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Breathing Life into Recovery: An Interview with Kelsey Rudzinsky · Finding New Waters

0:00
Throughout life, things happen to us, to all of us, right?
0:03
We experience things and the energy of those experiences,
0:09
whether they happen to us personally or even if they've
0:12
happened to our ancestors, right?
0:14
These energies are in our bodies until we're able to move them.
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And so breath work is using the breath in, and I call it work
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because it's hard, right? You have to focus on your breath
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while you're doing the active breathing.
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And the mind doesn't want to let go of control because that's
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what we perceive as safety. So the mind's like, no, no, no,
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no. Like we're not doing this.
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Let me think about this. Or let me call this person or
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this is so dumb I'm not doing this person here.
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And then all the sudden something switches.
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Good afternoon. My name is Graham Durgey and I'm
1:19
the founder and CEO of New Waters Recovery in Raleigh, NC
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Welcome to our weekly podcast, Finding New Waters.
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Our goal in creating Finding New Waters is to provide a resource
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for families to help navigate the complexities of supporting a
1:32
loved one struggling with substance use or mental health.
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When we find ourselves in crisis due to one of these issues, most
1:38
people have no idea where to turn.
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We hope to shed some light onto what is often the darkest hour
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for many families. Hey doing guys.
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Thank you for joining us today on another episode of Finding
1:47
New Waters podcast. My name is Justin McLennan.
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I'm the Executive Director, also Licensed Therapist here at New
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Waters Recovery. And we are joined today.
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We have Bea Reeves, our Director of Admissions and Outreach with
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us and our special guest on the show today is Kelsey Rodzinski
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certified breath work facilitator.
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Kelsey also facilitates breath work here at New Waters twice a
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week for our clients. And I, I must say, it's probably
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out of all of the things that we do, it's probably literally
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their best, their, their favorite thing that they get to
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do as they're as they're here with us.
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So that's awesome. So, Kelsey, instead of trying to
2:25
introduce you for you, I thought maybe we could open up and let
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you just talk a little bit about who you are and all that good
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stuff. Sure.
2:33
Yeah. Thanks for having me.
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Thank you. So I am a registered nurse, a
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certified breath work facilitator, and a Reiki master
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practitioner. So I feel like I have a good
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balance of science and Western medicine with spirituality and a
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little bit more of the holistic space.
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And so I create classes, workshops, and guided
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experiences for people to experience the power of their
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breath. That's.
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Awesome. Yeah.
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That's very cool. Yeah.
3:10
So, so we talked about maybe starting with like a cleansing
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breast. Yeah.
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So the way that I like to start every group every day, as often
3:20
as possible. You know one of my favorite
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authors, Eckert Toll, who wrote The Power of Now in his book,
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which is a wonderful book. In his book A New Earth, he says
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that by taking a cleansing breath you we are creating space
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in the the incessant stream of thinking, right?
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We're always thinking. So even one breath creates space
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and a gap. So if we could start with three
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cleansing breaths. So for the listeners, if you are
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somewhere where you can close your eyes, take a minute and
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just relax your body, straighten your spine, relax your
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shoulders, I notice that right now my heart is racing pretty
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fast. I'm on this beautiful set and
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excited about this conversation. And so just noticing how you're
4:11
feeling inside your body and we're going to inhale in through
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the nose and then exhaling out the mouth with a sigh.
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And so inhaling in and feeling yourself fill with oxygen.
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And then as you exhale, just feeling the tension release from
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your body. So inhaling in, inhale in, and
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one more time inhaling in. And if it feels good in your
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body, exhaling with an audible sigh and just noticing here in
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this moment, after three breaths, if you feel more
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present, really noticing how you're feeling in this moment,
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coming fully into the present, and when you're ready, blinking
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your eyes open and just noticing if there's a subtle shift.
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I do, definitely. I definitely do, yeah.
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My, my heart rate is much more calm, yeah.
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I love that you mentioned that this is from From a New Earth.
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I I love Eckhart Tolle as well, and I didn't know anything about
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him and somebody gave me a New Earth first.
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So I actually read that before The Power of Now, which I don't
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think is recommended. But I have that.
