The Breathing Revolution

Yoga and breathing practises have been a key part of my personal healing, and a vital companion to my shamanic work.

I’ve been practicing yoga since 2009, and I taught for seven years (between 2011 and 2018). During my teaching journey, I came to a surprising realisation: I was not breathing properly. And neither were the vast majority of teachers and students I worked with. Yes, we were breathing in time with the poses, but we were also holding our breaths, forcing our breathing, and shallow breathing.

And yet, breathing was meant to be the cornerstone of yoga. How could it be that so many of us - even within the intentionality of a yoga practice - were just going through the motions?

One way to explain it, is that we have two consciousnesses: a “doing” consciousness, and a “being” consciousness.

The “doing” consciousness is focused, task-orientated and strives towards achieving. The “being” consciousness is deep, sensitive, receptive, and present.

Breathing well requires presence. You cannot space out or dissociate. You have to open up and feel what’s going on within you. In other words, be in “being” consciousness.

This isn’t a natural state for those of us living in capitalism. We’re programmed to do, and many of us take that mindset onto the spiritual path with us. It’s completely possible practice yoga and become extremely “advanced” physically with the “doing” consciousness. In my case, for a lot of my yoga teaching journey, I wanted to be strong and supple. I strived for that. I was “doing” yoga, not “being” yoga.

Through years of teaching, practising, writing and researching, I completely changed how I taught yoga. I stopped telling people to breathe. Instead, I taught them how to breathe, and how to let the breath lead them. After a while, I had developed a series of breathing techniques that reduced stress, enhanced focus, improved energy levels, aided emotional regulation, and deepened student’s connection to themselves.

And from that - very unexpectedly - my book, The Breathing Revolution, emerged. It became a tool for helping people to incorporate better breathing into their own practices, whether that was yoga or alongside plant medicine.

Breathing exercises cultivate presence, which prepares the body and mind for the deeper explorations offered by plant medicines. The “doing” mindset only holds you back when you work with the plants. It’s why breathing remains integral to my personal healing work, and to the medicine journeys I do with clients.