Why I bring breathwork to bodywork

When a client arrives on my table, I open with an invitation... A gentle suggestion to turn your attention softly towards your senses. Noticing the sounds and smells in the room, recognizing the sensation of your body resting on the table, and calling your awareness to connect with your breath.

"If it feels right for you, take a nice deep inhale, and relax into the exhale."

While the cue is simple, everyone responds differently. For some, a cascade of relaxation follows. I can tell that the deep relaxing breath felt good, and often they go for another one or two more, nice long exhales on their own before settling into a natural rhythm.
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For others, their deep breath sounds worried, or hurried, or cut short. As though their body is here on the table, but their nervous system is still at the office, or with the kids, or stuck with some past event. Instead of unfolding and releasing, their breath remains restricted, shallow or rapid. I hear in the quality of their breath, that some form of stress, whether physical, mental, or emotional, is influencing their nervous system.

Todays normal is to be always working, constantly stimulated, high performing, and multitasking. Performance based values have us disregard the power of silence, stillness, and going within. Instead, society is more easily distracted than ever before. With the tech age, it is infinitely easier to distract ourselves than to be quiet with ourselves. And it is a small population of people who are learning the skills of tending to their bodies and emotions, without the use of substances, stimulants, or food to escape and numb.

​These bodies will put up with a lot of misuse and soldier on despite an unreasonable amount of stress. Yet, when you listen closely, the body doesn’t lie.  When you truly take a moment to pause and attune to your body’s wisdom, we discover the ways our body speaks to us - informing us about our limits, bottled emotions, or when we’ve disconnected from our true selves. 

The Role of Breath Awareness in Self-Healing

By tuning in to how the breath is moving through the body, you can gain insight on areas of tension and start to discover the more nuanced language of your personal anatomy. I encourage people not to put words to the sensations, but to simply shine a gentle and accepting awareness of the felt sense as it arises.

I invite you, in this moment, to allow the breath to move into the areas that grasp your attention, using the inhale to expand and the exhale to let go. Layer by layer, you gradually open as you relax, allow, and release. The breath becomes a window to your sense of self, and a path for integrating life’s lessons, changes, and expansive experiences.

​During a bodywork session, as physical tension begins to ease, it's not uncommon for stored emotions to surface. These releases can manifest in various ways, from subtle shifts in energy to more palpable emotional experiences like tears or a feeling of overwhelm. In these moments, conscious breathing becomes an invaluable anchor.

Rather than bracing against the unfamiliar sensations, the invitation to breathe deeply, to meet the rising emotion with a soft inhale and a long, surrendering exhale, offers a pathway towards integration. The breath, a constant companion, provides an anchor in the shifting tides of feeling, a gentle reminder of presence. It allows the unraveling to occur not as a tumultuous storm, but as a gradual softening, a release that is met with compassionate awareness, leaving a sense of spaciousness where tension, both physical and emotional, once resided.

Knowing You Are Meant to Heal

In my healing work, my heart’s deepest intention is to help people understand their own capacity to heal and to shift patterns in their body. One of the most powerful ways to access this inner healer is through the breath. It also happens to be something we always have with us, doesn't require a prescription, and has a very long list of positive side effects!

The reason I bring breathwork to bodywork, is because I have seen the way it deepens the benefits for my clients on the table, and I've heard that they are using the same notions at home in between sessions. The unwinding they experience is happening not just on the massage table, but in the rhythm of their lives as well.

​This is one of the most exciting reflections that I hear from my clients, and it is an exploration that can continue to unfold throughout our lives. Coming continually to a more integrated understanding of our body, from a place of compassion and care.

If you are starting to think that a few safely held deep breaths might be just what your nervous system needs, let’s carve out that time together.

Schedule a time with me to experience a guided session and discover how your breath supports organic healing.

Much love,

​Cassidy