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That book changed my life. Yeah, absolutely.
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And one thing about the breath work, Justin already touched on
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it being the. For sure our most popular thing
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we do here and everybody for the most part is terrified to do it.
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It's true and don't they don't want to do it.
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I had a a personal friend who came into new waters not that
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long ago and the day that she arrived it was a Monday and you
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were doing breath work that night and she was like, Nah, I
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think I'm just going to go to my room and I said just just trust
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me just just try it. Don't knock until you try it.
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And she was blown away and then, you know was went back Thursday.
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Yeah, So we it's people love it. Yeah, they absolutely do, yeah.
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It's a really powerful practice of getting people out of their
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mind and into the body in a way that we don't often experience.
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And I love that most people come in, and especially it seems
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like, you know, there's some buzz here about it because a lot
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of the staff has tried it. So people come in like, I've
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heard this is going to be powerful.
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And you know, I always say I don't know, it might be right.
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And I really just try to create an environment where it's like,
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let's just be here and see what happens.
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And if you want to listen to my cues of what I'm suggesting,
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great. And if you just want to lay
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there, that's great too. And after, So in the Monday
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group, I do a specific breathing technique, which is what I'm
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certified to facilitate. And I was trained by David
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Elliott and this technique after the first few minutes when the
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mind does let go, right, because we just, we live in our minds.
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When people drop into the body and start feeling the sensation
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in their body and feeling their power, that's where the magic
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starts to happen. And I just, you know, am there
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to support and hold that space. But it's it's really, really
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beautiful to witness. It's.
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Very cool. Yeah.
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I did it myself. You know, the first time you
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came in and did the before we decided to even move forward
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with having you come in, we did that kind of complimentary, you
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know, for the staff. And that was first, You know,
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I've done a lot of meditation in the past, but this was the first
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time that I'd ever engaged in, like, breath work like this.
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And I won't share my experience necessarily, but it was very
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powerful, very powerful. I mean, just that one time that
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I did it, it was really, really cool.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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So you mentioned meditation. And for your listeners, we, we
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talked a little before and like, what is breath work, right.
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So maybe we back up and even talk about that.
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Yeah, let's do that. I define breath work as the
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intentional manipulation of the breath.
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And and some people call it pranayama, right?
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These are not new modalities. These are ancient Eastern
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techniques that are making their way into our modern society
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again because we need it. And so pranayama.
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So prana is life force. That's the translation.
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And then yama or E yama means to control.
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So if we think of oxygen as life force, which it is, we are
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controlling the life force. And you know, there's a lot more
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awareness now around energy and the energy within us, and that
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throughout life things happen to us, to all of us, right?
9:29
We experience things and the energy of those experiences,
9:35
whether they happen to us personally or even if they've
9:38
happened to our ancestors, right?
9:40
These energies are in our bodies until we're able to move them.
9:45
And so breath work is using the breath in, and I call it work
9:53
because it's hard, right? You have to focus on your breath
9:56
while you're doing the active breathing.
9:58
And the mind doesn't want to let go of control because that's
10:02
what we perceive as safety. So the mind's like, no, no, no,
10:06
no. Like we're not doing this.
10:08
Let me think about this. Or let me call this person or
10:10
this is so dumb, I'm not doing this right like this.
10:14
Like, who is this person here? And then all the sudden
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something switches. So what switches?
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And I wonder that myself. Like, what is that?
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That's it. Well, speaking in a more
10:30
scientific way, right. So we're moving oxygen and when
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you get enough oxygen. So I I love that New Waters
10:39
teaches about chakras because whenever clients come in and I
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first, you know, I have my oils that I let people use and I say,
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you know, these have been specifically blended for the
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chakras. Does anybody know what the
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chakras are? And everyone's like, yeah, we
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just learned about that in a group, which is incredible,
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right. So the body has these chakras
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which are energy centers in the body.
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So they're essentially picture them as like small little hard
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drives in our body that have different functions and some
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might see chakras as like esoteric, right.
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But they actually correlate with the ductless glands that are in
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our body, right. So we have like the pituitary
11:22
gland, the thyroid gland, the adrenal glands, right?
