Breathwork Magic
Welcome to Breathwork Magic, a podcast dedicated to exploring the life-changing power of Breathwork. Discover how conscious breathing can unlock inner peace, resilience, and clarity as we dive into inspiring stories and practical insights. Whether you’re new to Breathwork or looking to deepen your practice, each episode offers wisdom to help you connect more fully with yourself and the world around you.
Breathwork Magic
From Mom Rage to Healing Anger: How Breathwork Helped Amanda Curry Embrace Freedom & Motherhood
From CrossFit enthusiast to an advocate for emotional healing, Amanda Curry’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary. Through her personal inner child healing process during the challenges of the pandemic, Amanda discovered the transformative power of Breathwork. This practice became a powerful tool for unlocking deep-seated emotions, navigating the demands of motherhood, and stepping into a more aligned and empowered version of herself. In this inspiring conversation, Amanda shares how Breathwork has enriched her work as a physical therapist in pediatric oncology and how she uses it to support her clients, patients, and even her own family.
Imagine breaking through emotional barriers with the same determination it takes to open a stubborn jar of peanut butter. Amanda's unique and relatable analogies bring clarity to how breathwork helps us navigate resistance, emotional blockages, and life’s everyday challenges. Whether you’re a seasoned breathwork practitioner, a healthcare professional, or someone curious about starting this practice, this episode is filled with actionable insights and heart-centered inspiration.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- [2:17] How Amanda discovered breathwork during her inner child healing journey and unlocked suppressed emotions.
- [7:15] How breathwork bypasses mental resistance to release grief, frustration, and anger.
- [12:47] Amanda’s powerful "peanut butter jar" analogy to explain resistance and how breathwork helps you move through it.
- [17:42] Why reconnecting with the breath is crucial for healing and reclaiming your body.
- [24:56] Amanda’s approach to gently introducing breathwork to beginners, making it accessible for everyone.
- [34:02] How breathwork helped Amanda process "mom rage" and years of suppressed anger—and transformed her parenting approach.
- [40:52] The impact of teaching emotional regulation to children and an adorable moment when Amanda’s daughter used breathwork to self-soothe.
- [45:05] Amanda’s inspiring final wisdom: “Your want is enough,” and why breathwork is a powerful tool for lasting change.
To Connect with Amanda Russo:
~ linktree.com/thebreathinggoddess
~ Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess
Links & Resources Mentioned
- Connect with Amanda Curry on Instagram: @theSomaticDPT
- Book Recommendation: The Five Personality Patterns by Stephen Kessler
Until next time, keep breathing, keep shifting, and keep embracing the magic within you. You’ve got this!
If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and share it with a friend! Your support helps more people discover the life-changing power of breathwork.
Welcome to Breathwork Magic, the podcast that explores the life-changing power of your breath. Breathwork isn't just a practice. It's a gateway to healing, transformation and shifting to a new mindset, by letting go of the past and embracing the possibilities of the present moment. 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 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.
Speaker 1:The transformation starts now. Welcome back to Breathwork Magic. As always, I'm your host, amanda Russo, and I am here today with Amanda Curry. She's a physical therapist who also uses Breathwork to help her clients, and we are going to delve into all of that. Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm so excited. It's the amanda show.
Speaker 1:Friends, get ready I love that kind of like amanda vines back in the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're aging ourselves just a little bit. I was gonna say that and I was like I'll see if she catches on to that. I'm not not going to give away my age.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I did catch on to that. I did catch on to that. That's so fun. So how did breathwork come into your world? When did you discover it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really from my own personal experience and journey, obviously, like we're taught a lot about the diaphragm and breathing and you know ventilators and stuff like that in physical therapy school. But it really wasn't until I delved into, during COVID, my own journey of reparenting, healing my inner child, that I was introduced to breathwork, really apart from what I had traditionally heard of, with like box breathing and down regulatory and trying to soothe the system, what I was introduced to was a whole new world of breath that really unlocked parts of me that I had either felt unsafe or didn't feel like that I could let express and flow through me, especially then as a mom. So much came up for me in using breath, and so that's what I was, or how I was initially introduced to it, and just kind of ran with it because I was like there's something to this. I've tried for years to be able to feel and express these things and this has been the only thing that's allowed me to do it in such a short amount of time.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing. Okay, so you went and you were healing your inner child. What was this class?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So in 2019, I was deep into CrossFit culture. We went to a gym five to six days a week. We toted our kids along, both of them younger than five. All of our friends were CrossFitters.
