Respiratory Philosophy in Brief

Breath is the beginning and the end. The arc of every human life is initiated by breath and ends with breath. Conceived and born of breathing human beings, the first breath sets in after birth and marks the beginning of independent life. Breathing continues until the last exhalation.

This realization forms the starting point for respiratory philosophy. In what follows, I refer to Petri Berendtson, a leading representative of this philosophical approach. He calls his approach a phenomenological ontology of breathing. He sees human life not only as “being-in-the-world”, as Martin Heidegger put it, but much more fundamentally as “breathing-in-the-world”. The encounter with being is always an encounter with the breath, or rather, this encounter takes place in the breath. Thus, the breath is being, in which the experience of being takes place.

Consequently, in the breath the act of being takes place, before any perception (which is at the center of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology) and before any thinking (according to Descartes). We breathe even when we perceive nothing (e.g. in deep sleep) or when we think nothing. This breathing “being-in-the-world” happens before any consciousness and reflection, and every consciousness and reflection is breathing. Thus, in Merleau-Ponty's respiratory philosophy, “perceptive faith” (foi perceptive) becomes breathing faith. This faith has nothing to do with religion. Rather, it denotes a preconscious conviction that the world is there, confirmed with every breath. The realization that there is a world is always at the same time the realization that it is a breathing world in which we exist by breathing. Breathing faith is not a mere psychological phenomenon, but an existential structure – we only exist through and with the air, which becomes our source of life through breathing.

In breathing, we experience that inside and outside cannot be strictly separated. A breathing being-in-the-world is characterized by a constant merging of inside and outside. The incoming and outgoing air is both one's own and foreign, always intermingled. With each breath, the inside becomes the outside and the outside becomes the inside. Life is a dynamic process of exchange in which breathing is the fundamental organizing principle and forms the medium in which everything takes place. We are in the world in every moment and the world is in us, through the air that flows in and out of us. The air we take in changes us, and we change the world around us with the air we exhale.

Breathing in the world is an embodied way of being, because breathing is a physiological process that cannot take place without a body. On the other hand, the breathing process of life is not limited to a physical process, but also contains an immaterial component. For every breath is an exchange of information. Every air molecule that enters our body through breathing contains information that is received and processed in us; every exhaled particle, in turn, enters the external world and unfolds its effect there. We are aware of this information content of air when we perceive odors, but it contains many more other dimensions, most of which we are unaware of and which nevertheless have an effect on us.

In Eastern philosophies, these invisible energies play an important role, whether as qi in Taoism or as prana in Hinduism. Both of these terms are closely related to breathing. Thus, respiratory philosophy also combines Western and Eastern traditions of thought.

Conspiracy Theories and the Suitability for Reality

In the realm of relative truths, there is no clear and absolutely valid distinction between right or wrong. Rather, it is a matter of examining whether a particular theory comes close to reality, so that its application in practice is successful or not. In this regard, the approach of science has proven to be excellent because, through the constant development and refinement of methods of truth testing, it has produced many theories that could then be applied and implemented. We can think of every modern technical device, including the one on which this text is being written, as the result of thousands of practical theories, the application of which has produced usable results. Other theories, such as that of a flat Earth, may have a certain plausibility for some people, but they have not contributed to the development of a single technical device or effective medication. At best, they are gimmicks of the human mind with a certain entertainment value without any practical consequence.

There are important qualitative differences in the closeness of a theory to reality: the closer it is to reality, the higher its practical applicability and the more useful it is for progress. This equation applies not only to physical hypotheses, but also to those in economics, psychology or sociology. For example, studies on the suffering of individuals with gender identities that deviate from the binary scheme have led to more tolerance (incidentally, the new US administration no longer allows such studies to be funded by the state). Studies on the increasing concentration of wealth in an ever-dwindling upper class have led to a redistribution from top to bottom in some countries (although the current US administration is using them for a redistribution from bottom to top). Studies on the hole in the ozone layer led to a worldwide ban on chlorofluorocarbons in the 1980s (at that time without any interference from conspiracy theories, as is unfortunately the case with climate change).

