Welcome to Harnessing Happiness with myself,
Sarah J Naylor.
Thank you for stopping on by and taking time to listen to my podcast.
And welcome to Happy Clappy Episode,
In which I ramble on about something or other that's on my mind.
Today,
I really wanted to talk about breathwork,
Breathing,
Exercise,
Yoga,
Kind of all those areas,
Those subject matters,
Sort of taking time to beat,
Breathe.
I'm mulling about it because I've been recording a podcast episode with the lovely Serena Dodd,
Who's a breathwork.
She does breathwork anyway.
And this is a really big thing that's sort of happening and taking over because obviously it is something that we all do.
I've done my sort of fair share of breathwork exercises during the last few years through yoga predominantly.
And I read a book by James Nestle called Breathe.
And it's really,
It's all really,
Really interesting,
Really,
Really fascinating because obviously we do breathe.
We need to breathe.
It's all very much part of keeping us alive,
Isn't it?
The importance of getting air into our lungs,
Which circulates and helps with our health,
You know,
It cannot be underestimated or understated in any way,
Shape or form.
But so many of us don't breathe in the right way.
There are so many different ways of breathing to really get that oxygen into our lungs,
Which helps with carbon dioxide.
There's a lot of complexities to it,
Actually.
It was quite fascinating when I read this book.
There's so much more to it.
And the importance of nasal breathing came about very much so,
And because you're putting your breathing in,
It's all to do with the breathing in and the out in the filtration and the cooling and the heating up of the air through the nostrils.
It's a fascinating subject.
I mean,
It's been a while since I've read it,
But I can certainly recommend it as a book.
But then,
As I say,
With all the yoga exercise I've done,
There's so many variations of breathwork and getting air into your lungs to do different things,
To breathing through one nostril through the other and different rhythms of breathing,
They're all done in sort of short bursts,
Can help very much so with your wellbeing.
Talking to Serena,
She was telling me more about the breathwork that she does do with her clients.
And there are a lot of people out there doing and educating people in sort of short bursts of breathwork,
Whether it be a sort of meditative hour or short bursts to get sort of a lot of oxygen into your lungs.
And,
You know,
For me,
I like to sometimes breathing really,
Really in,
So I really fill my lungs and then breathing out till I've actually emptied every last bit of air out of my lungs.
Because when you've done that two or three times,
And you've done it sort of in a measured way,
It can reduce your anxiety,
It can make you feel better.
You just try it,
I mean,
And investigate it.
It's not something I'm not an educated breathwork operator.
As it is,
I'm going to come back to the breath and yoga,
Because that's something for me that I really,
Really enjoy.
And I like that time,
That stillness,
But I have to get myself back into a routine of doing my yoga classes.
And obviously,
By default,
Doing the breathwork that the yoga teachers teach as well,
Because I find that downtime really,
Just really good for myself,
Really good for my wellbeing.
And,
You know,
I ought to be educating myself to actually do more classes.
But I think because of the lockdown,
The pandemic and classes going online,
I prefer doing things in person,
And I get more out of it being in person.
And I've had issues personally with doing stuff online when I'm doing a live class,
That it gets distorted.
And so that kind of takes away from that zone,
That energy,
That vibration.
When you're in a class and you're with people,
There's the energy.
And when you're then sort of online doing yoga,
It's going,
And you can't really hear and you're trying to watch your yoga teacher,
It kind of loses something in translation,
Which is a real shame,
Because I say I really do enjoy yoga,
And I've been on yoga retreats,
And I find them so good for the soul.
And as I said,
Doing the breathwork as well.
And yeah,
When you're doing yoga at home,
Well,
If you've got pets,
I know my cats decide that they very much like to jump on the yoga mat with me,
And they like to pull bits out of the yoga mat.
And it's like,
No,
No,
No,
No,
No.
And if you shut the door,
Then they're scratching at the door.
It's not very peaceful either.
Anyway,
So breathwork is good for you,
Yoga is good for you.
And actually,
What I'm doing a lot of at the moment is actually getting out outside,
Whether it's doing some trail running,
Or walking,
Or just actually come back from being at the coast and just getting some fresh sea air into my lungs.
Oh,
My goodness,
I feel so lucky that we've been able to have a mini break.
And because it does me the power of good just to see the sea,
Just to absorb and take in that energy of the waves hitting the beach,
And just the sea air,
The freshness,
The breeze,
I don't care whether it's cold,
Or it's rainy,
Or whatever it's doing,
It's blustery,
Just love seeing the sea,
Or even in the location that my partner and I,
Gareth and I were at just recently.
It does go out rather a long way,
You can't always see it.
It goes out about a mile on the east coast of England,
And it's very flat,
But it's just still so beautiful just to fill your lungs with the fresh air,
And we're getting back to lungs,
We're getting back to breathing,
It's just bringing that fresh air into your lungs,
And exhaling,
And just taking in that energy of being where the air is clean,
It's fresh,
You've got the energy of the sea coming in and going out,
The ebbing,
And the flowing,
And the waves crash,
I say waves crashing,
But it's very flat,
The waves aren't really doing much crashing at all,
But then you've got the birds,
You've got the wildlife,
Just enjoying being there,
And walking along the beach,
And just spending time in nature,
Which going back to what else I enjoy doing,
Which is out going trail running,
That's what I absolutely love,
I love being outdoors,
And we go out trail running,
And how brilliant that is,
Because we move away from the roads,
And the tarmac,
And the cars,
And you're crossing country,
And okay,
The ground's not so even,
You might have to watch the old ankles,
But once you learn how to run,
And you're sort of skipping across the ground more,
That's where my ankles and my legs aren't playing up,
To be perfect honest,
But you know,
It's out in nature,
You're crossing the countryside,
You're seeing areas that you've not seen before,
Which I just love that,
And again,
It's getting back to that fresh air,
You know,
And I feel very fortunate that I've got that on my doorstep,
But I don't think,
You know,
Certainly in the UK,
Any of us are very far away from some area of greenery,
Or water,
Or something,
Because obviously we live on an island,
You know,
But wherever you are,
If you can get outside,
Or if you can embrace some element of nature,
You can breathe in that sort of fresh air,
Maybe even if you're in the city centre,
And you wake up early in the morning,
I mean,
I think that is the best time of day,
Although on today,
The day of recording this episode,
I didn't really want to get up at all,
If I'm honest,
It was nice and snugly,
Cosy,
Warm in bed,
And I'd woken up too early,
And then I'd fallen back to sleep,
And you know what that's like,
Because it hits you,
You fall back into that,
I think it's the REM sleep,
Isn't it,
But you know,
Then you go into that deep sleep,
And then you really don't want to wake up,
And it takes some getting up,
But when you're awake at like six o'clock in the morning,
This is,
I'm talking UK,
But it's so fresh,
And it's just the love,
I love daybreak,
And that freshness,
That air that you breathe into your lungs,
There's something really special about that time of day,
When it's all nice,
And clean,
And new.
Anyway,
That's me rambling on again,
About what I think about breathwork,
And being in yoga,
And being outdoors,
And being at the seaside,
Anyway,
I hope you've enjoyed my musings,
My ramblings,
And my thoughts,
And I will say goodbye until next time,
So thank you for listening,
It's been Sarah Jane Ayler,
Until next time,
Take care,
And go breathe in that fresh air,
Wherever it is you live,
Just embrace it,
Fill your lungs full of the nice fresh air,
Even if it is just sort of first thing in the morning,
When you wake up,
And you open your doors,
Your windows,
And you just embrace the day,
And enjoy.
Thank you for listening,
Take care,
Goodbye.
