Sense of Soul - Healing Through Breathwork

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

Today on Sense of Soul Podcast we have, Kate Crawford, she is a Certified Trauma-Informed Breathwork Practitioner, licensed Physical Therapist, and the CEO of Korē Breathwork. Kate has a Master’s Degree of Science in Physical Therapy, a certification in Pelvic Floor, as well as a certification in Trauma-Informed Breathwork (600+ hrs YACEP).  As a highly empathic person who has worked in the medical model, Kate witnessed firsthand that our emotional wellbeing directly affects our physical wellbeing. Kate has always been fascinated by the human body and has suffered from chronic pain and fatigue her whole life. Until she discovered breathwork, a perfect modality for empathic individuals. It allows and encourages us to tap into our own energetic and emotional wellbeing. This trauma- informed approach to care and heal through breathwork transformed Kate’s life and inspired her to create Korē Breathwork— so that others can heal their emotional and physical pain as well! Korē Breathwork integrates Kate’s years of experience as a Physiotherapist with this beautiful modality of breathwork. The crux of the work she does with clients includes creating a process for connecting with the body, listening to its wisdom, and creating lasting change. Follow her journey on Instagram and learn more at https://korebreathwork.com. Learn more about Sense of Soul Podcast: https://www.senseofsoulpodcast.com Check out the NEW affiliate deals! https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/sense-of-soul-affiliates-page  Check out the Ethereal Network! https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/ethereal-network Follow Sense of Soul on Patreon, and join to get ad free episodes, circles, mini series and more! https://www.patreon.com/senseofsoul  Follow Sense of Soul on Social Media! https://www.mysenseofsoul.com/sos-links

Hello, my soul-seeking friends. It's Shanna. Thank you so much for listening to Sense of Soul Podcast. Enlightening conversations with like-minded souls from around the world. Sharing their journey of finding their light within, turning pain into purpose, and awakening to their true sense of soul. If you like what you hear, show me some love and rate, like, and subscribe. And consider becoming a Sense of Soul Patreon member, where you will get ad-free episodes,

monthly circles, and much more. Now go grab your coffee, open your mind, heart, and soul. It's time to awaken. Today on Sense of Soul Podcast, we have Kate Crawford. She's a certified trauma-informed breathwork practitioner, a licensed physical therapist, and the CEO of Coray Breathwork. Kate is a highly empathetic person who has worked in the medical model and witnessed firsthand that our emotional well-being directly affects our physical well-being. Kate has

always been fascinated by the human body and has suffered from chronic pain and fatigue her whole life until she discovered breathwork, a perfect modality for empathetic individuals, which transformed Kate's life and inspired her and inspired her to create Coray Breathwork so that others can heal their emotional and physical pain as well. So please welcome Kate. I'm so excited to talk to you today. Yeah, I'm so excited about our conversation. Yeah, I'm in Colorado. Where are you at? I'm on the East Coast of Canada. Oh, are you? Okay.

East Coast. So I'm right above Maine. Okay. I have a cousin that lives over there who I met through our Canadian ancestry. Okay, nice. I was listening to your episode with Andrea Menard. Yes. And I heard you guys talking about it.

It's super interesting. I loved that conversation. Oh, she's so wonderful. Oh my gosh. I just love conversation. Oh, she's so wonderful. Oh my gosh. I just love her. Yeah. But so just to start off, I wanted to ask you about the name of your business because I did see that there was some history behind how you decided to name that.

And so that really caught my eye too. So, because I love to talk about goddess energy, Just the divine feminine is rising so much. So true. So yeah, tell me how you came up with your business name. Yeah, so I heard the term Coray Energy on a podcast at the very beginning of my decision to leave traditional healthcare. Like I was listening. I forget what the context was. I forget what podcast it was, but this woman was on there talking about Corey energy and

connecting how Corey Persephone was often referred to as Corey, especially when she would like, so Greek mythology. I don't know if you're familiar. I was listening to this podcast and then I don't know much about Greek mythology, but this word just kept like coming up for me. So I did a deep dive into Persephone and her story. And I was like literally going through such a similar experience of, of that story, right? Like this, you know, she's like, I don't know what they call her, like the goddess of spring. And she's like the queen of the underworld. Do you know what I mean? So she's got like this beautiful duality and she was tricked and there was all this terrible trauma that happened to her. And it was like her connection to her mother.

