HEALING TRAUMA WITH BREATH WORK
Article by Valerie Hines
Healing Trauma with Breath Work
Trauma is something that everyone experiences. Though it may look different to each person, it is universal. Trauma is also held and handled differently according to each individual. Trauma won’t go away by ignoring it. Drinking a bottle every weekend or smoking a joint thinking the pain will just go away and never return. Well, I hate to break it to you, that’s not how it works.
There is yet another holistic healing modality where you do not need to spend $150 an hour to talk with a therapist about your past when in return being summoned to let it all go with the solution of simply taking a pill, or two, or in most cases; a combination of them… Yeah…no thanks.
When you experience any traumatic event, your body holds that trauma. It is a different place for everyone but common places are the lungs, chest, stomach and right above your genitals. If you are feeling chronic pain in a certain place in your body, it may be trauma that has been held there. Pains that come and go depending on stress level? Trauma. Emotional ties when certain areas of your body are touched? Trauma.
Some people really laugh when it comes to the subject of Breath Work. Something as simple as breathing can take away all of your pain and trauma? “I breathe all the time and that did not do anything my whole life”. “What a crock!!!” The problem with these thoughts and ideas are that most of us have been trained that we are not in control of our bodies and we do not have the ability to heal. When in fact, we do. We are operating machines that have the power to heal anything in our bodies. We have just forgotten how to do it.
Breath Work helps us align and remember.
See, most people breathe the wrong way. Yes, there is right and wrong way to breathe. To start a Breath Work session, you would breathe in while expanding the stomach and when you are breathing out you would suck your stomach inward. You're thinking this is kind of ass backwards right…well its true. As you start off getting used to the breathing you speed up and up and up as you listen to a kick-ass playlist that will help you connect with your body. You may feel dizzy, emotions will come up and you on rare occasions get the dreaded claw hands.
During and after a Breath Work session, you may feel tired, you may feel energized, crying tends to happen. You may get a bit of a headache or feel like you just went on an acid trip. Remember, these are all good and will help you heal. You can feel like you just melted away 10 years of trauma in 25 minutes of work.
Breath Work delivers a variety of benefits beyond healing trauma such as: positive self development, boosts immunity, increases self awareness, enrich creativity, improve relationship with others, develop health boundaries, increases self confidence, self image and self esteem.
No one said that dealing with trauma would be easy, but it is also not supposed to be filled with synthetics and chemicals to keep us asleep either. There are plenty of natural alternatives to healing. Breath Work happens to be one of these amazing modalities.
I now facilitate Breath Work sessions and workshops because of how much of an impact it made on my life. Breath Work can be done in person or remotely. You just need your own body, intention and love for yourself in order to participate.
