Maureen Benkovich (00:01.788)
Imagine unlocking profound healing simply by harnessing the power of your own breath. So instead of reaching for that drink to relax or de-stress, we're going to talk about breathwork techniques today. With my really special guest, Trish Brewer. She is a certified trauma-informed breathwork coach and Reiki master teacher and so much more who offers empowering alternatives. Through her guidance, individuals learn to release trauma, reduce stress,
and reconnect with our authentic selves. Trish is also co-author of several books. One of them is We Lead, volume two, where she talks about the power of the pause. So we'll get into that. And today she'll share insights on how conscious breathing can promote relaxation and healing, offering healthier alternatives to alcohol use. So welcome Trish. I'm so glad you could come on my podcast and share all your wisdom and insight.
with everybody who's interested in these breathwork techniques to help regulate their central nervous system. And I'd love to ask you, you know, how you got into that and a little bit about your own personal journey.
Trish Brewer (01:10.614)
Right. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate this opportunity to talk about it. So I don't often talk about my sobriety, which is interesting. But I am two years and now two months into my sobriety. And it actually came about for a health reason, health journey. Turns out I just kind of knew. Like I couldn't.
Maureen Benkovich (01:13.449)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (01:25.097)
Wonderful.
Trish Brewer (01:37.706)
I try to have a drink one time at my little cousin's wedding and I took one sip and I put it down like the toast and I wasn't a huge drinker to begin with but I do come from a family where drinking is very prominent. But yeah, I had a sip and I couldn't, I was like, nope, this isn't going down right.
Maureen Benkovich (01:59.165)
Right?
Trish Brewer (02:07.116)
I just kind of had a feeling that was the last sip I was going to take and it was.
Maureen Benkovich (02:11.07)
But how long was that journey? How long did you keep trying to drink?
Trish Brewer (02:17.038)
That was December of 2023. Was it 2023 or 2022? And then by that January, no, I didn't try again. That January, I had some blood work done that showed that there were some liver enzyme issues that were coming from some medication I was taking. And so I worked with our friend Dr. Kinney and got some things straightened out.
Maureen Benkovich (02:30.164)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (02:37.734)
I see.
Maureen Benkovich (02:42.803)
huh.
Trish Brewer (02:46.018)
But that was a process.
Maureen Benkovich (02:48.092)
It is a process, but so you really decided to stop drinking for your health.
Trish Brewer (02:52.47)
I did, I did. But there were some things leading up to that point. I had been in an Al-Anon program since 2020. So like I mentioned before, had some family members that, know, alcohol had been very prominent in my family, immediate family and extended family. So lots of alcoholics. And I just saw how that
Lots of drinking, as you say. Whether it was casual or everyday, I just saw how it affected our family and around us. So I just made a conscious choice to step away.
Maureen Benkovich (03:36.862)
And it really, it is a conscious choice. I love how you use that terminology because it has to be your decision and conscious, right? Because if you've been drinking an addictive substance for a while, you have to teach yourself how not to do that and how to turn to other things such as breathwork.
Trish Brewer (03:56.216)
Yeah, yeah. yeah, breath work has been instrumental in finding in those moments where you are dysregulated and you do want to go for something that is of comfort to disassociate from that moment. How do you come back, you know, finding that pause and come back to your center? That is where I found
Maureen Benkovich (04:11.038)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (04:14.941)
Yes.
Trish Brewer (04:26.113)
Breathwork to help me find my center and and we'll talk about the different types of breath tools and techniques But even getting to that point was Was a journey to be able to get to that point and then figuring out what tool do I need in that moment? But it does take like we said a conscious effort to remember to take that pause in that moment
Maureen Benkovich (04:49.032)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (04:52.52)
which is mindfulness, right? It's a lot of us are drinking mindlessly because as you said, we grew up in it. We were surrounded by family members who did it. It's very accepted. Everyone's doing it. And I didn't realize I was drinking for stress and anxiety. It wasn't a conscious thing because I was mindlessly drinking. So being mindful, does that have to come before the pause, would you say?
Trish Brewer (04:54.964)
Absolutely.
Trish Brewer (05:18.827)
I do think so. Yeah, I do think so because you have to know what you have to be aware. So self awareness is everything. But how do we get to that awareness?
Maureen Benkovich (05:19.901)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (05:26.835)
awareness.