Her mother was like scouring everywhere trying to find her. And then it was like this connection with her father and it was this whole thing and I was just like oh my gosh like this is totally the energy that I'm embodying right now a lot of my healing journey has been kind of like diving deep into my familial and ancestral trauma that I like hold in my body um and I was just like, this is perfect for my business name. So the Coré, when I talk about Coré, I'm really talking about like this, this renewal, this rebirth, this, this opportunity to do this in like every moment if we choose to, and just like the awareness that your body is always encouraging you to like come back

home to yourself. I love that so much. And just to make clear, cause I don't think that you mentioned what does Corey mean? So Corey, and the reason why I chose it is because it's oftentimes Persephone was referred to as Coreyée in the spring. So that country, yeah. Okay. So the word Corée is just also reference. It means heart. It means heart or heart. The direct translation is heart. Um, but Corée, they just, you know, that's what they, they called her. That was like,

Coray. So it's just, that's nice. And I like it better. I love it. And I love that it's Kay, just like Kate. A lot of people are like, is it cool? Like strengthening? Like, is it for Kate? Like, and I'm like, no, no, here, let me tell you the story. It's really beautiful. I absolutely love it. Yeah. I love stuff like that. Because for one, you're right. There's always like this dark mother aspect of many of the goddesses. So this has been a huge part of my journey. It's actually one of the last chapters of the book that I'm doing. And what I had discovered was so crazy, actually. I'll probably take this out because I'm sick of talking about it really. But I put together that dark mother. Every time I was reading this book, Holly Ma is considered a dark mother. He is considered dark mother, Lilith, Persephone.

I could go on and on. Mary Magdalene's even considered a dark mother. There's all of these women, my dog's barking, women, yeah, women, goddesses that, you know, are connected to this darkness, which is easy to me. And so one day I'm reading this book called Kali Ki Reiki by Raja Srimad. And every time I was seeing dark matter or dark mother in her book, I was seeing dark matter. Well, it's interesting because so many words go back to Greek. Seriously, it's all Greek to me, like literally, as you said, I knew nothing. But you know know what matter actually comes from other okay so here I was like I'm like this is weird so I've been studying scalar energy which is sometimes compared to dark matter like the life force energy around every cell that gives us our physicalness, our body. I'm like, that's, it's a huge part of creation.

And so I'm thinking that's so interesting. So I don't know, I just that was something that had I had put together, but there's always this darkness around the woman's story, unfortunately. And I think this is just the narrative that's been told for so long so how do we you know move into this new you know energy this consciousness of the divine feminine rising and and making us more in light rather than in dark you know right yeah and I think I look at that as is like um a choice in a way you know what I mean? So a big part of my journey is, has been learning to live in my very open and empathic, right? So everything is a feeling to me. I love how you dive into words and their meaning because words are so important to me. Like when I can finally have a word to describe how I feel, it's like, it's so amazing. I love it so much. So

I always kind of bring it back to a feeling like, how am I feeling in this moment? Am I feeling heavy? Is there heaviness there? Which has kind of like been my baseline for a lot of my life. And as I have started to cultivate this lightness in my body, which has been me tapping into this feminine, right? Like, you know, how can I move forward in the lightness? You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's this beautiful choice that we, that we have, that we don't, I think a lot of people feel like they don't have, but they do. I love this. You know, I'm saying, so when I first discovered I was an empath, that word kind of gave me freedom. That word explained a lot of things about me. Yeah. Because I had been calling myself codependent. And when I was in therapy, I was like, God, you know, I'm like the definition of codependent. I'm an enabler. It's all around me. It's genetic. You know, I looked up to the

women in my family wanted to serve just like they did. And, you know, that everybody in front of me and be the martyr. And I honored that. I thought it was just so beautiful to be so selfless. And yeah, I just, I lost my shit trying to be like that. In therapy, it was one therapist. She actually said, maybe stop calling yourself codependent. And she goes, I want you to look at the word empath. This is like a decade ago. And I remember looking and I could find like

maybe one Pinterest on it or something. I mean, there was very little on the topic at the time, but it was like, oh my God, this is me. I've been this my whole life. Yeah. Yeah. No, it, it, it explained a lot for me. I think I had a rougher time with that knowledge because in that moment, I was just like, how am I going to make this life work? I wasn't made like nothing was working on like an emotional and just like I was in survival mode 24 seven. But I'm just like, oh, my gosh, like this doesn't work. How is all of these decisions I made going to work?

You know, like I I really spinned. It was very kind of chaotic in my brain for a little bit, but again, you know, it's always dropping down and coming back to like, okay, well, how do you feel? Right. How do I feel? That's a great question. Let's just keep going based on that question. Oh my God. Are you my twin in Canada? I think we are know I do you know that I used to literally explain it as spiraling out of control that's how I just got chills like 24 7 it was just like I just couldn't find my footing and my footing was me I just didn't understand that I didn't understand that it was just like I just needed to like come to myself. And there's so many of us who are just really trying to find that footing and that grounding in who you are, which is just this beautiful, wide open, empathic being who is just so filled

with creativity and love. And it has not been an easy journey, but it has been a beautiful one. Oh my gosh. I love that. So that is so crazy because I do also remember, you know, seeking outside everywhere, trying to figure out what's wrong with me. Maybe this outside of me will help me or that, or that, you know, and you're right. It was all inside of me all along.

