47. Healing from Within: The Transformative Power of Breathwork with Jennifer Henkle

Unlock the power of healing through breathwork with Jennifer Henkle, a mother who has turned her personal trials into transformative triumphs. As a breathwork facilitator, Reiki master, and Soul Work coach, she shares an incredible journey of transformation from witnessing her daughter's health scare to becoming a healer who now guides others through their own emotional journey. Our momversation not only highlights Jennifer's inspirational story but also introduces you into the emotional liberation that comes from intentional breathing.

I share my own experience with breathwork under Jennifer's guidance and we journey together into understanding the science of stored trauma within our bodies. Breathwork has become for me a way to release, to transform, and ultimately to embrace a new approach to stress management and well-being. Jennifer's dedication to creating healing spaces touches upon the collective power of breathwork, especially in settings where women support and uplift each other through shared vulnerability.

Be prepared to be inspired by tales of empowerment and how these practices can guide us to our inner strength and wisdom, even encouraging me to launch this very podcast. Jennifer's reach extends beyond the physical realm, touching lives through virtual sessions that connect and catalyze personal breakthroughs for women and mothers across the globe, all of which are accessible through her platform, highestsourcehealing.com. Join us on this journey and discover how reclaiming your breath can lead you back to your most authentic self.

You can find Jennifer at:
Her Website: https://www.highestsourcehealing.com/
Instagram: @highest_source_healing
SPECIAL: Use code breath10 for 10% off an individual breathwork session

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Transcript

00:10 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Hello, hello and welcome back to the Burnt Pancakes podcast. I'm your host, Katie Fenske, and I'm a mom reminding you that everyone burns their first pancake, so just keep flipping. Today, I have a very special guest with me. Her name is Jennifer Henkel, and she is a mom of two, but also a breathwork facilitator, a Reiki master and a soulwork coach. I got to know her a little over a year ago when I went to one of her breathwork sister circles, and to say that it was life-changing is an understatement. Not only has she become a good friend of mine we see each other at the football field, I've continued to go to her breathwork, we meet for coffee but she really has something to share with the world that is incredibly special. 

00:55
So if you were like me a year ago and you knew nothing about breathwork, this is going to be a great intro to what it is and how it benefits. If you have been to breathwork, then you're in for a treat, because you know how wonderful it is. Jennifer is going to share with us how she got into this practice. It's an incredible story of her and her daughter and just how life leads you in different directions and a new path. She's also going to talk to us about what breathwork is, what you can expect to experience when you go, and all the goodies that go with it, so I'm really excited to bring this to you. Breathwork has been something that has been very pivotal in my self-care journey, and I just really hope that by sharing her with you, you will not only be touched, but you will get to experience this magic too. So, without further ado, I am pleased to bring you Jennifer. Jennifer, welcome to the podcast. 

01:58 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Hi, katie, I'm so happy to be here with you. Thank you for asking me. 

02:03 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I am so happy you're here, because your breathwork has been life-changing for me. It's something that I was totally clueless about maybe a year ago is when I was introduced to it, and so I want to share that with all of the listeners. I think it's something really special that you do so, thank you. We were both former teachers and we're both doing something completely different. So, will you tell us a little bit about what you do and how you came to? 

02:27 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
do it, sure, sure. So let's see where do we start. Mike Katie mentioned I was a teacher school teacher, elementary school teacher and I am also a mom in the city of Orange, california, and raising two kids. And one morning we had the unexpected happen my five-year-old daughter woke up complaining of a headache. I thought she was just sick until things started to progress and I was like something's different. Something is not right here. 

03:02 - Katie Fenske (Host)
And you've said before, it was like mom tuition. Mom, tuition a thousand percent. Something's not right, that's right. 

03:07 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
That's it. And what happened is my husband went off to work, my other child was at school and next thing, fast forward. I'm calling the ambulance because she went unconscious. She, her eyes rolled back behind her head. 

03:22 - Katie Fenske (Host)
She went unconscious. I bet that vision is just ingrained in your mind, right there, right there and so come to find out. 

03:32 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I'm at Chalk Emergency and we get in there and within 30 minutes of being there they're willing her off to surgery. They're telling me that she has bleeding on the back of her brain and she's going to have to have an emergency brain surgery. 

03:48 - Katie Fenske (Host)
And Katie, I'm sitting there going wait what about a second opinion? 

03:51 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Wait, what, what? And they're like we don't have time for that. And the nurse basically told me we have to act fast and your daughter may survive this. Oh my gosh. And if she does, she might go revert back. She was five. She might revert back to not being able to talk, walk, we don't know what state or she could be a veteran's worst nightmare. 

04:15
Worst nightmare worst nightmare and so longest four hour surgery of my life. My husband and I were in there with family waiting. We had no idea whether that was the last time we were going to see our daughter or not. Hear her speak. Hear her speak hug her. 

04:31 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yeah, anything. 

