Yale Study shows Active Breathwork to be significantly more effective for students than Mindfulness Meditation

This is a really seminal research study that was just published in 2020 by researchers at Yale University [LINK].

I’m a big fan of mindfulness meditation and still practice it often, however there is huge amounts of research on meditation and (albeit growing) I’m so happy to see these thorough studies appearing and really legitimising the overwhelming benefits of an Active Breathwork practice.

This study was a randomised controlled trial (the best kind!) of 131 university students – ok, not a huge number but it does make the significant results found even more interesting statistically (meaning that the measured changes were quite big).

So for this study, students were either placed in one of 4 groups: (1) a control group (no training received), (2) An 8-week Active Breathwork Program, (3) An 8-week Emotional Intelligence Program or (4) An 8-week Mindfulness Program.

The Active Breathwork Program showed the greatest impact, benefiting six outcomes: depression, stress, mindfulness, positive affect and social connectedness. 

The Active Breathwork Program showed the greatest impact, benefiting six outcomes: depression, stress, mindfulness, positive affect (a measure of experiencing positive emotions) and social connectedness (feeling of being connected to others). The Active Breathwork program used in the study was called Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) which combines Active Breathwork practice with yoga postures.

The emotional intelligence group benefited in one outcome: mindfulness.

The Mindfulness program (called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction “MBSR”) group showed no statistically significant difference when compared to the group that did no training – This was actually a surprising result given that there is a lot of research suggesting its potential benefits for a wide range of populations. However the researchers also point out that larger review studies show mixed results across studies.

The authors of the study go on to talk about the physiological benefits of deep and active breathing techniques. Showing that Breathwork has been linked to improvements in cognitive function; and how breathing exercises may impact psychological thriving via improved cognitive function, such as enhanced attention. They also point out how breathing techniques have been found to enhance emotional control and psychological well-being.

You can read the full study here.

September is next week and Virtual Breathwork classes are back! The first drop-in workshop is on Sunday 5th September at 10am where we’ll explore creativity and clarity before we dive in to Breathwork. You can do Breathwork from your bed, couch or yoga mat. The active Breathwork Practice I teach is gentle but powerful. You can take it at your own pace and take it super gently if that feels good to you – I promise you’ll still feel an effect by the end of the session! Sign up here