What Is Breathwork & Why It’s More Than a Breathing Technique
There are many definitions of breathwork online. This article isn’t here to replace them - but to explore what breathwork becomes when practiced with awareness, nervous system understanding, and lived experience.
What Is Breathwork — Really?
Breathwork is an umbrella term for practices that use conscious breathing to influence the body, nervous system, and inner experience.
At its core, breathwork isn’t about breathing “correctly” or achieving a specific state. It’s about creating contact — with sensations, emotions, patterns, and parts of yourself that were shaped long before the mind had words for them.
Through breath, we can access layers of experience that talk therapy or intellectual insight alone sometimes can’t reach.
That’s why people use breathwork for many different intentions, such as:
stress relief and nervous system regulation
emotional processing and integration
trauma-informed healing
clarity, creativity, and personal growth
spiritual exploration and altered states
But here’s where confusion often arises:
Breathwork isn’t one technique, one rhythm, or one outcome. And it’s not simply “deep breathing” or relaxation. It’s a way of working with the body’s intelligence — using breath as the bridge.
A lot of modern breathwork practices share roots with older traditions (like pranayama in yoga), while others have developed through contemporary therapeutic and nervous-system-informed approaches. And while the methods vary, the essence is simple: through conscious breathing, we can shift our mental, emotional, physical — and sometimes spiritual — state.
Some describe breathwork as a way to calm the nervous system. Some experience it as medicine. Others say it’s like tasting something for the first time — impossible to fully explain, only to feel.
To me, breathwork is a space to meet yourself fully. To feel what you’ve pushed aside. To soften. To release. To shift your energy. And to remember what already lives inside you.
Breathwork comes in different forms - the purpose and intention differs
Breathwork & the Nervous System: Why the Body Leads
To understand breathwork, we need to understand the nervous system.
Your nervous system is constantly scanning for safety or threat — long before the thinking mind is involved. And breath is one of the few tools we have that can directly influence this system, both consciously and unconsciously.
That’s why breathwork comes in many forms — and why there is no one-size-fits-all.
Some breathing patterns primarily activate the parasympathetic nervous system — our rest-and-digest state — supporting calm, presence, sleep, and recovery. Other styles intentionally engage the sympathetic nervous system — the system connected to action, movement, and emotional release — allowing stored energy, emotion, or stress to move through the body.
We often label one as “good” and the other as “bad.”
But the truth is: we need both.
Just like driving a car, sometimes you need to slow down — and sometimes you need power to move forward. Regulation isn’t about staying calm all the time. It’s about being able to shift gears with awareness.
When these systems are balanced, they support us in beautiful ways:
A safe sympathetic system gives motivation, clarity, and healthy drive
A regulated parasympathetic system allows digestion, rest, and integration
We’re not meant to live in one state. We’re meant to move between them.
And breathwork is one of the tools that teaches us how.
Conscious & Subconscious Breathing
We breathe over 20,000 times a day - most of it without noticing. But just like many of our thoughts and emotions, the breath often operates in the background.
When emotions, stress, or unspoken needs are held back, they don’t disappear. They remain stored - in the body, the breath, the nervous system - and may later show up as anxiety, tension, aggression, sadness, numbness, self-doubt, or exhaustion.
Breathwork creates a safe space for this to move.
Because an inhale only has room when the exhale has been released.
Breath teaches us that letting go is part of receiving. That rhythm matters. That it can be safe to soften.
When we breathe with awareness, we don’t just access oxygen.
We access space. Intuition. Creativity. A lighter body, mind, and heart.
A sense of flow that often feels like coming home.
👉 Want to go deeper into this? Read about how Breathwork can shift your energy on a conscious and subconscious level - Energy does not lie
Regulation, Release & Integration
Some breathwork practices are gentle and slow, supporting down-regulation when you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or scattered.
Others are more activating — intentionally bringing the body into controlled stress before allowing a natural shift into rest and integration. These practices can help access subconscious material, release stored emotional energy, or bring clarity to something that hasn’t yet found words.
It doesn’t always look dramatic.
Sometimes it’s a deeper breath.
Sometimes a quiet remembering.
Sometimes its wild and cathartic.
Sometimes a sense of space you didn’t know you were missing.
And sometimes, something arrives that you didn’t know you were ready for — but if it shows up, it means your system has the capacity to meet it.
The breath doesn’t work on you.
It works with your nervous system.
Your breath can take you to places your mind can’t always go
What Breathwork Is Not - Clearing Common Misconceptions
As breathwork has become more popular, a few misconceptions tend to follow. Clarifying these is important — especially for those who approach breathwork with sensitivity, anxiety, or a history of overwhelm.
Breathwork ≠ Hyperventilation
Breathwork is often confused with hyperventilation, but they are not the same.
Hyperventilation is usually uncontrolled and driven by panic or stress, leading to dizziness, numbness, or anxiety. Breathwork, when practiced consciously and guided with awareness, is intentional, paced, and responsive to the body.
