Just Breathe.

 "The Breath Knows How To Go Deeper Than The Mind" ~ Wim Hoff

Are you breathing?
Silly question, right? Of course, you are! You'd be in trouble if you weren't.

We all breathe automatically, our body does it without our conscious awareness, to get oxygen in, nutrients to the cells, and toxins out.
All-day long we breathe and stay alive because our autonomic nervous system takes care of proceedings, we don't notice it until our breathing pattern changes due to physical exertion or mental/emotional stress.
Most of us never even realise that we're breathing unless we're exercising or having a panic attack!
But, whilst we all breathe, the majority of people have an inverted breathing pattern at rest, whereby they breathe into the top of the chest, rather than deep into the lungs.

A functional breath should fill the lungs from the bottom up, causing expansion in the belly before the chest. The first 2/3 of the breath should be observed in the belly, with the last 1/3 seen in the rise of the chest.
An inverted breathing pattern is very common, especially when we get stressed out.  When we perceive stress, our breathing rate tends to become faster and more chest dominant, it's part of the fear response. Our emotions, feelings, and thoughts activate the sympathetic nervous system and hormones related to survival which causes muscles in the neck and shoulders to be overworked to help expand the rib cage to get more oxygen in.  This can cause tension in the muscles, resulting in stiffness in the neck and shoulders, and reduces the body's ability to remove toxins, leaving our inner environment more acidic, and therefore, more susceptible to disease.

Conscious breathing is one of the best ways to calm our nervous system in times of stress.  

When the mind is racing and we're lost in thought, the breath can bring us back to balance by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system which is the rest, digest, recovery and repair branch of our nervous system.
When the two branches of the system are balanced, we have greater mind/body coherence and our inner environment becomes a health-promoting place that is less conducive to the onset of disease.

There are many methods and breathwork techniques out there that you can use to change your inner state of being, but the first thing to do is to actually become aware of your breath, to breathe consciously. 

I like to start each day with breathwork. Morning tends to be the best time to practice because when you have an empty stomach after your night's sleep, the body isn't being chemically challenged by the digestive process.  Just 5-10 minutes of conscious breathing at the beginning of your day can get your nervous system balanced, increase the alkalinity of your body, get more oxygen to your cells, reduce inflammation and generate coherent thought patterns.

There are many techniques that I like, box breathing being one of my favourites, that I recommend to my clients.
Box breathing involves inhaling through the nose for 4 seconds, holding the breath for 4 seconds, exhaling through the mouth for 4 seconds and finally holding the lungs empty for another 4.
This method has been used in the military, it's great in times of perceived stress for calming the mind and body and increasing the ability to focus.

Time your breath with the circle, inhale as it expands, hold while it's static, and exhale as it contracts.
Repeat for as long as you need, to calm the monkey mind.

Another great breathwork practice is to make the exhalation longer than the inhalation.
Try breathing in for 4 seconds, holding for 7 seconds and exhaling for 8 seconds. This method can be particularly useful if you are having trouble falling asleep at night.

There are lots of more advanced techniques that can actually help us to achieve higher states of consciousness by activating our natural psychedelic brain chemicals, enabling us to experience different dimensions.

The breath is truly magical, especially when we know how to use it.

For now, though, I would suggest just becoming aware of your breathing.  Do it at home, in the office, in your car, whilst walking. Just notice the air going in through your nose, filling your lungs, feeding your cells and keeping you alive.

The Tiger In The Mind

Why Stress Makes Us Store Fat.

Too often in the fitness industry, I see coaches preaching the calories in v's calories out theory of fat-loss, with total disregard for human biology.

Calorie deficit works well for weight loss, not fat loss. So, as long as you're not concerned with what the composition of the weight is, then it's a great way to lose muscle and bone density too. You may lose weight but you will end up 'skinny-fat', with less muscle mass, weaker bones and a general decrease in overall health.
There are far more important things to consider if you want to lose body-fat and actually be healthy.

The truth is, no matter how calorie focussed you are, no matter the deficit between calories consumed and calories burned, your body will still store fat if your system is stressed.

If we go back to the earlier days of human existence, our primary stressors were predators and lack of food. Our physical survival was literally under threat and our physiology responded accordingly. The fight or flight response would shunt blood away from the digestive system to the arms and legs to enable us to move. We would rely upon glucose as our preferred fuel because it provided faster energy release than fat and our bodies could store the fat in case of starvation.

