Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women

(#84) Somatic Breathwork as a Portal: Reconnect with Your Body, Calm Your Mind & Access Inner Wisdom

• Rae The Somatic Coach • Episode 84

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If you’ve ever wondered how to feel more grounded, clear, and connected to your intuition - this episode is your invitation!

In this episode, Rae shares her personal journey with breathwork - from a transformative trip to Vermont to how it now weaves through her work as a somatic therapist, somatic coach, and breathwork facilitator. You'll walk away with a deeper understanding of how to integrate breathwork into your daily life and why this practice is a powerful portal for nervous system healing, emotional release, and returning to your truest self.

In this episode, you'll learn:
🌬️ What breathwork is and how it works on a somatic level
🌬️ Rae’s trauma-informed approach to integrative and meditative breath practices
🌬️ How breathwork supports nervous system regulation, emotional release, and creative flow
🌬️ Real-life ways to use breathwork as an anchor in daily life, in guided sessions, as self-practice, or in community
🌬️ How breathwork helps you quiet the inner critic and hear your intuition again
🌬️ Why breathwork builds your “regulation muscle” and expands your window of tolerance

Whether you're new to breathwork or deepening your practice, this episode is a loving reminder: you always have your breath.

🌿 Ready to experience the power of breathwork in your own body? Book a 1:1 Integrative Breathwork Session with Rae to shift energy, calm your nervous system, and return to clarity.

📩 Sign up for the monthly newsletter to receive somatic tools, journal prompts, and updates straight to your inbox.

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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Rae, I'm a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator, and if you aren't new here, welcome back. I'm so glad that you're tuning in for today's episode. So before we dive into today's episode, I'd love to share just a few life updates, a little bit about what I've been up to and when I'm recording this episode. It is the beginning of June, so I'm excited because I'm about to head to Scotland for a few days with my husband and another couple that is like some of our best friends and so I'm really looking forward to that trip trip and we're going to be spending a few days in Isle of Skye, which is like northern Scotland, that's more remote, and that's where a few of the like well-known films and movies and shows have been filmed, like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. So I'm excited for that and we'll hopefully see like a lot of wildlife. That's what I'm excited for. Maybe see some puffins, I don't know. And then we're spending the second half of the trip in Edinburgh and that is more like the city, seeing castles. Um, they have butterbeer there if you're a Harry Potter fan. So I'm excited for that and, yeah, so I'm excited for this trip that's coming up. I haven't packed yet.

Speaker 1:

I'm having a little bit of cacao right now as I record this episode, and I just watered the garden this morning, so that's exciting. I cannot believe how much everything is growing. It is insane how fast it grows. And this year we're playing. We planted potatoes, which I'm like I don't know. I find this stuff like fascinating. I think it's so cool. So those are growing and we won't harvest them for like a few months, but you know, they have these like flowers that come up from them and it's just, it's really cool.

Speaker 1:

So I just finished the second series of the ACOTAR books and that is A Court of Mist and Fury, and I'm not going to give anything away, but I am up to the third book right now. I'm waiting for it to come in on my Kindle and, oh my God, the ending of the second book was so good and I cannot wait for the third book in the series and it's like it's the best. But at the same time I want to just reread the second book and I know that when I finish this series I'm going to be like what do I read next? But anyway, if you're a reader, you understand. You understand my pain.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that I'll share with you before we dive into today's episode just personal life update is that this month I'm doing a cycle of flower essence. So flower essence is something that I spoke about. I think it was episode 81. And that is all about my intention for this month. So I'm doing a cycle on pleasure and I'm calling in more joy. So I'm feeling good and, yeah, let the good times roll. More joy sounds good to me. So now let's dive into today's episode.

