Breathwork | S3E5 (E025)
Something we do so subconsciously has a huge impact on health. Breathing. Most of us don’t think about it and it happens automatically. But when you start to consciously think and intentionally change the way you are breathing, it can really change your physiology. Listen in as Evie and Toréa share their favorite breathwork techniques.
In This Episode
Respiration vs breathing (02:12)
Three phases of breathing (03:11)
Ribcage importance (05:31)
Panic attacks & breath (09:18)
Noses are for breathing (10:46)
Apnea Breathing (13:10)
Breath and parasympathetic nervous system (19:28)
Breath to move emotions (21:03)
How to integrate breathwork (26:16)
Nervous system activation ratios (28:48)
Resources mentioned
Transcript
Toréa Rodriguez 0:08
Welcome to the wildly optimized wellness podcast. I am your host Toréa Rodriguez. And I'm joined by the lovely co host, Evie Takacs, both of us our Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioners, and we love working with women from all over the world, through our virtual programs, helping women not only feel better, but actually achieve that vibrant, no holds barred version of themselves, they've been missing for a long time, and how we actually get there. Well, that is what this show is all about. Now, please keep in mind that this podcast is created for educational purposes only, and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. And if you like what you hear today, we would love for you to hit that follow button, leave a review in apple podcast, share with your friends, and keep coming back for more. Let's start today's adventure, shall we?
Toréa Rodriguez 1:09
So today, we're going to talk about breath, and everything that has to do with breath. And this is something that Evie and I have alluded to a number of times in different podcast episodes on parasympathetic nervous system, etc. So we wanted to devote today's conversation to breath and breath work and why it's so important to pay attention to our breath. And I know Evie, you've even taken a formal workshop. And now you actually teach breathwork too. So why don't we just kick it off and talk a little bit about that workshop that you went to and why you went to this workshop about breath? Because don't we all breathe? Like we all just breathe? Right?
Toréa Rodriguez 1:43
Yeah, absolutely. So I shared this in the cold plunge episode, because that's, that's really how I, you know, got into it as it was part of doing my first cold plunge was part of the breathwork workshop. So in that workshop, we spent four hours basically learning how to breathe. And I say learning how to breathe, which sounds funny, because people are like, Well, I'm breathing all the time. And the difference that I learned is we're actually respirating all the time. That's what our body's doing subconsciously, right. You don't have to think about it, which is really good. We don't want to be thinking like okay, heart pump, okay, lungs, right. So it's nice that our body does that on its own. But that's so then when we're breathing, we're actually making that conscious effort to do that. And so there's a difference between respirating and breathing. And so again, this is really focusing on the breath work of it of us being consciously doing that. So that was a really interesting workshop. It forced me to think about things in a different way. And I knew that breathwork really the only base that I had on breathwork was like the Wim Hof Method, which I know who he is, I know why people do it. I figure there's a lot of benefits, but I hadn't gone any further than that. And so this was not Wim Hof that I learned. I actually don't do anything Wim Hof related. I mean, I'm sure there's similar things but it's not specific to Wim Hof.
Toréa Rodriguez 2:57
Which is interesting to me because the cold plunges are often associated with Wim Hof. Yet you went to a cold plunge, and breathwork workshop, but it wasn't necessarily Wim Hof so that was interesting. Yeah,
Toréa Rodriguez 3:11
Yeah. And I think part of that was also because the person that led it is a neuromuscular therapist, and so he's looking at it from like, moving bodies, and not just like breathing, it, you know, he's looking at it from different areas. And so, you know, what I learned is, there's three legs to breathing, there's a physiological leg, which is vasodilation, right? It's really focusing on that. So increasing circulation of blood to move throughout the body, there is a psychological aspect to breathing, which that's more of a mental emotional state. So when we learn to breathe properly, we can get our body into a relaxed state, we can calm ourselves down, we can reduce stress, and there's the physical part of breathing. So breathing properly, can really change the way that your body moves. So that's really interesting, because I've noticed that a lot in the past year of being able to breathe better and practicing breathing continuously every day, every week, every month, I've noticed that I'm not as stiff, I noticed that my hips move a little bit better, I noticed that my shoulders are a little bit better. I feel like my posture is better. And it's all because I'm learning how to breathe properly. And, you know, a lot of people are like, Oh, well, you know, they started with belly breathing, which Yeah, yeah, I mean, belly breathing is not inherently bad. That's definitely one of the first things I heard and thought about with breathing is I'm just going to breathe into my belly. But what you're missing is that, you know, take a second think about it. Where are your lungs?