In modern society, there are no tigers chasing us, instead, our stress response is triggered by the tigers in our mind.

Our financial stress, relationship stress, success stress, acceptance stress, chemical stress, they all stimulate the release of stress hormones into the blood and our chemistry adapts to survival mode.

The metaphorical tiger is very much as real to our biochemistry as the actual tiger of days gone by. Our body responds to the stress by firstly releasing adrenalin and moving energy stores to the muscles of the extremities and away from the digestive system. Cortisol is then released, which tells our cells to store fat. This process teaches our bodies to use glucose as our primary fuel, so we then crave sugar.

Health isn't about looking good. It's about feeling good and functioning well.

If you are already highly stressed and trying to lose body-fat by restricting calories and exercising at an intensity that represents a physical stressor you are setting yourself up for long-term disappointment and a yo-yo pattern of weight problems.  In essence, you are adding chemical and physical stress to your already emotionally stressed out system, thereby further instigating the stress hormone response and leading to more fat storage.

Start with the Stress.
Tame the Tiger!

It's Time To Change!

Ever tried to change a habit? 

If you have and you're over 35 years of age you may have noticed how difficult it is.

The reason change becomes more challenging as we get older is because by the age of 35 we are basically operating from our subconscious programming.

In our early years, through our teens, twenties, and thirties we install programmes into our mind and body from our experiences, so that by the time we are 35 our behaviours are 95% subconscious!

We are creatures of habit, we learn how to do something and then we no longer have to consciously implement each step in a process, our subconscious mind just automatically takes control. 

At an early age, this can be seen in learning to walk, we struggle at first, but once our brain and body have the walking programme installed we just do it without conscious effort.

We then learn to ride a bike, the same thing happens.

Then we learn to drive, and after a while, the driving programme takes over and we can sometimes (if we are busy thinking about other things) drive from one place to another without even realising how we got there!

The difficulty implementing change comes from the fact that once we decide to make that change we are using 5% conscious effort against 95% subconscious programming.  

The conventional way that we try to make changes in our behaviours or habits requires enormous amounts of will power and more often than not we fail. We fail because we are trying to use the programme to change the programme, trying to use the ego to change the ego. Our body wants to do what it's always done, our nervous system wants to fire in the same way that it always has.

Trying to fight the subconscious is more often than not a futile endeavour; 5% will against 95% programme is never going to have favourable odds for change.
If we really want to over-ride our programmed habits we must find a different way.

Rather than fight against the subconscious, we can have a greater impact if we tap into it and make changes at that level.

This is where meditation comes in.

During meditation the conscious mind becomes quieter, the incessant internal chatter subsides and we enter a state of increased suggestibility whereby we can access the subconscious and make changes to the programme.

There are no hard and fast rules as to how you should meditate, you don't have to follow a religion, sit in the lotus position, wear robes, burn incense or wear flowers in your hair or beads around your neck!

You can meditate anytime, anywhere.

Just follow your breath and don't try to fight your thoughts or berate yourself for them. Notice the thoughts and then return to the breath.

You can change. 

You can change at any time. 

You just need to stop fighting the programmes you're operating by.

Change the way you make changes.

Less thinking, more breathing.

Less doing, more being.

The Foundations of Health & Happiness

Are you unsure where to start on your health journey in 2020?

It can certainly be a confusing minefield in the information overload of the internet!

At this time of the year, in particular, many of you will be trying to implement new healthy habits into your life, so let's make it easy.

There are 6 foundation principles of health that I focus on with my clients. 

THINKING

BREATHING

DRINKING

EATING

MOVING

SLEEPING

Most people start in the wrong place, they join a gym and go on a strict diet. 

The gym is silly busy in January with everyone's new year's resolutions kicking in, and diet groups such as Weightwatchers and Slimming world are inundated with new sign-ups.  

You may have followed this path yourself and found that after the initial 'good intention' phase has passed, you slide back into your old ways of not exercising and making poor food choices?

If you want sustainable, long-term health & happiness, the first place to start is with your thoughts.

Get your mind right and everything else will fall into place.

I'll delve deeper into the foundation principles in future posts to help you to achieve optimal health and happiness in your own life and negate the need for drastic, unsustainable resolutions.

For now, be aware of your thoughts, witness them and start to notice how they are directing your life.

Until next time

Keep smiling!