Speaker 1:

So today we're going to be talking all about somatic breathwork, how you can use breathwork as a practice to bring you back into your body, back into your regulated state, really meet yourself where you're at, and you can use breathwork as a tool. So I found breathwork myself when I was at a yoga festival with one of my friends about eight or nine years ago now. And when you go to these yoga festivals, they have all these different classes that you can choose from, and at the time I was really struggling with anxiety and grief. It was like the peak of my grief and anxiety. I had just lost someone in my family about six months prior to this moment and my mind was just like, oh, it was just not in a good place. So I go to this yoga festival. I read the description of this class and the class is talking all about how you can release grief, you can release anxiety, you can connect with your spirit team, you can really. I was just talking a lot about like anxiety and grief and release, and I was like, yes, yes, yes, I need that. So I went to this class and I had a huge emotional release, which was amazing. It was the first time that I felt like my mind really got quiet and it was the first time that I actually felt like something shifted for me, which is exactly what I needed at that time. And then, you know, years would go on and at the time, breathwork or like this style of breathwork that I'm speaking to didn't really wasn't really accessible. It wasn't something that I really knew about until I went to that class at the festival, and so I would drive like an hour and a half into Brooklyn so that I could do some breathwork and fast forward to where I am today.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm a certified breathwork facilitator. It's something I'm really passionate about. It's something I incorporate into my daily life, in my personal practices and also into my work as a somatic therapist, as a somatic coach and, of course, as a breathwork facilitator. So it shows up in a lot of different ways for me in my life and it's something that I'm passionate about sharing with you. You always have your breath. It is a tool that you have in your back pocket. It is the first thing that you receive when you come into this world and it is the last thing that you'll have when you leave the earth. So it is your life force, energy, it is yours, it is your power. It will bring you so much clarity and empowerment and relief and release and compassion, and so it's something I'm very passionate about. And there are so many different forms of breathwork. There's different styles, there's different ways that you can incorporate it into your life, different ways that you can receive from the breath, and I'll share a little bit about my approach.

Speaker 1:

So my approach is trauma informed somatic breath work. So that looks like really taking into account and attuning to each person's individual nervous system any kind of stored trauma that might be living in the body. So meeting them with curiosity, compassion, attunement, titration, pacing, creativity, not having an agenda, really meeting them where they're at. So that's like the trauma-informed piece and then the somatic piece is really working with the body. So there's no when it comes to the body, there's no force, there's no pressure to perform. It's really allowing the mind to quiet and allowing the what the body's needs are to come online and when that happens you're able to release stored trauma, you're able to complete a cycle of something. So like if what happens in the body is if there is like a traumatic experience, the cycle, the event never got to complete, the emotion never got to complete and so it becomes stuck energy in the body. And when you tune to the body and you allow it to move at its pace and you get curious about what it needs, you can allow that trauma to release and complete that cycle.

Speaker 1:

And I can share that in the past, even for myself. I have gone to a class before in the past where the the intention of the class it seemed that the harder you breathe, like the more intensely you breathe, the greater the transformation, and I don't actually believe that to be true. So in that class I ended up breathing so hard that I pulled a muscle in my chest. I wish I was kidding, but that's how deeply I was breathing. But I actually don't believe that to be true. I believe that when you attune to your body and you attune to your needs and you let the body move through the process as it needs to, that it doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be an intense experience, a background in trauma and also has education in trauma. I could see how that would be like really detrimental to someone's experience. So that is a piece that I incorporate also into that trauma-informed lens of like you know your body, I trust your body, I'm going to support you and guide you, but there's not going to be a force or like. It doesn't mean like the harder you breathe, the greater the transformation.

Speaker 1:

And there are two ways that I offer breathwork. So the first is in what I would call like an integrative session. So this is a shorter amount of time. It's something that we would meet for like 40 minutes. Those are the integrative sessions. So the practice is anywhere from probably around like a 20 minute guided practice, but the breathing is eight minutes or less, and then there's some meditation involved and some movement involved, which is good, and then there's time for integration and reflection at the end. So it's a shorter practice. It's great for nervous system regulation, it's great for grounding. It's also great for uplifting your energy. So if you're feeling like down regulated and you need like a boost, instead of reaching for that second cup of coffee, you can do integrative breath work to energize your system and uplift your system, which is pretty cool too.

