Breathing on Purpose

What happens during an Integrative Breathwork session, and why anyone would choose to participate.

Most of what gets called breathwork these days is about calming down. Slow the exhale, lengthen the pause, let the body settle. That kind of breathing is useful, but it isn't what we do in our Integrative Breathwork sessions.

Our sessions go the other direction. For about thirty minutes we purposely breathe deeper, and faster than the body asks for. The aim isn't relaxation, at least not at first. It's to step fully into an experience the body usually keeps at a distance. And it's all practiced in a space set up to support you and your body as you meet whatever comes.

That probably raises two questions. What actually happens? And why would anyone want to do that?

Here is what a session looks like

We start by settling in and letting the body arrive and get acclimated, with just enough movement to shake off the day and feel present in the room. Then you lie back on your mat and start to breathe.

The breath itself is simple. The pace builds gradually, and within a few minutes the breath is full and up to speed. It's a two-part breath: a full inhale and a full exhale, each about a second long, connected with no pause in between. We encourage you to breathe through the mouth, because it moves more air and the effect is stronger. Switching to the nose is always an option too, and it's the easiest way to turn things down if it starts to feel like too much.

That continues for about thirty minutes as you settle into the rhythm and the experience in your body. We play rhythmic, emotive music to help you keep the pace and to invite you all the way in. There is a build to the process, and toward the end you can give it everything you have left in a climactic moment. We keep an eye on the room. The breathing is yours to do.

The room isn't silent either. Along with the music, you'll hear the people around you breathing, and sometimes sighing, sobbing, laughing or moaning. All of it is completely human and welcome, including whatever sounds come from you. When you hear people really immersed in the process or having an emotional release, it gives those around them permission to do the same.

What happens in the body

Breathing like this moves carbon dioxide out of the body faster than you produce it. Your blood chemistry shifts, and you'll notice it in the first few minutes. Tingling in the hands, face or feet is common. So are a buzzing feeling, waves of warmth or cold, lightheadedness, and sometimes a tightening or cramping in the hands or around the mouth. These sensations are well understood, they aren't dangerous in a healthy body, and they ease soon after the breathing slows.

At the same time, the body's alarm system begins switching on. The heart rate climbs. The same wiring that gets you ready for fight or flight starts to hum, even though you're lying safely on a mat, surrounded by other people doing the same thing.

The body doesn't always know the difference between these internal signals and a real external threat. Fight-or-flight sensations can feel a lot like fear, and they can set off anxious thoughts that seem to come from nowhere: a tight chest, a racing heart, a strong urge to stop. If that happens, nothing has gone wrong. Your body is doing exactly what this kind of breathing asks of it. You can let the feelings be there and witness everything as it unfolds. Or you can slow things down, switch to breathing through your nose, and let things settle.

Why choose to breathe this way

Here's how this process is generally understood.

Think about a time your body braced for something: a near miss on the road, a hard conversation, news you didn't want. The heart pounds, the muscles tense, and the body floods itself with energy for one purpose, to act. To run, to push back, to protect yourself. That's what the alarm is for.

The way our bodies have evolved, once the danger passes, a built-in process is designed to spend that energy and bring us back down. You can see it in animals. After a close call, a dog or a deer will often shake or tremble for a moment, then go back to what it was doing. The charge moves through and it's done.

People tend to skip that last part. We hold still, stay polite, swallow the reaction and carry on with the day. Our highly evolved prefrontal cortex stops us from having a meltdown and causing a scene in the grocery store. (It says, "No, not here. This wouldn't be appropriate.") So the body never gets to finish what it started. The charge in the nervous system doesn't go anywhere, and over the years, those unfinished responses can pile up. The body keeps holding them because, as far as it's concerned, the cycle is still open.

