I remember my first breathwork session in Copenhagen in 1991. It was a practice called "Rebirthing." It brought some very old memories of early hospitalization to the surface, manifesting as a deep fear of abandonment and digestive issues.
It was my first fundamental understanding of how the body stores all unprocessed feelings. Around that time, I also learned to meditate in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. I was initiated into the so-called Ngondro practice. The second step of the training was to visualize cleansing nectar flowing through my body. I was told that this practice would gradually clear my mind of all the imprints or patterns that manifested as repeated negative experiences.
The concept that the mind is reflected in the body and vice versa was a new paradigm. It soon became apparent that alcohol was impeding my access to the information or feeling vibrations that were stored in my body and that if I wanted to release the contracted energy that housed unprocessed feelings, I would have to be very judicious about anything that numbs my capacity to feel the emotions that live in my body.
Over the years, I kept going back to Breath Guides, both in Europe and in the US, and it continues to amaze me how much my body can store and how much of what I have experienced is at least partially 'undigested' and needs multiple rounds of feel-it-to-heal-it before I can feel light and free again.
Eventually, I started working with my breath, my prana, my life force, my Spirit power more consistently until breath practice was incorporated as a solid, twice-daily practice. Doing it daily doesn't necessarily mean it's easier or that I have magically cleared the entire energy field of my body. But it is a very effective way of catching what is in the process of contracting or stagnating energetically -- and continuing to be willing and self-loving enough to penetrate the deeper layers of fear and hurt that still remain.
During a Breathe Release it All retreat or workshop, you will learn everything we know about clearing your body of the contractions that show up as anxiety and painful, repeated dynamics in relationships.
Anything that has yet to be acknowledged in the body's energy field will find a way to make itself known. So much better to catch the contracted patterns before they manifest as more pain in our outer experience.
Everything is an inside job. When we heal on the inside, we gradually heal our lives on the outside.