04:32 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And, and so you can imagine the thoughts that grow out through Any parents mind at that point. So the surgery was completed and we got to go and see her and she was just tied up with tubes and all kinds of things and we really didn't know what state she was in yet, because she was in a coma and induced coma, and so I just want to share that it. 

04:59
It really was a very traumatic experience for my husband and I and our son at the time, our younger son, and it was a life shift for me, katie, a complete life shift, yeah. So I want to fast forward for a minute and let you all know that my daughter is now 10. Just turn, 10. Happy little fourth grader. Yes, right, right. And you would never know, never know that anything happened. She made a full recovery. They won't say in the medical world, but it was a miracle, a miracle. 

05:33 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Does she? 

05:33 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
remember it, she only remembers the narrative that we've sort of fed to her. Okay, got it that she's a warrior, that she's strong, that she, you know looks back and she'll talk about it with just such strength and warmth, and we keep that alive. That you really overcame something. 

05:52 - Katie Fenske (Host)
But according to science, she should not have been this thriving little girl. 

05:56 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
No, oh my gosh, so I want to share with you. This is leading into the question you asked me how did I find breath work and Reiki? Because this was such a traumatic experience, I sought out some therapy to help me process what was going on, what was happening, and in doing so we were addressing things and I was feeling results. But a friend mentioned to me during that time have you ever tried Reiki? I didn't really know what Reiki was. 

06:28 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I hadn't, like until maybe a year or two ago, I had never even heard of it, right? So it was like, no, I haven't, no, I haven't. 

06:35 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
But I was so open because you know when we're walking through something we and we're wanting to feel better and find answers Right. 

06:46
So I went and I went to this yoga studio and I experienced a Reiki session and during that session I will go back when we I feel like anytime we're walking through a trauma or something that kind of right sizes our life right. And I found that my walk with, like my God, my spiritual person, was so strong when everything was happening with Emma. It's like one of those times where it doesn't matter, you're so in it and you're so dependent on your God, your higher power, that little things like if your Starbucks order gets messed up, you don't care because you don't have time for that, you were just in it. And there's something very comforting when we just totally turn over our will and our lives to what we think is bigger than us and there's peace in that. Well, that's the same piece I felt in the Reiki session. I was like a warm hug, nothing else mattered. 

07:38
I felt like with my creator. I felt like just safe and open and feelings of love. You described that really really well Like it's like oh, I can feel that. 

07:48 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Oh interesting. Was it on that very first session, or did you do multiple Reiki before you? 

07:54 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
That very first session, she explained to me you know, you're really holding things in your heart, you're pulling from your heart versus I learned about the chakra system versus anywhere else, and I thought, oh, it's so great, I'm in my heart. But what she shared with me was that, okay, that is great, but you're kind of out of balance. 

08:13 - Katie Fenske (Host)
We have seven main chakras. Yeah, yeah. 

08:17 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
So I was like okay, and it was just kind of like a spiritual adjustment if you will. And I left feeling lighter and calmer and it opened me up to what else is out there besides therapy Traditional talk therapy, which is great, but there's other things you can try as well. 

08:37 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Like I do tell a lot of people who go to therapy like you should try my friend's breath work also, like in conjunction with that. 

08:43 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yeah, Right Well that's the whole part, is the somatic part, it's the body healing, and because they talk about how trauma is stored in the body, in the body. So after that now I've tried my Reiki session I was invited to go away with a close girlfriend of mine and we went like on a girls healing weekend and then I was exposed to breath work, my very first breath work circle, the first time First time. 

09:08
I remember my first time Right and at this age there's not many things we can say. We have first times right. So it's kind of cool when you find like something first a new experience and I will share with you, similar probably to what you felt. I went into that breath work session. 

09:25 - Katie Fenske (Host)
All I was was again open, just as I was when I experienced the Reiki. I'll try it. 

09:30 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Okay, we'll come back to like this mind blown, mind blown but I will share with you. It was the first time as a woman I felt release from the body. I want. I really realized we store everything in our body and therapy. I kept telling the same story. We're talking about it, we're kind of having mental shifts, but I was still in the same story and I was still it's very cerebral. It wasn't releasing anything. 

09:58 - Katie Fenske (Host)
It wasn't releasing. 

10:00 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And when I went to the breath work, oh my gosh, my body felt all this energy moving through it. I was crying, I was getting laughing, screaming. I was just expressing myself in ways I never had. And I will tell you this I found my voice. I found my voice through the breath, because I feel it's like this very primal experience that the breath work just takes away the noise of life and of all the things that people tell us that we should be all of it. 

10:31
And it was like oh my gosh, this is who I am and this is what I want. And I left that breath work session and I got into my car and I started to cry in a good way. 

10:42 - Katie Fenske (Host)
And. 