Maureen Benkovich (05:32.946)
Yeah, I talk about that a lot with my clients. mean, the awareness is so important because, you know, I only work with people who are aware and they're aware that, think I'm drinking too much and it's not good for me in so many ways. So it has to be that person who has hit that level of awareness and then talking about how to be mindful and how to replace the substance you've been using, you know, to de-stress or relax. So how did you find breath work?
Trish Brewer (06:02.093)
I like to say it found me. As it did. I was on a yoga meditation retreat festival and it was an offering. I had no idea what I was signing up for. I had no clue. was just one of those classes that a friend of that I was with, somebody we know actually, was with us. And she said, I think you should go try this class out. I was like, okay, I'll go.
Maureen Benkovich (06:03.598)
I like that. huh.
Trish Brewer (06:32.393)
And it, I like to say it cracked me wide open and cracked my heart wide open. There, will preface it by saying that there are different types of breath work, right? So this breath work that I did at this yoga meditation festival called wanderlust in Stratton, Vermont is active breath work healing. And this active breath work healing is a much more holistic approach. It's a very sacred and spiritual practice. It's that act.
Maureen Benkovich (06:37.716)
Mm.
Trish Brewer (07:01.901)
type of breath practice that brings a physical sensations to shift our awareness away from the mind and into the body and it leads the body away leads the where the body leads the way towards clarity releasing stuck energy and Where we generally feel like less burdened and it heals the body through the breath. These are so during that session
I like to say that it was probably the most release I felt. It was like the most I've released I felt in all 40 years of my life at that time. It was like 10 years of therapy in 40 minutes. And I'll very much, very much. So these are techniques similar to holentropic breathwork or rebirthing breathwork.
Maureen Benkovich (07:47.504)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So it was really eye-opening for you.
Trish Brewer (08:00.653)
That all came into play in the 1970s when things like psychedelics were taken off the market to help with PTSD, right? So these were developed during that time, but it was similar to that type of breath work. So it was really, really moved a lot through the body, a lot.
Maureen Benkovich (08:21.414)
I think what's so incredible about it is we all have access to our breath. We all can do this work and I think we so underestimate this gift that we have that's innate, but just we need to learn how to harness it. So, well, let's get into those different types of breath work and various techniques, including the ones that regulate central nervous system.
Trish Brewer (08:44.439)
Yeah, so that one is not one that regulates the central nervous system. Instead, it activates our sympathetic. It's very activating. It does help though, anyone that is, you know, I would say people are going through recovery. That is really one that does also help with recovery because it does help relieve trauma that's been stored in the body. If anyone's ever read The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Vessel Vanercock,
Maureen Benkovich (08:47.815)
Okay.
Yes, you said activating.
Maureen Benkovich (09:10.931)
Yes.
Trish Brewer (09:13.077)
This is what we're talking. We're talking of somatic practice. This is what that is. So that's one, right? And that's activating.
Maureen Benkovich (09:21.108)
So that's activating. And when you say activating, do you mean energized or focused?
Trish Brewer (09:26.495)
Energy, there's a lot of energy that moves through the body. physically, energy physically moves through the body, but we are, it's a very active breath work. The one that I use is two inhales and one exhale. And you are doing that breath like this. And you are repeating an inhale, inhale, exhale, an inhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, inhale, exhale. And you are actively breathing until it's time for rest. And we do this for a short period of time.
And in a short period of time, it's usually about 20, 30 minutes of active breathing. Yeah, once you get into it, it's not.
Maureen Benkovich (10:00.052)
Yeah, that sounds like a lot to me at first. Yeah. What's the name of that particular?
Trish Brewer (10:08.951)
So there are different types. As I mentioned, there's holothropic, there's rebirthing. The breath work that I teach doesn't have a trademarked name. I studied under multiple different practitioners, one being David Elliott, another one being Gwen Dittmar. So in teaching that same type of breath work, it's a three-part breath. I call it regenerative breath work or active breath work healing. So that is one. That activates the sympathetic nervous system.
Maureen Benkovich (10:10.74)
Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (10:17.181)
Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (10:31.796)
Okay.
Trish Brewer (10:38.797)
So the other category of breath work that we're talking about that regulates the nervous system, that's something that you should be doing every day, these are breath tools. These are techniques that regulate that nervous system. help us get grounded and clear and things like box breath, alternate nostril breathing, four, seven, eight, even whim huff and breath of fire fall into these regulatory breath techniques. These...
breath tools or techniques and exercises that we can use every day that help regulate the nervous system. And they help to reduce stress, boost digestion, improve sleep, balance mood, energy, increase your mental focus. They can, because they slow the heart rate down and they promote relaxation, they help with anxiety and depression, reducing that stress. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (11:29.374)
Mm-hmm.
