Conscious-Connected Breathwork is the simple act of removing the pauses in our breathing. As soon as we reach the full capacity of our inhale, we exhale. As soon as we’ve exhaled out all of the air in our lungs, we inhale again. This leads to a very rhythmic and circular breathing pattern.
“Soma” is the greek word for body, and that is what somatic breathwork focuses on. The body and the sensations it experiences. During a session you’ll hear me say “Stay with the sensation” a lot. So what does that mean?
Sensation can be physical, emotional, mental or even energetic. A tightness in the chest, or a rising lump of sadness in the throat, a nervous twitch in the fingers, or an overwhelmingly busy mind. Somatic breathwork asks you to remain with the sensation, instead of trying to push past it, resolve it, change it, or fix it.
It asks you to keep the eye of your awareness fixed on wherever you feel sensation within your body, and sit with it like it were a dear friend.
Staying with sensation or emotions in this way, without judgement or forcing change, but almost as though we are bearing witness to what we are experiencing, allows the body to complete it’s own natural cycles. This is when emotion or memories may rise to the surface, ready to be released or resolved. Or perhaps it might be a more physical experience, where the body discharges any survival energy that has been stored.
All in all, somatic breathwork asks you to remain fully present, with yourself and all that you are experiencing.
Unfortunately, there are some instances where a full somatic breathwork experience is considered unsuitable. If you have any of the following conditions we would need to have a conversation prior to you joining a session
If you have any of these conditions, it doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t partake in somatic breathwork, it just means I might need a doctor’s note signing you off as fit to participate, or we might need to regress the breathing slightly to see how your body responds. In any case, we would have an open conversation prior to your participation in class.