Libby of Healing Breath joins on this week’s episode of Lit AF to drop a lil’ grounding through breath wisdom. We talk about her journey to finding breathwork, ***spoiler alert*** it was through a sex therapist and how she has used it to heal relationships. She even leads us through a breathwork meditation at the very end of the show.
Show notes:
Use code LITAF for 10% off Libby’s Breathwork Circle starting October 4, 2020. Use code at checkout. Register here: https://www.libbycraig.com/healing-breath-journey
Sexual Empowerment Coach, Whitney Ullom, https://www.whitneyullom.com/
Breathwork Coach David Elliott, https://www.davidelliott.com/
Book on breathing, Breath by James Nestor, https://www.mrjamesnestor.com/breath
Libby's free breathwork meditations on Insight Timer
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Follow Sarah Cohan for show updates on instagram @sarah_shines_on
Quotes:
“Since I was 10 or 15 I have been like a seeker. Looking for a teacher or a modality that will really be supportive and help me relieve some of the stress that I even felt as a young girl.”
“Through breathwork I think I was really able to unlock specific visions, memories, find clarity in these are the exact steps that I want to take.”
“I'm someone for whom meditation is very on brand for me. I should love it. I aspire to sit for 30 minutes a day and meditate each morning at 6:00 AM. And it is something that I have had a lot of trouble actually committing to. I'm so wound up in my head that I find it very difficult.”
“I think that breath work has helped me heal my relationship with myself.”
“I had one rough work session where I remember just feeling so cracked, open with love and like unconditional love for every part of my body, even the parts that I shut away or had so much shame towards. I think this practice just makes me feel more in tune and in love with myself.”
“Lung capacity is the top determinant for life expectancy. And that is not. It's something that we maybe have a preconceived notion that it's fixed. Like I'm a smaller person. I think I have a pretty bad lung capacity that might be a belief that you have and through breathing exercises and changing the way that we breathe, we're actually able to increase our lung capacity and increase our health.”
“It has the ability to shift and control our nervous system. So you probably know there's the sympathetic nervous system, which controls fight or flight, our action response. And then there's our parasympathetic nervous system known as the rest and digest the relaxation piece.”
“In the breathwork that I often hold space for, we're actually doing this three part breath, which is increasing the amount of oxygen that comes into our system. And it actually stimulates that other nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system. And so it's a very activating breath. It's an energizing breath. And what that does is it widens our window tolerance.”
“You can calm yourself down, but you also can withstand this kind of self-induced state of activity. It is a little bit of self induced stress on your body. But what that does is let your body know that it's safe and you are resilient to withstand this experience. And after you experienced that, you can actually fall into a much deeper state of rest of calm.”
“That's what these tools are for whether it's breath work or yoga or meditation. You naming this and getting underneath the stress reaction, all of this flood of thoughts and being able to step back, breathe, and then name the sensations that you're feeling in your body.”
“That's what we're working with right now with the backdrop of 2020 with being isolated with injustices that are happening with the election that's coming up and around the corner. I think we all are under more stress than we were previously. And so having a deeper toolkit to have a practice [or]multiple practices to go to and being able to regulate yourself. Because I think that it's from this grounded place that we're able to take more aligned and more sustained action in our world.”
“We need to fill up our own cups and we're so lucky that we can. When we do that work to fill up our own cups, we can support others better. We can heal others better when we've done that work internally.”
“I'm very into fluidity and flexibility with myself. So as I mentioned, I don't wake up at 6:00 AM and meditate for 30 minutes every day. It looks different every day. I ask my body what she wants and if she wants to dance around for five minutes to a song, that's my morning practice. If she wants to write and journal, that can be my morning practice. If she wants to lay down for a 30 minute breathwork session that that also can be morning practice. And if she wants to go to happy hour on a Friday, she can do that too.“
"October 4, 2020 we are starting the healing breath journey and it's a four week small group session. The group is intentionally small so that we can all really connect and have space in our weekly sessions. It's four weekly breathwork circles where we'll combine this breathwork, practice visualization, sometimes a little bit of movement as well as group connection, which I think everyone is really craving at this time. And we'll combine writing as well at times. I think that's a really powerful tool to connect with the breath. And in between sessions, there will be guided audio practices to help you drop deeper and journal prompts as well. Each week is focused on a specific healing intention, permission to feel, expressing your truth, connecting to your intuition, and connecting to your heart.”
“It's an empowering tool because your breath is your own, versus something like acupuncture or a massage that feels so good and we deserve and should be held in that way. However, really being able to see the depth at which you can go and the capacity that you have to heal yourself through your own breath, this tool that is always available to you. I think it is so empowering because that's your tool.”
“I will say, I have not done ayahuasca before, but it's very common in the breathwork community to say that this feeling that you get with deep breath work sessions is so close to being on ayahuasca or being high. It's incredible. And it's all your own breath.”
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