What is the Difference Between Breathwork and Meditation?

Heal Your Body, Mind, and Spirit with Self-Healing

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 01:39:25 GMT

What Is Self-Healing?

Self-healing is the process of recovering from health issues.

Self-healing typically involves healing from emotional health problems, but it can also help you heal from physical health issues. Although the term "self-healing" isn't generally used in psychology, the process of healing from common mental health concerns like trauma, depression, and stress has been extensively studied.

So, how do you know if self-healing is right for you?

Maybe you've recently experienced career challenges that left you feeling stressed, or you're dealing with physical health issues. Self-healing can be a transformative experience for your mind, body, and soul.

It's something you can do when you're sick, well, or somewhere in between.

Self-healing might seem intimidating, but it's possible to heal yourself from wide-ranging physical and psychological issues. Whether you're healing from trauma, diving into spirituality, or looking to alleviate physical issues, healing can open new doors to self-discovery and self-exploration.

Here's everything you need to know to start the process of self-healing.

What is self-healing?

Simply put, self-healing is the process of healing yourself from physical or psychological health issues. In practice, self-healing utilizes tools to help your internal systems function better, heal faster, and recover on a deeper level.

During the self-healing process, you'll learn how to tune in to the needs of your body, mind, spirit, and soul so you can make smart choices—from eating a balanced diet and getting enough sleep to listening to your own intuition and leaving negative energy behind.

Whether you're recovering from mental health challenges or physical health issues, self-healing tools can help you achieve mental, physical, or spiritual wellness. Throughout the recovery process, you'll focus on peace, harmony, and love to eliminate distractions, accept your situation, and start healing.

Being able to have the ability to heal yourself with the right techniques is the most empowering experience you can have. Being able to look within to heal, instead of looking to others for healing is powerful!

Why is self-healing important?

Sometimes, physical and mental health issues can wreak havoc on your overall health. Mental health and physical health are closely intertwined , and research consistently contradicts traditional thinking surrounding mental health issues. Truth is, most health issues aren't purely physical or psychological—they affect your whole body.

That's where self-healing can transform your wellness. Eastern and ancient medical models have practiced integrated approaches to healing for thousands of years. Chances are, you've witnessed your body's own ability to heal itself from small cuts. It's easy to think "this will heal itself" when you're dealing with a physical health issue, but your body is capable of so much more.

When you tune in to your body with the intention to heal, you can improve your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Even if you're not dealing with intense physical or psychological issues, self-healing can be a helpful skill in everyday life. After all, we've all struggled with baggage from past emotional or physical challenges, and we can all benefit from self-healing tools. Self-healing can help with wide-ranging issues, including:

Chronic pain
Stress
Anxiety and depression
Trauma (physical and emotional)
Grief
Old beliefs/old stories

5 Ways to Practice Self-Healing

Starting the self-healing process can feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. It's important to heal at your own pace and remind yourself that recovery isn't always linear. It's completely normal (and expected) to face some bumps along the way—it's an inevitable part of the process.

When you're ready to dedicate time and effort to self-healing practices, here are some realistic ways to incorporate self-healing into your everyday life.

That said, self-healing typically offers greater benefits to self-motivated people. When you take time to practice self-healing in your daily life, you'll reap the benefits of holistic wellness. It takes time, effort, and dedication to build a new skill—and self-healing is no different. In other words, you'll need to dedicate effort to the self-healing process before you start seeing results.

1. Clear your mind daily.

Meditation is free and therapeutic, and daily meditation practices can transform your perspective during the self-healing process. This can be in the form of simple mindful thinking in a dark room, morning meditation in bed, or quick guided meditation exercises at the office. If you're not sure where to start, try following guided meditation apps to live a stress-free lifestyle.

If you're new to meditation, try starting with five minutes of morning meditation each day. Morning meditation can help you keep your inner peace and build resilience. It's an amazing tool to prepare yourself for the day ahead, and research even shows that regular meditation can rewire the resting brain in favor of more positive thoughts and emotions.

Dedicating effort toward morning meditation can help you tune in to your body, mind, and spirit. And remember: If you're just starting, it's not always realistic to quiet your mind right away. Instead of fighting your thoughts, let them flow without giving them too much attention. Invite them in, notice them, and let them leave. In today’s world with all the craziness and chaos, meditation is hard and can take some time to master. We call it a practice, because as you practice, it does get easier. You will notice that on some days it seems to come more naturally and other days it just seems impossible to fine a quiet space in your mind.

