A deep-dive into breath, a coaching tool I’ve used to help both myself and my clients since 2009.
Your breath is automatic, but how it moves through you impacts your mental and physical health. Inspired by a recent article about breath, I share how my personal health crisis led me to the power of the breath to heal chronic conditions and restore coherence and resilience. Plus, I explore the root meaning of breath in different languages to better understand why the breath is the soul’s expression in the body.
Plus, I explore the root meaning of breath in different languages to better understand why the breath is the soul’s expression in the body.
I share about my 2011 health crisis and the valuable tools I learned through HeartMath®, a California research institute that studies the connection between heart rate variability and the nervous system and their clinically researched breathing techniques to build resilience and coherence.
Listen in to understand how breath is our most natural tool to battle the cycle of disease, chronic pain, inflammation, mental health challenges, and emotional issues. The mind-body-soul is its own powerful healing system to restore vitality and health.
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Dana Frost 00:07
Welcome to Vitally You, a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host Dana Frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside out with guest experts in the field of health, culture and spirituality, and solo episodes along the way from me where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy, medicine, and your innate capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger, while growing older, this is the place for you.
Dana Frost 00:52
Hi, everyone. I'm Dana Frost, your host of the Vitally You podcast. Thank you for joining me this week, I am going to share a tool today that I've shared with all of my clients since 2009. It's a tool that I use every day. It's a tool that helped me through my health crisis, and 11. It's a tool that has gained notoriety among neuroscientists like Andrew Huberman over the past decade. It's a tool used in yoga for 1000s of years. Can you guess what this tool is?
Dana Frost 01:27
It's your breath. But before I get into today's episode, I want to take a moment to thank the sponsor of the vital EU podcast, life waves x 39, and x 49. Stem cell activation patches reflect the body's light back into the cells to signal your stem cells to wake up. The technology is called Bio photo modulation. The stem cell patches are true reverse aging technology that reset 1000s of genes to behave in their younger state. So things that you would experience skin remodeling, glowing, radiant skin, decreased appearance of wrinkles, rapid wound healing and diminished scar tissue, improved cognition, improved energy, decreased pain and inflammation. I increased muscle mass decrease fat mass increased performance in terms of athleticism. If you want to learn more, there's a link in the show notes. Okay, everybody, let's get back to the power of your breath to heal and restore vitality. I want to start with a story.
Dana Frost 02:44
So this was in 2004, for a couple of years. So this is we were living in Brazil, and we adopted at the end of 2003. And as I've shared there was, you know, there was a lot of stress, not all stress a lot of good too, but I was in spirit experiencing a significant amount of stress. And I started having this symptom, and the symptom was a cough, I would start coughing and I couldn't stop myself, it was very scary. I couldn't catch my breath. It was just very, very scary. And so what happened on several occasions is that it was so severe that my husband had to take me to the emergency room. And I obviously also saw my attending physician during this time, and they could not figure out what like what the root cause of this was. The only thing they could do when I went to the emergency room is they gave me codeine to calm the cough. And it did it calmed the cough. But it was very, very scary. And over a period of time, after a period of time, I also developed acid reflux. And basically I started taking Prilosec, which is an over counter medication. I was told that the coughing was also related to the acid reflux, they were connected, but there was really nothing I could do about it except to calm it down with these anti acids or the codeine.
Dana Frost 04:23
And so fast forward, I'm dealing with this, this is just you know, I'm taking Prilosec every day. I am back in the US during the summer time visiting a friend and she noticed she knew me really well. She noticed that my breathing was be labored and off. And she asked me about it and I told her about the coughing fits and the acid reflux and she said well, she invited me to go see her doctor who was a chiropractor. I don't know all of the things that he did, but he was in No, through the chiropractic lens, he did a bunch of different things. So I said, Absolutely, let's go. So we went to this doctor, I don't remember his name at this point. But we went, and I had a very powerful session with him, that was super gentle, he did muscle testing to determine what my body needed, which is testing your muscles to get information. So it's communicating with the body, directly through the muscles directly to the body, so that you're not using your brain and your memory. And one of the modalities he did besides some adjustments, he did cranial sacral, so we held my head, and I'm not going to be great at explaining cranial sacral I know how it feels, it's incredibly soothing, to it was soothing to my mind, to my body to my emotions. And it's, I want to say, palpitating the fluids in the spine and getting them to flow fluidly through the spine.
