Why Breathwork Deserves 3 Chances

I'm Amanda Russo , your host , a certified breathwork facilitator , level two Reiki practitioner and creator of the Mander'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 , blood work 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 to Breathwork Magic , where we explore the life-changing power of your breath . I'm your host , amanda Russo , and I am so excited to be here with Alicia today , and she is an emotional , intelligent and leadership consultant with over 20 years of experience in marketing , public relationships , public relations and entrepreneurship . Thank you so much for joining me .

It wasn't anything really heavy , intense , but it was kind of magical in a certain way because I was like I could feel the energies that were moving in the room and everything that was taking place through it . I thought , wow , this is so fascinating , I can learn to do this myself .

So I was like I want to do this and I want to help other people and teach it . So I started down the little rabbit hole and I got certified in breathwork and then I started incorporating it .

I started watching so many videos on it and all the different techniques and then started really learning about how slowing your breath down , how it calms your nervous system down , and at the time I kind of knew about nervous system work , but I over the past couple of years I've really went very super deep into it and so I didn't quite understand what it was

doing , but I knew , I felt much calmer and I was releasing some emotions . And then I didn't quite understand what it was doing , but I knew I felt much calmer , I knew I was releasing some emotions and then I would bring up , tears would come up . And then I had a really I think two about two years ago . I had a really amazing session .

That was on the beach , it was a group of us at a like a conference and I was able to release a lot of my childhood trauma I'm talking about really stored emotions and I just cried for like an hour . All I did was just like well , and I just felt it release the certain techniques .

So there's more techniques to this than just your typical four , four , four , six , eight . You know , breathing . I'm like , wow , there's really

something behind it . Wow , there's really something behind it and it was this visualization , uh , this like a 3d brainwave music that was going around and had headphones on and it was , I don't , it was life changing .

It was like super life changing to me and so I was like , if this is something great , like because I've been doing breath work with my clients through some of their sessions , you know , do meditation , a meditation teacher too , and then healing . So I was kind of moving back .

Whatever I was guided to do with them , I was like this would be fantastic , let's start doing some more techniques of like really releasing emotions , cause it was more like trying to calm them down than really going .

I mean , I'll do some up and some up , up down , you know , but it was like let's try some different stuff and get the stuff like constantly go flowing and out and out and it was I don't know . It's just been fascinating to see . So yeah , that was my journey through breathwork . Just remembering , I kind of stumbled upon it .

So when my life coaching business on had , and so when I was doing that , I was like this is a great , is like a great tool . So I went to , honestly , went down the rabbit hole and got a ton of certifications . I got sound healing certificate , all kinds of different stuff . I don't do sound healing , but that's .

But I've really found a love of breath work , and so I feel like I needed to find different modalities . I mean that really resonated with me . And when you think about it , we are breath , we are breath , we are life , and so Prana is life and breath , and so if we're not breathing , we're not living . And so now I was able to really hold .

I'm like I noticed myself more when I'm holding my breath in . I'm like , okay , what's what is causing this breath that I'm holding in , what is causing all this , and what do I need to ? Okay , I feel a anxious when I'm feeling I can go on , get down the you know the layers of questions like why am I feeling anxious right now ?

Oh , it's because , oh okay , I don't feel safe right now . So how can I make myself feel safe ? By breathing Simple , placing my hand on my heart and just taking that deep , that huge breath in . And it's so fascinating .

I do a lot of speaking around service system regulation and it's fascinating to see these men that are in their seventies and eighties and they're doing this breath work . They're like that feels good and I'm like you probably haven't breathed in like 70 , 80 years , you know , like a good , deep breath of just like relaxing breath , and it's beautiful , I love it .

It's part of my favorite things of speaking at these , at some of these , you know , networking events . It's beautiful , I love it . It's part of my favorite things of speaking at some of these networking events . It's just fascinating and they're like people don't think about how breath is so , how it's so connected to every single thing in our life .

So I got the knowledge that I needed and I'm a very intuitive and so the breathing patterns that I teach and go through , like with my clients are is very intuitive , and so I'll create these scripts , but then I'll something will tell me . But they need to . We need to move into a different pattern or let's slow it down a little bit .

Or they're not kind of as I kind of noticed them and I work with one-on-one mostly with .

