How to Use Breathwork for Creativity and Intuition

I shared recently that breath is a powerful tool for mental health and healing. Now I want to share with you how breath helps our creativity and increases connection with our intuition.

Breath and the Mind-Body Connection

Ultimately, breathwork is so effective because of the connect between our minds and bodies. This connection - known as the Mind-Body Connection - is the idea that we can access and regulate our emotions through the mind and the body, and what we experience in the mind manifests in the body. The mind is what we consciously know, and the body represents our subconscious.

To explain this better, think about when you’re stressed and dealing with anxiety but not paying attention to it and instead pushing it away and avoiding it. You can’t actually avoid the stress and anxiety because it will come out through your body. By trying to suppress these feelings in your mind, they will manifest in symptoms like digestive issues, tight muscles, and headaches.

Another way to think about it is in terms of your intuition. How do you know when you feel good about something? It feels good in your body! You get a gut feeling - your intuition - that is tied to a feeling in your body. All of this is ultimately happening on a subconscious level!

Breathwork Unlocks the Subconscious

Today's science estimates that 95% of our brain's activity is unconscious, meaning that the majority of the decisions we make, the actions we take, our emotions and our behaviors depend on the 95% of brain activity that lies in the subconscious. In order to access the subconscious, we have to drop deeply into our bodies where our subconscious lives.

Breathwork and meditation are two great and effective practices that drop us deeply into our body and allow us to access the subconscious. Breathwork takes us out of the stress response and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).

Breathwork literally changes the chemistry of our body! The chemicals released during a stress response (adrenaline, cortisol) are acidic, but the chemicals released in a parasympathetic response (dopamine, serotonin) are alkaline - directly counteracting the acidic stress chemicals (link).

Just this decrease in stress alone will increase your creativity because creativity flows when we are relaxed. Additionally, a decrease in stress means we're experiencing less anxiety and overwhelm, allowing us to better discern intuition from fear. If you’re not feeling so anxious, you won’t be getting any digestive issues, so when you feel that gut feeling then you know it’s not fear-based.

Breathwork Tool: Bhramari (Bee’s Breath)

Bhramari (Bee’s Breath) - one of the techniques in my new Ignite your Intuition Breathwork Practice (download it below!) is the perfect way to both activate the parasympathetic nervous system and drop deeply into your body.

This technique focuses on blocking out your senses to drop into the body. The vibrations from humming stimulate the vagus nerve in your chest, which activates the parasympathetic response. The vagus nerve is a large bundle of nerves stretching from your brain down the front of your torso, ending in your glutes. It is crucial in regulating your nervous system, which is what makes stimulating it so powerful! Studies show that increased vagal tone helps regulate the stress response and has beneficial effects on PTSD, IBS, chronic inflammation, depression, and so many other stress-related conditions!

Breathwork Balances Feminine and Masculine Energies

Another way that breathwork helps us is by balancing our masculine and feminine energy. Eastern cultures believe that the world is made up of a duality of energy - masculine and feminine. Yin and yang. Day and night. Masculine energy is logical, linear, and structured. Feminine energy is free-flowing, creative, and intuitive.

Each person is a balance of both masculine and feminine energies, regardless of gender or orientation. This is even reflected in the hemispheres of our brain! The left side of the brain is responsible for structured, logical thinking, whereas the right side is responsible for creative, free-flowing thought.

Breathwork Tool: Chandra Bedhi (Moon Piercing Breath)

By isolating breath through only your left or right nostril, you can actually feed more oxygen into your brain to activate the different sides! This is why Chandra Bedhi (Moon Piercing Breath) is so effective for igniting your creative energy. By breathing in through your left nostril, you feed more oxygen into the right side of your brain, activating creative, feminine energy.

How to Use Breathwork Tools for Creativity

To help you release your creative flow and explore breathwork techniques like Bhramari and Chandra Bedhi, I’ve created a free breathwork for creativity guide. Download it below! This guide will help you move deep into your body, access the parasympathetic response, and activate your right brain and feminine energy to unlock your creativity and release what is blocking you from creating.