Dana Frost 06:01
I, what is significant about that session is I left that session, my breathing was restored, the cough never returned. I still had some acid reflux, it wasn't as severe. But what was so significant to me is that my cough never returned. So I think that this is so interesting to me and my healing journey, because what I have learned is that there are so many symptoms that we have that conventional medicine, they're able to put a BandAid on a symptom, but they're not able to actually heal a symptom, they're not able to go underneath and figure out what the root cause. So what this doctor was doing, he was resetting my nervous system through the spinal fluid. And because I was set Because of the stress I was under, I was in fight and flight. And so my breathing pattern was demonstrative of that. And I didn't have the information I needed to do anything with my breath. So I was taught just like, I'm sure you were taught in school, that your breath is a part of the autonomic nervous system, which means you will, I was told you don't have to think about it, your body breathes automatically. However it needs to breathe, it's something that happens automatically.
Dana Frost 07:29
And that is true. But What happens is that we have a stressful event and our life, we go through some sort of a trauma, and our breathing pattern gets stuck and fight or flight or freeze. And we don't, we're not taught how to move out of that and how to reset it back to just a normal healthy breathing pattern. Now, animals when they are triggered by some, you know, fearful event or some trauma, their body shakes, so that it can restore and reset the nervous system. And I don't know exactly how that works, because I'm not a veterinarian, but I know that that's how animals reset their body is by shaking.
Dana Frost 08:14
Okay, so this, you can imagine that I began my coaching practice. So that was like 2004, five, I began my coaching, training and start my coaching practice, and I'm really interested in the breath. And what is the significance of the breath? So I go back and I look at, well, what is the What's the root meaning of the word breath[?] and I discover that in all ancient languages in Greek, the word that is significant of breath is Numa, which means soul or spirit. The word spirit comes from the Latin root. I don't know if I'm gonna say this, right, but spear rar, or spear, spear, spear, err, meaning to breathe. This comes from the word spiritist, meaning breath. Let's look at the Anglo Norman French perspective. The Word became the spirit we know today as the non physical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character, the soul in Hebrew and Hebrew, the word for breath is Ruach. I think I'm pronouncing that right. Maybe I'm not or spirit. And so the breath I made this connection, that the breath is the soul's expression in the body or through the human.
Dana Frost 09:37
I find that so fascinating. And so you've heard me say many times that everything you need to heal, you have inside of your mind body, soul system, and you do and it starts with the simplicity of your breath. And sometimes I feel like it's so simple what I'm asking my clients to Do it's so simple that it's easily discounted. It's discounted as this powerful healing agent that it is. And we chase I see people chasing so many modalities on the healing journey and so many people stuck chasing the conventional model to heal chronic diseases, chronic pain, auto immune disorders, mental health issues, to no significant change in how they're feeling. And what if, what if, what if the most important modality is already embedded in you? And I believe that it is. It's this imprint of your soul in your body. And that is your breath.
Dana Frost 10:51
Do you know that your soul remembers why you incarnated? Your soul remembers your purpose on this earth? Your breath knows your breath or your soul knows why you get sick. It knows why you're depressed, why you feel anxious, why you're forgetful.
Dana Frost 11:13
Okay, so let's forward to 2009 I was newly repatriated, we left Switzerland and moved to Chicago. I had recently finished my master life coach certification with Dr. Martha Beck. And our coaching group had an all tribe gathering in Chicago. And I taught a workshop called, it's actually the title of today's podcast episode, breath, the original coaching tool. And I shared what I'm sharing with you today. A little bit different at that time, because I was younger in my practice, and younger in my knowledge, but I started with Dr. Andrew Wiles work that I learned, I took an online course, about the breath. And I learned something. And this is what I teach.
Dana Frost 12:05
Every client and I, I've just trained my body to do it automatically. It's called the four qualities of a healthy breath. This is the breath that you the qualities of your breath every day. It's when you're working, when you're playing, when you're walking, when you're cooking, or you're reading. And if you followed my work, they're going to be familiar to you, but they bear repeating over and over again, the four qualities [of healthy breath] are deep, slow, quiet, and regular. The quality, pace, fluidity and sound of your breath and where it flows in your body have influence over how you feel.
