Look, as a social worker, I see burnout and nervous system dysregulation every single day. When clients are drowning in cortisol, telling them to “just observe their thoughts” feels like handing someone a life vest made of paper. Breathwork offers a lever. You pull it, you get a result. It’s deeply tied to that modern cognitive bias toward immediate feedback. We’ve been trained to believe that if we aren’t actively optimizing, we’re failing.

This reminds me of what Carl Jung wrote about the tension between the ego’s need for directed action and the unconscious demand for receptivity. Traditional meditation leans heavily into that receptive, almost surrendering space—like sitting with The Hermit in the tarot deck, waiting for insight to descend. Breathwork, on the other hand, feels like The Chariot. It’s willful. It’s steering. You’re forcing the current, trying to ride the wave rather than just floating on it.

I’ll admit, I have a soft spot for Alan Watts over the whole Crowley crowd. Crowley’s whole system felt so rigidly authoritarian to me, all about imposing will upon reality until it breaks. Watts understood that the universe doesn’t need you to wrestle it into submission. But I get why people are flocking to breathwork. We’re living in an era that glorifies control, and when that control shatters, we want a tool that lets us feel like the pilot again, even if it’s just for twenty minutes of holotropic breathing.

Is this a downgrade from the old ways of sitting with discomfort? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just a different entry point for a nervous system that’s completely fried. I’d love to hear how others are navigating this. Are you all doing the intense Wim Hof cycles, or sticking to the older pranayama roots? How does it actually feel in the long run versus just sitting in silence?