When Was the Last Time You Let Yourself Scream?

Not into a pillow or quietly in your car, but a real scream. The kind that comes from your chest, not your head.

If you’re anything like me, there was a long stretch of time where the answer was, “I don’t remember”. Many of us learned early how to hold it together. How to stay composed. How to swallow reactions and call it maturity. We were taught not to be too loud, not to make a scene, not to be “too sensitive.” Crying was dramatic. Raising your voice wasn’t polite. So we adapted. We learned to contain, suppress, and push through. Over time, our bodies learned to hold what our mouths never said.

I had my first private breathwork session in February of 2023. Not to be dramatic, but it was life-changing. It was the first time I fully allowed my body to release without trying to control or manage what was happening. I let my mind quiet. I trusted myself. I felt safe enough to just be.

What surfaced wasn’t shocking …it was familiar. Years, honestly decades, of swallowed emotion, bracing, and holding it together finally had space to move. The moment my nervous system felt safe enough, my body did what it had been waiting to do all along. It released — not in chaos, but in relief. Something shifted that day. My life didn’t fall apart, but it did change in a deep and steady way.

There is real science behind why this happens. Breath is one of the only functions in the body that is both automatic and voluntary. When we intentionally change how we breathe, we directly influence the autonomic nervous system — the system responsible for stress responses, emotional regulation, and our sense of safety. Slow, conscious breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, which plays a key role in calming the body out of fight-or-flight and into a regulated state.

For many of us, our bodies have been living in a low-level stress response for years. Muscles stay tense. Breathing stays shallow. The nervous system stays on alert. Breathwork gently interrupts that pattern. When the body no longer feels under threat, it stops guarding. The mind quiets. Muscles soften. Emotional energy that has been stored in the body finally has permission to move. This isn’t dramatic — it’s physiological.

That first breathwork session also changed how I understood myself. I realized I am sensitive, and that this isn’t something to fix. For a long time, I believed sensitivity meant I needed thicker skin, more control, more composure. Breathwork helped me understand that sensitivity is actually awareness. It’s attunement. It’s the ability to feel. When I stopped suppressing my emotions, I stopped fighting myself.

Breathwork matters to me because I know what it feels like to carry years of held emotion without realizing how heavy it’s become. It matters because I know what it feels like to finally exhale. To cry without apologizing. To release without explaining. To trust that my body knows what it needs when it feels safe enough.

And that’s exactly why we created our upcoming half-day retreat, Listening In: Reconnecting with Your Inner Compass.

This retreat is designed as a gentle, supportive container to come back to yourself. The day will include restorative yoga to help the body soften, a guided breathwork journey to create space for release and regulation, and a closing sound bath to support integration and grounding. It’s not about pushing or performing — it’s about safety, presence, and learning to listen inward again.

If you’re curious about breathwork, or if something in you knows you need a safe space for emotional release, we’ve got you covered. You can visit our website here to learn more and see if this experience feels like the right next step for you.

Sometimes we don’t need to try harder. Sometimes we just need space to breathe.