The Unsexy Truth About Breathwork: Why Consistency Beats Novelty
In the beginning of my breath journey (yearsssss ago now), I loved to experiment and try different practices all the time.
But I found that while I enjoyed the novelty, I wasn’t really…’progressing’. I knew what I had to do. First my pranayama teacher, and then my yoga teacher (from a previous trauma informed facilitator training) mentioned the same thing - if you want to truly embody and integrate, you need to stick with one practice for some time to really truly understand it and feel the shifts within your body and nervous system.
Being the good student that I was, I committed myself to one breathwork practice (the same audio, same practice) for two weeks. Secretly I was also sick of having to search for breathwork practices to do (guided) every time, and always being disappointed when they weren’t exactly what I needed or wanted. I was happy to find something, stick with it, and reduce my mental load (and scrolling!) in the meantime.
Let me tell you - it’s not exciting or sexy to do the same practice over and over again (from the outside),
but I’m so glad that I overcame that desire for novelty and just did it. It truly (truly!) changed my relationship with my breath, the efficacy of my nervous system regulation tools, and how I practice and teach to this day.
committing to one practice meant that:
I never spent time overwhelmed with choice and decision fatigue. I stopped wasting time scrolling and searching for the next practice and was able to actually do it and get on with my day, feeling regulated faster.
I knew what to expect. My nervous system was easier to downregulate because it knew what was coming. There were no surprises or new things to have to integrate, just familiar structure and energy.
I could turn overwhelm into focus within seconds. I learnt the techniques so deeply that they were easy to randomly do throughout my day, even during the most unexpected moments (mid-meeting, literally mid-sentence, or while deciding what to eat from the cafe menu).
I no longer avoided the thing that was good for me! It was easy to schedule and commit into my day because I knew exactly how much time I needed (and whether I needed integration time afterwards, or if it was something I could do in-between zoom calls).
I understood that simply just the way I’m breathing can create anxiety, and then also vice versa (ofc). After the first few days I started to notice how the ebb and flow of life impacted the ebb and flow of my breath, and vice versa. I was learning my breath and nervous system on a deeper level than every before.
With so much attention-grabbing information at our fingertips, it’s so easy to consume content and try alllll the different things (because we’re always told it’s the next best thing or this is the one that will finally work etc etc.). Without triggering the overwhelm (again) and getting bombarded with all the options possible, you can get personalised support over which will actually work best for you.
Let’s find a nervous system regulation practice that works for you and your lifestyle →