Elliot Amaru
Breathwork in Marseille
Breathwork in Marseille

The most underrated medicine is not sold in pharmacies, it is found in you.

Elliot Amaru, certified by the International Breathwork Foundation and Yoga Alliance,
massage therapist and practitioner of ancestral ceremonies.

Book a sessionGo down into the body
5.0 out of 5 · 31 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)

Accredited byInternational Breathwork FoundationYoga Alliance

Elliot Amaru, a blue and white headband in his hair, leaning over a woman lying down, one hand on her forehead, during a group session
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Breath and the brain

Breath, a dialogue with the brain.

Recent research shows that the rhythm of our breathing is directly linked to our brain activity.

Researchers have observed a synchronization between the breathing cycle and the activity of different brain regions, including those involved in emotions, attention and certain cognitive functions.

When we are stressed or on alert, our breathing tends to speed up. Conversely, slowing the breath on purpose can help move our physiological state toward more calm and recovery.

Breathwork invites us to explore this relationship between breath, body, brain and consciousness.

Through different breathing techniques, we experience first-hand what our breathing can change in our physical and inner state.

It is about learning to listen to the breath, to play with its rhythms, to develop a finer awareness of the body and to discover how breathing can become a real tool for presence and regulation.

This is what I share here.

Five chapters to follow the breath, from the lungs to the nervous system.

The lungs

Blood is already saturated with oxygen.

97 to 98% at rest. Breathing harder leaves that figure unchanged.

480 million

alveoli, about 70 m² for exchange

What decides how much oxygen your brain and muscles receive is CO2: where cells produce it, hemoglobin lets go of its oxygen.

If you breathe too fast, you blow off that CO2 and the oxygen stays attached. Your head spins.

What it changes in a session
Sources
  1. Resting saturation: 97 to 98%. Collins et al., Breathe, 2015 (opens in a new tab): 96 to 98% in healthy adults at sea level
  2. Alveoli: About 480 million. Ochs et al., American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2004 (opens in a new tab): 480 million on average across six adult lungs, from 274 to 790 million depending on the lung
  3. Exchange surface: About 70 m². Rao and Johncy, Cureus, 2022 (opens in a new tab): published estimates range from 70 to 140 m² depending on the method
  4. Bohr effect: Described in 1904. Bohr, Hasselbalch and Krogh, Skandinavisches Archiv für Physiologie, 1904 (opens in a new tab)
The diaphragm

The diaphragm opens the lungs.

You breathe 20,000 times a day. With every inhale, this dome of muscle, stretched like a sail, moves down, your rib cage expands and air rushes in.

At rest, it moves down about 2 cm. In deep breathing, 5 to 7 cm: more than double, and the air coming in follows.

On the exhale it rises back up on its own. That return, you can slow down.

The vagus nerve runs through the middle of this muscle, the thread that links your breath to your heart.

Breathe in a private session
Sources
  1. Diaphragm travel: Boussuges et al., “Diaphragmatic motion recorded by M-mode ultrasonography: limits of normality”, ERJ Open Research, 2021 (opens in a new tab), 410 healthy volunteers. Calm breathing: 1.7 cm in women, 1.9 to 2 cm in men. Deep breathing: 5.4 cm in women, 6.6 to 6.7 cm in men
  2. Vagus nerve and diaphragm: Kenhub, esophageal hiatus (opens in a new tab) and StatPearls, “Anatomy, Thorax: Diaphragm” (opens in a new tab). At the level of the tenth thoracic vertebra, it lets the two trunks of the vagus nerve through
  3. Breathing mechanics: TeachMePhysiology, mechanics of breathing (opens in a new tab). Inhalation comes from the diaphragm and the external intercostal muscles; calm exhalation is passive
  4. Cycles per day: About 20,000. At rest, 12 to 20 breaths per minute (opens in a new tab) in adults (StatPearls, “Vital Sign Assessment”), that is 17,000 to 29,000 a day
The vagus nerve

Six breaths per minute. At this rhythm, your heart changes its behavior.

The heart speeds up when you inhale and slows down when you exhale. That gap, heart rate variability, peaks at six breaths per minute.

This process runs through the vagus nerve, which links the brainstem to the heart, the lungs and the gut.

4 out of 5

of the vagus nerve fibers travel from the body up to the brain

A hunch often arrives this way.

Lengthen your exhale: the vagus nerve engages the brake and the heart slows within a second. It is the only voluntary lever you have on the autonomic nervous system.

Illustration

One breathing cycle, seen from the heart.

