Episode 021: Breathwork Transformation
In Shake It Off Episode 21 Lauren and Kendra speak with special guest Claudia Amarsi, Master Breathwork Facilitator and trainer and owner of Amarsi.
Claudia helps you heal yourself with breathwork through trauma release, integration, and self mastery through in-person and virtual breathwork classes, facilitator training, workshops, and retreats.
Lauren and Kendra talk with Claudia all about the origins of breathwork, the impact of breathwork on our mental, emotional, and physical states, and so much more!
You can find all the podcast episodes at https://www.drlaurenhodge.com/podcast/
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Kendra Till
Welcome to Shake It Off a podcast that gives you the tools, strategies, and stories to optimize and prioritize your physical and mental health.
Lauren Hodge
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to shake it off. Kendra and I are speaking with Claudia Amarsi. She’s a master breathwork, facilitator and trainer, and owner of a charity. And she helps you heal yourself through breath work, using trauma release integration and self-mastery. I originally met Claudia in Denver, and we’re both members of a social club called Archipelago. This social club is all about providing spaces and opportunities for deep human connection growth and learning. And one of the workshops that I attended was Claudia’s breathwork classes. And it was incredible how she held space and guided us through this breathwork process. After the session, I felt this profound sense of calm and ease at a stressful time. And I’m so excited to introduce everybody to Claudia, thank you so much Claudia for being here with us today. I appreciate having you on the podcast.
Claudia Amarsi
My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Lauren Hodge
So I’m curious, can you tell us your story about how you got into breathing? And what inspired you to start a Marcy?
Claudia Amarsi
Yeah, absolutely. It’s interesting, it was a personal journey to begin with. I didn’t expect that this would evolve into a new career path and a new business. It was originally found in breath work when I was in a deep self-exploration, a journey of self-healing. I was going through what I can only define as a night of the soul, like everything was not working, my marriage was ending, and my job was in flux. As I was getting laid off, I was coming to realize that I was deeply unhappy, even though I hadn’t had awareness of that until that point until everything started kind of crashing and I realized that I never wanted to be in that spot again. And what did I need to do to make sure that that didn’t happen again, and, realizing that I was the common denominator in all of the problems and everything that was happening, and that was hard to accept. But once I had that awareness, I was like, alright, never again, I’m gonna work with every possible teacher or tool or modality started with very traditional things like therapy, and group work, and so much content, so many books, so many podcasts, lots of yoga and meditation, which were a little bit a part of my life that became like a tool for me and helped kind of support me during some of those darker moments.
And then I started to veer into more nontraditional modalities and working with different healers, working with some coaches going on retreats, and working with psychedelics. And somebody had shared with me a TED talk about breath, and I thought it was so beautiful, and it wasn’t about breathwork, typically, but just about breath and spirit and this kind of universal energy, and that gentleman, Christian Delaware, was hosting a breathwork session in Denver. I was like, oh, that sounds lovely. I didn’t understand what it was, I thought maybe it was more like yogic breathing or pranayama. And sounded like it would be some beautiful self-care. So I signed up and ended up being surprised by the experience, it was a room of maybe 60 to 70 people. But having such a profound journey myself that evening, that for the first time and all of that healing and all of that learning about myself, like I was able to get out of my mind and more into my body, I was able to not be overanalyzing and overthinking and struggling with forgiveness and struggling with letting go of guilt and shame. And finally, just like accessing true compassion and true love in my heart, which then brought me one step closer to forgiveness, which I was so desperately searching for at that point. And so, after that first session, I was like, wow, I knew more of this.
This is, of all the things I’ve done, this feels like the most important tool that I’ve found, and I’m resonating the most with this rather than any other modality. And some of those other modalities are still very much a part of my life. You know, I’ve got a very good toolbox but breathwork has been the constant since I found it. Now, I also knew after that first time that I wanted to be able to share it with as many people as possible because I was like, This is amazing. How come I’ve never heard of this before? I want more people to hear about it, learn about it, experience it, and start bringing all my friends and family and even my ex-husband to my teacher to experience it for themselves and start an apprenticeship shortly after that.
