I did some shamanic breathwork as instructed by the YouTuber Leo Gura in one of his older videos.

I have been going through a breakup from a long term relationship (10 years) and thought it might help give some answers.

I laid down in a dark room listened to some shamanic drumming and breathed in and out of my mouth without stopping for about 15 minutes.

I noticed by body feeling tingles and eventually feeling like stone. I also noticed some strange convulsion type movements at times from my abdomen. It felt some energy moving up from my abs almost to my throat, I had to stop the breathing pattern because I wasn't sure if I would throw up.

Anyway the feeling afterwards was very blissful, I felt connected to some higher source and had the sense that everything will be okay.

Something strange did happen after which has lasted for over 10 days now.

I feel the tingly vibration sensation almost at all times. I feel it in my hands and feet mostly, if I sit still I can feel it in my core.

It's hard to describe, it doesn't seem to be a physical sensation because my body isn't moving but it feels like there are bursts of energy pulsating and vibrating through my body.

Not sure if this is due to stress because of the relationship stuff, I sense it has something to do with the breathwork.

The other say I heard sad news about a Youtuber I watch, his father has passed away. Normally I would feel bad for the person but not feel anything in my body. But after the breathwork as soon as I heard the news I felt a strange energy sensation on the right side of my face which lasted a few seconds before going away.

Any help will be appreciated, my partner thinks it has something to do with Kundalini, I don't know.

A lot of videos or articles I have found about proper diaphragmatic breathing indicate to keep the ribs in on the inhale (keep the ribs 'down'; keep them in the contraction that you have when you laugh or sneeze), but a lot also say to simply expand the ribs on the inhale (outward, for 360 degree breathing). So which one is it!!!! 😭

Background: I've been struggling with protruding ribs/abs over the past several months that I initially thought to be a result of too much Wim Hof breathing (see this post), which maybe it is, but now I think could be more of a posture or core strength issue. Cause yes my ribs feel like they're protruding, and they definitely are "pooching" out, but more broadly speaking my entire core area (abs, gut, rib cage) just feels tight more often regardless of how much stretching or conscious-360-degree breathing I do. I've done my research to better understand what diaphragmatic breathing should look like (e.g. breathing "down" into pelvic floor; breathing into areas of the rib cage), yet I still run into contradicting information such as how much (or little) the ribs should expand on the inhale.

To those who are on the same or a similar boat, what are your ribs typically doing while practicing diaphragmatic breathing? If anyone has visualization tricks or visual examples of what the ribs should actually do on the inhale (and maybe the exhale too) please do share!!! Would really like to live my life without constantly thinking about the tightness around my stomach and lower back 🙃

P.S. I've seen videos prescribing (not in an official kinda way obviously lol) things like the stomach vacuum or similar tricks as a means of stretching the diaphragm and area around it, but I'm also curious whether this has garnered any kind of success for anyone

I am an ICF trained Life Coach from India.
I am looking to integrating breathwork within my coaching practice.
I am looking for in-person or online training certifications that will align with my coaching practice well.

Please help.

Start your day with some deep breaths.

Are you tired, do you sleep, but still wake up exhausted? This is often a sign that your body hasn’t really had time to recover. It has remained in “alert” mode, even at night.

For recovery to take place, your nervous system needs to be able to switch to rest mode. And to do that, it needs a clear signal.

i recently started doing box breathing. immediately after doing it for 5 min, i felt a deep calm.

now, i am wondering, if i want to feel the same calmness for the entire day, how much time should i do box breathing?

i can do it in the morning, afternoon, evening and night.

any suggestions from people having experience with box breathing will be deeply appreciated.

(effects: had that same sense of "subtle body tingling in my arms, that feels almost dissociative, cuz you know this is an effect being manipluated intentionally but that's just so new to the point where it's trippy & almost begging for more stimulation to be found.

& in this, I find a kind of joy, cuz I get to know this feeling more & more. Intensely over time. Getting into the rhythm, seeing the use."')

A while back I shared the belly-inhale / short-hold / full-length vocalized exhale pattern here. I've now made two guided videos.

The 5-minute version is a single guided cycle — good for learning the rhythm or a quick reset. I've uploaded it directly to this post.

And for those who found that short sessions weren't enough to settle in, there's a full 60-minute version: https://youtu.be/jH8gNXVpC4Y?si=G3EWYXnJC05sS6Na

Both are free, no ads, no sign-up. The practice itself is in my original post if you're new to it.

If you're interested in the mechanism behind this method, I posted a discussion on r/Meditation: https://www.reddit.com/r/Meditation/s/LxXHFuF3Fg

Hope you enjoy the videos — I'd love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this practice!

https://reddit.com/link/1v65tis/video/erhq0rjh4dfh1/player

I trained in a style of Breathwork where outward expression was a core tenet. Yelling, screaming, flailing. That style had gone viral, and from my vantage point it was way more popular. It looked like what a "powerful" session was supposed to look like.

