Breathwork
auidos
Breathwork
auidos
The Evolution so far...
The very beginning probably began in my bedroom aged 16 mixing euphoric trance music on vinyl turntables to try escape the hell of my awkward teenage mind, this love of sound was put on the back burner while life took over and began a live in relationship with the Philippines.
Years later after many experiments in lifestyle design (with varying degrees of success) I ran into bodyworker Lux Cochrane in Chiang Mai, Thailand, who introduced me to kundalini yoga and the world of breathworking.
I'd been DJ-ing my own meditation sessions back home in the UK by mixing delta brainwave music into varying length sets and found them quite effective at helping me tread the thin line between delta (sleep state) and theta (deep relaxation) that meditators strive to arrive at. Not months after this I crossed paths with Pi Villaraza at his eco community and the inner dance on the island of Palawan.
After feeling the power of lucidity experienced through inner dance, It had occurred to run breathing over the top of musical scores to deepen the conscious trance invoked by the modern day shamans of the inner dance world. These initial tracks were the saplings of what's being worked with today.
Taipei
Years after this and quite a deviation from the path I began working again in Taipei with yoga teacher Ted Leshnick of United Yoga, to develop something loosely based on musical breathwork yoga. It involved a breathwork wave at the beginning some long Yin yoga stretches in the middle, and another breathwork wave at the end. It appeared to be slightly similar in nature to Holotropic Breathing, the work of Stanislav Grof, and so we called it "Holo yoga". It received very good feedback.
Philippines
Another year on and back int the eco community of Palawan, the track I'd mixed for the breathing sessions surfaced again in Bahay Kalipay retreat centre. The arrangement was without the yoga in the middle though and more based in the inner dance style of dynamic meditation; lie back and let yourself be moved. Along with my then partner Nicole, we facilitated under the name "Mana breathing".
The feedback again was overwhelmingly positive - "inner dance on steroids" and inspired a little more work and depth into experiments with breathwork, and through the discovery of the Wim Hof Method by the mainstream it then became clear there was a lot of potential power in the practice.
Bali
I then moved to Bali and began to work more on the structure of it with groups and individuals, including elements of TRE exercises and yoga to get people into the depths of their body tissues and activate the body's in built Trauma release mechanisms. It began to be known as inner dance breathwork, or "idb".
UK
I then arrived in the the UK looking to further develop the process based on the feedback of people who experienced it. My goal was to develop a DIY physically detoxing and psycho-theraputic modality that can be accessed and followed by anyone, that only requires the ability to listen, stretch and breathe...
Portugal - Being gathering
We recently held our biggest group yet in Portugal at the being gathering festival, over 150 people went deep with our 7 facilitators using our newest mix featuring a fusion of world music, from the mountains of tibet, to anglican choirs, Native america flutes and Rhythms of Africa
It was personally a very moving experience, and the feedback was phenomenal. even the photographer was moved to tears.
"The workshop in Being was the one i was touched and shed tears of joy the most just by feeling the emotions and the transformational processes like no other workshop in my years of festivals before."
Axel Hebenstreit
Sound and Silence Festival - "Move" - 2nd-6th September 2017
The sound and silence festival for us is over, it was a gathering of unreasonable transformation. Unreasonable as it helped create shifts that were outside of our sphere of expectation. A focused gathering of people with a shared intention that gave a glimpse of a potential future. How life could be if living with intention was a universal practice. To find out more please visit their website here.
You can view some of the photos from the gathering here. 100+ people diving deep into themselves for a powerful self inquiry. Very touching, very humbling. Thanks deeply for all who ventured in.
Switzerland
I'm currently in Switzerland helping build a centre so we can do more of these experimental immersions, along with ecstatic dance, other sound healing modalities, natural movement and other types of meditation.
IDIT PAris
The latest immersion and training took place in Paris, myself and Awakened Belly Dance teacher Katie Holland took a group of 16 people through a deeply intimate process and facilitator training. It felt like the beginning of the next stage of something much larger and opened up an energetic conversation with our contributions toward a deeper sense of wholeness.
