Breathwork For Anxiety And Depression: A Powerful Pathway for Healing
Breathwork is a highly effective modality for working with anxiety and/or depression. In fact, 89% of people with anxiety who join our online breathwork sessions, report experiencing moderate to major relief from their anxiety. And 67% of those who struggle with depression report seeing moderate to major relief from their symptoms.
The Benefits of Breathwork for Anxiety and/or Depression:
Emotional Release: Breathwork can facilitate the release of repressed emotions and traumatic memories. This release may help individuals with anxiety or depression to process and integrate difficult emotions, thereby reducing their emotional burden.
Altered States of Consciousness: The altered states induced during Breathwork may provide individuals with new perspectives on their depression or anxiety and help them gain insight into the root cause. Moreover, altered states can sometimes lead to a sense of connection and unity, which may alleviate feelings of isolation common in depression.
Self-Exploration: Participants often report a sense of deep self-exploration during Breathwork sessions. This exploration can lead to greater self-awareness, which is a key component for managing and coping with both anxiety and depression.
Tension and Trauma Release: Tension in the body is often a physical manifestation of unprocessed trauma. Addressing this bodily tension is crucial for trauma recovery. The best way for the body to facilitate tension release is to first maximize it and this happens to about 50% of people during breathwork. Once it is dialed up, deeply stored tensions that may have been held in our bodies for decades can then be released. This release can effectively tackle a shared underlying cause contributing to both anxiety and depression.
Spiritual or Transcendent Experiences: Some individuals report experiencing spiritual or transcendent moments during Breathwork, which can be profoundly transformative and help shift their perspective on life.
Sharing & Acceptance: After a Neurodynamic Breathwork session we hold a sharing circle which stays open until everyone feels complete. Sharing circles offer emotional support, validation, and a sense of belonging, reducing isolation and stigma. They also provide an opportunity to gain different perspectives, and to be open, authentic, and vulnerable in a safe and welcoming space. The sharing circles can be deeply transformative and help to create big shifts for people with anxiety or depression.
Integration: After a Neurodynamic Breathwork session, we encourage participants to spend time on integration and offer them integration suggestions. These activities can help individuals make sense of their experiences, gain insights, and develop coping strategies for managing anxiety or depression.
A Word of Caution When Using Breathwork for Anxiety or Depression Relief
If you decide to go ahead with the breathwork to help manage anxiety or depression, some of your sessions may be intense and difficult as the root cause may come up for processing. Your psyche has a drive towards wholeness, so when given the chance, it tries to process through and release emotional imbalances and physical manifestations of negative thinking patterns. If you are okay with that happening, breathwork can make a profound difference in your life!
If you have some concerns regarding your ability to process through some possibly difficult experiences without a high level of support, you may want to have a “sitter” with you when you breathe, at least for the first few sessions. A sitter is someone that you trust, who sits next to you and is available to hold your hand or hug you if you need that type of emotional support during your session. If you do that, just make sure that the person is instructed not to interfere in your process unless you specifically ask them to do something. Another option would be to seek out an in-person breathwork so you will have a facilitator physically present with you.
I believe that if you look inside and check in with yourself, not your ego mind self, but Your Self (we call it IGI – Inner Guiding Intelligence), you will get a sense of whether Breathwork is right for you at this time or if it is better to wait. And, if you do decide that it is better to wait, there is nothing wrong with that. Part of the purpose of Neurodynamic Breathwork is to start connecting with and trusting your own IGI more. If you decide to proceed, we welcome you to reach out to us after your session if anything comes up that you are uncertain about or if you just want to give us feedback on how your journey went.
Embark on a Journey to Wholeness with a FREE Month of Neurodynamic Breathwork Online
We offer 2-hour online breathwork workshops several times throughout the week so that people can take a deep dive into their healing with a consistent practice. If you would like to join one of our sessions, and partake in faster, deeper breathing to connect to your “Inner Guidance” and process and release emotions that may be contributing to your anxiety or depression, we invite you to register for free!
After your first free session, you will receive an email with access to a whole month of free online facilitated breathwork, up to 24 live sessions, which will allow you to continue your journey with the breath and sow the seeds for incredible, lasting change.
