Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
6 Breathing Basics Everyone Gets Wrong
Breathing is something most of us do over 20,000 times a day, yet many people are doing it incorrectly and missing out on significant health benefits.
• Mouth breathing is not normal - breathing through your nose brings 10-20% more oxygen into your body
• Nasal breathing activates the parasympathetic system, signaling to your brain and body to relax
• Mouth tape can help train your body to keep lips closed, especially while sleeping
• Slow breathing (5-6 breaths per minute) calms the nervous system and reduces stress
• Box breathing (4-4-4-4) and 4-7-8 breathing are effective techniques for inducing calm
• Proper diaphragmatic breathing should be horizontal (360°) rather than vertical (chest)
• CO2 isn't the enemy - it's essential for oxygen exchange in the body
• Extend your exhales to improve CO2 tolerance and oxygen efficiency
• Breath is the bridge between body and mind, helping with emotional regulation
• Poor breathing during sleep leads to snoring, which is not normal
• Diaphragmatic breathing can improve mobility in shoulders and upper back
• Start with 5 minutes of conscious breathing practice 2-3 days per week
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. I'm your host, Jeff Ford.
Speaker 2:And I'm Kendra Till, and today we are diving into something you do over 20,000 times a day, but chances are you're doing it wrong breathing.
Speaker 1:That's right. In this episode, we're breaking down six surprising and practical truths about your breath that you'll be able to implement today. This will not only impact your energy. It'll also impact your focus, your stress levels and even your sleep.
Speaker 2:So stick with us, because by the end, you'll not only be breathing better, but you'll be feeling better too. So, jeff, let's dive into this. Is there really a right way to breathe? Should we be breathing through our nose, for example, or what's normal?
Speaker 1:Well, mouth breathing is not normal.
Speaker 2:Let's start there.
Speaker 1:I walk the streets of Palmetto Bluff, I watch people in fitness classes and for some reason, at least half the participants have their mouths open and we speak about this and cue this a lot depending on the class and the practice. Oftentimes in stretching and more yoga practices, we want to ensure that we think about our breathing more in these higher intensity classes, so the mouth is not accurate. The number one tip for today is start breathing through your nose. If you are not currently breathing through your nose, so close your mouth. Close your mouth.
Speaker 2:So and so what would you say? Some of the benefits of nasal breathing would be.
Speaker 1:You've got filter, filtration of the air it's going to also humidify the air and it's going to activate the parasympathetic system. So we have two systems in the body that relate to our nervous system and we fail to remember that we can control these systems to a degree. So when you are consciously breathing through your nose, it's going to signal to the brain and to the body to relax and to stay calm. Going to signal to the brain and to the body to relax and to stay calm. In a fitness class setting specifically, it is a sympathetic practice. You're raising the heart rate, you're pushing hard, you're challenging the body. So it is not a natural thought to use the nose because your body's being flooded with CO2, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But the biggest other reason for nasal breathing, the benefit, especially just in everyday life, is you actually uptake more air when you breathe through the nose. So you're going to get 10 to 20% more air into the body when you're inhaling nasally versus using your mouth.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. It's definitely something to be more conscious of then you'd have. You'd say, in terms of nasal breathing, you have to be really acutely aware of it.
Speaker 1:Number one thing to do is to always use your nose, and Patrick McKeown, author of a few books on breathing, one of the most famous the oxygen advantage he has this great phrase noses are for breathing, mouths are for eating.
Speaker 2:That's a good one to remember.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and another simple practice that you could think about uh, cause we've we've spoken a lot already about in a fitness class, like a more hard charging cardio or strength session, is when you're, when you're outside of those sessions, like more in a low intensity set setting maybe you're going for a walk with a significant other just on your own to clear your head. Focus on using that nose there initially, and then, by the end of our time today, I'll give you some more practical steps on how to alter between nose and mouth when you are in more of that high intensity setting.
Speaker 2:Interesting between nose and mouth when you are in more of that high intensity setting Interesting. So what are some tips or strategies to help those listening to start nasal breathing?
Speaker 1:Well, we've spoken about shutting your mouth.
Speaker 2:Right, yes, shut your mouth.
Speaker 1:Aggressively. We've been saying that Another strategy could be using mouth tape. Now this is typically done while sleeping, and this can be done with the use of a micropore tape uh, similar to like hospital tape that's used on like a gown or whatnot, so it's not painful when you rip it off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Uh.
