This is the blueprint.
Before the sessions, before the training, before any of it –
there is this. An introduction to how The Exhale Awakening
is structured. Why it is shaped the way it is.
What lives at the roots, what holds the centre,
and what reaches outward into the branches.
Sharyn with a Why and Marie Doherty built The Exhale Awakening
as a living thing – rooted in formation, sustained by practice,
and reaching toward tending in every direction.
This session is them walking you through it.
You can watch the whole recording in one sitting.
Or you can move through it in parts – all fifteen segments
are available separately below the full recording.
There is no sign-up. No obligation.
Just a clear and quiet introduction to a structure
that has been quietly building for years.
And an invitation to find where you belong in it.
THE DEEP ROOTS
not just training – formation
Every tree begins underground. Before there is anything to see, before trunk or branch or blossom, there is root reaching down. Anchoring everything that will come.
The roots of The Exhale Awakening are the training pathways. And what makes them different is this: we do not just train facilitators in breathwork techniques. We train them to tend themselves — to know their own energy, their own edges, and their own seasonal rhythms.
Because if a facilitator is rooted in themselves, they hold something that no amount of technique can manufacture.
That is what the roots are for.
BIRDSONG AND SILENCE
the medicine woven through every session
You cannot spend time with The Exhale Awakening without encountering two things: birdsong and silence.
They are not atmosphere. They are not decoration. They are the oldest medicine in the room.
Studies have consistently shown that listening to birdsong measurably lowers cortisol, slows the heart rate, and begins to shift the nervous system toward rest. Benefits that persist for up to eight hours after just a few minutes of listening.
And silence — genuine silence — promotes new cell growth in the hippocampus. The part of the brain central to memory, learning, and emotional regulation. Not in stimulation. In silence.
This session teaches both. Not as theory. As understanding you can feel in your own body as you watch.
.
8 hours
the measurable duration of improved mental wellbeing
after just a few minutes of birdsong – including for people
living with depression
6 minutes
of birdsong is enough to measurably reduce anxiety and lower cortisol – the body’s primary stress hormone
2 pathways
at the roots of The Exhale Awakening – the Breath Coach Foundation and the Breathwork Facilitator Apprenticeship – from which every session, retreat, and branch grows
THE FULL SESSION
Fifty-two minutes. Watch from the beginning.
The complete TEA Tree session – Sharyn with a Why and Marie introducing the botanical blueprint of The Exhale Awakening. Roots, trunk, and branches. The birdsong and silence teachings. And an open invitation to find your place in the tree.
If you have an hour and a quiet space, this is where to start.
Part 1: The Space Before the Blueprint
5:53
Marie opens the space. A candle is lit for all four elements. A minute of silence follows, then birdsong eases in. Sharyn and Marie introduce themselves and the session ahead, and the TEA Tree appears on screen for the first time. This is where everything begins.
PART 2 – The Deep Roots and the Breath Coach Foundation
3:48
Every tree begins underground. Sharyn introduces the roots of The Exhale Awakening: the two training pathways that anchor everything else. She walks through the Breath Coach Foundation, the 50-to-60-hour GPBA-accredited programme for those bringing breath into existing work or beginning a new path entirely. What you invest here is credited toward the deeper training if you continue.
Part 3: The 400-Hour Training and the Facilitator Apprenticeship
2:50
The second training pathway. This is not a course you complete. It is a relationship: with your practice, with your teachers, and with yourself. Sharyn and Marie describe what the Breathwork Facilitator Apprenticeship actually asks of you, how it unfolds across time and retreat, and what you carry when it is finished.
Part 4: Why Birdsong: The Science and the Something Older
5:55
Birdsong in a TEA session is not atmosphere. It is not decoration. Studies show that six minutes of birdsong measurably reduces anxiety and cortisol, and that the benefits persist for up to eight hours after the sound ends. Sharyn explains the science, and then the older knowing beneath it: deep in the nervous system’s memory, birdsong has always meant one thing. The birds are singing. We must be safe.
PART 5 – The Trunk: Breathwork Sessions and the Midweek Exhale
1:54
The trunk is the living centre of the TEA Tree. The part you can put your hands on. Marie introduces the breathwork sessions and names what runs through every single one: birdsong, breath, and silence. She then describes the Midweek Exhale, the free weekly session held every Wednesday. No performance, no pressure. Camera on or off. A full stop in the middle of the week.
PART 6 – Anchoring the Exhale and The Deeper Exhale
2:03
Two monthly sessions, both longer, both deeper. Anchoring the Exhale weaves breathwork with astrology, moving through the zodiac with each month’s sun sign as a living guide. The Deeper Exhale moves through the Celtic tree calendar: three hours on the second Sunday of each month, sitting with a different tree archetype as teacher. Both feel like mini retreats. Neither requires you to go very far.
