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Breathing helps us ground, feel our center, bring goodness in & spread love out. To see our community at Beam Camp participate in exercises which promote self care was an incredible experience to witness. Our week with Hannes brought about stillness, wonder, understanding, & generosity with ourselves and others. Hannes practiced breathing techniques with our campers ranging in ages 10 – 17 in a workshop format, and with all of our adult staff ranging in ages 19 – 83 as supplemental moments. What a valuable assist his techniques were for our community, Hannes’ patiences & knowledge will be something we reference for years to come.
– summer camp organizer of Beam Center NY
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– Sara D. of ThoughtWorks Inc., NYC Office
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Hannes is a warm-hearted soul and delightful teacher who embodies light and play. He encourages us to arrive at the present moment, relax into our body and tap into its subtleties. Learning his breathwork has completely opened me up. I’m more mindful of my breath throughout the day, more aware of my body and simply feel uplifted. I also greatly appreciate how fluidly he interweaves western science and eastern imagery to guide the experience. I am very grateful to Hannes and happy to be to breathing.
– Dan Friedman, NY
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We highly recommend the work of hannes bend.
The work of Hannes Bend was recently recognized by the team of apexart after his work has impressed us over the past years. He was chosen as curator for one of the two exhibitions apexart hosts by invitation in New York City.
Apexart has been an international contemporary art space since 1994. We receive thousands of applications each year for our global and New York exhibitions in which anyone (from any background) functions as curator. Artist Hannes bend proposed the project Youniverse to center around contemplative and creative practices with a focus on consciousness. The project involved over 50 contributors, ranging from artists, healing practitioners, musicians to scientists (e.g. Bill Bushell in the first panel) from October until December 2016:
https://apexart.org/exhibitions/bend.php
His proposal for the seven-week long project Youniverse was well-received in local NY and international press reviews; it was an intriguing approach to combine the fields of art, healing arts, science, music, and technology. It was highly successful with many collaborations between contributors and between visitors and contributors emerging in the NYC and US area. As a curator for this project, artist Hannes bend used the six weeks to prepare the exhibition program efficiently to ensemble well renowned and exciting new contributors, for instance, “The Iceman” Wim Hof, Malia Kulp, Katie Down, Jack Kornfield and many others. Most contributors offered personal experiences as a panel, workshops, 1-on-1 sessions and performances. Many contributions focused on the health of interspecies communication, and the health of the planet as well. For instance David Rothenberg’s musical compositions with whales, and DJ Spooky’s work about Antarctica. The public programming aspect was very extensive for an apexart exhibition, and Hannes bend committed to be personally present for all the sessions.
He showed his deeply personal commitment to combine the fields to offer the insights and practices for more well-being of planets and people by instructing breathwork sessions twice a week over seven weeks for free. Aside from being an internationally well-known artist, he is a certified yoga instructor, and teaches meditation and a Tibetan tummo meditation-derived technique enabling people to warm up their body temperature, heightened internal awareness and sense of wellbeing. He has been learning with peers in the field, for instance with a facilitator of the first study on g-tummo meditation by Harvard University researchers in 1981.
His sessions and art practice alike make highly complex contents simple. His multidisciplinary practice is unique and in my opinion of great value for society and our and the next generation. He is a fountain of fresh ideas, has a curious mind and a personal background in the content he works with. I am highly confident he and his projects would add an innovative and particularly remarkable contribution to a place looking to offer contemplative and creative holistic experiences.
– the apexart team
apexart is a not-for-profit art space in Lower Manhattan founded in 1994
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We were so lucky to meet hannes bend at ThoughtWorks during our first Progressive Hack Night. As coders and technologists, we don’t always take the moments we need for ourselves, and have recently had a number of discussions on how important it was to maintain the wellness of our volunteers. Part of weaving wellness into our network, we’re thankful to say, was working with hannes at a recent event. hannes was generous and educational in his approach, letting us know the benefits of the breathing exercises we engaged in, and helped all our coders decompress from their day’s activities before launching into creative work. It was incredibly beneficial to us all, and we’re very grateful for his willingness to give us his time and expertise. Breathing is something we do unconsciously every day, and to be conscious of such a basic act in our lives really transformed how many of us experienced the evening. As one member put it, in a sentiment echoed by other participants, “The breathing exercise alone was worth the meet up. I hope he keeps joining us.”
– Participants, Progressive Hack Night, ThoughtWorks, NYC.
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hannes’ instruction has been the most profound medicine in my adult life. He invited me to practice his breathing method with a group from around the country via a google chat. The first week of practice with others gave me a grounding experience that I will never forget. The sensations throughout my body were beyond anything I have ever felt and had me feeling “higher” than ever before. The closest thing I can compare it to is the elated state that you feel after childbirth or while breastfeeding but with sensations throughout your entire body like it is super charged! This practice has helped me grow new neural pathways in my brain which have increased my ability to find my breath as opposed to reacting. It has also shown me that I have the ability to super charge my own body for growth and healing. My gratitude to hannes is infinite.
