yesterday evening I got introduced to breathwork in class. now I really understand the struggle with trauma sitting in your body. and how our society is almost constantly in the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight mode instead of rest and digest mode). I now believe that breathwork is a key part of healing and its very underrated in medicine. you will only regenerate, if you give your body the signals to be in rest mode. breathwork is one way to do that mindfully. so powerful and easy. π
Discussion
That's lovely, thank you! I'm glad it made such a good impression on you. In order to understand body, mind and beyond, breathwork, meditation, yoga are really great ways. Breathwork is good for the less experienced western mind in my experience. As you say, most don't even realize that they are constantly in the sympathetic state. Bringing the state of one's being into awareness is key for all the methods, including Wim Hof. Enjoy your journey, I'm glad to hear π
How does one do this?
There are so many ways... Starting for example with "box breathing" can be very powerful, to calm the nervous system.
To align and synchronize brain- and heart frequency you can start also by breathing while counting on 4 inhaling and exhaling on 4. Or when going deeper, you count on 4 inhaling, holding the breath counting on 4, exhaling counting on 4 and holding again breath counting on 4. You do this for as long as it feels good and you feel how you calm down, realign, centering, grounding...
There are so many breath masters out there. I went quite deep into breath work with different trainings. One of them was SOMA by Niraj Naik
i sometimes do
4 seconds in
3 seconds holding
6 seconds out
when I'm stressed but thats it.
there are many ways with different purpose :)
I've been trying Wim hof breathing. No markable difference so far.
I've found that it suppresses hick-ups like nothing else tho hehe π.
maybe you're a chill guy idk
I have to find out
as a hickup magnet I have to say thats great ! :D
I love reading, this is something that resonates with you! Breathwork is so so powerful.
But...you must be very mindful when working with traumatized clients...! When I started implementing breathwork with my clients, I had a very unpleasant experience. It taught me to be very mindful and observing well my clients, when going into breathwork.
It was just three deep breaths, exhaling with a sound/tone like a ship makes, when entering the harbor. She almost fainted, felt dizzy and nausea. She hadn't breathed since many years that deeply. It was just to much at once.
So it was a big lesson for me... You can get traumatized by going to fast to deep...Because that is exactly what happens when someone gets traumatized. Something happens to fast, to strong, to sudden.
wow that must have been an experience. my teacher told me that he used to check the breathing ability of the clients at the beginning. now it makes even more sense π so powerful, wow... thanks for sharing awareness ππΌ
as you describe your practice, we did something similar yesterday, to train the parasympathetic system
Absolutely. While it's easy for many, it can also overstimulate the nervous sustem for others. That's why good educated guidance is so necessary and why I studied to be a Wim Hof method instructor. It's necessary to know the biological background and have the experience to evaluate where your participants stand in terms of stress level and overall health.
With the Wim Hof method you consciously play with raising the stress level through breathing and cold ... and then go into the opposite with full relaxation. That interplay is called hormesis and is what makes youbso resilient and healthy. If you overstimulate your nervous system without the proper rest and calm down, you add to your stress level and can make conditions worse over time.
thank you :)
True. Do it everyday. You become unstoppable. π«΅ππ«
Wim Hof saved me when I started to have severe breathing/attention span/brain fog and vasculitis like symptoms issues in late 2022. Helped me build myself up again. Though I tend to let it slide for a few weeks because I still lack self control and discipline in some areas, I still practice it, interchanging with anapanasati and cyclic sighing/double inhale techniques.
I still have pain in my lower rib cage from a cycling accident in 2022 when breathing in to deeply that makes breathing exercises more painful for me than most and a few joints per evening don't make it much better for my lung either. I still fall back to shallow breathing until I notice it and snap out of it.
Glad you discovered this.
I learned deep breathing in my voice lessons.
I didn't know, before then, how far down my lungs went, or how much air they could hold.
thanks for sharing ππΌ I'm happy to read that it helped with your problems!
hope your rib is fine. is it misplaced?
yeah haha my daily breathing is also very shallow
wishing you lots of endurance on bringing these practices into your routine again π€
Doctors think it's all neurological but they're still clotshotting people, so fuck them with a pipe.
It's probably neuralgia, myofasccia related or a local inflammation being covered by a guarded posture. Need to tackle this regardless. Yoga, stretching, workouts and keeping busy does a lot but it's still hindering the breath work. π«
Can rule out micro texture because of an MRI.
Appreciate it! π
fasccia is what I was thinking too,
maybe get some osteopath hands on you if you haven't already πͺ
ππ«
Two questions pop up:
1. Best resources to further read into this / start practicing?
2. How do you know youβd benefit from this / you run sympathetic on adrenaline, if you are 95+% of the time calm, quiet, grounded and happy? Any quick test to check on βneedβ?
my teacher recommended me the youtube channel "Breath with Sandy"
maybe search for breathwork and nervous system activity if you're interested!
hmm so the sympathetic system is also everything that requires you to move, so it automatically activates when you wake up too for example. many people are dys regulated and tend to go from parasympathetic to sympathetic dominance way too often and way too fast. (mad driving, hating your job, unhappy relationships, constantly being on the phone)
So if you won't get mad over little things easily its a sign that your nervous system reacts less hard on external stuff all the time.
but like a quick test idk. you can observe yourself (heartbeat, warm/cold hands, digestion, pupils?)
the daily stimulus of information is so much higher than for example a farmer that lived 200 years ago so its probably always good to calm yourself with breathwork or just having a relatively calm, meditative life. π€
Not a how to book, but a lot of interesting tidbits. TLDR - We are becoming mouth breathers! lol.
The closest I get to this is attending Mass or Ewige Anbetung. I get what you mean, as it's the only time when I am truly at rest and I become aware of my own breathing.
I guess, it's meditative.
yes exactly! and humans coming together like that is a great experience. π«Ά
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How to easily get into βrest and digestβ mode, the parasympathetic nervous system.
Inhale to the count of 3.
Exhale to the count of 6.
Repeat for 5min.
Try it out, now!
nice thanks! its all about exhaling a little longer, right? :)
I do 4 inhale, 3 holding, 6 exhale sometimes