Trish Brewer (11:32.737)
they activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
Maureen Benkovich (11:36.018)
Right. So you, but you have to obviously actively pause in the case of deciding between pouring a drink and sitting down, I think sitting down, you tell me, to do one of these breathwork techniques.
Trish Brewer (11:46.573)
Thank
Yeah, yeah, some of them can be done standing up, most of them sitting down. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (11:53.96)
Okay. What, yeah, you talk about in your book, we lead volume two, the power of the pause. So I would imagine that has to happen before you do a breathwork technique. Yeah.
Trish Brewer (12:05.911)
You do. Yes, I would, you do in that moment have to make a conscious choice to take that breath, right? Make a conscious choice to just breathe. You know, just breathe. Whether it's a four-four breath or a four-eight breath, just taking that deep.
Maureen Benkovich (12:20.67)
Mm-hmm.
Trish Brewer (12:31.039)
even if it's just an exhale, we can move through the day not even conscious about how we're breathing, right? How we're breathing, whether we're doing that shallow breath or that deep breath, but just making a conscious choice to check in with yourself. So what I coach people to do is if you're practicing three simple breath techniques a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening,
What you're teaching your body is one.
you're training yourself to check in with yourself at least three times a day and then when something does come up You'll know which one to like pull on which technique which tool To like use because you'll have them automatically like they're already in my toolbox I'm using them and I know which one to pull from so it makes it a little easier But you kind of
Maureen Benkovich (13:32.05)
Yeah, I get that. And I am familiar with which I think a lot of people have heard of like four, seven, eight breath, box breathing. And I remember having conversation with you and you're like, yeah, but that's, they're all applicable to different things. Like not everyone is what you do for sleep or reducing anxiety. So what would be the three breathwork techniques and what are each one of them good for and what time of day would you do them?
Trish Brewer (13:57.72)
Sure, so I start everyone basically
Maureen Benkovich (14:00.628)
My, sorry, hold on a minute, we're edit this part out. My dog is like whining. Get up there. All right. So yeah, what would be the three techniques?
Trish Brewer (14:03.5)
Okay.
Trish Brewer (14:08.269)
So when I work with someone, I start at the basics, very basic. So the first technique I teach everyone is a simple four-four breath. Let's regulate the nervous system. Let's balance it. Whenever we have equal inhales and equal exhales, you're balancing the nervous system. So it's as simple as inhaling through the nose. We want to inhale and exhale through the nose.
Maureen Benkovich (14:31.826)
Hmm.
Trish Brewer (14:38.391)
So we inhale for four, we exhale for four. Inhale for four, exhale for four. Making sure that on the inhale that the belly is expanding and on the exhale, it's contracting back towards the spine because you want that deep diaphragmatic breath because that is activating the vagus nerve and that's what's going to regulate the parasympathetic nervous system because that vagus nerve
Maureen Benkovich (14:54.686)
Mm-hmm.
Trish Brewer (15:07.565)
Calms the body right because it's running through the lungs. It's running through the the digestive system It's running so basically that vagus nerve controls the heart the lungs the digestive tract Because it runs through an opening of the diaphragm, so it's really important to take those expansive breaths through through the diaphragm, right we
Maureen Benkovich (15:27.88)
Yeah, I'm so glad you explained the importance of the vagus nerve because that's, I think, relatively new in the last 10 years that people are understanding how important this is. Vagal tone.
Trish Brewer (15:39.084)
Yeah, vagal toning, right? So the same thing, the breath, breathing, chanting, singing, that's all vagal toning. That all helps relax our body and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. So that's where I start. I always start with the basics. Let's pretend you don't know anything about breath work. Let's teach you how to balance.
Maureen Benkovich (16:01.268)
Okay.
Trish Brewer (16:08.233)
Equal inhales, equal exhales. And if four inhales and four exhales doesn't feel comfortable, then do three, three. Just start where you're comfortable. Then that is a really good one to do like middle of the day. Like if your energy is a little low, then it'll bring it back up. If it's a little high, it'll bring it back down. It just kind of balances it. Then
In the evenings, you double the exhale. So before bed, right before bed, you might want to lay down like in a supine position or just lay in your bed. And you do the same. Inhale for four, but exhale for eight. And when you exhale, when you double the exhale, you are activating that parasympathetic. You're activating the rest and digest.
Maureen Benkovich (16:50.548)
Mm.
