Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women

(#91) Somatic Breathwork Isn’t One Size Fits All: 5 Common Breathwork Myths Debunked

• Rae The Somatic Coach • Episode 91

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In this episode of Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women, Rae breaks down the top 5 misconceptions about breathwork - from the myth that you have to do long, intense sessions to the false belief that feeling dysregulated means you've failed.

You'll hear Rae’s personal story of how breathwork changed her life after grief and anxiety, and how this practice can support everything from daily stress relief to emotional healing, creativity, and nervous system regulation.

🌬️ In this episode, you'll learn:
✨ Why gentle breathwork can be just as powerful as intense sessions
✨ How breathwork supports both trauma healing and everyday well-being
✨ What it really means to be "dysregulated" (and why it's not failure)
✨ The difference between short micro-practices and long sessions
✨ How to create a breathwork practice that works for you

Whether you’re brand new or a seasoned breather, this episode will help you connect deeper with your body and release the pressure to “do it perfectly.”

🧘‍♀️ Sign up for the Somatic Healing Newsletter to receive access to Rae’s free library of meditations and breathwork sessions. 

Plus, send in your questions, shares, testimonials, or wins using the new SpeakPipe feature here 🎤

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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.

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, for today's episode, I wanted to dive into some misconceptions, some things that we believe to be true but aren't true, about breathwork, and I decided to dive into this topic because I've been receiving a lot of new inquiries and new clients coming in about breathwork, specifically for the summer sale that's going on right now and in the beginning if it's their first time, or if they're in the beginning of doing breathwork, or even actually experienced breathers. There are some things that just aren't necessarily true, or I don't believe them to be true, about breathwork, and so I thought it would be helpful to do a little episode on just that, and so, as we dive in, I want to kick things off by sharing a little bit about my story and how I found Somatic Breathwork and how I became a facilitator today.

Speaker 1:

So, a few years ago, when I had recently lost someone in my immediate family and I was really struggling with anxiety, I was struggling with grief and I was just really not in a great place struggling with grief and I was just really not in a great place, and so I had gone to a yoga festival with one of my friends, and at these yoga festivals the way that it works is like you have a calendar of different events there's like so many different ones to choose from and you make your schedule yourself each day and you can choose between like three to four activities, depending on like which pass you have, and so on the calendar. There was one class that stood out to me. It was called Radiant Love Breathwork, and I read the description and it was all about like alchemizing emotion, releasing stored trauma, relieving anxiety, processing grief, like all of these things that I really really needed at that time, and so I was like I have to take this class, and so I take this class, and it was like the first time that I felt like my mind actually slowed down, like I actually was present in my body. It was really I had like a huge emotional release and it was really like a pivotal point in my journey. I didn't know it at the time and so, fast forward, a few months after that moment, I end up pursuing this path of yeah, breathwork, I would drive like an hour and a half from my house into Brooklyn so that I could experience breathwork, because it just was not accessible at that time. And then, you know, later on over the years I would move on to become certified through that same teacher that I went to her class in and I would get a few other certifications in breathwork. And then I went into coaching and I got a few certifications in somatic coaching and somatic therapy and it kind of was like this catalyst that opened up a whole can of worms for me.

Speaker 1:

So that is how I discovered breathwork and today, how it shows up in my life today is every day is a bit different. Some days I'll have a three-minute practice and other days I'll have a 45-minute practice. So I kind of just meet myself where I'm at on that moment and I will share a little bit more about that too in the misconceptions, that moment, and I will share a little bit more about that too in the misconceptions. So the first misconception that I wanted to share is that the harder you breathe, the greater the results or the greater the transformation. And I see this a lot on social media, where there'll be these like videos of these people, you know, doing breathwork and having these like big experiences or like yelling or screaming, and, yes, some breathwork can absolutely look like that. I've even seen, I've even like led sessions where that's where it leads to.

Speaker 1:

But that is not the agenda of like the style that I teach and that is not, um, what I believe to be true. I don't believe that the harder you breathe, the greater the results or the transformation. And there was one time where I went to a class and the facilitator was, you know, really attached to this concept and so she was really, really encouraging us to like breathe really deep and breathe really strong, and it was like really, really intense, and I actually ended up pulling a muscle in my chest, believe it or not. So everyone has their different style. So, like, no shame to the teacher, by any means, but my point is that, ultimately, you want to listen to your body as you're breathing and you can experience all different types of results depending on what you're looking for when you tune into your breath and tune into your body. And, like I was mentioning a little bit earlier, some days I want something like a breath pattern or a breathing session that is really gentle, particularly like around my cycle, and other days I want to do a practice for the purpose of like increasing my energy or like an espresso shot or something like that. So there are so many different ways that you can use breathwork, based on what your intention is, what you need, and it doesn't have to be this like super intense experience. It can be very gentle and very grounding and very calming, and that can also bring great results.