So, you know, I'm also a body worker. That's been part of my journey and, you know, Reiki master teacher that I feel and that I know it's all energetic. Like there's so much more than just the physical, like my background is in physical therapy. And I always knew all this other stuff about the body because I could feel it, right? Like I could feel it for myself, but before I had, you know, solid energetic boundaries, I felt it for like all my clients. And, you know, when I would work in private rehab, sometimes I'd see like 38 people a day, like it was ridiculous. Right. And so it was just like so much information, which didn't help either. Yeah. That's how I think I validated it. When I looked up the empath, like definition,

I was reading about it. I'm like, oh, this makes sense. I mean, how many times that I come home with a headache when my client was talking to me, I thought it was crazy. I know. I know. Well, you know, crazy. That is the term that is used. Yeah. Yeah. I totally thought I did. But you know, I I want to ask you because I know for myself then I kind of reflected on wow I've been like this since I was little you know I remember I was such a cry baby and everyone making fun of me I was so so sensitive were you like that as a child I was so, but I think I recognized very early on that anger was an emotion that was like more acceptable maybe in a way. Like I was always known as like the angry, I was the angry kid, right? Like every relationship I've been in, like with my parents, with my siblings, with my partners, you know, I was always like too angry.

Yeah. Okay. And I think I really, I hid behind that for very forever, for a very, very long time. My relationship with the emotion of anger is fascinating and I love it now. It teaches me so much, but I lived in anger for pretty much my entire life. It just felt safer there. I read something on your website about you describing feelings and you put anger as inflammation and you were talking about it. And one of the things you said, this actually was one of my questions to talk about anger, because I loved the way you described it. You said redness, swelling, hot to touch. I mean, stiffness, you know, obviously lack of movement, but it's so interesting when I was reading these things, I was really feeling it. I was feeling, I was like hot to touch, anger is hot to touch.

Yeah. They're the same same it just made me think of yeah it changed my perspective yeah because you just think pain would be hot to touch for all of these things that's what I was thinking I was like anger is all these things too yeah and what is so fascinating to me so I love taking the physiology of a diagnosis and then turning it into like a beautiful your toe, your brain feels pain. The brain is like, okay, we're going to send some nice new blood flow in there. We're going to like, we're going to protect the area. We're going to clean everything up. And once your toe is better and the tissue around it has healed up from all this lovely inflammatory processes, everything goes back to normal. Right? So it's like, it's like moving through healthy anger,

right? Like healthy anger looks like that. You get triggered, something happens. You, you go through your process, whatever that may be. You put yourself on timeout, you do some breathing, you scream into a pillow, you move through that energy, you come back and you're just like, okay, what's happening here, right? When you get stuck in chronic inflammation, the body is just stuck in this chronic state of trying to fix, fix, fix, fix, fix, fix, we're trying to fix. And it's the same as like people who are in kind of like this chronic ragey anger, you know what I mean? So the mechanical and the physiological processes of inflammation are the exact descriptors of anger. Wow. So we look at anger. So that's a

great place to start. Like if you are, I mean, great place, people don't want to feel their feelings. I get it. This is, you know what I mean? Like I know the benefit to it. I also know how patronizing this can probably sound to someone who is stuck in chronic inflammation, but oftentimes chronicity in the body does not all belong to you. Yeah. Chronic pain is not all yours, my friends. It definitely is not. There's patterns there and there's lots of stuff going on and it just offers you an opportunity to kind of like dive a little deeper. So, and I love that. I saw that also that you, so I have ADHD as well. And so part of my original treatment was doing cognitive therapy, which was so just mind blowing. It's probably one of the reasons I was able to truly connect with awareness just because I was tracking it throughout my day and becoming aware

of my emotions, if they were mine or if they were someone else's and 90% of the time they were not mine. No. When I first started actively clearing and just coming back home to like, what my own energy felt like, what my own sense of being felt like, I was just like, 90% of this is not mine. And there was such a sadness there. Like I just a sadness in like, this really like loving, forgiving way. I was just like, oh my gosh, you poor, like just, you know, I just, I had so much more self-love and compassion for like the version of me who was just like in survival mode 24 seven, who didn't understand what was happening. You know, like it was that for me was the great, the greatest gift I could have ever given myself. And I just really started tuning into this part

