Breathing is easy, right? Sure. But breathing correctly is actually quite difficult - at least, for us in this day and age, it is.
The more knowledge I acquire in the field of Breathwork, the more annoyed I become at myself for not seamlessly incorporating everything I’ve learnt into my life. I got to thinking about why this is (about the time I should be completing my daily breath work practice, coincidentally)!
I’m almost 30 years old and no-one ever taught me how to breathe. Surely breathing should be something we’re just good at? Apparently not! I feel a bit miffed that no-one in my vicinity had this knowledge to teach me at a young age. But now I know! And now I need to try and undo 30 years of unconscious ways of life…. OK a bit dramatic but the sentiment remains.
Having completed a course via Oxygen Advantage which taught me the science involved with functional breathing, and how we have become quite bad at this, I have been really mindful of my breathing. I’m now at a stage of having accrued a good amount of knowledge to be able to start applying it, e.g. when breathing at rest, when sleeping and whilst starting a training programme for an upcoming 10k (gulp). I think this is something I feel I can implement because there is scientific proof as to how it works and the results can be seen or felt (improvement in running stats for example).
But what about the Breathwork that aims to regulate your nervous system? This is the good stuff, the holy grail. So why, then, is it this that I find so difficult to implement into day to day life? (Here I am talking about a dedicated daily Breathwork practice as opposed to applying strategies ‘in the moment’ which I think I’m OK at)! Perhaps it is the daily stressors of life and routine. Working a corporate job full time, maybe a low level stress has become the norm and my baseline - if I veer too far away from this, am I still going to be me? Am I still going to be able to perform in my job as well as I have been doing? Do I even want to? Am I….. afraid of improving myself? Afraid of success? Or am I just lazy and haven’t found a routine in which my daily Breathwork practice just fits nicely into yet?
Ironically, I feel if I had more time and space, I’d spend much more time ‘breathing.’ It is for this very reason that I need it - because I don’t have the time or space - the perpetual vicious circle continues.
Perhaps the new year will bring some clarity and perspective to all of this. Or maybe it’s just one of life’s tribulations. Either way, it is a fairly good problem to have, in the grand scheme of things.
In summary: I’m finding it difficult to complete a ‘daily Breathwork practice’ but I’m not too mad about it (for now).
Sophie x
