Unstressable with Stuart Sandeman - Breathing Better

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I am so glad you could join us. I'm your host, Mogadat PERSON. This podcast is nothing more than a conversation between two good friends, sharing inspiring life stories, and perhaps some nuggets of wisdom along the way. This is your invitation to slow down with us. Welcome to slow-mo.Welcome back today. We are still part of the mini-series on Unstressable WORK_OF_ART. We can now have paper versions of it in our hands. Everyone will have a paper version of it in their hands by end of April in the US and 9th of May in the UK and international English LANGUAGE. Very excited so far we've really been going on plan, a little stressful, but we're unstressable. Today's conversation is about a veryimportant part of being unstressed. A very personal conversation for me to be quite honest because I suck at it. Our guest today, when I say our, it's a very important part of being unstressed. A very personal conversation for me to be quite honest because I suck at it. Our guest today, when I say hour, it's a joint podcast between me and Alice PERSON, my co-author on Unstressable WORK_OF_ART, who is also the host of the Unstressable WORK_OF_ART podcast.Our guest today is Stuart Sandeman PERSON, who wrote Breathe In, Breathe Out WORK_OF_ART, The Sunday Times ORG Bestseller. He is the host of the BBC One ORG radio show. What was it? The decompression sessions. The decompression sessions.

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And he really found out about the value of breathing to de-stress to deal with difficult times

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through probably the most difficult stressful experience you can have. Similar to Alice PERSON and myself, he found himself hit by life in a way that is quite a stressful challenge and breathing helped him out of it. I think we should probably leave Stuart to talk about that, not me. In any case, the reminder is that this mini-series is to ask you to support our mission of getting a million people out of stress this year. One of the easiest way to do that is to get the book to the bestseller list becausethat puts it on the shelves in front of people who would be passing by feeling very stressed and they may actually find it as a result. If you intend to buy unstressable at any point in time, please pre-order it instead of waiting for the book to be released. And when you pre-order, go to our website, Unstressable.com, and register your pre-order receipt to come and join us for the pre-launch webinar on April 28th.With no further ado, I am dying to learn to breathe because as I

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said I suck at it so Stewart PERSON thank you so much for being here with us it's such a pleasure to be here

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thank you Alice yeah I mean I was about to say you Stuart PERSON have got an amazing story like

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most edits this is all come from total tragedy. But before, actually, before even talk about that part, I'd like to know who Stuart PERSON was before you learn how to breathe at all. What kind of a life were you living at that point? Were you stressed? It's funny, it's funny

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saying that the Stuart PERSON before I could breathe. You could breathe, right? I thought that the phrasing

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of that statement was quite interesting before you learned to breathe. I felt that's where I am.

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Yeah, no, well, it's interesting

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because I spent my life too busy to breathe

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and I didn't really stop and think about this one thing

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that was keeping me alive,

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but not just keeping me alive,

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the thing that can help manage my mindset

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and my emotions and everything that life throws at you. Before learning to breathe and before finding breathing as a tool for all these things, I was touring the world as the DJ. So a very different lifestyle at that time,very creative and very busy. And I was having a whale of a time, to be honest.

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I was really thought everything was cool, but quite a destructive lifestyle as well. It was up late, lots of different time zones, fueling myself with food on the go and drinking too

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much and all those things. So that was beforehand. Before that, she worked in finance for a bit.

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Wow. Yeah. No way. Yeah. Okay. Now we have to be very curious about what's next, but we'll get to that.

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And before that, I was very heavily involved in sport.

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So I've always been very active and very sporty on a judo matter, four years old.

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It was a black belt by 16 and left school to pursue that as a career. So I've jumped a little bit from sports. Many lives, yeah.

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From sport, I left the sporting world because of an injury. Slipped a disc on my back. End up at university. End up in finance. And then music has been a trail through all of that. I've always had a big passion for music.And wave goodbye to the corporate job and started touring as a DJ.

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That's a very big risk, isn't it?

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It is a big risk, but it was a calculated risk when I took that jump.

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I'd sign some record deals, and I thought I'd take a year off.

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I think I'll take a year off from finance.

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You never go back.

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And yeah, and I never went back.

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Suddenly you go like, ooh, this is not life.

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Exactly that happened.

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So, yeah, I have felt like I've lived many lives.

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But the interesting thing is, through all those lives, through sport, through corporate lifestyle, through a very creative life, no one ever taught me to breathe.

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No one taught me to breathe when I was high-level sport.

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I never even thought about it.

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No one taught me to breathe when I was stressed out working in the city.

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And no one taught me to breathe when I was jumping time zones or trying to come up with new music or be creative.

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It wasn't until, like you said, more of a tragedy happened that forced me to look inwards. And that was grief, which you guys know very well.

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Yes, I mean, that was just, you know, I know that tale, but for those that are listening, would you be able to say how you, you know, came into breathwork?

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Yeah. Well, I came to breathwork through grief. It was my girlfriend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. So that was when I was DJing and touring. So I put the brakes on what I was doing. And in many ways made me look at the body, mind and spirit alreadywhen she was going through cancer, forced me to kind of, what are we putting in our bodies, what's happening in our mindset, and what happens when we're no longer here? So these quite loaded questions. And sadly, she didn't make it.She passed away. And I didn't...

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How long did it take? It took about 18 months.

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So it was relatively rapid. And I didn't, how long did it take? It took about 18 months. So it's relatively rapid. And again, nobody told me about breathing at that time. And I probably wouldn't have

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listened. I think if someone just says, oh, just, you should just breathe. Or if you go off and do

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some breathing, it's going to cure your cancer. And I just, I would, my eyes would have rolled and said, this is ridiculous, to speak some sense. And it wasn't until she passed. And I just, I would, my eyes had rolled and said, this is ridiculous, to speak some sense. And it wasn't until she passed. And I was in a pretty bad headspace. And my, it was Mother's Day. She passed on Valentine's Day, which is another sickener.So she passed on Valentine's Day. And then Mother's Day was like the month later. And I'd moved back to Scotland GPE where I'm from. My mom and dad had been amazing. And something popped up online for Valentine's Day, and then Mother's Day was like the month later, and I'd moved back to Scotland GPE where I'm from. My mum and dad had been amazing, and something popped up online for Mother's Day, saying, breathing workshop. And my mum is into yoga, and that's as far as I thought about it,and I thought, my mum would love this. So I went along with her to this breathing session. And that's when the light bulb switched on for me. I realized, well, I had a very powerful experience, quite an out-of-body experience,

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both very cathartic, I felt a lot of emotion surge, a lot of physical energy in my body, but I felt that my girlfriend was there holding my hand. I know.

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And that was the powerful thing. It was so powerful because I thought, either I'm going mad, either someone's spike my drink before going into this breathing session

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or the final thing was maybe I've overlooked something called breathing my whole life and it had the ability to change my mindset and move me into a space that's beyond this physical realm. So I wanted more.

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That was my, was this a one-off?

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I know that feeling so well. So it's quite interesting. You're talking about, I don't know what they call it, a chamanic breathing, like you know, you.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, so I was epileptic when I was young.

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And my diagnosis was that when I,

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when I over-oxygenated my blood, I would get a fit, I would get an attack. And so I always, probably the reason why I breathe so badly is I've always trained myself to sort of underventilate if you want.

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Yeah.

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And then for the first time in my life, in, you know, right after I left Google ORG, I decided, you know what, for the first time ever, I'm going to be adventurous. I'm just going to do whatever the F I want. I went and lived in the Dominican Republic and, you know what, for the first time ever, I'm going to be adventurous. I'm just going to do whatever the F I want. I went and lived in the Dominican Republic and, you know, I had a wonderful experience there and, you know, a wonderful woman came into my life.And, you know, somehow someone showed up and said, okay, we're doing breathing sessions. I was like, yep, let's do that too. I know, as if I'm not going for a, you know, psychedelic experience or whatever. And oh my God, it flipped my life upside down.

