“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.” - Thich Nhat Hanh ( a really amazeballs Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. This is not a pic of him!)
My love affair with breathwork started with using the technique I am showing you in the video below.
At the time, I was at the beginning of my self-discovery journey. Trying to let go of obsessive and unhealthy behaviours around food and my body, to change the way I viewed myself and improve my self-esteem, which had been quietly and internally in the toilet for years.
I was amazing at putting on a show for the world while behind closed doors, I was struggling with negative and dark thoughts and feeling empty. At the time I couldn't relax unless I was zoning out my mind, body and soul so often I would use the TV.
I had a habit of sitting on the edge of my bed bolt upright watching it not at all comfy, but staying upright and tense felt like an added coat of armour to protect me from feeling anything.
But for some reason (I think habit ) I was still perched like a bird!!
As I sat, I became aware of how loud and stressful my thoughts were and how tense my body felt. I could feel my shoulders up around my ears and tightness in my chest. The more I focused on it the, more intense it became & I began to feel panicked.
My immediate response was to grab my phone and start scrolling on Instagram to try and distract. As I scrolled, the universe presented with me with three different posts talking about the power of breath. That night I started my love affair with breathwork because, from the 2nd breath, I felt a shift in my body and my mind.
Fast forward to now, I have been experimenting and still am experimenting with all the different modalities of breathwork therapy out there.
Some of my biggest emotional releases and breakthroughs have come during breathwork sessions. I will share more of my experiences with the other types in a future post.
But for now, the 4-7-8 technique is a place for you to start.
This Breathwork practice is about practising how to breathe to help us control our nervous system (sympathetic fight or flight) Parasympathetic reset & digest.
Most people spend too much time in fight or flight. Our body doesn't know the difference between work stress, a physical attack or being in a car crash; it has the same response in the body either way.
Spending most of your time in fight or flight, aka in chronic stress has health consequences and impacts your ability ever to find any peace or healing.
But as the two nervous systems can't activate at once, the breath allows us to switch from one to other, which means at the drop of a hat you can transform how you feel for FREE any time and anywhere.
Using this simple breathwork pattern helps bring your body back to balance. The best way to use it is;
1. develop a daily 2 x per day practice
2. use it as your go-to in times of stress
To activate the rest and digest the nervous system, you need to be breathing from the belly.
In my experience, most people tend to chest breath (you will know if you do this if when you put one hand on your belly and one your chest, take a breath and only your chest hand moves.)
So, in the beginning, you may find it feels hard and also weird. But trust me with practice it will get more comfortable so stick with it and pay attention to the shifts in your mind and body.
If you do struggle to get a full breath sitting up, my tip is to begin trying it in lying down position.
The method
1. Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth
2. Inhale for 4seconds in through the nose
3. Hold for 7 seconds
4. Exhale through the mouth for 8 seconds
Repeat for 3-4 rounds twice a day and use when times of stress occurs.
The app mention in the video is this one HERE.
Cheers to you. Cheers to your wellbeing.
Sending positive vibes
Sarah XO
