Childhood trauma is an extremely impactful experience. No matter its roots, it can leave emotional scars that follow us for a lifetime, influencing our behavior, relationships, and mental well-being. The good news is that healing is possible, and one of the most potent tools is breathwork.
Breathwork, particularly a trauma-informed guided breathing session, offers a compassionate space to clean out and close deep-seated wounds. At Elemental Rhythm, our skilled facilitators have used this approach to help hundreds of individuals become whole again.
Why Childhood Trauma Persists?
Childhood trauma often lives in our subconscious mind, tucked away out of our conscious awareness. Even if we don’t remember the specifics of a traumatic event, its emotional impact stays with us. Sure enough, all those unresolved emotions remain in the background, even triggering automatic responses in adulthood.
For example, if you have ever experienced emotional neglect as a child, you may feel intense anxiety or anger in personal relationships, even when no direct threat exists. This emotional reaction is a reflection of the deep-rooted childhood trauma that hasn’t been fully processed.
One of the keys to understand is that in a traumatic event, or being in a traumatic environment for too long will create certain beliefs in the subconscious mind. The beliefs are there to try to protect you but we can cling on to them (unconsciouly or consciously) for our entire lives. Its not the ‘trauma’ that stays with you its the beliefs about yourself, others and the world that you take with you.
How Breathwork Heals Trauma
Breathwork offers an accessible way to heal from the past, allowing us to move forward with more peace, understanding, and freedom. When practiced in a guided breathing session, you can:
- Facilitate Emotional Release: Childhood trauma often leaves us carrying suppressed emotions like ever-present sadness, anger, or fear. Breathwork helps us hone in on these feelings, encouraging us to explore and process them. The result is often a strong emotional release, like air escaping from a balloon, leaving us lighter and more at ease.
- Recalibrate Your Nervous System: Trauma can leave our nervous system in a constant state of fight-or-flight. Breathwork literally flips the switch, turning off the stress response and turning on our “rest and digest” response. This shift slows our heart rate, allowing our body to relax and heal.
- Release Physical Stored Tension: Practices like somatic breathing bring focus to our current state, targeting areas of the body where tension from past trauma may be stored. By bringing conscious awareness to these sensations and using deep, intentional breathing, we release this years-old muscle tightness.
- Access the subconscious mind: All transformation is rooted in the subconscious mind. Through various techniques and breathwork patterns brainwaves and brain activity changes allowing the client to go past the conscious and analytical mind to the subconscious where beliefs can be reprogrammed or reprocessed in a new way literally changing the internal algorithm.
Breathwork Dangers and How to Navigate Them
While breathwork is generally safe, it’s essential to approach it with care, especially when working through trauma. Breathwork dangers can arise if practiced too intensely or without proper guidance.
For example, the emotional release can be so intense that it aggravates our internal stress response instead of deactivating it. That is why working with a trained breathwork facilitator is so important. Our professional instructors, like Giovanni Bartolomeo, are equipped to create a space where you can process trauma safely.
Heres a link to our website that outlines various safety and contraindications to be away of. https://www.elementalrhythm.com/is-breathwork-safe/
Healing Starts With One Breath
The journey of healing childhood trauma is not the easiest, but with breathwork, you can find a way through it. Whether you choose to dive into holotropic breathing, somatic breathwork, or any other guided breathwork session, these practices will help you let go of the past.
Ready to experience deep healing? Join our free 5-day breathwork course! In this course, learn the fundamentals of breathwork and how it can bring tranquility into each day.
If you’re interested in sharing the healing power of breathwork with others, we also offer breathwork certifications. Discover how to lead trauma-informed sessions, provide emotional support, and hold space for others as they work through their healing.
Whatever path you choose, trust in the power of your breath and know that healing is just one breath away.
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