Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Hold. Now do it again…

— A personal journey into breathwork and building a serious practice. Let’s begin!

Sitting upright in my most comfortable chair in my living room, eyes open but relaxed, the gentle voice from the YouTube video starts in again with soft and hypnotic counting: “In two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Out two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four.” This is a box-style of breathing I find easy enough to follow. And as encouraged by the guiding voice on the video, I’m breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. The session will last 30 minutes and will vary with different tempos, including some rapid-fire breathing parts, sprinkled in with three longer breath holds of 90 seconds.

After the last count ends, I continue to sit upright in my chair, calm, collected, yet alert as ever. I’m consciously aware of an undeniable charge of energy that seems to course up and down my body. It’s difficult to describe the feeling fully. It’s somehow having full-body easiness and peace but with a combined zest and general renewed feeling inside. This is the 5th day in a row I’ve completed this 30-minute breathwork session and I could not be any happier with how well it has gone, or more surprised as to how much easier day five was than day one!

In with peace, out with stress !— Wim Hof

Fortunately, I’ve had a somewhat stable form of meditation practice over the last couple of years, most of which I developed through consistent use of Headspace (great mindfulness app) and some free online materials. But it wasn’t until I happened on the benignly eccentric Wim Hof and his branded ‘Wim Hof Method’, that my interest in what is actual Breathwork truly began.

I imagine many Medium readers have heard of Wim Hof and perhaps even dabbled in trying his unique brand of breathwork. It’s surely not for everyone and not necessarily a sell on its potential “life-changing” effects, further still for persons particularly adverse to cold exposure. Still, curious minds might take the leap. For this purpose, I recommend these two videos provide a very sufficient introduction. So if interested, keep an open and mind and heart, and check them out here:

Again, Wim Hof has a distinctive style for breathwork that also combines cold water immersion. This is not the faint-of-heart kinda stuff. And I mean that literally! If you have any kind of medical condition or are uncertain in general of breathwork, best play it safe and not do this type of practice. That goes for the other styles of breathwork as well. But for those with a baseline of good health, breathwork like this or other variations are absolutely available to you as a legitimate way to mitigate stress and perhaps even build your immune system! And as with everything in our wonderfully connected online world, a plethora of material exists out there on breathwork. But be judicious and take some time to find what works best for you. A simple primer on breathwork you can get here:

We live in perhaps unparalleled times of fast-pace change and growing uncertainty. Just when our collective understanding of how stress can adversely affect the impact of our health, global pandemic drops into our lives. For many, including myself, this was a stress A-bomb. But instead of collapsing into fear, a pathway towards vital breathwork, which has always been here, comes more into focus. For me personally, the benefits are clear: I feel more connected, less worried, less afraid of my feelings, more aware, more optimistic and energized.

So with love and peace and an authentic desire to take control of what we can, relax, and begin counting in two, three, four…