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It's so interesting. And every time I had one of those, first of all, I had a very deep appreciation for the teacher that was there. I don't know if you call her a teacher. To the point that I kept thanking her for around two or three days afterwards, texting her and saying,

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this is incredible, right? And then every time I went, I went three times in my life. This tells you

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how bad I am at following through, right? But every time I went, the minute the session ended,

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I was like, I'm going to do this every week. This has to be every week. This is life changing

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and never followed through. But I can easily relate to when you say it's life-changing.

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It's a bit of psychedelics, a bit of spirituality, a bit of dying and coming back, a bit of living.

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Yeah. All combined. It's unbelievable.

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Yeah, it's exactly that. It's interesting that you, because it's often, we're often told to avoid, if you're epileptic, to do enhanced ventilation techniques like shamanic breathing or holotropic breath work or any of these vaster connected breaths

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because it can create the onset of a fit.

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Exactly.

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At that time, I was basically so adventurous.

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I said, so what?

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What's a fit?

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Like, you know, I've had many of those.

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I mean, interestingly, I had completely healed my own epilepsy

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by learning to breathe, but to breathe the opposite way.

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Yeah, right?

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So basically, once they told me it was hyperventilation that got me there,

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I was like, okay, you know, like meditating on anything in life,

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I can meditate to slow down my breathing when I feel an attack coming, right?

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And it is somehow quite interesting.

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Both would show you the impact of breathing, right?

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So whatever you do with your breathing can actually define what your health, what your

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mindset, what your spiritual connection is like. Tell me about her holding her hand. Did she say anything?

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She said that we, she did. She said, when she was holding my hand she said like it's okay I'm fine but she also said and this is what we've been looking for and this is what this is what

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we're breathing yeah oh when she was very sick we were searching for a cure the whole time

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oh my god and that was we were looking for something that would help I mean it was terminal

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but we were traveling a lot from different cities and all sorts of places to find We were looking for something that would help. I mean, it was terminal,

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but we were traveling a lot from different cities and all sorts of places to find some sort of treatment.

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And yeah, that's what came through.

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And since then, it's just been all doors open towards breathing for me.

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I thought it was maybe, wanted to check it at a one-off. So I went and did some more breath work. And then it starts to make me think, well, this is one application of breathing. What other ways can we breathe and how can we use our breath for different ailments or different ways?So that's what she said in that first session. And it wasn't just the single time. I would go back and I felt closer to her when I do these breath sessions than I did in my waking everyday conscious experience. So that's where I felt closer to her when I do these breath sessions than I did in my waking

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everyday conscious experience. So that's where I felt very connected to the practice. It allowed me, you said, it was pulled in everything. It felt very spiritual for me and very beyond our everyday

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living. I felt like I could plug into something bigger than myself. Can we exchange a few notes on this?

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So what do you think actually happens?

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Let's take the health benefits we'll talk about in a minute. But I've had Ali tell me things in those three breath sessions, breath work sessions that were life-changing.

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And I specifically the third one where, you know, normally it takes you a little bit of time to get to that state. On the third time I did this, it literally took like seven minutes. And the instructor was a friend. So, you know, he worried because like 10 minutes later I got up and I was so fresh and everything was fine. And he was like, anything's wrong. And I was like, no, we're done. Right. But literally seven minutes in,

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I saw Ali PERSON in his funny way, literally sitting on my chest and saying, Papa, this is very stupid, the answer is A, B, and C, right? And it was actually the answer, right? So what happens? How does that happen? Are we hallucinating? Yeah, it's, the research is a bit patchy,

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which is what I've been, because it is hard to figure out. There's been a couple of papers,

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actually, there was a paper in December that just came out looking into this, looking into hyperventilation or increased ventilation for this purpose. But what I have found, I know you said oxygenating your body, it's actually the opposite. The oxygen levels don't change.

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Carbon dioxide drops. So carbon dioxide drops quite rapidly. So we go into a respiratory alkalosis, which we usually would say don't go into because that is where we have panic attacks, etc. But in this case, so carbon dioxide drops in the body. And we need a balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen. So we need carbon dioxide present in the cell for it to switch places with oxygen. We need carbon dioxide for the offset. for it to switch places with oxygen.We need carbon dioxide for the offset. So what actually happens when you do this style of breathing is we drop carbon oxide deliberately and it tricks our brain. We actually de-oxygenate the cells. We might be breathing more, but we're actually dropping oxygen.

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Interesting.

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And there's different theories behind what that is. What causes, does it cause the brain to go into, shut down his default mode network in essence?

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Because we've stimulated so much that carbon oxide dropped and it says, right, okay, well, this isn't safe and we shut down.

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So we have this near-death experience that's happening. I was going to say that. And in that moment, we have this transcendent experience and we're no longer here for that moment and we get what we need and we come back to the body. So we have this rebirth experience, this dying and coming back, which is why it's some of the therapeutic applications for it is for working through birth traumas and things like that as well because we come back

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into our body and I mean this is all speculation. There is some research that suggests as well that we release DMT in the brain during these experiences because of like we would in low oxygen environments because oxygen levels actually drop in the brain that can cause us to have this transcendent experience. It is amazing, though, because actually the only proper, like, intense breathwork session I've done was with you at one of your workshops years ago.

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And I saw my sister who'd passed away at the time and some other things. And then I also had those hilarious chicken hands, as you call them. So like, why does that happen? Because it's like, that's the lack of... Yeah, that's just because carbon dioxide dropped in the body.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, so we're basically, our hands will cramp up. I try to avoid that with patients or clients as much as possible

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because it can trigger more stress and more trauma. And it's quite a very uncomfortable. It can be excruciatingly painful. I was just enjoying the ride of what was going on on my head.

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Which is great. It's just great.

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Is there a way to avoid it?

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I mean, it's one of the reasons I get scared of those sessions. It's a bit of a reminder of that sort of being unable to move when you have an epileptic attack. Yeah. What I've found through sessions is that happens when we have the forced exhale.

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Okay, so when...

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Now, some practices, shamanic breathwork is quite heavy and forced. The way I teach that... I mean, I teach all styles of breathwork. We're talking about one...

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Yeah, we'll go to all over that, might. Yeah, okay. We're talking about one yeah we're talking about this one one application which is around release and releasing traumaand having emotional integration that can be very very important and helping through

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different challenges in our life but what happens that cramping happens when carbon dioxide drops too rapidly.

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Too rapidly.

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Now we can gently allow it to happen and it happens with the exhale. So the inhale we're breathing in, it's coming in. The exhale, if somebody's forcing it, it pushes it too fast.

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So what I've found in my practice is if we actually have that exhale is complete surrender.

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The exhale becomes the meditation because every time we exhale, we drop into complete surrender.

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So we're balancing the doing as we breathe in.

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We're breathing in. The out breath just becomes like gravity dropping to the floor now what I'll find is people that get tetany that's the wordfor the chicken hands are usually those that are forcing the exhale so they're going and there's a fine line or they're controlling their exhale

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now if we can find that sweet spot

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in between control and force where the exhale just drops out, we find this really nice balance and this balance between the doing and the being.

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So our meditation happens every out breath.

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And it's a much gentler process to get to where we need to go.

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When is your next session?

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Yeah, we do lots of sessions.

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We're doing online sessions now as well.

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Do you?

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Yeah, which are amazing too.

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It's funny before the whole

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COVID pandemic.

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I never thought I could apply this online

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because a lot of what I do is hands on to.

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Yeah, I mean, like release tension

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from the diaphragm, get the breathing muscles.

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Why is somebody breathing?

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You said yourself, you're breathing badly,

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but why is somebody breathing badly?

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And that breathing badly is habitual

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because we're breathing so many times a day,

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20,000 times a day.

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So what's happening in the actual physical movement of the breath and why is our brain holding on to those muscles?

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Or why we overre recruiting other muscles?

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And a lot of this can be habitual posture and clothing and lots of things. But a lot of it comes down to emotions. And a lot of it comes down to our experiences that we have because our breath maps our human experience.

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It brings in the right energy and flow

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for whatever we're experiencing

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to give us the demand for energy in that moment. Teach me, Mr. Stewart PERSON.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, well, breathing is really,

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it's really simple, okay.

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It is really simple.

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It's about energy.