10:42 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I said I will never go back to being who I was before that session, Because what I found in that session was I wasn't just addressing what happened with Emma and my daughter. We hold trauma in our body, Katie. Everybody says it's like the cerebral thing and we're going to talk about it, but trauma is held in the body and through the breath work we were able to get from my parasympathetic to my sorry, my sympathetic to my parasympathetic, and really just get into, relax and get out of that fight or flight. 

11:23 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yes. 

11:24 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And just that stress like stress. And just I was able to really release things that I had been holding on to and didn't even realize it. 

11:36 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I was going to say things that you probably don't even know, Don't even know. I'm going to say it to you. Yeah, wow, yeah. So how soon after that experience did you go? Okay, I want to do this for other people. 

11:49 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Well, after that experience, I was first like when am I going again? Yeah, and how often can I do this? And I'm going to tell everybody I know about it, right? 

12:01 - Katie Fenske (Host)
You know and take them with me. I tried it and then I was like ooh, who can I bring with me? Right, right, Exactly, Exactly. 

12:08 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And nobody knew what I was talking about? Yes, nobody knew, at least in my world, in my realm, knew what I was talking about. 

12:14 - Katie Fenske (Host)
That's kind of how I felt, and I felt like when I went there. I'm like, oh my gosh, all these women know about this. How have I just heard about it? 

12:20 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yeah, so I, so I. What I did first was I developed a practice for myself. I just kept going. I just kept going to breath, work. 

12:29
I kept going to Reiki and what it was doing in my life, the transformation it was bringing about, like stopped me right in my tracks so much so I was like, okay, other women need this, other women need this, other women like me that have no idea this exists, that are still just going to therapy, which I am a huge proponent of, but are needing something more right, need to know about this. And so that's when I made the decision not to go back to teaching, like you shared with teachers. I'm not a elementary school teacher, but I feel the event that happened with my daughter moved me. I was made to be uncomfortable in my own life and it was a huge shift, and that shift took me from this place to like you need to be over here doing this work Like had that never happened as terrible and tragic as it was it pointed me somewhere else, and isn't that what happens to all of us? 

13:29
You know, if we were never made to feel uncomfortable, we would never move right, and I share that with my daughter this day. You know you move me from here to here and look at all the women that we're helping and really it's this ripple effect. 

13:44
And so I decided to get trained in both of these practices and then I started doing these just before, even in my studio, I started doing them in my backyard. I just opened up my space and just said who's to come will come, and it took on a life of its own, katie. It just like I didn't realize. I knew it was beneficial and helpful, but I didn't realize the quick impact it was going to have and how it surely was going to affect other women the way it affected me and we were talking earlier, before we started recording. Today it's truly been through witness of other women, that women have found me. They've seen that person in their lives that mom, that sister, that friend shift, and they ask what have you done? And they will share breath, work. 

14:37 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Reiki and like and that's enough for them to be like okay, I'm going, Because you were saying most of the people that come to you now are not like oh, I'm a breath work expert, let's find her it's. I've seen other people who have gone to you and I like what they are sharing or how they are feeling and I'm going to try it too, which that surprised me, because when I went I thought like I'm the only one who doesn't know what this is, and I'm not, you get a lot of like first timers yes. 

15:05 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yes, I was sharing with you that most of my clients are actually other helpers. We have a lot of my clients are teachers, nurses, therapists and moms and if you think about one of the common threads, those are women that are wearing multiple hats, I mean all women wear multiple hats, but they are helping others, right, yep. 

15:31 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Taking care, taking care of everyone else. 

15:34 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yes, that's what I was going to say. And what's the commonality? 

15:37 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yes. 

15:38 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
They've put themselves usually last on the list, and so by the time they walk through the door to have a breath work or Reiki session, I find that they are just almost to the breaking point, right. And so it's like such a cathartic experience for them to really have a safe space. First of all because that's the first, I think Struggle is busy women, first of all, finding a safe space one to time, yeah, right, yeah. And three, something that's gonna practice, a modality that's going to help them open up what's going on in their body, help them move from their conscious thinking to their subconscious, because we don't even have the words to describe half of what we're carrying right and furthermore it's. 

16:30
What's kind of beautiful is that sometimes women are afraid to even go to therapy or get help. Because I don't know what I need. I just know I need something. Yeah, I just know I need to shift. I just know I can't keep doing it this way. Right, I just know I meant for more. And then you walk into a session, a breathwork session, and you find I don't have to Spell that spill the tea. 

16:52 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I mean I have to know what it is. 

16:54 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I just have to be open to trying something new and the work will work itself on me, and you can't help but leave without feeling it. 

17:03 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Oh, it's the best feeling and I want to go into. 

17:06
I want, I want to have you share, because my experience, yes, yes, and this is why I wanted you on so badly, because I felt like that was my first time going, such a life-changing experience, because it was like I never knew Something like this existed, that I can do for myself, that could make such an impact. So I'm like, if anyone else is like, oh, I would like that feeling like look at breathwork, look into it. Okay, so, my first time going, we, I met you at a sister circle, yes, and I Asked oh, what do you do? You're like, oh, breathwork. I'm like, okay, I don't really know what that is, and so you show me your website and like your website's gorgeous, yes, I'll try this. 

