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EP 20 - Sofa Series | The Power of Breath: A Conversation with Amy Glovin
83 Plays3 months ago
Join us for an in depth Sofa Series conversation where your host Isa “Nibby” sits down with breathwork expert Amy Glovin. In this episode of The Ripple Affect, Amy unpacks the life-changing power of breath, sharing her personal and professional journey into holistic wellness and healing. Together, they explore the profound impact of breath on mental, emotional, and physical well-being; offering insights into the connection between breath patterns and emotional regulation, the role of somatic healing in personal growth, and practical techniques for addressing anxiety and fear. The episode concludes with a guided breathwork exercise, giving listeners a practical tool to foster calm and connection. Perfect for anyone seeking inner growth and resilience.
Side Note: if you’d like to hear from Amy tune into the spin off bonus episode and Ripple Resource that share both her personal connection to our hosts and her invaluable take on change.
To connect with Amy Glovin for breathwork call or text 707 599 9434
Connect with us on IG @rippleaffectpod
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Transcript
Introduction to The Ripple Effect
00:00:04
Speaker
You're listening to The Ripple Effect with your hosts Cheech and Nippy, a podcast that explores how individual change has the capacity to affect the whole. From neuroscience to donuts, we're two sisters with a deep curiosity for ancient wisdom and modern knowledge, and we're obsessed with learning alongside you because we don't know. Let's dive in.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hi,
Featuring Amy Cloven: Blending Science and Spirituality
00:00:27
Speaker
everyone. Welcome back to the ripple effect podcast. It's teach. And as always, I'm here with my beautiful sister, Isa. Hey, maybe hey, y'all.
00:00:39
Speaker
Today, we are so excited to share a really special sofa series episode with you. Our guest is not only a true expert in in the sense of the word, but she's also a lifelong friend of ours, Miss Amy Cloven.
00:00:59
Speaker
Lisa sat down with her, but I want to give a little bit of a description of Amy just so you can have a context. Amy has over 40 years of experience teaching breathwork, which makes her one of the OG original practitioners of this powerful modality.
00:01:13
Speaker
She's been doing this long before it became mainstream in this country, and her approach is an incredible mix of science, spirituality, and honestly, pure heart. who Yes. Thank you, Chicha. So
How Breathwork Transforms Emotions
00:01:28
Speaker
true. So in this episode, Amy and I connect via zencastr we We didn't get to actually sit down together, but we dive into just the transformative power of breath and how it helps regulate emotions, how it helps to ease anxiety and even reconnect us to our true essence of ourself.
00:01:50
Speaker
And Amy shares her journey, how she started breathwork, coaching gymnastics, and became a pioneer practitioner of of breathwork and holistic wellness. And I want to point out that if you stay to the end of this episode, you'll get to experience what it's like to work with Amy because she guides Isa through a beautiful grounding breathwork exercise.
00:02:16
Speaker
And I know Isev really enjoyed it, and i we hope that it can bring you more calm, connection, and clarity into your daily life. So please go check that out and use it. Yeah, you're not going to want to miss that. She walks the listener and myself through it. it is So valuable. OK, whether you are new to breath work or you're looking to deepen your practice, this episode is definitely for you. So it's for everyone. yeah so So the whole spectrum of if you're human, this is if you're human and you breathe, if you breathe, this episode is for you.
Tech Troubles and Gymnastics Journey
00:02:57
Speaker
And we're not going to discriminate against the what was that? We're not going to discriminate.
00:03:04
Speaker
I want you to say that word exactly how you just said it. Desquibigate. Okay. Okay. yeah So we're not discriminating against any non-breathers. Got it. Or mouth breathers. and This one's definitely for you. Okay. Right when we jump into the episode, we mentioned tech difficulties. So Kiara graciously cut all of that out for you, the listener, but we do mention it, and that's that's why Amy and I had some some fun to work through, some tech god stuff, but we got there. Okay, anything else to teach? No, I think that's it. enjoy Enjoy this episode. Enjoy Amy. She is one of a kind, and we're so happy to be able to bring her to you all. Yeah, she's just gonna catch you on the back end.
00:03:52
Speaker
ye
00:03:56
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Welcome to another episode of the ripple effect podcast today We have our very special guest for our sofa series miss Amy Glovin a dear dear friend of the families and a wonderful present loving human being who has taught me a ton about myself and exploration and breath work and just what it's like to be an embodied human and So welcome, Amy. Thank you for being here with me and getting through all that tech stuff. I know it's not my favorite thing to do, but it was kind of fun with you. I totally agree, Isabelle. Thank you so much for being who you are. I feel so blessed in my life to have known you since the get-go.
00:04:42
Speaker
and And going through all that tech hurdle was really fun for how much I have avoided tech in my life. So thanks for making it so fun. The nice thing about tech is once you figure it out, you don't have to do that again, right? You don't have to download the app again. You don't have to go through that again. So that's the nice part. You get to build on it. That's so great. I mean, it's such a metaphor for change, what you just said.