Toréa Rodriguez 3:37
They're not on my belly.
Evie Takacs 4:38
Yeah, they're behind your ribs. And so really, we want to be breathing into our belly and our chest. And so again, belly breathing can be a good place to start in a good cue for people who just don't have any awareness or any foundation to this but once I started to really think about breathing into my chest, and moving my ribs, right like you want your ribs to move. So the example I given that I remind myself is, you know, for women who, you know, if you're wearing a bra, then you know, you have that bra strap going around like overtop your ribs, you want to be breathing so that you can even feel it kind of like pushing against that a little bit, right? You can feel that getting tighter or even like you put like an exercise band around you and you feel your ribs pushing out in the band gets tighter and tighter, you know that you're moving your ribs. Yeah. And so by doing that, you know, you're improving the ability, the capacity, what your lungs can move as well, because the ribs are literally like a cage for your lungs. And so if your ribs aren't moving, your lungs are going to have a hard time moving as well. So you're not going to get a lot of oxygen inside, you're not going to get a lot of airflow. And that's going to disrupt your breathing.
Toréa Rodriguez 5:45
And when we're you know, sitting around or standing around, or whatever we're doing, when we're not focusing on our breath. That's what I'm trying to say, right? We don't really think about our ribs moving at all. And so you know, it's the moment you start to bring awareness to the breath, usually what'll happen is you get that belly breath first, because that's where a lot of people subconsciously end up breathing. But when we start to practice, so for me, one of the methods that I learned in terms of moving the ribcage is just holding my hands on the lower ribs on the ribcage while I was lying down and causing the ribs to expand outward, right and end, yes, and then also front to back, right, so side to side, and then front to back, right and really trying to get those ribs to expand. And in the beginning, it was difficult because of course, the tissues in between the ribs were not exactly used to being moved, right. So they had to get a little bit more flexible in that way. And then also the upper ribs. So placing my hands above my chest and getting the upper chest to expand. And that was a huge awareness point for me in terms of breath and how much capacity my lungs actually were able to hold. That wasn't a typical standard, like breathing on a normal basis. Right?
Toréa Rodriguez 5:58
Different cues that work for different people. But you know, it can be helpful to lay down like you said, and put your hands on the bottom of your ribs or even like have your fingers like an inch or so away from your ribs and try and think of breathing east to west, right instead of north to south trying to take your breath out. So that way, when you breathe east to west, can you touch your fingers does your do your ribs actually move out that far that you can touch your fingers, and there's other manipulations you can do to get your body to do this, because this might be hard for someone on their own to do. So again, I had manual work done to my body to help me find those cues and loosen it up and you're talking about your upper ribs like basically, you know, like in your chest. Yeah, even like if you really push in far enough if you can feel in between each one. And you can just go in with your fingers and start to kind of massage those out and loosen up everything in between there. And that can get things moving a little bit too because again, the ribs are meant to move in that way, they just get really stuck and stiff, which then makes sense as to why we feel stuck and stiff. Right? Literally, we're not breathing properly, our organs aren't gonna move properly, then why are we going to be able to move properly?
Toréa Rodriguez 8:11
Yeah, one of the one of the interesting introductions to breathwork that I had, when I was younger, actually came through having my first panic attack, right, it's like, getting that feeling of like like the world is collapsing in and I can't see very well. And I'm seeing spots and that kind of thing it really came from and it took a doctor explaining to me that part of those feelings that happen during a panic attack is because of the you mentioned it before the physiological exchange of gases in the blood, right? So the buildup of co2 because the breath was so shallow for such a long period of time, that there wasn't enough oxygen in the blood. And therefore the buildup of co2 caused the tingling caused the narrowing of vision, etc. So, you know, just knowing that you can almost always stop a panic attack, if you catch yourself and try and take less than eight breaths a minute. And the moment that was like, what people die that way, no, they don't die that way. It's actually very easy. And now I can take less than eight breaths a minute fairly easily, right? But just understanding that if we slow down our breathing and expand our lungs to get more of that oxygen in that we're changing the physiological chemistry of the blood, basically, in terms of how much we're oxygenating our blood.
