Time to Revisit Oneself: My Breathwork Visualization Experience.

Recently I participated in a breathwork workshop, so with only a blanket and a yoga mat in hand, I was off to a new adventure. This event took place in a yurt (a large round tent). I don’t usually do these spiritual things but my wife adores this stuff, so I agreed to give it a try.

The breathwork is exactly that: work! From my memory, the exercise resembles this; a series of long grounding breaths, followed by two breaths in, one breath out, in and out, then breath in and out as fast as you can and then leave out air while humming until empty. Stay on empty as long as you can and repeat the whole process 5 times.

Oh yes, and you should try to push your breath to the top of your head, weird but you feel it in your third eye ( brain ).

Now what followed was very interesting. The leader guided us through visualization and asked us to revisit ourselves in the past. Many years ago, at a youth conference I did this exercise and revisited myself in my home as a child. I loved it and was very happy to see six year old Ivan.

This time, I met Ivan as an 18 year old, full of dreams of the future, feeling ready to take on the world–little did I know what that would look like.

How perfect is that? I am retired from my job at the end of the month of May, and ironically meet myself pre-career!

The leader tells us to look deep into the eyes of our younger self and be grateful, forgive and encourage him. This is what I felt like saying: “You did okay kid. You turned out ok. You will lead a good life and will weather the storms and grow wiser. Young Ivan also told 60 yr old Ivan ” soon you will take some of that youth back, because in retirement you don’t have policies, and procedures to follow you regain some freedom lost in living a conventional, conforming to life’s expectations for 40 years. You can allow a kind of rebirth, a new freedom, a second chance to do whatever you want while you are still healthy.”

It was an emotional, tearful, but happy experience.

I would encourage people to give this a try. If you cannot at least try this, get comfortable, take deep breaths and listen to the favorite songs of your teenage years. Be mindful of what it tells you. You might relive some nostalgia. It might elicit emotions of joy or sadness or grief. Your songs are most likely associated with a memory , maybe a loss, a breakup or a great encounter. Embrace the experience, embrace life for, as you know, we cannot buy time

Breathwork and visualization
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