Breathwork vs Meditation
Today I want to talk about the difference between Breathwork and Meditation.
Both exist to help calm your mind and can be used in conjunction together but most commonly, Meditation is a practice that allows you to observe your breath not manipulate it. Meditation is more about present moment awareness and is commonly linked with the idea of stillness and allowing the mind to settle. These are great things to aim for but if you have an overactive mind you may have found yourself frustrated or overwhelmed in a traditional seated meditation practice. I often consider that Meditation is a graduated level in mindfulness and Breathwork is the training wheels.
Breathwork is an active form of meditation designed for transformational and healing. This modality utilizes your breath to elicit transformative experiences within your mind and body. When you give your brain a task to do - like focus on a breath pattern - it stops the chatter in your brain. You are also flooding your body with fresh oxygen so your body naturally starts to release endorphins. Sometimes this leads to an endorphin high which can feel extremely euphoric.
In my experience, Breathwork was the first style of meditation that led me to think I could ever actually be a meditator. I had tried to quiet my brain for years and in one session Breathwork did the trick. Breathwork can feel like you are sprinting in a marathon but this modality gives you the ability to release stagnant energy in your body, guides you to releasing trauma that you may be unaware that you are holding on to and is a proven tool to quiet your mind. Think of Breathwork as the way to clean out the sludge in your brain before you can find peace.
So if you’ve been trying to meditate for eons and have found it to be challenging instead of relaxing - give Breathwork a shot.
Practice it for a bit and give yourself an opportunity to see that there really is a meditator within you. You just have to remove some of the blockages before true serenity can be achieved.
