Before I start, I want to share that I will be offering FREE sessions (in person and online) from now (October) until March or so of 2025. You can contact me on Instagram, WhatsApp or the form at the bottom of this ♡

What is Rebirthing Breathwork?

So, rebirthing breathwork is different than many modalities you may be familiar with. It is not just an exercise or practice, but it an experience. A deep one.

It is not something like meditation where the practice fades as the day goes on.

Each session is an experience that changes you. It changes the way you feel in your body, how safe you feel, how present you are, the perception of yourself, etc. etc. It deepens your capacity to breath, your ability to take in and let go of air, and therefore take in and let go in life. 

Physically, it is quite simple - you breath, connecting the inhale with the exhale and vice versa. No pause and with a good pace. Typically, you do this for about an hour with someone guiding you through the process, leading your breath to optimal energy flow and holding the space for you to dive into yourself.

The instructor holds the space of gentleness and clarity, as sometimes, going through a session can feel chaotic and confusing. The instructor sees what's going on by the way you are breathing, and guides you through changing your breath, and therefore your life. 

Breathing in such a way takes you on a journey through the subconscious mind and brings you into your body. It is a merging of the mind / body and soul. 

I see each breathwork session as an awakening of the soul. Like when you blow on a fire and it lights up and grows. And on this journey to merging the mind / body and soul, all that is preventing this oneness in your conscious mind and everyday life comes to the surface and is highlighted.

The beautiful thing about this breathwork is that you do not need to think your way through and analyze all that is coming up for you. The breath does it for you. The breath is allowing you to move through it and let it go. The breath is cleaning you emotionally. Just as water cleanses the body, the breath cleanses the energy body.

When we learn things about life and ourselves, especially when it is a lot of information, it takes time to integrate the information from our brain to our body. This breathwork allows for understanding through both the mind and the body. The body first, and the mind just usually happens to pick up on it too. 

Instead of a top (brain) down (body) process (like typical talk therapy for example), this breathwork is a bottom (body) up (mind) experience. 

The lungs store everything.

They store every moment we have experienced since birth (our first breath).

We have been breathing continuously from that moment. 

The way we breath in this moment reflects our emotional state, not just on the surface, but on all levels. 

If there are emotions that we did not fully move through in our past, they stay stuck in our body. Part of us stays stuck in the past, waiting for it to be resolved, which reflects in the way we breath. Our lungs cramp up, stuffing down whatever we fear will come to the surface if we let go. This "stuffing" then creates a loop of this emotion in our life called an energy cycle or energy dynamic. We constantly repeat this trauma, this emotion. We constantly act it out unconsciously. Because, deep down, it feels quite pleasurable to get this ALMOST release of emotion. I say almost because it is a never-ending loop, like an addiction. But once we become conscious of it, and actually have the safety and space within to face the truth of our hearts, of what we are feeling, then can we begin to change. 

Conscious connected breathing allows all of these "cramps", both emotionally and physically, to come to the surface. It brings you face to face with all that lives inside of you. Facing the way that you breath is literally facing all of those energy dynamics in your life that are keeping you stuck.

Now it is not just you facing this alone during a session. The instructor, through the way that you are breathing along with intuition, can see what you are moving through, and which emotion is at the core of it. The breathwork doesn't just bring all of it up to the surface inside of you, but it is actually directly reflected externally as well. 

The way that you breath is a reflection of your emotional tendencies, patterns, and loops you live through in your life, the energy cycles / dynamics. Through this breathwork, which allows for a deep subconscious dive into gently facing these patterns, and then in the midst of it, changing the way that you breath (which magically somehow just happens naturally during a session), these patterns lose their power as the emotion at the core of it resolves.

It is quite magical work. 

And the way you breath changes from then on. You breathe differently now, and therefore are living and experiencing life differently. 

The amount of space I have in between my thoughts these days is special to me. In every moment, I have the space to back up and observe. And I give so much credit to this breathwork. It has truly changed my life.

I was thinking of inserting a table here of all the benefits of the breathwork, but really it is too hard to single down. The breathwork can help with almost anything, emotionally and physically, because everything is always energy before it manifests physically. The roots always lie in the energy. So when you get to healing the energy flow within you, everything heals. Things you didn't even know you had problems with will heal, BOTH physically and emotionally. 

