2022 Catalyst, Issue #2 – Breathwork Summit
Shift Network Update
By Dan Brulé, host of the Breathwork Summit
The 2022 Breathwork Summit is coming February 7-11. Get ready to change your life!
You may have noticed that we are living in what the Navy Seals refer to as — and are trained to perform in — a “VUCA” world. That’s an acronym for Volatile, Uncertain, Chaotic, and Ambiguous.
The global pandemic has stressed almost everyone to their limits. We have been forced to deal with unprecedented social, political, financial, and intense health challenges. We don’t know what’s true and what’s not, who to believe and who not to.
More than ever, in times like these, we need to find our own inner compass, our own inner wisdom. If we are to navigate these challenging times, we will need to awaken our own natural healing and creative energies.
Did you know that breathwork has been the leading trend in global wellness for three years in a row? And as it happens, this year marks the fourth annual Breathwork Summit.
This year, we’ve brought together nealry 50 speakers, representing some of the world’s leading experts and authorities, authors, and trainers in the art and science of breathwork.
This is your opportunity to learn the latest leading-edge breathwork practices from luminaries like Professor Stephan Porges, Dr. Dan Siegel, Rollin McCraty, PhD, Jim Morningstar, PhD, Sondra Ray, Dr. Ela Manga, Dr. Belisa Vranich, Judith Kravitz, PhD, Dr. Katie Hendricks, Giten Tonkov, Steve Elliott, Kathleen Booker, and many others.
You’ll discover how to use breathwork to connect with your spirit, strengthen your intuition, create a sense of unity and flow with others, and quiet your restless mind.
You’ll learn how to consciously impact your nervous system and immune system, how to control your emotions by controlling your breath, and how to increase your lung capacity to improve your performance in sports and business.
Plus, you’ll delve into the biomechanics and psychology of breathing, the underlying neuroscience behind breathwork, the universal principles and fundamentals that underlie all methods...
... as well as why voluntary breathing in yoga changes emotions and behavior, and why prolonging the exhale is so useful from Dr. Shirley Telles of the Patanjali Research Foundation.
And if all that weren’t enough, you’ll also learn breathwork techniques for releasing trauma, and how to use the power of breath for manifestation. And you’ll find out why singing is so relaxing and why anxious people talk so much!
Be prepared to learn how you can take control of your mind, your body, your health, and your life by taking control of your breath!
Register for free here for the Breathwork Summit. I’ll see you there!
The uplifting story in this issue’s “The Nicest Thing” section comes from summit guest host Jessica Dibb.
Dan Brulé: Our theme is basically, how do we navigate these intense changes? And how do we manage stressful, difficult, challenging times? Breathwork is a beautiful tool for doing exactly that. And so we’ve gathered some of the leading voices in the breathing world to help you to turn your breath into a tool, into a force, into a bridge that you can use to keep yourself clear and centered in the middle of chaos, to stay connected to your own spirit, to be guided by your own inner teacher, your own inner healer.
Lisa de Narvaez: I’m super excited to share with all of you some amazing conversations we’ve had over the past few weeks with Dr. Judith Kravitz, for example, speaking about breath and manifestations. We had Dr. Katie Hendricks, who shared with us reflections of 40-plus years of working with the breath, or as she says, “breath play.” We had Mireya Alejo Marcet, who shared with us the breath as an ancestral tool to help us move forward in new ways. And then also we had, for example, Katia Boustani, who was sharing with us how to return to a full and free breath.
To watch this 2-minute video and read the rest of your invitation, click here.
Free Video Event Spotlight
On Tuesday, February 8, join celebrated Between Lives Soul Regression certified hypnotist Rob Schwartz and his wife, Liesel Fricke, a prolific channeler of Light Being energies and wisdom.
In this free 1-hour online event, Rob will lead you in an inspiring inward journey to glimpse your life through the eyes of your soul in a powerful guided meditation, where you’ll learn how all your experiences are deeply meaningful and serve as catalysts for the expression of your fundamental nature of love.
