Wisdom Rising

Breathwork To Enhance Shamanic Reiki And Tantra Practices

• Christine Renee and Shantel Ochoa • Season 4 • Episode 6

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What if six simple breaths could flip your system from scattered to centered and prime your body for real energetic change? Christine Renee explores how intentional breathing supports Shamanic Reiki—from using the exhale to help clients release stagnant energy to a full microcosmic orbit practice that “power washes” your chakras with focus and care. 

She then maps the microcosmic orbit: inhale up the back, exhale down the front, visualize a Reiki energy ball tracing the loop, and add gentle locks at the palate and root to concentrate flow. Layer in earth energy from below and source from above, and the circuit becomes a steady river rather than a trickle. Then bring in Tantra’s three keys—breath, movement, and sound—to soften rigid form into living practice. Undulate the spine to recruit the fascia, voice the exhale to free the throat, and let intention lead. Whether you’re working solo, with a client, or with a partner, this approach meets you where you are and moves what’s ready to move.

In this episode, we explore:

• Six-breath centering for release and tuning

• Matching breath with clients to invite participation

• Throat center as primary exit pathway

• Case study of hip pain and emotional release

• Microcosmic orbit explained with energy ball focus

• Adding movement and sound to deepen flow

• Transitioning from structured form to fluid tantra

• Masterclass details and free webinar invitation

Ready to take it deeper? Join our five-week Intro to Tantra masterclass, Awakening Aliveness through Breath, Movement, and Sound starting Wednesdays November 5th - December 10th, and catch the free webinar on Sacred Sexuality and the Chakras Sunday, Nov 2nd. 

If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend who needs a breath-led reset, and leave a review so others can find the show.


