Count from 1-8 while you take one big inhale that expands in your belly. Hold it. Now count to 8 while you exhale deeply.

Congrats, you have just engaged in a form of breathwork, or what I like to call meditation.

Now, just because you are breathing that does not mean you are engaging in breathwork. Breathwork is more of an intentional manipulation of breath.

Arts that involve breathwork like yoga and meditation have been around since ancient times.

But now recent science is validating the powerful benefits breathwork can have on the mind and body.

1. It provides nearly instant relief from stress.    "We try all these different things for stress, but if you're not breathing in a way that tells your nervous system that it's time to relax, you won't get there," clinical psychologist and breathwork instructor Belisa Vranich, Ph.D.
2. Lowers blood pressure.                      A 2001 ^1 study found that practicing breathwork for 10 min per day was an effective nonpharmacological way to reduce blood pressure.Slow, deep breathing triggers the mechanisms in our body that reduce blood pressure even in patients with hypertension.
3.  Reduce symptoms of depression 
   The results of a 2016 ^2 report from the University of Pennsylvania4, revealed evidence that breathing-based meditation could ease severe depression in people who did not respond well to antidepressants.

Breathwork is something you can practice anytime, anywhere.  Give it a try!! For more insight, respond to this email and let's start a conversation.

^1 J Clin Psychiatry. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 Jan 28.Published in final edited form as:J Clin Psychiatry. 2017 Jan; 78(1): e59–e63.  doi: 10.4088/JCP.16m10819

^2 Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, Zhang H, Duan NY, Shi YT, Wei GX, Li YF. The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults. Front Psychol. 2017 Jun 6;8:874. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874. PMID: 28626434; PMCID: PMC5455070.