Student Spotlight: Melanie Bisher

What brought me here? I feel this can be such a loaded question…Where do I start.

Well to really tell why I am here, I need to give you some back story to my life. In a nutshell, how I found breathwork was by having a lot of events happen in my life, that I didn’t know how to deal with.

This all came to a head about 5 years ago, when I started going though a divorce from the father of my children. We had been together for about 20 years and was with him since I was about 15 years old. At the end of the day, neither one of knew how to teach each other, how to love each other properly. This came from years of abuse with drugs and alcohol, toxic family members, sexual abuse, mental abuse, and abandonment issues on both sides of the equation. During my divorce I was so stressed, and my hair was falling out. Here I was single mom of teenagers, two kids to raise and support, along with any left-over issues lingering from my marriage and childhood. I was at my breaking point and to be honest I did break.

I had been going to therapy and doing yoga for years, As I thought I was doing what I needed to do. I really was struggling with my hair, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. I started taking anti-depressants and different sorts of whatever they wanted me to try. For about a year, I kept trying these medications and I felt worse. Some would make me nauseous, sad, tired, some angry, I would have horrible thoughts, some gave me crazy dreams. I really felt like I was losing it.  

I just concluded that this just is not for me, and I needed to do things more holistically. I just thought I was really sensitive to medication, but my body said you don't need that. I then quit all the pills and was going cold turkey. When I came across breathwork, I was actually trying to mediate and really struggled with getting my mind quiet. I just kept hearing about breathwork and it really stuck out to me. I know now from the studying I have done, that the way I started was not the best approach. I just jumped in the deep end and that is not the safest approach. I saw a 45-minute WiM Hoff video and dug in.( Not recommended for beginners) I am not sure if I would have received the same life changing experience if I would have done it any different, but always good to look at safety first.

 That was my first experience that completely changed my life. I knew from that first session; this was something so powerful. I knew at that moment I was meant to teach this, and I needed to learn as much as possible. This was the first time I was able to get my mind to quiet down long enough to mediate. I was like “ Why isn’t everyone doing this?”. I felt my nervous system calm for the first time in a very long time.

At this point in the game, I started practicing breathwork about 3 years ago and I have built a pretty consistent weekly practice as well as opened an online store. I am off any antidepressants, my hair has grown back, and I feel great. I completed a few breathwork certificate programs, but was looking for a globally recognized certification. I have been researching breathwork schools and keep coming across Breathing Space website. I went to a few other orientations for different programs, and it just never seemed to line up, money wasn’t there, timing wasn’t there, teacher didn’t feel right. After my attendance of the Breathing Space informational meeting, I have to say Ben ( Founder) sold it. I could tell that this was not just a class, and this was going to be an expansive self-growth experience. I knew this not only would help my career path but my life path as well.  

Follow along for updates on this breathing journey!!

About Melanie Bisher

Melanie is training to be a breathwork Facilitator and is going to be adding classes and retreats to her online store out of San Diego CA. You can find her writing at Cosmic Cupboard