Speaker 2:I'm in an area where Barbell Shrugged and Mike Bledsoe basically started. He's from the Memphis area. I was perusing his podcast, as I always did as a good CrossFitter, learning about carb cycling and barbell movements and whatever else that was on there, and all of a sudden I was stopped by this podcast name. That was like healing your inner child, like learning how your mother and father learning shaped who you were today. And I was like, okay, this is nothing like anything on this podcast I have to listen to. This Was like enamored by this is something I've never heard of.
Speaker 2:And so that proceeded to open up Pandora's box of what the inner child was, the power of your inner child and of healing wounds that your inner child had, how a lot of those wounds came and your patterns and beliefs came from your mother and father learning. And it really just took me on this whole path of starting a virtual program because we were in the middle of COVID and everything was locked down and then going to retreats and then being certified in that method and now coaching women through that method. So breathwork came alongside, almost like snuck in the back door, as something that allowed me to experience healing on a different level. And it was such a supportive tool on that journey that I don't know that I would have been able to have the same effects from if they had not used that as a tool and I had not felt the powerful effects of that tool. So yeah, it's been quite a ride.
Speaker 1:Wow, okay Now, what type of breath work was this that you did?
Speaker 2:So we, during the virtual, would do a lot of more of the traditional like down regulatory breath that you would see in different spaces that you hear about pretty traditionally, and that was something that we would do at the top of every call just to kind of ground ourselves and bring us to presence for that call. And then when we were actually in the retreat space every morning we would do breath work and movement. And this was all types of breath. I mean, you know that there's over 200 types of breath and so some of it may be to the point of holotropic, but not like having that signature label on it, as this was a provider that was doing that but just a lot of upregulatory breath.
Speaker 2:And I saw, felt, allowed parts of me to move and to be expressed, that I had never in my adult life been able to move or feel. And it was something to where, in those spaces, when you truly surrender to the breath, you can't help but let those things move through you. And so when that was unlocked in those retreat spaces, I was like holy shit, like what is this? And it really just allowed me to experience myself and the modality that I was experiencing at that retreat even more deeply. So yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Now you mentioned if you truly surrender Now, was there something that helped you surrender?
Speaker 2:I think that I teach on and support my clients, both with the modality that I've been taught but also through the lens of Stephen Kessler's five personality patterns. So if you want a new book to read, that's an incredible book. And my primary and secondary pattern my primary is rigid and my secondary is aggressive. And so those that run the rigid pattern, those that are traditionally go-getters type A in their head, analytical have to get it right. If you give us a task, you give us direction, we're going to like, do it to the nth degree.
Speaker 2:And so, again, very much like that same analogy of like the backdoor, breathwork can allow you that backdoor access to your body by giving you something to do long enough to activate the parts of your brain that are like oh, hey, guess what? You have grief and sorrow that you've been stuffing down, or you have anger and frustration that you have avoided or bypassed. And so for me it was something where I did it just long enough and I had enough cultivation of safety in my body to where I was like oh, I'm feeling the things, I'm watching the wave rise and I'm allowing it to crash within my system and then pour out of me. And so it does take a certain amount of surrendering, because you can be a person that is breathing but isn't fully surrendering to the depth and intensity of the breath that you could, or isn't surrendering to the sensations that come up when you are breathing for a certain amount of time, in a certain way yeah, no, did you face any resistance going into the black book?
Speaker 2:so I think anything that's in the unknown, I think there's a certain amount of resistance that we all kind of feel like what is this, Especially in the rigid pattern?
Speaker 2:I need to get this right. So there was a lot of permission giving of, like, whatever you're experiencing, however, you're breathing right now is okay, and that was really supportive in just knowing maybe my breath isn't as fast as everybody else's, Maybe I'm not releasing like everybody else does, you know, yelling, crying, and I'm over there like hyper salivating and like gagging, so like that's how energy moved through me. So it was. It was definitely a the deeper that I got every level. There was a little bit of resistance, but I knew each time that I came out the other side feeling differently, feeling more open, feeling better, having more alignment, and so I was like this is the way and this is what it is. Of course, at times there is that resistance or that still story that wants to keep you in the place that you're currently at, and I just noticed that that's kind of the parts work. I noticed that part of me come up and be like yep, you get to be here too and we're just going to keep breathing.
