Move Heal Awaken Newsletter Gabriel Shaw

“The way you breathe is the way you live.” - Jeffrey Sorenson, BreathARMY

Hello Friends,

After completing a breathwork course in the fall, I challenged myself (and fellow participants) to practice some form of breathwork every day for 100 days straight. The rules were simple: miss a day, start over from zero.

Even though I’ve practiced different types of breathing for decades in qigong, yoga, meditation, exercise therapy and somatic healing, this time was different. This exploration was focused on the breath as a discipline in itself, instead of serving a larger modality.

There was so much I learned and moved through, that I decided to briefly share a few of the major take-aways with you.

Breath is the most fundamental relationship

This lesson is so profound, yet so simple. Your relationship with the breath is a reflection of your relationship to life itself. And those tendencies show up in all your other relationships.

From observing the way we breathe, we can see our patterns. Do you force the breath or resist it? Do you (like me) focus on the ways your breathing is “wrong”? Do you over-breath or restrict your breath? All of these patterns might predict how you live, how you relate to yourself, or how you relate to others.

The applications of breath(work) are legion

Upon experimentation and reflection, I began to notice just how many various ways I was using the breath. Depending on the day, I was able to choose a different technique to help me: process emotions, release old burdens, regulate the nervous system, increase physical and mental capacity, and improve heart rate variability and coherence.

While having this “ultimate resource” of the breath handy for all the above uses, it’s been equally as valuable to learn the difference between “using” the breath and simply allowing myself to breathe naturally. If you’re a go-getter like me, you might also tend towards “self-improvement”. But what if nothing was wrong with where you are? Slowly, I’m learning to start viewing these areas as opportunities rather than shortcomings.

10 minutes a day can make a big impact

Whether it is you’re working on, from breathwork or meditation, to journaling or physical exercise, it can be easy to underestimate the value of small steps in the right direction. There were many days that all I had in me was 10 minutes. And most days no more than 20. But each one I definitely noticed. When I didn’t get to it in the morning, I missed the much-needed physical and nervous system shift throughout the day.

With as little as 10-20 minutes a day over a consistent period of time, I was able to measure improvements in my capacity and physiology. But there was also the major mental value of knowing I was showing up for myself (and challenging myself) daily.

Community is key

It was a little bit of a challenge for me to reach out to my fellow participants with the invitation to join me in the 100-day challenge. That’s because I had already started on my own and started over at least twice.

I can be known to prefer to do my own thing. However, I’m not sure I would have completed this challenge if it wasn’t for the presence of my peers. There was no major intervention needed. It was simply knowing they were there, all of us posting our daily practice, that helped me stay accountable, not to them, but to myself.

That’s real supportive, not to keep you accountable to them, but helping each other keep our commitments to ourselves.

On the journey with you,

Gabriel

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Deepening Flow: Virtual Qigong + Breathwork Ceremony
Friday April 17th, 5-7pm PT

Join us for an evening of movement, breathwork and healing. This is an opportunity to explore the stuck places within you, to help you release what is ready to let go, and open to more of the living flow of who you are.

The process includes reflection questions to deepen embodiment, qigong movements to open up and breathwork ceremony to release where you’re stuck.

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Healing pages:

• ​Catalyst of Change - Free Breathwork Masterclass
  ​On April 16th, Jeffrey Sorenson, a friend of mine and breathwork expert, is hosting a 2-hour breathwork class online.
• ​Oxygen Advantage Breathwork Breakdown PDF (10-min read)
  This infographic is a really helpful tool to start learning the different forms and functions of breathwork. You can also find free guided breathwork practices on their website here.
• Ordinary Clothes (From Glimpses by Jim Quibley)
  Today, the mystery wore a simple gown
  And the magic wore ordinary clothes.
  If I hadn’t been paying attention,
  I could have missed it altogether.

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