I’ve been pretty sick this week, and let me tell you, the irony isn’t lost on me. Because this week, the theme of our free Sunday breathwork experience is renewal. And gosh, do I need some renewal. 😊
I honestly haven’t felt well enough to truly dive into writing like I would, so please, cut me a little slack this week. I’ve tried my best!
I’m excited, though, because this is a great opportunity to share how I use breathwork as an early warning system for getting sick PLUS share how I’ve built better interoception with a daily breathwork practice.
Interoception, a primer
Interoception is a rather simple but important concept - it describes our ability to feel and interpret physiological signals. Think about anxiety - racing heart, sweating, tingling, a dry mouth - our awareness of these is from interoception. And when we get really good at interoception, we can learn a lot about what is going on in our body AND how that is affecting the mind.
So it might not surprise you then that scientists have found that poor interoception is often associated with a variety of mental and physical ailments; likewise, a poor ability to interpret is also associated with a variety of mental and physical ailments.
But when we have a strong connection internally, we can pick up softer, more nuanced, signals. And we can better distinguish between a harmless sensation and one that says - hey, you are getting sick.
Interoception and sickness
The body physiologically responds to changes outside of you, and within you, before you are aware of it. For example, my body knew long before my brain that I was getting sick. My immune defense started from the moment it noticed that an invader had entered. But most of those signals are undetectable.
I knew about two days before I was noticeably ill.
And no, this isn’t a story about how breathwork made me immune to everything. 😊
During my daily personal practice (two days before), I noticed some sensations in my body that signaled that I was about to get sick (or at least deal with some gnarly allergies - and yes, I have wintertime allergies to mold):
- Resistance in my inhale.
- A sensation at the top of my lungs - it was a light, almost burning feeling that worsened slightly on my inhale. I found that it was connected to the resistance I felt.
- My exhale was more immediate, like my body was operating in a more oxygen-starved environment, so my respiration needed to increase.
Then, about a day before, I felt a sensation that I could only describe as “claggy” (a reference to the Great British Baking Show). There was a weight that I could sense throughout my body. During my breathwork practice, my energy just felt sluggish.
My nose hasn’t started running, nor am I stuffy, but at this point, I know the next day I’m going to start getting visibly sick.
I’m grateful to at least have a warning because I can then prepare a bit better.
But I use breathwork for more than an early warning - it can also be used to help with the healing process.
Healing is a pretty stressful process for the body. I took a screenshot from my oura ring reading on my body’s stress level:
As you can see, my body is obviously stressed. It was mostly the fever of 103, I’m sure, but healing is stressful on the mind and body, period. Do you notice where I did some intentional, long-form, integrative breathwork?
If you guessed here, you’d be correct! Through breathwork, we can help alleviate stress in the body and restore a sense of balance, at least temporarily. I used a modified version of my “release” protocol we used a few weeks ago in Sunday breathwork to achieve this. My fever read 100.7 after the breathwork and didn’t go above 101 the rest of the evening. And that was a relief!
During the breathwork I also noticed that the burning sensation on the top of my lungs had disappeared - good news! I’m on the mend.
But, this sensation was replaced with a heaviness in the bottom of my lungs, which means for the next couple of days, I’ll be prioritizing gentle movement and yoga to avoid a bunch of mucus settling in my lungs… causing a whole heck of a lot of coughing and potential infection.
Improving Interoception
The first place to start with breathwork and sickness is building a core practice. Within this practice, we can heal our connection with our body (if needed) to feel more sensations (and learn how to interpret them). A core practice includes daily personal breathwork and 2-3 long-form integrative breathwork experiences.
A few suggestions for a daily personal practice:
- It does not have to be long - I suggest 10-15 minutes.
- Start in the morning. I like to think of burnout and overwhelm as an energy management problem. So when you connect with yourself in the morning, you can better assess your available energy and make intentional decisions about your day.
- Create a ritual around your personal practice, including how you breathe, how you connect inside, and how you reflect on your results. I have a journal dedicated to my daily practice.
- Do another session in the evening as you get more advanced. This evening session can be focused on releasing the energy of the day so that you can sleep soundly.
Through a strong core practice we can achieve stronger mindful states, better regulate and release emotions, and create a stronger connection with ourselves.
Most people who have practiced mindfulness in the past are likely familiar with the body scan technique, which involves bringing our attention to our body. It can be very effective at healing our connection to our body; yet many struggle with employing the technique.
The mainstream approach to mindfulness does not appreciate nor consider the significant neurodiversity out there. It isn’t just that people have fallen out of practice in feeling and interpreting physiological signals; depending on our brains, we interpret them differently. That’s where breathwork can help augment mindfulness.
In my work with clients, I like to combine a modified version of the body scan technique with breathwork. For those who struggle with mindfulness, the benefits of breathwork occur whether or not you dip into a mindful experience. And, the physiological effects of breathwork empower your mind to better connect with sensations internally.
So for our paired breathwork experience, Renewal, I will share this modified technique and how you can use it to improve interoception, reveal opportunities for your body to experience renewal, and feel a stronger sense of peace in the process. I’ll also share how you can begin to track sensation in your body so that you can learn, over time, what it is trying to share with you.
Breathwork+ members can access this experience, OnDemand, here.