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It's about putting fuel in the body

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and in the process you have the exhaust coming out

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with carbon dioxide,

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which is a bit more than just waste.

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Yeah.

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As I explained, you need this balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide. But generally speaking,

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it's about energy. So if we need to run for the bus or if we're running late for a podcast, do we need to run in the door.

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Yeah, for everyone, I showed up 14 minutes late.

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Yes, go ahead. Yes. But what happens is we move a bit faster so our breathing changes because the demand for energy is late. Yes. Go ahead. Yes. But what happens is we move a bit faster so our breathing changes because the demand for energy is increased. Correct.

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So that's very simple.

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Now this happens consciously or unconsciously because one of our minds' main things is to keep us safe,

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which the whole stress process comes in.

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Our flight response kicks in in any moment because the mind says there's a threat. We need to get enough energy to either fight off or leg it. Our fight or flight response or sympathetic drive. Unless we freeze in that moment, which is the even more intense response,which is parasympathetic end. So breathing is really dependent on what's happening around us and also what's happening in our minds.

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Because our mind doesn't know the difference.

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The unconscious mind that's driving our breath doesn't know the difference between what's happening around us, what's happening internally. So we're, our breathing then becomes a cue to our environment internally and externally, which is amazing because we can start playing with our breath. So we can use our breath to change the environment.The environment, change how we feel, change our energy levels, calm ourselves down. All these amazing things that we can do with our breath through breath control. Where I find breathing and breath getting, the area gets really exciting is, well, unconsciously we're trying to control our environment by controlling our breath, unconsciously. So we're holding our breath, we're creating restriction in our breathing cycles to stop ourselves from feeling or having an emotional outburst. So if we are feeling really angryand something pissed us off and we realize, well, it's not appropriate to shout and scream, we contract our breathing muscles to stop the flow of anger. If we are feeling really upset and you're at work and you're busy and you get some bad news and you don't want to burst into tears in front of your colleagues, you hold your breath, you can strict your breathing muscles to stop that natural flow of emotion. It's the same of the

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good stuff. So if we shouldn't find something funny and you're trying to hold yourself back from

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laughing, we hold our breath to stop the laughter. So breathing is a really important part of this emotional integration. As we feel and we have an emotional experience, our breath moves to enable that integration and then we have some sort of reaction or outburst. If we deem itnot appropriate to feel, we hold our breath. If our unconscious mind, which goes one level deeper, because of our belief system says it's not appropriate to feel this, our breathing shuts down without us even consciously interactingwith it. So you find that people will be stuck in certain breathing archetypes because of the experiences that they've had through childhood or through their past, peak experiences, griefs, traumas, their breathing changes as a result.

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Do you think then because a lot of people today, a lot of breathworks specialists, and I don't know if you say this, like we all breathe wrong. It's like what general consensus is and as a society we're not breathing correctly. And do you think that that's because as a society, a lot of the time, we're emotionally repressed and we're only just starting to come to connect to how to process our feelings and actually be connected to that

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part of ourselves. It's a huge part of it. And it's interesting because we're all breathing wrong, but our unconscious mind is only doing what it's been told. So it's saying, oh, no, we don't

Speaker 31441.66s - 1446.24s

do this right now. This is the way way we breathe and then because the physical body gets

Speaker 01446.24s - 1475.12s

in tow with that as well so let's say you have an experience where the example i often often share with people so if a tiger came in the room simple stress response tiger comes in we see the tiger we hear the roar our brain sends a signal to our breath our breath moves and we leg it or we fight it off simple fight or flight response. If a dog comes in the room, okay, people in the room will have a different response. Some will run towards the dog and experience love and joy and happiness.

Speaker 21475.76s - 1479.34s

Moe PERSON will run away. More will run away. Okay, great. And I know exactly why.

Speaker 01480.56s - 1491.14s

Why would you run away from the dog? Because when I was eight or nine year old, I was attacked by a very vicious dog in darkness at a very late time with knowing that the owner was around 50 meters away.

Speaker 21491.94s - 1497.9s

And so, yeah, I love them. I really do. Like, I really love dogs, but can they please stay away?

Speaker 01498.44s - 1503.52s

I made it. I mean, it's a perfect example. Yeah, yeah. So you've had an experience where you've had

Speaker 21503.52s - 1505.12s

a vicious attack and you've

Speaker 01505.12s - 1510.26s

felt that and your brain's fired and wired, create a pathway and a belief dogs are not safe.

Speaker 21510.52s - 1515.02s

Let's keep them at arm's length. Yeah. Keep the dogs away. And also keep the saliva, to be

Speaker 01515.02s - 1519.94s

honest. But yeah. But that's another thing. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe compared to Alice PERSON, the dog

Speaker 21519.94s - 1527.14s

comes in the room and Alice PERSON's breath expands and opens. Yeah. She feels elation with positive emotion or breathing opens.

Speaker 01527.74s - 1529.58s

For yourself, fear kicks in.

Speaker 11529.64s - 1530.74s

Your breathing shuts down.

Speaker 21531.2s - 1533.7s

So your brain, before even consciously being aware,

Speaker 01533.9s - 1537.26s

triggers the response to your breathing because of the experience that you've had. Of course.

Speaker 21537.44s - 1537.56s

Yeah.

Speaker 01537.86s - 1550.24s

So that's where I find it quite interesting when we say, are all people breathing badly or incorrectly, where we all have experiences in our life that will impact the way we breathe so our mind and

Speaker 31550.24s - 1555.52s

body is doing the best it can with what it has the information that has in the present moment now

Speaker 01555.52s - 1583.04s

the present moment information is the bag of bricks that we're carrying around from our past all our experiences all our vicious attacks all our dog barks and, and then everything else that's happening in the moment, and then also our forward projections. And it's all shown in the way that we breathe, which I just find fascinating. So you can start to see our breath as a real snapshotof what is happening for somebody in the present right now.

Speaker 21583.12s - 1586.72s

Based on all of their past. on all their past and i i find

Speaker 01586.72s - 1592.3s

it fascinating because when someone sits and breathes in front of me or lies down and breathe before

Speaker 41592.3s - 1598.24s

they even tell me what's going on for them i'm like oh well this is going on for you damn and i'm exposed

Speaker 21598.24s - 1604.32s

well it is all of a sudden the veil is lifted because our breath doesn't lie it tells us the

Speaker 01604.32s - 1605.22s

story someone says oh i'm really calm well actually you're not so calm because your breathing's All of a sudden, the veil is lifted because our breath doesn't lie. It tells us the story.

Speaker 21606.52s - 1606.6s

Someone says, oh, I'm really calm.

Speaker 41610.2s - 1611.24s

Well, actually, you're not so calm because your breathing's saying otherwise.

Speaker 21613.64s - 1614.46s

And I think, well, we intuitively do that anyway.

Speaker 41616.98s - 1619.26s

We're always reading cues from an environment from people. And if I sat down here and went,

Speaker 01620.76s - 1621.76s

but is true okay?

Speaker 41621.96s - 1623s

Yeah, is you're okay?

Speaker 01623.18s - 1624.42s

Or did he run here as well?

Speaker 21624.68s - 1624.82s

Yeah.

Speaker 01626.78s - 1628.38s

So you can, you start to to create and maybe we match their breathing

Speaker 21628.38s - 1629.4s

as a form of empathy

Speaker 01629.4s - 1632.68s

so we can tell a lot about somebody

Speaker 21632.68s - 1633.54s

by the way they breathe

Speaker 01633.54s - 1635.82s

and in breathe and breathe out

Speaker 31635.82s - 1637.74s

I go into these various archetypes

Speaker 01637.74s - 1639.46s

our breathing is as unique as its finger

Speaker 11639.46s - 1640.22s

as our fingerprint

Speaker 31640.22s - 1642.48s

as unique as our fingerprint

Speaker 01642.48s - 1645.24s

because all of our experiences are unique so when we get to the real we have similar patterns and archetypes as unique as our fingerprint because all of our experiences are unique.