68 bpm

Illustrative diagram of breathing at six cycles per minute.

Try it now: breathe along with the curve. This is the 5-5 breathing.

Sources
  1. Resonance frequency: 6 breaths per minute, or 0.1 Hz. Lehrer and Gevirtz, Frontiers in Psychology, 2014 (opens in a new tab)
  2. Afferent fibers of the vagus nerve: About 80%. Breit et al., Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2018 (opens in a new tab): 80 to 90% of the fibers run from the organs to the brain
  3. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia: Speeding up on the inhale, slowing down on the exhale. Yasuma and Hayano, Chest, 2004 (opens in a new tab): the interval between two beats shortens on the inhale and lengthens on the exhale
The belly

You have more neurons in your belly than in your spinal cord.

Between 200 and 600 million, in your intestines. They form the enteric nervous system, which works on its own.

9 out of 10

of the vagal fibers in the abdomen carry information up to the brain

Your breath acts directly on these neurons. Belly breathing is tied to your emotions.

Taoist medicine knew this long before the laboratories: for it, the belly is the center of the body, where tensions and feelings accumulate.

Two ways to soften it: breath from the inside, the hand from the outside.

Chi Nei Tsang in a session
Sources
  1. Enteric neurons: 200 to 600 million. Furness et al., Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2014 (opens in a new tab)
  2. Afferent abdominal vagal fibers: About 90%. Breit et al., Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2018 (opens in a new tab): 80 to 90% of the fibers of the vagus nerve
The nervous system

Breath acts on the whole nervous system.

The nervous system connects everything you have just seen: it starts in the brain and reaches, through the spinal cord, the tips of your fingers and toes.

3 times around the Earth

the length of your brain's nerve fibers, laid end to end

Two branches share the control: the sympathetic, the accelerator, and the parasympathetic, the brake, of which the vagus nerve is part. Your state in the moment comes from their balance.

Fast, deep breathing followed by a pause raises adrenaline. Slow breathing, under ten cycles per minute, calms and reduces anxiety and anger.

In a session, you go through both: the surge, then the calm.

Book my private session
Sources
  1. Length of the brain's nerve fibers: Marner et al., “Marked loss of myelinated nerve fibers in the human brain with age”, Journal of Comparative Neurology, 2003, 462: 144-152 (opens in a new tab). 36 adults aged 18 to 93. At age 20: 176,000 km of myelinated fibers in men and 149,000 km in women, that is 4.4 and 3.7 times around the Earth (40,075 km). About 10% less each decade: 97,200 and 82,000 km at age 80, that is 2.4 and 2 times around
  2. Sympathetic and parasympathetic: Pratt, Gwinnutt and Bakewell, “The Autonomic Nervous System: Basic Anatomy and Physiology”, Update in Anaesthesia (World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists) (opens in a new tab). The sympathetic prepares for action: faster heart, dilated airways, reduced digestive activity. The parasympathetic slows the heart and restarts digestive activity. Most organs receive both divisions, with effects that are most often opposite
  3. Fast breathing and adrenaline: Kox et al., “Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans”, PNAS, 2014 (opens in a new tab). 24 healthy volunteers. The 12 trained for 10 days (fast breathing followed by a pause, meditation, cold exposure) raise their blood adrenaline while practicing
  4. Slow breathing: Zaccaro et al., “How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing”, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2018 (opens in a new tab). 15 studies kept out of 2,461 abstracts, breathing under 10 cycles per minute: heart rate variability and alpha waves up, more comfort, relaxation and alertness, less anxiety, depression, anger and confusion
  5. Five minutes a day: Balban et al., “Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal”, Cell Reports Medicine, 2023 (opens in a new tab). 108 adults split into four groups, 5 minutes a day for 28 days. Cyclic sighing (lengthened exhale) improves mood and lowers resting breathing rate more than mindfulness meditation. Heart rate variability and resting heart rate stay stable

Your breath is a great power. Learn to master it, become the alchemist.

About

Elliot Amaru sitting in lotus in front of prayer flags, a red headband in his hair

Elliot Amaru: Meeting our inner state

What if the path to ourselves began with a breath, a silence, or an encounter able to overturn our view of the world?

My name is Elliot Amaru. For seven years, my story has taken me across continents, to meet age-old traditions and to learn from people whose knowledge is passed down far beyond diplomas and books.

Holistic therapist, Hatha Yoga teacher, Chi Nei Tsang practitioner and facilitator of ancestral ceremonies, I have gradually woven an approach that links the body, the breath and the subtler dimensions of human experience.

