Breathe for Health Breathe for Life

16/08/2024

“The only thing wrong with Connor was he struggled to breathe while sleeping”.

If you are a parent with a “seemingly” difficult child, this video will offer an explanation why.

I felt really emotional watching it, knowing there are likely thousands of children out there wrongly labelled with behaviour disorders, when there is a strong possibility it could stem from sleep disordered breathing, which can be corrected.

Please take time to watch and if you are a teacher, it would be well worth watching also.

For more information about children who are sleepy, snore, or have been diagnosed with ADHD, please visit The American Academy of Physiological Medicine and ...

18/04/2024

A 30 minute chat with Patrick McKeown and the lively breakfast radio host Chris Evans, about why the way you breathe is so important to you.

It clearly had a great impact as the Oxygen Advantage website crashed with so much new traffic!

If you’d like to know more, please get in touch. I trained with Patrick back in 2018 and run courses for people wanting to make a difference to how they feel by adapting their breathing.

Trudi 0412851371

The full video of Patrick McKeown's interview with Chris Evans this morning on Virgin Radio UK's The Chris Evans Breakfast Show

27/03/2024

Buteyko breathing is best known for its ability to improve - and often eliminate - asthma symptoms.

Here are some simple tips and information for your respiratory health, whether that be asthma, sinus problems, allergies and hayfever, or COPD.

The most important thing you can do for your respiratory health is this -

Breathe in and out through the nose.
As quietly as you can.
As softly and gently as you can.

Here are a few reasons why -

YOUR NOSE - is a first line of defense for your respiratory airways.

Breathing through your nose for both inhale and exhale, protects your airways.

Your nose is a filter. The cilia (fine hairs) and mucosa which line the nasal passages, captures up to 3/4 of pathogens, pollen, dust, bacteria and viruses entering the nose, and they are eliminated via lymph tissue lining the nasal cavity.

Your nose warms and moistens the air. If cold air enters the nose at 6 degrees C, it will be warmed to 30 C by the time it reaches the back of the nose, and body temperature by the time it reaches the back of the throat. Air is moistened by the mucous membranes, reducing dehydration.

Nasal breathing slows and quietens the intake of air, which results in a much more efficient gas exchange and a higher uptake of oxygen throughout the body.

NASAL NITRIC OXIDE this gas is produced in high amounts in the nasal cavities. It is anti microbial helping to prevent infections in the sinuses and lungs from viruses, bacteria and fungi.

Nitric oxide is a bronchodilator, opening up the airways, sterilizing the inhaled air and is anti inflammatory. There are many other benefits of NO, but these are the important ones for breathing.

In contrast, MOUTH BREATHING takes cold, unfiltered air (pathogens - viruses, pollen, dust, bacteria, fungi), directly into the lungs. Cold air also causes restrictions to the airways, making it harder to breathe.

Mouth breathing is a stressor causing inflammation in the body. It reduces the anti microbial saliva, which can cause oral health problems, such as demineralization of teeth, bad breath and cavities.

Mouth breathing is also a significant contributing factor for sleep problems, such as snoring, insomnia and sleep apnoea.

THEREFORE -
Slow, soft nasal breathing is more than just protective of your respiratory health. In times of great stress, it will help to restore some calm for your entire physiology.

BREATHING EXERCISE

Here is a simple exercise to help -

Place your hands comfortably on the lower edges of your ribs overlapping the sides of your tummy.

As you breathe softly in through your nose, allow your focus to rest on your ribs gently expanding - this is a small movement indicating your lungs are filling with air.

As you gently exhale through your nose, your ribs will return as your lungs release the air.

If you would like to count during your breath, perhaps start by breathing softly in through your nose for a slow count of 3 and breathe softly out through your nose for a slow count of 4 or 5.

Even just 1 minute of breathing this way will be of benefit; 5 - 10 minutes several times a day, especially before bed can be very beneficial to most people.

If you’d like to know more about how Buteyko breathing could benefit you, please get in touch.

Courses available.

Trudi 0412851371

21/03/2024

Let's talk about ANXIETY.

One of the many (many is perhaps an understatement!) problems with having anxiety is - it just rules your life.

And for many people, the anxiety is so ingrained in your being, you don't even recognise you have it.

That was me. I thought I had it all together. Happy family life, great kids, good friends and social network, loved my work, loved living on the Sunshine Coast.

