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Breath4Life™ Breath Work

What is Breath4Life™ Breath Work?

The breath is our fuel for living, without which we wouldn’t survive. Yet so many of us rarely acknowledge how we breathe, despite it being the building block for all life's processes – not to mention essential for maintaining a healthy mind - body - soul equilibrium. Breathing is a fully automatic process, beginning at birth and continuing without interruption until the day we die. For most, it can be a fully unconscious process. There is no need to attend consciously to the way you are breathing. We expect to breathe quite adequately while sleeping each night, as we do during our time awake. So why pay attention to our breath?....

….Our hearts beat continuously without any conscious effort, similarly we digest our food without actually doing anything about it. From moment to moment throughout our lives, there are thousands of vital processes occurring in our bodies, of which we are generally unaware and uninformed. This part of the workings of the body is driven by unconscious intelligence, so that our conscious awareness is freed for other pursuits. With the breath, there is a difference: breathing can be a completely unconscious process, but it can also become a conscious, intentional practice. This is a unique quality of the breath; that it can be both conscious and unconscious. You can consciously stop breathing for several moments if you want, and you can resume breathing deeply if you so choose to. You can fill your lungs, or breathe very lightly. You can let the air out in a gentle sigh, or blow it out in a strong wind. All this is easily within your own conscious control.

There are many 'teachings of the breath' that remind us to bring consciousness to the act of breathing. They have shown that it is of great physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefit to the human individual. Most eastern traditions state that 'the quickest way to change your consciousness is to change your breathing.' Conscious breathing encourages the expansion of consciousness throughout the human organism and beyond, to inhale consciously is to positively excite and expand the whole environment of which one is part. To exhale consciously is to support the relaxation of all surrounding and connecting energies. Every moment of conscious breath is an inspired co-creation with life itself.

'The purpose of conscious breathing is not primarily the movement of air but the movement of energy. If you do a relaxed, connected breathing cycle for a few minutes, you will begin to experience dynamic energy flows within your body. These energy flows are the merging of spirit and matter.' Leonard Orr

Breath work therapy uses a simple connected breath technique, in order to help change the state of consciousness, enabling you to heal unresolved issues, and process suppressed emotions in order to let go, and heal past traumas. Relieving this load clears blocked stagnant energy; allowing you to experience more freedom, and ultimately enhances your quality of life.

Breath4Life™ Breath Work is an exciting, dynamic, totally unique, cutting edge self-healing process, which deals with all levels of self, all levels of consciousness and all levels of energy, so healing occurs on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. It incorporates Breath work therapy, life-skills, NLP techniques, life-coaching and written and non-written process work. It is a life-transforming journey of self-discovery into self awareness and freedom.

Breath4Life™ Breath Work sessions are structured, safe and progressive, with on-going support and processes that help people to discover their fullest potential. They are tailor-made for each individual, and progress at the speed and pace at which each person is comfortable with.

If you have suppressions of guilt or anger, which are so widely spread in our society today, you may experience frequent outbursts, upset, frustration and possibly even physical disease. You may find yourself taking that anger out on someone you truly love, like your friend, lover or child, when what you really want to experience with that person is love and joy. A typical reaction when something like that happens is to wonder, "What came over me?" not realising that you have tapped into a suppressed emotion, which takes control of your behaviour. Breath work can help release any of these 'heavier emotions' in a safe environment, leaving you feeling both grounded, and calmer, yet more alive and clearer.

It is easy to confuse heavier emotions as negative ones, yet in reality no emotion is 'negative', it is our just our perception that tells us it is so. An emotion is simply 'energy in motion' ranging from the subtle to the intense; from apathetic to enraged, or simply from being content to absolute bliss. Categorising them as 'bad' or 'good' misses the point of our emotions entirely, it is far more constructive to see emotions as messengers, assisting us through life's journey. When we wander a little too far off the path, so called 'bad emotions' warn us of our detour, and nudge us in the right direction again. This often is felt in our solar plexus area, butterflies in the stomach, or just a sense of general unease. These gut feelings are powerful indicators of where our thoughts and feelings are taking us, and acknowledging them whether they are indeed 'good', or 'bad' is a healthy process. The key being to actually process all states of emotion, by welcoming them instead of wallowing in them, re-integrates energy into our energy field, rather than stuck in the body. This fluidity enhances the body's natural bio-feedback, encouraging health and well-being.


Breath4Life™ Breath Work Proprietary Methodology

The methodology around Breath4Life™ Breath Work teaches us that there are 3 levels of consciousness and only 2 states of being.

Levels of consciousness

1.The conscious mind. Which comprises of 10% of our mind’s capacity. Is our waking consciousness. Runs the 5 senses and gains data from them. It houses our personality, our ego and how we inter-react with the outside world. It also holds our fight or flight response and is designed to survive.

2.The Subconscious Mind. Which comprises of 40% of our mind’s capacity. I like to think of it as a huge warehouse and it’s divided into 2 sections of 20%. One is for skills we have learnt (For example driving, work related skills, which are only brought out when we are doing them) The other 20% is where we store emotions, an emotion is simply 'energy in motion' ranging from the subtle to the intense; from apathetic to enraged, or simply from being content to absolute bliss. The on-going problem here is when we are not aware of them we suppress them into the subconscious minds. We can suppress just as much love, joy and happiness as trauma, suffering and pain. The Subconscious mind is our emotional mind and its job is to balance the levels of conscious.

