Breathing for Wellness Practitioners and Trainers

Apart from the health and wellbeing ‘umbrella’, what might the following have in common? Cantienica¹ Trainers, a Lifestyle Therapist, Massage Therapist, Reflexologist, Resilience Trainers, a Tai Chi Instructor and Yoga Teachers? 

It's a completely unfair question because these are individuals who we know and the answer is that they've all recognised the importance of moment by moment healthy breathing, not only for themselves, but also in respect of the people they work with. 

Their interest is entirely relevant. These people all work to promote better health and wellbeing through whichever modality is their passion. Breathing is so foundational that it has the capacity to support the treatment or the training given, or it can work against it. The proportion of the population with dysfunctional breathing varies enormously depending on the information source, but it is fair to conclude that many of those whose health is in some way compromised most probably also have some level of dysfunctional breathing, the two go hand-in-hand. Equally variable is any statistic relating to people with anxiety who also have sub-optimal breathing, but it seems to be more than half of them². And it works both ways, illness can lead to poor breathing and poor breathing can feed into illness. In some cases, such as some instances of anxiety, it can even be the cause. And how many of those people seek to feel better through something from the list above, or any other modality: acupuncture, nutritional therapy, pilates, mindfulness to name just a few more?

What might this mean if your work is all about helping others to feel better?

It's disappointing when the client / student concludes that what you practice ‘doesn't work’, and whilst this can happen for all sorts of reasons, as it also does with conventional medicine, it may sometimes be due to the hidden interference of their breathing and if neither of you are aware of it, there's loss on both sides. But why does breathing have such an impact?

Our breathing has to correspond with our metabolic needs meaning the speed and volume of our breathing should align with our level of activity. It's interesting to note that the current ‘normal’ breathing rate at rest is faster than it was just 40 years ago. It's a perfect example of ‘normal' not equating to healthy. Anyone breathing too fast (whether or not it's noticeable) or too much will be poorly oxygenated, will likely experience brain cell excitability making them feel hyped and anxious, and may very well have sleep issues. How is your work supposed to cut through all of this?! If underlying breathing patterns are not addressed, all other efforts are likely to face a consistently uphill battle. 

You are ideally placed to recognise sub-optimal breathing if you know what to look for. And if you're able to help your clients to make useful changes to their everyday breathing, you may get to help them reduce or even eliminate some stubborn impediments to better health. Your clients want to feel better. Many of them will be female and will be better off for knowing how the menstrual cycle can affect their breathing, the airway changes that can occur around the time of peri-menopause, and the increased likelihood of sleep apnoea (breathing interruptions) at menopause. 

I thoroughly enjoy working with trainers and practitioners because the all important messages about healthier breathing get to a wider audience. If this strikes a chord with you, get in touch. Consider putting yourself through the one-to-one Breathing For Health Program; I will tailor the program to you, but I will also give you information to support your clients. Alternatively, you can contact me to arrange a half day workshop training for a group of your colleagues.³

If your work involves improving the lives of others then we're on the same mission. May we continue to reach more people and respond as well as we possibly can to their diverse needs.

~Annette Henry 

annette.breathingreeducation@gmail.com

• Buteyko Breathing Instructor (Cert BBM)

• Oxygen Advantage Functional Breathing Instructor

• Oxygen Advantage Breathing for Yoga Instructor Training

¹CANTIENICA® is an anatomically-based posture and movement method developed by Swiss journalist Benita Cantieni.

²Sohn I, Cho I. dysfunctional breathing and anxiety related disorder. Eur Psychiatry. 2023 Jul 19;66(Suppl 1):S685. doi: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2023.1433. PMCID: PMC10661328.

³One-to-one training can be conducted in English or German. The workshops will be primarily in English with German support if needed. Pricing and other information can be found on the Practitioners and Trainers page.