My journey to the Breath (so far)
We’ve probably heard the term, your pain becomes your purpose. And this I know to be true. I’ve always struggled with the breath.
As a child, I remember suffering with asthma and that feeling of not being able to take in enough air. Breathing into the paper bag and coming back to myself.
Then the panic attacks started, the first one at a swimming tournament with an audience, in the pool where I had to be pulled out of the water. And then there’s the snoring. I’d always been embarrassed by how I slept, mouth wide open, “catching fish” as the saying goes.
It wasn’t until I started practicing yoga all those years ago when I began to notice the breath itself and that how we breathe can be changed. My snoring had almost completely stopped within a year of going to regular weekly classes. And the seed was sown.
But the big lightbulb moment happened in 2020. I was in my first ever breath focused class, and I felt a release come from body, an energy shift within that helped me to forgive myself from the pain I had caused in the past. I felt lighter, gentler and more at peace within myself for the first time in a long time. And I knew in that moment the power of the breath and that breath was my dharma, my purpose.
Dharma in yogic philosophy “implies support from within, the existence of a thing, it’s virtue, that which makes it what it is.” I like to thing of it as why we are here.
Since that first class, I’ve continued my exploration of the breath, fascinated and captured by this tool we have been given, that is completely free and everyone alive can do. I’ve studied with great masters in the field - Patrick McKeown the creator of Oxygen Advantage, Micheal James Wong, founder of Just Breathe and my current teacher and mentor Alan Dolan, founder of Breathguru. I’ve looked at breath from a performance perspective, from a somatic therapy healing viewpoint, science backed or sensation based, from Western and Eastern lineage - the potential of our breath is endless. And it reminds me daily that the power is always within us. Our truest nature is to heal ourselves and be free.
As I progress through my training to be a Breathwork Facilitator in Conscious Connected Breathing, my mission is to help people access their own power within and self-heal through the breath. Our breath is a vehicle for healing. It helps access parts of ourselves that we’ve suppressed, made small and kept hidden because we’re scared to show the world who we really are. I’ve been that person most of my life but my own breath released me and yours can release you too.
If you are ready to step into your power, find freedom from within, heal old wounds that no longer serve you - come breathe with me.
Join me weekly for BREATHE, a 60 minute, breathwork focused class.
To find freedom in your body and mind.