Interest in “breathwork” has surged in recent years, with practitioners claiming that conscious breathing techniques can improve sleep, digestion, immune and respiratory function, while lowering blood pressure and anxiety. In the midst of a pandemic that attacks the lungs, the appeal is obvious. But do we need to relearn something we do around 20,000 times a day?
Aimee Hartley, a Transformational Breath coach and author of Breathe Well, thought she knew how to breathe – she had been doing it all her life and had trained as a yoga teacher. Yet a session with a breathing coach revealed she was an “upper chest breather”, failing to draw air into her lower lungs. “He taught me this conscious breathing and I felt my lower belly open,” she says. She now observes that almost nobody breathes well, except babies up to the age of about three.
Hartley is one of a number of practitioners gaining attention, alongside Wim Hof, who combines breathing exercises with cold therapy, and methods such as Buteyko, holotropic and the ancient yoga practice of pranayama. Several books on the subject have appeared this year, including Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor and Exhale by Richie Bostock, who calls breathwork “the next revolution in health and wellness”.
While high-quality research remains limited, diaphragmatic breathing – engaging the large muscle between the chest and abdomen – is widely accepted to reduce stress and anxiety, and the NHS recommends it for stress relief. Slow, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the “rest and digest” response, and studies have linked controlled breathing to lower cortisol levels and changes in brain chemistry affecting noradrenaline, which may enhance focus and brain health.
The pandemic has sharpened awareness of breathing. Hartley, who has taught clients over Zoom since lockdown began, says some are now in recovery from Covid and “have never become so aware of their breathing”. With breathlessness a lingering symptom for many, the ancient art of breathing well has never felt more relevant.