During this life-enhancing journey, Soul Regression & Channeled Wisdom for a Peaceful, Meaningful & Love-Filled Life, you’ll:
- Explore the perspective that you created your own pre-birth plans, including your life challenges — and how opening to and embracing this frame of reference can bring more peace, comfort, gratitude, and love into your life
- Discover the Divine Virtues (such as patience, compassion, forgiveness, and self-love) as fruits of your agreement to work through the challenges in your life — and why some souls choose to inhabit Earth in tumultuous times
- Learn how soul regression (a hypnosis-induced inner journey) and deep immersive meditation can help you connect, communicate, and commune with your soul, angels, guides, loving light beings, and the love that you are
If you feel called to Rob’s teachings, make sure to reserve your spot now!
Would you like to join The Shift Network team?
We are seeking unique and talented individuals for important positions at The Shift Network. If you're inspired and passionate about joining our team, please click here for more information about these positions. The Shift Network is committed to creating a diverse environment and is an equal-opportunity employer.
The Nicest Thing
In this special video series, prominent authors, thought leaders, and others answer the question, “What is the nicest thing a non-family member has ever done for you?”
Jessica Dibb’s Story
Founder and spiritual director of the Inspiration Consciousness School and Community, and guest host of the Breathwork Summit.
EXCERPT: And this beautiful woman came up to Jamie and said, "How much do you need?" And Jamie started crying and after a long conversation said $6,000. So Martha wrote her a check for $6,000, and then over the course of the next year and a half, she wrote two more checks for $6,000 each; $18,000. And after my sister did pass away, Martha wrote me a check for $4,000, so that I could take a month off and try to get my life kind of in order after the three years of almost not sleeping.
To watch the video and read the transcript of Jesscia’s 8-minute story about a compassionate and generous family friend, click here.
Feature Articles
Breathing and the Art of Contemplation
By Richard Rudd, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit
I believe that anyone can learn to breathe deeply through the Art of Contemplation.
I learned the Art of Contemplation out of necessity, to help cope with the many challenges of being a parent. One day I realised that I had lost all sense of calm. I had allowed myself to become overwhelmed by the sudden increase in my responsibilities. I felt I had lost all my youthful freedom and could see no clear way of finding it again. I felt trapped, isolated, and lost. I had lost touch with the rhythm of my true breath.
To read more, click here.
Relearn How to Breathe Through These Stressful Times of Trauma
By Ayo Handy-Kendi, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit
What if you could find a simple solution, that 1) doesn’t cost you anything; 2) is available all the time right under your nose; 3) that easily impacts, changes, and manages life, stress, and trauma — would you want to know about it?
I certainly wanted to know of such a solution, because I knew that I constantly was holding my breath and felt overwhelmed by life. The more I looked around my community, I saw situations that took me and many others beyond stress — the unrelenting, physical, and emotional response to situations beyond our control. Instead, I saw trauma — a sense of overwhelmed dis-empowerment, anxiety, fear, rage, anger — feeling out of harmony, out of balance, and overall discombobulated.
To read more, click here.
Smooth Out Your Inner Turmoil & Unrest Through Breathwork!
By Kathleen Booker, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit
Many of us have been there!
Your thoughts go back and forth with doubt, indecision, anxiety, and uncertainty — keeping you standing still. You are too wary to move.
However, deep within you can feel a quiet spot in your heart speaking your true desires and encouraging you to move forward and take action!
Your inner mind says, “Well, how the heck can we do that? We have no idea which direction to go, what action to take... and we are afraid!”
To read more, click here.
3 Keys to Thriving: Purpose, Prosperity & Ease
By Julia Mikk, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit
In my practice with my clients, I help them thrive living their bigger purpose, and I define thriving in a simple way: living their soul purpose in a way that aligns with prosperity, and having ease doing what they love. Purpose. Prosperity. Ease.
It is my experience that most people come to me having figured out one or two of these things. Sometimes they are very successful and don’t need to work hard any longer, but have no soul purpose. Other times, purpose and ease flow gracefully, but they are living far from the prosperity they would like.
No matter what the combination and the factors that may have caused it, the result is the same: a knowing that their life is not as full and as bright as it could be.
To read more, click here.
