Holistic healthcare at The Clifford Clinic – We believe mental wellbeing and good physical health are the building blocks of longevity; Our guided breathwork and meditation workshop is led by our in-house holistic experts and aims to promote both emotional and physical rejuvenation.
Body vs mind
While breathwork is often confused with meditation, breathwork and meditation are actually two distinct practices that target different aspects of your overall health; Breathwork focuses on enhancing your physical health via adjusting your breathing technique and/or rhythm, while meditation focuses on fortifying your mind and improving your emotional well-being through mindfulness and training your attention.
In general, breathwork and meditation complement and enhance each other and are often used in tandem to improve well-being and longevity. However, while combining both practices provides a more holistic and synergistic experience, breathwork and meditation do not have to be exclusively practised together; Ultimately, it is up to the patient if they want to pursue a combination of both practices or stick to just one practice.
Breathwork | Meditation |
· Physically focused · Conscious training or adjustment of your breathing patterns/rhythm · Increases oxygenation to the body · Energizes the body, enhances vitality, and improves mood
| · Mentally/cognitively focused · Conscious observation your thoughts, body, and breathing · Focuses on inward reflection · Promotes relaxation, mindfulness, mental clarity, improved focus, emotional balance and stress reduction
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Breathwork is often used to alleviate emotional stress or depression, elevate mood, and reduce anxiety. Conscious correction of breathing patterns also improves lung health and allows the heart to work more efficiently, increasing oxygenation to the body.
Breathwork and parasympathetic nervous system activation
The body’s autonomic nervous system regulates bodily functions like the heart rate, respiratory rate, digestion, and pupillary response and is comprised of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The sympathetic nervous system is associated with the “fight-or-flight” response, a physiological reaction triggered by perceived physical danger or emotional stress (such as stress due to work).
Also known as the “acute stress response”, activation of the sympathetic nervous system due to emotional stress causes increased vascular resistance, increases blood flow, and hence increases blood pressure.
Sympathetic nervous system activation additional causes the release of norepinephrine, a hormone that primes the body for action and increases alertness; Norepinephrine release is tied to wakefulness and sleep, its release being the lowest during sleep and highest when awake.
The parasympathetic nervous system is associated with the “rest-and-digest” state that returns the body to homeostasis (optimal functioning state of the body) and is known as the “calming” half of the autonomic nervous system that decreases the sympathetic nervous system’s response.
Balanced blood pressure and improved lung health
Practicing breathwork can fortify the heart and lungs, improving circulatory and respiratory health. Breathwork can be helpful for patients who suffer from hypertension as it encourages better blood circulation and lowers blood pressure via parasympathetic nervous system activation, which lowers the heart rate and pumping force of the heart while decreasing the strain on the lungs by tightening airway muscles.
Breathwork for enhanced athletic performance
Breathwork is often used by professional athletes like Wim Hof to improve athletic performance or to continue performance under extreme conditions. Utilising conscious breathing techniques can help athletes:
Breathing patterns are tied to certain emotional states or stress levels. Conscious regulation of breathing patterns pre-game can increase concentration and/or focus in addition to reducing anxiety. A good pre-game breathing technique is box breathing.
In-game breathing techniques like diaphragmatic breathing increases the amount of oxygenated blood that flows through the heart as well as improve the efficiency that oxygenated blood is delivered to the muscles, improving workout or competition performance.
Practicing breathwork during and before utilising training techniques like zone 2 training can improve the outcome of the training session as the heart and lungs to work more efficiently during conscious breathing.
Common types of breathing techniques to improve longevity and performance
Diaphragmatic breathing
Also known as abdominal breathing or belly breathing, diaphragmatic breathing is a breathing technique that engages the diaphragm to allow the individual to take deeper breaths. During normal breathing the lungs are often not used to their full capacity, diaphragmatic breathing encourages individuals to use their lungs at full capacity, strengthening the diaphragm and aiding the lungs in working more efficiently.
