What Happens After A Breathwork Session?
Insights And What to Expect
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Key points
Breathwork offers a range of benefits for body, mind, and spirit, including stress reduction, improved clarity, and even potential trauma release.
Post-breathwork sensations can vary from relaxation and fatigue to tingling.
Listen to your body after a session. Rest, hydrate, and integrate the experience through journaling or sharing
Consistent practice unlocks breathwork’s full potential for ongoing wellness.
How Do You Feel Right After a Breathwork Session?
Throughout a breathwork session, different things occur within the mind and the body. When breathing consciously the mind slows down, stresses dissolve, and a sense of tranquility emerges.
Due to the physiological and emotional changes that occur during a breathwork practice.
People who have taken part in breathwork practices have reported everything from increased resilience and mental clarity, to improved athletic performance, trauma-release and improvements in physical conditions such as asthma– even after just one session.
While each person may have a different experience both during and after a breathwork session, we know from research on breathwork that the practice has physical, mental, and spiritual benefits.
Sensations, Feelings
The sensations you feel after a breathwork session depend on your own mind, body and mental perception. The technique used also has an influence on what comes up afterwards. The sensations you experience after breathing exercises can vary depending on a number of things:
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Which breathing techniques are being used (fast vs. slow breathing).
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How long the breathwork session goes on for.
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How consistent and intensely you breath during the practice.
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Your body’s reaction to these techniques.
This is often why many people have different experiences with the same breathwork exercises.
However, there are several COMMON feelings or sensations that can come up after a session:
A Feeling of ‘Lightness’ and Calm
Immediately after a session, you may experience a feeling of calm and tranquillity. Breathwork can help regulate the nervous system, switching off your fight or flight response, and allowing your parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system to come back online, resulting in a feeling of calm.
Feeling Tired
Breathwork is a powerful tool that can help release traumas, suppressed emotions and pent-up energy, which can leave you feeling fatigued. This process triggers various changes in the body and mind that require rest and time to fully process.
Tingling Sensations
When certain fast-breathing techniques are used, such as super ventilation, or holotropic breathing, the sympathetic nerve system is activated, and you can experience tingling in the hands and feet. These sensations are completely normal and having that self-awareness of what you are experiencing can help you process these experiences.
Mental Clarity and Happiness
Through the purifying effect of breathwork, you can also feel mental clarity. Physiological changes that occur during a breathwork practice can result in increased alertness, creativity, inspiration, and clearer thinking.
Specific breathing techniques also release endorphins into your system, increasing these ‘feel good’ hormones and helping to boost your happiness.
Feeling Present and In the Moment
Certain fast breathing techniques cause your ‘thinking’ brain to go offline during practice. As a result, you’ll likely finish the breathwork session feeling more present and with a calmer mind.
Lingering Emotions
Understanding Lingering Emotions
Lingering emotions are a natural part of the 9D breathwork journey. During a session, you may encounter repressed or hidden emotions that rise to the surface. While many of these emotions are processed during the session, some may persist and require additional attention. Recognizing that these lingering emotions are opportunities for further healing, is the first step in addressing them effectively.
STRATEGIES FOR PROCESSING LINGERING EMOTIONS
Practice the 90-Second Rule:
The 90-second rule is a powerful tool backed by extensive research. It suggests that simple emotions can be effectively processed through diaphragmatic breathing – slow, controlled inhalations through the nose, expanding the belly with each breath.
Cultivate a habit of practicing this technique whenever you sense lingering emotions surfacing. By dedicating just 90 seconds to mindful breathing, you can develop a skillful approach to processing your emotions swiftly and effectively.
Self-Compassion and Acceptance:
Begin by acknowledging and accepting your emotions without judgment. Practice self-compassion by reminding yourself that it is okay to feel whatever arises. This acceptance can reduce resistance and create a more conducive environment for processing emotions.
Somatic Awareness:
It's vitally important post-session to give yourself permission to feel your feelings and emotions fully. Try to avoid going into story or narrative around why you're feeling the way you're feeling and instead focus on becoming somatically in tune with the quality of the sensations of the feeling. For example, instead of saying "I feel like a mess," tune into what feeling messy in your body feels like—maybe it's pressure in your chest or a tightness in your jaw. This practice of somatic awareness is crucial not only for 9D breathwork integration but also as a lifelong tool for emotional regulation and self-awareness.
