I recently got an email from someone asking for some help with breathwork - and as I was writing my response to them I realized how many of you would benefit from reading this too. So here’s the question and my response, in full.
Hi Amy!
I recently signed up for your breathwork course. I don’t have a lot of breathwork experience, but I’m looking forward to your class.
I’ve tried small forms of breathwork during yin and kundalini yoga classes, and have had some anxiety creep up a little too far and have had to tap out. I think this would be really beneficial for me, so I want to try even if it might bring some stuff up again.
Do you have any advice for how to handle these emotions in breathwork or how someone with anxiety can best benefit from a session like this? I’ll listen to my body, and do what’s best, but wanted to hear if you had any suggestions.
Thanks!
Hello! And thanks for reaching out with this question - it's a super important one that I’m happy to answer.
Right now I think most humans are dealing with some amount of anxiety.
Between living under an ever increasing authoritarian government, surviving a global pandemic, and witnessing multiple wars and human atrocities - it’s a traumatic time to be alive.
If you've ever read up on trauma, you might know that trauma isn't a thing that happens to us, it's the resulting imprint (or excess energy) the body that wasn't able to fully discharge concluding the stressful event. * And we've all experienced trauma in our lives in one way or another. Some of us have experienced what folks call “big T trauma” (ex: war, major accidents, survivor of violence) while others have experienced lots of “little t trauma” (aka surviving in the world right now).
I bring this up because a common reason why folks feel anxiety at the start of breathwork, is because the breath is a vehicle for that stored trauma energy to be released and discharged fully from the body. This doesn't always happen in every session, but it can and often does. I share all this because sometimes even having a framework of understanding of what is happening can help decrease anxiety - as a lot of anxiety is triggered by the unknown.
I'll also preface the rest of this email by saying that in situations like this, I think it can be a good idea to do a private session with a trained facilitator before joining a group class. In a private session the facilitator can offer you more individualized support and you can talk to each other through the breath practice and work through the anxiety together, in the moment.
While I'm going to share a few suggestions below for working with the anxiety when it arises, know that these ideas may or may not resonate with you and in the end. But giving them a try might be worth a shot.
Tips for doing breathwork with anxiety:
Set up your space to feel as safe, secure, and grounded as possible before the practice begins.
Meaning, do whatever needs to be done to your physical space so that you feel a sense of safety which will unconsciously give your body more permission to let its guard down during the breathwork. Trying to both do the breathwork and be "on alert" will likely trigger anxiety.
This will look different for everyone, but if you’re practicing at home a few you could try are:
Asking roommates or family members to go on a walk so that you can have the home to yourself
Gathering lots of blankets to cuddle under and keep warm
Locking your bedroom door
Holding stones or items that make you feel safe and loved while doing the breathwork
While safety isn't something that can ever be promised, we can try our best to offer it to ourselves. If you’re joining an in-person group, the facilitator will most likely do their best to create a container of safety, which should include:
Holding the group in a private, closed-door space
Not take photos, videos, or any other non-consensual recording of the practice
Explain the practice to the group and what participants might experience so there are no surprises
Remind you that you have full autonomy during the practice to engage (or disengage!) with the breath as you need to
Invite you to an connect to a person, place, or object that offers you a sense of regulation and safety, so that you can come back to this resource when you start feeling dysregulated
Imagine your anxiety as your inner child, and offer them words of comfort.
I've found in my own practice, when I'm feeling anxious or resistant or guarded and want to tap out of the breath pattern, it helps to identify that emotion with the lil kid inside me and then have a conversation with her. Yes, this means that I'll actually start talking out loud to myself/my lil kid while I'm laying down doing the breathwork.
I'll ask her questions like:
What's bringing up this resistance?
How can I help you feel safe right now?
Or I'll offer her reassurance with statements like:
You're allowed to be unsure right now.
I'm right here and not going anywhere.
You can do hard things.
We each have inner kids inside us, and they all have different fears and wants and needs. Even if you spend half of the session having a conversation with your inner kid instead of actually breathing, you'll still be deeply supporting and healing yourself.
Reorient yourself as needed.
Some folks like to have their eyes covered during breathwork to help quiet the thinking mind and really drop into the body. But for other folks, they prefer to be able to reorient themselves to their space when their thinking brain starts to release control to the unconscious mind.
Reorienting ourselves to our space can look like:
Using our hands to touch the floor or bed we're lying on
Touching our bodies or items that we've brought to our practice
Opening our eyes during the breath practice to remind ourselves where we are
Or any other practice that reminds us what we're doing and that we are choosing to be here.
Give your anxiety an outlet through your voice.
While this isn't always the case, sometimes I find that the experience of anxiety during breathwork is the result of the push/pull friction created by our desire to release pent up energy and our fear of what might happen when we let our "wildness" go free.
For those of us who use control as a sense of security (a very common and normal coping response to trauma of any kind), letting go of that control with the breath can bring up a big wave of anxiety. This is something I'm personally very familiar with and I've found that what helps me a lot is releasing physical energy with my voice through a yell/scream/shouting an explative at the top of my lungs. This is a technique that I was physically incapable of doing for the first handful of breathwork sessions I participated in, but over time I gathered the courage and will to offer myself this release and now it's a tool I rely on every time I breathe.
Lastly, and most importantly, be compassionate with yourself.
The suggestions above might help, and yet your anxiety might still demand you to end your practice early. That's ok and nothing to beat yourself up about. I deeply believe that breathwork offers us exactly what we need in that moment. Sometimes that's healing past trauma, sometimes it's envisioning a better future for ourselves, and sometimes it's shining a light on where we need additional support in our mental, emotional, or physical health. If your anxiety really wants to be present during the practice it will be, and maybe that's not a terrible thing.
