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Breathing sounds like such a simple concept—after all, we take roughly 20,000 breaths per day. But the art of breathwork is a little more complex. The practice is broadly defined as any technique or exercise employed to intentionally change your breathing pattern, and the benefits can be far-reaching, from lowering levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) to reducing high blood pressure in hypertensive patients.
“Everyone can benefit from learning how to breathe optimally,” explains Megan Callus, the founder of Boundless Breath in New Jersey. “It impacts every system in your body: your immune system, your digestive system, your brain, the cardiovascular system.” Yet despite its importance, many of us don’t know how to use our breath efficiently. Often, we think of it as an automatic function, but Callus instead encourages us to think of it as “an incredibly powerful tool that we can use to address things like chronic stress, sleep disorders, or digestive issues.”
Enough said. We challenged three Oprah Daily editors to try breathwork exercises led by top experts: Nicholas Pratley, the breathwork expert at Sage + Sound in New York City; Jasmine Marie, founder of Black Girls Breathing; and Callus. Read on for their reports.
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Nicholas Pratley’s specialty is biofield breathwork, a method that guides students through five breaths that correspond to the five layers of the human electromagnetic biofield: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and—farthest out—what he calls the luminous layer. (When you meet someone with sparkly eyes, that’s what you’re seeing, he says.) He also explains that breathwork doesn’t just get energy flowing; it creates space within you to really listen to what you need.
Pratley teaches this technique two Saturdays a month at Sage + Sound, a plush wellness center (all desert colors, warm lighting, and curved walls) on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. In the cocoon-like study there, I lay on a mat and let his dynamic voice guide me through the series. The breathing exercises were intense, and a few blurred together. He talked me through long stretches of deep nasal inhales and vocal exhales, stacked breathing to pull in energy, and even some maniacal “Halloween” laughter, among others.
About halfway through, he asked me to think about my one wildest dream, and that’s when I passed into—how do I say this?—another dimension. My eyes filled with tears under my weighted pillow, and I felt like the whole universe, all blackness and stars, was inside me, straining to stay contained in my skin. My wildest dream snapped into focus, and it was so profound yet obvious that I wondered, Is this what psychedelics feel like? By the end of the hour-long session, my extremities were throbbing and hot. I felt pinned to the ground, pressed under a giant weight, but like I could slip right off the floor into space.
Pratley reeled me back to reality with the smooth chimes of a crystal singing bowl, and suggested I stay awhile to “come down” before leaving. I told him I’d definitely be coming back.
—Jennie Tung, senior director, wellness and features
The Mind Cleanser
As a beginner to breathwork, but not to breathing, I opted to start with Black Girls Breathing, a breathwork community specifically tailored to Black women, founded by Jasmine Marie in 2018. She recently introduced an online, subscription platform, Sunday Balm, that offers breathwork and meditation exercises through video-on-demand sessions. Every month, her team releases new content centered around a theme; April’s was building community and healing Black sisterhood.
One of the first videos offered featured the three-part breath, where you start with your mouth open wide and take back-to-back inhales: one in the belly and one in the chest before taking a long exhale. In the second practice, called the oceanic breath—which was my favorite—you oscillate between one continuous inhale with the mouth open wide and a long exhale, then repeat. Breathing is obviously an innate and automatic process, so when you intentionally disrupt the pattern that’s most natural to you, it does take some work. It’s not a physically demanding experience, but it is an active one.
Afterward, I felt totally decluttered. Once I got past the slight lightheaded feeling, I felt looser in my body and as if my mental state had gone through a cleansing filter. I had more of myself to give and was more energized, but mainly I felt re-centered and sturdy in my feelings and in my body.
Marie is a gentle guide. Her meditations are designed specifically for Black women and girls, and as a Black woman listening to her practice, I felt as if my feelings were seen. Her messages are pointed to our experiences from day-to-day life to deeply rooted societal pressures. Her community creates a haven for us to be emotionally vulnerable through affirmations, journal prompts, daily check-ins, and guided group meditations—habits that not many people, especially Black women, prioritize on a consistent basis. That’s what I think makes this platform unique: It pairs wellness and healing with community.
—Shelby Copeland, assistant to the editor at large
The Mind Soother
It sounds counterintuitive because, obviously, breathing is nothing new to me, but I was actually quite nervous for my virtual breathwork session. Luckily, I was in great hands with Megan Callus. To kick off our session, she explained that breathing is “far more powerful than we give it credit for,” so I was eager to experience just how impactful breathwork could be.
Callus guided me through four breathing exercises, each of which you can do for less than five minutes. The first was a physiological sigh, which is done by inhaling through your nose, then pausing for a moment, then taking in a little more air, and, finally, exhaling through your mouth. This one is effective in just three to five breaths, and we repeated it 10 times total. Next up, we tried a box breath, which is when you inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and hold for four seconds. This was an instant favorite of mine, because counting the seconds was a simple distraction that helped clear my mind.
Our third technique was the 4-7-8 breath: You inhale for a count of four, hold for seven, and exhale for eight. For this one, Callus guided me to add a “hum” on the exhale to stimulate the vagus nerve, which I found very relaxing. Our final exercise was pursed-lip breathing, where you inhale through your nose and exhale through pursed lips, as if you are breathing through a straw. This one doesn’t require any counting, but the exhale should be longer than the inhale to create a relaxation response. I never realized how a small change like pursuing my lips could make such a difference in my state of being, but this breathing style left me feeling instantly calmer.
Overall, I loved trying all four exercises, and there was something extra comfortable about doing them at home, with Callus guiding me on Zoom. So far, the box breath exercise has been my most-used tool—just a few rounds helps clear my racing mind before going to sleep!
—Maggie Maloney, site director
Any content published by Oprah Daily is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It should not be regarded as a substitute for professional guidance from your healthcare provider.
Robert Litman hosts our “The Life You Want” Class on the art and science of breathwork. You will come away with a tool kit of simple breathing techniques to help with stress, anxiety, sleep, asthma, and more. Become an Oprah Daily Insider now to get access to this conversation and the full “The Life You Want” Class library.
Site Director
Maggie Maloney is the Site Director of Oprah Daily. She previously worked at Town & Country, Elle DECOR, and Something Navy.
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