Breath & Meditation
“Master your breath, let the self be in bliss, contemplate on the sublime within you.” T.Krishnamacharya
Breathwork
Pranayama (breath) is the foundation of life and the essence of yoga. I started diving deeper into this practice once I began practicing kundalini yoga and attending regular rebirthing sound healing sessions with Suntara during the lockdowns of the pandemic. During a time in which fear was promoted around every corner, I found that breath deeply helped to relieve my anxious, irrational thoughts and bring me back to myself and my inner knowing. Every day, I would walk to my favourite tree in the park, and practice breathwork underneath it, along with kundalini style breathing at night. This helped me to see through illusions, it helped me to speak my truth and know my truth deeply, without question. It helped me to connect to nature and intuition on a deeper level, and most days, I was at peace and bliss. People couldn’t understand why I wasn’t fearful and stressed. Breath has helped me to access layers and layers of deep programming and limiting beliefs, and to let those go. It has helped me to have incredible, divine experiences, and my awareness and empathy has expanded.
At a basic level, breathing properly and the practice of breath can help to ease anxiety, sleep better, improves our immune system. It can assist with energy healing and unblocking our chakras. Breath keeps us in balance and helps us to remain connected to ourselves, others, nature and the universe. Breath is literally our life force, so breathing with intention is a powerful practice.
Now, I am excited to bring the importance of a breathwork practice to others. I have completed my 100hr Yoga Alliance Certified Breathwork and Shamanic Meditation Facilitator Level 1 training with Johnson Chong. I am trained in yogic pranayama and kundalini bioenergetic breathwork.
In September 2023, I trained with Suntara (Daniel Coates) in Rebirthing Breathwork otherwise know as yin breathwork.
Rebirthing Breathwork
“My session was life changing. So much shifted for me and I have still felt in this state days after. The effects are long lasting! ”
Rebirthing Breathwork, otherwise known as yin breathwork, is a gentle style of nose breathing in a circular pattern. Founded by Leonard Orr, this conscious breathing or energy breathing helps people to learn from the breath itself. This breath is the opposite of holotropic and a good introduction to breathwork.
The focus is on activating the parasympathetic nervous system and allowing the divine/ spirit / energy to breathe us. This breath is gentle yet powerful. At the very least, a client might experience long lasting relaxation. Aside from that, they might release subconscious memories, patterns, beliefs, trauma. Pain could be relieved. Energy is shifted. Clients experience better sleep, improved immune function, better mood and less anxiety. It’s like plant medicine without the plants.
During the session, the client is guided by the practitioner into the breath. Once they have dropped in, I will hold space throughout this circular breath or energy cycle. I may use crystal quartz singing bowls, drums, tuning forks, reiki, koshi chimes. I may also invite silence depending on the client’s preference and my intuition. The breathwork could also be combined with a shamanic journey.
Rebirthing breathwork helps us to become a better, higher version of ourselves and to take our power back as the abundant, radiant, healthy human beings we are meant to be!
Yogic Pranayama
Breath is a major aspect of yoga. Prana is considered to be the basis of life. Yama means to expand with control. Pranayama techniques help us expand the breath, our vital life force, evenly. This is done by combining intention with breath. Pranayama is also the key between cleansing and energy work like yoga asanas, meditation and shamanic journeying. Through pranayama, we regulate breath and body and emotions. It can help to dissolve our conscious and unconscious blocks, taking us to a higher state of consciousness. Then entire purpose of pranayama is to expel excess energy and increase higher vibrations like joy, love, bliss to circulate through the entire body and redirecting it to our soul’s purpose. It addresses the shadows as well as the light. You’ve experienced many of these breaths already in your yoga practice, but I invite you to take a deeper dive.
Kundalini Bioenergetic Breathwork
We all have a bioenergetic field which refers to the electromagnetic field of the human body. This field is located in our aura. We are all energy and all living systems are made of energy. You may have heard the term "energy healing" used to describe the practices of chi gong, pranayama, tai chi, reiki, shamanic healing, tuning forks and any other holistic modality that addresses the healing of the bioenergetic field.
Just like there are 7 primary chakras, there are also 7 layers of the aura known as the biofield. Tuning forks and other modalities mentioned about can greatly impact this biofield, but did you know that breath can too?
Living in the modern world has brought about more stress on the human bioenergetic field. The field is dampened by environmental pollutants, toxic chemicals, wifi, radio waves, air pollution, pesticides, power lines, electromagnetic radiation, radio fields, etc. Bioresonance is based on the principle that unhealthy cells emit altered electromagnetic waves from DNA damage. This is why people feel so much better in the country away from the city environments because the body gets to return to its natural vibrational frequency, which is in harmony with mother nature.
And of course, there are stored memories, programming and emotions that reside in the biofield and therefore it is so important to shift that energy.
We don't all live in the country and environmental pollutants and stress are harder than ever to avoid. But we do have one particular tool under our belts and that is our breath!
The practice of Kundalini Bioenergetic Breathwork is an internal practice that changes the frequency of the auric field - bringing us back into a state of harmony and helping us to become more resilient.
It is a bit more physical than other styles of breathwork.
Shamanic Meditation and Sacred Geometry
Throughout the years, I have tried several styles of meditation. Storytelling and visualisation styles of meditation are my preference. Shamanic journeying meditation is like storytelling or a vision quest and it is profound. Combining breath, movement, sound, visualisation, and activation of the senses along with connection to Gaia, ancestors, angels and other spiritual beings, it can be a profound experience of deep learning and awareness. Or, sometimes, people don’t experience much of a journey at all and end up enjoying a relaxed state. Some examples of journey you can take with Shamanic journeys include past lives, discovering your purpose, and connecting with your spirit animal.
Shamanic meditations will take you on a journey through the shamanic worlds: Lower - your subconscious; Middle - where you are now; and the Higher realms which is connection to the divine, your higher power, angelic realm. They activate the parasympathetic nervous system and different brain wave states in order for you to connect on a deeper level to truths and inner knowings that are already present within you.
Sacred geometry is grounded in the mathematics of the shapes that form the foundation of everything in the universe. From the patterns seen in roses, trees, blood vessels, rivers, stars, and anything found in nature, it is undeniable that spirituality is grounded the geometry. The basis of sacred geometry is founded on the primary shapes that then form the basis for an infinitude of patterns that are then used as powerful vehicles to shift consciousness.
Sacred geometry is an ancient science that explores and explains energy patterns that are in existence. And every pattern in nature is based in one or more geometric shapes. Sacred geometry meditations can be used to connect with the elements that align with the particular the chakra or area of the body we wish to work on.
I have completed my 100hr Yoga Alliance Certified Breathwork and Shamanic Meditation Facilitator Level 1 training with Johnson Chong - Sage Shamanic Yoga.
