BREATHWORK – A natural healing therapy

Ancient yogi’s have known for thousands of years that the breath is the most powerful tool
we have for healing. Western medical science, and natural therapists now also teach
breathing techniques to help us heal and grow and feel more alive! Life is worth living!
Sometimes we just have to clear out the “inner clutter” to see the beautiful shining light
inside us all.

Breathe for Life

The breath clears stress and tensions built up in the body.

It releases 70% of toxins from the body

Certain styles of breathing can bring about deep relaxation

Emotional baggage can be released gently through the breath

As the cells clear, the mind and body become more connected

Using the breath for healing is not a new therapy. About three thousand years ago, Yogis
began experiementing with using different types of breathing styles and rythms to clear the
body of unwanted toxins, energies and thoughts. Today different types of breathing form a
major part of one of the eight limbs of yoga. In Kriya yoga there are many forms of breath
therapy.

What the yogi’s discovered, noted and perfected, was also re-discovered by Leonard Orr in
America in the 1970’s. He perfected a circular breath technique which brought to the
surface (the conscious mind) many memories and feelings held deep in the unconscious
mind. The examination and clearing of many of these memories began to clear blockages
long held in his body.

The science of yoga, the discoveries of Leonard Orr and current medical, and scientific
research have now merged into recognising the value of the breath for healing.

Breathwork Therapy is now a world wide holistic therapy with an International body, and it
has evolved greatly over the last 30 years. Today, more than ten million people have
learned the process and over one hundred thousand people have completed professional
training.
There is an international breathwork body, and in Australia there is a recognised body called
the Australian Breathwork Association with practitioners in every state and a national
website.

Circular Breathing

The breath is a circular breath with no gap between the inhale and the exhale. This
connected breath is full and flowing, but it is breathing into the upper chest, an area that is
rarely used in our day to day breathing. Circular breathing clears stresses and deep tension
from the very cells of the body. It is this different style of breathing which stimulates the
breathwork process. The breathing is usually done with the mouth open, as this is the best
way to get in touch with your emotions and feelings and allow for a strong healing session.
This breathing can also be done through the nose, and this is a gentler process which often
leads to a deep relaxation. The nose breathing may be more suitable if the person’s
emotional state is fragile or they are very ill. This nose breathing is also wonderful to use
after a meditation or visualisation, and when I use it for just fifteen minutes on students at
the end of a class they report a profound relaxation. In fact, one student told me it had
changed his life.

Generally, an individual breathwork session lasts for about two hours. The therapist will
talk with you firstly about what is happening in your life and what issues you may like to
address. Some counselling or teaching may occur and then the breathing begins. You will
be lying down in a flat position and you are taught and encouraged to proceed with the
circular breathing technique. After approximately one hour the breather usually has a time
of integration, which is peaceful and relaxing.

Group breathwork, is also a wonderful way to spend a day with others on a journey towards
a fuller, happier life. It is good to know we are not alone, and there are others seeking a
deeper connection to life. We learn from the experiences of others. Group breathes are
usually full of healing, laughter and shared life experiences. They may involve some
teaching, yoga, meditation and deep relaxation.

These days many therapists, including myself, favour a soft, very gentle approach to
breathwork. This may be termed spiritual breathing because the client observes the
released thoughts and memories without judgement, resistance or a need for control. In
this style of breathwork the therapist encourages and supports, but allows the breath to
proceed in its own way.

The reason this works is because breathing our body with love, gentleness and nurturing
creates the right environment for healing. Our body has its own innate intelligence. Our
body wants to be healed and healthy. If you have a sore, the body can’t wait to put a scab
on it. If you pick that scab off, the body gives you another one, and another.
This is how breathwork does its healing, by bringing up the “scabs” from inside us which
may have been festering for a long time. We look at these “scabs” in the light of day and
see that they no longer serve us, and simply let them go. Breathwork can release many
negative unconscious thoughts in such a gentle, easy way and each session clears more
negativity, more darkness from inside us, allowing more light in, a light which helps
aluminate areas of our lives that need changes. It becomes possible to see how past
behaviours, beliefs and decisions are inhibiting our growth. The breath releases stored
memories from our unconscious mind, but gives them to us in the right dose and at the right
time for us to gain a realisation of how our mind works, and what we can accomplish by
replacing outdated thinking. As we release past hurt, sadness, grief and unresolved issues,
powerful changes can occur quickly.

When we release a negative emotion, such as hate, the release can cascade down into our
memory banks and release hateful feelings about other events in our lives also. You may
remove a whole block of hateful emotions without having to ever examine and dissect them
individually.

