Can you breathe your way to better wellbeing?

It’s the first and last act of our lives. But until recently, learning to wield our breath to alter the way we feel has existed on the fringes of the mainstream.

Today, Navy SEALs utilise techniques like “box breathing” (four counts on each inhale and exhale, and four counts pausing the breath at each end) to slow down their breathing rate and deepen concentration.

“When I perform box breathing, even just for five minutes, I am left with a deeply calm body and an alert, focused state of mind,” wrote former Navy SEAL commander and author Mark Divine.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar studied under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught The Beatles transcendental meditation.

On Tuesday, Indian Nobel Peace Prize finalist and yoga teacher Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will hold a wellbeing session with NSW parliamentarians including Premier Chris Minns, Minister for Women and Domestic Violence Jodie Harrison, Gosford MP Liesl Tesch and Auburn MP Lynda Voltz.

Ahead of the visit, Shankar said: “Parliamentarians have taken on huge responsibilities for the welfare of people. They too can experience the benefits of breathwork and meditation.”

Shankar studied under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught The Beatles transcendental meditation and who is credited with bringing the practice to the Western world. He added that the “incredible benefits of powerful breathing” techniques could be used to tackle mental health issues around the world.

According to the World Health Organisation, one in eight people live with a mental health disorder, the most common being anxiety and depression.

“When the mind is calm and clear, people are better equipped to make informed decisions with an understanding of the interconnectedness of life,” Shankar said via email before his arrival in Sydney.

“The key to accessing this inner calm lies within our own breath. Our breath has the power to regulate emotions and thoughts, reduce anxiety, and eliminate stress and tension.”

What is breathwork? And what are the benefits?

Breathing is a subconscious process that happens automatically within the body, but can affect our conscious state. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as a “bottom-up” process, explains Associate Professor Justine Gatt, director of the Centre for Wellbeing, Resilience and Recovery at NeuRA.

When we are stressed, for instance, and our sympathetic nervous system gets triggered, the cascade effect to help us escape the cause of the stress includes an increased heart rate and breathing rate.

“This is all well and good in some circumstances – for example, if we have encountered a snake along a bushwalk – but it becomes a problem when this response is triggered on an ongoing basis to things or situations that are not actually harmful, only perceived as such – a common underlying mechanism for many anxiety disorders,” Gatt explains.

By controlling the breath from the “top-down”, however, we can consciously slow our breathing rate, affect our oxygenation and calm our physiological and psychological systems, by increasing vagal tone.

“Vagal tone is activity of the vagus nerve and is fundamental to the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) which is responsible for the regulation of the body at rest,” Gatt explains.

Can you breathe your way to a calm mind? Sometimes, yes.Credit: Getty Images

One 2023 study found that just five minutes a day of controlled breathing – “box breathing”, cyclic sighing (breathing in through the nose and emphasising a long, slow exhalation through the mouth) or cyclic hyperventilation and retention (longer inhalations and shorter exhalations) – showed reductions in anxiety and negative effects, and increases in positive effects.

Cyclic sighing had the most promise as an effective stress management exercise, wrote the paper’s authors. They added that the enhanced sense of control, from breathing exercises, could reduce anxiety quickly as the perceived loss of control is a hallmark of anxiety.

A separate meta-analysis of 12 studies suggested breathwork may be effective for improving stress and mental health.

But it may not be for everyone

While a calm mind can certainly help stress and anxiety levels, breathwork is just one of many ways to access inner calm.

“It works for some people but does not work for others – and it can even be counterproductive for some,” adds Dr Julieta Galante, deputy director of the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne.

“For example, for people who had traumatic experiences related to the breath in some way, asking them to focus on the breath may only bring up traumatic memories and overwhelming bodily feelings (remember trauma is stored in the body as much as the mind).”

She adds that harm has been caused to people who are unaware of the potential damage these practices can cause.

Galante says that whether breathwork is a tool for relieving stress or a life-changing practice may depend on whether a person believes it is altering their physiology or shifting esoteric energies.

“I’d say don’t judge breathwork by just trying one type of it,” she says. “Keep an open mind, but at the same time do not suspend your critical thinking. It’s a delicate balance!”

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