What is the science behind the WOO?
(How breathwork actually changes your body, brain, and life)
WOO Breathwork™ is not “just relaxing.” There are now hundreds of clinical studies and multiple meta-analyses showing that specific ways of breathing can shift your nervous system, reduce stress and anxiety, improve mood, support blood pressure and heart health, sharpen attention, and even influence markers linked to brain aging. (PMC)]Below is a comprehensive, parent and practitioner friendly tour of what the science actually says, from kids to caregivers to elders. I will flag clearly where the evidence is strong, emerging, or more speculative.
1. How WOO-style breathwork works in your body
Most WOO Breathwork practices use some version of:
- Diaphragmatic or “belly” breathing
- Slow, rhythmic cycles, often around 4 to 6 breaths per minute
- Longer exhalations than inhalations
- Occasional gentle breath holds
- Paired with focused attention, imagery, and affirmations (breathWORDS™)
Science language for what this targets:
a) Autonomic nervous system and the vagus nerve
Slow, deep breathing with a relaxed belly stimulates the vagus nerve, which is a core highway of your parasympathetic nervous system. That is the “rest, digest, and repair” branch that balances the “fight, flight, or freeze” system.
- Reviews of slow breathing show it increases parasympathetic activity and heart rate variability (HRV) and improves baroreflex sensitivity, which is your body’s ability to keep blood pressure stable. (PMC)
- The respiratory vagal stimulation model proposes that slow breathing with extended exhalation directly activates vagus nerve pathways that calm heart rate, reduce arousal, and promote emotional regulation. (PMC)
In simple terms: when you slow your breath and lengthen your exhale, you help your body hit the “brakes,” which:
- Lowers heart rate
- Reduces feelings of internal pressure
- Makes it easier to think clearly instead of reacting on autopilot
b) Heart rate variability and “coherence”
When you inhale, your heart speeds up a little. When you exhale, it slows down. That rhythmic rise and fall is called heart rate variability (HRV).
- Meta analyses show that voluntary slow breathing increases HRV and can reduce resting heart rate and blood pressure. (AJC Online)
- Breathing at your individual “resonance frequency” (often around 6 breaths per minute) maximizes HRV and improves cardiovascular and autonomic stability. (ScienceDirect)
Many WOO sequences are built to hover around that slow, coherent rhythm. Practically, this means your heart and nervous system are literally becoming more flexible, resilient, and less stressed with practice.
2. Mental health: anxiety, stress, mood, trauma responses
This is where the evidence is strongest and most consistent.
a) Stress, anxiety, and depression
A large 2023 meta analysis of 57 breathwork studies found that:
- Breathwork interventions had moderate improvements in stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms compared to control conditions. (Nature)
A separate systematic review of diaphragmatic breathing concluded:
- Diaphragmatic breathing can reduce physiological stress markers like heart rate and salivary cortisol
- It also reduces self reported stress and anxiety in both clinical and non clinical populations (PubMed)
Specific trials include:
- Diaphragmatic breathing for attention and anxiety: an 8 week protocol improved sustained attention and significantly reduced state anxiety scores in adults and school aged children. (Frontiers)
- Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (a structured breathing practice) in physicians: a randomized clinical trial with 129 doctors found significant reductions in stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia compared to control. (JAMA Network)
So when I say “your nervous system needs you to breathe new beliefs,” we are not just being poetic. You are literally changing stress chemistry and emotional baseline through regular practice.
b) Trauma, PTSD, and intense emotional states
Breathwork has also been studied for trauma related conditions:
- A 2025 systematic review of pranayama for mental disorders (PTSD, depression, mixed disorders) found benefits compared to waitlist or standard care, with some limitations and risk of bias in the current trials. (PMC)
- A 2023 review of breathwork interventions in adults with clinical diagnoses (including panic disorder, agoraphobia, PTSD, and others) found that protocols combining slow breathing and exposure based therapy improved symptoms across several anxiety disorders and panic related conditions. (PMC)
Transformational and high ventilation styles such as holotropic breathwork are used in trauma and transpersonal work. Studies so far are promising but smaller and more focused on qualitative outcomes:
- A clinical report in over 11,000 psychiatric inpatients found holotropic breathwork was generally well tolerated and associated with reductions in interpersonal problems and hostility, and facilitated “mythopoetic” or transpersonal experiences that can support meaning making in therapy. (PMC)
These deeper styles are powerful and not necessary for most daily nervous system regulation, but they show that breath is a legitimate path into non ordinary states of consciousness, similar in some ways to psychedelic therapy, and can be used safely when well held.