17:46
So I booked a session and, and I feel like I don't know if you said, or someone said, like just go, just be open, don't like think too much about what to expect, mm-hmm. So I had yoga pants on. I told my husband I'm like I'm going to this brookler thing. I think it's like yoga is what I told him, because I didn't really know. 

18:03 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I thought I was like gonna get a workout. 

18:05 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yes, like a gentle workout, I know so. Then we go and it's probably like eight to ten women we're probably there. Mm-hmm, you open up your circle with your cacao ceremony. Everyone shares a little bit, and you start kind of like opening up, like, oh, these other women are Free to share what's on their heart, however comfortable people are. And I just told myself I'm like just go and be open. The experience is like outer body. I Remember it. Actually I. It's only an hour, right. 

18:37 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I have an hour and a half. Oh, but the actual breathwork part, how long is it? Like 30 minutes. 

18:42 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Okay, it felt like two minutes and Five hours combined into one. 

18:48 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
It's the weirdest thing. 

18:50 - Katie Fenske (Host)
But what I really loved was I just shut off my mind and Was just there, and it was like things were coming to me, my voice was talking to me. I saw images as you're doing the breathing, yes, that I could not consciously think of during my normal day, yes. So then, like it ends and you're like, oh, oh, my god, like not only is your body tingling, you're physically feeling it, but you just feel emotionally, just like Released. It's like everything that my heart has been wanting to tell me. My brain shut off and I listen to my heart. 

19:24 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
That's like what it feels like. 

19:26 - Katie Fenske (Host)
So every time I go back, I still get this amazing experience, but that first time was I, because I did not know what to expect. 

19:33 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yeah, and to kind of elaborate on what you described, to share with you what you're feeling. So anytime we control our breathing, we can in fact control our feeling and emotions through the breath breath work allows us. It's the one modality that allows us to control our, our feelings and our emotions, and we can shift energy Through this breathing, because we over oxygenate our blood through this type of breathing. 

19:59 - Katie Fenske (Host)
You know this is physically what you're doing, what's happening. Your physically start the breath work. Explain how to do the breathing. 

20:05 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
So how to do the breathing is it's it's very similar laying down and what cozy blanket. 

20:12 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I'm out. It's actually like so peaceful, so peaceful. Okay, so laying down. 

20:16 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
We're laying down, like you said, very cozy, and it starts with it's two inhales to one exhale. You're gonna inhale into your lower belly, inhale into your high chest, exhale through the mouth, all open mouth breathing. And this Breathing is starts to over oxygenate your blood on purpose, and the reason that we do that is, first of all, we want to the controlled breathing. You don't walk around in your life normally thinking about your breath, no, right. So the fact that now you're thinking about your breath, you're giving your chief executive mind a job which we wanted to have a job. So you're not doing your grocery list, you're not doing your to-do list, you're not all the million things we've got to do, right, so it shuts it off because you're thinking about the breath. So, and then you, finally, what I say is you drop into your heart space, we bring you from your conscious mind to your subconscious, which brings you into your heart space and you get to Start to your body, tells you what you need. 

21:12
I always say you will only achieve in a breathwork session what you're meant to achieve, what you're ready to achieve. And so what can happen is we have these stories, that we get stuck in mentally, that we tell ourselves right, mm-hmm, when you breathe and you get yourself out of your mind, you get yourselves out of those stories, so you're opening up a space for something else to be possible, something else to exist, which is especially helpful for women that have trauma and, as we know, there's big tea trauma and little tea trauma. I don't think anyone comes through life without having some sort of trauma. Right, and when you are removed from your conscious mind and you are in your subconscious, you start to Shift loops, so that loop, that trauma, keeps you in, maybe fear, anxiety over thinking or having the same kind of thoughts. 

21:59
When we quiet that conscious thinking mind, you start to open up and you start to experience feelings of love and openness and you start to dream and think a little differently. Like you said, you had thoughts when you were in it that you didn't normally have in your day-to-day life. Yep, right, so we're competing, we're changing those loops. Another thing is your body Gets to express things through movement that you didn't. Maybe. Let's say, you had a traumatic experience and you weren't able to move or be the way that you wanted to be when that happened because it was trauma. Your body hasn't forgotten that and it needs to release it and so it will shift and move. 

22:46
So that's why you sometimes we feel the tickling in the legs moving in our body we want to cry, we want to scream, we want to laugh. 

22:52
Maybe you were not able to do those things. Maybe you were told in life oh my gosh, stop crying. As a little girl, or you were in a traumatic situation and all you wanted to do was yell and you couldn't yell. So your body remembers this and didn't get to fully express it. And so it does these things. And the breath work. Our body is what heals us. 

