Breathwork as defined by the International Breathwork Training alliance <www.breathworkalliance.com> is the art and science of teaching breath awareness and breathing techniques for enhancing the human physical, mental, emotional and spiritual condition. True wellbeing involves balance and harmony in all the components of oneʼs self. Excessive focus on one part of the self to the exclusion of others results in imbalance and dysfunction. The other side of this equation is that the fine-tuning and harmony of all aspects of the self lead to higher states of health, wellness and opens the door for subsequent growth. Healthy breathing is the thread which strings all the pearls of oneʼs self together. Letʼs look at how healthy breathing is in the mainstay of an integrative approach to personal growth.

Physical Health      

Peak performance and achieving oneʼs personal best have always involved a mastery of oneʼs breathing. Though most of us are not in training for the Olympics, our physical health and wellbeing is directly related to regulated healthy breathing habits. Since there are few activities in which we engage in more than taking an inhale and and an exhale, any dysfunction in the process gets multiplied exponentially over the years. Conversely, healthy breathing has a nurturing and energizing effect on every physical organ and body system. All forms of yoga and, in particular, hatha yoga have documented results over the centuries on how coordinating steady diaphragmatic breathing with movement (asanas) or in stillness (meditation) improves physical health (e.g., McCall, 2007), Breath coaching has become increasingly effective in sports training and general.

In ancient and pre-industrial societies, breath and breathing have played a very important role in cosmology, mythology, and philosophy, as well as an important tool in ritual and spiritual practice. Various breathing techniques have been used since time immemorial for religious and healing purposes. Since earliest times, virtually every major psychospiritual system seeking to comprehend human nature has viewed breath as a crucial link between nature, the human body, the psyche, and the spirit. This is clearly reflected in the words many languages use for breath.

In the ancient Indian literature, the term prana meant not only physical breath and air, but also the sacred essence of life. Similarly, in traditional Chinese medicine, the word chi refers to the cosmic essence and the energy of life, as well as the natural air we breathe by our lungs. In Japan, the corresponding word is ki. Ki plays an extremely important role in Japanese spiritual practices and martial arts. In ancient Greece, the word pneuma meant both air or breath and spirit or the essence of life. The Greeks also saw breath as being closely related to the psyche. The term phren was used both for the diaphragm, the largest muscle involved in breathing, and mind (as we see in the term schizophrenia = literally split mind).

In the old Hebrew tradition, the same word, ruach, denoted both breath and creative spirit, which were seen as identical. The following quote from Genesis shows the close relationship between God, breath, and life: “Then the Lord God formed man {Hebrew adam} from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” In Latin the same name was used for breath and spirit – spiritus. Similarly, in Slavic languages, spirit and breath have the same linguistic root.

In the native Hawaiian tradition and medicine (kanaka maoli lapaʼau), the word ha means the divine spirit, wind, air, and breath. It is contained in the popular Hawaiian aloha, expression that is used in many different contexts. It is usually translated as presence (alo) of the Divine Breath (ha). Its opposite, haʼole, meaning literally without breath or without life, is a term that native Hawaiians have applied to white-skinned foreigners since the arrival of the infamous British sea captain James Cook in 1778. The kahunas, “Keepers of Secret Knowledge,” have used breathing exercises to generate spiritual energy (mana).

It has been known for centuries that it is possible to influence consciousness by techniques that involve breathing. The procedures that have been used for this purpose by various ancient and non-Western cultures cover a very wide range from drastic interference with breathing to subtle and sophisticated exercises of various spiritual traditions. Thus the original form of baptism practiced by the Essenes involved forced submersion of the initiate under water for an extended period of time. This resulted in a powerful experience of death and rebirth. In some other groups, the neophytes were half-choked by smoke, by strangulation, or by compression of the carotid arteries.