Speaker 31649.38s - 1649.74s

So when we get to the real, we have similar patterns and archetypes,

Speaker 01651.54s - 1657.22s

but everyone's breathing is slightly different. And there's other things that will keep us trapped in certain breathing patterns. And that might be stress.

Speaker 31660.3s - 1660.7s

If we are stressed, well, what happens, we start to hyperventilate.

Speaker 01664.96s - 1666.58s

We breathe faster or we have periods of holding our breath and not breathing, then we take gasps of air.

Speaker 31668.7s - 1669.26s

So our breathing becomes very irregular.

Speaker 01669.34s - 1670s

Yeah.

Speaker 31674.78s - 1675.22s

And let's say we're breathing too fast because we're stressed, we're breathing in our chest,

Speaker 01680.54s - 1709.54s

because our brain thinks the to-do list or the should-do list is the tiger in the room. And our fast breathing drops our carbon dioxide. And our body doesn't like prolonged change in its pH so if we're stressed over a period of time and carbon oxide drops and we like to have that range of 7.35 to 7.45 in terms of pH but if carbon oxide drops pH changes we're too alkaline so the body holds onto acidity instead of peeing it out so you're inflamed so you become more So the body holds on to acidity instead of peeing it out.So you're inflamed. So you become more inflamed. Your organs have more acidity.

Speaker 21709.7s - 1714.44s

You become more inflamed because it prioritizes pH over breathing, rhythm.

Speaker 01715.12s - 1716.72s

So now you get trapped.

Speaker 21717.36s - 1723.86s

You get trapped in a fast rate of breathing because our trigger to breathe is carbon dioxide increase.

Speaker 01724.8s - 1728.72s

So when carbon dioxide increases our breathing a breath, a brain says take a breath.

Speaker 31729.44s - 1732.12s

So if we've got this fast rate of breathing because we're stressed,

Speaker 01732.32s - 1738.96s

and it lasts more than 20 minutes, it lasts a couple of days a week, a year, however many years,

Speaker 31739.36s - 1743.26s

then our breathing gets trapped in this fast rhythm.

Speaker 01743.68s - 1744.54s

And shallower probably.

Speaker 21744.54s - 1745.76s

Shallower as a result.

Speaker 01746.4s - 1777.34s

So the body compensates its pH and then we get stuck in that because the new range in pH changes because our body's natural baseline is different. So you'll get, you'll find that people are stuck in these ways of breathing, maybe because of an experience that's been stressful where they've held their breath and they've held on, or maybe because of habitual stress happening day and day out. And, or then it can be, it can be things like posture, injury or illness as well,that will change our breathing patterns.

Speaker 11777.88s - 1785.74s

You talked about archetypes. So for those listening, how many archetypes are there? And is there a particular one that we want to try and be? Or is there like...

Speaker 21785.74s - 1786.64s

You don't want to be like me?

Speaker 11786.96s - 1789.66s

I don't know what my archetype is.

Speaker 01790.14s - 1792.54s

Yeah, well, there is...

Speaker 21792.54s - 1794.7s

Because everyone's breathing's unique,

Speaker 01795.18s - 1798.78s

there's infinite amount of styles of breathing.

Speaker 11799.26s - 1802.08s

But in general, general terms, five archetypes.

Speaker 01802.72s - 1805s

So you've got chest breather, so chest dominant breather,

Speaker 11805.28s - 1823s

stressful archetype. You have a frozen breather. You'll see even in posturing people where the frozen breath is like this and where collapse the lungs. We have reverse breather.Reverse breather, instead of engaging the diaphragm on the in-breath, the diaphragm goes out on the in-breath

Speaker 01823s - 1837.6s

and that can be, it tells the brain the brain becomes confused. So those individuals who have certain characteristic traits may be a little bit clumsy or they're not very good at coordination or coordinated sports. So what was that?That was that? First three?

Speaker 11837.8s - 1847s

Three, yeah. So we got chest breather. We got the reverse breather. We've got the frozen breather. And we've got the perfect breather, which is the end one.

Speaker 21847.5s - 1851.46s

There's one just slipped my mind right now. Four out of five and for the fifth people.

Speaker 01851.52s - 1853.38s

Yeah, exactly by book to read them.

Speaker 11854.1s - 1855.54s

What's the perfect breather then?

Speaker 01855.9s - 1857.36s

The perfect breather is somebody who engaged.

Speaker 11857.44s - 1858.06s

Oh, that was it.

Speaker 01858.1s - 1858.8s

It's come back to me.

Speaker 11859.06s - 1861.2s

It knew it would come back, which is an interesting one.

Speaker 21861.3s - 1862.84s

And I can't believe I forgot there for a second.

Speaker 11863.6s - 1866.1s

The fourth archetype is the controlled breath,

Speaker 01866.7s - 1867.3s

the controller.

Speaker 11868.8s - 1871.58s

And this is what I was.

Speaker 41872.78s - 1875.46s

Because I would have thought I was a perfect breather.

Speaker 01876.12s - 1879.1s

Before I went to do that breathwork class,

Speaker 31879.18s - 1885.36s

and before I started looking at my own breathing, I'd done sports all my life, my diaphragm was engaged, I felt like I could

Speaker 01885.36s - 1921.66s

move my breath wherever I wanted to move. But the controlled breather is often the yogi actually, believe it or not. A lot of yoga instructor, people that practice yoga get so good at breath control because it makes their life feel under control. So as you know through meditation, if you control your breath, well, everything becomes calm and control. But if this becomes a habitual controlling pattern, then we try and control everything in our life. And we find it very hard to let go of control.So we find it hard to trust. So interesting. Yeah. So the controller pattern was myself. I was

Speaker 11921.66s - 1925.2s

very good at controlling my breath. But I wasn't able to let go.

Speaker 01925.7s - 1929.08s

And the letting go comes down to this out breath.

Speaker 41929.52s - 1934.94s

There's times we can control our out breath to make us feel calm or to make us change our state.

Speaker 01935.66s - 1973.96s

But are we allowing our outbreath also just to drop away, to completely surrender to the nature of the universe around us? Can we just allow that to happen? So the perfect breather is somebody that is using the diaphragm to breathe. We have a natural relaxed exhale. The rhythm and rate is much slower.So you're doing exactly what you were doing for your epilepsy. We want to slow our breath right the way down. The research says that 5.5 breaths per minute, which is very slow because most people breathe about 13 breaths. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's not possible

Speaker 31973.96s - 1983.64s

to keep on doing it that way, but the opposite happens to the stress breath when we slow our breath down. So interesting. When we start to slower breath down that you've practiced more.

Speaker 01984.28s - 2008.74s

When we start to slow our breath down, the first thing, Moe PERSON. When we start to slow our breath down, the first thing is that will happen is we'll start to feel a bit of air hunger. We'll feel the desire to breathe more because carbon oxides increased. So we've gone the other way from hyperventilation. Carbon oxide is now increased in the body. It's elevated.And that's the first trigger for the brain to breathe. So as we slow our breath down, it starts to feel uncomfortable. We feel like we're suffocating.

Speaker 12008.84s - 2013.7s

We're not getting enough air. We feel breathless. But it's the opposite. We've actually just got too much carbon dioxide.

Speaker 02014.34s - 2024.74s

Now, when we practice this daily, when we practice slowing our breath down using different slow rates of breathing of rhythms, the body does something different. It says, wait a second, I'm too acidic.

Speaker 32025.58s - 2026.94s

What am I going to do about this?

Speaker 02027.04s - 2045s

How can I fix my pH again? We're too acidic. So what it does is it starts to create more red blood cells. It starts to increase EPO in the bone marrow, erythro protein, which is famous for the wrong reasons because Lance Armstrong was injecting the stuff.

Speaker 12045.86s - 2046.76s

Yes, I remember that.

Speaker 02046.92s - 2056.22s

Yeah. But this, what in essence happens is we have more red blood cells. So in one breath, we get more output.

Speaker 22056.58s - 2061.3s

We absorb more. So our breathing becomes much more economic. So we can take less breaths,

Speaker 12062.24s - 2063.68s

use, sorry, more economic.

Speaker 02064.34s - 2075.06s

We can take less breaths and get the same energy output from doing so. And we feel calmer in the same process because we're not breathing fast. We're not triggering the stress response.