2. Explore breathwork.

With regular practice, breathwork can be an incredibly powerful healing tool. It's an active meditation technique that uses breath to eliminate negative emotional energy from your body. It's one of the best ways to emotionally detox, especially if you're holding emotional baggage from a traumatic experience. You can use it daily to energize your body, improve your mood, and connect with your body on a deeper level.

With some forms of breathwork, you can practice it wherever you want—in the garden, in the office, or even in front of the TV. Once you tap into your body and find space between inhaling and exhaling, you might even feel some vibrations as your energy starts flowing.

If you're new to breathwork, try starting with the traditional 4-7-8 breathing method . To start, breathe in through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, and exhale out of your mouth for eight seconds. After you've got the pattern down, repeat this sequence at least four times. This type of breathing is a focus style breathing to help calm the mind and relax the body.

As you inhale, imagine the grounded energy of the earth flowing through your body. Then, hold your breath, harnessing the air in the center of your body. As you exhale through your mouth, imagine the negative energy coming out of your body.

If you are new to breathwork, there are many other types of breathing you can explore, like the style I teach, called conscious connected breathing. This type of breathwork therapy means that you inhale and exhale without taking a pause. All the work is done during the inhale and the exhale is a relaxed surrender. This style of breathing helps the body to heal itself without even having the knowledge of what you need to heal. The body has an innate ability to heal if you give it the proper input and breath is the input that can heal you. You can do this on your own or with a guided experience and is generally done to music with some emotion in the music.

3. Connect with nature.

Mindfulness involves drawing your attention to the present moment. It's a free, easy, powerful tool that you can use anywhere, anytime—and it's a surprisingly useful way to heal yourself from chronic pain, high stress levels, constant feelings of anxiety, and other health concerns.

To be more mindful, immerse yourself in nature. Remind yourself to take deep breaths throughout your meditation walk. As you progress, your movement and breath will sync up with each other, and you'll notice a greater sense of calmness and clarity.

Stretching your legs can also help stretch your mind. If you're prone to anxiety, consider using a guided meditation app to calm your thoughts. Walking near nature also helps keep your pressures in perspective, reminding yourself that there's a bigger world out there beyond whatever is causing you stress.

There is a name for getting out into nature and putting your hands or feet into the dirt, it is called earthing. The earth actually helps us to feel more grounded!

4. Try your hand at automatic writing.

Automatic writing can help you tune in to your body and make the most of your self-healing process. We live in a culture of "should," and your daily routine can distract you from listening to your own intuition about what you really need. Automatic writing can help you access your intuition so you can make the best choices for your body, mind, soul, and spirit.

To practice automatic writing, grab a fresh piece of paper and a pen.

Then, think of one area of your life that you'd like some guidance on. For example, if you're navigating relationship problems, you might focus on your relationship during your next automatic writing exercise. Write your question at the top of the page, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths. Think about your question and start writing whatever comes to mind. Don't edit, judge, or question your writing—just keep going until you're done.

5. Break out of your daily routine.

You can eat a balanced diet, get regular exercise, and practice regular meditation, but when something weighs heavy on the heart, you might feel like something isn't quite right. True wellness happens when your mind, body, soul, and spirit all work in harmony to create the life you desire.

When any emotional or physical health issues interrupt your wellness, they can be pervasive. Left ignored, these issues can seep into every aspect of your life, from your relationships to your career.

When you're facing emotional distress, it's normal to feel like you're all alone—but that couldn't be further from the truth. Support is available, and healing retreats can provide invaluable guidance and self-discovery. Through a healing retreat, you can gain fresh new insights and perspectives to overcome the emotional blocks in your life.

In turn, you'll open the doors for self-healing so you can start living the life you deserve.

Start Your Self-Healing Journey

Your healing journey starts with self-exploration and supportive guidance. When you're ready to start living the life you deserve, Dr. Jill Paisley can help you live a pain-free life with compassionate one-on-one healing sessions. Dr. Jill offers both in-person and virtual sessions so you can practice self-healing and self-discovery from the comfort of your own home.

