Breathwork is Intuitive Work
Breathwork is magical intuitive work. And as a brilliant teacher once told me… “It’s called breath-WORK baby, not breath-PLAY.” Our breath is the thread connecting to the mind and body, it’s what connects my heart to your heart. Exploring the power of our breath allows us to find other states of consciousness where we can re-wire circuits in the brain creating new neurological pathways, breaking old habits, and learned behaviours. The elder yogis and sages knew this for thousands of years but the truth of what our breath can do for us and the spiritual pathway it can lead us on has been lost.
It is no accident that our breath is an automatic function and the one thing that we can control inside the body. I believe this is a direct invitation for us to take part in our own evolution, to connect to something deeper within the sub-conscious mind and heal. Heal from trauma that has occurred in our lives, childhood trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression. We are self-healing beings after all, so why is it so hard to believe that the breath plays a huge part in our mental and physical state. The breath gives us life and connects us to our inner experience bringing us into the here and now, the only moment we can truly live in.
When I first experienced a breathwork session, I had no idea what would happen, if anything! So, I let go of any expectations I had and decided to just flow with the session and trust. I laid down on my mat and was asked to get comfortable with a bolster under my legs and pillows to hold my head until I felt completely relaxed with the back of my body flush with the ground beneath me. My breathwork guide was very calm and allowed me to open up by holding the space so beautifully throughout.
I was asked to breathe with my mouth open for the whole session, taking deep breaths in and letting the exhale just fall out the mouth very loosely, relaxing the diaphragm. At first it feels simple enough to do, just keep breathing, until the resistance starts to come in… my mouth dries out, inner chatter starts attempting to draw my attention away from the moment and my ego is fearful of my changing state. My guide has noticed the struggle in my breath and soothes my strain by massaging my diaphragm. I stay with my breath and just keep coming back to the open mouth breathing when my ego tries to resist. Tension builds and then I finally release and allow emotions to come through me that I have suppressed and pushed down for years. My body is tingling, and I cry, releasing these guttural sobs. It’s a cry of relief and I am held by the guide who instructs me to take another deep breath in through the mouth when I can. I was being held physically and emotionally. I sip a gulp of air into my lungs and feel a cleansing process begin in my mind. A clearing of the slate.
My sobs begin to subside, and I notice that I can breath easy. I feel light in body and mind, drawn to the space between my eyebrows, the third eye. With my eyes closed I hone in on this space and fall into a kaleidoscope of purple and indigo hues. There is nothing but this space and this moment, I feel dropped in to my essence and who I am… calm. The session was 60 minutes and I was dancing in my third eye space for 35 minutes which felt like hours. Hours in this peaceful state of, calm, I felt very held and a knowing that everything will be ok. My guide brings me back into the room with the sounding of chimes and I start to awaken, I feel my consciousness physically shift, I awaken and I am refreshed. I feel as if I have been napping for 8 hours and along the way I saw that we are all connected and I can heal myself as well as others. This particular conscious connected breathwork technique allowed me to slip into my sub conscious mind and take the ego out of the driving seat for a while.
I walked home on a cloud, feeling light and airy. The nature around me seemed heightened visually and I was dropped into my own inner landscape and the present moment than I had ever been before, without the gentle aid of a psychedelic. Space had been created, space for my mind which means space to choose how I want to react to external stressors coming into my life.
Taking this experience home and weaving it into my own practice has impacted my mental health immensely. I know that I can take control of my breath and shift my energy. If I am feeling overwhelmed, I can use this technique to re-set and feel like I have had that sweet nap! So let me ask you this… Do you like how you feel after a restful nap? If the answer is yes, you’re going to love the energy you feel after a 60-minute breath session!
Sharing breathwork with others has become a passion in my yoga offerings. Being able to support people through their struggles has helped me with my own. It’s very simple, healed people heal people. Watching someone learn the wonders of what their own breath can do for them is amazing and very humbling. We all breath every single day, in and out, ebbing and flowing, 22,000 times in 24 hours. It’s not a secret that our breath can shift our consciousness and change our state of mind, everybody is able to do this, at home, in your garden, wherever, it’s free! The issue is that people don’t believe that something so simple, which costs nothing, does actually work. I believe that it’s nature’s sense of humour… Perhaps for those very reasons that is why this practice does work. We have to take control of our own evolution and healing journey, it won’t always be linear, and every breath session can be completely different. After all, it’s called breath-WORK baby, not breath-PLAY.
Happy breathing.
Words by TN Guide, Molly.