One of the most common questions I get is about the Wim Hoff Method vs breathing re-training. Let me start by saying all methods and techniques have a place and have their benefits. Just like the saying, many roads lead to the same destination. I just feel it's helpful to understand the conditions each path offers to make an informed decision on what works best for you.

It is my understanding Wim Hoff aims to create discomfort in the nervous system. His theory is, we have become too comfortable and therefore, have less resilience to stress. It's kind of like exposure therapy where you expose yourself to small amounts of stress to build up a tolerance. I think of this approach as stimulating the nervous system prior to relaxing it.  This is fine if you have reserve in your nervous system.

However, if you are someone who feels burnt out, living life on a hamster wheel or treadmill you can't get off of, I question if increased stress is appropriate for you? For those of us with a tendency to have a heightened sympathetic drive (yes this is my tendency too) the capacity to withstand additional stress when you're already constantly stressed seems counterproductive. Breathing Re-training is for you guys! The premise and safety precaution is comfort. This ensures whether you're hyperactive or hypoactive you obtain balance. A stressed out nervous system needs to calm down before it can tolerate more stress. I haven't seen evidence about the importance of the intentional stress component in those who are in sympathetic overdrive. The studies are relatively new about the Wim Hoff Method.

Similarities:

• Both are forms of carbon dioxide tolerance training
• Both alter the immune response in the body
• Both alter mood

Differences:

• Wim Hoff Method aims to achieve a level of discomfort (pins and needles/numbness in periphery, dizzy sensations) where as breathing re-training is based on the principle, complete comfort is key
• Wim Hoff Method is good at stimulating sympathetic drive and resilience to stress where as breathing re-training is more aimed at stimulating parasympathetic drive and allowing the body to achieve balance (more resilience and/or more comfort)
• Wim Hoff Method is a sudden shift in blood chemistry that likely has a long lasting effect over time. Breathing re-training aims to stabilise blood chemistry gently over time to produce long lasting change. 
• Wim Hoff Method focuses on dumping large volumes of carbon dioxide and replenishing them with long breath holds. Breathing re-training focuses on gently reducing irregular volumes of carbon dioxide loss using gentle pauses to replenish as indicated.

For people who are already worn out and stressed to the eye balls it makes sense to me that breathing exercises be aimed at reducing sympathetic drive and gently promoting the soothing sister rest and digest. Think about Wim's personality. He is super energetic and enthusiastic to the point of seeming a little wired at times. Do you need more of this in your life or do you need to learn how to rest?

If you would like to learn more check out page four of the breathing questionnaire, book an appointment or follow along on IG @zephyr.movement for loads of free tips about hacking your physiology and nervous system. 

Top four reasons why I fell in love with hypnotherapy:

1. Promotes relaxed nervous system 
For those of us stuck in the grind and hustle of life, relaxation can feel like a foreign concept. Even when we are 'chilling' we are thinking of all the things we should be doing or feeling guilty about taking the time to rest. The process of inducing trance (hypnotic state) essentially tricks the mind into relaxing. There are several different techniques hypnotherapists can use to bypass the busy mind and crack open your peaceful and relaxed state. Um... yes please!

2. Maximises a theta state for good (not evil)
If you are someone who loves to zone out whilst watching tv, one of the reasons you love it is because it allows your brain to enter into a theta wave state. It is a slower wave that enables the subconscious mind to be more suggestible. Hence, why tv advertising is so effective. They get us in a theta wave state and then convince us we need this food or that product to achieve the affect they are advertising. Other examples of theta wave states are hypnotic trance, meditation, day dreaming, fixing your gaze to the point the vision softens or driving somewhere automatically. Hypnotherapy offers us the opportunity to choose what we program into our subconscious. The place that drives all our decisions, behaviours and beliefs. Not to mention that in this slower brain wave state, the rate of healing is sped up x3! Who doesn't want to respond, react and show up in the world a little better than they did yesterday? 

3. Opens creative mind
We spend so much of our time in our logical minds. Analysing, critically evaluating, making decisions and making sense of our day to day experiences. Theres a reason why creative things like music, art, writing and dancing are fun. We get to use a different part of our brains and release feel good chemicals like oxytocin and seretonin. Using the more creative parts of our brain to balance out all this logical thinking can promote a greater sense of wellbeing and balance. The same side of our brains that look after creativity also involve emotional processing. Therefore, hypnotherapy trains us to look at things from a more creative perspective and challenge concrete ways of thinking to integrate emotion based experiences. This is why we ask questions like, What colour is this emotion for you? Head to instagram to participate in 'What's your mood Mondays?' and get the creative thinking juices flowing. 

