Ep 59 | Healing Trauma Through Breathwork

But Still, She Thrives - Narcissistic Abuse, Toxic Relationships, Grey Rock Method, Healthy Boundaries, Childhood Abuse, Trauma Healing

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Speaker 1: (00:00)
Huh, that's me being creepy, but also me introducing what we are going to talk about today, which is breath work. What are the benefits of breath work for people who are looking to heal? Stay close and you will find out,
Speaker 1: (00:18)
Hey Queens, welcome to, but still she thrives. Do you wanna stop getting caught up in that wicked web of a creepy crawling narcissist? You find yourself up late at night replaying the abuse you put up with and wondering how you can heal now. Do you wake up hoping for healthy relationships and peace only to feel totally exhausted? And mind F girl, I see you, I'm Christie. I too had to disconnect from toxic people in my life and I wished I could undo the damage I felt ashamed, lonely and kind of lost. But I'm a stubborn Italian and I refuse to give up. I found ways to recalibrate my mind and embody more quickly than I thought and can now share them with you. In this podcast, you will find coping tools, healing methods, and confidence boosters so you can trust yourself and find peace and freedom. So shields up ladies, let's go protect our peace.
Speaker 1: (01:15)
I was introduced to breath work during the global pandemic of 2020 when I think we all needed some breath work. Uh, it was good timing. Yes, I was introduced to that and it really can be life changing and there's so much more to it than you would think. There's all sorts of types of practices. That was all a lot of words to say. Different practices for breath work, just different patterns, different ways you can use it from physical healing to mental and emotional and spiritual healing. There's just a lot of jam pack goodness up in the breath work world. I have done some breath work with my clients and I am getting certified to not only do breath work but all sorts of fun somatic healing therapies. So I'll be talking about that more. But I also wanna get to the point of this episode and dive in.
Speaker 1: (02:13)
So what does breath work do? Breath work refers to various practices that involve conscious control and manipulation of our breath, right? And we do this to achieve specific outcomes, like I said, that can be physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. So while individual experience can vary, these are five ways in general which breath work can potentially contribute to your healing on this lovely healing journey you are on. Number one, stress reduction. And this is big. This is a big one. We want stress reduction when we're going through the healing journey. We don't need extra stress, we need a lot less. So this is a great way. So deep and rhythmic breathing activates what is called, and you may have heard of this I've mentioned a couple times in some of my episodes. But parasympathetic nervous system, right? And this promotes relaxation and reduces the effects of the body stress response, which is normal in our everyday lives.
Speaker 1: (03:17)
But we can use this breathing to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. And this can lead to lower levels of cortisol. I've heard that word thrown around a lot. It is the stress hormone and this can help lower it and get you to a calmer state of mind, which will help alleviate all the symptoms with stress related crap, right? We, we know all the feelings, the racing heart, the sweating, the nervousness, the worry, all of that can totally be helped just by deep and rhythmic breathing. That's why they do it during labor. Number two, improved mental clarity. This was like the icing on the cake for me. So focused and intentional breathing can enhance mental clarity and concentration. So increasing this flow of oxygen to the brain with, again, there's different patterns we can use for different things, but increasing that flow of oxygen can improve the cognitive function and help all of us gain better control over our thoughts and reduce that mental fog.
Speaker 1: (04:30)
Can I get a what? What for the perimenopause women of the world right now? Or a menopausal mental fog is a thing. I'm starting to get it. I'm not loving it so I'm gonna start doing a little more breath work around that. But it enhances the overall mental wellbeing. So I am loving this benefit. Number three, emotional release breath work can provide a very cathartic release of those pent up emotions. Certain techniques encourage the expression and release of those stored emotions letting us process and let go of the burdens we carry, right? This can be particularly beneficial for those dealing with trauma. We know about trauma if we're in that narcissistic world, which if you're on here, you may be anxiety in general or grief And grief is a huge one. And around the holidays it can be really, really hard if you have been grieving someone or you just grieve have had to grieve anyone or a loss of a relationship, even that can be considered a grief, right?
Speaker 1: (05:40)
So it's releasing all of these things and breath work can kind of release that, you know? And it's just like that bottled up. Like you feel like you're gonna explode and you hold it in and this is a way to let it out without screaming and crying and punching a pillow. , you just gotta breathe girl. Um, no, but I do like this one. This is like a great way to, when you're kind of just feeling overwhelmed with emotions, it's a really good way to release it in a healthy way. Not saying that screaming a punching a pillow is not healthy. I mean that is a way you can do it too. Just don't punch anybody or something that could hurt your hand. Okay, number four, enhanced mind and body connection. So breath work often emphasizes that connection between the mind and the body. I am big on this.