3.The Superconscious Mind. Which comprises of 50% of our mind’s capacity. Is the spiritual mind, has been called our “Higher Self, authentic self, it connects us to the flow of life, our intuition (inner teacher) creativity, love, happiness, joy, bliss, soul, our unique divinity within and our connection to the universe. Designed to Thrive

There are only 2 states of being

1. Being Connected – which is being connected to your authentic self or higher self. Emotionally feeling “Glad”. Feeling happy, joyous, everything is going well, all relationships in harmony and balance. Financial abundance where money flows to you with ease. In alignment with spiritual vision for self. Creative, energized and making heart felt decisions with ease. There is no resistance to change and growth and your able to see the big picture.

2. Being Disconnected - which is being disconnected to your authentic self. It’s a suffering State. The Ego Self. Emotionally feeling “Mad”, “Sad”, “Scared”. Feeling sick and tired or OK – Overwhelmed and Knackered. Feeling “FINE” – fucked up, insecure, narcotic and emotional. Confused, Stressed, too much going on…and just not enough time to get everything done. Hanging on by your fingertips. Maybe asking yourself “Why is this happening to me again?”. Feeling emotional or physical pain. No flow in life.

What makes Breath4Life™ Breath Work so unique is the Practitioner leads you down into the subconscious at the beginning of a session, so you can easily access the clutter you have unwittingly stored there. Some of which maybe limiting beliefs, core conflicts or suppressions. However, it may also be magic memories of loved ones, reconnecting with love of self, joy, laughter and bliss, unfortunately we don’t know and that is why it’s so important to have a good guide who will take you there and support your process.

Who can benefit from Breath4Life™ Breath Work?

From the young to the elderly, from the cancer-ridden to the emotionally scarred; Breath work reaches all walks of society addressing a number of issues on the physical, emotional, mental and psychological level. You will need to be committed to the process. Breath work requires patience and whilst significant results might be noticeable immediately after a session, for many, more profound changes take place over a period of time. However one session alone will start to work on harmonising your energy field, balancing the yin and yang elements, and bringing the body back into a state of equilibrium, as gross energy re-integrates into your energy field. A common side-effect of breath work is increased energy levels! Equally the balancing of energy flows can have a significant effect of reducing stress related ailments, particularly insomnia, anxiety, and depression. It is highly recommendable to start with a group of 10 sessions in order to explore particular issues in more depth, and start to address your overall health patterns, and where you would like to see changes.

We offer a number of ways to experience Breath4Life™ Breath Work, please refer to Taster Days, and Level 1, 2, 3 Breath4Life™ Breath Work Courses for more information.We also run Residential retreats which are packed full of amazing experiences, learning, fun and laughter, go to retreats section.

What can Breath4Life™ Breath Work do for me?

  • It can help you remember and get in touch with your authentic self.
  • It empowers you to do and be what you want.
  • Creates clarity and helps you get back in touch with your uniqueness
  • It is a journey of self discovery, self awareness, self transformation, self healing and self development.
  • Regular Breath work makes life easier, by releasing and transforming suppressions that have held you back and squashed creativity.
  • Gives you skills that can help you understand your life experiences until now, and equip you with the tools to deal with everyday challenges going forward.
  • In feeling more empowered, whatever the situation there is always something you can do. Breathe!
  • The versatility of Breath work, both complements other therapies, as well as being used as a stand-alone tool
  • Our Breath work courses give you a foundation with which to build your dreams, visions, achieve your goals and objectives in all areas of your life.

Testimonials

"I have learned so much from working with Pennie and gained confidence, renewed clarity and have moved forward in my life in extraordinary ways. When I look back at how I looked and felt even 5 years ago, I now feel more energetic and focused and people regularly tell me that I appear much younger than my years. Life still brings challenges, however I have some excellent tools to support me with those, and continued support from Pennie and the Acorn to Oak team whenever I need it and that makes a real difference to me every day." "Breath4Life Breath Work has been a brilliant discovery for me ... It quite literally has changed my life, from living in fear and depression to thriving and living a very full and joyful life." "The residential courses run by Acorn to Oak always bring amazing opportunities for self discovery and change. They are filled with joy and laughter, many and varied processes undertaken individually or as a group. The Inner Balance weekend has men and women learning so much about each other's way of viewing the world, speaking and thinking, allowing a greater closeness between the sexes, as well as giving both experiences which explore the inner male/female in both. It is a true celebration of feminine and masculine. The Mining the Gold Within intensive retreats offer a unique opportunity to make real and lasting changes and progress in your life. I have attended three of these and each time, my life moves forward in leaps and bounds and I feel increasingly in touch with my true nature and expression. Based in Breath4Life Breath Work and other unique processes, every participant gains huge healing - for me the proof of this has been in my daily life and relationships. I could not recommend these courses more highly."

Jill Pay, Owner of Creative Health Solutions

You Know I think I'd be dead or in prison by now if I'd not found Pennie or done this work. I thank God every day and I'm soo very grateful. You know if you are at the end of your tether, in the shit or anger and confused then Breath Work is the thing that will turn your life around. It’s fast, simple and effective just like Ronseal… it does what it says on the tin yeah, so stop messing around and do it!

Matthew Donnachie, Builder
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