Speaker 1:Somnifix is is a brand that I'm familiar with. It's just you're spending a little bit more money, but by taping your mouth it starts to train your body to keep those lips closed when you are cuing through the nose or trying to get yourself to become more nasal. Breathing, I mean second to that is just be conscious of it Honestly. If you feel fatigued, if you feel a lack of energy in your day, check yourself have you been utilizing the nose for your breath or has it been your mouth? Because one of the biggest things with mouth breathing is it just wears the body out. It starts to dry your mouth out Not necessarily the best approach.
Speaker 2:Right, and don't you gather a lot of bacteria in your mouth when you're breathing through the mouth as well? So, it's better, just that nasal breathing is way more beneficial. Yeah so, and you mouth tape at night as well. So it's better, just that nasal breathing is is way more beneficial. Yeah so, and you mouth tape at night as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is the scary picture that when I do a sleep talk here at Palmetto Bluff, I always pop up. A picture, uh, that Lindsay, my wife, took of me while I was sleeping. I've got the full blown eye mask on and the the white piece of mouth tape. It looks like I am either being held hostage or I just decided to put as many things on my face as possible while sleeping Right, you've got all the equipment when you're sleeping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've heard that how fast or how slow we breathe can affect our stress. So can breathing actually calm our nervous system?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've delved into this a little bit so far. This would be our second key thing to know about breathing. When we breathe slowly, that is what leads to the nervous system down regulating. So in the preview of this episode, we mentioned that breathing is conducted 20,000 plus times by any human being on the course of any day and it's at such a high rate because we're over breathing and this is also an energy factor we talked about. Breathing through your mouth is going to decrease energy. When you breathe quickly, it's also going to decrease energy.
Speaker 1:Think about a very vigorous cardio sprint interval on any modality, but let's just say an echo bike where you go as hard as you can. You're going so hard that you can't breathe slowly. You're in an anaerobic state that doesn't allow you to access this calmer, more parasympathetic state of the nervous system. So what we want to do is breathe extremely slowly when outside of exercise. It's very similar to when someone tells you to just not that I love this, but to take a calming, slow breath when, say, something anxiety inducing comes up in life Maybe it's a busy day. It's just like let's take a breath in for four to five seconds, out for four to five seconds and putting it in that context then shows you that 20 seconds in a one minute segment is only one breath. On average, most people are breathing in for one to two seconds and then out for one to two seconds. So that's where we start to be very inefficient and jack up the nervous system.
Speaker 2:Right, and we've all probably been in those anxiety induced situations where, yeah, your breath tends to quicken, and then your heart rate, and it just it's like a vicious cycle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if folks out there are appointment driven, like we are, you know you've got a Pilates session, you've got a teammate that you're meeting with and you're off to a class. It's such as fast pace where you're not typically taking those five to six breaths in a minute to activate that parasympathetic system. So that puts a little bow on like the amount of breaths that we actually should be taking in a minute and, uh, you do the math on that it does add up to still a lot of breathing even though it's slower.
Speaker 2:So what breathing exercises would you recommend to help induce this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, to teach people to create calm in the body, to slow down a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, help that nervous system.
Speaker 1:Two most popular here. First one most folks out there have heard of. It's called box breathing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we do this in our PB stretch and restore classes. Some instructors, more than others, cue different breathing cadences. I'm big on always beginning and ending a parasympathetic type class with conscious breath work, and square breathing is a perfect introductory level, so I just used a different name for it Box breathing and square breathing are the same type of breath.
Speaker 1:So, this would be someone inhaling for four, holding the breath for four, exhaling for four and then actually holding again. So you've got 16 seconds there of conscious breathing. That's what's so interesting about the nervous system is we can control it just through our breath.
Speaker 1:The nervous system is we can control it just through our breath even though it feels so you know, obscure to understand that Box breathing originated with Navy SEALs to induce calm when they're in battle or out, you know, in the field. And it's a great place to start because the inhales aren't super long, the exhales aren't super long and then the holdings can be a little difficult for folks.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah.
Speaker 1:But the second one I would recommend probably my personal favorite would be what's called relaxation breathing. This is 4-7-8 breathing is another name for it Inhale for four, hold for seven and then exhale for eight. Elongating that exhale can be very difficult for folks, but that really downregulates the body and you can even get eyes starting to flutter when folks are using that breath to induce calm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. I really enjoy the 4-7-8 breath.
Speaker 1:That's your jam.
Speaker 2:That's your jam, that's my jam. Yeah, I recently I've become a nervous flyer and I recently flew to Colorado and I use that four, seven, eight breath just to help calm my nervous system, like you said, to downregulate and, as you mentioned, really elongating that exhale breath is so powerful. So I do encourage people to try that when they're in those situations.