00:05:10
Speaker
Once you go through it, you build on it. There's no need to have to go back to the blocks necessarily. So today I wanted to explore something that you you mentioned. You have taught thousands of people to explore in themselves and to go on to teach. and Breathwork is now, I think, in this country becoming more trendy and I was kind of blown away to find out that this person who prayed for me to be here before I was even here really actually taught a lot of the people that are considered experts in the field in the mainstream
00:05:49
Speaker
you you were their teachers. And so I felt really called to bring that point forward and and bring you onto the podcast so that you could share some of that knowledge with with myself and our listeners. The very first time I actually got to do breathwork with you was at a class at Heartwood that my niece Carly and I came up for. And I wish I would have wrote a testimonial directly after that class because it was so impactful. um But I do recall this one simple thing that stayed with me. I had this realization, ah a really deep knowing of like, oh, that's what it feels like to really take care of yourself. I felt like for the first time I was putting attention on myself in a way that I had never done before and then really
00:06:38
Speaker
caring for myself from the inside out and it it shifted a lot for me and and then I went on to work with you one-on-one which like we said at the top of this recording I got to build on that self-care and I got to places through breath work that I didn't really realize were possible and I think that possibility of internal ah state changes based on your breath patterns is really fascinating to me. So can you start us at the beginning in a few different ah respects? Can you give us a little bit of insight as to where you started your journey with breath work? And then maybe be just like the types of breath work there are just kind of that base baseline knowledge
00:07:24
Speaker
Sure, sure. I first became acquainted with the power of breath as a young woman that lived in Lake Tahoe and I was coaching a gymnastics team and I ran a gymnastics club where we had age two and a half all the way up through adult recreational classes as well as a competitive team.
00:07:48
Speaker
And i I noticed as I was training my gymnasts to do these crazy things like flips on a balance beam, three and a half, four feet high off the ground on a fourth inch wide piece of wood, right? You know, they were doing these crazy things and they would hold their breath. And it struck me that when they were holding their breath, they weren't really able to harness all the energy and focus that is available to us just by oxygenating our blood. And so I hooked up with a a fellow trainer who was really interested in teaching that kind of stuff. And we presented that to my gymnasts. And I noticed as I would have them lay down and do this breathing exercises, they tended to fall off the balance being less.
00:08:47
Speaker
and they tended to increase their performance levels white quite a bit. And so the power of breath in athletics was my diving board, I'd say, into the realm of how breath work can really up the ante of our performance in different areas of my life. So so I really focused on doing that a lot with the gymnasts and even not only competitors, but just children who were so filled with fear and they were so, so afraid of trying things. And I took it upon myself to use that as an avenue of undercover healing work. And I would get these little five-year-olds to focus in on their breathing and then all of a sudden they wouldn't be afraid to walk down the balance beat.
00:09:42
Speaker
What is your insight today on why breath helps with fear?
Breathwork: From Fear to Focus
00:09:49
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Well, fear is quite an energy that just because we happen to be in a human body, we have a full range of emotions. The chemistry in our brain helps to produce all those. And when we get overrun with that anxiety or that fear,
00:10:08
Speaker
What often happens is we get flipped into what's known as the fight or flight response. Our breathing becomes more in our high chest and it harnesses all that kind of energy to face that threat of fear. Often what happens is we get stuck there.
00:10:29
Speaker
and the fear just percolates and it stays locked into our system. So if we're able to actually access a deeper, fuller relationship with our breath, it can help shift the chemicals in our brain and in our in our bodies to bring about a shift that drops us out of that high anxiety, fear response, and more into a focused, calm,
00:10:59
Speaker
receptive mode to approach whatever it is that is in need of being faced. That is such a wonderful point to be made that there's a physiological feedback loop that links into our neurotransmitters and our autonomic nervous system and that we can hack that programming through the breath.
00:11:21
Speaker
through the breath. And if you go back to our SOFA series with ah Dr. Barbara Thayer, a behavioral neurobiologist. Yes, I love it. Yeah, so I sidelined you. So you're teaching and coaching all levels of gymnastics, found that breath work could help these people move through fear and better perform at their tasks with their physical bodies.
00:11:49
Speaker
And then where where did you go well from there? I got really interested in the dynamics of energy work. I was doing a lot of yoga and meditation and I studied pranayamas, which is a lot of yoga breath work and had quite a strong practice myself with doing a lot of that.
00:12:12
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And it's affected by life in ways where I became even more interested in the dynamics of healing work. I went on to study crystal healing, chakra balancing work, essentially worked in our energy field, which is, ah you know, everybody has an aura, a energetic double of our physical body, essentially. And it, and it surrounds us. It it lives off of our physical body.
00:12:42
Speaker
and you know different things will affect it, where it can expand, they become larger, or it can contract and become tighter. I had the privilege of of working with senior scientists of IBM. what was his name His name was Marcel Vogel, and he was a senior scientist for IBM for over 30 years. And then he retired and opened up his own Research Center to scientifically document the healing properties of quartz crystals. He actually discovered the silicone coating that was used on the old school silicone wafers that were instrumental in blossoming computer industry back then. He was quite adept in the whole science realm, but he really was a strong advocate for the healing power of love.
00:13:37
Speaker
and how to harness that. And we used coarse crystals to amplify that whole process. And I had the privilege of studying with him for a number of years. And that was right before I moved up here to Humboldt County and started my own schooling and certification programs to become a certified massage therapist.
00:14:06
Speaker
Where were you studying with him? oh Oh, with him, I was studying down in the Bay Area. But what happened for me was I was so etherical and not very rooted and grounded in my body. And so doing all that primary work off the body, I realized, hey, I need to get more grounded. And I thought studying massage therapy would be a great way to become embodied. And that began my my time in heartbreak. I first went as enrolled as a student and earned a number of vocational training certifications as a natural health educator, a natural health counselor, a transformational therapist, a massage therapist. And while I was there, that was where I first we became acquainted with breath work as a therapeutic tool
00:15:03
Speaker
and it took off. Did it all kind of click for you going back with what you had done with gymnastics? Were you excited to dive into that deeper and understand it deeper? Because the person that I know today has so much knowledge on that and I think of you know if somebody has this much knowledge about something is because they were voracious in their learning of it. What was that process for you like when you first started acquainting yourself deeper and deeper with Black Work and what was one of your more profound experiences within yourself when exploring and deepening your practice? Well I remember you know I took a a Black Work class from a beloved community member who
00:15:48
Speaker
also has passed on, his name was Richard Beyer. And he was teaching breath work at Hartwood. And i I enrolled in the course and I was terrified. Why? I was just terrified the first few classes. I mean, people were emoting and screaming and crying and I'm thinking to myself, what the damn hell?
00:16:20
Speaker
yeah What is the point of all this suffering? you know i mean i saw I saw it as suffering at at first. And I was such a disciplined athlete for so much of my earlier years that when I laid down and started doing, you know did the breath work, i I stayed with the breath even though I was terrified.
00:16:49
Speaker
of what, you know, hearing all this stuff, you know, around me that people were, now I know, embracing and letting go of. It's not a requirement to have to emote, but it certainly happens. And, you know, in my earlier years,
00:17:10
Speaker
We weren't as wise as we grew into our wisdom and learned that it's not a requirement and and the goal isn't to emote. But back then, we thought if people were emoting, then it was working. And I just was terrified. What do you mean I have to cry in public? and You know, all this emoting going on, I just thought,
00:17:34
Speaker
just meditate, it'll transmute. And there is some truth to that as well. But what happened for me was I just stayed with the breath and did my best not to get distracted into crying, just for crying's sake, so to speak. I think what you just said is a great philosophy for life. Just stay with the breath. and ah Yeah.
00:18:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you know, if you can stay with your breath, we spoke about that on our rapid fire session with Kiyada, breath awareness, just simple breath awareness can be really powerful tool to bring you into your present self, but go on, go on. Well, it is so very true. It comes down to a nutshell.
Breath as Life's Essence
00:18:23
Speaker
If we don't breathe, we die. Without breath, there is no life and
00:18:33
Speaker
It's one of those body processes that operates on both levels, conscious and unconscious, or voluntary and involuntary. Because as we are alive, we will always be breathing. And many of us have our default setting for our breath as a very unconscious, unaware, take it for granted thing that happens. And it does, it just, it happens. But there's so much more when we bring our awareness to it, you can actually consciously choose to apply different patterns of our breath and breathe into different areas of our body to focus in on hardships that we're having,
00:19:23
Speaker
and embrace them and change them. We can up the ante of our performance mentally, physically, emotionally. We can deepen our ability to become a physical vessel of spirit by connecting our breath into our bodies. I mean, this is a really cool thing. Ohana.
00:19:48
Speaker
Hawaiian word for family, I believe, means those that breathe together. Yeah, sharing breath is big in the Polynesian culture. That was one of their greetings is, you know, forehead to forehead and sharing a breath together. Yeah, yeah. I think that that that practice of connecting to the breath is obviously extremely old. I think that all of our oldest cultures and indigenous cultures all have some type of relationship with breath. i don' I don't want to lose track because I do want to talk to you and hear more about your more profound experiences with breath work.
00:20:30
Speaker
Well, I can say that, I mean, I can't even count how many times I've done breath sessions, so to speak, or different different ways of reading, but it often I have been brought back to such profound memories of things, of what it felt like to be born, you know, my birth experience, and having these memories, being in union with the divine before I was born,
00:21:00
Speaker
And then the experience of bringing that sense of oneness through that birth experience to life here on earth. So the breath is a vehicle to help us to connect to our relationship to the source of all life. And I think that was probably the most profound experiences that I've had with breath work was reconnecting to that source of all life and bringing that forth into my day-to-day living. So every interaction that we have with other humans and also with ourselves is an opportunity to be lovingly present with the source of all life. And unfortunately, that's not one of the key
00:21:51
Speaker
components of our schooling when we're being raised up in school. But it is so very essential, I think, to a healthy approach to life.