Speaker 1:I love that you get to be here too and you can just keep breathing. No, I love that because I've noticed with with clients whether they've done breathwork with me before, whether they've never done breathwork with anybody before. Resistance comes up for so many people. You know even that unknown of like. What exactly is this? What am I going to experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a part of everybody. I think when we normalize things like that, it allows it to be more accessible for more people. It keeps you more engaged, and I actually just made a reel that I'm going to post this week, and it talks a lot about resistance, because it doesn't matter if it's resistance to a goal that you've set or a new habit that you're forming, or breath work, or inner child work, whatever the resistance is, even having a conversation with someone. What's funny is that when because you're in Australia, correct, united States, united States, okay, somebody else that I have a podcast with is in Australia, and so I was like I can't remember who is who, but anyways, you obviously, being in the United States, know all about milk and peanut butter, and when you open the top off of both of those, what is there?
Speaker 2:Oftentimes A seal, resistance, and usually we don't look at the milk or look at the peanut butter and be like, oh man, there's an extra layer of something here.
Speaker 2:I'm going to put it back, I don't want that. No, you open up the extra piece of resistance, you move through that seal that's there, and so it's like if we can take all of this resistance that comes up in our body and look at it the same way and be like, yeah, it's there, cool, all I have to do is peel it off. Then so much faster we can be like, oh, here's the scoop of peanut butter or here's my like glass of milk, and so for me that was really funny. I had that awareness that kind of dropped in one day as I was getting a new jar of peanut butter for my kid, as I was making her a sandwich, and I was like, oh, this seal is the same thing that I've been feeling and it's just. You know, yeah, it gets to be light, we get to make funny, funny things out of the heaviness that we want to make certain parts of our healing also be.
Speaker 1:That makes so much sense. I love that analogy, I'm really big into analogies or metaphors and that makes so much sense. Even outside of milk or peanut butter. So many things, much sense, even outside of milk or peanut butter. So many things like I used some like lotion cream thing today and I there was a seal, so like even, even like yeah, you're not like oh, I'm not gonna moisture, I'm gonna stay dry.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know, there's this seal on it. I'm just gonna put the top back on, I'm gonna let it sit there and I'm gonna try it again another day. Okay, no, that's not what we do. In fact, a lot of times, we either use our teeth we're so motivated to move through that we use our teeth or a knife or a fork or something inappropriate to break through it. So it's like why can't we be like that with the things that we're also resistant with day to day? You know it's wild.
Speaker 1:Wow, I know. No, it's so interesting to think about. You know like we handle resistance, even if it's a lesser version of resistance, but we handle that resistance, like just tonight. I literally took a thing off like a lotion to use it and I didn't even hesitate.
Speaker 2:Yep, Yep. So the next time you bump up with resistance to something, just imagine anything that has an extra seal on it and be like yep, this is just me taking off the seal of that, getting to what I really want.
Speaker 1:When did this analogy come to you?
Speaker 2:Oh, literally, like two weeks ago, I've been at the brink of like a 90 degree turn in my healing. Like there's, you know, when you feel something that's there that you don't really necessarily cognitively know yet, and I've known that there's, you know, when you feel something that's there that you don't really necessarily cognitively know yet, and I've known that there's something there because there's resistance to like lean into like stillness and lean into like introspection. And I was like so curious for all of the fall and the beginning of winter, of like where what the hell is this resistance? Like where is this coming from? Like it has to be something big, because why would I be resisting nothing or the perception of nothing? And so I was literally just thinking about it and I was like making my child's lunch and I got the peanut butter out and I was like I'll be damned, it's the peanut butter, it's their resistance. And so every time now that I feel that resistance, I just imagine the peanut butter and I smile, I take a breath and I keep going in.
Speaker 1:Well, I love that, though, and it's true in multiple instances, whether it's peanut butter, whether it's milk, whether it's lotion so many things. We have that seal, oh you have. You got to take it out of the pack or the something you know. It's not just available and like. We do that without even thinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And what's funny like I can, you could probably appreciate this with the analogies is that we can take this so much further too. Is that it's likely that you're not going to go back to the manufacturer or IE, god, the universe, spirit, whatever you believe in, and be like, hey, will you take this off for me? Like you're not going to do that. What you may do is again use the different utensils or, you know, drum up enough gumption yourself to do it, or you may ask for help from someone to help open it. So it's also like doesn't have to be on your own, you don't have to lone wolf this, and so I've also just thought about all of the different complexities and how you can apply this to really any part of your journey and any type of resistance that's coming up, and you don't have to do it alone, and other people are experiencing it too. You heard it first here Breathwork, magic friends.