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So like we have these ductless glands that all have really
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specific functions that heavily impact the body that are
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associated with chakras. And so as we're breathing and we
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get more oxygen moving in the body, eventually the oxygen
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stimulates the hypothalamus gland.
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And that is where endorphins are released, right.
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And endorphins are the hormone, the feel good hormones that we
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experience when we eat something delicious or have sex or maybe
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drink alcohol, right. So these hormones that help us
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feel more in the body. And so as those endorphins make
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their way down through the body, people start to experience
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higher vibration, more sensation until and when it comes upon
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some sort of block, right. And this isn't a conscious
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process. So it's not like you're thinking
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about it. And that's where, you know, many
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people share after breathing. Like all of a sudden I just
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started crying. I don't know why.
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I don't like. I just and I haven't cried in
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years, right. And so what's really beautiful
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is it's not a conscious process. We're really getting in the body
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and yeah. That's very cool.
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Yeah, that's very cool. It's super cool.
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So the blocks that come up is that.
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Like you said, it's not a conscious process, but that
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could be, it sounds like that could be a thought or an emotion
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or something that's just kind of there.
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Yeah, it could be a thought pattern.
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It could be a trauma that we experienced, right at some point
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in our lives. It could be from a physical
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injury that we've had and we have scar tissue in our body.
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Have either of you ever read the body Keeps the score?
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Yeah, so. So working with that concept
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that like our body does hold on to what we experience, what we
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perceive around us. And a lot of what my teacher
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bases his work around and what really resonates with me is this
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idea of we are primarily blocked in our sacral chakra, which is
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the second chakra And and this is as a collective right, but
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also individually and that's what deals with power, sex,
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money, safety that's here, right?
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And so using the breath work to really unblock the 2nd chakra to
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open the 4th chakra, which is the heart.
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That's cool, yeah. I love that, Yeah.
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So what, if you don't mind me asking it, What kind of got you
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into? What piqued your interest?
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What kind of like initiated the this path for you?
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Yeah, sure. My own healing OK yeah, my own
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curiosities. And specifically with like my
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womb space and my feminine energy, I grew up in the States,
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which is, you know, we live in a very masculine society That's
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like go to school, go to college, get a job, work out, do
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all right, do all the things. And when we do that, you know, I
14:54
was just in this like go, go, go state.
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And then I had realized, you know, like I wasn't getting a
14:59
period. I wasn't connected to my body.
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And so on my own quest, I had been on birth control like 98%
15:09
of American women are at some point.
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I had been on it for 15 years, and what we're learning now
15:15
about birth control is that it completely alters the way the
15:19
entire body is functioning. And so I realized that I didn't
15:24
even know how my body worked or what it was.
15:29
And so I was at the time living on St.
15:32
Thomas in the Virgin Islands as one does and was connected with
15:39
a womb healer which I didn't know what that was either at the
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time. And she introduced me to this
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breathing practice and the first time I did it felt like and and
15:54
I had been doing work before that of like meditation and
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journaling and a lot of self inquiry.
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So I had sort of been on the path of like, what is going on
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in life, right? Like, what is this?
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What am I doing here? Who am I?
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And so doing a lot of that work, I think prepared me for this so
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that when I first tried the breath work, it felt like a
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coming home to my body that I had never experienced.
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And as I continued doing it was really able to one get my period
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back, which was like, what? Like some, right.
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Because it was this tangible result of like, can I swear on
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here? OK, like holy.
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I don't know. Yeah.
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Like, holy shit. Right.
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Like, whoa, this, you know. And then starting as I continue
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to breathe, having these experiences of things, of
16:55
memories coming up that I didn't think of these things right.
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Like a car accident that I got in when I was 8 years old that I
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don't think about. And all the sudden in breath
17:06
work, I'm back as that little girl in that space and now in
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the safe space, being held by somebody who's encouraging me to
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feel what you're feeling and and what is that sensation to to
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feel what I wasn't able to feel at the time.
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And that is so much of what we experience, right, That at the
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time when something happens, whether we're young or whether
17:35
we're just out of space in life, where like we got to just keep
17:39
going. We're not able to feel these
17:42
things. And in order to clear and move
17:46
this energy, we have to feel it. That's.
