Today let’s discover about breathwork vs meditation. Being well aware of the difference between breathwork and meditation will open your eyes to the power of focusing through ourselves. Being conscious of that will benefit our overall well-being. Do you need to practice both or just focus on one? Let’s figure that out. So, please stick to this article.
Surely, breathwork and meditation are closely compared since breathing is the central form of meditation. Simply put, it is an active form of meditation that contributes to achieving great transformation and activates self-healing. Yet, breathing as part of meditation doesn’t mean that breathwork and meditation are the same things. Nonetheless, they both fall into the category of mindful exercises.
How is Meditation Connected with Breathwork?
It is no secret that there are people who are struggling to meditate but easily ace breathwork practices. Due to various reasons, some people just find it quite challenging to sit down and concentrate on their thoughts. It is hard to grasp with better awareness and remain the stillness of the mind. Undeniably, people with overactive minds can feel overwhelmed and frustrated when they try to meditate.
Meanwhile, breathwork is paying attention to how you breathe and controlling it for your overall well-being. Interestingly, breathwork can be considered as training wheels for meditation. Also, breathwork practices are becoming an alternative viable to traditional meditation. While some people substitute meditation for breathwork sessions, there are complementary practices.
Different people find one method more effective than the other. But, one would combine these approaches to get the best of both worlds. Before diving deeper into that, let’s first flesh out some differences between breathwork and meditation. Let’s get started with this exciting comparison of breathwork and meditation to help you know what’s right for you.
Breathwork vs Meditation: The Differences Between Them
Once again, some differences make breathwork surely distinctive from meditation. In short, each has a fair share of advantages and disadvantages. So, it is safe to state that there is no superior option. Undoubtedly, it is helpful to be aware of them to see what will benefit you the most. But before that, let’s get to know more about breathwork and meditation by defining them.
Defining Breathwork
Breathwork practices are focused on making a difference in the autonomic nervous system. Of course, breathwork is for the betterment of the overall well-being. This mindful exercise has a wide variety of techniques and practices for breath control.
Primarily, breathwork alters the amount of inhaled oxygen or exhaled carbon dioxide. While it is an easy solution for managing stress and other emotions, it helps make us more healthy in any aspect. This is why breathwork is highly popular, having different practices — from beginners to advanced.
Practicing breathwork regularly is important since it also comes with risks. As a matter of fact, too much oxygen that suddenly enters our body can cause dizziness, headaches, and more intense consequences. However, breathwork is still worth trying since it can help to achieve greater relaxation, calmness, and more.
Wonder what’s that more? If so, just continue reading because breathwork benefits will also be discussed here.
Defining Meditation
Meditation is a focused practice that aims to be more grounded in present moment awareness. In short, it requires the focus of the mind. It also includes a better consciousness of how you breathe. However, meditation is not that way to control it, no matter what you have observed. No manipulation, just pure observation.
Like breathwork, meditation also delivers outstanding benefits. That’s why it is worth your time to learn and try meditation. Common changes you can observe while practicing it are a calmer mind that is not easily rocked by stress and improved overall well-being. Sounds almost similar to what breathwork can offer, right? Surely, there are key differences.
Now it is clear what breathwork and meditation are, let’s move on to their major differences. Explore them below.
Breathwork is bodywork, while meditation is a mind’s game.
Meditation, being more popular than breathwork, is popularly pictured as an activity that only stayed in one position. In fact, it is a calming exercise, wherein the mind finds more awareness. Simply put, it is like a mind-game scenario.
On the other hand, there’s much to expect from the body when learning breathwork. As said above, it is like bodywork. Whether beginner or advanced breathwork, there are evident body changes that can happen. What’s your take on this? Keep your answer in mind as it can help pick your choice between breathwork and meditation.
Breathwork can be intense.
Undeniably, meditation can also be intense, like breathwork. Yet, it will take time for meditation to create intense results. That’s how they differ. Now, by saying being intense for breathwork is because it can help to connect with the higher self.
At the same time, some breathwork practices can show our forgotten past and old emotional baggage we have. Deep emotions can come to our consciousness. If we are not ready, it can take a toll on us. Thus, it is never a waste trying to highlight that breathwork really requires focus and control in learning.
Breathwork involves active and controlled breathing, while meditation does not manipulate breathing.
As obvious in its name, breathwork incorporates controlled and active breathing. That’s what breathwork is really about. In fact, it is not just a typical breathe-in and breathe-out. While breathing depends on the technique used, one thing is for sure there’s really the intention to manipulate how you breathe.
On the other hand, meditation just keeps your breathing as it is. The focus is to be more grounded with present awareness. It is like gaining power in the mind.
Meditation is mostly still, while little movements can happen with breathwork.
Even a little movement is a distraction when meditating. That’s why people who are meditating just keep still in one position. Typically, they are just laying down or sitting straight in one place.
Meanwhile, breathwork unleashes more energy in the body. People practicing breathwork techniques often feel different sensations in their bodies. They can be light to intense feelings that push them to create movements to achieve calmness again.
Meditation opens better awareness and calms the mind.
The only path meditation will take you is a calmer mind, more focus, awareness, and relaxation. Typically, you can feel more refreshed after you have meditated. That’s a difference with breathwork, as calmness is not its only effect.
A more risky breathwork practice can lead to heavy emotions and other big sentiments. Choose wisely with what breathwork technique you will learn as you might take yourself at risk.