Conspiracy theories and their distance to reality

Even if belief in conspiracies is not a delusion, although it contains delusional elements, it is still not grounded in reality. This is because it draws its appeal from fantasies rather than from a reality check. These fantasies are generated by fears and promise a way out of adversity by naming the perpetrators of evil. If a conspiracy theory manages to address collective sources of fear, it will easily find followers. The group of conspiracy believers experiences a subjective relief of fear because they have gained some control over the threat by recognizing the apparent cause of their fear. In the social environment, however, the new theory ignites new fears. Who would have thought, for example, that electrodes would be introduced into the body through vaccinations? The socially harmful power of these beliefs lies in such fantasies, which in many cases is consciously used by those who instigate them.

Conspiracy theories are therefore not only far from reality, they also have destabilizing effects on society, and can even lead to catastrophic forms of inhumanity. The historically most influential of these theories is probably that of the Jewish world conspiracy. It was widely disseminated by the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, which was written by anti-Semites at the beginning of the 20th century. This fictitious text has incited many right-wing extremists and groups to hatred of Jews, thus paving the way for the mass extermination of Jews under the National Socialists.

Many conspiracy theories, modeled on the “Protocols”, see the “actual” world domination in the hands of a few conspirators (Illuminati, Bilderbergers, Jesuits, Deep State, financial oligarchy, WHO, etc.) or in individuals (George Soros, Bill Gates, etc.). Instead of working for change in politics, the causes of social disadvantage and injustice are sought where they cannot be neutralized. This is because the conspirators seem to be powerful and well hidden, so they can at best be fought in their proxies, but can never definitively be defeated. That is why many conspiracy theories persist for long periods of time – the one about the Jewish conspiracy goes back to the Middle Ages. Those stories that emerged around the Corona pandemic are still active or keep resurfacing.

The more unrealistic a conspiracy theory is, the greater the effort required to explain and justify it, and thus also one's own attachment to the theory. The further a conspiracy theory is from reality and fact, the more aggressive it becomes in order to assert and secure its own position against challenges. It also excuses the anger and hatred that are necessary because the danger would be so great and because there is so much destruction in the danger that it can only be met by counter-violence. Conspiracy theories are therefore always aggressively charged. That is why they do not connect, but divide. Because they only allow for one paranoid reaction: to be in favor of it or against. And anyone who is against is automatically in cahoots with the conspirators and must also be fought.

Realistic and unrealistic theories

Theories, on the other hand, that are derived from reality are characterized by their practicality. In the technical field, functioning devices and machines are created, and in the social field, social bonds are strengthened and inclusion is promoted instead of exclusion. This creates more security for more people, reduces individual and collective fears and creates positive prospects for the future.

Theories that are far from reality, i.e. contain a high proportion of fantasy, have the opposite effect. They promote regression, social division, aggression and violence.

Further reading:
Is Believing in Conspiracy Theories Normal or Delusional?

Is Believing in Conspiracy Theories Normal or Delusional?

About half of the American population believes in one or another conspiracy theory. One third of the German population believes that “politicians and other leaders are only puppets of the powers behind them”. Conspiracy theories are so widespread that it makes no sense to describe these forms of belief as pathological. Even if some of these theories seem so abstruse that it is difficult to understand why people fall for such nonsense. However, it is also not particularly reasonable to disdain people who are not on the same wavelength of your world view.

But perhaps conspiracy theorists are simply less intelligent. The researchers did find that they consider themselves less intelligent and prefer simple solutions to complex problems, but the data collected is too weak to attribute conspiracy belief to lower intelligence. Conspiracy belief is a widespread and therefore fairly normal phenomenon (Stelzer p. 191). Although those who do not believe in conspiracies often consider those who do to be abnormal and crazy, the phenomenon is so common that it cannot be a sign of mental disorder.

Paranoia and conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories contain paranoid elements, but they must still be distinguished from other forms of delusion. What they have in common is that they have a mentally relieving function. Having an explanation for disturbing developments in the world reduces anxiety and has a relaxing effect. Events in the world are only predictable to a very limited extent, and all that is unforeseeable, always carries potential dangers. So to feel safe, we need reliable forecasts. Where these cannot be found elsewhere, conspiracy theories take their place.

