Breathwork and healing

Many of us wonder about breathwork. In this area, Meena Iyer from Bangalore shares her journey on making herself a healer with us.

My biggest inspiration has been my father who made the leap from being an army officer to being an entrepreneur running his own bicycle and rickshaw rental service way back in 1980. It was not an easy task and yet he followed his heart working indefatigably to match and then surpass his salaried income and educate his children while providing them a comfortable life. Today I am inspired by my sons working in tech and internal audit fields living successful and joyful lives in spite of the difficulties they faced moving cities and going through their parents’ separation and divorce.

My parents, sisters and children - believed in what I wanted to do. I met many of my friends and mentors in my corporate life working in advertising sales for close to 20 years. I was supported by the community of recovering alcoholics and drug addicts I built in Gurgaon via the de-addiction center I ran. These were individuals challenged by the disease of addiction themselves; I am humbled by how much they supported each other in their journeys of recovery and even stood by me in times of crises. In my new avatar as a therapist and breathwork facilitator I have been fortunate to have met people - teachers and coaches who guided and whenever required pushed me to go beyond my limits. 

I am a counselling psychologist, clinical hypnotherapist, reiki healer, NLP practitioner and have even done basic programs in Transactional Analysis and Gestalt therapy. I went to my first Holotropic Breathwork session thinking it would be relaxing and I would probably have some interesting insights. I believed that I had processed significant trauma through the therapeutic processes I had learnt and applied. It took my completely by surprise to just feel how my body and psyche responded to the combination of breath and music.It felt as though I had allowed my body to feel and release tensions and pain from biographical, perinatal and transpersonal dimensions that I had held on to for very long. And with just breath and music. I realised how important this journey is for each one of us, as many times as we want to take it, even as an annual or six-monthly retreat. I made up my mind to go through the all the modules mandated for certification and offer this work. 

The challenge was that I had joined the group of trainees in the middle of their sessions and had many sessions to be completed in a very short time. Interestingly this challenge was also an advantage as I would otherwise have taken close to two years to be certified by Jiva Auroville as a facilitator. Each breathwork module opens up facets of our evolution and the way we integrate these shifts seen in non-ordinary states of consciousness into our everyday consciousness is very important. I used my mandala drawings to journal my learnings. In any case all the written material did come in handy for the paper we have to write at the time of certification. 

Breathwork is deep work, every one’s experience is different and I don’t want to set any expectations for people who are setting out to sample this work either as an experience or train as facilitators. During one of my breathing sessions I distinctly felt the presence of my father who passed four years back. He sat by my side and we spoke about many things. In Holotropic Breathwork every breather has a sitter (partner of support) in the session. The experience was so real that I kept trying to introduce my father to my sitter and also kept breaking down realising it was not possible. This was a beautiful process that helped me communicate with my father’s memory and grieve his death. 

I have a dream to reach hundreds if not thousands of people with this work. It is simple and non diagnostic; the core principle being the Inner Healer. Every person who participates is guided by his or her own inner intuitive sense of what they are ready to feel, release and heal. Facilitators don’t need any special qualifications other than the requisite number of sessions and condensing their own experience in writing. Fr. KC Thomas my teacher and trainer brought this work to India.Fr. KC Thomas and I are creating a training group too so that more facilitators can offer Holotropic Breathing sessions. 

I have held workshops in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and a residential retreat in Goa. Also hosted breathwork in  SHKM Medical College in Haryana at a conference titled Physiocon on Holistic Health organised by the Physiology department. It was attended by post-graduate students (MD Physiology) and faculty members too. Open to more such institutional tie-ups to reach young people, faculty members and the general public. Ultimately Holotropic Breathing has the aspect of connection and community that is most valuable. People who have breathed together and sat to support each other are bonded by their love for transformation. This work can bring together estranged families, colleagues (in organisations willing to try it out) and humanity as a whole. 

By Jamuna Rangachari