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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Wisdom Rising, the podcast of Moonrising Shamanic Institute. Join shamanic Reiki practitioners Christine Rene and Chantel Ochoa as we dance between worlds of shamanism, mysticism, and energy healing. Each week we illuminate your path to self-sourced wisdom and attune you to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Welcome back to Wisdom Rising. In this episode, I share a recent Whispers of Wisdom on shamanic Reiki and Breath Work. Now, my passion is learning and sharing all things that move energy within to balance, harmonize, and align our energy pathways to optimize health and well-being, to live an ecstatic life. Reiki is an energy mover. Shamanism has components of energy movements, and so does breath work. So in today's episode, I'm bridging these two worlds together on how breath work can enhance your life and practice. Breath work is also one of the three keys of tantric practices. Yet another energy mover. I'd like to invite you to our upcoming five-week masterclass on Intra to Tantra, Awakening Aliveness through the Tantric Arts of Breath, Movement, and Sound starting Wednesday, November 5th. Be sure to check out the previous two episodes of Wisdom Rising and join us this week, Wednesday, for another free webinar on sacred sexuality and the chakras coming up on November 2nd at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time and 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Check out all the links in the show notes or DM me on Facebook or Instagram at Moonrising Institute or join our Facebook group, Shamanic Mystics Moonrising. See you soon and thanks for listening. And welcome, welcome, welcome to our whispers of wisdom this morning. Today's topic is going to be on shamanic Reiki and breath work and how these two go really hand in hand. I'm really excited to talk about this because I was having some aha moments about how much breath work has always been a part of my practice. And I'm just coming to the full understanding of how often I've used it over the years and how much I've been doing it pretty unconsciously. And now it's more my conscious understanding and why I'm doing the things that I do in a more potent way. And so I wanted to share that with you all today. And so what we're going to do today is we're going to start with our hands in prayer pose. I'm going to invite you to join along with me if you are listening somewhere where it's safe to bring your hands to heart center. And we're going to take three nice deep breaths, inhaling through the nose, exhaling through the mouth to release and let go what no longer serves you in this time and in this moment. When you really want to blow it out or sigh it out, letting it all go. And when we exhale, it's like blowing down the body, blowing everything that we're ready to release and pushing it and offering it to Mother Earth for her reuse and recycling. And now we're gonna take three nice deep breaths, inhaling through the nose, exhaling through the nose to tune into spirit. Really feeling that connection from root to crown. And it's I'm not really sure exactly where I picked it up. It's just something that I've I've practiced, and it very much has allowed me to drop into that spiritual space very quickly. And so this is something I do before I start my classes, before I start my sessions with my clients, and it helps me get centered. It helps me blow out the day and what no longer serves me in that time and that moment, and then really connect in and align with my own energy and with source energy. And so feel free to add that into your own practice. And it's like a muscle memory for me. I've been doing this for so many years that when I take my breath, when I start out with these six breaths, it's like, okay, I'm in. I'm totally centered and ready to go. And it's such a gift in that, that um it's so tangible for me to drop into that space. So no matter how crazy my day has been, no matter how many balls I feel like I'm juggling, I can take a moment and come right into centered space. And so we're with the hands in Gosho, this is our two hands coming together, meditation and Reiki. And it doesn't even have to be that long. It's just saying here I am, balancing my feminine and masculine energy, balancing my breath, taking the inhale and the exhale fully and completely. And here I am ready to go. So, just with that is the start of my breath work practice, right? Like it doesn't have to necessarily be this hour-long thing or a 20-minute thing. It can just be conscious breathing. And with that, I'm now tuned in and ready for whatever spiritual activity is ahead of me. And I love that. And the other thing that I was noticing the other day, I had a client come in for her first shamanic Reiki session. And I was noticing the client's breath and how she was breathing. And one of the things I often offer or suggest to my clients or invite them into is if I take a nice deep breath, that's an invitation for you to take a nice deep breath. And on those exhales, it's I'm releasing, I'm releasing on the client's behalf. And so this is where that shamanic side of shamanic Reiki comes in of like, I'm utilizing the breasts to release and remove things from their energy fields or release the tension or whatever it may be that's going on in the client's energetic space. And so it's once again the breath shows up. So I'm suggesting that the client do this as well because when they breathe, it's like they're in concert with me, they're in unison with me of the intention of release that we're letting that glow go. And so some clients pick up on this right away and that they're like actively involved in their session. Like I love how breath can actively involve your client and that in that participation, it becomes more powerful. Like they're saying yes, yes to that release, yes to this experience, yes to the balancing, yes to whatever it is, yes to removing things. And so