Breathwork – a mind body experience

Tommy was walking down the street on his way home from work. As he was halfway to his apartment, he saw a poster on the light pole at the street corner. It said Saturday at 10 o’clock to do a group breathwork session. Tommy thought to himself that sounds interesting; he noticed there was a website on the poster and took a picture of it.  

Tommy continued walking home to his apartment, thinking about what is actually breathwork. It is obviously something to do with breathing.  

When Tommy arrived at his apartment, he began to prepare dinner, cooking lasagna. He quickly made the sauce and put it in the oven. While he was waiting for the next 30 minutes, he looked at the picture that he took on his way home.  

He opened the website that was on the poster on his phone. The website showed both classes and events for breathwork. Tommy noticed there was an event for Saturday, just as it was on the poster.  

He couldn’t find that much information about the event, so he went to the about page to read about it. As he was reading, he could see the guy who offered the services had been a monk in Nepal, where in his region of monks they also used breathwork to control the temperature regulations in the body due to great swings in the weather.  

Tommy thought to himself that was interesting, simply from the fact it is possible to change the body’s temperature.  

As he was reading further, the website mentioned that it helps you regulate body temperature, hyper-oxygenate your body, and also enter a spiritual place.  

The alarm started buzzing, which meant the lasagna was ready. Tommy took the lasagna out of the oven and put a piece of the lasagna on his plate.  

While he was eating, he was thinking about whether or not he should participate in the event. Tommy couldn’t wrap his head around what he should think about the whole breathwork thing as to him it just seemed like some voodoo. On the other hand, it didn’t really have any consequences for him doing it, as he just had to breathe and it only cost 10 euros.  

Tommy continued eating for a bit, sitting in silence with his thoughts going back and forth between whether or not he should go until he decided to go as he didn’t have any plans for the weekend anyway.  

Tommy went to the website to sign up for the event. He paid for the participation in the event and added it to his calendar.  

The next day, it was pitch dark outside, late in the evening. Tommy was looking out of the window with the thought of why he signed up for the breathwork event. He was heavily reconsidering canceling and not attending, but as he was thinking this, he reminded himself that he paid for it.  

Tommy was staring out his apartment window. It was complete silence. Tommy began walking to the kitchen table where his phone was. He picked it up for a moment and thought to himself, no, I am going. I committed to it and paid for it. He put the phone down and began to walk to his bedroom to sleep.  

The alarm clock was ringing. 9:00 am in the morning. Tommy woke up and got ready, but was still reconsidering his decision.  

Despite his doubts, he still made himself go to the breathwork session. He was going to an area of the city that he was not used to being in, and a lady saw him looking around. She asked him what he was looking for. Tommy responded he was looking for the entrance to a breathwork session.  

“Oh, I am going there as well. Just follow me,” said the lady. Tommy followed the lady into the studio, where he was met with the other people. The place had a very peaceful atmosphere to it. The organizer, who was also leading the breathwork session, came and greeted Tommy. He asked Tommy if he had done it before, but Tommy responded no. The breathwork guy told Tommy he could take a seat on the floor in the middle of the room, and in the beginning, they would be sitting up for 5 minutes before laying down on the ground.  

The breathwork guy went to the stage and got everyone to find a place to sit. The breathwork guy instructed everyone to take a deep inhale through the nose, and slowly exhale. “Keep doing the deep inhale and slow exhale,” he said. “Now,” said the breathwork guy, “we are gonna slow down the breathing even more.” After continuing it for 5 minutes, he told everyone to lay down and warned people if they started feeling cramps through their arms, it was okay to stop.  

Tommy thought to himself at that moment that it didn’t sound promising, but he tried to stay calm and relax to go with the flow. The breathwork guy told them all to inhale slowly and slowly start increasing the rate of the breath to reach the point of hyperventilation, which they kept doing for about a minute. They continued doing it in waves. When the group was on the 4th wave, Tommy began to feel his fingers cramping up, and a tingling sensation. At one moment, he felt that he needed to stop as he was about to panic, but he continued. It was like the world around him disappeared as they went into slow breaths again with breath holds.  

During this, Tommy began to hallucinate a bit, seeing alien creatures at his workplace. It was like all his colleagues turned into aliens that he didn’t know who or what they were. In that moment, before the last part of the session, Tommy felt he was awake but completely unconscious and couldn’t sense his legs and arms anymore.  

All of a sudden, he heard the breathwork guy say, “Start to breathe normally again.” As Tommy automatically began breathing at a normal pace again, he returned to full consciousness.  

The session was finally over. Tommy lay on the floor for a moment, realizing what had just happened and felt his mind was blown. It took a few minutes before Tommy felt like himself again. The breathwork guy noticed Tommy was still lying on the ground, so he walked over to ask him if he was alright and how it was.  

Tommy answered it was a mind-blowing experience, something that he didn’t expect to happen. The breathwork guy just smiled and looked at Tommy, saying, “Well, it is the power of the breath. We can enter stages of the mind that make the body energized and fueled by over-oxygenating it. These techniques also allow us to control certain parts.”  

“I would have never thought,” said Tommy. “Thank you for the session; I should try it a few more times.”  

“You are welcome to join anytime,” replied the breathwork guy.  

When Tommy arrived home, he could really feel his entire body and really felt how much oxygen he had taken in. He hadn’t felt such a level of presence for a long, long time.