Lessons in Breathwork
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This past weekend was the last live breathwork gathering for those participating in the Healing Collective, a 3-month online group where we practice feeling our stuff and letting it go. It's an offering that came to me earlier this year and while it didn't make total sense to me at the time, it is starting to now.
After guiding the group in breathwork, I had the pleasure of staying on the call with two dear friends. And we started chatting about breathwork and its many gifts.
My friend expressed that her experiences with breathwork are allowing her to witness what is coming up for her personally and that over time, she has been able to witness her experiences with a certain level of detachment.
She hit the nail on the head.
As someone who has been practicing this type of breathwork (an emotional release technique) for the past 4 years, I can only really speak to my personal experiences with the breath. But while everyone has such a unique experience, the one thing I do feel quite certain of is that breathwork brings with it the medicine that we actually need in that specific moment.
Breathwork allows us to feel the range of our feelings, to bring them up and out for us to really see & feel and then to let them go. In my experience, the more that we practice breathwork and this process of feeling our stuff and letting it go, the more we are able to sit with what is and witness it with a certain level of detachment and dare I say loving compassion.
Breathwork brings us so fully into the present moment in a way that we rarely experience in our busy day-to-day lives. And through the breath and through this level of actual full body presence, we can start to feel acceptance for what is and let go of judgement for ourselves and for what has and has not been in our lives.
Instead of numbing, shutting down or shoving things down, we practice ever so gently going inward, listening and allowing.
Breathwork also has another incredible gift. Because we aren’t holding onto those heavy feelings and heavy memories to the same degree, we begin to feel a spaciousness in our bodies that wasn’t there before. We can start to feel more expansive in our bodies and energetic bodies. We can start to feel more expansive in our actual day-to-day lives.
This may show up differently for each of us.
It may look like leaving a job that you know isn’t in alignment with your values and applying for that job that you used to think was out of reach.
It may look like ending a relationship that hasn’t felt supportive or where you may not feel it is safe or possible to show up as your whole self.
It may be that you find yourself laughing a bit more and a bit louder throughout the day.
You may notice that certain patterns or behaviors just don’t seem to carry "that power" that they once had.
That’s the power of breathwork. We may not really know what we need when we start this process. We may not know what to expect. But what I can tell you for sure is that you will have the experience that you are meant to have and you will receive the medicine in this process that you are meant to receive.
If this resonates on some level, I invite you to check out the Healing Collective which starts at the end of October. Registration is now open until 10/13. This group is about moving from states of fear & stress to greater states of love & trust while honoring our emotional body and being present with what is.
Sending you love for wherever you may be in your journey and however you may be feeling. May we all learn to enjoy the present moment a bit more and to feel safe to sit with what is.
Keep in the SUNSHINE,
S
JOURNAL PROMPTS
Writing daily is how I have gotten to know myself in deeper ways. It brings with it so much insight that often times after writing, I feel like I’ve just received a healing session. As such, as journal prompts come through to share here, I will include them below. Take them, leave them and/or create your own, you wildly creative being you.
>What do I feel I am ready to let go of? What do I want to let go of that I am carrying?
>What does it feel time to call in? What am I ready to call into my life, my experiences, my body?
>Where can I be a little more gentle with myself in this moment?