I will teach some classes here and there , but I work one-on-one with most clients here and there , but I work one-on-one with most clients and so I'll notice their breath patterns and if they're almost like they're just they're not breathing correctly , they're not breathing in through their , you know , breathing all the way up and the hold , you know .

If they're not doing all that , it's like okay . So we need to go back and kind of slow down a little bit , pay attention to the breath as opposed to then like the results of the Excel , so it's all the breathing into it .

So it's hard to explain exactly what I do , what goes on through my intuitive brain here , but that's really the way that I like to approach it .

in your own life from incorporating Brackle ?

And so I stopped running because my knees really honestly went out , kind of started going out on me as I got older and I was like , why am I doing something I don't even enjoy doing ? Well , I got back on the treadmill about a year and a half later after I hadn't been .

I used to do Orange Theory all the time too , which is where you're basically running for 20 solid minutes and then you know it's very endurance based . So I didn't about a year and a half . I didn't do any of that . I'm focused more on yoga and strength training .

I got on the treadmill and I could still do the same sprints , but what I had been doing was breath work in between that too . So I had been working on my breath and I learned how to breathe . I think a lot of like . I think that's such a great .

You know people who are like I don't really care about the woo portion of it or I don't care about the nervous system portion of it . It's good for your overall endurance that I'm finding . And so I was actually really proud of myself . I was like , wow , I can still do .

I mean , I'm not in the great , best thing shape , but I can still do all these all outs and not have to like catch my breath like I used to have to be . And so I think that's some of the biggest things and also the nervous that knowing that when I'm like getting stressed out , that I always have a technique and tool that can do in front of anyone .

I can sit and be sitting in a meeting and doing breath work and nobody's going to know I'm not doing all out stream breath work , but you can do a box breathing and you can calm down very quickly , and so to me , it's just having these little tools in my pocket there that just makes such a huge difference in my life . Yeah .

I'm not perfect at it , but the nights that I do remember to do , oh , I should probably do some breathwork and breathe through . Then I notice that my sleep is much more regulated . It's much better . I have an easier way of falling asleep than the nights that I don't do it and I wake up like , oh yeah , I should have did breath work .

And noticing the sensations in my body , trying to get embodied into how I'm feeling , what's all , what's kind of going on in the day , where do I feel tense inside my body , body , where do I feel stress or worry or fear , where I feel excitement and kind of go in , breathing into those particular areas .

You know , if my , like right now , my the back of my neck is sore from sitting on my computer all day , so tonight I'll probably sit and I'll breathe , hold that and breathe into that area and start , and that starts to relax .

It's a mind really , a mind control thing too , but also starts to relax and so I always at night slow my breath down as much as possible so I'll breathe in as much as I can and I'll hold it for as long as I can and then I I will excel , just slow , so I'm calming my again goes back nervous system , calling that vagus nerve down towards relaxed and now

I'm curious what breathwork looks like for your clients .

They're like , yes , that's really good for you . So it works . Like some months we won't do it , some months we'll do some breath work and then sometimes we'll do a 15 , 20 minutes of it and sometimes they'll show up . We're like , okay , let's do five minutes of deep breathing , let's walk through some deep breathing practices to start to calm down .

When you mind your mind you're going to go into because I do emotional like a lot of things I do is very emotional aspect and so we want to get to those emotions . But we can't get those emotions if we're not breathing . We're just up , we're just and we're still in like fight , flight , freeze .

And we're just in like fight , flight , freeze and we're just our nervous system's like so we've got to calm the nervous system down where we can actually process through those emotions . That's going on . So it's all different . I mean it's all again , it's all intuitive , it's all different .

I don't work with one person the same way I'll work with another person and it really just depends . Some people don't like breath work , and I totally understand . I'm fine with that and we won't do any breath work until they're open for it . So some people just they just want to do this and that's fine .

There's so many different modalities , so I guess I'm saying anyone is like give it a chance , and if you don't like it , give it another chance . And by the third chance , if you don't like it , then okay , it's fine , it's not for you and that's totally fine . Just keep make sure that you're still breathing throughout your day .

You know , even if it's not Blackwork session and seems like you did , but like you might not . You know , even if it's not breathwork , even if it's something else , like you might do it once and be on the fence . You might not know .

