What is Breathwork?

Breathwork is a term used to describe many different variations, styles, and patterns of breathing that all essentially offer the opportunity for personal transformation through improved mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. Some are more focused on stress reduction and mental clarity, some on motivation and performance, and others are focused on energetic activation, deeper personal connection, and inner healing. The latter is what I facilitate and teach, and is what you will learn more about here on this page.

Breathwork is one of the fastest ways to get out of your mind and back into your body, the present moment and reconnect you with your inner guidance system.

Breathwork VS Meditation

While both are a form of meditation, and both are supportive in their own way, breathwork, unlike meditation, is a practice of intentionally changing the way we breathe for an extended period of time to experience a deeper physical and emotional connection to our body, soul, and heart. While in meditation, the focus is on cultivating present moment awareness to generate a more settled, focused mind, the intention with breathwork is to disconnect from the mind and reconnect with the body so that you can more easily repattern the negative limiting subconscious patterns, release dense energy stored in the body and heal, grow and expand from deep within.

Try both HERE.

The Breathwork Pattern

The breathwork style I facilitate and teach, Transformational Breathwork, is an active form of breathwork that can assist and guide you into deeper emotional and spiritual healing, and self-empowerment. It’s a fast-paced 3-part breathing technique where you are breathing in and out through the mouth for the entire session and is a style that I have been trained and certified in by David Elliott.

This conscious way of breathing helps to get you out of the analytical mind, dive deeper into the feeling body, and connect you to your energy so that stagnant and unprocessed emotions come up to the surface more easily and can be broken down and released from both our physical and energetic bodies.

For many people, it facilitates an emotional purging, leaving you feeling lighter and clearer. In essence, you are relearning to inhabit your body, establish new pathways in the brain, and cultivate emotional and relational intelligence.

The benefits of Breathwork

Having a regular breathwork practice has been shown to have several profound effects on our wellbeing, and some of them are:

Physically: improves sleep, lowers feelings of anxiety and stress, releases toxins and trapped energy, calms and relaxes the mind and body, reduces inflammation, improves digestion, helps heal physical pain, stimulates circulation, increases energy

Emotionally: offers a safe way to access, connect, and change your response to your emotions, release stagnant stuck energy (unprocessed emotions/trauma) from the body, promotes increased feelings of self-love, self-confidence, and self-awareness, increases happiness & presence, elevates your mood

Mentally: helps to release old negative and limiting thoughts and beliefs, relieves stress and calms a busy mind, helps to be more mindful, increases mental clarity, creates a deeper understanding and connection between mind and body, improves memory

Spiritually: allows deeper meditation and connection to your true self, direct access to deeper levels of relaxation, strengthens the connection to your own intuition, heightened creativity and inspiration, expanded awareness, creates a powerful space for self-exploration

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Who is this for?

Transformational Breathwork is a powerful and supportive self-healing tool not only for you who feel you are struggling and want support with working through heartbreak, sadness, shame, grief, anxiety, stress, fear, anger, trauma, etc, it is also nourishing for you who feel you are in a great space ready for deeper expansions, clarity, growth and healing. However, if you currently have any medical conditions or are taking medications, I do recommend that you consult with your doctor before doing this type of breathwork.

What does a typical Breathwork session look like?

While the technique will remain the same, depending on whether we are at an event or in a private session, what you will experience and heal, as well as what other components such as additional practices are included will be different from session to session, and person to person. However, some of the structure will remain the same. I will begin the session with a grounding meditation to get you centered and connected for the practice, and then open a conversation about what we are here to do together, and what you can expect and experience. We may do some self-inquiry to set the tone for the session, we may work with certain themes or specific challenges, and we may also do some other body-based practices before we begin the active breathing. You will be actively breathing for 25 - 40 minutes depending on the length of the session, and after we have shifted back to normal breathing it’s time for integration. Now your body and heart are open and expanded, leaving you a clear channel for any messages, downloads, insights, or just feelings of relaxation and bliss. After integration, there will be time to reflect on the experience you just had and to receive any additional support before we close out the session.

These sessions are an invitation for you to meet yourself where you are and to take a step closer to your authentic self. That means that all you will receive from me are suggestions to move closer to that step, and the one in control of the experience is you. My role is as a facilitator, meaning I am not healing you, you are doing that yourself. I am there to hold a nurturing space for you to be in your body, in maybe a new and vulnerable way, so that you get to process the emotions and energy that you are ready to transform.

For private sessions, you have the option to meet virtually through Zoom or in person in Oslo.

Book your private session HERE

See the overview of all in-person and online workshops HERE

What happens in my body as I breathe?

