What is Breathwork all about?

Breathing to Heal

Breathwork is a buzz word right now and no doubt gaining in popularity due to many celebrities like Oprah, Beyonce, Tony Robbins, Gweneth Paltrow, Jake Paul, Travis Barker and so many more endorsing it and recounting the many benefits of the powerful modality. Benefits like processing stored emotions, overcoming trauma, calming anxiety, aiding in addiction recovery, nervous system regulation and so much more.

I personal and wholeheartedly believe breathwork saved my life and it is my number one go to tool for maintaining a healthy mindset on a day to day basis.

I’ll share you a basic understanding of what breathwork is, what it can do, and the type I offer. Then , when you are ready, I invite you to explore the possibilities yourself.

In a nutshell, breathwork is a therapeutic practice that involves conscious control and regulation of breathing patterns to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It involves breathing patterns that are varied based upon the desired results. The beauty of the work is you decide how you’d like to practice and what you’d like to accomplish. Then, all you have to do is trust the breath.

Breathwork is proven to release tension, reduce stress, increase energy levels, improve mental clarity, and promote relaxation and self-awareness. And, as a modality, it is easy, practical and grounding.

There is a type of breathwork thats focus is to improve functional breathing and increase capacity. Building nervous system capacity, enhancing interoception, increasing CO2 tolerance and improving functional breathing. The focus is working on optimizing bio-mechanics, bio-chemistry and breathing rate.

These practices mainly focus on balancing the nervous system, and can include stressor practices or breath holding techniques. Some practices include diaphragmatic breathing, extended exhales, pranayama breathing and breath of fire.

While functional breathwork is an important foundation to health and vitality, my particular offering expands beyond that and is focused on the conscious connected breathing technique aimed to access expanded states of consciousness and your inner healer.

Conscious connected breathwork involves deep, rhythmic breathing patterns that are continuous and connected, without pauses between inhales and exhales. Breathing is part of the autonomic nervous system, meaning it is an automatic process functioning in our bodies. However, it can also be controlled consciously, unlike any other functions in the body’s autonomic nervous system. Controlling our breathing in a particular manner allows us to go into a non ordinary state where we have access to the subconscious and can safely process stored emotions, let go of stress and tension, overcome limiting beliefs, create clarity, and have insights or creative solutions.

Conscious connected breathwork can induce altered states consciousness by shifting the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body, which can lead to changes in perception, sensations, and consciousness. This altered state may involve feelings of euphoria, relaxation, increased awareness, as well as emotional release or insights. It's often described as a way to access deeper parts of the subconscious mind and explore inner experiences beyond the ordinary waking state.

You are actually breathing in a way that impacts the entire autonomic nervous system and, namely, the limbic system within the brain, that part of the brain that is involved in processing and regulating emotions, forming and storing memories as well as arousal and learning. This part of the brain experiences time as non linear so it processes the past, present and future as if it were all happening right now, often causing undue stress responses. During breathwork you can regulate that timeline and those responses and heal those past memories in a safe and efficient way while quieting the inner critic. We are actually shifting brain waves and experiencing healing that can be challenging to do in an ordinary state of consciousness when you are in a stress response or the inner critic is screaming at you.

We are often stressed, depressed, unmotivated or addicted because we have developed coping mechanisms for the things we don’t think have the capacity to handle and with breathwork you can be in the present moment without the cluttered distractions and perceptions and have a chance to let go of past attachments, and release future resistance.

You can practice breathwork in a group, one-on-one with a trained facilitator or at home through a virtual session. Sessions often last 60-90 mins and usually involve lying down and breathing in a controlled (and not always comfortable) way. Of course, experiences vary, but many people report intense experiences (think: visions, life-changing revelations and outpourings of emotion).

I have a client that had been working as a holistic practitioner for years before they tried it and said that it was one of the most powerful healing experiences of their life. “It gave me a safe space to release all the repressed anger, grief, and sadness that was in my body.” Another has said “It’s like ayahuasca, except you don’t have to travel to the middle of the jungle, poo your pants and purge into a bucket.” JP Crimi says “You can accomplish more in one breathwork session than you can in years of therapy.”

It is so powerful my friends! And, the beauty is all you have to do is trust your own breath. No one is healing you. You will unleash your own inner healer and do the work yourself. When you are ready, I’m here to guide you.