Ep 194. How Breathwork Can Fast Track Your Healing, with Megan Ashton
Behind The Smile with Ash ButterssShow Notes
My guest this week is Megan Ashton, founder of Unity Breathwork and a leading voice for raising safety standards in the breathwork industry. Megan spent most of her adult life escaping herself, first through alcohol and bulimia as a teenager, then later through constant travel that let her outrun her feelings entirely. It took a devastating breakup, and a breathwork session in Bali, for her to finally crack open decades of unprocessed grief, so that she could start the long journey of finding a way back to herself.
In this conversation, Megan and Ash unpack what conscious connected breathwork actually is, why it so often brings up trauma the body has been holding for years, and what it means to build a practice around genuine safety rather than chasing catharsis. Megan speaks candidly about the childhood wounds that shaped her patterns of numbing, the importance of proper preparation and integration when facilitating breathwork, and her mission to make this kind of healing as accessible and understood as yoga. This conversation invites you to think about acknowledging the feelings you’ve spent a lifetime avoiding.
Episode chapters: 00:00 Introducing Megan Ashton 05:24 The Photo: Hiding Behind the Smile in Nicaragua 07:32 Travel as an Escape Strategy 09:33 A Sensitive Childhood and the First Time She Numbed Out 11:17 The Slow Slide Into Bulimia 12:59 The Breakup That Broke Everything Open 19:57 Trying Everything Before Breathwork 20:27 The Bali Session That Changed Her Life 22:17 Discovering Her Mission in Conscious Connected Breathwork 24:07 What Conscious Connected Breathwork Actually Is 27:08 A Year of Crying: What Processing Really Looks Like 28:07 Letting Go of Expectations in the Practice 00:18 Why Safety in Breathwork Matters So Much 02:28 The Risk of Retraumatisation Without Proper Preparation 04:33 Grounding and Integration After a Session 18:11 Three Non-Negotiables for a Happy, Authentic Life
Connect with Megan through the links below: Website: (https://unitybreathwork.com/) Breathwork Facilitator Training page: (https://unitybreathwork.com/breathwork-facilitator-training/) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/unitybreathwork/) Retreats:(https://unitybreathwork.com/breathwork-retreat/)
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