Every Breath You Take

I'm going to be honest. I've not seen myself creating a blog. Ever. About anything. Well, here I am. Did you take a breath in the time it took to read that? Was it a nasal inhale? What about exhale? Were your shoulders over your hips and your chin up? If you are reading this on a phone, are you hunched up with your shoulders forward, chin down with your hands together?

The reason I ask is because until I actually dove deep into the science of breathing, I would not have noticed or thought that it made any difference. Let me back up. 4 years ago, I was in crisis. Not like the kind where you go buy a fast car, the kind where you hit a true rock bottom. I was looking for anything I could to focus myself, improve my health, and gain my mental and physical clarity back.

Not being a fan of traditional (or what has become traditional) medications used to cope with the things I was grappling with, I was also seeking an off ramp that would be a sustainable life choice, while also helping me gain the footing I needed to not rely on medication. My brother suggested breathwork.

At this I was at first VERY hesitant. My brother and I, though we love each other very much, are attracted to different activities in life. He holds a BJJ black belt and has built gyms, brought fighters to the UFC, and has himself successfully competed himself. He functions at a high level. I however, while still feel as though I function at a very high level, the thought of being chocked to unconsciousness by a random sweaty stranger, was not appealing.

The first thought that came to my mind was people in a room hyperventilating themselves to the point of passing out, which in turn would help them somehow not go to sleep as quick. He sent me links, articles, praised the results he was getting, and for a good year, kept on me. I finally set a commitment to myself that I was going to try and do a breathwork session with him when I went down to Panama to visit.

Panama was about a year after I had my low, and while my body and spirit were on the mend, I was still struggling with a lot of the mindsets and unconscious behaviors that were less than helpful. I meditated on a fairly regular basis, and felt that my work on breathing in that practice gave me good enough ground to try this and be OK about it.

He leads a breathwork session every Sunday at his BJJ gym and then following, cold plunge. Spoiler alert, cold plunging is WAY more intense when it's 90 degrees outside and you're jumping into 40 degree water. So I went with my now wife and we layed down on the gym's mat and my brother put on a recording via a dropbox file on his phone over the bluetooth. It was my first introduction to Chuck McGee the Third (or as I love to refer to him, CMG3 because I think it embodies his badassness) and I was hooked.

I started nasal breathing, I slowly flet tension, then release as I kept breathing, as though my body were trying to tighten then let go. During the breath holds, I felt waves of relaxation, some visual things appeared, for my it was a bird flying high above me, and then it was back in to the awareness of your body burning oxygen. I had a ringing in my ears at the end and a sensassion that I could not name, but not shake. I was hooked.

I downloaded all the recordings I could from my brother and signed up for Chuck's weekly email drop of new recordings (free to all) and started attending his Sunday breathwork sessions (also free to all). I listened every Sunday as folks asked quesitons, and listened to Chuck answer them all with confidence and a vast amount of knowlage. I learned why I was breathing wrong and how to help chnage my daily habits. I started setting timers on my phone to check body posture. I taped my mouth at night to help my nasal breathing, and as I was doing all of this, my outcomes improved. I started gaining mental clarity, I was better able to control my reactions to situations. I was able to stop reactions I previously may have made.

Breathwork beame routine. I take a ferry to and from work everyday, that became my sacred breathing time. I expermemnted with techniques, times, positions. I used different hold patterens, and as I continued to learn and perfect other breathing tequniques, I was becoming more and more aware of my daily breathing habits and how it effected me. The results continue to grow and multiply. My health outcomes hav eimproved, my blood pressure was 126 over 82 today. At the dentist. Before a big needle came at me.

I still make sure I see my doctor on a regular basis, he's blown away that I'm the same human that walked through his doors 4 years ago. I could go on and on about the wellness benfiits I've experinced from this. I could also share how frustrating it is watching people breathe the wrong way! I want to politley say that they will feel better with the chin up and nasal breathe (that was a job in WW2 british bomb shelters by the way), but that is not always taken in the way intended.

So, for my first blog post, I ask you, are you breathing properly? Have you been breathing properly? Do you feel like you are missing something that's missing that is so close? I'm telling you that for me, I cannot express the many things that breathwork has done for me. In the interest of passing this on, I hope that I can connect with at least a few people and help them on thier journey. I also hope to not get brutally roasted in the comment section. But hey, the internet is still a nicer place than it used to be! In the words of my mentor CMG3: "Be well, and breathe deep."