Thinking of trying a 9D breathwork experience? Here's what to expect!

I did my first breathwork session and it was WILD!

I stumbled across a 9D breathwork session on my local Facebook group, a rare find considering the limited access to wellbeing support in my rural area. Intrigued by the promises of emotional release and liberation from past traumas, I eagerly signed up for the session titled "Letting go and moving on."

At the time I was chronically stressed, grappling with low self-worth, constantly feeling anxious, and trying to shed negative thought patterns from traumatic experiences in the past. I had read many books, spoken to many healthcare professionals and educated myself on nervous system regulation in an attempt to heal and reconcile the sources of my dysfunction, yet I found I was still being triggered easily.

While breathwork came up regularly in the wellness community, I freely admit I had no idea what it was and assumed it was just a buzz word and current fad. Expecting a serene, meditative experience akin to yoga, I arrived at the local community centre with my yoga mat and pillow ready to learn how to breathe properly.

The facilitator described breathwork as a profound journey into the subconscious, emphasizing its transformative potential. The session, spanning 2 hours and conducted through headphones, promised breathers a cathartic emotional release and freedom from stored trauma. Comparable to being dismantled, repaired, and reassembled, our facilitator described the 9D experience as breathwork "on steroids", deep diving into the subconscious. Explaining the intricate layers of 9D, including solfeggio frequencies, isochronic brainwave tones, and binaural brain entrainment, she highlighted how guided coaching stimulates various brain regions to facilitate rewiring and elimination of negative patterns... none of which made any sense to me.

It was further explained like this: through intentional deep breathing, breathers are guided into a controlled state of stress, activating the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response), while simultaneously coaching them through emotional reconciliation. This builds up to a powerful release, where participants unleash a primal scream. Following this cleansing ceremony, a combination of music and coaching gently guides participants back into a parasympathetic state, fostering calmness, renewed energy, and heightened awareness.

As we began the deep, two-part connected breathing, I felt a mix of apprehension and curiosity. The experience was intense from the start, with layered sounds and music triggering a sensory overload. I felt a little fatigued after about 10 minutes of heavy breathing and wondered how I would make it through the whole session. I couldn't focus and my mind kept wandering... I started thinking about how I could slip out of the room and go home, without anyone noticing... however I decided to just try and focus on the guided coaching and I committed to the process, focusing on the words and the intention I set prior to the class: "I am worthy, I am whole, I have everything I need within me to thrive."

Holy smokes! The experience was NEXT LEVEL...it started off slow, with the guided coaching talking us through the process of letting go. The sounds and music were such a shock to my senses... music zooming in one ear and out the other, layered sound effects, a subliminal voices underneath, and then the guided meditation over the top. As my heavy breathing settled in, I started sweating and experienced a mental battle between wanting to stop, and enjoying the sensory overload.  I found myself getting stuck in my head, suffering the mental blocks the facilitator warned us of... however after giving myself a silent pep talk I was able to override my hesitations and commit to the continued breathing, focussing on the words of the coaching and pushing my hesitations away. It didn't take long to reach what I can only describe as a state of transcendence, where the magic really started to happen!

The physical and mental activations were VAST.

Firstly, I started to tingle all over... starting with my face, spreading across my cheeks, down my neck and through my arms to my hands... the tingles intensified and turned into quite an uncomfortable sensation. In fact, it got so warm and intense that had the facilitator in briefing not confirmed how safe this modality was, I would have been seriously concerned.

Identifying the areas of tension within myself became a journey in its own right. My chest, neck, and shoulders seemed to harbour a weight of emotions – hurt, burdens, and responsibilities – perfectly mirroring the stage I was at in my healing journey. Delving into these sensations during reflection post-session was like unraveling the layers of my past, each knot tied to a memory or emotion waiting to be acknowledged and released.

Alongside this epic physical experience, I had an incredibly intense emotional experience that can only be described as transformative. It was as if I was witnessing a cinematic reel of my life's timeline, with memories rushing past me in a blur. Overwhelmed with emotion, I found myself writhing on my yoga mat, tears flowing freely as I confronted painful moments from my past. It was a surreal experience, where I existed simultaneously as an observer and a participant, allowing myself to feel and heal in equal measure.

As the session reached its crescendo, I felt a surge of power coursing through my body. With each deep, exaggerated breath, I felt the energy building within me until I was nearly bursting at the seams. And then, prompted by the coach, I released a primal scream – deep, guttural, and raw – unleashing years of pent-up tension in a single, cathartic moment. It was an indescribable release, unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

The music built up again to another scream and what wasn't expressed in the first scream came pouring out in the second.

The class was then guided back into slow, nasal breathing and brought back down into parasympathetic state- ventral vagal.

The aftermath was a pretty weird experience... I felt like I had purged years of baggage. I was so raw and vulnerable but felt liberated and free. I felt at peace. I was able to detach from past injustices and look upon them as a witness instead of a victim. As I packed up my mat and thanked the facilitator, she acknowledged the profound experience I had.

I spent the next few days nourishing, nurturing and acknowledging all the things that came up for me. I journaled, I spoke at length to my husband, I cried, I slept and I restored.

I immediately booked 2 more classes with the 9D experience, as well as 3 other breathwork sessions with different companies. While I had profound experiences in each session, I found the guided coaching and the binaural beats in the 9D experience the most beneficial in accessing my subconscious and for my self growth journey.

I have never felt more in control of myself and my emotions and since that first session I have been able to heal more in 6 months than in a decade or so trying other wellbeing modalities.