Speaker 1:

There is another form of breath work that I also offer, which is called meditative breathwork, and that is the inner alchemy breathwork sessions, and those are great for emotional release, for deep energetic healing, and this is a more activating breath pattern. So this is typically a three-part breath inhaling into the belly, inhaling into the chest, inhaling into the chest and exhaling all through the mouth, and this is a longer practice, so the active breathing can be sometimes up to 30 minutes or more, but the session itself is an hour or an hour and 15 minutes. So both practices are incredible and have their own benefits. I love both of them. They have both been such an impact in my personal life and also in the lives of my clients.

Speaker 1:

One way that I incorporate integrative breathwork into my work is if it were like a coaching session or a therapy session, we might start with breathwork and for a meditative session. That's something that you can do in addition to your practices. So we would do like a full session. A full meditative breath can do in addition to your practices. So we would do like a full session, a full meditative breathwork session in addition to, you know, whatever other forms of support that you have. And there are so many different types of breathwork kundalini breathwork, shamanic breathwork. I see some facilitators like blending plant medicine with breathwork. So, yeah, really looking into what feels good for you and what feels good for your nervous system. What's pretty cool is you can have two facilitators trained in the exact same thing and you'll have a different experience with both, because it's really about the facilitator and the person and what their approach is.

Speaker 1:

So that's a little bit about breathwork, a little bit about my approach, and it has shown up for me breathwork itself in my life in so many different ways, and so I want to share with you how it can be integrated into your life too. So the first is you can use breathwork as something that will help you to stay grounded, something that you can use as an anchor, like a practice that you return back to every day, and this can be really helpful if you're moving through any kind of transition where you need something that is stabilizing any kind of anxiety, where you're really looking for that sense of safety, that sense of stillness and presence and any sort of overwhelm. It feels like things are moving fast, it feels like things are overwhelming and you always have your breath to come back to. So using it as an anchor that will allow you to pause and reconnect with yourself. And that can look like doing mindful breathing, something like box breathing or four, seven, eight breathing these are practices that are considered, I would consider, more like mindful breathing, or it can look like an integrative breathwork practice. So that's something that I offer and something that you can check out if it interests you.

Speaker 1:

And the second way that I like to incorporate breathwork is as a guided practice, so that can look like an integrative session or meditative session. But, like I mentioned earlier in the episode, I used to drive an hour and a half to find somebody to facilitate breathwork and that was actually just for a group practice. That wasn't even for individual session. So, whether you're looking for a group or individual, I find that now there are so many more options to connect virtually. That is something that I offer. So, no matter where you are in the world.

Speaker 1:

I do offer virtual sessions or in-person sessions, so connecting with your breath through a guided practice can be really helpful. I find that one of the blocks that comes up a lot with my clients is am I doing this right? So they sit down to do their breathwork practice or to do their meditation and they're going through it and they're thinking am I doing this right, am I doing this right? And it's like that voice of the inner critic comes online and it makes it really hard to drop into the practice. So when you work with a facilitator, they can guide you and cue you the whole time and, yeah, it's really helpful for release, for clarity, for shifting your energy, and that is something that I offer in person, virtually for individuals and also for groups.

Speaker 1:

And then the third way that I love to incorporate breathwork is making it a part of your personal ritual. So that means you can incorporate it through even like habit stacking. So, for example, if before you go to sleep you usually journal, or when you wake up in the morning, you want five to 10 minutes of breath work incorporated into your routine. So you can really incorporate five to ten minutes of breath work into your current practices and what that's going to allow you to do is build your own relationship with your breath and with your body. Relationship with your breath and with your body. It's going to allow you to also shift your energy, shift your state of mind, tend to your nervous system. Does your body need a practice like a breath practice that is upregulating, something that's high energy, or does it need something that's really gentle and soothing and grounding? So it's going to allow you to attune to yourself and learn to self-regulate.

