I've been watching our dear Ziggy lately.
He hangs out on his own a bit and has a number of special spots on the property and in the house.
They all have something in common - they act as a vantage point.
Exactly what a herding-guarding dog needs as he keeps an eye on us, the animals, and you if you are visiting.
The places he selects have:
Elevation - he can see as much of the house and/or the farm as possible
Clear line of sight - he can see as much of the house or property as possible, no one is moving without him knowing it
He finds the vantage point. He occupies it.
When action is called for - chicken squawk, Foxy bark, magpie cry, human cough - he is there. Right. There. Immediately.
He isn't scrolling, he isn't doubting, he isn’t overthinking, googling the situation or second guessing himself. He goes all in.
He is being Ziggy. Ziggy Stardust Storm Tiger on formal occasions.
As calm as he may have been a moment prior, there he is like a flash, on task when he needs to be.
This is what a good breathwork session gives you. A vantage point.
The capacity to be on task, so clear that decisions are barely even needed - you know what is required and taking action is easier or even automatic. Things fall into place increasingly often, resistance falls away.
The connected breath helps to connect the hemispheres of the brain, and offers the nervous system the time and space to get out of overly activated flight or freeze states that we are often effectively locked into.
Many of us manage both, which is like driving with one foot on the brake and one flat to the floor at the SAME TIME.
Not a good plan, and we don’t need Ziggy to tell us that.
The effect of healthy* connected breathwork on your brain is your brain working more harmoniously, the two hemispheres communicating instead of one dominating, and we clear some of the stuck energy and associated patterns with it.
*healthy - in a space of safety, appropriate to your inner state, well supported, no pushing or deliberate activation
It is very common when practising Radical Embodied Breathwork to effectively feel that you are above the issue and looking over things/ situations and seeing them for what they are. The natural result is that ‘thing’ may simply fall away (no more hooks), or we have the feeling of ‘knowing’ the next step.
Things become clear.
We are no longer fighting with ourselves or being dominated by repetitive thoughts and old patterns.
Your nervous system benefits similarly - shift out of sympathetic or parasympathetic dominance, and support your own nervous system to be more resilient, which means able to move between functions/ states with more ease, and more appropriately.
This supports our overall health and wellbeing, in times of ease and times of challenge.
When we are calmer, we are clearer.
In stressed or fearful states our peripheral vision is offline, our vision literally narrows and we cant see as much. Great if we need to hone in on something, not helpful if we are attempting to make choices which is one of the mechanisms that keeps us stuck.
Your eyes and your brain are also intricately linked (hence yoga uses eye positions (drishti ) and they can have a great impact on your brain (brain function, thinking, mind state) and your body - such as your flexibility/range of motion via your nervous system, as well as our outlook -literal and experiential.
When our minds are less busy, or we have the vantage point of a brain that is no longer so right or left dominated, the hemispheres can better communicate, and we can see what is needed. With less thinking required. We have access to our KNOWING - the place were we are active not reactive, in action not overthinking. In the flow.
This is what we need when life is on repeat, we are STUCK or we can’t see the wood for the trees.
This is how clarity is often experienced when practising breathwork, and with yoga you will have some impact too. These things do change peoples lives in ways big and small.
Radical Embodied Breathwork is the kind of breathwork that supports you as an individual to be in your own vantage point, to be at the top of your own heart centred mountains where you can breathe, see, and feel your own aliveness.
as they say, or at least some used to...
s w e e t
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Here is a quick way to have an experience of the vantage point. Right now you are reading on a screen. It is at a steady distance and you are disconnected/ing from the world beyond that screen. Shifting your focal point can shift your experience, especially when coupld with breath awareness:
Stop
look up
actively look a the furthest things away, and if you need to go to a window to get a real shift of perspective.
enjoy a few natural breaths.
let the breath in, and letting it flow out... effortlessly
then let it flow in again, out again, a few times
no control, no particular ‘kind’ of breath
gently shift your gaze
up down left right (any order, its not a magic spell!)
notice how you are feeling
notice any shifts
It's not really complicated.
let it be.
x
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Curious about connecting with your own vantage point - your breath - more deeply??
Come along Saturday 10 May to immerse in breathwork, breathing and all things you
Learn more & book HERE
breathe a fresh breath
the experience of being radically you, unfiltered!