00:22:04
Speaker
talk about setting your goals to to have that be your daily goal is to bring that loving, present awareness to yourself and to those that you interact with. I think that yes the the basis of this podcast is, you know, can you explore changing yourself and can that change in in one person affect the whole? And I subscribe to that. And I think that if we even encourage or try attempt
00:22:35
Speaker
to do that, I think it would be a better world. I totally agree with that. I mean, it's it's not it's not a static state either. and mean If we use the metaphor of, say, an airplane gets to its destination by being off track a large majority of the time,
00:23:05
Speaker
they're constantly realigning to be on track with their pattern of travel. And that's really how how life is. We remember to be gentle and kind and loving to ourselves. And then all of a sudden we're in the grip of the inner critic like, what did I think when I said that? And why am I being so crazy? I am such a cranky human right now. And what's wrong with me? I know you didn't want to say cranky human. I know there was a different word that was almost going to come out. Cranky human.
00:23:53
Speaker
You're right. Yeah, I think I was gonna say something like ah a fucking bitch. I thought I'd clean it up a little. Please no need to clean anything up I think that's like but the harsh reality is like it's you know, it is so fluid life is not you know as pristine as I think a lot of people even myself subscribe that there is a version that is pure and unbothered and loving and and yeah, that's true for states in time, but it's it's not a
00:24:33
Speaker
It's not sustainable always in the world and the life that we're living, at least for me personally, you know, I don't, maybe there are people who reach that state and can operate from that high level all the time, but I, you know, I don't think, I don't aspire to that yeah because i I kind of, you know, think it's more useful in the grand scheme of relating to people knowing that we all have these You know, human bitchy days and these times when things are ah beautiful and we really can see ah the the oneness and the positivity and the humanity and the hope. And there are times where it's dark.
00:25:18
Speaker
yeah And so I think breath work is a really great metaphor because it's fluid, it's constant, it's changing, it can go from full relaxation, breath pattern to fear, panic, breath pattern. And yet it is constant and just like we are constant in in this experience. So Yeah, it's so very true, and it's voluntary and involuntary.
Taking Responsibility Through Breathwork
00:25:46
Speaker
One really cool aspect, I think, of the breath work, you know, it rests upon a few major foundations or principles, and one of them is learning how to stay out of the blame game. So in other words, learning how to take responsibility for ourselves and our feelings, our thoughts, our words, our actions.
00:26:10
Speaker
And you know through the breathwork studies that i I had and then also have helped others with, you know one of those primary things is where in my life am I holding blame outside of myself? And am I willing to turn that around and take responsibility for my own growth and my own actions?
00:26:37
Speaker
and not hold other people outside of myself accountable for the fact that I got angry and now I'm being a raging lunatic yelling and screaming at the worker behind the counter because they got my order wrong. Yeah. Disregulating. Can you speak to that a little bit more? how Yeah. Disregulating. Can you speak to that a little bit more? how how breath work can help us period. ah so Sure. Sure. Well, you know, there's so many different avenues with the breath work, you know, but as far as those say, the deep connected conscious breathing technique will build the amount of energy that's going through our system.
00:27:30
Speaker
So it will amplify whatever it is that's going on for us, conscious or unconscious. And as the energy builds, it becomes stronger, it becomes often more visible. And from there, we then have a choice to stay with the breath and dissolve the blocks to allow the energy to move through us, creating space for change to enter.
00:28:00
Speaker
or we can contract against it or from it, which then tends to hold on to those old programmings like, yeah, that it's that person's fault that I'm angry. It's that person's fault that I got hurt. And so again, we're we're at that choice point as we've activated ourselves to make a choice. Do I want to proceed from a place of taking responsibility for myself or do I want to proceed blaming others for my lot in life. And when you say stick stay with the breath, what do you mean exactly? Staying with the breath means staying connected to it, coming back to it. So in other words, sometimes in the conscious connected breathing style, we'll breathe in, we'll breathe out, we'll breathe in, we'll breathe out.
00:28:55
Speaker
Material gets stimulated, it comes forth, and some people will drop off and fall asleep and not stay conscious and awake and aware of staying with their breath. It might just be what they need to do. You know, there's this innate timing where sometimes it's important to just have little steps that we're taking where we come into contact with something and pause and rest. And other times there's a pattern of not facing ourselves. It would behoove us to do something different and stay connected to the breath so that we keep, keep the breathing rhythm going. We don't drift off and fall asleep. And that's the end of the session.
