Healing Breathwork Apps

The fifth release from Guided Meditation Treks introduces you to the “Healing Breathwork” practice, an active pranayama meditation that is used to transmute stuck emotions and behaviors by activating the respiratory system and heart chakra through the practice. This is a powerful meditation that can come with strong physical and emotional effects. These awakening effects could even be life changing. This practice can unlock deep  feelings, so use it under your own discretion, for your greatest good, of course.

Like Vipassana, part of the purpose is to teach you the technique of the breathing practice. If you only do the breath itself, without anything else, you will feel effects, and so the app has a “timer” feature where you can hear a breathing track in the background and time your breath to follow it. The most important part of the technique is for  you to move as much air as possible in and out of the lungs. The goal is to create an oxygen-rich state in your system, which will create specific psychological effects that will bring your consciousness out of your head and into your heart.

This technique can be as simple as a physical breathing practice or as elaborate as a detailed ritual. The breath itself is a 3-stage exercise that you continue through the entire meditation, up to 30 minutes straight! It is to be performed lying flat on your back on the floor without a pillow, and breathing entirely through the mouth. You can use an eye pillow to block external stimuli and go within. Then, to perform the practice, you take two large inhalations through the mouth — the first is directed towards the belly, and the second is directed to fill the lungs. After these two breaths, your lungs should be at capacity. Then, you exhale all of it through the mouth and repeat. The albums have a breath track in the background, and the app has a ‘breathing track’ whose speed can be adjusted so you can ‘find your pace.’ The best pace is one that fills and empties the entire lungs as quickly as possible. You will likely feel physical effects within 1 minute of doing the practice, and then the ride begins. 

From a ritual standpoint (optional), before you begin, it is recommended that you set your intention for your practice. You can also use tools like sage to clear the space before and after your session. You can also apply essential oils to your body before you meditate, in order to help release blockages mapped to your chakras. As to which oils to use, you can use your intuition and visit a local shop, or purchase blends online from a vendor such as my breathwork teacher, David Elliott.

Unlike Vipassana, the Healing Breathwork album is more than just a technique. Like the early Guided Meditation Treks albums Vol 1 and Vol 2, the Breathwork album contains four purpose-driven guided meditations to use the breath as a tool that is focused on helping us in some element of our life. The breathing technique is effective in and of itself, but it is even more effective when you do it with a purpose, and the guided meditation treks have been written to focus on these purposes

Fred Rogers used to say “I love you just the way you are.” This was not an “everybody deserves a trophy” kind of statement as much as a “you are a vital piece of the universe’s puzzle” statement. You are here for a reason, and sometimes, you might be the only person who truly understands that reason. Along the way, others who do not  comprehend may get in your way and reprogram your mind against your purpose. In this exercise, you will unwind those external programs and unlock your purpose. The first steps of self-actualization are self-awareness and self-realization. This trek is meant to help you discover these things so you can act upon them to serve your higher self for your greatest good.

As we grow in this human existence, it is inevitable that we will all experience loss. This may be a loss of a close relative, friend, or pet through death, the loss of a partner through divorce, the loss of a cherished object through disaster or misplacement, or even the loss of ignorance. If it was the loss of something that deeply affected us, then it is very likely that the loss itself is deeply affecting us as well. In this exercise, we go through the five stages of grief, get a picture of where we are in the process, and then learn how to progress through the phases in our own time, all while embracing the grieving process itself.

In the 21st century, we have finally evolved as a civilization to the point where we can talk about sexual trauma and sexual abuse. This has created a more open dialogue on social media and social circles to explore experiences that may have happened to us in the past that we are unsure of how to process. It is a statistical fact that most of us have in one way or another experienced an episode of sexual abuse. It is more common than we would like to believe, and yet the secrecy and taboo around the topic (especially in some cultures) can make it hard to process. In this exercise, we “get real” by accepting such an experience as one of many life lessons that can teach us something and inevitably help us in the future. That said, it can take a long time to reach that realization, and this meditation acknowledges this by giving us the space we may need to process such a tragic, confusing, and saddening event.

When people think about abundance and manifestation, they often only focus on the receiving part of the equation. More likely, they may be focusing on the lack of receiving and putting effort at trying to change that. Instead of coming from a place of lack, this exercise reframes the equation by starting out with a focus on the abundance we carry within ourselves and then putting that out to the world as an exchange for gifts we would like to receive. By this point, if you have stepped into your power, then you realize that your gifts are best shared with others, and in this exercise, we will do a light exercise along with the breathwork practice to create a swirling cloud of abundance that attracts others with their own abundance who want to work with you to create a symbiotic abundance cloud together. This energetic exercise opens the path to meet others and work together to create a lifestyle of abundance and manifestation for everyone involved.