I’m hearing a LOT about breathwork recently. For the record, I’m not against this wave of popularity, in the balance it is no doubt a positive thing.
HOWEVER I do feel (rather passionately) that anyone who explores breathwork, especially those who seek to teach it, should absolutely make a point of understanding the full science, scope & historical context of breathwork.
Most of the ‘modern’ breathwork seems to focus on connecting to & transcending emotions. This is awesome, but it’s risky, as any classically trained yogi clearly knows, what goes up, must come down.
Every time I see an advertisement for Breathwork training - I can't help but think that Breathwork must be EXCITING. Transformational, rebirthing, orgasmic, these are the profound adjectives that are applied to the curative powers of the natural breath.
The thing is, this is all true, practiced in a particular way, the breath can indeed be a tool to transcendental realms. HOWEVER, this is only a part of the truth, and not even the best part!
Breathwork to get High 🤩
Humans love to get high, it is an age old conundrum, when things on Planet Reality get too irksome, we love to escape it, albeit even just for a little while. Alcohol, weed, molly, shrooms, they are all just tools to to manipulate the endocrine system within the body and brain, the breath is indeed our most accessible (not to mention free & mostly safe) tool to achieve the same things.
If you ask a lot of Breathwork practitioner why they don't use drugs, they will say, "cause I don't need it, I can get high on my own supply.."
A System of Practices 📈
Getting high on the breath is AWESOME, a joyful and recommended experience - however, this is only a part of the paradigm, through developing true mastery of the breath, there is much more on offer!
In the Yogic Meditation system of breathwork practices - most of the 'getting high' techniques are categorised as 'dynamic' - techniques such as Bhastrika, Kapalbhati, Tummo / Wim Hoff are designed to activate prana, build heat and release stored emotion / samskara.
This is great stuff, and a recommended part of the process, however we are wise not to miss the other parts of the process as well.
Yogic Meditation Teacher Training Breathwork / Pranayama Schedule of Practices: Techniques, Categories and Stages.
The other categories in the Yogic Meditation breathwork system are 'sensitising' 'balancing' & 'tranquillising' techniques. The thing is, we don't want to be activating our system all of the time, sometime we want to just chill out. Likewise, some people are not ready for dynamic / activating breath work, physically or emotionally, and the other techniques will help them stabilise and prepare.
Breathwork as a Toolkit 🛠️
Whilst Yogic Meditation Breathwork might seem boring by comparison to the multi orgasmic breathwork you see on Instagram - what you are learning is a SYSTEM that will empower you to master your own physical & neurological states, prepare yourself for sublime states of meditation (which is indeed what Yogic Pranayama / Breathwork is designed to do) plus you can get high upon your own supply whenever you want to.
Graduates of our Teacher Training Program are empowered with as system that can be utilised to support their own neurological status and guide others to do the same.
