Breathwork: What Does It Actually Mean?
We breathe all day long without thinking about it.
Which makes breathing a little strange when you really think about it.
It is automatic. Your body will happily keep doing it while you're asleep, distracted, working, driving, or thinking about absolutely anything other than breathing.
But unlike many automatic processes in the body, we can also deliberately take control of it.
We can breathe faster. Slower. Deeper. More gently.
We can change how long we inhale and exhale. We can breathe through our nose or mouth. We can pause between breaths.
And those changes can affect how we feel.
That's the basic idea behind breathwork.
“Breathwork” is a very big umbrella
Breathwork isn't one specific technique.
The term describes a wide range of practices that involve deliberately changing or paying attention to the way we breathe. Some are incredibly simple. Others involve precise timing, breath holds, rapid breathing, movement, meditation, or extensive instruction.
Breathing practices have complex histories around the world. Yogic traditions include practices such as pranayama and alternate-nostril breathing. Buddhist meditation traditions have long incorporated attention to breathing. Modern clinicians and researchers have also developed breathing practices involving diaphragmatic breathing, slow-paced breathing, coherent breathing, and heart-rate-variability biofeedback.
So when someone tells you that “breathwork does this,” my next question is becoming: What kind of breathwork? Because they aren't necessarily interchangeable.
Why I became interested in it
Breath has naturally worked its way into my massage practice over the years.
Sometimes a client is holding their breath while I'm working on a particularly tight area. Sometimes they're helping me move their arm when I'm actually trying to get them to stop helping me.
Sometimes I'll simply remind someone: You don't have to do anything right now. Breathe. Let me have the arm. Be a puddle.
But my interest in breathwork has grown alongside my interest in meditation, relaxation, trauma-informed care, and the nervous system.
One book that helped bring breath back into popular conversation is James Nestor's Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. It's a fascinating introduction, but breathwork is also an area where it's important to separate an interesting popular book from the scientific literature.
My own approach is pretty simple
For all the complicated breathing techniques out there, the ones I personally prefer aren't particularly dramatic.
I like starting with belly breathing, more formally called diaphragmatic breathing. Before worrying about counting, holding, ratios, or complicated instructions, I think it's useful to simply become familiar with what comfortable breathing feels like.
Once belly breathing feels natural, I like box breathing. That adds structure by dividing the breath into four parts: inhale, hold, exhale, hold.
We'll actually practice both of those—and several other techniques—in the third article in this series. For now: learn the breath first. Then add the box.
Breathing also isn't relaxing for everyone
There's another reason I don't immediately tell every person I encounter to “take a deep breath.”
For some people, focusing intensely on breathing isn't relaxing. Someone may become anxious when paying close attention to internal sensations. Breath holds may feel unpleasant. Trying too hard to control breathing can cause discomfort or lightheadedness.
That matters to me, particularly from a trauma-informed perspective. Breathing can be offered as an option. It doesn't need to become another assignment someone has to complete correctly.
If focusing on your breathing makes you more uncomfortable instead of less, there are plenty of other ways to bring your attention into the present moment. Listen to music. Notice the room around you. Try a body scan. Take a walk. Go into the woods and look at the trees.
There is no prize for being exceptionally good at relaxing.
So why does changing our breathing affect us?
Breathing isn't happening independently from everything else in your body. Respiration interacts with cardiovascular activity and the autonomic nervous system. Researchers have been studying whether deliberately changing breathing patterns can influence things like heart-rate variability, blood pressure, stress, anxiety, and emotional state.
Some of those findings are genuinely interesting. Some are still preliminary. And some popular claims surrounding breathwork have gotten quite a bit further ahead than the research.
So that's where we're going next. In Part Two, we'll get a little nerdier and look at what actually happens in the body when we deliberately slow or change our breathing—and what the research really says about whether breathwork works.
Sources & Further Reading
Fincham, G. W., et al. (2023). “Effect of Breathwork on Stress and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised-Controlled Trials.” Scientific Reports, 13, 432.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-27247-y
National Geographic (2025). “How Changing the Way You Breathe Can Improve Your Brain and Body.”
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/health-benefits-of-breathing-exercises
Nestor, James. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art.
Popular-audience exploration of breathing science, history, and breathing practices.
https://www.pulmonologyadvisor.com/features/breath-james-nestor-book-on-how-we-breathe/