00:29:44
Speaker
but perhaps we'll go into an expansive state. The breath might pause, we'll ride that wave, but then all of a sudden we become aware that we're not breathing connectedly anymore. So then we'll begin it again. We'll come back to the breath and start the in and out pattern once again.
00:30:04
Speaker
So when you're working with people individually, how do you choose what type of breath patterning to walk them through because I know I'm familiar with a ah few different types of breath and Okeana brought up box breathing. I know I've worked with you so I've done the earth breath before and I've done the the breathing in one nostril out the other, breathing only in through the nose, breathing only in from the mouth. And there's so many different techniques. Some of our listeners might be very familiar and have a practice that they've been developing and some may have never even heard of breath work. So can you describe maybe some of the types of breath patterning that you work with your clients and why? The work that I
00:30:51
Speaker
have had the privilege of doing and that I do with with people. One of the the entry points is spending some time in the beginning of our work together to get to know one another and to assess where one is at. What is your relationship to yourself like? Are the things that you're wanting to embrace and change? Are there some deep traumas that you're wanting to resolve? Are you willing to do an exploration of yourself in the beginning to kind of assess what your goal or purpose is for doing this somatic healing work that includes the breath? So we laid we lay a foundation of what what one's intention is and based on the intention, then
00:31:41
Speaker
I'll have more information to know in which direction to go in. But a primary place that I often start is just to observe where somebody's breathing rhythm is. So if somebody's presenting issue is anxiety, they have a lot of anxiety in their everyday life. Well, that might simply require a shift of their breathing rhythm, because when we primarily do chest breathing versus diaphragmatic breathing, that kind of breathing promotes anxiety in and of itself without any other material. It could simply just be that they're breathing in the fight or flight breathing rhythm and that sustains anxiety or it brings on anxiety.
00:32:34
Speaker
And the opposite of that spectrum, maybe somebody who's depressed, what what would be the breath pattern? For somebody who's depressed, they will often take on like a sinking, closing down of the torso, even in their posture. and And that makes it hard to get enough air into the breathing passages, passageways as well.
00:33:02
Speaker
And so for somebody who is depressed, I would again focus on the breathing rhythm and and observe it and teach them how to diaphragmatically breathe and begin to awaken their life force in a gentle manner to increase their circulation, to increase the oxygen in their bloodstream, and also build tools of, you know, what kind of relationship do you currently have with your full array of humanity? Do you have a ah baseline that says, it's unsafe to feel my feelings? Because in their upbringing, it may very well have been very unsafe.
00:33:48
Speaker
so feel their It's so fascinating how our childhoods dictate so much of our patterning. I usually look at it through the lens of psychology, how it affects our cognitive patterning. But I know from trauma work,
00:34:07
Speaker
a lot is held in the somatic systems of the body and the energetic system. So it makes sense that your experiences as a young person would dictate your breath patterns as well. I had never really thought about that.
00:34:22
Speaker
So when doing inner child work and whatnot, I bet breath work is a really helpful tool to be able to bring that past and link it to the present. Absolutely. I mean, if I go back to an earlier thing that we talked about when I first became aware of the power of the breath and wanting to use it undercover for healing work with these little children, I would have these five, four, five, six year olds that were petrified of jumping off of a balance beam. And I could see that they developed this fear as a result of being told, don't do that. You're going to get hurt. Don't don't go over there. You're going to fall. Don't run because you're going to slip. And so you know their parents were doing the very best that they could because they wanted to protect their children, which is such an innate instinct. Yes.
00:35:20
Speaker
But taken to an extreme, it can teach a little one that it's not safe to be alive. It's not safe to try all these things. So I would often set up the gym in a way that failure was not an option. you know i would I would have mats stacked up all the way to the balance ten sides of the balance beam where if they fell off the beam, it it was right next to a mat.
00:35:50
Speaker
And so i would I would help them to have these whims and to really amplify that feeling of being able to successfully achieve something, to help have their nervous system have an experience that it it can be safe to be alive. It can be safe to try this activity. I would see these programs in their aura just dissolve as a result of weekly experiences of success. It was so fulfilling to have their parents come up to me, you know, I don't know what you're doing, but my child is is showing so much more interest in trying things out. And it was awesome. It was awesome. So it's kind of the same thing with
00:36:41
Speaker
Breathwork, you create tracks in in your nervous system to embrace success, to to bring more aliveness into parts of ourselves that we we closed down and put to rest because it was just too scary to to embrace and to open up.
00:37:02
Speaker
You mentioned the word safety, which I think is such a key component in opportunity for growth and change. I know Kiara and I have talked about that, how important it is to experience safety in our bodies.
00:37:18
Speaker
while you know somatically working through traumatic events from the past and then also just even staying present and feeling safety in our bodies in uncomfortable situations or when you know planning our futures, all kinds of different benefits that come from that safety
Safety and Consistency in Breathwork
00:37:35
Speaker
set point. how How through the breath can we and do you help your clients find safety patterns in them in themselves?
