Thank you so much to today’s special guest: Chelcy Pine, a Yoga and Breathwork Teacher in San Diego!
I get so freaking stoked to introduce you guys to the things that bring light to my life, and Chelcy Pine is definitely one of those. I first met her when I took her Breathwork class with my dear friend Cassy (ILY!) and it was kind of love at first class for me.
Chelcy radiates good energy and love, and is also a no-bs real and powerful badass. (My favorite kind of gal!)
I’ve been excited to share with you all how powerful Breathwork is.
Like, holy crap. If you haven’t tried it, you need to. It has powerful mental and physical health benefits and is a game-changer for clearing through emotional roadblocks.
I’ve noticed that practicing has helped my breathing overall—I breathe easier afterwards, it creates space in the diaphragm. And it is such a powerful anxiety release. Our breaths are so intimately tied to our emotions that intentional breathing can release a lot of stress. (That’s why I’ve created this Breath-Centered Meditation online course, btw!)
I’ve done a lot of Breathwork since being introduced to it in my YTT, but I wanted to bring a real Breathwork master on here to educate all of us about it properly. And Chelcy immediately came to mind as the right one to ask!
Keep reading to hear what this breath queen had to say.
A little about Chelcy:
Chelcy Pine is a Kundalini Yoga and Breathwork Facilitator in San Diego, CA. She has been practicing and teaching these methods of healing for five years and has found them to be the most powerful and potent technologies in helping to break through physical barriers, emotional blocks, and even reprogramming the way we relate to our own minds and higher consciousness.
In herself she has found the ability to release subconscious patterns, clear past traumas and grief, and operate more from a space of truth and authenticity rather than from a space of fear and survival.
Chelcy’s Mission Statement:
“I am on a mission
to wake you up
to a higher state of consciousness
by utilizing one simple tool
that has the power to change everything:
your breath”
Enjoy my interview with Chelcy below to learn all about her and the practice of Breathwork!
Hi Chelcy! You are a Breathwork teacher, Reiki practitioner, Kundalini yoga teacher, and a poet. What led you to this path?
I always love this question because the way I actually describe Breathwork is that it gives you the ability to use breath to trace back to the root of a traumatic experience and transform that emotion into your power—to make it a diamond.
I started writing at a very young age and have a Bachelors in Poetry. IT was always a profound way for this introverted soul to process her experience of the world when it felt too heavy to manage. I suffered from Asthma and allergies (to nearly everything green outside) so there would be months at a time when waking up alone created severe anxiety, because I never knew when I was going to get triggered by not breathing and have to go to the hospital.
When I discovered Energy Work and Breathwork, I learned it wasn’t about me treating the asthma: it was about me tracing back to the first time I couldn’t breathe. It was about healing the emotional body that had led to a physical manifestation of suffocation.
I haven’t used an inhaler in almost seven years. Which is why I so strongly believe that the cause of suffering can simultaneously be the moment we give birth to our true dharma, and carve the power of our life path.
I was first introduced to you through your amazing Breathwork classes. How did you first discover Breathwork?
I actually had decided to do a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training without having any intention of ever teaching or without even knowing who the teacher was. In the first couple of weeks, she told me (without knowing anything about me, so I really believe this is the moment I started believing in “channeling”) “You should try Kundalini Yoga… it’s fucking weird, I think you would like it.”
She was right. I found it that day. And my entire life changed.
I started teaching Kundalini Yoga, and a woman told me to come try a Transformational Breathwork workshop. I remember at the time thinking “kundalini is the Breathwork.”
I had an ego death that night—I was in a room with 30 other people following this two-part Breathwork when it felt like every asthma attack I had ever had came to the surface. My throat got tight and my hands locked into themselves with fear and a woman rolled me over on to my belly and once I felt it was safe, I felt it all leave my body. Another rebirth.
I have never looked back since. I can’t imagine what would still be held in my body had I never discovered this modality.
Can you explain what exactly Breathwork is? How do you do it?
Breathwork is essentially a form of Breath Therapy: it consists of following a circular, connected pattern of Breathing (about a 3 second inhale and 1 second exhale through the mouth).
It replaces all other patterns of breathing that we experience when we experience dense emotions. By this I mean that Anger, Grief, and Fear all have their own Breathing Patterns. Breathwork is powerful to practice because the breath is connected and conscious and allows for us to reprogram the Nervous System in a way that quickly and effectively releases the suppression of these emotions in the body and opens up the lungs and diaphragm so that we experience deeper, fuller breaths even after the work is done.
What are the benefits?