My Journey with the Breath

So, to begin, I did not really go seeking out this work, but it more so came to me.

Last year, in September of 2023, I went on a retreat to a beautiful Greek island. I chose this retreat because it called me from a deep place in my heart. I resonated with it all, and was looking to travel. This was the perfect way for me to do so, both physically and soulfully. 

Now, part of this retreat was rebirthing breathwork, but I did not think much of it. It was not at all a reason I decided to go on this retreat, but ended up being one of the most significant things I took from it. 

Anyways, my first session was significantly impactful. During the session, I found myself rocking my hips back and forth (this was very out of character for me at the time). Somehow, I just knew that with this movement, I was releasing shame. And somewhere in this I had a very foggy memory appear to me of my dad changing my diaper as a little baby and just being absolutely disgusted with me. As a baby, I thought it was me he was disgusted with and it made me really sad and ashamed. 

Anyways, some time later in the session, I saw an image of my dad as a little kid, standing in front of his childhood home. He was crying and in so much pain because of how scared and alone he felt while his dad was yelling at him. I felt the pain too, and then it turned into this brightest most loveliest unconditional love. It was so warm. 

At the time in my life, I was having this rash on my face that made me feel very insecure. Well, in this bubble of love and bliss, I remember having the thought like who even cares about that rash. How could I care when love existed unconditionally? How could I care when it didn't determine my worth? 

And lo and behold the rash faded away the next few weeks. 

The next day, I had my second session. These sessions were not 1 on 1, but instead it was 1 on 2. So the guide was guiding 2 people at the same time. For this session, this was very impactful for me, because the other girl's process triggered my own process. For instance, she began to cry for some reason, and this triggered my whole body to tense up and my breathing to go directly and only into my lower belly. And I just felt so aware of it all and was sitting there inside just like "uhhh ok lol why am I doing this". Then, the guide approached me, touched my chest and said, "Ella, it is safe to feel, breath into your chest", and oh my goodness I felt air touch my heart like cold water to an empty stomach. It felt refreshing, cleansing. And then, I felt the blissful, warm love again.

This time, it showed me that, instead of feeling being scary and painful like I presumed (based off my whole body tensing up), it was and is actually the exact opposite. Feeling is the most loving thing, full of warmth and joy and happiness.

After the session, I also saw how the other girl crying triggered fear in me and also this responsibility. Like I was now responsible for her emotions, and I needed to fix it. 

Interesting.

So, I learned a lot here, one being that feeling allows for the most joyous love, and two, that I am not responsible for the emotions of others. It is then that I can truly support and love others, when I approach them with true compassion rather than out of guilt and fear. 

These first two sessions were very impactful for me, and I went on to do 10 more sessions being led through zoom (online), which were also powerful, and not as intense (as is natural after having 2 intense sessions). The theme of these sessions for me was my habit of trying so hard to get it right. So much so that I was being so hard on myself in the sessions and also feeling a lot of fear of doing it wrong. I was going through this for the whole cycle of 10 sessions, because I didn't understand that it didn't have to be this way. I thought that it was normal because this was my normal. Therefore, I could not even begin to acknowledge that there was pain beneath this self-shame and anger because I could not even recognize that there was self-shame and anger in the first place.

In the next upcoming months, I did begin to recognize all of this and just touch the grief that was lying beneath it all. That is what I call the pain beneath the self-shame and anger - grief. A grief in my heart that I could only touch in brief moments, but was truly sitting behind so much more than I could comprehend.

That is where the next 20 sessions come in. They unraveled this for me. I finally found the safety to face the grief and therefore begin to let it go.

I did these 20 sessions in my recent breathwork training in Greece. I will explain the biggest take away's here. 

One thing I had been struggling with before the training, and a lot of my life, was feeling anxious around others. Well in one of the first sessions, I felt my belly open up. My lower belly was now getting gentle air, and I felt as if my perinium grew roots into the ground. After the session, as I was looking around, and I spotted a group of people, I was sensitive enough to feel that sudden fear that made my stomach drop, but instead of the fear just floating around, it felt as though my lower belly absorbed it and held my fear. I looked to the group of people now with excitement to go speak and connect. Without this fear, I could and can truly feel the connection with others. 

In one of the next upcoming sessions, I had a big realization reveal itself to me...