23:13
So any time we find a practice that gets us in our body, our body, so divine it is, there's no other person that can heal you, except for you, mm-hmm. And in fact, in all in these sessions, all I'm doing for any woman that is there is holding space for them Right, taking them through the breath in a space where they can tap into the inner workings of their body, they can shift their energy and they can complete Um cycles of fight or flight that don't fully discharge when we are in them. But then it does through the breath work, because you are just in that safe state, wow, and you're regulating your nervous system. A lot of women don't know that they're walking around with dysregulated nervous systems. Right, and it doesn't have to be that way, and let's just talk for a minute, katie, about when we move from the active breath that you were sharing about, to the regular breath. 

24:09 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Oh, that's the best feeling, the bliss is like a couple songs, uh-huh, and the songs are like oh great, nice and loud, so like you hear his breath but you're in it. But then when it's like, okay, now we're going back to regular breath here, oh my gosh, it's like Corpse pose you know in yoga. Oh, you just want to lay here. 

24:27 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yes, and that's the part where we have now Moved you. I always say breath work is the gateway direct to meditation, because I don't know how to just sit there and just Interesting yes, right yeah. I don't know how to get to that state, but when I do the active breath it switches me. 

24:44 - Katie Fenske (Host)
It's which you're so focused on the breathing that you can kind of shut this off. 

24:48 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yes, yes so you, you've done that active breath that moves you into a superb state of meditation, to where you just let yourself go and be, and it's actually a time that we open ourselves up to receiving, because that's the other part is that most women, we don't Receive. 

25:11 - Katie Fenske (Host)
No, because we're giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving, giving and never take time, never take time to receive. 

25:16 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
So usually when you're in that state, that blissed out meditative state, I invite all of you to just allow yourselves to receive, because there's answers that are out there for us but we're never quite enough to receive them. 

25:29 - Katie Fenske (Host)
So in that space. 

25:30 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
it's just to hear answers, to Allow yourself to have visions. We often talk about loved ones coming into this space. In this meditative space, we get visits from our angels, just allowing yourself to just be in a state of rest and relaxation. Yeah, you know, and, and, and. It's amazing when the mind's not going a million miles an hour. Yeah, what new thoughts. And when the body is in a rested state, we're no longer in that fight or flight, right, we're in that rested state. What kind of thoughts we have in that space which most of us don't know how to achieve that meditative state? 

26:11
Right, so we're always in that fight or flight, and so we're always, like I talked about, in those same loops of energy, of thinking, of old stories, of false beliefs. And until we can get into that rested and relaxed state and regulate our nervous system, we can't get out of that. Yeah, so it's, that's the feeling that everybody comes back for. Oh my gosh, I regulated my nervous system, I got out of those looping thoughts, out of that looping energy, and I experienced something else. And then we're trying to find how can we have more of that something. Yes, yes, Right. 

26:47 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Because if you said shut off your brain for two minutes, I cannot do it. There's a million things going on so that like shuts off my brain. Yes, I want to go back a little bit to the body. Yes, because I brought someone with me last two months ago and her experience, I think, is important to share. 

27:05 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And I think she'd be okay with me sharing. 

27:07 - Katie Fenske (Host)
She had gone through a very difficult year with cancer, a major surgery, just a lot. So she was like I got through that year because I was just going to fight through it. But I realized now there's a lot of trauma that went on, like I was holding in so much like, just get through, you can do it. I didn't realize how much I went through. So she went to a breath work and she was like the next day. I said oh, how are you feeling? What you know, are you doing well? She's like Katie, I hold a lot of stress in my hips. I know that I woke up this morning for the first time in months without pain in my hips. I didn't have to use pain medicine, like I did not feel it. And she's like I was able to get so much of that stress off and she ended up not needing to go to therapy anymore. Her therapist was like I believe it, you're graduated, you're good, I can't tell you. 

28:01 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
first of all, that's a beautiful beautiful, amazing. I was like testimonial so glad you came. Oh, and I can't tell I'm getting goosebumps, because I can't tell you the number of times I've heard women say that. So other things that I've had a lot of clients that have had some sort of sexual trauma. 

28:20
Also, like you said, like you shared, your friend had cancer it's these deep seated experiences, whether it's diseases, it's sexual trauma, and they cannot seem to achieve any sort of shifts or or relaxation or breakthroughs. And when they come and do the breathwork, it's like the missing component and that leads us back to because they're finally in their body and our bodies. When we do a modality that shifts us to our body. Our bodies are intelligent beings. They're meant to heal themselves, but until you can get in your body, which we do through the breath, how is it going to have a chance to heal when you're constantly like we talked about. 

29:09
The therapy is wonderful, but my whole point is we need to combine talk therapy with somatic therapy and and I shared with you another way that I get a lot of my clients is I actually have a lot of therapists that will tell me they're working with a client and then said client comes to their next session and is totally shifted and different person and they ask them well, what did you do? And they share they've experienced breathwork. Then that therapist comes. 

29:44 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I need to do this. 

