Conscious breathing

Conscious breathing is an umbrella term for methods that direct awareness to the breath. These methods may have the goal of improving breathing, or the primary goal can be to build mindfulness. Human respiration is controlled consciously or unconsciously.

Training methods
  • Pranayama is part of the Yoga tradition and mainly deals with exercises, such as prolonging in- and outbreaths, holding pauses on the in- or outbreath or both, alternate nostril breathing, or breathing with the glottis slightly engaged etc.
  • The Buteyko method focuses on nasal breathing, relaxation and reduced breathing. These techniques provide the lungs with more NO and thus dilate the airways and should prevent the excessive exhalation of CO2 and thus improve oxygen metabolism.
  • Coherent Breathing is a method that involves breathing at the rate of five breaths per minute with equal periods of inhalation and exhalation and conscious relaxation of anatomical zones.[1][2][3]

Applications

Meditation

Conscious breathing in meditation usually does not change the depth or rhythm of breathing, but uses breathing as an anchor for concentration and awareness.

Mindfulness and Awareness Trainings use conscious breathing for training awareness and body consciousness.

Vipassana Meditation focuses on breathing in and around the nose to calm the mind (anapanasati).[4]

Psychology and psycho-therapy

Many breathwork methods claim that breathing can be used to access nonverbal memories.

Rebirthing uses conscious breathing to purge repressed birth memories and traumatic childhood memories.[5]

Holotropic Breathing was developed by Stanislav Grof and uses deepened breathing to allow access to non-ordinary states of consciousness.[6]

Transformational Breath uses a full relaxed breath that originates in the lower abdomen and repeats inhalation and exhalation without pausing. It integrates other healing modalities and breath analysis. A key feature is intensive personal coaching and the use of 'bodymapping' (acupressure points).[7]

Integrative Breathing combines specific benefits of various schools of conscious breathing according to the needs of clients.[8][9]

Research considers drug abuse disorders,[10] post traumatic stress disorder,[11] alcoholism and smoking.[12]

See also

References
  1. Ehrmann, Wilfried (2017). Coherent Breathing Aligning Breath and Heart. tao.de. Bielefeld. ISBN 978-3-96051-539-5. OCLC 974494732.
  2. "Learn this simple breathing technique to calm your mind in minutes". The Independent. 2018-03-16. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  3. Alderman, Lesley (2016-11-09). "Breathe. Exhale. Repeat: The Benefits of Controlled Breathing". The New York Times. Global Internet. Retrieved 2018-12-06.
  4. Hart, William (1987). The art of living : Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka (1st ed.). San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-1-928706-73-1. OCLC 778448192.
  5. Orr, Leonard (2007). Rebirthing in the new age. Sondra Ray (3rd ed.). Victoria, B.C.: Trafford. ISBN 978-1-4251-1416-9. OCLC 191934795.
  6. Grof, Stanislav (2010). Holotropic breathwork : a new approach to self-exploration and therapy. Christina Grof. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4416-6961-2. OCLC 658062355.
  7. Kravitz, Judith (1999). Breathe deep, laugh loudly : the joy of transformational breathing. West Hartford, CT: Free Press. ISBN 1-929271-01-8. OCLC 44545571.
  8. Ehrmann, Wilfried (2004). Handbuch der Atemtherapie. Ahlerstedt. ISBN 978-3-88755-050-9. OCLC 238421972.
  9. Platteel-Deur, Tilke (2014). The Art of Integrative Therapy Healing the Past on a Soul Level. München. ISBN 978-3-7368-1993-1. OCLC 946133875.
  10. Brewerton, Timothy D.; Eyerman, James E.; Cappetta, Pamela; Mithoefer, Michael C. (2011). "Long-Term Abstinence Following Holotropic Breathwork as Adjunctive Treatment of Substance Use Disorders and Related Psychiatric Comorbidity". International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. 10 (3): 453–459. doi:10.1007/s11469-011-9352-3. S2CID 32003053.
  11. Descilo, T; Vedamurtachar, A; Gerbarg, PL; Nagaraja, D; Gangadhar, BN; Damodaran, B; Adelson, B; Braslow, LH; Marcus, S; Brown, RP (2010). "Effects of a yoga breath intervention alone and in combination with an exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in survivors of the 2004 South-East Asia tsunami". Acta Psychiatr Scand. 121 (4): 289–300. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2009.01466.x. PMID 19694633. S2CID 6209543.
  12. McClernon, F.Joseph; Westman, Eric C.; Rose, Jed E. (2004-06-01). "The effects of controlled deep breathing on smoking withdrawal symptoms in dependent smokers". Addictive Behaviors. 29 (4): 765–772. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2004.02.005. ISSN 0306-4603. PMID 15135559.
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