I received a round robin email a couple of weeks ago that had links to 2 new breathwork studies that have just been released. One a meta study (so pulling together of lots of other studies) which I’ll come back to another time.
The second was a jointly authored paper by several people, including Andrew Huberman & David Speigel. I thoroughly enjoy Andrew Huberman’s podcast so it was great to read a co-authored papr by him around the efficacy of breathwork for:
Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal.
A link to the paper is here:
The paper begins with the following 3 highlights:
- •Daily 5-minute breathwork and mindfulness meditation improve mood and reduce anxiety
- •Breathwork improves mood and physiological arousal more than mindfulness meditation
- •Cyclic sighing is most effective at improving mood and reducing respiratory rate
And a graphic illustration to help direct you to the breathing techniques that were used, which is above at the start of the post. It was really interesting to discover that voluntary control of the breath is more effective at regulating mood than mindful meditation, with awareness of the breath but no alterations.
Whilst I could attest to all of above, from personal experience, it is valuable to see it laid out as part of a rigorous scientific study and support the tool of breath as a modality to help regulate and manage arousal (stress / sympathetic states / anxiety).
It also feeds into my own current interest in the most effective breathwork tools to use post exercise to down regulate, and help the recovery process begin for primarily the nervous system.