​4. Don't have to talk about what's bothering you and still get help
I possibly saved the best for last! Whether you just can't work out what is bothering you/ why you do something or whether you have experienced something traumatic, hypno can help without having to talk about it. Because hypno is simply about guiding you down into a relaxed state and opening the subconscious mind. As a hypnotherapist I can guide you through accessing your inner knowing/wisdom, clearing stagnant emotions and/or reframing traumatic memories without me having to know what the content is. 

If you are intrigued and want to get a taste of hypnotherapy. Download the free trance clip here or check out my new online course, Ease Anxiety to welcome in the invaluable gifts hypnotherapy can offer you to ease tension, stress and anxiety in your nervous system. Perhaps you know someone who would benefit from this post the year that is 2020. Email tessa@zephyrmovement.com to gift the course to a loved one this Christmas and give the give of balance and ease. 

​Has anyone else ever watched a movie they loved as a kid and caught a whole new meaning to different aspects of the script? The kids’ movies that keep children engaged but have profound lessons for the adults watching also?
 
I remember watching Lion King after reading The Power of Now and it taking on a completely new meaning. As a child, I was always so perplexed when Rafiki kept hitting Simba on the head with his stick. It never made sense and I couldn’t work out the purpose. I had seen a similar thing in movies where monks would be meditating and be swung at with sticks catching them before making contact and still no clue.
 
It wasn’t until reading The Power of Now, climbing out of my own thoughts and mind that I realised, all this life I’d been missing. I was ‘in da past’ as Rafiki would say. Simply lost in my thoughts. Obviously very glad I didn’t have to be swung at with a stick at unpredictable times to learn this but how crazy. Unbeknownst to be I was introduced to the first pillar of escaping anxiety, Presence, when I was just 5years old.
 
You see the point is when we allow ourself to get distracted by our thoughts of the past or the future we completely miss the present. We might not hear the prelude to the stick swinging at us.
 
The one thing I noticed when I understood this concept and really committed to increased mindfulness was how I seemed to have more time. All those situations where I’d be ‘running late’ and think I didn’t have time to check my hair in the mirror before leaving the house or sit down to eat my breakfast were all a ruse. You see when I slowed down and actually did those things despite ‘running late’ I always seemed to end up on time.
 
I found if I was better able to be fully present in each moment I had way more brain space. Rather than thinking of a thousand things at once and giving each 10% of my attention, I saved time getting things right the first time. How many times have you burnt toast after popping it down for a second time only to be distracted by your phone? Then resulting in making toast twice as long. Or is this just me?  
 
You see slowing life down so I can be more in tune with my senses means I’ll smell the toast before it burns. I’ll hear the footsteps of the person holding the stick. I’ll hear it whip through the air long before it hits me in the side of the head. So why don’t you try it? Be like Simba and learn to be more present. See how many sticks you dodge and how much time you have to gain.
 
Want to learn more about my pillars to exit anxiety? Well keep an eye out my new online course Ease Anxiety is launching later this month!!
 
Alternatively if you can’t wait, reach out and book a one on one.
 
Slow down and be kind ✌️

When I was at the height of my persistent pain condition and anxiety the key piece of the puzzle was having health practitioners explain and teach me about comfort. At the time my nervous system was so wired, everything hurt and health care revolved around pain. (Even putting my arms above my head to do my hair was excruciating.)
 
I was sent to an incredible GP who introduced me to mindfulness. I read the book ‘Mindfulness for Health by Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman’ and listened to the accompanying recordings. He was one of the first practitioners to educate me on the relationship between anxiety, my nervous system and my pain without advising “You just need to relax”. (Let’s be real all that does is make anxiety worse and leave you asking how?!?!?)
 
I found this GP through one of my lecturers at uni who I had started seeing for physio. She educated me on the importance of pain free movement. At that point, I was in constant, unrelenting pain. She taught me to tune into micro movements which for me started with breath.

By giving myself permission not to push into pain and stay within the comfort of my micro movement, my nervous system slowly learnt how to be comfortable in a larger range and variation of movement. (Now look at what my body can do five years in the making ->)
 
​When you’re in a stress or pain state pushing only moves you further into a sympathetic state reinforcing neurochemical pathways leading to discomfort. If 2020 has taught us anything it’s that, life is unpredictable af and so long as we are living we will have to calibrate for comfort. The scale slides with stress, trauma, pain, grief/loss, celebration, happiness and joy. Comfort is not a level in a game you unlock, achieve and stay within because well, life.
 
