Why Breath work Is the Modern-Day Superfood for Health, Performance, and Fulfilment

By Ben Bidwell · Human Potential Coach & Breathwork Practitioner · Visiting Master at AyurMa

For most of us, breathing is something we never question. It happens automatically (hopefully), quietly in the background of our lives. And yet, the way we breathe is one of the most powerful levers we have to influence how we feel, how we think, and how we experience life itself.

Simply put, how you breathe directly shapes how you feel.

This is because the breath is the most direct gateway we have to the nervous system. Every inhale and exhale sends a message to the body about safety or threat. When we breathe in a way the nervous system interprets as stressful - fast, shallow, or held - the body responds by activating a stress response. Heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, and the mind becomes busy, alert, and reactive.

When we breathe slowly, rhythmically, and with intention, the opposite happens. The nervous system receives a signal of safety. The body softens. The mind quietens. We shift out of survival mode and into a state of balance, clarity, and presence.

This is why breathwork is not just another wellness trend. It is a foundational tool for health, performance, and inner fulfilment. In many ways, it is a modern-day superfood: simple, accessible, and deeply effective.

Breath as Direct Access to the Nervous System

Unlike most tools that aim to calm the mind through effort or discipline, breathwork works from the inside out. You do not need to analyse your stress or think your way into relaxation. The breath does the work for you.

The nervous system has two primary branches. The sympathetic nervous system prepares us for action, challenge, and threat. The parasympathetic nervous system supports rest, digestion, recovery, and healing.

Modern life keeps many high performers stuck in sympathetic overdrive — constantly switched on, productive, and outwardly successful, yet inwardly depleted.

Breathwork allows us to intentionally influence this system. Through rhythmical breathing patterns, longer exhales, and conscious control of the breath, we can activate the parasympathetic response and restore balance. This is not theory, it’s physiology.

Over time, this practice does more than relax us in the moment. It trains resilience. It teaches the nervous system that it is safe to slow down, even in a fast-moving world.

The Brainwave Connection: From Doing to Being

Beyond nervous system regulation, breathwork has a powerful effect on the brain itself.

Most adults spend the majority of their waking hours in what is known as the beta brainwave state. Beta is associated with thinking, planning, analysing, problem-solving, and decision-making. It is essential for performance and achievement, but when we live here constantly, it drains us and becomes exhausting.

Research suggests that many people spend over 60 to 70 percent of their day in this busy beta state. For high performers, that number is often even higher. The mind rarely switches off, even when the body is resting. Spending that amount of time in beta will be stressful.

Through breathing in specific breathwork patterns, we can guide the brain out of beta and into slower brainwave states - alpha and theta. These states allow you to experience and see life in entirely new ways; there will be clarity, peace and deep connection (which is why breathwork for couples is such a magical experience).

In my work, I get to use brainwave tracking technology to measure these shifts in real time. Through rhythmical breathwork alone, without any external stimulation, I always see clear transitions from beta into alpha and theta states. This is not imagined calm. It is measurable, felt change.

Why Alpha and Theta States Matter

In the driven and high-functioning world many of us operate in these days, these states offer something increasingly rare.

Alpha and theta states allow the mind to rest without losing awareness. They create space between thoughts. In this space, we gain perspective. We stop reacting and start responding. Creativity flows more easily. Problems that felt heavy often resolve themselves naturally.

More importantly, these states reconnect us with a deeper sense of self. When the noise of constant thinking quietens, we gain access to intuition, values, and inner truth. For those who have achieved success externally but feel something missing internally, this reconnection can be life changing.

It is not about doing more. It is about remembering how to be.

Breathwork as a Tool for Health Optimisation

From a health and performance perspective, breathwork offers tangible, measurable benefits that matter to high performers.

Regular breathwork practice has been shown to increase heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is one of the most reliable markers of nervous system health and resilience — higher HRV is associated with better stress adaptation, improved cardiovascular health, and greater emotional regulation.

Breathwork can also lower resting blood pressure by reducing chronic sympathetic activation. As the nervous system learns to down-regulate more effectively, the cardiovascular system benefits as a natural consequence.

Many people experience improvements in sleep quality, mental clarity, and focus. When the mind is no longer trapped in constant overdrive, recovery becomes deeper and more efficient.

Perhaps most importantly, breathwork gives us access to inner calm without disengaging from life. This is not about switching off ambition or drive. It is about operating from a place of clarity rather than tension.

From Success to Fulfilment

For many high achievers, stress is the cost of your success.

Breathwork offers a bridge between outer achievement and inner fulfilment. It helps us shift from living solely in our heads to reconnecting with the intelligence of the body and the wisdom of the heart.

This is where true fulfilment lives. Not in the next milestone or the next goal, but in the ability to be present, grounded, and alive in the life we have already built.

Breathwork invites you to experience life from a more regulated, open, and connected state. In a world that constantly pulls us outward, the breath brings us home.

And that is why breathwork is, without question, one of the most powerful modern-day tools we have to influence our health, performance, and sense of meaning.

Ben Bidwell returns to AyurMa at Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru from

Mar 9th – Apr 8th, 2026, Explore the schedule and topics of his upcoming Vedanta talks by clicking here.