Breathwork Classes
Stress | Sleep | Digestion
Learn to control your nervous system through the simple act of taking control of your breath. Psyche yourself up, chill yourself out or find balance in just a few minutes.
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
Burning Out?
Going through life being assaulted by external circumstances and experiences can leave us feeling frazzled. Without adequate time and space to rest well regularly, the go-go-go pace of the modern world can easily lead to burnout.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE...
Energy Slump
Millions of people around the world right now struggle with chronic levels of stress, rarely get adequate sleep and don't properly digest the food they are taking in. This also means that they don't have the energy they need to get going and smash every day... and do all the things they love!
What Is Breathwork?
Breathwork is exactly as it sounds… working with the breath. Throughout life we work on a number of different things; skills specific to a job, hobbies or even our character. We usually devote more time to the things that are more important.
So, tell me, how important is your breath?
As important as life and death, right? If you’re not breathing… you may well not be alive! Given that it’s so important, you would think that maybe we’d have worked on it at some point. Sadly we often see it as an incidental, something that just happens naturally, by itself. Surely an inbuilt reflex, like the breath, doesn’t need work… does it?
If I told you that you’d be running a marathon in 2 months, would you reply ‘ah great, running is an innate human ability, I’ll just get on with it on the day!’ You could do that, and you’d likely complete the marathon, but you’d be a wreck at the end and the time you took to complete it would be embarrassing. It’s exactly the same with our breathing. It may well be innate, but it is not something that we necessarily do well.
The stress of modern life has left us breathing using our chest rather than our diaphragm, shallow breathing rather than deep breathing, breathing on autopilot rather than with mindfulness and all this leads to us not performing as well as we could be doing in the marathon of life. Our ancestors lived at a pace and included lifestyle activities that were conducive to excellent breathing - there was breathwork built into their everyday. Everyday, incidental, breathwork laid a foundation for our ancestors to enjoy less stress, better sleep and improved digestion compared to what we are experiencing today. Our constant stress levels, poor sleep and impaired digestion set us up for poor energy levels, brain fog and weight gain - not a great outlook for life!
The great news is that, with the right tools and some positive intent, we can recover the stress management, sound sleep and easy digestion that evolution has wired our bodies for by making intentional breathwork part of our daily routine. Over time, breathwork re-patterns our body and mind to make health supportive breathing our normal day-to-day breathing rhythm. This training sets us up perfectly for the real race of everyday life.
Whole Life Health
Breath Work
Our Breath work course is a 4 week programme, designed for people teetering on burnout; helping them achieve a more balanced nervous system, sound sleep, smooth digestion and move toward #AllDayEnergy . The course consists of a weekly live taught module, three guided daily practices (morning, noon and night) for each of our 28 days together plus daily bite sized lessons and in-app messaging with your coach.
Breathing Techniques
Throughout our breathwork practice, we’ll be learning a number of different breathing techniques that fit into one of three categories.
Coffee Breathing (Fast Paced)
The coffee breathing technique activates your sympathetic nervous system. This gets you going when you need to fire on all cylinders. First thing in the morning, before a workout or preparing for that presentation. Coffee breathing will get you in the zone.
Water Breathing (Medium Paced)
The water breathing technique is perfect for when you need to be well balanced. Poised between fight/flight and rest/digest. This is a great practice for the middle of the day when you need to be both calm and relaxed but also poised and ready for action. Water breathwork practices are a great way to pattern our regular day-in-day-out breathing.
Whiskey Breathing (Slow Paced)
As the name suggests, whiskey breathing techniques are used to include relaxation and sleep. These practices are a deep stimulator of the parasympathetic nervous system, perfect for de-stressing, preparing for sleep or after a meal. Unlike regular whisky consumption, there are no hangovers associated with whiskey breathwork practices!
How Does Breathwork Work?
Many processes in the human body are bi-directional, meaning the cause and effect relationship can work either way round, this is true of our breathing.
When you see someone flaring at the nostrils, chest rising and falling quickly, red in the face… how do you interpret that person’s state? Calm and collected? Not likely! That person is stressed, upset, angry or maybe exercising. They are in their sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system.
On the other hand when you see someone who is ‘relaxed and peaceful’ it can sometimes be difficult to spot that they are breathing at all. They are in their parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system.
The breath very clearly demonstrates what our nervous system is up to - but - it can also be used to tell our nervous system what to do!
Through curated breathwork techniques we can very quickly tip the balance of our nervous system toward rest and digest or towards ‘ready and able’, either for the everyday tasks of your life, or maybe some exercise and hopefully not needing to fight or flee.
Who Is The Breathwork Course Suitable For?
Breathwork is suitable for anyone wanting to better be in control of their nervous system. This might be to reduce stress levels, improve sleep or digestion specifically or it may be for all round lifestyle benefits - feeling in control of energy curation, emotions and ability to both perform when needed and ‘switch off’ when needed.
