Essential Nature Breathwork
“BE CONSCIOUS OF THIS UNCONSCIOUS PRAYER OF YOUR BREATH, FOR SHE IS THE MOST HOLY PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE. SHE WISHES FOR YOU TO ENTER THE CRYSTALLINE TEMPLE OF YOUR BEING, WHERE EACH BREATH IS ADORATION OF THE INFINITE FOR THE INCARNATE FORM...”
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, their is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
Breath is the carrier wave of life itself, the sacred bridge between spirit and matter, and the chariot of the soul. The word breath and soul, or spirit, are synonymous in many ancient languages. The Sanskrit word 'prana', the Latin 'spiritus', the Greek 'pneuma', the Hebrew 'ruach' and the Old Norse ‘önd’, are all words that unify the concepts of breath and spirit. Breathing techniques have been used by ancient cultures around the world for eons in order access spiritual dimensions of the self, for the purpose of deep insight and transformation. In more modern times, various techniques stemming from this core practice have begun to permeate healing communities around the globe, with diverse benefits ranging from trauma release to transpersonal revelation.
Shamanic Breathwork is the purposeful application of conscious, connected breathing in both one-on-one and group settings, guided by a skilled practitioner and the Spirit of Breath, held within a ceremonial container. The Spirit of Breath in this case refers to the multi-dimensional collective intelligence that naturally seeks balance and wide-spectrum healing, surrounding and guiding the the act of conscious breathing. For thousands of years humans have found that by changing the rate, ratio, volume and flow of the respiratory cycle, there can be experiential and perceptual shifts in consciousness, spiritual awareness, cognition and self-identity. More recently, when applied therapeutically, the shifts experienced in conscious, connected breathing seem to be linked to a deeper sense of inner connection, somatic roundedness, emotional empowerment and psycho-spiritual integration.
This form of breathwork, facilitated properly, is a portal or gateway to non-ordinary states of consciousness, where profound healing and transformational experiences can occur. It has the power to be life-changing. Through the intelligence of breath (Spirit), the breather is guided on a personal journey into their being, into their soul. This multi-faceted experience incorporates conscious, connected breathwork, intentional ceremony, powerful music, high grade essential oils, vibrational sound, energy work, group circling, deep processing and various other tools designed this sacred process of awakening. Integration techniques follow the breathwork journey so the journey may fully integrated as an uplifting experience capable of radically changing ones day-to-day life.
Throughout the breathwork process, our inner knowing will illuminate that which the we need to become aware of in order to heal, allowing for both a reclamation of the true self and a reintegration of any phantom personality aspects. This practice is also designed to melt away any limiting perceptual lenses as these distortions are usually held in place by the more dissociated aspects of our sense of self. Additionally, the breathwork will catalyze a powerful cellular healing process in the breather that is difficult to put into words and can only be experienced. There is an infinite wellspring of love, creativity, inspiration, passion, abundance and vitality awaiting you, just on the other side of releasing residual fear, trauma, pain, blockages, stagnations or false beliefs. Breathwork is the key to unlocking the crystalline grail within. It seeks to clear all that stands in the way of our most luminous expression and higher embodiment.
There exists within you, a gateway to the eternal, where resides your indwelling soul; a manifestation of the divine.
Unlock your higher potential. Catalyze your personal genius. Live a life of luminosity and grace. Conscious Breathwork is an unparalleled healing journey that radically transforms the body, mind and spirit.
BREATHWORK MAY BE USED TO:
- access multi-faceted healing and insight (physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual)
- experience overwhelming feelings of love, peace, compassion, and/or gratitude
- release mental and emotional blockages
- physically release and relax areas of tension or constriction
- heal anxiety, depression, pain, fear, grief and/or anger
- correct restrictive breathing patterns
- access repressed memories relevant to healing
- experience of higher states of consciousness
- expand one's awareness to multidimensional planes/traverse higher realms of consciousness
- tap into more creativity and passion
- release accumulated stress and harness a grounded and centered way of being in the world
- move past feelings of stuckness and re-energize one's life
- release emotional or physical symptoms of unproductive behavioral patterns
- transform the negative side effects of long-forgotten events buried deep in one's unconscious
- heal trauma, particularly birthing, childhood and ancestral
- get in touch with one's spiritual essence
- be supported through a period of mourning or grieving
- explore feelings about the state of the world
- work through physical illness by exploring emotional issues associated with the illness
- discover one's higher calling or vocation
- experience mystical states
- move on from depression
- overcome feelings of discouragement, listlessness, or disorientation
- become empowered and/or reclaim one's worth
- deepen one's capacity to support themselves and their loved ones
- access one's inner wisdom and intuition
- know oneself more deeply
- create a more fulfilling life
“THE RIVER IS NOW. THIS MOMENT. THIS BREATH BETWEEN US. THE SPACE BETWEEN YOUR HEARTBEATS. THE MOMENT BEFORE YOU BLINK. THE INSTANT A THOUGHT FLASHES THROUGH YOUR MIND. IT IS EVERYTHING THAT IS AROUND US. LIFE. ENERGY. FLOWING, ENDLESSLY FLOWING, CARRYING YOU FROM THEN...TO NOW...TO TOMORROW. LISTEN. YOU CAN HEAR THE MUSIC OF IT...”