Speaker 1: (06:35)
I'm always saying get out of your mind and into your body because they are connected. But sometimes we have to know when to lean into which one. As humans, especially as women, especially as women who have gone through some shunt, we can get so stuck in our mind and our thoughts. So through this mindful breathing, we can become more aware of the physical sensations, our emotions, and our thought patterns. And this increases our awareness for a greater sense of self-awareness, knowing what's going on with all parts of us and a deeper connection between that mental and the physical, right? So why I was talking about the whole leaning on one side versus the other is the more self-aware you are of where your thoughts are, right? Like, oh wow, I'm really in my head right now. Maybe I need to glide over into my body focusing on that breath.
Speaker 1: (07:38)
Maybe you start doing, there's other somatic practices you can do like grounding or just tracking different things going on with your physical body. You can start rubbing your hands together, getting out of your head and into your body will change how you are, you know, basically functioning because you're going from inside of those thoughts and the mind racing and putting it into the the physical body, which is a great place to be when you're trying to calm your nervous system down. Last but not least, regulation of the autonomic nervous system. So again, these various breath work techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing, which is through your diaphragm, very focused on breathing in and out of the diaphragm and paced breathing. I do a lot of that with my clients can influence that part of the nervous system. And this can lead to a better balance between this sympathetic, which is that fight or flight.
Speaker 1: (08:40)
You know what I mean? I'm always the fight person. Unfortunately if something's coming at me, I'm going right back at it, right? But there's also that flight side. I have a friend they actually used to call us fight and flight. I was always like, what is it? I'll take care of it. I'll protect y'all. Little scrappy do as my husband calls me and my friend was flight, like she just doesn't like anything that's just not totally calm. It freaks her out and she shuts down. So she just disappear. Like you'd be like, where did she go? Where did that woman go? And then I'm there with my scrappy dupal, right? But that's the sympathetic part of the system. And then the S parasympathetic is the rest and digest. So these are the branches of that nervous system. So this balance is crucial for your overall health.
Speaker 1: (09:34)
So you've got to be having a balance of both of these helping to reduce, get this, y'all get this helps reduce chronic inflammation, which is one of the biggest part of our modern world as like as far as health goes, there's so much inflammation from diet, from stress. That nervous system, when it is all crazy and chaotic, it throws our system off and it causes chronic inflammation. So this can help promote the healing process within the body. And I think that's freaking epic and I love it. And I love this work. I'm so excited to be getting deeper into this myself as I go through my certification. So I can definitely touch on this stuff I do with my clients. Like I said, if you want to work with me, do some coaching, do some breath breathwork, do other modalities of energy healing, please look at the different packages I have in my show notes.
Speaker 1: (10:36)
And also you can always email me at fierce Mama C at Gmail, that is in my show notes as well. And breathwork really is a great supplement if you're in therapy, if you're doing coaching, if you're just on a healing journey trying out different things to see what works best for you, it's a great thing to explore. And with like talk therapy coaching, it's really a good, good supplement to get the healing from the body out. Almost that sounded weird like where we we're a weird transformer, but all the talking and coaching and motivation, like there is a lot of great things happening there. I see it with my own clients, but I wanted to start adding this deeper layer so we can also in parallel be really going deep and heal from the inside out while we are doing a little of the coaching therapy.
Speaker 1: (11:25)
So I'm so excited to be kind of doing the shift. So any feedback from you guys on things you would like to see me cover on here on this podcast, please email me again in the show notes. Um, and a reminder, if you have health concerns, please consult with your doctor before incorporating breath work into your practice just to make sure you're all good. If you're a typical healthy person, obviously you wanna go in slow and you don't wanna do the, the really deep fast breaths like right away. In my experience, I did that right away. 'cause I'm always like, look at me, I'm gonna jump in everything I do. I like to like really dive in and I did a little too fast. I didn't like pass out or anything, but I was like, I think that I feel a little bit lightheaded. So definitely go in slow, work your way up.
Speaker 1: (12:16)
If you're a typical healthy individual, if you do have health issues, talk to your doctor about how you can make breath work, work for you. There's definitely ways to do it. It's just gonna probably be slower, the pacing, maybe building up very slowly, but that is not my specialty. So I would like you to check in with your doctor if you do have those special health conditions. Okie dokie. Anyway, I love you guys. I'm so excited for, I don't know, life . No, I'm excited to introduce you to this modality. If you have not heard of it before. Most most of us have heard of breathing. That's a thing. But breath work as in really being a healing tool. I'm just, I'm just so excited and fascinated by how beneficial it can be. So I will talk to you in the next episode of, but still Sheath Rises. Let's Hands to Heart It. We're gonna do a couple affirmations here. If you're on the road, do not put your hands on your heart, please keep 'em on the wheel unless you're in an Uber . All right, let's take a deep breath in through the nose and out one more through the nose and out.
Speaker 1: (13:36)
I can heal myself. Repeat after me. I am healing every day. Last one, KA, I'm a queen. Alright, Queens, I love you. Keep that chin up. You are doing an amazing job. It is holiday season if you're listening to this live, and the narcissists come out full-blown. So be prepared. Let me know if you need my support, message me or sign up for one of my packages and I'll talk to you soon. Smooches Andes.