Maureen Benkovich (16:58.898)
And let's explain why that's important, the rest in Digest, to be in that.
Trish Brewer (17:03.949)
because you can't digest anything. That's where you want to be when you're digesting your food. So what happens with the nervous system is if you are in that fight and flight, then your blood leaves the digestive tract and goes to your extremities to either run or fight, your pupils dilate so it can see far away.
Maureen Benkovich (17:26.409)
Mm-hmm.
Trish Brewer (17:30.166)
And so you won't be able to digest you actually the blood flow leaves the brain. So if you ever get into that, if you've ever gotten into an argument with someone and you're like, later you go, I wish I would have said that. Cause you couldn't remember that in the moment. It's because your brain isn't functioning at full capacity because the blood flow has left to go into your feet to run or your fist to fight. It's in that fight and flight mode. You need to be in that calm.
Maureen Benkovich (17:41.105)
Yeah.
Trish Brewer (17:58.926)
loving state of the parasympathetic in order to sleep and digest your food. So that's where we want to be right at those moments.
Maureen Benkovich (18:10.164)
We want to be there, but our society and our culture is very much in the fight, flight or freeze, which is the sympathetic, right? And we're not meant to be in that as long as we are.
Trish Brewer (18:21.761)
That's right. mean, we are, look, the body moves from sympathetic to parasympathetic every 120 minutes. You're moving from one to the other. And we're supposed to move from one to the other. We're just not supposed to stay there, right? We're not supposed to stay there. So it's not uncommon to fluctuate. I don't look at the sympathetic nervous system as a bad thing.
Maureen Benkovich (18:49.778)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Trish Brewer (18:49.995)
that it has its place and it's meant to protect us. It's meant to keep us safe. It's meant to, without it, we wouldn't get anything done. It's the place of action. It's where we want to be in the morning, like to get us going. We just don't want to stay there all the time.
Maureen Benkovich (18:58.087)
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (19:08.372)
So is there a breathwork technique for the morning? Okay.
Trish Brewer (19:11.285)
Yes, I'm glad you asked. Yes, so something like a breath of fire is a really good one to do first thing in the morning. So breath of fire activates the sympathetic nervous system and it is basically, it's hard to, let's see, it's you're exhaling, only exhaling and you are working with the abdomen and you are not inhaling, not we'll focus on the inhale, it's quick.
Maureen Benkovich (19:18.311)
Ooh, what's that?
Trish Brewer (19:40.759)
fast-paced exhales. you've done it, yoga, a lot of times yogis do this. Yeah, yeah, you were just quickly exhaling. It's more like this.
Maureen Benkovich (19:44.86)
Yes, I think I have in yoga.
Trish Brewer (19:54.446)
So you do these fast exhales and you just, can do, if you're just starting out and you've never done a breath of fire, I would just do like 10, maybe 20 rounds of three just to get you going. First thing in the morning, feet over the bed, plant them on the ground and just do a quick three rounds of 20 or three rounds of 10, or you can set your timer for like 10 seconds, 20 seconds and do three rounds.
Lots of people do Breath of Fire. know, if you're a yogi, might do them for, I don't know, I've seen people like do a round of 100. I'm not doing that. That's just not gonna happen and I'm a breathwork coach. I gotta get going in the morning. So give me a quick one.
Maureen Benkovich (20:31.636)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (20:39.07)
So these three techniques, morning, breath of fire, midday, four, four, and then evening, inhale four, exhale eight. These are the basics. And I can see why you need a coach because I'm watching Trish do this and I'm like, okay, I got to ask her how to do that. You need some guidance.
Trish Brewer (20:47.959)
basic.
Trish Brewer (20:55.181)
You do. You do. Yeah. That's just my thoughts. Just to get you started. And then you practice, right? And each day, I mean, each one is going to take you less than five minutes. Five minutes. Set your timer or set a reminder. And then once you get into a regular practice, you'll find that your nervous system starts to regulate. And then you'll know like, hey, I don't know, I'm at a traffic light and somebody's bothering me I'm in the car. And you know, you get that like...
read like you can like, I just need to come back. Let me just take a few breaths here.
Maureen Benkovich (21:31.048)
And you make such a good point, you can do it anywhere. It's portable, you got it right in you. But let's talk specifically about, because when I work with people and they're taking a structured break with me, I want to help them regulate their central nervous system while they're not drinking. But the habit that's ingrained etched in their neural pathways is to reach for the drink, especially like transition time when they're coming home or how do they transist from,
Trish Brewer (21:34.165)
You can, yeah. That's right. That's right.