00:37:46
Speaker
I do a lot of pacing and leading. I really hone in and then assist my clients in honing in to their inner experience and bridging the gap between sensations in their body and then any the other awareness that comes through them through it. Our cells have memory, cellular memory. And when the memory is It's not safe. It necessitates the approach to proceed with a high degree of loving presence, both from my part as the facilitator, but also on the client's part as as the one that's wanting to open up more to themselves. So we take baby steps, you know, we we continually anchor back in to connecting with what our bodily sensations are.
00:38:44
Speaker
and explore that and stay present with that and hold space for that to be the way it is and then expand into the way I want it to be. Yeah, I think that's an and important distinction that it first comes from experiencing whatever the emotion, feeling, sense felt, sense is.
00:39:11
Speaker
and staying present with it as you referred to staying with the breath staying in your body and experiencing that and no matter how scary the mind tells you it's going to be once you've actively done it, then your system can kind of reset back to its state of safety. And I think that is what breath work has helped me do so time and time again, is to go through the the deep grief that I was terrified to actually touch back to or the deep fear that I didn't want any
00:39:51
Speaker
portion of re-experiencing, but then knowing in my body that my breath could carry me through that and that it was safe to do that, then it was only through those experiences that I got to come back to and build more capacity to hold safety in my system. So well put. I mean, it's almost like if we put too much electricity through a light bulb, it pops.
00:40:21
Speaker
It blows its circuit, right? It blows out. And so with breath work, I think it's essential also that we pace ourselves in a way where we we expand our capacity to be able to handle more energy in a way that we can continue functioning in our everyday life.
00:40:45
Speaker
We don't want to pump so much juice through our nervous system that we pop, that we just have blowouts that then it takes days to recover from. Amy, I can hear your puppy back there. from He or she is like, yeah, don't pop the energy.
00:41:05
Speaker
This is really important to listen to what my mom is saying. Don't pop it out too fast or you're going to blow my circuits. And see see, gentle forms of breath work are really effective at tuning up our containers to be able to handle more energy.
00:41:22
Speaker
that's a really helpful thing because I think for me personally a lot of times I have this binary thinking of all or nothing like either I'm working out all the time doing my breath work doing my yoga or it's not enough all or nothing you know and I think I fall victim to that and knowing that just a little bit or just a gentle approach is enough to continue and add to the whole of my wellbeing is a really sweet reminder. You know, I was reading a book recently and they said, oh, you know, you want to have plenty of time to explore within your meditations to be able to really get to your present self. And they gave the suggestion of, you know, at least two hours. And I thought to myself,
00:42:14
Speaker
Well, fuck, if it's taking this author to our timeframe to actually get to the point of experiencing true presence and oneness, within you know their meditation practice. like That's a long time. I'm just like, I don't have that time. I'm never going to get there if that's what it's going to actually take. And so it's just nice to have that gentle reminder that like a little bit really can go a long way. And it's not so much the the giant time stretches. And and it it reminds me of my nutrition and health coaching. It's it's not the
00:42:52
Speaker
day that you are perfect on it in every aspect. It's the weeks that you're almost there consecutively. In that spirit, would you be willing to walk myself and the listeners through a maybe five minute breath work. Absolutely. Yeah, would you be up for that? Sure. Before we jump into that, I do want to just give the warning that if you are driving, ah operating heavy machinery, I guess actually, Amy, what would you suggest the best and worst times to do just a simple check in like this? Well, definitely, not while you're driving, per se. I mean,
00:43:40
Speaker
I've often done conscious breathing while I'm driving, but not in a way that is designed to stimulate the bringing up of emotional contact content or trauma. you know I remember once I had a client, they they were doing this connected breathing and all of a sudden they went into tetany, which is a contraction against an increased amount of energy and your your fingers will often get very tight and rigid and sometimes your mouth will tighten up in in like an o-ring. I don't know what possessed him to do it while he was driving, but he called me and I had him immediately pull over and we had to basically talk him down and change his breathing pattern. So you definitely don't want to be doing it while you're operating, you know, equipment, at chainsaws, weed whippers, even a hand saw or an axe. I mean, it's always good to stay connected to our breath.
00:44:38
Speaker
no matter what we're doing, but not in an amplified kind of breath work. Safety first. okay that's Great advice. Going into you know a simple breathwork, what would you call it? I don't i want to say like session or patterning, or what what do you usually refer to it as? I'd say an exercise. Exercise. Exercising exercise. Thank you. Thank you. yeah so How would you describe what you're going to walk us
Guided Breathwork Exercise
00:45:03
Speaker
through? We're going to assume that everybody that's listening to this is is in a place where it It's not behind the wheel, et cetera. Right. And if you are driving, just pause and come back to it later when you're at home and you can sit down on the couch or go out to the garden or have some time for yourself. Right. So I've often done this if I've been driving long and I'm falling asleep, I'm getting really tired behind the wheel, I've pulled over and I've i've done this where you're going to breathe in and out and pause.