Toréa Rodriguez 9:29
Yeah. And I'm glad that you brought that up because they they as in like, There's literature that shows it's easy to determine whether someone else someone will have a panic attack based on how they're breathing hours before they even have a panic attack. Yeah. So if you are breathing in a certain way, and maybe you're not even aware of it, but you're having really shallow breath at work, you know, in the morning, and you have a panic attack that evening. I mean, that probably was something that could have been detected. If you were paying attention to your breath being shallow. So that is huge thing is sometimes, you know, even just with clients, they'll say, Oh, I really suffer from panic attacks. And again, that can be a multitude of things. But I one of the kind of lower hanging fruit things to explore is like, Well, are you even breathing properly? And sometimes that can be the thing that really nipped in the bud? Or at least helps. So I'd really encourage people to look at are you taking deep breaths? And are you taking slow breaths, right? You know, are they shallow and quick, and things to also consider is that one of the things that was said at the breathwork workshop was noses or for breathing mouths, or for eating and talking. And I think about that a lot of, you know, sometimes catch myself with my mouth open. And I'm just, you know, sitting there breathing and being a mouth breather. And I'm like, Oh, I don't want to do that. Because in there's a lot of reasons why not, but you brought up the whole, like oxygen and Co2 balance. And so when we're breathing through our nose, we are increasing nitric oxide, which nitric oxide is going to contribute to vasodilation, which is meaning that our blood can travel through the blood vessels a lot quicker so it can get to organs and where we need that in the body. So you're increasing that. And it's also better because again, in Well, I'm sure we'll reference this again, but the book breath by James Nester is fabulous book resource on this. And there are so many illnesses and diseases and childhood developmental issues that are tied to mouth breathing. And so just, you know, even like allergies, asthma, like depression, and all of these things are tied to that. And so really trying to increase your nostril breathing is important. And again, that might start with you having to practice that consciously. And maybe it's a five minute a day thing of you set your timer and for five minutes, every day, you just breathe through your nose. And if you want to take it a step further, I would recommend that when you do breathe through your nose, make sure that your inhale is silent. You don't want anybody to hear your inhale, if you're going. Yeah, that's a little too loud, right, there's a little too violent, we need to have a soft, quiet inhale, and then the, the exhale might be louder. And especially if you're if you one, then breathe through your mouth on the exhale. Like let's say you're doing more deeper breathing, and you're practicing really moving your lungs and getting all that air out through your mouth. At that point, you would want it to make noise, right, you would want to imagine a mirror in front of you, and you want to make that really foggy. So it would be a silent inhale of the exhale could go until you get all that air out. So that could be a place for someone to start. But the other thing that you mentioned with the Co2, which is interesting is like I think we can all think back to when we were little at the swimming pool in the summertime or at the beach or something and you know, a friend or an older sibling, like was messing with us. And they, you know, pushed us under the water and kept our head under there. And at some point, you start to freak out and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't breathe. I don't have any air. Oh my gosh, yeah, well, that's because we don't have a great tolerance to Co2. So like you were saying, with the panic attacks, you can build a better threshold and tolerance for Co2 in your body.
Toréa Rodriguez 13:10
Absolutely.
Evie Takacs 13:10
And you can do that through different breathing techniques. Like one of my favorite ones for that is called Apnea Breathing, which is
Toréa Rodriguez 13:18
Just gonna say yeah, Apnea Breathing is exactly what this is designed to do is help, you know, build your body's tolerance to Co2. And they use it specifically for free diving technique is when I think most people use it. But I also know several different fitness instructors who will teach Apnea Breathing. I believe some of Wim Hof's Method is also based on Apnea Breathing, but explain that for us. What is Apnea Breathing?