Speaker 1:

And then, the last way that I love to offer breathwork is as a community experience. So this is something that we'll definitely be doing at the Return to Soul Retreat. It's something that I offer a lot. I absolutely love doing workshops with groups. It is so cool to see what people can receive in a group experience. So guided breath work in a group, co-regulating with the group's energy, really allowing yourself to be witnessed, being in community, feeling less alone, feeling less isolated and connecting connecting, yeah, with other people in your community. So this is something that I offer in person and virtually, and something that we'll definitely be doing at the retreat in October.

Speaker 1:

So one reason why I really love the practice of coming back to your breath is because for me, for someone that had such a history with anxiety and really spent a lot of time in the mind, it was a practice that allowed me to come back to my body, to quiet the mind and really create that space in a world that's moving very fast and is very loud. So sometimes I feel like my breathwork practice is basically like how much can I distract myself from my mind so that the mind quiets and then the voice of my heart comes online, or the voice of the compassionate voice of yourself, your intuition, your inner wisdom? So really allowing that inner critic to quiet and allowing enough safety to be created so that you have the space for your emotion to come through, for your compassion to come through and you release any of that energy that you need to so that you can move forward. I also believe that being able to self-regulate is just like a muscle. So if you are training for a marathon, you're going to go out there and you're going to. You know you're going to get your runs in, you're going to get your miles in, you're going to do what you need to do for your race and with breathwork, I find that you don't need to sit down and, you know, commit to like an hour a day or something like really intense. It's how it's a practice that, just like a muscle, you will build each day. When you put in one minute, when you put in five minutes, put in 10 minutes If you want to do an hour session, it's all going to compound on itself and what it's going to do is expand your window of tolerance so you will be able to move in and out of your window of tolerance with more ease and return back to your optimal state quicker, the more that you do breathwork and the more that you're able to self-regulate and learn more about your nervous system. And I also believe that breathwork is a great gateway to hearing the voice of your higher self, hearing the voice of your spirit guides your heart, your inner divine parent. And every time you do breathwork whether it's a guided experience, like for an integrative, or a longer experience with the meditative every journey is so different, but they are powerful each time in their own way. So when life feels overwhelming, when things feel out of control, when you feel anxious, or even when you're looking to manifest and call in more joy and call in more love and be connected to bliss. You always have your breath.

Speaker 1:

So if you are just starting out and you want to dive more into breath work, I suggest just starting with a five-minute practice so you can play a song on your phone that is soothing. Find a breath that feels good for you. I like to do the 2-1 breath, which is inhaling twice through your nose and exhaling once through your mouth. Play the song, do the breath for five minutes and see how you feel you can also work with a facilitator. Ones through your mouth. Play the song, do the breath for five minutes and see how you feel you can also work with a facilitator. I offer integrative and meditative breathwork sessions in person and virtually. So if any of that speaks to you, you can definitely check out the links in the show notes and I would be super, super happy to guide you through an experience and just, yeah, meet you exactly where you're at and hopefully guide you in how you're hoping to feel at the end of our time together. And that is what we have for today's episode.

Speaker 1:

So I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. I hope you received something fun and exciting from it and, yeah, I love recording these for you. I love recording this episode talking about breath work. It's like one of my favorite things. Probably is actually my absolute favorite modality if I'm being real real, but anyway, I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day. I hope you have an incredible rest of your week and I will talk to you soon.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for being here and tuning in to Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women podcast. If you were moved or inspired by today's episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It truly helps the podcast grow and helps more people find me on their healing journey. Make sure to check out the show notes to sign up for the monthly newsletter, links to more resources, opportunities to work with me and ways that we can stay connected. If we aren't already connected on social media, head over to Instagram to follow me at raythesomaticcoach. Send me a DM. I'd love to connect with you and I answer each note that comes in. I am so happy you're here and I cannot wait to talk with you on our next episode of the podcast.