Soul Shine Yogini is now Ash & Ember!
The breath is a weathervane for our body and mood. It speeds up to indicate fear and anger, slows down to help cool the body from heat, it holds the sound of our voice to carry through the air, and is sometimes held in as we experience pain. Breathing is typically automatic, but we have access to control it when we want.
When we bring conscious control to our breath, we choose to have mastery in our lives by bringing mind, body, and soul together in union. I learned to facilitate the breathwork, to help guide and support you through this process, but it is YOU, the breather, who is doing all the healing work.
What is “breathwork”?
You may be familiar with different pranayama’s (Prana meaning, "the vital life force"- or the breath, and Yama meaning, "to control"). In yoga, we often give focus to our breath, connecting breath to movement, or bringing in breathing techniques such as alternate nostril breathing (Nadi Shodhana), the ocean breath (Ujjayi), or box breathing (Sama Vritti). These are all considered ways of “breathwork”. I personally love to utilize these in my physical yoga or meditation practice, to help ground me and help the energy move freely in my body.
However, these are different from the conscious connected breathwork technique that I facilitate. This style of breathwork is an active breath, and done while lying down. During this breath, we inhale deep into the belly, a second inhale into the heart space (chest), and exhale to release. We also use this rhythmic breath in a circular pattern, meaning there’s no stopping between breath cycles. This breath activates and opens our energy channels (Nadis), and helps us move stagnant and stuck energies. This breath can help the mind to quiet so we quickly drop into deep meditation and find ourselves in a space of expanded consciousness. Here, we release emotions,and create physical sensations in the body, allowing ourselves to unfold on the journey.
As the breath bellows the soul, it ignites the embers deep within.
Time for releasing, time for clarity!
This three part breath is a fast track journey to healing energies that have been stored in our bodies. These energies might look like trauma, limiting belief systems, negative habits, anger, anxiety, fear, guilt, shame, grief, stress, pain, boundary issues, ect. Talk therapy can help us identify and work through many of these issues, but it doesn’t release it from the body. This energy work by using the breath can help these channels get unstuck, starting to clear the blockages and allow our life force to move through our body in a healthy, organic way again. In this life we are given our bodies, mind, and spirit, without any instruction on how to keep our subtle body (our energy fields) clear. By consciously connecting our breath, using the power of intention, coupled with music (to encourage the energy to move freely!), we link our cognizance and subconscious to heal, and restore the emotions, thoughts, and energies that positively drive our life.
We finish the session with integration. Time to rest and digest, allowing the nervous system to felt held by your own space. I bring a sound bath to close out as we slowly retract from the expanded state, and find comfort from within.