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Today’s society has us more stressed out and sick than ever before and more and more people are turning away from western medicine and looking toward holistic wellness to help us manage.
Many people are looking into meditation and breathwork, but what’s the difference and how can they help?
The Basics Of Meditation
When most people think about self-care, they tend to think about meditation. Meditation has become a household name and is a staple in the holistic wellness realm. But what exactly is meditation and what are the benefits?
What Is Meditation?
Meditation is an activity in which the practitioner uses physical and mental techniques to attempt to clear their minds and ground them to the present moment. Meditation has been used for thousands of years as a way for people to destress, calm down, and live more mindful lives.
In a society where we are always racing off the next thing to try to stay ahead, it can be hard to slow down and stay in the present moment. Meditation gives us the ability to pause and look within, slowing down.
Meditation Benefits
With so many people practicing and recommending meditation, the benefits are not something to be overlooked. The benefits of a regular meditation practice include:
- Reduce stress
- Lowers feelings of anxiety
- Improves emotional health
- Improves mental clarity, memory, and attention span
- Increases quality of sleep
- May help control sensations of pain
- Lower blood pressure
Types of Meditation
There are many different types of meditation and they all help you achieve a different goal. The most common type of meditation is mindfulness meditation which has the goal of staying aware of what’s happening at that exact moment instead of letting your mind wander. Other types of meditation like emotion-centered and body-centered involve using our physical body’s feelings or our emotions as something to focus on.
Mantra meditation involves focusing on a mantra by repeating it either out loud or in your head, while meditation with movement involves some sort of physical movement during your meditation. Lastly, guided meditation is probably one of the most common types of meditation where you follow the instructions of an instructor either in person or online as they guided through the session with cues.
The Basics of Breathwork
While yoga and meditation have had a strong presence in holistic health spaces, breathwork is more of the newcomer. However, breathwork is gaining footing rather quickly as people learn and experience all the benefits it offers. Still, with breathwork still being the “new guy on the block”, many people are wondering what exactly is breathwork?
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork is the intentional manipulation of your breath to achieve a desired outcome. Today, many individuals are turning to incorporating breathing techniques as a way to help destress. But breathwork goes much further than just creating a relaxing environment within ourselves.
Breathwork is used in a variety of medical settings including cancer centers, rehab facilities, and there are trials happening to get breathwork into the NHS for mental health treatment. There are many types of breathing techniques and they are all used to achieve different outcomes. Holotropic breathwork is commonly used in rehab facilities to help people struggling with addictions.
Breathwork Benefits
With breathwork being utilized by the healthcare field in many settings, it leads you to wonder, what are the benefits of breathwork? Breathwork offers a wide range of physical, mental, and emotional benefits including:
- Creating a better outlook on life
- Balancing Blood Pressure
- Stronger respiratory function
- Decreased cortisol (stress hormone) in the body
- Improved immunity
- Improved quality of sleep
- Reduction in feelings of PTSD, anxiety, and depression
- Improved mental focus, clarity, and memory
- Decrease addictive behaviors
Breathwork affects all areas of the body and has the ability to transform the practitioner's life if they put in the work. Living in today’s society, we are almost guaranteed to be swimming in stress.
Stress is a leading cause of many ailments including hypertension, heart disease, type II diabetes, obesity, arthritis, increased chances of developing addictions, and mental disorders like anxiety or depression. With breathwork, you can reduce stress and start improving your health in as little as 10 minutes a day.
Types of Breathwork
Breathwork stems from Pranayama, a branch of yoga laid out in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. While breathwork has roots in Pranayama, breathwork is entirely its own entity. However, you may see some Pranayama techniques utilized during a breathwork session.
Breathwork is great because there is a technique for everyone. Most beginners will start with diaphragm breathing, pursed lip breathing, breath holds, 4-7-8 breath, or alternate nostril breathing. These techniques are all relatively simple and safe to do for someone just starting out on their breathwork journey.
After you master these techniques or you are looking for a way to deepen your breathwork practice, breathwork teacher training may be the next step for you. Certified breathwork coaches help others move forward on their breathwork journeys while strengthening their own practices.
Key Factors For Choosing Between Breathwork and Meditation
When you are deciding between meditation training and breathwork training, there are a few factors you need to consider. At the end of the day, you need to choose a practice that will fit your life and give you the results you are desiring. It’s also important to note that for either breathwork or meditation to be effective, you will need to stick to a consistent practice. A few factors to consider while decision making include:
- Resources and Accessibility: How easy is it for you to gain insight and guidance while starting your practice? Luckily, today there is a thriving and rich community online for both meditation and breathwork practices.
- Benefits: What is your goal for starting breathwork or meditation sessions?
- Daily life: What does your daily life and lifestyle currently look like? Choose the practice that would fit the most comfortably in your current routine.
Time: How much time are you looking to commit to your practice daily? While both of these practices can be beneficial in short spurts, setting aside 20-30 minutes each day will increase benefits.
Meditation vs. Breathwork
While breathwork and meditation share a lot of similarities, they share large differences too.
Meditation focuses more on mental and mindful aspects creating stillness and self-awareness through physical and mental practices. Breathwork is more dynamic, using breath as a tool to unlock energy and heal the body, mind, and spirit.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Breathwork and meditation also have similar advantages and disadvantages. Both of these disciplines require very little equipment and can be done anywhere. They also have a large online presence, making it easy to find classes, coaches, and communities.
Disadvantages are minuscule when it comes to breathwork and meditation. Sometimes, it can be difficult to find a coach or community that you really click with. The main downside is that in order for these practices to work for you, you need to do the work. Sure a small breathwork or meditation session once a week will make you feel good immediately after, but in order to reap the many benefits, a consistent practice is necessary.
Reasons to Choose Breathwork Over Meditation
Breathwork and meditation may seem similar on the surface, but the more you dig down, you can see the vast differences. For someone just starting out on their holistic wellness journey, breathwork is most likely the best fit for a variety of reasons.
- Easier to Approach Some people are overwhelmed at all that meditation requires of them. Completely shutting down your mind requires a lot of effort and it is hard for some beginners. But breathwork offers benefits just by following a breathing technique set forth by an instructor. During these briefs, your focus is on your body and your breath, making it easier to focus.
- More Fun Breathwork is more than just sitting on your yoga mat breathing in and out. Breathwork is practically a workout for your respiratory system! Some places, like SOMA Breath, even take breathwork a step further and pair the breathing with music.
- Faster Stress Relief Meditation offers stress relief, but usually causes more stress as people find it hard to shut down, quiet their minds, and meditate. Luckily, breathwork offers immediate stress relief by calming your nervous system.
- Physical and Mental Benefits Breathwork offers a quick and simple solution to put you on the path to holistic healing. Not only does practicing breathwork help heal your body and mind, you’ll be more likely to stick with it since you’re having fun and feeling confident.
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Breathwork and meditation both offer the practitioner a chance to live a calmer and more healthy life. While meditation may have been more popular in the past, breathwork is the future. Creating fun, energizing, and truly life changing classes, SOMA Breath helps bring breathwork into an all new light and into the homes of millions of people all over the world. Are you ready to help raise the vibration of the planet?