Toréa Rodriguez 13:44
Yeah, so Apnea Breathing is ratio breathing, and the there's different ratios. But the simplest and best one to start with is a 1:2:1. So again, the goal is to build your tolerance to Co2. So when you are holding your breath, you're testing your body's ability to handle having that much Co2 in it. So instead of like wanting to rush and exhale, because you can't tolerate all that Co2, you want to build that up. So that way, if you do have someone hold your head underwater, it's not going to be a thing because you can hold your breath and it doesn't bother you and you don't panic. So for a 1:2:1 ratio, you could start with a four second inhale. Again, it'd be silent, and then you would pause for eight, and then you would exhale for four seconds. So it's the 1:2:1 ratio, and maybe four seconds is too easy. So then you would go in with you would inhale for five seconds, that means you would hold for 10 seconds, and then you would exhale for five. So again, there's all different types of ratios when it comes to Apnea Breathing, but that one is a really good place to start, especially if you don't have a lot of experience with Apnea Breathing, and you'd be amazed at how long you can hold your breath and how quickly you can get to that point when you start doing it this way. And again, you know, I've been in rooms with people who are practicing this and they they get kind of freaked out of like, I can't hold my breath for eight seconds, or I felt like I was gonna, like, I felt like I was gonna faint or that was too much. And I just remind them like, you're in a safe room, you're sitting on the floor, someone is there, like, nothing is gonna happen to you. Because guess what, if it gets to be too much, all you know is that, hey, I can take I can exhale right now, and I'll feel better. Yeah, you know, like, you don't have to force yourself to do it to the point where it's going to be like, medically dangerous for you to do that. But it's also good awareness of like, if I have trouble holding my breath for eight seconds, like, I've got some work to do. So maybe you start with six seconds or whatever. But exactly, it's definitely, again, important for us to learn to tolerate Co2, because one, you never know when you're going to need to hold your breath. And two, if you are forced to hold your breath for some reason, or you want to or you want to slow down your breaths, like you said, you can breathe less than eight breaths in a minute. That means that you need to really be able to tolerate Co2 and to have slower breaths.
Toréa Rodriguez 15:54
Yeah, I was working with a movement trainer a number of years ago, and one of the things that we worked on was Apnea Breath. And the intention was to be able to hold your breath for a longer period of time. And you know, when we started out, the instructor was like, Okay, so who here can hold their breath for two minutes, and like nobody's raising their hand, right, so crickets, and what was really fascinating is we use that same ratio type breathing for like five minutes, we would just do it for five minutes. And then at the end of the five minutes, or maybe it was three, it doesn't even have to be that long. But at the end of the period of time, where we were doing the ratio breathing, we would then inhale a full lung of air, and then exhale the full lung of air, and then hold that for as long as we could. And I was shocked to find that, when we tried to do the exhale piece and hold our breath for a longer period of time, without doing that ratio breathing ahead of time, I could maybe hold my breath for 15 to 20 seconds, maybe, right. But then after doing that ratio, breathing, one minute became very easy. And so then it became a challenge each time we practice to try and see how long you can hold your breath. After that, I think I've gotten up to like maybe 1 minute, 40 seconds. But for me, that's a very long time of being able to breath.
Evie Takacs 17:15
That's impressive.
Toréa Rodriguez 17:15
But it's amazing that we can use these very simple techniques and using them intentionally and repeatedly, can change your body's ability to do something so quickly. That was just what blew my mind.
Toréa Rodriguez 17:29
Yeah. And, again, you can actually start by testing this there, I can't remember the specifics off the top my head, but there's the BOLTs test and the Co2 tolerance stance, they're essentially the same. And what you want to do is take a few inhales and exhales normally get a regulated breath going. And then on your final inhale, you're in inhale. And then on the exhale, you're going to exhale all the way until you get all the air out. And then you want to start a timer. And you want to see how long you can hold your breath before you Take another inhale. And that's a good starting point of where you are. And then after, you know, weeks, and maybe months of doing breath work, you can retest again and see now how long can I wait until I take another breath? So that's a really cool way to track progress with this. Because I know sometimes people like there are some people who are like, Well, how would I even know that I'm getting better? Well, that's a way that you could track it is using the Co2 tolerance test or the BOLTs test? And you could really see like, does that improve at all in any way? But yeah, it's been really interesting to see the differences. And again, to feel the difference, because when you were saying that you can take less than eight breaths per minute, that's actually really impressive. Because, you know, they say, taking 5.5 breaths a minute. Yeah. Which I mean, you and I wear Oura Rings, so we get to see what our respiratory rate is overnight and all that and I see them from clients, and not many people are near that most people were above 10, for sure, you know, maybe even into like close to 20s. You're taking 20 breaths per minute, and the ideal for humans is five and a half.
