Ancient Wisdom with A Modern Twist: Why I Love Soma Breathwork
A deep dive into the science behind this brilliant technique — from its 7,000 year old history to the current day — and anecdotes from my 5 years of personal experience
Everyday I listen to two pieces of music.
One is a 5 minute track that chants Aum (Om) across sixteen beats — 4 seconds to breathe in, 12 seconds to breathe out.
At the end of the track, the next piece of music begins and it’s one that’s shaped the last five years of my life.
During those 20 minutes, there are two rounds of rhythmical breathing followed by breath holds.
Traditionally, in the East, this is known as nisshesha reckhaka pranayama (to hold the breath beyond a comfortable edge). More recently in the West it’s known as intermittent hypoxic training.
It’s a modern twist on ancient practices and I love every second of it.
It’s modern because it’s set to specifically designed brainwave music that’s designed to drop people into a deep meditative state (more on that soon). And it’s ancient because it’s steeped in 7,000 year old pranayama and yogic history.
So, let’s get to it, shall we?
How does each section work?
The first step is to breathe in a rhythm
This is otherwise known as rhythmical breathing or heart coherent breathing.
In essence, it’s simple but it has some pretty remarkable results. Before I share what they are, check out the chart below to get a visual on it.
As you can see there are some visible differences. Firstly, incoherent heart rhythms are spiky and inconsistent whereas coherent ones are smooth and regular. This not only affects blood circulation and digestion but it also decides which side of the autonomic nervous system is more active. The former activates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). The latter activates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).
The good news is that it really doesn’t take long to get into a state of coherence. Sometimes only a few breaths are all it takes. This can then begin to change not only our own body’s biology and chemistry but the field around it.
The longer we can stay in a state of coherence, the quicker our nervous system, heart, and brain can communicate as one unified organism. As one unified organism, we often feel calmer, more connected, and energised as a result.
Beautiful ripples (or waves) then start to radiate out from the heart as it signals to every cell in the body to also become coherent. These waves move both vertically (up and down the body) and horizontally (out from the body), meaning that not only are heart coherent waves healing for the person who is experiencing them but they are also healing for everyone within that energetic heart space.
The Heart Math Institute has measured this to be as far as several feet outside of the body.
Other benefits of heart coherent breathing include:
Better circulation and blood flow
Reduced stress
Enhanced spatial awareness
Improved focus and memory
More emotional stability (less emotionally reactive)
More compassion, empathy, and understanding
Improved overall heart health
Soothes anxiety and depression
Aids digestion; And
Boosts the immune system
“When our hearts are in a state of coherence, we more easily experience feelings such as love, care, appreciation, and kindness. On the other hand, feelings such as irritation, anger, hurt, and envy are more likely to occur when the head and heart are out of alignment.” — Jed Diamond
This is why I practice heart coherent breathing every day.
Then we enter the breath retention phase.
The benefits of intermittent hypoxic training vary from improved learning and memory and a good night’s sleep to a stronger immune system and healthier lungs.
Hypoxia is defined as — a condition where not enough oxygen makes it to the cells and tissues in the body.
Intermittent is defined as — occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady.
So intermittent hypoxic training is the act of temporarily slowing the flow of oxygen to the cells and tissues in the body.
This might sound dangerous at first but this technique is all about training the body to adapt to a low-oxygen environment so it can become more oxygen-efficient. If the body becomes more oxygen-efficient, it can breathe fewer breaths per minute which has tremendous benefits on our physical and mental health.
To understand how this works in the body, imagine a set of scales that has oxygen on the left and carbon dioxide on the right. As each round of breathing builds, oxygen levels rise and carbon dioxide levels drop. So, when it’s time to enter the breath retention phase the scales are firmly planted on the left. However, as the breath hold continues (the longer the better — 90 seconds + for maximum effect), carbon dioxide levels begin to rise again which allows more oxygen to be released from a sticky protein called haemoglobin and thus, reach more tissue cells in the body.
This is important in terms of strengthening the lungs because the first impulse to breathe comes from a need to expel carbon dioxide and not because the body needs more oxygen. That comes shortly after. So by extending the urge to breathe out/get rid of carbon dioxide fewer breaths are needed to be breathed in.
Nisshesha rechaka pranayama or intermittent hypoxic training is specifically designed to help us become more oxygen efficient by building up a tolerance to carbon dioxide.
Fasting from food works in a similar way. Initially, when the body doesn’t receive the amount of food it’s used to, for example, it sends signals of hunger up to the brain but with enough time and practice it learns to take from its stored resources and clean out its old stock. This then has an overall detoxifying and regenerative effect on the body.
It’s only when a person goes without food for too long or too often does it become a problem. It’s the same with the breath. However, because the body can survive for months without food and days without water, there is less urgency for the body to respond so more time is needed for the effects to kick in. Hence why fasting is done over many days. When it comes to the breath, things happen much faster and more urgently so the benefits can be experienced much sooner.