– Rebekah Stetson, Nevada
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hannes has a quite, gentle and peaceful vibe that serves as a great preamble to feel comfortable to let yourself fully go into the breathing exercises. The combination of different methods make the class really enjoyable as they slowly mold you to be relaxed and fully present to connect with your energy and emotions. I could feel all my body boiling inside, the energy was moving all around my body, it’s kind of an awakening to the inner body. All the while hannes takes care of the students with scents that help you open up and just breathe easy!
– Aurora M., February 2017 in NYC
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I have seen hannes bring many groups into calm, lulled states of mind through guided breathwork sessions. I have also experienced his breathing guidance directly, feeling tingles as my blood oxygen levels moved beyond normal states. I feel that these sessions can develop a strong sense of unity among participants; I would strongly suggest trying it out.
– MJ Caselden, Caselden Studios Magnetic Sound Baths, February 2017
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Practicing breathing techniques assisted me in gaining insight into how the breath can be a powerful tool for accessing more energy in the body. When I first tried the breathing technique, I was scared when my head started to feel light headed. However, hannes was able to guide me through and create a sense of safety and empowerment to keep going. If you are someone who experiences any kind stress and/or anxiety, or are interested in improving your physical/mental health, this is definitely a practice worth exploring!He also instructed patients in an addiction clinic with very positive first results, and we are exploring how to work together in clinical settings.
– Melanie S., Mental Health Counseling Graduate Student in NYC
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Is the first time I do these breathing techniques, I’ve been doing yoga and breathing practice all my life but what I experiences with hannes was something very different from what i was used to. At the beginning, in the first round of breathing, I felt clear minded and more present than usual, which is similar with what I get with regular Pranayama, but when I did the second round, laying down, I start experiencing this powerfully movement of energy through the left side of my body up to my head, as well as strong emotional resistance to the breathing, fear and anxiety came up, and then passed, then all the energy went down in to my lower region where it moved powerfully thru my intestinal area. Afterward I felt this strong vibration of energy thru my whole body. hannes is a very skillful and compassionate teacher, he knew what to say at every step of the process that would put me at ease so that I could give myself fully to it. I’m looking forward to my daily practice of his technique!
– Tomas, Health Coach and Yoga/Meditation instructor
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Its Monday late evening in Miami, to be more exact it was around 9:30PM’ish, and hannes very tranquilly suggests we should go to the beach and try a “breathing technique”. My first reactions was like – Ok, its Monday late evening, I gotta go to work early in the next morning, its been a while since I don’t go to the beach at night, so WHY NOT, Lets do it! –
Once we arrived, we sat on the sand and just listened to the waives as hannes started to lead our experience… We started breathing as directed and I decided to close my eyes so I could get into meditative mode easily. All of a sudden after listening to hannes instructions, quick enough I must say, I started to feel this numbness around my entire face, my hands, and pretty much my entire body. The body temperature also felt like it entered into this state of numbness, as I couldn’t decide weather I was hot or cold, nor if I was sweating or completely dry; tehrefore, I realized the entire body actually entered into a state of harmony with the entire universe, reason why it felt so amazing and shockingly rapid!
Since I closed my eyes, I also started to see this flashes of lights all over the place almost as if was traveling through a cosmic universe full of colorful lights, and at a very fast pace! The entire moment was just quiet amazing as I was able to be present and listen to hannes guiding the whole experience, all at the same time, while having this crazy shortcut to a deep state of meditation!
There was a moment where I almost freaked out I have to say hahahah!! I entered into a very deep meditative state after the third round of the breathing technique, and suddenly my hands started to feel as if they were being paralyzed by this incredible amount of energy coming out of each fingertip. It felt super intense so I decided to open my eyes and looked at hannes, saw him very blurry but his aura was so crystal clear. I remember telling him what was happening to my hands and he just reminded me to stay calm and to continue breathing, so I did. I decided to just surrender to the moment and be grateful for what my entire being was experiencing.
After a few seconds, minutes, I really don’t know; hannes gently started to bring us back from such state and told me to bring my hands together forming sort of like a ball, but without touching each other. What I felt? Just fucking crazy! literally, it felt like two huge magnets repealing each other, like this mass of just pure energy was being accumulated between my two palm hands. once again, I just surrendered to the moment and thanked the universe for allowing me the opportunity to find such power from within- you could not find it elsewhere, honestly. Just give yourself the opportunity and breath!
Thank you Señor! 🙂
Much Metta,
– Juan Sebastian, Miami in 2016 and 2017
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Breath work helped bring my life out of a negative spiral, and Hannes is the best coach I’ve ever met. After working with hannes for a week, I developed a daily breathing practice over four months. Hannes introduced me to the magic of the wim hof method, and I am forever thankful for the impact he’s brought to my life. Hannes has the uncanny ability to make breathwork accessible to everyone. His skillful and compassionate approach helped me develop a daily breathing habit and break out of a negative spiral.
– Josh S., January 2017 near San Francisco
BREATHWORK & MINDFULNESS: Smile Of Breath 