Is breathwork healthy and does it work?

Breathwork is exactly what it sounds like, breath and work. Breathwork is the conscious use of your breath. Your breath, with you every moment of your life is an automatic unconscious mechanism that is happening with or without your help. You obviously don’t have to think about your breath in order to stay alive.

Let’s start by considering that without your breath you would not be alive. You can live without food for a long time. There are people who have reported fasting for over 40 days. You can go less time without water, but oxygen is the only thing you need all the time. Anywhere from three to ten minutes without oxygen and you cannot stay alive. This means that your breath is the most life giving force you have. 

The Chinese call this force “qi”. If food from the earth gives nourishment and energy then the oxygen you breathe is the food for your connection to the spiritual world from where you came.

There is nothing more unifying than your breath. The word health comes from the word heal which means to make whole. Breathing does this because it completes a connection between your animal life and your spiritual life.

While you mostly don’t think about your breath it is the same with your life. Your breath is both like an animal that does not think about it’s own awareness, and unlike animals, you can think about your path and your destiny. You can choose to take a conscious breath anytime you want.

This power of choice is unique to us. At our best, our choices in life are an attempt to make us more whole, therefore conscious use of the breath is a perfect mirror for the conscious use of life.

The in-breath takes you inside yourself toward that inner unconscious world. The power of this is to know the world that you are unaware of. The exhale then brings that awareness and energy back into the conscious world for you to use in any way you want.

In other words, conscious use of the breath connects you between in and out, conscious and unconscious.

Your breath also is the most available, free medicine you can use to help yourself become healthy. What does it mean to do breathwork?

My interest and expertise lies in one particular type of mouth breathing practice that was taught to me in 1990 and I developed into what I call “Effiji Breathwork”. Effiji belongs to the mouth breathing tradition which stands out as being quite different in that its intention is less about a life-hack (where you do it for 10 minutes a day and then feel more grounded or energized) and more about overall transformation. 

It is not to say that Effiji isn’t a life hack or other breathwork practices do not facilitate transformation. It’s just that Effiji’s fundamental intention is to access deeply hidden core programming that creates the way you breathe (when you’re not thinking about it). Initially it’s not meant to “feel good”. It’s meant to free you of blocks so the inherent life force or “Qi” that will give you energy, vitality and clarity becomes available to you especially when you again, stop thinking about your breath.

When the session is complete there will be no doubt that you will feel the “qi”. You will be calm, relaxed, connected and feeling whole. So if feeling whole is a goal then Effiji breath is a practice that will get you there.