Between the Breaths – The Awakening

A journey of stillness, surrender, and becoming.

Every inhale expands; every exhale releases.

But it’s the space between them — that quiet pause — where we truly meet ourselves.

For years, my world was filled with motion: city lights, late nights, and the pulse of the music I helped create.

For as long as I can remember I’d used alcohol to self-medicate, masking the weight of unprocessed trauma and the strain on my nervous system. My breath was dull, fast and shallow, always chasing the next high, the next laugh, the next distraction.

This is where I was …. how my journey began but not how it ends.

This blog is a reflection of that journey, using my photography and artwork on that journey to create a visual and emotional meditation on what happens between the breaths. Through nature, solitude, and community, I found my rhythm again.

What began as escape became an exhale — a return to presence, purpose, and peace.

For most of my life I never thought about breathing.

Like many people, my breath was simply something that happened in the background while life rushed forward — city lights, music, late nights, community events, and endless movement.

I built spaces where people could come together and feel alive.

But somewhere inside that noise, my own nervous system was struggling to keep up.

What I didn’t realise at the time was that my breath had been trying to tell me something for years.

It was shallow.
Fast.
Held tightly in my chest.

My body had learned to live in survival mode.

Breathwork was the first practice that gently asked me to slow down long enough to notice.

And once I noticed, everything began to change.

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Breath Practice: First Awareness

A simple way to reconnect with your breath:

1. Sit comfortably
2. Place one hand on your chest and one on your belly
3. Take a slow inhale through the nose
4. Let the belly expand
5. Exhale gently through the mouth

Try this for five breaths.

Sometimes awareness alone is the first step toward healing.

This picture is so perfect for this post as it was a real turn around moment when a drunken plan was hatched to drive a few hundred miles to see a friend and watch the sunset another time when we were sober. And this time we actually did it !! What a sun rise it was. The first time I realised how the universe can reward us and the first time I began to notice stillness again.

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 Three-Part Breath (Reconnecting With the Body)

When we’re stressed, breathing often becomes shallow and stuck in the chest.

This practice helps reconnect the full breathing pathway.

Try this:

Three-Part Breath

Inhale into the belly Continue the inhale into the rib cage Let the breath expand into the upper chest Exhale slowly in reverse order

This reminds the body how to breathe fully again.

For many people it brings a feeling of spaciousness and grounding.

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Breathwork doesn’t need to be dramatic or intense to be powerful.

Sometimes the most profound shifts begin with a few minutes of conscious breathing.

These small practices helped me begin rebuilding a relationship with my own nervous system — one breath at a time.