Hello you,
I have a bigger piece about wildness stewing but it’s taking it’s sweet time and – slowly slowly – I’m learning the art of not forcing these things.
In the meantime I wanted to remind you about the Summer Substack Sale and talk a little bit about what to expect in a breathwork practice, just in case you’re like me and you’re super curious but feel safer knowing what you’re getting into.
I’m offering 30% off yearly subscriptions until the end of August. That ends up being more than £20 off!
Paid subscribers will get to join me for a live breathwork session each month (with a replay because time zones). This is the most accessible way to explore breathwork with me and our first session is coming up this Tuesday August 29th at 7pm BST.
Come September I’ll be raising the price of the Substack subscription by a couple of pounds to account for the new live sessions. If you want to jump in before that happens now’s the time!
In these breathwork practices we’ll be led by the tarot, as a way of deepening your relationship to the card that we’re exploring that month in Embodying the Tarot.
In all honesty though, you really don’t need to be working with, or even familiar with, the tarot. The cards are just mirrors for the experiences of a human life. Larger archetypical themes like relentlessly pursuing your dreams, holding the wild parts of yourself with love, and trusting your inner wisdom to light the way (just to give you a window into the next few month’s themes)
The basic shape of each session is that we’ll meet on Zoom to breathe, journal, and talk. I invite you to come to practice with anything you need to feel comfortable and settled – blankets, snacks, vats of tea, piles of pillows, eye bags, incense. Some folks (myself included) like to build a little altar or set an intention to help them get ready for practice.
Once we’re all gathered in our little digital practice space, we’ll take a moment to land and open the practice together. From there I’ll chat a bit about the theme for that session and – often not always – I’ll give you a question to journal about (or sit with) so you can see what’s coming up for you.
From there we’ll breathe. There are many many many different lineages and ways to work with the breath. Personally, I work with a 3-Part Breath and with Pranayama techniques from the yogic tradition.
I’ll put on some music (read: a lovingly curated playlist shaped by the theme) and we’ll dive into the actual breathing part of the practice. What you might experience as you breathe is a wide landscape of possibility.
There can be physical experiences like tingles and lightheadedness, changes in temperature, the sensation of energy moving, or places that feel blocked and stuck. But breathwork isn’t just a physical experience.
One of the things I love about this practice is that it enables you to drop down out of the machinations of the thinking mind and into your body. Breathwork makes space for things to be felt and expressed without the mind needing to ‘make sense’ of them. You might find that big emotions arise, the urge to cry or shout or laugh is totally normal and more than welcome. This is a practice where we can feel what needs to be felt, and let it move through and out.
You’ll breathe together for around 30 minutes, gently guided by me along the way, and then you’ll let go of the active breath and move into rest. I often think of this part like when you walk through a stream – things have been stirred up and what needs to move has moved, now its time to let what remains settle back down. To integrate.
Eventually, I’ll invite you to start to stir awake and start to emerge. You’ll wiggle and stretch and blink your eyes back into focus to find the outside world there waiting for you. We’ll come back together and you’ll have space to share anything that came up, or ask any questions. Finally we’ll close the space and that will be that for our time together.
Well, nearly. The good thing about an online practice is that you’ll get the replay of the practice and the playlist so you can revisit them whenever you want.
This is the most accessible way to work with me at the moment. There’s a glorious group of folks already gathering, and I’m so excited to start these monthly sessions!
You’ve got time to jump in before the end of the Summer sale, if you want to join us on Tuesday. And if you have any questions about whether breathwork is a good fit for you, drop a comment on this post and we can talk about it.