00:45:38
Speaker
So it would be in, out, pause. And so that's basically the rhythm. In through the nose, out through the nose. So it's in, out, pause through your nose. It's a little quicker than your normal breathing rhythm. And it's designed to actually bring up a little bit of energy to help you get a little energized. It's not designed to charge through the big emotional release work. It's just more let's stimulate our awareness and get some energy moving through our bodies. So the in out pause will happen, say approximately six to 10 times. We want to bring up some energy and then integrate it, bring up some energy and then integrate it. So it helps to actually flush some of the cobwebs out of our psyche and our bodies.
00:46:30
Speaker
and, you know, line up our channels to be able to effectively carry on with whatever tasks we're, we're doing through the day. So if you want to go ahead, sometimes people need to blow their nose first. So they're not. Yeah. Just grab a tissue. That's exactly right. Okay. I've got one. I've got one here. Okay. Perfect.
00:46:58
Speaker
up a little bit give a little shake a little wiggle.
00:47:06
Speaker
Take one nice big full breath where you breathe into your belly and then up into your high chest and then just let it go in a gentle manner just priming the pump for a moment.
00:47:22
Speaker
em
00:47:26
Speaker
And then we're going to begin by breathing in through your nose and out through your nose in a rhythm of in, out, pause. So it, it'll sound something like this.
00:47:54
Speaker
And
00:48:05
Speaker
and if you begin to get a little lightheaded that would be a signal to just let the pause ride out longer
00:48:25
Speaker
Out. Pause. Maybe two more cycles. In. Out. Pause.
00:48:42
Speaker
Pause. And just let yourself float for a minute in that pause. Notice what is happening inside inside your skin.
00:48:59
Speaker
There may be some warmth that's generating, there may be some coolness that's generating. Just allow yourself to expand into any sensations that may be present in your body.
00:49:29
Speaker
If you notice that your attention begins to wander, that would be the signal to pick up the breathing rhythm again of the in-out pause.
00:49:47
Speaker
Your inner self will know when it's time.
00:50:03
Speaker
In, out, pause. Allowing the in-breath to energize yourselves and the out-breath to let go of whatever it is you're ready to echo.
00:50:31
Speaker
In, out, pause. Out, pause. Again, we're going to do about six cycles of the in-out pause.
00:50:50
Speaker
In, out, pause. In, out, pause.
00:51:22
Speaker
When if anything unpleasant emerges, that's a good signal also to just rest in a lengthier pause.
00:51:36
Speaker
Allowing the pause to be the opportunity to stay connected internally to your body, your mind, and your spirit. This is a time on the pause to allow yourself to love yourself, to appreciate your willingness to try something new, to appreciate your willingness to try something familiar.
00:52:22
Speaker
The magnificent being that you are can utilize the breath at any moment to connect to your inner limits, to connect to your heart,
00:52:59
Speaker
Embracing the divine connection between you and you, between you and the source of life,
00:53:15
Speaker
between your inner child and your inner adult.
00:53:33
Speaker
There may be a sound that wants to come through. There may be a movement that wants to come through. A gentle a gentle rocking.
00:53:52
Speaker
You may simply be putting a hand on your heart.
00:54:04
Speaker
to remind yourself that life is precious. Your life is precious. You are precious.
00:54:19
Speaker
Our breath becomes the tool of awareness that reminds us when we stepped out of our connection to our When our breath constricts our connection to life force constricts.
00:54:39
Speaker
So allowing your breath to be available with our awareness 24 seven, however much you're ready and willing to be aware of your breath can help you to be remembering how awesome you are, how precious this life is.
00:55:15
Speaker
And I'd like to unwind this with one more very simple breathing tool that is called humming. And when you breathe in through your nose and your exhalation will take on a closed mouth hum.
00:55:40
Speaker
any tone that feels good to you. The big part is to keep your mouth, your lips relaxed but closed so that the exhalation is a closed mouth hum.
00:55:56
Speaker
And we'll do three breaths of that. So you breathe in through your nose and breathe out with a hum.
00:56:30
Speaker
And then when you're ready to inhale again, do so three rows, and then exhale with another time of coming.
00:56:54
Speaker
And one more inhalation for your nose and exhale with the tone of closed mouth.
00:57:15
Speaker
And just let yourself pause for a moment.
00:57:21
Speaker
Thank you so much, Amy. I definitely feel boosted.
00:57:30
Speaker
Fuller, you know, it's funny for that first longer pause, I could definitely feel what I describe as like what it feels like to be embodied where, where I almost feel like the inside of my system is expanding and filling out my internal body. Like my skin feels like it gets plumped up and my torso feels wider and just kind of feel like I'm taking up more space in my own body, which feels really good.
00:58:00
Speaker
so Thank you. Nice. That's so so eloquently and articulately expressing primary benefits, you know one of the prime benefits of doing it.
