Breathwork is like psychedelics without the psychedelics

The journey starts on the mat … relieving the tension in the bones, muscles, and joints. Strengthening our vessel for this life. We practice alignment, and asana as if it were the be all and do all. We opt in for “hot yoga” so we learn to sweat out the impurities as if that would clear our Earth suit.

And it does, for a while.

If we’re deep enough into the practice, we dive in … headfirst and begin integrating philosophy into our practice. We pray, we chant, we learn about where yoga came from, we take our practice, layer by layer, determined to understand the meaning of our life. We dip our toes in, we wade in the shallow end for as long as it takes for us to feel safe enough to journey into the deep end.

And the deep end will come – whether we invite it in or not. We can choose to head toward it slowly or jump in, but it will come. If we are lucky, we get to the end of our lives and have the space to reflect, forgive the past, honor that we did our best and feel right in our hearts. But what if you could jump in, reflect, forgive, and honor yourself before death came upon you?

Because for all of us ... the end will come.

The thing about yoga is, once you have stepped onto your mat, you can never go back to sleep. You are awakened, if only a sliver, to your life and how you relate to the experience. Sometimes it shows up as unexplained tears, or frustration, or even a glimpse into your egoic pattern to compete. But you see it for a moment, this “other” version of your life.

From there it’s up to you … actually, it was always up to you. You get to decide just how deep you want to take this practice, or this life for that matter. You can skim the surface and show up on your mat week after week and live quite a comfortable, loving, Divine life.

And you can also dive into the deep end.

You can follow the thread from your tears and begin reading yogic text, or “self-help” books. You can take workshop after workshop, trying to decipher what that opening really was. And by the way, every step is important. Every note taken, every breath noticed, every inquiry into the heart … they are all breadcrumbs that lead you “there”.

But there is no “there” … because when you think you have arrived, there is somewhere else that beckons you “there.” It’s a never-ending loop of illusion … there is no “there”.

Why? Because you, my dear, are an infinite being. You have this vessel you call your body, but you are an infinite being that is on borrowed time in this body, and on this Earth. You have a myriad of lessons you said, as a soul, that you wanted to learn, in this lifetime, as we know it to be, our Earth School.

And it’s painful, and heavy, and challenging. But it’s also a gift … and you chose it. You chose to be here … and you chose the experience as it’s been written. And you get to choose how deeply you want to see.

All my life, I’ve captured glimpses of what this philosophy really means to me. I’ve dove into the deep end many times, subsequently realizing that I was only skimming the surface to play it safe: surrendering just enough to dabble into the level of truth I could handle at the time. And such as life.

Until I did a psychedelic journey with my therapist. It was a reckoning like I had never experienced before. I had done many, many breathwork sessions prior to this; many, many therapy sessions, countless workshops, thousands of yoga practices, millions of chants … but nothing was quite like the surrender to the medicine …

I call it Soul Medicine.

Maybe you’re not quite ready for that … it took me quite some time, and a trusted friend, to be able to completely surrender. After living a life where I completely supported myself, had no one to turn to in the face of hardship and pain, and relied solely on the support of God, the Divine, and my own inner wisdom … surrendering was extremely hard for me.

I look at breathwork as that bridge between the deep end, and the shallow end.

With breathwork, you are truly still in the “driver’s seat” of the practice. You call the shots. You can stay in your head somewhat, keeping one toe in the shallow end while you travel deeper. But … you can also let go. Using no psychedelic drugs, no fear of totally losing control, and no 3-8 hour “trip”. It costs nothing to breathe, although it does cost something to be supported by a breath coach.

Why?

Because we are holding space. We are the gate keepers of your safe experience. We know how to help keep you grounded while you slowly allow the magic of your beautiful breath to find its way to the deepest parts of your soul, so it can get the medicine it needs.

Breathwok is not a trend, although it sure seems like it, doesn’t it? It’s powerful and just like the yoga practice, it’s not to be taken lightly. Breathwork won’t get you “there”, it won’t “bring you” the answers you need, and it won’t illuminate anything that isn’t already residing within you. It will open the doors of your heart, it will bring up your subconscious patterns, and it will allow you to dive into the deep end of your life.

Want to do a private breathwork session with me? Check out that page on my site