The Biggest Breathwork Myth to Stop Believing: Your Busy Mind Burden or Blessing?

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The biggest breathwork myth

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One of the most frequent misconceptions I hear from students is: “I can’t do breathwork, my mind is way too busy.” If this sounds like you don’t worry, the thing is… we all have busy minds. Each and every person has over 60,000 thoughts per day. That’s close to one thought every second. And guess what, the greatest tool we have to tap directly into our minds is breathwork.

"Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again."

― Thích Nhất Hạnh

Here’s the amazing thing about breathwork: it’s a direct connection to your nervous system. So even though it might not seem like it sometimes, you are in the driver’s seat. Controlled breathing can be used to directly affect your mind. Ancient traditions that utilized breathwork like yoga and qigong have understood this connection for thousands of years. Modern science is now proving the validity of this connection.

Research has proven that breathing techniques can directly control both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Meaning that we can turn on either the rest and relax portion of our nervous system to relieve stress and improve sleep, or activate the fight or flight portion of our nervous system to gain energy and focus. Depending on the breathing technique, breathwork can be used as a tool to help manage thoughts, moods, and experiences.

free-guided-breathing-exercise

“When the breath wanders the mind is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed, the mind too will be still.”

― Yogi Svātmārāma

When it comes to breathwork, practice makes progress. This is why your wandering mind is a blessing. During breathwork you don’t have to remain focused 100% of the time. In fact each time you find yourself distracted this is a great opportunity to practice refocusing.

Typically we start our practice focused on our breathing, thoughts and distractions pop up, we become aware of these distractions, then we refocus on the breath. Each time we repeat this cycle and bring our attention back to the breath we strengthen our ability to focus. Strengthening our ability to focus during breathwork is going to benefit us in our everyday lives. Improving your focus leads to greater emotional control and psychological well-being

Know that this process takes time, but eventually it will become easier. Hang in there, don’t get frustrated, and be kind to yourself. Every time we practice we strengthen our brain’s neural pathways. Our brains will literally rewire itself to make the things that we practice easier.

“When breath control is correct, mind control is possible.”

― Pattabhi Jois

For more information on how breathwork affects your nervous system and the types of breathwork exercises check out my previous blog article How Breathwork Works? Effective Practice or Just Woo Woo. To learn how to start your own breathwork practice join my FREE 5-Day Super Simple Breathwork Challenge here.

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Welcome!

Andrea Andres
Andrea AndresRegistered Yoga Instructor | Certified Breathwork Coach
Welcome, I’m Andrea, and I help overworked busy people recover from physical and mental stress, and avoid burnout using evidence-based yoga, breathwork, and meditation techniques.

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