The Power of Breathwork. What is Conscious Connected Breathing ?

We breathe thousands of times every day, mostly without consciously thinking about it.

But what happens when we deliberately take control of something our body normally does automatically?

This is where breathwork becomes fascinating.

By consciously changing the speed, depth, rhythm and pattern of our breathing, we can change what is happening physiologically within the body. Our breathing interacts with our nervous system, heart rate, attention and emotional state.

Depending on the type of breathwork we use, we can also create very different experiences. Some breathing techniques are designed to calm and regulate the nervous system. Others are more activating. Conscious Connected Breathing uses a continuous breathing rhythm that can create noticeable changes in physical sensation, awareness and emotional state.

For me, one of its greatest benefits is that it can help us move beyond constantly trying to think our way through everything. We spend so much of our lives analysing, predicting, worrying, planning and replaying.

Breathwork gives us an opportunity to turn our attention inward and experience what is happening in the body and sometimes what we find there can be incredibly insightful.

What Exactly Is Conscious Connected Breathing?

Conscious Connected Breathing connects the inhale and exhale into a continuous rhythm without the normal pause between breaths.

As the breathing pattern changes, people may experience physical sensations as well as thoughts, feelings, memories, images and familiar emotional patterns.

This is one of the reasons breathwork can feel very different from simply talking about how you feel. You are not only working with the thinking mind.

You are creating an experience within the body.

The science of breathing helps us understand why this is possible.

Breathing and the autonomic nervous system are closely connected. When we are stressed, frightened or overwhelmed, our breathing often changes automatically. It may become faster, shallower or more irregular. Sometimes we hold our breath without even noticing.

When we feel relaxed and safe, our breathing generally becomes slower and easier.

But that communication works in both directions.

Our emotional state influences our breathing, and deliberately changing our breathing can influence our physiological state.

Research into controlled breathing has found measurable effects on autonomic nervous system activity, while broader breathwork research suggests potential benefits for stress and emotional wellbeing.

Importantly, different breathing techniques create different physiological effects. Slow breathing and Conscious Connected Breathing are not the same practice and should not be treated as though they are.

This is something I teach often at Breathe & Connect.

There isn't one perfect way to breathe all day.

The real skill is understanding what your breath is doing and learning how to use different breathing patterns at different times.

Moving Beyond the Monkey Mind

The term monkey mind comes from Buddhist teachings and describes the restless nature of our thinking. It is that constant internal conversation.

What if this happens?

Why did I say that?

What will they think?

What if I'm not good enough?

What if I make the wrong decision?

We can jump from one thought to another without even realising how much attention we're giving them. I sometimes describe this as a radio station playing inside your head.

You might not be able to prevent every song from coming on, but you don't have to turn the volume up on every one.

This is one of the differences I find between meditation and Conscious Connected Breathing. Many forms of meditation teach us to observe the breath without deliberately changing it. Breathwork is more active. We intentionally change the breathing pattern to influence our experience.

For someone who finds sitting quietly with their thoughts incredibly difficult, having the breath to actively focus on can create a very different doorway into awareness.

I used to describe this as shutting down the monkey mind.

I think a more accurate description is that we are giving our attention somewhere else to go. The thoughts may still exist.

But instead of being completely absorbed in them, we can begin noticing what else is happening.

A physical sensation.

An emotion.

A memory.

A belief.

An old pattern.

Or perhaps simply a sense of peace and stillness that has been difficult to access through thinking alone.

Can Breathwork Help Us Access the Subconscious?

This is where my work as a therapist and breathwork facilitator come together.

Much of what we do throughout the day happens automatically.

We don't consciously decide to become anxious.

We don't deliberately decide to catastrophise.

We don't wake up and choose to feel unworthy.

We don't necessarily decide that we are going to people please, avoid conflict or worry about everything that could possibly go wrong.

These responses can become learned and familiar over time.

During an immersive breathwork experience, thoughts, emotions, memories or patterns can sometimes become more noticeable.

Working with a trained facilitator can create an opportunity to become curious about what arises.

Is this belief still true?

Is this pattern helping me?

What am I protecting myself from?

What might I need?

What could I choose differently?

This is also where my background in Strategic Psychotherapy and Clinical Hypnotherapy influences the way I facilitate breathwork.

I'm interested in what you experience during the journey, but I'm equally interested in what happens afterwards. Insight is valuable.

But what can you do with that insight?

What About Trauma and Emotional Release?

