BLOG
On Power, Stress, and HRV
Dear Breather,
How's your breath today?
Not one day goes by in my life without me being reminded of just how powerful the breath is.
And lately I’ve been thinking a lot about just how much responsibility we carry by consciously using our breath.
I mean, think about it -
Your breath works like a remote device for your nervous system. The two are directly connected to each other:
When we “hack” into our breathing (ie. by consciously changing the way we breathe), we can essentially hack into our biology and physiology. This is HUGE.
Eg. with every inhale, your heart rate goes up and you activate your sympathetic nervous system, with every exhale your heart rate slows down and you stimulate your vagus nerve.
However, with a lot of power comes a lot of responsibility.
For example, consider this:
Whenever you engage in a guided breathwork session or experiment with a new technique, you essentially give away your remote device for your nervous system - and thus to how you feel and think.
So here is my advice:
Don’t just give away your remote device to anyone on the interwebs/YouTube/Instagram.
Anyone and their dog are sharing breathing practices these days. Make sure they know what they’re doing, are at best trauma-informed and are certified (although - even certification doesn’t guarantee competence unfortunately, because many programs are less than awesome)
Study the breath. Understand your own physiology and nervous system.
I am a huge believer in education as a way to empower ourselves - which is the reason I share educational information around the breath and the nervous system on Instagram and this newsletter.
The breath can be a powerful medicine - if we learn how to use it properly so it can actually benefit us.
Are you ready to be your own shaman, your own guru? Because, we are in 2021, in the Age of Aquarius - times are changing hard and the times of outsourcing all our healing and power are coming to an end. Our breath is the most powerful medicine we have and carry with us.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
🎥 Isn't breathing through the mouth bad for you? by Max Strom
I'm definitely team nose-breathing-for-the-win 24/7, but it's also important to consider when mouth breathing is the natural way to breathe. Oh, and who doesn't love Max and his divine voice? ;)
🎙 The pervasive effect of stress with Robert Sapolsky on The Peter Attia Drive
The issue of stress is so incredibly underrated in society, it truly boggles my mind - especially considering how many of us suffer from chronic health issues, depression, anxiety etc. This convo is a must-listen.
📝 2020 Meta Analysis: Slow Breathing Improves A Variety of Behavioral and Physiological Outcomes on The Breathing Diabetic
This is a great summary of a great study on slow breathing - in essence: HRV breathing and slow breathing both have wide-ranging benefits for overall health and wellness. The author Nick also sends out a really dope newsletter every week. You don't have to be diabetic to benefit from his emails.
Plus:
Sooo, I ditched the Whoop and am currently experimenting with the Polar H10 chest strap in combination with the EliteHRV app to measure my heart rate variability in the mornings and use bio-feedback during my breathwork sessions. Loving it so far - much better than wearing a wearable tech device 24/7 on my body.
🇩🇪 I recently sat down with the wonderful Robin Stolberg to chat about my story and all things Breathwork for his Natural Biohacking Podcast: So meisterst du deine Atmung und hackst dein Nervensystem
Here are some Instagram post highlights from me - in case you missed them:
How stress affects your digestion and how Breathwork can help
A personal re-introduction from my end including some random personal facts about me :)
BREATHE WITH ME
🦩 1-on-1 Coaching Program to Improve Emotional Regulation, Psychological Well-Being and Stress Resilience
I am currently temporarily working with clients as part of a new 1-on-1 coaching program I developed.
I don’t usually do much private coaching and will focus on other projects again come July.
It's by application only and I have 1 or 2 spots available right now.
If this speaks to you, you can schedule a no-strings-attached intro call with me.
🤠 Breathwork Teacher Training 2021/2022
My partner and truly amazing Breathworker of many years, Christine Schmid, and I will be running a 6-month Breathwork Teacher Training starting end of October (online + offline).
We will open up registration in about a month mid-July-ish and it will be in German only this first time around (sorry international friends!).
There will be 20 spots for this intensive 300-hour training.
Get on the waitlist here to be notified when we open the doors.
⚡️TODAY: Live Breathwork for Nervous System Regulation With Me on Instagram
Let's breathe together - join me live on Insta today!
I will share a little on the topic of nervous system regulation, then I'll guide you through a Breathwork practice and then we'll do some Q+A.
So that's today, Monday June 21st at 6pm CET / 12pm EST / 9am PST.
I hope to see you later!
I appreciate you :)
Conni. 🐋
PS: I just officially launched my new website for Breathwork Alchemy. Have a look around.
PPS:
Nose Breathing, Movement + Slow Breathing
Dear Breather,
When we moved into our last house here in the South of Sri Lanka, my partner and I both immediately struggled to sleep through the night. I had to get up several times to go to the bathroom at night. I never felt refreshed in the mornings. Not cool. We tried to optimize every aspect of sleeping, but to no avail.