of my being about two years ago, two, three years ago, like really being like, okay, I'm going to take, I have, I have full agency and control over how I feel all the time. Like, this is what I want. This is what I need. And you said it's a choice. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. I mean. I'm in the same exact relationships that I had before. They're completely different. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. When I look back and I think of the amount of shit that I used to put up with and do to what it is now. But you know, when you change everything around you changes. I say that all the time. And it's so true. Just saying it. I'm just like, it's so true. Like I feel it everywhere. I can breathe easier. It's just a really amazing awareness to have

and to believe it. You know, you can like think and say things, but like, I know it to be true. I feel it in my body. It's the only way forward for me. I remember I also around that time was in Al-Anon and I was reading lots of books on boundaries, actually book boundaries and doing the book book and I could tell you everything about boundaries but I was not actually living with those concepts I was not demonstrating it I didn't have boundaries but I could tell you all about them yeah yeah finally started to make that space right and let go of everybody else's things and start. I had the space to be able to work on boundaries and understand and use the concepts, but I just had so many people's stuff

that I was carrying around. There was no space really for me. It was quite freeing when I finally did. But, you know, I remember at the time I had three kids in three different schools, one newborn, my dad was, he died around that time. My best friend had died right before. I had every reason to be extremely stressed, right? Spiraling out of control because I was the one that kept everybody up. Right. And I had no real support system. I just was everybody's actually my only support system. One of them, well, they both had died. And then the other one had just moved to Washington, literally about to lose my, well, I did. No, I wasn't literally, I did. I lost my shit.

Yeah. And it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I remember even saying one time I felt stripped of everything in my life that I knew, but that was like the best thing that ever happened to me. I know. Yeah. It's like, it's like, you can just kind of start from this really vulnerable, like fresh place, fresh, maybe isn't the right word, but you're just kind of like, you've got no choice, but to move in the direction that like is more aligned. Mandy used to always say you know when you hit rock bottom there's only one way up from there. It's true. Yeah or you know it's time to do different I was like that one too you know you just do something different? Yeah. And most of that work was inward. Almost all of it was really.

Yeah. Yes. I started in a similar place with therapy. I went through a really hard divorce and my kids were very young and I had started this healing journey prior to that. That was four years ago now. But I had no choice but to listen to. I just remember I finally picking myself up off the floor about like week six or eight. And I could just my intuition was just so clear. And so like, I just all I could do was listen to it. There's nothing else I could do. I hadn't eaten. I hadn't slept. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't go to work. I was just like laying on the floor. And my therapist was like, I think it's time to just like, you're just going to like get

up off the floor now. And you're just going to start to listen and like move forward. And I mean, that was a bit of my voice and her voice, but oh my gosh, that intuition was like crystal clear. It was like, eat this, do this, try this, do you know what I mean? And I was just like, okay, right. That's what we're going to do right now. Yeah. So one of the big things for me when it came to becoming aware of that voice was I was doing the cognitive therapy because I was trying to get off all the meds because I was on so many

meds. It just was just numbing me. And so I was no good in that numb position. I mean, sure, I wasn't stressed. You know, I didn't have any pain per se, but I just couldn't feel anything. And so I wanted to feel something. Here I was this emotional person that couldn't even cry anymore. I mean, that's not who I am. So she says, go to a mindfulness class. And so I go and the whole time, all I did was

talk shit to myself. And I, in that moment, I heard myself for the first time I became that witness. Yep. Yeah. Which is it's that's huge. I still come back to that. There's oftentimes where I'm just like, okay, okay. You're doing it again. Another thing was, I remember her telling me, Shanna, breathe. And I was like, yeah, that's not breathing. And I was like, oh, well, she's like, yeah,

maybe a little more, but yeah. Sitting with my breath for the first time, that's where the space, that's where the choice can come in, right? That's why I love breath work. Like it is just, if you, it is that modality is non-negotiable for me. If you really want to learn to listen, like really listen, you know, like if you are

really serious about just getting to know yourself on like a soul beautiful level, the breath is just the best modality. It's so wonderful. Yeah. And so thankfully with my little one, I was, you know, really learning how to breathe and take care of myself and all the modalities I was learning. So she learned that. And sometimes, I mean, even when she was like two, three, four years old, little, I would hear her take these really deep breaths throughout her day. And I was like, damn, she breathes better than most adults. I mean, it was amazing.

Do you want to know something crazy? So children breathe beautifully. They have no mechanical breathing issues. Guess when tightness in the diaphragm starts? Probably about seven. When they start school. Yeah. Yeah.