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Amazing. Yeah.
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And so I continued practicing and working with this teacher
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and just felt like more people need to experience this.
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So I went to the healer training and deepened my own practice.
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And yeah, just feel really grateful and honored to be able
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to share it. And it's like every time I get
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to witness somebody experience this in themselves, it it's
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incredible. That's cool.
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Yeah, it's very cool, yeah. So it sounds like you get, you
18:28
get a lot of, there's a lot of meaning, there's a lot of
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totally. And and I find that the deeper
18:35
that I'm able to go within myself and the more disciplined
18:38
I am with with my work by far, because it's energy, right.
18:43
We're working with energy the more that people feel safe to do
18:47
the same within themselves. Do you ever see people who kind
18:51
of go within themselves and then they uncover something like you
18:54
said this when you're 8 something you don't remember but
18:57
something super horrible then they it comes out and then there
19:00
don't know what to do with that, especially in, you know in early
19:03
when they're in detox. Is that happen?
19:06
Totally, Yeah. And that's where having that
19:12
support, having someone hold the space to be there to witness
19:16
that and to offer the space after to process to share and
19:21
then also highly encouraging using support systems, right,
19:26
like I think therapy and breath work together.
19:28
It's like like it's so good, right?
19:31
Because we're able to to talk about these things and get them
19:35
out and then move that energy through the body or the other
19:39
way around. That's cool.
19:42
Why do you think it's meditation?
19:45
Eastern meditation seems to be more of a thing.
19:49
Acceptable. But I didn't know anything about
19:51
breath work really until I found myself in recovery, but still
19:56
didn't know anything really about it until you came in.
19:59
So why do you think that it's it's so powerful.
20:01
Everybody loves it. Why is it?
20:03
Why does it take so long just because it's Eastern?
20:07
I think a lot of the best things have been hidden, covered up,
20:11
lost, right and and they are making their way back by the
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people who are feeling called to share and lead and yeah, and be
20:23
brave enough to put it out there because it is new and it is.
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I also think that your question about people uncovering
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something really big and not knowing what to do with it is so
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important and that's where truly creating a space that feels
20:45
supported. And knowing that I would never
20:49
leave somebody who who needs help, right?
20:54
And in my background as a registered nurse, I worked in
20:58
mental health for six years. So I feel like I can only speak
21:02
for myself. But because I've learned and
21:07
seen how to hold some of those deeper, more tender spaces, I
21:12
feel safe doing it. But I do think it's really
21:16
important that people that are holding these spaces for people
21:20
to go deep need to need to know what they're doing.
21:26
I also feel like something that is also really cool about the
21:29
breath that I've experienced and why I feel comfortable coming
21:35
into a space like this where it's like you have people from
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all different walks of life with all backgrounds and all
21:43
awareness, all different types of awareness of healing,
21:46
modalities coming in. And I'm saying like, all right,
21:49
you have no idea what what room you just walked into and let's
21:53
go in there. The reason that I feel
21:56
comfortable to do that is because the breath I find really
22:00
meets people where they're at, so it won't take you further.
22:04
Then you're ready to go. Like when I uncovered that
22:08
memory, I was ready. And that's where.
22:12
And and another another concept that my teacher David Elliott
22:17
talks about is this pyramid of the layers of being human,
22:24
right? And the first is the physical,
22:26
and that's the foundational and that's caring for our physical
22:31
body and physical energy. And that's where most people
22:35
spend most of our lives, right. Like, and that includes a
22:40
physical disability, disease, chronic disease, an obsession
22:45
with the body over exercising, eating disorders, poisoning the
22:50
body with substances and sugar and cigarettes and things like
22:55
that, right. And then above that, the next
22:57
layer is the emotional layer. And then above that is the
23:02
mental layer and above that is spiritual right.
23:05
And they all build upon each other.
23:07
And so I find that a lot of people, especially here right,
23:15
that have probably spent decades in the physical layer, right.
23:19
Whether that is, I mean most of us do with the obsession of our
23:23
bodies and how we look or consuming substances and numbing
23:28
out. And so then when they come into
23:30
breath work, all the sudden this emotional layer sort of opens
23:35
and these people are able to let go a little bit and tap into
23:40
that deeper layer. Which is part of why, you know,
23:43
the Monday Group is called releasing through breath.