Speaker 1:Normalizing it so much. I love that, though, the stuff that we all face but we don't always hear about.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I'd love to transition a tad. So you're a physical therapist Now. Did it change, when you discovered breathwork, how you approached your physical therapist practice?
Speaker 2:Yes and no. Also, I love that we're diverting from Jif peanut butter to physical therapy. I love that. That's being dynamic right there. I love that, yeah, no.
Speaker 2:So, like I said before, traditionally we're not really trained or equipped in breathwork or using the breath.
Speaker 2:In fact, even those that are cardiopulmonary specialists in PT, they are really the only ones that are getting a lot of the nuanced and really specific education on breath, and that really is from a physiological perspective, it's not from the energetic, emotional.
Speaker 2:I noticed that I was able to equip my patients because I typically am in a hospital setting, so it's a little bit different of a space. They're usually in acute trauma or doing acute healing themselves on a physical level, but also emotionally and energetically. I think that the ability for my own healing to take place allowed me to also be a conduit of other ways of supporting my clients and supporting their parents, now that I do also support pediatric patients in the oncology setting. So it's not that we're doing intense breathwork journeys, but we're connecting them back to their body through breath and allowing them to learn to support themselves through some of the most chaotic times physically, emotionally, energetically. And so, yes, I think that I've become more bold in this is a tool that can be used for you no matter what you're experiencing, but I don't necessarily think it's changed the relationship or the way that I practice per se. I think it's just given them more tools. I've been able to equip them differently and, most likely, better.
Speaker 1:I feel like so many of us are disconnected to our breath. We aren't even breathing in fully or the right way, even like they say, look at a baby breathing in or an animal, and we get so woked up and stressed and life just happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's one of those things that we do it automatically, but it is a skill. So, like the in-person groups that I facilitate, you can very much tell by people's breathing who is a trained breather or who is an experienced breather and who is not. You know, even in those sessions, you probably have experiences too where you're almost like questioning yourself as you're facilitating, and you're like no one is getting anything out of this, I'm doing something wrong. You know, all the stories start these people are basically still they might as well be dead. You cannot see hardly any movement from them, maybe a little bit from their nostrils, a little bit from their chest, and then they get out of it and they're like, oh my God, that was the most intense, incredible grounding experience ever.
Speaker 2:And so I think that a lot of people experience the grounding and the presence in their body before they actually have even tapped into the potential of their breath. Because, yes, there is no right or wrong way to learn to breathe or experience the breath, but those really experienced breath workers not breath workers, those that are breathing and are on journeys, themselves receiving, they are the ones that are going even deeper. So it's not that like, yes, their breath looks different and, yes, their experience may be a little bit different, but it is something that they have trained themselves and cultivated enough safety to do. And you're right Like it is something that is often forgotten, but anybody and everybody can learn to breathe again more efficiently and more effectively.
Speaker 1:So what's it been like going from being a physical therapist to doing this inner child work and breath work and all this coaching type stuff?
Speaker 2:It's been incredibly freeing. Honestly it is I say this often is it's the first thing that I've never my the coaching and the breath work. It's the first thing I've never pushed or had an agenda or had a vision for in my entire life. It almost feels like it's just one foot in front of the other and just watching the path and the road appear. I officially walked away from full-time physical therapy June of 2023. And I've been just working as a contractor since then, even seeing what may be in the future of just doing this 100% full-time.
Speaker 2:It's just trusting in what is right in front of us and a lot of those analogies go back to the breath. It's just trusting the next breath. It's just trusting in what is right in front of us and a lot of those analogies go back to the breath. It's just trusting the next breath. It's just trusting the next inhale and the next exhale and getting curious about the quality of that inhale and that exhale. I do feel like the patient interaction that I have now is one that is more present, energetically and emotionally available to them. It's one where I feel more alive. I'm no longer constantly in this compartmentalized. I mean, I was very good at my job, but somewhat cold and disconnected from the patient and their experience themselves, or from the parent and their experience. It feels more cohesive and more in alignment because I have that capacity, both through the energetic and the emotional work that I've done, but also in my ability to breathe effectively and to move and cycle their energy that I'm present to in the moment.
Speaker 1:And how has that been? Now you transitioned and you're doing physical therapy less.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just about 15 hours a week. Usually it's about an average of 15 hours a week. I just work two days a week seeing kids at the oncology hospital that I was previously full-time at, but just in a different capacity. So yeah, it has been. I am in this stage of realizing what has been actualized, so my body is now catching up to my brain, in that I, to an extent, I mean, yes, the steps were happening and the path was appearing.