In trauma-informed breathwork, the goal is not to override the system — but to listen to it. Breath patterns are adjusted based on how the nervous system responds, allowing regulation rather than overwhelm.
If breathwork ever feels too intense, the breath can always be softened, slowed, or paused. Safety is not something you push past — it’s something you work with.
Breathwork ≠ One Method
There is no single “correct” way to practice breathwork.
Some techniques are slow and regulating. Others are rhythmic, activating, or expressive. Some work primarily with calming the nervous system, while others support emotional release or deeper subconscious access.
What matters most is not the method itself — but how, when, and for whom it’s used.
A technique that feels supportive for one person may feel overwhelming for another. This is why guidance, context, and choice are essential — especially when working with stress, anxiety, or trauma.
Breathwork ≠ “Just Calming”
Breathwork isn’t only about relaxation.
While many practices are deeply calming, breathwork can also bring awareness to emotions, patterns, or sensations that have been held beneath the surface. This doesn’t mean something is wrong — it means the body is communicating.
True regulation isn’t about staying calm all the time. It’s about having the capacity to feel, process, and return to balance.
Sometimes breathwork softens.
Sometimes it stirs.
And sometimes it simply helps you stay present with what’s already there.
All of these can be part of healing.
It’s also important to say this: breathwork can be powerful.
For some, certain practices may feel cathartic, emotionally intense, or even resemble altered or psychedelic-like states of awareness. This doesn’t come from chasing intensity — but from allowing the nervous system and subconscious to express what has been held.
When this kind of depth arises, it’s not something to force or recreate. It’s something to meet with grounding, presence, and integration. This is why experience, guidance, and pacing matter — not to dull the experience, but to help the body move through it safely and meaningfully.
Breathwork can be subtle.
And it can be profound.
Both are valid — and both are part of the spectrum.
Experience Over Explanation
Breathwork is not something you understand your way into.
You can read about breathing patterns, nervous system states, and techniques — and still never touch what breathwork actually offers.
Because breathwork is experiential.
It meets you in sensation before language.
In the body before the story.
In what’s felt, not what’s figured out.
This is why two people can practice the same breath and have completely different experiences. And why the same practice can feel entirely different from one session to the next.
Breathwork isn’t about reaching a particular state.
It’s about meeting yourself as you are — and allowing something to shift from there.
Not by forcing change.
But by listening long enough for the body to respond.
Breathwork can be gentle or deeply cathartic.
It can be regulating, or open doorways into emotional and subconscious layers that are rarely reached through words alone.
What matters is not intensity — but how the experience is held, integrated, and met. This is why context, pacing, and guidance make such a difference when breathwork is used for emotional or trauma-related healing.
Breathwork Can Be Emotional - and That’s Not a Flaw
Some forms of breathwork are designed to be gentle and regulating.
Others intentionally create enough activation for emotions, memories, or long-held patterns to surface.
This doesn’t mean breathwork is about “releasing trauma” in a dramatic or forceful way.
True breathwork works with the body — not against it.
Emotions are not stored because something went wrong.
They’re stored because, at the time, the system did what it needed to survive.
Breathwork offers a way to meet those patterns with awareness, pacing, and support — allowing integration rather than overwhelm.
This is why context, guidance, and nervous system literacy matter far more than the specific breathing technique used.
Curious about Trauma Informed Breathwork for Deep Healing? Read more here
Breathwork includes many approaches — such as conscious connected breathing, coherent breathing, box breathing, and other structured or intuitive methods.
These styles differ in rhythm, intensity, and intention — but none are inherently “better.”
What matters most is how the nervous system responds, and whether the practice is guided with awareness and care.
Technique doesn’t create transformation.
Relationship does — to breath, to body, to safety, to timing.
This is why the same breathing pattern can feel calming one day, emotional the next, and grounding another.
You are not doing breathwork wrong.
You are meeting different layers of yourself.
Discover how Breathwork in Stockholm or online can help you reduce stress, create an emotional release and enhance your well-being.
How does a Breathwork session practically work?
You’ll lie down on a mat or a soft surface, supported with cushions and a blanket if needed.
We begin by grounding, then I guide you into the breathing rhythm. You’ll be held throughout—with music, intention, and space to feel.
We’ll close with rest and integration—letting everything land.
Don’t worry if you’ve never done it before.
The breathing technique is fully explained and practiced before we begin. It can be a little unfamiliar at first, but the rhythm becomes intuitive. And I’ll be right there with you the whole time. Online or In Person - I’ve got you.
