My Experience with Breathwork
One evening, before dinner, Sylvia guided the group through a breathwork practice. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, as there are many kinds of breathwork techniques out there and I have experienced a good number of them but I was open to the experience as I already felt a strong connection to Sylvia and her work through the speaking program we had both just completed together.
Sylvia guided us to all lay on the floor in a circle and began to show up how to do this breathing technique, which consists of an inhale into the belly (through the mouth) followed by an inhale into the chest (again through the mouth) and then an exhale out through the mouth. After demonstrating, Sylvia guided us to start working with the breath at our own pace.
I remember the first few minutes of laying there when I started coughing and feeling like something was trying to clear from my throat. Then after a few minutes, my hands and face started to tingle fairly intensely.
I was immediately brought back to a body memory of the migraines I began getting as a teenager, which would bring a similar numbness, and I could feel a wave of panic and a desire to stop doing this breathwork practice.
Through Sylvia’s guidance and support and also through having a conversation with myself in my head telling myself that this was different, that I knew energy moving can also create tingling, I was able to work through the resistance and keep going… and I’m SO glad that I did.
After the first 5-7 minutes where I absolutely hated the experience, I then dropped into a very deep and profound space where I experienced insights about certain patterns and tendencies that I have in my life around my health which dated back to early childhood patterns…
And then I felt myself surrounded by all of the most important people in my life who are no longer with me on the physical plane but who I know now serve as guides for me (my maternal grandmother, my best friend and my “aunt” all made their presence known).
I cried and cried as I felt myself supported by these key people in my life and as I saw the truth of a deep pattern that I had never observed before unravel before my eyes.
I would say that this breathwork experience at the retreat was one of the most profound experiences of my own healing. To have these insights and “downloads” flow through me so quickly was a new experience for me and despite having cried for almost 20 minutes, afterwards I felt amazing!
After the retreat, I scheduled several one-on-one breathwork sessions with Sylvia via Zoom and then last fall, I was so intrigued that I asked her where she had learned this way of working. She told me about her teacher, David Elliott, and I knew that I needed to go to study with him. The confirmation came when the next level 1 training was the weekend after my birthday.
Now that I have done the level 1 training, I am trying to do my own breathwork practice at least 4-5 days a week and I find there are many profound experiences that happen for me when I do this work. I release a lot of old emotions, I feel energy moving in a way that I’ve never felt before, and I sometimes get clear information about the exact next steps I need to take in my life or my business.
I’m very excited to now be offering this as another way to support my clients in my practice as well. So far the results have been pretty cool as a friend of mine told me she me she felt completely amazing and the best she’s ever felt (despite a huge and intense emotional release during the actual session) and another friend shared that she felt doing this work “changed her life.”
If you are interested in learning more about this type of healing work, reach out with questions or let me know if you’d like to try a session. I have a special introductory rate going on for these breathwork session through the end of April 2019.
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