Canberra Wellness Exchange

Dear all,

I’m involved in group that is piloting a free wellness and skill sharing program during the month of May to help connect Canberrans for improved mental health and wellbeing. There will be a range of sessions available for free, including Qigong, meditation, dance, yoga and many more. The current program with can be found here: https://canberrawellnessexchange.com/wellness-session-schedule

I will be running a nature-based breathing meditation on Thursdays at 12:30pm-1:15pm. If you’d like to join the session you can join via this zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83334874933

(More information can be found via the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/221496669304297/)

To give some background - we are part of a Mutual Community Aid network in Canberra; locals self-organising to support one another. A special mental health and wellness offshoot has formed out of this network ("Mutual Aid Mental Health and Safety" group). Those of us in the group are particularly passionate about wellness and have particular concerns about peoples’ mental health as a result of physical isolation during the pandemic. We have just launched a website ("The Canberra Wellness Exchange") with  wellness information for local people in Canberra. We are hoping this program can help provide an avenue for people to learn, share and connect with other Canberrans, and also access and experience a range of different wellness modalities and techniques that are very complimentary to mainstream care.

We will also be posting events on the facebook page, which you can find here: https://www.facebook.com/events/170126820953519/

Let us know if there are other offerings you’d like to see on the program.

Hope to see you there!

Best wishes,

Lisa

World Breathing Day - Breathing into Life and Community. Saturday 11th April

This Saturday 11th April is World Breathing day. To help celebrate this day and our breath, you are invited to join in on a special World Breathing Day event 2pm-4:15pm Australia EST. We all breathe, and we all breathe the same air; yet rarely do we stop to acknowledge how fundamentally important our breath is, or how it connects us to our planet and to each other beyond our differences. World Breathing Day is a day dedicated to breath and helps us reconnect to this reality.

Local breathwork practitioners Joshua Wrest, Swaha Devi and I will be co-hosting this session together. The session will explore the physiology of breath, and  facilitate three diverse practices combining conscious connected breathing, nature based meditation, nervous system regulation practices, play and embodiment exercises. The session will also include a collective intention breath and energy medicine meditation for world peace and healing.

During this session, there will be time for small group connection and sharing, and you will be gently guided through the following practices:

Physiology of Breath
Joshua will lead an exploration of the physiology of the breath. This session will focus on what happens to the body when the fight and flight system is activated, and how conscious breathing can activate the parasympathetic nervous system to promote emotional and physical wellbeing. The session will conclude with a demonstration of a practical, everyday breathing technique that balances the nervous system.

Nature-based breathing - guided meditation
Lisa will take participants through a guided nature based meditation that will have a strong emphasis on breath. Participants will experience ways they can use their breath and imagination - to connect to their natural environment as a resource for support.

Breath, Energy Medicine and Embodiment Practices
Swaha Devi will guide you through a simple ancient embodiment practice, to help you better understand your energetic and empathic boundaries. This will empower you to stay empathically connected and sensitive to others and the world around you, without taking those emotions and thoughts on as if they were your own. Swaha will also lead your through a breathing meditation and practice for reconnecting to joy and pleasure, to boost your immune system and oxytocin for greater wellbeing.

The event is free. You can sign up here:  https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/world-breathing-day-breathing-into-life-and-community-tickets-101998929544?fbclid=IwAR0K-xDe7K2GCQwmSIObamKm--Ma_pcJq0E_XRc0qB77P9Kvc5NK-xg1csI

And more information can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/2743220019061277/?active_tab=about