Dana Frost 12:46
Our everyday breath should have these qualities deep. You experience your breath physically. So physically, the breath moves in and out through your nose. It's deep, so it enters your nose and it goes all the way down in the air, inflate your belly, that is deep. It doesn't stop in your chest, most of us chest breathe, the breath is slow. So the inhale and exhale, they are experienced as a slow breath. If you remember my story, my breath was belaboured. And it was rapid. And it was it was short as well. So the inhale and exhale weren't extended. So a healthy breath is slow, and a healthy breath is quiet. Unless you have some obstruction, or you have some physical trauma to your nose or you're sick, and there's congestion, no one else should hear your breath.
Dana Frost 13:44
And remember, my friend could hear might hear my breathing pattern. And so she knew something was off. Your breath is quiet, no one should be able to hear your breath. And your breath is regular the inhale and exhale are roughly the same. A healthy breath actually, the length of the breath can be extended up to like five inhales so I mean five count. So you're inhaling 12345 exhaling 12345 That's really difficult for most people who you know, haven't been introduced to this work. So I encourage you find the rhythm, the regularity that works for you. It might be inhale, exhale, you know, just one count. One count in one count out. But if it's that and it feels gentle and slow, that's the count for you at this season as you're learning and gaining this understanding and this intimacy with your breath when you're practicing these four qualities that that you know, have the the physical feel of your breath deep, slow, quiet, regular, you don't want this to feel be labored. And so be sure that whatever the rhythm is that you're feeling as you're doing it that you feel at ease while you're doing it.
Dana Frost 15:15
Okay, so I have that information from 2008. That's when I was studying it 2008 2009 All the way to my health crisis in 2011. So just to know, I was practicing the deep, slow, quiet regular, I was still having some indigestion it was not as bad. I think when I made it to the fall of 2009 is when I had a repetitive episode of congestion in my, in my head. And I saw a chiropractor. He was quite famous on the north shore of Chicago, Dr. Van huel. And he was the first person who muscle tested me and asked me took a long intake and asked me if I ate gluten. And you know, I was there to get help with the congestion. And I didn't, I was kind of curious about this, but he asked me to go off gluten and he prescribed a natural anti histamine. And he advised me immediately to stop taking the anti acid and I did.
Dana Frost 16:31
And I have to say, Everything began clearing up, I went off gluten, I went off dairy. And I started taking the de hist. And those repetitive episodes of congestion went away. It was really remarkable. And the digestion, you know, we were working on that from 2009 and 2011. When my health crisis happened, it wasn't perfect, but it was so much better than I thought I was, like 100% better. So fast forward to that time. And I had my health crisis and the pacemaker was implanted. Even though the pacemaker was implanted, I was still very tired. And my doctor said, Oh, you're fine. You know, this is all in your head. You know, you just need to relax. And I started doing my own research.
Dana Frost 17:27
And I discovered HeartMath,. HeartMath is a research institute in California that studies it's, it's been for sure, 40 years, they've been studying the connection between heart rate variability and the nervous system. They've discovered that the heart signals — the heart rate variability — is actually sending signals to the brain through the vagus nerve, okay, the vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body,. I refer to it as the body's information highway. The language that the heart uses to communicate is the heart rate variability. And you'll see that on the echocardiogram, it's the way that your heart goes up and down. That is your heart moving in between going faster and slower or parasympathetic and sympathetic. So the heart rate vary your heart rate variability is an indicator of your emotional state. As I said, it goes up and down with varying intensity and relaxation, based on your feelings.
Dana Frost 18:25
So a trained, you know, electrocardiogram reader can determine the feeling state you're in by reading your echocardiogram. So HeartMath has research. And they have these breathing techniques that have been proven to bring the nervous system into a coherent state. So by using the breathing techniques that have been clinically researched, you can reset your nervous system from fight and flight or freeze, if it's on that as a default to a coherent state that is resilient in the face of adversity and conflict. I've shared some of these techniques on the show before or at least I know I have on other podcast, but I want to review The core HeartMath breathing techniques.
