How To Use Breathing and Self-touch:

I had a teacher in Switzerland once who talked about our 5 senses and how we can use them to modulate our state. He also said that one of the most underused ‘sense’ was touch.

The truth is, we allow only a few people to touch us and usually only in very specific ways. Yet, we all know how wonderful it is to have someone we care about squeeze our hand or give us a hug. Another person’s touch can be incredibly soothing. The mere touch of someone we love can usually settle us down like nothing else can.

What About Self Touching?

And what about touching ourselves? Leaving sexual touching out of the discussion, most of us barely touch ourselves, which is unfortunate, as self-touch can have a deep impact on how we feel, as you will discover in the protocol I’m offering you today.

The Breathing protocol we’re going to work with today is a 3-tiered process, starting with breathing, then adding in a protocol based on the practice of Havening that involves touching the face and arms, and then finishing with some affirmations. Most people find themselves feeling more grounded and affirmed after doing it, as well as deeply relaxed and stable.

How To Use Self-touching:

Find yourself a comfortable place to sit and get comfortable.
Before we start, scan your body and on a scale of 0 to 10, ‘0’ being no stress and ‘10’ being full on stress, give yourself a number so you can see if it changes. When the protocol is done, scan your body and mind again and notice the changes that have taken place.

In-joy–

ACCESS THE PROTOCOL HERE

Have a great week!
Karen

As you have experienced through this series of breathing protocols, the breath is a powerful and multi-faceted resource. It can relax you deeply, boost your brain power, quieten your anxiety, connect you with higher states and augment your health.

Today we’re going to focus on the health aspect and follow a protocol that Wim Hof has developed over many years. Wim Hof talks extensively about the healing power of the cold. Dubbed The Ice Man, he’s trekked up snowy mountains in his shorts and has the record for swimming under the ice without the aid of any underwater equipment. Most impressively, Hof has been able to withstand viruses that have been injected into his veins when he was being studied in a hospital environment.

The Hof Method is my Favourite

Hof offers a basic sample of his breathing protocol online and I like it so much that I do it most days. It not only oxygenates my system by the exaggerated deep breathing, but it also relaxes me because of its long breath holds.

Hof states that his protocol creates such vitality in the body that many ailments and illnesses heal on their own. You can read more about that on his site, Wimhofmethod.com. Or try his protocol out on his YouTube channel.

For those of you who wonder about the difference between the Hof Method and Soma Breathing, (which I am an instructor of), the latter was designed by Naraj Naik who was originally a student of Hof’s. Naik, was a pharmacist who healed his own serious health issue through breathing. He was so impressed that he redesigned the protocol, added powerful music and some other enhancements and made it more fun, but basically, it’s the same.

I am going to guide your through an example of the Hof method in the audio segment below. If you have any heart problems or other serious health issues like lung disease or cancer, please skip the breath holds.

The Hof Protocol Involves

The protocol will take about 10 minutes and involves taking about 30 very big inhales and exhales, then letting all the air out of your lungs and doing a breath hold for about a minute. If you find you need to take a breath before the minute is up, you can take a sip of air, let it out and continue holding.

After the breath hold, I will instruct you to take a big inhale and hold it for 15 seconds. If at any time during the protocol, you notice yourself getting tingling sensations, or a surge of body heat, that’s normal.

We will repeat this same procedure for 2 more rounds, except the breath hold will be longer in the second (a minute and a half) and even longer in the third round (2 minutes). Take sips of air as necessary.

Ready? HERE’S THE AUDIO

Once you’ve done the protocol, just notice the differences you feel in your body. I usually find I’m so much more relaxed but also feeling energized. It’s a lovely combination. It settles my blood pressure and heart rate down too, or so my Fitbit tells me. I just feel better. More alive and optimistic. That’s why I do it everyday. When I miss it, I notice the difference.

But that’s my experience. I’m interested in yours. Let me know what you think. karen@personalbest.org

 

 

Why we sigh

Do you ever sigh in frustration? Do you know why your boy does that? Because breathing out all the oxygen in your system is one of the ways the body recalibrates into relaxation.

Most of us don’t think about sighing, we just do it. But if you want to deeply relax and feel good, consciously holding your breath out for a few moments will do just that.

Breath holds are a powerful way of taking charge of yourself. They can be done by either holding all the air OUT of your lungs and/or holding all the air IN your lungs. Both are valuable, but when you hold the air out of your lungs for any length of time, it rebalances the oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body in a way that encourages that oxygen to download into the cells, creating greater health and relaxation.

Why Breath Holds Are Powerful

The protocol I’m going to teach you today is all about learning how to do a breath hold. It’s fashioned after the work of Dr. Konstantin Buteyko, a Russian doctor who developed a method in the 1950’s (The Buteyko Method) that involved breathing in LESS air which studies have shown will dramatically improve symptoms of asthma and anxiety and other health conditions.

Although we’ve all been taught that oxygen is what we want to get more of, Buteyko and many other lung specialists believe that many people suffer from over breathing and take in too much oxygen, which can easily happen if you breathe through your mouth. By breathing more slowly and through your nose and pausing after the exhale without breathing in again right away, this allows a person to bask in a state that’s carbon dioxide rich, which leads to deep relaxation and well-being.

This breath hold isn’t exactly the Buteyko method, but one that will give you an opportunity to try out what it’s like and check out what it does. Please don’t do it if you have heart or lung conditions.

I often do this protocol just because it feels great, but I did it earlier today because I’d been lifting some heavy stones when I was gardening and had a lot of neck tension and a slight headache. I did this protocol and within a few minutes felt my entire upper body fill with energy and warmth and my headache disappeared.

How To Do A Breath Hold

Here’s how to do it.
Take several deep breaths, breathing in your nose and then sighing the air out your mouth.
After about 5 or 6 of these breaths, the next time you breathe out, let yourself go for several seconds without refilling your lungs.
Breathe in again fully when you have a strong need to do so, but don’t wait until you feel desperate.
Return to some deep breaths, in your nose and out your mouth. When you feel ready, repeat the above steps over and over, for 5 – 15 minutes.

When you’re done, notice the difference in how you feel.

Each Time Gets Easier

You’ll notice that each time you hold out your breath, it gets easier to go longer with your lungs empty. Most people can barely hold their breathe out for more than 10 seconds at the start but often after several rounds, can go for an entire minute without bringing in air. (You can tell how long you are not breathing by counting the length of time that your lungs are empty.) Your ability to rest without air will also increase the more frequently you do the protocol.

Try this out. It’s a powerful tool to have in your repertoire!

 

HOW TO CLEAR BRAIN FOG

Often when we think of breathing protocols, we are trying to calm ourselves down, either mentally or physically or both. Generally speaking, every time we breathe out for longer than we breathe in, we stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system which will create more relaxation.

But what happens when you breathe out more powerfully than you breathe in? Just the opposite. It fires things up. And sometimes, we need just that. Sometimes, we need to feel more alert and alive.

So, as part of this series on the power of breathing, I wanted to include a protocol here that I call, Firing Up Your Brain. If you suffer from brain fog, this breathing protocol could make a difference. Not only will it help you to think more clearly but it will also help to energize your entire body.

This protocol will require you to sit or to stand. You need to be able to move your arms freely.  Before we start, do a quick scan and sense into how alert your mind is right now. Give it a number between 1 and 10 and when the exercise is over, check it again and hopefully, you’ll feel a new sense of alertness and mental clarity.

FIRE UP YOUR BRAIN AUDIO