In a breathwork class, you breathe a conscious connected circular breath that doubles your oxygen and lowers your carbon dioxide. This creates a detoxification process that occurs in the molecules, cells, tissues, and muscles of your body that hold your memories and experiences. These classes support your body and mind to release negative experiences trapped in your body. This breathing technique can tap into your subconscious mind and awaken your sympathetic fight or flight response. When you move air in this circular connected pattern, it turns off the conscious over thinking part of your brain to allow for this deep healing to occur.

This is an interesting question to answer. It’s like asking “why do I need to brush my teeth?” Breathwork is incredible for releasing trauma and undigested emotions from your body. The experience of breathwork supports in clearing your mental state, which gives you access to clarity, peace and honestly anything you want to feel more of. When we speak about trauma, these can range from something severe such as losing a loved one or getting into a bad car accident to something perceived as “less severe”, like having an argument with a loved one or someone telling you, you were stupid in the 7th grade. All these experiences are processed to the best of your current ability, yet so many of these experiences get trapped in your body. They can stay stuck in your body on a cellular level where cellular memory exists. These untapped emotions, left unprocessed even forgotten or neglected, can and will affect your daily living and mental health. Your mental and emotional health is just as important as your physical health. A healthy mental and emotional state is paramount in fighting off disease, increasing immunity and keeping our bodies healthy.

We believe everyone has the capacity and tools to breathe. Our wish is that everybody tries breathwork at least once in their lives, however; you may have some pre-existing medical conditions where asking your doctor about this practice is advised. We suggest consulting your doctor if you have any of these conditions:

• a history of cardiovascular disease, including angina or heart attack

• high or low blood pressure or use of a pacemaker

• glaucoma, retinal detachment

• osteoporosis

• significant recent physical injuries or surgery

• mental illness or seizure disorders or for persons using major medications

• a personal or family history of aneurysms

• you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant

We trust you know your body best, as well as the severity of your conditions. Please ask your doctor if you are uncertain and do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns at info@breathworkhealing.ca

In our classes, it is of utmost importance to create an atmosphere that embodies feeling nurtured and safe. We strive to create a space where you feel comfortable enough to let go of the need to control and inspired to feel all your emotions with freedom. The ambiance is relaxing, and the lights are usually very dim, although, in the event they are not, you can always use a towel or eye pillow/mask to cover your eyes. We play loud, contemporary or instrumental music that is strategically curated to accompany your healing journey. The music is played at a high volume to motivate and empower your experience. Our hope is that you feel safe, supported and cared for.

This is a very common block people have during a breathwork session. Staying stuck in the thought process that you need to get it right can really take you out of your experience. The first 10 minutes or so is all about finding your rhythm and creating focus as you take two deep breaths in and exhale one long breath out. If you can drop trying to get it right, eventually your breath will start working in a circular way without much forced attention on it. You may compare your breathwork experience to others around you, worried that yours is not happening in the same way. This is normal for most first-time breathers! Remember that if you are taking two giant breaths in and one breath out, you’re doing the work. The experience lives in the breath so get breathing and forget the rest!

This breathing technique creates a state in the body where you are lowering your levels of carbon dioxide. This is also known as respiratory alkalosis or removing this acidic molecule of CO2 from the blood. This response in the body to lower CO2 levels causes an increase in the firing of sensory and motor neurons. This is a similar response to hyperventilation in the body but know that this practice is most definitely not about you lying on your mat and breathing to hyperventilate. Please see “what is actually happening” at the top of this page for more information or feel free to contact us directly.

The increase in oxygen while lowering carbon dioxide in the body, naturally creates a strong physical response. The experience of cramping or tightness in your extremities generally occurs when someone is forcing their exhalation too hard. In this practice, we emphasize increasing the capacity of your inhalations, while surrendering your exhales. You may hear your Breathwork Facilitator cue you to soften or allow your exhales to fall out of your body. Allowing your exhales to gently release from your body can help prevent this from happening or at the very least lessen the intensity if this does occur.

For some people, the cramping occurs due to a deficiency in magnesium, calcium or potassium. Be rest assured that your extremities, fingers and toes will return to normal during your class, usually during the second portion of this two-part session.

Tetany is a term you we use to describe cramping or muscle spasms that you could experience in your extremities, most likely your hands or feet, during a breathwork session. You may have seen this or heard someone describe their hands and/or fingers cramp up, taking on the appearance of lobster claws. As mentioned above, your body knows what to do to return back to normal once you’re out of active breath.

There are no expectations around your experience in these classes. While many people feel deep emotion and the release of this emotion through tears, it does not mean your session will be the same. In fact, no two classes or experiences ever are. In regards to why we cry — it is our body’s way of releasing trauma, undigested emotions, and more simply, stress in the form of cortisol can happen through the release of emotional tears. Our body’s ability to detox stress and trauma from within can produce these emotions, giving people access to healing in a deeply profound way.