Maureen Benkovich (21:59.316)
putting the kids to bed and then they feel it's like their time and the wine, is usually wine, is the go-to. For me, I drank for social anxiety when I was out. I used that to sort of hide behind and hide my anxiety. So how would you share what breathwork techniques could you recommend for those scenarios?
Trish Brewer (22:20.781)
for like anxiety specifically.
Maureen Benkovich (22:22.706)
Yeah, let's start with anxiety. A lot of people drink for social anxiety when they're out.
Trish Brewer (22:27.437)
when they're out. I like the four, seven, eight breath for anxiety and for panic attacks. I think that helps because that pause at the top. So you're going to do the same thing. Inhale for four through the nose. Then you pause. You hold that last inhale at the top for seven. So inhale for four, you hold for seven, and then you exhale for eight. And you can exhale through the nose or through the mouth.
It's going to be a personal choice. That pause, what those pauses do is it starts to build the CO2. what we forget is that CO2 is just as important in our breath practice as oxygen. We get plenty of oxygen. We breathe, we get oxygen. That's coming in naturally.
The importance of CO2 is undervalued or unrecognized, think. Yeah. As important. Because you would not be able, you need CO2 to actually deliver oxygen through the blood. It acts as a basal dilator and a bronchial dilator and without the CO2, it wouldn't deliver the oxygen through the blood. So it starts to build the CO2 tolerance.
Maureen Benkovich (23:28.66)
Yeah, I did not know that, that it's as important.
Trish Brewer (23:53.002)
And CO2 tolerance is also important in keeping us calm. It's actually what athletes do. They learn to manipulate their CO2.
Maureen Benkovich (24:04.73)
Interesting. Yeah. And so if someone was, I'm thinking of myself when I was drinking, I would tend to drink a drink or two before I went out. And so instead, if they were taking a conscious, mindful break from alcohol, this four, seven, eight would be a good thing to do before going out. And I often tell people too, you you can walk into the bathroom and do it if you're feeling it rise up in the social situation.
Trish Brewer (24:31.339)
yeah. yeah. yeah. For sure. Absolutely. I sometimes I would have to do it in those moments. in family, even those family situations that I would mention, I would have to walk away and do that. And I'm paused and I would go right to the bathroom. That's where I would go and do my own and, and, just, and it would help me re-center.
Maureen Benkovich (24:46.59)
Yes. Pause.
Trish Brewer (24:59.373)
and come back to me so I wouldn't get lost in whatever shit was going down in the family dynamics and come back to center.
Maureen Benkovich (25:04.276)
That's okay.
Yeah, because we can let those things, we lose ourself and that's when we want to numb. So we don't want to feel that discomfort. So this is excellent. So what about the person who, this is how they transist, they're coming home from work and they start getting that dopamine hit as they're driving home. The motivation reward chemical neurotransmitter because they've been drinking this way for so long.
that the brain goes, okay, remember we're driving home, so you're go home, you're gonna pour that wine, you already start getting that dopamine hit.
Trish Brewer (25:40.334)
They might want to I mean it's something To try something like a whim huff, which is gonna be a little more activating That might be a breath technique that that would be helpful because they're already looking for that dopamine hit and that that could help a whim huff could help Is that's the first one that comes to mind?
Maureen Benkovich (26:06.814)
And then they're looking to relax. And the thing about alcohol is it's fast. It's a central nervous system depressant. It works, none of us would do it, right? But the short-term gain of 20 minutes of relaxation has such a backlash. So it's learning how to come home and not open the cabinet, pour the wine. Instead, what would you recommend?
Trish Brewer (26:31.135)
A box breath. Because a box breath, what it does is two different things. The box breath will regulate the nervous system and calms us. it's equal inhales, equal exhales, but you're holding, you're pausing at the top. So you're inhaling, you hold, you exhale, you hold.
Maureen Benkovich (26:32.404)
Okay.
Trish Brewer (26:57.899)
You inhale, you see, so you're holding in between.
Maureen Benkovich (27:01.832)
And you're sort of drawing a box with your, so in my brain I'm seeing this, I'm also feeling myself do it. But yeah.
Trish Brewer (27:03.615)
I am.
Yeah, yeah, you're inhaling you hold you exhale you hold you inhale you hold so at the same time that you're balancing it's like a you're focused and you're getting calm and centered at the same time. So Navy SEALs do this to one keep themselves calm and to focus on whatever task they have at hand. It's a great one.
