Breathwork vs. Meditation: Which is Right for You?
Hey there! Life has thrown us some serious curveballs lately, hasn’t it? The pandemic, economic uncertainties, and the ever-increasing demands of our fast-paced world have left us feeling stressed, anxious, and in desperate need of a break – to say the least.
We all crave a moment of peace and tranquility in our everyday life. Luckily for us, despite the chaos happening outside, we have some tools that can help us regain control of what is going on inside – how we’re feeling and how we’re handling it.
That’s where breathwork and meditation come in. These practices have gained social popularity and scientific recognition for their ability to restore balance, reduce anxiety, and promote overall well-being.
In this guide, we’ll explore the ins and outs of breathwork and meditation, from distinctions and benefits all the way to different techniques so that you can find the practice that suits you best.
So, let’s dive in, find your Zen, and conquer the challenges that life throws your way!
Understanding Breathwork
What’s the deal with breathwork?
Everyone lately is talking about it on social media and with friends. From Huberman all the way to the Kardashians, breathwork has become the “it” thing. So what is breathwork and why is it helpful?
First things first, breathwork, also known as breathing exercises, is a practice that involves conscious control of your breath to restore harmony in your mind, body, and soul. It emphasizes intentional breathing techniques as a means of achieving relaxation, balance, and physical wellbeing.
It’s like pressing the reset button on your stress levels. Let’s break it down.
Breathwork Techniques
There are many breathwork techniques, each having a specific set of instructions. Let’s have a look at some of the most popular breathing exercises today:
1. Diaphragmatic Breathing
Picture this: taking deep, belly-filling breaths. It’s like a big, soothing hug for your nervous system, melting away stress and anxiety. Also known as deep belly breathing, this technique involves breathing deeply into the diaphragm to increase oxygen intake, induce relaxation, and reduce stress.
2. Box Breathing
This technique follows a pattern of inhaling, holding the breath, exhaling, and again holding the breath for equal durations, promoting calmness and mental focus. It’s like creating a pocket of calm in your chaotic world, giving you a moment of clarity.
3. Alternate Nostril Breathing
Ever tried breathing through one nostril at a time? It may sound silly, but it’s a game-changer for balancing your energy and finding your inner zen. By alternating the breath between nostrils, this technique aims to balance the energy in the body, harmonize the mind, and enhance overall well-being.
4. Kapalabhati Breath
This energizing technique involves forceful exhalations followed by passive inhalations, helping to clear the mind, invigorate the body, and release stagnant energy. This one’s a real energizer! By exhaling forcefully, you’re releasing all that built-up tension in the body, revitalizing your body, and getting your mind buzzing with renewed energy.
Benefits of Breathwork
Wondered why so many public figures, doctors, and even celebrities are talking about breathwork so much on Instagram? It’s because these techniques are a real game-changer for them in their everyday life.
Between work, crying kids at home, and a handful of stressful situations, these people, through the help of experts, have learned how to manipulate their breathing so that they can experience unimaginable calm throughout the day.
But is calmness the only benefit from doing breathing exercises? Turns out: NO!
Here’s a list of just some major benefits from practicing breathing exercises:
- Stress Reduction and Resilience: Breathwork techniques activate your body’s relaxation response, helping you bounce back from stress and face challenges with a cool, calm demeanor.
They have been shown to activate the body’s parasympathetic nervous system, helping it focus on functions such as resting and digesting, without the fear or alertness in the presence of a potential threat.
In essence, it helps you alleviate stress, build resilience, and restore a sense of calm amidst the chaos.
2. Emotional Well-being: By taming your breath, you can ride the rollercoaster of emotions with more grace, finding balance and serenity even in the stormiest of times.
Breathwork helps manage emotions, reduce anxiety, and improve emotional resilience.
Picture this: the next time you’re with a baby in your arms and a crying toddler who decides to throw a tantrum in the middle of the mall, all the while everybody is watching YOU, instead of losing your calm, you just calmly and responsibility pick yourself up and handle the situation maturely.
Wouldn’t that feel like you have a superpower? I’d say so.
3. Mental Clarity and Focus: Need to make important decisions? Breathwork clears the mental fog, sharpens your focus, and unlocks your brain’s superpowers. By tapping into this superpower, you are no longer ruled by anxiety, fear, or even panic, and instead you take back control.
This is why many well-known science inventors and business entrepreneurs all claim that breathwork (or some form of short meditation) is the key to their brilliant ideas: it enhances mental clarity, improves focus, and sharpens cognitive abilities, allowing you to make sound decisions and find innovative solutions amidst uncertainty.
