“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
― Amit Ray
Breathwork is an active meditation that uses a specific breath technique called conscious connected breathing, along with music and guided support to help you release built up chronic tension and restore on all levels of your being. Breathwork is a somatic (body based) practice that will guide you into deeper connection with your body, connecting both hemispheres of the brain to bring you into present moment awareness.
By breathing in large amounts of energy and air, blockages and old tensions are able to be accessed at their root and come up to the surface to be released, integrated and healed. Breathing in this way also allows you to journey into expanded states of consciousness, making the experience of breathwork one that is ripe with possibility for clarity, creativity and transformation.
On one hand, the experience is activating and stimulating and on the other it can allow you to relax and release tension while liberating limiting beliefs. It can connect you to your innate wisdom while gently expanding your being in new ways you may not have known were possible.
This specific technique is both grounding and activating. On the spectrum of breathing practices, it is more intense than passive meditation and less intense than the Wim Hof method and Holotrophic practices. It does not forcefully evoke catharsis, but a release of emotion is invited. It will teach you how to self regulate your nervous system and how to expand the capacity to hold your own energy, emotion and sensation. It even has the power to increase your stress threshold- that means less stress!
BENEFITS of BREATHWORK:
- Increase oxygen, lung capacity, blood flow and diaphragm capacity
- Organ massage and detoxification
- Release tension, stress, trauma, pain and old patterns
- Deep healing (access parasympathetic state)
- Open energetic channels and chakra centres
- Clarity, insights, creativity and new perspectives
- Elevate mood
- Increase body awareness and enjoy your body more
- Increase emotional intelligence
- Improved relationships with self and others
- Let go of things you didn’t even know you were still holding onto
Jenn Mansell is a Certified Breathwork Facilitator and Somatic Coach. Her gift is deep and expansive full body transformational experiences that incorporate movement, music, meditation and breathwork.
She currently runs group Breathwork sessions at Toronto’s top Meditation studios and gathers men and women in community to breathe and explore their inner worlds together. She offers private breathwork sessions and body-based somatic coaching where she incorporates movement, music, and breath together in deep dive sessions to help people break free from their pasts, get out of their heads and develop more self nurturing and loving practices. To learn more about Jenn, find her at @jlmansell or visit her website here.