Photo by Melodee Solomon
Do you remember that peculiar but serendipitous feeling when someone’s in your orbit, and you end up meeting simply by virtue of unplanned but repeated, consistent encounters? In 2019 it seems to happen virtually, too, and that’s the story of how Erin Telford and I met.
She and sound therapist Sara Auster—one of Well Aware’s very first guests who notably has a book coming out in the fall—have been long-time buddies. Two of my dearest friends Alex and Meesh completed their trainings with Erin’s teacher David Elliott and have since become breathwork facilitators. She leads breathwork events at Sky Ting, my yoga home base, a few times each year. When I reached out to Erin, she shared that she was excited because Well Aware had been on her radar for quite some time, and because of our many mutual friends. I suppose it was only a matter of time before universal forces brought us together.
We recorded our first conversation back in February 2019 and it was easily one of my favorite interviews. I was very sick and symptomatic at the time, which is one way to guarantee vulnerability… and by nature of her work and personhood, Erin shares from the heart. Not one minute after our sweet, much-anticipated exchange, my hard drive ran out of space and our conversation was deleted! Zilch. Nowhere to be found. I cried, I was embarrassed, and wanted to throw my laptop out the window. Erin, being the angel she is, responded in kind to my glitch. “Two open hearts can make magic twice.” A month later we had this talk, which was even better than the first.
I’ve experienced this type of breathwork a handful of times, and each one has been more profound than the last. Erin works with the breath and the body as corrective medicine for childhood trauma. The breath is through the mouth, a two part inhale culminating in a full exhale. The first inhale inflates the belly, the second inflates the chest, and the exhale is a release. Breathing like this for any length of time will activate chemical reactions in the body that are said to help us release stored trauma. Some people yell, some laugh, some cry, my experiences have included all of the above… if you do it in a group setting, I guarantee it’ll be a wild ride.
For the first 25 minutes or so, we talk about breathwork basics, and then we get into Erin’s journey and experience with the work.
This episode is for anyone:
- interested in breathwork as a practice and/or a career path
- yearning for a career change but is feeling weighed down by debt and/or years spent learning something else
- wanting to learn how to increase their self-confidence and self-respect
- learning to observe their inner critic(s)
- working on setting boundaries
We discuss:
- How Erin went from being an acupuncturist to a breathwork teacher, despite having $250,000 in student debt
- Why she went all-in on breathwork, of all healing modalities
- How breathwork allows healing through self-resourcing, versus other modalities that outsource healing
- Active versus passive healing
- Her teacher David Elliott and his breathwork method
- What you can expect physically, emotionally, and mentally during one of her breathwork sessions
- What happened during the exact moment on October 22, 2016, when Erin realized she was enough
- Her clarity around boundaries and the inner process that yielded them
- How she holds herself through difficult experiences
- What happens when you drastically change the pace your life, inviting slowness and space
- Social media hygiene and how Erin holds energetic boundaries on Instagram to keep the experience fun
If you’re turned on by breathwork and/or by Erin’s energy, she has a few offerings coming up this fall. The most exciting one is Sacred Terrain, a six-week healing journey into the landscape of your emotional body. With Erin as your guide, you’ll do breathwork and go inward to look closely at your patterns and behaviors, garnering the courage to shift where you need to. And if you’re lucky enough to be in New York or Los Angeles, you can attend one of her upcoming in-person groups. If not, she’s got you, you can attend her virtual online group in September.
SHOW NOTES
- @erintelford__ on Instagram
- Gabor Mate, a Canadian physician who specializes in addiction and trauma
- David Elliott breathwork and trainings
- When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection by Gabor Mate
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