Speaker 2:I did have kind of six month plans incrementally in front of me but just wasn't attached to the true outcome of what that ended up looking like. And I've had to really stop and reflect and we had a lot of snow this past week and really see, wow, like you don't have to go anywhere, you can see all of your clients through your computer. Like you can be more present with your kids, you can take trips that you were worried that you wouldn't be able to take because of time off. Like I think it's really allowed me to both be in my calling but also live a more fulfilled life as well. So, yeah, cannot lie, it has been bar none a dream.
Speaker 1:Now. So you're doing physical therapy less. Now do you offer breathwork classes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I will do group breathwork, both in person at a metaphysical shop in town, and then I will also do it virtually for people that are around the country. And then I do also do it virtually for people that are around the country, and then I do offer one-on-one and couples journeys as well. I believe in the power of breathwork. I believe in my own experience and what I've seen from others, but I use it almost as the gateway drug to the inner child.
Speaker 2:Healing is that, like, people, through the breath, are able to access parts of themselves that sometimes they don't know what to do with, and so they're like oh my God, these parts are coming up, but I don't know how to integrate them.
Speaker 2:This feels really overwhelming or scary or whatever. It is confusing. And so it's been something that I truly believe that everyone on this earth, whatever status socioeconomically on this earth, whatever status socioeconomically, you should be able to have access to things like this, resources like this, and whether you can invest in a one-on-one coaching container or you just literally come to my sessions once a month and then you're able to integrate that with your therapist, that you use for your insurance or whatever it is, I really, really believe and use those circles as a way for people to get something, move the needle in just the smallest way, and for a lot of people, it's the big doors that get opened from those really small. Oh, I'll just go to this breathwork circle, we'll just see what this is about. Okay, we'll see how that ends for you. So, yeah, yeah, those are my current offerings.
Speaker 1:I'm laughing at that because that's kind of how I went down the breathwork of how was this? Random one night I wasn't going to sit home and I was like I'm going to go to this breathwork class, I don't know what this is, and I was blown away. I went back the following week because I was like what the hell is this? I need to do this all the time. Yeah, and I want more. It was literally. I had no idea. I still remember telling my mom I'm going to this breathwork class. It's kind of like meditating. She's like you're going to sit in silence for an hour and a half with people and I'm like, yes, it was not that at all. It never is. Yeah, I love that. So these Breathwork Journeys that you offer monthly, have you noticed resistance coming up with your clients who attend these?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I mean, you can tell it and people will name it themselves at times. What I absolutely love is when those people because I just I usually am just like yeah, thank you for sharing, there's nothing to add. They're looking for you to add something, but it's just just noticing it. Awesome, thank you for sharing. And what's funny is that you don't have to prompt them to come back. The resistance it tries to separate you, but it also pulls you in.
Speaker 2:People don't like an external resistance that they're not in control of, and so they get curious about that resistance and I think that's what brings them back. And on the other end of that, I've had people come in that have deemed themselves like having chronic anxiety or not ever feeling safe in their body and being really afraid of like what is this breath work going to do? How is it going to make me feel? And then so many of them being able to stay throughout the whole journey, honoring where they're at, and then being able to come out on the other side and feeling really empowered, that like, oh damn, like I did start to feel a little anxious at the beginning of the breath and then something shifted and like I didn't go into a panic attack like I thought I was going to, or I didn't spiral into like this puddle of mush, like I usually do when I start breathing, and I'm like, yeah, because you're connected to your body instead of connecting to the stories of your mind, like there's a difference.
Speaker 2:And so I think that you know everyone comes to breathwork for different reasons and they have different experiences, but it is really really fun to watch people trust their own intuition and keep coming back and keep connecting the dots on their own, because we haven't necessarily covered this yet, but one of the things that I fell in love with as doing breathwork, but also as the breathwork facilitator, is that this is your breath, this is of you. I'm not doing anything. You're doing the breathing, you're doing the surrendering, you're doing the choosing, the feeling, the flowing. I'm just there to be the bumper rails, if you will, to keep you in a safe space, and so, yeah, that's the other thing, too, that I think people are amazed when they're reminded of, like I didn't do anything to you.
Speaker 1:That was you minded of like I didn't do anything to you. That was you. That's true, because it's even stuff you're saying, and even like, I facilitate Reiki as well and I've been to sound healing sessions and they're in the same realm per se, but the facilitator is doing something in Reiki or even sound healing you're playing something, whereas like in breathwork I, but like I'm not doing anything to you.