TOP HEALTH BENEFITS OF BREATHWORK EXPLAINED: BREATHWORK...
- Reduces Anxiety: Many of us are in constant, low-grade stress as a result of the modern world and we tend to breathe shallowly and quickly. Deep and conscious breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which kicks off the natural relaxation response. This is the exact opposite of a stress response. Breathe slower, deeper, and more consciously to reduce anxiety.
- Increases Clarity and Focus: Conscious breathing fully oxygenates the brain. Try three slow, deep, conscious breaths the next time you are about to make an important decision. Feel the clarity. Notice your ability to focus more intentionally on the subject at hand.
- Elevates Mood: Ancient Shamanistic and Pranayama teachers in India reached altered states of consciousness through breathwork. Through a practice of noticing and thus controlling your breathing, you can create a consistent elevated mood with deep, slow, and conscious breaths throughout your day.
- Feeds Healthy Cells: Cancer can’t live… where? The 1931 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Otto Warburg who discovered that anaerobic diseases such as cancer cells cannot thrive in a highly oxygenated environment. A preventative measure? Take deeper breaths. Breathwork allows the breather to receive up to 60% more oxygen.
- Allows Your Skin to Breathe: Deep, intentional breaths stimulate blood flow to the skin for a more radiant and natural glow. Breathwork also helps to prevent premature aging.
- Promotes Digestion: A relaxed body supports proper organ function. We require healthy organ function to support our body’s systematic activities including digestion, elimination, and absorption.
- Eliminates Oxidative Stress: Deliberate breathing delivers more oxygen to your tissues. This increases the amount of oxygen in the body’s tissues and reduces the risk of hundreds of diseases.
- Reduces Cravings: Deep, conscious breathing can avert the need for an outside substance. The next time you reach for the soda/tobacco/alcohol/junk food/sweets/etc (or whatever your crutch may be), take three conscious breaths and ask yourself if this external stimulus is really what you are looking for. Feel the empowerment within yourself. Go from substances to substance.
- Lowers Blood Pressure: Long, slow, deep breaths fully oxygenate the heart muscle. This reduces heart rate and blood pressure.
- More Restful Sleep: Deep, conscious breathing is known to stimulate the pineal gland, which is associated with sleep patterns. You may also notice more lucid dreaming.
Because breathwork increases oxygenation throughout the body, it additionally: improves energy levels, stimulates circulation, heals wide-spectrum addictions, and improves well-being for many conditions and ailments such as chronic stress, asthma and respiratory problems, headaches, low energy, psychosomatic illnesses, anaerobic diseases, and many others. Breathwork also boosts the immune system, reduces chronic fatigue, dissolves pain, and more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe, before it's gone.
~ Rumi
SOME FINAL HEALTH TRUTHS
Asthma
"One study on the treatment of asthma patients conducted by researchers John Goyeche, Dr. Ago, and Dr. Ikemi, suggests that any effective treatment should address suppressed emotions - such as anxiety and self-image - as well as the physical dimension. To achieve this, they encourage correction of poor posture, and helping the person relax the irrelevant respiratory muscles while restoring full diaphragmatic breathing. They also recommended finding ways for getting rid of excess mucus. The good news is that a well rounded breath practice will do all these things." - Donna Farhi, The Breathing Book, p. 207
Blood Pressure
"The relationship between breathing and blood pressure has been known and understood for a long time. It boils down to this: Elevated blood pressure accompanies those bodily states where rapid shallow breathing prevails. By altering breathing to a slow diaphragmatic mode, blood pressure decreases." - Robert Fried, Ph.D., The Breath Connection, p.152
Cancer
"The first discovery was made by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Otto Warburg, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Cell Physiology in Berlin. He confirmed that the key precondition for the development of cancer is a lack of oxygen at the cellular level." - Nathaniel Altman, Oxygen Healing Therapies, p.66
"Lack of oxygen clearly plays a major role in causing cells to become cancerous." - Dr. Harry Goldblatt, Journal Of Experimental Medicine
"Cancer has only one prime cause. It is the replacement of normal oxygen respiration of the body's cells by an anaerobic (i.e. oxygen-deficient) cell respiration." - Dr. Otto Warburg, Nobel Laureate, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine (for Cancer Research)