You know , like give it a second shot , give it a third shot , like and then if it's not for you , it's not for you , but like something that regulates the nervous system , something that gets you out of the mind .

You know , like I think with coaching and I don't even do coaching , but I've talked to other coaches something that gets them out of the mind , you know like a little bit and to drop in , yeah , some people that's journaling can do that , can get you and get your body .

But then maybe breath work is a good option for them , especially if you're trying to meditate and your mind's going a million different ways . Step , step into that breath because you could pay attention , you can concentrate on that breath and when you're concentrating on your breath , you're in your body and you're not in your mind , and that's the whole .

I think a lot of the purpose of breathwork is to get you out of your mind , as you said , and fully into your body . And there's so many different reasons why you need to do that .

We could spend like a thousand years talking about that , but we want to come to a solid , you know , mind , body , spirit integration , and in order to do that you do have to come out of your mind and breath work is , to me , is probably the easiest . Even concentrating on your breath is the easiest way to do that .

So when we go into it it's always you're still conscious . You're like am I , am I doing this right ? It's like , okay , just breathe natural . You know , let's go back to the natural breath .

And when they we get back into the flow of it , by the end of it a lot of times they're tired because they don't want to take a nap , because it is a pretty , it's an intense process when you're doing certain type of breath work . But I've noticed they seem a lot . Their faces they seem a lot calmer faces . They seem a lot calmer .

They seem they're more into themselves by their by into something like their body . They're more embodied . They're able to kind of go about their day in a different mind frame .

You know they can come in with all this stress and anxiety and by the time they're in they're kind of like I forgot all about it , which is such an amazing thing , because that's really what we want to do .

, have you incorporated meditation with your clients ?

By the time that we start working , by the 90 days of regularly meditating , that's when they're things they see the benefits of it , and so I teach them how to go into that and I teach them with that . A lot of it is with starting with some breath .

The breath is like , okay , we're going to breathe in for a count of four and then we're going to lease and I have to tell them how to breathe in . Don't breathe in like this , breathe in all the way up , and they're like , oh , this is , and they notice the difference on it . So .

So once they start to do that , then we can kind of go a little bit deeper into meditation when they have the breath under control . But if you're sitting there and trying to meditate and you're not breathing , you're holding your breath , what's going to happen ? Your brain is going to go into anxiety mode and what's all the things you have to do .

I've got to do this , I've got to do that . This is happening , this is happening , this is happening . Oh , a squirrel here , a squirrel there , with your breathing and even concentrating on your breath . Then your mind starts to relax and your body starts to relax .

You can get into this deeper state of consciousness that I love to go down , and that's the meditation I teach and I do with my clients , as I teach them how to go into more of a conscious , spiritual meditation of really connecting to their soul and their body and breath is a great way to get there .

A simple box breathing or a simple count of four , hold for six and release for eight , because when we're breathing up and we're releasing quickly , we're getting more energy built up , but what we want to do is relax right and we relax into it .

So it's that simple box breathing , simple things as just moving , noticing how your fingers feel , and you sit there and you can do this in meetings . People that do this , you know they're nervous . They don't realize that they're actually calming . They're subconsciously calming their nervous system down Because they're noticing the touch .

They're moving , like moving your , just moving your shoulders , your head . I mean movement is so nourishing for your nervous system . Going out for a long walk or short walk , however long you have , doing simple things like that , noticing the colors , like do you have your ? Like I have my water here , the mindfulness portion of it is noticing .

I'll take this drop . How refreshing that was and just kind of how you would describe it . Like the water feels soft to me . I have some flavoring , some electrolytes in here , so it's a little sweet and a little salty .

So noticing those things is really going to bring your nervous system down , because you're paying attention to this , not paying attention to the cat or the tiger in the corner that's about to prowl on you . So super simple stuff that you can do and most people I mean .

You can sit there and drink your water and doing that in a conversation and noticing that I'm going to pay attention , to try to be more mindful in my water because I'm going to calm my nervous system down and nobody's going to know that you're doing that . Nobody's going to know when you're . You can under your desk or wherever in your pockets .

You're doing this to your fingers or you're moving your fingers or you can still pay attention to conversations , but maybe like I'm sitting here noticing your beautiful eyes and your hair and I'm taking notice , and then I'm smelling the air air smells and like using all of your five senses that you have , and so that really brings your nervous system down .

