Sometimes the hardest part of life isn't 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, thereby contributing to improved psychological state.
The study involved 324 participants 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 felt the urge to avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings. 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 consistent link between the depth of the experienced state, reduced avoidance, and a feeling of psychological well-being.
Of particular interest is that the strongest effect was associated not simply 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 confront unpleasant emotions head-on, rather than habitually withdrawing from them.
These results offer a new perspective on breathing practices. Until now, their effects have often been explained by physiological changes—such as reduced carbon dioxide levels, altered sympathetic nervous system activity, or other biochemical processes. The new work emphasizes that the subjective psychological experience arising during the practice could be an equally important factor.
This view significantly aligns breathing techniques with modern models of psychedelic therapy. In both fields, increasing attention is being 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 felt. The reduction of avoidance is today 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 voluntarily participated were already interested in such practices, which could influence the results.
Nevertheless, the findings are consistent with modern predictive processing theories of the brain. According to these models, altered interoceptive signals during intense breathing may temporarily weaken the brain's rigid predictions about potential threats. When the sense of danger becomes less dominant, it becomes easier for a person to stay with their feelings rather than automatically suppressing or avoiding them.
The main value of this work extends beyond breathing techniques themselves. It serves as a reminder that the path to psychological well-being may not lie in struggling with unpleasant experiences, but in changing one's relationship to them. Perhaps the ability to safely confront one's emotions—regardless of whether this is achieved through breathing, psychotherapy, or other methods—is one of the fundamental mechanisms of inner resilience.