An example of this is a client, who had been unable to express grief for her mother’s suicide,
but two weeks before her first breathe her old cat died and she was inconsolable. During
the breathe she grieved profoundly for her cat, until we hit a much deeper grief, and she
was finally able to weep for her mother. This grief had been buried for fifteen years.

This is where breathwork can differ from other forms of traditional counselling; how do we
know which memory to reach for to trigger the release of something we no longer want
stored inside us? In this therapy the body gives it to you through the breath. It is that easy.
Once the negative feeling has been released, it never returns. This is the beauty of
breathwork, because you are removing the blockage (negativity) from a cellular level, and
there will be no charge left in you about whatever that block was.

Removing negative thoughts at a cellular level causes huge physiological changes in the
body.
As infants our cells are plump, light filled, healthy molecules that nourish us and kept us
energized and functioning well. As we grow and something happens to us that we view as
sad or unpleasant in any way, we create a negative thought about it. This negative thought
gets stored in a cell, the cell looses some of its energy in keeping the charge of this thought
alive and it takes extra energy to re-create the damaged cell in an exact likeness of itself.
This cell begins to loose its light and energy, and will attach itself to another healthier cell
for survival. As more negative thoughts get stored, more cells get damaged and begin
clinging to each other for nourishment and survival, and thus a clumping of cells occurs. The
more cells that clump together, the less light and nourishment is available to them
individually, and they become dark and die. Taking their energy away was the negative
thought (the scab) you stored in that cell at the time an event occurred.
Imagine a child who is told they are worthless, useless, unattractive, unwanted, unloved.
How many negative thoughts would they have, and how much cellular damage would have
been done? How much light would that child hold in them as opposed to how much
darkness? How much energy would it take to keep all that hate and sadnes inside them?

If a doctor cuts a person open for an autopsy he will see dead cells in their body where their
disease was located. The area where all the cells have clumped together will have become
tar-like and gone black. The cells have lost their life force. There is no light in them, and no
life in them. Disease has to start somewhere. Rather than it just being “bad luck” or a
random thing, perhaps all our thoughts and conditioning is where it starts.

It has been proven that our thoughts do affect our bodies. If our negative thoughts and
beliefs are enough to cause our cells to die and our bodies to get sick then clearly all the
negative thoughts you have stored throughout your body will be beginning to have an effect
on your health.

An example of an unresolved negative thought affecting your health is the story of a woman
who saw a *myofascial release therapist for a persistent sharp and stabbing pain she’d had
in her shoulder blade since childhood. No amount of conventional or unconventional
therapy had improved her pain to this point. During the treatment the therapist unlocked
the trapped memory in her shoulder. When this woman was a little girl, she and her mother
had been held up and robbed at knife point and the robber held the knife at the little girl’s
shoulder. After the attack, the girl’s mother told her “not to make a fuss”. And the girl
didn’t! She buried the memory of a knife in her shoulder for 25 years. When the memory
was released, she was able to shed all the emotions she SHOULD have expressed at the
time, and the pain finally disappeared.

*Myofascial release is a form of massage, holding a painful area while the client relaxes and
breathes until the fascia surrounding the muscle tissue begins to release.

Sometimes a person wants very much to have the experience of a breath, but after lying
down will have resistance to the breathwork process. We live in a world of control, mistrust
and suspicion. We tend to hold back our feelings, keep things to ourselves, pretend
everything is fine. Breathwork is asking you to do the exact opposite. It is saying give up
control, relax, allow, recognise your need to heal, and believe in your soul’s ability to guide
you.

One client said he was sorry, but his sinuses were so blocked he was physically unable to do
this “type” of breathing. Finding a physical symptom to use as an excuse for not breathing
is quite common. Very slowly I coached him through a soft, circular breath into his nose,
visualising the healing energy he was absorbing with the oxygen. The energy moved slowly
through the tiny sinews and vessels in his nasal cavity and within 10 minutes his sinuses had
cleared completely for the first time in nearly a week. He was then able to proceed into a
powerful and rewarding breathing session.
The energy which is ingested along with the oxygen during a breath is like the manna from
Heaven. It is through this energy that our bodies come alive, tingle, and vibrate and let us
sense the essence of our spirit. This spiritual breathing also brings to the surface the
wonderful, heartfelt memories stored inside us that fill us with glorious emotions of joy,
bliss, oneness with the universe, peace and understanding. Towards the end of a breathing
session when our bodies are saturated with oxygen and life force, the feeling is one of JUST
breathing in energy, often gently through the nose. There is no effort here, the sensation is
that of the body breathing itself with you merely the observer.

From Leonard Orr: “The purpose of conscious breathing is not primarily the movement of
air, but the movement of energy. If you do a relaxed, connected breathing cycle for a few
minutes, you will begin to experience dynamic energy flows within your body. These
energy flows are the merging of spirit and matter.”

