What is Integration in Breathwork?
Quick Jump Links
Why is Integration Important in Breathwork?
How to Integrate After Breathwork
Have you ever reached the end of a breathwork class and heard the word integration mentioned, but weren’t quite sure what it meant? You’re not alone. Integration is a term often used in healing practices like breathwork, yoga, or therapy, but its meaning can feel elusive.
Simply put, integration is the process of taking the insights, emotions, and experiences that arise during a breathwork session and weaving them into your everyday life. Breathwork can open you up to powerful emotional releases, self-discovery, and even spiritual insights. But without integration, these experiences may remain fleeting, their potential for growth and transformation unrealised.
In this article, we’ll explore what integration truly means, why it’s such a vital part of breathwork, and how you can create space in your life for this transformative process.
Integration in breathwork refers to the process of taking the experiences, emotions, and insights gained during a session and making them part of your everyday life. Breathwork can evoke powerful emotions, reveal deep-seated patterns, or bring moments of clarity. However, without integration, these profound moments may fade, leaving their full potential untapped.
Think of integration as the bridge between the breathwork session and lasting transformation. It’s where the real magic happens—not during the session itself, but in how you allow its lessons to shape your thoughts, behaviours, and relationships.
At its core, integration involves:
Reflection: Understanding and processing what came up during the session.
Grounding: Returning to a state of balance and calm after an intense emotional or physical experience.
Action: Using the insights gained to create meaningful change in your life.
Whether your session left you feeling lighter, brought up unexpected emotions, or offered clarity on a challenge, integration is what helps these moments stick and transform into personal growth.
Next, let’s explore why integration is such a crucial part of the breathwork journey.
Breathwork can be an intense and transformative experience. Whether it stirs up buried emotions, brings moments of profound insight, or simply leaves you feeling deeply relaxed, what happens during a session is only part of the journey. Integration is what ensures that these experiences don’t stay isolated but instead lead to meaningful, lasting change.
Here’s why integration matters:
Processing Emotions
Breathwork often brings emotions to the surface, some of which may feel overwhelming or unfamiliar. Without integration, these feelings can linger unresolved. By creating space to reflect and ground yourself after a session, you allow these emotions to be fully processed and released.Creating Lasting Change
The insights gained during breathwork can provide clarity on personal challenges, patterns, or goals. Integration turns these insights into actionable steps that reshape your daily life. Without this step, those powerful "aha" moments may fade, leaving little long-term impact.Grounding Your Energy
Breathwork can sometimes leave you feeling ungrounded or "floaty," particularly after a session that reaches deep emotional or spiritual layers. Integration practices like journaling, walking in nature, or meditation help bring you back to balance, ensuring you feel safe and steady.Enhancing Self-Awareness
Integration deepens your understanding of the lessons breathwork offers. By taking time to sit with your experience, you develop greater emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and connection to your inner world.Supporting Your Nervous System
Breathwork impacts the nervous system, often shifting you from a sympathetic (fight-or-flight) state to a parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) state. Integration allows your body to fully embrace this shift, promoting relaxation and long-term nervous system regulation.
Integration isn’t an afterthought; it’s the key to unlocking the full potential of your breathwork practice. In the next section, we’ll explore practical ways to integrate breathwork into your life.
Integration doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require intention. Here are some practical ways to incorporate the lessons and emotions from breathwork sessions into your everyday life:
1. Reflect on Your Experience
Take time after your session to process what came up for you. Journaling can be a helpful tool for capturing thoughts, emotions, and any insights.
Write freely without judgment—let your thoughts flow.
Revisit your entries later to identify patterns or recurring themes.
Use prompts like: “What emotions surfaced during the session?” or “What insights feel most important to explore further?”
2. Ground Yourself
After an intense session, grounding practices can help you reconnect with your body and the present moment:
Go for a walk in nature, focusing on the sights, sounds, and sensations around you.
Try gentle yoga or stretching to release tension and restore balance.
Use physical touch, like placing your hands on your chest or feet, to remind yourself of your connection to the earth.
For more ideas, explore our guide on Grounding & Resourcing in Breathwork.
3. Share Your Insights
Talking about your experience can deepen your understanding and help you process emotions:
Share with a trusted friend, therapist, or breathwork facilitator.
Join a breathwork community or group to connect with others who understand the journey.
4. Create Rituals Around Your Practice
Rituals help anchor your breathwork experiences into your daily life:
Light a candle before and after a session to signify opening and closing the experience.
Set an intention at the start of your session and revisit it in your daily reflections.
Incorporate affirmations or gratitude practices into your breathwork routine.
5. Take It Slow
Remember, integration is a process, not a race. Be patient with yourself as you navigate emotions or insights that arise. Some days, it might feel easier to reflect or take action than others, and that’s okay.
6. Use Breathwork as a Daily Tool
Even outside of formal sessions, breathwork can support integration and daily well-being. Try:
Box breathing during stressful moments to regain calm.
Diaphragmatic breathing to start your day with focus and clarity.
Alternate nostril breathing to create balance and relaxation before sleep.
Integration is a vital part of breathwork, but it’s not always a smooth or straightforward process. Sometimes, unexpected emotions arise, or life’s demands make it difficult to carve out the time needed. Here are some common challenges people face during integration and practical ways to navigate them:
1. Overwhelm from Intense Emotions
Breathwork can stir deep feelings that may feel challenging to process. This overwhelm is natural, as your body and mind work through stored emotions.
