497. Breathwork for Brain Healing: The Breath's Role in Healing and Mental Focus

This week on The Unbeatable Mind, Catherine Divine provides her riveting account of how she breathed her way through adversity after a surfing accident left her with a concussion and fractured occipital bone.

Though breathing for most is simply an automatic function of life, mastering breath control can have profound impacts on both mental and emotional states. Mark and Catherine share their valuable knowledge on techniques like box breathing, and alternate nostril breathing. Such techniques hold the power to manage stress and improve overall well-being. Together, they unpack the art of breathing and discuss its largely unrealized potential as a “free medicine” that can absolutely transform your life!

Key Takeaways:

Health Benefits of Breathwork: Discover how consistent breathwork practice can bring about positive health benefits such as weight loss, and balancing the body’s energy systems.

Observations and Adjustments in Breathing: Learn how to identify and correct breathing imbalances and identify changes in nostril predominance over time and seasonal influences.

Nose Vs. Mouth Breathing: Identify the benefits of nostril breathing over mouth breathing, and the relevance of the body’s chakras and energy systems.

Breath Control: Hear Catherine’s personal account of using breath control to manage her recovery after a surfing accident.

Catherine Divine is a leadership coach, author, and yoga instructor with over 20 years of experience helping leaders unlock their full potential. Coauthor of Kokoro Yoga with her stepfather, Mark Divine, and author of Sacred Silence, Catherine holds a Master’s in Transformative Leadership from CIIS and is pursuing a PhD in East-West Psychology. As a Master Unbeatable Mind Coach, she has trained C-suite executives, Special Ops candidates, and high-performance leaders, guiding them to integrate mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and resilience. Catherine combines intuitive healing with strategic insight to help leaders overcome challenges, heal from trauma, and strengthen their mind-body-soul connection.

Catherine’s Links:

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Timestamped Overview:
00:00 Mark Divine Show: discussing breathwork with Catherine Divine.
04:03 Controlled breath calmed mind, sought emergency help.
08:09 Practicing pranayama for self-regulation and balance.
10:47 Optimal breathing requires nasal, not mouth, breaths.
14:39 Nadis intersect, stimulate energies, affect nostril breathing.
18:37 Alternating nostril breathing: inhale, switch, exhale, repeat.
23:09 Box breathing alters energy and life force.
24:32 Use the box breathing pattern for balance.
27:00 Awareness of breath phases brings deep insights.
32:06 Develop mindful awareness by witnessing thoughts.
34:04 Exhale symbolizes death, release, teaches letting go.
37:05 Focus on exhale, retain breath, feel infinite.
41:57 Subscribe to Mark Divine's content, rate, share.

[Popeyeify]

Based on the provided sources, here's how you can use breathing techniques to support brain healing:

* **Conscious and Present Moment Awareness:** The breath can be a powerful tool for healing when done with conscious awareness.
* **Regulating Breath After Trauma:** After a head injury, regulating breath through slow, nostril breathing can help regain a sense of control and manage emotions. This involves focusing on slow, diaphragmatic breathing.
* **Alternate Nostril Breathing:** This practice involves inhaling through one nostril while closing off the other, then switching sides. It is believed to balance and center the brain by stimulating the right and left hemispheres and enhancing communication between them. This is also a calming and centering practice. It is recommended to start on the left side and finish on the left side when doing alternate nostril breathing.
* This technique is thought to stimulate the *nadi* energy system, which includes the *ida* and *pingala* channels.
* It can also help identify imbalances in the system by noting which nostril is more difficult to breathe through.
* **Visualization with Breath:** You can combine breathing with visualization, such as breathing in light and exhaling any tension or toxicity.
* **Box Breathing:** This foundational practice involves equal counts for inhaling, holding the breath, exhaling, and holding again. A common method is a five-count for each phase.
* Box breathing can help center and ground the mind, especially when dealing with emotional or mental looping.
* It can also be used as a "tactical breathing" practice by dropping the retentions and doing a five-count inhale and five-count exhale through the nose.
* This practice can help train the nervous system and promote an optimal breathing pattern for health.
* **Awareness of Inhale and Exhale:** Focusing on the different phases of the breath can provide different benefits.
* The inhale is associated with bringing in life force and animation, a kind of expansion and newness.
* The retention after the inhale can expand the mind.
* The exhale is a release, a letting go, and a surrendering practice.
* The retention after the exhale is where one can experience radical stillness.
* **Diaphragmatic Breathing:** It is important to breathe deeply using the diaphragm. This can be done by placing your hands on your rib cage and noticing if your rib cage expands when you inhale.
* **Nose Breathing:** It is preferable to breathe through the nose rather than the mouth. Nose breathing allows for full diaphragmatic breath, massage of the vagus nerve, cleansing of the air and nitric oxide dump.

It's important to note that the sources emphasize that breath is more than just oxygen; it is a life force and consciousness. By controlling the breath, one can influence their life force and mind.

[kankanadutta]

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