The Power of Breathwork
Over the last couple of years breathwork has become hugely popular in Bali with an increase of spiritually thirsty travelers visiting the island each year to experience the power of breathwork. At BaliSpirit Festival, breathwork continues to rise as one of the most loved and transformational workshops, hosted by a range of breathwork facilitators, including Breath of Bliss and Breathfest founder Christabel Zamor.
What is breathwork?
Simply put, breathwork it is a continuous series of interconnected breaths where each inhale and exhale is done in a continuous loop. Breath is synchronized with movement to expand consciousness and breathwork can drastically change depending on the facilitator and their chosen exercises, music and ceremony. Ultimately breathwork is a presence practice combined with ecstatic movement, music and dance to intimately connect to ourselves and others as well as working through energetic blocks deep in the body.
What happens in Breathwork? – Breathwork with Christabel
People who practice breathwork can have a wide range of emotions that arise, but ultimately ending with incredible surges of love. Christabel sets a context for the ceremony and welcomes all emotions in a safe space to arise by combining tantra, shamanism, NLP and hypnosis alongside ecstatic movement for a powerful way to spiritually connect to yourself and others.
Breathwork with Christabel begins with opening the heart with deep tantric sharing exercises which can include people gazing at each other, sharing and being vulnerable. She then invites people to start moving or touching, in order to soften the nervous system to prepare the body to lie down. Once people are lying down, the music, voice and words said are key to allow people to be supported and be in a safe space to let go and experience their journey of emotional liberation.
“When we breathe in this passionate way, it liberates the animal body to let go of the stress and anxiety and collective fear that we accumulate from modern society be that family issues, the media or relationships” – Christabel Zamor
The internal experience of breathwork can be profoundly moving, and to have the reassurance of gentle touch from Christabel and breathwork facilitators (known as ‘angels’) invokes a strong sense of support and unconditional love to help work through whatever emotions arise.
Breathwork vs pranayama
In breathwork the mouth is used for the inhales and the exhales, unlike in and out through the nose like pranayama. By using the mouth to breathe in and out in a continuous loop in breathwork, synchronizing breath with movement, it allows the body to release suppressed memories and emotions and toxins held in the mouth as well as stimulating the release of feel good hormones.
Finding a state of ecstasy from within your body
By consciously breathing deep meaningful connected breaths in breathwork, you can dive deep and release what no longer serves you and connect to your authentic self. Deep breathing, music, the words spoken by the facilitator, sharing love and intimacy with people in the breathwork groups can increase our sense of being of love and oneness with everyone and everything. Breathwork allows us to stimulate this love and pure joy (by tapping into the pineal gland to release DMT, a naturally occurring chemical which is an often used in psychedelics) to bring about ecstasy and set us on path of oneness and peace.
When can I take part in breathwork?
Breathwork workshops takes place throughout the week at BaliSpirit Festival, however to truly discover the transformative power of breathwork for deeply, Christabel Zamor will be hosting her popular Breathfest day as a special event at BaliSpirit Festival on April 8th. Find out more about Breathfest with Christabel here!
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Written by Maeve Nelligan