Chapter 1 Excerpts (Continued)

Using breathwork as an adjunct to therapy

If you are already in therapy and want to complement cognitive understanding with deep experiential exploration, breathwork may attract you. Artists or writers who are experiencing a block in the creative flow or those practicing some spiritual discipline that has become mechanical, may have a longing to feel reconnected and inspired. Through pain or crisis, through joy or discomfort, or through various spontaneous psycho-physical events, the motivation to define and experience our true selves grows stronger.

Answering an inner call to explore

Occasionally the call to begin some deep experiential work like breathwork sounds as a gong deep inside us. It is as if our organism has reached a new stage of development in which the task at hand is to delve deeply into our own inner experience. We feel a compelling need to heed this inner urging. Other life options seem to hold less nourishment, less interest than the choices highlighted by our inner call. One choice is bright and glowing, other choices are drab. With such clear demarcation of where our "bliss" awaits, it is not hard to "follow your bliss," as the late Joseph Campbell said when interviewed in popular television series: The Power of Myth.

Who participates in Holotropic Breathwork?

Anyone who is attracted to breathwork and who feels willing and ready to do this deep experiential work is a candidate for breathwork. Many of us who come to breathwork sessions say, "I have never done anything like this before." Still, we feel drawn to inner exploration, and we are willing to experiment. Attraction and willingness to explore three out of four of these are the chief requirements of participants.

Some of us have been spiritual explorers or meditators for a long time, involved in one path or another. We may feel that breathwork is the next step, the next learning tool for us. Some of us, although not thinking of ourselves as spiritual explorers, have been students of science, medicine, philosophy, or psychology. We are curious observers of ourselves, of others, and of life itself. Our curiosity extends to breathwork. Our past backgrounds are not as important as our present commitments to inner development, self-exploration, and pragmatic self-observation.

There are a few exceptions, having to do with health and fitness. We need to be in basic good health because the experience may be strenuous. Age itself is not a factor. If we are older, we may be more likely to have some of the conditions (see Contraindications in this chapter) that preclude participation in Holotropic Breathwork. If we do not have these conditions and we engage in regular exercise, we are good candidates for breathwork.