When we talk about breathwork and emotional release, the body is an important part of the conversation. Difficult experiences don't only exist as thoughts or memories. They can influence the way our nervous system responds, how we breathe, the tension we hold in our body and how we react when something feels threatening or emotionally familiar.

Difficult experiences can influence our nervous system, memory, behaviour, breathing patterns, muscle tension and responses to perceived threat.

Sometimes the body responds before the conscious mind has even worked out why.

During breathwork, people can experience emotions and physical sensations quite strongly.

Someone might cry.

Someone might feel anger.

Someone might experience changes in muscle tension.

A memory might arise.

Another person might experience an enormous feeling of relief or peace.

People often describe these experiences as emotional release.

We don't necessarily need to interpret this as trauma literally being extracted from a particular part of the body for the experience to be meaningful.

Sometimes we have simply created enough space to feel something we have spent a very long time avoiding, suppressing or trying to think our way around.

Who Can Benefit From Breathwork?

One misconception I would love to change is that practices such as breathwork are only for people experiencing trauma or significant mental health difficulties.

They're not.

People come to breathwork for many different reasons.

Some people are experiencing anxiety, stress, burnout, grief or difficult emotional patterns.

Others are actually doing really well.

They're looking for another layer of personal growth.

More self awareness.

More love.

More gratitude.

More clarity.

Greater connection.

Forgiveness.

Confidence.

Or simply an opportunity to stop and reconnect with themselves.

This is why breathwork has become such an important part of the way I teach Emotional Fitness.

You don't have to wait until you're struggling before you learn skills for looking after your emotional wellbeing. We train our bodies before they're broken.

Why wouldn't we do the same for our emotional health?

Three Reasons I Believe Breathwork Is So Powerful

The first is inner knowing.

We're surrounded by information and opinions all day. Sometimes we're so busy listening to everything outside ourselves that we stop listening to ourselves.

Breathwork can create space away from that noise.

People sometimes recognise things they already knew somewhere underneath all the thinking.

Perhaps a boundary needs to change.

Perhaps they're exhausted.

Perhaps something needs to be forgiven or let go.

Perhaps they've been ignoring what they really want.

I don't believe the breath magically gives us every answer.

I think sometimes it creates enough space for us to hear ourselves.

The second is empowerment.

Your breath belongs to you.

You don't need an external substance to begin learning how to influence your state.

And you don't need to complete an hour long Conscious Connected Breathing journey every time life becomes difficult.

There are many ways we can work with the breath.

Slow breathing can be used very differently from an activating breathwork journey. Learning those differences gives you something practical you can take into everyday life.

The third is perspective.

Sometimes we become so immersed in a problem that we can only see it from one direction. During breathwork, people sometimes experience a different perspective on a relationship, work, grief, their own behaviour or something they've been struggling to understand.

Some people also describe spiritual experiences, imagery, a sense of connection with loved ones who have died, ancestry, or insights that feel deeply significant to them.

Science cannot verify the meaning of those individual experiences.

I don't think that means we need to dismiss them either.

We can simply remain curious.

What did the experience mean to you?

What did you take from it?

And does that insight help you move forward?

The Real Power Is What Happens Next

For me, this is the most important part.

A breathwork journey can be powerful.

You can cry, feel, release, gain insight and have an incredible experience.

But then you go home.

What happens next?

If you recognised that you need a boundary, can you practise setting one?

If you became aware of how activated your nervous system has become, can you begin learning how to regulate it?

If you recognised an old thought pattern, can you catch it when it appears again?

If you experienced self love or compassion during the journey, can you practise offering yourself some of that tomorrow?

This is where breathwork becomes more than an experience.

It becomes something we integrate into our lives.

At Breathe & Connect Wellness Studio, I combine Conscious Connected Breathing and 9D Breathwork with Emotional Fitness education and my therapeutic background to help people better understand their mind, body and emotional responses.

People come to us for many different reasons, including anxiety, stress, burnout, grief, emotional patterns and personal growth.

If you would like to experience breathwork rather than simply read about it, you can explore our 9D Breathwork sessions at Breathe & Connect, available at our Little Mountain studio on the Sunshine Coast and online.

And if you're curious about the science and psychology behind the work we do, continue exploring the Breathe & Connect Blog for more research informed articles on breathwork, Emotional Fitness, psychotherapy, Clinical Hypnotherapy and body optimisation.

Your breath isn't the answer to everything.

But it is one incredibly powerful tool that you've had with you all along.