What Is Active Breathwork? How It Works and Why It Feels So Powerful
- House of Undine
- Jun 27
- 3 min read
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Someone tells you a room of people will lie down and breathe to a pattern for an hour while music plays. It sounds like nothing. Then you do it, and something inside you shifts. People cry. People laugh. People walk out lighter, like they finally set something down. The strangest part is that it all runs on the one thing you do every day without thinking. So let's get into what active breathwork actually is, and why people keep calling it the practice they didn't know they needed.
What is active breathwork?
Active breathwork uses intentional, patterned breathing to move energy through the body, which makes it very different from slow breathing or a calming meditation. Over a session, that pattern slightly increases your oxygen intake and shifts your carbon dioxide levels, and that change creates a very different internal state. People feel tingling, waves of emotion, physical sensations. Memories can surface. This is not box breathing or a four-seven-eight wind down. The goal is not relaxation. The goal is release.
What does breathwork do to the nervous system?
It gives your body a way to process what your mind cannot reach. Our bodies store emotional experiences physically. When you are stressed or in fight or flight, you tense, you curl in, your muscles contract, and stress, grief, and tension live in your nervous system long after the moment has passed. Talking through things has its place. But active breathwork works from the body instead of the mind, which is why people call it somatic, meaning of the body. You shut the thinking off, and the body gets the space to tell you what it needs to let go of.
Why do people cry during breathwork?
Because release is the whole point, and it happens without anyone forcing it. You move out of your head and into your heart space, and the body knows what it has been holding. Crying, laughter, a wave of deep relief, an epiphany, a great night of sleep after. One client had never done it before and her first word was "cathartic." It is not about performing an emotion. It is about finally having a safe place to let one move.
What is "psychedelic breathing," and is it like ayahuasca?
It is not psychedelic at all, even though my very first session was introduced that way. I found a class on a trip to LA with my mom, on my birthday, in a gorgeous high-end room of fifty people. The facilitator called it transformative breathwork, and yes, "psychedelic breathwork." I could not even look at my mom. No substances were involved. We both walked out lighter, like we had set something down, and I knew right then I had to keep going. People sometimes compare it to ayahuasca because both create altered states of awareness. The difference is that breathwork runs forty-five minutes to an hour, all the power stays in your own body, and you wake up and go about your day.
How a session actually works
You lie down, and a facilitator like me guides you through the breath while a carefully built playlist holds the space. After my first class I trained with David Elliott, one of the best-known teachers in breathwork, because integrity matters to me in a space that can feel like the wild west. His style is a three-part pranayama breath, done through the mouth, and I cue you through it and keep the pace. I never touch anyone. I create the safety, but the power stays inside you. And yes, this can happen in person or fully virtual. Most of my own deepest sessions have been virtual, in the comfort of my own home.
Quick questions
What is active breathwork?
A practice that uses intentional, patterned breathing to move energy and emotion through the body. The goal is release, not relaxation.
What are the benefits of breathwork?
People describe emotional release, a sense of deep relief, better sleep, and a way to process things the mind cannot reach.
Can you do breathwork virtually?
Yes. It works beautifully in person or virtually, and many people love the safety of breathing in their own space.
Is breathwork like a psychedelic?
No substances are involved. It can create an altered state of awareness, but all the power stays in your own breath and body.
Come practice with us
Every Monday at 8pm EST, we hold a live virtual sound bath. Headphones in, the world dimmed, fully transported. Reserve your spot.
Where peace meets power. Let's dive in. xx, HOU
Find me everywhere: houseofundine.com, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Substack (The Lighthouse), Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
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