Ready to take the first step toward holistic wellness with self-healing?

Work directly with Dr. Jill to start exploring a pain-free life. Receive the free eBook 5 Steps Closer To A Doctor Free Me here!

What Is Breathwork and How Do You Do It?

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 01:39:24 GMT

Breathwork is an active form of meditation.

By practicing breathwork, we can disconnect from the mind and focus on the present moment. As we breathe out any thoughts, beliefs, and actions that don't support healing, we return to wholeness. In this way, daily breathwork practices can help us build resilience to handle stress, anxiety, depression, and other wellness concerns.

There are multiple breathwork techniques, each with a unique purpose and effect on the body. When you're physically or emotionally stressed, breathwork can help reduce your stress levels and rebalance your mind.

By calming the body's innate fight-or-flight response, breathwork can help you kickstart your journey toward holistic wellness.

Whether you're navigating past trauma or looking to promote relaxation, breathwork can make all the difference in your daily life.

In this post, we'll explore:

the meaning of breathwork
why it's beneficial
essential techniques for practicing

What Is Breathwork?

Breathwork, an active form of meditation, describes any type of breathing exercise. The clinical definition of breathwork is the conscious control of deep breathing, a technique used in relaxation and meditative practices to ease psychological stress.

Many people practice breathwork to improve their mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. During breathwork practice, you intentionally change your breathing pattern while focusing on the present moment.

There are several forms of breathwork that all involve breathing in a conscious, connected way. Breathwork stems back to ancient spiritual traditions and Eastern wellness practices. Many modern breathing techniques have originated from traditional yoga practices based on pranayama, or the regulation of breath through conscious practices.

To get an idea of how breathwork can calm you down, try changing the ratio of your inhale to exhale.

This is a common practice that helps reduce stress. When you take shorter inhale breaths, your heart rate speeds up. When you take longer exhale breaths, it slows down.

Breathing in for a count of four and breathing out for a count of eight can help calm your nervous system. Remember: When you're feeling anxious, focus on lengthening your exhales.

Why Is Breathwork Important?

For many people, breathwork boosts feelings of relaxation and relieves anxiety. The practice primarily focuses on transforming the mental state through breathing. Regular breathwork practitioners believe that breathwork can help treat mental health concerns, helping people manage depression, addiction, and low self-esteem. Some people have said that an hour of breathwork feels like years of therapy!

How does breathwork improve our mental health? Although there are hundreds of breathwork techniques, the healing mechanism in breathwork remains the same: The mind-body connection. When you have a stressful situation or traumatic experience, if you don’t allow the body to complete the stress cycle, that stressor gets trapped in your body. Breathwork helps to complete that stress cycle and release it from your body.

In 1975, Harvard physician, Herbert Benson, discovered the relaxation response—the body's stress-countering mechanism within the parasympathetic nervous system. Benson's research revealed that you could use relaxation techniques, such as meditation, to calm the body's innate stress response.

By changing the rhythm of your bre ath, you send relaxation signals to the brain, which slows your heart rate and stimulates the vagus nerve in your parasympathetic nervous system. As a result, your nervous system helps you start to relax, promoting your ability to think rationally.

5 Breathwork Techniques for Self-Healing

Unlike traditional meditation where we're aware of our mental noise, breathwork helps us disconnect from the mind and reconnect with the body. From this elevated state of awareness, we can take steps to heal, grow, and tune in to our deeper selves.

You can practice breathwork on your own, or you can try structured breathing techniques as part of a formal program. When you're ready to start incorporating breathwork into your daily routine, here are some beginner-friendly techniques to try.

1. Alternate Nostril Breathing

Alternate nostril breathing is a popular breathing technique in traditional yoga. In Sanskrit, this type of breathing is called nadi shodhana pranayama, which translates to "subtle energy clearing breathing technique." You can integrate alternate nostril breathing into your regular yoga practice or practice this technique alone to help clear your mind.

To practice this technique, start by placing one hand over your nose, with your thumb hovering above one nostril and a finger hovering over the other nostril. Then, hold one nostril shut and slowly inhale through the other. Take a moment to pause once you're done inhaling, pinch that nostril shut, and slowly exhale through the other nostril. After you're finished exhaling, pause and inhale through the same nostril, repeating the process again before exhaling.

