Four Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Breathwork
It’s probably no surprise that when someone gets on my couch, one of the things that I always checking is out how they’re breathing. When I first started as a hypnotherapist I thought everything could be solved with mindset. Simpler days!
Then I began journeying into the soul world for deep healings that transcend your present day identity. Then I thought that is everything! I was closer!
Then when some clients would release lots of old trauma and be ‘good to go’... they’d still report feeling anxious and unable to relax. There was something I was missing. And it was right in front of me. Like literally, Right. In. Front. Of. Me. It was the body.
The trifecta phrase of ‘body, mind & soul’ is so overused that we forget its original truth. We DO need have that BALANCE of all three for healing to truly occur. And there is one thing that connects all of those things.
It is the BREATH! This realization changed everything for me.
Along with the words you’re telling me, I am observing your posture, your body mannerism and your breathing. I can tell right away if your body is stressed and anxious by the shallow breaths you’re taking and the tension that is trapped within your body. As a breathwork facilitator, I know how important it is that we look within ourselves to our bodies and our breath to help us process what’s going on in our lives.
But I also wish that people had a deeper understanding of what breathwork really is. It’s not about relaxation and restoration all of the time. There are two branches of breathwork that I explain more fully here. One type is a calming restorative breath, the other is a transformative and therapeutic breath. Both have their place as I will explain. What you’re doing with the latter in particular, is transforming your nervous system and your consciousness so you can step fully into all of your power. This can be an intense but transformative process.
Here are four things I wish everyone knew about breathwork:
1. Different techniques lead to very different outcomes
It’s true that breathwork is about centering on your breath. And it is important that you learn to breathe correctly because the quality of your breathing does determine the quality of your life. Often we are breathing in a suboptimal way, or just plain wrong.
For unlearning wonky breathing practices, I often recommend the iBreathe app as a simple tool to help my clients to relearn to breathe properly. It shows you basic techniques such as coherent breathing, 4-7-8 breathing and box breathing which are really all you need to start with. These breathing technique will bring you calm, clarity and energy so are great for dealing with feeling anxious, overwhelmed or tired.
The technique I use for deep healing is called Circular Breathing or Conscious Connected Breathing and is a rapid style of breathing through the mouth where we actually push your body into new and uncomfortable places. You start to process old stuck trapped emotions and trauma and these breakthroughs make a permanent shift within you.. This is where you can have transcendent healing experiences that words just don’t do justice to. It is purely experiential.
2. It’s not always relaxing.
We think of breathwork as relaxing because it can be. Deep slow breathing does activate your parasympathetic nervous system which is the rest and digest ‘safe’ mode.
But there are styles that do the opposite with surprising effect. I use Conscious Connected Breathing, a rapid transformative style of breathing to help you loosen all those stuck emotions and stagnant energies that are holding you back. This type of session literally puts the work into breathwork. It is anything but relaxing.
We use the power of your breath to release trauma and old stuck emotions by activating your sympathetic nervous system, the area of your brain that controls your stress responses. It’s an experiential way of allowing your body to process what it needs to without you needing to have the words to express what’s going on. Trauma is passed down in our DNA so sometimes you don’t even know what you’re letting go of, just that you’re getting a big emotional and energetic release.
3. It can be really emotional.
Breathwork asks you to go beyond your comfort zone for a short amount of time so you can experience a massive shift in your healing and consciousness. This requires bravery, courage and vulnerability. We as humans spend so much time avoiding our emotions and yet wonder why we are mysteriously blocked and stuck. Our emotions become the boogeyman rather than a natural flow of Energy in Motion (E-Motions – get it?!). In order to move past your block, you’ve got to let the emotion flow. Once it no longer needs to be felt, it will leave your mind and your body.
This is your time to feel the emotion and that can be a scary prospect. It’s really one of those things that we turn into a mountain with our thoughts as we try and think our way through our emotions. You hear how ridiculous that sounds, like tasting music or hearing color… but still we all do it.
What you can actually expect as you go through this process is that many report a euphoric feeling or feel a blissful release. It is so powerful to allow all the emotions that have been trapped within you to flow freely. It is the most beautiful thing to facilitate and witness. Your heart opens back up again.
I recommend blocking time off after a breathwork session to integrate your experience, perhaps by journaling, meditating or speaking with someone you trust. It’s so important to allow yourself the space to process and celebrate your breakthroughs because they will build up your confidence to continue. The breakthroughs WILL happen with this work.
4. Experiencing is believing.
Breathwork is experiential and somatic connecting the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. No words can do this healing modality justice. From the outside, it looks you’re like lying on a yoga mat and breathing. But what you’re really doing is realigning yourself by journeying through your inner world, clearing what doesn’t belong as you go. When you try to tell people about your transcendent experience that was more effective than a decade of therapy, they’ll look at you like you’ve lost your mind. They may ask if psychedelics were involved as you go into details about deities, ancestors and guides showing up to help. It is all of the benefits of a plant journey without the risk.
It needs to be experienced to be believed. You just have to try it for yourself and no one else can do it for you. You don’t even have to truly understand what your mind and body are processing. All you have to do is show up and breathe.
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