Meet Shai
The man behind
the breath.
Before Breathe With Shai became a practice, it was a personal journey.
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A Personal Journey
Meet Shai
Before I became a breath coach, I was simply trying to find my way back to myself.
In 2020, during the worldwide shutdown, a 13-year relationship came to an end. I found myself experiencing grief, anger, confusion, sadness, and a deep loss of identity. I had spent so much of my life within that relationship that when it ended, I had to ask myself a question I had never really had to answer before:
Who am I without it?
And beneath that question was an even bigger one:
What am I here to do? What is my purpose?
Take a breath.
You're here now.
The Turning Point
I Had 2 Choices
There was a point where I realized I could continue down the road of despair, or I could yield to a higher power to show me another way.
For the first time, I had no excuses or distractions in my life since everything was shut down.
I had time to sit with myself. Time to listen. Time to pray. Time to meditate. Time to fast.
I committed myself to a daily practice of meditation, prayer, and fasting. And slowly, something began to change.
I started seeing my life differently. I began reconnecting with myself and my relationship with the Creator.
What felt like an ending began becoming an awakening.
I wasn't losing myself. I was being introduced to myself.
"I wasn't loosing myself. I was being introduced to myself"
The Journey
In 2021, I made a decision that would change the direction of my life.
I moved to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. I arrived with an open heart and a willingness to experience life differently.
Along the way, I met people who would become important parts of my journey and began discovering a new sense of purpose.
Then someone I met heard my story and suggested something I had never even heard of before:
Breathwork.
I had no idea that one conversation and experience would introduce me to the work that would eventually become my life's path.
"Someone suggested something I had never ever heard before. Breathwork."
My First Breathwork Journey
Then I Breathed
During my first breathwork journey, I lay on my back and breathed. Halfway through the journey, I began releasing through tears.
Then something shifted.
I felt lighter in my body.
I felt an overwhelming sense of joy.
I felt closer to Source.
And somewhere within that experience came a deep knowing:
This is what I'm here to do.
Breathwork felt strangely familiar to me. Like something I wasn't discovering for the first time, but remembering.
When the journey ended, I immediately asked the facilitator:
“Where did you learn this? And when can I sign up?”
That moment changed everything.
"Your breath is a super power"
The Path Unfolded
From Experience to Purpose
I enrolled in a breathwork facilitation program that same year in 2022.
What began as a personal healing journey quickly became a path of service.
Breathwork opened doors I could never have planned for. It led me into retreats and sacred spaces in Mexico and Colombia, into working with people from around the world, and eventually into creating my own approaches to the breath.
But more than anything, it taught me that the breath is a doorway.
A doorway into the body.
A doorway into presence.
A doorway into something deeper within ourselves.
"Breathwork opened doors I could never have planned for"
The Breath I Was Shown
ALMA 4;24
During my time in Mexico, the name ALMA kept appearing for me.
Later, during a profound encounter with God, I experienced what I describe as being shown how to breathe. That experience became the inspiration for ALMA 4:24. ALMA became my invitation for people to explore what happens when we learn to become more comfortable in the exhale.
To slow down. To be still. To listen.
From Breath to Prana
PranaMatrix
As my relationship with the breath deepened, so did my understanding of prana — the life force moving through us.
That exploration eventually became PranaMatrix, a breathwork journey and facilitator pathway I created to share this work with others. What started with me simply trying to find myself again eventually became a framework for helping other people explore their own relationship with breath, body, presence, and spirit.
That's something I never could have imagined in 2020
What I Know Now
My philosophy
Through this journey, I've arrived at a perspective that continues to shape the way I live and the way I hold space for others: We are more than the physical body. I believe there is something deeper animating this human experience.
The breath. The prana. The spirit.
Whatever language you use for it, something is moving through us, giving this temporary human experience its life. And for me, the breath is one of the most intimate ways we've been given to experience that connection.
"Breath is the bridge between the physical and unseen."
What Participants Are Saying
"If I were to sum my experience up in a single word, it would be [transcendental]. It took time to get present mentally & physically in preparation, so the warmup was the perfect gateway into my mind-body. That's a connection I've historically either taken for granted or experienced negatively. The breathing exercises took concentration at the outset & definitely felt taxing, but once I adjusted to them by Round 3, the actual experience got underway for me. What started as [deep muscle relaxation] & a [deafeningly quiet mind] became [seeing colors], [smelling fragrances], [having flashbacks as well as flashforwards], & [feeling the gamut of emotions]"
~Blu
A Personal Journey
Before you leave this page,
pause for a moment...
Notice that you're here
Welcome back to yourself
This is the power of
the breath
What began as a way for me to find my way through one of the most difficult chapters of my life eventually became the work I now share with others.
The breath has helped me slow down, feel more deeply, release what I've been carrying, and return to the present moment.
And that's what I want to offer you.
Not a promise to become someone different.
But an invitation to come back to who you already are.