Breathwork is a perfect healing tool for the 21st century. Why? Because it works so fast and efficiently, yielding immediate results and healing at every level: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It is thus a perfect match for our over-scheduled, over-stimulated culture of immediate gratification.
This life-changing practice brings about immediate and profound relaxation and relief from the stress of daily living while providing a sense of clarity and perspective in these often-confusing times. One session alone can change one's life. Multiple sessions are like peeling back layers of an onion: Our essential nature is revealed from underneath the gunk and conditioning, bringing about powerful changes in our relationship to the world and other people in our overall mood and life perspective and in our sense of connection to Source, by whatever name you choose to call it. As if that were not enough, this simple, affordable, and accessible technique can be indescribably ecstatic!
In terms of healing past trauma, in all my years of exposure to transformational and healing work, I still do not know of anything that is more effective or that has such swift and direct effects. I have witnessed breathwork clients declare that they received more from a single session than from five to 10 years of therapy. This is not to say that breathwork is a substitute for that often valuable and highly-beneficial process. Actually, it is a great adjunct to therapy and can serve as a powerful catalyst to that process: Therapists will often suggest breathwork to their clients whose treatment may be stagnating or in need of a boost.
Lately, as I look around at my own life and that of those around me, it seems as if the pressure to implement change, to step more fully into whatever roles we have come here to fulfill, has been jacked up. It seems like old patterns are being released, sometimes so fast that it can feel like "spiritual diarrhea." All our old crap -- unhealed areas, outgrown ways of being and systems of belief that no longer serve us -- are coming up for healing, clearing or reevaluation!
Everywhere people are experiencing life changes -- in jobs, relationships or patterns of behavior that are no longer sustainable -- and freeing themselves from their self-inflicted and self-limiting prisons.
Particularly during times of dramatic change, breathwork can smooth out the rough edges and facilitate the process of transformation. It can catalyze change and help resolve both internal and external conflicts. Resolving issues internally will often avoid the need to work them out through external -- and unnecessary -- drama in our lives.
Breathwork is a powerful way to release -- in a graceful way -- old pain, grief, anger or other unexpressed emotions -- stuff we have been schlepping around for way too long. Our normal M.O. in these matters -- suppressing, ignoring, or trying to numb out or avoid these feelings by indulging in too much alcohol, drugs, ice cream, work, sex, shopping or TV -- is not an effective way to deal with them. Just like energy cannot be destroyed but merely changes form, unexpressed emotions get stored in our bodily tissues and surface as psychosomatic symptoms and disease. Often, when they can no longer be suppressed and finally burst forth, the results can be damaging to our relationships. Breathwork offers us an alternative and healthy form of release for all these repressed feelings, emotions and trauma. And its effects are permanent!
Breathwork -- especially when done regularly and over a sustained period of time -- increases our peace of mind and sense of centeredness, even assisting us to sleep better. We feel enlivened, energized and with clearer purpose. Ultimately, it helps empower our lives to work better and our relationships healthier and more alive.
Multiple consecutive sessions compound the effects. This is the reason why the retreats I offer always include back-to-back sessions.
Just breathe!
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