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Conscious Breath

Susan Shehata (courtesy photo)

I resisted coming to my appointment.” “Maybe I don’t ACTUALLY want to go deeper inside myself to find out what keeps me stuck.”

As a wellness practitioner who helps people identify and unwind limiting core beliefs, through story and breath work, I have heard these kinds of sentiments more than once. 

It’s understandable. To shift your deeper belief patterns and their resulting life circumstances, it helps to journey into your physical body, where we subconsciously store experiences. And, well, that can be … uncomfortable. 

So, why uncover your subconscious blocks? After all, they’re tucked safely away. Why not leave well enough alone? 

We have a conscious, operating system, and a subconscious operating system. These operating systems run your life. We are like computers that run programs. Which means that whether or not you address your sub-conscious blocks, they affect you every day. To ignore them is the equivalent of having a computer virus and hoping it will go away. 

It doesn’t. 

One of the hardest parts of accessing your subconscious beliefs is that they are deeply buried – suppressed or repressed. 

That’s where our bodies come in. And, even more significantly, our breath. The breath doesn’t lie. 

When we were born, we breathed in a connected, fluid rhythm. But then, everyday stress happened. From desperately crying to express our needs, to the first time we felt anger or fear, these experiences affected our breathing. 

These moments formed imprints in our body so that the next time we experienced a similar feeling, our breath would respond in its new pattern. 

Eventually our breath became so accustomed to a pattern that it stayed there – maybe in short, shallow breaths or in occasional breath holding. 

Underneath these breath patterns are feelings, and underneath those feelings are experiences. And for the most part, the feelings and experiences stay buried in our subconscious until we give them a safe outlet. 

When we consciously access these places and unwind the patterns, life changes. 

It begins with taking the risk to go deeper into our body, and breath, to see what is held below the surface. And what begins with resistence, often ends with resolution.