Breathwork and the Setting of the Sun
By Chris Lüttichau, a featured speaker in the Breathwork Summit
Unresolved issues tend to take hold of our mind and heart. They can interrupt our sleep and limit the range of our dreaming. The basic principle of this breathwork method is that we don’t let the sun set on any unresolved issues that may have occurred during the day.
The Setting of the Sun is an old shamanic method for clearing your mind and heart each night before you go to sleep, so that there are less issues that need to be processed by your subconscious mind while you sleep, and in that way, you can have deeper and more rejuvenating sleep, and you raise your chances for having big dreams.
To read more, click here.
The Importance of Daily Breathwork — Alternate Nostril Breathing
By Lauren Harkness
My commitment to daily breathwork practice is one way I choose to engage in self love and nurturance. It’s an anchor to my embodiment each morning. It’s one way I engage with both my masculine and feminine.
It helps me change my state of being. As my equilibrium is my greatest resource. My masculine holds the container, structure, and commitment to my well being. The boundary is: I always start my day with an hour or more of practice. My feminine gets to flow and expand within the boundary by choosing which practices I want to engage in at the moment.
To read more, click here.
Racial Healing & Justice
Breath & Race — I’m Ready to Turn “I Can’t Breathe” into Healing
From Rev. Dr. Aliah MaJon:
The words I Can’t Breathe are etched in our awareness — and I feel that there is no need to repeat the stories, since they are well known and have been heard way too many times by now. Instead, this column will focus on the possibility (and the hope) that the people for whom those three words might be reverberating on a personal level can turn them around to serve as the reason for using breath as a tool to heal. I am one of the people that I am referring to.
As a Black woman who experienced not being able to breathe easy when I thought about the safety of my son before his death, and then having labored breathing for a period after his young life ended, I am intimately acquainted with what I am talking about. But, allow me to slow down for a minute... I want you to know that it takes courage for me to be willing to tell you this. And, I am only willing to do so because I believe that my words may assist others. Also, let me add that when I first considered creating something related to breathwork, I was not in the picture. I only knew that I wanted the topic to focus on breath, race, and healing — that is where my research began.
Then, I found a resource that ignited the direction that this piece is taking. It’s called black girls breathing — which I could instantly relate to due to what I just shared about my life. You are invited to click through to the site — there you will see visuals depicting breathwork being used to expressly heal Black Women. The energy you’ll find there may be familiar and universal in some ways for those who do breathwork, but it’s also identifiable and very specific to the community that my voice represents. For me, the webpage felt like I had entered a sacred space, one that deserved a hushed voice and reverential treatment. Here is the description that I found there:
black girls breathing® is a safe space for black women to actively manage their mental health through breathwork and community. deepening our inhales, lessening our stress.
When I read those words, what they conveyed was not just verbiage on a page to me, they were a commitment that what I have experienced in my life would be understood and given the kind of attention it required to be transformed. That Black women like me would be able to let go of our secret unhealed places that we have tucked away and kept hidden from the world — and sometimes even from ourselves. Nonetheless, my personal story has not stopped me from being a Black woman working hard to heal the harm of race. And, when I show up in this role I put every skill that I have mastered into it and all my heart. In other words, I work diligently in this arena doing the very best that I can, but I also hold my breath. Have you ever noticed that you too are holding your breath because of the racial divide? If your answer is yes, let’s find ways to breathe together and reach for healing — and then start to inhale deeply as we go out into the world to do our part to help ensure that no one will ever have to say “I can’t breathe” again.
jasmine marie, a breathwork practitioner, is the founder of black girls breathing. In the coverage of her work by Good Morning America, the article spells out the timeliness of Jasmine’s organization, it says: “Marie has seen a new urgency and importance in her work during the coronavirus pandemic, a divisive election and transfer of power and the racial unrest in response to the killings of Black people, including Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Jacob Blake.” And, during that interview she demonstrated a small example of her breathwork.
Also, here’s a suggestion for additional reading that will shed more light on such topics. Enjoy!