And quite the control freak. Perhaps not in an obvious way (though people who know me might say otherwise 😅), but in a way that I believed I controlled everything that happened to me via my thoughts and actions. Because then I felt safe - or at least it seemed that way.

Living with anxiety but having no awareness of it, is bizarre. I mean, how can you not know you're anxious?

I was aware I constantly lived in my head; rumination was my friend. Or rather it was the thing that fed the fire. A single thought could lead to endless repetitive stories in my mind - really awful outcome stories, because someone was late arriving home, or feeling unwell. I believed if I lived out a scenario, I could cope with the outcome.

Living this way was "my normal". Clearly, it's far from normal and my health was affected. Badly. Devastatingly badly.

And there it was. The anxiety. In full view. Complete with utter despair and hopelessness alongside the terrifying pain, symptoms, fatigue and illness that comes with rheumatoid arthritis and Lyme disease.

After I recovered from the illness (mostly), I lived more in my body than my head. Intense pain shows you how to do that. I wouldn't recommend it, I wouldn't want to relive it, but I also wouldn't change it. I surrendered because that's all I had left, and somehow it created a freedom to just be - in all the pain, all the emotions, all the fears and despair.

And I began to understand anxiety - how I'd had it for so long without knowing. And that happened more clearly and profoundly once I learnt Buteyko breathing.

I had no idea that my breathing was so out of whack. That my unknown anxiety was causing my breathing to increase, affecting my biochemistry and health because of it.

There are so many methods to help people with anxiety. For me, it's always been about the breath. I was born not breathing, so perhaps there is a subconscious element, but breathing in a functional and adaptive way, has totally changed my life and the anxiety that was part of me for most of it.

Yes, I still have anxiety. Yes I still ruminate on occasion. But they live in the background, and I treat them as friends who remind me to take time to do a little extra breathing when they pop by to say hello.

If you would like to learn some simple breathing techniques to help manage your anxiety, or for stress management/reactivity, then reach out.

I offer full Buteyko breathing courses of 4 sessions over 6 weeks, 6 shorter sessions over 9 weeks, or one off sessions of 1 or 2 hours, if you are just wanting 1 or 2 breath exercises to begin with.

I have linked a couple of articles in the comments about high functioning anxiety.

Trudi 0412851371

29/02/2024

"I'm a failure."
"I failed again."
"I fail at everything I do."
☹️

Do you have these thoughts? And how often?

I am guessing there are very few people who haven't run these thoughts through their mind on a rather regular basis.

I certainly did and occasionally I still do, but I have a much better handle on my thoughts and emotions nowadays.

In the past, how I perceived success and failure was based on other people's ideas about them. Therefore, I felt like a continual failure at everything. I listened to motivational talks regularly, until one day I heard "the only successful people in life, are those with high expectations." UGGGGHHHHHH 😢

I lived through a horrific illness for several years, and having high expectations just doesn't cut it. In fact, those high expectations set me up for fall after fall. Chronic illness doesn't care one iota about high expectations and that one line from that motivational talk, changed the course of my thinking.

When you let go of high expectations, you have room to fall without judgment. Rather than being a failure, you have had a setback, something we all have whatever our goals are. Setbacks are a normal part of moving towards our aspirations, and actually rather necessary for us to discover our limits and how we reach and move beyond them.

When you begin any new lifestyle skill, hobby, health routine, it takes time and some discipline to put them into place as part of your daily life.

This includes your new breathing exercises.

If you have a day (or even week) where you haven't practised your breathing exercises, that's ok. It's a setback. It doesn't mean you have failed completely, it just means you can pick it up and start again the next day.

Making breathing exercises a part of your daily life is easier than you might think. As little as 30 minutes a day incorporated across your existing life habits, can have a remarkable impact on your mental and physical health as you increase oxygen uptake throughout your body.

Don't give up on anything you have started or do, just because you've had a temporary blip in your routine. It's not a fail and neither have you failed at it.

It is merely a setback, a reminder that you can adapt and make changes for a more achievable outcome.

I've had to apply multiple different strategies to my daily life to maintain my health. Most of them take 5 to 15 minutes each. Short manageable time slots which easily fit in my day and keep me motivated.

Some days the only thing I do is my breathing practise and that's ok. I know I will get back to my my other strategies again, even if sometimes it's a few days later.

My breathing practise is my non negotiable. It keeps me balanced emotionally and physically and able to navigate everything that comes my way.

Buteyko method for functional and adaptive breathing skills.