Toréa Rodriguez 19:00
Yeah, that's close to hyperventilation.
Toréa Rodriguez 19:02
Yeah, that's so many breaths per minute. And that's again, I think, why a lot of people are walking around stressed out and on the verge of a panic attack, because you're not breathing deeply. You're not taking long inhales and long exhales, you're just breathing and trying to get by and see if we really think about it and shift and slow down our breath. I, I there's just no way that you wouldn't notice a difference physically and mentally.
Toréa Rodriguez 19:28
Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about the mental emotional side for breathwork. I mean, we talked a little bit about the parasympathetic nervous system when we were talking about that and how breath work can help us shift into parasympathetic. You and I both have used breathwork as a means to help move emotions. Do you have a particular type of breathwork method that does that for you?
Toréa Rodriguez 19:54
Yeah, the quickest one that works for me is Alternate Nostril Breathing. That one is one that again, just within a few reps of that, I can immediately tell that my body is more relaxed. Yeah, and that I'm not stressed. And that my I feel like I'm getting deeper breaths. And so that is what it sounds like is you would, you know, close one nostril and you don't want to jam your finger against your nostril, right, you don't want to like jam the right one shut, it's just gently closing the right one. And then you take an inhale through the left, and then you would switch to exhale. And then you would keep that one open, inhale, and then switch to exhale. So that one, I feel like gets me relaxed the fastest. And I like it that it's versatile in the form of I mean, you could do breath work anywhere, but this one, I do feel like it's very easy to just oop, okay, I'm gonna do alternate nostril, I don't need to like get on the floor, like feel like I need to set the mood. It's just like, I'm going to do this real quick, before I walk into this meeting, I'm going to do this real quick before I walk into the grocery store. And again, within a few reps, I feel like my body is coming down, my heart rate is slowing down, my racing thoughts are slowing down. So that's been my go to what, which one do you tend to gravitate towards.
Toréa Rodriguez 21:03
So I think it's been called Somatic Breathwork. But don't quote me on that. Because most of the breathwork classes that I've taken, I haven't really paid attention to what is the name of this style of breath work, I just go for the experience. But multiple times now I've been taught this particular technique, and usually you're lying on your back, but you are taking up a hand on the belly hand on the chest, and you take a breath into the belly to fill up the belly, and then you take another breath in to fill up the chest. So it's both and then you exhale, both through the mouth. So both of the inhale through the nose, and the exhale is through the mouth, and you do it rather quickly. So it's like in, in, out, in, in out. And that can be done for anywhere from like seven to 20 minutes. There are some people that practice this for much longer than that. But that technique has a way of moving emotions out of the body. So when I'm in one of those states, where I'm just feeling a little bit agitated, or irritable, but I can't quite figure out what it is I'm feeling or what's triggered it or what's going on, I will use just a quick seven minutes of that type of breath work. And sure enough, I mean, just fair warning, like, every time I do it, tears come out. Like that's just how it is. But that's the intention really is to help me move those emotions out. Because it's less about figuring out what started it or identifying what it is. And it's more about the movement of that. And so if I don't have the time, or the wherewithal or the situation to go, like go for an intense hike, or go for a bike ride or whatever, like I can't go to the gym and lift a ton of weights right now, then I'll do seven minutes of that. And that will really move the emotion. And we talk about emotion a lot in our health practice, because that emotion is tied into the biology and how the biology of the body is actually working too. So they're very tied together. And so this is a technique that we both you and I have used is breathwork to help with the emotional processing of it all, because we know that it has a tie in to the biology and it can help somebody heal faster when they can move those emotions out of the body. But that's what I've learned.
