How can breathing differently have all of these great benefits? It can seem strange that we have so much potential in changing the way we breath.

When you breathe in, you inhale oxygen (O₂) (and other molecules and gases), when you breathe out, you exhale (CO₂) and other molecules and gases). That’s respiration.

When you breathe in, your heart rate goes up a bit. When you breathe out, your heart rate goes down a bit (Lehrer, 2007). This is the basic principle of respiration, but it is also important for metabolism.

The autonomic nervous system is made up of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. It regulates bodily functions like pupil dilation, heart rate, and saliva production.

Inhalation stimulates your sympathetic nervous system, exhalation stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. By changing the way you breathe you can make one of them more dominant than the other in that moment depending on what you want (Russo et al., 2017).

Rapid breathing and taking in more oxygen than normal energises your body, will also cause contraction in the body as you breathe out carbon dioxide at a faster rate, stimulating the sympathetic nervous system.

Slowing down your breathing and extending your exhale to be longer than your inhale will have a relaxing effect on the body. It causes an increase in carbon dioxide levels and also stimulates the production of nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels (vasodilation). Vasodilation reduces blood pressure and increases blood flow (Russo et al., 2017).

SOMA Breath Work Meditation empowers people with knowledge, tools, and techniques to make positive and lasting change in their lives. SOMA Breath Work Meditation techniques have the power to transform someone even down to a cellular level. SOMA Breath Work Meditation considered as a whole, with its range of possible uses and applications, is a framework for total life transformation.