Speaker 1:So and even tense, 10 sets. Yeah, like you don't have to do this type of breath work for very long, but these exercises simple to do and uh, yeah, kendra, I know you're, you're all over the breath which is great.
Speaker 2:I love it and I I use the eye breath app. You actually recommended it to me and that's a. That's a really powerful little tool for those who might be interested in using that as well as a bit of a guide. Okay, let's talk about breath mechanics. Are most of us even using the right muscles when we're breathing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, number three on our list for today. Kendra, you're just as much of a expert on this as you know I I guess I could call myself an expert. I know a lot of things and can definitely point out the keys to this. In a Pilates practice, the diaphragm is is obviously a major muscle that you're utilizing to create that stability, that shrink wrapping of the spine, that you've described in previous episodes.
Speaker 1:Many people are just chest breathing Correct. So the way that I personally like to describe this one is focus on horizontal breathing versus vertical breathing. Love that, and we all see that chest puffed out. Breathing Love that and we all see that chest puffed out. This is a terrible cue and I can complete humility, acknowledge that I used to cue people on breathing. Take a big breath. When you cue someone to take a big breath, it can sometimes trigger them to use the chest, sometimes trigger them to use the chest. So we want to take more of a full breath and we want to think about actually not only pushing the belly out but all the way around the body. There's this term that yoga experts use a lot 360 breathing. So we don't want it to just be belly breathing, we want it to come from the diaphragm and then travel up into the chest cavity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I usually cue people to really breathe, even into the like the back of their rib cage.
Speaker 1:Cause, when you think that's hard to.
Speaker 2:You know it's hard to do, but if you practice it, think about it, take your time with it. I can see you're practicing it now.
Speaker 1:I just did it right now. That feels good. I like that.
Speaker 2:But you're right, I I noticed this quite often when in seeing people in classes, um, that chest accessory breathing and you can see it, you just see it such a shallow breath in their chest, Um, and I think some people it is quite difficult for them to take those deeper breaths. So definitely something to practice.
Speaker 1:It's technique. It is technique, and that is something that has been unacknowledged for so long, not only in fitness, but just in life. No one asks someone how their breathing pattern's going.
Speaker 1:But, there are ways to measure this. And then one cue I'd love to add to help you understand create more diaphragmatic breathing. And I do this at the beginning of like a stretch class. I even will sometimes throw it in at the end of like a cardio class, just to get people back into a proper mechanics. But you put the right hand on the chest and then left hand on the belly and then you take the inhale and make sure that only the bottom hand moves and that you almost feel the uh, I was going to say that the love handles get a little air there. So I'm not trying to offend anybody, but you want it to wrap around that side body. Really get that full perspective. Um, but I found that that works really well. And then, even back in the day I conducted a class, it was called breathe. This was really cool, oh cool.
Speaker 1:So it was just a 30-minute class on breathing where you can put a weight on your belly. You'd want to be on your back for this. Put a two and a half pound weight to a five pound weight, not 30 pounds, kendra, I know that's what you're thinking and just like one of those little plates that you'd put on a barbell. Yeah, and then teach yourself to breathe that way. Yoga teachers will also wrap a strap around a belly so that you can feel the side body, get that breath.
Speaker 2:I like that Breathe well.
Speaker 1:Breathe well. Yeah, I think it'd be a great intro class here at Palmetto. Bluffs. So if you're a member listener and you're interested in that, please let us know. We are all about education and making sure people are moving properly and doing things properly, and if you want to keep doing breathing 20,000 times per day incorrectly, maybe you stop listening now.
Speaker 2:Use your diaphragm, people. It is a muscle. It's there for a reason. And just a little side note too it's actually really cool to look at how the diaphragm works, so I encourage people to even jump on YouTube and look at some of those videos of how the diaphragm works. It's really fascinating.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like a balloon right. It's really cool yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very cool. So okay, number four, let's jump to this one. Carbon dioxide isn't the enemy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we hear carbon dioxide. We get nervous right.
Speaker 2:Not good. You don't want to be in a room with too much of that. So this one surprised me. So why do we actually need carbon dioxide to breathe better?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the by-product of oxygen, and there's this term that, uh, I gained familiarity lit with about five years ago, called CO2 tolerance. So I'm going to relate this back to a workout setting again, that feeling that you get in a spin class or a PB strong workout that's really intense cardiovascularly, like heart rate raising. That is the CO2 flooding your body, and so it's not necessarily a bad thing. It what's happening is just too much of it is coming in. So this is a great point to make to better understand this relationship today and really all relationships in life Too much of any one thing is not a good thing.
