Bringing conscious awareness to inhaling and exhaling could provide more than a lungful of air.
I’m lying flat on my back in my local park. A woman named Nicola straddles my chest and puts her hands either side of my throat. ‘Ooh, something there Stephanie,’ she says. ‘Can you feel it? Breathe into it. Breathe!’ It’s an unusual experience. But Nicola is an unusual person. She rode to meet me on a motorbike and has invited me to a winter dip in the ocean to celebrate her 60th birthday. Even if she didn’t have her hands around my throat, I wouldn’t dare refuse.
We’re here to talk about a type of breathwork that’s gaining in popularity around the world – and it’s not the type of meditative pranayama often found in yoga classes. Although the practice, known as conscious connected breathing, puts the body into a calmer state – just as pranayama does – advocates say it has the potential to do much more, such as release long-held trauma and remove barriers to the authentic self. To quote Nicola: ‘It brings you into the truth.’ On the surface, conscious connected breathing (or CCB, as it’s often known) is a tool, and a simple one at that. It is exactly as described – consciously breathing, with no pauses between the inhale and exhale. Forms of it have been used in various modalities, by differing types of practitioners. And like any tool, its applications are as varied as the people using it.
Origins of the practice
It dates to the 1960s, when it was first used for two techniques known as holotropic breathwork and rebirthing (see panel, overleaf). People have reported varied experiences with these, depending on the practitioner who’s running the session. Nicola herself tried rebirthing in the late 1990s and found it wasn’t for her: ‘There wasn’t any holding in a session, and I wasn’t taught to breathe with my diaphragm,’ she says. Rebirthing often involves a fast inhale and exhale through the nose.
‘There was a lot of focus on the chest and none on the belly,’ Nicola adds. ‘Having said that, I could see it was a very powerful way of working.’ Although both techniques are still in use today, conscious connected breathing has emerged from the older practices and been developed by new practitioners. Although there are countless ways to run a session, just as there are with yoga, many of the newer practices use a wide, open-mouthed inhale, using the diaphragm, into both belly and chest, while the exhale is a simple letting go.
This was the type of workshop that Nicola experienced 11 years ago, when she was persuaded back into a different type of connected breathwork. ‘For the first time, I felt held enough,’ she says, and the safety she experienced during the session enabled her to release childhood trauma from her body. ‘There was so much locked into my hips from years ago,’ she says. ‘And I’d had absolutely no idea.’
After that first session, Nicola – whose background lies in corporate training – went on an exploration of CCB. This led to the creation of a program which trains people using her own approach to breathwork. ‘I wanted
to explore more of the tools around to support it,’ she explains. She uses elements of touch, toning, movement, affirmations, and visualisation. And she’s constantly evolving her practice. ‘I’ve always been an experimenter and an explorer. I put everything through its paces with myself first.’
Nicola suggests a longer inhale than exhale, using a pattern of inhaling for two counts and exhaling for one. She claims rapid breathing, using a short, sharp inhale and a longer exhale, can cause hyperventilation, leading to low levels of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. There have been anecdotal reports that this can contribute to a syndrome called tetany, which causes muscle twitching and cramps, especially in the hands. ‘It puts [some] people off breathwork, and you really don’t need it to happen,’ says Nicola.
‘It’s why I give the ratio of inhaling for two counts with “I am”, and exhaling with “here” for one.’
School teacher Jasmine is also an advocate of CCB. She discovered it three years ago and says it’s changed her life. ‘I’ve done a lot of meditation and yoga, I’ve been on shamanic journeys, and nothing was like this,’ she
says of her first session. ‘It was an incredible experience.’ In that initial workshop, Jasmine says: ‘I experienced amazing visualisations, and then went into this state of really beautiful bliss.’ And, as she – like Nicola – went on an exploration of breathwork, she found it had more far-reaching benefits, including alleviating the anxiety that had plagued her for years. ‘I used to have a lifelong issue with insomnia, and my practice has led to a vast
improvement in the management of that,’ she says.
‘It’s also changed me from feeling constantly anxious to feeling safe, and that’s made a major difference to my life.’