Another trick that actually a coach taught me is you could put your hands behind your head , you look up and then you look to the right as much as you can until you feel like you're going to sneeze or blink , and then you move to the left and you have to just do it with your eyes .

Then you come back to center and that reset your nervous system , your vagus nerve I love how you had so many and a lot of them .

They you don't even have to go anywhere , like the walk you would , but like you could do right from where you're done , like if you're in an office meeting yeah , or you can just go to the bathroom bathroom in your office and sit there and I mean , and do whatever you know and maybe you're not using you actually use the toilet .

Maybe you're sitting there doing your breathing , and then to think about it too is we want to name our emotions too . We want to make sure that I'm feeling stressed and we want to name those emotions and we don't want to be like I'm ignoring these emotions .

So , as they come up , if you are in a safe , private place , let those emotions start to spill out and process through yourself , because if not , they get stored inside of

you . So if you're angry , feel anger for just a moment . Don't feel anger and go do something to someone or harm someone or act out in it , but feel the anger because it's not a bad thing , it's a very healthy thing . We want you to feel the anger , breathe it . Breathe through the anger if you need to . If you're sad , feel the sadness of it .

It's good A process is not . You're not always going to feel sad and there's just an emotion because you're a human . We're humans having human experiences . We're going to have emotions come up . You're feeling joy , but please , by all means , experience that joy . Don't hold it .

Don't hold this down and become just numb and emotionless , because it's eventually is going to come out one way or the other . A lot of times it has come out breathwork sessions , like I don't know why I'm crying , like it's okay . You are crying because it's stored inside of you yeah , now you say name the emotions .

I'm going to go and feel like , really feel into that disappointment and see what it's trying to offer me right now . But we're not judging the emotions . We're taught to judge emotions . There's good emotions , there's bad emotions . There's no such thing . It's okay to feel disappointment . It's okay to feel sadness . It's okay to be angry .

If it wasn't okay , we wouldn't get angry . It's just what you do with those emotions and how long you stay in that state of mind is a different story . But it's okay to be angry , say I'm disappointed , it makes me disappointment's what I'm feeling right now . Okay , I'm going to process and fill into this disappointment until I don't feel disappointed anymore .

I don't really give myself these 5 , 10 , 15 minutes a day or whatever , to feel disappointed . I'm going to allow myself and give myself grace to that , because I understand it's just disappointment . It does not make me who I am . It doesn't make me who I'm going to become .

It's just a simple disappointment , and we all feel disappointed , and we're allowed to feel disappointed . But we feel guilty when we feel disappointed , don't we ?

Whether it's sadness or anger or these emotions that are less favored or even more so , the ones that people try to push down and it's like it doesn't mean you have to act on it and slash somebody's tires , you know , just because you're mad , you can be mad , you know .

Their feelings are nothing but a feeling , and that was a that's like it was a huge . One of my biggest lessons , I feel like even this year , is like allowing other people to be angry Angry even if they're angry at me . Most of the time , people aren't angry at you .

They're angry because of a situation , because you didn't meet their expectations that were inside of their mind of how something was going to play out . And when you understand that , it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you because they're angry at you or the situation .

So that was a huge thing for me , but a lot of it goes back to you know , the nervous system is like , if you don't process and feel the anger , or even allow other people to feel angry , or you feel disappointed that they're angry , or you feel a little fearful that they're angry , I'm going to feel fear because they're angry and maybe this is what's going to

happen and you're kind of talking , you're almost coaching and talking to yourself . I think your nervous system is going to stay so out of whack all the time because your emotions are not processed . It's going . Are we angry ? No , we're not . So we're numb right now , but I'm feeling this and it's like you're not going to have .

It's a mind , a mess inside of your entire mindset and your entire body , and that's how a lot of like diseases happen , how a lot of things happen inside of our bodies . We have mental breakdowns because of that reason . So we're not processing our emotions .

So that's in my back of my mind that I can name all the emotions that are that's going on . I can , I could totally name . I feel like I'm in my zone talking about this . I feel calm and collected with it and it can be a little excited . You can have more than one emotion going on .