Then the solution hit us like a ton of bricks - mouth taping! (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, watch this video)
We somehow had dropped the habit (silly us!). So we started taping our mouths again at night and - tada: we immediately started sleeping through the night with no more bathroom visits and I felt energized after waking.
We assume that the pillows and harder mattresses here in Sri Lanka caused us to have our mouths open more while sleeping. And you cannot have good quality sleep (or good health) if you're breathing through an open mouth.
A little tape works like magic, because it makes sure your mouth stays shut.
So, if you're struggling with your sleep, wake up to pee, or you snore or have sleep apnea or wake up with a dry mouth in the mornings - I highly recommend taping your mouth shut at night. It's also one of the first things I prescribe my breath coaching clients.
It's an awesome low hanging fruit to improve your sleep, your health and breathing pattern during the day. Because the way we breathe at night tends to be the way we breathe when we're awake.
Rule number one:
Mouth is for eating, nose is for breathing. Make sure you nose-breathe at all times (except during very high intensity workouts).
More on nose vs mouth breathing another time!
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
1. Stress, Breath and the Psoas
"During prolonged periods of stress, your psoas muscle is constantly contracted."
"The psoas being intimately involved in the basic physical and emotional reactions, that when chronically tight it continually signals your body that you’re in danger, eventually exhausting the adrenal glands and depleting the immune system.”
Lately, I have been getting really interested in breathing anatomy, how movement and stretching can assist with dysfunctional breathing patterns and where exactly in our bodies we store trauma. If you ever heard a yoga teacher say that your hips store a lot of emotions, then they were absolutely right, but not many can explain why this is the case.
It seems like there is a strong relationship between the amount of stress, anxiety or trauma you have experienced in your life and a tight psoas, which can be responsible for all sorts of issues in your body (pain, digestion, scoliosis..).
I keep exploring the anatomy of our bodies and how it relates to breathing patterns and it fascinates me deeply. Movement practices need to be part of any breath practice if we really want to make a sustainable difference in our physical, mental and emotional health. I too have recently upped my stretching and mobility game by a lot and am currently also doing a 21 Day Hip Opener Challenge (15 minutes a day - 3 poses for 5 minutes each).
2. The Benefits of Slow Breathing on Heart Rate Variability
The best breathing practice to increase your HRV is by slowing down our breathing using coherence breathing at a rate of about 5.5 breaths per minutes:
Inhale to a count of 5 or 6 and exhale for 5 or 6. Essentially making the in-breath and out-breath the same length.
Here are few studies supporting this:
Influence of deep breathing exercise on spontaneous respiratory rate and heart rate variability (2012)
The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human (2017)
Fun Fact: After about two to three weeks of being in Sri Lanka in February, I noticed something interesting - my HRV went up by about a third (which is a lot).
I definitely felt way more relaxed and calm and my skin issues cleared up.
Being in the tropics, out in nature more and slowing down my life meant I was more in parasympathetic mode, which meant I was organically also breathing slower. Hence: a higher HRV.
I recorded a new breath practice meditation!
It's a 12-minute guided Breathwork practice to kick off your day.
We first use an activating breath to get us going and then follow this up with some nice coherence breathing for a nice nervous system balance.
Plus:
I am currently finishing up the Advanced Oxygen Advantage Instructor Training with Patrick McKeown with an add-on training specifically for Yoga and Pranayama teachers. Excited to be extending my offerings as a breathwork teacher and coach.
Next up, I plan to create a guided breathwork session for sleep as well as one for anxiety and stress.
Sometime this year, I will open an online breathwork studio so you can breathe with me regularly live and get access to a library of guided breathwork practices that you can do whenever you want. What ya think?
BREATHE WITH ME
Join me for my upcoming online event - this one is in German:
Himmel, Arsch + Zwirn! Endlich richtig wütend!
I am running an online workshop on how to consciously deal with and process anger with my partner Christine Schmid. (In German)
If you want to learn more about how to create a new and healthy relationship with anger, then come join us on May 29.
More online group Breathwork events coming up again soon!
You can also work with me 1on1 - I am currently taking bookings for June for deep dive Breathwork journeys and my 4-week breath coaching program. Very limited spaces available. Respond to this email if you're interested.
Happy breathing :)
Conni. 🐋
PS:
Your Breathing Needs
Dear Breather,
How is your breath today?
Becoming a confident breather means developing your somatic awareness, a heightened consciousness of how your body is feeling.
This helps you recognize when you are out of balance, stressed or low on energy and then check in with yourself to see what your needs are and how your breath can support you in the process.
