Breathing

I arrive - as usual - with a delay.

Not because I left too late, but because I was born without a GPS gene.

From the message I receive on the way, I understand my appointment is with an Italian.
The blonde man who greets me doesn’t look Italian at all - until he tells me he’s been living in Portugal for years. That explains it.
The introduction happens in English.
Two years of Duolingo haven’t quite prepared me for small talk in Italian.

Fabio asks about my experience with breathing techniques.
Proudly, I tell him about my yoga classes from ten years ago, where I learned to breathe through my belly.
In hindsight… quite naive. I’m a total beginner.

Fabio gently explores my intention:
Do I want to learn techniques, gain insights, or rather - through breath - access the unconscious?
I came looking for the unknown. So I choose the deep dive.

That calls for total surrender — something Fabio wants to prepare me for thoroughly.
He gives me a small taste of what’s to come.
We start breathing in a circular rhythm, and suddenly I feel a light trance.
I’m amazed. Can something this simple — breathing — really create such a shift?

My curiosity is sparked. Now I want to go all the way.

But first, it’s my turn to warn him:
“I’m not the easiest client. I live mostly in my head. And when I finally relax, I tend to fall asleep.”

Not ideal when you’re aiming for conscious breathwork.
Luckily, Fabio has a plan: he’ll keep me awake if I drift off, and slow me down if I go into overdrive.

And so we begin.

At first, I think: This isn’t going to work.
But I keep following his instructions patiently.
Soon, my fingers start tingling - just as he predicted - and I feel myself dropping deeper.

Suddenly, my sacral chakra begins to warm up.
A wave of panic washes over me.
Slowly, it fades… as I seem to enter another dimension.

I see eyes - from an animal. A lion, I think.
Then faces. Quick, repetitive, all resembling one another.
Fleeting images I can’t quite place.
Perhaps memories from past lives?
I don’t know. But it feels good. And I want to see more.

Then my root chakra starts to glow.
More panic. But again, I move past it.
My arms now feel like wings.
As if I could fly.

All the while, I remain aware of everything:
Pedestrians passing by, voices outside, cars in the street.
And yet, I stay in trance — curious about what else may come.

A tunnel of light.
Again the lion’s eyes.
And Fabio’s reassuring voice, guiding me the entire time.

I feel safe.
Grateful he took the time to prepare me for this.

After a timeless while, he brings me back gently.
The lightheadedness returns. Everything needs to wake up slowly.

I now realize that breathing — something so simple — can take you so deep.
I finally understand what people mean when they speak of a natural high.
No substances. Just breath.

Afterwards, we chat for a while.
I ask Fabio what led him down this path.

“It started in a very simple way,” he says.

As a young man, he helped calm people who panicked before a dental treatment at his mother’s practice.
I can relate.
My son once refused to open his mouth at the dentist - until I told him I was treated by the same one.
Only then did he relax and allow it to happen.
Just as I calmed my son with my words, Fabio helps others find calm through their breath.

From that simple beginning, and with an engineering degree in hand, he found his true calling: guiding people to reconnect with themselves through breath.
Sometimes, your mission isn’t found in what you studied, but in what unfolds naturally.

As simple as just… breathing.