that's really a lovely way to quietly engage with your client's um participation, right? And it can be even more active. I remember years and years ago, I was doing a shamanic Reiki session for a client, and her counselor had originally sent her my way because she had the inability to cry and have a big emotional release. And so the counselor sent her my way and was just like, see what you can do. I can't get this woman to cry. I've seen her for two years. Within five minutes, she was crying, which was kind of the goal of the session is to allow emotional energy to move. But within a few sessions in, you know, we kept practicing, we kept peeling back these layers on the exhale, and she was very ready to participate. And I remember one session, I was energetically scanning her body and I came to her hip and she was having hip issues. She likes coming in, she was kind of in a limp. She kind of looked a little gimpy. And I was like, and so when I felt into it, I'm like, what is going on here? It feels like you have a spear piercing your hip, your um thigh there. And I energetically kind of felt into it. And I was like, who does this? Who did this? Who would throw a spear at you to slow you down? And she knew exactly right away who it was. She was like, It's my ex. I want this divorce. He doesn't want to move forward in the paperwork. And I'm just really struggling because he won't meet me in finishing the paperwork. And I'm like, Well, yeah, I can I can energetically feel all of that. And so I said, Are you ready for healing? Are you ready to release this from your body? And she was like, Yes, absolutely. I want to be done with this. I want my my hip to heal. I want my the emotions around it to heal. I'm I'm ready for this. I go, okay, well, let's take some nice deep breaths. And so that breath is like, one, it's that centering energy. And two, it's going to support that exhale release, exhale release. So we're breathing and I'm matching my breath with the client, and I'm holding on to that energetic spear, and I'm kind of loosening it with the breath. So imagine kind of like a slow rocking back and forth as like you're holding on energetically and you're just wiggling it loose, like a loose tooth, right? We're just loosening it up. And on the exhale, I told her I'm like, okay, we're ready. We're gonna release on this next one. Nice deep big breath and release and big exhale. And we pulled the spear out and we released it to the earth, where literally it became like energetically. I could see the spear going to the earth and then growing into a beautiful sunflower, like instantly transmuted, instantly changed into something beautiful. And she could feel it energetically. She had a nice good cry. And breath was so supportive in her participation. Like she could energetically, emotionally, and physically get on board with the action taking place in that moment. How cool is that, right? And so she had this beautiful release. She didn't have any hip issues after that. And that was that was years ago. And so with my client this last week, it was noticing her breath. And even with the prompt of going, you know, feel free to exhale when I take a nice big exhale. We're just releasing that energy. And there are some clients who are a lot more meek, right? And yet they're intentional. And that's what I was noticing about this client is that in the beginning, her breath was really shallow and that it wasn't really moving energy through. And then about halfway through, you could see her lips slowly part, slow, let a little bit open, and a light breath, a light blow came out. So I knew that intentionally, energetically, she was exhaling with purpose. And so I was matching my breath with her breath to help encourage and support energetically what she was moving through. And I doesn't necessarily need to know what she's moving through. I just know that we're releasing. And the cool thing about the mouth is that it is an excellent exit strategy for things that need to move, right? So we can energetically push down things through our feet, through our perineum, and to release down into the earth, like we're releasing through our root chakra. A lot of people release through their throat, through their mouth. It is like the easiest exit strategy for emotions to move through, whether this is in breath, words, sound, it's it's a great exit strategy. And so if you can get your clients on board with this, it's fantastic. So here I am doing my session, and I've got this client who's just barely opening her mouth and blowing out. And so my job is okay, I'm gonna match her energy in that. I'm gonna breathe when she breathes. I'm gonna exhale when she exhales. And when I move my hand over her body, I'm just gonna bring it up towards the throat and energetically pull away from the mouth. So whatever she's exhaling, I'm just supporting that. I'm here just to help that energetic movement of moving whatever is ready to release from the body up to the throat, release through the mouth on the exhale. And so we did this for a good long while, and you could really sense that she was having shifts, that there were movements happening. And so when I could go back through and do some chakra spinning, some energetic balancing, like it felt better, like she had energetically moved that energy. So when when I'm talking about breath work and shamanic Reiki, it doesn't need to be big breaths, it needs to be intentional breaths, right? And so whether you're breathing small or big, it's the intention behind it, the purpose behind it that's supportive, right? So that does that make sense? Okay. So when the other thing that I love to do with clients, especially if I'm at their head or at their feet, is that I love to energetically envision breathing up their back and exhaling down their front. So this is an energetic loop in the body that we have that moves up the back and exhale down the front. Now, this is a practice that I learned probably 20 years ago. It's called microcosmic orbit. And one of