Feel better every day when you incorporate Buteyko into your life.

Courses available.
Trudi 0412851371

This little guy is too cute not to share!

09/02/2024

BREATHING PRACTICE AND CULTIVATING PATIENCE

In a world that has become accustomed to instant gratification, finding a way to be patient is quite the challenge.

IN THE PAST

Whilst I considered I was a patient person, I am very conscious that upon reflection, I had a lot to discover about the art of being patient 😉

For several years, I lived with extreme pain - joint, bone, muscle, and nerve, brought about by chronic Lyme disease, multiple co infections and rheumatoid arthritis. My body systems were in deep crisis and the hopelessness and despair were soul destroying.

I spent most of my life in a state of high functioning anxiety, with a nervous system in overdrive.

Throughout every day, I would run endless stories I created in my mind, as a way of coping with daily life, which further added to the dysregulation and anxiety in my body.

PATIENCE

Daily repetition of the small things which seemingly have no immediate impact, until one day, all those repetitions begin to make a significant difference.

When a tree is planted, it can be a long time before anything is visible above ground. Patience is required as the nutrients are absorbed into the root system, providing a strong foundation for growth.

Of course, there are also times when some changes happen very quickly, as in planting flowers, fruit or vegetables.

Either way, patience is required on some level, as the ground work is put into place for the results to bloom.

Breathing practice has been one of the simplest skills I have used to cultivate my patience.

Initially I had some very fast improvements, in sleep, my digestion, and my stress reactivity.

But the long term, more sustainable changes, have happened over time.

A simple daily practice, integrated into my usual routines, has seen incredible benefits for me, most notably, in my nervous system, which of course impacts the rest of my body.

No one can avoid stresses happening in their life, but you can take steps to cope with them.

By creating an ongoing daily habit of breathing exercises, my entire biochemistry has changed, calmed down and removed the constant inflammation that was causing my previous symptoms.

My reactivity to stressful events has diminished, and I manage them from a place of calm.

Buteyko breathing was the method I used, and I trained as an instructor in 2018.

Buteyko method enhances the automatic process of breathing through a series of exercises. Many people have some form of breathing dysfunction; Buteyko restores your breathing habits to a functional and adaptive state, which is the way your body was designed to work.

Simple things done every day can change your life in ways you would never expect.

If you’re curious about how Buteyko breathing as a foundational practice can help you in your life, I'd be happy to chat with you.

Trudi 0412 851 371

19/12/2023

Wishing all my breathing clients, past, present and future, a wonderful festive season. 🎅🏼🎄

I am very grateful for the opportunity to guide you through my Buteyko functional and adaptive breathing programme, and I have delighted in observing your incredible progress and transformations. 🙏

Breathing this way is truly life changing and I hope you have all continued to make it a part of your daily life.

My favourite exercise (for everything), is the small breath holds exercise. Whilst Christmas is a fun time, it can also be a time of acute stress as families are thrown together, or people are alone and isolated, for those who are unwell, and for those who are grieving.

Small breath holds is your first aid breath. It calms your mind and physiology within minutes of practice, as you focus on counting and holding. It quickly rebalances your biochemistry to a calm state.

This exercise is also perfect for panic or anxiety attacks, the beginning of an asthma attack, coughs, colds and recovery from acute illness.

HOW TO DO SMALL BREATH HOLDS

Use nasal breathing at all times.

All breath holds are at the end of an exhale.

Breathe softly in, breathe softly out, close nostrils gently, and hold for a count of 5, then let go of nostrils, breathing in out through the nose.

Breathe in and out gently for 2-3 breaths (or 10-15 seconds) and repeat the breath hold.

Continue in this way for 5 - 10 minutes and repeat through the day as needed, up to a maximum of 6 times.

If holding for a count of 5 is too long, start with 2-3.

If you are using this exercise to relieve coughing, begin with holds of 2-3 count and increase up to count of 5, as you feel able.

If you are pregnant, practice soft, gentle nasal breathing only, do not use breath holds.

Courses begin again from 24th January 2024.

I very much look forward to guiding more people to their potential health and well being next year.

Warmest wishes
Trudi
0412851371

30/11/2023

Commitment to a new exercise programme - easy or challenging?

One of the main issues clients face when they start Buteyko breathing, is finding the time to commit to breathing exercises. For the lucky few, discipline and structure from the start is a breeze, but for others it can prove a real challenge.