2. Rapid Breathing

Two rapid breathing techniques are commonly used in yoga practice: The breath of fire and bellows breathing. Simply put, rapid breathing techniques are controlled breathing practices performed to improve digestion and respiratory health. Although they're the opposite of slow, deep breathing, they can have wide-ranging benefits on the brain and body.

During rapid breathing, you should increase your rate of respiration to approximately 100 breaths per minute. However, your breathing shouldn't be shallow, and you should breathe with equally intentional inhalation and exhalation. This involves the fast movement of the diaphragm by moving your abdominal and chest muscles.

3. Box Breathing

Box breathing, also called four-square breathing, involves exhaling to the count of four, holding your lungs empty for another count of four, and inhaling to the count of four. Then, you'll hold air in your lungs for a count of four before exhaling and starting the process again.

If you don't feel like counting, you can use positive affirmations to guide your breathing. For example, you can try syncing affirmative words with your breath that match the count of four. As you're inhaling and exhaling, you might think of a phrase with four syllables, like "I'm here right now."

As one of the most popular breathwork techniques, you can use box breathing to manage stressors and build resilience in your daily life. Box breathing works by distracting your mind as you focus on breathing, calming your nervous system, and reducing stress in your body. You might also find that box breathing helps you clear your mind, ground yourself, and focus on the present moment.

4. Rebirthing Breathwork

Stemming from the belief that people hold subconscious memories of childbirth, which is an emotionally traumatic experience, rebirthing breathwork follows specific breathing techniques performed in water. Similar to holotropic breathwork, rebirthing techniques are often performed as part of a dedicated program, such as Rebirthing Breathwork International.

Rebirthing breathwork often uses the conscious energy breathing (CEB) technique. During rebirthing work, you'll practice "circular breathing," which involves quick breaths without any pauses between inhalation and exhalation. In structured rebirthing breathwork classes, you'll perform this technique for 1–2 hours, taking breaks if you need to.

5. Wim Hof Breathing Method

Typically performed to enhance wellness and connection to the natural world, the Wim Hof breathing method uses meditation and conscious breathing in cold conditions. If you're new to breathwork, you can learn the Wim Hof method by taking structured courses online or using a guided meditation app. Once you've mastered the basics, you can practice on your own or join structured breathwork activities with others.

Like other breathing techniques, the Wim Hof method offers several health benefits. The combination of breathwork and cold exposure helps the body reduce inflammation, helping the body start the self-healing process. The Wim Hof method can also promote lower blood pressure, improved energy, and heightened focus.

Start Your Wellness Journey With Dr. Jill

Breathwork is an essential step in your journey toward mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. Once you've incorporated some beginner-friendly breathwork techniques into your daily life, it's time to take the next step into self-exploration. The type of breathwork Dr. Jill teaches is different from the ones listed above and is called conscious connected breathing and her specific breathwork is called Deeper Vitality Breathwork. This breathwork is all done with an open mouth and it is two breaths in and one breath out with continuous breathing. This means no pause between the two inhales and one exhale. The work is done on the inhales and the exhale is a surrendering of the breath. It is a belly breath, chest breath and a relaxed exhale. With this style of breathwork, the breather has to put in a little bit of work to create massive positive transformation, helping to clear all the things out of your system that no longer serve you. Helping you to live as your highest self. Clearing out the past and making room for new and exciting things is the key to this style of breathwork. After that work, the participant has a new feeling of relaxation and vitality!

When you're ready to take the next step toward holistic wellness, Dr. Jill can help you start healing with compassionate one-on-one sessions. Dr. Jill offers customized in-person and live virtual healing sessions so you can step into vitality from the comfort of your own home.

Work directly with Dr. Jill to start living the life you deserve and step into who you were meant to be.

Down the free eBook on 5 Steps Closer to a Doctor Free Me!

PRACTICE BREATHWORK TODAY!

What is Deeper Vitality

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 17:19:58 GMT

Vi·tal·i·ty: a state of being strong and active or energy. That can certainly mean many different things for everyone.

I believe having a vital life means more than just being strong and active. Having a vital life means doing something that matters as a contribution to the world, having deep meaningful connections with people in the world, as well as a deep connection within yourself. Vitality also means feeding your body with healthy organic foods, being active physically with something that feeds you and connects you with others or yourself.

