Mindfulness Session on Alternate Nostril Breathing

Speaker 1 0:00

Today is a very special surprise episode I wanted to drop in your feed to help you relax as we close out the year . This is a replay of a mindfulness session on alternate nostril breathing conducted by our very own Alan Friedman . It was done during the recent 21 day body recomp challenge , but I wanted to share it with everybody . If you want the video and you want to watch it live and see what he's doing with his hands that you can emulate , all you have to do is join our Facebook community , the Whits Wates Facebook community . The links are in the show notes , but you should still be able to perform this exercise from the audio alone . I left in all of the silence . I didn't shorten that here so that you could get the full , authentic experience . If you hear long seconds , many seconds of silence , that is intentional . I hope this finds you well . I hope this brings you peace , joy , relaxation as we close out 2023 or whenever you're listening to this , and enjoy the episode .

Speaker 1 1:05

Welcome to the Whits Wates podcast . I'm your host , philip Pape , and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger , optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition . We'll uncover science-backed strategies for movement , metabolism , muscle and mindset , with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry , so you can look and feel your absolute best . Let's dive right in . Mr Alan Friedman is a school psychologist for many years . He's a certified yoga instructor . He has additional certification in trauma sensitive yoga . He's been a spin instructor and , of course , he's an avid lifter and member of our community learning , learning and growing every day along with us . He is also a master with years of wisdom , in my opinion , and can take us through a very exciting moment here where you're going to learn and grow physically and mentally . So I'm going to turn it over to Alan . Alan , welcome .

Speaker 2 2:04

Hi , welcome , so good to be here . Whether you're here on the live or on the replay , this is a wonderful community . Okay , mindfulness really is being present in the moment . Essentially , it's really accepting what's going on around us with intention and awareness , and to be fully engaged in not only one's surroundings but what's happening inside of us , with non-judgmental , with a non-judgmental approach and with just an acceptance of what's happening and noticing it and observing . So part of mindfulness is saying oh and then being able to respond to that .

Speaker 2 2:50

So there are two types of nervous systems that are at play . I'm just going to review them very quickly . There's a sympathetic nervous system , which is typically fight and flight , and the parasympathetic nervous system , which is typically rest and digest . The fight and flight is a very evolutionary , very important nervous system because we have to respond to stress , we have to respond to safety , we have to respond to so many things in our lives to safeguard us , and it requires us to fight and flight . The opposite of that is maybe you've experienced after a heavy meal or when you're just about to go to sleep . The parasympathetic nervous system is rest and digest . It relaxes you and it's a calming type of nervous system where you're at peace and it's the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system where you're able to rest , digest and your body does the functioning of repair a lot of times during the parasympathetic state . So the key is for today is how are we going to switch between states of being ? So a lot of times we are appropriately aroused , we are appropriately under an appropriate level of stress , you may say , to help move us along , to learn , to challenge us , and then there are times where we just want to chill , where it's getting to be a little too much , we might become hyper-vigilant . We might be looking around us for inappropriately or too much , being so too aware of what's happening around us . It's called hyper-vigilance . You might have a sense of anxiety , you might have a sense of mental and physical unwellness that needs to kind of just kind of chill . So what we're going to be doing today is a way to kind of switch states of being , and it's not anything magical , it is so beautifully physiological that you're going to kind of get a sense of it , hopefully , today .

Speaker 2 5:02

So the next slide is going to illustrate the vagus system , the vagus nerve . The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve that starts from our brain , goes down towards our body , but importantly and I think this is very interesting personally that it affects the vocal cords and your breathing , your pharynx , your larynx , if you notice in the diagram . It kind of goes into your tongue and then it kind of descends all the way down into your organs , your heart , your lungs , your liver , your spleen , and then it really innervates the diaphragm area where your digestive organs are . And that is what we're going to focus on today . I think it's so cool because we can change our mind from our body up . So today we're going to be doing an exercise called alternate nostril breathing , which is going to affect this whole vagus system through breathing through our diaphragm . Diaphragmic breathing is not something that okay , it's good to do , it's healthy to do . There's an actual physical reaction that occurs . We innervate our vagus nerve Next slide .