Speaker 1:We need to learn how to manage CO2 and get it out of the body, just like we need to learn how to get the most out of every breath so that oxygen gets to the working muscles, gets to the parts of the body that we need. So CO2 is really the assistant of oxygen exchange, and if we can help ourselves to stop over-breathing, we can reduce CO2 and therefore not cause as much lightheadedness or even anxiety. So over-breathing let's clarify that term. That's that quick, short breath that's taking way more inhales and not exhaling. So think about that from our earlier details. If you are not exhaling properly, then your body has too much CO2 in the system and that is why, when you do something like four, seven, eight breathing, something with a longer exhale, your brain and everything just goes into a state where you're like, wow, I feel like you for it.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and, uh, it's, it's. It's hard to describe. This is one of those situations where I think, when you start a breathing practice and you start paying attention to this, you don't feel the effects right away. It's very similar to mobility exercises. You might do them a couple of days in a row and, yeah, you feel some relief, but if you don't stick to it, then you start to run into trouble and you start telling yourself that there's not value in in things like this. Uh, even though there is, and we know it helps with a lot of conditions out there.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. So over-breathing can reduce the CO2, which, like you said, can cause that lightheadedness.
Speaker 1:It'll cause lightheadedness if we're over-breathing, over-breathing.
Speaker 2:Interesting? Yeah, it'd be. It's interesting when you think you know day to day, moment to moment, those times that you are over breathing and how your body actually feels, um and maybe, and when you're in those situations, like you said, maybe pause and do the four, seven, eight, breath and see what happens and elongate that exhale.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I'm a quite spiritual guy and I think breathing goes hand in hand where that where we have to take pause in our day for that greater purpose and for that breath, and I think, if we can do that more often I'm speaking from a place of someone who doesn't do it well, uh, then then. Then you really feel the difference in just how you feel Definitely, definitely.
Speaker 2:That's a good little tip. So practice would be just ensure you're exhaling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so exhaling. And then another angle to this would stem from Patrick McKeown's work, the author we mentioned earlier, who wrote the book the Auction Advantage. There's this one exercise in there that I love that you could apply to your walks, where basically we want to get used to utilizing less oxygen. It's almost like what's a good analogy here is you only need enough gas in your car to make it go. If you pour too much gas into what do they call that?
Speaker 1:The tank yeah, if you pour too much gas into the tank and it doesn't like stop. It just starts to flood over and spill out. So I don't think that's a terrible relationship to thinking about your oxygen uptake in this relationship with CO2. The practice that you could do to start to get yourself more efficient at using oxygen is when you take a walk, take an inhale, exhale and then hold, walk as far as you can without taking a breath. You do that five or six times on a 20-minute walk. You're going to want to recover three to four minutes before that inhale, exhale, hold.
Speaker 1:Your body, very similar to swimming, will become more efficient. So most people struggle with swimming because their breathing is poor when they take that breath out of the water. It's not efficient, right, and so there's a big relationship here where there's. You know I could go into way more depth, we won't today, but hypoxic type training in the pool, very beneficial to our lungs, our cardiorespiratory system, um yeah, that would be another way to practice. This is in your breathing. Not only focus on those longer exhales, but throw some of the holding in there so that your body's used to not breathing as well.
Speaker 2:What a practical thing to do.
Speaker 1:Someone can just pick that up on their next walk, Like you said that's a cool one, and all credit to Patrick McEwen on that. So many tricks that that he shared through his years of of writing.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So that was tip or tip number four, so let's jump to number five. So which is? Breath is a bridge between the body and the mind.
Speaker 1:And I love this. This is probably your favorite. This is my favorite. Yeah, I knew in sketching out our preparation for today you'd be all over this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one is very important and I just love this idea that breath connects our mind and our body and, I believe, our spirit as well, as you mentioned. So can you just dive a little bit deeper into exactly how this works in our real life, day to day moments?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to take it from the place of not being overly touchy, feely. Mindfulness is one of those words where we lose people and I don't want you to tune out here. I don't want you to tune out here. My favorite part about breath and this concept of breath as a bridge to the body and mind, is emotional regulation. It is awful when you show up as the type of person that you don't want to be.
