Holotropic Breathwork

   One of the core ideas in evolution is to be as fully alive as possible. To embrace life... the whole thing... "lock, stock and barrel" as some would say. One thing that connects us to all life is our breath. Biologically, breathing is a part of the autonomic nervous system. That means that even if you are unconscious, you will continue to breathe. When we bring consciousness to this automatic function many interesting things happen. The average human's breathing patterns are shallow and faster than is optimal. I'm sure you've noticed that when you are afraid or in an otherwise stressful situation, your breathing becomes quicker. Sometimes we stop breathing altogether. Both of these reactions significantly reduce our “aliveness”. You may have also noticed that when we are faced with beauty, we tend to take a deep, full breath, like a sigh. We feel more relaxed, fuller, and we are in a state of expansion, rather then contraction.

   Many traditions hold the breath sacred. In yoga for example, prana, or life force energy, can be found all around us, most notable in the air. A most effective way of increasing our personal prana, is to breathe consciously. Many meditation practices use the breath as a focusing tool to cleanse and clear the mind. This has the effect of clearing negative thought patterns based in fear, and opens the mind to pave the way for insight.

   There are also some modern breath therapy techniques. Holotropic Breathwork, the most common, involves flooding the body with prana. This causes an overflow and in turn every organ, charka, muscle, and bone is washed clean. Just as regular bathing is important for the outside of the body, internal hygiene is essential to good health. The breathing action massages the internal organs, bringing them an influx of fresh blood and nutrients, and carrying away the wastes. It is often stagnation and debris that causes illness. Concurrently, the inflow of prana washes away dense or “dead” energy, revitalizing the entire system.

   When we stop breathing, or only breathe shallowly, due to stress (again, stress is just a euphemism for fear), our bodies SOMATASIZE the feeling. That is to say that the fear becomes locked in our tissues. For example: if you have something to say (or yell) and you don't that energy becomes frozen in the muscle tissue of your neck. As we know from experience, this causes all kinds of problems; stiff necks, headaches, migraines, TMJ, and in some cases speech disorders.

   Somatisization happens with all emotions, pleasant and unpleasant. It happens anytime an emotion is repressed. Generally, specific emotions are stored in specific places. Anger is usually stored in the liver and upper arms; fear in the neck/shoulder area as well as the kidneys and calves; grief in the lungs and chest.

   When we repress expression or the emotions themselves, we cut off a piece of ourselves. This greatly reduces our “aliveness factor”. Luckily, somatisization is reversible. If we introduce any form of conscious breathing into the area of blockage we open the door. Once the door is open, the repressed emotions can be addressed and expressed in an appropriate way. The pain dissolves and a huge rush of energy comes in as that area “wakes up”. A feeling of wholeness and fullness is experienced. That part of ourselves which we have cut off is reintegrated. This raises our vibration because we have literally lightened the load by letting go of pent up energy. We become radiant, sparkly and a great deal more ALIVE. All you have to do it Experience it!
 
Namaste and take Deep Breaths,
 
Annette and Brian