Breathing is such an automatic function of our brains that we often take it for granted. We forget, or simply don’t know, how transformative it can be when done properly and with intention.

You can calm yourself, relieve anxiousness or anger, or, in the case of findings published in a real mouthful of a scientific journal, Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry , it might even help you reach an altered mental state that’s a bit like the one you’d experience if you took psychedelics .

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Presented at the ECNP Congress in Munich, researchers from Germany’s Central Institute of Mental Health shoved 30 experienced breathwork practitioners into an MRI machine to see what happens to the brain during continuous “circular breathing,” a technique used by musicians playing instruments like saxophones, trumpets, or trombones that allows them to continuously breathe in while breathing out into their instrument, thus cutting down on the need to stop and take a breath.

Researchers…