23:46
Because I really encourage people, if you start to feel
23:50
something, let it flow, let it go.
23:54
What's the difference between what you do on Mondays and
23:56
Thursdays? So Mondays is a guided
23:59
experience through with the breathing technique that I've
24:05
been talking about. Thursdays is a functional
24:08
breathing group. So something that I've found as
24:12
I've been sharing breath work is and I'm like let's let's do the
24:16
deep work, like let's get in there.
24:19
But most people don't even know how to breathe.
24:22
So Thursday is a functional breathing group where we go over
24:27
4 different breathing techniques, when to use them,
24:31
how to use them and then offering time for people to
24:36
really practice them and notice within their body the subtle
24:40
changes of of how they feel. That's awesome.
24:45
So cool. Yeah, it's very cool.
24:46
I I mean I've without ever unfortunately I haven't had the
24:49
opportunity to take your class but I'm or come to one of your
24:52
sessions but I will yeah. But I've picked up a little bit
24:55
of here and there over just for breath breathing techniques of
24:58
even you know YouTube them. I mean when I was in my first
25:02
few years of of sobriety, I mean I was a basket case and I would
25:06
be, you know, get some news that I couldn't handle whether it was
25:09
relationship or work related. And I would just breathe for a
25:13
little while and it's amazing how much you know, I'm sure I
25:16
was doing it wrong and it still helped me tremendously.
25:18
You can't do it wrong. But you know I just well,
25:20
that's. Thank you.
25:21
Yeah, you hear that? Yeah, because, you know, I
25:23
still, you know, I still like to feel good, but I just don't have
25:28
drugs and alcohol to make that happen.
25:29
So I look forward to. Investigating further into
25:34
breath work. Yeah, yeah.
25:35
Something comes up when you were talking about that B, because I
25:38
think so as a, as a therapist, I've worked with many people in
25:40
the past and I think there's this kind of like, I'm not the
25:45
only person that's experienced this, right?
25:46
But so there's the this kind of reoccurring situation, right,
25:50
where you're you're meeting with a client, maybe it's like
25:52
session number one or two or something like that.
25:53
And the topic of like fear, anxiety, like that type of
25:57
content starts to come up and. At least for myself, a lot of
26:01
times I will introduce like, you know, a breathing technique,
26:04
right? Like, hey, you know, let's,
26:06
let's try this, let's practice it here.
26:08
And maybe you can start to try and utilize this when it makes
26:11
sense, when you think of it and see if it's makes a difference.
26:13
And it's really funny to me how many times people are like, Oh
26:16
my God, here's another therapist telling me to, like, breathe
26:18
again. And they just push it off.
26:21
But it's so funny that like. Something just as small as being
26:24
able to, like, stop and focus on your breath and control your
26:27
breath for a minute, it really can be very impactful.
26:31
But it's still, I don't know, I just find it almost laughable
26:33
that it's almost every time that I bring it up, somebody's like,
26:36
Oh my God, here we go again. And that's totally, you know,
26:39
don't knock it till you try. Well, I mean, and literally
26:41
everything if I before I got sober.
26:45
Everything that I do now, if I knew it existed, I thought it
26:48
was ridiculous. Like prayer, meditation, breath
26:50
work. I didn't really know much about
26:52
it then, but I would have scoffed at that, too.
26:54
Sure. But every single tool that
26:56
anybody's ever presented to me has worked.
26:58
Yeah, yeah. And that's where it's like,
27:02
people need to be ready and you meet.
27:04
You really meet people where they're at.
27:07
And I like to think of it as, you know, people know about the
27:12
nervous system. That's something that does get
27:14
taught in school, right? And that we have these two sides
27:19
of the nervous system and then we have the vagus nerve, right?
27:21
And I think of the vagus nerve as like a highway that goes down
27:26
our body. And when you think about breath
27:29
work as a tool. To me, breath work is the gear
27:34
shift between the parasympathetic and the
27:37
sympathetic nervous system, right?