Speaker 2 6:22

So when we activate our vagus nerve , when we become mindful , we can deal with stress around us a little better . As it says in this picture , in the photo , we attend and befriend our stress . We become aware of it , like Philip mentioned , we become present with it , we use our prefrontal cortex , we have our higher level thinking involved , we become engaged and curious and compassionate , whereas if the sympathetic nervous system is kicking in , all of our thought systems kind of shut down . We act instinctively . We may have a level of anxiety , we may feel helpless , we may not know how to problem solve at that point , or we may just be operating from a survival mode . So right now we're going to be delving into the vagus nerve .

Speaker 2 7:15

We're going to have a quick well , somewhat quick exercise and a little bit of breath work . This is going to be very different than the imaginary and breath work I did in the previous training , because this technique itself , I find , requires just the breath work to do the effect . So let's give it a try . So if you're righty or lefty , it doesn't matter , we're going to be closing the same nostril . So if you're right-handed , you're going to be starting off with your thumb on your right nostril . If you're left-handed , you're going to be starting off with your pinky or index finger on your right nostril and your thumb , if you're left-handed , will take care of the left nostril . So before we start , everyone get grounded .

Speaker 2 8:00

Sit in your chair , shoulders above your hips , hands down , relaxed , maybe lifting your fingers up in the air , wiggling them and then taking your toes , lifting them up in the air and then placing them back down from your pinky down to your big toe , lifting them up again , placing them back down and taking a nice deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth and if you notice any clogged nose , if you have an asthma or if you have any breathing issues , simply monitor your breath , go into a diaphragmic breath however you wish . Everyone has . You know you may have a cold or a sinus infection or something of that sort , so just kind of breathe in as best you can and the way you can . Okay .

Speaker 1 8:54

Another deep breath in through your nose .

Speaker 2 8:58

First thing , if your breath goes down to your belly , if it stops in your chest or stays in your throat , take another breath . Where does that column of breath end ? And maybe next time bring it down a little bit more into your belly and feel the diaphragm raise . If you've ever watched an infant breathe , their belly rises up and down . We want to kind of simulate that . And through your nose , maybe out through your nose this time , breathing in deeply , maybe inhaling for a count of three or four and exhaling as you wish .

Speaker 2 9:46

And now , if you want , you can close your eyes or maintain a slight gaze in front of you if you're not uncomfortable closing your eyes . Close your two fingers your index finger and middle finger , if you're a righty , if not , it's your other hand and cover your right nostril with your thumb . Breathe in through your left nostril . Close the left nostril with your ring finger or pinky . Open your right and exhale , and through the right , covering your left nostril , pinch the right nostril . Close , open the left Out . It goes . Try this in your own breath and through the left , close out through the right .

Speaker 2 10:44

Practice this yourself three times Right . Close the right , out the left . See if you can elongate the breath when you breathe in through your nostril . Can you breathe in a little deeper ? Can you start to access your diaphragm through the breath ? Come to rest with your fingers on your forehead .

Speaker 2 11:23

Now what I'd like for you to do is let's get a little deeper in this . Close your right nostril , breathe in through the left . Breathe in deeply . Let the air swirl into your forehead , into your nasal passages , down into your diaphragm , filling your belly with air . Close the left nostril out the right . Let it out slowly In through the right nostril . Feel the diaphragm with air . Close it out through the left . Breathe in deeply through the left nostril . Let the air swirl into your forehead , down into your diaphragm . Close the left and out the right .

Speaker 2 12:23

I'm going to give you a couple of minutes now to do this on your own , breathing in deeply , as deeply as you can to innervate your diaphragm , feeling the nostril opening the opposite one and out it goes . And whenever you're sufficiently relaxed and you feel like your practice could be over , gently open your eyes again , focus on your gaze and assess where you are now versus where you were three minutes ago . Has anyone affected a shift in themselves ? Philip , yes , okay . So what this is is where we are changing our mental status and our ability to kind of like , be mindful and focus , simply through changing our physiology , on nervous system , from the biggest nerve .

Closing Remarks and Invitation to Share

Speaker 1 14:22

Okay , and I wanted to end on a little bit of a quieter note following Alan's session , to be concluded with our outro music here . I really hope you are fulfilled and found what you are looking for from this . Feel free to share it with others . If you found it helpful , feel free to revisit it again and again . If you want to watch the video version of this , along with the slides and the training that he gave at the beginning , please join our Whits and Weights Facebook community . The link is in the show notes and I wish you a very happy new year . Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Whits and Weights . If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their Whits or Weights , please take a moment to share this episode with them and make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode . Until then , stay strong .