“Now remember.. just follow the breathing pattern. But don’t focus too much on doing it right. Instead just allow yourself to feel what comes up.” As I got into a comfortable position, I closed my eyes and began to listen. As the mans voice began to speak, and the music began to dance around my ears, I felt the energy in the room stir. The music, his voice, it was all beautiful, and overwhelming all at once. Then the man inside the headphones, said something that perked my ears. He said it again.. “You’re safe here.” Holy cow.. I had no idea how unsafe I felt inside my own body until he said that. To realize that I was inside my home where it should feel the safest to me, and yet I wasn’t. My guard was up. He said it again.. “you’re safe here.” It felt like a release of some kind. I felt a depth to my soul open as if preparing for birth itself. As unreachable as she could be, she became known to me in that moment. The tears started to come, and just like that I sat deeper in the darkness of my own heart.
As the music started to fade.. I opened my eyes with tears down my cheeks, and was in awe of how a simple stillness and intentional breathing made me enter into a world that hides in plan site. I sat there dumbfounded at how deep I was able to go and yet I never had to leave my house to go there. It took experiencing it to realize how real it is as the one we see and touch everyday. Dare I say it but the world within ourselves is more real than what we see in the mirror. I looked at Emily with a smile on my face and said.. “I understand now.”
Emily was first introduced to breathwork a year ago thru a facebook ad. She went one spring morning purely from a curiosity stand point and left changed. She too was in awe with how powerful the energy of one's breath could impact. Just like I did, she found a way to access parts of her herself that she didn’t know was there just in one session alone. Emily shared with me that when she left from her first session, “ she felt a freedom that felt like wholeness—a deep release that helped her remember who she really is beneath the stress, stories, and expectations.” Over time she learned the power of releasing what didn't belong to her.. things that was stored for decades inside her own body. Breathwork not only changed her life but inspired her to also help others so she became certified in October of last year (2025).
https://www.friabreathwork.com/aboutfria
She now hosts her own classes for others to experience the freedom that was gifted to her. So let me just state for the record.. It was an HONOR to photograph Emily June. She was nervous, I was excited. I turned on some of her favorite genre of music and i told her to dance. She looked at be bewildered, as if I asked her to run naked down the street. But I smiled and laughed with her as she attempted to do this "crazy thing" I was cheering for her to do..... (Scroll down to finish reading!)
"Breathwork is more than a practice—it’s a return. It’s a way of peeling back the layers until you reconnect with the part of you that’s always been there: strong, clear, calm, and whole."
-Emily June
I think everyone who comes to the studio is always nervous, but it makes my heart happy when they walk out of there with a smile on there face. Happy and confident that I was able to capture their soul.