Elliot Amaru sitting in lotus on a rock in the middle of a river, surrounded by forest, hand on his heart

From breath to self-knowledge

My path led me to the foot of the Himalayas, where I completed 300 hours of training in conscious connected breathing with Mike O'Meara, founder of Evolution of Breath (opens in a new tab) and a major figure in the field today. I also took four weeks of online training in the Wim Hof method, 112 hours of training in Chinese medicine and Chi Nei Tsang with Hendrik van der Merwe, and 200 hours of training in Hatha Yoga and pranayama at Mind Flow Harmony, in Rishikesh.

Each of these practices explores a different way in: the breath and its effects on our inner state, movement and presence, or listening to the body through touch.

Ceremony in the Andes: a person lying down, Elliot Amaru sitting beside them, a drum in the foreground

A path that is not learned only in books

At 24, a shamanic experience profoundly changed my life. It opened a door to a path of exploration and inner understanding that I never would have imagined possible.

That quest then took me to the heart of the Amazon and to the Sacred Valley of Peru, where I deepened my bond with ancestral traditions. Through months of traditional plant diets, lived in retreat and introspection, I undertook deep work on myself: opening my heart, sharpening my intuition and going to meet my most buried wounds, with the intention of understanding them, soothing them and, at last, freeing myself from them.

It was by going through this process myself that I gradually found my place among the tribes I had come to discover. Once this path was complete, I had the privilege of assisting many shamans in their ceremonies and learning at their side. These experiences nourished my understanding of accompaniment and, over time, led me to create my own ceremonial spaces.

This path taught me that the art of holding space is not about bringing all the answers, but about creating the conditions for each person to explore their own.

Elliot Amaru sitting among Tibetan bowls, crystal bowls and a gong

The Inner State Lab (opens in a new tab): a space to explore your inner world

Today, I bring these experiences together in a multidisciplinary approach that combines the science of breath, Eastern wisdom and spiritual traditions.

Over the course of my journey, I have guided more than 2,500 people, in individual sessions, in groups and on retreats, with the privilege of witnessing many realizations, inner healings and essential transformations.

Through breathwork, yoga, Chi Nei Tsang and ancestral medicines, I offer and create a setting where slowing down, listening, feeling and reconnecting with oneself becomes possible.

I share these practices with respect, humility and discernment, without imposing any truth or ready-made path.

The Inner State Lab is an invitation to explore what lies beyond the noise of everyday life, to meet one's own depths and to cultivate a more conscious relationship with oneself, with others and with all living things. With a spirit of non-judgment, acceptance and compassion.

Yoga training graduation: the class in white, certificates in hand, arms raised, in front of the mountains
Elliot Amaru holding his International Breathwork Foundation certificate
Offers

Every session starts from where you are

Reviews and messages

They're talking about it!

5.0Read the reviews on Google (opens in a new tab)Leave a Google review (opens in a new tab)
  • Milica VidenovicGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    An incredible and very intense experience. I can't even remember the last time I breathed so freely and deeply. At the end of the session I felt completely emptied of my stress, deeply calmed, light... as if I had just been reborn. Elliot guides the session with great kindness and I felt confident from start to finish. I recommend this experience to everyone who feels the need to let go and reconnect with themselves. I can't wait to do it again! Thank you Elliot 🙏✨

  • I've just come out of an incredible breathwork with Elliot. Deep, intense and liberating.

  • You liberated me.

    Axel, photographer
  • Hermine HommetGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    Superb experience with Elliot! 3 Breathwork sessions in 2 days, each time with amazing journeys, old memories being released, calm and serenity beyond compare at the end of the session. Thank you Elliot!

  • The journey was incredible! Elliot is a magnificent facilitator of journeys, the explanations are clear and joyful, he is attentive to each person even within a group, I had a wonderful time and I hope this experience can be repeated 🕊️ Thank you to Elliot, and to Amélie for the organization 🫶

  • I've tried and been to so many different types of breathing workshops over the years but nothing has drawn me so much as what you have made me experience. It's powerful. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my story and share with me your story of the past. Thank you for sharing the intentions and your knowledge on how I can manifest my thoughts into my reality. Last night, I sat in bed, no phone, just with my breath and I've had such a lovely deep sleep. Wishing you lots of happiness, love and protection.

