Why people turn to Breathwork?
One of the most common questions I get from soon-to-be or new clients is always:
Why should I try breathwork?
If I had a pound for every time I was asked this question, I’d probably be chilling in a hammock in the Caribbean. Still helping people with their breath, of course.
The truth is, the reasons people turn to breathwork are endless and completely unique to each person. That said, there are solid, research-supported reasons why connected breathing can be so effective.
But, before going delving into that, it’s important to unpack something first.
What type of breathwork are we actually talking about?
There’s a lot of hype around “breathwork” right now, but in my mind there are two very different avenues.
Mind-based breathing uses conscious control of the breath to shift state. Things like box breathing or 4-7-8 breathing. These can be useful for short-term regulation, but they usually don’t create deeper or long-lasting shifts in breathing patterns or nervous system state.
Connected breathing, on the other hand, involves looping the breath continuously to change breathing patterns and nervous system state. This often leads to altered states of consciousness due to changes in carbon dioxide levels and sustained nervous system engagement.
Connected breathing is the kind of breathwork I’m talking about here.
Connected breathing, what the research points to:
Connected breathing disrupts habitual stress and thinking patterns by sustaining nervous system engagement long enough to break automatic fight-or-flight loops.
It alters carbon dioxide levels and blood gas balance, which directly affects anxiety, panic symptoms, and the sensation of air hunger.
Sustained rhythmic breathing changes activity in brain areas involved in threat detection and emotional processing, often reducing rumination and mental noise.
It heightens interoceptive awareness, meaning people feel internal sensations more clearly, which is strongly linked to emotional regulation.
By increasing physiological arousal in a controlled setting, emotions can surface and resolve through the body instead of staying suppressed or intellectualised.
Because the experience is physical and immediate, people often feel change during or shortly after a session rather than only understanding it afterward.
All of the above has applied to my own life. But more than that, breathwork has become a way of life for me. My taste in music has changed. My relationships with others and with myself have changed. Most importantly, I found a sense of purpose I didn’t have before.
I genuinely believe breathwork is one of the most powerful legal tools we have for making change. It quietens the habitual thinking mind and gives us access to intuition and clarity that often feels missing in everyday life right now.
I have done over 250 hours of self-practice, hundreds more hours in workshops, and guided many one-to-one sessions. And no matter what I’m dealing with, creative blocks, personal issues, feeling stuck, I always come back to my breath. It clears my head, softens the body, and helps me move forward.
People stuck in their head
Many people come to breathwork because they feel trapped in constant thinking and rumination. I know this personally. I’ve lived with OCD from a young age, and looping thoughts can feel impossible to interrupt. Trying to think your way out of it often just creates more thinking.
Breathwork takes a bottom-up approach. It works with the breath and the body to influence the nervous system first, rather than trying to change thoughts directly. When the body settles, the mind often follows.
During sessions, I may ask carefully chosen questions that bring awareness to deeper emotional patterns rather than surface-level thoughts. This helps the body become part of the process instead of leaving everything stuck in the head.
Because breathing is both a voluntary and automatic function, working with the breath can support nervous system regulation and help emotions be experienced more safely, rather than staying trapped in mental loops.
Tension that lives in the body
From what I see in my own life and in client sessions, talking alone often does not clear tension held in the body. When we spend long periods of time in a fight or flight response, the body naturally tightens. This usually shows up in the jaw, neck, shoulders, back, and hips. Over time, that tension can turn into chronic pain and discomfort.
This happens because the nervous system stays in a heightened state, even when we understand what is going on mentally. Insight can help, but tension that lives in the body does not always release through talking alone.
I also notice that when we inhabit certain parts, like an overachieving part or a restless part, they often show up physically. When those parts are allowed to soften or take a step back, the body often responds by releasing tension.
Recently, I worked with a client who had been struggling with a very tight jaw. During the session, we brought gentle awareness to the area through the breath and a few simple questions, and then used light self-massage for several minutes. As the tension eased, he experienced a strong emotional release and said he had never felt anything like it before.
In the weeks that followed, he reported noticeably less tension in his jaw and more ease in his body overall.
Faster, experiential change
I spent about ten years in therapy. It helped me understand my problems on a cognitive level, but it didn’t help me make the change I needed to actually move my life forward in a direction that mattered to me.
What I see with many of my clients is something similar. They already know what isn’t working. It might be a relationship, their career, or something else important. They’ve thought about it endlessly, talked about it endlessly, and still feel stuck.
What breathwork does differently is that it brings the body into the process. Instead of trying to think your way into change, the nervous system shifts first. When that happens, things that felt blocked or confusing often become clearer without forcing anything.
That’s why change can sometimes happen quickly. For some people, two sessions are enough to create a meaningful shift. For others, it takes longer. The jaw work I mentioned earlier took nine sessions with the same client. There is no fixed timeline. The difference is that the change is felt, not just understood.
They want agency in their life
A lot of people don’t want to be labelled as broken. They don’t want another diagnosis. They just want to use something that already happens around 26,000 times a day to feel more regulated, more grounded, and more like themselves.
That’s what breathwork offers.
Final note
Breathwork isn’t for everyone in the same way. Mind-based breathing techniques are accessible to most people and can be useful for shifting your state.
Connected breathing is different. It can be activating due to changes in blood pH and the effect it has on the nervous system and other core systems, so it needs to be approached with care. When used appropriately, its potency can support people in making real, meaningful changes in their lives.
What I believe is going to happen now is people will use connected breathwork as it should be used, not chasing a peak experience but actually a way to shift the breath into a more supportive pattern and to help release stuck energy and emotions that talk therapy cannot do as effectively.
Thank you for reading,
Will
