Breath has been practiced for centuries across cultures as a way to cultivate body, mind, and spirit.

Today, it is booming and with that comes a wide range of offers and trainings - some deep and rigorous, others more superficial.

Not all breathwork is the same. You can use it as a high-performance tool to optimize body and mind. Or as a path into healing and spiritual growth.

In any way, Breathwork is a powerful tool - but only when the right practice is matched to the right intention and held by properly trained facilitators.

There are countless breathwork modalities - Here’s a bit of clarity among the most familiar ones in our cultural hemisphere.

1. Functional breathing
(e.g. Oxygen Advantage)
→ Optimizes oxygen use and breathing efficiency..
→ Excellent for athletic performance, enhanced physical endurance, faster recovery.

2.Resilience-building breathwork
(e.g. Wim Hof Method)
→ Uses controlled stress through breath retention and over-breathing.
→ Effective for mental and physical resilience and cold exposure.

3.Pranayama
→ Ancient yogic breath practices regulating the nervous system and steadying the mind.
→ Builds regulation, inner balance, and meditation readiness.

4.Holotropic Breathwork*
(e.g.Conscious Connected Breathing - CCB)

→ Circular, deep breathing for emotional processing and to access altered states.
→ Supports profound transformation resulting in mental clarity, emotional balance, physical vitality, and spiritual connection.

I hope that gives you some clarity in the jungle of breathwork.

My work spans the full spectrum - performance to holotropic breathwork -  Details can be found here.

*If you’re exploring transformative/holotropic breathwork, it’s worth checking whether your teacher is accredited by Global Professional Breathwork Alliance. GPBA accreditation requires 400+ hrs and 2 yrs of Breathwork training ensuring strong foundations in safety, trauma awareness, ethics, and facilitation that are needed for this kind of work. An 80 hour training simply doesnt do that.