In the session, I found myself in a dark place. I didn't have any images in my head but darkness. I felt all these uncomfortable feelings of guilt, unworthiness, abandonment, hopelessness (I feel it was an emotional memory from right after my birth...I was taken away for medical reasons). And then, what I could only describe as the light of God, came to me. Warmth, love, illuminating all of these scary feelings and showing me that it was all ok. I soaked up this love for a little while, and then I realized what had happened. That light of God was my father coming to me in the hospital after I was born. At this realization, I felt so much love, but in the form of grief. I cried, knowing that our relationship changed after he took me home. I cried for the knowing that for my whole life I've been not only searching for my light of God, but searching for my dad.

Maybe something like 10 sessions later, I experienced a deep opening of my breath.

A few sessions before this, I had started to touch the scared little girl living inside of me that I suppressed. I still felt too scared to let her out, but she started to show herself in the sessions. 

Anyways, this session was an "example session" led by one of the supervisors who is very experienced in this work, demonstrating to the rest of the group how he gives a session. I volunteered to be the receiver of this session. Throughout the session, the supervisor was speaking on what was happening in my breath. After some time of breathing, I just had this feeling like, I surrender. I relaxed into being gentle with myself, even if it meant I wouldn't be breathing "as good" anymore (which is what I thought would happen). However, instead, I heard the supervisor say something like "and now she is breathing fully and deeply". 

So here, I not only learned, but I experienced in a subconscious state that trying hard with force will never truly get me to where I want to be in life. Instead, it is quite the opposite: to get where I want to be in life, I must surrender and be gentle with myself, allowing love in. Because all I really want is love, and the rest is just for fun. Never again will I ever depend on external conditions to feel love. The love is here with me always if I just allow it in. This is what I learned in this session, and truly feel in my body now. And if you ask me, it is a pretty damn big life-altering thing. 

Last, but most definitely not least, the cold water session.

I woke up this morning before the session feeling sick. Sick in a way that I used to feel when I was little and scared. My stomach felt nauseous, and I was exhausted. However, I knew deep down I needed to do this session today. I knew there was something deep climbing its way to the surface, and this sickness I felt was proof to me. So, I went, I did the session, and during it, the person holding me in the water accidently dropped my head under just enough to where I almost breathed in water! This triggered a deep sense of betrayal and distrust and grief, and took me through a process I have no words for other than grief. A grief of "how could you!?". There were no pictures in my head, and these feelings felt like a very early memory, even ancestral. 

I was taken out of the water and cared for with blankets and love and I think someone was holding my hand. I was still breathing (rebirthing wise) and inside I felt so tense. I felt scared to receive this love, like I did not deserve it or that I would mess it up somehow. I cried.

After breathing more, the emotion took its course. I stayed in the sun for some time until I started to feel sick. I sat by the flowing water, hoping the sick feeling would go away. My stomach felt so gross. To sum it up, it got worse and I felt like I was going to throw up, which was my biggest fear as a child. I was freaking out inside. Then, I told someone I felt sick, and the "freaking out" showed itself. I didn't know what to do, I felt like I just could not go on. I felt stuck and helpless. 

The woman I told about how I felt walked with me to go throw up somewhere. I tried, but nothing. Then, I just started sobbing and moaning and "throwing up" all the emotion in my body. Two others came and held me and a woman even sang to me. It was beautiful and healing and I surrendered to the love because I had no other choice. So. Healing. 

Well, the next 3 days I spent really sick, like insides were just burning and turning. I learned deeper and deeper how to surrender to others care and love and that I CAN ASK FOR HELP WITH EASE. I learned people want to help and support me. And with this, automatically I felt a deeper safety within, knowing that there is love and support everywhere at all times, I only have to ask. I am never helpless or alone and I truly feel this deeply in my body now. God bless. 

I now have space within me, a place and warmth of love that never leaves, and it feels beautiful. This work is powerful stuff, and I will remain forever a student of the breath, sharing with the world all that I learn along my journey, guiding them to intimacy with their own breath and soul ♡ 

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If you want to learn more about this breathwork, feel free to contact me with the form below or through Instagram or WhatsApp

Also, if you feel called to give this breathwork a try, I will be offering FREE sessions (in person and online) from now (October) until March or so of 2025. Just reach out ♡