Self Love through Breathwork

 

Self-Love through Breathwork

Through consciously connecting to my breath within my body I’ve come to understand myself better, to care about myself more, to listen to my feelings, honour them and to start putting myself first… this I’ve realised is the foundations of what people call self-love!

There is so much that we can do to love ourselves more, from self-care, practising gratitude, personal growth, self-compassion, setting boundaries, speaking our truth, and expressing our needs, as well as seeking support from others. I advocate for all these practices, and I want to talk about a couple of them that I’m currently working on myself and are making a big difference for me.

Setting Boundaries and Speaking my Truth

I’ve become more aware of myself, my feelings, emotions, what actions and experiences in my day-to-day life feel good, what doesn’t. Over the last year or so, setting boundaries and speaking my truth are the aspects of looking after myself that I’ve intuitively identified as needing my attention and growth. This is the healing path that I’m on and that’s because it’s the path for me that needs the work. It could be different for you and the next person.

I’m practising saying Yes and No in relation to what I need and what I am comfortable with and I’m noticing that the more I’m serving myself this way, the feelings of guilt and anxiety for doing so are reducing and that by doing this I’m actually serving others as well, when I set my boundaries and speak my truth from a place of love and authenticity it helps me to rise into my power and it helps the other person rise into their power too.

Something I’m becoming more aware of is that having weak boundaries and giving too much of yourself can also be detrimental to others, as it can disempower them and lower their confidence. On reflection I can see how in the past it has also led to me feeling taken advantage of and feeling like a victim, all because I had failed to assert my boundaries or speak up about how I truthfully feel. Taking accountability for this is a huge step, as I take responsibility for myself, I am learning that that I am the one who can truly make myself happy by loving myself in all the ways I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. And this of course effects so much more, remember that phrase we often hear - that you can’t truly love another until you love yourself… it’s so true.

I’m not saying any of this is easy… far from it… it’s confusing and worrying and I’m not getting it right all the time, but is it worth it? Yes absolutely… and I’m not saying there aren’t times when I don’t put people first, of course I do but I try to do it more on my terms so that I’m looking after myself as well and it is making me feel stronger and happier.

I’ve also noticed something else beautiful, if not a bit annoying!... in that if I’ve failed to listen to myself and speak the truth in how I really feel or let someone take from me what I’m not comfortable with then an issue has arisen soon after - the universe has served me a new situation, a new challenge, which has been even more uncomfortable for me and I have had to set a harder boundary or speak a more difficult truth, knowing that if I do it right this time, in my own power, then I’ll grow and I won’t need to be taught the lesson again, for the time being anyway. It’s not easy but it honestly seems to be working!

By coming back to my breath, practicing breath awareness techniques and by exploring myself more deeply though Conscious Connected Breathwork, I’m finding that I’m able to gently find my way and make some progress, growing in happy and loving ways.