Speaker 1:Whether this is in a work setting, whether it's in a personal relationship, whether it's just going about your day, your breathing impacts your emotional regulation way more than you think it does. And even for those people out there who definitely aren't going to be like, oh you know, it helps me be more mindful. Think about your performance. I think, at the end of the day, when I leave this planet, I am a life performance coach. I'm not a fitness trainer. That's not the type of person that I want to be, but I want people to be really good at life and how they approach it with these small practices like breath. So if you want to perform better, especially under pressure, that's when you utilize the breath to create that connection with the mind. And, um, if you're like me think about a big presentation.
Speaker 2:I can think of one that you did yes.
Speaker 1:And in our sketch out for today, my TEDx talk was one of those moments where if I wasn't cueing nasal breathing, standing as the second person to go up, I would have been in a lot of trouble. So chest is pounding. You're excited because you care about that situation in your life. That moment in your life, that breath can bridge calmness into your state before public speaking, like it did for me at TEDx, can I say? You know, my breathing was still labored and like a little more uptake, 100%, but this is something you can use as a tool in those life moments where you do need your mind working on all cylinders.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and there's probably many, many moments throughout people's days where they need to help with that emotional regulation. Let it be if you maybe got into an argument or someone cut you off.
Speaker 1:Yes, someone cuts you off. Use these practices.
Speaker 2:Use those practices, it helps.
Speaker 1:It helps.
Speaker 2:But it is a tool for your toolkit and I agree with you, jeff. I mean the mind-body connection is very powerful and, like you said, just making sure that you are paying attention to the breath and, like you said, even with from a performance in the gym, for example, I mean really hone into how you're breathing and your movement patterns too, because there's such a cool connection between the two.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and let let me add to that, cause you brought that up. I think that's a great parallel. We've we've scooted around this concept of breathing in a fitness session. The biggest thing is take those recoveries seriously. So when it's a recovery, inhale through the nose, out through the mouth and then, as soon as you can get to an inhale through the nose and out through the nose, do so. It's a perfect example of the body-mind connection and just we don't cue ourselves to do that. This is a conscious practice that you can control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, most definitely Love it. So number five was breathing is your bridge between the mind and the body. And then we'll jump to the last one, which is number six. So your breath affects sleep and recovery, and I know this. Jump to the last one, which is number six.
Speaker 1:So your breath affects sleep and recovery, and I know this is a this is a big one for you.
Speaker 2:I can still see that image of your, of you and your mask and your mouth tape. So, um, how does our breathing impact sleep and recovery specifically? So you know you mentioned, uh, you know, mouth breathing at night isn't.
Speaker 1:So you know, you mentioned you know, mouth breathing at night isn't good Mouth breathing ever is not good, it's not great, so shut your mouth.
Speaker 2:It's especially bad.
Speaker 1:It's especially bad at night, though.
Speaker 2:Unless you're talking or eating, make sure you're using your nose. But can you dive in a little deeper on the sleep and recovery portion of this?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. Now. I love that fitness is moving in this direction of recovery. We're seeing this and people are taking their sleep more serious today than I've ever seen it and prioritizing it.
Speaker 1:Sleep was that badge of honor for so long and we didn't know the connection to the breath. By no means am I a sleep doctor. If you have sleep issues, we do want to make sure that you seek a greater level of care, especially if you're waking up not feeling rested and you've been in bed for eight to nine hours. You should be waking up, feeling rested because something's off in the system and most likely one of the big factors could be your breathing. It could signal like when you have poor breathing when you're sleeping. It could be the cause of sleep apnea. It could be the cause of higher stress levels, cortisol in the morning and backing up a bit.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest indicators that many people out there know all too well is snoring. Snoring is not normal. Snoring is a sign that you are breathing through your mouth, and will there be a day that I can take the mouth tape off and and you know, just naturally start breathing through the nose, potentially. But snoring is that signal that your breathing pattern is a mouth breathing pattern and another signal could be we already mentioned waking up, not feeling rested, but another signal could be that dry mouth when you wake up as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, it's. It's something to pay attention to, especially if you're you know, you have a sleeping buddy there's, you've got a partner that you sleep with and you notice that they snore or you know vice versa. It's probably really important to pay attention to that and to communicate that and to um and to be aware of it.
Speaker 1:One thing we didn't mention earlier is in it. We could have brought it up during the diaphragmatic section. Your mobility will change when you breathe horizontally, full 360 degrees and properly. So, uh, there's this cool form of breath called alligator breath and that's. It's like it sounds you lay on your belly versus on your back yeah.