Somatic awareness is important in order to choose the right Breathwork technique for you in any given moment or on any given day - rather than just going for the default method or following some protocol that you've seen on Instagram.
For example, many people opt for Wim Hof breathing as their default practice every morning without reflecting on their choice and tuning into their bodies first.
Your nervous system and how it is conditioned is unique - and thus your choice of breathing pattern needs to be based on its uniqueness, your state and needs on any given day.
This was one of the reasons why we started 30 Days of Breathwork (to which more than 100 people signed up!).
Your breath is like a remote control and our job is to learn how to use its buttons and how you can use it best to support your nervous system.
My invitation to you:
Keep experimenting, stay curious and don't stop learning about your breath!
There is a whole breath world out there and within you waiting to be discovered :)
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
The author of this article used resonance breathing and HRV training in a 10-week experiment to deal with his anxiety. It inspired me so much that I bought the book he mentioned and started the same daily Breathwork program of 20 minutes of resonance frequency breathing twice a day.
In this video, I talk about the difference between Breathwork and Pranayama. It seems like there is still a lot of confusion going around, so I felt like it was time to clear things up a bit.
I discovered a new simple breathing pacer app called Breathing Awesome. It allows you to set different breathing patterns and play a Spotify playlist at the same time. I'm using it for my daily practice right now.
BREATHE WITH ME
Join me tomorrow:
Breathwork for Self-Exploration and Inner Healing - Sunday Feb 28
This deep Breathwork session is an active meditation using conscious connected breathing that facilitates emotional release, transformative inner healing, deep insights, and self-exploration. After a sharing circle and intro talk, I will guide you through a 60-minute Breathwork journey that will enable you to clear out mental, emotional and physical blockages.
⚡️ I have 3 spots left for this 2-hour workshop.
Happy breathing :)
Conni. 🐋
PS:
You can always respond to my emails with any questions you have around Breathwork and the breath :) Just hit reply!
The Breather #1
Hi Dear Fellow Breather,
Welcome to the official first edition of the Breathwork Alchemy newsletter :)
I love firsts. We usually never forget them.
Like my first deep transformational Breathwork session several years ago.
Or the first time I realized I even had a breath back in 2012 when I started meditating.
Firsts always hold a special place in our memory bank.
And so here we are.
Breathwork Alchemy has organically turned into a real thing:
My platform to share the powerful practice of Breathwork with the world so more and more people can experience inner peace, calm and emotional healing in their lives. It has changed my life in so many ways and I wrote a whole blogpost on it.
Breathwork is the quickest, most powerful and effective way to enhance and transform one’s state of mind and body. Breathing is the only system in our body that is both automatic and under our control. This is not a coincidence - it’s an invitation to tap into and influence the evolution of our mind and body.
I'm excited about the big vision that came through to me during Breathwork journeys and as intuitive whispers last year. I will share more about it soon.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
If you're a little nerd like me, then you will appreciate all the research the HHP Foundation shares on their Instagram. It's awesome to see more and more research being done on Breathwork and breathing.
The new book "The Breathing Cure" by Patrick McKeown is being released soon - this is one of the first interviews he recently gave talking about it. I can't wait to get my hands on it after reading The Oxygen Advantage (also planning to do his instructor training soon)
This is a great article on why a Breathwork practice is so effective at reducing stress based on two recent scientific studies. (FYI, the Sky Breath Meditation they mention is a mix of alternate nostril breathing, bellows breathing and ocean sounding breath)
BREATHE WITH ME
1. Breathwork for Self-Exploration and Inner Healing - Feb 17
This deep Breathwork session is an active meditation using conscious connected breathing that facilitates emotional release, transformative inner healing, deep insights, and self-exploration. After a sharing circle and intro talk, I will guide you through a 60-minute Breathwork journey that will enable you to clear out mental, emotional and physical blockages.
I have 3 spots left for this 2-hour workshop.
2. 30 Days of Breathwork - Feb 20 until March 22
Join a community of breathers in a 30-day Breathwork challenge and learn how to use the power of your own breath and change your life with a daily practice.
In just 5 minutes per day, you will be able to take back control of your nervous system to relieve stress and anxiety, improve your sleep and increase energy + focus. It's beginner-friendly, science-based with immediate results.
We already have 67 people signed up, which is way more than we anticipated! The more, the merrier - let's change the world with Breathwork one human at a time :)
Sign up here. (we extended early bird pricing for another day until tomorrow morning!)
Happy breathing :)
Conni. 🐋
PS:
Please do send me your feedback or any ideas you have on what you would like to see and read in this newsletter. I'm always open to suggestions!
Just hit reply to this email!