Bob Brotherton writes: “When things happen to us purely by chance, we have little hope of understanding, predicting, or controlling our destiny. Believing that someone, somewhere, is in control – even if that someone does not have our best interests at heart – is better than thinking that the course of our lives is dictated solely by chance. In contrast to a faceless randomness, you can possibly put a stop to recognizable enemies, can cope with them or at least understand them.” (p. 110)

Conspiracy theories are easy to understand and reduce the confusion and complexity of the world. They are not successful because of the validity of their content, but because of their ability to resolve contradictions with certain plausibility. They may refer to facts, but only to those that cannot be refuted, and they place facts in contexts that are arbitrarily chosen and cannot be verified. But having a feeling of control reduces stress and as one researcher on the subject put it: “Better the devil you know than a world you don't know”. That is why people often cling to a conspiracy theory in the same way that the mentally ill cling to their delusions. The conviction becomes the center of the sense of meaning and must then be maintained at all costs, because otherwise there is a danger that everything will be in doubt and the insecurity and thus the fear will become overwhelming.

In this context, the American psychologist Leon Festinger, who invented the term cognitive dissonance, studied a UFO cult that claimed to have been picked up by spaceships in the night of December 20–21, 1954 (see also: the world was supposed to end on December 21, 2012...) and thus would be saved from an impending flood disaster. The event did not occur, and some have fallen away from the cult, but for others, the conviction has become more entrenched. Psychotic patients report that they do not want to give up their obsessive thoughts because otherwise the fear becomes too strong; the UFO believers, who continued to believe that they were the chosen ones, told a similar story. So there is always an emotional need behind such beliefs. Depending on the intensity of this need, the belief plays an important role and the better are its benefit on a psychological level. Studies have shown that the tendency towards conspiracy theories is increased by stressful life events. Traumatic experiences create strong internal fears, combined with a sense of helplessness and a loss of control, and belief systems can at least partially alleviate this stress.

Mental illnesses and conspiracy beliefs differ in that psychoses are individual and hardly comparable delusions and lead to social isolation, while conspiracy theories are always shared in groups of like-minded people and therefore also have a socially unifying function. You belong to the group of those who are particularly well informed and have understood something that others have not yet grasped in their naivety and delusion. Although paranoid individuals tend to be more prone to conspiracy theories, paranoids are primarily afraid of others who threaten them as individuals, e.g. enemy secret service agents who are hot on their heels. Conspiracy theories, on the other hand, locate the danger in “elites”, secret circles and groups of people, e.g. in the Jews. The danger is less for the individual than for society as a whole. The loss of control is related to them: the average person can no longer influence global development, while the conspirators have unlimited power. Conspiracy theories always have a missionary aspect: knowledge of them is supposed to save the world, which is in danger, and therefore it is important to win over as many fellow campaigners as possible. People suffering from delusions, on the other hand, usually feel alone with their suffering and often become socially isolated.

Conspiracy theories can therefore be understood as irrational delusions that are shared by others and serve to explain complex, threatening connections in a simple way. They are not an expression of mental illness, although paranoid people tend to believe in such theories more than the average person. The tendency to explain the world in an irrational way is part of the basic human makeup, or an important aspect of the way our brain works.

Those who believe in the theory link their sense of meaning and their identity to the belief, so the price of abandoning the theory by recognizing inconsistencies or contradictions would be high. For this reason, it is notoriously difficult to debate theories with conspiracy believers. Sometimes it even seems as if patiently discussing the issues and calmly presenting counter-arguments only hardens the other person's insistence on the correctness of their own position. This phenomenon is known as the backfire effect: The attempt to dissuade people from their possibly erroneous conviction causes them to cling even more to this conviction, so the attempt backfires.

However, some studies suggest that confrontation with information that contradicts one's own theory can lead to a certain softening and relativization of one's point of view. No delusional system is fundamentally unchangeable, and sometimes it is worth the effort of talking. The backfire effect occurs especially when it is not just about the correctness of the theory, but when commitment to a theory is important for belonging to a social group. The fear of falling out of the group of like-minded people is greater than the pursuit of truth.

A rational approach to irrationality

In psychotherapy, the fundamental aim is always to unravel fixed beliefs. It may be the conviction of being worthless or of being married to the wrong partner. It may be the belief that life has no meaning or that one's own appearance repels everyone else, etc. In this context, we repeatedly experience that the trusting and accepting attitude of the therapist creates the security to examine and abandon one's own assumptions about oneself, one's fellow human beings and the world. We learn to take a standpoint from which we can decide which convictions serve and benefit us and which harm us. By recognizing the feelings and dissolving the corresponding patterns behind the convictions, it becomes easier and easier for us to free ourselves from the fixed beliefs and theories that we have often adopted since early childhood.