Throughout your course with me, we discuss how the breathing exercises will fit best into your life. This is reassessed at each session to ensure you can maintain the practice within your daily life. Sometimes the changes we make will be significant and other times only minor adjustments are needed. As we make the changes according to your needs, you will also understand how to make these adaptations for yourself.

Ultimately, the goal is for your to successfully integrate the new breathing patterns into your life so that they become a part of your life and are new habits formed in your brain's respiratory centre via neuroplasticity, rather than something you have to set aside time for each day, although there are definite benefits from doing this as well.

In the beginning, focused attention is required. This is a new way of breathing and your brain and body will take time to adjust to the changes in biochemistry. Any new practice or exercise regimen requires this and making a commitment to do so, will contribute quickly to the changes you are looking for. As little as 15 minutes, twice a day will bring noticeable changes to symptoms you may be feeling as a result of previous breathing habits.

Putting a scheduled structure in place is one of the key factors in achieving this. It could be 5 minutes every hour, 10 minutes 3 times a day, 15 minutes twice a day or a combination of all 3, depending on how your day works. Where in your day will this work best for you?

Most clients find that first thing in the morning and before bed are the easiest times to structure in their breathing exercises.

First thing in the morning will help create a calm, focused and energised mind to carry you into your day.

Before bed helps to calm your nervous system and prepare you for sleep.

A 10 minute lunchtime or afternoon breathing practice can help re-energise you, particularly if you feel a slump after lunch.

Communication is important throughout the course. I want you to succeed in achieving your goals. I can teach you all the exercises and everything you need to know, to perform them correctly, I can give guidelines for structure and help you put this into place.

In the end, it is you who decides to make the commitment or not.

One of the most joyful aspects of teaching Buteyko breathing is seeing the changes in clients when they have diligently practised their exercises and have amazing results and changes to symptoms they have been experiencing.

Commitment and structure maybe a challenge for you, but there are always options and ways of integrating the breathing exercises into your life.

For more information, please reach out.

Trudi 0412 851 371

19/11/2023

BREATHING COURSE OPTIONS.

I currently offer 2 options for Buteyko breath training.

Both cover the same content but across different times frames.

The first option is 4 sessions over 6 weeks -

Week 1 - 2 hours
Weeks 2 and 3 - 90 minutes
Week 6 - 75 - 90 minutes.

Many people want to do the course really quickly, but in reality, that can mean information overload and an inability to maintain a really good breathing exercise routine.

Which can mean the whole breathing practice is put into the "too hard basket".

The second option offers shorter sessions - 6 over 9 weeks. This allows a more focused approach at each session, on just 1 or 2 exercises, which ensures you can really get to know each one and only have minimal exercises to put into daily practice.

Week 1 - 1 hour
Weeks 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 depending on your progress - 45minutes - 1 hour

Whilst there is a huge amount of science involved and available, I keep the theory basic and understandable in layman's terms. There is a small amount covered at each session which is beneficial for your understanding of why breathing in a certain way is helpful, and all notes are provided.

Exercise adaptations and recommendations are discussed with you and given at the end of each session.

A really important factor to your progress and success, is monitoring changes in symptoms you have, in the form of a symptom tracker. This is completed weekly by you, and will almost always result in a big reduction in symptoms, with some being eliminated altogether.

Of course, these results are always dependent on your commitment and diligence to practice 😉

Buteyko breath training is life changing for so many people who have welcomed it into their lives.

If you're interested in finding out how Buteyko could help you, please get in touch. It might well be the best thing you ever do. It certainly was for me and the multitude of others who did!

Trudi 0412 851 371

14/11/2023

"People don't want to take 10 or 20 minutes once or twice a day to focus on breath and try to improve themselves.

But they don't mind scrolling on their phones for 2 or 3 hours every single day. I had that mindset too, but we all have the ability to change and create our own destiny."

Jules Horn from Atomic Focus written by Patrick McKeown.

Being too busy, is one of the main excuses people give for not doing their breathing exercises. As the quote above says, people will find time to do certain things, but not always the important ones.

During your breath training course with me, we discuss and make adaptations to your exercise programme to ensure it fits in with your lifestyle at each visit.

As the saying goes "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

Ultimately it is up to you, to implement the exercises if you want to feel better and make changes in your life. You are already breathing all day everyday. Giving some attention to your breath with easy exercises during the day is a small thing to put into action. It is a kindness to yourself and everyone deserves to receive kindness.

