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WELLNESS

4 Incredible Things I’ve Learned from Practicing Breathwork Every Day for the Last 8 Years

8 years of wisdom condensed into 5 minutes

Andy Murphy
Namaste Now
Published in
5 min readJan 10, 2025

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Back view of woman sitting in meditation against a background of mountains and skies
Photo by Matteo Di Iorio on Unsplash

I’ve been practicing breathwork for the last eight years.

I’ve been teaching it for the past five.

There have been many lessons I’ve learned along the way.

Here are four of the most urgent and helpful.

1. Which hole you breathe through matters

Luckily, there are only two options: the nose or mouth.

While mouth breathing is helpful while we eat, talk, make love, and exercise, it can be damaging if it’s sustained throughout the day.

That’s because mouth breathing doesn’t filter the incoming air anything like the way the nose does so small airborne particles and bacteria can end up in the lungs. This makes infection, illness, and disease more common.

Mouth breathing also activates the sympathetic nervous system which increases adrenaline and cortisol levels, disrupts digestion, and puts the body in a heightened state of awareness.

Over time, this manifests as inflammation and stress in the body.

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Namaste Now
Namaste Now

Published in Namaste Now

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