29:45 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
So it's as much as I can share with you, with the audience today, what breathwork is. There is no amount of justifying explaining, describing that I can do in this podcast. That can compare to experiencing it yourself. Yeah Right, it's almost something like, wouldn't you agree? Yeah, no matter what I would have said to you, which is why I try to not say too much. 

30:09 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yeah, you did say that You're like I'm not going to explain too much, I just want you experience. It's something that has to be experienced, and everyone will experience a different level, like I feel it physically, and some people are like oh, I saw something. 

30:25 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Or like for me, I get lobster hands, which I am glad you explained to me the first time, so tell everyone what lobster hands are so lobster hands is it's really tetanine? And it's from over oxygenating the blood that your hands can actually cramp up and they take shape of claws. So we jokingly say lobster hands, and I always share with the woman you may experience this, so that they're not sitting up during their session, freaked out. 

30:52 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Oh my gosh, what happened? Because I think, had you not told me, I probably would have been something's wrong with me. This is never going to go away, yeah. 

30:59 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And then we always say okay, look, does anyone here have lobster hands? 

31:02 - Katie Fenske (Host)
No, and when you do go back to the, what do you call the breath? So, I say the active breath versus the regular breath. When you go back to the regular breath, it is like you start to decompress. But sometimes I'll get tingling, sometimes really cold or really hot, like you have physical things happening as well. 

31:20 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And we talk about what the physical things it's like. You think about emotions coming into your body. You think about when you're angry, when you experience fear, those same emotions that come into your body during the breathwork. They get to leave, and so I shifts, the, the, the temperatures, and you're also feeling life force, energy moving through you. We're activating your chakra systems. I do infuse all my breathwork sessions with Reiki, so I'm working on opening up your chakra system, balancing it and giving you optimal flow. So it's very, it's very powerful. And the lobster hands so I'm very, I lean very much towards the spiritual and I will tell you that your hands are an extension of your heart space and oftentimes, when women feel the cramping in their hands, those quote unquote lobster hands, it's really an extension of love and it has to do with our ability to either give or receive love, and so it's really our body is like the most intelligent thing that we have, and where you hold pain, where you hold stress, can really be a roadmap to what's going on with you emotionally. 

32:29 - Katie Fenske (Host)
So maybe the fact that my hands cramp up so much. There are days where I'm like I can't write after because we journal afterwards, and I'm like I can't hold my pen right now. Maybe it's my heart chakra. 

32:40 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
It's heart chakra. 

32:41 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yes. 

32:42 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yes, and that's what we come to. A lot of women will say oh my gosh, I'm feeling pain in this part of my body or that part of my body. Well, my thought is we have that pain all the time, but when we are in our dysregulated nervous systems, our day to day fight to fight, to fight, to fight. It's until we get into that calm space that we're like oh, I actually have pain here. 

33:09
Like for example I've noticed I carry stress, like right here between my shoulder blades. I don't notice that in my day to day, but when I'm in that rest place, oh, oh it's tight, right there it's tight. That's where and then I can learn to kind of work with that. And what is that about? And I didn't even know, because I'm just so in the push on through day to day. 

33:29 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I'm not aware of what's happening in my body. 

33:32 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
This practice connects women to their bodies. I will say so many women, we learn how to leave our body, we learn how to disassociate, we learn how to disconnect, whether we even know we're doing that. But what do you think the busy culture is about? It's a way to disassociate, a way to disconnect from what's really going on. And so this is sometimes when we do these somatic practices. It's the first time that women get back in their bodies. It's the first time that they feel comfortable in their own skin. 

34:05
It's the first time, like your friend shared, she didn't feel pain for the first time, it's. It's amazing what happens when we get back connected to their bodies. 

34:15 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Interesting Cause, like I'm in my forties now and everyone said like, oh, the forties, it's so great. Cause you're like finally free of worrying about what everyone else thinks. But that's about when I started breathwork in my forties and you're like, oh, yeah, I do feel more free, like who cares? Like, yeah, yeah, it's like I can be me and it's totally fine. And like I was thinking too, like I haven't experienced anything extremely traumatic, like I haven't had a child, like that, but I still benefit from the breathwork. So like you don't have to be someone who was like, oh, I was abused or this it's. Yes, that's exactly. I'm going through a lot too, even though it's not the big T, it's. 

34:54 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
There is just a lot of my plate and I don't know how to process that and I'm so glad you mentioned that, because there is a misnomer that to do these kinds of modalities, you have to have, you have to be in need of healing you have to have traumatic experiences. No right, you can just be busy, stressed out, mama needing a break, or just haven't had time to fill up your own cup before you're like, keep pouring out of that empty cup right. 

35:18 - Katie Fenske (Host)
You always say before we start, like what was, what's your intention for tonight? And usually for me it's like this is my treat to myself, like this is an evening that's just for me and that's all I need it for some nights. 

