Hey guys,
Welcome to this week's update.
I want to be honest here for a minute.
A lot of modern breathwork has become relaxation theatre.
It looks powerful,
It feels intense,
There's music,
Emotion,
Big experiences.
But here's the uncomfortable truth.
Just because something feels powerful doesn't mean it's actually improving your physiology.
And that's where a lot of people are getting misled.
I've spent years studying breathing through people like Patrick McKeown and the Oxygen Advantage approach.
And one of the biggest things that hits you early is this.
Most people today are not under-breathing,
They're over-breathing.
Too much air,
Too often,
Too high in the chest,
Too loud,
Too unconscious.
And when you over-breathe,
You blow off carbon dioxide.
Now that might sound like a good thing,
But it's not.
Because carbon dioxide is what allows oxygen to actually be released into your tissues.
So when CO2 drops,
Oxygen delivery drops.
Which means your body can feel more stressed even though you're breathing more.
So when I see breathwork pushing bigger breaths,
Deeper breaths,
More breathing,
I have to question it.
Because for a lot of people,
That's not regulation.
That's adding fuel to a system that's already dysregulated.
And this is where things get a little bit more controversial.
A lot of breathwork sessions create strong sensations.
People feel tingling,
Lightheaded,
Emotional,
Even euphoric.
But those sensations are often just the result of altered blood gases from aggressive breathing.
Hyperventilating.
Not necessarily healing,
Not necessarily progress,
Just a change in chemistry.
And we've started confusing that experience with results.
Patrick McKeown talks a lot about this.
It's not about how much air you can take in,
It's about how well you tell your body it can tolerate carbon dioxide.
Because that tolerance is what allows oxygen to be delivered efficiently and the nervous system to settle.
So instead of asking how deep is my breath,
A better question is how light,
How slow,
How quiet is my breathing at rest?
Because if your breathing is audible,
Visible,
High in the chest,
That's often a sign the system is under stress,
Even if you think you're relaxed.
Here's the part most people don't want to hear.
If your breathwork only works when you're lying down with music on in a calm room being guided,
That's not resilience,
That's dependence on the environment.
Real breath training should show up when it matters,
In traffic,
In conflict,
Before sleep,
During exercise,
When life is actually happening.
Now I'm not saying the guided stuff with the music and laying down is not good,
But functional breathing is something that you should be able to use in any situation,
Not just on a retreat or in a big room.
And this is the shift we need to make,
From breathwork as an experience to breathwork as a skill,
Because they're not the same thing.
A good breathing practice shouldn't just make you feel something for 10 minutes,
It should change how you breathe for the other 23 hours of the day.
So next time you come across a breathwork that feels intense,
Emotional or powerful,
Just pause and ask,
Is this actually training my system or just giving me an experience?
If it's just an experience you're after,
That's fine,
But if you want to change it long-term,
It has to work all the time,
Because breathing is too important to be driven by trends,
Hype or performance.
It should be grounded in physiology,
Measured in how you function and built into how you live.
That's where the real change happens,
Not in the session,
But in the baseline you carry with you every day.
There is room for all types of breathwork,
But just remember this,
Are you doing it for a full-on experience for 30 to 60 minutes,
Or do you want to train your breathing to be better 24 hours a day,
Because that is true training for functional breathing.