Speaker 22075.46s - 2079.46s

I love when we talk about the human machine as a machine. I love that. This is so,

Speaker 02079.46s - 2088.18s

this makes so much sense. It's quite simple, the machine of the body in this sense, but it's fascinating.

Speaker 22088.56s - 2090.7s

And it's fascinating that we don't get taught this at school.

Speaker 02091.14s - 2091.22s

Yeah.

Speaker 22091.36s - 2106.56s

So actually, this is one of the more interesting sides of this. I think, I understand that the archetypes, I'm probably that controlled one. The yogi description, I'm not a yogi, but I'm definitely very thoughtful about how everything works, right?

Speaker 02106.98s - 2112.28s

But I also believe I'm a junk breather. You know how you get those moments in life

Speaker 22112.28s - 2115.28s

where there is so much going on, so you end up eating junk food.

Speaker 02115.7s - 2132.28s

Yeah, right? You just tell yourself it's fine. I will look at this when it's a little slower, right? Now is not the time to focus on healthy, right? And it's quite interesting how I think many of us are probably like that. It's that we don't give breath our priority. It's like there

Speaker 42132.28s - 2159.3s

are so many other things happening now. Let me just focus on what's going on. First of all, how much of priority should it deserve, right? I think you probably are going to sell this very high. But what can I do? Is there a way where I make it second nature, not a deliberate priority, is how do I get to a, I eat healthy, right? Now this is a big priority in my life,especially after reading Alice PERSON's chapter on physical stress in this book.

Speaker 22159.88s - 2161.9s

So can I, why do you eat healthy?

Speaker 02162.82s - 2165.76s

Believe it or not, multiple layers, right?

Speaker 22165.84s - 2183.3s

One is, of course, the stoic view of doing the right thing, right? But underneath that, you really, I mean, for all of our listeners, cut sugar from your diet, pains, aches, sluggishness goes away in a way that completely trumps the joy you get from a cookie.

Speaker 02183.8s - 2206.4s

So you tell yourself, I enjoy a cookie. And yes, you may actually with a cup of coffee and the joy lasts six minutes, right? The joy of spending the rest of the day without pains and aches that result from the sugar and the inflammation is just outstanding, right?So you know that for a fact. And third is honestly, because with more stress,

Speaker 22207.1s - 2229.88s

you actually want to reduce the external stressors that come into your life. So if I really want to perform and deliver on what I'm attempting to give in my lifetime, I need to be at my best shape, right? And even though I still enjoy a cookie with my coffee, I realize that there is more joy and there is more duty, if you want, to be a higher performer, right? Yeah.

Speaker 02230s - 2234.76s

And the reason I asked is it's exactly the same with your breath, if not more so.

Speaker 32235.38s - 2237.58s

Our cells need glucose and they need oxygen.

Speaker 02238.26s - 2245.58s

And if it's a driver for our energy levels, if there's a driver for switching us on and switching us off when we need, it's also a driver for switching us on and switching us off when we need.

Speaker 12245.82s - 2250.66s

It's also a driver for our performance. I work with a lot of athletes that I want to go that

Speaker 02250.66s - 2255.54s

extra round or extra mile. And this is all down to breathing. Why would you not be able to perform

Speaker 12255.54s - 2268.46s

at your best? You become tired. You've got lactic build up in your muscles. Or you haven't slept the night before because you've been so stressed. You're not maybe digesting your food. Well, if you're feeling stressed,

Speaker 02269.3s - 2295s

and even if you're eating the healthiest foods, so if you are sat breathing chest, let's just say chest breath, which is quite common, if you're chest breathing, and it's a stressful pattern, in essence, you're sending the signal from your body to your brain that the tiger's in the room. You're sending a signal. The alarm bell is going off.The alarm bell is going off. You've got sympathetic drive happening. You've normalized it in your brain

Speaker 22295s - 2300.62s

because it's become normal. There's always a tiger. There's always a tiger. But your body's still

Speaker 02300.62s - 2306.54s

sending the alarm. So if there's a tiger in the room, we do not prioritize our digestion.

Speaker 22307.24s - 2308.54s

We say, well, that can weight.

Speaker 32308.92s - 2310.28s

Our reproductive organs, the same.

Speaker 02310.78s - 2313.62s

So we say, well, actually, there's a tiger in the room right now.

Speaker 32313.66s - 2314.4s

We've got to fight or fight.

Speaker 42314.44s - 2314.9s

We've got to run.

Speaker 02315.7s - 2335s

So even if you are eating the healthiest diet, you've got everything in, you've threw a tea for your body type, you've got all your nutrients and, you've, you've, two or tea for your body type, you've got all your nutrients and macros and everything all planned. If you are still breathing badly, you're still sending a signal of stress and you're not getting the majority of goodnessfrom the food that you're eating.

Speaker 32335.64s - 2336.48s

So it's really,

Speaker 02336.64s - 2368.26s

the first thing is to actually breathe. Make sure your breath is the priority. Are my breathing at rest, that's where we were talked before the podcast, is my breathing at rest? That's where we were talked before the podcast. Is my breathing at rest the perfect breather? So are my using my nose to breathe in and out? Are my using my diaphragm? Is it open? Is it flowing? Is it relaxed? Is the rate nice and slow andgentle? Then we can start looking at other parts of our day. So if you're breathing at rest, you fix it. You might realize in that moment at breathing at rest that you are a controller archetype.

Speaker 42368.46s - 2374.8s

Well, why am I controller? What is causing me to control my situation? Is it an experience from

Speaker 02374.8s - 2397.74s

my past that's not been integrated? And it's forced me to hold things in place. So using myself as an example, what I came to realize was the grief was one part, of course, to my breathwork journey. But the reason I couldn't, wasn't allowing myself to feel grief was actually the dog bark and bite for me was big boys don't cry.

Speaker 32398.82s - 2411.96s

So the program that I had was big boys don't cry, done judo martial arts my whole life, Teddy Birkle, tough Ted. You can see, grew up in Scotland GPE and created this persona on my mind that when

Speaker 02411.96s - 2417.16s

something happens, you don't show that emotion. That's not possible. So we can see that

Speaker 12417.16s - 2422s

when somebody breathes, we have all the baggage from before and we have the present moment,

Speaker 02422.14s - 2449.9s

whatever's happening. So we really want to uncover, are my breathing at rest as best as a possibly can? And then start looking. I usually look at different areas throughout our day. If I'm breathing at rest, fine, great. Then how am I breathing throughout my day? What's my usual day look like?Is it changing? Is my work very stressful? What else am I doing through the day? Are there certain moments that the tiger's in the room? I mean, talk about being unstressable. Stress is unavoidable, but it's how do we manage

Speaker 12449.9s - 2454.74s

yourself through that? What does what happens to my breath? Can I use my breath in those moments as a

Speaker 02454.74s - 2465.08s

tool to regulate my nervous system? Calm myself down when you'd be. The next thing I look at is breathing and speaking. We do a lot of that throughout our day.

Speaker 22470.76s - 2470.92s

Majority of people, you might find that a lot of people will be, let's say, a sales job.

Speaker 02471.66s - 2475.14s

It's my whole life. So you're talking, talking, and you're gasping for air through your mouth.

Speaker 22480.12s - 2483.62s

So that gasp at air through the mouth, every breath, so you're talking, you're taking a gasp. Instantly you've taken a gasp, you sent an alarm bell again.

Speaker 02485.22s - 2497.24s

You said, oh, that gasp of air is the same gasp if you left the studio today and walked onto the road and the car was coming toward you, we take a gasp of air. There's that moment of stress to alert your body to jump back to safety.

Speaker 22497.5s - 2504.44s

Come on, Stuart PERSON. Like, you want me to change my career, my diet. Just your breathing. Exactly.

Speaker 02504.76s - 2505.44s

Keep the career, diet's sounding good. You just need to change your breathing. Exactly. Keep the career.

Speaker 22505.8s - 2506.8s

Diet's sounding good.

Speaker 12506.94s - 2508.1s

You just need to change your breathing.

