There is a widespread, persistent, and deeply misleading misconception that learning and improvement are exclusively about accumulating knowledge or skills, as if the brain were a large warehouse where more content automatically means more capacity and, therefore, more competence.

The more you add, the better? 

That’s not always how neurological optimization works.

In reality, the opposite is also true.

The nervous system does not grow solely by accumulation. It evolves through selection.

Selection isn’t only about what needs to be added; it’s also about what shouldn’t be kept.

When the brain identifies a neurological trait and behavior as desirable because it supports a survival strategy, it will work on making it a swift response.

It will favor and strengthen that response by either forming new neural connections or by reinforcing existing ones.

But an efficient way to prioritize this new behavior is to start neglecting and weakening the opposing tendency simul...

In the reality of modern life—marked by uncertainty, overstimulation, and chronic stress—the ability to self-regulate has become essential. Yet the dominant narrative continues to treat resilience as either a personality trait or a vague byproduct of general wellness. BreathHoldWork (BHW) proposes something different: that resilience is not a trait, but a skill. And like any skill, it can be built, refined, and stabilized through deliberate training of the nervous system under internal physiological load.

A 2021 review published in Translational Psychiatry (Roeckner et al.) draws together longitudinal neuroimaging studies that point to a functional brain circuit governing resilience. This circuit involves the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the hippocampus, and the amygdala. Each plays a distinct role: the PFC evaluates threat and modulates emotional response; the hippocampus integrates contextual memory; the amygdala detects perceived danger. Together, they shape how an individual exp...

Six Years of Suffering and No Answers

In late 2021 and early 2022, Erwan held seven live, online BreathHoldWork Meditation Programs. Hundreds of students from all over the world signed up and attended, with dozens writing testimonials praising the BreathHoldWork method and Erwan's teaching. (Read them on our testimonial page.)

We were recently contacted by one alumnus of the program, Andrew Johnson, whose BreathHoldWork testimonial stood out from the crowd. Andrew was a student in Erwan's program in April of 2022. Below is his story.

"To be frank, BreathHoldWork Meditation saved my life."

For the past six years, I’d been dealing with debilitating health issues that took me from a vibrant and healthy young man with passions and dreams to a burned-out, broken shadow of a person struggling to walk up the single flight of stairs to my apartment. I was so exhausted that I dreaded getting home every day and having to walk up to my apartment, or God forbid doing such demanding tasks as

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By Erwan Le Corre
Founder, BreathHoldWork®
3x U.S. National Record Holder in Static Apnea

"Meditation becomes more effective when it happens within a breath-hold.
Not before it. Not after it. Within it."

Erwan Le Corre

Why Meditation Feels So Hard

Most people separate meditation from breathwork.
They either practice a breathwork exercise or meditate.

Doing breathwork is often preferred because it provides a single point of focus: your breath.
Mentally, that makes things easy. It’s similar to when one exercises, because when you do, you’re likely to focus on your physical sensations rather than paying attention to your mind.

Doing breathwork feels like a mental and emotional wellness practice without the challenge of meditation.

But why is meditation such a challenge when all you’ve got to do, at least from the perspective of conventional meditation, is to sit still and watch thoughts rise and pass?

The explanation is simple and resides in the answer to the following question: w...