The Importance of Breath in Chronic Illness Recovery, with Breathwork Facilitator, Satori Clarke

This episode is the third and final episode of a mini series where I talk to three people who have been helping me bring about changes in three key areas - movement, sleep and breath.

In this episode I talk with Breathwork facilitator, Satori Clarke. Satori is Head of Research at Breathwork Bali, and Co-Founder of it's BreathLab, and I've been working with her doing one-to-one Breathwork sessions for the last 8 months of so. I've found it a really beneficial practice for me in many ways, including helping me learn to regulate and trust my nervous system, and allowing me to tap into states of rest and relaxation that I struggle to access otherwise. 

In this episode, we discuss breath and its power to change the way the nervous system functions, which can in turn alter which parts of our brain and more online.  Satori explains how when we bring conscious awareness to our breath, it will begin to re-pattern our body and how it functions, and the more that we practice it, the more our body will access it unconsciously.

Satori talks me through the different diaphragms we have in our body that assist breathing, and we also discuss various different breathing techniques (cadence breathing, conscious connected breathing, Holotropic breathing etc) and the benefits and states each one can bring about. We also discuss the importance of rest and relaxation and how Breathwork can tap into this by regulating the nervous system, by training it to safely activate and de-activate. 

0:00 - Intro
1:39 - Why breath is one of the most underrated areas to focus on in health?
4:10 - Rapid breathing and hyperventilation disorder, and how your unconscious breathing patterns could be causing you problems
5:45 - The three diaphragms of breath, and how breathing correctly and consciously can increase blood flow and help organs function better
7:00 - Cadence breathing - what it is and the impact practicing it can have 
8:00 - Wim Hof breathing (holotropic Breathwork) 
9:26 - Conscious connected Breathwork and how it differs to Holotropic Breathwork
11:29 - How conscious connected Breathwork can help create nervous system regulation, teaching it to go into intensity, and then come down and rest and recover. 
12:05 - How our culture creates a sense of stress and constant “doing” and the importance of rest and relaxation, and how Breathwork can help with this
12:55 - My experience when I first discovered Breathwork and my early takeaways from the practice 
14:55 - My breath and Satori’s observations of how this has changed over the course of time we’ve been working together 
16.15 - My experience in learning to trust my nervous system, and how this has been powerful for me 
22.40 - “Highly dis-regulated” nervous systems and what this means
26:28 - What a ‘breath journey’ is 
29:13 - Emotion as energy, and how Breathwork and nervous system activation can help this move through the body 
35:34 - How Breathwork can help dial down the prefrontal cortex, allowing emotions to emerge. 
40:10 - My experience of putting my trust in my nervous system, and how breathwork has helped me on my chronic health journey. 
47:14 - The importance of being properly supported in breathwork (not being guided virtually/online)
51:37 - Cadence breathing as an starting point for those without access to a facilitator, and its benefits 
56:13 - Satori’s work with Breath Lab, at Breathwork Bali, and their research 

REFERENCES:
▶ "Breath", by James Nester
▶ "When The Body Says No" by Gabor Mate

FOLLOW SATORI CLARKE
▶ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/satoriclarke 

FOLLOW BREATHLAB
▶ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/breath.lab

US ON SOCIAL
▶ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheChronicCo...
▶ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thechronicc...&n