Dana Frost 19:12
So these simple techniques are tools to manage depleting emotions like anxiety, anger and depression. I want you to know that With these breathing techniques, unlike meditation, you don't have to close your eyes. You can do this when you're in your everyday life. So the first one is heart focus breathing and this is these breathing techniques are visualizations so I want you to remember physiologically Your breath is still deep, slow, quiet regular. So heart focus breathing, you're simply visualize the inhale and exhale to flow to and from this a heart center. And you're going to visualize you know yourself, your heart, the area of your heart is 360 degrees. It's not just coming from the front of your body, your inner G, your heart is going to does radiate energy. And that energy is based on the heart rate variability and that is 360 degrees around your body. So visualize the inhale and exhale to flow to and from the heart center, visualizing the inhale to flow to and from the heart center. And notice what you notice, when you do that, I automatically began to notice this sense of calm kind of a settling and feeling grounded.
Dana Frost 20:35
This connectedness to My Heart, heart focus, breathing, that's the first technique. The second technique is the inner ease technique. So you draw in the feeling of inner ears. Allow the feeling of inner ears to just penetrate throughout your system. Visualize enter, ease flowing to and from your heart center, enter ease flowing to and from your heart center 360 degrees around your body. Visualizing enter ease to flow to and from your heart center. You imagine if you were late for a meeting, or you're feeling hectic in traffic, or you're waiting in a line, or you're impatient with someone in your family, and you employ the inner ease technique, how that would shift the energy that you're experiencing how it would shift your emotions, maybe you would still feel frustration. But what we know from the Heart Math research is that that frustration would feel coherent, instead of like jagged, your body would be able to feel frustration in a state of ease. So energy is flowing to and from the heart center. Something it's a technique you can call up, I have used the inner ease technique when I've been an emergency at the emergency room with a child who has had something happening.
Dana Frost 22:10
When I've been in an argument with my husband, I've used it when I have felt anxious about anything, whatever, you know, whatever it is, when I wake up in the middle of the night, and I feel anxious, I employ the inner ease technique. Okay, the third HeartMath technique I want to share is called the heart lock in and with a heart lock in, you recall, an emotion, a feeling emotion, something that an emotion that you like feeling that's attached to a memory. And recall that memory and all the variables of that memory and that emotion, you recall it and you allow that memory and that emotion really to flow to and from your heart center.
Dana Frost 22:55
So let me think of one right now. I've got one, when I look at a video on my phone of my grandson, Nico, I just swell with so much happiness. It's I even shocked my own self like the amount the positive feelings of just happiness and feeling connected and inspired by looking at a video of my grandson. That's the one that I'm going to use because I can just, it's like my whole body literally lights up. So find any emotion that's fueling, recall it and have that feeling, happiness, inspiration flow to and from your heart center. I actually feel in my heart right now I feel all tingly. You allow that to flow to and from your heart center. When we employ the Heart Lock In, And we practice that day after day. we can reset our nervous system, we can increase our coherence and resilience. It's it's free, and it's in the power of each of us to employ this.
Dana Frost 24:04
It is nonpharmaceutical it is more powerful than any medication that you will ever be in. It's you using your soul the wisdom and insight, the intelligence and energy that flows from the seat of your soul, your breath, your heart to bring coherence and presence and reset your nervous system. It's so powerful. Okay, this episode was actually inspired by an article I read in The Wall Street Journal that was talking about the power of the breath. And it referenced research by Dr. Andrew Huberman and his colleagues that validated it made me think about the heart math research. They didn't mention the Heart Math in this paper or in their research, but it referenced the power of the breath to help moderate depleting emotions. It's They researched a breathing technique called cycle sigh ng cycle sighing and I'm reading this verbatim from the article to produce a sigh.
Dana Frost 25:10
People were instructed to close their lips and slowly inhale through the nose. Then take a second inhale completely filling the lungs, and then release an extended exhale through the mouth. And quote, let me say that it's a little bit of a tongue twister. Cyclic sighing cyclic sighing involves gently repeating this cycle continuously for five minutes. Okay, the people who practiced cyclic sign daily for a month, guess what they experienced reduced anxiety and increased positive emotion with better results than other relaxation techniques, such as mindful meditation. When I was in Denver, doing my Heart Math facilitation training under Dr. Rollin McCrady, he shared research that showed HeartMath breathing techniques were more effective at creating positive biological shifts than a regular meditation practice.