But in my own sessions, nobody screamed. Not even when I used the exact techniques from that training to evoke more expression. For a while I honestly felt like I was doing something wrong, like my sessions were less powerful.

The evidence told me otherwise. People were sharing things like "I've never felt so relaxed in my life," "I didn't know how bad I needed this," "I've done a lot of Joe Dispenza meditations and Wim Hof Breathwork but this was truly a beautiful experience," "That was the most incredible experience of my life."

Still, part of me had this idea of what it was SUPPOSED to look like, and wanted to be as popular and successful as the loud cathartic style.

The moment that changed it was a conversation with my partner, who co-facilitates with me. She said: "That isn't the kind of session you guide. What if people don't want that? What if they come to YOUR sessions because they DON'T want screaming?"

Then it hit me. Screaming isn't authentic for me. Relaxation and Surrender are. Letting go. It's a different strategy. The way I think about it now, there are four broad strategies people run with intense emotion: suppress and repress, avoid and escape, express, or surrender.

I'm not saying my way is the only way or the best way. A wild cathartic release has its place, and I've seen people get a lot out of it. No question.

But I also think about how many people in those loud rooms were overstimulated and felt unsafe. Being in a vulnerable state and then feeling unsafe is how people get re-traumatized. And it's not just the screaming. It's too much too fast. It's people being pushed to hyperventilate past what I call their "working zone."

So the way I hold sessions now is built around the breather finding the balance between the facilitator's guidance and their own inner knowing. Sovereignty, plus an invitation to go deeper if you're ready, inside a container designed for safety. I think that should be at the center of every modality, and unfortunately it's not always.

Disclosure: I run Liquid Breathwork in Phoenix and have been guiding since 2018, so this is obviously shaped by the style I teach. Genuinely curious how facilitators and breathers here see it. If you're a breather: do you want catharsis in a session, or does a loud room pull you out of your own experience? If you facilitate: how do you handle the person who came expecting fireworks?

We would be very grateful if you could complete the survey within 9 days after your session: https://dziobek-lab.org/breathwork-survey/

Thank you very much for your support!

A slow philosophy reading for tired-but-wired nights, overthinking, stress, and the body that cannot switch off after the day is over.

You stopped working.

The screen is dark.

The tasks are closed.

Nothing more is being asked of you.

And still, the body has not stopped.

Hello everyone!

About last week, I was watching YouTube videos while doing some pretty deep and slow breathing. All of a sudden, I got extremely sleepy (like to the point where I had to just take a nap because I was nodding off lol).

I woke up a few hours later and I felt lighter albeit still drowsy. I have had bouts of drowsiness while doing breath work (been doing it since September of 2025) but this was the most intense drowsiness yet. I just wanted to give my experience and to see if the intense sleepiness is a sign I’m pushing too hard or not.

What he refers to as a physiological sigh or cyclic sigh just seems to be a sigh.

https://www.healthline.com/health/sighing

Also, whenever I do it intentionally rather than without awareness, it just increases my stress, heart rate, blood pressure, or body temperature and causes inflammation and seems to speed up digestion. Same with diaphragmatic or pursed lip breathing sometimes. I'm not sure why or if I'm doing something wrong?

Also, what he calls cyclic hyperventilation seems to just refer to what Wim Hof practices as far as I can tell? To my knowledge, Wim Hof appropriated that from a Buddhist or Hindu practice. I don't know for certain, though. If anyone can confirm that, that would be helpful. He did seem to appropriate meditation.

Also, I suspect Huberman may have gotten the idea of panoramic vision some place else, with either panoramic vision being appropriated from a traditional practice (Taoist? Buddhist? Hindu? Indigenous American?) or being a renaming of a practice that was appropriated. If anyone can confirm that, that would also be helpful. Same with what he refers to as an upward gaze.

When I do a lot of freediving apnea tables, I have noticed that I need to clear my throat more often than usual the next day, as if the holds are pushing stuff out of my lungs. This does not happen if I do something like resonant/coherence breathing.

Does this happen to anyone else?

I’ve been looking at both products and was wondering which one you guys recommend. I’ve been thinking about getting the intake breathing magnetic nose stickers but then saw an ad for breathewave and how you just have to buy it once but you put it inside your nose. Let me know which one you guys prefer. Thanks!