35:29 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I'm treating myself. How has that felt and made an impact for you to be like? I'm showing it for me. I'm carving out time for myself. Like what have you felt just from even that intention? 

35:38 - Katie Fenske (Host)
alone. Right, it's just, it's okay. I am important too in the mess of, you know, all the kids and this. I'm important too. Yes, and I yeah. 

35:48 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
And then I will say another healing aspect, beyond the breath work and the Reiki, is when you come because Katie's come to a sister circle, because I work both private sessions for some women that are not ready for the group setting and want a little more intimate and personalized instruction, versus when I do the group classes, the sister circles. The other benefit is you come into this space where it's women just being themselves. We're literally taking off the hats of being maybe mother, sister, coworker, mom, wife, and you're just get to, you just get to be Katie. 

36:22
You just get to be in a space where you're Katie and you get to express yourself in a safe space and then you get to hear other women express themselves and it's that commonality, it's when we hear one woman talking to another and then the next woman and the next one, and we hear our stories like a common thread through everybody and we're in community and there's something to be said about community and not feeling alone. How did you feel that part? 

36:48 - Katie Fenske (Host)
of the circle I prefer. Well, I've only done the sister circle because I that's where I feel the most comfortable. And I like it because you always say whoever was meant to be here tonight is here, Like if someone had to cancel last minute. It's like this group is the way it is because that's who's meant to be here, and I feel like I like the energy of other people breathing with me. 

37:10
I've never tried a one-on-one like just by myself, because I'm like I don't want to hear myself breathe. In the big group it's like we're all doing it or the I love. At the end you have a scream. 

37:19 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Yes, yes, we do. 

37:21 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I mean, there are so many like at home with kids that you're like I just want to scream In that setting. This is the time to scream and just hearing everyone together do it. Or if you hear a woman crying next to you, it's like I feed off of that energy. Why I like the sister group. Yes, but people do do one-on-ones with you. 

37:41 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
One-on-ones, yes, and I always say you know, I think there's a time and place for group energy and there's a time and place for just the individual session. Because there's times where in the individual session we really hone in on your goals, your specific needs, what's happening in your life, and I can give all my attention to one woman in your energy right, and I'm right there holding space for you and guiding you, and that can really shift women hugely. But then there's also that time where we need that group energy. Some of us need, like you share, to hear another woman maybe tearing or screaming or laughing or breathing a certain way to give us permission to go deeper in our own journey. 

38:20
Right, and I will say there's something about group energy, because our energy, when we breathe in that class, that circle, your energy feeds off all the women in that group and especially the women that are on either side of you, and it plays together beautifully and sometimes can take you further than you might be able to go on your own. So I share with you. I have some clients that have only ever seen me privately, one-on-one. 

38:46
I have some clients that have only ever done sister circles, and then I have some that I've done both. So it's really there's no right or wrong and it's whatever suits your needs and that can also change during your. So journey and I will share too that breathwork. No two sessions are the same. 

39:05
I'm sure you can attest to that and you know, in the beginning a lot of it for me was released and crying and peeling the layers of the onion off. And now a lot of it is like, oh my gosh, I'm manifesting in these sessions and I'm expanding and I'm getting to play with what do I want this next phase of my life to look like? Because we talked about, we get into that dream state yes, we get into that manifesting state. 

39:29
We get into that state that we're in our subconscious and we can really. We see what comes up for us when the blocks at the conscious mind all those living to believe us are like yeah, clean. 

39:40 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yeah, because I just realized, as you were talking, I started this podcast I think three months after I started going to breathwork. But I remember at the beginning remember I was like I have this idea, I really want to do this, it. But I was so scared to like put myself out there and do it. And I think, like through the breathwork I there were a few times where I'm like I just need answers on like what do I need to do? And that was where it came through, like I remember just hearing messages like your voice. I remember one time I even wrote in journal your voice needs to be hurt, your voice needs to be hurt. 

40:10 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
It just over and over during that session and I was like, is that a message you got when your conscious mind was running the show, or was it when my conscious mind is? 

40:17 - Katie Fenske (Host)
conscious. Who's gonna listen to your podcast? What are your friends gonna think? Are they gonna think you're crazy? But inside it was like your voice needs to be heard. Yes, I remember hearing that message over and over and I was like, okay, I just gotta do it, that's it, that's it. 

40:30
Right there, I almost feel like, if I'm not mistaken, I think you almost like sat up after a group and like told us I'm gonna start, yeah, yeah, I feel like you like, and that's like one of the first times that I'm like uh, okay, no one laughed at me. 

40:41 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
Oh, oh, my gosh, yeah, and and there's the part of accountability, because I mean you shared it at the group level and it was like a conviction. 

40:47 - Katie Fenske (Host)
There was a conviction they're gonna ask me next time, right? 

40:50 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
we're gonna check up on you yeah, yeah, but I think that's like a perfect example. I'm glad you shared that because it's a testament of what um the loop that our conscious mind will keep us in versus what our subconscious knows. 

