Welcome aboard the Othership, where you’ll be transported out of your body and into a complete state of flow. What if I told you the only baggage you need to bring is your breath? If you’ve tried meditation and never know if you’re “doing it properly” or you’re in dire need of a coping mechanism that actually works, you’re in the right place—a space of infinite play.
What is the Othership?
Music meets neurodynamic breathwork on the Othership, an app dedicated to reconnecting you to your breath. It’s equipped with transformative sessions that vary in styles and length and each session is intentionally curated to different musical experiences. The app aims to connect you with the ins and outs of your breath, bringing you closer to the fundamental unit of life and grounding you in the present moment. The app is Up, Down, and All Around. No, really, those are the categories. Choose your fighter: wake-up energy flow to start the day, wind down flow to help you relax after a stressful day, or all-around flow to feel everything which has been described as the “Cirque Du Soleil of breathwork!” The sessions vary from 2 minutes for daily maintenance to an hour for the deepest of dives. Either way, you’ll likely feel like you’ve gone through a deeply cathartic therapy sesh.
Why was the Othership created?
“It’s been an evolutionary process,” says co-founder Amanda Laine, as she tells me the impressive come-up story of Othership. Originally conceived as a physical wellness space offering breathwork sessions, hot and cold therapy, and ultimately, a place to connect. Enter COVID, and the Othership community was momentarily disbanded (like many other IRL wellness experiences) until the Othership creators leaned into the digital space in response to overwhelming demand. Suddenly they were back on track for their soul mission to create belonging and help people feel good! “The response was insane,” Amanda says in an upbeat tone, “breathing in an intense way for an hour releases a lot of emotions, so people were going through the emotions of COVID, altogether in a community online.”
What are the benefits of breathwork?
You may be thinking “well, I’m always breathing, what more do I need to connect to?” And that’s just the thing, isn’t it? If it’s working well, you may not think about it very much, you just go on about your day relying on it. But, perhaps, if you take a mindful minute, you might notice it’s constricted. As the founders of Othership like to say, if your breath is constricted, so too to the same degree is your life. Your breath is telling your story, correcting it, taking deep belly breaths can allow you to tune back in and change your state of awareness. “Our breath is something a lot of us don’t pay attention to but it is the fundamental unit of life, it is our life force. It is with us every single day but so often it goes in our back pocket. If you breathe correctly, you’re inviting flow,” Amanda says casually as if she isn’t dropping gems upon gems of wisdom.
Where does music come in?
Like breathwork, music has healing properties and can alter your state of awareness, making music the ideal accompaniment for the practice. I’ll even go as far to say that breath and music inform each other, in their own little omnipresent dance. Take lullabies, for example, they complement slow steady breathing to help slow down your nervous system and prepare you for sleep. You’ll notice your breath becomes deep and low in your belly. If you think about it, music can infer beat, using counts of 4, pairing perfectly with different breathwork techniques like box breathing. Unlike traditional wellness music, Othership consciously curates breathwork sessions to musical experiences that have peaks and valleys. “What’s interesting about that is it allows us to create breathwork that takes you on a ride,” Amanda explains to me, “everything is very intentional. If you’re able to feel something through the music, you’re going to be able to go a lot deeper.” Take their session called Rollercoaster as proof, it is comparable to HIIT class for your lungs. With enough practice, you might just find yourself breathing along to the cadence of your playlists.
Othership is keenly aware of the value this curation offers, bridging the gap between ancient sound healing and modernity. They work closely with DJs aligned with their mission to deliver sessions built upon the purest of intentions. Take DJ BLOND:ISH for example and her twitch platform Abracadabra, together with Othership she comes up with dynamic sets to make your practice fun, engaging, and exciting to come back to. Othership is always on the lookout for artists that resonate with the movement of wellness, who are in alignment with helping communities grow and heal.
Who would benefit from musically assisted breathwork?
Sharing acts of self-care and facilitating wellness, is a top-tier way to show someone your adoration for them. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and with all this talk of kismet alignment, I can’t help but ask how I can use breathwork to connect with the people around me. Lucky for me, the Othership app is way ahead, offering a session called “Couple’s Energy”—not exclusive to couples—where you can sync up with a partner’s pulse, connect heart to heart, and hand to hand. Cuuuute! But hold your ooh’s and aw’s because it gets better. If you’re looking for a date night out, the Othership’s flagship location-based in Toronto is hosting a “You and Me” Valentine’s night, where you can engage in a similar style breathwork session, along with additional activities like giving each other positive affirmations and taking a cold plunge. Imagine a whole room of people breathing together. I mean, on purpose. You get it. Get on the same wavelength, and let the innovators behind Othership get you synced up with your partner and your community. It’s giving vibes. It’s giving atmosphere. It’s giving intimacy.
If the last two years have been spent building the Othership and watching people jump on, 2022 is all about taking off! Othership has built and submerged themselves in the community, observing and responding to feedback, and is rapidly expanding and growing. “Breath is absolutely everything and I’m so excited people are starting to tune in and use it because it is [the] most powerful tool in our back pocket!” Amanda Laine is full of energy and hope and it rubbed off on me so heavily that I can only imagine what a year of following along to her breathwork practices could do for me. If any of this resonates with you, it’s time to reconnect with your fundamental life force and smooth the peaks and valleys between rest and stress.
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