Sign up for a free Breathwork Session Here
"Breathwork comes in many different styles and techniques. All good! It´s the intention and purpose that creates the difference might differ”
- Kia
What you might experience during Breathwork:
In short below - or read more about the benefits of breathing here
🌀 Releasing stuck energy
🌧️ Soothing anxiety, grief, and emotional overwhelm
💡 Tapping into intuition and inner knowing
🎨 Awakening creativity, inspiration and clarity
😌 Deep rest, improved sleep, and nervous system grounding
🫀 Heart-opening moments that feel like truth
💔 Gentle support in healing trauma and subconscious patterning
💖 Strengthening self-love, self-acceptance, and emotional balance
🧘♀️ Relief from physical tension or discomfort
🔥 A sense of wholeness, courage, and reconnection
🌱 Restoring your immune system and natural vitality
💫 Supporting addiction recovery and healing habits that no longer serve
🌸 Opening to more loving relationships—with others, and with yourself
✨ Moments of joy, tears, stillness, insight... all welcome.
You don’t need to experience all of these- or even expect them.
Your breath will take you exactly where you need to go.
✨ Curious about experiencing Breathwork – In Stockholm & Online
Breathwork isn’t something to master.
It’s something to meet.
Over time, the breath becomes less about technique —
and more about relationship.
With the body.
With the nervous system.
With the parts of yourself that learned to hold on.
Whether breathwork shows up as subtle regulation or deep emotional release, its power lies in how safely it’s held — not how intensely it’s practiced.
If you’re curious to experience breathwork beyond explanation — in a way that honours both depth and nervous system safety — you can explore how I work with breath here.
Upcoming sessions
(no open slots? email: kia@shapeyourvibe.com)
”One breath at a time, you can shift your energy—and shape your life.”
-Kia
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Breathwork
Is breathwork safe? What about hyperventilating?
Yes, most breathwork styles are safe when done with awareness. Hyperventilation is not the goal—proper techniques are grounding, not disorienting. If you have health conditions (e.g. cardiovascular, respiratory), consult a guide before trying intense practices.
Read more about that Breathwork is not about hyperventilation here
Can breathwork change your brain or stress response long term?
Absolutely. Through consistent practice, breathwork supports neuroplasticity and improves regulation of stress hormones like cortisol. It’s one of the few tools that directly shifts both mind and body patterns and over time, you will feel calmer, more resilient, and less reactive.
💡 Read more about how Breathwork Can Rewire the Brain?
What are quick breathing techniques I can use when anxious?
Try methods like Deep Belly Breathing / diaphragmatic breathing, box breathing or or 4‑7‑8 breath. Even a few conscious cycles can help shift your nervous system out of fight/flight mode toward calm.
💡 Curious about Breathing exercises - go here
How does breathwork help with emotional release or anxiety?
Breathwork can help move stuck emotional energy, unblock patterns (anger, grief, frustration), and allow you to feel emotions in a safe container.
💡 Read more about transforming emotions here
💡 Or go here to read about how Breathwork can reduce Anxiety, PTSD or a Controlling mind
How does breathwork improve sleep, or insomnia
Breathwork opens the space for emotions held in the body to move. This release can relieve tension, quiet overthinking, unburden the nervous system—and support deeper rest + better sleep.
💡 Deeper insights about Breathwork and sleep
How does breathwork relate to nervous system regulation?
Breath is one of the fastest ways to influence the nervous system. It helps us shift from stress responses into states of rest, reset emotional patterns, and strengthen the connection between body and mind.
💡Read more about the nervous system perspective and your breath
Can breathwork help with confidence, energy and clarity?
Yes, Yes and Yes! 🤗 Breathwork doesn’t just calm—it can activate, sharpen focus, increase presence, build self-trust, and shift energy. Favorite topic and you can go for example here to read about how Breathwork can enhance Focus, Clarity and Confidence
How often should I practice breathwork to see benefits?
Breathwork will give you an instant effect. However consistency generally beets intensity when you want to receive emotional, mental, physical and spiritual benefits.
💡 Read about the top 17 benefits here
Can I get emotional during breathwork?
Yes, and that’s okay.
Breathwork can gently or powerfully stir what’s been held inside. Sometimes it’s tears, tension, laughter, or simply a sense of relief.
All emotions are welcome - and part of the body’s way of restoring balance. You’ll be guided in a safe, held way.
How long do the effects of breathwork last?
Effects varies. Most feel shifts right away (lighter, clearer, more centered). For others it’s gradual, like layers unfolding over time. The deeper your practice, the more lasting the change.
Can breathwork be combined with other healing practices?
Absolutely.
Breathwork pairs beautifully with Reiki, somatic work, therapy, meditation, and other integrative tools. Breath helps you drop from the mind into the body, where real integration begins.
What if I’ve never done anything like this before?
Then you’re in the perfect place.
No experience is needed. You’ll be guided step by step, and everything will be adjusted to meet you where you are—emotionally, physically, and energetically.
👉 Want to explore more? Join an upcoming breathwork session or try the 10-day breath & meditation online course here.
Breathwork an active meditation to release stress, anxiety or open for an inner journey and shift of energies. Breathwork can enhance your creativity, create clarity and get you in the flow.