READ: Healing Racial Trauma Through the Koshas
♥ You are invited to help Shift build upcoming Racial Healing Programs and Events! ♥
The link below is to a survey to harvest the valuable things that you are invited to share with me regarding your ideas for Racial Healing work. Don’t worry, I have made it short and pretty easy to complete. Feel free to not be concerned about grammar and spelling. And, your seed ideas and partial thoughts are welcome. I will share the survey results in this column in the future.
Click here to complete our Racial Healing survey!
Liberating Race Podcast
**SNEAK PEEK** Healing Race with Masami Covey – Trauma & Healing
This episode of Liberating Race is called “Healing Race.” We are delighted to share this Sneak Peek with you from the upcoming episode with Masami Covey — and it takes us right there when she starts talking about trauma and what her own healing journey has been like. Masami grew up in Southern Japan as one of the only mixed children in a city of one million people before moving to northern Minnesota near her father’s relatives where she still didn’t fit in.
After listening to the Mixing Race episode Masami shared:
“I very much want to add my experience from growing up in Japan as half white and moving to the U.S. and being seen as half Asian. I’m so deeply interested in sharing my life journey and how I look at race from someone who speaks both languages, lived in both worlds, and struggled to find my home.”
Masami makes a guest appearance on the podcast and steps into our Brave Race Space to share how her lived experience with racism has informed her journey as a medical intuitive.
In Masami’s own words:
“I feel relieved to be able to talk about this because my childhood was basically fight. So, I’m not even fight-or-flight here, I’m in the full-on sympathetic nervous system. And it didn’t matter how old [someone was]. It could be two-year-olds pointing fingers at me. It could be 89-year-olds. And many of them had been through the war, the second war. And you know, they’ve suffered from bombing and atomic bombs and things like that.
“So they were basically pointing fingers at me and blaming me for what they had to go through. As we talk about this, my body just feels dense. My body feels heavy. That’s where the feelings are stored. It’s really solid, and rocky, and heavy, and dense, and muddy.
“As we talk about it, I feel like I’m getting a little sunlight into that space. And I feel less stuck. I feel like I’m finally being able to speak about it and being heard. And, you know, we are all made out of stories. But we don’t take enough time to listen to each other’s stories, because we judge people based on just the first glance, the three seconds, and we’ve made up a decision about that person. But to have a space like this, I can speak about this. And we talk a lot about traumas in this world right now: trauma therapy, trauma-informed work, and all that. But my traumas are not necessarily something that happened on one day, and that was it. It’s every day, day in, day out, 1,000 papercuts that went on too much, too long, too heavy, too... just too often.
“That’s what I’m carrying. And I think that’s the message that I definitely want to leave everybody with that is listening to this. We all have little ‘t’ traumas that we accumulate and we really need to hear each other’s stories about that, and not just talk about the capital ‘T’ traumas.”
This podcast is an invitation to all those who are willing to take this journey and be architects of the process of racial healing. Evolution is a stretch, but our convictions matter.
— Aliah MaJon
Listen on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Shift Impact
The One Million Trees Initiative
Here at The Shift Network, when we think about breath, we think about trees. Many of us may remember learning about the relationship between humans and trees in elementary school. Trees take in the carbon dioxide we exhale and turn it into oxygen through photosynthesis. Humans use oxygen to grow, reproduce and turn food into the energy we need to survive. Without trees, we have no oxygen. Without oxygen, we have no life.
Humans are thus interdependent with trees... and we need them to survive. Yet we are cutting down trees with breathtaking relentlessness, and we need to stop the current rate of deforestation that threatens our very existence.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture states that one large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people. There are an estimated 3 trillion trees on the planet (about ½ of the number in earliest records). And trees are depleting at a rate of 15 billion trees per year. While the human population keeps increasing, and the tree count keeps shrinking, we are in a dangerous situation for the human race — not to mention the planet itself.
As a result, Shift has joined with TreeSisters as a core partner for our new Sustainability Impact area. Shift has committed to raise the funds, in addition to our own contributions, to plant one million trees over time. This partnership is part of our commitment to help generate a restorative culture, intentionally developing ways of living and working together to support the health and vitality of all beings.
