Breathing into Bigness

September Breathwork dates, offerings and how breathwork is helping me these days.

Hello Dear Reader - For the best reading experience, I recommend clicking to the Substack site. I often edit these posts after sharing. For easy reference, here is a link to the latest on booking Breathwork sessions. Upcoming dates: Online Breathwork 9/4 7 PM EST. Breathwork Circle w/tea and community at Boalsburg Yoga and Wellness 9/15 11 AM. Mindful Writing for Mothers at The Makery w/Write to Shine 5 Monday mornings begnning 9/16. Thanks for being here. xo, Carolyne

---

me and the ocean in the outer banks

I am in transition. I left my Penn State work with the College of Education in June for many complicated reasons which I attempted to write about here and then abandoned because, like I often tell writing groups I work with, it’s hard to write from the wound. “Write from the scars,” we say. I didn’t make that up, and I can’t remember where I first heard it. But there was some heart break for me in leaving the world of formal education, getting to work with so many future secondary English teachers in ways that were, I thought, impactful. Until it didn’t feel that way anymore.

The work became more and more stifling and energy draining. I felt less and less connected to my students, future 7th-12th grade teachers of Language Arts, who began to roll their eyes at poetry and any ideas of bringing mindfulnes into the classroom (not all my students but enough to break my heart).

My transition now is about doing the work I want to do in a bigger way that doesn’t involve academia. More breathwork. More writing. More meditation. More music. More gathering intentionally in ways that bring all of these things together in creative, healing and community building ways. I am working to bring my teacher/guide self into a bigger and more expansive version.

Photo by Jeremy Hynes on Unsplash

While doing my own breathwork meditation over the weekend I felt myself wrapped up in wings - my own wings. I saw images of a big bird in flight in a big, big sky, flying in full soar mode. I felt like I could be that big bird. In moments I was the bird. The message was clear. I just need to open my own darn wings.

This is what breathwork does for me. Quiets the thinking part of my brain and plunges me into image, sensation and deeper knowing. It helps me to trust. And reminds me again and again that I am right where I need to be. That I have everything I need. That everything I am looking for exists already within me.

A few weekends ago I did a breathwork session for a beautiful group of humans at the Wellness in the Wild retreat. I called the session Breathwork for Bigness. We opened and closed our circle with some Rumi:

You say, I'm so small I can barely be seen in all of this. 

How can a great love be inside someone as small as me? 

Friend, look at your eyes, they are small, 

yet they see enormous things. 

Listen, your love of spying far off satisfaction 

is what keeps you from tasting the real water 

of where and who you are right now. 

The real way is who and where you already are. 

What you search for is sleeping in your very being. 

That which sleeps and dreams of sweet water 

is the taste of the divine in you. 

The true way is who and where you already are. 

It is sleeping in your very being.

I gave everyone in our session a small colored candle and as they lit their candles from the flame of the person next to them in the cirle, I asked them to connect to their own inner light, their inner flame. As we moved into our breath practice we connected back to this flame. We breathed bigness into our beings. Took up more space. Made big sounds. Surprised ourselves with what moved through.

I loved watching how people moved through the rest of their days after breathwork - wide eyed and open hearted. I look forward to gathering more circles like this one. You are invited. I hope I might see you there.

Upcoming Breathwork:

Breathwork Online 9/4: This is a one hour practice you can do in the comfort of your own space. 7 PM EST.

Breathwork Circle w/tea and community at Boalsburg Yoga and Wellness 9/15: 11 AM to 1 ish PM. Early bird pricing ends 9/1.

Mindful Writing for Mothers at The Makery w/Write to Shine 5 Monday mornings begnning 9/16.