When that beta brainwave goes out the door and they start to move into their ego. Yeah. Hey listeners, did you know that Sense of Soul has a network of Lightworkers affiliates program? Now you get to work with one of our inspiring guests. And I'd like to introduce you to one of our affiliates. Hey listeners, this is Jennifer from The Soul Experience and host of the podcast The Soul Traveler. I'm here to tell you about the most profound method of inner work that somebody can do while on a spiritual path. It's called quantum healing hypnosis. In a single session,

you will revisit your past lives. Your subconscious will come forward to scan your body looking for blocked emotions and health concerns and then your higher self will answer the most important life questions you have. Your session is audio recorded, so you can play back all of the advice from your higher self. And you know you can trust the advice because it's coming from that part of you that is connected to Source. So if you're ready to take the next step on your spiritual journey, then visit me online at thesoulexperiences.com. And be sure to mention that Shanna from Sense of Soul referred to you. You can also go to mysenseofsoul.com and be sure to mention that Shanna from sense of soul referred to you. You can also go to my sense of soul.com and in the menu, look for the network of lightworkers. Now back to our amazing guest. I, so I literally had a hard time breathing.

Yeah. A lot of people do. Most people do. Well, I think it was part of the reason why I'm anxiety so bad, you know, that I used to having anxiety in my whole life. I don it was part of the reason why I have anxiety so bad. You know, I used to have anxiety my whole life. I don't have it anymore. But I think, you know, breathing is one of the reasons why I don't. I have this. And actually, so have you ever seen one of these? It looks like a dog whistle.

Does it just add a bit of pressure to the breath? Okay. Breathe back into it. Yeah. So you breathe all the way you know as much as you can like suck it all the way in and then you breathe all the way back out to it so you have no more and it's a necklace and i mean dude you do this like four times you're good yeah okay amazing i have never seen that before so they used to this, this is, this was an expensive one, but now they have them on Amazon and all over for a lot cheaper. Yeah. It's, it's really lovely.

It's so good. And so there's a lot of teenagers. I don't have any teenagers in the house now. I have three adults and then my little one but for a while there I had a lot of teenagers around me because my two older kids are only 21 months apart and I was recommending this right and left to these kids because they were like oh my anxiety is so bad I can't you know they have so much pressure and so much stuff on them you know yeah I do believe this and I wanted to ask you earlier, I believe everyone is empathetic. You know, I remember when I first learned the word empath, I thought it was like maybe unique just to certain people. But I just think that just certain people have an awareness of it. And I think there's a huge difference.

I think you and I are perfect examples of what it's like to be a healthy empath. Yes. What it's like to, you know, be an unaware empath. Yeah. And I think I always say this now that I, so I have an eight year old and a six year old and I started, I really started this journey because of them. I was a very unhealthy young mom. Pregnancy was not, I was like, when I was pregnant with them, I was like in my body for the first time from when I could ever remember. And I was like, this, nothing is safe here. Like we are all going to die. Like it was really bad. But I look at my kids. I've, I chose to take a huge step back from work. I was like, I, all I need right now is

just to be like with these little humans, like present with them. And, and then I look at their friends and I'm like all children are so empathic like every show that is coming in to this planet is so highly open and aware and wise and sensitive and beautiful and I'm just like this just further was just like yes of course we all have like not just a few empathic tendencies like we all are just these beautiful empathic like wide open beings and we just need to like foster a relationship no and I always ask like I'm a very active house my kids will be like something's moving around in that room. I'm not sure what happened, you know, or we'll see things that, you know, and I always ask them, like, how do you feel? Like, so that way they learn how to feel, you know, what's going on around them. I've always

asked them, you know, I mean, just, God, when they're at school, I remember my, I have a son with autism. I mean, you know, the lights, you know, have to be dimmed, you know, the sound, he can't be around crowds. The energy is too much. You know, there's all the things when it comes to all the senses that he's sensitive to. When I think about that though, in the same, like what is closer to soul than your raw empathetic energy that you can sense and feel around you? They're like angels on earth. They're the closest thing to like this raw, energetic being. Yeah. I love, so, and again, my kids are quite young and they are active and we're active in the community and like, we like to people, but then we also live in

the middle of nowhere and we have our quiet time. But I love hanging out with children. I love the energy of kids. A lot of their friend group have gotten these diagnoses, you know, their ASD or or their ADHD. And I just really like being around their energy when they're not in an environment that doesn't suit them. You know, just like, it's fascinating to me. It's just like, it's the best energy. Yeah. It really is. Out of all the people that I've taught Reiki to, my son, Ethan understands energy more than anybody. And the reason why is because he doesn't have the ego to say, maybe this isn't a real thing. Maybe I'm not really feeling this or experiencing this to be my, you know, very real to him. I love it. It's harder to teach adults this.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. No, my daughter's my daughter will, I have my little like morning routine that I do and she always like crawls into bed with me and I'll like bring her through, you know, like just connecting in with like these unseen supports that I kind of tune into throughout the day and we breathe and we connect into the earth and we just make, she just loves doing it with me. And, you know, she's still young enough. She just turned eight, but she's still young enough where she can be like, when I was younger, I had migraines and crazy headaches. And I don't have those anymore. But I get like this very intense awareness at my third eye that I've learned to not hate anymore. It's like this beautiful awareness and I kind of talk to it and it teaches me things. And my daughter has the same thing and she's always talked about this. And so, you know, I can talk to her about that where like, I didn't know what that was when I was younger.

