What is Breathwork?
Written by: Andrew Genovese
What is breathwork?
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Breathwork is a practice that has been used by ancient civilizations around the world for thousands of years. It is a powerful tool for healing, tapping into the depths of our human potential. We are wired to breathe and heal. After only two minutes, we tap into our endocrine and central nervous systems, switching from the sympathetic (fight or flight response) to the parasympathetic (rest and relax) nervous system. We feel tingling and other foreign sensations in our body as all 60 trillion of our cells are communicating and telling our body exactly where physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing needs to take place. Breathwork is an incredible tool for cleaning and detoxifying our physical body. It is also used for removing trauma and trapped emotions. It removes energetic blockages in the subtle body and pulls the 7 chakras back into center alignment aiding us in finding our sole purpose while in this physical avatar. Breath is truly all encompassing and is the gateway to all realms of higher consciousness. When we gain control of our breath we gain control of our life.
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
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Finding Breathwork
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My personal journey with breathwork has been life altering. Years ago while running a business in Central America it seemed like I was living the dream; in actuality, I was dying inside. I had anxiety ripping through my body at all hours of the day and was completely overwhelmed. I had a very toxic relationship with both of my business partners and we were on very different frequencies. During that time I started doing some meditation and noticed it was helping with the stress. The political turmoil in the country forced us to abruptly shut down only six months after we started our business. I left with only a few pairs of shorts and shirts in a tiny duffle bag and traveled from northern Nicaragua, to El Salvador, Guatemala, and up to Mexico City. During a plant medicine ceremony I received a message that I needed to be in New York City. I had closed my business, left my home, had very little money, and so, I booked a flight. I arrived in New York and immediately got a job. In my first week, I started having darting pain in my hands and arms; I had to tell them I couldn’t do the job. My whole world felt like it was crumbling all around me, it was my dark night of the soul.
The effects of the practice
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After spending countless hours on the phone and at appointments with doctors, I received no answers. I intuitively started doing breathwork on the edge of my bed every morning for 15 minutes. Almost immediately I started noticing little changes in my overall happiness. Three months later, not only did I heal the intense physical pain I had in my arms, I started noticing emotional changes as well. All the things I believed about myself ~ that I could never be abundant and wasn’t as good as this or that person ~ just started to fade away. I had begun my journey of deep healing on a mental, emotional and spiritual level. I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams that breath would bring me out of the darkest period of my life. If I had not found my breath, I would have never found my way back home.
Learn more about andrew’s experience and breath work offerings on his Instagram