Learning how to calibrate comfort therefore is such an important life skill. Focusing on where the comfort lies and tools to augment comfort (not necessarily just focusing on decreasing pain) can assist with choosing more helpful coping strategies. The end goal is the same but the journey feels different. 
 
So if you are up-regulated and would like to see if breathing re-training and hypnotherapy are pathways to more sustained comfort for you and your nervous system please reach out!
 
Enjoy your day and always be kind :)

The World Health Organisation defines burnout as, "syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed". It is characterised by the following three symptoms:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
• reduced professional efficacy

It is a syndrome particularly rife in the healthcare setting and given current events is no doubt on the rise. On top of that with more and more people working from home it becomes more difficult to separate work from home life and achieve balance.

This is something I struggled with when working in the public hospital system full time and was a big driver in directing me towards starting Zephyr Movement. I have had a lot of practitioners that tell me they struggle to 'switch off' after work or simply struggle to relax. The following tips aren't revolutionary but a great reminder or push in the right direction. 

Working in wellness and as a physio in the area of acute respiratory, I was all about the 'deep' breathing...or taking 'big' breaths. Recently I underwent some professional development courses in breathing re-training and let me tell you what I learnt changed the way I will live and treat from now on!
​

First up, what is breathing re-training? It is based in physiology. Basically, it is the process of training the respiratory centre in the brain to 'normalise' the rate and volume of breaths taken. In doing this it will effect your blood chemistry because breathing is closely associated with the pH of blood. It has everything to do with the balance of carbon dioxide and oxygen and the way the body compensates for keeping this balance. (Note: I put ' ' around 'normalise' because everyone is different with different medical histories/lifestyle factors that can affect the end result. However, the process will still move you closer to 'normal'. **It is for this reason that you shouldn't adjust your breathing without the guidance of a breath educator who knows your whole medical picture.

Secondly, what is normal physiological breathing? When I went to university we got taught a normal breathing rate for an adult was between 12-20 breaths per minute with a volume of air per breath dependent upon your body size. For example, someone my size would have a tidal volume of 500mls per breath. This volume would also change depending on whether you are sneezing, coughing, sighing, yawning etc. 

What I learned through Tess Graham's courses was that 40years ago normal was 8-12 breaths per minute. A comparison of the difference could be depicted in what breathing looks like during a panic attack with the paper bag vs when the person has calmed themselves down. Think about the symptoms associated with breathing that fast and big. 

If humans have been around for 100s of 1000s of years why would the physiology (the chemical and physical makeup have changed so much?) Ms Graham hypothesised that it was the change in lifestyle. We live more fast paced lives and stress is at an all time high, juggling all the different areas of modern life. Plus, our diets. Yes food has an impact on breathing. Now I am not a dietician or nutritionist, just a physio and breath educator, so all I will say is that complex carbohydrates can increase your breathing rate too. 
​

So what does correct breathing look like? --->​

Breathing re-training is intrinsically safe when performed without ANY discomfort. However, because breathing is so closely linked with this inherent balance in our bodies. Changing your breathing without supervision or too quickly can result in a healing response whereby you may feel more emotional, have changes in your gastro-intestinal function among other symptoms.

Think you may be over breathing?
(**Think about the following question during exercise and/or sleeping not just during resting breathing...)

• Can you hear your breathing? 
• Do you mouth breath?
• Do you breath with your upper chest?
• Are your breaths irregular eg) frequent sighs, yawns, snorts, coughs, breath holds

Curious to start your own breath re-training? Well to celebrate a year since Zephyr Movement opened its doors! You can receive 10% off any breath re-training initial consult for the week starting Thursday 23rd July (because Thursdays are my favourite day!) ending Thursday 30th July!! Enquire here to claim :)

Enjoy your day and nurture your lungs by simply breathing a little more gently from now on. 

Let's talk mindfulness...before I had a persistent pain condition, studied hypnotherapy and struggled with my anxiety I had no idea what this word meant! I knew it was kind of in the meditation realm (which I found incredibly intimidating) but that was about it.

