THE MAP
What's possible during a breath session spans a vast wilderness of sacred territory. For some, exploring the rhythmic pulse of the breath is a journey through the sensations of the physical body. For others, it is a courageous swim through the waves of the emotional body. Some vibrate through the energetic, archetypical and mythical realms. And for others it's a powerful spiritual experience, beyond the body, into the sacred boundlessness and the great mystery.
My orientation towards breathwork is a brave leap beyond the continuum of right - wrong, and into the field of grace. We work together by welcoming what arises with presence and love, held within the timeless space of curiosity. Where everything that emerges serves as valuable insight and information into this living moment.
THE TECHNIQUE
The practice is simple in technique, and potent in effect.
The inhale and exhale is through an open mouth and the breath is continuous and connected, without a pause between the inhale and exhale.
From this foundation, the breath becomes our emotional barometer; whether shallow, rapid, constricted, or deep, the way that we breathe reveals to us how we feel moment - to - moment.
The technique can be easily adapted to suite the person or group. Shorter sessions with a slower breath rhythm invites a gentle experience of clearing and opening. Longer sessions with a more energized breath rhythm can help activate the emotional body, subconscious mind, and non-ordinary states of consciousness.
WHAT'S POSSIBLE
Every breath is an invitation to feel. A radical act of opening to what is alive, and a softening into all that is ready to be expressed through us.
The process both relaxes and energizes the body, creating a safe internal environment to resolve past experiences, gain deeper insight, access our innate healing energy, rewire ways of being that are in alignment with our virtues, and remember the innocent pleasure of being alive.
Breathwork can bring forth awareness and insights that may not be easily accessed throughout daily life. Imprints of stress, trauma, and limiting beliefs may emerge that have been stored in the mind-body. Unexpressed and suppressed emotions and sensations can emerge as well, including anger, grief, sadness, fear, as well as passion, pleasure, ecstatic and even orgasmic states. The practice invites us to understand that what arises in a session is here to be neutralised and integrated by our own loving, presence.
WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
The breathwork practice that I share emerged out of the consciousness era of the 60’s as a psychosomatic therapy to help people address core wounds and trauma held in the mind-body.
Two branches blossomed at around the same time: Rebirthing and Holotropic Breathwork. Rebirthing was pioneered by Leonard Orr and advanced by Sondra Ray and many others. The practice aimed to address birth-related trauma, unresolved emotions, and developmental disturbances. At the beginning, the breathwork was often done in a bathtub, underwater, to simulate the womb experience. The purpose was to resolve physiological, psychological, and emotional imprints and patterns. And to experience integration, relaxation, reconnection to the divine, and ultimately, to return to ease and peace.
Holotropic Breathwork was the work of Stanislav Groff. Parallel to the therapeutic work he was doing with psychedelics, he found that breathwork served as an effective transformational tool to explore alternate states of consciousness and help the body return to a state of wholeness.
WHERE IS IT GOING?
Breathwork has been increasingly capturing mainstream attention for its capacity to guide people to the root of what is unwell or unintegrated in their system, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The technique quite literally breathes new life into the body.
Breathwork is currently being offered in hospice centers, clinical mental health centers, corporations like Google, to children in the classroom, folks in alcohol/drug recovery, veterans (as an adjust to mindfulness-based PTSD treatments), police, firefighters, elite athletes, and more...
I am one in a movement of many breathwork practitioners who are passionate about making this work accessible in wider and wider circles.
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