Breathing techniques may help move your body into a more relaxed and stress-free state. 

Functional and integrative medicine specialist Melissa Young, MD, explains the science of breathing and how embracing the art of breathwork can bring you the peace and calm you crave, even in the most hectic of moments. 

Breathwork refers to breathing techniques that intentionally channel and focus on the breath. For thousands of years, Eastern medicine practices, including Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine, have employed breathing techniques to calm the body and the mind.   “Our minds tend to be very active, often thinking about the past and worrying about the future instead of residing in the present moment,” Dr. Young explains. “This can lead to the activation of stress hormones for extended periods of time, which can have adverse effects on the body. Chronic stress increases the risk of a number of diseases and disease processes in the body.”

It’s no secret that mental and emotional stress can manifest in physical ways, playing a role in issues like: Aches and pains, Digestive problems, Headaches, High blood pressure, Insomnia, Muscle tension, A weakened immune system.

But stress management techniques — including breathwork — are one way to help you step back from chaos and keep your mind and body healthy.  Breathwork helps calm you down and move your body and mind out of fight-or-flight mode. To understand how, though, you need to know about your autonomic nervous system, which consists of two parts:   Your sympathetic nervous system is responsible for your body’s “fight-or-flight” response. This system’s activity increases when you’re stressed or in danger.  Your parasympathetic nervous system is the “rest-and-digest” part of your brain, responsible for relaxing your body after periods of stress or danger.

Many of us are in a mental fight-or-flight mode even when our bodies aren’t under physical duress — think major work deadlines, upsetting news headlines, financial woes, arguments with your spouse and more.  “We need our sympathetic nervous system to be aware of danger in our environment, but in today’s society, we’re too often in fight-or-flight mode when we’re not actually in danger,” Dr. Young explains. “We need to be able to tap into our parasympathetic nervous system to be able to calm sensations of stress.

Breathwork, then, is a way to activate your body’s parasympathetic nervous system and help you de-escalate and de-stress. That can also lead to all kinds of positive feelings.  

“Breathwork helps us with focus and energy, which can lead to a better quality of life where there’s space for joy and fun,” Dr. Young adds. “If we’re constantly in a state of stress and tension, it’s very hard to find those important qualities in life.”  Plus, breathwork is one of the most accessible wellness practices out there. Anyone can do it, regardless of age or other medical conditions, so long as you find the breathing techniques that work best for you. 

There are a variety of breathwork techniques you can try, all of them with a similar goal — to help you de-stress. “It’s all about finding the technique that resonates with you,” Dr. Young notes. “There are so many that it can be exciting to try different ones to see what works for you.”  You can also tap into different techniques at different times, depending on your goal and your circumstances.  Here’s a look at various types of breathwork practices:

Diaphragmatic breathing
Box breathing 
4-7-8 breathing 
Alternate nostril breathing
Pursed lip breathing  
Five-finger breathing 

“There are many different techniques for helping to calm the body and the mind,” Dr. Young says. “Both breathwork and meditation can serve as an interface between the body and the mind, and we can either separate them out or combine them.”