Breathwork vs Meditation: Which One Unlocks True Healing Faster?

Jul 12

3 min read

In the world of wellness and healing, two practices stand out for their simplicity and power: breathwork and meditation. Both offer profound benefits for the mind and body — but if you’ve been wondering which one is best for trauma healing, stress relief, and emotional transformation, this guide will break it down for you.

As a trauma-informed breathwork facilitator, I’ve guided hundreds of people on Long Island through both practices — and while both are powerful, they’re not the same.

Let’s compare them side by side.

🧘‍♂️ What Is Meditation?

Meditation is a practice of focused awareness. It can involve observing your thoughts, repeating a mantra, visualizing, or simply sitting in silence. The goal is usually to calm the mind, improve presence, and increase clarity.

Common meditation benefits include:

Reduced anxiety and depression
Increased focus and creativity
Greater emotional control
Better sleep

While meditation is incredible for training your mind, it often requires patience and consistency — and for those who carry trauma, it can sometimes feel frustrating or even triggering to “sit still and watch your thoughts.”

🌬️ What Is Breathwork?

Breathwork is the intentional practice of changing your breathing pattern to influence your emotional, mental, and physical state. At Tony Prana sessions, we use SOMA Breathwork — a rhythmic, music-guided method that activates the parasympathetic nervous system and unlocks subconscious healing.

Breathwork often leads to:

Immediate emotional release
Increased oxygen and energy flow
Nervous system regulation
Access to deep subconscious memories or emotions

It’s somatic, embodied, and fast-acting — especially powerful for people who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or disconnected from their body.

⚖️ Breathwork vs Meditation: Key Differences

Feature	Meditation	Breathwork
Approach	Passive	Active
Entry Point	Mind-based	Body-based
Emotional Release	Subtle, slow	Fast, somatic
Best For	Focus, mindfulness	Trauma healing, energy shifts
Time to Feel Results	Weeks to months	1–2 sessions
Trauma Suitability	Can be triggering	Trauma-informed (SOMA)

🧠 Why Breathwork Often Works Faster for Healing

When you’re working through trauma, grief, or chronic stress, your nervous system often stays stuck in survival mode. Breathwork helps bypass the thinking mind and drop directly into the body — where trauma is stored.

This is called a bottom-up approach to healing.

Through rhythmic breathing, oxytocin-producing connection exercises, and deep retentions, SOMA Breathwork activates vagus nerve pathways, helping you feel safe, grounded, and emotionally clear — sometimes after just one session.

“I’ve been meditating for years, but I released more in one breathwork session than I ever have sitting still.”

🔄 Combining Breathwork + Meditation

You don’t have to choose one over the other. In fact, many people use breathwork to drop into a meditative state faster — especially if their minds are racing or they feel emotionally blocked.

Try this flow: