The Power of Embracing Change through Reiki and Breathwork with Heleliza

And embracing the possibilities of the present moment I'm Amanda Russo , your host , a certified breathwork facilitator , level two Reiki practitioner and creator of the Mando's Mindset podcast . On my own journey , breathwork has been a powerful tool for releasing what no longer serves me and shifting my perspective to step into my fullest and greatest potential .

Each week , I'm joined by inspiring guests , breathwork facilitators , healers and wellness enthusiasts who share how this practice has helped them and their clients heal , grow and embrace lasting change . So take a deep breath in and out , settle in and let's explore the magic of your breath together . The transformation starts now . Welcome back to Breathwork Magic .

I'm your host , amanda Russo , and I am so excited to be here with my second guest today , and I am here with Helicia , and she is a Breathwork facilitator as well , and we are going to get into how she discovered Breathwork and some of what it has helped her transform with . Thank you so much for joining me , hi , amanda . Thanks for having me , of course .

So can you tell us how you first discovered breathwork , or maybe how breathwork discovered you ? Yes , so I was living in Bali at the time . I had left my fast-paced , sex-in-the-city type life , working in fashion and advertising in New York City , to complete opposite slow pace island living .

I think I was just like seeking another purpose in life and signed up for all these different wellness classes because it's still available in Bali , and saw a three-hour long workshop on breathwork and that was my first time just signed up , you know , not really knowing what it was , but I don't know something about it really intrigued me .

So after that experience , I'm like , oh , when I go back to California , I need to expose everyone to it . It was just some to do all of that through your breasts . It was just all the expansion and emotions and release that happened in a little 30 minute bit of just breathing . I couldn't believe it , but I didn't actually get into that . That was like 2014 .

And instead I went on the path of Reiki and became you know , I'm Reiki master teacher now , but it was only until two years ago where breath work I was ready . I think sometimes , when you're ready , the teacher shows up and the teacher showed up and I was ready . I like how you said , when you were ready , the teacher showed up , I think that's .

I think it's the autobiography of a yogi , that's . There's a saying similar to that like in there , like when you're ready , the teacher will appear . Okay , so you went down the waking route before the breathwork round and you made that transition . About two years ago . You said yeah , just about . So did something happen ?

Or was there a reason that you were suddenly like , let's get facilitated in breathwork now ? So it wasn't even that much of like . Oh , let me look to facilitate breathwork . Let me look around .

Just there was a weekend where I told myself I have a weekend to myself and I want to do something for me , where I'm learning something new , and I open up my email and there's an email marketing blast from somebody that I could a breathwork teacher that I would always follow , and it was exactly on that weekend .

And I don't even open up the promotions tab on Gmail , I don't even go through those and the fact that it made its way to my primary and I always take these as a sign and a path from you know , sprinkles from the universe , so and the fact that it was on that exact weekend where I was looking , calling in something . So you do it that weekend .

And how was the training ? How was the certification ? I went in it was level one out of five and that was over a weekend , a Saturday and Sunday . So I walked in Saturday morning thinking I'm going to learn how to hold space for people , learn the techniques , learn how to facilitate .

Day one goes by and I'm like , oh , it's almost like I'm in my own mini retreat for myself . And the amount of just like shifts and growth that happened within myself , not as a future breathwork facilitator , but just personally . I was like , oh , this is why I'm here too . Yeah , I noticed the same with my training . It literally felt like a retreat .

You know some and I call them challenges because I don't really have a better word for them but some of the things we had to do , or the challenges per se we had to do before you pass level one , before you pass level two , was interesting , you know , and was a lot of delved into the inner work in a different way .

You know , yeah , yeah , what would you say it's helped you with the most ? I mean , if I'm going to be honest , for me breath work , because I'm not saying everyone who comes to , but why I was having this discussion with my um level one and two teacher of breath work . You know I'm like what if you don't have any traumas to work on ?

What if you don't have something like heavy to release ? And that is what breathwork is there for . But I'm like , I think , because I've gotten to a point , not saying I don't have inner things I've held on to to release , but it's my most profound things is I use it to connect with a higher source .

When the stuff and we talked a little bit earlier about plant medicine sometimes I get up and I was like that is some plant medicine journey I went through without the plant medicine . You know my ancestors come through , they're showing me things . I'm taking to past lives , I'm taking outer space .

It's just , and how you can , because we are accessing that altered state of consciousness , how I can go in there and in a 45 minute session just really like grow and download and even release things . That would I mean that I'm not going to do just sitting in a regular meditation and that kind of yeah , no .

I love how you said that you asked your teacher about if people don't have the big traumas , you know , because I think resistance sometimes steps in for some of the people who even feel like I don't have a big T trauma , like I even had a good friend of mine say to me you know , I haven't been through any major challenges in my life that I think I would

need breathwork to help me through . And it's like you don't have to have been , you know , and I love how you mentioned the ancestors , because my first time doing breathwork , my Mimi came through to me and I was able to see her vividly , clearly , and it's like well , what other way am I going to have that experience ?

Like , maybe sleeping maybe , but you know like , or plant medicine , but there's , it's , that's a whole nother rabbit hole . I loved the fact that there was so little barrier to entry . You know we don't just have to hallucinate , you don't have to .

There's a big investment , even financially , involved with plant medicine , like there's a lot more involved with that , whereas you could breathe for 45 minutes , a little longer maybe , and get these transformations that I've never seen in any other aspect .

Yeah , and I thing to add because you were saying other people have asked you that if you don't have a small T , big T trauma . You work on anything .

When the pandemic happened and it was like the height of it 2020 , 2021 , I was part of a women's weekly breathwork circle and that got me through pandemic and every time my intention was just to connect to my breath , just to connect to my body . So it wasn't even about releasing anything connecting to other like higher consciousnesses .

It was literally to breathe and like actually allow , you know , quiet the mind . That was it and then be with my body . I love how you said that to connect with yourself , you know , and I like how you mentioned the women's circle .

You know , I started offering these mindset mindful Monday , like virtual breathwork sessions , and I've had a few women that have done it with me each week and it's like we've got a little small community of these women that have been doing it with me .

I was like the holidays are coming and something I was saying to them like some of the best , but also some of the worst times of my life have happened around the holidays .

So it's like connecting in a like-minded community and connecting with yourself , taking that time for you , because we're so busy , we get so caught up in the day-to-day and centering ourselves . Yeah exactly , we get so caught up in the day-to-day when centering ourselves . Yeah , exactly , you have any big client success stories ? I have regular

clients . I have one that she was one of the first rounds of COVID . I'm not to keep talking about pandemic , but it just happened , it's part of our lives and she had long COVID .

So when she first came to me , you know a lot of physical it's just a lot of physical things that happened because of that and a lot of alternative treatments or things weren't working for her and not to say not saying breathwork healed that .

But in the few sessions , monthly sessions , I would notice like these huge coughs of her , like releasing any bit that was still stuck within her . And then now , like a year later , we've reflected and we're like , oh , we're not even at that .

It's not even about that anymore , like it's not that it's gone completely , but it's not about her body holding any more of that heaviness , yeah . And then we're on to other things now her talking to her ancestors and other things , but just her feeling comfortable .

She finally found an alternative modality that really helped her deal with the physical reaction she was having to long COVID . Wow , that's amazing . I think our bodies hold on to so much stuff like so much trauma , even physical pain and trauma , that we don't necessarily realize that we're holding on to .

The facilitator I got certified through had a stomach condition that nobody could figure out what the issue was Like . He went through all these different tests , all these different doctors , and it was breathwork that healed his stomach condition because they couldn't figure out what the root was . I mean it's .

I've heard so many amazing stories of physical like being able to release through breathwork because , yeah , our body keeps score and even if it wasn't a big trauma , something little or major , other major events that we might not consider as trauma but like just a lot of transitions in our life , the body holds on to that and keeps going like , hello , now I'm

gonna make you sick . Yeah , no , like um . I have an example , because my partner or my husband he's the one that came with me for the three hour long workshop .

He didn't know what he was getting himself into either , but we were like in groups at one point and I didn't know because my back was turned to him , but his pinky got cut off when he was in grade school because he jumped a fence to like chase a ball and it got caught in the fence .

So ripped off essentially 30 , 35 year old man that he went back to that , felt all the pain that he probably didn't feel because of the um , you know how it was , like the adrenaline was rushing back then and felt all of that and that's how much your body holds on to things . Wild huh . Wow , I got chills hearing that .

No , I don't know if he told you , but I'm so curious . Like was his pain in the , his pinky , different prior to breathwork versus after ? Well , he had no sensations before . You know , it was all the pan who felt , probably when it first got ripped off , like it was like excruciating .

So he was like he had fallen over and he was in this excruciating pain and I'm in like I wasn't facing him . So I'm just like doing my thing , not knowing this whole , the whole other circle was like attending to him because it was , if his pinky came off again , like that much pain .

What I've noted in a lot of clients like I haven't gone through a lot of physical pain myself so it's hard for me to compare personally , but in different clients they experience , almost like we live , different pains they've gone through , I think , even , like you mentioned , the adrenaline was so rushed at the time that the body didn't get to fully feel it .

Does he do breathwork consistently like you do now ? No , I mean , if I'm like , hey , come to this one I'm holding and take some photos for me , and then you have to lay down and breathe too , he will . Or like , if I want to go to another facilitator's group thing and I like buy him the ticket , then he'll go . So it's not his thing he does .

It's just more of him making time for himself . So I have to like make it for him . But he sees the power of power and transformation in it . It's interesting you say making time for himself .

I noticed that , like I've got clients who like will pop in with me sparingly , like I'll see them once a month , and they'll be like you know , I'll go to message you , I'll go to schedule a session with you and something will pop up and tell me that I don't do this right now and I'm like that is the resistance and that is you even more so needing

breathwork . I even went to a yoga retreat where I facilitated breathwork . We had two different sessions and everybody had the option you could go to one session . You could go to both sessions , but it was limited space .

It was a first come , first serve type of thing and it was interesting to see who showed up to the first one , who showed up to both and who didn't show up to any . That resistance really came in because there was even some women who were like I'm definitely going to do it , and then there's names on my list , it comes time for the moment .

And they were like I ate too recently to be able to do it with you , because of course , I say , well , within two hours you don't really want to have eaten .

And it's like that resistance comes up right before you're going to go to do it , like I had at least two women be like I ate lunch recent and I'm like that's your mind literally trying to stop you , like literally stopping you from breathing . You know , yeah , it's one of those .

I mean I always say breath work is work , it is work , but you're always going to be so better off on the other side . It's kind of like one of those do I really want to go to the gym , but I'm going to sign up and go . Then , once you're in it and at the end you're like whoa , I really needed that . I like how you compared it to the gym .

I think that's a great comparison , even in terms of personal training . People say , oh , can I do this without you ? Well , it won't be the same and it's kind of the same as going to the gym .

You can go to the gym without a trainer , without a coach or a plan , but it's going to be different if you go with a trainer , or even if you're working with a trainer online and you have a plan from them , versus if you just willy nilly go to the gym .

Having that assistance and accountability can really help , even more so when resistance comes in , yeah , or even in general , like for myself . I mean I'm a facilitator , so I breathe on my own .

But when I have somebody , one person , there and they're a strong facilitator just holding space for me , that is when I have like a crazy , crazy , profound moments and I mean I can get like that on my own , but it's just something about somebody being there to hold you through it . I completely agree . It's a different level .

You can go a little deeper almost when you have like I like how you said a strong facilitator . You know like there's different , there's different levels . No , there's different facilitators . There is , and I , I , I , I joke about this with my facilitator friend .

It's like therapists you might not vibe with every breathwork facilitator like , but it's kind of like yoga too , like you might like some yoga instructors more than another , and it's it doesn't mean they're a bad facilitator , but finding the one that like just vibes with you , yeah , and that's what you know exactly .

I had a client say to me once you know that that breathwork is for risk takers . Do you agree with that ?

I would love breathwork really to feel accessible to everybody , meaning , if you don't want , because there's a lot of people that are not risk takers out there but I definitely believe they like need breath work because we just hold on to so much , every person of everything you know , like what you want to risk actually connecting with yourself .

You want to risk actually like feeling your emotions and going into a little bit more of the depths and like transforming .

Okay , sure , yeah , because you know , I talked to her about that a little bit and she's like you've got to be brave to face that level of yourself and she's somebody who she's had a miscarriage and now I've I've never had kids , so I don't even know that process , that experience , any of that .

But like she went through the pain , even the physical pain of that again , you know , and she's like you've got to be brave because you don't know what's going to come up physically , mentally , emotionally and not everybody's brave enough for that . And I was like I never thought about it like that ever , you know .

Yeah , well , I'll say the second time around because I don't want to tell other people that I'm trying to get to do breathwork , because usually I don't think they really realize what they're getting themselves into until , like you have to actually try it , right , but then to continue to do it again and again .

Maybe that's the first thing now knowing , you know , yeah , so that's true , because it wasn't her first time , so that's true . But you know , I think it's even for the first time was there's no real way to explain it .

And I say that , like you could talk about it , you could listen to , you are never going to understand it or what it will like , what will happen for you if you don't experience it . And I think that's with everything , but even more so breathwork , like my , my mentor , who I got certified through , says it's like describing a kaleidoscope to a blind person .

You can't do it Like I could sit here for hours and hours and talk all about what it's helped people with , read these statistics , read whatever , and it's only going to tell you so much .

You know , it's only going to peel off like the first layer of the onion Because it's different for everybody and I've done it a lot Like I couldn't even tell you how many times right now . But I've had so many different experiences . Some I'm seeing ancestors , some I'm having this ski fork experience . Some it's just a calm , meditative state .

Some it's just , you know , and I haven't had some clients that they've been doing it with me more regularly Like this isn't working , nothing happens . And I had some clients that they've been doing it with me more regularly like this isn't working , nothing happens .

And I'm like you're not gonna have a breakthrough every single session , like you're not gonna end every breathwork session and be like here's how I'm gonna solve my life . You might , you'll get some of them , but I've got more and more clients now that are doing it with me consistently and they're like I didn't get like this big epiphany . You might not .

Every time . Every session is different and I think that's why it's so key to just try it . Yeah , I always tell people no attachments to what you think , even what you've heard , and definitely don't think it's going to be like the last . It's kind of like I don't know for anybody that does mushrooms like a psychosilbin trip .

You like always think , oh , it's going to be like that one amazing . And then it's completely not . No attachment . Oh my God , that's true , it's not going to be the same . You know You're coming into it in a different state as well . Yeah , now you mentioned you were a Reiki master . Would you say Reiki's helped you in any way with breathwork ?

Okay , so the reason I got into Reiki was back to that three-hour long workshop . I sat up and I was like , oh , I need to like learn to facilitate breathwork .

But I was shaking so much and when I was shaking I didn't know what Reiki was at the time and I was shaking and one of the facilitators , like because there was two helpers kind of to hold space , came and put their hands on me and my body instantly like calmed down and I'm like , what did you just do ?

And she's saying how she gave me Reiki and I found out I could learn Reiki in a weekend and that the breathwork facilitator was teaching Reiki in two weeks when I was in Bali .

So that's kind of where it went , like because I'm like , okay , I'm signing up for that first and then I just I like to really dive into one modality at a time and just like really experience that . And that was my first first .

You know my open gateway into working with energy and being a healer , so I it's so that's how I got into it and it's interesting now as a facilitator because you have styles of people who fuse modalities and use like touch , you , you know energy healing like hands on touch during a breath work and then kind of I was also challenged to leave the client alone

because they're essentially breathing in life force . You know they're moving their own life force , energy through the breath . So it took a while , it took a whole year , for me to stop wanting to like give them Reiki at the same time and help move the energy .

Because my whole thing is like , if you're laying for breath work with me , I'm empowering you to be your own healer . So if I'm like moving , you know energy , I don't want that reliance on me . So but I still use it because Reiki is like the basis for my understanding of energy .

So even if I'm sealing a room , grounding the person at the end or just using the way I know through Reiki to bring in and just hold a safe space with life force energy , now , wow , that's very synchronicity the way that happened for you . But so you mentioned not not touching them . So did you used to

use Reiki in touch in sessions and not anymore ? Yeah , it was back and forth because , like you know , probably so many people with different styles and when I first would attend some other breath work events and things , there were some people who would put their hands on me and I felt my emotions would just flood once I had a human touch .

So I really love that component . So this year I'm at the point where I'm just like holding space and really holding back my healer hands . But I don't know , I can say next year maybe I'll start incorporating them .

I think it really does help move a person along if they're maybe a little bit more stuck or it's their first time and they're not like you know he cannot . You can see them . They're not going through the wave or that's not . They're not breaking through . No , what's just interesting that you mentioned that because I've gone back and forth between the .

Is there touch ? Do you not touch ? I'm I'm not a Reiki master , but I'm level two certified so I know I know some Reiki myself and honestly I try to tap into the intuition if it tells me to touch them . I always ask and preface a group session with that beforehand and I tell them I might not touch any of you , but I'm just asking permission .

If intuitively it's guiding me to do so , I will .

I had actually a session when I hosted at a retreat not this time around , the time around before and it was a woman's first time ever doing it and she was moving a lot and something in me I want to say it's intuition , because I don't know what else it is but something in me was just like you need to just put your hand , like on her shoulder , just like

almost like that reassuring , and it's not even like a long thing , like it's like that quick and sometimes it's even like covered . Not even actual physical touch , like the presence is there , but like that , not the physical touch . You know what I'm saying . And I did a very soft touch and it was . It was wild because now I didn't know this woman at all .

Sometimes I encourage them to tell me like a little bit , especially like when I go to these retreats , because they're not huge sessions , so even though it's a group , talk to me there's literally 10 of us If you've got a physical ailment , tell me . Well , people don't always do that .

But this woman had gone through rotator cuff and was going to physical therapy and she stopped going to physical therapy after this breathwork session and I had touched her shoulder . I had no idea any of what she was going through and it was after she was shaking really bad . I touched her shoulder . I don't even know why I touched her shoulder , like normally .

It's know why I touched her shoulder , like normally it's like knees or feet that I'm touching , but for some reason it was the shoulder .

She just looked like she was really hurting and afterwards she told me she's like I had more pain there than I've ever felt in my life and she's like but you know , I felt it and then I felt you and I just kept breathing . The pain went from my shoulder to my knee and then it just escaped my body and I was like , wow , yeah .

So I really try to lean into in the moment , you know , and that same session I didn't touch anybody else , I touched only that . Yeah , I didn't touch a single other person . So I preface it with the I might touch you guys . If you have an issue with that , raise your hand , let me know and I won't .

It's totally cool and it's not going to be a long touch .

But if , intuitively , I'm seeing something and it's just like I feel a little bit of physical presence might help you push through , a little bit of physical presence might help you push through a little bit , like a little bit of that guidance , like reminding them , even though they are their own healer through this , they're not alone , because that's even part of

the perks of having the facilitator with you . Like you could be doing this without me versus having me here . But it's interesting and I love that you mentioned you've toiled between the two , because I know I have as well . Yeah , I've seen just people do all different kinds . I really don't think there's a wrong way .

It's just what feels authentic to you , as long as everything is from love , as long as your intentions are pure of heart , like nothing can go go wrong . I completely agree , as long as they're pure of heart . So we touched upon a little bit about like resistance and pushing through to even get started in doing a breathwork session .

What would you say to somebody who's struggling with the resistance ? Hmm , that's sometimes me too . We're thinking that time you know well they , you probably need to identify why and then maybe , if it's just excuses of time or anything , can you start . I always tell people start small .

So , whether it is breath work or a different like practice , right , don't commit to the whole . You know a bigger block . But can you , did your breathwork facilitator have anything online where it's a shorter amount ? Or , like you know , because my teacher's teacher has some stuff on spotify .

Or like there's certain apps I do too that has breathwork for different times , like five minutes to the 30 minute . But if , if it's something though that I'm always like you feel resistant but you just you know you need to like just schedule something .