Lauren Hodge
That’s incredible. I love that because so many people you know have tried these different other modalities too but like knowing that breathwork is what kind of brought you back Um, to your center. And what most resonated with you is, is really kind of profound, I think, when you say when you first learned breathwork, or that that workshop that you went to is 60 people was what type of breathwork was that?
Claudia Amarsi
So it’s the style that I know that I know facilitators, book conscious breathwork, which, you know, there are a handful of these deeper styles. Now, most of them have either come from the lineage of rebirthing style or the Holotropic style. And I think most people recognize Holotropic, that, for whatever reason, has the most kind of brand awareness or name recognition, but even those two lineages where the two founders knew each other, they certainly were influenced by one another, I consider them cousins. And so most of these deeper styles have evolved from either one of those two, this one evolved from the rebirthing, as I was saying, but they’ll get you basically to the same place, it’s a beautiful way of breathing on your own, it’s you and your breath, of course, you’re working with a facilitator or a guide to learn the technique and, and have somebody hold space for you, that’s oftentimes pretty important for people.
But breathing in a certain way starts to move through emotions, to move through energies, and to start to access an altered state of consciousness. And being able to access that, that different space, a different part of the mind of the Spirit, is a place where people find a lot of healing, you know, they’re able to kind of get out of their everyday thinking mind, they’re able to kind of separate from the ego for a little while, and get a better understanding of themselves to start to better understand their patterns, start to better understand their triggers, understand their limiting beliefs, start to explore and see where they’re holding on to unprocessed emotions or perhaps some trauma, or perhaps some conditioning from their upbringing. You know, at a bare minimum, I tell people that when you’re moving energy, and we’re for sure gonna move through some stress and anxiety, and everybody has that. I think that’s a universal benefit that everybody appreciates. The past is kind of like the bare minimum. So yeah, if people come in and get their foot in the door, just looking for relief, they’re awesome, because then we can do so much more than that. Yeah. And
Lauren Hodge
I liked how you differentiated between the reversing and the Holotropic breathwork because I was not sure of these different modalities. But I know for sure, whenever I sat in your circle in your ceremony that I had this altered state of consciousness there, I didn’t realize there were actually other modalities that were kind of different. But so create that altered state of consciousness started, like breathwork like learning how to do breathwork. In 2013 Wim Hof, he had a workshop in Australia and it was the Holotropic breathwork days breath, work, and plunging, which is great. And I feel like I’ve kind of dabbled, I’ve dabbled since then.
Claudia Amarsi
He called it Wim Hof. He’s branded it his own, but it’s based on a Tibetan practice that’s 1000s of years old, called cobra. And so he took that original practice and modified it and put it on spin on it and incorporated being able to sit in extreme situations such as ice bath or cold water or hiking at high altitude, in poor weather. So that’s his, his spin on things. And I love it when he’s doing it because he’s bringing a lot of attention to breathwork. But he’s more focused on the kind of physical benefits and more on the biohacking bio optimization that’s available with breathwork. And I love that I find that there are benefits available physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And I feel like he plays more in the physical and mental world. Well, I tend to play more and like the emotional and spiritual. But again, you can get benefits across the board, regardless of the technique you use, it kind of just depends on you and where you’re trying to go with it.
Kendra Till
So it sounds like obviously, breathwork has been around for a very, very long time. And I’m curious, are you able to dive a little bit deeper into the origins and the history of breathwork in particular, the style that you practice?
Claudia Amarsi
Yeah, I mean, breathwork is a generic term for any time you are being intentional with your breath. So there are elements of yoga or Qigong or tai chi, which are 1000s of years old. And I find that more of those techniques tend to be a little bit more meditative is a way of active meditation using breath, they each have their benefits for sure there are practices you can do for a few minutes that will relax you or that will provide clarity, or perhaps bring you a little bit of energy. And then these deeper styles, or at least the styles that have evolved from either Holotropic or rebirthing. That rebirthing was developed I believe in the late 60s in California and Holotropic was developed in the 70s in California and again, those to be pulled are the two groups that knew each other.