4. Physical Well-being : Your body will thank you for practicing breathwork regularly. Why? Because it strengthens your immune system and boosts your overall physical wellbeing.
I know, I know, you’d say Vitamin C does that too. However, if you look into the science of breathwork, you will see that by breathing deeper (or more properly than before), your body is regenerating cells at a much healthier capacity, resulting in a better function of your body’s innate ability to fight bacteria or viruses, and bring back equilibrium to your systems.
5. Improved Respiratory Function: As obvious as this may sound, regular breathwork practice enhances lung capacity, promotes efficient breathing, and can even improve respiratory conditions.
This is due to the fact that breathwork techniques have specific sets and rules of their own and each practice uniquely contributes to the improvement of your overall respiratory system.
Better and deeper breaths, healthier lungs.
More oxygenated cells, better respiratory system.
And so on in an endless loop. You improve one, you naturally improve the other too. However, despite modern medicine telling us to use a nose spray if we can’t breathe properly or pop a pill to help your respiratory system, traditional medicine teaches us to start at the end that we have more control and impact on: our breathing.
6. Enhanced Energy and Vitality: Turns out, you don’t need that energy drink or fourth cup of coffee after all! Certain breathwork practices can increase energy levels, invigorate the body, and promote overall vitality.
And although coffees & RedBulls do that too, these breathing techniques do all of the above naturally and sustainably.
This means that instead of experiencing a post-lunch crash after your second cup of coffee for the day, breathwork practices help raise your baseline levels of natural dopamine, maintaining energy levels steady throughout the day. Yay! No more hardocre energy crashes!
Understanding Meditation
Meditation, a time-honored practice, offers a sanctuary for self-reflection, grounding, and inner peace during these tumultuous times. By cultivating mindfulness and self-awareness, meditation provides the tools to navigate everyday life with less pressure, resistance, stress, and anxiety.
This practice involves training the mind to focus and redirect thoughts, ultimately leading to a state of mental clarity, calmness, and self-awareness. It is a process of observing and accepting the present moment without judgment.
As popular and backed by science as breathwork, meditation offers a path to tranquility, self-exploration, and an improved ability to self-reflect, making you able to adjust and change as you see fit.
Therefore, its emphasis is more on cultivating mindfulness and developing a heightened state of awareness. And the best part is: you don’t have to be trained or skilled monk to achieve the benefits that meditation has! In fact, you can be a beginner at meditation and still do it correct.
So let’s cover the different types of meditation practices, shall we?
Meditation Techniques:
There are many meditation practices, each one with its specific instructors as well as benefits. Here are the most popular meditation techniques used today:
1. Mindfulness Meditation
This practice involves paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment, including thoughts, sensations, and emotions.
It can be done sitting or standing, with your eyes closed or open. Unlike the other meditation practices described below, this one is less of a “meditation” and more of a technique to bring you back to the present moment as it unfolds.
It doesn’t require that you do anything differently. It simply asks that you pay attention to your thoughts and actions, and the moment you start noticing you are thinking of past events or future scenarios, simply bring back your attention to the present task at hand. This could be driving, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, or anything else for that matter.
Next time you are thinking of work while driving, bring back attention to what you are doing. Focus on the sensations to help you do so: pay close attention to how the leather from the wheel feels in your hands, where each foot is sitting at the moment, what the temperature feels like for your body right now. Look outside. Is it sunny? Is it cloudy?
Mindfulness meditation can be practiced anywhere, anytime. It is a skill that pulls your attention back to where it’s supposed to be: the present moment.
This is especially helpful in those situations where we tend to do certain actions automatically and give no thought to. Think of driving: we’ve gotten so good at it, we can think of other events in our life without thinking what each hand and each leg is doing. They know on their own where the pedals are and how to drive.
2. Loving-Kindness Meditation
It focuses on cultivating feelings of love, compassion, and kindness towards oneself and others. As cheesy as it sounds, this one is a total game-changer for most women!
Due to our somewhat trained skill of criticizing ourselves often and not taking our needs into consideration, the loving-kindness type of meditation reteaches us the importance of self-love and self-care (insert what is self worth article here).
If you are a woman, you’ll know this for sure! Isn’t it true that we tend to think of our kids first, our husband afterwards, our parents, friends, or family members … before we even think of ourselves?
Think of the last time you took a vacation. Just for you, no one else. A vacation for you to read your favorite books, watch your favorite TV shows, splurge in a Sephora haul, or have everyone else do the laundry, the dishes, and the cooking for a week.