Speaker 1:

Another misconception that I hear often is that somatic work and breath work is only for people that have experienced significant major trauma, and I don't believe that to be true. I think that these practices are really for anyone that is seeking a deeper self-awareness, are really for anyone that is seeking a deeper self-awareness, creativity, personal growth, emotional relief, anxiety relief, and so being a trauma-informed facilitator. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's only for people with major trauma. It can be really great for even just fostering a better connection with yourself, strengthening your relationships, having a deeper mind-body connection, relieving stress, and I find that these practices are really about being curious and exploring exactly what it is that you need for your mind and for your body and making both of those places feel like a really safe place, and I know, even for myself I had like shared a little bit of my story in the beginning, but even prior to that moment, you know, I had struggled.

Speaker 1:

I had been struggling with anxiety since I was very young and throughout some of my life I didn't really have awareness around the fact that I was experiencing different kinds of trauma. And it wasn't really until my twenties when I realized that some of the things I was experiencing were like really not okay. And I share this, because sometimes it takes some exploring to discover the root of what is happening for you, and sometimes we don't actually always have like awareness, we're in survival mode or, you know, we have our automated responses, and so sometimes it takes, yeah, some exploring and discovery to really find out what the root of your challenges might be. And another misconception that I would love to dive into is that you need to do these like hour long practices, these really intense, time-consuming practices for breathwork to work. And I find that long breathwork practices absolutely have their benefits.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I personally do love them as well, and I also find that the micro practices have the ability to create, like all these incredible shifts in your daily life, and I think that's because it's like a bit more tangible. It doesn't seem at like this, like big, overwhelming thing of like okay, I need to like sit and breathe and meditate for like an hour a day and like realistically, like I'm busy, you're busy, like I'm not sitting here and breathing for hours a day. And, like I mentioned, my daily practice ranges anywhere from like three minutes to 20, 25, 45. I love doing those hour long breathwork sessions too, but it really depends on you know what I need, what I can manage. I love the hour of breathwork because it's powerful and I know afterwards I'm going to be feeling like lighter and open-minded and refreshed and energized and connected to my heart, and I can absolutely access those same feelings in the micro practices as well. So breathwork is really just like a great opportunity to reset.

Speaker 1:

There's no such thing at least I don't believe there's any such thing as being like good or bad at breathwork. I don't really believe in that. And then the last misconception I would love to share with you is that if I am dysregulated, I have failed, and that is false. That is not true.

Speaker 1:

I think that nervous system regulation, doing breath work, being in the somatic world, you know it's really about finding that place of safety, it's about coming back to your baseline and it's not at all about like never feeling anything or never feeling stressed or never getting angry, and I'd argue even that there is this thing that happens when you start to heal or you start to, you know, dive into all these spaces of somatics and breath work and and there's this funny thing that happens where you start to actually feel more and and that's because you're getting like more awareness of your experience, you know, more awareness of your mind, more awareness of your body, and sometimes that includes like feeling more, and the more you feel, the more you can alchemize and process and widen your window of tolerance and then, because of that, you'll be less dysregulated and you'll get to this place where it's not like failing if you're triggered, not at all, it's just like information and it's like, okay, this is like a moment for me to, you know, use my tools or feel a feeling or understand what's coming up for me, and it's not about like things being perfect or processing perfectly, like nobody is perfect, myself included, and you know, this is like the information that I like nerd out on. You know, like I am here because at one point none of this made sense to me and I really struggled. I struggled in my relationships, I struggled in expressing, I struggled with managing my anxiety, and that is how I came to where I am now, because I just kept on following the path and following the path and moving through lots of dysregulation to, you know, find some safety in my nervous system. And, yeah, you know, I'm really grateful for that journey. But I always like to remind people that, if you are, you know, I'm really grateful for that journey, but I always like to remind people that, if you are, you know, finding yourself dysregulated, it doesn't mean that you failed, means that it is information. Nobody is perfect, including myself, and it's just like about following the path, following your curiosity, understanding your nervous system, understanding your body, understanding your triggers and going from there. And so that is what we have for today's episode. So, as always, thank you so much for tuning in.

Speaker 1:

I love chatting with you and I've seen that there are a lot of people that are signing up for the Somatic Healing Newsletter. When you sign up for that, you do receive access to Breathe Easy, and each time someone signs up, I get like a little email notification and I do a little happy dance and I'm like, yes, a new person is here. So if you are new here and you want to chat, even if you want to just say what's up, ask me a few questions, let me know what is landing for you, let me know what you want to hear more of. If you have a question, you can always reach out to me. You can send me a DM, you can send me an email.

Speaker 1:

And, yeah, there's also a new feature and I'm actually trying it out for the first time with this episode and it's called SpeakPipe, and what that means is that you can send me a voice note. It's a 90-second voice note that you can send me a voice note. It's a 90 second voice note that you can send me, and that can be like a question that you want me to answer on the podcast. That could be a testimonial, like if you want to share with me one of your wins, I would love to celebrate you. So, yeah, check that out. I'm going to link it in the show notes. This is the first time I'm doing it.

Speaker 1:

When I first, first, first started the podcast, I had like a question box. It was called curious conversations, and so this is kind of like another fun way to bring that back where you can. Yeah, you can send me a voice note. So, yeah, I would love to hear from you and, yeah, I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day, 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. 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.