But being able to sit and you have to sit with yourself you can try a little music on if you need to relaxing music . Don't put on any heavy metal , rap or anything . I mean talking some spa music that's going to relax your nervous system . Down and sit with yourself for five or 10 minutes and just say and be honest I mean be honest with yourself .

I don't know how I feel , and you can start listing out there's like charts of emotions . Am I feeling this way ? Not really , it's more this way . Yeah , this is what I'm feeling , and so processing and knowing that emotion and realizing and feeling . If you don't feel the emotion , you're not going to know what it is .

So next time you're angry , no , say I'm angry , notice that anger . Or next time that you're sad or you're jealous , notice that , notice these emotions that we have and just start to notice . It's really the first step to it Is to .

But if we say no , I'm not jealous , no , I'm not angry , no , I'm not this , and we numb ourselves out of it , we're never going to know how we feel . And the whole point of being human is to experience these emotions . Emotions are beautiful .

They are such a beautiful journey they give us , they bring us abundance , they bring us all the things in our world , they bring us hope and clarity . And if we don't have that , what do we have ? We're just a bunch of numbed out robots . What's the point ?

I'd love to delve down that if you're comfortable talking about it .

It's going to be in September and there's going to be five women that are going to be there , but it's going to be for high-level women who are doing energy healing and we're coming to a collective like together and it's almost a calm as the temple , not in a like a religious sense , but as and we're coming back to our temple of ourselves and through our

energy and our soul and

who we're connecting to who we truly are . And so it's women that are have really connected . And they did the hard work , they did the healing work . Now I'm not saying we're completely healed , because I don't think we're ever completely healed , because , again , we're in a human experience here .

However , they did the work and they recognize , they know their emotions , they can aim their emotions very quickly and they're okay to process through those on a healthy level . And so we're just going to come together and we're going to collectively raise consciousness in each other , raise activations in each other .

Because we're just going to come together and we're going to collectively raise consciousness in each other , raise activations in each other , because we're hitting a new era right now in our entire world . Like we are , we're on , we're everybody , everyone's feeling it , even if they don't believe it , they're feeling it .

Right now , you're feeling the polarity is happening . You're feeling the change is happening . We're about to change into a whole new world and , by some , most amazing things are happening , and those that are ready and activated through this will . We're going to thrive through it , and so that's what this retreat's about . Then I'm going to host some more .

I haven't don't have any dates yet , but they can check my website out as they come , available for the general public , for anyone who wants to get into learning more about healing .

Always do breath work at my retreats and always meditation , and then we do some energy healing and then we're going to do I have a actually one coming up in Austin actually next week . I have a friend of mine is coming and doing sound healing . We're going to do breath work around that , and so it's super transformational .

So it's they're healing retreats , but I don't like the word healing anymore . As of this past month , I'm like we're not healing . We're coming back into our soul's presence and who purpose and who we are . There's nothing wrong with us to be healed . There's something that we need to come back to our soul , our purpose of why we're here .

So that's where my work is headed , and I'm super excited about it .

Yeah Well , thank you again and I do like to give it back to the guests . Anything you want to leave the listeners with .

There's nothing to heal , and I think that was just like a big aha moment for me this past month was there's nothing we need to really start healing ?

I have all these healing modalities , but all they're doing is bringing you straight back to connecting you to your soul's purpose , to who you are , who you truly are , and sitting in the breathwork and meditation and doing the rituals and doing the things will bring you completely back to that . So do that work .

Don't worry about having to heal yourself and that you're broken because there's nothing wrong with you . Things have happened to you . There's nothing wrong with you . You're perfect . I mean , you're perfect the way you are . Yeah , I just want to leave them with that .

You're not stuck . You can make a change , you can make a shift . Each inhale is a new beginning and every exhale is a chance to let go of what no longer serves

you . If you're craving a reset , I'd love to invite you to Mindful Mindset Mondays , now held on the last Monday of every month . It's a virtual pay-what-you-can breathwork session designed to help you recharge and realign .

You'll find all the info in the show notes and if you're ready to go even deeper , you can always schedule a one-on-one breathwork session with me . This is your space to work through what's coming up and move energy in a more personalized way . As always . Thank you so much for listening .

If you loved this episode , it would mean the world if you shared it with a friend or left a review . Your support helps more people discover the magic of Blackbird and the shifts it can bring . 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 .