Ahh, the sound of relaxation.
4. Transcendental Meditation
This technique uses a silent, personally assigned mantra to quiet the mind and achieve a state of deep relaxation and inner peace.
Picture yourself repeating a soothing mantra and reaching a state of deep relaxation. It’s like pressing the pause button on your worries and finding inner bliss.
Unlike the other meditation techniques described so far, this one has YOU talking out loud! Well, not necessarily talking. More like chanting.
This technique is simple: you choose a mantra you want to focus on, close your eyes, and start repeating the mantra out loud, all the while focusing on the words you are saying. To help you one step further, I suggest you add a relaxing spa music in the background to really set the atmosphere!
Start with a mantra you like that you have positive feelings towards, and practice saying it out loud. You’d be surprised as to how relaxing this technique is!
The best part is that all the while it helps you relax, it also does one more important thing: this technique helps you steadily work your way towards believing better and more loving thoughts in your life.
Similar to positive affirmations, this practice helps you bridge the gap between the limiting beliefs you now hold and the new supporting beliefs you wish to cultivate.
4. Guided Meditation
By far the most popular meditation technique out there, the guided meditation practice simply asks that you follow along the instructions of the practitioner guiding the experience through visualizations, affirmations, or specific intentions.
And with so many meditation apps and recording available for purchase online, finding an instructor you like is an easy task.
Personally, I prefer guided meditations over unguided ones as I can follow along better as opposed to having my mind wander so much when it is left doing nothing with no instructions.
Simply get comfortable, grab your favorite pair of headphones and sleep mask, and hit play on your chosen meditation.
P.S: you can still do this practice even when you are traveling, on the go, or don’t have access to a reliable Wi-Fi and internet connection. Simply have on your phone one of these top 3 meditation apps that work offline (insert top 3 apps that work offline link here), download a session you like, and listen to it later when you won’t have access to an internet connection anymore.
Benefits of Meditation
Boy, oh boy! The many benefits meditation has!
Well, there’s certainly a reason why so many neuroscientists, researchers, monks, and even celebrities now are talking about meditation. Not just one reason, in fact multiple ones!
Here is a relatively short & succinct list of the most common benefits of meditation:
1. Stress Reduction: Meditation helps reduce stress and anxiety by calming the mind, promoting relaxation, and improving overall well-being.
Think of it like your secret weapon against stress and anxiety: it melts away tension, calms your mind, and helps you find your Zen zone even in the midst of chaos.
This doesn’t mean you won’t ever be affected by situations out of your control again. It simply means you won’t add as much pain to the experience as before, and you’ll be able to navigate the experience all together, better.
In time, this practice will help you cultivate more and more self-awareness towards your life and the events happening, enough so that you won’t respond as stressed as you used to before.
Say goodbye to panic attacks, debilitating stress, and general feelings of overwhelm!
2. Improved Focus and Concentration: Regular meditation practice enhances focus, attention, and cognitive abilities, leading to increased productivity and mental clarity.
Want to stay centered amidst distractions? Meditation is the tool to help you do so.
Out of the many time management gurus, productivity courses, or self-improvement techniques, I can vouch for that meditation has been, hands down, the best tool to help me be present, stay focused, and optimize my learning and memorizing.
It truly does wonders to our brains!
3. Emotional Well-being: Life can be a rollercoaster of emotions, but meditation helps you ride the waves with grace. It cultivates emotional resilience, soothes turbulent feelings, and fosters a sense of inner calm.
Overall, meditation has been shown to help you cultivate self-awareness, emotional stability, and a positive mindset.
It can help reduce negative emotions, enhance self-compassion, and promote overall emotional well-being as well, although this doesn’t happen magically overnight.
In fact, if you are under great pressure or stress, meditation is like making the 1st step towards climbing a huge mountain. Even if you make the step, it doesn’t mean you’ll reach the peak so soon!
So buckle up with patience, because although you might not always feel the benefits instantly, they will certainly come, regardless of your experience or beliefs about meditation.
4. Self-Discovery and Growth: When you take time to meditate, you embark on a journey of self-discovery. You gain insights into your thoughts, beliefs, and patterns, empowering personal growth and transformation.
This is especially great if you practice any form of introspective meditation. Such practices help you clear your mind, cultivate a calm, objective state, and help you navigate life easier.
For example, if you are in the midst of making a life-changing decision such as which house to buy or where to plan your wedding, meditation helps you recenter yourself against all turbulent stress.