So , like you know , if you have clients on retainer , just just buy the four package , six package , whatever , and get it on with the facilitator , get it on the calendar , because you can't cancel . You know what I mean . Or if it's in 24 hours , whatever people's cancellation policies are you got to come in and go for it . Just put it on your calendar .

I love all of that and I love how you started that with that . You , you struggle with the resistance yourself . You know . I try to emphasize that to everybody . I've even had the people on podcast or guests on other podcasts , and even hosts have been like , how do you not struggle with resistance for breathwork or breathing techniques or meditation ?

And I'm like honey , I do too . I call myself the breathing goddess on social media , but that doesn't mean I want to do breath work every single time . I do , and I think even humanizing that , though you know like I think with social media , people think of these breath work facilitators and these yoga instructors . They always want to do their practice .

That is not the case . You know like that is not the case . I love how you started it with that and you know , I think it's key to tying in why and building that awareness of what is it right now that you , why you don't want to do it ? Is it time ? Is it some other factor ?

You know , like I host these live sessions and I had somebody send me a message and be like I felt like you were talking to me when mentioning resistance . I talk in them before I go into the breath work and she's like I did the replay but resistance came in so I didn't join .

You live and you know , whatever you can do , I think is like you mentioned like that small thing . How can you do it ? Can you do a recording of it ? Can you do some aspect of it , even if it's something else , like the gym ? Can you do half of your workout routine , like ? I know some people look at me and they're like , why would you do that ?

But I think it's the better than nothing mindset as opposed to not doing it at all . You know , so I love how you mentioned , but you need to schedule it .

So if you just force yourself and you schedule something , even if it's a shorter one , or even if it's a recorded one , or even if it's not a session with your trainer , whatever it may be , whatever version you can do today , is better than skipping it completely . You know and that's kind of what I took from what you said there .

Yeah , exactly , well , thank you so much . I loved this . Are you so fun ? Do you have anything else you want to share with the listeners ? Anything else about breathwork , about your healing journey , how you got to here you want to share , no pressure whatsoever .

It , you know , even with my own journey again like it's , I got on into all of these modalities for my own wellbeing . I didn't leave New York because I had a big burnout and then go completely to , like you know , bali , like Islet of Healing . It was just like it was a new perspective on life .

So , back to the whole , like we don't need to be working through all these deep seated things that we need to heal .

But there is , once you start to excavate and do it , things will come up , but it's only for a better growth and expansion , but also it's just even maintenance for our own mental wellbeing , physical wellbeing , like you know , know , just overall wellness , whether it's breath work or another energy healing modality .

Just get curious , try it out , see where you can push yourself to grow and discover parts of you that we probably ignored . One thing , too , I'd like to tell you . I didn't mention this , but I always like to add this part to anybody .

I know we talk about Bali , but if anybody wants to come down to Costa Rica , a few years ago I did invest in some land down there and we're building a retreat space , so we're in phase one , but right now , if any facilitators out there teachers , healers happen to be traveling down through Costa Rica in the Guanacaste area , we invite you to come host an event

. Or if you want , you and three other four girlfriends Right now we have two cabanas so that can fit four people . If you want a curated little mini retreat for your girlfriends or two couples , let me know . That is so cool . Okay , we're gonna talk . I like that , well , thank you so much .

Yeah , thanks for having me on , of course , and thank you guys for tuning in to another episode . Thank you for tuning in to breathwork magic . I hope today's episode inspired you to connect more deeply with your breath . You have options . You're not stuck . You can make a change , you can make a shift .

Each inhale is a new beginner and every exhale is a chance to let go of what no longer serves you . If you enjoyed the episode , it would mean the world to me If you shared this with a friend , left a rating or review . Your support helps more people discover the magic of breathwork and the incredible transformations it offers .

If you're ready to take the next step , I encourage you and I invite you to join me every Monday evening , virtually , for a Mindful Mindset Monday a virtual pay , what you can breathwork session where you can reset , recharge and refocus . All of the information is in the show notes .

Until next time , keep breathing , keep shifting and keep embracing the magic with inside of you . I'm proud of you , I'm rooting for you and you got this , you .