the books that I studied from as a young Reiki practitioner was Essential Reiki. Don't necessarily recommend that book. There's pieces of it that are inaccurate, that that don't support um trust in the practice. And so it's not one that I recommend necessarily, but it there is that practice in there of microcosmic orbit that I fell in love with and I absolutely love it. And it's about moving energy through. And it's actually a Taoist practice, it's not inherently a Reiki practice, it just happens to be in this Reiki book that I trained from, and it shows you the energetic patterns, the energetic highways in the body of moving the energy up your back and down your front. And when you can breathe like this, I used to start, and I still teach my students to do this, is you create an energetic ball in your hand. So you create your energy ball, your Reiki ball, you grow it to about the size of maybe a plum or a baseball or a grapefruit, like something that you can tangibly, tangibly um visualize and see, and you can envision it in a color, you can place Reiki symbols in it, and you're going to have this energy bubble follow that pathway, whether it's outside of your body running along your skin, or inside internally running along your it helps the mind stay focused on what you're doing. So your job is to pay attention and follow that energetic line of where the ball is going. And as your energy ball, as your Reiki ball moves through each of the chakras on the back and on the front, that Reiki intention, that Reiki symbol is going to heal along that pathway, right? Okay. So you're breathing up your back, you're exhaling down your front. Now, the cool thing about this practice is that you can continue to add layers to it to make it more uh more intense, more intentional, more powerful. And those are by creating these lock systems in your body. And so you have the point on the back of your um palate, on the back of your teeth at on the palate that you can put your tongue up against. And then there's another lock place on the other exit. Notice here we go again, we have an exit out the mouth and an exit at your perineum. And so at the perineum, you're going to do a root lock, which is kind of like a kegel, except you're just lightly squeezing the front and back together. And so for women, think about a kegel, but you're not pulling up. And for men, think about the muscle that it takes to stop your urine flow midstream. Same, same energy. That's that little, that little squeeze, right? So here's our exit points at the perineum, at the root chakra, and at on the mouth. It's closing the exits. And so when you have this energetic circuit going in your body, breathing your energy ball, breathing the energy up your back, exhaling down your front, you are able to lock those in and it becomes like a super power wash of your chakras. You're moving through all seven of your chakras, giving it this power wash. And what you can intentionally do is receive energy up your legs, up your feet to support that breath flow. So you're breathing up the earth's energy into that circuit, and then you're exhaling, but you're also pulling energy from above divine source down into your body. So now you're really powerhouse washing all of your chakras, all of your insides, and you're feeling that energetic flow. Okay, so this was the primary practice I learned some 20 years ago, and it can help enhance your attunement processes. That's what I was taught. That's how I practiced, that's what I do for my attunements to help support the attunement process. If you're interested in that, please let me know. I have a whole like um, I do private training sessions for Reiki master teachers and master classes and those types of things. So if you're interested in learning specifically on that, let me know. But the focus here today is noticing how your own breath can be part of your Reiki practice, how it can be part of your own healing work, right? And so here I am breathing in my circuit that I've done this a long time ago. Now I was went to my first tantra retreat about a year ago, and we were doing a practice similar to this. We were moving energy up the back, we were exhaling down the front. Basic microcosmic orbit. Except what they were suggesting for this all-women's space is that we undulate the spine with it. So now we're bringing in movement, we're breathing and now we're moving. And so you're breathing up the spine and undulating your body so that you're pulling energy up from the earth and letting your body be almost snake-like in moving that energy up on the inhale. Exhale, you're like curving your back and then bringing that energy up once again, right? So now we have two of the three keys that are tantra. So um, some of the tantra tools, the the three keys of tantra are breath, sound, and movement. So now here we have microcosmic or orbit with the breath. We have the movement in there. And then what if we added in sound, right? So breath movement and sound are the three keys. And so we've got microcosmic orbit, and now we're sounding this through, sounding what the body needs to sound like on that exhale. So we're sighing out, we're moaning, whatever it feels like, what is organic and alive in us, we're letting that energy move us, move it through. And voila, my original microcosmic orbit Reiki practice has now become a tantra practice. And when I first did this for it, it's like, oh my God, I've been doing this for years. I've just been doing it in more of a like masculine structured way, and yet I can bring this element to it and it can be so much more powerful in moving energy. And so when I think about breath work, if I when I even think about tantra, I think about how are we moving energy? I think I have become so uh excited and um yeah, like I feel excited about continuous learning, but it's like, how do we move energy is always kind of the the backbone of what my passion and purpose is is how am I moving energy? How can I support others to move energy all for alignment for