My first experience with breathwork and why I’m hooked
The first time I experienced conscious connected breathwork, I was already deep in my own inner healing process. I was exploring plant medicines, embodiment practices, and meditation—anything that helped me listen more closely to myself. I was really surprised by how powerfully this type of breathwork helped me access and heal parts of myself in a deeply embodied way.
This is the journal entry I wrote immediately following my first breathwork experience:
“I could see my younger self. She felt so much shame and loneliness and no belonging. I felt so much love and care for her. I told her how much I love her and that she will always belong with me. I hugged her tightly and let her know that I’d always be with her. I could sense her taking in my love. She felt it.
Then I saw my future self. She approached me, as my current self, with so much love in her eyes and I just fell into her arms. I could sense her warmth and care. She said to me, “I love you so much. I am so proud of you. You will always belong with me.” She wiped the tears from my face and held me in a tight hug.
Later in the journey, I saw all three of us; my younger self, current self and future self sitting in a circle together. We were holding hands and sharing our love for one another. I could feel it so strongly. We all could. We could feel how loved we are and we could feel the belonging we have with each other. It was such a sweet moment that made us laugh, and we began to giggle and dance. It was silly. It was blissful. It was such a healing experience.”
What stayed with me most about this experience was the deep, embodied sense of belonging that moved through my body. Yes, there was insight on a cognitive level, but what was so impactful was the felt knowing that I belong with myself.
Why Breathwork Is So Powerful
Breathwork is powerful not because it forces healing, but because it creates the conditions for healing to emerge organically. Through intentional, conscious breathing, we soften the grip of the thinking mind and access the deeper intelligence of the body and nervous system.
So much of what we carry, especially early experiences of shame, loneliness, or disconnection, lives beneath words. These experiences are stored in the body as sensation, tension, and protective patterns formed long before we had language. Breathwork offers a direct way to meet these layers without needing to analyze, explain, or fix them.
As the breath opens and deepens, the nervous system begins to shift. Emotional material may surface, memories or images may arise, and sensations may move through the body. At the same time, there is often an increased sense of presence and inner support. While breathwork can be emotional, it is equally about building capacity and learning to stay present with what arises and to meet it with curiosity and compassion.
Reconnecting With the Parts of You
Breathwork has offered me a direct, embodied experience of how healing can occur when we are able to be in relationship with our own inner parts, rather than trying to change or bypass them.
In that first journey, my younger self wasn’t pushed away or avoided, she was met and loved. My present self, my younger self, and my future self were able to come into connection with one another, each offering what the others needed. The breath created a bridge between these parts, allowing integration to happen naturally.
This is something I witness again and again in breathwork spaces: people reconnecting with parts of themselves that have been exiled or forgotten, and experiencing self-compassion not as an idea, but as a lived, embodied experience.
The Benefits of Breathwork
Each breathwork journey is unique, but some common benefits people experience include:
Greater emotional awareness and regulation
Release of stored stress, tension, or trauma
Increased connection to the body
Access to intuition and inner guidance
A felt sense of belonging and wholeness
Deeper self-trust and self-compassion
While the experience can be powerful, breathwork is not a quick fix. It is a practice of listening, of allowing the body to lead and trusting its wisdom.
An Invitation to Explore
My experience with breathwork continues to teach me something new each time. No two journeys are the same, yet I always come away feeling more connected to my most authentic self, held in unconditional love, with a deep sense of enoughness.
If you feel drawn to explore breathwork, my invitation is to come with openness and curiosity. Trust that your body knows what it is ready to share. Healing, in my experience, is not about becoming someone else, it is about remembering who you are and learning to stay with yourself in love.
If you’re interested in a breathwork session please email me at amy@embodied-wellness.com or sign up for a cacao+breathwork ceremony.