The medicine that heals us becomes the medicine we share
Hi! I’m Erin.
I stumbled upon breathwork several years ago as I was working to heal from trauma after a violent crime.
I was in weekly talk therapy and while it was helping, there was still a void in my healing process, a level of deep bodily healing and a return to comfort that I just could not seem to achieve.
My racing thoughts were causing me insomnia and, in my anxiety, I was lashing out at the people I love most. I was becoming more and more bitter and withdrawn.
When I was introduced to breathwork I thought a deep-breathing practice might tame my anxiety. What I didn’t realize then but have learned since, is that the trauma we experience is held and remembered in our body in a way our mind cannot always access.
My negative self talk around needing to “get over it” and “move on” was increasing my anxiety, feelings of failure, depression and isolation – when the truth was my thoughts weren’t enough to conquer this thing living in the visceral memory of my body. When I experienced that trauma at the level of my cellular memory, no amount of pep talks (or harsh self lectures) was going to change the state of my body.
I entered into breathwork hoping I might be able to sleep through the night again and be less reactive with my husband and children. Instead, I found a level of deep self-love and self-understanding that I did not know I was missing in my healing process. I was able to find the places that were injured by trauma and begin healing them.
The tricky part is that they were hidden deep in my subconscious, in places not touched by memory I could access in my mental space, or that I felt ashamed of when I tried.
I needed a practice that took me deep in to my body to reach the place where my physical memories of that event were keeping me tight and stuck. When I went there I found other traumas that I had never been able to address, namely the hospitalization of my oldest son when he was a toddler, and the events that nearly took his life.
Through the process of breathwork I have been able to unravel the most traumatic events of my life.
Life still comes at us – and addressing the deep hurts and clearing out the muck they leave behind gives us the space and energy to navigate the next thing.
Getting unstuck leaves us with room to give one another, and ourselves, so much more grace.
It is my deep desire that more beings experience a greater level of love and self-acceptance. When we do that we can radiate that love out to those we treasure. I believe that we can access this when we breathe through what has harmed us and release it from our bodies.
Looking forward to breathing together.
With Love,
Erin