Vitality also means having a strong spiritual connection with something that is greater than yourself. That strong spiritual connection can be obtained by organized religion, meditation, breathwork, nature, exercise or any other way that makes you feel connected with the universe.

A person that is deeply vital is vibrant because their energy is flowing freely, and they have happiness and fulfillment.

Here are 10 things you could do to feel deeply vital:

Meditate. Meditation removes your “chatter brain”, it disconnects your body from what you think about in every moment, allowing your body to rest in a waken state. A rested body and mind create clarity, and clarity creates mindfulness contentment.
Create Connection. Have a conversation with the person in the grocery store line and really see them, smile at them. Call a friend you haven’t seen in some time or listen to music. Music is such a powerful communication tool, just think of all the time and effort that went in to creating a piece of music and imagine all that intent now focused on you as it fills your ears with that mood.
Share A Meal. Prepare organic food with friends or family and enjoy good conversation.
Breathwork. Conscious connected breathing or breathwork once every day, this helps you to keep present in your life and helps you pay attention, so you don’t miss any of the good.
Sleep. Get good rest, sleep well
Earthing. Get dirty! This process connects you to the earth and brings your electromagnetic field within the best level.
Exercise. This can be gardening, cleaning the house, running, walking, yoga, weights, cardio or any other kind of movement that brings you joy (dancing, etc).
Play! We think that as adults this is frivolous and childish, but even adult animals play and frolic. This can be word games, pickleball, tennis, board games, acting silly, making up a silly song, or being playful with loved ones, (even complete strangers!).
Turn Off. Take a break from electronics, especially your phone and your television. Getting away from these things that have a much higher electromagnetic field (EMF) is good for your own EMF, most critically, at least an hour before sleep time.
Swap out the Cup. Take a break from caffeine and replace it with water or green tea. Caffeine is a diuretic (making you dehydrated), and depletes your vitality, replacing with water can help to plump up your cells and push toxins (think stress) out of your body.

The reason that I have called my healing process DEEPER VITALITY is that the journey through self-healing is different for everyone, undoing a lifetime of dis-ease takes as much effort as was put in, having created it in the first place.

But know this, what is vital to each one of us is exactly the SAME, we all want to feel heard, understood, loved, safe and happy.

Exploring your own healing can be a fun and interesting journey and put you in the driver’s seat of your own health, emotionally and physically. As you navigate through it, you will learn things about yourself both good and bad, the yin and yang of life. We all have it, no exceptions. As you go through this experience, you will find the things that make you feel deeply vital.

Those things will be the things that you continue to do to create that vital life that all of us strive for.

Lastly, take it to ELEVEN!

Number 11 should be to add journaling to your list of simple adaptations in your life to create Deeper Vitality. Begin journaling your experiences after breathwork, or when you wake up, or after exercising, and you will discover more about yourself than you will believe.

It will help you discover the things that resonate with the inner-you. Your inner-you knows the issues at hand and knows how to heal you. It’s often our outer-self that keeps us from this natural state of fulfillment.

-Dr. Jill Paisley

Download the free 5 Steps Closer to a Doctor Free Me eBook!

The Journey of Self-Healing

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 17:49:38 GMT

What is the Deeper Vitality Health Curve?

We started out perfect in every way. A guiltless bundle of light energy placed in a body and delivered with nothing but hope. Whether we were born physically healthy or not, we have the potential to live life with full vitality.

As we go through life, things happen to us, physically, mentally, and emotionally that traumatize us.

You injure your shoulder or your knee in a sports activity, you were teased by your peers when you were in middle school or there were some other traumas that you went through in your life.

That is the nature of living….

If we deal with them at the time, we stay in good health and therefore have vitality. The reality is we aren’t given the tools to navigate these happenings as they happen. We think we have dealt with them or put them away, or healed from them, but in fact they linger.

As we have traumas or injuries that we do not deal with, our body, mind and spirit develop less vitality and end up on the right side of a bell curve, where we are managing our health, but are not truly well and vital. We call this dis-ease.

If we have even an ounce of self-awareness, we try to repair ourselves, often through symptom chasing, like using medication, visiting the doctor, seeking alternative therapies like chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, physical therapy, going to yoga, or the gym, or any other number of treatments.