This spiritual breathing often occurs at the time of integration which is at the end of
breathing session when you have reached a state of deep rest. In my opinion, it is in this
time that our greatest healing takes place. You are in a space of utter surrender, of total
relaxation on such a deep level that the merging of body, mind and spirit has well and truly
occurred. This surrender is valuable, not only for the healing going on in your body, and for
the peacefulness and understanding in your mind, but also because at this time your soul
(spirit) body which is bigger than your physical body can expand, stretch and exercise itself.
Our spiritual body can get as tight and restricted as our physical body if it is not exercised.
(You could think of this expansion of your spirit as the soul going home – because this is
often when we get our most profound, beyond this life, experiences). A realisation that you
are far more than just your physical self is often felt and this can be a great joy and comfort,
especially if you are dealing with a life threatening illness, feel your life has no purpose or
are dealing with an “emptiness” inside you. The latter being quite common.

I have found from my own experience and from conversations with other long term
breathers, that the more breathwork you have done, the more peaceful and spiritual your
breathes become.

As is always the case, the more you practice something the better you get at it. Frequent
breathwork, plus a regular spiritual practice, such as prayer, meditation, yoga etc., give you
a stronger link to your higher self (your soul or spirit). This is especially important in times
of crisis when you most need your inner strength. If you have a strong spiritual practice,
your own body is less likely to suffer physically from a new stressful situation, and you will
be a greater source of help and inspiration to others. Recent studies at Duke University
Medical Centre, and the University of Louisville School of Medicine both show an amazing
link between regular spiritual practice and healing.

It is interesting to note that The World Health Organisation estimates that by 2020
depression and heart disease will be the two leading causes of disability in the world and
people with depression are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack, and at three times the
risk of dying in the following six months.

Depression causes chemical changes in the body. In other words, the cells begin to change
and die (as previously discussed). Psychological studies show that people whose lives are
unhappy, who dwell in the past and have not found an avenue to heal their wounds feel
victimised and unwell. These people are more likely to suffer depressive thoughts such as
despair, fulility, hurt and anger.

Breathwork studies have proven that from the first few breathing sessions with a qualified
therapist you can start to change thought patterns and clear blockages caused by depressive
or stressful memories held in the body. These changes can stimulate cellular changes that
actually reverse the damage caused to cells and healing can begin.

The same positive results can occur with other diseases such as cancer, which appears to
have hit epidemic proportions.

While society continues to explore medical therapies for healing, the exploration of the
body’s own ability to correct its mistakes and heal itself is also very active. An arcticle in the
Melbourne Herald Sun Newspaper on Nov. 29, 2004 predicts that within ten years
alternative therapies will overtake conventional medicine and this is reinforced by a Health
Care and Insurance report prepared for Federal and State health authorities predicting new-
age treatments will be used more than western medicine as the major form of medical care
with a decade.

Breathwork and yoga breathing are two of the leading exponents in these new-age
treatments. This gentle process offers the promise of great healing as it engages the
partnership of the body mind and spirit. This means that as we breathe, the wisdom of this
merger allows for a stronger healing than we could ever experience in a hospital ward.

Western medicine can relieve our symptoms and cut out our diseases.They do wonderful
research and therapy, and thank God for that, but TRUE healing has to come from a much
deeper place within ourselves.

(Excerpts from Breathwork – A Natural Healing Therapy by Linda Veale DTM)

Linda is a Remedial Massage Therapist, Reiki practitioner, accredited Breathwork Therapist

and Yoga Teacher. She is a Member of the Australian Massage Association, Australian
Breathwork Assoc., and the Yoga Teachers Assoc. of Australia.
 Words about the breath from Christine Savage B. Ms., a pioneer in
breath technique.

States of Healing:

“Healing, what is this phenomena called healing? I suppose it’s many things to many
people. I’ll share with you a little about how I perceive healing.

Every experience you have ever had is registered and stored at a cellular level, in other
words it is remembered in each and every cell of your body (which could also be called the
unconscious mind). If at the time of these experiences you were in a state of “Non
Acceptance” of the event at hand, then there will be a “charge of emotion” trapped in the
cells relating directly to that moment in time. As you travel through life you have many of
these moments, in fact billions of them, collecting much emotional debris on the way. This
is where the redirection of your life and health originally takes a turn.

Much of the emotional charge crystallised in the cells also has a thought pattern attached to
it, and these same old thoughts and feelings repeat over and over in your life’s course.

