As I recently reevaluated the constantly shifting demands on my time and considered how to best and most strategically utilize the limited hours I have in a given day, the question surfaced: Why do I continue to make time for breathwork? Why, after all the different healing modalities I have seen and experienced over the years, do I continue to hold breathwork as one of the very best catalysts to personal healing, growth and transformation?

Perhaps I have simply been inspired by Cole and Reed, my twin nephews, who just turned three and are delightfully and frustratingly in the midst of a raging 'Why?' phase. The questions, however, still deserve an answer.

Breathwork is a perfect healing tool for the 21st century. Why? Because it works so fast and so efficiently, yielding immediate results and healing at every level: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. It is thus a perfect match for our overscheduled, over-stimulated culture of immediate gratification.

Why? It brings about immediate and profound relaxation and relief from the stress of daily living, while providing a sense of clarity and perspective in these often confusing times. One session alone can change your life; its effects are immediate and permanent. Repeated breathwork practice brings about gradual yet powerful changes in a person's relationship to the world and other people, in their overall mood and life perspective, and in their sense of connection to Source, by whatever name you choose to call it. As if that were not enough, this simple, affordable, and accessible technique can be indescribably ecstatic!

In terms of healing past trauma, in all my years of exposure to transformational and healing work, I still do not know of anything that is more effective, nor which has such swift and direct effects. I have witnessed breathwork clients declare that they received more from a single session than from five to ten years of therapy. This is not to say that breathwork is a substitute for that often valuable and highly beneficial process. Actually, it is a great adjunct to therapy, and can serve as a powerful catalyst to that process: therapists will often suggest breathwork to their clients whose treatment may be stagnating or in need of a boost. Breathwork is a great catalyst for any other form of transformational or healing work in which we might engage, allowing for a more alive, full-body integration that can speed healing and positive change.

Why is this important? Lately, as I look around at my own life and that of those around me, it seems as if the pressure to implement change, to step more fully into whatever roles we have come here to fulfill, has been jacked up. It seems like old patterns are being released, sometimes so fast that it can feel like 'spiritual diarrhea:' all our old stuff -- our old habits of behavior and/or systems of belief -- are coming out for clearing or re-evaluation!

People everywhere are changing life situations -- jobs, relationships, patterns of behavior that are no longer sustainable -- and freeing themselves from their self-inflicted and self-limiting prisons.

It is particularly during times of dramatic change that breathwork can smooth out the rough edges and facilitate the process of transformation. It can expedite change and help resolve both internal and external conflicts. When we work something out internally, it will often avoid the need to live it out through external -- and often unnecessary -- drama in our lives.

Breathwork is a powerful way to release -- in a graceful way -- old pain, grief, anger, or other unexpressed emotions -- stuff we have been schlepping around for way too long. Our normal m.o. in these matters -- suppressing, ignoring, or trying to numb out or avoid these feelings by indulging in too much alcohol, drugs, ice cream, sex, shopping or TV -- is a very ineffective way to deal with them. Just like energy cannot be destroyed but merely changes form, repressed emotions get stored in our bodily tissues and surface as psychosomatic symptoms and disease. Often, when they finally come out, the results can be damaging to the people around us. Breathwork offers us an alternative and healthy form of release for all these repressed feelings, emotions and trauma. And its effects are permanent.

Breathwork -- especially when done regularly and over a sustained period of time -- increases our peace of mind and sense of centeredness, even assisting us to sleep better. We feel enlivened, energized and with clearer purpose. Ultimately, it helps empower our lives to work better and our relationships healthier and more alive.

One last thing: multiple consecutive sessions compound the effects. This is the reason why our weekend retreats offer four back-to-back sessions.

So, whether you do it with us, on your own (if you've been trained), or in another setting, breathe and breathe regularly!

info@SoulfulPower.us