With practice, you’ll be able to seek the answers you are looking for internally, rather than looking elsewhere and relying on opinions externally. This will benefit you immensely since you are the one who truly (deep, deep down) knows what’s best for you. No one else.
So if you want to start trusting yourself more and standing up for your own decisions, meditation will help you reach that self-assured and decisive state as well as to help you stand firmly behind your choices.
5. Improved Sleep: Oh, and did I mention that meditation improves sleep too? Yup, no more tossing and turning at night. Meditation promotes relaxation, reduces insomnia, and helps you drift off into dreamland for a rejuvenating night’s sleep.
Whether you are a light sleeper or someone who sleeps with a partner that has a different sleep cycle all together, meditation helps you snooze into a deep, restful, and rejuvenating night’s sleep.
So instead of relying on medication that solves your issue but promotes 5 other new problems, why not try meditating for 30 days and see how it impacts your overall state, sleep, and general wellbeing? It will definitely cost less than upgrading your mattress! (However, we do recommend this if your sleep is currently suffering from an improper mattress. We highly recommend these mattresses for the best sleep possible. Rated 5 stars, with thousands of reviews, and for all budgets, these mattresses will surely impress you. Who knows? Hopefully, one tf them will go home with you!)
Choosing the Right Practice for You
Now that we have explored the intricacies of breathwork and meditation, you may be wondering which practice is the right fit for you. Don’t worry, we’ll cover all your questions to help you find the practice that works best for you.
To make an informed decision, consider the following factors:
- Objective and Focus: Breathwork primarily focuses on the power of intentional breathing to influence physical and mental states, while meditation centers on quieting the mind and cultivating awareness. Ask yourself the following questions: are you seeking a practice that emphasizes the body more or one that prioritizes mental stillness? Are you looking to release stagnant energy to get clear, grounded, and introspective?
- Personal Preference: Trust your gut. If the idea of rhythmic breathing and energizing techniques excites you, breathwork might be your jam. If you crave moments of stillness and introspection, meditation could be a better fit for you. At the end of the day, no one knows better what’s best for you than – well, you!
- Ability to reconsider: Don’t be afraid to practice with different techniques and see which one you like more. You can always change practices, and most likely you will! Maybe not necessarily in the beginning, however, throughout life, you’ll see that certain phases of your life call for certain practices more. And it’s perfectly fine to change them at times.
- Lifestyle and Accessibility: Consider your lifestyle and the time you can dedicate to practice. Breathwork exercises can be woven into your daily activities, providing quick stress relief. They can be as short as a ten minute break. Meditation often benefits from dedicated time and space for longer sessions. To get the most out of meditation, a practice of 30 to 60 minutes is recommended. Find what fits your schedule and which one you can commit to for the long haul.
I find that a 45 min meditation is sometimes more useful for stress relief, but if I’m driving or I’m on the go and need to get prepared mentally for a speech, then breathwork is my golden ticket!
- Guided or Solo: Some of us thrive on guidance, while others prefer the solitude of self-guided practice. Breathwork can benefit from initial instruction to ensure proper technique, after which you can continue to do it on your. On the other hand, meditation can be explored with apps, online resources, or classes— all of them being fantastic choices for those who tend to have their mind wander off too much and need better guidance and context. You can also simply listen to your own intuition when it comes to meditation.
- Finding Balance: Who says you have to choose just one? Many people find value in combining breathwork and meditation.
I have been using both for well over a decade now and don’t plan to change this any time soon. This is because these tools have become second nature to me and I’ve learned how to navigate my life experiences better. I don’t stick to a strict plan or regime, yet I do listen to my mind & body and guide myself based on what are the needs I have in the given moment.
Technically, you can even use both combined! For a deeper meditation experience, use breathwork as a preparation for meditation, allowing yourself to reach deeper levels of relaxation and focus.
- Combination Approach: It’s important to note that breathwork and meditation are not mutually exclusive practices. Many individuals find value in incorporating both into their routines. You can explore the synergy of breathwork techniques as a preparation for meditation, allowing for a deeper state of relaxation and focus.
Conclusion
Life can throw us some curveballs, but we have the power to find inner peace amidst the chaos. Whether you choose the rhythmic dance of breathwork or the serene stillness of meditation, both practices offer a sanctuary for your mind, body, and soul. So, take a deep breath, listen to your heart, and embark on the journey that resonates best with you at the given moment.
Embrace the power of breath and mindfulness, and discover the practice that brings you solace, serenity, and resilience. Remember, you deserve moments of calm in this whirlwind of life.
So, let’s find your Zen and conquer the challenges with a peaceful heart and a clear mind.