27:40
And like you're saying or or using the breath in general, is
27:44
a way to quickly switch from a sympathetic fight or flight
27:50
feeling of anxiety to a much more calm, rest and digest
27:56
state. Absolutely, yeah.
27:59
And it's right there at our fingertips.
28:00
I mean, we can literally do it at anytime, right?
28:02
Yeah, Yeah. But we live in such a fastpaced
28:05
world, right? And we live in a world that is
28:07
constantly pulling us externally, pulling us outside
28:11
of ourselves to do this and go there and make your food and
28:15
order your coffee supplement and write like all of these
28:19
different things that we have to do.
28:21
Take the kids to practice, go on vacation, go to your meeting.
28:26
Like these are all things that we're just constantly being
28:29
pulled outside of ourself. And the breath is an invitation
28:33
to come back in. And I think when people get to a
28:36
point, whether that's just through their own curiosity or
28:40
most times it is when you know, something tragic happens or they
28:46
get some sort of diagnosis or go into detox, right, that they
28:51
start wondering who am I? And this is a way to really.
28:57
I mean, my work is all based on helping people come back to who
29:02
they truly are. What percentage of people you
29:06
work with are you see using breath work are in recovery for
29:11
of some some sort everyone, everyone.
29:16
I mean, I think we're all in recovery, right?
29:18
Whether that's from like program, childhood programming,
29:24
abuse in the home, drugs and alcohol, right.
29:28
I think we are living in a time and and come from a history
29:35
where we all have experienced trauma.
29:39
Whether we are the perpetrators ancestrally or we've been on the
29:44
receiving end of it. We are in a time where we can't
29:47
deny that anymore. And the more that we are able to
29:50
unravel that and admit it, that's where the unity comes
29:58
back, right? We.
29:59
Because the more that we try to deny it, we're just continuing
30:04
the division. And that's where people are
30:07
finding themselves feeling more disconnected, more lonely than
30:12
ever, and more confused and overwhelmed than ever.
30:19
So I think everyone. I mean, I would agree with that.
30:22
Good answer. Yeah, great answer because I
30:24
agree with you. I think we're all kind of, you
30:26
know, whether it's conscious or not, right.
30:28
I think we're all in recovery for something, right?
30:30
Or even if again, if we're completely unaware of that, like
30:33
there's still a longing or level of dissatisfaction or noticing
30:37
the patterns, the mental loops that we find ourself in, whether
30:41
it's recovering from self doubt, self consciousness, right,
30:45
eating disorders. I think our my relationship with
30:49
food is something that I continue to notice and work on.
30:53
And so it's just all of these different coping mechanisms that
30:58
maybe we picked up at some point in our lives because we needed
31:01
them and they helped us get where we are and now we're able
31:05
to to look at and unravel if those are serving us anymore.
31:09
Yeah. Absolutely so.
31:14
So you do breath work here and people love it.
31:16
You, I know you also have kind of your own private practice and
31:19
things like that. Maybe spend a few minutes if you
31:21
could talking about what other type of services you know what
31:25
kind of you know for anybody that's listening you know how
31:28
could they. And we'll put some information
31:29
in the in the in the podcast notes and things like that on
31:32
how to contact you and stuff. But, but if somebody wanted to
31:35
do some breath breath work, like what do you do and all that
31:38
stuff, Sure, yeah. Thanks for asking.
31:41
So I have a website that I post different events that I'm doing
31:45
in the area. I don't have a dedicated space,
31:48
so usually I will rent a space or collaborate with somebody who
31:53
has a space. I primarily do group work.
31:59
I really love group work. I feel like just like how, you
32:05
know, one person has a consciousness, a group has a
32:09
consciousness, and and feeling that amplified energy of people
32:15
breathing and opening together is so magical.
32:21
So most of what I do is group work.
32:25
I do a virtual breathing group every Tuesday evening on zoom
32:29
from 8:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
32:32
Yeah, and that's just a really beautiful space to come in, you
32:38
know, during your week. It's called Return to Your
32:40
Breath, and it is a space to show up and share what's alive
32:45
for you, share an intention for what you're breathing into, and
32:49
then together breathe from the comfort of your own home.
