Research Finds There's A Simple Way To Release Emotions & Experience Bliss

If you've been to a yoga class or attended any spiritual workshops in the past few years, odds are you've done breathwork—or at least heard of it.

Breathwork is simply controlling your breathing pattern in a certain way to induce particular effects. Breathwork can be calming, it can be energizing, and it can even feel blissful, depending on how you're breathing.

Breathwork is known for impacting your mood, physiological state, and can even lead to altered states of consciousness (ASCs), but the neurobiological mechanisms behind this phenomena haven't been well studied—until now.

For this research, the study authors analyzed ASCs via high ventilation breathwork (HVB) in experienced practitioners. The study participants did a 20- to 30-minute session of cyclic breathing without pausing while listening to music, and then answered a series of questions afterwards.

Based on the neuroimaging conducted, as well as the questionnaires, it was found that breathwork not only lowers the body's stress response, but also reduces negative emotions and can even result in spiritual experiences.

"Our key findings include that breathwork can reliably evoke profound psychedelic states. We believe that these states are linked to changes in the function of specific brain regions involved in self-awareness, and fear and emotional memory processing," the study authors explain.

If you want to experience the benefits of breathwork for yourself, the good news is it's totally free, you can do it anytime, and all you have to do is breathe.

This study specifically calls out Conscious Connected Breathing (continuous breathing, often through the mouth, without pausing), as well as Holotropic Breathwork, which is a high ventilation style of breathwork often done with a facilitator in a session.

You can find videos for guided breathwork online, or even attend a breathwork workshop near you.

Other popular breathwork techniques include box breathing (inhaling for four counts, holding for four counts, exhaling for four counts, and holding for four counts), nadi-shodhana (AKA alternate-nostril breathing), or the 4-7-8 technique (inhaling through your nose for 4 seconds, holding for 7 seconds, and exhaling out of the mouth for 8 seconds).