About BreathWork
Practicing Breathwork redirects you from a state of surviving to a state of thriving and invites you to become intimate with yourself by finely attuning your physical, mental, and emotional states.
Change How You Feel by Changing How You Breathe
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The way we breathe has a significant impact on how we feel, although we often overlook it due to the fact that we breathe automatically.
But if you were to consciously examine your breath patterns, what would you discover? How deeply are you breathing? How long are your inhales and exhales? How does your body respond, as you breathe?
The depth and rate of our breath play a vital role in oxygenating our lungs and bloodstream, significantly influencing our physical and mental states, as well as our emotions and behaviors.
By observing how we breathe and optimizing it, we have the power to create positive changes in our overall state, enhancing our well-being.
Breathwork is the practice of consciously regulating your breath through techniques and exercises that promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
The Physiology of Breath
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With every breath we take, we move air into and out of our lungs. The lungs pump oxygen from our environment into our bloodstream, which delivers it to every cell of our body. It simultaneously flushes out carbon dioxide, a waste product of cellular metabolism. Essentially, when we inhale, we fuel our body with fresh energy, and when we exhale, we release stale energy.
The balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide is crucial for our functioning and for maintaining physical and psychological equilibrium. To exist in an optimal state, we need enough of both, but not too much of either, because excess of carbon dioxide or lack of it can both contribute to feelings of anxiety and panic.
Can we learn how to breathe to truly support our life?
Breathwork requires our active participation and partnership with the breath. When we achieve that dynamic, Breathwork becomes cathartic and the breakthroughs are astonishing.
What is Breathwork?
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The Practice:
Circular Fast Breathing
and Slow Nasal Breathing
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Different from simply breathing, different from Pranayama and other breathing practices, and different from meditation, a Breathwork session requires our active participation and partnership with our breath.
A typical Breathwork session with me is divided into two portions:
​1. In the first part we use circular fast breathing (without pause between inhale and exhale) in order to activate our nervous system and let the body process and release the physical, emotional, and mental tensions it carries. The technique, akin to Holotropic and Integrative breathing, increases the level of energy perceived in the body, awakening the parts of it that are asleep, for the sake of expression and release. This portion of the session is activating and can often feel intense. It is essential for breaking us out of our inertia and stagnation and truly let energy move through us.
2. The second part of the session shifts to using slow, nasal breathing, and invites us to fully relax, integrate the experience, and reach a state of deep stillness and inner peace.
When we challenge the Ego and we are able to let go of its limitations and resistances, we can surrender to the transformative process, opening ourselves to the full potential of the practice. Embracing this mindset allows us to delve deeper into the healing journey, unlocking a greater sense of self-awareness and facilitating breakthroughs and personal growth.
Breathwork is the one practice that equally focuses on mind, body, and heart for the purpose of healing.
Using Breathwork to Heal: Therapeutic Effects
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By changing the pattern of breathing, it is possible to relieve symptoms of anxiety and stress, let go of emotional negativity, and improve physical health and performance.
Unlike talk therapy, which uses conversation for healing and unlike somatic disciplines like yoga, which mostly focus on the body, Breathwork provides a unique integrative approach. When traumatic or conflictual experiences resurface during a session, the associated emotions can be relived and processed through our bodies in a safe and supportive environment.
By fully expressing and releasing the emotions and tensions intertwined with the difficult experiences of one’s life, Breathwork facilitates profound healing and transformation, empowering individuals to move towards a state of greater well-being and wholeness.
Through Breathwork we undergo a powerful psychedelic journey
without using psychedelics.
Achieving Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness
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One unique and essential aspect of Breathwork is the spontaneous emergence of non-ordinary states of consciousness —or states of awareness different from our usual waking state, often characterized by expanded perception and transcendental experiences. The breath is the bridge between body and mind and between conscious and unconscious. When we lower the defenses of the conscious mind, we encounter sensations and states that go beyond our usual ones, and our mind can traverse realms and dimensions beyond our immediate reality. We connect with the past and the future, and at the same time we can transcend time and space, gaining deep and transformational insights.
While we know that psychedelics like LSD can induce non-ordinary states of consciousness, it is important to note that similar transformative and healing states can be accessed through Breathwork alone, trusting our own inner wisdom. These states hold tremendous potential for healing, growth, and transformation.
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