What Exactly is a Breathwork Session?
When I talk about breathwork, I often get asked how I experience breathwork sessions and what they look like. Let me tell you about my own journey from my very first session to becoming a certified breathwork facilitator and what I experienced.
As a teacher who does yoga and who meditates, I was familiar with using the breath and short breathing exercises for myself and my students. I was counting my breath in and out during mediations to let go of any thoughts and to help me go inward. I had learned how to breathe into tight spaces during yoga sessions experiencing the release this could bring to my tight hips and shoulders. And I breathed with my students, helping them with test anxiety and all the other stressors that accompany studying a foreign language. So, when an email from my university popped into my inbox offering a free breathwork session, I was intrigued because I was hoping to learn more techniques I could share with my students.
Little did I know that this email would change my life. The session started quite uneventful – introductions, expectations, and a little housekeeping. Next, the lady leading the session asked us if we had ever done breathwork before. “Sure”, I thought and might have said it out loud, not knowing that ‘breathing’ and ‘breathwork’ are not necessarily describing the same thing. We were then introduced to a short basic description of the many healing and balancing effects of breathwork, and lastly practiced this interesting kind of breathing technique described to us as “Conscious Connected Breathing (CCB)”.
Everything up to that point had sounded pretty much like what I had expected, except CCB. Hmmm… breathing with an open mouth for 30 minutes or more, no pauses at the top or bottom, circular breathing, strong inhale, surrendering into the exhale? Those were all new prompts for me. It kind of sounded like a meditation session, but not quite. Would breathing with an open mouth make me cough and feel vulnerable? What are pauses at the ‘top and bottom’ anyway? Ah, yes, that’s where ‘circular breath’ and ‘connected breathing’ came from, that started to make sense. OK, when I thought about it, I still wanted to give it a try and be open to the experience.
We got comfortable and after a short “arriving in the space and our bodies”-meditation, began with the breathwork, accompanied by very lovely music, and guided by our facilitator’s gentle voice. At first, my throat felt a little dry, but just as we had been advised, that feeling suddenly went away by itself, as my throat self-lubricated. “OK”, I thought, “she had talked about that, and it really happened. Amazing!” And I continued with the circular breath as we were prompted and could feel myself relaxing into the space, into my body, into my feelings.
I don’t remember much from the 30 minutes, until we were slowly guided back into awareness just like after a yoga-savasana, wiggling our fingers, and our toes, slowly sitting up, and ending the session with some gentle and grounding tapping. As I sat back up, I felt an inner peace and calmness, that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. “Very cool”, I thought, “it’s certainly relaxing”. Looking at everybody else, we all looked relaxed and happy, just like I felt inside. “Would you like to share how that experience was for you?”, asked our facilitator. “Relaxing”, I thought but felt a little shy to say this out loud. Others then talked about feeling “light and fully relaxed”, that they had “felt a tingling exactly where my wrist was hurting”, that they had “found an answer to something that they had been thinking about”, and about “seeing a beautiful image like in a dream that was very meaningful”.
“Wow”, I thought, “that’s interesting!” There was certainly something here that I wanted to know more about. Our facilitator reminded us to drink lots of water and to see if we would notice anything in the coming days. Huh? Would I sleep better, and not have hip pain? I could not imagine what she was talking about but again decided to be open to the experience.
The next couple of days, I didn’t think much about the session – until… I noticed that I reacted differently to stressors that would have triggered me before. I felt more confident, calmer, and more in control. “Ah, yes, that’s the good sleep I have been getting lately”, I thought. “Better sleep? Wait a minute… what else was different?”. Suddenly I realized that I felt better inside, not like a different person, but more grounded, centered, and in touch with myself. It seemed that there was a new, calm, quiet little spot inside of me that helped me cope better, and relax faster. “Wow, double WOW!” But hey, could just one session have done that? Could breathwork really accomplish those things?
I needed to find out! A quick internet search gave me access to a breathwork school that offered a free introductory session once a week. I signed up but was a little disappointed when I realized that I was sharing the space with almost 100 participants online. Nevertheless, I kept going and breathing. And even though it was clear how much more I had benefitted from the more intimate space of my very first session, I didn’t know of an alternative… yet. But what I knew was that breathwork really seemed to help me feel better all over and that I wanted to find out why.
On a whim, I wrote an email to the facilitator of my very first session, asking her if we could chat a little since I had so many questions. She immediately agreed, and when we connected, told me about her breathwork journey, how it had changed her, and that she was now a certified breathwork facilitator, still in awe of how breathwork can offer so much good for so many people's lives. And right there, I instantly knew that I wanted to study about breathwork, and if in the process felt called to become a facilitator would see if I could go that route.
And that’s what happened. I interviewed several schools until I found the perfect fit in “Breathing Space” (MakeSomeBreathingspace.com). Over the next year, I not only learned how to facilitate, and how to hold a safe space, but I also learned more about breathwork and breathing than I had ever imagined. Soon every session which was smaller or just me and the facilitator allowed me to share and go deeper inside. And the more I practiced, the more I felt I made progress on my path to feeling in harmony emotionally and physically.
Breathwork can be attended online and in in-person sessions, as a one-on-one and as a group session, and every session has its place and benefits. For me, the most profound work happens in one-on-one or small group sessions, when the facilitator can focus on the breather(s) in a more personalized way. From my experience, the first session typically brings great relief from stress and anxieties, and the breather feels like a burden has been lifted. In the following sessions, breathers often feel even more relaxed, because they know what to expect and can focus quicker on their breathwork. When breathwork becomes a regular practice, it allows breathers to go deeper and visit stuck experiences and emotions, which often manifest themselves in chronic pain, or in unproductive behaviors and habits. Every session is a different experience, and I feel privileged as a facilitator to be able to guide breathers in exploring the powers of breathwork to improve their health and performance. As Anthony Dunkley, founder of ‘Alchemy of Breath’ wrote “The breath is our greatest healer”.