One million trees out of a trillion may not sound very impactful, but it’s a significant contribution that can inspire the next million efforts to reach that goal. Think of it as a global crowdfunding effort that can only succeed if all of us participate.
One of the restorative practices we’re encouraging is planting trees in lieu of buying more resource-depleting “stuff.” Every time we make a choice to commemorate our celebrations by planting trees (instead of buying a physical gift), we are also giving a gift to Mother Earth. And every time we plant a tree in honor of someone else, we’re also contributing to the creation of clean fresh breaths for generations to come. So it’s a gift that truly does keep on giving!
We encourage you to join us in celebrating our gratitude for the air we breathe by giving back to the trees who make our breath possible.
Please join our million tree campaign — here.
You’re going to take about 20,000 breaths today. So please make one of them a sigh of relief, knowing you’ve done something to support the trees.
The Shift Network is proud to support TreeSisters, an organization dedicated to reforestation and social change. As a registered UK charity, TreeSisters places tropical forest restoration into everyone’s hands.
Founded in 2012, TreeSisters has funded the planting of over 22 million trees across 12 locations in Brazil, Borneo, Cameroon, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Madagascar, Nepal, and West Papua.
TreeSisters funds tree planting to restore ecosystems and livelihoods whilst increasing protection against the extremes of climate change in multiple regions of the tropical forest belt. They do this in a way that recreates and restores natural forest ecosystems using indigenous species, fostering local knowledge and skills, and promoting women’s participation. They strive to do it intelligently, appropriately, respectfully and successfully.
But, TreeSisters does so much more than simply planting trees. TreeSisters combines four of today’s big ticket issues — gender, climate, behaviour change, and ecological restoration — through large-scale tropical reforestation. They are unique in their grassroots, ethical, and holistic approach. They fund a diverse portfolio of community-led tropical reforestation projects, each aiming to expand forest cover and avoid further deforestation in their own unique way. Projects are designed to support local communities, improve livelihoods, protect critically endangered species, and encourage gender parity and the participation of women.
TreeSisters actively encourages the behavioural shift from a consumer to a restorative culture. They inspire feminine leadership by providing resources, experiences, and communities that invigorate personal and collective action on behalf of the trees.
Watch a Brief Informative Video About Tree Sisters
Sacred America, Sacred World
Infused with visionary power, this book by Stephen Dinan, Shift Network’s co-founder and CEO, is a manifesto for our country’s evolution that is both political and deeply spiritual. It offers profound hope that America can grow beyond our current challenges and manifest our noblest destiny, which the book shows is rooted in sacred principles that transcend left or right political views. To order your copy, click here.
Sacred America, Sacred World is so crucial to the times we’re in that we are serializing it in every issue of Catalyst. You can read the twelfth installment (as well as the previous one) here.
Movement News
World Sound Healing Day — February 14, 2022
On this day, thousands of people throughout our planet create sounds filled with gratitude and love and project them onto Mother Earth in order to raise the vibrations of all living beings in love and light through Sound. This sound can be a tone, music, song, poem, even silent sound — as long as it is created with the intention of compassion and love and healing, and the sounds will resonate with all others to create a powerful shift in planetary consciousness on February 14, 2022. Discover more details...
For researchers interested in exploring the science of subtle energy and biofield healing, theBiofield Research Fellowship Program is now seeking applications for a new grant/fellowship opportunity, which will provide six annual grants of up to $20,000 USD each (plus mentorship and community) for emerging researchers across multiple disciplines.
To be eligible for the Fellowship Program, applicants must be graduate students (e.g., Master's, PhD), post-doctoral fellows, or junior faculty not past their fifth year of university appointment. Applicants should propose research topics that are aligned with the Fellowship Program’s research priorities across clinical, qualitative, fundamental science and mechanism research. Applications are due by February 28, 2022 — Click here for more information...
Through God’s Eyes: Finding Peace and Purpose in a Troubled World
By Phil Bolsta of The Shift Network
Through God’s Eyes is a roadmap for living a more peaceful, beautiful life. It’s the only book that shows you how dozens of spiritual principles interact, how to weave them together into a cohesive worldview, and how to practically apply this spiritual wisdom to bring joy and vitality to your daily life.