As you begin to actively breathe, the oxygen levels in your body start to increase. This will also increase the blood flow, stimulate the hypothalamus gland, release endorphins in the body, and activate the limbic brain/the emotional brain responsible for your autonomic nervous system and your feelings and emotions.

As the endorphins kick in, your mind becomes more quiet and the body begins to relax. With the mind still and the body soft, emotions and energy are allowed to move more freely, be broken down, and be released through the body. During this process, you will feel your nervous system start to slow down (maybe even for the first time) and you will gain a tangible sense of dropping into your body. Your body may start to feel electric like it’s coming alive with energy. This may be felt all over, or local to one area. This means that you may or may not experience sensations that are normal yet might not seem normal, and some of these might be:

• Temperature fluctuations - it's normal for your body temperature to fluctuate from hot to cold as emotions are being released from the body

• Body stiffening - the body can tighten and contract in places that commonly hold blockages like the mouth and lips, the hands and arms (tetany), the legs and feet, and the hips. This usually passes within a few minutes of returning to a relaxed breath

• Releases - you may feel the need to release energy through crying, laughing, screaming, shaking, tapping. All of this is a part of the energetic release

• Tingling - the body can begin to tingle either all over or in certain areas, depending on where the energy is moving

• Emotions surfacing - as this process is about taking a deep dive into what's under the surface and getting under the fears and anxieties that are stuck there, you may or may not experience some emotions surfacing. The invitation is to allow it all so that it can be released. This release can happen through crying, laughing, screaming, moving, shaking. If things start to feel too uncomfortable you can always use your breath to move through them

What should I expect from my session?

Like anything, when we come to a breathwork session with certain expectations, we may be disappointed by the perceived outcome. That is because what you will experience and heal will vary from session to session, and person to person. Trust that the breath and the energy are doing exactly what it needs (notice I wrote what it needs, not what you want). There are some results that are immediate and there are others that come with a consistent practice. If you approach your session with a sense of curiosity, openness, and inner exploration, with no forcing or controlling, you will quickly see there’s no right or wrong way to this work, it’s all a practice. Some days are easier than others, some days you will feel different than others.

Breakthroughs do not have to be loud or profound, they can be peaceful and subtle. While an intention could help direct the session, especially if you are working with a certified facilitator, it's more important to show up with a willingness to open your mind and heart and to be open to BIG possibilities.

How often should I practice?

This is a practice you can work with daily or even several times a week, depending on your intention for practicing. You can do a shorter practice (7 - 10 min) for when you want to shift your energy or just need an energy boost, and you can do a longer practice for when you are feeling stuck and need some extra support to help you move through or are looking for deeper clarity on something.

As a society that’s always “on”, the constant pushing and doing puts our bodies in a contracted state, our breath short and shallow, and our minds hyperactive. The more we focus on getting out of the past and the future and on actively breathing and getting back into our bodies, the easier it gets to move into a more relaxed, naturally connected calm state on a frequent basis. However, when that is said, we have a tendency to want to progress fast, to do it all at once, and seek instant gratification and immediate relief, but with this type of practice, I highly encourage you to honor your desire to connect deeper to yourself by allowing yourself to do that in a new way. One that isn’t of force or push, but rather from a place of curiosity, compassion, and love where you give yourself time to implement these new habits, and make space for your body to feel safe and grounded both before you breathe and afterward.

What if I struggle to connect and listen to my body?

It’s both normal and okay that as you get into this work you feel like you are disconnected from your body. Be patient with the process. Don't push anything away, don't force anything. The invitation (and 'work') then get to be every single time you notice that you are disconnected; in your mind, patterns, habits, and stories, and out of the present moment, your sensations, feeling body, and breath, rather than judging yourself and the moment as something bad or that it's a problem, you lean into your desire to feel and explore it. You lean into what you are feeling and experiencing. To further strengthen this connection, take this practice with you throughout your day. The more you are practicing connecting to your body and feeling your feelings, the more you are allowing yourself to trust that it’s safe for you to let go of your mind, the conditioned need for control and comfort, and simply be in your body. What happens during breathwork isn't something the mind is going to get, so the more you allow yourself to feel that it's safe to trust and experience yourself, the more you are going to be able to receive the wisdom you hold within once you let the mind go.

Some final words

My own personal experience with breathwork has truly been so profound and that is why I believe in this modality so deeply. As a breathwork facilitator, my role is not to heal you, you do that for yourself, but rather to offer a loving and supportive space for you to experience more of yourself through the power of your breath and feeling body. To be in your body in a new and vulnerable way, and to process the emotions and energy that you are ready to transform.

I believe that everything we are searching for and longing for already lies within, and that breathwork guides us back to those answers. Helps us awaken our body’s own ability to heal and transform so that we can bring that vision we have of our highest self into reality.

Have any other questions? Get in touch!