And they don't just disappear or stay quiet. A stored charge keeps sending signals, and the mind reads them as if they pertain to the current moment. So it does what minds do and builds a story to explain them: something here isn't safe, this person can't be trusted, be careful. It projects that story onto whatever is in front of you, your surroundings, the people around you, the day you're having. But none of those things caused the feeling. It was already there in the older signals your nervous system is sending. You might recognize it as a jumpiness you can't explain, a holding in the shoulders or jaw, or reactions that feel bigger than the moment calls for.

Sustained breathing brings the body back into that same state of high arousal, on purpose, in a setting where nothing is actually threatening. The idea is that this gives that old charge a chance to complete...to discharge. In a session, it isn't uncommon for people to shake, cry, laugh, get hot, feel waves of emotion with no story attached, or have memories surface. Others might feel just the physical sensations and not much else.

None of this is something to expect or aim for. Whatever happens is valid. There's no failing, and no such thing as "it didn't work." Easing off because you need to is also taking good care of yourself. The only thing you might miss is what happens when you stay with it, so if you notice yourself holding back out of hesitation, see if you can keep breathing a little longer.

What seems to matter most is how you meet what comes up. The mind wants to grab hold and explain: where is this coming from, what does it mean, what should I do about it? You don't need to watch the mind label and describe every sensation. Bringing your attention back into the body and the rhythm of the breath is enough. As you keep breathing, you can simply witness the body moving that energy through, and give it the chance to do its own work.

What the research says, and what it doesn't

The scientific study of intensive breathwork like this is still young, and we want to be straight about it. The physical effects described above are well established. Recent studies of this kind of fast breathing have found changes in brain areas involved in sensing the body and processing emotional memory. Participants reported fewer negative feelings afterward too. When researchers have pooled the results of many breathwork studies, they've found it can help reduce stress and anxiety.

The idea that the body completes old stress responses during a session is a working model, and a practical one. Breathwork isn't a magic button or a medical treatment, but it can be a useful tool, alongside other supports, for creating positive change in your life. The best test is your own experience.

Why we follow it with sound

When the active breathing ends, we let the breath return to its own rhythm and move straight into an extended sound meditation. If you've come to our other sessions, this part will already feel familiar.

After the breathing, the body can feel "well spent" and wrung out...in a good way. The calm and stillness that follow are deeper than usual. The mind tends to be quieter too, since it's hard to rehearse tomorrow's to-do list while you're breathing like that. The sounds give you something to actively engage with from that calm, still space. They give your attention somewhere to rest while your body settles.

Right in the aftermath of the breath is also when feelings can rise to the surface. That's normal, and for many people it's a big part of why they come. They can sometimes feel heavy, but this is also what the body has been waiting for: a chance to feel what it's been holding, so it doesn't need to carry it around any longer.

The nervous system can also take a while to come back down, and the sound meditation gives it room to do that. Sometimes the fight-or-flight response shows up stronger than you expected during the breathing, or lingers longer than you thought it would. That's common after an experience this powerful, and it's worth getting curious about. It can mean you arrived with a nervous system that has been working hard for a while, running in fight or flight more often than you realized. Discovering that is good news, because now you know. Ideally the body can shift out of that state with some ease and return to at least baseline, and that's a capacity you can build.

Is it for you?

Yes. Most healthy adults can take part, and you always set your own intensity. If you're pregnant, have a history of seizures, or have a heart condition or high blood pressure, know that this form of breathing can be physically demanding. You may even want to check in with your doctor ahead of time.

Maybe breathing in a group feels like more than you're up for, but you're curious about the process. You can always come up to the studio for a private breathwork session, shaped just for you.

And if you find that something stays with you in the days after a session, including a body that's slow to settle, you don't have to sort through it alone. Reach out to us anytime, and we can explore other ways to support your nervous system.

Any questions about your specific situation are always welcome. Email us at connect@wakingnomad.org and we'll talk it through.

Come breathe with us!

Our next Integrative Breathwork session is Saturday, November 14, at the Historic Marine on St. Croix Village Hall, followed by an extended sound meditation.

See the details and save your place here: www.wakingnomad.org/experience

See you there,

Bob & Thomasina