Breathguru®

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How can breathwork improve our wellbeing?

Twenty years ago, Alan Dolan quit a career in aerospace PR to build a business based on oxygen. Now the founder of Breathguru, here he explains how inhaling and exhaling can boost your health, happiness, and bring emotional peace

Breathing – it keeps us alive, but most of us barely notice it happening. It’s pretty astonishing, considering resting adults inhale and exhale up to 23,000 times a day – that’s more than eight million times a year.

The rewards of good breathing are well understood. The Buddha credited breath-meditation as a route to enlightenment, and research has shown that slow, deep breathing can help combat anxiety, depression, and medical problems such as high blood pressure.

In recent years, breathwork – a form of active meditation where the breathing pattern is intentionally changed to achieve a host of benefits – has gained momentum. This year, the Global Wellness Summit cited breathwork as one of its top wellness practices of 2021.

One technique is Conscious Connected Breathing, a deep diaphragmatic breathing practise that places greater emphasis on the inhale to the exhale, and uses the entire respiratory system to infuse the body with healing oxygen and energy.

And, according to international breathwork practitioner Alan Dolan, our breath mirrors our behavioural patterns, so through Conscious Connected Breathing, we could potentially transform how we think, feel, and live.

“Think about how we breathe as being ‘life’. How we breathe is how we are doing life,” explains Alan. “About 80% of us are upper chest breathers, and if somebody’s inhale is compromised, that often relates to their ability to receive. They’re great at giving, but maybe they’re used to de-prioritising their own needs, and not receiving all that they could.

“If somebody overemphasises the exhale, and breathes from the belly, like 20% of us, that tells me that there’s an overemphasis on the negative or on lack. What’s mind-blowing is when you tweak the breath pattern, the corresponding behavioural pattern also changes.”

Since launching his company, Breathguru, 17 years ago, Alan now estimates he has taught more than 15,000 people to consciously connect to their breath, including comedian Russell Brand, actress Naomie Harris, plus scores of high-flying CEOs.

Brilliantly, no equipment is required. Simply lie down, place one or two hands on the navel, and with the mouth wide, an exaggerated, long inhale is followed by a short, sigh-like exhale. The continuous flow of breathing is repeated on a loop for at least 10 minutes.

“What differentiates it from other forms of breath work is the breath is always in motion, and that’s what puts the body into an autopilot reset mode. It’s about plugging into our innate intelligence, and letting our bodies do the work for us,” says Alan, adding that the practice “opens the doors to the subconscious”, and as well as sparking physiological results, triggering powerful spiritual and emotional responses as the body clears itself of past pain, trauma, and toxic emotions.

“Think of a pyramid,” continues Alan. “The conscious mind is a tiny bit at the top, and the subconscious is a massive part underneath. It doesn’t matter whether or not you know what the emotional baggage is – Conscious Connected Breathing is not a cognitive way of working, but a bodily-led psychotherapy. It’s simply about expelling toxic energy from the body, and attracting life and light back.”

After he hit 40, Alan quit a high flying job in aerospace PR in the Middle East to retrain as a breath coach, and quickly experienced the powerful benefits of Conscious Connected Breathing, which he says healed his own 25-year battle with depression.

The key to results, though, is the investment of time.

“If you want to see tangible results, I’d say a minimum of 15 minutes daily,” says Alan. “Breathwork is like going to the gym. You’ve got to work at it!”

Alan’s top tips

How to try Conscious Connected Breathing