    Amar, trader
  • Audrey PetoudGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    A very beautiful breathwork experience with Elliot. His approach is both reassuring and professional. He knows how to create a space of trust that makes letting go and inner exploration easy. A unique guidance that I recommend to anyone wanting to discover or deepen this practice. Definitely to do again!

  • Thank you for this intense and wonderful journey Elliot! An exceptional human being, an encounter of the kind that impacts your life, and an experience led with gentleness, joy and kindness. Thanks to you ☀️

  • I waited a very long time before taking the plunge, because I really wanted to find a therapist I felt safe with. And I discovered Elliot. From the start, you knew how to put me at ease, creating a space where I felt confident. During the session, I quickly slipped into an altered state of consciousness, and the sensations in my body became intense. Your caring guidance was precious. After these 3 journeys, all so different, I came back with immense joy and crazy energy. Thank you for this sacred space you create.

  • It is not often that I make recommandations but needed to share this amazing experience. I had a private breathing class with Elliot and the benefit is really there. I highly recommand Elliot's class for your soul and spirit. Namasté

    Siska, psychologist

  • I would like to thank Elliot and recommend his breathing session to all seekers. I experienced one of the most transcendent moments of my life between Elliot's hands. With love, respect and absolute knowledge he makes your existence a connection to the Divine and Sacred. Once again thank you Universe for directing me to him!

    Carolina, real estate agent
  • AED CorporateGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    I had the chance to take part in several breathwork workshops led by Elliot Amaru, and I can only recommend him. Elliot creates a setting that is secure, caring and deeply professional. Each workshop was an experience rich in realizations, emotional releases and reconnection with oneself.

  • Jules BiessyGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    Great welcome from Elliot, it should be covered by health insurance! I did a 2-hour breathwork session with Elliot in early October 2026. You are put at ease right away, in a relaxing and non-judgmental atmosphere. Elliot explains and demonstrates the different breathing techniques very well. The first part of the session is quite physical and spiritual at the same time. The second part, a conscious breathing session, overwhelmed me. I did not think I could release so many blockages and, at the same time, find so much energy, clarity and serenity. You go through different phases (tears, anger, sadness, joy...) and you clearly understand and feel, physically and mentally, the full power of this technique. Releasing blocked emotions... I left this session so deeply moved and so relieved at the same time! I recommend it 200%! Go for it, you'll be spoiled!

  • “Heavy floating.” Elliot was able to create a space filled with energy, safety, and intimacy that radiated through the whole room and each body. I started to fly. I felt completely held and surrounded by Elliot's presence. Especially in the moment where Elliot touched my forehead, I felt completely embedded in his presence and his warmth.

    Luisa, co-founder of Global Project and Change Management
  • Pascia GuedjGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    It breathes! That's really what I felt. An experience I came back from revitalized, recharged and aligned. Thank you for this preparation protocol and this attentive, warm guidance.

  • “The B.B.O State. Being Blissed OUT State.” Elliot held a beautiful safe space from start to end. He shared amazing practices as warm-ups. He was also very attentive to creating a unique session to support me with my intention. He told me “I am not a Wizard”, but he actually is a Breath Wizard, in my experience. The session helped me to open to more Joy, more Bliss, and feeling more Alive and Expanded.

    Ludivine, mistress of ceremony, energy healer

  • On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to have a unique breathwork experience with Elliot. For 1.5 hours, he guided me through a deep journey where every breath let me reconnect with myself. Thanks to his attentive guidance and precise techniques, I felt an intense connection, a rare moment of calm and letting go. A powerful experience that I recommend to everyone who wants to go beyond everyday life to find serenity and inner presence. Thank you for making me breathe.

  • Éric DuguéGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    I was lucky enough to do several sessions with Elliot and every time the magic works. The breath can be tamed, the breath heals, the breath makes us grow and sets us free. Elliot is an excellent guide/therapist, solid and gentle at once. His practice is powerful and safe.

  • You have a very unique and special gift, to hold space, encourage and support in your authentic sacred masculine energy. I have deep heart gratitude that I could trust you and be held by you through so much vulnerability. I know you are going to impact many lives with your work.

    Kayleigh, founder of Soul Essence Yoga, Cape Town

  • I just wanted to say thank you for today, really. I feel like you pulled me out of places and were really through it all with me this morning. What you do is incredible and I'm so grateful to have experienced this with you. I really want to just share this with people that mean most to me.

    Alisha, founder of Blabel.in
  • Malika El BazGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    I took part in a first breathwork session with Elliot Amaru and the experience was very strong and liberating. The guidance is secure, caring and deep all at once. You feel guided throughout the session, which really lets you let go with confidence. I felt a real release of physical and mental tension, especially in the shoulders and upper body.