And benefits are quite life changing when you do.

I offer 2 courses -

Option 1

4 longer sessions over 6 weeks

Option 2

6 shorter sessions over 9 weeks

Buteyko - for functional and adaptive breathing.

Trudi 0412851371

02/11/2023

Simple things done well can change your life.

This includes your breathing.

How you breathe matters. It is overlooked, in no small part for the simple reason it’s kept you alive this long without any prior thought….. 🙃

How do you feel though?

Do you feel fantastic or do you have a few (or a lot of) symptoms or health complaints, minor or major? How is your reaction to stress?

If you’re not feeling as good as you’d like to, maybe consider learning Buteyko breathing method.

Poor breathing habits can disrupt your biochemistry causing imbalances throughout your body, which in turn lead to signs and symptoms of declining health.

Minor symptoms begin to act as warning signs - you might ignore and push through these symptoms, because that’s how most people deal with these things.

If you associate breath training with respiratory concerns only (I did for a lot of years,) put that aside.

The Buteyko method teaches exercises for functional and adaptive breathing.

This means you have the skills to navigate and help guide you through life situations and events with more ease, ensuring minimal disruption to your biochemistry.

No one can avoid the ups and downs that life brings, but having simple skills to carry with you 24/7, will give you more balance and calm to weather the storms.

Simple.

Courses available 😊

Trudi 0412851371

27/10/2023

Living with chronic diseases brings many challenges to life. Finding a way to live alongside them, is a way of life.

Mostly I am doing really well, but there are times when my immune system kicks up a storm and throws the fear of god back in to me. There is often no reason, but it’s always a reminder of how far I’ve come and how thankful I am for the skills I’ve acquired to help me navigate these times, because when the fear kicks in, my nervous system screams danger on so many levels. And a dysregulated nervous system is best buddies with chronic disease.

Buteyko breathing is my number one tool to help calm my anxiety, calm my system down and stay as regulated as I can.

This is how life was for me in a nutshell during my worst time.

For several years, I lived with an endless list of common and bizarre symptoms, the worst of which was high end, full body pain – joints, bones, muscles and nerves, and the awful fatigue and sleeplessness that accompanies this type of pain. I had zero quality of life and could do very little for myself. Although I wasn’t bed bound, it was more a subconscious drive to force myself to get out of bed for fear if I stayed there, I might never get up again. I had to use my head to lever myself up, because the pain and weakness in my arms and legs was too awful to use them.

There is so much we take for granted in life. The ability to move freely and easily, to dress ourselves without thinking, even to be able to hold a cup with one hand to drink from it or cut up your own food. Simply things I could no longer do. I was so utterly broken inside and out and stuck in a never ending loop of pain, hopelessness and despair.

Somehow, in the midst of all the pain and despair, I always had a flicker of hope. That each time I saw a slight improvement, this was the day things were going to change for the better. No matter that an hour later, I’d have crashed again, every time I felt that slight improvement, the hope was there again as if it was new. I’m not entirely sure where that resilience came from, but I’m so glad it was there, it’s one of the reasons I came through to recovery.

During all my treatments, no-one ever mentioned the way I was breathing or that changing my breathing might help with how I felt. When I found Buteyko 3 years into my recovery, it was one of those light bulb moments. I had immediate improvements in many of my remaining symptoms, and over a period of time, my symptoms became less and less and most of them disappeared altogether.

Buteyko breathing method has been the best thing I’ve ever done in terms of how I feel in myself. Not only does it help with the symptoms that pop up, but it helps me stay as calm as I can during the fear phase, which is a crucial aspect for me, given I’ve had a long history of story telling and catastrophising in my head! The brain can’t decipher between real or imagined situations, so the body responds by going into fight or flight. Being able to calm that response right down is one of my everyday skills in managing this illness.

You don’t need to have a chronic illness or any condition to benefit from what Buteyko offers you in terms of health, both physical and mental. It’s a simple skill to learn and carry you through life.

I offer two course options –

Option 1
4 sessions over 6 weeks
Week 1 - 2 hours
Week 2 - 90 minutes
Week 3 - 90 minutes
Week 6 - 75 minutes

Option 2
6 sessions over 9 weeks
Week 1 - 60 minutes.
Weeks 2, 3, 4, 5 - 45 minutes
Week 9 - 60 minutes

When you Breathe for Health, you Breathe for Life 🙂

Trudi 0412 851 371