ElenaO

Holotropic Breathwork Experience

23 posts in this topic

Wanted to share the experience I had yesterday.

Just some background info: the breathwork event is 12 hours long. You do breathing for 3 hours and after a break do sitting for your partner for another 3. You choose partners at the event. 

I had no big expectations for the event. I've heard earlier that breathing could induce altered states of consciousness, but I doubted it could be compared to a mushroom trip. Looking back at what happened, I could say that one achieves the altered state for a number of reasons. It's the breath, setting and the music. Besides, you have your eyes closed all the time and do not talk to anyone or watch anything, so no wonder you achieve a different state. I bet that if you sit for 3 hours awake without doing anything and seeing anything you would achieve an altered state too. But maybe to a lesser degree. Breath perhaps intensifies that. And so does the music.

I haven't done any real research on how does hyperventilation influence our mind (someone here could comment on this), but I must say that during my breathing session I didn't do a very good job of following the breathing technique. I kept losing my focus. First, because I was very nervous (some resistance maybe and uncertainty of what might happen), second because of the loud music and generally because of the peculiarity of the whole situation.

For the first 30 minutes of the session I was trying to calm myself down and breath deeply at equal intervals. I experienced tingling in my face, fingers, chest. I tried Wim Hof method before and knew what to expect.

Then I just stopped the breath and something miraculous happened. I felt as being in a different universe with some stars and beautiful sounds. I intuitively felt that I have to let it in. I surrendered to it. I felt dissolving. I was not myself anymore, I was this part of the universe. It was SO BEAUTIFUL. Even now as I am writing this, the tears well up in my eyes. The moment wasn't very long as my mind got the control back. In addition, I was worried the whole session that my sitter would judge me. 

Right after my little (yet profound!) transcendence experience, I was hit by a deep sadness. I felt a lot of hurt and felt sorry for myself and for the world. Mostly for myself. I believe there's trauma I have to work through. I sobbed like 4 times during my session. I didn't mean to cry before the session. In fact, I rarely ever cry. I was telling that to my sitter right before I went into my journey. Yet then I felt the emotions bubbling up in my belly, chest, the whole center of my body. It was a sort of pain I had to release by crying. There was also an intense pain in between my ribs. Never felt this before, but it subsided shortly.

My tearful experiences were interrupted by peaceful and calm moments. It was amazing. First I was sobbing and then suddenly I was all well. And the music was incredibly beautiful. The universe was beautiful and I felt love surrounding me and feeling love for my life and the universe. Such a wonderful feeling.

The time flew extremely fast. Suddenly the music stopped and I started hearing people whispering and leaving the room. I continued laying on my matt as I didn't want this journey to end.

After the breathing session my sitter took me to draw my mandala. When drawing it, I suddenly felt the anger rise inside of me, so I scratched the paper angrily with the chalk. I guess the anger surfaced as a result of all the hurt I felt.

The sitting experience was memorable too. I felt intense compassion and love for my breather. Especially, when he couldn't find peace and when he cried. I feel like such events should be organized for couples, as you grow so close to each other emotionally.

At the end of the session we all shared what we felt and people had very different journeys. Some barely experienced anything, most had some mild tripping. 

I will definitely participate again. Maybe in a year. You need time to integrate all of it. And there's so many other things you could do to heal and grow yourself.

Peace and love <3 

  
    


   

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My girlfriend of 2 years has a lot of insecurity and self-image issues rooted from her childhood. I try to help her but the pain for her often becomes too overwhelming for her to process it and it often gets projected onto me. I've dabbled in this Breathwork lightly. Do you think this could help her process her own problems? 

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That's a good question. I guess no one could answer that before she tries. The breathwork doesn't necessarily address all your emotional trauma. I'm pretty sure I have a lot of things to process besides the hurt and anger. Yet I've experienced only those while breathing. 
Unless she has some illnesses (physiological and mental, check them online) I would definitely recommend to give it a shot. 

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@ShadowraixSomehow trauma gets stored in the body so I think breath work is great for processing the emotions by bringing them to the surface and into awareness 

Teal Swan talks about it in this video of her working with a woman who has chronic pain 

 

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Nice write up. 

I did 50 minutes of a holotropic / wim hof breathwork last night and I had a similar experience. I feel my body get tense and I can feel these blockages, not sure how to describe them, but it's like they're holding where all my negative states are I think (not 100% sure on this from my own experience). I feel like sobbing right now. I did a holotropic breath work seminar last summer and had a similar experience but was less willing at the time to wonder into the tension in my body and I am also SUPER self conscious as a man to cry and let stuff out in any sort of group setting so I found myself just stopping where the tension is and not journeying into. I'm going to start doing long sessions of this modality daily I think for the next week and see where it takes me. If I think it is something I can use as my daily practice I may start doing 30-1 hour a day. It seems to bring up stuff and make me feel more aware but not a sort of clear/empty aware but like stuff I'm holding onto. I've been grumpy today and told my friends I felt this way. They asked why and I just wanted to snap at them and to mind their own business and that sometimes it's fine to feel this way so shut the fuck up but reframed from doing so. I think this practice is good but don't push it too hard or it can bring up a lot of stuff and you might not be in the position to work through it and thus give yourself hard days without the proper space to work through it. 

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@ElenaO Awesome! Thanks for sharing.


You are God. You are Truth. You are Love. You are Infinity.

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Awesome!

 

where was this workshop? I am interested in attending something similar!

