The Mission
Open Minds is built on a simple idea:
The way you experience your life is shaped by your internal state, and this is something you can learn to influence.
We use the breath as a way into the body, because the body carries patterns the mind cannot always explain. As the body begins to settle, the mind becomes easier to work with.
About Me
Alexa Medellin
I came to this work through a deep curiosity about the mind, the nervous system, and the way our internal state shapes how we experience life. With a background in systems engineering and a passion for personal growth, I was drawn to breathwork as a bridge between science and self-awareness. Through formal training in SOMA Breath® and nervous system-based practices, I now hold sessions that feel structured yet expansive, where people can regulate, focus, and explore inward in a grounded, accessible way.
More About the Practice
A closer look at the science, structure, and lived experience behind each session.
The Method
Each session follows a deliberate progression designed to guide you into direct experience.
We begin with a brief grounding phase to bring awareness into the body and settle the nervous system.
The core of the session consists of guided rhythmic breathing sequences paired with intentional breath holds. These retentions draw inspiration from traditional pranayama practices as well as modern breath science.
Throughout the session, carefully curated music helps support the process, helping create cohesion and guide the nervous system through different phases of activation and integration.
In some sessions there are also elements of visualization and structured self-reflection. When paired with breath-induced shifts in state, these reflective elements can surface insights, memories, or new perspectives that may otherwise remain buried beneath habitual thought patterns.
The practice trains presence and awareness to strengthen attention like a muscle so that you can direct it inward with clarity and intention.
Lastly, integration allows the experience to settle and translate into daily life.
Over time, breathwork becomes less of an event and more of a skill, something you do rather than something you practice.
The Science
This practice brings together traditional breathwork techniques with a modern understanding of physiology and the nervous system.
By working with breathing rhythms, depth, and intentional breath holds, you begin to influence key systems in the body. Slower, controlled breathing supports parasympathetic activation, helping the body shift out of stress and into a more regulated state.
Breath holds introduce short periods of intermittent hypoxia, which can improve oxygen efficiency, increase carbon dioxide tolerance, and support resilience under physical and mental stress.
These shifts aren’t just physical. As the nervous system becomes more regulated, cognitive and emotional processes begin to change as well. Attention stabilizes, reactivity decreases, and there is greater capacity to observe thoughts and emotions without immediately identifying with them.
Over time, breathwork and meditation practices have been shown to support focus, emotional regulation, stress reduction, and overall well-being. They strengthen the connection between body and mind, making it easier to shift your state intentionally rather than being driven by it.
The science is what makes the practice reliable. The experience is what makes it meaningful.
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The Experience
Sessions can feel grounding, expansive, energizing, or deeply releasing depending on the technique used. Some patterns can bring a wave of clarity while others may surface emotion, insight, or physical sensations such as warmth or tingling as circulation changes.
Breath has a way of bypassing overthinking and moving directly into the body, which allows stored tension or mental loops to soften without force and offer a space for deep relaxation.
The experience is not about chasing intensity but more about learning to safely explore different internal states and building familiarity with your own nervous system.
There’s no single outcome to aim for. The value is in the experience itself, and in what begins to change as you continue to show up.
Get in touch
Let's connect. I am happy to schedule a brief call to talk about breathwork and meditation in a more genuine way than what a website can do.