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A new perspective on Menopause

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Connective tissue communicates information between your body and your brain. It surrounds every organ, nerve, and vessel in your body and connects bones to muscles, tendons, etc. It expands and contracts, however, if we experience a physical injury or emotional trauma, we can go into shock. It restricts movement, where we either freeze and tense up or collapse and faint.
If this survival response doesn’t resolve we can get stuck, with too much tone in the body or too little. We lose our capacity for rhythmical expansion and contraction and a sense of connection to our bodily sensations. It leaves us feeling disconnected.
In times of stress or massive changes, this can translate into a sense of isolation, confusion, and an inability to cope.
You may feel as though your body has betrayed you or that Menopause has been a source of trauma in and of itself.
Reconnecting to sensations might feel frightening, as past pain is likely to resurface from triggered repressed emotions.

Breathwork works wonders to resolve and integrate any fragmentation within.
It is important to approach this situation as gently as needed and prioritize your sense of safety across the tender edge between comfort zone and discomfort so you can move within your optimal area of nervous system regulation.

Awareness, presence, and healthy strategies are needed.
For example, if you feel dull, numb, or collapsed, you may need to upregulate through movement and mobilization to unwind from chronic freeze or faint responses.

Physical tension in your muscles and connective tissue is a protective layer referred to as “armoring”. It gets held in the body and will not release until you know you are safe.
This is why you cannot clear trauma through your rational mind alone; the core trauma cycle has to resolve in the physical body.

You don’t need to recall traumatic memories to find relief. With professional guidance, you can hand it to your breath and your body to self-regulate and heal, and altered states of consciousness are the way of neutralizing deep, subconscious beliefs that have shaped you, and allowing for the shifts to take place at the level of the subconscious, changing from the inside out.

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Re-spiration

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Athletes, Yogis, and Martial artists have used the power of breath for centuries to boost their performance, stamina, and focus. Nowadays, elite performers such as Olympic teams, Navy Seals, and Silicon Valley executives alike use conscious breathing practices to step up their game. 

Sacred practices used to be passed down from master to disciple only. Now you can ‘qualify’ online. We have access to a lot of information, and it takes more and more discernment to choose what to invest our energy into with maximum benefit.

So where to start? The most immediate tool to sharpen discernment and create coherence is conscious breathing. Even simply focusing on the breath immediately gets us back to presence.

Respiration means re-connection to Spirit. Breath equals vital life force: that, which animates our body/mind system… that, which fuels the brain functions and provides oxygen for the cells in our body.

The first breath we take at birth is our last when we die. Life is a dance between these opposites, and hopefully, the remembrance of our essence, which bridges all polarities.

In the womb, and even shortly after birth our umbilical cord feeds us with nutrients and oxygen. If uncut, once we see the light of day, it continues for a few hours or even days, until it falls off by itself. Only then would we gently transition to nose breathing. That, however, was not the case for most of us.

As soon as we were born through the tight birth canal, into bright light, un-muffled sounds, and touch, the umbilical cord was cut. Suddenly our supply of oxygen no longer came through, and we began to suffocate. So, then the doctor hung us upside down, smacked us on the bottom… and this is how we took our first breath! … To cry!

Most of us took our first breath fearing for our survival. Our first breath entered our lungs in a much bigger way than it would have if it transitioned naturally from the umbilical cord to the lungs. We didn’t have a chance to open up slowly and gradually, so the first breath appeared to be painful, and maybe even rushed.

Many drew from this experience subconscious conclusions, like: ‘’Breath = Pain’’ or ‘’If I want to survive, I have to put up with pain’’

We learned various ways to breathe sparingly as means to survive. Using our full capacity appeared too intense and painful.

Most people nowadays range at about 30-40% of their lung capacity. Our breath is in direct relationship to our vital life force. Breathing is also our primary way of detoxing. So, we find ourselves in a dilemma, where logic and science dictate a different truth than our subconscious.

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In Breathwork we can practice breathing more fully in a safe, supportive environment, gradually increase our capacity to handle stress, bridge the polarities within ourselves, and allow letting go of limiting habits. We get out of our own way and reconnect to Spirit. 

It’s simple, yet the more I uncover… the more the mystery of existence expands...
Clearing layer by layer of conditioned patterns and habitual loops of conduct, we become more authentic and selfless at the same instance.

When energy flows freely and unrestricted through the body, we begin to reconnect to all aspects of ourselves. We remember, how good it feels to be fully alive.

Breathwork gives me hope for humanity to end suffering, and to co-create a harmonious existence.

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Survival vs. Co-creation

Inhibited breathing is linked to a perception, that the world appears to be an unpredictable or even difficult or dangerous place. This belief supports its own reality, creating a circle of cause and effect.

Survival responses are linked to the sympathetic nervous system and the reptilian brain, which only chooses between fight, flight, or freeze reactions. By repeating these reactions of survival, they become established and second nature.

Becoming aware, and changing the breathing pattern is one of the ways we can break this perpetual loop, and re-engage the parasympathetic nervous system (responsible for rest, digestion, and healing). It opens us up to conscious co-creation.

Changing the breathing pattern by slowing down and deepening the breath, allowing the exhales to become long and smooth, and the inhales active and even, restores the ability to choose our response in a conscious, creative manner, rather than re-act in habituated ways.

It is good to know it, but it only works if you apply it! 😉

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Microscopic Insights

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Dr. Candace Pert was at the forefront of Biochemistry, exploring emotion and feelings and how they relate to well-being. She studied Neuropeptides and their receptors, the biochemicals of emotion, which orchestrate many bodily processes. They link biology and behavior to affect the smooth functioning of an organism.
Neuropeptides and their receptors are found in the brain and mainly all over the body, acting in a network of bi-directional information exchange.
According to Dr. Pert, 98% of all information and data transfer occurs at receptor sites throughout the body. Each one of our trillions of cells has thousands of receptor sites. Only 2% (yes, you read it correctly) of information transfer occurs in our brain synapses.

Repressed emotions remain in the body via neuropeptide molecules held in their receptors. An overwhelming experience, perceived as physically or emotionally threatening, can challenge the healthy coping mechanism of the body and remain frozen in what we refer to as cellular memory. The held emotion blocks these neuro receptors, and tension builds, inhibiting our body’s ability for self-healing.
These so-called traumas create patterns of misalignment: overuse or depletion on some level, reflecting upon lessons not yet learned.

Emotions and bodily sensations are intricately intertwined and can become conscious in Breathwork. Once we feel emotions from a non-polarized view, free from judgment or meaning, the Neuro-Peptides stored in the cellular memory from a traumatic experience can be released and re-metabolized out of our bodies through breath, sweat, etc.

Breathwork can bring awareness to repeating automated responses and clear what holds us back, providing a fertile ground for healing and insight.
Our bodies are intelligent and able to survive, and we are hardwired to thrive. Our circumstances don’t define us. We can choose how to respond.
We can turn challenges into doorways to transformation.

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Change your perception, and your reality changes

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Our perceptions trigger physical responses in our chemistry: immune response, hormonal balance, and so on. With each response, Neuropathways are used or newly created. As responses become habituated, the Neuro-pathways become Neuro-highways, leading eventually to changes in the structure and make-up of our bodies.Read More