By Ciara Longman
Conscious connected breathing is also known as circular breathing and originally coined as rebirthing. This technique of breathing is helpful in alleviating anxiety, headaches, pain, worry, improves self esteem, it deepens meditation, expands awareness and so much more.
It was whilst taking a bath back in the 1970s that Leonard Orr the founder of this technique, started spontaneously regressing to a state of feeling like a helpless infant and he couldn’t get out of the bath for 3 hours. He continued taking long baths and more prenatal and birth memories rose up. He then experimented by using a snorkel to breathe with his head immersed under water. Whilst using the snorkel he discovered how circular breathing is crucial to moving through a difficult experience. He found that under water he was forced to keep breathing and this was crucial to breathing through any experiences which came up. With the help of friends they got together and helped each other get through their own experiences whilst breathing in a hot tub and thus, wet rebirthing was born. Leonard realised that the emotional pain of birth experiences for some people were just too overwhelming, even with what we consider as a normal birth in a hospital.
At the time, Frank Leboyer’s book “Birth without violence” had been published and the long term impact of birth trauma on a person was beginning to be understood. Leonard realised it was better to start breathing sessions out of water, as this is more gentle and so dry rebirthing was born. During dry rebirthing sessions a person may uncover many other life incidents before they are ready to deal with birth.
Circular means that the inhalation merges with the exhalation and the exhalation merges with the inhalation. There was no pause in between breaths. This is the crucial component to breathing energy (prana or Chi) which moves around the body with the breath. Within the first few sessions the focus is initially on unblocking the breathing mechanism and releasing energy blocks which prevent the movement of energy through the body. This may be a discomfort in the body, a memory, a pain or a fear and no matter how difficult it may feel, the person is guided to breathe through the experience until they reach a state of relaxation. It is essential that person doesn’t get trapped in the drama of it, by continuing to breathe an energetic or emotional release occurs.
“I trained with Leonard. When I first unblocked my breathing mechanism it felt like a pressure valve popped and I felt instant relief. The struggle to breathe was gone! It was wonderful to feel what is was like to breathe full breaths again which were long and gentle. Everyone has different life experiences and so, no two sessions are the same. Your experience may be completely different to mine, so the blocks we have to breathing may be different. After I broke through this then the real work began – and I remember during sessions experiencing childhood situations, feel stuck and not wanting to move forward and be born. So much tension had been stored in my body. All kinds of feelings and sensations come up which can be difficult and I wanted to stop breathing but having the support of a breath worker guiding you helps you move through the experience rather than giving up. I was very cerebral when I first started, overthinking all the time I’ve now become more relaxed.”
As children when a difficult experience came up we often suppressed it or were told we’re not allowed to feel it. Breathing allows that feeling to go through to completion without being suppressed. It’s not easy and my mind played many tricks on me to try and make me stop, but I kept breathing through it and it was really worth it. Memories were shown to me and I felt pain in my body, by continuing to breathe the pain gave way to coming to a place of peace and serenity. Sometimes my body felt like it was floating, I felt light and free – not a care in the world.
You can either have one to one sessions with a trained facilitator or join a breathing circle where a group breathes together guided by a trained facilitator. See breathingcircle.com to find a circle near you.