00:58:12
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much. So Amy, obviously now more people know the immense value of breath work and they've gotten to experience a little taste of what it's like to have you in their corner helping to facilitate this within themselves.
Connecting with Amy for Personal Growth
00:58:31
Speaker
How, if someone wants to get a hold of you, explore working with you, what is the best way to go about doing that?
00:58:38
Speaker
The best way would be to use good old-fashioned telephone because I'm still in the process of getting a website design. I am on Facebook under Joy Fuller. That's J-O-Y-F-U-L-L-E-R. Correct. Two words. On Facebook. And then phone number. I don't know how comfortable you feel giving out your phone number. I'm okay with giving my phone number out in the spirit of being available to individuals that feel like they would be benefiting from learning how to breathe properly or to do some breath work for increased effectiveness in their daily life, just to learn how to presence themselves more fully. Yeah, and I can speak as someone who's worked with you directly, the guys immense value of taking the time out of your schedule to dedicate to yourself and to learning about your own
00:59:37
Speaker
patterns and and playing within your internal world to see what it can do on the external stance. So yeah, please, please give our listeners your phone number. I think that's awesome. I love it because, you know, with this podcast project, Kiara and I, we really want to be helpful. And I think there's so many barriers to entry now of like, quote unquote, working with people. There's all these funnels and emails and sign up sheets and things that I love just the directness of if you want to ah need support, just call this number. I think it's great. they Right, right. No, that's great. I i feel really excited about coming out of a cycle of what we jokingly call Humboldt hermititis.
01:00:26
Speaker
and to be more available. you know I've said that before, you know, Humble is a wonderful place to ground, but if you're here too long, it kind of pulls you down a little far. It's like it over grounds you a little. Right, right. So my phone number is and feel free to leave a message with your phone number and happily return your phone.
01:00:56
Speaker
Yeah, Amy Glovin, thank you so much. What a wonderful asset to this world you are. And I know I can speak for both Kyara and I. We're so grateful that you've been in our lives and that you've been on our team, so to speak. And now that you're part of our clan. I'm so thankful. It's such a ah mutual aberration.
01:01:19
Speaker
plan. yeah Yeah, we're in it together for sure. Thank you for this opportunity. Absolutely. Anything else? Just keep keep on breathing folks and know be be mindful and much, much love to you all. Thank you, Amy.
01:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, keep breathing. That's the goal. If you enjoyed Amy and want to work with her, we encourage you to reach out. She's so friendly and wonderful, as you probably gathered from this conversation. If you didn't catch her phone number, you can find it in the episode description.
01:02:06
Speaker
And you may have noticed today that we dropped another bonus to accompany this sofa series conversation. It's a special for the fam episode of how Amy came to be a part of our lives. So definitely check that out if you're fam.
01:02:24
Speaker
Check it out. Also, there's even more to this convo that we felt needed to be heard, but we didn't have space to put it into this recording you just listened to. So keep an ear out for our next ripple resource. We will be dropping soon. That will include the breathwork practice you just heard for easy access, along with some invaluable insights from Amy on the topic of change.
Engage with The Ripple Effect Community
01:02:51
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning in this week. We will see you in two weeks. Actually, the cat always reminds me, I'm not gonna see you. You will hear us in two weeks. All right, fam, have a great day.
01:03:06
Speaker
Okay, I think we did it. Listen. I don't know what we did, but we did it. Look, unattainable ideals are overrated. We're way more connected and deserving than society's false sense of separation dictates us to be. You're not just one person, you're enough. Your effort is enough and change is possible. Question the standard that says otherwise because what if almost is good enough? Just by tuning in, you're a part of our plan.
01:03:40
Speaker
Not in a call-to-way, though. We don't know how far this ripple can go, but we're gonna keep showing up. And we'll never get to perfection, but we're all gonna be okay if we let the process be the solution and we see the value in the attempt.
01:03:55
Speaker
Thanks for listening to another episode of The Ripple Effect. We're looking forward to exploring a different facet of change with you next Tuesday. DM us directly at rippleeffectpod on Instagram and let us know what you liked about our show or any of your own ideas. We're really excited to hear from you. We value your feedback because it helps us make the pod better and it's our way of including you in our process.
01:04:20
Speaker
Okay, so ratings aren't the point of why we do this. We really want to make a change in the world. But in the matrix, there are algorithms. So yeah, every single review we get helps the ripple go farther. To help us out, please take two seconds, find the ratings and review section on whatever platform you're listening from, click five stars, wink, wink, and leave a review.
01:04:44
Speaker
We know you're busy, so just saying hello or literally hi as the review helps us hack the matrix. We sincerely appreciate it. If you want to become officially initiated into our clan, again, not in a cult-y way, hit the subscribe button wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, we're in it with you. Keep questioning. Stay curious. You got this, clan.
01:05:11
Speaker
A special thank you, love and credit to the magnificent Mia Casasanta for this beautiful music you're listening to right now.