These treatments are great and very helpful in moving you towards wellness. If you’ve found success in one or all these treatments, you have succeeded in the first step of self-healing, and that is active self-care.

For many of us, however, we find some pillars of progress, but fall back into old habits, old aches and pains return, and we learn to live with it. It’s just our new normal. I like to call it, The “I’m Not Twenty Anymore” game, or “The That Used to Work Fine Yesterday” game. The process of aging will get us all, but we can travel back through our physical and emotional traumas and reach a deeper sense of comfort. And we don’t even have to know what the origin of that original discomfort was!

You know her, the successful acquaintance that is so successful in her life, a seemingly great job, physically fit, glamorous vacations, and fancy events fill their social media profiles. This is the plastic world we associate with our happiness, and our reality, (and none of us post about the bad days, or our inner struggles). Just look at our kids, glued to their phones and asking a search engine to tell them something as opposed to real research. Critical thinking is gone, a casualty of technology.

Run faster and you will be successful. Don’t cry and toughen up if you want to be successful. Rub some dirt on it and move forward! It’s so frustrating to watch the cycle of dis-ease in motion, but all of us do it. I do it.

We don’t want to believe that our medical doctor isn’t our knight in shining armor, and that our therapist isn’t our guru, and your spouse can’t fix it. The fact is, no one is coming to save you. OUCH!

The only way to feel better, and create the life you deserve is to walk back through your journey yourself, but man that sounds horrible, doesn’t it?

Meet the Deeper Vitality Health Curve.

The top left side is our birthday, happy birthday!

Wellness: Even if born with some form of disease or physical or mental disabilities, we are born as pure light energy, pure hope, and beauty. We don’t have any of our own self designed imperfections, just pure energy. Science has begun to show evidence that there is a possible genetic component to embodied trauma we are born with. Meaning, it is possible to show up on this earth with the trauma of our ancestors embedded in our DNA/RNA.

The depth of this research warrants another blog post about it specifically, but I can say that I have had this experience myself, and I have seen it in clinical practice. Sometimes brushed aside as a predisposition to something, addiction, or a personality trait, those of us that suffer from anxiety, depression, or chronic pain can be suffering from something that happened to our parents or grandparents.

I’m not talking some sort of woo-woo past life stuff here, I’m talking about the ability of our bodies to physically change on a cellular level based on life trauma. So, if your grandfather, for example, is a war veteran, his physical and emotional trauma suffered during those times can be passed down through RNA changes into your parent, and their now altered RNA is passed on to you. That’s fantastic, on all levels.

Enter the elements of living your life: As the bell curve starts to ascend, we are experiencing life as a human, with all of it’s ups and downs. Chronic stiff neck from a fender bender at age 18, carpel tunnel from a repetitive work task, chronic headaches from god only knows what, troubled sleep from real life emotional stress, and then fatigue sets in.

We sleep less, work harder, rub more dirt on it and try to get ahead. What we are doing is boarding the train to sickville. Our 20’s and 30’s are vibrant times of emotional and physical growth, and we are ill-equipped to deal with it. Such it is being human after all.

So the pile gets bigger and bigger, and our body can take only so much, and it being as intelligent as it is, it begins giving us symptoms, signals to stop and heal ourselves.

Ignore the Signs and Pay the Price, should be the name of the top of the bell curve. It often isn’t until we hit bottom that we seek help. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Now we have real physical manifestations of our injured beings to deal with. We are sick, but we press on. Get the promotion, get the house, get the family, get that vacation, get sicker.

Take the Pill. Coming down that curve we try everything to elevate the symptoms of dis-ease. All of them are well intentioned and fantastic remedies on their own.

Medications, physical therapies, mental therapies, doctors, gurus, and meditation retreats. We chip away at the dis-ease so we can press on, keep going. But look at that journey we’ve already been through, look at the timeline. Birth, to trauma to sick to remedy. But we aren’t any better off for it. We are still tired, still jealous of our acquaintance with the perfect life, but now we have kids and a career, and we just want to get to a point where we can rest. We want to be dis-ease free and are in a constant state of managing our health.

I say this as an absolute truth.

Vi tality is NOT the absence of pain.

Read it again and take a minute.

I saw the effects of people managing their health on the far right of Graph 1 every day in my clinical practice. I developed other treatment modalities to try and help people through why their pain levels were not going down, and yet new symptoms were cropping up.

