Part Four: Prioritizing Safety, Accessibility and Choice in Teaching Breath Work

 

Part Four: Prioritizing Safety, Accessibility and Choice in Teaching Breath Work

If you are just tuning in here is a recap of this Four Part Breath Work series. If you haven’t checked out these previous blogs I highly encourage you do so prior to reading this as Part 1-3 frame the context for this piece.

 

The first thing I always encourage others that are interested in teaching or coaching breath work to do is self exploration. Self exploration should be the first place we start and I whole heartedly believe we should not be teaching or coaching breath work practice that we haven’t spent time with ourselves. You are your own best teacher. I fully believe that we can teach others by way of intimately knowing the practice. Part Three: Exploring Breath work, Where to Start? Can help you with this!

 

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Part Three: Exploring Breath Work, Where to Start?

 

Part Three: Exploring Breath Work, Where to Start?

If you have not read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series I highly recommend you do as this will give you an in depth look at what breath work is and why it is imperative we be teaching and coaching breath work in more trauma aware and trauma informed ways.  

 

I am passionate about helping all of my clients and athletes understand what breath work is and explore this practice with more awareness so that they may engage with the practice in ways that are centered around accessibility, safety and choice. These are what allow people to practice in ways that support them.  

There are a variety of ways to engage in breath work but more importantly you do not have to engage in it at all. This is why I highly encourage everyone to start by thinking about their goal or intention for breath work before embarking on a...

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Part Two: Understanding the Breath and Nervous System

 

Part Two: Understanding the Breath and Nervous System

If you haven’t checked out Part One of this four part breath work series, A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work  I highly suggest you do so. We break down why a trauma aware and trauma informed approach is critical when teaching and coaching breath work.

Now we will dive in to the nuances and connection of the breath and nervous system to reveal exactly why a trauma aware/informed approach supports our clients best.

 

What is breath work?

We can’t talk about breath work without first acknowledging what the breath is. To breathe is to be alive and breathing is the most basic physiological process that is required for living. Pranayama, which is often used to refer to “breath work” is the one of the 8 limbs of yoga. Prana, means “life force”. Yama means “extension or control”. 

The breath is automatic but we can also control it.

In order to control or...

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Part One: A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work

 

Part One: A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work

As mainstream society continues to jump on the breath work bandwagon it is very important we continue to prioritize safety, accessibility and choice with regards to this practice. As a mental health therapist and mindfulness coach that works extensively with athletes, I am passionate about sharing the nuances of such an individualized and powerful practice. I have also personally experienced significant trauma, chronic anxiety and panic disorder in my life and I know firsthand how challenging breath work can be due to these experiences.

Welcome to this Four Part Series on Breath Work.

  • Part One: A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work
  • Part Two : Understanding the Breath and Nervous System
  • Part Three: Exploring Breath Work, Where to Start?
  • Part Four: Prioritizing Safety, Accessibility and Choice in Teaching Breath Work

 

Lets dive in!

Breath work is often sold as a grounding and calming practice. Things I have seen or...

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Perrin Wellness and Performance. The Journey

 

Hello! Welcome to my work.

My name is Emily Perrin and I am a Mental Health Therapist and Mindfulness and Performance Coach. I am so thankful you are here and I’m excited to share my journey with you in detail. Although my path to this work has not been linear much of it has been shaped by my own lived experience. 

The truth is I grew up in and around sport. My Dad was a college basketball coach at the University of Virginia for the first 10 years of my life where he also received his Ph.D. in Sport Psychology. Some of my earliest childhood memories are running around University Hall (which sadly no longer exists) at UVA and going to team practices. Even after leaving college basketball he has continued to work with some of the best athletes in the United States. His career has taken him across multiple professional leagues including the NBA, MLS, NWSL and to two World Cups with the US Men’s National Team. From a very young age this was my life. I...

