Transformation through movement, breathwork and psychedelics
A small trigger warning for this week’s Friday Feels – I talk about death and cancer diagnosis (in what are hopefully uplifting ways!) I trust you’re able to decide what topics you want to explore and when 🙏
So here goes! A juicy Friday Feels with inspiration from coaching, meditation and breathwork 🌟
1. Song of the week
Shedding Skins by Fia (Listen on Spotify or watch on YouTube)
At the end of my recent breathwork workshop, I sang and played this song on guitar. I was trembling, I was so nervous! And I so wished to play well, to respect people’s open, soft state at the end of breathwork.
The lyrics are really worth listening to and *feeling*. I hope to sing and play again in future breathwork workshops! That’s a beautiful goal achieved for me! I send big love to my friend Javier who I did a vocal lesson with before the workshop, to help me prepare.
The next breathwork workshop is Sunday 6th February, with the theme of rest and reset. Get your ticket here.
2. Quote of the week
“I died, and I was reborn. If I survived this, then I can face anything and anybody in the cosmic scheme. I can become part of it. How many sorrows in the universe? My cancer is nothing. Life does not end with the end of life. What was will be again. Eternally.”
― Pradeep Bansal, MD
I attended the monthly Manchester Psychedelic Society meetup this week, where the talk topic was the use of psychedelics in end of life anxiety. Several scientific studies were cited with beautiful quotes from cancer patients who underwent psilocybin treatment for depression and anxiety.
This quote is from this extended feature of a medical doctor, Pradeep Bansal, as he navigates his Stage 4 cancer diagnosis and the deep insights he felt following on from his assisted trip. Read about his journey here. I find his words deeply profound. What was will be again.
3. Practice of the week
Stretching and movement!
At my weekly breathwork session at BLOK this week, we focused deeply on movement and deep breathing. I was inspired after watching this FASCINATING video on how “fuzz” – or fascia or myofascial sheath – gets thicker and stiffens in our body over time. This video really brought home how essential it is to move our bodies EVERY DAY 💃🏻
Do watch the video – your body will thank you for it! And my body thanks my breathwork buddy Matt Gunn for sharing this super useful video with me. I’m blessed to know many clever folks!
4. Article of the week
One Man’s Psychedelic Journey to Confront His Cancer by Paul Frysh on WebMD
I’d warmly recommend the article quoted above, which features Pradeep Bansal, MD, and his journey. I feel that death is such an important topic. My interest in death arises from my role as a coach and exploring people’s fears, as well as my own interest in consciousness and metaphysics. And the intersection between psychedelics, death and consciousness: WOW! I mean it’s incredibly exciting, profound and also poignant 🍄
Death is what defines life. So to truly know life, we must know death too. In other cultures and in other times (such as Ancient Egypt), we had totally different views of death – maybe all this suffering and anxiety around death in the West can be eased with greater understanding? Anxiety comes from fear, and fear comes from not knowing. So the more we know, the less we fear.
One of our greatest fears is death, and yet we will all experience it. To hide from talking about it just intensifies the fear, no? With love, courage and respect, can we lean into the greatest of the unknowns?✨
5. Client win of the week
I had a mother and daughter come to my breathwork workshop recently. How beautiful is that? Can you imagine attending an event with your parent or adult child?
In the workshop, we touched on what were the lessons from 2021 and what you want for 2022. It was so profound to see mother and daughter share and reflect together. Witnessing them brought home to me how all our relationships need nurturing and tending to – especially family. We often just assume they’ll continue on without making an effort to advance or evolve the relationship as we grow and change in life.
I know it’s not always easy/ideal to do internal work directly with family members; for example, being estranged, or family members not being interested in working on themselves, or the relationship being too heavy. But can we have faith that everyone is on their own journey? And all we need to do is work on ourselves, as individuals, and let go of the idea of trying to change others.
I am so grateful to witness families when they do this healing collectively. Keep going!
Phew! That’s it! A meaty post this week, huh?
Take a few deep breaths and de-fuzz by shaking it off, to quote the modern philosopher Taylor Swift.
Thank you for being here with me. Thank you for sharing this journey 🙏
What a time to be alive, eh! Such an adventure 💫and remember: YOU are your own hero!
Big love,
Briony
xx
P.S. What is this Friday Feels email about? In case you’re reading this for the first time (hello!), I post a weekly blog with snippets from my world of coaching, meditation and breathwork. My intention is to share useful, joyful or interesting tidbits, which may serve you in some way 🙏
P.P.S. If you are in the UK, my next in-person breathwork workshop is Sunday 6th February. Get your ticket here.
Photo by Anni Roenkae from Pexels
