During this stressful period of covid-19, breathing properly is essential to managing your stress response.

As RN.com states, immunity is negatively affected by chronic stress. My goal is to give you tools to reduce that chronic stress. Whether it’s a 1% reduction in stress or 20% reduction in stress, I want to give you whatever I can to help.

It’s changed my life and I hope it will change yours too. ❤️

How 1-3 minutes a day of breathing can change everything…

In the current crisis STRESS is a major factor for healthcare workers.

Chronic stress depletes energy, inhibits the immune system and reduces our overall quality of life.

Breathing (properly) is one of our most potent natural stress relievers along with exercise.

It’s a small thing, but it does make a big difference and it’s something we’d like to gift to you.

We here at The Cave & Destination:Change have teamed up with some of our favourite colleagues in Waterloo Region to develop and deliver this protocol to you.

In just 20 minutes, you can learn how to reset your breathing patterns for less stress and more calm.

Then spend as little as 1-3 minutes per day (in the car, in bed before sleep, etc.) to maintain it.

Along with the benefits you feel here, this will also make every other stress reducing activity you do (from walks, to meditation, to sleep) more effective because they all thrive on good breathing mechanics.

Learn how to reset your breath here:

The 20-minute ‘Reset your breath’ Protocol:

How Breathing Fits Into the Equation: Most of us have dysfunctional breathing patterns. We breathe up into our chest and shoulders rather than down into our abdomen. On top of that, many of the muscles responsible for proper breathing are locked up and tight.

For a lot of us, this leads to significantly increased feelings of stress and overwhelm.

For me personally, I’ve dealt with anxiety, panic attacks and chronic stress and have had a dramatic improvement to the point that I barely notice it now largely thanks to fixing my breathing patterns. (The other half of it was thought capturing which I’ll touch on briefly at the bottom.)

Although I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through on the front lines, I can offer what I, as an expert on breathing mechanics and stress reduction, would do in the same situation and what I’m recommending to friends and family who are front line workers.

With a quick one time 20-minute reset of breathing muscles, followed by as little as 1-3 minutes of daily maintenance, you can significantly enhance your stress tolerance and reduce your perceived stress level. 👌

Without further ado, here is the 3 Step Protocol!

STEP 1: Assess Your Current Breathing Patterns

Take a deep breath in.

Does it come into the belly/abdomen and ribs, OR is it chest and shoulders? Most of us breath with our chest and shoulders, which will significantly elevate how stressed you feel.

Optimal breathing happens through the diaphragm and involves expansion of the abdomen & ribs.

When we inhale up into our chest and shoulders, we also end up with tight shoulders, neck and back as a result. Do you have tight neck, back and shoulders?? If so keep going because this is EXACTLY what you need to correct that!

STEP 2: Release Tight Muscles

Massage any tight muscles that may be contributing to chest & shoulder breathing (chest, shoulders/neck, abdominal muscles) for 15 seconds and retest to see if breathing pattern has improved.

You may also perform more advanced breathing reset techniques as shown in the additional videos in this section.

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NOTE: ALWAYS TEST RETEST.
The test-retest ensures that what you are doing actually creates results. Don’t take my word for it, do the exercise and see for yourself if it fixes it! I’m not interested in wasting your time on things that don’t work! (And if you get stuck and things aren’t working, email me at derek@derekcolvin.com and I’ll send you some resources to help.

STEP 3: Practice simple Posture fixes

Yes, things are crazy, and you're probably just focused on getting through the day, but the more you can practice these SIMPLE posture tweaks, the better you'll handle stress.

Your body has feedback loops. If you sit stressed, you’ll feel stressed. If you sit confident, you’ll feel confident.

Even if I can make you 5% less exhausted and stressed, I’d love to offer this service. Inhale into the belly, pull your shoulders back, ribs down.

ACTION: HOW To Actually Put This to Use

So how do you actually put this new found breathing skill to use?

Here are a few of my favourite ways to apply this in a very busy schedule.