Mindfulness simply means directing your attention toward the present moment. Now why would you want to do this? In practicing bringing your mind back to the now no matter how many times the mind tries to distract you. This can be with what you're going to cook for dinner or what time what meeting is on. This teaches you emotion regulation. I often describe this as creating space between the situation and your reaction to it. Meaning, instead of yelling at the person who took the last toilet roll from a place of lack and fear (couldn't help myself #soznotsoz)  having another couple of seconds to realise that person is wearing a nurses' uniform and it may have been the only chance she had to get supplies before another string of shift work. Perhaps that person would have been able to observe the uniform in that moment if their thoughts weren't on trying to remember what meals they needed to prep, how much the shopping was going to cost or whether they'd run out of toothpaste? In other words focused their attention on the present moment. Wait wasn't that mindfulness? :) I can hear you asking but how?!? Where do I start? Ok ok ok here are some great ways to start.
​

1. Breathing!! Try focusing on how you are breathing in this moment. Is it slightly difficult or effortless? What body parts move on the in and/or the out breath? How could you alter your breathing in this moment to relax the most muscles? Would it help if you breathed into the areas of tension? Breath is a great anchor because if you are alive you will continue to breath and each breath will be different moment to moment keeping you PRESENT!! 

2. The Senses!! Pick a sense; sight, sound, scent, taste, touch. Now take a minute...how many orange objects can you see right now? What are the background sounds you have been zoning out? (For me it's this pesky fly!!!) What smells can you detect...perhaps a tree or candle or flower? What does this inside of your mouth taste like and is it different between each swallow of saliva? What do the different textures of your clothes, the chair beneath you feel like? The pattern embedded on the back of my legs says I should definitely get up from this chair soon.
​

4. Order spaces while you’re learning to order your mind:

• Living in such a small environment meant that the messier it was the more irritated I was. Working in shifts meant if I didn’t make my bed when I woke up there was even less of a defined start and end to the ‘day’
• I found if I was struggling with my mind space doing some laundry, folding my clothes back into my suitcase or cleaning the bathroom made me feel like I had control over something even if my mind was still messy.
• Where physically in your life can you ‘clean up’? Maybe it’s a junk room or cupboard or perhaps just start with making your bed every day. Any little bit moving in the right direction helps.

 
5. Cooking can be enjoyable and bring routine to your day:

• Cooking/food has always brought me a lot of anxiety. What will I feel like eating in two days? What’s on special? Is this healthy? Etc. Needless to say I didn’t enjoy it.
• On the boat it was different. First of all the fridge gets stocked full to the brim before we leave land so there’s plenty of resources and secondly, you don’t have to pay for it. Thirdly, cooking is one of the few duties you have on the boat so you have to plan for it and you’re happy to with little else to occupy your mind. Finally, there’s no take away convenience from the middle of the big blue so if you want a particular food you got to use your creativity to create your own version. This was actually fun and gave me a sense of accomplishment I never would have had otherwise. It’s special to eat something as simple as a sandwich when you’ve had to make the bread.
• I guess knowing how we coped without fast access to convenient foods it’s made me think of cooking in a more fun way. Challenge yourself to use the ingredients in your pantry to cook something or if there’s a food you always crave try to make your own version.

 
6. Incidentally learning mindfulness

• In our everyday lives it’s easy to get lost in the sameness and reliability of familiarities (be that people, work, hobbies etc). When your sailing across the Pacific Ocean you kind of know this might be a once in a life opportunity.
• Innately I started to make really solid memories so that I could recall this incredible experience for years to come. I can still remember the feeling of the wind on my face at 13knots, the sound of the sail flapping when it needed to be winched in and how luminous the stars and moon were without any light pollution. What I realise now is I was practicing mindfulness. Simply using all the senses to anchor in the present moment. When you do this you can’t get stuck in your thoughts of the past or future.
• The reality is nothing lasts forever that is certain. Try to look in the full sensory experience of anything that brings you joy even if it’s patting your puppy. What does he sound like when he’s happy? How does the fur feel under your hand? What does he smell like? Note down all the details of what he looks like. Practice makes perfect!

7. Being forced into deep connection and vulnerability:

• Being in such a small space for 25days with no exist aside from being a snack for Mr Great White means people are going to see your good, bad and ugly. I was always scared people wouldn’t like me if they saw the depth of my ‘ugly’. What I found instead was, that was the part of me they also related to. It gave them an opportunity to talk about their ugly. It showed me true vulnerability and deep connection comes from quality time. The more you get to know someone, read their facial expressions, hear their stories, the more their ‘ugly’ becomes their beauty.
• Challenge: Next time you feel a big emotion rising, instead of swallowing the lump in your throat tell your loved one exactly what’s going on…no filter, let the tear roll. Once you realise people love you good, bad, ugly and all the social anxiety dissipates, and you are more ‘ok’ with all of you not just the ‘pretty’ parts. If people don’t take it well, you know they are not your people and their clearing space for your tribe. It’s tough to trust but they are out there trust me!

 
This little glimpse at the slow and simple life showed me a little about why mental health is such a problem? Social media means we can distract we don’t necessarily have to confront, it also encourages comparisons, blows expectations up and blocks seeing human vulnerability and suffering. It can make us feel like we’re not doing enough, don’t have enough and just aren’t enough in general. Back in the day if you were the best in your town at something you were the best in the world as you knew it.  Know that I’m right there with you figuring it out as I go but hope this helps or entertains who ever has read all the way to the end 😊

PS: You are more than enough right this second! Be kind ✌​

​Before I launch in just thought I’d do a little recap. Back in 2016 I was in a high-pressure job working in children’s critical care as a fairly new physio. Essentially, I burnt out and ‘quit’ life. Literally quit my job and four weeks later I was on a plane overseas with no plan and very little saved. I found my way onto the sailing yacht, Indigo, ‘piggy backing’ off someone else’s qualifications and signing up to cross an ocean. I hadn’t been on a boat for longer than 4hours at a time let alone know how to sail. So, there I was on the other side of the world in an industry where I was a complete novice. How do you think my anxiety was? Well here I am sharing some incidentals I learnt about anxiety so you don’t have to do something crazy, like living out at sea for 25 days to learn!

 1. Identity plays a large role in keeping anxiety at bay:

• Before I left if anyone had asked me, “Tell me about yourself?” or “Who are you?” I would say…I’m a physiotherapist. I do aerials. I live on the Gold Coast etc. Now put yourself in the middle of the ocean. I’m no longer a physio, I can’t do aerials and I don’t live on the GC. I am the least experienced person on this boat. I have no career. I have no address etc.
• It made me realise I defined myself by things I did not who I am. My self worth was based on achievement not being a human.
• So ask yourself what are your defining qualities? No matter whether you lose your job, change your address or get an illness/injury you still know who you are and the anxious voice in your head is kept at bay.

 
2. Technology is both a help and a hindrance when it comes to anxiety:

• How does it help? Well it’s a perfect distraction from those pesky thoughts in your head. The voices get quieter when you can mindlessly scroll on Instagram or watch Netflix. Don’t get me wrong we had hard drives full of tv shows and movies but that only lasts so long…
• So now you’ve watched all the movies on offer and those thoughts become louder. Not having access to news and current events was calming but personally, my anxiety got much worse the more I was left with my thoughts. However, truly hearing the state of my mind was a gift hard to receive still on the hamster wheel of full-time work.
• Because of all this time/space I was able to journal a lot to get a clear picture, a starting point for how to improve it and read some great books about mind space.
• Try writing down all your thoughts when you are in a think, feel, spiral or replace one episode of your latest Netflix binge for a self-help podcast or book.

Memories are one of the most fascinating and important functions of the brain when you really think about it. Memory is more than just recalling facts and events it’s also a large component of learning of skills, habits and individual conditioning. Understand that what we do, how we react and who we think we are, is a sum total of experiences in a specific order that evoked specific emotions.
 
They say there is my side, your side and the truth, meaning we filter and store memories through our own lenses. Lenses include gender, sexual preference, values, beliefs, interests, past experiences etc. It is the lenses that create the emotional experience and create variance in how an event is re-told.

The more intense an emotional experience the better long-term memory is able to solidify and store it. It's important to mention that memories are stored as sensory information and is why a specific scent can call to mind a certain person or place.

Long term memory is a function that lives in the subconscious mind and is why some people are often unable to recall childhood memories in a conscious state but can remember various things in a trance state. We can't change the actual event. However, utilising hypnotherapy to explore the feelings associated with a memory can be efficient and effective. 

By changing the way it appears in your mind you can influence the emotion associated with it. For example, if you have a particular experience that brings forwards a lot of anger by changing the way the memory appears in your mind you can alter the amount of anger it evokes in your body. Furthermore, if the anger associated with this event shows up as a less than helpful dynamic in your present relationships,  processing and releasing the emotion in hypnotic trance is profound. ​

For more information or to delve into how this can help you transform your emotional health book now.