Usually what’s underneath the stress is a general discomfort with life. ‘I’m not fully living how I want to be more connected and alive. I’m not risking enough; I’m not as creative as happy I want to be.
It is estimated that more than 300 million people have depression. According to worldwide projections from the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2030, the amount of disability and life lost from depression will surpass that from war, accidents, cancer, stroke, and heart disease. Psychiatric drugs are the most commonly used medications, and they may not the best way to treat depression as they are ineffective and fraught with many dangerous side effects.
Our three fastest developing trends ate technology, stress, and rampant use of psychotropic drugs. Perhaps the most striking thing about the depression epidemic is that it's unfolded in an era of unprecedented comfort and high living standards.
Symptoms of depression include: despair, worthlessness, guilt, fatigue, poor concentration, significant weight loss or gain, sleep problems, and loss of interest in life. Depression is the result of prolonged stress to the brain. Therefore, depression can be prevented or reversed by teaching people how to better manage stress.
Breathwork, while ancient, is a term that first originated in the 1970's and refers to the practice of consciously directing the breath. The goal of breathwork is to positively alter the body, mind, heart, or spirit, and produce therapeutic inner transformation. Whether you want to reduce stress, increase awareness, improve mental sharpness, boost work performance or prepare for sleep, breathwork — or mindful breathing — can help.
There are many styles and practices of breathwork such as holotropic, yogic, and pranayama breathwork; some ranging from fairly basic and easy to do at home, to others requiring a practitioner to teach you the practice.
Breathwork is used to help to improve a wide range of issues including: anger , anxiety, emotional effects of illness, grief. Research has shown that it can help with depression, stress, insomnia, high blood pressure, burnout, and more.
Thus since breathing is essential to life, why should it be an issue? When startled, we clench and stop the breath for a moment and a sigh of relief accompanies a feeling of comfort after worrying about something. Thus breathing exercises can help increase the parasympathetic tone of the vagus nerve and relax the body.
To oversimplify, breathwork amounts to versions of taking a deep breath, then exhale very slowly. You can do it anywhere, anytime.
There is empirical support for the idea that sustained breathing patterns can develop in response to stressful environments. Even the military now recommends breathwork in the treatment of people exposed to stress or trauma, or PTSD. Research also suggests inhibited breathing lowers brain oxygen and reduces hormones that promote well being.
Breathwork is an increasingly popular approach to psychotherapy. There are dozens of people on the internet offering information about this topic. Max Strom has an excellent introduction to breathwork on TEDx in which he reveals his core principles of breathing and movement patterns to alleviate anxiety, PTSD, depression, and sleep disorder. He has over two decades of teaching and his in-depth knowledge of Hatha Yoga and QI Gong.
His insights into the COVID‑19 pandemic, and then reveals that these debilitating challenges can be disrupted with ten to twenty minutes of breathing exercises per day.
Max Strom teaches personal transformation, wellbeing, and yoga worldwide and is known for inspiring and igniting change. His breakthrough methodology, Inner Axis, addresses our internal well being and our potential for physical and emotional healing. His Breathe to Heal now approaches one million views on YouTube.
- Breathwork on YouTube
- Healing Breath -YouTube - Joe Dispenza
- The Box Breathing Technique Navy SEALS Use with Mark Divine
- Listen to our podcast