  • Incredible, magical. Thank you thank you. I just lived a magical experience. A real breathwork, with my ceremony sisters.

  • Sasha NeveuGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    I had the chance to do several breathwork sessions with Elliot, and I can only recommend him. His guidance is professional, caring and very fitting all at once. His gentleness lets you feel confident right away and let go more easily during the sessions. Each experience brought me real well-being, with positive effects I still feel.

  • I took part in the session yesterday. I highly recommend Elliot and his practice. Breathwork is extremely powerful and made me experience vibrations and the possibility of releasing buried, repressed emotions. Thank you for your reassuring guidance.

  • I just had an exceptional experience, a rebirth! Endless thanks Elliot for accompanying and guiding me through the breathwork experience. Thank you for your generosity and your professionalism. Can't wait for the next session.

    Lilia · Translated from French
  • Felix MichonGoogle review · Translated from French
    5 stars out of 5

    An excellent professional who puts you at ease for a gentle, relaxing and deep moment.

  • Thank you for all the positivity and healing you have brought into mine and my family's lives. Will forever be grateful you are a special soul. Keep glowing and growing.

    Tanya, canine educator

  • You left me a great teaching and I breathe consciously almost every morning. I am much better with myself and the world. Thank you always for your love and empathy. I know you are a divine messenger!

    Caroline, sports coach

  • Thank you so much for this moment. Powerful. Reconnecting. Real.

  • Never knew the power of breath, till I did this session with you. You definitely opened new portals into other dimensions. And the way you held space was truly special. I felt completely safe, loved and protected.

    Hufreesh, painter

  • Thank you so much for this inner journey! I arrived this afternoon with a heavy heart and tonight I was dancing while making dinner. Thank you Elliot.

    Marie · Translated from French

  • Elliot is a gifted, young conscious connected breathwork teacher. He was loving, generous and skilled in his work. I highly recommend his work to deepen your breath work skill and experience.

    Rosa, breathwork teacher

  • Yesterday was a bit hard, I stayed in bed all afternoon. After a very good night's sleep, I wake up with my head emptyyyy, zero physical tension, whereas before I used to wake up with tight shoulders. It's truly a rebirth for me. I won't hesitate to tell everyone around me.

    The day after a session · Translated from French

  • I was lucky to have two breathwork sessions guided by Elliot, they were different and both wonderful. Elliot is a great spaceholder and guide in conscious connected breathwork. And as a breathwork coach myself, I learned a lot as well.

    Kay, breathwork coach

  • Yesterday I did my first breathwork session. I had the immense luck to do it with Elliot. He is a magnificent, powerful guide who makes you feel very safe. It was an extraordinary journey, into the vast and the unhoped-for. Elliot is a great teacher, very connected, and does everything to guarantee power and safety on this journey. Immense gratitude.

    After their first session · Translated from French

  • You have no idea how transformational your breathwork sessions were for me, I am forever grateful to you.

    Stefanie, life coach

  • Feeling light as a feather and bright as the moon.

    Tianna

  • Thank you very much Elliot, for your hours of sharing, attention and kindness. This session let me answer some questions, there is still a way to go. Thank you for being with me the whole way, it strengthened my self-confidence.

    After a session · Translated from French

  • I attended your class with Tanya in Mumbai and I cannot express how magical it was!!

    After a class in Mumbai

  • Thank you for that super powerful session. I have been struggling with sleep for a while and yesterday's session pushed so much out that I slept like a baby for the first time in weeks!!

    After a session in Mumbai

  • Just wanted to thank you for a beautiful session yesterday. I'm feeling so much lighter and happier. The way you energetically guided us was so divine and magical.

    Sanaya, manifestation and entrepreneurship coach

  • Elliot, an extraordinary shaman. I spent 2 hours of incredible guided breathing, music, a complete switch-off, back to oneself. A very strong moment that turns everything upside down.

    After a session · Translated from French
Book

Choose your slot

A health form is sent to you after booking. It takes five minutes and it confirms that the session suits you.

A question before booking? Write to me at elliot.breathwork@gmail.com, call 07 66 35 76 74 or message me on Instagram (opens in a new tab).

Frequently asked questions

WhereStudio, 58 boulevard Bompard, 13007 MarseilleThe gate with the “No parking” sign, next to the Les deux frangins pizzeria.

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Breathe with me

@theinnerstatelab (opens in a new tab)