How to Prepare for Your First Breathwork Session
Most people come to their first breathwork session with some combination of curiosity and mild dread. They have heard that things happen. They are not sure what. They want to be ready, but they do not know what ready looks like.
After guiding over 500 people through their first sessions, I can tell you what actually matters and what you can stop worrying about.
What to Eat and When
Do not eat a full meal in the two to three hours before your session. This is the most practical piece of advice I can give you, and also the one most people overlook.
Breathwork involves active, continuous breathing that moves a lot of energy through your body. If you have a full stomach, you will spend part of your session managing nausea instead of being present for what is happening. Not everyone reacts this way, but enough people do that it is not worth finding out.
A light snack one to two hours before is fine. Fruit, a small handful of nuts, something easy. If your session is in the morning, most people do it fasted or with just coffee or tea. If it is in the afternoon, eat a normal lunch and then stop.
Stay well hydrated in the hours before. Not drinking extra water right before, just your normal daily hydration. Arriving dehydrated makes the physical sensations more intense and less pleasant.
What to Wear
Comfortable clothes you can breathe in. That is the whole instruction.
You will be lying down for most of the session. Anything tight around your waist or chest will become irritating within the first ten minutes. Loose pants, a comfortable top, nothing constricting. Layers are helpful because your body temperature can shift during the session, sometimes significantly. Some people get very warm. Some people get cold.
No need for yoga clothes or anything special. What you would wear to relax at home is exactly right.
If we are doing the UNTAMED full day, bring a change of clothes and a swimsuit. The ice bath is part of the experience, and you will want dry clothes afterward.
What Happens in Your Body
The breathwork pattern most commonly used is continuous circular breathing: inhale, exhale, inhale again, with no pause at the top or bottom. It feels slightly unnatural at first because your body is used to a brief rest between breaths. Within a few minutes, you stop noticing the pattern and just breathe.
As carbon dioxide levels shift and oxygen moves differently through your system, you will likely feel tingling. Hands, feet, face, around the mouth. This is normal. It is called tetany in its more intense form, and it is not dangerous. It resolves completely on its own once the breathing slows.
Some people feel warmth moving through their body. Some feel heaviness, like being pressed into the mat. Some feel very light. Some feel waves of emotion with no clear source. All of these are normal responses to the breath. There is no wrong experience.
Muscle tension in the hands is common and tends to surprise people. Your hands may curl into a claw shape during the active breathing phase. This happens because of changes in blood chemistry and resolves within a few minutes of returning to normal breathing. I tell people before every session so they are not alarmed when it happens.
What Happens Emotionally
This is the part people are actually curious about when they ask how to prepare.
Breathwork bypasses the thinking mind. That is both the point and the thing that makes people nervous. Your analytical brain, the part that manages your presentation and decides what to feel in which social context, quiets down. What is underneath gets space to move.
For some people this means tears. Not necessarily from sadness. Sometimes it is relief. Sometimes it is something that needed to move and finally did. Sometimes people laugh. Sometimes nothing dramatic happens at all and they just feel deeply relaxed in a way they have not felt in months.
You cannot predict your experience ahead of time, and trying to control it will work against you. The breath will meet you where you are. What that looks like depends on what you are carrying that day, which you will not know until you are in the session.
The best preparation for the emotional side is simply deciding in advance that whatever happens is okay. Whatever comes up is information. You do not have to understand it in the moment. You just have to let it move.
Common Fears (And What Is Actually True)
People worry they will lose control. You will not lose control. You are in your body the whole time. If at any point you want to slow down or stop, you just breathe normally. The experience softens immediately. Nobody has ever been taken somewhere they could not come back from.
People worry they will cry in front of strangers. This happens, yes. It also happens that the person next to you cries, and you feel nothing but respect for them. Group breathwork creates a context where emotional responses are normal and expected. The social dynamic is different from your office or a dinner party. Nobody is judging anyone for being human.
People worry they are not doing it right. There is no perfect technique to master. There is just breathing continuously and letting your body respond. If you are breathing, you are doing it right. Even if your breath feels shallow or unsteady, the practice is working.
People worry nothing will happen. Sometimes the first session is quiet. Your system is learning to trust the process. The second session is usually deeper. If your first experience is calm and restful rather than dramatically transformative, that is still a useful session. Your nervous system needed rest and that is what it took.
Before the Session
Arrive without rushing. Give yourself a few minutes to settle before we start. Leave your phone in your bag or turn it off. The hour of uninterrupted quiet matters more than most people realize, and it starts before the breathing does.
Tell me before we begin if you have any medical conditions I should know about. Breathwork is safe for the vast majority of people, but there are specific conditions where modifications are needed. Pregnancy, epilepsy, severe cardiovascular conditions, recent surgery. If you have any of these, mention it. We can adjust accordingly or discuss whether this is the right time.
If you are on medication that affects your nervous system, mention that too. Not because breathwork is dangerous, but because I want to hold the space appropriately for where you are.
After the Session
This part most people do not think about, and it matters as much as the session itself.
Do not schedule anything demanding immediately after. Give yourself at least an hour of slow time. Preferably more. Your nervous system has just done significant work, and the integration happens in the hours after the session, not during it. Some of the most important shifts happen while you are sitting quietly, walking, or lying in the sun doing nothing in particular.
Drink water. Eat something nourishing. Be gentle with yourself for the rest of the day. Avoid alcohol. Avoid screens if you can, at least for a while. What you do after a breathwork session shapes what you take from it.
Pay attention to your sleep that night. Most people report the deepest sleep they have had in months on the first night after breathwork. Some people have vivid, meaningful dreams. This is part of the process.
If something came up during the session that you want to understand better, you do not have to figure it out immediately. Sit with it. Let it arrive in its own time. Most of the clarity comes in the days that follow, not in the hour after.
One Last Thing
You do not have to be in a specific state of mind to come. You do not need to arrive calm. You do not need to leave your stress at the door. Bring whatever you have with you today. That is what the breath will work with. People who arrive anxious often have the most moving sessions, because the breath gives the anxiety somewhere to go.
If you are reading this because you have already booked a session or are considering one, you are already prepared. The rest is just showing up.
If you are considering breathwork for the first time and want to ask questions before booking, reach out via WhatsApp from the contact page. The UNTAMED full day is the complete experience: breathwork, cold exposure, and time for integration in a natural setting on Koh Samui.
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About Diego Pauel
I have lived in Koh Samui for 15 years. I discovered breathwork through freediving, which I have trained in for over a decade. When COVID hit and the island emptied out, I started offering breathwork and ice baths for free to help the local community feel better in their bodies. I was the first to offer this work on the island. Five years later, I have facilitated countless sessions for people from all over the world. No guru energy. No mystical language. Just the work.
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