We can also find our way out of the irrationality that repeatedly tempts us to distort and reduce our experience of reality without therapy. We have the ability to understand our irrationality in a rational way by examining where we hold on to beliefs that may be poorly founded or that we don't really need. We can be as critical of ourselves as we are of our fellow human beings, and we can always ask ourselves what would happen if we revised one or the other of our convictions. Beliefs are not facts, but hypotheses about reality that are never absolutely true, but always only more or less accurate. By examining ourselves, we gain an important degree of inner freedom.

If we understand our own irrationality in this way and are aware of it, then we are freer in our decision on how to deal with it. This would mean that we could commit ourselves not to harm others with our irrationality. It also helps to develop more tolerance by understanding that irrational explanatory models are always chosen for understandable reasons. This way, we no longer have to belittle others for their “cranks”. For we know our own weaknesses and short circuit reactions, which may seem crazy or disturbed to others.

Literature: 

Philipp Sterzer: Die Illusion der Vernunft. Warum wir von unseren Überzeugungen nicht zu überzeugt sein sollten. Berlin: Ullstein 2022

Bob Brotherton: Suspicious Minds. Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories. London: Bloomsbury Sigma 2016

Integration in Breathwork

What does integration mean when we talk about “integrative” breathwork?

In my “Manual of Breath Therapy” (2004, in German) I have described the meaning of “integrative” on four levels:

“In conscious breathing, the intimate engagement of body and soul/spirit occurs.

In letting the breath happen, scattered, disparate parts of the inner life find each other. As the spiritual realm encounters the physical body, the areas of experience that have become separated from each other in the course of personal development also reconnect.

From a methodological point of view, the aim is to create the best possible conditions for this reunion and finding oneself in the therapeutic process, with the breath as the center and other methods of experience as additional aids. If possible and appropriate, the experience of breathing should be placed in a larger context in order to open up a broader and more multidimensional approach to the areas of psychological problems.

Integrative Breath Therapy uses the broad spectrum of methods that come from various schools of breathwork. The method of choice is found by taking into account the personality, the inner state of development and the physical suitability of the clients and is varied according to the development of the therapeutic process.” (p. 96)

I would like to explain these levels in more detail here.

Ad 1): When we breathe consciously, we not only feel our body through the incoming and outgoing flow of air, but also ourselves in the act of breathing. We are therefore more deeply and intimately connected with ourselves when we are aware of our breathing than when our senses are directed outwards or our thoughts are focused on something. In the moment of conscious breathing, we are one with ourselves; we experience ourselves as an integral whole.

Ad 2): When we engage in a longer breathing process, as it happens, for example, in a connected breathing session, we experience more of ourselves and come into contact with parts of ourselves on different levels. Coming into contact means that something that was previously separated reunites. As I would like to explain, such separations or divisions at the soul level are the result of traumatic experiences. The re-encounter with earlier experiences, which have been stored in the subconscious, increases and broadens our wholeness, our inner togetherness. White or gray spots on the inner map become colorful again.

Ad 3a): The breathing process in a breathwork session is always embedded in the context of the therapeutic relationship between the person breathing and the person accompanying the breather. These two people are connected to each other through breathing, but also through the communicative field they have created together. We assume that an exchange between these persons also takes place on a subconscious level. This interaction can be noticed in the fact we often hear that the therapist can perceive the needs of the person breathing without a verbal exchange taking place. The reason for this intimate form of communication could be that breathing together creates a shared vibration between the two people, a field of resonance in which information flows back and forth.

Ad 3b.): In addition, this aspect of integration includes a practical part of the therapeutic work: during the breathing process, there is a space in which other helpful and effective methods can be applied. First of all, there is the whole area of physical interventions, touching, applying pressure, massage-like relaxation, etc. In addition, there are verbal messages that can be used to provide reassurance or encouragement. If the client comes to the breathing session with an issue, she can also be supported with phrases that help to resolve the issue. For example, if she is afraid of an upcoming job interview, the therapist might say, “You'll do great. Believe in yourself and your abilities.” Or: ”As you breathe in, feel the strength to take control of your life, and as you breathe out, let go of your fear.”

