Breathe 1 De-brief

Blog 1 : Breathe 1 De-brief

After many years of examining the beliefs that are influencing my life (both limiting and expanding), I still have belief in the saying “Failure to prepare is akin to preparing to fail” and in truth, I’m on the fence as to whether or not I want to release this belief. I like to be prepared; it makes me feel comfortable in new situations; and whilst, I am capable of flying by the seat of my pants, only when I’ve made strides towards mastery, but that’s the subject of whole other article!
In this article, I’m going to go through the process of creating my first breathe. Recording it for posterity maybe, or maybe it’ll help a colleague along the way!
Back to the preparation, accepting that the mastery level of being a breathwork practitioner was quite close to zero, I knew loads of preparation would be required to run my first ever breathwork. But the signs were all there that “Yep! The timing was right to go ahead”
I really wanted to run my practice breath works on the natural festivals of the year – there are 8 of them – each one honouring the cycles of mother nature in some way. The first date available to me in the Breathing Space was the Spring Equinox in 2021, that gave me loads of time to keep studying and prepare for leading my first breathwork. Phew! I could forget about that for a while!
Then the request came out of the blue to fill in a cancellation slot! Obviously, I gave a little (or not so little) tremor, it was October 2020 and that was much closer that March 2021, in fact it was just 2 short weeks away. However, the date fell on the closest Thursday to Samhain, one of those 8 natural festivals that I referred to. In fact, it was when our ancestors traditionally celebrated new year. New Year .. New Breathe ?
How could I say no?
As soon as I said “Yes” I received 2 more very clear signs, an invite to prepare for Samhain from a shaman I follow, 2 days before the breathe, and a baby elephant video, with the caption – Take the First Steps. The later probably wouldn’t be significant to most people, but elephants are one of the signs I look for, when I’ve asked for confirmation around a path choice.
The starter pistol was raised …. On your marks … get set …
I am already established in my coaching skills, they are innate and many years of unconsciously using them, even before I was trained, has developed a certain level of mastery, and I’m also a clinical hypnotherapist (although I don’t practice), so I was comfortable that I could lead “The words” element of a breath work. My concerns were
 Suitable Music
 Tech Performance
 The Framing
I’m going to start with the Frame. This is three-fold. Firstly, presenting the breathwork for marketing, so people understood and engaged enough to register and hopefully turn up! Secondly introducing the breathwork so all the required housekeeping was included; and to create a well held space for people to breath comfortably and fully experience their experience! Finally, supporting the journey itself with guided words.
I started the marketing element first, a friend of mine says, if you can market it easily, you know you’re in alignment. Sure enough, with a little time and a few tweaks, the essence of what I hoped the breath would achieve was created and sent to the organiser (with a lovely picture that has become one of my favourite images for social media!)
Secondly the introductory frame which was more complex. I wanted to weave in the technical ‘requirements’ directly into what I was saying as if they were part of the theme of the breath. So, it was a seamless experience rather than a tick list like the housekeeping introduction in a corporate meeting, you know the type … there are no fire alarm tests planned, so if the fire alarms goes off, please exit the building here … yada yada yada!

Finally, the guided words as the breathwork progressed throughout the seasonal journey. This was much easier to write, being more natural to me.
GOAL : Say all the really important stuff, seamlessly weaved into the theme and finish the introduction in 15 minutes. To write words to enhance the musical journey, for those people who followed the journey of the breath.

RESULT and REVIEW: My test runs delivered the frame in 16 minutes the reality was 22 minutes. Part of staying calm and carrying on was not panicking at this point. There would be almost no time at the end for people to share their experience of the breathe!
Feedback from those who experienced the breathe was positive about the frame, so that’s a tick! Although I did realise that I missed a very important link – I had wanted to compare the feeling pre and post breathe, and meant to weave it into the journey.

Onto the Music. This was a real worry for me, largely because the music has been a huge part of my personal breathwork experience, probably enhanced by the fact that I’m primarily auditory. Most of the music I listen to has words, and so far, I haven’t seen that used in breathwork. Therefore, I needed to find instrumental pieces that reflected the seasons of the year, included the natural ebb and flow of energy, so gentle in Winter, more active in Summer with transitions in between. This perfectly reflected how we had been taught to put music together, but I had nothing in the tank, this is perhaps the point to confess, I missed that bit of the training, and I still haven’t been back to catch up. I was starting from zero. Many hours of listening to snatches of tunes, resulted in the soundtrack attached. Lacking in confidence, I asked my teacher and mentor to listen if they had time, to pass on any feedback and I received a thumbs up from both!
GOAL : To move people through the ebb and flow of energy we experience naturally if we notice the seasons. To bring the words and music together.
RESULT : I was actually happy with the music in the end, and the words fitted well into the stanza’s. I did spend time on that in terms of making notes of timing and learning the ebb and flow of music for myself.
So finally, the tech. This felt like my Achilles heal but in fact was very easy to prepare for. Firstly, a sound check (and pep talk) from one of my huddle buddies, and then a sound check in the actual Zoom room with my teacher.
GOAL : Good balance of Music and Voice
RESULT : I don’t know! Is this the point to say that yet I haven’t had the courage to listen through to it myself!
In other tech news,
We did have a couple of minor tech problems, firstly in that Zoom had updated settings and people couldn’t unmute to share easily. This saved me from the overly extended intro time, but equally, I did want to hear feedback, in truth some of that being from an ego perspective – to witness the impact, but also a learning perspective too.

I did struggle a bit with this. I like to know the work I do has made a difference or had impact. This is a belief pattern I want to let go of as it’s not always obvious in the moment so whilst tough, it was good to see the pattern emerging again so I can work with it.

Secondly, I was a bit confused by the co-hosting of the Zoom meeting, and what I could see on my screen. I couldn’t easily find ‘mute’ so I’m not sure if people heard my occasional mouse action or my more than occasional deep breaths to calm the nerves. I certainly didn’t breathe along with the breath as much as I had intended to guide the breathe.
All in all I probably spent around 15 hours preparing, that’s way too long for an hour long breathe!! My corporate rule of thumb (in a situation I was very comfortable in) used to be prepare for the same amount of time as you are delivering. Therefore, a one hour breathe ‘should’ take one hour to prepare! I’m way off this yet!
In summary, pretty good for a first ever session! I definitely crashed afterwards, and I would say that’s something to be aware of as a few other people have said the same. I do recommend preparation (maybe not as much as me). I do recognise what an honour it is to take people on such an empowering journey.
I hope this article might encourage a fellow breathwork facilitator in training to take the leap and book their first session. And if you resonate with my words and would like a chat as you prepare. I’m very happy to connect. The community support definitely got me though!