GUIDED BREATHING ACTIVITY & NATURE MEDITATION

Dear all,

In these times of uncertainty I wanted to send love and well wishes to you. [As well as a guided breathing and nature meditation audio - below.] The world as we know it has tipped upside down. Many people are traversing a lot of change, and trying to make sense of this in a short space of time. Everyone is processing and dealing with this in their own way, and I want to remind you that whatever you are feeling right now, is right. We are all unique in the way we experience the world and change – even if we also experience this as a collective. Amidst these changes, I hope you are able to find some space to be present to what is unfolding around us, and to acknowledge and hold what you are feeling with care. I’ve been feeling pain and hope for others; and sorrow and joy in my life - simultaneously the last days. It has been somewhat confusing – but that is my new normal right now. I’m hoping I can also find some space to be present and fall a little more into this, and the unravelling happening around us. My wish for you all is that you are able to tap into a space of deep care for yourself, your loved ones, and community right now, and that breath comes easily and freely to you as you navigate new ways of being. I think we all need to tend to our own, and others hearts like gardens more than ever before – and go gently on ourselves - remembering our human-ness. I hope your coming days are wrapped in many reminders of the wonders of life, amidst the change and challenges around us. Due to physical distancing needs right now I won’t be running any group or one-on-one breathwork sessions in person, but will transition to one-on-one sessions and breathing tips workshops online soon. Together with some other Breathwork practitioners we will run an online breathing event on World Breathing Day (11th April). Let me know if you are interested to hear more about any of these. If you’d like some support for your nervous system, you can click on the audio video below for a coherent breathing exercise - and a short nature-based meditation to help you tap into the supportive resources of our natural surroundings and your own imagination.

Best wishes and love Lisa

Nature-based meditation - with a focus on breath and water

Dear all it has been a unsettling start to the year. Words don’t really do justice to the extent of the damage that has unfolded this summer in Australia. There is such a broad spectrum of emotions being experienced around our country right now - all of which are valid. I’m hoping we can work together to support each other and create spaces of safety, care and connectivity. Now is more important than ever to be taking care of our minds and bodies - and each other. With this in mind, below is a nature-based energy meditation with a focus on breath and water to help calm nervous systems - and to send well wishes to affected areas. Hoping you are all safe and well supported - and taking care. Sending love. Lisa xo

Global Inspiration Conference 2019 - Breathing in the Desert

The Australian breathworker contingent at GIC (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay and Perth)

*Breathing life into all my cells and even the spaces between them*

That is what I am reminding myself as I allow the dust to settle - after time away at a breathwork conference in Joshua Tree National Park, California. Being at a conference with such a strong emphasis on the breath and meeting breathworkers from around the world was a delight. The experience left me with so many insights, learnings and inspirations about the power of breath and its transformational potential for our bodies, minds and worlds. When I first heard about this event (the Global Inspiration Conference, GIC) it seemed strange that a conference with such a strong focus on breath would be run in a desert, especially during the height of summer. But after a week at this desert gathering I became surprisingly appreciative of the piercingly hot sun and expansive dusty landscape. The stillness, beauty and subtle life beneath the harshness helped me to develop a different type of relationship to breath and breathwork, and to notice subtle details I hadn’t before. It helped me to more easily drop into discomfort, and to find the exquisite beauty and power held within that experience. It also helped me learn how to be more gentle with myself in dropping into nuances of those spaces, and to be more open to inviting life into my body even when it was difficult. The spaciousness of the landscape enabled me to tap into an expansiveness I hadn't experienced before in my body and which I deeply appreciated. A valuable aspect of the conference was learning how to take my explorations of breath into more joyful and playful realms, and finding deeper pleasure in breath.

I’ve come away from the conference more inspired about breathwork, and involved in several projects, including a program designed to help support people holding trauma, especially those from Refugee and Asylum backgrounds, and another program designed to teach Conscious breathing education programs in schools globally. I'm also very excited to be part of a committee that is forming to focus on Art and Breathwork.

After the conference I went on a week long road trip mostly through Arizona with two breathwork friends and then stayed with a dear friend in Sonoma. This trip was amazingly helpful in integrating learnings from the conference and allowing them to land within me. We travelled to Sedona, Grand Canyon and Monument Valley and reflected on the complexity of the social, cultural, physical and political aspects as we navigated this part of the US together. A kaleidoscope of memories from this trip have stayed with me. Above is a slide show that shows some glimpses of the road trip.

Over and out – with love, Lisa.

Nature-based meditation (Monday nights)

Every Monday night 5:30pm, join us outdoors in Ainslie for a guided energy meditation with nature-based themes.  For winter we have moved now from Mt Majura to a cosy lounge room with a fireplace at Taoist Embodied Healing space in Ainslie. Meditation by heart felt donation.  The NGO Abundant Water (providing fresh water through water filters to those in need).will receive 20% of your donation. Contact Lisa for more details. lisa.freedomtobreathe@gmail.com