Scott Schwenk: wake up, grow up, clean up, show up. How I breathe = how I live. Am I in the present moment, embodied? Soften the body through the breath. Receive the breath, be breathed by life. Breathe love to self, others.
Lisa McNett: OneBreathInstitute.com. Breath tunes us into our needs: what wants to move or open? Breathe into tight spaces. Pause, breathe, ask, listen.
Stephen Porges: breathwork & polyvagal theory. When we’re triggered, do self-care. Our physiological state determines how we react to the world. When we’re bombarded with threat cues, we shut down. Calmness improves relationships. Cues of safety include: calmness of the other person, music, melodic voices. When we move and breathe, can process more feelings. We all need to feel safe with others. Synchronous breathing bonds people. Remove cues of threat and replace with cues of safety. Humming, singing stimulate the vagus nerve.
Dan Siegel: Intraconnection, expand me to we. “The splinter in the soul of humanity is the idea of separate self.” The self isn’t just in the body. The mind is larger than the brain. Indigenous language favors verbs more than nouns, while English has more nouns than verbs. Nouns give the “flimsy fantasy of certainty.” Seeing identity as an entity (noun), a solo self. In the quantum realm of universal reality, there are no nouns, no time; timelessness. See the self as a verb, a process. Awareness arises from the formless. Awareness of breath and regulating it help integration, both automatic and conscious. Breath awareness improves coherence and receptivity vs. reactivity. These lead to improved social engagement, interpersonal bonding, feeling of safety & wholeness. In mysticism, life-love-breath-energy are all the same. Conscious breath is embodied intraconnection.
Rollin McCraty, HeartMath: less than 10% of military budget could house and feed everyone on earth. In coherence, all parts of a complex system work harmoniously, efficiently, the whole is greater than the sum of parts. Electro-magnetic fields broadcast our emotions, and we detect others’. Our fields influence one another. Heart Rate Variability reflects our nervous system. High stress lowers our ability to sync with others and with the earth. 5 seconds inhale/5 seconds exhale is the rhythm of the heart-lung system. Ability to think clearly depends on our physiology. “The heart has a mind of its own.” Information sent from heart to brain affects perception and brain function. Cortex works better with coherence. The thalamus syncs the electrical activity of whole brain. “Pause, breathe, shift & lift.” Radiate heart qualities to self and others. Pause in the moment of stress or anger, also practice 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes before bed to help coherence become automatic.
R. Jahnke, OMD: Science of Breath. Chinese medicine and Ayurveda focus on internal disease-prevention. Massage heart and belly and breathe. 4-part breath: belly, chest, hold, exhale slowly. Activates decision making, strengthens brain plasticity. Or 5-part (hold breath after exhale, letting CO2 levels rise). Increased CO2 builds resiliency and raises nitric oxide, helps dilate alveoli and arteries.