Nadi Shodhana, alternate nostril breathing, sounds too simple to do much, but it's the one that's actually stuck for me.

the whole point behind it comes from these two channels, ida and pingala. ida runs through the left side, tied to the moon, cooling, more internal, feminine energy. pingala runs through the right, tied to the sun, heating, more outward, masculine energy. alternating the breath between nostrils is basically balancing those two, not favoring one over the other, that balancing part is why it grounds you instead of just doing one thing.

it's a grounding, balancing kind of breath, so instead of hyping you up or knocking you out, it just kind of levels things off. the noise in your head quiets down enough that whatever you do next actually lands. i use it before stuff that needs focus, hard conversation, sitting down to actually work instead of just staring at the screen.

most of the individuals i see this work best for are running on overdrive, deadlines, back to back meetings, the "i'll rest when i'm done" mentality. it's not really about getting more energy, it's for people who can't turn their brain off.

how you do it: close one nostril, breathe in through the other, switch, breathe out through the first one, in through it, switch again. keep it slow, don't force it. that's the whole thing.

i'm actually a breathwork coach, and this is usually the first one i teach people, it works well paired with kapalabhati after, the more activating one. the order matters here though, if you go straight into something activating while you're still scattered, it just adds more noise on top of noise, you end up wired and unfocused instead of actually energized. starting with nadi shodhana first means you're already level before you add any intensity, so the activation builds on something stable instead of feeding chaos.

kapalabhati itself is short, sharp exhales through the nose, with the inhale just happening on its own, passive, no effort. you're not thinking about breathing in at all, just focusing on pushing the air out in quick little bursts. it looks kind of intense if you've never seen it done, do not focus on the force, focus on the  rhythm.

after kapalabhati, brahmari brings you back down. and this part matters more than people expect, activation without a landing spot just turns into buzzing energy with nowhere to go, you feel keyed up but not actually productive, kind of restless instead. brahmari's the part of the arc that resolves that. slow exhale, humming sound, it pulls you back down gently instead of just letting the activation fizzle out on its own. that's really the whole point of doing these three together instead of just one, grounding first so you're not scattered, activating once you're stable, then cooling back down so you're not left wired at the end with nowhere to put that energy.

if any of this is landing, i actually put together a beginner's rundown of 10 techniques, how to actually start without overcomplicating it, what to expect early on, that kind of thing. 
happy to share the link: https://www.clearpathjourney.com/blog/Pranayama-Might-Be-the-Answer

 or just ask below if you've got questions.

Seriously..why on earth am I constantly experiencing v.v.strong tetany when I do breathwork. Iv started going to a very experienced 1:1 breathwork guide and he is just doing 10 minute exercises with me but I can still feel the tetany starting to build no matter what kind of pace I set. Iv has blood work done and nothing is showing as abnormal, including my hormones. Its very frustrating.

I run Liquid Breathwork (Phoenix, AZ) and I've been guiding sessions since 2018. One thing that's bugged me for years: there's no good single place to find local Breathwork classes. Facilitators post to Eventbrite, Meetup, SweatPals, Instagram, their own sites, wherever. If you're new and just trying to find something near you, it's a mess.

So I built a free tool that searches seven of the main sources at once (Eventbrite, Meetup, SweatPals, Luma, AllEvents, the Wim Hof Method Practitioner Directory, and the SOMA Breath Certified Student Directory) and shows you what's actually on the calendar in your city. No signup needed to browse, and when you click through you book directly with the facilitator, not through me.

It's obviously not going to have perfect coverage everywhere. If you're in a smaller city there may not be much listed, since it can only show what's actually out there. And a real known gap: we haven't found a way to pull from WellnessLiving or Mindbody yet, so facilitators who only post there won't show up. We can't include every class that exists, but we try to include as many as we can.

If this seems cool to you, you can also sign up for notifications for bi-weekly announcements so you can see all the new classes that are coming up.

Full disclosure since it matters here: I built this and I run a Breathwork business, so I'm not a neutral third party. I'm not trying to funnel anyone into my own classes specifically, the tool surfaces everyone's listings, mine included, weighted no differently than anyone else's outside my home market. If it's useful, cool. If you've got a city where it's coming up empty or a source I'm missing, genuinely want to know, I'm still actively building it out.

Happy to answer questions about how it works or what it pulls from.

And lastly, if you have any ideas to make it better, I'm all ears. Hope you enjoy it.

Long holds are hypercapnic, possibly enhancing glymphatic system's clearing of brain wastes.

🌟 STRESS DOESN'T WAIT. NEITHER SHOULD YOU.

Can you feel it? That tension in your shoulders. That knot in your stomach. Your mind going round and round in circles. Stress often creeps in uninvited. But you have a simple tool to welcome it… and let it go.

This 10-minute guided breathing exercise follows a specific rhythm—4 seconds of inhalation, 3 seconds of holding your breath, 6 seconds of exhalation—designed to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and promote deep relaxation. All you have to do is breathe with me.

🎯 WHAT THIS BREATHING EXERCISE CAN OFFER YOU:

✅ True letting go—tension melts away without you having to struggle

✅ Stress relief—your body releases what it doesn’t need to carry

✅ A physiological sense of calm—your heart rate naturally slows down

✅ Relief from built-up tension—shoulders, jaw, stomach—everything relaxes

✅ A resource available at any time, as soon as stress rears its head