Breathwork is the Ultimate Wellness tool

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This training breath is designed to stretch out your intercostal muscles between your ribs as well as create an awareness of  the importance of your core contraction and its connection to breathwork. 

The DATB is capable of balancing your nervous system towards a healing rest and digest/parasympathetic state in just a few minutes.

The basics:

Focus on relaxed, slow inhalation and exhalation (through the nose if possible) while lying in a relaxed position on your back with a pillow under your knees. Or, find your favorite seated position.

Inhalation: Practice Inhaling in three segments while keeping your chest, neck and shoulder muscles relaxed.

Segment 1. Slowly inhale and push your stomach muscles outwards from your spine (this drops the diaphragm down). Maintain this through 2&3.  

Segment 2.  Expand your side ribs sideways towards your armpits. 

Segment 3. Then expand your chest fully and completely to the top without contacting any of your muscles in the neck or shoulders. 

Exhalation: Exhale by fully relaxing the body and allowing the recoil of your rib cage to naturally exit the nose. When your exhalation slows, gently contact your Core Contraction to squeeze that last little bit of air out of the lungs. 

Repeat this sequence for at least several minutes.  

The diaphragm is a muscle which separates our lungs from our stomach cavity. By consciously pushing our stomach muscles outwards from the spine we are stretching the diaphragm down which gives us an additional 30% of our lung capacity. This conscious action of breathing takes us out of our autonomic nervous system patterns while resetting  the nervous system into the rest and digest state of our parasympathetic NS. When our sympathetic nervous system is overloaded we often find it difficult to focus, relax and digest food. 

The DAFB breath is a simplified DAB training breath.Your focus with DAB flow will be to  eliminate your Core Contraction on your exhale and smooth out any mechanical edges in your inhalation. Make each breath as long, slow and relaxed as possible. Make sure your  exhalation is as long, or if possible, slightly longer than your  inhalation. Take a gentle pause at the end of your exhalation if you need to extend your timing. 

The DAFB is the starting breath, the finishing breath as well as the safe breath. If at any point in your breathwork progression (or life) you are feeling overwhelmed or unsafe, return to DAFB to balance your nervous system.

When you're comfortable with the DAB, progress to the box breath.

Match all 4 corners of your Box Breath with the same breath count. 

If you're new to the Box Breath, start at 4 seconds for each corner of the box and then find your own rhythm by experimenting with different timing so see what feels best for you. When I am warmed up and have been doing regular breath work, I like a 7 second breath count. When I have not been practicing a lot, 4 seconds feel perfect. 

Inhale for 4 seconds - Hold for 4 seconds - Exhale for 4 seconds - Hold for 4 seconds.

Dr. Wayne Dyer Calls this breath the anxiety breath. 

Inhale for 4 seconds 

Hold for 7 seconds 

Exhale for 8 seconds. Repeat.

When you are really wound up, not able to sleep or even having an anxiety attack I find this breath is the fastest way to calm your nervous system. 

Useful to induce deep relaxation or sleep.

Count how long it takes to take a slow and full DAFB inhalation. If that is 10 seconds, match that to your breath hold and exhalation as below.

Inhale for 10 seconds

Hold for 10 seconds

Exhale for 10 seconds

Incorporate this with Mike’s 3-2-1 meditation to drop into the deeper alpha and gamma brain wave subconscious healing states. 

Nervous system activating techniques are also capable of taking us into the fight and flight state of the sympathetic NS. Why would we want to do this? By consciously practicing activating breathwork techniques we are training this branch of our nervous system to react efficiently to stressors. Repeated practice will not only make you feel fantastic but will improve your body's physiology by hyperoxygenating every cell in your body as well as shifting your blood from an acidic to an alkalign. Prolonged practice of activating breathwork can initiate emotional and for some even spiritual releases. Activating techniques are also proven to dramatically reduce our bodies response to pain. 

-Daytime practice. Not before bed. 

-2:1 Breath Count. Inhale for 2: Exhale for 1.

-Inhale fully and completely.

-Exhale only as much breath as the lungs recoil.

-Immediate circular breath back into inhalation.

-Repeat for 30 breaths

-Exhale completely (all air out) with Core Contraction at the end. 

-Breath hold as long as comfortable.

-Inhale a recovery breath for 10 seconds 

Repeat 2-4X

See the Wim Hof handout for more details, videos and some scientific evidence.  

2. 2x Activation Breath.

Similar to #1 but 2x speed.

For experienced breathers only.

Best practiced  with an experienced breath coach.