Breathwork- an active meditation technique that can do what 20 years of therapy and years of sitting meditation may not have been able to achieve.

Breathwork is one of the most powerful tools you will ever find for re-setting the nervous system and opening the heart for releasing stuck or stored emotions. It will also help you getting in touch with your intuition, activating your third eye and transform limiting beliefs that have held you back from manifesting in the world. But most importantly breathwork will allow you to get in touch with your own self-love.

Are you one of the many people who have tried to meditate for years but could not get out of the prison of compulsive mind chatter? Most people only need to try breathwork only once to achieve amazing results they never thought they would have.

Breathwork is an active meditation technique that uses breath to purge the body and nervous system of emotional debris. It facilitates a disconnection from the mind and thoughts, and a connection to the heart and to the third eye.

Of the hundreds of schools of breathwork, the healing mechanism remains the same: the mind-body connection. In 1975, Harvard physician Herbert Benson coined the term relaxation response , the body’s innate stress-countering mechanism courtesy of the parasympathetic nervous system.

For me, it was the emotional release, the freedom, and liberation from my thoughts, and the flooding of gratitude that brought me back to the practice breathwork again and again.

What will you feel during breathwork?

You may feel like your hands are vibrating. You may experience temperature changes, lightheadedness, tingling, or tetany—where your hands temporarily spasm into a clawlike position.

Emotional release is also common, as unconscious emotions that have been stored in the body bubble their way up to consciousness. Subconscious thoughts, memories, insights, emotional realizations, and even creative inspiration can arise. It may feel like energy blockages dissipate.

Many also report losing a sense of time. Once your body enters a state of deep relaxation, timelessness takes over and it leaves you clueless as to how much time has passed or whether you have fallen asleep. After 20 to 30 minutes of breathwork, you emerge from the depths of your inner mind and shift your focus back to the environment. You feel clarity, lightness, and energized, having sent oxygen through the blood to the body’s vital organs.

My story

When I first tried breathwork many years ago, I burst into tears within the first 10 minutes and I felt like I was able to release a deep-seated resentment toward my ex-husband whom I recently divorced. 10 minutes later I also had a download about how my dysfunctional programming of trying to earn my brother’s love but never getting it has caused most of my frustrations and painful experiences with men. Many years later I did a breathwork session with Michael Brian Baker (of The Breath Center) and I slipped into an absolutely blissful state, one that was very familiar from many years of sacred plant medicine ceremonies. I was blown away by the simplicity of the technique, of its effectiveness and of its transformational power. I quickly signed up for the practitioner training titled “Anatomy of Awakening” and 2 years later I received my certificate.

I am also a certified yoga instructor (The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre). Since part of my training was Pranayama (or breathing technique) I was already familiar with some of the course-material. All modern breathwork techniques were derived from the ancient knowledge of Pranayama. The yogis of three thousand years ago were fully aware of the many ways breath could be used to achieve altered mental and emotional states and they were using it accordingly with the aim of awakening, transcendence and healing.

Through my many years of research and training in various transformational healing modalities, I taught yoga, pranayama and breathwork to individuals and groups at various yoga centers, events and, festivals, along the West Coast and also in Europe. 

The type of breathwork I was trained in at The Breath Center is called “Vyana Vayu”. It is a dynamic active meditation that will quickly take the participants to altered, higher states of consciousness. Participants will be encouraged to breathe dynamically using a certain technique that will be explained prior to starting. Once the desired transpersonal “pure presence” state is achieved, there may be emotional content bubbling up, which will be compassionately held in a strong healing group environment. The timeless moment of transcendence will be gently followed by return to physicality on the wings of sound healing instruments. I have played sound healing music to audiences along the West Coast and South America for more than a decade both as a devotional musician and as a sound healer. My 36-inch Chau Gong is always a special experience for those looking to journey with sound. I create sound-scapes using didgeridoo, tank-drums, kalimbas, drums, monochord, crystal bowls, Tibetan bowls, guitar, Gong and throat-singing. Click here for more on Sound Healing Journeys offered by me.

Check out “www.thebreathcenter.com to read more about the modality named “Vyana Vayu”.

What to bring to a Breathwork Session?

– a yoga mat or a camping mat

– a towel or blanket you can fold and place under your head. We encourage people to not use pillows because those raise your head too much. The lower your head stays the better, but we will need some padding since we will be laying motionless for a while. 

– a blanket to cover yourself with. It looks like daytime temperatures will be around 67 degrees, so you may not need the blanket in the sun, but it is not uncommon to feel cold while doing this practice. The intention is to feel cozy, not too warm and not too hot.

– drinking water

Please arrive on time!