For more information and to order your copy, click here.
To access a free sample chapter on forgiveness, click here.
Through God’s Eyes is a superb book, a truly enlightened piece of work that is an essential read for all people who are truly devoted to the care and refinement of their soul. Phil is a contemporary mystic, a man whose life is a living commitment to spiritual service. I am honored to know him.
— Caroline Myss, author of Intimate Conversations with the Divine, Anatomy of the Spirit, and Defy Gravity
One of the most important books I’ve ever read. An incredible compilation of spiritual wisdom and insight. It’s the owner’s manual God should give you when you’re born.
– Robert Peterson, author of Answers Within
For several years, The Shift Network has hosted Indigenous leaders from around the world and invited them to share their sacred knowledge, rituals, and practices to guide us in a way of living that is sustainable, healthy, and just. We’re thus delighted that the Global Indigenous Wisdom Library makes this “virtual council” of leaders and their wisdom available for everyone, everywhere for free.
The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a collection of audio and video interviews featuring Indigenous leaders from around the world sharing prayers, sacred songs, prophecies, spiritual teachings, and pathways to healing, as well as concrete examples for birthing a new era — one in which all members of the human family are treated with respect, understanding, compassion, and justice. This sacred wisdom is important medicine for us all.
The production of The Global Indigenous Wisdom Library is a gift from The Shift Network, designed to inspire, inform, and involve you by highlighting the voices and important messages of Indigenous leaders from around the world. We want to give a heartfelt thanks to Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. (“Brother Phil”) for his partnership in helping create this Indigenous Wisdom collection. And we thank all the speakers who have contributed to this body of knowledge. To discover more, click here.
World Peace Library. Designed for the layperson and professional peacebuilder alike, the World Peace Library has over 425 audio and video interviews with some of the most remarkable, inspiring peacebuilders in the world available to you at NO COST. You’ll find hundreds of hours of inspirational, peacebuilding, compassion-spreading talks and trainings at your fingertips with this FREE global resource. There’s no way you can’t come away from the World Peace Library deeply inspired, transformed — and part of the solution. Click here to find out how to take peace to the next level — and help co-create a global culture of peace that leaves a legacy of good for our children, our children’s children and all of humanity and life on earth.
Shift Spotlight
Soul Regression & Channeled Wisdom for a Peaceful, Meaningful & Love-Filled Life — A free video event with BLSR (Between Lives Soul Regression) hypnotist Rob Schwartz, and Liesel Fricke, his wife who channels the Beings of Light. Glimpse your pre-birth plan through the eyes of your soul in a powerful guided meditation — channeled from the Beings of Light — to understand how all your experiences are deeply meaningful... and serve as catalysts for living and expressing your fundamental nature of love. Tuesday, February 8, at 5:30pm Pacific
A Kirtan Musical Experience With Krishna Das — A free video event with worldwide icon and bestselling Western chant master Krishna Das. Experience how a dedicated devotional chanting practice can help you release negative stories you believe about yourself — and give you a higher perspective on your life and the world. Thursday, February 10, at 5:30pm Pacific
Thrive as a Sensitive Person in an Insensitive World — A free video event with Dr. Natasha Fallahi, “The Sensitive Doctor” and founder of Club Sensitive. Discover a holistic framework for balancing your health as a sensitive person that melds intuition, neuroscience, and nutrition — and explore a relaxing head-and-neck lymphatic drainage technique to clear toxins, fine-tune immunity, alleviate stress, and increase vitality. Saturday, February 12, at 10:00am Pacific.
Lucid Dreamplay to Transform Your Shadow & Consciously Create Your Reality — With Dr. Clare Johnson, lucid dreaming author and Ocean Retreat Leader at Deep Lucid Dreaming. Engage in powerful, yet gentle dream re-entry techniques to harvest wisdom from your dreams — including those that are unsettling — to discover who you truly are and transmute fear, darkness, and unresolved trauma and loss into healing power, purpose, and joy. New 7-Week Live Video Training Starts Thursday, February 10
Catalyst Back Issues
Click here to see all previous issues of Catalyst.
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