32:53
That's very cool. Yeah.
32:55
So I do that. Right now I'm doing breathing
32:59
groups for a summer camp for kids, which is amazing.
33:03
And I feel really, really grateful to have been asked to
33:08
do that. And then I do day retreats.
33:11
So eventually I would like to do some longer retreats.
33:16
Destination. Eventually I'm going to do a
33:18
retreat in Saint Thomas. Yeah.
33:21
Where you know a combination of different modalities because of
33:26
course I'm biased about breath work and it is incredibly
33:29
powerful. But like anything else, it's a
33:31
tool, right? It's one tool and we need so
33:35
many different tools and exercise and yoga and eating
33:39
healthy and healthy relationships.
33:42
So I love collaborating with different people to create these
33:48
immersive experiences for people to just again come back to their
33:53
most authentic self. That's cool.
33:56
Yeah, very cool. You'll also do some kind of
33:59
individual one-on-one stuff too. Is that correct?
34:01
I do, yeah. So I I, I will work with
34:05
individuals, especially if there's something specific that
34:09
people are wanting to go into. I work with couples.
34:12
It's really powerful to breathe with a partner and just the
34:16
energetics of the relationship are really present because
34:20
again, and if some people are like, Oh no, no, no.
34:23
Remembering that it's not a conscious process.
34:25
Right. So this isn't like couples
34:28
therapy where we're talking about and we're going back and
34:31
forth. This is like, let's not talk,
34:34
let's go in and see what comes up on both ends.
34:37
It's really powerful. That's cool.
34:39
Yeah. And I do the same with families.
34:42
It's it's really, really beautiful to see a family
34:48
breathing together in this space and allowing whatever comes up
34:52
to be present, because we know that family dynamics are really
34:57
complicated. They are definitely.
34:59
I mean, we see that every day. Sure.
35:02
Yeah. Yeah.
35:04
We definitely do. Well, that's great.
35:07
I had another question and it slipped my mind.
35:09
Unfortunately, that's OK. Be anything.
35:13
No, just it's a breath of fresh air actually to to talk to
35:18
somebody on the podcast that's you know.
35:21
Not just, you know, Standard talking about you know drugs and
35:24
alcohol. So and we and I just want to
35:26
reiterate that our clients absolutely love, love it.
35:32
So keep coming back. Thank you.
35:34
Yeah. It feels it's really important
35:38
work and it's not about me, right.
35:41
It's about the people that are ready to experience it, having
35:47
the opportunity to do that. You know and I'll comment on
35:51
that just from I mean again so I've done it.
35:53
I've had the opportunity to do it.
35:55
I would actually love to do more of it because I had a very
35:57
powerful experience when I did it.
36:00
What I think with the clients, you know we do so much stuff,
36:06
right talk therapy. We also had to do a lot of other
36:08
holistic things. So they are getting.
36:10
Massages, they get to engage in like yoga and there's other like
36:13
holistic things that are not kind of like verbally based, if
36:17
you will. But there is a lot of, there's a
36:19
lot of group therapy. There's a lot of individual
36:21
conversations that take place. They're communicating with
36:24
peers, with the doctors, with the nurses.
36:26
There's a lot of this kind of talking through things and
36:30
staying in this kind of like. Conscious plane of trying to
36:34
understand like what are they thinking, what are they feeling,
36:37
you know taking ownership of past behaviors making plans for
36:40
the future and it's just really cool.
36:42
Like you have have mentioned when they go into the space
36:46
where like there's not really a lot of talking and and how much
36:50
power and insight and just experience that people can can
36:55
get out of out of doing the breath work and there's not
36:58
really any words that are spoken and and.
37:01
I see that as something that's very powerful and very cool and
37:04
I see a lot of clients taking that kind of that that away from
37:09
that experience too. Is that so much happened and
37:11
there were not a whole lot of words that were used, you know.
37:13
So I don't know. It's just an observation, I
37:15
guess, right? Totally.
37:16
Yeah. And that's one of the things I
37:18
love about it. I mean, the human intellect,
37:20
it's one of our it is our greatest advantage as a species.
37:26
But it also like, we need some space from it.