Speaker 22508.34s - 2509.84s

How do you breathe when you talk then?

Speaker 12510.36s - 2514.9s

You want to try and breathe your nose in between sentences as much as possible.

Speaker 02515.96s - 2516.96s

That's so confusing.

Speaker 22518.56s - 2521.3s

Hello, everyone knows.

Speaker 12521.54s - 2522.48s

No, that doesn't work.

Speaker 22522.98s - 2526.28s

I've watched you and you do do it now and then.

Speaker 02526.56s - 2529.38s

Is that true? That's true. I'll be watching you.

Speaker 22529.46s - 2530.14s

Are you saying I'm not horrible?

Speaker 02530.6s - 2536.88s

You're not terrible at breathing. Is that true? Yeah. Is that true? No, I have to say.

Speaker 22536.88s - 2545.54s

Now you're gasping through the mouth. Now I'm really shocked. So you can see that you're feeling shocked, so you're breathing changes. You're having, you're thinking and your breathing starts to relate.

Speaker 02545.54s - 2547.76s

I'm usually very, very, very calm.

Speaker 22548.06s - 2551.12s

That's my, that's my, like, resting state.

Speaker 02551.84s - 2554.22s

And it's most of my life, right?

Speaker 22554.42s - 2575.44s

Most of my day, like if I am awake for 18 hours, I'll be calm for 17 and 40 minutes, right? The thing, however, is I have to say, the comment you said, the question you asked about, why do you eat healthy? I think that's the shocker for me.It's like, why do I not breathe healthy?

Speaker 42575.44s - 2578.68s

Why am I not putting it at the center?

Speaker 02578.68s - 2580.56s

Because also mathematically, by the way,

Speaker 22580.56s - 2583.76s

I eat three times, twice a day, never three times.

Speaker 02583.76s - 2585.62s

And I breathe 20,000 times. Thousands of times, twice a day, never three times. And I breathe.

Speaker 22586.56s - 2586.64s

20,000 times.

Speaker 02587.96s - 2588.44s

Thousands of times, right?

Speaker 22592.14s - 2598.06s

And if you just can add a tiny bit of progress on one of those and repeat it 20,000 times, mathematically, that's the winner, really.

Speaker 02598.06s - 2610.08s

Yeah, it's huge, it's huge. So the, yeah, if you can fix your breathing and speaking, which periodically I've clocked you doing it correctly, understanding where your breath is flowing.

Speaker 42610.84s - 2612.96s

Then the next place is sleep.

Speaker 02613.36s - 2618.26s

How are you breathing when you follow sleep? A lot of people stop breathing when they sleep. They have sleep apnea.

Speaker 32619.04s - 2622.14s

Their breathing changes, your breathing changes anyway when you sleep.

Speaker 02622.76s - 2629.68s

But are you having the best possible sleep because of your breathing? Or are you going to sleep? Or you're not going to sleep because the tiger's in the room.

Speaker 12630.16s - 2637.46s

The stressful breath is triggering the response. And then we also have, which is also what we talked about before, how you then breathing.

Speaker 02637.56s - 2651.36s

If you've got all that down, breathing at rest, breathing and speaking, breathing throughout your day, breathing when you sleep, then you can start looking at breathing and exercise. Because then we're increasing our respiratory rate, you're

Speaker 32651.36s - 2655.86s

needing more input, you've got more carbon dioxide, building up. So how are you breathing in that

Speaker 02655.86s - 2660.02s

moment? Every sport is slightly different. Yeah. Because weightlifting would be different and

Speaker 32660.02s - 2664.58s

swimming. Obviously, you're in the water. There's slight anomalies with different practices. But they're

Speaker 12664.58s - 2668.1s

the key areas, which covers most of our life in terms of breathing.

Speaker 32668.38s - 2671.74s

Could we ask about the sleep thing? Because sleep is such a big topic. You know, when we're

Speaker 12671.74s - 2675.72s

stressed, we tend to sleep badly for emotional reasons, mental reasons, breathing reasons,

Speaker 02675.88s - 2681.12s

obviously as well. So how would you advise people to breathe, to get into a good sleep,

Speaker 42681.2s - 2684.96s

for example? And what happens? Would you also say to tape your mouth? Because you hear about

Speaker 02684.96s - 2697.02s

this a lot, like saying take your mouth at night to breathe through your nose. So why do people say that? And would you advise that as well? Yeah, it's great. There's two aspects to that.So there's getting to sleep and then there's good quality of sleep.

Speaker 32697.64s - 2699.94s

Now getting to sleep from a breathing's perspective,

Speaker 02700.94s - 2717.2s

do you want to calm your nervous system? Yeah. You want to move into your parasympathetic state. So you can do certain exercises, a long out breath, slows the heart rate down, drops blood pressure, tells the brain that we're safe.So doing, that's why the four, seven, eight breath is often talked about,

Speaker 32717.28s - 2720.9s

Dr. Wheel, breathing in for four, holding for seven, out for eight,

Speaker 02721.3s - 2733.82s

induces a paraphysic sympathetic state. Something like that is really helpful to do before you sleep. Repeating it three or four minutes before you sleep, telling your body you're okay and you're nod off.

Speaker 22733.98s - 2734.8s

Works magic.

Speaker 02735.02s - 2746.18s

Works like magic, yes. So that's getting to sleep. When you're asleep, depending on how you're breathing, if a lot of people breathe through their mouth when they sleep.

Speaker 32746.9s - 2751.2s

And the research shows that you're much higher chance of having sleep apnea

Speaker 02751.2s - 2752.62s

when you breathe through the mouth.

Speaker 12752.7s - 2753.48s

So why people snore?

Speaker 02753.78s - 2755.86s

That's also the majority of snoring as well.

Speaker 12755.86s - 2758.5s

I don't snore. So maybe I breathe through my nose when I sleep. Yeah.

Speaker 02758.68s - 2760.94s

Well, the quickest way to check is tape your mouth up.

Speaker 12761.12s - 2761.78s

Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 02761.86s - 2762.06s

Yeah.

Speaker 12762.6s - 2767.58s

And the reason people, or there's been a movement towards taping the mouth up is it, okay. Yeah. And the reason people, there's been a movement towards taping the mouth up is it's a simple,

Speaker 02768.14s - 2782.84s

quick intervention that costs all of a couple of pounds to get medical microport tape, place it on your mouth, and force your nose to breathe for those seven or eight hoursas you're sleeping, which is such an important thing that we are breathing through the nose

Speaker 22782.84s - 2784.64s

as we sleep. Where's my phone? Order tape.

Speaker 02786.2s - 2789.48s

Yeah. Yeah. So it's really, really important that we breathe through the nose when we sleep.

Speaker 22789.98s - 2795.04s

And that is just a simple intervention that will allow us to force the nose to breathe.

Speaker 02795.96s - 2802.54s

Some people do have deviated septum or do have structural reasons that they can, or even allergies,

Speaker 22803.04s - 2805.14s

that will force the nose to be clogged up.

Speaker 02805.94s - 2811.76s

So, I mean, it's different for everybody, but generally speaking, I do get people to breathe

Speaker 12811.76s - 2818.6s

through the nose by using mouth tape when they sleep at night. Do you find people are more energised them when they wake up for doing that?

Speaker 02819.08s - 2820.7s

Much, much deeper quality of sleep.

Speaker 22820.7s - 2827.7s

Is there a specific higher value for nose breathing than mouth breathing? Yeah, the mouth breath creates

Speaker 02827.7s - 2829.54s

stress in the body. It's a stress.

Speaker 22829.76s - 2852.56s

Okay, yeah. Yeah, the nose creates resistance. It slows the rate in which you breathe. It also filters the air. So the nose is designed to filter the air before it arrives at your lungs, flushes it with nitric oxide. And also when we breathe through our mouth, position of the tongue if you're sleeping the body relaxes and the tongue drops back which is where sleep apnea happens so the tongue drops

Speaker 32852.56s - 2864.06s

back into the throat and obstructs the airway so they're breathing through the mouth maybe snoring obstruct the airway stop breathing because they can't breathe and then they wake up yeah so you'll find

Speaker 22864.06s - 2868.8s

that people who are mouth breathing when they sleep just don't get that deep sleep they don't they can't breathe and then they wake up. So you'll find that people who are mouth breathing when they sleep just don't get that deep sleep.