PART 7 – As the Light Changes
0:55
Eight times a year, the light is different. The Celtic Wheel turns. As the Light Changes marks each of the eight Celtic festivals as a breath space, a moment of pause at the threshold of each season. There are no bells and whistles. Just a gathering, a breath, and a quiet acknowledgement that something in the world has shifted. A small act of belonging in time.
PART 8 – The Exhale Gatherings: Yorkshire and Donegal
3:27
Three full days. Immersive. Connected to the land where Sharyn and Marie live. The Exhale Gatherings are held at The Hawkhills in North Yorkshire and at Malin Head in Co. Donegal, and each retreat weaves three threads: care of self, care of your business, and care of the craft. These are not workshops packed with activity. Something slower than that. You arrive in one state and you leave carrying something more.
PART 9 – Why Silence: What the Nervous System Is Actually Doing
5:04
Most nervous systems have quietly learned to be afraid of silence. Marie explains why. The brain does not simply rest when input stops. Neuroscience shows that during silence, new cells grow in the hippocampus, the part of the brain central to memory, learning, and emotional regulation. At the same time, the nervous system stops scanning for threat. The blood pressure drops. The body begins to do the work it can only do when we finally stop.
Part 10: From Trunk to Branches
0:54
A brief passage from the centre of the tree outward. The trunk holds the practice. The branches hold everything that grows from it. Sharyn and Marie name the three directions the tree reaches: tending yourself, tending your business, tending your craft.
PART 11 – The First Branch: TEA and Tending
2:53
Regardless of what you do in your daily life, you hold space in some way. There is always a cost to that. TEA and Tending exists to tend the one who tends. Marie introduces the three programmes within this branch: Láirscáil (Irish for map, beginning with stopping and looking before doing anything), Tí (Irish for house, tending your physical space with the same care), and Bliain (Irish for year, looking honestly at how you hold time and where nature’s rhythms might nourish rather than drain you).
Part 12: The Second Branch: TEA and Business
5:20
For breathwork facilitators and conscious self-employed practitioners building something that genuinely reflects who they are. Sharyn introduces the cosmic business coaching branch: the seasonal and lunar frameworks, and the three live programmes within it. mYq is a deep inventory of who you are and what your business is actually built on. F.I.R.E. works gently with belief and breath at eclipse time. The Mercury Project uses planetary cycles as practical project seasons. The Glasshouse is the weekly Monday space where you bring your work and grow in company.
PART 13 – The Third Branch: TEA and the Craft
2:01
After training, facilitators are often cut loose. It can be lonely. It can feel like something is lost. TEA and the Craft exists for that moment and for every moment after. Marie describes the masterclasses, the conversations, and the one-to-one supervision that holds a facilitator as their practice grows and changes. Supervision is not only for when something goes wrong. It is for all of it.
Part 14: How to Work With The Exhale Awakening
4:05
A clear and practical overview of the ways you can enter the tree. Individual sessions, single retreats, and standalone programmes are all available. The Exhale Library on Heartbeat holds three membership tiers for those who want regular access to the breathwork sessions. And the Online All Access Pass brings together all of the branches, all of the sessions, and all of the programmes in one small and intimate pod of eight. Sharyn and Marie close with an open invitation to get in touch.
PART 15 – Coming Back to Yourself
3:25
The session closes as it opened. A minute of silence settles everything that has been shared. Then birdsong returns, and Sharyn and Marie invite you to take a couple of deep breaths, feel the ground beneath you, and come gently back into your evening. The blueprint is complete. The tree is whole.
One half of The Exhale Awakening.
Sharyn with a Why is a GPBA accredited breathwork facilitator and trainer based in Yorkshire. She trained at Breathing Space and now teaches there. Her work weaves astrology, Celtic wisdom, and the science of the nervous system into breathwork that holds people rather than performs at them.
The birdsong teaching in this session is hers.
The deep roots metaphor is hers.
The smile when the TEA Tree finally took shape – also hers.
The other half of The Exhale Awakening.
Marie Doherty is a GPBA accredited breathwork facilitator and trainer from Donegal. She trained at Breathing Space and now teaches there alongside Sharyn. Her work draws on the Celtic tradition, the Irish language, and a deep understanding of how silence holds what words cannot.
The silence teaching in this session is hers.
The three branches. The Irish words threaded through the tending work.
The steady presence at the other side of every session.
THERE IS A PLACE IN THIS TREE FOR YOU
Perhaps the trunk called you – a session to breathe in,
gently, without expectation.
Perhaps the roots. A training path that forms,
not just qualifies.
Perhaps one of the branches – tending yourself,
your business, or your craft.
Wherever you are drawn, the door is open. find your door →
This is an invitational wellbeing practice and does not diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. You choose your pace and may rest at any time. If you have medical concerns, please consult a qualified professional.