Breathe Into Life

Lift Yourself Up or Settle Yourself Down at Will

with breathing patterns to calm or energise mind & body.

Learn how to control high stress & anxiety or clear a depressive low mood.

Boost energy Focus the mind Relax refreshed Sleep soundly

In the process, you’ll discover that guided breathing is an enjoyable, empowering experience with long term health and wellbeing benefits.

In two 1-hour sessions or one 2-hour workshop, you’ll learn immediate interventions for anytime, anyplace

and a short calming daily routine that will make Breathing Well become second nature.

How it works

  • breathwork_mind-body

    1. The Mind-Body Connection

    We breathe to generate energy. The way that we breathe regulates our energy levels and affects how we are feeling. Our techniques use this link in reverse to change how we are feeling by changing how we are breathing.

    A stressed mind sees danger and so energises you to prepare for trouble. It accelerates breathing & heart rate, raises blood pressure, sharpens senses, tightens muscles, stops your digestion. This “fight or flight” reflex primes you for strong physical action but when there is no action to take - when the threat is in the head - this is highly counter-productive. It upsets your body and increases agitatation. Anxiety & worry is a more subtle, ongoing variation of this, when you are constantly vigilant, expecting danger.

    The opposite is a low, depressed mind that sees no need for energy. So the heartbeat drops, the muscles sag, the senses dull & the breath drops. This makes you even more lethargic. It is not a nice feeling of relaxation. This is lethargy. It is tiring and disempowering as you are not generating enough energy to fuel mind or body.

    Our breath-flow techniques reverse these connected processes - to energise when you’re feeling low & sluggish; or calm down when agitated.

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    2. Breathing is a Super-Power

    Breathing is normally an automatic process, so we are not consciously aware of the link between breathing pattern, energy level and state of mind.

    But the breath is yours to change. You can shift it from automatic to manual control. This is a unique feature of breathing. We cannot consciously control any of the other physiological processes associated with energy level and state of mind such as heart rate & blood pressure - and it can be very challenging to alter our emotions at will, especially when we are already in high arousal or low mood.

    But we can consciously shift our breathing pattern in the other direction. This will restore balance to your mind and body. It works because your consciously shifted breathing pattern will bring all the other physiological processes along with it - because all the processes are all interlinked - and breathing is the way you can make changes and it works fast.

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    3. Sharpening Awareness

    Awareness is the key to success. There is no point knowing therapeutic breathing techniques if you are not tuned into your current state of mind and body to be able to know when you need to intervene to rebalance your system and exactly what needs remedying.

    Regular breathing practises help to cultivate this habitual awareness. Once you are used to tuning-in to the mind-body connection and can sense your various breathing patterns at work, then this gives you the opportunity to take manual control of a counter-productive breathing pattern and reverse it to quickly counteract distress or low mood.

    A short daily breathing practise will also help to bring a sense of calm & stability to your entire day You can use this to create a restorative moment at anytime, anyplace - seated, standing or walking around.

So there are two elements to the course

  1. Learning breathing patterns to restore balance

You will learn to sense the way you are breathing and be aware of mood changes associated with different breathing patterns. You will then learn the correct way to breathe that will almost immediately:

·      Contain and reverse a stress response

·      Ease anxiety/worry

·      Lift low mood & listlessness

The feeling of a lack of control is commonly associated with chronic stress, anxiety & depression.  Knowing that you can take swift control of your energy level and mood is comforting and empowering of itself, boosting self-esteem.


2. Breathing Well as second nature

The heart of the course looks beyond short-term, therapeutic intervention. The plan is to bring effective breathing into your daily life, routinely maximising physical and mental wellbeing. Healthy breathing will become second nature. This will reduce the possibility of disturbances arising in the first place. We will firstly free-up any unhealthy habitual breathing patterns with some physical releasing exercises. Then you will learn how to:

·      Energise yourself physically whilst staying mentally calm

·      Energise yourself mentally in a clear manner - promoting focus and preventing over-thinking

·      Move from a state of energisation to relaxation

·      Maintain relaxation if mental disturbance arises

·      Move from relaxation to sleep; and sleep well

 In the process, you will discover how enjoyable and empowering it is to be in control of the air element of your energetic life-force (your nutrition being the other element).

 You will soon be breathing well all day, whether standing, sitting or exercising. Habitually using these techniques will also improve your digestion & sleep and help with back or neck pain. We also learn short daily breathing practises will also help to bring a sense of stability to your entire day and calm to your night.

These techniques also serve as the foundation for restorative, empowering meditation practises in which the mind is stabilised and directed into calm focus by the way you breathe.

Controlled breathing works immediately to:

Increase mental clarity & focus

Promote calm

Fall asleep faster

Counteract stress or anxiety

Boost physical energy level

Raise or lower blood pressure

And it works over the long-term to:

Improve lung, heart & vascular condition

Improve posture/ease spine & muscular tension

Support the immune system

Ease adrenal fatigue

Improve digestion

Improve sleep quality

Course Plan

Week 0. (10 mins) A free exploratory call to identify your specific needs, clarify the course offering and see if this is for you. 

Week 1 (1 hour) A mix of understanding, therapeutic exercises & breath-cycles that provide a firm foundation in the core techniques.  

Week 2 (1 hour)  One week later, whilst the first lesson is still fresh but also allowing time for you to try out the techniques and return with any queries or obstacles. After making sure that the fundamentals are strong, I will add some more specialised techniques (with more specific applications) and give you a short sitting routine. This is essentially a simple, breath-supported meditation practise.  

Pricing

1-to-1: Course is 2 X £65 (£130), each payable a week in advance.

2 to 3 participants: Course for each person is 2 X £45 (£90), each payable a week in advance. I shall also add 10 mins onto each shared lesson to give some extra time to address any queries.