These trapped energies deplete you; it takes a huge amount of your precious life force to
hold them in place. By not allowing yourself to feel the feeling fully in the first instant, you
literally end up carrying it for the rest of your life. Where? Originally in your energy body
(emotion=energy in motion) and eventually in your “matter”, your physiology!!

This is an unconscious act. We have not been educated in the area of energy and emotions
in any way shape or form in our schooling system or any other type of health education. In
fact our society is terrified of feeling deeply; emotions send our society running. But the
irony of it is that if we don’t feel it, we store it and it’s with us forever. Then we are literally
ruled by our emotion.

It is vital to understand this!!!! Why? Because it affects your life and your health,
absolutely! You are literally what you think and also what you have not allowed yourself to
feel. A collection of unresolved emotional baggage. This may sound awful, but really, the
only thing that matters is getting this stuff out. If we are to have excellent, vibrant healthy
cells, which of course means a healthy mind and body, then we have to get started now.
How can we release ourselves???

Altered States of Consciousness

We must learn how to let go! We are very good at hanging on and that is how we got into
this mess in the first place. It sounds so easy doesn’t it – “Let Go” but how do we do it. It’s
a question that is frequently asked, or statements like, “I’d really like to let this go, but I
don’t know how”. Letting go is a learned process, like most things in life. Firstly we must
unlearn “hanging on” and then learn to “let go”. It is actually a very simple process!

I work with Altered States of Consciousness, when you enter an altered state, you still know
exactly wht is going on, however you travel beyond the conscious mind into the unconscious
mind In other words, you move into deeper territory, unchartered waters, and this allows
whatever has been trapped and stored to – express itself.

People come with all sorts of different symptoms, Emotional, Mental and Physical. Some
amazing healings and disappearance of symptoms happen. Often it is a physical medical
problem, sometimes these illnesses have been present for 20 years or more, some of these
clients have been referred by their personal Doctors, and often in a short period of time
“poof” the symptoms start to change. Why? If the cause is released, the effect or the
symptom must also release. When the charge of unexpressed emotional energy is “let go”
or allowed to express, then it blows the boundary on the whole thing, and it dissolves. It
releases the pollution and stress from the cellular level.

It’s common sense really!! The person is their own “Healer or Doctor” which is an
empowering state to be in. If we have the ability to manifest it, we have the ability to heal
it!!

One of the beautiful gifts of healing is the feeling of wholeness, as the empty, disconnected
feelings dissolve. The fragmented parts of ourselves disintegrate and we become truly
integrated. Then and only then may we live in integrity. As we heal ourselves we heal our
relationships and we heal our world…..in healing and health..Christine”

Christine Savage is a practitioner and Minister of Metaphysics, a Member of American

Metaphysical Doctors Association, has a Bachelors Degree in Metaphysics, a Master
Certificate in Neuro Linguistic Programming, Master Certification in Hypnotherapy, as isan
Accredited Breathwork Trainer and Member of Aust. Breathwork Assoc.

Also from Christine: An interesting story

Approximately 9 years ago I was on an AIMA (Australasian Integrated Medical Association)
3-day conference, the group was 95% medical and there were a few alternative therapists
like me there as well. I attended one of the workshops that was facilitated by a Doctor who
was dubbed Dr. Didge because he played the Didgeridoo,…and very well I may add,…there
were approximately 20-25 people gathered. Dr. Didge asked everyone in the group for their
permission to play the Didgeridoo on their chests at the end of the session…to which we all
agreed.

It was a powerful session and in the final 30 minutes, as promised the Didgeridoo delivered
its deep, haunting, melodious magic to the core of every heart. When the sound of Didge
finally subsided it’s vibration still rang loudly in my cells drawing me further into a profound
silence, alive with stillness. We all sat unmoving, seduced and mesmerised within the
resonance.

As the group began to stir and return to normal consciousness Dr. Didge came over and
asked me if I would wait around because he wanted to speak with me. I agreed, and waited
patiently wondering what he wanted to speak to me about.

When he returned he asked me what I did,…I told him I was a BreatahWorker and had done
a lot of breathing and meditation. He continued to ask me many questions, which I
answered until it got the better of me and I asked him why he was asking me these
questions. Fascinatingly, this is what he said….

“When you play the Didgeridoo near an object whether it’s a tree or a person there is
resistance, you can feel it when you are close to the object. When I played the Didge
against your chest there was no resistance, your body was different to everyone else’s
there wasn’t any resistance, it just when straight through you like you were emply, and I’ve
never had that happen before, and that’s why I wanted to talk to you and find out what you
do.”

I do Breathwork, the breathing I do makes a difference, it clears and purifies the cells of
the body ridding the body of density and I have actually become lighter!!!

What a validation for the work!!! Breathwork…Woo Hoo you rock!