balancing of the chakras, right? And so here I am doing microcosmic orbit, and now I'm bringing it into and mixing it in with the tantral world. And then I can also see how that's showing up in my shamanic Reiki session. So when I'm with a client and I'm standing at their head or at their feet, I'm energetically with my breath moving that energy in their circuit. And if I can match my breath with the client's breath, that's also gonna be powerful. Now, the the third step that would make it even more potent would be to explain this to the clients. Okay, let's breathe up the back, exhale down the feet, release, inhale up the back, exhale, release. I'm gonna do this with you, right? And so I'm moving energy through their system. So I'm if I'm at their head, I'm holding their cranial bones in my hands, I'm holding their head and I'm pulling that energy up. I'm breathing that energy up their spine, exhaling it down the front. And if I'm at the feet, I'm pulling that energy down the front of the body and releasing it, right? And so it's really cool when you have another Reiki practitioner who can stand at the polar opposite of you. So if I'm at the feet, someone else is at the head, and then we're passing the energy back and forth with the assistance of Reiki. So it's like, I feel like there's so much of my practices that I have done over, you know, over two decades now, where it's like breath has been there, breath has supported me, and now I'm learning how to even make it more potent, right? More um, more feminine, more flowy, more tangible almost. Because when we get into a practice where it's like, okay, I want you to sit with your spine straight, don't move, put your hands in prayer pose and breathe it like this for as long as possible, right? Like I think about going to Japan and I'm sitting in these Zen meditation positions where it's like, if you move, I'm gonna hit you with the stick, you know, and that's traditional Zen meditation. I'm like, well, that's not very soft, right? And so, like, I feel like when I'm doing breath work in the tantra way, it's become more flowy, it becomes more sensual. And to me, that feels more in alignment of my practice, right? So I can do this for myself, I can do this with a partner, and I can do this for my clients to help enhance their sessions just with breath. Like we're holding hands and feet, and we're just energetically moving those pathways through. So that's what I really was excited to share with you this morning about how shamanic Reiki and Breath Work can really go hand in hand. And with that, I'd like to invite you to our five-week intro to tantra masterclass, Awakening Aliveness to the Tantric Arts of Breath, Sound, and Movement. Over those five weeks, Jim McDonnell, and myself are going to offer this class to help you discover how sacred space, along with the three keys of Tantra, breath, movement, and sound, can transform your intimate life into a sacred healing practice. Expect gentle, guided practices, practical tools for deeper connection, and a chance to ask questions live. All are welcome. Just come with an open heart and know that whether you are in a partnership, whether you are single, whether you come solo or as a couple, you are welcome in the space. So each week we're gonna bring different elements forward. So in the first week, on that November 5th class, week one, we're gonna be talking about how to create sacred space and build the foundations of trust. So these are really potent energy work to create the space so that you feel comfortable going into vulnerable places. The second week is going to be on the first key of Tantra, which is breath, breath work. The third week is the second key on movement. And the fourth week, we're gonna get into sound. On the fifth week, it's gonna be an integration week, and we're gonna really feel into the group of what they have shown interest in. Where do we want to dive in deeper? What how does this all come together to create a sacred sex life? And so this each class is going to be offering a ceremony, like creating that sacred space. It's going to offer a lesson and it's going to include some type of somatic experience. We really want to have this be an experiential process. So be sure to come with your questions. Be sure to come with an open heart and mind. And we would love for you to bring your partners to this. But once again, this is a masterclass that is absolutely welcome for solo people as well. So I hope you check out our show notes with the link. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me on Instagram, on Facebook, message me over at mystics at moonrisinginstitute.com. I'd love to connect with you. I'd love to tell you more about it. And we'd love to see you on our five-week intro to tantra masterclass. Know that if you are interested in sacred sexuality, but you're not sure if you're quite ready for the intro to Tantra, we do have a free webinar coming up this Sunday on sacred sexuality in the chakras. So if you want to understand what the chakras are, how energy moves through them, and how sacred sexuality influences each of the chakras, this webinar is for you. Check out that link in the show notes. And I am super excited to be offering these with my partner, Jim McDonald. And um, it just opens my heart so much. I am so, I feel like I'm I'm living the dream, and um I'm really excited to share all of this with you. Until next time, may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within. Thanks for listening, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to today's show, the Wisdom Rising Podcast is sponsored by Moonrising Shamanic Institute. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting app and be the first to know when we release a new episode. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Moonrising Institute, or visit our website, Moonrising Institute.com. Once again, thanks for sharing space with us today. And until next time, may you awaken to the whispers of wisdom rising from within.