Wondering how breathwork can enhance the integration of your Ayahuasca ceremony experiences? Want to learn the most effective techniques to use? Read on spiritual warrior!
Ayahuasca ceremonies can lead to profound personal transformation, bringing about deep insights, new ways of being, and heightened states of awareness. However, integrating these experiences into everyday life can be quite challenging.
Enter Breathwork.
The good news is that the simple act of breathing can serve as a powerful tool and ally in plant medicine work. Conscious breathing can aid the integration process, helping teachings to “land” and allowing you to fully embody the lessons learned.
This article explores how Ayahuasca breathwork can support your integration process, and offers practical techniques and insights to make the most of your ceremonial experience.
Integration is the process of assimilating the insights and teachings from an Ayahuasca ceremony into daily life – making them real and long lasting. Without proper integration, the profound experiences can remain disconnected from your everyday reality, limiting their transformative potential.
As breathwork can help with spiritual ascension, it can play a crucial role in this process, providing a steady anchor to ground all you have gained from your interaction with the Spirit of Ayahuasca into everyday life, and a way to keep things real.
The shifts in awareness and new ways of being that Ayahuasca brings can really be quite overwhelming. Emotional upheavals, mental confusion, sleeplessness, discombobulation, and physical discomfort post-ceremony are not uncommon, making it difficult sometimes to hold onto the clarity and insights gained during the ceremony.
Breathwork techniques help to manage these challenges by calming the mind, stabilising emotions, and grounding the body, also helping with sleep (if you have worked with Ayahuasca then you’ll know it can be a real challenge to get any sleep!) and generally facilitating a smoother integration process.
Breathwork involves conscious breathing techniques that can balance out energy levels, prevent “ceremony fatigue”, support physical health, calm the mind, balance emotions, and ground the body. It’s when we are embodied that we can do the best integration work. The breath provides a bridge between the heightened states of awareness experienced during the ceremony and the physicality and practical realities of everyday life.
Breathwork helps to:
Extended exhalation breathing is particularly beneficial if you’re experiencing anxiety, an overactive mind, and stress after a ceremony. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the “rest and digest” response, which helps to promote relaxation and a sense of calm.
How to
Benefits
Heart Coherence Breathing is ideal for achieving emotional balance and mental clarity whilst engaging in plant medicine work. It promotes a state of coherence between the heart and brain, which can be especially useful for remaining present, open and heart-centred post ceremony as the medicine continues its work with you – it helps with integrating insights and maintaining emotional stability.
How to
Benefits
For a deeper look at Heart Coherence, you might like to check out the amazing work that the HeartMath Institute is doing here.
Nadi Shodhana, or alternate nostril breathing, is a yogic breathing technique which balances the left and right hemispheres of the brain. It promotes mental clarity and reduces stress and anxiety. It cools the body. Good for overactive minds and tropical climates!
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Benefits
Diaphragmatic breathing, or “belly breathing,” involves breathing deeply into the diaphragm to enhance oxygen intake and promote relaxation. This technique can help reduce stress and improve overall well-being, making it an excellent choice for post-ceremony integration. Belly breathing activates the Relaxation Response.
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Benefits
4-7-8 Breathing is a technique that promotes relaxation and quickly helps to calm the mind and body. It is particularly useful for reducing anxiety, making it easier to integrate the insights from the ceremony. It’s great for getting to sleep – I’d say it’s the best breathwork technique for that!
How to
Benefits
Box breathing is a technique that involves equal periods of inhalation, holding, exhalation, and holding again. Visualise or imagine you are moving around the four sides of a square, for a count of 4 on each side. It is especially beneficial for stabilising emotions and maintaining mental clarity during the integration process.
How to
Benefits
Sidenote: it’s been taught to Navy Seals to help them maintain calm focus on intense missions. So you can imagine how useful it can be in working in the realms of plant medicine!
Establishing a regular breathwork routine is helpful in a multitude of ways for effective integration. Dedicate specific times each day to practise, ensuring consistency and gradual progress. Start with 5-10 minutes morning, midday and night, then build up the length of practice and frequency for most impact.
New to breathwork? You might like to check out this great article for a deeper dive and helpful insights: Getting Started With Breathwork – A Beginner’s Guide.
Nasal breathing offers numerous benefits, including improved oxygen intake, boosted immunity, better sleep quality, enhanced heart health, and better mental health. These benefits are particularly helpful in dealing with ceremony fatigue and ensuring restful sleep in the days and weeks following an Ayahuasca ceremony.
By staying healthy and grounded through nasal breathing, you can better integrate the experiences and insights gained. In contrast, mouth breathing keeps you in a survival state/fight-or-flight response, limiting brain capacity and access to intuition and spiritual dimensions, thus hindering the integration process.
Pairing breathwork with mindfulness practices, such as meditation or journaling, can enhance the integration process. These practices complement each other, promoting a deeper connection to the insights and lessons from the Ayahuasca ceremony.
I would deeply encourage you to consider breathwork as a lifelong practice rather than a temporary solution. Regular practice helps to maintain the clarity, balance, and well-being gained from the Ayahuasca experience. In addition, there are numerous benefits of breathwork!
By consistently incorporating breathwork into daily life, you can embrace the transformation initiated by Ayahuasca, integrating new ways of being and heightened states of awareness into your everyday existence.
If you’re curious and want to experience the spiritual benefits of breathwork, these FREE trainings are a great place to start:
If you’re more interested in an in-person breathwork experience, check out Breathless Expedition’s nationwide Breathwork Events.
Breathwork is an invaluable ally for integrating Ayahuasca experiences, offering a practical and effective means to ground the teachings and embody the lessons.
Whether you’re embarking on your first Ayahuasca journey or your hundredth, integrating breathwork into your practice can help purify your body, clarify your intentions, and support the integration of new awareness and states of being.
This concise online program bridges the gap between ancient principles and scientific explanations. clear, simple, and immediately applicable to your life, due to 7 super effective guided exercises.
Experiences, expeditions and education to unlock your potential, open your heart and let your breath set you free.
Copyright © 2022 | Breathless
Copyright © 2022 | Breathless