Speaker 2:There's been a little bit of this like purist mentality of when I have facilitated these sessions and these journeys. I want them to know without a shadow of a doubt that it was them and that it was their breath, and so I hesitate at times to pair the two because, at least initially, I want them to know that it's all them, that they don't have to resource their power to anybody else, and not that you can't have. I mean, I had a I won't even get into that story, but at the last retreat that I facilitated for the mastery students through the modality that I use, I did myself, led myself in and did breath work and I had an experience that I mean I feel like ayahuasca couldn't even touch and it was the pairing of that. But I'm also four years into that and so I could see that like one was a conduit to the other, it wasn't that one was making the other happen or you know, flow in a certain way. I definitely love that you highlighted that in that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because with breathwork you're your own healer.
Speaker 2:You are your own healer, like full stop, a thousand percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is there anybody you don't think should try breathwork or should do breathwork?
Speaker 2:So I was the lineage of breathwork that I have had my level one certification in is the David Elliott method and his is a two-part pranayama, like heart opening breath, and it is the entire time and that for me powerful, super potent. We have facilitators in town that are also certified in that same method that their circles are, only that I have trusted my intuition and I have altered it a little bit. Where we always end in that. I have trusted my intuition and I have altered it a little bit where we always end in that and the breathwork is majority that. But I start with more down-regulating breathwork because I want regular run-of-the-mill people to be able to experience that and feel safety and grounding in their body before they blast off into a heart opening breath.
Speaker 2:So there's nothing wrong with just purely doing 35 minutes of, like two part, you know, heart opening breath. But the way that I have been led intuitively is to offer box breathing, triangle breathing, ocean breath, sunshine breath, all of those as a primer before we get into that breath, all of those as a primer before we get into that. And so the reason why I answer I think anyone could is because I in my facilitation say if you need to stay with these types of breath that are more gentle throughout this journey. Do that, or even the two-part breath. You can slow that down. So I truly believe, apart from certain medical conditions and the positioning with pregnancy, that 95 to 98 percent of people should be able to do the type of breathwork that I facilitate, and I think 100 percent of people can do some form of breathwork because we are breathing right now.
Speaker 1:No, that's so true, we are breathing right now. I like that, though you start with like a more down regulatory process.
Speaker 2:You know, I usually lead my clients through some type of meditation type thing before going into, just like boom you know what I mean and like it's intense, it's like it's loud music, it's like we're encouraging them to go fast and full, like obviously you can breath, then matches with high frequency and then you just kind of feel like you're imploding, and so I want to keep people as much in the realm of slow and conservative first, and then I actually will refer people that really have a good and solid foundation of breathing to those other practitioners in town that do those group sessions which I actually go to myself because I know that they can handle that.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times the sessions that I'm facilitating, the response and the releases of people are a little bit more gentle, whereas you go into some of those breathwork circles and if you can't maintain your own experience, if you can't create energetic boundaries, you're going to get hijacked into somebody else, hysterically crying next to you or screaming into a pillow or whatever. And so I also I want to maintain the integrity and the benefits of breathwork and I think that the way that I have been called to do that and serve in this breathwork space is to do it gently so that people can at least get their feet under them, if that makes sense, like no shade to the type of breathwork that you facilitate, because that's the kind of breathwork that I'm like let's go, like I want that the people in this area. I feel like that there's a little bit of a missing piece to that introductory space before they're like okay, move on. Now You're ready for, like, the 200 level class. You've passed the 100 level class.
Speaker 1:No, it's true, Especially like. I like how you mentioned the 100 level, the 200 level, like so many people that are coming to my sessions like they've never done before, and then you're going to just have them do this big blast off thing. Not that you can't, but it's like there's no wonder there's so much, even more resistance, because you're not even settling the body down a little bit. You know, coming from wherever you were, and just let's, let's do this. You don't even know what this is and your body's like what the heck?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and based on the personality patterns I was talking about earlier, some of those personality patterns can very much like if you run the merging pattern, you are going to go full on into that breath and you're going to be like, yeah, let's do it, whereas some people the enduring pattern, the rigid pattern they take more time to open their heart, they take more time to open their energetic centers, and so, yeah, each person is going to be so different. You know, I've had some more experienced breathers come to my class and they're like it's just too gentle for me and I'm like, absolutely, trust your judgment, go down the street. They're great, you know. So, yeah, it gets to be all of it for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, what would you say? Breathworks helped you with personally.
