Sometimes the hardest part of life is not the emotions themselves, but the constant attempts to escape them. A new international study shows that certain breathing practices can temporarily weaken this internal avoidance mechanism and thus contribute to improved psychological state.
The study involved 324 people from 23 countries who underwent high-ventilation breathwork sessions. After the practice, participants completed several validated psychological questionnaires. The analysis revealed an interesting pattern: the more intensely a person experienced an altered state of consciousness during the breathing session, the less they tended to avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings. And a decrease in such avoidance, in turn, was associated with a higher level of subjective mental well-being.
The work was published on July 30, 2026, in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. The authors, Lena Erdmann and her colleagues from the Universities of Potsdam and Berlin, used recognized scientific scales to assess altered states of consciousness (11D-ASC), experiential avoidance (APEQ-S), and psychological well-being (WEMWBS). Statistical analysis showed a stable link between the depth of the experienced state, reduced avoidance, and the feeling of psychological well-being.
Of particular interest is that the strongest effect was associated not just with the intensity of unusual experiences, but specifically with their blissful, positive components. It was these states that were more often accompanied by a reduction in internal defenses and a greater willingness to face unpleasant emotions rather than habitually withdraw from them.
These results offer a new perspective on breathing practices. Until now, their effects have often been explained by physiological changes – reduced carbon dioxide levels, altered sympathetic nervous system activity, or other biochemical processes. The new work emphasizes that the subjective psychological experience that arises during the practice may be an equally important factor.
This perspective significantly aligns breathing techniques with modern models of psychedelic therapy. In both areas, increasing attention is paid not so much to the altered state of consciousness itself, but to a person's ability to stop fighting their experiences and allow them to be processed. It is precisely the reduction of avoidance that is now considered one of the possible mechanisms of psychological change.
Of course, the study has important limitations. It is based on self-reports from participants, has a cross-sectional design, and does not allow for conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships. Furthermore, people who were already interested in such practices voluntarily participated in the study, which could influence the results.
Nevertheless, the findings are consistent with modern theories of predictive brain processing. According to these models, altered interoceptive signals during intensive breathing may temporarily weaken the brain's rigid predictions of potential threat. When the sense of danger becomes less dominant, it is easier for a person to stay with their feelings instead of automatically suppressing or avoiding them.
The main value of this work goes beyond breathing techniques themselves. It reminds us that the path to psychological well-being may not lie in fighting unpleasant experiences, but in changing our attitude towards them. Perhaps the ability to safely face one's emotions – regardless of whether this is achieved through breathing, psychotherapy, or other methods – is one of the fundamental mechanisms of resilience.
