5 signs you’re ready to try conscious connected breathwork
Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past few years, you’ve probably heard the word ‘breathwork’ being uttered more and more. Most likely alongside other words like ‘incredible’, ‘transformational’, ‘mind-blowing’ and the sort.
If you’re anything like me, your first thought will be – wtf is the big deal about doing some breathing exercises? As it turns out, it is quite a big deal. And, yeah, it also turns out that conscious connected breathwork – the style I usually share with my clients – is a bit more than simply doing some lovely calming breathing exercises.
As more people catch on to the flipping game-changing power of breathwork (searches for the term ‘breathwork’ have reportedly increased by 400% since 2019 according to a report by the Global Wellness Institute), it’s only a matter of time before you are presented with an opportunity to join a session. But how will you know if conscious connected breathwork is for you? Read on to find out five signs that you are ready to give conscious connected breathwork a try.
But first, what is conscious connected breathwork?
Doing conscious connected breathwork involves being taken on a breathwork journey set to music and guided by a qualified breathwork facilitator. Conscious connected breathwork is in the same category of breathwork as techniques like rebirthing breathwork and holotopic breathwork. It’s a therapeutic, transformative style of breathwork that’s used as a personal development tool.
This means that it goes beyond simply helping you relax or calm down like many simple breathing techniques you’ve probably tried such as extending your exhales or box breathing. I say ‘transformative’ and ‘therapeutic’, because it enables you to enter into expanded, or altered, states of consciousness and the impact of this on the mind, body and soul can be profound. Life-changing even.
What is the conscious connected breathwork technique?
Conscious connected breathwork is not complicated but you do need proper guidance. It involves breathing through the mouth in a connected fashion, with no pauses between the the inhales and exhales. The breaths are active on the inhale and passive on the exhale, and we say the breath is a full-body breath, welcoming the energy you are bringing in to every cell in your body. It’s important to note here that unless you are an experienced practitioner, you should not practice conscious connected breathwork without a certified facilitator guiding the process.
What can you experience in a conscious connected breathwork session?
Breathing in this way can cause a variety of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual experiences that I outline here. I always say that conscious connected breathwork is a deeply feeling practice. What I mean is that the practice connects you to your body and its wisdom and energy in a way that is not usually possible in our normal lives.
In essence, conscious connected breathwork enables you to very deeply connect with your body and access stuck emotions and subconscious awareness. It also helps you to expand your capacity for stress by enabling you to gently and consciously move from feeling activation or stress to feeling calm and grounded. Another cool thing about conscious connected breathwork is that the changes to your brain waves while on a breathwork journey can help you enter into an intuitive, creative state, where ideas, clarity and solutions to problems arise with ease.
Due to all this amazing power and potential, conscious connected breathwork is the main technique I share in my breathwork sessions. So, is conscious connected breathwork for you? Read on and see if you can recognise any of these signs that you’re ready to give it a try.
You’ve tried meditation but you just can’t switch off your monkey mind and end up frustrated and wondering wtf you’re doing wrong:
Breathwork is sometimes called “meditation for people who can’t meditate”. It’s ideal for people with busy minds as the combination of music, the facilitator’s voice and the rhythm of the breath makes it much easier to make that journey from mind to body than meditation.
I first tried meditation while going through a horrific break up and it felt like torture to be with the quiet of my own mind. I decided then and there that meditation was not for me. Turns out that that specifc type of meditation practice was not for me – there are many others. And, in its own way, I suppose breathwork is a type of meditation, with the focus being on breath.
In particular, breathwork really suits people who struggle to quieten their minds, feel they cannot switch off and find it hard to connect to their bodies. Feeling embodied and connected to your energy and emotions is a common feeling after a conscious connected breathwork session. Amazing for those of us who feel we '“live in our minds”.
2. You’re ready to do the inner work:
Breathwork peels back the layers of what’s really going on under your limiting beliefs and unhelpful thought patterns. It facilitates the release of stuck emotions. It goes deep and it can feel like WORK, so it won’t always be comfortable but it will allow for breakthroughs and growth if you lean in. I once heard someone explain this by saying ‘it’s called breathwork not breath-eating-an-ice-cream’ and I kind of think that hits the nail on the head.
In all honesty, some sessions feel blissful and joyful and brimming with ease and flow. But others can feel harder. The idea is to show up and breathe with whatever is alive for you that day. Perhaps even find comfort in the discomfort. That’s where the growth comes. But, yes, it can feel tough at times. At the same time, the sense of relaxation and presence and peace after all that ‘work’ can feel incredible. Like after a cold dip or a sweaty workout!
3. You’re into personal development and you’ve tried things like coaching but want to go deeper:
Coaching is great, but if it’s not combined with a somatic practice then you’re missing out on a lot of what’s really going on. The truth is that coaching purely based on talking is accessing a small fraction of you: your mind. Breathwork allows you to access and nurture your connection with the place where most of the wisdom lies – the body.
In fact, one of the reasons I got into breathwork was to have a tool to help my coaching clients access the body. I found breathwork to be such a powerful tool that it has totally taken over my 1:1 sessions and coaching is only a very small element of my work. Interestingly, there is a trend of many therapists training in breathwork so they can support their clients in a similar way. In short: the breath and the body is where it is at with personal development and it’s going nowhere fast.
4. You’re tired of all the wellness BS out there and want something that gets back to basics and actually works:
There I said it. We don’t need all the gadgets and expensive things the wellness industry is constantly selling us. Breathwork is almost so simple is laughable. But that doesn’t mean that its impact is not incredibly powerful.
Now I must caveat that with the admission that the breathwork world is also guilty of a certain amount of BS. Some of the videos I see on Instagram about breathwork make me roll my eyes to the back of my head. There are also, worryingly, many people sharing breathwork without a proper qualification.
However, I believe that breathwork can be facilitated in a beautifully simple and down-to-earth way. Which is how I aim to share it. Grounded in science, based on lived experience, tailored to the individual, and with a sprinkling of woo thrown in for good measure (because there is always some parts of these practices of connection that we cannot explain with Western science).
5. You like the sound of getting super comfy for a good half an hour or so and breathing to beautiful music:
Half of the power of breathwork is simply carving out time in your busy schedule to get some non-negotiable me time in the diary. This is a radical act in today’s go-go-go, do-do-do world. This is particularly true for mums – like me – who rarely have time for themselves in amongst all the millions things to do.
I’ll be honest, the lovely music and lying down situation is what really pulled me into conscious connected breathwork when I first tried it. It’s such a treat to take a break fro the busyness of life and just be and breathe and let energy move through you. Divine.
Can you relate to any of these? If so, then I would love to invite you to book a free 20-minute connection call to see how 1:1 breathwork sessions can help you make the connection between where you are and where you want to be.