Speaker 12869.02s - 2887.64s

They don't get the quality of sleep that they need for food recovery. It's fascinating, isn't it? You think just breathing is like such a gift to be able to do it correctly. So if I'm listening to this and I'm super stressed, listening to this podcast thinking, I'm not breathing correctly at all.What would you say to someone who's listening is like their first breathing exercise to try? Yeah.

Speaker 02887.84s - 2890.52s

First thing would be just close your mouth and breathe your nose.

Speaker 12890.76s - 2901.86s

Shut your mouth. Yeah. Shut your mouth and breathe your nose. Simple as it sounds, you might notice straight away that, oh, well, maybe my nose is blocked. You might start to feel that air hunger that I talked about.

Speaker 02902.76s - 2912.88s

It might even, for some people who are very stressed, breathing through the nose slowly, then can make them feel a bit anxious because I'm not getting enough air. But if we just sit in with that

Speaker 12912.88s - 2917.4s

and think we've got all the air we need, I've got all the air in every breath, I've got what I need,

Speaker 02918.04s - 2920.36s

then over time our carbon dioxide levels

Speaker 22920.36s - 2927.54s

because of the change in pH will start to balance out. My personal experience on nose breathing because of the aeroplanes,

Speaker 02927.54s - 2935.64s

you know, I travel a lot and the air is very dry. So my sinuses start to hurt and then, you know, they get a little blocked and annoying and I get that headache.

Speaker 42935.64s - 2942.6s

Yeah. And in the past, I used to do everything like sprays and, you know, painkillers and whatever you want, right?

Speaker 22942.6s - 2943.48s

Nose breathing.

Speaker 42943.48s - 2956.9s

No breathing. The first few breaths hurt, you know, it's almost like that your sinuses are and whatever you want, right? Nose breathing. The first few breaths hurt. You know, it's almost like that your sinuses are just, you know, not happy with this. And then you just continue to nose breathe. It just changes everything. It clears up.You feel the headache goes away.

Speaker 22957.3s - 2957.42s

Yeah.

Speaker 02957.42s - 2958.34s

You feel more energized.

Speaker 42958.58s - 2961.22s

You yawn a few times first because your body was like,

Speaker 02961.32s - 2970.1s

oxygen, thank you. Yeah, I can do that, right? And then it's incredible, really. Yeah, well, exactly that. So that would be my first protocol is get people to breathe in the nose.

Speaker 22970.1s - 2971.48s

Can I add a bit? I'm really sorry here.

Speaker 02971.54s - 2971.62s

Yeah.

Speaker 22971.82s - 2982.52s

But there was something around libido and men, you know, for men that nose breathing, I don't know exactly what it was. I think it was nitrous because you said nitrous oxide.

Speaker 02982.52s - 2989.42s

Yes. Yeah. Can you talk about that as well? Yeah, so nitric oxide is released in the naval cavity.

Speaker 22989.76s - 2998.74s

So nitric oxide is a gas, kills off airborne bacteria, but it's also linked to the libido. It opens up the blood vessel.

Speaker 02998.92s - 3003.04s

So it increases circulation is actually the main component in Viagra PRODUCT.

Speaker 23003.64s - 3004.04s

Is it?

Speaker 03004.08s - 3014.4s

Yes. There you go. Yeah. That's fascinating. Yeah. And if you hum, so an exercise, breathing in and just humming,hmm. On the exhale.

Speaker 23014.56s - 3015.24s

On the exhale.

Speaker 03015.5s - 3022.28s

The vibration that's happening in the nose through the humming sound increases

Speaker 23022.28s - 3022.72s

release.

Speaker 03022.8s - 3028.2s

So we get 15 times more research says, 15 times more nitric oxide through the humming sound, increases release. So we get 15 times more, research says, 15 times more nitric oxide through your humming.

Speaker 23029.4s - 3033.46s

So count the number of people that will be humming tonight.

Speaker 03033.92s - 3038.44s

I think the success of this podcast will be measured in humming.

Speaker 13039.04s - 3039.32s

Yeah.

Speaker 23039.64s - 3039.92s

Yeah.

Speaker 03040.04s - 3042.24s

So the natural viagra is just to hum away.

Speaker 23043.04s - 3048.12s

So this truly, I'm, so I had a friend who was discussing this

Speaker 03048.12s - 3061.28s

and it truly actually worked for him. So it really does change something when you breathe through your nose. Just vitality-wise, it makes you very different. Yeah, hugely, hugely.

Speaker 23061.6s - 3068.9s

Especially if you're living a stressful lifestyle. So for me again, you know, I sleep better, but I feel more energized at the same time

Speaker 03068.9s - 3071.42s

just through that nasal breathing. Yeah.

Speaker 23071.62s - 3073.9s

And that's why the mouth tape at night is good as well

Speaker 03073.9s - 3080.02s

because when you practice knife taping at night, it forces your body to get used to using its nose.

Speaker 23080.6s - 3100.62s

So in the morning, you'll find that you'll just naturally be breathing a bit more through your nose That's why I think it's such a simple intervention But with something like night mouth taping Don't just jump into doing it tonight If you're listeningJust put some tape on for five minutes See how you feel Put some tape on for build it up

Speaker 03100.62s - 3105.92s

510, 1520 Until you can do about 25 minutes With a tape on during the day and then you'll be fine

Speaker 13105.92s - 3112.16s

for a night time interesting it's amazing though you're obviously like you're the extreme of being

Speaker 03112.16s - 3136.82s

able to breathe well because it's your life it's like you know your career so you obviously at the beginning weren't you're a normal person now you know you're a normal person breathing badly and etc so what do you think's been the biggest like self exploration and shift you found from this like journey of breathing from start to finish for you yeah i mean the big shift for me was what we talked about at the beginning i always thought i was an okay

Speaker 23136.82s - 3142.76s

breather and i think if anybody saw me breathe they think you're great breather or i was using my diaphragm

Speaker 03142.76s - 3149.18s

using my nose i have to say this whole idea of you monitoring people breathing is a little peepy, right?

Speaker 23150.56s - 3155.04s

Everyone should be aware when they're now around you that you're looking like, how is she breathing?

Speaker 03155.44s - 3160.1s

Yeah, do you do that on first dates and stuff? Yeah, it's an important thing, actually.

Speaker 23160.82s - 3163.6s

Yeah, but we can change. We can change our breath.

Speaker 03163.7s - 3165.88s

That's the positive thing. We're not, it's not stuck

Speaker 23165.88s - 3168.06s

sorry I interrupted you you were saying that you

Speaker 03168.06s - 3181.76s

normally yeah but for me that my biggest thing was and what I find so fascinating we've talked about slowing our breath and perfect breathing but how our perfect breathing is reallyimpact by our past and through our experience

Speaker 13181.76s - 3198.48s

through our beliefs that are causing our brain to trigger a certain way and our breath to trigger in that moment. And that for me is really, really fascinating. And my journey into this into breath work was that space moving into vulnerability

Speaker 03198.48s - 3236.3s

and allowing myself to feel and feel more all of a sudden, more of life by releasing the tension that was held in my breath. And then giving my brain the signal to say, it's actually okay. It's okay to feel. It's okay to be emotional. We have life. Life is beautiful with emotions. And once we allow our emotions to flow through our breath, then we don't have to constrict our breathing to stop ourselves from feeling. And for me, that's been the biggest thing because we'll see a lot of people, you see people walking down the street or on the underground tube or on the aeroplane.And people, you can see people just constricted in their posture.

Speaker 23236.5s - 3238s

There you go, you're creepy again.

Speaker 03240.44s - 3243.58s

Yeah, well, creeping around and looking everyone through that.

Speaker 23243.78s - 3245.5s

And you just feel like, well, actually,

Speaker 43245.5s - 3246.78s

they could just open their breath.