How could a breath practice lead to such a boost in mental health, plus release decades-old trauma held within the body? Science is well-versed in the theory behind putting the body into a parasympathetic state – also known as the rest-and-digest nervous system – and this can be achieved with many kinds of conscious breathwork. But this alone can’t explain the other claimed benefits of CCB, and the science behind it isn’t yet fully understood. It is, in its essence, experiential, which means that as every participant is different, each person’s experience will differ – so it’s sensible to proceed carefully. Nicola says that it ‘brings you into the present moment and into truth and allows you to explore what’s happening physically at a really deep level’. As for me, I discovered CCB a few months into 2020.
My initial caution meant that little happened at first, except that I took 10 distraction-free minutes out of my day to breathe – enough of a bonus in itself. However, as I trusted the practice more, and explored further, I found it drawing all sorts of things out of me, including a heightened self-awareness and understanding. I’m now a convert.
Your breath is under your control, so you can breathe as slowly as you like, for as little or as long as you like. You might attain a state of bliss, find your hips shaking or your spine arching. You might see visions or experience trauma release. Or you might feel nothing. Take your breathwork at a pace comfortable for you and practise as much caution as you wish. You can practise alone but there are plenty of live, often free, breathwork sessions held online. Qualified facilitators of CCB should encourage you to take responsibility for your own practice.
Jasmine, who’s now a trained CCB facilitator, uses it for any issue she might have. ‘If ever things get tough, I’ll do a session three or four times a week, and I do a 10-minute practice every day, no matter what,’ she says. ‘It’s helped me storm forward through issues I had for decades and are now completely over. It’s changed my outlook and my experience of life so dramatically in such a short period of time… it’s been incredibly powerful.’
Nicola signs off with the suggestion to ‘start with five minutes a day, set the metronome of the breath, and start becoming aware’. With that, she gets back on her motorbike and roars into the afternoon, a four-cylindered missionary with a vision to change the world, one conscious connected breath at a time.
A basic guide to CCB
- Relaxing your jaw, open your mouth very wide.
- Inhale deeply, using your belly and your chest, to the count of two: “I am.”
- Without a pause, let go as you exhale to the count of one: “here.”
- Immediately inhale as before, with no pause.
- Continue for five minutes. Repeat every day
Holotropic breathwork:
Developed by Christina and Stanislav Grof, this is often used as a spiritual practice, with paired participants in a group setting, one “sitter” and one “breather”. The breathing is usually very fast and very deep, with little specific guidance from the facilitator, and sessions can last for several hours.
Rebirthing:
Another spiritual practice aimed at flooding the body with something founder Leonard Orr called ‘Divine Energy’, as well as healing early childhood trauma. It uses conscious connected breathing via the nose and can be fast and upper-chest-based rather than diaphragm-focused.
Cardiac coherence:
This controlled breath technique is theorised to be effective at slowing and stabilising the heartbeat. It involves slow, deep breaths, in for five seconds and out for five seconds. At the very least, it – or any slow, deep, regular breathing – can help lower stress and anxiety and switch your nervous system into a parasympathetic state.
Lion’s breath:
A pranayamic favourite in many a yoga class, often done on hands and knees and great as a reminder never to take yourself too seriously. Take a breath in and, on the exhale, widen your eyes and roll them upwards, while exhaling forcefully as you stick your tongue out, in an energising breath reminiscent of a lion’s roar.
Wim Hof breathing method:
Famed for spending inordinate amounts of time in very cold places, Hof’s method is aimed at physiological improvement, such as a boosted immune system, increased energy, and better sleep. His daily breath practice is a cycle of 30–40 connected breaths. This, combined with exposure to cold and a focused mindset, will, according to his website, provide you with ‘a happier, healthier and stronger life’.
Please check with a medical professional before embarking on any breathwork practice.
Conscious connected breathing is contraindicated for several health conditions, including (but not limited to) glaucoma, epilepsy, pregnancy, high blood pressure, aneurysm, and diabetes. It is also suggested that those who have experienced episodes of mental ill-health seek professional medical advice before embarking on any breathwork practice.
