Tag: Maggie Ostara

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Monthly Clarity Breathwork Circles

Mary Gaetjens
Mary Gaetjens

I have always loved breathing with other people. Right after I started doing private Breathwork sessions with Maggie Ostara, I also went regularly to her monthly Breathwork Circles. The energy of a group helped me to release on different levels than I processed in my private sessions.  When Maggie has moved to Sebastopol, I really missed her community Breathwork Circles.

So I decided to start my own Breathwork Circles in Emeryville with Mary Gaetjens. Mary and I had started trading breathwork sessions and after about six months we were so excited by our work together that holding Clarity Breathwork Circles just seemed like the next logical step.

We have been doing Breathwork Circles together for over a year now, and I am delighted at how much fun it is. I have to say I was a little nervous when Mary and I started out. Holding space for any kind of a group used to drain me, unlike my one-to-one work, which always energised me.

I found that holding a group space with Mary is extraordinary and fun. Mary is very psychic, although she thinks of herself as an empath.  I tend to be more grounded, although there have been circles when we have flipped roles and Mary was more grounded and I felt more connected to the higher frequencies. Holding such a large sacred space with someone else who is so intuitively gifted is a blast.

It’s amazing how every Circle is so different. Every Monday night each circle has it’s own special quality, weather, and phase of the moon. Every person that comes to breathe also brings their special essence with them and that is really what creates the special energy of each circle.

Sometimes everyone breathing seems to be in some kind of sync with each other and sometimes everyone is having a uniquely different experience. Some Breathwork Circles are more like a deep meditations and some are more about physical release.

We have been breathing in the same space since we started the Circles and I have noticed the space is already “set up” energetically when we get there. There have been times I have walked into our space the night of the Circle and the energy seems to lift me up, as if the invisible realms have already arrived. I really think that regular meditative work like breathwork, yoga and meditation gains a kind of energetic momentum that builds on itself when done in community at regular intervals.

If you want to try Clarity Breathwork our next circle is Monday, 3/5/12. Breathing is done lying on the floor so bring what ever you need to feel comfortable: blanket, mat, or pillows. We start the circle at 6:30, we are done by 9:30. Mary is doing a free yoga class before the Circle at 5:30. Call me at 510-601-9632 to make reservations. We keep the circle to 12 or less and we have been filling up fast so call as soon as you can.

It would be great to have you breathe with us!

Jeri Lawson is a Healing Touch Practitioner and Clarity Breathworker in the Temescal Area of Oakland, California.

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Breathwork Epiphany

Breathe StoneI have had several epiphanies in my Breathwork practice over the last five years. Insights that have fundamentally shifted my experience of being in the world.

One epiphany came to me while breathing with Clarity Breathworker and Trainer Andrzej Skwira. Part of the requirements to becoming certified as a Clarity Breathworker is to receive ten breath sessions with a man and ten sessions with a woman. I chose to do my ten “male” sessions with Andrzej.

My work with Andrzej was much more subtle, but just as profound, as the first 17 Breathwork sessions I had done with Maggie Ostara. You can read an article I wrote about my Clarity Breathwork journey here.

When I started breathing with Andrzej I was listening to CDs by Adyashanti and Eckhart Tolle. I had begun to sense a block or some kind of interference to being fully present and in the moment. Becoming more present became the focus of my work with Andrzej.

After each session with Andrzej, I felt a deeper, more tangible awareness. I also became more aware just how not present I was.  This resistance felt different at different times, during the Clarity Breathwork sessions and also in everyday life. Sometimes it felt like a fogginess. Other times I felt a tiredness and a sense of being bored.  And sometimes I felt like I was just slightly removed from my life. I found these experiences uncomfortable and frustrating and was very motivated to move through them.

During one of my later Breathwork sessions with Andrzej, I realized that I was resisting my resistance to being present. Bam! When I stopped resisting my resistance to being present, I instantly felt present and in the moment.

This was a subtle but radical shift with a very physical sensation, like my whole being just “clicked” into place. My senses felt sharper. I feel to this day that from that moment on I experience life differently, so much more clearly.

Weeks after this realization, I also found that just by acknowledging my resistance and my impulse to change whatever I was experiencing, I felt more compassionate and less judgmental towards myself everything and everyone in my life. It was really amazing and yet so, so subtle. It was like opening a door to a new level of being.

I decided to write this post after working with a Breathwork client who had her own life-changing epiphany in our sessions together. It is such a privilege to assist and witness these deep transformations. Breathwork is miraculous.