“Breathwork is a spiritual gift…You can let go of human misery to be a free and natural person. Your human personality can be filled with serenity, joy, health and spiritual wisdom. Breathwork actually delivers more of these things than we can possibly promise. The reality of them is far more glorious than words.”
Leonard Orr
Breakthrough Breathwork Meditation available in the Asheville area and virtually.
“The breath has the capacity to ease pain and soften tension. When you concentrate on breathing, your mind is able to gather together all its scattered energies. Your mind becomes much more focused, quiet, and clear. In fact, when you focus on your breathing, you are in the present, in the here and now. You are able to truly shift from one state of consciousness to another.
Some great thinkers have actually said that the breath has the power to actually move matter and consciousness to new states of being. The breath is the life force. When you focus on breathing, you focus on directing the life force within you. This focuses and quiets your mind and helps you move energy. That’s why it’s so powerful to breathe into your difficulties. It moves them, shifts them, and transforms them.”
Besides calming the mind and body, conscious breathing can help unblock and resolve painful, energy-draining emotions, trauma and conflicts. Stress dissipates, your mind becomes sharper, and your body and spirit connect more strongly to the life force. Harnessing the power of your breath increases your capacity for joy, peace and love and deep, permanent healing on a cellular level.
There is a powerful use of the breath, which contributes more specifically to the healing of the emotional body. This method enables a person to release the locked up emotional traumas that have been repressed by us, so that they stop influencing us from an unconscious level of our awareness.
Breathwork is a very effective method of opening our awareness to the many influences that have been hidden from our normal consciousness. Much of our decision making happens in an instant. What most people don’t realize is that the output of information for that snap decision has gone through the unconscious supercomputer before offering up its result. If the unconscious software is infected with a virus of deep emotional trauma, conflicted emotion and emotions we are in denial about, the decisions can be self-destructive, limiting and contribute to a cycle of creating more pain.
This process allows for the personal exploration into the unconscious emotional software and energies that are influencing you in ways that undermine your full potential.
Even if no deep emotional experiences stand out in your awareness because they are made invisible by the veiling power of denial, they do exist. They have to be taken out of the darkness of your unconscious mind and emotional matrix and brought into your awareness, so you can release the pain and understand the causes of how this pain was influencing your life from that hidden place inside.
Using one’s own breath in a guided and controlled rhythm begins the process where a person begins to slow down the incessant chatter of the mind with its ceaseless array of thoughts.
In this amazing process of guided breathing, you begin to become aware of your total presence. You are triggered into being fully alert, alive, aware of your body, feelings and senses. You are conscious of the total physicality of your being as well as levels of emotion and feelings that can no longer be locked in or repressed, they now demand a release. And the release happens. Naturally and deeply, on a physical and cellular level.
After the completion of the breath cycle, the body rests, and a feeling of deep relaxation and peace is experienced.. A sense of being at-one with oneself, with one’s life and with the world at large. This is the state of no worry, and no thought, full of peace and serenity and unlimited potential. We rest in the expanded inner space that reflects a harmony of mind, body and spirit.
Through conscious connecting the breath, the focus of attention is guided into the body. As the breath unfolds we meet all the “folds” that are in our way. You could say that the “folds” are the blockages in the body-mind.
Focusing on our breathing helps us not to identify with what we are feeling and/or thinking, so that we don’t have to drown in our feelings. We become able to breathe continuously whatever we think or feel and thus centre ourselves in “the here and now”.
We begin to notice that we are not our feelings and that there is something in us that’s “bigger” than all of our drama. We are enabled to observe what’s happening from an aware ego position and to feel enough safety, in which we can integrate our past hurts and pains. We stop feeling like victims.
There is a deep sense of peace the moment we can let go of our judgements. Deep inside us we know -in a nearly indescribable way- that we made a connection with our own true being. This is the process we call ecstasy when consciousness frees itself from limiting thoughts, judgements and convictions and we are no longer identified with them. We are able to “stand by” and perceive. Our bodies don’t lie. We can feel the truth. The blocked energy starts to flow freely again physically and mentally. New possibilities of choice occur. This process may happen very quietly or with a great sense of euphoria.
When energy is prevented from flowing, consciousness disappears. Where energy flows, consciousness steps in.
Tilke Platteel-Deur, Breathwork Practitioner
“Each full breath we take has a beneficial impact. If we take that full breath consciously, with awareness, the benefits are exponentially increased. We can develop a practice of breathing this way. We can even cultivate skill in the way we allow our breath to be modulated by our experiences, and the ways that we encourage a full deep breath in every moment – in the presence of all of the vicissitudes of a human life. We can come to understand and expereince that within each breath we breathe dwells the possibility for greater health, healing, and wellness, personal growth and development, creativity, developing intelligence and wisdom, accessing intuition, and evolving and building a healthy world together.”