Toréa Rodriguez 23:16
Yeah, yeah. And I think that the more second nature, breath work becomes and the more conscious you are of learning how to breathe and slowing your breath down and taking full breaths, the easier it's going to be for you on a day to day basis. So that when something does rev you up, you know whether that's a work situation, or you're stuck in traffic or your spouse looked at you the wrong way, like you're able to your body already knows, oh, we're getting revved up, we need to do breathwork and so it might slow down and like there's times when I feel overwhelmed. And before my brain has even caught up to what my emotions are, you know, manifesting physically as I noticed that, oh, I just took a deep breath. That's interesting. Like I didn't even realize I needed that. And now I'm like aware of the situation that I'm feeling overwhelmed and my body is already looking for ways to calm down. So that's been really cool for me to see. Or sometimes I even see that happen. Like, it looks like I'm yawning but I'm not really yawning. My body is just like starving for breath. And so I'll think about it like "Have I not been breathing well?", the past, you know, bit is that what my body is like looking for it and yawning because I'll do it and I'm like, I'm not even tired. Why am I doing that? And I realized, Oh, my body's just looking for way to get more oxygen in here.
Toréa Rodriguez 24:27
Absolutely. It's funny that you mentioned that because, you know, back when I used to fly for a living when we were training for noticing Hypoxia Symptoms in a pilot or crew member, whatever, even passengers whatever one of the symptoms is yawning like sleepiness, right? It's like if we are at an altitude where we're not getting enough oxygen because there isn't enough oxygen in the air. Then of course there's that yawning tendency that will happen and it can happen at sea level at any time for any one of us because we're just not breathing properly. Right so it doesn't necessarily have to mean that it's Hypoxia because of altitude. Yeah, I'm noticing the whole time that we're talking for those of us who are on video, Evie has a poster behind her. And what does that word say?
Toréa Rodriguez 25:12
It says "Breathe"
Toréa Rodriguez 25:15
Yes, it does
Evie Takacs 25:16
Ive taken it that far. I just, I liked having the reminders everywhere I go. And so I admittedly, I have not been as great at practicing breathwork as much as I would like in the last few months, but it's still something that I'm obviously conscious of, and I do a lot of breath work actually, within my workouts. So I guess that's not completely true. But, when I was redesigning my home office, I knew I wanted something. And I was like, Well, if I had to pick a word, what would it be, and it would be Breathe, to remind me that really, everything begins and ends with breath. And breath is the fastest way to get me back to where I need to be, you know, it's the fastest way to get me back into my body. And because my thoughts will be racing, and I feel like the world is just spinning, and everything is going out of control. And so when I can get grounded in my breath, and I can feel my breath and move, I feel my ribs moving up and down and immediately brought back and I'm just like reminded that, okay, it's, it's gonna be fine, everything's gonna be fine. So I just love that reminder for myself.
Toréa Rodriguez 26:16
Cool. I love it. Let's finish up by sharing some of the practical ways to integrate breathwork breathwork has become very popular thing to talk about. And that's what we see a lot is that people talk about breathwork a lot, but they don't really talk about Okay, let's get down to the brass tacks here of like, how do we integrate breathwork. And I think one of the ways that I started doing it was I use that term called Habit Stacking or trying to find a trigger that was in my everyday world to remind me to breathe. And one of the things that I came up with and chose was every time I saw a brake light, so this was when I was commuting a lot. So kind of broke down during the pandemic. And I wasn't actually in a car that much, but every time I saw a brake light, would be my trigger to remind myself to breathe. So every time we were coming up against a stoplight, or a stop sign, or whatever. And that worked really, really well to integrate it and just assign and decide a trigger every day, to be able to remind me to breathe, how have you integrated that you said you do breath work in your workout. So how have you integrated it into your workouts?
