Breathwork practices include traditional yogic pranayama and modern therapeutic protocols. Pranayama is the practice of manipulating breathing, which serves as a dynamic link between the mind and body, and is well known in traditional Indian medicine. (Podder et al., 2025) Autonomic modulation is altered by yoga breathing patterns, which results in modifications to cardiovascular functioning...
Steven D Pratscher, PhD, Lloyd Lalande, PhD, Mark A Lumley, PhD, Irene M Estores, MD, Adam W Hanley, PhD, Kimberly T Sibille, PhD, Roger B Fillingim, PhD;
Box breathing, also referred to as square breathing or four-square breathing, consists of equal phases of inhalation, breath retention, exhalation, and post-exhalation hold. It is widely promoted as a simple breathing technique for stress reduction and autonomic regulation; however, evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) specifically evaluating box breathing remains limited and...
ABSTRACT Structured pranayama programs delivered in schools depend on a supervising instructor, a fixed schedule and an institution’s continued cooperation, and each of these ends when the program does. What remains available to a young person afterwards is rarely considered at the design stage. Existing digital tools offer limited help: few breathing and mindfulness applications have been...
ABSTRACT Background: Breath regulation is delivered to adolescents in a growing number of school programs, yet the evidence base supporting it is usually cited in narrative form rather than assembled in a way that shows what each study established and what it left open. At the same time, large recent meta-analyses of school-based mindfulness have reported null or very small effects, and those...
High ventilation breathwork (HVB) can induce altered states of consciousness with phenomenological similarities to those reported following administration of serotonergic psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin or ayahuasca. Non-pharmacological methods capable of reliably eliciting such states may provide scalable models for investigating therapeutic mechanisms...
Introduction: In recent times, there is growing critical concern among IT professionals about theirpsychological well-being being affected by stress, anxiety, and poor sleep quality. Although severalpharmacological and clinical approaches are available, there is growing interest in accessible, nonpharmacological approaches that can be adopted into daily life. Mindfulness-based...
Mind-body techniques such as meditation, yoga, and pranayama have gained increasing recognition as holistic approaches for promoting physical, mental, and emotional well-being. These practices integrate awareness, controlled breathing, physical postures, relaxation, and focused attention to support balance between the mind and body. Meditation may promote mental clarity, emotional regulation,...
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with social isolation, a known contributor to diminishing mental health with consequences for adolescent development. We evaluated effects of the SKY Schools program, which combines social emotional learning (SEL) with training in autonomic regulation (breathwork), on social connectedness (SC) in female Latinx adolescents with high ACEs, a...
BackgroundTrauma recovery among tribal adolescent girls and young women in Northeast India remains poorly understood, particularly for those with dissociative disorders. Existing frameworks rely on Western paradigms that do not account for the cultural, spiritual, and environmental realities of tribal communities.MethodsUsing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study examined...
This preregistration specifies the confirmatory efficacy and safety analyses for the main paper of the EX_WELL arm of the RESET Berlin trial. The trial compares circular breathwork against progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), an active, structurally matched comparator, in adults with trauma exposure and subclinical depressive symptomatology. The primary outcome is mental well-being (WEMWBS)....
Background: The perimenopausal transition is a demanding phase marked by heightened psychological strain, reduced life quality, disturbed sleep, and disrupted neuroendocrine function. Although hormone replacement therapy remains the standard medical option, there is expanding interest in mind-body approaches as complementary strategies. Still, well-designed randomized trials examining the joint...
BackgroundAnxiety and other non-motor symptoms can greatly diminish quality of life in people with Parkinson's Disease (PD). Yet, few randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have assessed accessible, non-pharmacological mental health treatments for people with PD.ObjectiveTo assess the feasibility and impact of brief, remotely-delivered meditation and breathwork on neuropsychiatric symptoms in...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy has shown rapid and durable benefits across multiple psychiatric conditions, yet the mechanisms underlying these effects remain incompletely understood. Full-dose psychedelic sessions simultaneously engage serotonergic neurochemistry, high-intensity subjective experience, and autonomic-interoceptive physiology, making it difficult to determine which components are...
High ventilation breathwork (HVB) is increasingly used in psychotherapeutic and contemplative contexts to induce altered states of consciousness (ASC), yet its neurobiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Thirty experienced HVB practitioners (mean age 44.97 ± 11.80 years) underwent perfusion and resting-state fMRI to assess acute cerebrovascular and post-acute network changes. Cerebral...
BackgroundResearch suggests that high ventilation breathwork (HVB) improves mental health by reducing experiential avoidance (EA) through altered states of consciousness (ASCs). The present study examined whether EA during participants’ most recent breathwork session predicted mental well-being afterward. Additionally, the study examined the relationships between EA, ASCs, emotional...
Although conscious connected breathwork (CCB) continues to grow in popularity as a practice used for nervous system regulation, stress reduction, and emotional well-being, little is known about how its effects and experiences may vary across the menstrual cycle. Existing research indicates that breathwork, including different conscious connected breathwork (CCB) techniques, can influence...
Recently, the applied psychophysiology community has started to investigate the effectiveness of combining neurofeedback and biofeedback interventions. The training triad of beta-theta neurofeedback, heart rate variability biofeedback, and box-breathing continuous feedback can influence participants' electrophysiological activity and also help healthy individuals decrease reaction time. For...