It was the source, cause I wouldn't listen. And it was the source of my migraines and my headaches. And anyway, it's just, I get very emotional because I'm just so grateful for the knowledge and this path that I'm on. And the fact that I can just like teach my kids this very important part to, to their wellbeing, you know, I get emotional about it too. Cause I feel sorry for my younger self. I, Yes. And that's what it comes back to, eh? Like every single time. And then it just, I just get filled with so much love,

which is just really nice. Yeah. But you just want to spread it and help others. And I love that. Yeah. This is a stressful world. This is a very stressful world. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, right now, especially, this is the most important thing I think anybody can be doing is taking a minute to breathe. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I'm always like, please slow down. Just take a step back. Like nothing is 9-1-1, literally nothing in your life right now in this moment. Just like just take a minute. Yeah. So tell me about core breathing. Like what what is that what does your breath work look like this is something that you created yourself right yeah so the breath pattern it's just an active

an active breath pattern so it's in and out through the mouth with no space between the inhale and the exhale so the goal of the breath pattern is to really start to get energy moving in the body. I love to start a session by doing kind of like an easier, gentler, like body scan. When you're kind of going through the body scan with me, I have a chance to really tap into how your energy is feeling and where there may be some blocks. And I just kind of like, I do my own little energetic body scan, kind of tuning into the energy of the person. And it's just a nice way to ground and we clear and it's kind of like this little beautiful little ceremony before we do the active breathing. So you're really in your own element, you're really

tapped into like what your own energy feels like, which was just like the greatest gift for me. So I love starting that with a session. It's a lot of work that I do kind of like longer term with clients, but then kind of like the meat and potatoes of the session is this active breathing pattern. And then throughout the session, I will guide the breath to where that stuck energy is. And prior to this, you know, we have a good long 45 minute conversation about the history that you have with your beautiful being and your body, right? So I'm kind of tapping into

like where your pain has been and what the patterns are. And, and then yeah, we work to clear that. So the breath pattern itself is a, it's a variation of like that rebirthing breaths or just that active in and out through the mouth. But it's like shorter duration of breath session with the active breathing typically only lasts about 30, 35 minutes. And it's usually pretty specific. Like people will come to me and be like, I have had neck pain for this amount of time. And, and then we just kind of like tune into that. That's kind of like what a single session, a single session looks like. Can you talk on like the, the chemicals that are released in us when we're breathing? Cause I think that is so amazing to me, like the science behind breathing, you know, for the body biologically, because

when I, all the medicines that I was taking, you know, prior, you actually can produce by taking these very deep breaths or going into like a deeper meditation. I can't tell you how much your sleep will improve because you are producing melatonin rather than taking it or serotonin or, you know, trying to find all your dopamine hits. Yep. And this was the one as like someone who has a master's degree and like all the things that could go wrong in the body. Yeah. Breathwork was such a breath of fresh air because I was like, okay, we have this system. We have the respiratory system that literally is responsible for balancing all of the systems in our body. Right. Like, so most importantly, when we want to bring our nervous system back online,

we need the breath to do that. Right. So it's the breathing that's going to bring your nervous system back online. It's your breathing. That's going to help with your circulation it's your breathing that's going to help with your digestion right the diaphragm on a spiritual level the diaphragm is right at the midline of our body so that muscle so our main muscle of inspiration is called our respiratory diaphragm it is under voluntary and involuntary control So you can go for a run and your body can understand that you're going to increase your heart rate. You're going to need more oxygen in your body, but then you can also be completely asleep and your, that muscle works for you also, you know what I mean? So it's, it's keeping us alive. It is, it is our, our life force. Right. And so when I really started like geeking out on, and I have a whole

course just on this medicine, like the first thing I ever created. And I was like, I am such a nerd and I love it so much, but it really helps with everything. I mean, it's going to help with sleep. It's going to help with pain. It's going to help with pain. It's going to help decrease inflammation. It's going to help regulate the nervous system. You know, it's a wonderful tool to have in your wellness toolbox. Even if you're just doing like deep breaths in your car, when your kids are throwing raisins at one another, you know what I mean? Like breathing that I do oftentimes it's really going to increase the oxygen in the body on a physiological level that is going to feel interesting in the body. Oftentimes people will kind of feel like they're hyperventilating, but what it is, is it's just, it's extra oxygen getting into the body,