Toréa Rodriguez 27:17
Yeah, so it's actually a part of the workout itself, which is really cool. So some of the warm ups that I do have to do with taking like five to six breaths. And so different things to like, get my ribs to move a little bit, get my shoulders to open up my back to open up, get my neck to move better. So, I will do different exercises for that. But when I first learned about breath work, after that workshop, I just made the commitment that I'm going to set my timer for five minutes every day, and I didn't stick to like it has to be in the morning, or it has to be in the evening. It was just whenever I could do it. And I thought logistically, like five minutes is not a long time, we can do a lot of things for five minutes. And, so I would put on music that I you know, I wanted to listen to anyways. And so I would just do some breath work. And that's how I got into it. And then I started to realize, well, this might be better at night. So but then it's like, well, I'm too tired, or I just want to get to bed. So I would get in bed. And again, with Alternate Nostril Breathing being my favorite, that's easy to do in bed too. So I would just do that while I'm laying down in bed. So I've just played around with it a little bit. I'm also just of that person that I think it's it's easier for me to say like, I'm going to set a timer and do this now. Like that's what works for me. But I also think the trigger that you have is also really helpful too for people who maybe don't operate in the way of like, I'm going to set aside five minutes. But really, regardless of what you do, it doesn't have to be this big, long drawn out thing. And the nice thing about breath work is that it's not a 1:1 ratio of I've been stressed for eight hours. So I have to do eight hours of breath work. If you
Toréa Rodriguez 27:27
Isn't that beautiful?
Evie Takacs 28:48
yeah, if you are stressed at work for like, you know, all day long, it was really crazy, hectic day, you don't have to come home and like only do breath work the rest of the night, you can just do five minutes. And that might be enough. So I love that. And I remind myself of that too. Because if I'm having a really stressful day, I just I'm like you know, I can just do five minutes of breath work. One of my favorite songs is like almost five minutes long anyways, so like I can just turn that on and just breathe the entire song. And that works. So don't let that be something that stops you is that you think it's going to be this long thing where you need to light the candles you need to get the yoga mat out you got it like it doesn't have to be like that. It can be something in your car before you walk into the house to the kids. You know it can be something really quick that you do and it might actually alter the way the rest of the day goes for you.
Toréa Rodriguez 29:35
I love that you also started doing it right before sleeping right so you climb into bed you're already lying down. One of the things that that same movement coach taught us how to do this was mostly for sleep benefit actually so kind of ties in to breathwork but breathwork has so many wonderful benefits and it's so it can help with your sleep. So one thing to try is you lie down you're getting ready for bed any way, and you do 10 breaths of belly breath, and then ribcage, breath and then top of the chest breath. So you're literally putting your hands on those parts of your body and feeling it. I've never been able to get to all 30 breaths. I'm always out like a light.
Evie Takacs 29:35
Oh I believe it
Toréa Rodriguez 30:15
it's amazing that it just like it completely triggers a deep relaxation state. And then it's so much easier to fall asleep. So anytime I'm having difficulty with falling asleep, or I forgot to wear my blue light blockers because you know, let's be real. Sometimes that happens. And I'm a little bit wired up before I fall asleep. I'll do that. So I do that 10, 10 and 10. I've never made it to 30
Toréa Rodriguez 30:36
Yeah. Oh, I believe it. Yeah, I can see why. Because again, once you get into a rhythm, it really is so relaxing.
Toréa Rodriguez 30:43
It is. It really is so cool. If anybody has questions, feel free to write us, DM us, whatever. We're happy to answer some of your questions. We would love it. If you would tag us. If you're doing some breathwork, that would be super fun. So go ahead and tag us on social media. And of course, if you really enjoy this or hear somebody, or know of somebody who could benefit from some breathwork, and please share this episode with them. It really does help us and it goes a long way to help spreading the word about this podcast. We appreciate you so much, and we'll see you at the next episode.
Toréa Rodriguez 31:16
Hey, thanks for joining us for this episode of the Wildly Optimized Wellness podcast. If you're ready to dig deeper into your health, stop playing the Whack-a-Symptom game, start testing to get better guidance, you can find more about Toréa at torearodriguez.com and you can find Evie at holisticallyrestored.com. Want a peek into what it's like to work with us? Come join us at our Optimized Wellness Community. You can find the invitation link in the show notes below. And if you have a question for the show, you can submit your question under the podcast section of torearodriguez.com. Finally, if you found something helpful in this episode, don't forget to leave a review, hit that follow button or share it with a friend. They're gonna love that you thought of them. Until next time, see you outside!