To breathe diaphragmatic, you should inhale through your nose for approximately 4 seconds, drawing the breath toward the abdomen. Your abdomen should expand upward if you are engaging your diaphragm properly. Hold the breath for a while before exhaling through your mouth by tightening your abdominal muscles.
Diaphragmatic breathing can be performed for 5 to 10 minutes at a time in a lying, sitting, or standing position.
4-7-8 breath
The 4-7-8 breathing technique is named after how long you inhale (four seconds), hold (seven seconds) and exhale (eight seconds) when performing the technique. 4-7-8 breath can be performed while sitting or lying down and is good for reducing anxiety, calming the mind, and decreasing blood pressure.
Box breathing
Box breathing is often performed during yoga and is the most common type of yogic deep breathing. When box breathing, you should breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and finally hold your breath for four seconds after exhaling to complete one cycle.
Pursed lip breathing
Pursed lip breathing is best practised before physical exertive activities (eg. climbing stairs) and is additionally beneficial for patients suffering from lung conditions such as asthma or pulmonary fibrosis.
To do pursed lip breathing, you should inhale slowly through your nose and gently exhale through your mouth while “pursing” your lips.
Meditative breathwork
Also called breathwork meditation, this technique combines breathing exercises with meditation to improve mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
What is meditation?
Meditation is a mindfulness practice that revolves around focusing the mind using mental and/or physical techniques to achieve tranquillity and deep relaxation. Meditation is considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine and can be used to improve emotional well-being, improve mental clarity, increase longevity, and enhance overall health.
How you mediate may depend on your personal preference or your meditation guide’s preference, but common features/practices that aid with meditation include focusing your attention, relaxing your breathing, choosing a comfortable position to rest in, picking a quiet and comfortable setting, and keeping an open mind.
Benefits of meditation include:
Meditation can also help with managing or improving certain mental health conditions such as depression, ADHD, or chronic anxiety.
Effect of meditation on biological aging
Biological age is measured by epigenetic alteration such as DNA methylation. A medical study published in the General Psychiatry (a psychiatry journal) cites that long-term meditation can promote health-related gene expression, have an impact on brain structure and function, as well as slow down biological aging; The study conducted indicated that the rate of epigenetic ageing is slowed during meditation, suggesting that mediation has some effect on anti-ageing.
Common types of meditation
Guided meditation
Also known as visualisation or guided imagery, guided meditation is often lead by a teacher or holistic expert and employs the use of your sense of smell, sight, sound and touch to aid you in visualising mental images of places or things that help you relax and calm down.
Guided meditation sessions at The Clifford Clinic will be performed in-house by our holistic experts.
Mindfulness meditation
A meditation technique that grounds you by requiring to focus on one thing (Eg. your breathing). During mindfulness meditation, you are encouraged to be aware of the present, your thoughts, and your feelings in the moment without interpretation and while suspending your judgment.
Mantra meditation
Meditation by repeating a calming word or thought to focus and calm your mind, also known as chanting.
Movement meditation
An active form of meditation that uses physical movements and/or breathing exercises to develop body awareness, hone concentration, and promote relaxation. The most well-known type of movement meditation is yoga, but other gentle forms of movement like qigong or tai chi can be used during movement meditation.
Please note that the Breathwork and Meditation Workshop offered by our clinic aims to enhance your physical, mental and emotional health and can be pursued alongside our other longevity intervention services or medical treatments to achieve better and more holistic results. Our workshop should not be used as a substitute for any medical treatment or medication prescribed by your doctor.
The private 1:1 session will consist of calming the nervous system using breathing techniques, mindfulness practises and a change for the individual to connect with themselves in a way they have not done so before.
The Clifford Clinic has a team of experience and certified doctors who work alongside our holistic experts. If you suspect you are suffering from a medical illness/disorder, please do not hesitate to book an appointment with one of our doctors.
