What Is Self-Breema and How Is It Practiced at Journeying Toward Wholeness?

Updated

Self-Breema is a self-care practice in which you use gentle, rhythmic movements and focused body awareness on yourself, rather than receiving bodywork from a practitioner. At Journeying Toward Wholeness, Julie Russell presents it alongside Yoga and T'ai Chi as one of three movement practices that together support balance, inner peace, and a felt sense of wholeness. The site describes the combination as "a way of living and being" that opens the heart, mind, body, feelings, imagination, and creativity, and that over time brings forward courage, serenity, acceptance, and compassion.

What Self-Breema Is

Breema bodywork is traditionally done with a partner, but Self-Breema is the solo form: you apply the same kind of comfortable, non-strenuous movement and touch to your own body. The practice is done fully clothed, typically on a padded floor or mat, and the emphasis is on how you move — gently, without strain, with attention on sensation — rather than on achieving a particular shape or intensity.

The site treats Self-Breema as a distinct practice in its own right, listed separately from Yoga and T'ai Chi in the site's navigation and described as one of the three core practices Julie teaches.

How It Relates to Yoga and T'ai Chi

At Journeying Toward Wholeness, the three practices are not presented as competing methods but as complementary ones, each contributing something different to the same aim:

Practice General emphasis What it contributes in this framework
Yoga Posture, breath, flexibility, strength Opening and aligning the body; steadying the mind
T'ai Chi Slow, continuous, flowing movement Balance, groundedness, calm alertness
Self-Breema Gentle self-directed movement and touch Relaxation, body awareness, ease in the present moment

Because Self-Breema is low-impact and undemanding, it can serve as a gentle entry point or as a counterbalance to more active Yoga practice. T'ai Chi's slow continuity and Self-Breema's softness reinforce each other, while Yoga adds structure and stretch. The site frames the whole combination as supporting qualities of "courage, serenity, acceptance and compassion" — the language of an inner journey rather than a fitness program.

How It Is Practiced at Journeying Toward Wholeness

The site's navigation shows the formats through which the practices are offered:

  • Recorded Classes — pre-recorded sessions you can follow at home.
  • Rejuvenation I and Rejuvenation II — two named program levels or sequences.
  • T'ai Chi DVD — a standalone T'ai Chi instructional video.
  • Retreat — an in-person retreat format.
  • Prison Yoga — outreach teaching in a prison setting.
  • The Painting Journal™ — Julie's own creative/art practice, offered alongside the movement work.

If you want to learn Self-Breema specifically, the practical path suggested by the site's structure is to start with the recorded classes or a Rejuvenation program, then consider a retreat for in-person instruction. Note that the site does not publish prices or state whether any of these require an account or login, so check the individual pages before assuming access terms.

What to Expect from the Teacher's Background

Julie Russell holds a B.S. in Education from Wheelock College and an M.A. in Art from Peabody College in Nashville, where she founded and directed The Center, a school for pottery, arts and crafts, for seven years. She expanded into the healing arts in the early 1980s, doing Breema and practicing and teaching both Yoga and T'ai Chi, including classes and workshops in art therapy and The Painting Journal. She has lived and taught in Tennessee since the 1960s.

That background explains the site's particular blend: an artist-educator's approach to movement, with creativity (the Painting Journal) treated as part of the same wholeness work as Yoga, T'ai Chi, and Self-Breema.

Choosing Whether This Approach Fits You

This framework suits you if you want:

  • A gentle, self-directed practice you can do at home without equipment beyond a mat.
  • Movement taught as inner work — attention, ease, and emotional balance — rather than performance or calorie burn.
  • A single teacher's integrated approach across Yoga, T'ai Chi, and Self-Breema, plus a creative component.

It may be less suited if you want high-intensity training, competitive athletics, or a large studio with many instructors and class times. The site is a personal teaching practice, not a chain or app platform, and its offerings are organized around Julie's recorded classes, programs, and retreats.