Breathwork Magic
A way to vacuum-clean your subconscious.
Oh hi.
I took a little break from writing last week due to a sickness that was severe enough to emotionally justify a weekend off from writing and a day off from work.
The apparent cause of my sickness was curious. I signed up to attend a breathwork workshop over the weekend, and I went in blind.
I did not expect it to be the physically exhausting, emotionally draining, and overall enchanting and profound experience that it was.
A physical sickness afterward, I am told, is an all too common side effect. The perfect ruse to bed rot and crush Season 6 of Love Is Blind. Don't mind if I do.
What's the TLDR?
Holotropic, derived from Greek, means moving towards wholeness. It's a remarkably beautiful and precise description of what this actually is.
Holotropic breathwork is a healing modality that involves using controlled breathing to access altered states of consciousness. In the process, you can experience many weird and wonderful things. Over a two-hour session, I experienced a release of stale and pent-up emotions, had a few insights about things that were gnawing at me, and felt a melting of physical tension from my muscles.
Breathwork is often used by folks who suffer from depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic conditions. But it's also popular as a tool for enhancing well-being and creativity.
Really?
Breathwork isn't esoteric or woo-woo. Studies, including notable ones from 1996 and 2015, have shown that integrating breathwork with traditional therapy can significantly reduce anxiety about death and boost self-esteem. Further research over a decade with 11,000 participants highlighted its efficacy in catalyzing emotional catharsis and spiritual exploration.
So, what did you actually do?
Twenty-five of us, complete strangers to one another, signed up for this workshop. But this was not a social activity. The facilitator, Samridhi, made it clear that we did not need to perform for each other or engage in pleasantries. This was meant to be a deeply personal journey. Our only job was to commit fully to our own experience and, in doing that, create space for ourselves and others for whatever came up. Samridhhi said it nicely - by simply creating permission to have the experience, we'd walk each other home.
We lay on yoga mats and covered ourselves with the blankets we had brought. A gentle drumbeat played in the background. Our eyes were closed. We took deep, rapid, rhythmic belly breaths through our mouths.
Music plays an elemental role in breathwork. It literally steers the flow of your experience. At first, it was gentle and evocative and opening. Then it was rapturous, and then it faded into a surrendered silence. I learned that creating a breathwork music set requires a lot of thought and creativity. The set helps induce elevated states of consciousness and facilitates the surfacing and expression of past memories and repressed emotions.
What was the experience like?
I couldn't quite fathom the passage of time because this was such a transcendental experience. Over two hours, I was hit by waves of emotions. I recalled a room in a childhood home and the things and people I was most attached to. In one moment, I felt a tonne of gratitude for everyone in my life. In another, I softened and let go as I felt held by a quiet, sturdy intelligence. Tears of joy and sorrow poured away.
Sometimes, I'd be vaguely aware of the emotions expressed by others in the room. A quiet sob. A belly laugh. A squeal. But it was not disconcerting. I felt an attunement and kinship with the people in the room. They were also experiencing life at the same exact time as me.
What were your, err, "key insights"?
First, that breathwork is an essential, cathartic experience. If you can acknowledge how emotionally repressed most mainstream societal spaces are, you'll see that breathwork is extraordinary.
Second, that our breath can save us. Our breath is ubiquitous. Yet, it's subtle enough that we can even go about our whole lives not really noticing or becoming intimate with it.
Third, there is something powerful about the communal aspect of a group breathwork workshop. Something could be said about group energy and what that does for experiences of safety, belonging, and transcendence. Although I wonder if this is a scientific thing to say.
If this all seems curious, hit up Samriddhi Malhotra. She's RADIANT!
Have a lovely rest of your week!