creating space where it normally wouldn't be. And it's, it's like this. And what I, what I kind of tell people, it's just like, it's, it's your energy, like what you're feeling. So sometimes people feel like tingling in their fingers, they'll get pain in places that they normally wouldn't have pain. One of the first active breeding sessions that I did was around my birth story. And I was a cord around the neck baby. And I could feel like I could feel tightness in my neck, I could feel the pain in my diaphragm. Like it was so crazy how I had like set this intention to work to release this certain type of energy. And my body was just like, okay, let's go. We're doing this. You know what I mean? So it is just this powerful modality that can be used to, I always tell people there's like breath work to like regulate your nervous system.

And then there's breath work to change your life. And I'm here for all of it. I love that. You know, I had mentioned I have laryngitis. Let me turn my cough. I've been so used to when I do have pain, I breathe into it, you know, and really I'm just giving it light, but I need, I've learned recently that I need to talk to it more. I need to find out what's, what it's trying to tell me rather just spiritually bypassing it

with light. Yes. No, I just got in trouble by doing this. So I have laryngitis. And so I'm pretty busy online. So I have three interviews a week. And then I also teach and I coach and I have circles and stuff. So I'm always talking. And I would take ibuprofen and take any time I had to talk yeah well that put me in the hospital with colitis I bet yep and I was like they were like looking at my like colonoscopy and they're

like wow you have a lot how long have you been in pain and I was like I haven't had any pain no and if I do I'm like I just breathe into it yeah yeah oops maybe I shouldn't have been doing that because I got really good at that right yes that is another side to it but I think that is where a diagnosis can be helpful. You know, the diagnosis is going to offer to you like a huge part of the puzzle. Yeah, it was a huge awakening for me. You just need to like, you need to spend some time with a little bit with the hows and the whys, which for someone who struggled with anxiety, because I've also struggled with anxiety, we can get really caught up in the hows and the whys, right? That's so interesting. Yes. So this is a huge thing for me because so many people have asked me like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. You were in so much pain. They were trying to give me so much medication at the hospital and I refused all. I'm like, dude, I'm much medication at the hospital. And I refused all I'm

like, dude, I'm good. Nothing is not that I have a high tolerance. I don't have a high tolerance. No empaths typically do not. It's so weird. Right. And so I do know that I've gotten pretty good at some of those tools. But some of those tools, you can't, you can't skip over, like you said, you got to think you've got a pretty clear message about kind of what to do the next time so that's good no it really really brought me back to my body yeah in so many different ways and so it actually was a blessing I thank you for sharing that that's really fun I'm just like I find those stories like so fascinating because it's all connected emotionally, right. And energetically. And I know even my eyes, I have to say that I didn't even know I felt like

shit before. That's how I say all the time I had this, I was telling you, I, they thought I had lung cancer. Like I was really sick and I, I recently lost my father in March and it's just been like this crazy period of grief and like trying to help and do the things. And so like, I knew I was sick, but I didn't realize like how sick I was. And I had gotten COVID in February and I knew that like pneumonia was typically a thing that happened after. And I was just like, you know, my dad was dying and it was like this whole thing. Grief has been just overwhelming for me in this way. But I, I finally went to the doctor. I was on antibiotics. It didn't get better. They finally sent me for a CT scan to rule out lung cancer. And it's this really random bacteria that I had in my lungs that like 90 year old people on their deathbed get like, it's a normal bacteria that most healthy, like immune systems will kind of work through, but where I've been depleted on like every level since my dad got sick in November, I was just like, this makes sense. My body fails in spectacular

fashion when I just like on every level, I'm just like, this makes sense. My body fails in spectacular fashion when I just like on every level, I'm just not when your vibrations low, I mean, your vibes low then. But I finally went on another round of antibiotics and I was like, holy moly, I feel good again. Like I, I forgot how quickly you just get used to feeling like shit. Like I forgot that it's just, it's easy to just feel bad all the time. Right. Like I can breathe again. I went for a run. I was like, I love life. Like, yeah, that's how I felt. Same. Yeah. When I got sick after my dad died too, I got kidney sounds. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're not both in battling like this crazy lung infection him not as much as me but yeah it's and again it's endlessly fascinating to me I've spent a lot of time with my body and