Jessica Dibb, “The Complete Breath”
“At the beginning of the 21st century there is expanding recognition that the source of much illness and disease is lack of oxygenation. How fortunate we are that there is wisdom from ancient times to today that can teach and guide us in consciously harnessing the full benefits of our breath. It is our most potent nutrient, and our most potentiated vehicle for awareness and self-actualization – and it is free and available every moment. From the simplest of breathing techniques that encourage relaxation and stress-reduction, to progressively enhanced techniques that promote cortisone regulation, stimulate immune functioning and hormonal regulation, to neural regulation and integration, and finally to intensive breathing techniques that help humans to penetrate the deepest parts of themselves, access their greatest gifts and fully flower as a being – breath is a surprising, delightful and awesome blessing.
Envision a world in which every baby is so loved and supported that there is little or no restriction or constriction, or holding of the breath due to anxiety, fear or unnecessary suffering. Envision that these relaxed, breathing childrenʼs bodies are then taught early in life about the significance, power and potential of deep and healthy breathing. Imagine a world in which these children are taught to breathe optimally and even expand their knowledge and capacity to breathe. Imagine a world in which all adults are supported and guided in retraining their bodies to breathe fully. Could we, as a species, as individuals, be healthy? Could we then meet each other with more relaxation, confidence, and awareness of the other? Could we then work together to keep our air, earth and water clean and vibrant? Could we then recognize our common humanity- and need to love and be loved? Could we build a healthy world that we can collectively relish together?”
Jessica Dibb
The highly inspirational (and, yes, I choose that work deliberately!) Breathwork Summit took place in 2012. It was a big coming out for Breathwork worldwide with most of the top authorities presenting. A fascinating exploration of Breathwork from a myriad of perspectives.
Here are some quotes from the Summit:
“Breathing is one of the fastest ways of shifting your consciousness that I have ever found.” Gay Hendricks
‘Conscious breath becomes a refuge and a vehicle for living from a place of power, integration and wisdom.’
‘Attention to breath brings kind attention, loving awareness and reality of the present moment.’
Jack Kornfield.
‘When you take a full conscious breath you light up all 3 areas of the brain…you can experience the present moment without defensiveness.’
‘Breath is our greatest nutrient and our greatest medicine.’ Jessica Dibbs
‘Breath is an essential part of transformative practice that leads to health’. ‘
‘Conscious Breath improves heart rate variability which aids in reducing stress and trauma’
‘Bringing awareness to the breath brings amazing transformative possibility. With awareness you can intentionally modulate it or let it be. You play with the boundaries of being active or letting go. It trains the mind to let something be or take an active role.’
Dan Siegel
‘ Breathwork has the power to be the carrier of Spirit into the body. It has the power to open the entrance to a deep spiritual experience. People become capable of accessing a dimension of spirituality they haven’t been in contact with before. At the end of a session, the breath often seems to be breathed by itself. It becomes completely free and liberated. The body remembers how to breathe naturally. All effort is gone. The boundaries of the body seem to expand and ‘the Self’ is experienced as bathed in light and vastness. There is a tangible connection between our physical and our spiritual self. There is light. It is an experience of spirituality on a physical level.’
Tilke Plateel Deur, Breathworker
If you are like most people you experience some kind of stress on a daily basis. For some the level of daily stress can be debilitating. The American Institute of Stress says that stress is America’s number one health problem. It’s been estimated that 75 – 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress related problems. And it has been medically proven that stress has a direct impact on the immune system.
So, how can you manage the stress in your life? World-renowned cardiologist Dr. Dean Ornish says that deep breathing is the best form of stress management known to man.
As the founder of Breakthrough Breathwork Meditation, one of the questions I get asked the most is “How does Breakthrough Breathwork Meditation help with managing stress and stress related ailments such as depression, anxiety and chronic pain?
Breakthrough Breathwork Meditation is a simple and powerful way to use breathing to activate your own healing energy and life force, and to release stress on a cellular level. It supports physical, emotional and mental healing, as you simultaneously connect more to spirit. And by oxygenating your blood through breathwork you can enjoy greater vitality and the health benefits of increased detoxification.
I believe Breakthrough Breathwork Meditation is a most powerful tool for stress management. In just one 90-minute session of Breakthrough Breathwork Meditation you can experience a deep calm, and a feeling of inner peace and wellbeing. Many clients have told me that after just one session they felt the most relaxed they’d ever felt in their life.
Don’t let stress ruin your life, your health and your relationships. Find the peace and relief that you deserve and need now. To learn more about Breakthrough Breathwork Meditation, to find out about upcoming Breathworkshops in your area, or to bring a Breathworkshop to your area, visit breakthroughbreathwork.com.
And take a nice deep breath.
Kris Cassidy