The sensations described above do not occur for everyone, and you will probably have some of your own unique experiences.
However, there are several UNCOMMON feelings or sensations that can come up after a session:
Physical Pain or Unusual Sensations (e.g., Tightness, Discomfort)
Sometimes, physical pain or sensations such as tightness, pressure, or discomfort can arise, particularly in areas where trauma or emotional tension is stored.
Physical sensations can be the body’s way of processing and releasing old emotions or trauma. The discomfort is typically temporary.
How to Handle: Breathe into the sensation and avoid tensing up against it. These sensations will pass, and they are part of the healing process.
Nightmares
Some participants may experience disturbing nightmares following a breathwork session. These could be related to emotional release, repressed memories, or simply the subconscious mind processing the intense experiences from the session.
How to Handle: Nightmares are often a part of the integration process, and are temporary. Practice grounding techniques before bed, such as light breathing exercises, visualization, or a calming pre-sleep routine. Journaling or talking through the experience are also ways to release the emotions tied to the nightmares.
Loss of Time or Confusion About Reality
You may lose track of time or feel confused about what is real or what has happened during the session.
Altered states of consciousness during breathwork can lead to feelings of disorientation. You might feel you were in the session for hours when it was only a short time, or vice versa.
How to Handle: This is a normal effect of breathwork’s impact on the mind and perception. It helps if you ground yourself with simple activities like drinking water, walking, or sitting quietly.
Excessive Energy or Hyperactivity After the Session
You may feel an excess of energy following breathwork — you may feel restless, have trouble sleeping, or feel unusually high-strung.
Breathwork stimulates the nervous system, and sometimes the release of energy can feel like a surge of activity or restlessness.
How to Handle: Grounding practices such as yoga, walking, or even light stretching help to release excess energy. Refrain from doing anything overly stimulating and instead engage in calming activities like deep breathing or meditation to help the energy settle.
IMPORTANT
It’s important to remember that breathwork doesn’t cause dysfunction in the body or the mind, it REVEALS it.
This discomfort is a sign that your body is finally releasing what it’s been
holding onto for years...
Can you trust that everything you’re feeling is part of the natural healing process, even if it feels challenging?
EMOTIONS
After a Deep Dive Breathwork Session:
A transformational breathwork session is a deep emotive experience. It helps release emotions and traumas, helping you process these. It’s possible that certain breathing techniques may bring back into your consciousness emotions, experiences and feelings that have not been properly dealt with or healed.
New emotions
You may notice that new and previously unknown thoughts, feelings and emotions rise to the surface. Just notice what they are practice acceptance. See if they bring new insights, perhaps they may help you gain clarity or new perspectives.
New memories
can surface that have been protected before. Know that your body will never give you anything you can’t handle.
Continued
sensitivity
Often in a breath-work session, we are bringing things to the surface that the body is ready to release. It is possible for a few days after this release process will continue, so you may find yourself a little sensitive or teary. Please know this is completely normal and is just a continued way of the body releasing. It’s part of integrating from your session and it’s really important take care of yourself, be gentle, create time alone, or seek support if needed.
POST-BREATHWORK SELF-CARE
Breathwork can release energy and emotions, leading to various physical sensations and emotional releases, urging you to trust the process and use your breath to navigate through these experiences.
After a breathwork session, be gentle with yourself and listen to what your body, mind and soul needs. Try to drink water to flush out the toxins and nourish yourself with some soul food.
If you’ve had a group session, it can be good to share your experience and process. A group can also hold space and just be there as emotional support.
If you don’t feel like openly sharing your experience, you can write about it in a journal. Putting the experience into written words can be a step for integration and reflection, making journaling a great post-session activity.
Aftercare is a critical component of the 9D breathwork integration process, involving a range of strategies and practices designed to support the assimilation of the experience.
BREATHWORK
Remember
is not a one-off practice, it’s a journey best practiced regularly to get all the mental, physical, and emotional benefits on an on-going basis