Ad 3c.): The presence of the companion is another influential factor that should not be underestimated. Someone who follows the unfolding inner experiences with a non-judgmental and attentive attitude, without interfering with their own intentions, represents a person that everyone would have wished for as a parent in childhood. With this attitude, it becomes possible to compensate for emotional deficiencies from childhood, especially on the communicative level, and to create the inner space for new relationship patterns. Integration here means that the experience of a new relationship model overwrites the relationship concepts adopted from childhood and incorporates them into the overall complex of the soul.

Ad 3d.): Finally, this point also includes everything that is used as a method after the end of the breathing process. The aim here is to familiarize other areas of the inner self with the new experiences so that the deeper insights into one's own soul life can be connected with what is already well-known. These areas include the mental, the visual and the symbolic level. The transfer of the new insights to different levels of the soul ensures that these experiences can have a lasting effect and that old, no longer useful patterns in these areas are weakened or overwritten. The more sensory modalities that are actively included in the healing process, the more anchors are planted in the various departments of our brain and soul. Examples for these ways to integration are drawing, painting or working with clay; creative processes that enable the right hemisphere of the brain to process and integrate the breathing experience. Writing also supports the integration process.

Ad 3e.): These integrative activations are about creating connections and links where there have been fault lines running through the landscape of the soul. Traumatic injuries cause interruptions, i.e. discontinuities within the psyche. There is a before and an after, and in between there is a gap. The before was still good, while the after is dark. The reason for the deterioration is hidden because it had to be split off due to its intensity of pain and fear. All experiences that had to be suppressed because of their intensity and could not be integrated leave white (or black) spots in the course of one’s life story. Due to trauma, the narrative flow, which normally links the events and forms the meaningful whole of a continuous life experience, disintegrates into incoherent parts. In moments of healing, it is possible to reintegrate previously excluded experiences, that is, to integrate them into the context of one’s life. In a sense, the flow of breathing, which guarantees and represents the continuity of life but which faltered and was interrupted at the moment of traumatization, is restored retrospectively.

Ad 4): Modalities of Breathing

In this context, integrative breathing means that the modalities of breathing are adapted to the client as opposed to adapting the client's breathing to a predetermined form of breathing. So initially there is no right or wrong breathing, but the breathing of the breathing person as it is. The facilitator may sense or notice that the breathing is restricted, held back or blocked in one way or another, but he does not intervene immediately. Instead, he allows the breather to have time to perceive for herself how her breathing flows or falters, and to allow the breath to unfold its effects within the breathing person. So trusting the power of the breath is at the center of integrative breathwork, and not the ideas, expectations or self-experienced notions of ideal breathing of the facilitator. Integrative breathing is about self-experienced breathing, how it works in the moment and how it changes when it gets the attention of the breathing person.

Relying on the breath as such means that no special knowledge about optimal breathing is needed to bring the healing power of the breath into effect. Methods, such as physical interventions, massage techniques or other means to bring breathing into a desired or expected form, are initially unnecessary; the idea is rather that breathing itself comes closer to its best form when it gets the space to do so. This space is created by the attention of the person breathing to their breathing and by the compassionate presence of the facilitator.

Better and Worse Breathing

Sometimes clients come to me with the question of what the right or optimal breathing would be. An integrative view of breathing implies that there is a suitable breathing for each situation, but no generally valid form of breathing for all times. Our breathing reacts automatically to our current state and the level of activity in which we find ourselves. It constantly adapts to the needs of our body and soul.

At the same time, we notice that this adaptation works better or worse. Often our breathing is too shallow and too fast for the needs of the current situation, as a result of acquired dysfunctional breathing habits. This kind of breathing provides us with enough oxygen to ensure our survival, in other words, with a minimum to enable us to carry out our activities. But it does not promote lasting health and well-being.

Respiratory therapy in the narrower sense begins where blockages and restrictions of breathing become conscious and the accompanying person can offer support from their own knowledge and from their own experiences of the possibilities of breathing, in order to resolve the obstacles that stand in the way of deeper, fuller and slower breathing.