Speaker 1:Now this was a technique that I learned about a while ago. You can actually change your shoulder mobility, your upper back mobility, by breathing properly. So I'll test people. This was actually from that breathe well class as well. I'll test someone's shoulder mobility with a quick FMS screen. I'll do it at the beginning of class and then you have them breathe alligator style, just in for five, out for five for like five to 10 minutes. You will change that individual's mobility. Their shoulders will basically reset and their fists will be closer according to the shoulder mobility screen Powerful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, game changer, unbelievable. Just that. Diaphragmatic breathing opens up the thoracic into costals. That's amazing, gets all the way up to those shoulders. I'm sure there's a lot of people that would benefit from that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the connection point to your fascia is insurmountable.
Speaker 2:For those at Palmetto Bluff, we might have to bring this breathe well class into.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Just a quick, quick little one off. Love this Once a quarter maybe.
Speaker 2:Love this. So, yeah, it sounds like the breath is so important for sleep and recovery. Any other tips and strategies to leave with listeners?
Speaker 1:No, I think we can give a good summary here in a moment. I guess one thing that would come up for me if I'm listening to a lot of these episodes that we do, where there's kind of six big strategies like this is where to start.
Speaker 1:So, you definitely wanna start with Slow down the breath. This is just five seconds in, five seconds out. Uh, when you, when it's at about five and a half, it works out to exactly five and a half breaths a minute. So we want to be in that five to six breaths a minute range. Second to this, maybe you do download the app that we mentioned, the I breathe app. You can actually set these different. Do download the app that we mentioned, the iBreathe app. You can actually set these different cadences of breath that we shared and maybe just establish a couple of days a week of going about a conscious breath practice for five minutes. Couple of days a week, five minutes. I can't say that I'm personally in a great flow, but I used to always, after dinner, go breathe for five to 10 minutes and it's a game changer.
Speaker 2:It is a game changer. Yeah, I usually do it right before I go to bed. I find that that's really helpful. But I like that to start. You know, start small, focus on those two days, be consistent and um, yeah, just put your energy into it and you'll notice all the benefits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't be too technical with your cadences Recap time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do it. We've got some good little nuggets here.
Speaker 1:So, number one nose is better than mouth. Shut your mouth, shut your mouth. Number two slow breathing equals a calm nervous system. Three, diaphragm is a muscle. Please use it by breathing horizontally. And then number four carbon dioxide not the enemy. We just need to get it out of the system when it floods our system. And we discussed making sure your exhale is being properly taken, or I think that's the right phrasing.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, definitely Properly take your exhale, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then five and six. Breath is a bridge between body and mind. Do not forget. In those moments of anxiety, moments of stress, use the breath as a tool to connect that body and mind, and in your workout classes. And then, finally, your breath affects sleep and recovery. So I didn't mention it. I'm going to add a final tip here Whenever you are doing mobility, stretching soft tissue work, even in a massage, breathe. That will enhance what you get out of that service and out of that practice.
Speaker 2:Love that Don't hold your breath.
Speaker 1:Don't hold your breath. Love that man. I hope that everyone listening today is taking breaths throughout the episode. That would be my number one outcome for this conversation. The icing on the cake yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Love it, Jeff. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and expertise in this conversation. The icing on the cake yeah, yeah, Love it, Jeff. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and expertise in this area. I loved listening to your tips and your strategies. I certainly learned a lot, and um listeners. I hope the same for you. So make sure you stick around to gain some healthy momentum for the rest of the week.
Speaker 1:Are you breathing? If not, go ahead, take that inhale, take that nice, slow exhale, because we're going to talk about outlandish grace and giving it to yourself. What a comparable concept to breathing when things go wrong in life, when you don't practice behaviors that you want to practice. Let's take that inhale, let's take that exhale and let's show ourselves outlandish grace. What do I mean by that? I mean give yourself the same kindness and forgiveness that you would give to a close friend when you set a goal and don't achieve it. Stop the guilt trip, stop the shame. Take a breath, let it go. Make a mistake, don't worry about it, acknowledge it, give yourself outlandish grace.
Speaker 1:We too often are our harshest critics and we too often don't stick with things enough to give them the full effect, the full chance, the full impact that they can make, because we're hard on ourselves, because we think that on these first few trials, everything should go perfectly. And so the message is simple Offer yourself love, patience and kindness. Give yourself outlandish grace and, as you do that, take that breath in, let that breath go. That brings us to the end of this week's episode. We hope you enjoyed the conversation and remember to actively participate in life on your terms.