So I know, you know, it’s in my understanding that they’ve influenced one another and then they kind of went their ways. And then now other styles have trained under the lineages. And then similar to Wim Hof made it their own, rebranded it added in their kind of philosophy and technique, but from those deeper styles, as I said earlier, it’s all about just accessing a different part of yourself getting more into the witness mindset and observing your thoughts, observing your body, observing the emotions, rather than just getting swept up into them, like we tend to do.
Lauren Hodge
You mentioned Yeah, kind of sorry. You go. Okay, go ahead. Are you interested in
Kendra Till
When I was at this beginning journey for myself with breathwork and different techniques, and just feeling so novice and not really knowing and I just remember that first experience and it was similar to Lauren’s you know, I did the breath work and in the, in the cold, cold therapy, cold plunge. But it was just truly that out-of-body experience that it’s like a detachment, but also an attachment at the same time. It’s really quite bizarre. But I remember the clarity that I got, as Lauren mentioned, the calm and the piece, you know, I resonate with that as well. And I just, I remember at that embryonic stage, thinking, wow, this is so profoundly impactful. And, but also, I will admit that I feel like I’ve kind of gone off the train a little bit in terms of just going down deeper paths into it. So, I guess I’m also curious about that, how does breathwork impact our mental emotional, and physical states?
Claudia Amarsi
Yeah, it’s interesting. So I always let people know when they come to work with me that they do their best to let go of any expectations or attachments, especially if you’ve done it before because you had some type of experience that you want to recreate or reconnect with. Because it’s different for everybody. And it’s also different every time you do it. So if you have done it before, I can almost guarantee that your next experience is going to feel pretty significantly different. And for some people, it shows up more physical, like the energy or the emotions or moving in the sense of movement, or muscle contraction, or sensations in the body, maybe some trembling, maybe some vibrating, maybe sensations in terms of temperature, or feeling heavy or light, while somebody else might have more of an emotional experience where that energy is coming through as either tears or laughter or even yelling.
Or somebody else might have what feels like a total out-of-body experience. And they have zero awareness of what’s happening in the room because they’re just so deep in this beautiful trance. And somebody else might come in with a super-activated nervous system. And what they need is just like a deep reset, and so they get a beautiful 45 to 55 minutes of bliss and euphoria. And like one’s not better than the other. They’re all super valuable and intend to provide people with a lot of insights, and a lot of nourishment. And then I’d say, and then come back, because the next time is gonna be different.
Lauren Hodge
Yeah, is there I’m curious about what Okay, so one time, I think whenever I did your workshop, I got like, the crab hands, I don’t know what they’re called. But like the crab hands? And is that like a blog emotionally? Or is that just like a Physiol? physiological thing? Or what is it called?
Claudia Amarsi
It’s called …, and why it happens to about a third of people who practice these deeper styles. And there are a lot of theories as to why it might happen. You know, some people think it’s a, perhaps an imbalance in certain minerals in the body. It’s an imbalance of oxygen or carbon dioxide. There are a few things that I advise people when that does happen. And usually, if it happens to somebody, it just happens the first few times, and it gets better and better until it goes away. I was one of the people who used to get it in the beginning and my arms would lock up and my hands would be up above my head like wild. It’s I always tell people that you have to trust it and know that it’s a very normal part of the process. I advise people to check in with their breath because there are certain patterns are there certain ways of breathing that can almost guarantee that you experienced technique, and that’s when we’re talking about their CO2 levels being off.
But then also and this happens, probably more than the co2 situation is checking with emotion because I’ve seen it 1000 times. There’s not a scientific explanation for this, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’ll be visible to me that somebody has an emotion that’s ready to move, either, you know, their chest is flushed or their lips are quivering. Or even, maybe they already have some fears starting to form before whatever reason in the moment, they’re not quite able to access that emotion and express it and it shows up like, like control, or like the inability to let go, or the inability to surrender that shows up is this contraction, the muscles, and then when they can tap into the emotion and express it they’ll be so locked up. And from one breath to the next. It’s just pure release and relaxation and calm. And like as that emotion is moving through, like, and it’s stunning to witness. And again, there’s no scientific explanation for that. But I’ve seen it too many times to doubt that that’s what’s happening.
