QnA: Optimal Body Position When Practicing Breathwork

In this session, we discuss the optimal body position when practicing breathwork, to both engage with the practice and maintain safety (do not practice in water or whilst driving!).

We also discuss how for some, matching a count can be anxiety-inducing, but for others, it is necessary.

Finally, we touch upon the principles of breathwork: nose, low and slow - as well as focusing on what works for us!

Transcript

Is finding a centered body position optimal for this practice. I found doing this whilst walking and with an activity to be disorientating and producing vertigo. Seems like a simple answer. But can be quite difficult in practice. I would suggest that any time you're exploring a new practice, That you do it seated or laying down, Just to give you that sort of grounding practice, But particularly when you're working with the breath. I would very much strongly suggest you never practice breathwork of any sense in water. And whilst driving, Never do that either. At least until you understand what you're doing and you've practiced it and you know your responses. For obvious reasons. You can produce disorientation, You can produce vertigo. We are playing with the breath. So, I would suggest finding a seated or laying down position. That said, When you're exploring and learning a technique, It's like we learn it in isolation, We learn it in like a safe space, But these principles that we're learning today, In through the nose, Low into the belly, Slow, Longer out breath to in breath, Et cetera, Et cetera, Those principles can be taken and applied to life. Now, If I was to do a really slow breath, I'm impacting my nervous system, I'm purposely trying to relax. If I'm doing that whilst walking or driving or whatever, There is a risk that I relax myself too much. Particularly if I'm new to the practice. So when we're learning any skill, Right, We go slow. I'm a martial artist. We get shown something, A technique. Then we practice it very slowly but as perfectly as possible. Then we build up the intensity and the strength, And eventually we apply it to a resisting opponent that doesn't know the technique. In the same way, With breath work or with any meditation technique, It's all a skill, So with practice we get better. We practice it safely, And then we apply it to real life. So later on, You might be cleaning the dishes. And you're like, Oh yeah, That's right, Breath work. And you just slow the breath down a little bit. But if you're noticing the disorientation, The vertigo, That sort of stuff. You adjust it. And if you're noticing that there is a significant amount of that over time, That may be like a medical thing to look into, But we are playing with the breath and the breath can impact things. So go safe and yeah, Explore and experiment in a way and places. So maybe the seated or the laying would work best initially. Question. I've developed a very sensitive nervous system and tended to avoid breath work, But found today manageable. Maybe just needed to be reintroduced. Maybe. For sensitive nervous systems, For people with histories of past traumatic events, For certain medical conditions, Breath work can be challenging or counterintuitive. So it's a suggestion to, As always, Take any practice from me or anyone as offerings, As suggestions, As guidance. But trust your own self. Go slow and if you do the breath work and it's causing you to elevate because you're controlling the breath Maybe it's not for you. If you intuitively know that sort of highest part, The self, Is like, Okay, I can handle this a little bit. Listen to that. But you might find in particularly, You know, If this is you following a particular count, Like a box breath or a four, Seven, Eight breath, Or a. . . Circular breath or whatever breath work practice I or someone else offers you to a particular count. That can be quiet. Anxiety inducing, Which is why I start with the principles. I personally find that I can't do facilitated breath work for someone else's count because my mind and my nervous system gets overwhelmed by trying to match someone else's count. However, When I facilitate this practice, One-on-one or in groups in person, You find that there's a split. Some people need someone else to guide them in the breath to calm them down. And other people are like, Nope, Hate it. Find what works for you, Noting the overall goal of this practice. The mind-body connection. Slowing down the breath, Relaxing the muscles, Changing the posture, Having a focused attention rather than your eyes dotting around. All of that is your body telling your mind that you are safe. Slow breath, Relaxed muscles, Focused attention, Eyes on a point. If you're doing that. . . You are safe. That will eventually reverberate back to the mind, And so on and so forth. The possibility of applying too much control and therefore increasing tension in the body the main reason why breathwork can be aggravating for some. I don't know if it's the main reason, But if you were applying too much control to the breath, It can provide a feedback loop. We aren't always used to controlling the breath. So by controlling it, There is a tension that we're doing. Like I say, Everything's a skill, And skills typically you suck at them at first, And then you practice, You get okay, And then you get really good. So there is a bit of distress tolerance that we can push through to get the tool of breathwork enabled. Same thing with mindfulness. It's a bit confusing and distressing to note where the mind is and bring it back to a point of focus, Right? But over time the practice will get better. That said. . . Yeah, Like if I gave you a breathwork practice and I'm like, Okay, Breathe in specifically and exactly like this. Hold, Out, Hold like a box breath or any other breath, And it's too much, It's too focused, It's too specific, And you're really working it, My God, That would be overwhelming, At least at the start. If that's you, Or if it's someone like you. Just work on those overall principles and go easy. You're not trying to match a count. No one's looking at you. No one cares what you're doing other than you. So you check into yourself and you go, Okay. I'm breathing slower than I was. That's enough. That's enough. And even beyond that, If you are just thinking to myself, I'm going to breathe slowly, And you calm down, You've done it. What's the overall goal of what we're doing here today? To calm yourself down. Breath work for calm. If that means you get really focused and really controlled, And I'm gonna breathe specifically and exactly, And that's what works for you and your nervous system, Great. If you, All you're thinking is, Is just, This is just the reframe, Just a little bit slower. Just a little bit slower. That's it. If you're using the heartbeat to time yourself. Four beats in, Six to eight beats out. That's great. If you're just getting the reframe, No slow, Slow. That calms you down. That's great. Everyone is unique and different genetically. And we all have had different upbringings and conditioning. We all have different bodies. Find what works for you for the overall goal of CAM. Do not force a practice if you know it's going to cause anxiety. Some practices are not for you, And that is okay. Once again, Back to the martial arts analogy. I've been training martial arts my entire life, And I've been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, What I mainly train for 13 years. One of the coaches will show a technique. And I'm like, Yeah, Hell yeah, This is exactly what I want to be doing. This fits my body, My personality, My style. Other times I show something and I'm like, Mm-mm. I'll go try it. But I sort of just get this intuitive understanding that this is not for me. Cool, Right? If it's not for me, That's fine. But I know myself well enough, I know my capacity martial arts wise well enough to go, Yeah, This isn't gonna suit. Starting off, Though, I didn't. So I explored it all. And I still explore it all, Because I might be wrong. But I. . . Would suggest to do the same thing with breath work and with any meditation technique.