Eva Kaczor: How Breathwork connects us with our inner truth

Breathwork opens the door to hidden emotions and deep inner growth. Eva Kaczor explains how the power of the breath helps us to transform pain into healing and to answer questions about our true self. Discover how you can immerse yourself in new states of consciousness with Breathwork and make lasting changes to your life.

Breathwork basically means conscious breathing. In other words, we differentiate between unconscious breathing, which is automatically controlled by the brain, and conscious breathing. If I say, for example, concentrate on breathing into your belly, we are already talking about breathwork. Psychedelic Breath could be described as dynamic, mind-altering Breathwork. However, it remains breathwork, as it is essentially about consciously experiencing breathing. Breathwork is therefore not just a Relaxation technique.

What exactly is "Breathwork" and how does it differ from other relaxation techniques such as meditation?

Just like Meditation it can be used in a variety of ways: You can use Breathwork to calm the nervous system, activate the vagus nerve and thus promote relaxation. It can also be used to harmonize the brainwaves and improve the Promote concentrationas is the case in certain yoga techniques. Breathwork can also lift the mood, bring energy into the body and activate it.

What benefits can people who start Breathwork expect?

In breathwork, we always work on an emotional and energetic level. Many of my students report that they enter a state in which they remember what they once forgot to feel. When we allow ourselves to release these often negative emotions - such as guilt, shame, anger, rage, despair or Fear - a new lightness arises. Regular practice in Breathwork helps us to lose our fear of intense feelings as we experience how we can let them go through breathing.

What do you achieve with Breathwork? 

Through Breathwork you reach a state called "transient hypofrontality". This means that activity in the prefrontal cortex decreases. As a result, our inner critic quieter and we can be much more present in the here and now. Although we can be in a Vision but it is less about planning a future and more about really feeling and living what is right now. This is exactly where Breathwork or Psychedelic Breath comes in, because it brings us into this state. Nevertheless, I wouldn't directly compare it to Mindfulness equate.

To what extent does music play a role in your sessions, and why did you choose electronic music?

I always say that electronic music is at least 50 percent anchored in the DNA of Psychedelic Breath. I chose electronic music because I come from the rave culture. I've been in Berlin for a very long time and made a lot of friends on the dancefloor, understood a lot of things while dancing to electronic music and also got a lot of insights into what I want to do. 

In the Past I have already tried out, developed and offered quite a few things. Music and dancing was one of the biggest and most important elements. And that's why I wanted to combine electronic music with a very, let's call it, spiritual practice that definitely takes us to realms and heights - that open up this higher state of consciousness. And I wanted to combine that and perhaps take it a bit out of the realm of pure Spirituality or spiritual practices and I always gave the first big sessions at festivals, working on the main stage with the big sound systems. I introduced a lot of people to Breathwork who might never have found it otherwise.

Can you tell us more about your philosophy behind "From Pain to Purpose" and how Psychedelic Breath supports this process?

From Pain to Purpose came about when I looked back on my life and realized that all that was healed within me became my greatest inspiration. I drew from these healing processes and began to share Purpose Coaching. I also created two unique styles of yoga, combining yoga with art and electronic music. My commitment to healing, self-healing and the question of Purpose - Who I am I, and why am I here? - arose from moments of deep pain.

I suffered from chronic pain for six years. As a teenager, I wore a corset because of my scoliosis, which caused me physical pain. Later I experienced a Burnoutthat tore me away from my life and my work as a brand strategist at the time. During these difficult times, I needed to understand what was trying to heal inside me. I did less, listened to myself more and found answers to how I really wanted to live.

This pain, which sometimes also occurs on an emotional level, has radically changed me. They have given me the courage to share what I really have to give. Without these years of pain, I would never have questioned so intensely who I am - and also recognized who I am not. They made many things fall away from me, including entire professions. That's how the title From Pain to Purpose came about.

In my work, especially with Psychedelic Breath, we explore these existential questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What do I have to share? Who am I not? What is my next, right step? The challenges we face, which we often judge negatively, can help us find these answers and discover the guideposts in our lives.

What role does mindfulness play in your sessions, and how does it work in combination with Psychedelic Breath?

The classic principle of Mindfulness or mindfulness doesn't happen so much in Psychodec-Breath. So I don't work with it explicitly. I also find that very important, because mindfulness is a philosophy in its own right. It's about coming into the moment and we have a parallel there, i.e. being in the moment, seeing what really is, not having to jump into the future, not "hanging around" in the past, so to speak. Breathwork brings us into this state!

What advice would you give to people who have the feeling that a lot of emotions are coming to the surface after their first session?

We are often afraid to feel our emotions because we think they might overwhelm us. But when such emotions arise, it is an opportunity to look at them in a new light. Many Feelings are in our body because we were unable to process them back then, perhaps in childhood. Now we have the opportunity to confront these feelings with compassion and to accept.

Sometimes this means enduring the intensity of the feeling. If we experience that nothing bad is happening, we can learn to deal with it lovingly until the feeling subsides on its own. No feeling lasts longer than three minutes. It helps to consciously feel the feeling, perhaps while walking, crying or talking to someone.

If you realize that something is deep-seated and needs healing, I recommend therapeutic support. Hypnotherapy and somatic approaches such as breathwork can help to process these emotions safely.

What recommendations do you have for those who want to delve deeper into Psychedelic Breath after their first experience?

It always depends on what kind of breathwork experience you have already had. If you have familiarized yourself with methods such as abdominal breathing, diaphragmatic breathing, box breathing, left nostril breathing or coherent breathing and have had positive experiences, it would be worth considering trying a more in-depth Breathwork practice. This includes techniques such as Psychedelic Breath or Holotropic Breathworkwhere you can immerse yourself more intensely in your emotional experience and possibly even experience altered states of consciousness. These practices can help to rewire the brain.

So if you have started an active breathing practice, I recommend that you continue consistently and also explore dynamic breathwork variations. Try out what suits you and regularly integrate these experiences into your everyday life. Many of my students come to practise together every week because it is a powerful but manageable practice.

The next important step is to integrate the insights from the Breathwork experience into your life. It is not just about feeling what you have experienced, but also about thinking about what can change and how you can implement these insights.