Another great example comes from the way skin heals and repairs. When our skin is burned, scraped, or cut, information is quickly sent to the damaged area(s). Water forms blisters to protect burns. Blood hardens into scabs, and new stem cells rush to create new patches of skin over the affected areas. The body’s wisdom is doing this all the time, both externally on organs like the skin and internally on each and every cell. The pause that intermittent hypoxic training provides speeds up this healing process because it capitalises on the body’s urgency to heal and regenerate either because or before it needs healing. This then ultimately repairs and/or reverses tissue and cell damage or prevents damage from occurring in the first place.
Cool fact: The longest breath hold stands at 24 minutes 37 seconds and it was set by a professional freediver called Budimir Šobat
A fun way to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood during these times is with a pulse oximeter. However, it might take longer than you think to get things moving.
Even after a 30–45 second breath hold, for example, (this is the average time it takes for a person to naturally want to breathe) our oxygen levels hover around 95–99%. It’s only after this time that the health benefits start to kick in.
So, in order for us to enjoy the benefits of this wonderful technique we must aim for a target of 85% SpO2 (saturation of peripheral oxygen) or less.
That requires a breath hold time of around 1 minute 30 seconds or more. Even better still, if you can reach a breath hold time of 2–3 minutes and beyond and do it consistently day in and day out, dormant stem cells have been known to proliferate and move around the body and that’s when health can dramatically improve.
I personally credit a lot of my own healing to this technique because during my 20 years of anxiety, I also developed an inflamed gut. However, with the help of a daily breathwork practice and other supportive lifestyle choices such as eating a healthier diet, jumping into cold water, and meditation, my nervous system regulated itself again, and my gut lining healed. That’s why I’m such a big advocate of it.
“Improper breathing is a common cause of ill health. If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly. There is no single more powerful — or more simple — daily practice to further your health and well being than breathwork.” — Andrew Weil, M.D.
Our Lungs Over Time
The health of our lungs gets even more important as we age because scientists have discovered that around the age of 30–35 years old, our lung capacity starts to decrease and it only goes downhill from there. This is due to the muscles in the diaphragm becoming weaker, our lung tissue losing some of its elasticity, which means our airways become smaller, and our rib cage bones change shape which leaves less room for them to expand into.
Our lungs are like every other muscle in the body in that regard. If they’re used often and efficiently, they can begin to gain strength, elasticity, and volume, even as we age. However, if they’re not, everything in and around them (tendons, ligaments, muscle tissue, bone density, etc…) will naturally start to weaken. So, even though our lungs do shrink over time — up to 40% by the time we reach 80 years old — they can also expand.
No one has proven this more than freedivers.
Freediving is the art of diving deep under the surface of the water on a single breath of air and some who dive regularly have reported that they’ve increased their lung capacity by 30%. That’s huge! While this might sound possible for only a few elite athletes in extreme sports, it’s a process of building strength up over time in much the same way a regular muscle builds up in the gym. And anyone can do it.
Lastly, we come to the final pièce de résistance - Brainwave Music
This is unique to Soma Breath and it’s one of my favourite components.
Brainwave music or binaural beats is a technology that’s built on the understanding that everything in the universe is moving and vibrating. And because everything is moving and vibrating, everything is making a sound. And because everything is making a sound and sounds create frequencies, those frequencies can match with other frequencies to form a natural alignment.
174hz is said to help relieve pain.
432hz is used for energy healing.
528hz is the resonance at the heart of everything that exists in the universe — from
the sun to the pyramids to rainbows and snowflakes.639hz is said to help find balance and connection in relationships.
741hz is connected to the throat chakra and acts as armour against negativity.
783hz aligns with the Earth’s natural resonance and creates harmony and balance. (This is known as the Schumann resonance after Dr. Winfried Otto Schumann predicted it mathematically in 1952).
963hz (Solfeggio Frequency) is associated with awakening intuition and activating
the pineal gland.
While each frequency is subtle to our everyday minds, our subconscious mind can tap into them and react accordingly.
There are hundreds if not thousands of hours’ worth of brainwave music completely free on platforms like YouTube, from 10 minutes to 10 hours long, so there’s content available for every desired time of the day and night.
Soma Breath is a fantastic technique for many reasons but one of them is that it’s currently the only one that uses brainwave music in their breathwork sessions. And from my own direct experience, I can highly recommend it. Combining specifically designed brainwave music with heart coherent breathing is very special indeed!
Harold Russell, a clinical psychologist, used brainwave music on his wife to help her recover from a severe stroke. “One day she told me the fog just went away.” He reported.
Harold Russell isn’t alone here either. Brainwave music or binaural beats is now being used to treat patients with ADD, depression, sleeping disorders, and anxiety, while also helping to speed up blood circulation, brain activity, and cognitive thinking in the elderly. It’s even helping people with more severe conditions such as brain damage, stroke patients, and Parkinson’s disease. This is happening, in part, because of the way brainwave music helps to ‘reorganise’ brainwave activity into more harmonious rhythms.
If combined with a harmonious breath the results can be extraordinary.
“We may be sitting on one of the most widely available and cost-effective therapeutic modalities that ever existed” — Turow
If you’d like to try Soma Breath yourself, follow the link here.
There’s a free online masterclass, a free 5-day mini course, and lots of other trainings that I’ve come to know and love too.
I know I’m biassed but I’d highly recommend it :)