3. Brain, focus, and emotional regulation
a) Attention and executive function
Breathwork affects how your brain pays attention, processes information, and regulates emotion:
- Deep, slow breathing has been shown to improve attention, cognitive performance, and emotional control in both younger and older adults. (PMC)
- In one study, a single session of deep slow breathing improved sustained attention and reduced anxiety in healthy adults. (Nature)
- In school settings, brief yoga breathing practices have improved attention and reduced anxiety in students, suggesting a simple school based practice can shift classroom regulation. (PMC)
b) Emotion regulation and the “thinking brain”
Neuroimaging studies show that focusing on the breath literally changes how your emotional and thinking centers talk to each other:
- When people direct mindful attention to the breath, amygdala activation (the fear and threat detector) decreases and connectivity with prefrontal regions that help regulate emotion increases. (ScienceDirect)
- A broader review of breathing and brain activity shows that breathing rhythms entrain neural oscillations in networks involved in cognition and mood, including the insula, anterior cingulate, and prefrontal cortex. (PMC)
This is one of the big reasons breathwork and “manifestation” are connected. When you regulate your breath, you gain more access to your prefrontal cortex. That is the part of the brain that can:
- Hold long term vision
- Inhibit old reactive patterns
- Make choices that match your future self instead of your past
- Rewire how you interpret sensations and situations
It is not magic. It is neuroplasticity plus nervous system safety.
4. Physical health: heart, lungs, and beyond
a) Blood pressure and cardiovascular health
Multiple trials and meta analyses show that breathing exercises can meaningfully affect heart and blood vessel health:
- A 2024 systematic review and meta analysis found a moderate but significant positive effect of breathing exercises on blood pressure and heart rate in people with hypertension. (ScienceDirect)
- A 12 week slow breathing protocol in adults led to clinically meaningful reductions in blood pressure, even in the absence of major medication changes. (PMC)
- Other studies show that slow breathing increases baroreflex sensitivity and HRV in both healthy individuals and those with conditions like chronic heart failure. (AHJournals)
Translation: long term slow breathing practice can be a powerful adjunct to medical care for high blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, under supervision from your health provider.
b) Lung function and brain aging
Breathwork is obviously linked to lungs, but that goes beyond “better breathing”:
- Slow breathing protocols in older adults have improved memory retention, HRV, and autonomic balance, suggesting potential protective effects for cognitive function in populations at risk for dementia. (PMC)
- Long term studies of lung function show that poorer lung function is associated with faster brain aging and cognitive decline, likely through reduced oxygenation and microvascular damage. (PMC)
So practices that strengthen diaphragmatic function, improve lung mechanics, and optimize gas exchange may indirectly support brain health over time.
5. Dementia, Alzheimer’s risk, and older adults
This is a newer but very exciting area.
A team at USC and collaborators have been studying how slow breathing and HRV biofeedback affect Alzheimer’s related biomarkers:
- In one trial, adults practiced simple slow breathing (5 second inhalation, 5 second exhalation) for 20 minutes twice a day for four weeks. This protocol decreased plasma levels of amyloid beta (Aβ40 and Aβ42) and improved the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio, a marker that may relate to Alzheimer’s disease risk. (USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology)
Other studies and programs:
- HRV biofeedback and resonance frequency breathing protocols are being tested as non drug interventions that can improve cardiac autonomic control and cognitive functioning in older adults, including those with mild cognitive impairment. (PMC)
- Slow paced “heart coherence” breathing training has been highlighted as a low cost way to shift markers that may influence dementia risk, although this is still an emerging field. (HeartMath)
Important caveat: breathwork does not “cure” dementia. What the science suggests is that:
- Slow paced, HRV friendly breathing may positively influence some risk related biomarkers and autonomic patterns
- Regular practice may support cognition, mood, and quality of life for older adults and their caregivers
This is one of the reasons WOO Breathwork is designed to be safe and accessible across the lifespan.
6. Breathwork for children and teens
Children are not small adults. Their nervous systems and brains are still wiring themselves. Breath is one of the simplest ways to support that wiring in real time.