So many! Physically, it improves the energy levels and oxygen levels in the body, helps to break patterns/addictions, balances the flow of energy in the body, helps to balance the endocrine system, helps to alleviate stress, respiratory ailments, and psychosomatic illness.
Emotionally, Breathwork helps to clear past traumas from grief, guilt, shame, anger. It helps to reduce worry and anxiety, connects us to our intuition and truth, connects us to SPIRIT, heightens awareness of self-sabotaging patterns so you can work through them, increases our JOY and GRATITUDE, lets us tap in to the ancient wisdom of the body necessary to heal, and relieves depression and negative emotions.
What can we expect to feel when we practice Breathwork?
You can feel an entire spectrum of feelings, sensations. Oftentimes, the body actually tingles or vibrates and may feel grounded for the first time or even like it is floating because so much energy moves. Because we are using the Breathwork to access stored emotions in the body, we may also experience the movement and release of sadness, fear, anger, or even joy!
It is very common to laugh, to yell, or to cry for a larger portion of the Breathwork session. This is ENCOURAGED when it is authentic, because the Breath is allowing for the body to finally process emotion that has been trapped for a lifetime in a healthy and effective way. You will feel the truth.
Do you know the origins of Breathwork? Where did it come from?
I studied Transformational Breathwork under the Foundation of Transformation Breathwork by Judith Kravitz, my teacher who developed this style nearly 40 years ago. She actually studied Rebirthing and Water Breathwork and drew a lot of her experience in to this Breath Academy. She used it every day for a year and was able to actually cure her own thyroid cancer without any Western treatment!
Her school is my favorite because it is the most informative, experiential, and intelligent that I found in all of my studies. I do believe a lot of Breathwork was drawn all the way back from different “Pranayama” Exercises under the school of Yoga and Kundalini Technology as well as different Eastern studies. But Judith Kravitz herself is American.
What are the most common questions or concerns you get from people who have never tried it?
I often get asked why it helps to release emotion and how it is actually creating so much sensation in the physical body! People are often VERY surprised, whether they have just heard about it or tried it for the first time themselves with me, at how powerful of an effect and how much awareness can come to them simply by breathing, something that we all do all of the time.
I often explain that if Breath is the thing keeping us alive and the thing we can only go minutes without, imagine what we would be capable of, or what our potential would be if we started there and enhanced that. It expands you in every way: physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally.
Often concerns of clients who seek me out and are unfamiliar with the work are that they don’t know if they are ready to face what the Breath might bring up, as far as old emotions, experiences, or traumatic memories go.
My response to that is this: that if your breath is what keeps you alive, it is ultimately the most ancient wisdom we have, and will only reveal to us what we are ready to face (whether we mentally believe that or not) and will only support us in getting us through, as it always fights to keep us alive and will only do the same in Breathwork.
You are definitely a powerful healer. How can we work with you? What are all the services and classes you offer?
You angel. Thank you so much. I offer a collective Breath community (online, via Zoom!) every single Sunday from 5:00-6:30 PAC: named Breath Church.
This is a group class where I set a theme, guide the students through about 40 minutes of Breath followed by a 10-15 minute Integration Period (stillness, or savasana) and then we process together afterwards in what I have called Spirit Council. This community is very special to me as Breathwork is a very deep and sacred practice, so processing together is powerful.
I also hold one-on-one and small group sessions out of a home office here in Golden Hill, San Diego. I facilitate Transformational Breathwork as well as Kundalini Yoga and practice Reiki Energy Medicine.
And I also lead Reiki Level 1 & 2 Trainings, in addition to a Seven Month long Reiki Mastership Academy. These are my favorite as of late—moving in to teaching facilitators how to facilitate!
Chelcy’s San Diego Teaching Schedule (as of 9/2020):
TUESDAYS
- 6 AM HOT HATHA at Indie Yoga in Ocean Beach
- 8 AM KUNDALINI YOGA at Indie Yoga in Ocean Beach
- 10:30 AM KUNDALINI YOGA at Trilogy Sanctuary (which you know I love!) in La Jolla
THURSDAYS
- 6 AM KUNDALINI YOGA at reUnify in Ocean Beach
You can find all up-to-date details on classes and booking on her website: http://www.chelcypine.com
Be sure to find Chelcy in San Diego or work with her online!
» Song Vibes «
This is Chelcy’s Sunday Breath Church playlist, a perfect one to do a Breathwork session with!
Have you tried Breathwork before? Share what you think in the Disqus Comments section below.
xo,
Amy
Photos belong to Chelcy Pine