Did you know that You can change the way you think and feel with the way you breathe. Having a regular breathing practice has been shown to change your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, regulate your metabolism, reduce your stress levels and combat anxiety, all while reducing feelings of pain and even changing your brain chemistry to make your mind sharper

So what exactly is happening with our breath?

During the practice when we expel a large amount of air, carbon dioxide is dumped from our blood and our lungs ultimately causing a decrease in the amount of Oxygen we can take in. This causes the oxygen levels in our brain to decrease removing the pressure away from our pre-frontal cortex (our rational thinking mind). Once this happens we are able to access deeper parts of our brain such as our hippocampus (where we store memory), our subconscious mind (our instinctual behaviors, patterns and traits), and lastly our superconscious mind (our connection beyond human thinking and reasoning). Through this process we are able to bring forward and release toxins from our body along with any unresolved issues we may be holding onto in our tissues.

What you can expect in your practice:

We will progressively increase the speed and depth of our breath in the first half of the practice activating our Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) -our fight or flight response. As we breath into the discomfort, we deliberately put our bodies under stress. Through this fast rhythmic breathing pattern we allow for the stress to build up a tremendous amount of tension in our body readying us for the deep release.

Once we have completed our conscious connective breathing we will enter into the integration phase, where the focus becomes the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) -our rest and digest period.  The pace of our breath will begin to slow down to what could be described as a nurturing period allowing the Nervous System to settle and the body to welcome in restorative/refreshing energy and emotions bringing ourselves back to a state of homeostasis.

In today's age it is so easy for us to become overwhelmed by stress and to feel out of control. Breathwork teaches us to focus on our breathing patterns and allows our body the opportunity to reset and recover from the negative side effects of stress. It is our bodies natural healing response and it is always available to us.