"Cancer is a condition within the body where the oxidation has become so depleted that the body cells have degenerated beyond physiological control. Similarly, the true cause of allergy is lowered the oxidation process within the body, causing the affected individual to be sensitive to foreign substances entering the body. Only when the oxidation mechanism is restored to its original high state of efficiency can the sensitivity be eliminated." - Dr. Wendell Hendricks, Hendricks Research Foundation
Detoxification
"Many healings of other physical troubles have occurred in my clients after they started to integrate breathing practices into their lives. There is a simple but encompassing reason that may explain this. The human body is designed to discharge 70% of its toxins through breathing. Only a small percentage of toxins are discharged through sweat, defecation and urination. If your breathing is not operating at peak efficiency, you are not ridding yourself of toxins properly." - Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., Conscious Breathing, p.17
"One of the most overlooked benefits of extra oxygen in the tissues is their ability to detoxify more efficiently". - Dr. Kurt W. Donsbach, D.C., N.D., Super Health, Oxygen-Oxygen-Oxygen
"Illness is the result of improper removal of toxins from the body. Oxygen is the vital factor which assists the body in removing toxins." - Ed McCabe, Oxygen Therapies, A New Way Of Approaching Disease (1988)
Heart Disease
"Coronary heart disease is due to a lack of oxygen received by the heart." - Dr. Dean Ornish
"...healthy breathing should be the first thing taught to a heart patient. A Dutch Study conducted by a doctor named Dixhoorn, compared two groups of heart attack patients. The first group was taught simple diaphragmatic breathing, while the second group was given no training in breathing. The breathing group had no further heart attacks, while 7 of the 12 members of the second group had second heart attacks over the next 2 years.” - Gay Hendricks, Ph.D., Conscious Breathing, p.16
"A lack of oxygen (hypoxia) is the prime cause of 1.5 million heart attacks each year." - Dr. Richard Lippman, Renowned Researcher
Lymphatic System
"Jack Shield, MD, a lymphologist from Santa Barbara, CA, conducted a study on the effects of breathing on the lymphatic system. Using cameras inside the body, he found that deep diaphragmatic breathing stimulated the cleansing of the lymph system by creating a vacuum effect which sucked the lymph through the bloodstream. This increased the rate of toxic elimination by as much as 15 times the normal pace." - J. Shields, MD, Lymph, Lymph Glands And Homeostasis, Vol. 25 No. 4, Dec 92, pp.147-153
Overcoming Disease
"Improper breathing is a common cause of ill health." - Dr. Andrew Weil
"All chronic pain, suffering, and diseases are caused by a lack of oxygen at the cell level." - Dr. Arthur C. Guyton, MD, The Textbook On Medical Physiology
"Breathing is the key that unlocks the whole catalog of advanced biological function and development. Is it any wonder that it is so central to every aspect of health? Breathing is the first place, not the last, one should look when fatigue, disease, or other evidence of disordered energy presents itself. Breathing is truly the body's most fundamental communication system." - Sheldon Saul Hendler, MD, Ph.D.
"Oxidation is the source of life. Its lack causes impaired health or disease, its cessation, death." - Dr. F.M. Eugene Blasse, Ph.D., Oxygen Therapy: Its Foundation, Aim & Results
"Simply put, disease is due to a deficiency in the oxidization process of the body, leading to an accumulation of toxins. These toxins would ordinarily be burned in normal metabolic functioning." - Albert Wahl
"Oxygen plays a pivotal role in the functioning of the immune system." - Parris M. Kidd, Ph.D., Antioxidant Adaptation
"In all serious disease states we find a concomitant low oxygen state...Low oxygen in the body tissues is a sure indicator for disease...Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen in the tissues, is the fundamental cause for all degenerative disease. Oxygen is the source of life to all cells." - Dr. Stephen Levine, Renowned Molecular Biologist and Geneticist, Oxygen Deficiency: A Concomitant To All Degenerative Illness
"Starved of oxygen the body will become ill, and if this persists it will die, I doubt if there is an argument about that." - Dr. John Muntz, Nutritional Scientist
"Insufficient oxygen means insufficient biological energy that can result in anything from mild fatigue to life-threatening disease. The link between insufficient oxygen and disease has now been firmly established." - W. Spencer Way, Journal Of The American Association Of Physicians
"Cells undergoing partial oxygen starvation send out tiny panic signals which are collectively felt in the body as a continuous vague sensation of uneasiness, dread or disaster. This low level generalized warning tends to get tuned out as mere ‘background noise’ by the individual experiencing it. Or, it is attributed to other sources of uneasiness ... People rarely suspect that the constant vague feelings of helplessness, fatigue … uneasiness are symptoms of cellular oxygen deprivation." - The Townsend Letter For Doctors