37:30
And yeah, after a breathing session as I'm bringing people
37:34
back and and people are starting to come back and be like, whoa,
37:39
I really encourage them. Like don't try to make sense of
37:42
what you just experienced, right.
37:44
If you are somebody that journals, get out your journal
37:47
and just allow the stream of consciousness to flow of how
37:50
you're feeling and what came up. But like, it's okay to not have
37:55
any idea what or why you experienced what you did.
38:00
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, cool.
38:04
So what would be kind of like if you had one take away that
38:07
anybody that's listening or watching the podcast, like what
38:10
would be like one thing, like a call to action, if you will.
38:12
Like if somebody's interested in breath work like you know what
38:14
would you what would you want them to take away from this?
38:22
The call to action would be to come back to your breath to
38:25
recognize that there are these really powerful deep ways to use
38:31
the breath. Like what?
38:32
Ioffer and please come to one of my groups, come to one of my
38:35
classes retreats would love to have you.
38:38
And this is something that we all have access to.
38:42
It's free right So and and I challenge my campers with this
38:48
every week. Like give yourself a twominute
38:51
breathing challenge every day. Set a timer on your phone for 2
38:56
minutes and just breathe. Deepen your breath.
39:00
Notice how you feel. Let the breath expand in your
39:03
body. Allow your exhales to release
39:06
some of the tension you may be holding, and just notice from
39:10
there what you experience. Yeah, because I I feel like
39:18
because we're always breathing, and because breathing happens
39:21
automatically, most people think I know how to breathe like I'm
39:24
doing it. And really, most people are
39:27
breathing super shallow. And so if we go back to the
39:31
beginning, talking about what even is breath and this life
39:35
force, that is what is feeding our cells, our organs, the more
39:40
you can expand that breath in your body, think of it as
39:44
feeding your body, hydrating your body, nourishing your body.
39:49
So the deeper that you can expand the breath.
39:53
And what's cool is our bodies are so incredible and so
39:57
adaptive that even at the beginning, if you feel like I'm
40:02
scared of my breath, right, A lot of people.
40:05
And that's something that people here have really illuminated for
40:09
me is that they've shared, you know, when I have a panic
40:12
attack, when I'm feeling super anxious, it is my breath that
40:15
feels like I can't catch my breath.
40:18
So when they start breathing, that fear can come up and come
40:23
back to them. And so this is a reminder that
40:26
the breath is safe and the body adapts to that.
40:31
That's really cool, yeah. And I guess one other tip, if
40:33
you're going to open it, work tips, I can't help myself, is to
40:38
breathe through your nose. So we have two different ways to
40:41
breathe, right through our nose and through our mouth.
40:43
And as we're walking around our everyday lives, we really want
40:47
to be breathing through our nose because the function of the nose
40:52
is to breathe. So I think of it as like our
40:55
built in air purifier. It moistens the air.
40:59
It warms the air, so breathe through your nose and allow that
41:03
breath to expand in your body. Very cool.
41:06
I mean that's some tips I could probably use for I'm.
41:09
Gonna go set my timer in my office right now I am.
41:11
You know what's so funny is I use an Apple Watch and every
41:16
evening about the same time it like Dings and it's like, hey,
41:18
take a moment and like da da da da da And like I never do it.
41:21
I just like. Dismiss And I just move on.
41:23
Yeah. So I'm sitting here thinking,
41:24
listening to you, and I'm like, you know what, Maybe I should
41:26
just start taking that opportunity, right?
41:28
Yeah, take a minute and just take 5 deep breaths and just
41:32
know that everything that's going on around you and the
41:36
busyness, it's still going to be there.
41:38
So just the more that we can feel centered and calm in our
41:42
body, the better able we are to show up in our lives for our
41:48
obligations and for the people that we love.
41:51
Absolutely. Well, Kelsey, thank you.
41:54
Thank you. Really.
41:55
Yeah. It's been a lot of.
41:56
Fun Thank you for all you do here, and thank you for being
41:59
here today. Thank you.
42:00
Yeah, absolutely. We'll have to have you back
42:02
again sometime, yeah, for sure. So.
42:05
Thank you so much. Thank you.