Would you just love to lie quietly and not think?
Yes?
Well it is good news for you. I offer breathwork sessions 1 to 1 as individual sessions or as packages ‘breathwork masterclass for beginners’. I will soon be offering small group face to face sessions on my beautiful yoga mats and cosy blankets (all cleaned after each session). There won’t be a any live flames as in this video and photo so there really won’t be anything to think about except connecting to your breath and relaxing for 40 minutes.
So what is breathwork and why?
A bit of anatomy…
In brief-our sympathetic nervous system is triggered when there is a threat..now this can be a wild animal but often it is a bill, an annoying colleague, a traumatic event in our lives. When the SNS(s- for stress 1 ) is triggered we go into ‘fight flight and fawn’ so we can keep ourselves safe. Generally although we might be triggered, we are safe day to day. We however still feel these symptoms of fight and flight-tummy knotted, heart rate up, palpitations, eating too much or too little and or not sleeping; waking in the night and turning unhelpful scenarios in our mind. This means that our ‘sensible’ thinking part of our brain (pre frontal cortex) barely functions, so we are unable to make important decisions, we become snappy and irritable.
When the parasympathetic nervous system (P for pause 1 ) is dominant we go into rest, digest, repair, recover and feel calm and able to cope.
We need both states to keep us safe and functioning but sometimes we stay in the SNS when we don’t need to and that can make us feel rubbish, anxious, overwhelmed, depressed, on edge and unable to relax. Sandeman1 gives wise counsel when he states ’stress doesn’t not have to define your life’!
The Vagus Nerve, often named the wandering nerve as it one of the longest cranial nerves connecting our brains to our organs, is stimulated by the PNS (P for pause). One of its roles is the make us feel calmer when we alter our breathing. If you think about when you are anxious your breathing goes up and your heart rate increase, you may go sweaty and our stomach churns-may be even get tummy cramps. This enables us to ‘fight or flight’ in scary situations but we don’t want to feel like that when we aren’t in one those scenarios.
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If you slow your breathing and use your belly or diaphragm rather than tensing and lifting your chest you will start to feel calmer. Breathwork classes use various techniques over a period of time to allow you to fully relax and just think of your breath calming down. The good thing about the classes is you can go at your own rate. I start you off and give reminders gently throughout the class so if your count of 4 is slower than mine it doesn't matter..it is your journey and your experience. I am there to guide and support you.
1, Sandeman Stuart, 2022 Breathe In Breathe Out , HQ stories