What we know so far:
- A Stanford study of young children found that just a few slow deep breaths in natural settings (day camps and playgrounds) significantly reduced physiological arousal, helping kids calm down more quickly. (Greater Good)
- School based breathing exercises, like simple belly breathing or counting breaths, have been shown to reduce test anxiety and support emotional regulation in primary school students. (Frontiers)
- Yoga based high frequency breathing and focused attention practices have improved attention and reduced anxiety in school aged children, suggesting that brief, playful breathwork can be a useful classroom tool. (PMC)
A 2023 review of breath practices for stress and anxiety reduction noted that:
- Interventions in youth and high anxiety adults were always effective when they used guided training, multiple sessions, and avoided ultra short, fast only practices. (PMC)
In practice for kids this looks like:
- Animal or color breath games
- Simple counts like “smell the flower, blow out the candle”
- Very short, repetitive patterns that feel like play
Magician’s Garden, BreathSTORIES, and child focused WOO practices build on this science and make it engaging, imaginative, and relational.
7. Caregivers, parents, and professionals
Caregiving, whether for children or elders, is a chronic stress exposure. Breathwork has been directly tested in caregivers.
a) Dementia and Alzheimer’s caregivers
- A pilot randomized controlled study in informal caregivers for people with Alzheimer’s disease tested heart focused breathing for 10 minutes a day over two weeks. The breathing group reported reduced perceived burden and improved emotional wellbeing compared to waitlist control. (PubMed)
- Another 2025 trial combining mindfulness based breathing therapy and music showed reductions in caregiver burden and burnout. (PubMed)
- Meta analyses of mindfulness based interventions, many of which center on breath awareness, show significant improvements in stress, anxiety, depression, and burden among caregivers of people with dementia. (Sigma Pubs)
b) Parents and frontline professionals
Although fewer trials exist specifically for “parents of toddlers melting down,” the mechanisms are the same:
- Breathing retraining sheets from clinical services show that slow, regular belly breathing can reduce general anxiety and help people cope better in stressful situations when practiced daily. (CCI Health WA)
- HRV biofeedback and coherence style breathing protocols are being tested widely as scalable stress reduction tools, with early large scale data supporting reductions in stress and improvements in mental health. (JAMA Network)
This is the nervous system science behind why WOO Breathwork focuses so much on caregivers. If your breathing changes, your HRV, tone of voice, facial expression, and presence change. Children and elders are exquisitely sensitive to that.
8. “Manifestation,” quantum talk, and reality rewiring
There are not randomized controlled trials on “manifesting your dream life with breathwork.” What we do have are:
- Strong evidence that breathwork changes activity and connectivity in networks related to emotion, self focus, and narrative, including the default mode network, salience network, and executive networks. (PMC)
- Studies showing that attention to breath reduces amygdala reactivity and increases prefrontal regulation during negative emotions. (ScienceDirect)
So when we talk about quantum shifts or reality rewiring inside WOO, here is the grounded version:
- Breathwork regulates arousal so you can actually stay present with new possibilities instead of shutting down
- It increases access to networks that can imagine, plan, and choose new behaviors
- Repeated pairing of breath, imagery, and breathWORDS (spoken or internal affirmations) leverages neuroplasticity and prediction, so your brain begins to expect and create different outcomes
The “quantum” part is metaphor. The measurable part is:
- Nervous system regulation
- Changed patterns of attention and behavior
- Long term shifts in habits, choices, and identity
All of that is very much supported by current neuroscience.
9. Where WOO Breathwork fits in the evidence landscape
To put it all together:
- Strong evidence
- Reducing stress and anxiety
- Supporting mood and depressive symptoms as an adjunct
- Improving HRV, baroreflex sensitivity, and autonomic balance
- Lowering blood pressure when practiced regularly
- Supporting attention and emotion regulation
- Emerging but promising evidence
- Supporting cognitive function and potentially modifying Alzheimer’s related biomarkers through slow breathing and HRV biofeedback
- Targeted protocols for PTSD, panic, and other clinical conditions alongside therapy
- Caregiver specific breathing programs for reducing burden and burnout
- Speculative or metaphorical territory(but grounded mechanisms exist)
- Manifestation, quantum shifts, spiritual openings
- Non ordinary states of consciousness and transpersonal healing experiences
WOO Breathwork™ intentionally sits at the intersection of all three:
- It uses evidence based levers like slow diaphragmatic breathing, extended exhale, and HRV friendly pacing
- It is structured over time to support actual nervous system change, not just one off “relaxation moments”
- It adds intentional language, imagery, and ritual to harness the full power of your mind, emotions, and body as one system
This is why you will see me talk about nervous system regulation as the center of gravity of all transformation. Breathwork is not a magic wand, but it is one of the most powerful, accessible, and well researched ways to change the state of your body and brain so that the rest of your healing and growth can actually land.