Last week, my thoughtful son gifted me with a Zoom session of Holotropic Breathing. Before describing my experience, I want to firmly state that you need to do two things:
1. Research who should not be doing this, as in what medical symptoms you may be experiencing.
2. Do this with a guide, or sitter. This must be with a certified Holotropic Breathing guide.
These warnings are not meant to scare you away but to ensure that you are safe during the practice.
As much I would have preferred a live meeting, in the world of Covid-19 sheltering, the session was on Zoom. You may want to wait until you can do this with a person in the room, if you can remember the grand old days of being in a room, unmasked, with someone other than housemates. In preparation, the guide, Daniella, had told me to have headphones or ear buds with a mic, and a way to lay comfortably on the floor with her able to see me.
Daniella was enthusiastic, comforting, and had me feeling safe in her guiding gaze; a needful state to be in for an unknown experience. Especially after hearing that I would be focusing on a particular way of breathing for forty minutes, I felt a strong preference for a voice that struck me as trusting.
Once I was set up and ready to go, she had me set a vision of what I wanted to achieve during the session. Was it a healthy body, more romance, abundance, the ability to eat chocolate covered caramels without gaining weight? I went with a mixture of all of these, packaged in a layer of love.
It's an efficient use of deep inner work to include a vision. If you are going to hit those inside dimensions, might as well bring along a goal to stick with it. Anytime you are letting go of darkness, have a bright light to replace it with.
Next came instructions on taking a belly then chest breath. Let out the air and do it again. Her words kept a steady pace backed up by an agreeable beat and relaxing background music. Interjected in our time were uplifting, spiritual phrases.
As we are unique expressions of goddess, what you get out of this will be set to you. In the interest of not influencing what you can expect, I won't include what came out of my session. Some people may not get much out of it the first time. If you are open, I encourage you to try it a few times if you are not feeling anything at a first go of it.
I will say this. What I experienced caused much introspection. Things that I did not know I was harboring were brought forth. I felt a spiritual cleansing, and a greater acceptance of love.
As with much deep, inner work, have a plan of following up the session with some way to ground yourself. Three hugs from different people. A bite of chocolate. Rinse your hands in cold water. Don't jump up and rush back into your day. Stay lying down, letting your body and mind come back to the physical, present world. Wiggle those toes and fingers.
It's a pleasure to discover such a simple thing as breathing can bring about wonderful life changes.
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