I grew up with asthma. I would come home from kindergarten and strap the at-home nebulizer to my face and watch The Young and The Restless with my mom. All through my formative years, my memories are latent with emergency room visits, steroid inhalers, and pneumonia year after year. A deep breath was hard. It was met with a wheeze or a tightness that was all too familiar.
After a particularly bad pneumonia in my early twenties, I had had enough. I was ready to seek alternative care and healing modalities instead of the list of puffers and drugs I was being prescribed. I saw everyone from Ayurvedic specialists, Chinese Medicine doctors, and naturopaths. I changed my diet and took supplements and herbs but nothing really stuck. I was still reliant on my meds and breathing still was not my best friend.
I can recall a yoga class when I was about 24 or so. The teacher was saying how the breath carried the energy of the Divine. That as we breathe, the Divine enters us. I burst into tears. Was the Divine not making its way to me? I can’t take in that much air, therefor I must not be able to get the prana (life force energy) the yogis say travels in through the breath, into me. My teacher consoled me after practice. I remember her thinking my concern was sweet and innocent. But I was left feeling like I wasn’t fully complete without the ability to take a full breath.
The years continued with puffers and meds, all the while I taught yoga and taught others to breathe. It wasn’t until I was introduced to Active breathwork. A transformational style of breathing (a three part breath practice) from a lovely woman named Tracy Keough. I was sick yet again. I had a bad strep throat that wasn’t getting better. I had been in bed for two weeks. She reached out over instagram and said she’d like to offer me a session. We did the session over Skype (zoom wasn’t invented yet.) She played music and told me to take two inhales and one exhale and repeat it as she continued to guide me. Minutes in I began to cry. I was terrified of breathing like this. It felt like an asthma attack. Tracy expertly guided me through the hour. I was hot, then cold. Then my hands started cramping up. Then the tears came. All of this emotion started pouring out of me. It was as though everything that was stuck inside of me began to soften and release.
When the session finished, I felt amazing. My throat felt better. My energy was balanced and I was breathing deep. My strep began to rapidly heal after that. I was hooked. Years later I began to study this style of breathing with a handful of amazing teachers. I began a deep dive into the science of breath under the guidance of teachers like Crussen, Jason Amaroso, and my personal favorite Elsa Unenge.
I began to teach the method that shifted me all those years ago. It deepened my understanding of not only how to move stagnant energy and return to ease, but how to breathe properly to ensure greater health. My obsession with breath grew and grew as I began to see how profoundly my students were being transformed by the breath. I haven’t touched my puffer in years. I still have one. I drag it around on trips, and keep one beside my bed just incase but I never use it. The practice of active breathwork and functional breathing has completely revolutionized my life.
Last Spring, George and I led our first Breathwork Facilitator Training to a group of amazing humans. Each with the shared desire to improve their lives with the power of breath and to teach others to do the same.
If you are interested in learning how to facilitate breathwork, take a look at the training. It might interest you.
We begin in one month, applications are open and the group is shaping up beautifully!
Reach out with any questions you may have,
Ally x