Breathwork vs. Meditation: Is Breathwork an Alternative to Meditation?
Even if there are key differences between breathwork and meditation, many people still wonder if breathwork can be an alternative to meditation. While meditation sounds simple, it is not easy to achieve, and many people fail to keep learning it. If you can’t have great concentration or avoid moving, you will easily get distracted.
Some people commonly feel fidgety, distracted, and bored while meditating, making them give up. That sounds frustrating, right? The good news is that breathwork allows you to still keep up with mindful exercise. Breathwork will help you learn to be more concentrated little by little. So, be back in this training method if you eventually want to meditate again.
Benefits of Breathwork and Meditation
As said, this article will explore the benefits of breathwork and meditation. Let’s not waste time and see them, starting with the breathwork benefits.
Breathwork Benefits
Following are the benefits that breathwork can provide you. Take note of them as they are not just benefits but also reasons to choose it over meditation.
Confidence increases
Breathwork exercises help to increase your confidence level though calming your body. Best practices can help you think more positively and trust yourself more. More confidence translates to more success in your life. Thus, it is great to learn breathwork.
Immediate stress relief
Meditation helps to relax, but it is hard to achieve because of possible distractions. This struggle makes breathwork more interesting to learn since it can also give instant stress relief. Well, the ability to clear stress within the body is not totally surprising since it changes breathing in a way that the stress eases.
Promotes self-love
Many people struggle to do this simple thing. Loving ourselves feels like a difficult task because of our insecurities. Don’t settle with that because breathwork will help you to understand and love yourself. Why not try to foster a relationship with yourself and pamper with what you’ve always dreamt of?
Restructures sleep cycle
Social media, stress, and anxiety are factors grouped to affect your sleep schedule. Therefore, you must deliberately try to fix your sleep schedule to achieve peaceful and uninterrupted sleeping. However, something or the other intervenes in the process. And deep breathing, including breathwork, will help you overcome this problem and calm your mind.
Physical health benefits
Breathwork can provide physical health benefits. Typically, the benefits center around the respiratory and circulatory systems. As a matter of fact, the common benefits of regular breathwork include lowering blood pressure and strengthening lung capacity. Besides that, it can also improve endurance and help ease asthma.
Besides the benefits mentioned above, it is great to choose breathwork over meditation because it is less overwhelming and more enjoyable. Breathwork is simple since it only aims to change the way you breathe. Thus, it is less intimidating. At the same time, breathwork exercises can combine upbeat music, making them highly enjoyable.
Meditation Benefits
It is hard to deny that meditation also shares similar benefits with breathwork. Yet, meditation has exclusive benefits to offer, which can make you choose it over breathwork. Solidify your decision by discovering the meditation benefits.
Reduces memory loss
Meditation is a highly cognitive process. It helps to improve quickness, reduce memory loss, and focus on memories. At the same time, it is an excellent healing element that will help you remain true to yourself and meet peace. That is why dementia patients often meditate to avoid losing their memories.
Focuses on attention-keeping ability
Several people have the problem of not being able to concentrate on something. If you are one of them, you can improve your attention span and awareness through meditation. Besides that, meditation also helps to increase your ability to give attention and focus. It is by altering your brain patterns and preventing you from getting distracted. Surely, it can help you do well on tasks requiring meticulous visuals and attention.
Improves health conditions
Medical conditions can worsen by stress and should be treated well. Stress is an inherent property that brings anxiety and depression with it. Yet, medical conditions include high blood pressure, chronic pain, cancer, and heart disease. Luckily, regular meditation is the cure for these problems. As a result, you can feel much better after meditating and trying to avoid negative thoughts.
Generates kindness
Meditation promotes the feeling of soft-hearted nature in people. It gives you positive thoughts and feelings, which extend to becoming generous. However, people who have a habit of showing unpleasant actions should practice meditation. Ultimately, it will help to change your behavior if you learn and practice it.
Lowers your biological age
Want to feel a little younger? Then, meditation is for you to try. In fact, people who are meditating shared that they feel a lot younger. What meditation does is tackle the stress on bodies and cognitive functions that impact the biological age. Thus, it can help you feel more youthful.
Meditation focuses beyond just breathing. It can help you truly feel safe and grounded in the present moment while giving you the strength to face the past. It can help you understand more of your experiences and not feel overwhelmed by what’s happening in your life. Surely, a little patience to learn can be much more worth it than you expect.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to discussing the difference between breathwork and meditation, there’s more to discover than those listed above. The exciting part is you can uncover more differences by trying out both. Surely, there’s nothing wrong with trying both mindful exercises since they offer priceless and unique benefits.
However, suppose you truly need to make a choice between breathwork and meditation. In that case, it will help you greatly if you consider your health concerns, daily routine, accessibility, and time commitments on top of the benefits you want to have by trying mindful exercise.
Once again, breathwork is wonderful if you want to improve your breathing together with your overall well-being. Meanwhile, meditation is great if you want to focus more on your present moment. However, to be technical, breathwork is the first step to try.
After getting used to breathwork, you can move on to meditation since it is tricky to start as a beginner in mindful exercises. Later, you can merge both mindful exercises and have their ultimate benefits.
Keep following us to learn more about different breathwork types and guidance.
Interested in experiencing breathwork with Regina? Regina holds two virtual breathwork sessions a month that you can access from anywhere in the world. Check out www.breathewithregina.com and join us for a session!
