Journal Entry #1 -May 23, 2023:

Breathwork is amazing for stress relief, reduction in muscle tension, improving blood flow, oxygenating your brain and body, mental clarity, but also prevention of illness. That’s right, it can boost your immune system!

Calming your nervous system through breath is a great tool that is at your exposure any time of the day, all day, everyday, and can really help to ground you and bring freedom to your mind and body.

Living with generalized anxiety and endometriosis, a chronic systemic disease, I have found breathwork to be at the forefront of my toolbox. I used to not feel that I had time to breathe, but someone once told me, those who say that, are the ones who really need to work on it! That stuck with me.

Change is hard. If we do not get out of our comfort zone, it is hard for us to grow.

When I first started, it was uncomfortable, I felt like it was producing anxiety, like I needed more of that! It felt like I did not have enough space in my body to breathe. I thought to myself, this is not good for me, it is making my anxiety worse. Then light bulb moment, maybe this is hard BECAUSE it is something I need to work on.

Just because I am not good at it now, does not mean I won’t be. I started to lose the judgment associated with how I was breathing, and just became aware of how I was breathing. It was a starting point, a baseline. Reminding myself, this is WHY I am working on my breath. Putting in the work to change is hard, and that is true in all parts of life. I think of every breath practice as a stepping stone on my wellness journey.

I have found breathwork very helpful to manage my own pain, ground me, calm my nervous system and move better. With each practice, it takes less time for me to ‘find’ my breath. Improved breathing has become the new habit! We all are going to experience stress in our lives at some point, some more than others, but it is how we handle it, what tools do you have to help yourself?

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of breathwork for mobility!

With all the training I have done through breath classes, I felt like what was missing was someone really guiding me on HOW to get my best breath.

Did you know…

1. How restricted you are in your ribcage can influence how your shoulders function?

2. Tightness in your back can limit your ability to recruit your abdominals?

3. Breathwork exercises can improve mobility in your spine and reduce tension in your neck and shoulders?

4. Better breathing can lead to improved digestion?

5. Better breathing can improve your posture?

6. Relieve tightness in your pelvic floor?

7. Relieve acid reflux symptoms?…and the list goes on.

The majority of people I begin working with have little to no breath awareness, know if they have a dysfunctional breath pattern and/or areas of mobility restrictions, let alone know what to do about it. Their breath influences how their whole body functions. I say this not to be critical, but to stress the importance of becoming aware and getting in-tune with what is going on with your own body.

That’s why I love what I do!

Journal Entry #2 -June 2, 2023:

My energy level has really improved since incorporating daily breath practices into my day and I am not even sleeping any extra!

I am waking up feeling more energized. Why? Breathing better throughout the day makes me breathe better while I sleep. How awesome is that?!

Sleep helps us heal and rejuvenate our bodies. When experiencing stress, pain, or recovering from an injury, quality sleep is crucial.

I use to wake up feeling like I didn’t sleep. The sound of my alarm going off was a stressor in itself! Another night without feeling rested.

Now, I am more energized, more productive and less stressed! :)

Journal Entry #3 -June 16, 2023:

I love to travel, but I do not like the process. If there was an option for a standing, walking around flight, I’d be sold!

Due to my medical issues, I could not fly for months, and when I did back in April, it set me back for weeks.

The thought of flying again in June of course caused me anxiety. What if it makes things worse again? What if I can’t handle it? I could always cancel the trip, but then I am missing out on an experience, fun, and living for a change!

I was committed to go. Having had my life derailed for the 1st quarter of this year, I wanted to start living again, so I had to find a way to manage my anxiety.

I shifted my mindset to think more about what I would gain from going on this trip vs what I feared about the trip, but even more so, I focused on my breathwork and listening to my body.

I unfortunately, could only get a middle seat (preference for aisle so I could stand as much as I wanted), but I made sure to take a walk on the plane and stand a couple of times to help alleviate the pain of sitting and to reduce the compression. I also made a a lumbar roll with a blanket, I used that and the back of the seat for feedback when focusing on my breath. I made sure to feel my low back and mid back getting expansion, avoiding a stress breath (i.e. up into neck and shoulders).

I practiced breath awareness, just noticing where my breath was going, where I was tight or limited. A great distraction tool as well as a means to guide my focus. I also worked on extended exhalations to help calm my nervous system.

The breathwork helped! I then followed up the breathwork with a movie, and then the flight was over. Thankfully this was only about a 2 hour flight vs the 4.5 hour flight in April, but I made it!

I made sure to go for a walk in the evening to help counteract all the sitting.

Tomorrow is my flight back and I am feeling less stressed about the return.
Flight plan for success:
Aisle seat
Lumbar roll
Stand and/or walk at least every 20-30 minutes
Breathwork
Watch a movie

Journal Entry #4 - July 3, 2023

Sorry to keep you hanging, YES, I survived 2/2 of flights from above! :) The 2nd flight went even better than the 1st! So guess what, I took my second round of flights and boy was I challenged. I was blessed to have an infant sitting directly behind me who cried a good portion of the time, with her little sister kicking the back of my seat over and over again, and having periodic crying tantrums, and the big brother who intermittently changed seats with his little sister, tray table down, which repeatedly pulled on my seat…it was NOT relaxing to say the least.

Thankfully, my flight was only 2.5 hrs, but at the same time, it was 2.5 hrs! On top of it, my phone was about to die and there were no outlets on the small plane to charge my phone, so I couldn’t watch a movie to drown out the noise. Luckily I had ear plugs, but it didn’t drown out all the noise. Plus, nothing could help the hitting of my chair. So what did I do?

I began to work on my breath and meditation. Thank goodness for both! Otherwise, I would have probably said something I regretted. I couldn’t think of a polite thing to say to the parents who were oblivious to the disturbance they were causing (i.e. the little girl was running up and down the aisle, she was grabbing at the passenger in front of her mom’s seat, she was kicking my chair repeatedly, etc.). There was nowhere else for me to sit, I looked!

I practiced breathwork, meditation, stood multiple times (which my neighbor was fine with as he saw what was going on…he told me that she kept grabbing him!), walked to and from the bathroom to just move (and escape!), and worked on my crossword puzzles to distract my brain. I used my energy to focus on my 360 deg breath, using the chair for feedback, as I could find my breath creeping up into my neck and shoulders.

Thank goodness for my self-help tools. It reduced my irritability, my reactivity, and my level of stress. We cannot always control our environment, but we can control how we react to it. Challenge yourself to create calm inside of you the next time chaos surrounds you. Also, be prepared for flights, make sure your phone is fully charged (I made the mistake of relying on the plane charger which there wasn’t this time!), you have ear plugs, you have a book to read or a crossword puzzle to keep you busy if technology fails, and channel your breath and or meditation to create calm inside of you. :)

Journal Entry #5 - July 22, 2023

Self help tools are not always easy to dial into, especially when you're drained. Sometimes you’re just TIRED!

What you do on your good days can help to make the bad days better. Stress builds, so if you manage it most days, you’re not as overwhelmed when you get a wave of stress.

Also, the LAST thing you need to do is beat yourself up for NOT having done something for yourself. Sometimes doing nothing is exactly what you need to do for yourself!

Some of us, myself included, feel like we always have to be doing something, and have trouble just resting.

This is a reminder to be kind to yourself. It's OK to do nothing sometimes That's a part of healing, too. :)

Stay tuned for more about my love for Breathwork :)