Dana Frost 26:15
Now, why would this be? Most traditional meditation practices employ the detachment philosophy, which I don't find all that helpful, we don't want to be detached from our experiences. Instead, we want to have the resilience and capacity to be in the moment, regardless of our feelings. Feelings are real and to be human is to experience all the emotions. Now I will tell you that my perspective, it's not scientific, at least I don't think it is. Maybe it is. I don't know. But I really don't care if it's scientific. But I believe that it's the reason that it's more powerful HeartMath techniques.
Dana Frost 26:55
And this cycle sighing is more powerful than traditional meditation is because the breath represents the soul in the body, and what benefit would you get from being detached from your soul? You would there is no benefit, I can't see a benefit. And HeartMath teaches that all emotions are valid emotions. As I said, the point is to be present with your emotional experiences, and not overcome by them. Last week, I mentioned we were talking about if we get stuck in a season of contraction. So if you're stuck in a season of contraction, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and listen to that episode. It's only 15 minutes long. Your breathing pattern is also stuck in fight and flight. And this is not good.
Dana Frost 27:46
So HeartMath can help move you through a season of contraction. I think that's why I didn't get stuck in a season of contraction. When I had my marriage crisis. I had a lot of pain, but I was able to be coherent and resilient and move through it and not get it stuck in my tissues. This is what we're talking about. You can be coherent, even if you feel depleting emotions like grief, anger, depression, and you can reset your default. If you're stuck in fight flight. If you're stuck in this contraction mode, simply by practicing heart lock in five minutes a day.
Dana Frost 28:22
And don't forget, be practicing how your breath should flow physically deep, slow, quiet and regular. I stand by my opinion that if you want to heal mental, emotional trauma, mental health issues and autoimmune disorders, you will not find the solutions to restore your health through the conventional medicine. You just want won't the system doesn't have the answers. And it sucks I know it sucks because our system is set up to pay for services through the insurance model. So the insurance conventional medicine and pharmaceutical mafia model it is a mafia we are they have us in change in terms of like the pay system that we're under and we need to revolt against that. I wish it wasn't true but it is and so I am willing to stand and fight against it.
Dana Frost 29:21
And I can share with you things that you can do that are free and your breath is free. It is the original coaching tool and is the representation of your soul in your body in your human experience. Okay, if you go searching for answers in a conventional model, you may soothe your symptoms like I did the you won't rejuvenate and restore your health. I had to go outside of the conventional model. Okay, yes, my worn out body part that was the result of stress, the electrical conduction of my heart. Yeah, we were able to go the conventional model and put a pace maker in and that fixed a worn out body part. Yeah, you can get a knee replaced. You can go to the ER and save your life for many different things. This is where the conventional model shines, the technology shines. But if you have these chronic issues, or your nervous system is out of whack, they don't have the answers to rejuvenate and restore your health. But I want you to know it is possible. Don't give up the body mind soul has a built and healing system but you have to tap into it. And guess what the breath is the gateway. The breath is the door you walk through to restore vitality, everybody.
Dana Frost 30:48
Okay, what does feeling younger while while growing older mean to me today? It means tapping into the power of my inhale and exhale and using the deep wisdom that flows to and from my heart.
Dana Frost 31:08
Thank you everybody for joining me this week on the Vitally You podcast. If you are enjoying these episodes, please make my heart sing. I haven't had a new review and over for sure it's been probably six weeks. Someone out there if you haven't left a review would you make my heart sing and leave a review? If you haven't hit subscribe, hit subscribe download. And if you think that this episode would benefit someone, please share the episode this is I will say this is one of the more important episodes because for anyone who is stuck in contraction for anyone who is stuck in the cycle of disease, chronic pain, inflammation and mental health challenges emotional issues.
Dana Frost 31:56
This episode has the very simple beginning tools to shift their health so please share it with your friends and as always, I am streaming love from my heart to yours. And everybody. This is my birthday month I will be 57 on July 31 So stay tuned for a couple more really powerful episodes during my birthday month. Bye everybody.