my body's just like please just rest and I'm like okay you know I want to say but maybe I'm wrong in eastern medicine it is the lungs and the kidneys that hold grief. It is. It is. It is. Yeah. Grief and sorrow, kidneys. A lot of people talk to me about adrenal fatigue. So I've done like a huge, like energetic deep dive into adrenal fatigue and they sit right on top of the kidneys and, you know, that's the end of the plan and how they communicate and balance. And it's just like, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so fascinating on an energetic level. It is. So I just had on Ashkahn Gupta. He has the Gupta program. Okay. He does, he does studies and stuff on that kind of stuff. He just did a study on fibromyalgia, which I had had, but then he just did. Oh my

gosh, I need to read that. Fibro is like so fascinating to me. You know what? I had fibro when I told you all those things back then, when I was stressed, losing everyone, I don't have any symptoms of fibro anymore. No, look, fibro is all energetics and emotions. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, absolutely. So he originally went into it because of chronic fatigue syndrome. Yeah. So I think it's along the same, you know, I think probably many autoimmune diseases, you know, I do. But then he was talking about, there's a COVID long haul study he just did, and it'll be out by the time I release this episode,

but it's also fascinating. So this stuff actually really does, you know, I mean, well, you and I are proof of it. I mean, we don't have to have a study where this is our, our testimony, you know, and our purpose of why we're even sharing in the first place. No, it's, it is everything to me. Me too. I'm just like, no, that's how I felt. And I was like, I felt like I was so spiraled in the darkness of chaos that I was like, if I can get out, anybody can. I say that to, I say that to myself a lot when I'm like questioning or, you know, being in a human body, I'm like, no, this stuff is like, it's important and it works. And just because it's not well, there's not a lot of

evidence-based research, but it sounds like this wonderful person is looking into that. It doesn't mean that it's not, it's not valuable and it's not going to like, it has completely changed my life. Right. Like when you're not in pain all day long, like just us having this conversation is helping me heal something. You know what I mean? Like I'm, I'm just going to feel completely different after this in a way that I'm never going to be able to feel how I was feeling before, you know, like it's just, and it's just keeping kind of like moving forward. And every time I do a session, every time I work with a client, I'm like, oh my gosh, like this is healing me just as much as it's healing them. And that's how it, that's how it goes.

You know, I feel like people who are talking about it and being vulnerable about, you know, how, you know, this wasn't something we just were gifted with all this knowledge. We went through it, you know, there's a lot of pain and suffering behind that and still going through it every day. Yeah. I mean, I just, you know there's a lot of pain and suffering behind that and still going through it every day yeah I mean I just you know I just realized I just put band-aids on my pain by you know by breathing light into it which I thought I was doing a good thing but yeah I love what you said

I'll never forget that you know that I knew the test results of doing any of the work, which totally was the kind of student I was. There you go. See, it's just a lovely pattern, Shannon, that's just coming up to be cleared. Yes, coming up to be cleared. I mean, in a very aggressive, collidus way. Oh my gosh. I hope not ever again.

Well, thank you so much for coming on. I enjoyed our conversation so much. I feel like we could be friends for life. And if I ever come to Canada, I will have you come out of your, your side of the woods. Is that where you are? You're not in Germany. So I'm like, you talked about the Acadians. Yeah. I am like right in the middle. Do you know where that crosses the deportation cross? Yeah. Mem yeah Memrim Cook I'm in that that's right where I live the Bay of Fundy it's

beautiful are you from there no no my mom is she is a Laurison from England my dad is a Crawford from Scotland, but Nova Scotia. Yeah. Nova Scotia. That's where all of them from some Cajun, right. You know, that's very, very interesting. I mean, the people that I've met through my ancestry, we have spiritual connections. It's like, you know, that they like waited for us, you know? Yeah. Yes. And one of them lives real super close to you. So I hope to visit him one day. Yes. Well, please let me know. Do you actually also like have a physical place to work at, or do you just do online sessions? I do both. So we just moved actually out to this beautiful old farmhouse right on the Bay of Fundy. So I have been doing some in-person's an option to do like in person or, and sometimes I'll go to people's houses.

So Bay of Fundy. Yeah. Highest tides in the world. The tide goes out for two miles. Oh my goodness. All right. Well, nice to meet you. Thank you so much for the conversation.

I loved it. Yeah. Can you tell everybody your website one more time? Yeah. So my website is corebreathwork.com. So K-O-R-E breathwork.com. And you can find my freebie on there and all the ways to work with me and lots of words. I have so many words in there on my website. I loved your website. It's very informative. Thank you so much. This is so wonderful. Thanks for listening to Sense of

Soul Podcast. And thanks to our special guests for joining me. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at www.mysenseofsoul.com, where you can work with me one-on-one or help support Sense of Soul Podcast by donating to my coffee fund. Thanks for listening.