Breathing into the Unknown

You’re tense, you’re panicked, and Fear is breathing down your neck. What now?! Don’t freak. Breathwork coach, Daniella Rabbani, is on deck. We’re about to stare your fear right in its ominous face. Take a deep breath. Never know, you might turn around to see a kitten instead of a monster.

Do you hold your breath when you’re afraid? Yea me too. It’s natural and probably a good idea if you’re encountering something that’s really really gonna hurt. Holding your breath is a self-defense mechanism built to help you disconnect sensation to your body. It’s a tool, for sure. 

Here’s the thing about fear: it’s natural. Especially when you’re out to live rich, as I know you are or else you wouldn’t be reading this. Fear can be a roadmap to a life beyond our wildest dreams if we let it. If we let it! So how do we make friends with it (read: stay connected to our body experience) in order to create a rich life?  

First, we have to understand it. The mind is naturally afraid of the unknown, of judgment, of change - the very things that are intrinsically linked to our success. The survival brain knows that it can live under current conditions even if it isn’t thriving. And it does not know the value of living well (until it does).

So we hold our breath when things feel out of our control, or even when we take the initiative to change things. What happens when breath is held or shallow, though, is that it creates tension and even pain in the body. As the old adage tells us: “the only way to heal it is to feel it”.

Pain, like fear, when felt fully can be a portal to bliss and transcendence. And where do our good ideas lie? Where is our courage? Right in those pockets. 

Instead of thinking our way into right action, I always find acting our way into right thinking to be a lot more doable. So here’s a tool: breathwork. 

Find at least ten minutes and a quiet spot to devote to befriending all part of yourself, even your fear, and breathe. It can be as simple as following your breath. Delighting in its mission to fill you with life. Follow it down to your sex and then out into the world. Close your eyes and recognize all the parts of your human form that feel tight and all the parts that are open and free. Breathe. 

And when you’re scared in your everyday life (which will inevitably happen as you move in the direction of your dreams) hold your heart. Remind your body that indeed you are safe and it’s okay to breath. To feel even this. And yes that, too. The more space we create within ourselves, the richer the experiences we allow ourselves to have. Yum. 

For deep excavating and emotional release, feel free to reach out to me for one-on-one breathwork sessions. It would be my pleasure to guide and witness you expand into your abundance, which is indeed your birthright.