Speaker 23246.9s - 3272.08s

And once we open our breath, when our breath is free to open, I shared you, seeing the dog and being excited. Yeah. It's open flowing. It's expansive.And with expansive breath, then we start to feel more joy. And we start to feel more relation throughout our day. I could never have expected that one of my most enjoyable conversations ever on this podcast could be about breath.

Speaker 03273.2s - 3282.56s

Honestly, I have enjoyed this so much and I have learned so much. One of the things I really enjoyed is when you said to hum.

Speaker 43283.12s - 3286.84s

Because one of the, you know, one of the okay, no, no, hold on because one of,

Speaker 03286.84s - 3289.12s

you know, one of the pit peeves that I have,

Speaker 43289.12s - 3290.66s

one of the pit peeves that I have is,

Speaker 03290.66s - 3294.88s

is that, is the whole idea of om.

Speaker 43294.88s - 3295.76s

Yeah, right?

Speaker 03295.76s - 3298.24s

It actually is hum, right?

Speaker 43298.24s - 3300.94s

There is, you know, I sometimes dislike

Speaker 03300.94s - 3304.94s

the idea of positioning spirituality without science, right?

Speaker 43304.94s - 3307.8s

And there is a lot of science to be found in the fact that, you know, the,

Speaker 03307.96s - 3314.14s

you said basically the bone structure with humming just generates more nitric oxide.

Speaker 43314.44s - 3317.06s

So that to me is quite an eye-opener.

Speaker 03317.16s - 3319.52s

The idea, of course, of breathing as part of meditation,

Speaker 43320.1s - 3323.36s

I always used to really get a little irritated when people say,

Speaker 03323.44s - 3343.76s

oh, it's because breathing is life. Yeah, I understand that, but, you know, there is a lot more to the practice from a scientific point of view. How do I learn? I mean, people, I'm saying openly, I'm reading this on the flight back. This is just going to change my life.But the idea of that correct breathing, you know,

Speaker 23343.84s - 3353.24s

where does one learn that? Like, you know, where does one learn that? Like, you know, how do you know that your diaphragm is going well, doing well? How do you know that it's the right amount, right speed and so on?

Speaker 03353.66s - 3365.32s

Yeah, so learning to breathe with your diaphragm just comes with practice. It's pretty straightforward. When we breathe with our diaphragm, it contracts, it moves downwards, air and organs displaced down,

Speaker 13370s - 3374.34s

and our belly rises. So we often hear that term the belly breath or breathing with your belly. It's not particularly using your stomach muscles, it's just this displacement downwards.

Speaker 03378.08s - 3378.5s

So it's something that we can practice and learn for a daily practice each day.

Speaker 33382.96s - 3389.78s

Obviously, we've got the book there, and we've got courses online and things as well, but it is something we can learn quite quickly. What's interesting is the body likes to find homostasis.

Speaker 03389.94s - 3403.66s

It likes to find balance. And our breathing, this is what I find fascinating as well. When we're born, our breathing is correct for majority of people, unless there's been some sort of issue that claps lungs or something at birth. But for majority of people, our breathing is correct.

Speaker 43404.16s - 3409.14s

Our diaphragm's engaged. We're breathing through our nose. We're perfect breathers.

Speaker 03409.6s - 3447.12s

It's from birth as we go through life that we start to become bad breathing. Yes, exactly. I mean, become bad breathers because of the experiences we're having, whether that's too much stress or habitually wrong, whether it's an impactful experience like grief or the dog bark or bite, where our breathing changes to keep us safe. So we'll find that our breathing when we start to practice moves back prettyquick. And it's trying to figure out, well, what's causing my breathing to be stuck in this archetype? What's causing my breathing? If I've identified within the book, one of the archetypes, well, how do I move myself to the perfect breather by using a diaphragm,

Speaker 13447.12s - 3464.32s

using my nose more, slowing my rate right down to be calmer and more, and more reserve more energy. I find it really interesting that whole diaphragmatic part because I always know that if I've been under a bit of stress, and I'm doing some diaphragmated breathing, it feels tighter because I haven't been using it properly just going around as normal.

Speaker 03464.32s - 3478.94s

And then the more you do it, like you say, the more relaxed and easier it becomes again. So it's just like a working a muscle really, isn't it? It's exactly that. And it's working a muscle, but also working out the tension in the muscles around it. I often get people to

Speaker 43478.94s - 3483.4s

come in, actually release tension in their diaphragm. Yeah. So coming into, if your diaphragm's

Speaker 03483.4s - 3487.46s

completely collapsed or rigid or very controlled around the solar

Speaker 43487.46s - 3487.98s

plexus,

Speaker 03488.1s - 3498.68s

we can come in and we can breathe in. And if you're feeling a lot of tension there, it feels quite uncomfortable. Breathe out. So you can get in there.

Speaker 43499.32s - 3501.14s

So we're just gripping underneath our rib cage.

Speaker 03501.64s - 3504.98s

And when you breathe in, breathe into your, and then breathe out.

Speaker 43506.36s - 3507.32s

I did my mouth breathe out.

Speaker 03507.44s - 3512.34s

I think I have a bit of a fat cover that's making this exercise.

Speaker 13512.34s - 3515.74s

Actually, you can work your way all down and start to release your diaphragm that way as well.

Speaker 03516.34s - 3518.48s

But it's something that just comes with practice.

Speaker 13518.9s - 3523.44s

If it's still stuck, if it's still frozen in a certain way or the breath is very controlled,

Speaker 03523.82s - 3527.08s

then you might need some sort of release within the muscles as well

Speaker 23527.08s - 3532.38s

or something more dynamic like the increased ventilation practices

Speaker 03532.38s - 3536.08s

and there's lots of the shamanic breathwork, holotropic breathwork,

Speaker 23536.18s - 3536.94s

transformational breath.

Speaker 43537.14s - 3539.72s

There's lots of different schools doing this conscious connected breathwork,

Speaker 13540.04s - 3544.66s

which is really about releasing, telling the body it's safe to release whatever's going on in the mind.

Speaker 03545.32s - 3557.76s

So there's all these different applications for how we're using our breath, but ultimately all of them are to get back to this natural resting breath. Yeah. That is back to our baby breath, slow, relaxed, diaphragmatic in the mouth of your nose.

Speaker 13558.26s - 3559.48s

We always overcomplicate it.

Speaker 03559.56s - 3560.46s

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 23561s - 3568.56s

Stuart PERSON, I'm now going to bestow upon you the title of a sensei. From now on, I will address you as

Speaker 13568.56s - 3576.06s

a sense. This has been fascinating. Honestly, it's so, and you truly radiate what you're talking about.

Speaker 03576.24s - 3583.6s

And I think it's, it is just really eye-opening. I am willing to commit. I will seek you online

Speaker 23583.6s - 3586.26s

in a very hidden way in a corner somewhere.

Speaker 03586.42s - 3603.14s

I'll be one of the students. In a non-creepy way. I will read this. You'll be humming in the background. I will read this. Breathe in, breathe out.And I actually would encourage everyone listening to read this as well. Very, very grateful. Any further questions, Alice PERSON?

Speaker 13603.32s - 3604.34s

No, no further questions.

Speaker 23604.46s - 3681.44s

But yeah, it's always so great to see you and it was just so fascinating. I think it's so great for people to actually understand how powerful their breath is on that more intricate level. So yeah, unbelievable. And for all of you listening, I would like to thank you very much for the opportunity to get me to meet all my senseys. So this truly has been a conversation that I think has been transformative for me. So thanks for the opportunity for that. I really strongly recommend that you look at this.Stress and the work we're doing on unstressable is also without benefit for me personally and Alice PERSON. And I think the journey that we're going on together with you is not that we are completely beyond stress ourselves. For me personally, I think physical stress has always been part of the things I need to focus on. Today, I've discovered a very big part of that. I encourage you also to focus on your own stress and try to become unstressable.As I said, if you want to help our mission to get to a million people every year, and you plan to order unstressable, please do pre-order it before the end of April. We are extremely grateful for your time and attention. Take a bit of time to breathe. Take a bit of time to slow down. We love you all for listening, and we will see you next time.