Hello. If you work with breath, we’d like to publish your words.
Most practitioners pause and then tell us the same thing. “I wouldn’t know what to write about”. It’s almost never true. The things you know best have simply stopped feeling remarkable to you (I call it the Ford effect, ask me about it next time we are in a room!). The things you know best will still be remarkable to almost anybody else.
I’m Sharyn with a Why, the founder and editor here. Wherever in the world you practise, this is an open door. No account to make, nothing to unlock, nothing to pay.
There’s just one thing, it’s important to us that everyone who writes here is a breathwork practitioner, qualified or in training, and says where they trained that way readers can always see who’s talking to them, and that’s the whole premise. A place where the breath curious can find real practitioners sharing their craft.
What we’re looking for
Something only you could have written.
The practice as you actually teach it. What you got wrong before you got it right, or a technique explained well in easy language. Perhaps something that changed how you work, or a piece of tradition that is integral to your practice. We’re also happy to receive articles about the business of doing this for a living, which almost nobody writes about but is really valuable for those thinking of training themselves.
Six hundred to fifteen hundred words is the comfortable range. We’ve published shorter and longer when it earned it.
A few things we won’t publish. Anything that diagnoses, treats or promises to cure. Anything that identifies a client without their written say-so. Straight advertising for your course, though your work and your link sit on your own page for anyone who wants them, we are happy to promote you, just not as an article. And anything unkind about another practitioner or another school. Life’s too short.
On claims about the body. You’re the authority on your own practice, and your name goes on your words. What we steer away from is anything saying breathwork does a specific thing to a specific condition. Not because we doubt you but because it turns your piece into a medical claim, and this isn’t a medical publication. Write what you teach and what you’ve seen, that’s the stronger piece anyway.
If you’ve never written before
Good. Some of the best pieces here came from people who hadn’t.
You don’t need to be a writer. You need to know something worth passing on, and be willing to say it plainly. We’d rather read six hundred honest words about one thing you’ve learned than fifteen hundred careful ones that could have been written by anybody. Your article will attract attention if you’re real.
Pick one thing. A session that went differently than you expected. A technique you teach, and why you teach it that way. A thing you believed when you trained that you don’t believe now, or that you do believe now with even more conviction. Open with the moment rather than the theory.
There’s a shape that works as a starting point, if you’d like one. Something happened. Here’s what I noticed. Here’s what I do differently now. Here’s what it might mean for you. Four moves, done.
What being published gets you
Your article goes out under your own name.
You get your own page in Our Contributors gallery. Your photo, your bio in your own words, your training and accreditation, a link straight to your website, with everything you’ve written for us gathered underneath. Somewhere to send a client, a venue, or anyone who asks who you are and wants more than an Instagram grid.
We’ll send you a small share pack, so posting it to your own people takes a couple of minutes and your piece may go into the monthly editorial the month that it runs.
Your events go up free. Listings are a benefit of writing with us, and the more regularly you write, the more you can list.
And you’re invited to the Writers Circle. It’s our quarterly get-together on Zoom that’s just for our contributors. There’s no agenda in these sessions beyond meeting each other, talking about the work, and finding out what everyone else is doing with it. Most of us do this work fairly alone and that seems like a pattern worth interrupting.
What happens next
You’ll hear from a real person, whatever the answer. We aim for two weeks. Sharyn reads everything and signs off each piece from an editorial perspective, but Neil (her partner) works tirelessly in the background, and may speak to you regarding the administration of a piece.
If it’s a yes, we’ll sort your page, agree any edits with you, and let you know when it’s live. We edit for length, clarity and house style, and nothing more. If an edit changes your meaning, you see it first and you get the final say. Your voice is the reason we want the piece.
If it’s a no, Sharyn will tell you why, and where she can, will tell you what would make it a yes.
You keep your copyright. You licence us to publish the piece and keep it published. You can republish it yourself afterwards, with a link back to Breath&Words.
Send it
Don’t wait until you feel like a writer, most of us never do. Write the thing you’d want to read, and send it to us.