In this hashtag era of endless scrolling, daily comparisons, and the need for perfection, it’s never been more important to look after your mental health. The moment we wake up, thoughts busy our mind; finding the right tools to calm these thoughts can be life-changing; however, choosing the best tools for you will depend on the benefits you’re trying to achieve. Let’s say you’ve dipped your toe in the meditation space, and in that journey, you’ve also come across the term breathwork. You may be wondering – are breathwork and meditation the same thing? While they share many similarities and are effective, natural modalities to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress – they are not the same. Breathwork is an active practice that can stimulate areas of your brain to rewire, limiting subconscious thoughts. In comparison, meditation is a passive practice that aims to calm and quiet the mind. If you’re new to both methods and not sure which is suitable for you or what you’ll get from each practice, in this article, we’ll delve into each to uncover the benefits and what is involved in mastering the different techniques. 

What Is Breathwork?

More than a simple inhale and exhale, breathwork is an active practice that uses conscious breathing patterns to slow your thoughts, stay in the present moment and clear suppressed emotions. The result, a clearer, focused mind and body. There are different types of breathwork, each with its own benefits; Hypnobreathwork uses visualization with breathing techniques to reprogram subconscious thoughts. In contrast, Holotropic Breathwork is a type of breathwork that uses connected, circular breathing to alter the conscious state and reunite the body with the mind.

“Breathwork is the use of Breath Awareness and Conscious Breathing for healing and growth, personal awakening, and transformation in spirit, mind, and body.” – Dan Brule

The Benefits of Breathwork

Depending on the type of breathwork, the benefits can range from reduced anxiety to increased self-confidence and self-esteem. It is believed that the trance-like state of breathwork increases oxygen while decreasing carbon dioxide to stimulate areas in your brain responsible for relaxing the analytical and logical mind. In other words, breathwork helps suppress the more serious part of your brain to reduce stress, calm the mind, and cope with the daily demands of life.

Other benefits of breathwork can include:

• Reduced anxiety, stress, and self-doubt
• Less fear and uncertainty
• Rewiring limiting beliefs release grief, anger, and other negative thoughts
• Enhanced cognition, retention, processing speeds, and decision-making

Common Breathwork Techniques

Hypnobreathwork; combines both visualizations as well as deep breathing. Hypnobreathwork shifts the brain into a theta state, creating a more accessible place to reprogram limiting subconscious beliefs. 

Flowstate Breathwork; uses the circular-connected method, which involves a double inhale through your abdomen and chest, and a single exhale through your mouth for 22 minutes for total immersion into the zone or flow. 

Holotropic breathwork; uses connected, circular breaths and altered states of consciousness to clear suppressed emotions to calm and reunite the body and mind. 

What Is Meditation?

Walking in nature, reading a good book, or any activity that brings stillness to mind can be considered meditation. In its more traditional form, however, meditation usually involves a quiet space to sit or lay in a comfortable position, closing the eyes, breathing naturally while allowing thoughts to come and go without judgment.

The Benefits of Meditation

Other benefits of meditation may include: 

Many health benefits are associated with meditation, including physical, mental, and emotional health. Integrating meditation into your daily routine can help quiet the unnecessary noise in your mind to live a more present life. 

• Reduce stress and anxiety 
• Improve focus, attention span, and concentration 
• Increased self-awareness and improved self-esteem 
• Reduce blood pressure and improve other physical health markers

What Is The Difference Between Breathwork and Meditation?

If you’re feeling a bit on edge, anxious, or stressed out, leaning into a meditation practice may be enough to help ease your mind and create a more peaceful life. However, breathwork may be what you need if you’re constantly feeling held back by limiting beliefs, lack self-esteem, as well as feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed. As an active modality, breathwork can alter states of consciousness to rewire subconscious thoughts, helping you live the life you desire. While breathwork can achieve these significant results compared to meditation, there are other differences between meditation and breathwork. 

• Meditation is passive, meaning that it requires no movement or action to complete. In fact, in most forms of meditation, you are required to sit in stillness and empty the mind of thought for it to work effectively. 

• Breathwork is active, requiring you to move as part of the practice. This movement can differ depending on the type of breathwork; however, you will feel intense physical sensations from deep, circular breathing involving the diaphragm, chest, and stomach to lift and lower. There is also typically a verbal component to breathwork in repetitive affirmations. 

• Meditation aims to bring calm and stillness to the mind, whereas breathwork requires active focus, vocal cues, music, and deep breathing to rewire limiting subconscious beliefs. 

• Breathwork can be easier to master; in comparison to meditation. Sitting in silence can be uncomfortable and unnatural for many, making it challenging. Especially when our minds are so busy with everyday life and the thousands of thoughts that run through it each day.  

• Breathwork can help to break psychological patterns and heal emotions from the root. This is due to increasing the oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide levels in the blood to access different brain areas responsible for reprogramming neural pathways.

What Type of Breathwork Do We Do?

Combining visualization, hypnosis, and breathwork, our groundbreaking Hypnobreathwork program helps people heal relationships with themselves and build self-esteem and confidence. However, Rewiring ingrained beliefs can take time, so we offer an intensive 12-week HypnoBreathwork course to unlock your purpose and create the life you want.

Why You Should Incorporate Breathwork Into Your Daily Routine?

Breathwork helps to rewire limiting beliefs you hold about yourself or others. Finding time to practice breathing techniques each day will create a stronger sense of self and confidence that will have a flow-on effect in every aspect of your life, both professionally and personally. 

Get In Touch Today To Start Your Breathwork Journey

Check our Breathwork courses if you’re interested in how breathwork can work for you. If you’ve already experienced the power of breathwork and want to share this unique and effective practice with others, enroll in our Certified Breathwork Instructor course today.