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4 hours ago, SunnyNewDay said:

Nice write up. 

I did 50 minutes of a holotropic / wim hof breathwork last night and I had a similar experience. I feel my body get tense and I can feel these blockages, not sure how to describe them, but it's like they're holding where all my negative states are I think (not 100% sure on this from my own experience). I feel like sobbing right now.

Great job. I was also thinking of exploring more types of breathwork and doing it at home too.  I feel very tired today and very emotional. I feel like sobbing too xD  

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3 hours ago, SriBhagwanYogi said:

@ElenaO Cool, i do it at home every 2 3 days for 30 min is that safe? 

It's safer than taking psychedelics. Because you can stop at any point. 
Just observe how does it work for you. Doing it every 2-3 days is a huge commitment, but if you have time, why not.

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16 minutes ago, lostmedstudent said:

Awesome!

 

where was this workshop? I am interested in attending something similar!

It was in Seattle. The Holotropic Breathwork events don't happen very often, but I heard there's other breathwork styles which can be as beneficial. 

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Do you think these are pretty safe to do alone/with someone not experienced in them? I live in a very rural area without a car so it becomes difficult to find workshops for it.

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I would do it, but it also depends a lot on how ready you are for it. Of course, there's an option to stop at any point - just open your eyes and come back to normal breathing.

I will try this on my own and report here. 

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I've done it for an hour before on my own. It's quite safe but to work through things it can be important to have a facilitator there to guide you better into the emotions and get you to release them. For this I allow myself to tense up and push against the tension and do what my body wants. I'm thinking a weighted blanket and something heavy to push up like a sand bag could be useful for releasing during the breathing. 

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My man Wim Hof is everywhere these days! Thx for the share.

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9 hours ago, Ampresus said:

My man Wim Hof is everywhere these days! Thx for the share.

Well this event wasn't related to Wim Hof's technique. 

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10 hours ago, ElenaO said:

Well this event wasn't related to Wim Hof's technique. 

Wim Hof and holotropic breathwork are almost exactly the same technique and are easily interchangeable and both can actually be integrated together. The only difference in the breathing I would say is that Wim Hof takes on a slightly more masculine approach with how when it's practiced they break up the breathing into sets and give the practice a bit more structure with holding the breath when you feel your experience peak. With holotropic breathwork they get you started with the first round of breathing and basically set you free from there to follow your mind, release, go on a journey, whatever. It's a more free form approach. Wim Hof technique varies this up as well and has basically incorporated holotropic breathwork. Sometimes during Wim Hof workshops they will do a 1 hour free breath which is basically holotropic breathwork. During other sessions they will do 3 sets of 60 breaths or 5 sets or 60, etc. Both techniques play music during group practices but holotropic breathwork stresses this more such as saying follow the feelings from the music. There is a more gentle, feminine apraoch with holotropic breathwork with the music and art expressions after a session. Wim Hof they do say to follow your breath and not push it as well like in holotropic breathwork. I would say the techniques are basically exactly the same but Wim Hof they give you a few more tools and some slight variations on the structure of the practice. I've found knowing both to be beneficial because sometimes I want a bit more of a push while practice which Wim Hof does with the structured sets and other times I want to just let go and focus less on the breathe and more on the music and experience which holotropic breathwork does. They're both completely interchangeable. 

Edited by SunnyNewDay

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10 hours ago, ElenaO said:

Well this event wasn't related to Wim Hof's technique. 

I he’s probably referring to is the fact that you mentioned the Wim Hof method in your post, awesome job btw 

heres a short breathing exercise for anyone who might like to try, I followed the video, did one round and it felt pretty good 

 

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7 hours ago, SunnyNewDay said:

Wim Hof and holotropic breathwork are almost exactly the same technique and are easily interchangeable and both can actually be integrated together. The only difference in the breathing I would say is that Wim Hof takes on a slightly more masculine approach with how when it's practiced they break up the breathing into sets and give the practice a bit more structure with holding the breath when you feel your experience peak. With holotropic breathwork they get you started with the first round of breathing and basically set you free from there to follow your mind, release, go on a journey, whatever. It's a more free form approach. Wim Hof technique varies this up as well and has basically incorporated holotropic breathwork. Sometimes during Wim Hof workshops they will do a 1 hour free breath which is basically holotropic breathwork. During other sessions they will do 3 sets of 60 breaths or 5 sets or 60, etc. Both techniques play music during group practices but holotropic breathwork stresses this more such as saying follow the feelings from the music. There is a more gentle, feminine apraoch with holotropic breathwork with the music and art expressions after a session. Wim Hof they do say to follow your breath and not push it as well like in holotropic breathwork. I would say the techniques are basically exactly the same but Wim Hof they give you a few more tools and some slight variations on the structure of the practice. I've found knowing both to be beneficial because sometimes I want a bit more of a push while practice which Wim Hof does with the structured sets and other times I want to just let go and focus less on the breathe and more on the music and experience which holotropic breathwork does. They're both completely interchangeable. 

Interesting, I'll have to read on it. From what I've heard earlier Wim Hf's method is meant for shorter periods not a 3 hour session and it's more specific about how you have to breath. I've been in a short session and it definitely didn't look the same to me.

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6 hours ago, DrewNows said:

I he’s probably referring to is the fact that you mentioned the Wim Hof method in your post, awesome job btw 

heres a short breathing exercise for anyone who might like to try, I followed the video, did one round and it felt pretty good 

 

Thanks for sharing. Will definitely check it out.

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