How Breathwork and Movement Unlock Suppressed Emotions
You know that lump in your throat? The tension in your jaw? The ache in your chest that won’t budge no matter how many times you journal or talk it out?
That’s your body holding emotion.
At JAX, we don’t believe that healing is just a mindset shift. True transformation is a full-body process—and that means working with the breath, the body, and the energy field to access what words alone can’t touch.
In this blog, we’ll break down how breathwork and movement can help unlock stuck or suppressed emotion, how they fit within a trauma-informed healing space, and why they are core practices in every JAX retreat, class, and session. Whether you’re new to the world of somatic healing, or just wondering why a simple exhale can sometimes crack open a flood of grief, let’s dive in.
Emotion Lives in the Body
Your body remembers what your mind has tried to forget. Every stress response you didn’t get to complete, every truth you didn’t get to speak, every tear you were told to swallow—it all finds a place to live in your tissues.
Over time, this builds up. The result? Symptoms like:
Chronic tightness or fatigue
Emotional numbness or outbursts
Anxiety, shutdown, or overwhelm
Feeling stuck, unmotivated, or disconnected from joy
This is where somatic healing comes in. Instead of analysing what happened, we create a safe space to feel what’s still living in the body—and let it move.
Breathwork and intuitive movement are two of the most powerful ways we do this. They bypass the rational mind, invite your system out of freeze or fawn, and create space for your body to release in ways that are deeply organic.
How Breath and Movement Set Emotion Free
Breathwork is more than deep breathing. It’s an active process of using intentional breath patterns to shift your physiological and energetic state. It can:
Calm a dysregulated nervous system
Activate the parasympathetic (rest and digest) response
Uncover suppressed emotion held in the lungs, diaphragm, and chest
At JAX, we use gentle yet powerful trauma-informed breathwork that meets your system where it is—never forcing a release, always inviting one.
Movement, on the other hand, gives form to what has been formless. Sometimes grief needs to rock. Sometimes rage needs to stomp. Sometimes joy just wants to shake. Movement lets the body express what language can’t.
In our sessions, you might see:
Gentle shaking to release stored survival energy
Rhythmic movement for nervous system regulation
Spontaneous dance, trembling, or stretching
Touch-based guidance to help the body feel held and witnessed
We combine these practices with energy healing and spiritual healing techniques to support the full emotional arc—from activation, to expression, to integration.
What This Looks Like Inside a JAX Retreat
Whether you’re joining us for a Bali healing retreat, a local day session, or an online class, these practices are always present. We build every experience around:
Nervous system safety: Trauma-informed facilitation ensures your body isn’t pushed beyond its capacity
Energetic flow: Supporting your system with breath, sound, and somatic cues
Emotional honouring: You’re not told to calm down. You’re invited to feel
Kundalini energy work: One of the methods we use to support emotional and energetic movement when the body is ready
Many people arrive not knowing how much they’ve been holding. They leave lighter, clearer, and more in touch with their truth. Not because we made them "release," but because their body finally had permission to.
Feel It to Free It
There’s no way around it. Emotion must be felt to be freed. But you don’t have to go there alone, and you don’t have to force anything. With the right tools and the right space, your body knows what to do.
This is the heart of our method. Not bypassing. Not controlling. Just coming home.
Stay Connected to the Work
🎥 Watch this video on integration to support your post-retreat process
📚 Access our free Integration Library here to explore more tools and guidance for post-retreat life
Ready to Breathe, Move, and Heal?
✨ Apply for one of our deeply held, trauma-informed healing retreats in Bali
✨ Join us online to begin your emotional growth journey—no passport required
✨ Come to a JAX Day Retreat for a powerful immersion into trauma-informed healing
✨ Join us for a two-hour in-person JAX class and experience the method firsthand
