This session is part of the 21 Day Breathwork Challenge.
If this is the first time tuning in and you'd like to start at day one,
If you follow my profile Inge Volsink,
You can find all the available previous sessions there.
You can also find all the other tracks in the playlist,
The 21 Day Breathwork Challenge.
Are you ready?
Let's begin!
Hey there,
And welcome to the final session of our 21 Day Breathwork Challenge.
Today we'll bring everything you've learned together and explore the specific benefits of each practice.
The goal is to ensure you leave this session with all the tools and knowledge you need to create a breathwork routine that truly suits your personal needs.
Let's dive in and make this the perfect conclusion to your journey.
Doing your breathwork daily,
Or even just a few times a week,
Will have a wide variety of downstream effects,
Including improved overall health,
Focus,
Sleep,
Immune function,
Emotion regulation,
Hormone regulation,
And a reduction in anxiety,
Chronic stress,
Pain,
And a variety of chronic illness symptoms.
Specific breath practices have specific effects.
And depending on where you are right now,
Whether you want to use that breathwork as a healing mechanism for illness,
Whether you want to achieve more motivation,
Activation,
And focus,
Or more relaxation,
Recovery,
And sleep,
You may want to start out differently.
If at some point you want to leverage breathing to its full potential,
It may not so much be the specific breathwork that matters,
But the experience of different states as a consequence of these practices.
And,
Ultimately,
When you start mixing it up,
To experience the transition between these states.
This idea has not yet been tested in scientific research,
But it is an important idea I have been thinking about for a long time outside of the world of breathwork.
The ultimate control may be to be able to switch states at will,
And the only way to learn that is to experience and practice those switches through a variety of practices.
This,
By the way,
Doesn't just apply to breathwork,
It also applies to meditation,
Attention,
And emotion regulation.
That being said,
The purpose of this course is not for you to build a breathwork practice so complicated that you will never be able to maintain it.
We repeat what feels good,
And we persist with what feels interesting and challenging enough,
But is within our ability level.
If we want to build a habit,
We need to start simple.
The purpose of this course is to give you a taste of the general ideas and practices out there,
And then purposely pick a simple combination of tools that are easy enough for you to do,
And effective enough for the specific needs you have.
Ideally,
You want to start with a regular and simple practice of 5 minutes a day,
Something that suits your needs and that you find most enjoyable and effective.
When you find this is a solid habit,
You can start to expand a bit and build a practice where you mix in different gear switches.
Let's summarize what you have learned throughout this course.
You now understand the importance of training and using your breathing muscles appropriately,
Which you can practice mindfully with your breath awareness practice,
In a controlled and steady way in your Ujjayi breath,
Or more forcefully with fast practices like Kapalabhati or Bhastrika.
You know about the different bandhas,
The yogic locks,
And which muscles or areas represent them,
And you can be aware of them and use them to assist your breathing and your physical exercise.
Jalandhara bandha,
Using the glottis to control breathing and create a steady flow of air.
Uddiyana bandha,
The deep core muscles,
And Mula bandha,
The pelvic floor,
To forcefully exhale and assist the core in strenuous exercise and to purposefully release to create space for the diaphragm on the inhale.
You know that moving during a breath hold will cause your body to make adaptations that will improve the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood,
And you know why moving during a panic attack can help to calm you down.
You have experienced first-hand how slow breathing practices and some breath holds create a calming and relaxing effect,
While fast breathing energizes and activates your body,
Making you ready for the day.
When you have been at breath work for a long time,
You can start to play with the hypothesis that the best breath work practice is one where you learn to be able to switch between states at will.
By now,
By keeping a journal with every practice session,
You'll probably have a much richer idea of where you started,
How your breathing has progressed in terms of your pulse and in terms of your breathing patterns,
And you know which practices work best for you and at which time of the day.
I would like to point out some last practical things that are important to be aware of now you have this ultimate gear switch within your power.
Learning how to control the nervous system through breathing does not mean it should be used as a mind over matter strategy,
Counteracting the natural cycles of your biology.
Humans have circadian and ultradian rhythms.
The circadian rhythm follows a roughly 24-hour cycle with on average 8 hours of sleep and 16 hours of wakefulness.
Ultradian rhythms are shorter cycles within this 24-hour cycle,
Which generally last 90 to 120 minutes during sleep and around 4 hours during waking time,
In which activation and relaxation naturally arise and fall like the tides.
The main message is,
Don't swim against the tide.
Let's discuss the importance of timing your practice and how that connects to your cycles.
We have discussed timing implicitly because you know that if you want to be active it is a good idea to do activating fast breathing practices,
And if you want to be inactive you slow down your breathing.
I would like to make it explicit though that it is important to consider your natural cycles when timing your breathing.
We want to support the natural relaxation response of our body when we go to sleep,
So ideally we'll do breathwork practices that relax us and make us feel sleepy.
Research also supports this notion.
A study on insomnia and breathwork showed that if insomniacs do a slow 20-minute breathing practice before they go to sleep,
It improves how fast they fall asleep and how often they wake up,
And even how long they are awake between sleep cycles and how effective their sleep is.
In the first part of the day we want to feel active and energized,
So naturally this is when you want to be doing activating breathing exercises.
Work with your body's natural abilities and cycles when you personalize your breathing practices.
A breath practice that,
In general,
Enforces and supports these cycles will be the healthiest one.
Circadian rhythms also vary strongly between people.
Some people naturally wake up at 5 in the morning and some wake up naturally at 9.
So,
Take the ideas in this course as general guidelines,
But also always listen to what your body tells you.
Every body is different.
Your body is different today than it was at the beginning of this course,
And it is different depending on the time of day,
What you ate,
Whom you've interacted with,
The season you are in,
And the phase of your life.
More specifically,
When we look at the female menstrual cycle,
There's growing evidence that breathing rate significantly changes throughout your cycle.
In a week before your period,
It is important to move with your body's need to slow down.
There's growing evidence that,
In fact,
In this period,
Along with anxious and depressive thoughts that might come up,
Also your breathing becomes more shallow and fast.
So,
In this particular period,
I would advise you to do slow and relaxing breathing exercises to support your body in slowing down and keeping a calm and steady mind.
Please take mindful note to respect the individuality of your body.
Please listen to your body as it responds to all the practices you have done in the past months.
There is no one-size-fits-all.
Pick a breathing practice that makes you feel good.
Your body will tell you what that practice is.
Just because a method is popular or a certain inspirational teacher swears by a certain practice,
That does not mean the method is suitable for you today.
As a final practice today,
I would like to invite you to take a look at your notes and insights throughout this course and take a moment to write down for yourself what you have learned in general and about yourself and which specific practices and tools you will take with you into the future.
If you have a little bit of time,
I recommend you to put your favorite practices in a personalized playlist so they are easily accessible and you are able to maintain your breathing habit throughout the rest of the year.
Thank you for sharing your journey with me and for being part of this movement that brings back the mind-body connection into our lives so we may all learn to live a more connected life in touch with our bodies and those around us.
May you be healthy,
Happy,
And in peace,
With love and gratitude.
Thank you for sharing your time and practice with me.
Namaste.
