The year is 2014. I was sitting in a sunlit conference room with an eager crowd of people who were looking at a woman who had curly hair and who was the pioneer of breath work in Turkey.
She had her arms in the air and took a deep breath. Then started talking about ”breath.”
You are probably wondering and asking ”Don’t we all breathe?” ”What the hell is breath work and why am I here?” ”What is breath work?”
Well, breath work is more than just breathing. There are a lot of benefits of breath work.In fact, it is being aware of the life force we all have inside ourselves.
I found myself in fast and deep breathing sessions for 5 days, where we learned breathing techniques. The course was called ”The Miracle Course”, but I wasn’t seeing any ”miracles”. And I was thinking to myself ,”Can miracles even exist?”
The breath work course was a place where I learnt about my dysfunctional breathing habits and, as a result, my dysfunctional thinking pattern. ( I’ll be talking about this in detail in another post.) and how I was damaging myself physically and emotionally. ( As you can imagine, I was having several panic attacks a day)
I was 16 back then, and I had no ambition in life. I was dealing with anxiety and major depression. I was on few antidepressants. I was diagnosed with a chronic condition that my doctor wasn’t even sure about how we can manage it. And I found myself taking deep breaths with other people, screaming and even throwing up all the stuff we held inside for years. Yes, I was 16 and you would think that I was being dramatic. But I wasn’t. I cried, I screamed, I laughed, I learnt gratitude, I learnt how I was ”holding my breath” and how this meant that I was holding my ”life on hold.”
It was true, I wasn’t letting my true identity shine.
I don’t know when this started, because I loved acting when I was little. I loved it when I was on stage, and, of course, as a kid, I loved the attention.
But, then I grew up. I grew up and thought that society’s standards and ”should” and ”musts” were superior to my dreams and aspirations.
I silenced myself and I silenced that little girl who was dreaming, who dreamt about being a mythological character for a day. That girl, who wanted to shine and didn’t care about the imposed beliefs others had put on her.
& it’s not an easy process. But breathwork allowed me to find myself. After these sessions and this 5-day course, I felt more confident and knew what I wanted to do in life.
I’m still on this journey of finding my authentic self and trust me, I’m still a beginner but at least I knew what was behind my panic attacks and my depression. It was me not standing in my own power and hiding my true self.
In fact, what I learnt was that no one is against us. It’s just us against us.
Well, hope you found this little post helpful. Let me know if you have any experiences with breath work.
I’ll be writing more about becoming our authentic selves by blocking out other people’s opinions, ideas and society’s beliefs. Unless we eliminate those voices, it is impossible for us to find our true essence.
Hope you have the courage to do that.
Because you have that, deep inside your heart.
I love you.
Remember how divine you are.
Remember your true mission with every breath you take.
You are here for a reason, and that reason is unique.
That reason will change this planet.
x Penny
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