I added nutritional, reiki, and meditation components to my practice, trying desperately to help people help themselves through this cycle of dis-ease. Nothing brings me more discomfort than seeing a regular patient present with new, and worsening symptoms of disease, like cancer, heart trouble and other disfunctions.

But you, and they, can get back to the left side of that bell curve. It’ll be a little bit of work, and there is no pill for it. You can self-heal. You can learn to use breath work to reset everything from your grandfathers RNA to your envy over someone else’s life.

And literally all you must do is freaking b r e a t h e.

When you are searching for vitality in your life you work back through those traumas that you have experienced and clear them out. Putting you back onto the left side of the bell curve in the healthy state. Breath work allows you to work through all trauma and heal. It’s not hard, you are literally just breathing.

Now start to the right on Graph 2 and read backwards through the steps. These are the same as the steps in Graph 1, except you’ve added a regular breath work practice to the process. You are in control of this, you are your knight in shining armor. YOU are coming to save YOU.

You may feel worse before you feel better, as you see at the peak in Graph 2, because you are really unraveling the deepest components of why you were in dis-ease. But you don’t have to know what all those components are, the breath work will dislodge them for you.

All you must do is show up and freaking breathe.

You can still do your yoga, exercise, reiki, acupuncture, chiropractic, whatever helps the symptoms as you heal, but at the core it is your breath work that will be the ship in the water. It will carry you through and see you back to the other side.

Vitality is NOT the absence of pain.

Vitality is feeling worthy, being grateful, and living a life of intent.

- Dr. Jill Paisley

The Difference Between Breathwork and Meditation

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 01:39:25 GMT

Mar 29, 2023

Are meditation and breathwork the same thing?

Many styles of meditation include breathing within its practice. In fact, there are styles of meditation that include breathing to help quiet the mind so that your meditation practice is easier to do. It helps to focus the mind as well as quiet the mind. Meditation helps to create mindfulness (think Taking the Time To Just BE) and stay more present in your life.

Here are the 5 most common types of meditation:

Mindfulness Mediation – means being aware of yourself, in the moment, your thought pattern etc. Once you develop a meditation practice, then this awareness can translate into your daily life. It slows down the pace of life and enriches each moment. You can be mindful in everyday activities such as when you are brushing your teeth, doing the dishes or eating. Like all meditations, this practice helps to create a sense of presence in your life.
Body Scan Meditation – This practice helps one to feel more relaxed. You start with a deep breath in and out and focus on your feet, notice them resting on the ground and relax them, you would move up to the legs doing the same thing all the way up to your head. Noticing any tension or tingles, even pain in your body helps to release it.
Walking Meditation – This meditation is done in silence and you focus on your footsteps as they contact the ground. The heel strike, the rolling of the foot and the push off the toes. Sitting meditation is very difficult for some people, and walking meditation helps those who are prone to more activity.
Loving Kindness Meditation – You inhale and exhale and use the phrase “May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be safe”. Then you use that same phrase and think of another person, then using it again, you think about your community. Then it continues to the neighborhood, the city, the state, the world and the universe. This is spreading kindness to everything!
Transcendental Meditation – This style of meditation is done with a phrase or mantra. Something as simple as OM or I am worthy. These phrases or mantras are there to bring awareness, just like breathing does.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the emotional and physical benefits of meditation can include:

Gaining a new perspective on stressful situations
Building skills to manage stress
Increasing self-awareness
Focusing on the present
Reducing negative emotions
Increasing imagination and creativity
Increasing patience and tolerance
Lowering resting heart rate
Lowering resting blood pressure
Improving sleep quality

Let’s face it, meditation is hard, quieting you mind is like not thinking of a pink elephant. Because one uses their mind to quiet their mind, and it can feel counterintuitive. I am a meditation teacher and when I first started practicing, I found it very difficult to quiet down the monkey mind.

So, what is breathwork then?

Breathwork has many different styles that might include yogic breathing (including Pranayama), Shamanic Breathwork, Transformational Breathwork, Holotropic Breathwork, Rebirthing Breathwork, Wim Hof Breathwork, box breathing or counting breaths, Circular Breathwork, Conscious Connected Breathwork, and more.

How do all these different types of breathwork differ? Here are the 6 main styles of breathwork that are the most popular.

