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Before you press play

Where you are matters more than how you breathe.

Read this part even if you read nothing else

Never do this practice in or near water. Not in a bath, not in a pool, not in the sea, not in an ice bath. Fast breathing switches off the signal that tells you to breathe, so you can lose consciousness underwater without any warning at all. People have died this way. If you are doing cold water later, leave at least 30 minutes between the breathing and the water, and breathe normally in between.

Never do this while driving or operating anything. Never standing up. Lie down on a soft surface, away from hard edges and furniture corners.

What this is, and what it isn't

This is a breathing practice. It is not medical treatment, it is not therapy, and it is not a substitute for either. Diego Pauel is a certified breathwork facilitator and freediving instructor. He is not a doctor, a psychologist, or a therapist. If you are under care for a physical or mental health condition, keep taking your medication and keep seeing your practitioner. Talk to them before you start this.

Please don't do the fast-breathing practices if you have

  • Epilepsy, or have ever had a seizure or a seizure-like episode
  • A cerebral aneurysm or an arteriovenous malformation
  • Heart disease, a previous heart attack, an arrhythmia, or blood pressure that isn't controlled
  • A stroke or TIA in your history
  • Detached retina, glaucoma, or eye surgery in the last three months
  • A diagnosis of bipolar I, schizophrenia, or any psychotic-spectrum condition
  • A current dissociative disorder, or depersonalisation/derealisation disorder
  • Pregnancy, or the possibility of it
  • You take prescription blood thinners

Please talk to your doctor or prescriber first if you have

  • Panic disorder, or panic attacks
  • A history of fainting
  • Asthma or another respiratory condition, and keep your inhaler within arm's reach, not in a bag across the room
  • Controlled high blood pressure, or diabetes
  • Osteoporosis
  • Surgery in the last six weeks
  • You are being treated for a mental health condition, or were in hospital for one in the last twelve months
  • You are on psychiatric medication

If you are currently in crisis, having thoughts of harming yourself, or in the acute aftermath of a trauma, this is not the right tool right now and I'd rather say so. Please contact a mental health professional or an emergency service.

What you might feel

Tingling in the hands and face. Hands or feet cramping into a claw, which is called tetany. It is harmless and it passes. Light-headedness. Cold or heat. Ringing in the ears. Strong emotion arriving without an obvious reason. Tears. A sense of distance from your own body.

All of this is ordinary chemistry, not a sign that something is going wrong. All of it reverses within a minute or two if you slow down and breathe normally through your nose.

Passing out is not a sign of going deep. It means you went past your capacity. Nothing in this practice requires you to push. You can stop at any time. Slowing down is not failing.

Afterwards

Stay lying down for a few minutes. Stand up slowly. Don't drive until you feel completely normal, and not sooner than ten minutes. Don't get in water for at least thirty minutes. Eat something and drink water.

If something surfaces later that day or that week and it stays with you, that is worth talking to someone about.

What we don't know

Nobody has established how often serious problems happen in breathwork, because almost nobody measures. Only about a fifth of published trials even asked. The rules on this page are conservative on purpose: where the evidence runs out, we stop rather than guess. The thirty-minute water rule and the ten-minute driving rule are house rules, not research findings. No study has measured how long it takes cerebral blood flow to return to normal after a session.

There is a gentler practice, and it is not a consolation prize

If anything above rules you out of the fast-breathing practices, slow paced nasal breathing is still open to you and it is the one thing here with the best evidence behind it. It produces no alkalosis, it is not implicated in the seizure mechanism, and in people with raised blood pressure it takes a few points off. It is the safest thing on this site.

Before you start

Every one of these should be true right now:

  • I am lying down, on something soft, away from hard edges
  • I am not in or near water, and will not be for 30 minutes
  • I am not driving
  • I have read the contraindications above and none apply to me without clearance
  • Nobody is relying on me for the next hour

Your choice, your responsibility

By using these recordings you're confirming that you've read this, that none of the conditions above apply to you without clearance, and that you're choosing to practise in a safe place. Breathflow Connection and Diego Pauel accept no liability for injury or loss arising from use of these materials.

Last reviewed: 2026-07-29. Governed by the laws of Thailand.