How to Overcome It:
Focus on grounding techniques, like walking barefoot on the grass or practising diaphragmatic breathing.
Break down your reflections into smaller, manageable pieces—journaling for just 5 minutes a day can help.
Reach out to a trusted breathwork facilitator or therapist for support.
2. Feeling Disconnected After a Session
Sometimes, the insights or emotions from breathwork can feel distant once the session ends, leaving you unsure of how to reconnect with the experience.
How to Overcome It:
Revisit your session by journaling or meditating on any key moments or insights.
Use tools like music or scents that remind you of the session’s atmosphere to bring you back to the experience.
Attend another session or explore techniques like Conscious Connected Breathwork to reconnect.
3. Lack of Time for Reflection
Life can feel busy, and finding time to reflect and integrate may seem impossible.
How to Overcome It:
Incorporate small moments of reflection into your daily routine, such as while commuting, during a lunch break, or before bed.
Use a voice memo app to capture quick thoughts or emotions if journaling feels too time-consuming.
Commit to a regular, brief practice, such as box breathing, to ground yourself even on busy days.
4. Physical Sensations or Discomfort
Occasionally, breathwork may bring physical sensations like tightness, tingling, or fatigue that linger after the session.
How to Overcome It:
Gentle movement, like yoga or stretching, can help release tension.
Stay hydrated and eat nourishing foods to support your body’s recovery.
Experiment with slower, calming breath techniques like extended exhale breathing to ease discomfort.
5. Expectations vs. Reality
Sometimes, the outcomes of a breathwork session don’t align with your expectations, leaving you feeling confused or disappointed.
How to Overcome It:
Remind yourself that every session is unique—there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to experience breathwork.
Celebrate small shifts, even if they feel subtle at first. Transformation often happens gradually.
Explore our Beginner’s Guide to Breathwork for a fresh perspective on the process.
Navigating Challenges with Compassion
Challenges during integration are a natural part of the journey. By approaching yourself with patience and kindness, you create the space needed for growth and transformation.
Integration doesn’t have to be a rigid process—it can be creative, playful, and deeply personal.
Here are 20 unique and unexpected ways to integrate your breathwork experiences into daily life:
1. Create Art
Use your emotions and insights from a session as inspiration for painting, drawing, or crafting. Artistic expression can help you process feelings without needing to find the "right" words.
2. Build a Playlist
Curate a playlist of songs that resonate with the emotions or energy you experienced during your session. Listening to it can evoke those feelings and deepen your connection to them.
3. Write a Letter to Yourself
Write a letter as though you’re speaking to your future self, sharing the lessons and insights gained during your session. Revisit the letter later to see how those lessons have shaped you.
4. Practice Gratitude
List three things you’re grateful for that surfaced during or after your breathwork session. This simple practice reinforces positivity and anchors your experience in the present.
5. Incorporate Aromatherapy
Use scents that evoke calm or clarity, such as lavender, eucalyptus, or citrus, to ground yourself after a session. Diffusing these oils can help you feel centred.
6. Make a Vision Board
Translate the insights or goals from your session into a visual format. Collage images and words that represent what you want to manifest or explore further.
7. Take a Nature Walk
Spend time in nature, observing the sights, sounds, and textures around you. Let the natural world remind you of the interconnectedness you may have felt during your session.
8. Write Poetry
Transform your experience into a poem. It doesn’t have to rhyme—simply let your words flow freely to capture the essence of your breathwork journey.
9. Practice Breath Awareness During Daily Activities
Bring mindfulness to everyday moments like washing dishes or commuting. Focus on the rhythm of your breath to ground yourself and stay connected to your practice.
10. Try Freewriting
Set a timer for 10 minutes and write whatever comes to mind without censoring yourself. This can help uncover hidden emotions or insights from your session.
11. Use Movement to Integrate
Dance, stretch, or engage in somatic practices to move the energy released during breathwork. Let your body lead the way without overthinking.
12. Light a Candle or Start a Ritual
Create a simple ritual, like lighting a candle or saying a mantra, to symbolise the beginning or end of your integration practice.
13. Revisit a Favourite Book or Film
Engage with art that feels meaningful or resonates with themes from your session. Sometimes a familiar story can take on new depth after a transformative experience.
14. Map Out Your Insights
Draw a mind map of the emotions, images, or thoughts that surfaced during your session. Visualising them can help you connect the dots between experiences.
15. Create a Meal Inspired by Your Session
Cook or bake something that reflects how you felt—comforting, energising, or playful. This can make the experience tangible and nourishing.
16. Keep a "Breath Journal"
Dedicate a journal to documenting your breathwork sessions, noting any shifts, breakthroughs, or recurring themes. This can help you track your growth over time.
17. Plant Something
Engage with the metaphor of growth by planting a flower, herb, or tree. Let it symbolise the new seeds you’re planting in your life through breathwork.
18. Practice Silence
Set aside 10–15 minutes to sit in silence. Observe your thoughts, emotions, and breath without judgment, creating space for the experience to settle.
19. Build a Collage of Words
Cut out words or phrases from magazines that resonate with your session. Arrange them into a collage to capture your insights visually.
20. Host a Sharing Circle
Invite a small group of friends or fellow breathwork practitioners to share their experiences. Hearing others’ journeys can provide new perspectives and deepen your own understanding.