Maureen Benkovich (27:25.492)
Mmm.
Trish Brewer (27:34.817)
before you walk on stage, before you speak, before you do a presentation. So if you are trying to focus on not doing one thing and just focus on yourself, that's a really good one to do.
Maureen Benkovich (27:36.532)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (27:49.48)
Yeah. The Navy SEALs, they definitely need to be calm and focused. So that's an incredible validation of box breath that it works. Yeah.
Trish Brewer (27:58.658)
Mm-hmm. It was created by them, too.
Maureen Benkovich (28:03.378)
That is so interesting that there are so many varieties. I'm sure we're just scratching the surface of breath work. So how do you work with people? What happens?
Trish Brewer (28:08.321)
Yeah.
Trish Brewer (28:14.125)
So there's several ways I work with with individuals I work with them one-on-one in breath coaching breath active breathwork healing I also work in circles so I hold active breathwork healing circles in southern Maryland and in Annapolis and those circles where we do that active breathwork healing and I also work
one-on-one either coaching in these techniques or holding like a one-on-one breath work sessions with them. I'm also we can do virtual. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Yeah Yep
Maureen Benkovich (28:48.884)
Mm-hmm.
Can you do virtual with somebody? Yeah. Yeah. I just want the audience to hear that so that they know that they could reach out to you. And because I'm watching you and I'm learning as I watch you virtually. So this is very helpful. I also noticed you have retreats. Yeah. I think you have one coming up soon, but maybe you could tell us about that and maybe the next one, because by the time this airs, I think this one will be over. So.
Trish Brewer (29:03.297)
Yep. Yep.
Trish Brewer (29:11.575)
to
Trish Brewer (29:17.665)
Yeah, April. Yeah, I have one with Sarah, Dr. Sarah Pohlme. Yeah, well, she's the one I was with, with network. She and I have been friends for a very long time. So yeah, so I do retreats with Sarah and I've been doing retreats. I've done a few. This will be our second one.
Maureen Benkovich (29:25.022)
Yeah, we had her on the podcast too, yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (29:30.959)
Okay. Okay.
Trish Brewer (29:46.274)
that's coming up and we most likely will have another one in the fall that's not planned yet but we do an annual one in April at Casa Ohm in West Virginia, Martinsburg, West Virginia where we have restored April 25th through the 27th. So we'll be doing restorative yoga.
Maureen Benkovich (29:57.396)
Mmm.
April, what's the date? Maybe I'll get this out before.
Maureen Benkovich (30:06.396)
Okay.
Trish Brewer (30:10.899)
active breath work healing, Reiki meditation, a cacao and fire ceremony, vision boarding, sound healing. Yeah, it's gonna be a fun weekend and then hiking. That's right.
Maureen Benkovich (30:20.062)
sounds great. That's when you don't need a vacation from your vacation. You come back from something like that really restored and refreshed.
Trish Brewer (30:28.619)
Yeah, it's called rising woman retreat.
Maureen Benkovich (30:31.826)
rising woman. So we'll have that in the show notes for people can look it up. And then how do people reach you if they want to hear more about what your work and work with you.
Trish Brewer (30:41.409)
Yeah, so you can reach me at TrishBrewer.com. I actually also have a breath work training coming up. So I'll be training with one of my teachers is coming in from California. We're doing a breath work training in April as well. It starts in April. Yeah, it'll be the first time I'm teaching other people. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (30:55.912)
to teach other people how to teach breathwork.
Maureen Benkovich (31:03.726)
I think that's so valuable to keep spreading this and letting people understand they have this power. I'm just starting to understand the last few years since not drinking that I've had this all along and I haven't been using it. So I just so appreciate the work that you do. And I love to ask people Trish this question, what do you do to feel sober fit, whether it's mentally, physically or emotionally, what works for you?
Trish Brewer (31:07.445)
Absolutely.
Trish Brewer (31:31.213)
Well, obviously, breath, coming back to my breath. Journaling is huge for me. So writing, I love to write, and I love to write poetry. So that has been my way to express my journey. Meditation, walking, and my dog.
Maureen Benkovich (31:32.382)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (31:55.145)
yeah, you're hitting all the boxes. I love all of that. And that meditation journaling is so important and the breath work for sitting in stillness, which we don't do enough of.
So I love your work. It's really important. Thank you so much for coming on here and everybody can look in the show notes for how to reach Trish Brewer and check out her retreats and her workshops and give her a call. Thanks for coming on Trish.
Trish Brewer (32:24.493)
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
