Dear Breathers,
Check in
Let’s start by taking a slow, deep, curious breath. What’s yours like today? What might it telling you about how you’ve been getting on?
Have you had any questions or thoughts about anything Breathwork or life? Do drop me a line.
Our focus for today
As you’ve just done, on this Breath Take journey so far you’ve learnt to notice both your breath and what it might be trying to reveal.
If you’ve followed along since the start, you’ve also learnt how to use different breathing techniques to respond to where you are accordingly: ‘Ha’ Breath to energise us, 3:4 Breath to soothe, or Coherent Breathing to balance.
As I’ve been refining my 4 week 'Breathwork for Stress and Anxiety" course to prepare to teach it a group of students at a top university (and yes I’m so excited about this that I’ve been needing lots of calming breaths), I've been wanting to learn more about how we can be aware of what state we are right now, and about where stress and anxiety come into that.
Awareness of state: the What and Why:
And so I’d love to teach you a little about Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory.
Check out my quick explainer in the video below:
Polyvagal Theory in sub 4 minutes
I myself don’t love the words ‘mobilised’/’immobilised’ - they’re more often than not used in a GCSE History context talking about preparing armies, but still it gives us a framework and a language for identifying where we are right now,
And, crucially, it’s from here that, if we want to shift our state to something that serves us better, we can do so.
Awareness of state: the how
Now let’s make this practical for you.
Think about last week. In a notebook, on a scrap of paper or in the comments below, note down when you last felt (you might not have felt them all):
relaxed?
‘immobilised’ but safe?
‘immobilised’ but unsafe?
‘mobilised’ but safe?
‘mobilised’ but unsafe?
And if it’s a state you weren’t wanting, what helped you move out of it?
Changing state: The How
Now you’ve worked out where you are, let’s bring out how to move ourselves out of an unsafe immobilised or mobilised state.
If we’re immobilised, either safe or unsafe, maybe those calming soothing breaths won’t help us.
What we need is a bit of activation, something to electrify us, move us out of that state, and into something more balanced.
Likewise when we’re mobilised, we’re more likely to want something soothing, to bring us into that state of relaxation.
I’ll talk more about how stress and anxiety come into this next week, but for now?
Your task
Cast your eye back over these techniques. Notice what state you are in right now. And notice what you need.
Breathwork does have something covered for every state here, but it might be something else also works.
Mobilised? Take a bath, drink some warm herbal tea.
Immobilised? Get outside into nature or some gentle exercise.
What works for you, and what would you put in the ‘other strategies’ box above?
What I’ve been inhaling this week:
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben - a wondrous insight into the way trees inhabit our world communicate. What I find so enchanting is the way Wohlleben’s book is the fruit of him being fully present and aware of his environment. Wanting us to do the same, he invites us to ‘slow down, breathe deep, and look around’ .
Quote for the week:
“Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.56-57
A reminder, dear Breather, to aim to move through this
wonderful, messy life as close to the true you as you can possibly be. Play your own cards with love and compassion.
Olly x