Awaken Your Purpose with Inspiratus Breathwork

When breathwork is brought up, many people divert and think of mindfulness meditation, but breathwork is critically different. Rather than passively watching the breath, breathwork is an active manipulation of the breath to promote profound and psychological healing. There are many different types of breathwork and the history of breathwork dates far back. The origin of breathwork dates back to 600-500 BC, when pranayama was taught in the Hindu texts- the Upanishads. Another ancient style of breathwork is Tummo breathing, which was developed in the 8th century by the Tibetan Buddhists. More modern types of breathwork include the Wim Hof method. Wim Hof has been deemed “The Ice Man”. He has set multiple world records in ice submersion using his breathing and has helped popularize breathwork in the West. His breathing is very similar to Tummo breathing. Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a modern guru from India teaches the Sudarshan Kriya around the world. Stanislov Grof, a researcher of psychedelics in the 70s and the inventor of Transpersonal Psychology developed Holotropic Breathwork, an extended hyperventilation that causes one to enter an altered state of consciousness. Inspiratus Breathwork journeys utilizes a similar style to Holotropic Breathwork.

Inspiratus Breathwork utilizes a breathwork similar to Holotropic Breathwork. Developed by Stanislov Grof, a notable psychedelic researcher, Holotropic Breathwork is a conscious, connected form of hyperventilation lasting 30-60 minutes. This practice enables participants to reach non-ordinary states of consciousness, leading to profound emotional and psychological healing. Inspiratus Breathwork adapts this transformative method, combining accelerated breathing with music and guided facilitation. It's a journey of self-discovery and healing, allowing for deep emotional release. For those searching for 'holotropic breathwork near me', Inspiratus offers a unique approach to this powerful practice, tailored to individual journeys of healing and self-realization.

The physiological effects of breathwork are described extensively in Fincham et al., paper titled "High Ventilation Breathwork Practices: An overview of their effects, mechanisms, and considerations for clinical applications". Breathwork practices change the blood from an acidic state to an alkaline state. The alkaline blood state causes vasoconstriction of the blood vessels in the body. This decreases blood and oxygen flow to most of the body creating a hypercapnic, hypoxic state. An important area it decreases blood flow to is the prefrontal cortex. The PFC is responsible for emotional regulation. Simultaneously, the breathing increases blood flow to the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions. This activates the fight or flight response because the body is going into a controlled state of shock (Fincham et al., 2023). In an Inspiratus Breathwork journey, the hyperventilation is sustained for anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes and then the participants enter into a restorative breath that activates the parasympathetic nervous system so that they can integrate their experience.

What these complex alterations in the body-mind system allow for is one of the most profound human experiences there is. Trauma and emotions that the participant has pushed aside come to the surface. Participants will start yelling, crying, and laughing uncontrollably within 10 to 15 minutes of the practice. This is a somatic release. People who have locked their emotions away for years have an opportunity to finally feel everything they have been scared to face. When we feel our pain, we give it a chance to release from our nervous system and finally close the loop of unresolved pain. A single session can wildly change someone’s life. The amount of allostatic load, which is the chronic level of stress someone carries, is decreased in day-to-day life after breathwork.

While participants are having an incredibly emotional experience, they are also having a psychedelic experience as well. During the journey, the entire body feels like it is a lightning rod with a massive amount of energy flowing through it. Because the body is experiencing a fight-or-flight response, a ton of adrenaline and endocannabinoids are released. Endocannabinoids are the body’s natural pain relievers and are released when someone goes into shock from an injury. The most powerful thing that takes place during breathwork is the spirit molecule, DMT, is released in the brain. DMT is the most powerful psychedelic on the planet. It is found in many plants, it is the active ingredient in the traditional Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca and it is endogenously produced by the brain. Early studies by Dr. Rick Strausman showed that the brain produces DMT on its own. Follow-up research by the University of Michigan shows that DMT is present in our brains all of the time in the same quantity as common neurotransmitters like serotonin (Dean, J., 2019). Research by Sazbo et al. shows that DMT is released in high quantities when the body enters a hypoxic state to help the brain avoid injury (Sazbo et al., 2014). While it is not proven that DMT is released during breathwork, this paper shows the method of action of how it could be released and explains why people have visionary experiences during breathwork. It is so powerful! New research with exogenous DMT is showing that it is a powerful tool for treating depression. If it is truly released during breathwork, this means that the ability to heal from mental suffering lies within ourselves.

To expand upon the benefits of breathwork, it strengthens and regulates the immune system. An experiment done by Kox et al. showed that through breathing, people can trigger and control the autonomic nervous system, which was previously thought to be out of our control (Kox et al., 2014). The participants were given an endotoxin in their blood which usually causes a large amount of inflammation. Through breathing, the participants drastically increased anti-inflammatory markers and decreased inflammatory markers in their bloodstream after exposure to an endotoxin, thus controlling their immune system’s response to the endotoxin. Again, the effects of breathwork are shown to be paradigm-busting.