What Are The Benefits Of Breathwork?
The benefits of breathwork are wide ranging with applications for everyday life, however the three most well defined use cases are for stress management, improved sleep and digestive health. Outside of these very pronounced benefits, having better control of one’s breath is a life-skill that can lead to improved all round health when integrated alongside other health supportive behaviours.
The benefits of breathwork are wide ranging with applications for everyday life, however the three most well defined use cases are for stress management, improved sleep and digestive health. Outside of these very pronounced benefits, having better control of one’s breath is a life-skill that can lead to improved all round health when integrated alongside other health supportive behaviours.
#Alldayenegry
What's Included...
Live Teaching
Options for 1-on-1 or group in-person live classes. Also available online classes for
1-on-1 clients and groups.
Daily Practices
Practices and extra teaching delivered daily via our app. Hone your breathing practice morning, noon and night.
Ongoing Support
Access to Jake, your coach, via the in app messaging function to ask any questions and get feedback.
Accountability
Check-in daily with your practice completion to build streaks and allow us to best support you.
Pricing
Choose Your Plan
Discovery Call
A FREE 20 minute call to see if our breathwork is a good fit for you; and you for us!
FREE
1-on-1 (in person or online)
4 weeks 1-on-1 coaching. One 30 minute live session per week plus daily lessons, follow along videos, accountability and in app messaging with your coach, Jake.
£189
Workshops
Interested in a breathwork workshop in your workplace, school or group? Book a call to find out more and arrange a date.
Book
a Call
What clients say about us
Jake is one of a kind coach. He is witty, intuitive and very smart. He connects with your real issues and helps you sort them out so you can reach your health goals or any other personal goals you have. I highly recommend him to anyone searching for a reliable health coach. He is the best
Lillian Moscona
I had few opportunities to experience coaching by Jake Mahal and it was always very enjoyable experience with deep impact. No matter what was my health issue or challenge, Jake always managed to guide me to my own solution that was best for me at the time. He has a talent for asking the right powerful questions at the right time. I cannot recommend his coaching enough.
Mirek Kec
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this an extreme practice with long breath holds or cold exposure?
No. All the techniques we teach are simple and effective and can be used almost anywhere at any time. No stunts or tricks. Just science based techniques to help you regulate your nervous system.
Is this a religious practice?
Nope. This is a science based course. If you wish to layer in your own spiritual practices alongside this breathwork they will complement each other well.
Is this meditation?
No - breathwork is much easier than mediation with many of the same benefits and can be used as part of mediation if you wish.
Can I learn all I need to know from this short course?
You could spend decades researching and learning different methods and techniques. We'll teach you the easiest to learn techniques that can most quickly help you to help yourself. No fluff, just facts... and practice.
Who should not practise breathwork?
Breathing exercises are a great tool for nearly everyone. Some medical conditions may preclude individuals from certain breathwork practices. Always consult with your doctor before embarking on a breathwork programme and check which practices are safe for you.
If you are unsure, please reach out, we are happy to have a conversation with your doctor or medical healthcare specialist to best come up with the most appropriate programme for you.
Why is breathwork so intense?
Only certain breathwork practices are intense. Most techniques focus on moderate adjustments to your natural breath. The most validated techniques are actually very gentle and usually focus on activating the rest and digest (parasympathetic) nervous system. Faster, more stimulating controlled breathing, is usually practised for a shorter amount of time.
The popular, more intense and lengthy practices, whilst enjoyable for some, can be too much for many people and more research is needed to establish their usefulness.
What is the difference between Breathwork and Meditation?
Breathwork is an independent practice focussed on regulating the way you breathe and deriving the desired benefits through regulation of the nervous system. Meditation covers a number of practices designed to focus the attention and cultivate more control over one’s self in one way or another.
Breathwork can be used as part of meditation practice and the two can complement each other very well. Some practices explicitly use breathwork as a gateway to other mediation practices, and you may do this if you wish, but our breathwork focuses explicitly on nervous system regulation and the scientific process by which this is achieved.
What happens once I’ve finished my breathwork course?
Whilst working with Whole Life Health, you’ll learn breathing techniques that you can then put into practise each day of your life. We’ll ensure that you are equipped with a variety of techniques in order to achieve your health goals.
Your personal breathwork practice will evolve and strengthen over time. You may use a number of the learned techniques over time or settle on a few techniques that best serve you and that you find you are able to be most consistent with.
and breathe...
Not sure this is the right fit for you? No worries, you're welcome back any time. If however, you're wanting to get a grip on your nervous system, before nervous system disregulation leads toward burnout and the drift into chronic disease... then hop on board. Any questions, give us a shout!
© Whole Life Health 2024