As we know, shallow and rapid breathing is always stressful breathing, which in many people has become chronic over the years, often starting in childhood. They suffer from stress all the time, although they hardly notice it anymore because it has become a habit. In these cases, the organism is constantly in a survival mode, and this mode drains the energy reserves of the body and psyche without contributing to regeneration and replenishment of the energy depots. Shallow and rapid breathing is an indication that the person is exhausting their resources, which will sooner or later create physical or emotional problems. The unused potential in terms of depth and slowing down breathing leads to stiffness and rigidity in the respiratory muscles. In addition, shock experiences or emotional injuries, e.g. through humiliation or embarrassment, lead to a reduction in breathing depth and thus to an acceleration, which further inhibits the breathing and restricts its mobility and flexibility. These inhibitions can even develop when someone has experienced as a child that their liveliness was not appreciated by their parents; to adapt to this condition, there is the simple option of reducing the tidal volume, and suddenly less vital energy is available. Traumatic experiences, which are often accompanied by breathing interruptions, have an even more detrimental effect on breathing. Many people therefore carry deficit breathing patterns from their childhood with them, which have become chronic and sooner or later express themselves in various health problems.

The relaxation and flexibilization of the breathing musculature, especially of the diaphragm and the intercostal muscles, which can be achieved in breathing therapy, leads to more freedom in breathing and to open up for its various possibilities. This is the type of breathing that we can use to best strengthen our own health and ability to regenerate. Often, clients have difficulty breathing in slowly and evenly or breathing out in a relaxed manner. Both abilities are accessible when the respiratory muscles become more flexible. This allows the parasympathetic nervous system to become more effective, in turn helping to decelerate and relax one’s breathing. It is the same with yoga asanas: with continued practice, the corresponding muscles and tissues grow and become more supple, increasing flexibility and mobility. In addition, the fasciae of the respiratory muscles are activated and invigorated, making them softer and loosening adhesions.

Regularly practiced breathing exercises and longer breathing sessions help to activate and train the respiratory muscles and the fascia tissues involved, increasing blood flow and improving performance, both in terms of breathing depth and in regulating breathing speed from very slow to fast. Muscles and tissued that are used in their various ways become more powerful and flexible. In this way, we integrate the diversity and variability that is inherent in our breathing.

With well-stretchable respiratory muscles, a wide variety of breathing exercises can be practiced effortlessly. These exercises are available in large numbers and all have specific benefits. Some of them are described according to Indian or Chinese tradition, for example in terms of their effects on the chakras or the meridians. Many of them lead to scientifically measurable improvements, for example in blood circulation, stress relief or sleep quality.

Integration with the Self

Here we have described the integration of physiology and health. With breathing, which we can consciously influence, control and train, we have a regulatory process at hand, that we can use again and again to come into harmony with ourselves. This is an important prerequisite for the lasting health of our organism. If we act against our body, i.e. take actions that harm it, we come into conflict with ourselves. We are separated from ourselves, disintegrated, split off. Then we not only feel uncomfortable, but also exert a strain on our physical health.

With conscious breathing, we integrate ourselves, thus coming to inner unity and often to a deep connection with ourselves. The intact self-relationship is the basis for our mental well-being and our organic flourishing. Peace reigns within us, and in times of peace all our powers and abilities can develop at their best. On the physiological level, this state of integration manifests itself in a high degree of coherence, that is, in uniform rhythms or vibrations in various regulatory systems in the body – breathing, heartbeat, blood circulation, autonomic nervous system and cranio-sacral fluid.

The self-connection that is created through breathing exists independently of whether we are aware of it at the moment or not. This attunement even takes place during sleep. But when we consciously breathe, our consciousness is also included in this harmony and we live from the core of our wholeness.

Breathing and Integration of the Environment

With every inbreath we take in the outer air and with our exhalation we expel the inner air. We are in a constant exchange with the medium that permanently surrounds us and represents our elixir of life. Through breathing, we are in touch with our environment in every moment. In a continuous flow, we give and take in the form of inhaled and exhaled air. Air is our primary outside world, which we turn into our inside by inhaling and turn it back to the outside by exhaling. The air gives us our first and most important information about the outside: temperature, quality, odours and other atmospheric messages that have an immediate influence on our experience. With breathing, the inner and the outer world integrate into a vibrant unity.

Coherent breathing and science

In a scientific study conducted in England with 400 participants, a comparison was made between slow and fast breathing. The participants were divided into two groups. Both were asked to do 10 minutes of breathing exercises every day for four weeks, one group at 5.5 breaths/minute (a breathing rate used in coherent breathing), the other at 12 breaths/minute (this breathing rate represents the lower limit of breathing speed in the average population). The results showed that the subjective perception of stress and depression decreased in both groups, while the values for well-being increased. However, there were no significant differences between the slow and fast breathers. 