Speaker 2:Mom rage Yep, bar none.
Speaker 2:Anger Yep, a thousand percent.
Speaker 2:I even not related to motherhood, but even all of the stuck and unprocessed anger and frustration that I had felt and that my inner child had felt for decades.
Speaker 2:Breathwork was the only thing that ever allowed me to release that, the only thing. And so for me and for a lot of women because we either weren't modeled how it is to express anger in a safe and grounded way or there was a label slapped on us if we were angry or expressed anger or felt angry or indignant or frustrated, and so I find that, again, breathwork is almost that, taking that extra top off of the peanut butter and allowing you to fully submerge yourself in all of the things that are pissing you off and why they're pissing you off and how you do, underneath the anger, feel lonely, feel guilty, feel sad, feel tired, feel the thing, and so, yeah, I mean it's helped me also access my heart and like my emotion and really feeling love like I've never felt before. But I would say, for the most part, anger and frustration has been the gift that has been able to move through me because of breathwork.
Speaker 1:Really Now, mom, wait, how rage. How many kiddos do you have?
Speaker 2:I have a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old and they're incredible. You can have incredible kids and you can still suffer from mom rage.
Speaker 1:No, I'm sure. So you noticed a difference in your anger before breathwork, post-breathwork.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I noticed my relationships which were affected by my projected anger, which were unprocessed anger and all of the things that came along with that as well, and so I am more accepting of my anger now. I feel safer to allow it to flow through me and when needing to actually express move, stuck stress, little t trauma, any of it energy in my body, breathwork is what I do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so would you say, you show up differently as a mom, now that you've discovered breathwork.
Speaker 2:Yes, and my kids know it too, because they know and hear my energetic releases and they call it calling the dinosaurs. Oh, mom's upstairs calling the dinosaurs. Like we've also normalized the fact that, like this is something that you get to use as a tool to help to regulate and to support your nervous system. My I actually have a video of it on my phone. Kennedy was probably she's seven now, she was probably five and she, like came out of her room and she, like I was sitting on the couch and she was like mom, I just screamed into my pillow because I was mad and I was like, oh, very good, thank you.
Speaker 2:And so I think that a lot of women stray away from showing any sort of emotion, much less anger, frustration, rage, and they're really doing their children a disservice and they're doing their relationship a disservice because it can be modeled and seen in a really healthy way, but no one's done that for us and so we feel like it's not accessible to us when it really is. So, yeah, I think that I do. I still struggle with anger and frustration at times, of course, but the mom and the parent and the partner that I am now, I can't imagine what would have continued to unfold if I had not been gifted the tool of breathwork.
Speaker 1:Wow and no, she said, calling in the dinosaurs.
Speaker 2:Oh, like screaming into a pillow, just making loud noises. Yeah, just on the exhale, any of it? Yep, that's our term.
Speaker 1:That's adorable. I love that. Now the breathwork technique I do. When you said calling in the dinosaurs, we call it a CO2 dump at the end, where we scream Yep, release Yep People, we will try to tell them to scream into a pillow. I think it's more releasing to just scream into nothing. Yeah, as long as I am a speaker.
Speaker 2:It's situational. It's situational If I'm at home, I'll scream into a pillow. If I'm in a breathwork circle, I'm letting it rip. Yeah, a thousand percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I love that.
Speaker 2:That's my favorite All the final layers that are, whatever it is. You're essentially like taking off that mask, and by taking off that mask and releasing that, you're accessing further into your essence, into your core. So it's not I'm screaming and I'm losing my agency and power. You're actually like being able to access more of it, and I think that a lot of women I've noticed this is that they, they have access more to their personal power and they're like, yeah, no, no one's going to fuck with me, like I'm going to, I can do this. And they, when they access that anger but they're so afraid to access it, they keep bumping up to that resistance of like I can't, I need help, I'm not capable, and it's inversely related to their inability to hold and express their anger. And so, yes, I am with you on that 100% that most people that do have that capacity to let that go have access to something that some others may not.
Speaker 1:Yet yeah, that's so powerful, though, that your little girl came out to you and said she screamed into her pillow yeah, and I was like, oh wow, good for you.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you didn't scream at me but even that young of an age a lot of kids aren't able to vocalize that they. She was upset and she screamed into the pillow and and tell you that you know what I'm saying. I think that's a testimony for all the work you're doing as a mom, because I don't have kids of my own, but I've worked at daycares. I've been around plenty of kids. They aren't usually able to vocalize that. I screamed into my pillow because I was mad at five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she's one that she runs more of an enduring pattern, and so she stuffs and stuffs and stuffs until she explodes. And so it's even more powerful that, like at the moment that she knew that, you know, things were overfilling, that she could go resource herself in a certain way. And so I mean, do we always go and scream into our pillow and do it in a healthy way? No, of course not. But like they have the framework, they know that it's an option.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's amazing. Have you done any type of like breathing techniques with them?