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A Mindful and Holistic Approach to Athlete Recovery

 

If you have not tuned in to my 3 Part Blog series on the connection between Mental health and Recovery please do so! Why Failing to Prioritize Recovery is Impacting Your Mental Health is a detailed look at how recovery and the mental health of an athlete are intimately linked. This will also help you understand the type of nervous system shift we are looking for and explain what the Parasympathetic (Ventral Vagal) Nervous System State is (Referred to as PNS in this Blog). 

If you have not downloaded my Free EBOOK: The Athletes Holistic Guide to Recovery, this can be a great place to start! 

I am a full advocate of explaining the “why” behind things before giving an athlete or coach solutions or answers. I find that the “WHY” is often what empowers an athlete to step into taking care of themselves more efficiently. 

The recovery process will be unique and individual for every single athlete. When working with an athlete or a team I...

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Why Failing to Prioritize Recovery is Impacting Your Mental Health: Part Three

If you haven't tuned in to Part One and Part Two of this Series I recommend starting there. 

Part One: The role of the Nervous System in both Mental Health and recovery 

Part Two: The link between Recovery and Mental Health 

But the impact of failing to prioritize recovery will also be a foundational piece of how an athlete performs. 

 

Impact on Performance 

For those of you who have gotten this far, THANK YOU.  But alas, we have one more element to also consider. 

Performance. 

Although I believe that there is NOTHING more important than the overall well being of an athlete, I also know that sport is competitive. Although we are moving in the right direction with mental health in sport there are still MANY athletes and coaches who prioritize performance and winning over overall health.  

Performance is a critical piece to sport. But mental health is the foundation for performance.

Many athletes come to sport with goals and...

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Why Failing to Prioritize Recovery is Impacting Your Mental Health: Part Two

 If you are just tuning in make sure to go back and read Part One. This will give you look at how the Nervous System is going to be central to both Recovery and Mental health. Now let's look at the link why we cannot talk about Athlete Mental Health without thinking about Recovery. 

 

Recovery and Mental Health 

Now lets see WHY an athlete needs to be prioritizing and making MORE of an effort to make this intentional down SHIFT in their nervous system after recovery.  This is where we begin to link Recovery and Mental Health.  

Have you ever looked at a typical college athlete’s life? 

If not, let me paint a picture for you: 

  1. Training every day (1 off day mandatory —- is it ever really off?) 
  2. Many teams lift in season so add at least 1 lift (maybe more) on top of training 
  3. Anywhere from 1-2 games per week (baseball is an anomaly) 
  4. Outside of practice film review or individual sessions with coaches 
  5. ...
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Practice Self Compassion

“The motivation of self compassion arises from love, while the motivation of self criticism arises from fear. Love is more powerful than fear.”

-Krisin Neff 

Self Compassion is hard and it is very counterintuitive to how we typically operate as humans. Simply put, we’re a negative species. We have a negativity bias that serves us well up until a point.  Oftentimes what happens when we face rejection or failure our self criticism kicks in. It can be quite addictive and spark a spiral of very critical self talk and rumination. If we failed it means we did something wrong so let’s beat ourselves up so that we can be better next time. If we get rejected, let’s critique ourselves as to WHY we weren’t enough. 

Been there. Done that. It doesn’t work. In fact it makes things infinitely worse. 

Especially in sport, there is definitely an attitude that if we fail we need to get back to the drawing board so we can figure out how to...

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Drop the Judgment.

Here is a common human experience: We have a feeling or emotion. We don’t like it or judge ourselves for said feeling or emotion. 

I can’t tell you how many times I have gone through failure and rejection and then beat myself up because I am taking it so hard.

Running dialogue: 

“I shouldn’t be this sad” 

“It’s not that big of a deal” 

“I should be over this” 

“It shouldn’t bother me” 

“I should be more positive” 

Anybody been there? We place so much judgment on how we think and feel. We are a judging species and although we will never NOT judge we can help ourselves out. 

In his book “Wherever You Go There You Are,” Jon Kabat-Zinn describes what it might be like to not judge. “Imagine how it might feel to suspend all your judging and instead to let each moment be just as it is, without attempting to evaluate it as “good” or...

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