41:03 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yes, yeah, yeah, the messages coming through. Yeah, the messages. Yeah, I love this and I love that it's not a like a crazy diet, uh, a medicine you have to take. It's like there's nothing harmful about laying down and breathing, but so many benefits from it and I. 

41:20 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I'm really glad you mentioned that, because the other thing is you empower women or other people by the act of breathwork, because it is something that they already possess themselves. This is a tool that's right underneath our nose that we didn't even know we had, and it's just that we don't need a medicine. 

41:38 - Katie Fenske (Host)
We don't need we don't need anything else but ourselves to get us to this, empowered state so like how empowering is that when you realize? 

41:45 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
my body did this. My body can get me there. 

41:48 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Wow, right right, it's all within me. It's all within me, yes that's it and that's that's. 

41:54 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
To me it's like what a gift, right? You feel empowered? 

41:57 - Katie Fenske (Host)
yeah, I love that you do it. It's so amazing, okay, so tell us a little bit about what you offer, how we can find you, and you have a little special discount for everyone, so tell us a little bit about that okay. 

42:10 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
So, like we were sharing, I offer private breathwork sessions where that would just be one on one. Um, I also offer private Reiki sessions. Um, I will share that all of my breathwork is infused with Reiki, because why would I not use all the healing modalities that I have access to to to help you. 

42:29
Then you can come. So those are the private breathwork and Reiki sessions. You can also experience what Katie's sharing with you her experience at a sister circle, and that's about eight to ten women. We come, we start with intention setting a cacao ceremony, we do the breathwork, then we journal and then we share as much or as little as we'd like, and that's really for people that feel more comfortable in a group setting. And then I also offer what I call soul work. Um, this is because I come from a very spiritual um standpoint that I it's like coaching, but it's like from the bottom up. I'm very much. We're gonna shift the narrative. These are for the women that do the soul work come to me because they're wanting to shift the narrative in their life, because they know that they're meant for something more. They're kind of at that, like jumping off place of I don't want to do what I'm doing anymore. I want to make a shift, like you and I. 

43:20 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Yeah or in my career in the middle of my life? 

43:23 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
no, big deal right no big deal. Let's not scare it off um or or. It's that there's. I don't want to live this way anymore, or I've lost my voice through being a wife, through a mother, through like who even am. 

43:36
I I'm just going day to day and I think there's more and I think there's life and so those women, they come in and a soul work session is we're going to add the talking component so I can get to know them, understand them, their goals, um, their desires, and then we add into that the somatic therapy. So it's like my whole belief is we need to address all of it. We do need to discuss and talk and see what's going on in the cerebral right, but then we're going to get into the body with it and once you open up and share with me what's going up in your mind and your stories and your limiting beliefs, I'm going to go after it in the somatic practices. 

44:11 - Katie Fenske (Host)
You're all going to get ready. We're going to get ready. 

44:13 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
You might be telling me you're going to start your own podcast or you're going to leave your teaching profession. Whatever it may be right, just just be open but most clients really report feeling feelings of openness and love and just freer yeah, all over now. 

44:27 - Katie Fenske (Host)
It's not just in person, though, because you have virtual right um yes you can also, um, I work with a lot of clients virtually. 

44:34 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
I was telling Katie. There's, in fact, some clients I've never met in person. We do all our work virtually and it is just as impactful. So, um, you can find me on my website, which is highest source healing dot com. You can also find me on social media at highest source healing, and I am offering for all of Katie's listeners today, if you've listened to this podcast, if you found us through Katie, um, you can use the code on my website, breathe 10 that's breathe 10 and you can get 10 off an individual breathwork session with me awesome. 

45:08 - Katie Fenske (Host)
I'm going to put all of that in the show notes so they can just click that link. But definitely everyone check out her social media because your social media is beautiful oh, thank you, and you do it all yourself. 

45:17
Yes, it is beautiful, it's hard to make it look so pretty and you do a really great job at it, thank you well, I cannot thank you enough for coming on, because you are a gift to women and I'm so glad I have met you and I got to share you with everyone oh, I have enjoyed being on this podcast with you and Katie. Look at what this work brought us together into each other's lives and it's like to meet another sister that has also shifted at her career, her life. 

45:42 - Jennifer Henkle (Guest)
It's like just a gift that we get to be here and share and and journey this part of our lives together, I love it oh thank you, thank you. 

45:52 - Katie Fenske (Host)
Well, I am not joking when I say if you live in Southern California, find Jennifer. If you don't live nearby, look into breathwork near you or, um, inquire about a virtual breathwork session, because it has truly brought me so much peace of mind, so much confidence in myself, um, just a way to really get rid of the limiting beliefs that are holding ourselves back from being the most amazing women and moms that we can be. So definitely, take a look at the show notes so you can find out how to reach out to Jennifer and learn more about what she offers, and I look forward to speaking to you again next Friday in another conversation.