I was introduced to Breathwork through a class I signed up for, Minimal Wellness by Rebecca (Becca) Shern, who shared 3 audio clips for guided breathwork by Michelle D’avella. You can find the specific products I used here. I wasn’t sure what the benefits were supposed to be, but I believe the intention was to deal with stress.
Has there ever been a phrase that people say to you that drives you nuts? For me it’s “stop stressing”. Seriously? Is there a switch somewhere? If so, why has no one shown it to me? Of course I stress! I know it builds up until it becomes a physical explosion of crazy symptoms. It’s chronic stress that I am not aware is there.
February’s experiment was trying breathwork every morning to see if it benefits me in any meaningful way. I would use the 10 or 20 minute session immediately after my alarm went off in the morning 5:30 a.m. (Side note, sleep is also an issue for me and I wake up very groggy which was the motivation behind this challenge).
At first, all I could fit in was 10 minutes because I wasn’t allowing much time in my morning routine. On the first weekend I took the chance to dive into the longest session of 35 minutes and I found myself crying and my fingers were numb. I may have been breathing a bit too rapidly, but here’s the thing…I have never found anything that worked on stresses that I can’t identify or aren’t aware of like that. I found the 25 minute sessions to be nearly as effective.
However, since some time has passed I can tell you that the main stresser in my life continued to build until I had a full mast cell attack in April that lasted roughly 7 days and reset me to zero. I didn’t continue doing breathwork daily through March though so perhaps it could have worked if I’d kept going.
In conclusion:
- Taking time to physically rest: I saw the benefit of laying down part way through the day without a pillow and taking the pressure off my neck. The collision damaged nerves in my neck.
- My lungs also benefited from getting that much airflow. I used to play woodwind instruments multiple times a day and now I don’t ever give my lungs such a workout. I could tell it was beneficial to my lungs, and it’s not much of a stretch to think it could help circulation.
- I’m definitely going to use this occasionally. Since I have a problem knowing the stress is building I think I should work it in regularly, even if it’s just weekly. In fact, now might be a great time to do it!