Lauren Hodge
Yeah, and that is incredible. Are there I mean, that’s, that was my, like, initial experience with that. And then I’ve done some breathwork things here. And in Charleston, I’m actually in Maine right now, but in Charleston, and like, you know, it was different, but I was nervous. I was like, am I gonna get it sometimes I also get this agitated. I mean, I think the agitation is part of it. But I get resistant to doing breath work because of the agitation to noise. Like I have to be willing to surrender this agitation that you feel for a little bit while you’re moving into it.
Kendra Till
Yeah, that’s going to be a question I was going to ask, how would you guide like, what tips would you provide somebody who might feel a little bit of hesitation?
Claudia Amarsi
Yeah, because these things sound weird, right? Like this might turn somebody off, like, I don’t want my hands to lock up, I don’t want this patient.
Lauren Hodge
Feeling afterward, it’s so moving. And it’s like this surrendering of us, like
Claudia Amarsi
100%. And I try to, you know, when people come to work with me, I do a very thorough introduction, or people were just talking about it before somebody if they’re questioning whether or not to come to my brother’s like, these will be things that we talked about, and things that I tried to address that like, sometimes breathwork can feel edgy, for sure, like it might push you past your comfort zone. But I promise you that there’s so much beauty and exploring that space, and you are in control with breathwork.
You know, if you decide it’s feeling too much you can back off, you can slow down the pattern, you can take a break, and then when you feel ready, you come back to it. And my invitation is always to people like me but try one more breath. What would happen with one more breath? Like, is that an edge? Is that somewhere that you feel like you need to stop? Or is it the ego, perhaps just wanting to play it safe? Or not wanting to explore some of these depths within you that will be quite beautiful to explore, but sometimes take a little bit of courage. Yeah,
Lauren Hodge
it’s like reminding yourself, you are going to survive this. And on the other end of it. There. Yeah. An amazing kind of experience of feeling and release that you can feel. Yeah, I like I have
Claudia Amarsi
I know, something good is gonna happen once the technique starts kicking in. And I’m like, I’m so glad you feel that way. Not everybody feels that way.
Lauren Hodge
That is so true. And that was exactly so I should mention, like, after I had that experience, once I like, you know, was able to kind of surrender to that it did release, and it like I did have that like, sense of calm and peace and all of that afterward. I just got these things. So interesting. So I’m like, I wonder if I knew that time, I would have had all these blocks around like, you know, living in isolation, and COVID and all of these things going on. So I can only imagine what was going on, like emotionally or what was being processed emotionally.
Claudia Amarsi
So yeah, I love to share with people what we’re doing with these practices. It’s a somatic practice. So we’re getting in the body and we’re understanding where we’re just having an opportunity to let go of something or to hit to release or to move through blockages. I love the expression, our issues live in our tissues. You know, we’re using breathwork to find where these issues are potentially living and breathing them through. We’re using the breath as a vehicle for energy bringing new energy in and letting cold energy go.
Lauren Hodge
Yeah, and it feels so good afterward.
Kendra Till
For a lot of people that might potentially be because of physical pain or is more from an emotional mental standpoint.
Claudia Amarsi
I would say most people come for emotional thinking, but it’s beautiful. When I see physical healings occur they are kind of unexpected. You know, somebody comes in because they’re working through something from their past and, maybe they’ve done a lot of therapy and breathwork is a really beautiful compliment to therapy. For example, I’m thinking of this one woman who came in just working through a lot of personal issues, a lot of emotional stuff, had significant back pain in her lower back, had hydrocortisone shots, had physical therapy, and almost kind of resigned.
The fact that she was going to just have to live with his lower back pain, didn’t think, when she came to breathwork had a big experience, and realized that she had been holding on to something in regards to the relationship with her mother moved through a place of like deep forgiveness and acceptance and felt a pop in her back and realize that like there was an emotional component to that pain like that, that it was a contraction based on this old emotional energy that she just been holding tightly into her body. And afterward, she stood up and she’s like, My back doesn’t hurt anymore. This is amazing. And it’s fascinating to see when things like that happen.
Kendra Till
That is fascinating.