1. Daily 1-3 Minute Breathing Resets: When you feel stressed, most people do not breathe properly. We switch to shallow, rapid breaths that leave us feeling wound up, burnt out and stressed.

To correct this, take a deep diaphragmatic inhale through the nose (exactly as shown) and then a deep exhale through the mouth or nose. (Test both and see what feels best.) I’ll do 3-5 breaths and notice my stress levels drop drastically.

This can be done seated, lying down (my favourite) or even standing up. Going for a coffee on break? Breathe as you walk down and stand in line. Going home? Breath through your whole drive. (Making sure not to chill out so much you fall asleep!)

I’ll often do this in the car before or after work, or after a stressful situation, argument or lying on the floor at home after a long day.

2. Mediation Walks: Pick a podcast, audiobook (The Obstacle is the Way and Relentless are two favourites), or nice relaxing music or the sound of nature and breath as you walk. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone for a meditation walk and come back refreshed, renewed and with new perspective. Although the situation was the same, my stress level was drastically reduced.

3. Self Massage Upper Shoulders & Chest: Even without the breathing techniques, just the release for the upper shoulders and chest drastically reduce my feeling of stress. I’ll use the shoulder massage techniques to reduce shoulder and chest tension and notice that I’m breathing better, feeling better and overall in a better head space.

additional resources:

Several colleagues and friends who work specifically with breathing and stress reduction have been generous enough to give you access to further free resources for stress reduction. Check out everything they’ve offered below!

Pelvic floor specialist Andrea Laver:

Andrea is a pelvic floor focused trainer based out of Cambridge, Ontario. She is one of the first people I learned breathing techniques from and has a wealth of knowledge with regards to proper breathing patterns and in particular pre and post-natal core strengthening. (Largely using breathing techniques.)

A note from Andrea: We take 20 000 breaths per day and breathing affects everything from digestion and elimination to our state of mind - so it's important to get it right! Here is a set of videos on how to get a proper breath, as well as a fix for the tightness that can prevent us from getting a good breath.

See more from Andrea at goalsandgainz.ca.

Pelvic floor specialist Nicole Thorne:

Nicole is a pelvic floor focused trainer based out of Waterloo, Ontario. She is a master trainer for Bellies Inc. and recently hosted a core & breathing certification for our trainers at our other gym #LiveFitBabe Training. Nicole is also focused on pre and post-natal core strengthening as well as posture and breathing for women of any age.

A Note from Nicole: This video will teach you how to breathe diaphragmatically using your entire core. There are 4 parts to the core: Top, bottom (pelvic floor), front and back and it is critical that you use all parts in order to achieve proper breathing mechanics.

See more from Nicole at nicolethornefitness.com.

Capacity creator - Melanie Sodka:

Melanie is a writer, speaker and capacity creator. Through her own struggles with overcommitment and burnout, Melanie has developed the Capacity Creator course and framework to help you let go of excess commitments, expectations and competing priorities.

Specifically in light of this crisis, Melanie has offered her $197 Capacity Creator Masterclass to all health care workers 100% free.

CLICK HERE to access her class and use code: ‘communitymatters’ to get free access.

You can also watch her Ted Talk on Burnout Here:

See more from Melanie at melaniesodka.com.

We are here for you.

We have made an unlimited amount of pro-bono digital breathing & stress coaching sessions available to any healthcare workers. You are our most important human resources in this crisis.

BONUS TIP: FOCUS YOUR MINDSET

I can’t pretend that I know how you feel, however I can share what I would do if I was in your situation.

I highly, highly recommend you pick-up the book The Obstacle is the Way. I can’t say I know what you’re going through, but in my best attempt to imagine it, I believe it will be helpful. It’s DESIGNED to help you during hard times. You can get it for free download on Audible (you have to enter your credit card info, but you can cancel right away after downloading the book), however I am also working to see if I can get the publisher to release a downloadable or streamable version for free.

OTHER RESOURCES

How to Make Stress Your Friend: Click HERE

Tetris Within 6 Hours of Traumatic Event May Help with PTSD Reduction: Click HERE

What I do to Turn my Brain Off When I Can’t Stop Thinking: