If you’re new to breathwork or have only recently heard about it, Aaptiv trainer, Jaime McFaden, shares her advice on how to get started and unlock its incredible benefits.
What is Breathwork?
Breathwork is a practice that involves focusing on the breath to improve both physical and mental health. By controlling our breath and intentionally changing our breathing patterns, studies have shown that it can reduce stress, enhance cognitive function, and increase mindfulness. Even practicing simple breathing exercises for a few minutes can yield significant results.
The Physical and Mental Benefits
Incorporating breathwork into your daily routine can bring both immediate and long-term benefits. According to Jaime, “Immediate benefits are stress relief and emotional release, and long-term benefits include physiological changes such as improved jaw shape and better filtering of unwanted substances from the body.”
Focusing on your breath and taking a few minutes out of your day to practice mindfulness exercises could have a profound impact on your mental wellbeing. The benefits of mindfulness meditation extend beyond just reducing stress and anxiety; it can also help improve your concentration, increase self-awareness, and promote positive emotions.
“I think it can honestly change the perspective of someone’s day. And you don’t need to have a 60 minute or 90 minute journey. Just one to five minutes of implementing the simple exercises, you’ll see some major results” says Jaime.
Where to Start
Breathwork techniques are a great way to improve your overall well-being and can be easily incorporated into your daily routine. Simple exercises such as box breathing, deep belly breathing, and alternate nostril breathing can be done anytime, anywhere. These exercises can help to calm your mind and reduce stress levels, leading to a more peaceful and relaxed state of being.
If you’re new to breathwork, starting with a simple technique can be a great way to get started. “As you start, you’ll find a technique that you like, and it will make you curious to wanna learn more. And then you can play around with it to learn different modalities.” With so many different techniques available, there’s always something new to explore and discover.
Another effective way to incorporate breathwork into your routine is by paying attention to your breathing during exercise. This can help you to become more aware of your body and what you’re doing during your workout. Jaime explains, “If you’re paying attention to the way that you’re breathing, you can be more aware of what you’re doing in an exercise. When you’re more aware, you can get the full benefit and the full range of motion activating all your muscles.”
Try a Breathwork Class with Jaime
Take this 30-minute somatic breathwork journey and travel inward to experience a heightened state of consciousness and released stored energy within the body.