take a few times to really allow themselves to experience themselves fully. Thus, don’t go into a breathwork session with any expectations. 

Is Breathwork Dangerous?

There are definitely critical voices out there who point of the dangers and shortcomings of breathwork. However, they are mainly directed at the more intense forms, ie. Holotropic Breathwork and Rebirthing. 

Critics say that Breathwork is dangerous because it is hyperventilation.

However, Breathwork is different form our conventional perception of hyperventilation.

When you hyperventilate you don’t control your breathing in a conscious way. Hyperventilation is typically upper chest breathing and it tends to be rapid and unsteady. You exhale more than you inhale, causing a rapid reduction of carbon dioxide in the body.

But in Breathwork, the in and out breath are both long, deep and rhythmic.

I personally never experienced anything that felt dangerous or scared me (apart from processing fear itself).

Another argument:

People are not sufficiently supported to integrate the experience after group breathing circles

This might be a valid point especially for people who are more inexperienced with shadow work and don’t have a support network or access to a therapist/coach to integrate deep experiences.

I didn’t dive too deep into these opinions yet, but you are more than welcome to do it yourself here:

A Critique of Stanislav Grof and Holotropic Breathwork

This article outlines some good questions around Breathwork (and Holotropic Breathwork in particular): Twelve Things You Should Know About Holotropic Breathwork

The Breathwork Magic

I cannot even begin to tell you how grateful I am to have this amazing tool in my life now.

Breathwork is a highly empowering practice. You don’t need a healer or guru – you are your own healer and all you need is your breath. No side effects, no purging, no hangovers. You can step out of the experience at any time by just returning to a normal breath.

I believe this is just the beginning of the Breathwork movement and that it will spread like crazy over the next few years. What an amazing opportunity to transform and evolve as humans.

My vision is to help bring Breathwork into the countless lives of fellow creators and entrepreneurs as part of my mission around the creative process and mindfulness.

I am called to help people heal themselves.

So Breathwork is really one of the most powerful methods to learn more about what is really going on in your unconscious mind.  It gives you the tools to change your life, to manifest what you want, and to have a more loving and fulfilling relationship with yourself and, as a result, everyone and everything around you.

If you have any further questions, send me an email via mail@conni.me.

If you feel called to explore Breathwork, book a private session with me.

To the power of breath,

Conni.

Breathwork Books + Further Resources

Books

• Holotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy by Stan Grof

• Breathe Deep, Laugh Loudly: The Joy of Transformational Breathing by Judith Kravitz

• The Healing Power of the Breath by Richard Brown and Patricia Gerbarg

• Just Breathe by Dan Brule

• Feel to Heal: Releasing Trauma Through Body Awareness and Breathwork Practice by Giten Tonkov

• Conscious Breathing: Breathwork for Health, Stress Release and Personal Mastery by Guy Hendricks

Videos + Podcast Episodes

• How We Breathe Is How We Think by Edward Dangerfield

• Aubrey Marcus Podcast: Stan Grof on Birth, Life, Breath and Death

• Healing and Breathwork with David Elliott on Hungry for Happiness

• Christian Minson – Transformational Breathwork and How It Can Change Your Life on ManTalks Podcast