Since the slow breathing method was named „coherent breathing“ in the study, the study would prove that coherent breathing, in which you are supposed to take between 3 and 6 breaths/minute, is just as effective as breathing more than twice as fast. There are a number of other studies and overviews that show that slow breathing improves well-being and reduces stress arousal.  

So what should we think of this study? I claim that title and text of the study wrongly refer to coherent breathing. Coherent breathing not only means breathing slowly and regularly, but also relaxing the exhalation and regulating the depth of breathing in such a way that breathing is controlled primarily via the diaphragm. We know from practice that some beginners in the method find these elements of coherent breathing easy, while many struggle at first: They do not succeed in relaxing the exhalation, the inhalation takes too long, abdominal breathing is unfamiliar, the breathing rate is too slow, so that the necessary stretching of the breath creates stress, etc. There are remedies for all these initial problems, which are taught by a competent instructor. After a few practice sessions, these difficulties are overcome in almost all cases thanks to the special interventions and suggestions. 

In the study, the participants were initially given information about the method, but there was no opportunity to ask questions in case of difficulties. We can therefore assume that some of the participants of the study had problems with relaxing the breathing and were therefore unable to gain better recovery results. As simple as the method of coherent breathing appears, because only three or four basic elements need to be considered, there are many pitfalls in practice. Everyone has their own breathing habits that have been ingrained over years and decades. It therefore takes time, motivation and consistent practice to change them in a favourable direction. The discussion of the study results in the publication also addresses this fact and cites studies in which coherent breathing was practised under individual guidance, with clearly positive effects. While the study criticized the insufficiently "robust" design of these experiments, these studies also provide important findings. 

A further point of criticism of the study that I (like the authors of the study) have is the fact that the average number of practice sessions was 20, i.e. that it is not possible to speak of a consistent practice discipline, which is particularly important at the beginning in order to make lasting changes of firmly established breathing habits. In addition, no one knows whether the method was practiced correctly at all or only somehow. 

The participants were also not informed as to why they should take 5.5 breaths/minute. With coherent breathing in particular, it is important for many beginners to understand why they should breathe in this way and not in a different way so that they can motivate themselves to practise coherent breathing. For some people, motivation comes from experience: they like an exercise because they feel the positive effects. For others, it comes from mental understanding: they recognize that the exercise could be valuable from a theoretical point of view and then practice it.  There are always beginners who refuse to adhere to a strict guideline such as that required for coherent breathing. Only when they understand the reason they are prepared to train with it. Such resistance, which we know from teaching coherent breathing, was not taken into account in the study. So consequently, the authors of the study also assume that appropriate "psychoeducation" would have led to better results with coherent breathing. 

Furthermore, the study authors point out that there is a study that shows that a breathing rate of 8 breaths/minute produces better results for vagal activation, i.e. for stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system, than 12 breaths/minute, which in turn performs better than 16 breaths/minute. It therefore proves that the slower you breathe, the greater the effect on relaxation and on lowering blood pressure. In the study discussed here, the positive results for the "placebo" group, who breathed at 12 breaths/minute, can be attributed to the fact that many were able to experience a reduction in their otherwise even higher usual breathing rate as relaxing and mood-enhancing. Both study groups obviously benefited from the breathing awareness, regularity and deepening of breathing. Both groups were also instructed to breathe through the nose, which has multiple health effects, including improving oxygen uptake and regulating anxiety and stress management in the brain. 

The next point of criticism relates to the lack of physiological evaluations of the breathing exercises. The study results come from questionnaires completed by the participants. They are therefore subjective mood reports, and there is no data on heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure or sleep quality. It is often impressive for beginners in this method to see in real time, how their breathing pattern and their heartbeat synchronize, and those who like to go deeper can measure their heart rate variability and its improvement over the time of practice. In this study, it could well be that the physiological status of those who practiced coherent breathing was improved without being noticed.  

To summarize: The study discussed raises more question marks than it answers - and these are suggestions for more and more detailed research. Anyone working in this field can derive from this study the many benefits of working with conscious breathing. 

Further reading:
Coherent Breathing