Speaker 2:So my oldest, like apple tree, is very, gets very dysregulated when he's rushed and wants things to or feels that they need to be a certain way, has more of like a need for control and not wanting to make sure that he's messing up. And so we have had to do a lot of like down regulatory breathing with him, a lot of like counting in for four and then exhaling for six or longer if we can. It was funny too, because we just went to Disney for his 10th birthday and he was hell bent on writing the Tower of Terror. Like kids, if they're scared enough, they'll just be like I don't want to do it, I got to go, we got to leave, I don't want to do it.
Speaker 2:But he kept staying and he kept being like I'm so scared, mom, I don't know what to that I've been, because we did somatic tracing, we did, you know, exhalatory breath with vocalization, we played the like what are the five things? You see, the four things you hear, the three things you can touch, whatever, and all of that was able to bring him to a place where he was able to get on the ride, experience it and then be like, oh, that wasn't that bad, but yeah, I mean a thousand percent. We worked with our kids a lot on that and we are very fortunate that the school system that they're in as well very much equips their kids with that kind of skillset and they have counselors in place that help to support kids as well in the things that they navigate through day to day. So, yeah, they are very aware, very aware.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, you know. I think it could really benefit a lot of kids to have that awareness, you know, like because they get stressed, like things come up and they get overwhelmed or nervous or whatever it is, you know, and teaching them these skills at a younger age yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:My hope is, and my desire is, is that they at least have the tools, or they've been introduced to it, so they can use it as they want and they can continue to get curious about it and learn about it more as they get older. But I'm just trying to set the framework as much as I can. I mean, hell, they don't even have to go outside these four walls to get stressed out from me and like the constant, like hey, we got to do this or have you done this. It's also the awareness that, like I, am also the problem sometimes, and so I want them to know that they can come to me and be like hey, mom, you're stressing me out, or hey, mom, I'm really worried about this because you keep talking about this, or, and to be able to ask them, like, okay, what do you need now? Do you need a hug? Do you need space? Do you need to go breathe? What do you need to do? So, yeah, it's a very imperfect journey, but it's just about really allowing them to have the exposure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that makes so much sense. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me. I really appreciate it. Any final words of wisdom for the listeners? No pressure, I just like to give it back to the guest.
Speaker 2:Usually, what I end with is something that I continue to see, that I continue to mark my flag on, is that for a very long time, women have bought into and been sold this narrative of this is as good as it gets, or that's just who you are, or this is how it's always going to be.
Speaker 2:And I want people to know and I talked about this earlier with the access to the group breathwork is that I truly believe that it doesn't matter who you are, who you love, what job you have, how many kids you have, if you have any kids, if you're employed, if you're not employed there are enough people on social media spaces that give out free or reduced price stuff that this type of healing being in your body and feeling safe in your body is possible. I am a testament to it, plenty of my clients are testaments to it, and so I just want women to keep being nudged by the truth that they get to have more, and they get to have it all, and not necessarily all at once, but they do get to have all the things that they do desire, and that really just starts with them continuing to be consistent with like, my want is enough.
Speaker 1:I love that. My want is enough.
Speaker 2:Yep, I will die on that hill. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Speaker 1:And where can listeners connect with you if they want to touch base and find out more?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm most active on social media, that being Instagram. You can find me at the Somatic DPT D, as in David P, as in Paul T, as in Tom, which are my credentials as a physical therapist. I don't have a fancy website. I have all of my resources somewhere all throughout Instagram and I'm just very active in the DMs and I just want to be accessible to people as a resource, and so if you have any questions from what we've talked about here or any of the offerings that I have, I'd love to connect.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much and I will link all of that in the show notes, and I really appreciate you speaking with me. This was so awesome. Thank you so much, of course, and thank you, guys for tuning in to another episode of Breathwork Magic. Thank you for tuning in to Breathwork Magic. I hope today's episode inspired you to connect more deeply with your breath and embrace the transformation that it can bring. Remember, as long as you have your breath, you have options. 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.
Speaker 1: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 mond, 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.