Holotropic Breathwork – This is one of the most popular styles of breathing. It is done as a fast breathing and the sessions are much longer than most. It generally is an all-day workshop and if you want to practice it regularly, there is a serious time commitment. With everyone’s busy schedules, I’m not sure this is practical for most people.
Shamanic Breathwork – This is a guided circular breathingtechnique incorporating the use of breath retention and toning (making the sounds of the chakras) where participants lay down whilst listening to tribal music or drumming and is guided by a facilitator. It is very ceremonial with crystals and incense to clear the space before the practice.
Rebirthing Breathwork – This is one of the oldest and most recognized methods of breathwork. This is the very first experience I had with breathwork. It was a good experience for me, but the instructor did not explain everything that I might experience and the unknown is always scary. I did the rebirthing clothed, but there are some rebirthing done in pool without clothes and this could turn some people off.
Transformational Breathwork – I have found that all breathwork is transformational and in this style, there are also included making long sounds while breathing or taping (a slapping your hands and feet on the floor). I don’t feel this is needed to have a transformation.
Wim Hof Method – This gentleman is the most popular Breathwork teacher currently because of some of his eccentric actions, like being in extreme cold with only his shorts on. He uses breath holds and usually 3 sets of 30 breaths instead of a continuous breathing (like the style of breathwork I do). He also combines breathwork with ice baths. This is hard to do in a class and hard to get people to participate. Personally, I don’t even like getting into a cold pool.
Conscious Connect Breathwork – This is the style of breathwork that I teach.

This practice is purposefully connecting your inhale to your exhale. This is 2 breaths in and one breath out without a pause between the inhale and exhale and is all done with an open mouth. I chose to teach this style of Breathwork because it was the most powerful in creating positive change I had out of every method I tried. From the very first session, I felt a difference right away. I have gone to therapy and really didn’t know what was interfering with how I interfaced with the world and with this type of breathing, I felt like I had been in therapy for years after that very first session. And I noticed that each session can be different from the previous one, allowing for more growth and expansion. It is absolutely life changing.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the benefits of breathwork include the following:

Muscle activity – when you breath into your diaphragm, it gives your accessory breathing muscles in you neck, shoulders and chest a chance to rest
Alkalizes you blood pH
Balances the autonomic nervous system – the rest and digest with the fight or flight

Also, from my experience, Conscious Connected Breathing stimulates the Vagus nerve (note, not the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” adage). This is the longest nerve in the body and it goes from the brain to many organs and organ systems in the body. By stimulating this nerve, you help those organs and organ systems function better. Also, certain types of breathwork help to release the past, helps you let go of old physical and emotional traumas that you hold in your body, it also helps to release anxiety, stress and depression. Breathwork also helps one to create a more purposeful life when you lay down to breathe with an intention. Meditation can also do all these things, but I find that breathwork does it more expediently than meditation.

Breathwork and meditation are both very beneficial for helping to live a more present life and so as a teacher of both, please find the one that works best for you and practice it daily.

I have seen people heal so much from just one session of breathwork. It does take a little bit of work but on the other side of that work there is something tremendous. I have healed from the feeling of being unworthy that I have had since I was a child. It has made me feel more fulfilled and peaceful than I have even been in my life. From my experiences treating patients for over 25 years, I have seen the toll that carrying around all these traumas can cause. The people that were the most stressed out, the most anxious and the most unhappy, they had the most chronic dis-eases and were sick more often, and they eventually succumb to serious illness like heart attacks, cancer, chronic colds, auto-immune disease.

None of us have gotten through our lives without some scars and struggles, and both meditation and breathwork are great ways to heal your life. They each take some work on your part, but having the power to heal yourself, to take control of your existence (by giving in to not having control) is the greatest gift you can receive.

And it’s just a breath away!

Though meditation and breathwork have similar potential outcomes, I find that meditation takes a little longer to obtain the same goal. It took me longer to be able to meditate than it did to practice breathwork, and breathwork helped me to release more things in a shorter amount of time. My professional and compassionate advice is to do the one that you will actually DO. If one suits you better and you get more joy out of it, and you develop a daily practice of it, then do THAT one.

It will make a world of difference in your life, I promise you.

Think you may be ready to take the first step toward holistic wellness with self-healing?

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