Meditationbyadmin

What to Do After Your (First) Breathwork Journey

What to do after your (first) breathwork journey?

Congratulations on completing your (first) breathwork journey! Whether you experienced profound emotional releases, deep physical sensations, simple relaxation, or a sense of spiritual awakening, your journey with breathwork has only just begun. The practice of breathwork is not just a one-time experience; it’s a gateway to deeper self-awareness, healing, and personal growth. Now that you’ve taken this step, you might be wondering what comes next. This post will guide you on how to integrate your experience, connect you to our breathwork facilitators, and give you further resources to deepen your understanding and practice of breathwork.

“Your breath controls your nervous system, which controls everything else. If you want to improve your life, work on your breath.”

1. Reflect on Your Experience

After your first breathwork session, it’s very beneficial to take time to reflect on what you felt and experienced. Breathwork can bring up a wide range of emotions, memories, and sensations, even transpersonal experiences, and it’s important to acknowledge and process these. Here are some steps to help you reflect:

  1. Journal About Your Experience
    • Write down your thoughts and feelings of before, during and after the session. Describe any emotions that surfaced, physical sensations you felt, and any insights or realisations that came to you. Journaling allows you to further release and process what you’ve experienced.
  2. Discussing with a Supportive Community
    • Share your experience with others who have also practiced breathwork. Whether it’s a friend, a therapist, or an online community, discussing your journey can help you gain new perspectives and reinforce the healing process. If you would like to talk with a breathwork facilitator, feel free to book a breathwork consultation here.
  3. Practice Self-Care
    • Breathwork can be intense, both physically and emotionally. After your session, prioritize self-care and engage in activities that help you relax and rejuvenate. This could be a walk in nature, a warm bath, or simply resting. Listen to your body and give yourself the time you need to integrate the experience.

2. Explore the Different Sides of Breathwork

Breathwork is a vast field, and there are numerous approaches and philosophies to explore. It’s been practiced for thousands of years, as an elemental part of Buddhism, Tantra, Taoism, and Yoga. From a physiological perspective, breathing is very interesting because controls the nervous system, which controls every other system in the human body including your inner experience of thought and emotion.

In our modern world, two branches of Breathwork are rapidly gaining mainstream attention. On one side there’s the “psychosomatic healing branche”, which teaches people to access non-ordinary states of consciousness through different varieties of controlled over-breathing. This branch includes holotropic breathwork, transformational breathwork, rebirthing breathwork, and circular breathwork. On the other side there’s the functional/ physiological side of breathwork, which teaches people how to optimise their mental, emotional and physical health and wellbeing, by teaching them to stop over-breathing in their daily life. 

These branches are using opposite techniques, yet they are both super valid and extremely useful. To keep it very simple: for daily life, you want to learn to breathe less and use your diaphragm. This will help you reduce anxiety and stress, while it increases your energy levels, helps you sleep, boosts sexual performance, and enables you to access higher cognitive functions in stressful situations. Occasionally, you can use deliberate over-breathing to leave the rational mind and access states of being that accelerate psychosomatic processing and can lead to spiritual healing.

Here are two influential figures whose work has shaped these opposite spectrums of the breathwork landscape:

Stanislav Grof and Holotropic Breathwork
Stanislav Grof is a pioneering figure in the field of transpersonal psychology and the developer of Holotropic Breathwork. Grof’s work focuses on the healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness, which can be accessed through controlled hyperventilation. If you’re interested in exploring the deeper psychological and spiritual aspects of breathwork, Grof’s work is a must read. 

In the book “Holotropic Breathwork”  Stanislav Grof takes you through his years of scientific reasearch on the psychosomatic healing power of breathwork. Here’s an affiliate link.

Patrick McKeown and The Oxygen Advantage
Patrick McKeown’s approach is grounded in the science of functional breathing and its impact on physical health, disease, and performance. McKeown used to have severe asthma until he discovered the Buteyko Method. He healed himself, become their most famous advocate, wrote multiple bestsellers, and is a public speaker to make people aware of the importance of proper breathing patterns for overall health, stress reduction, and performance enhancement.

In his books “The Oxygen Advantage” and “The Breathing Cure”, McKeown explains the science behind breathing techniques that improve oxygenation, boost endurance, and enhance mental clarity. It’s a great practical guide for everyone that’s interested in using breathwork to optimize their wellbeing. Here are affiliate links to his books The Oxygen Advantage or The Breathing Cure.

  1. “Our facilitators would love to guide with 1:1 coaching you as you explore the powerful potential of functional and psychosomatic breathwork.”

3. Continue Your Breathwork Journey

Your Breathwork session probably opened your eyes to the transformative power of the breath. If one session can wake you up, can you imagine the transformation that comes with consistent implementation into your life. There are several ways to continue your journey:

  1. Establish a Regular Self-Practice
    • A few minutes of focused breathing each day will help create stronger connections to live in the present moment. It literally rewires your brain.
      • For daily practice, we recommend slower breathwork techniques like Patrick McKeown explains in his work. If you’d like personal guidance, we can help you understand your current respiratory challenges and quick wins with a breath consultation and hold you accountable to your goals via breath coaching sessions. 
      • For accelerated psychosomatic transformation, we’ve created a 30-minute transformational breathwork track to enable you to inwards while you’re at home. Before practicing this by yourself, it’s best to have done a guided session with an expert facilitator. Always make sure you understand the contraindications. You can access and download the track via this link. 
  2. Join Workshops and Retreats
    • If you want to take this to the next level, we would love to host you at a retreat. We are partnering with several retreats, and are gauging interest for a dedicated Breathwork Retreat. If you are interested to join a retreat, please let us know via this google form. 
  3. Work with a Breathwork Practitioner
    • If you’re looking to dive deep into Transformational Breathwork, you book 1:1 sessions with Leina in Taghazout/ Tamraght Morocco via whatsapp. This can be a great addition or motivation for a holiday, which is an excellent setting to explore your inner world. 
    • If you want to master functional breathing for any purpose (like reducing stress and anxiety, improving sexual performance, enhancing health and wellbeing, or accessing meditation) Frank offers 1:1 consultations and coaching sessions via Zoom. You can book your first consultation here.

Conclusion

Your first breathwork journey can propel you on a path of self-discovery, healing, and personal/ spiritual growth. Reflect on your experience, explore the work of pioneers like Stanislav Grof and Patrick McKeown, and/ or work with a breathwork facilitator to establish a personal practice. Consistency and commitment are the key factors to benefit from the Transformational Power of Breath. 

Every breath is an opportunity to improve wellbeing. Every breath gives you access to your subconscious mind. Learning to breath with awareness gives you the ability to connect to your core, to live in the present moment, and to operate from a state of higher cognition. We would be honoured to guide you on this inner journey to greater well-being and consciousness.

Explore More: