November 12, 2024 • 38 mins
In this episode, Nicky, Ness and Laura explore the crucial link between functional breathing and peak performance in leadership. They delve into how improving the quality of our breath can transform our work and decision-making abilities, leading to more effective leadership and business growth.
Episode Highlights:
- The Importance of Functional Breathing: Understanding how proper breathing affects presence, decision-making, and leadership effectiveness.
- Common Breathing Issues: Discussion on over-breathing and shallow breathing and their impact on mental clarity and performance.
- Breath Awareness: Techniques for recognising and improving your breathing habits to enhance overall well-being and leadership skills.
- Practical Breathing Exercises: Demonstration of the "20 Connected Breaths" exercise for stress relief and mental clarity.
- The Role of Stress: Exploring how controlled stress can help reset the body and mind, improving performance and decision-making.
Tune in to discover how simple breathing techniques can make a profound difference in your leadership and business success.
Learn more about Nicky and Ness https://businesstogether.com.au
Buy a copy of Healthy Hustle: The New Blueprint to Thrive in Business & Life www.healthyhustle.com.au
Follow us on socials
Instagram - @b2businesstogether
Facebook - @B2BusinessTogether
Connect on LinkedIn
Nicky LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/connectwithnicky/
Ness LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessamedling/
Give us a call
Nicky Miklos-Woodley 0403 191 404
Vanessa (Ness) Medling 0400 226 875
Or send us an email hello@businesstogether.com.au
Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nicky (00:04):
Welcome to the Smart Business Growth Podcast with
Nicky and Ness.
Ness (00:11):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional
custodians of country, theTurrbal and Bunurong people of
Brisbane and Melbournerespectively, where Nicky and I
both work and live both work andlive.
Nicky (00:31):
The quality of your breath impacts the quality of
your experiences and the qualityof your life.
When was the last time youreally considered if you were
breathing in a functional,healthy way or if you were just
breathing for survival andgetting through the day?
What about considering theimpact that your breath and your
functional breathing style hason being a high-performing
(00:53):
leader?
Well, today we are talking toLaura Gutierrez, a breathwork
facilitator, emotional fitnesscoach and vibrational healing
practitioner.
Laura has been working in thefield of vibrational medicine
and coaching for over a decadeand she's all about supporting
busy people to improve thequality of their relationship
(01:13):
with change, stress andnon-clinical anxiety and
depression.
Now we took the conversationwith Lauda today really, in
terms of how does it affect peakperformance and how does it
affect you in your day-to-dayrole.
Strap yourselves in, because weget pretty practical.
We do some hands-on breathingexercises which we really invite
(01:36):
you to get involved in and havea wonderful conversation around
the different perceptions thatbreathwork can have for you and
your team and, most importantly,the positive impact in terms of
yourself, your people and theresults of the business.
So enjoy, make sure you go inwith an open mind and see what
(01:57):
you can take out of this episodeto really apply to your
everyday life.
Laura, we talk a lot on thispodcast and behind the scenes,
when the mic's not on, aboutpeak performance, people
leadership to get peakperformance in business, and we
believe that it is one of thebackbones of smart business
growth and a really successfulbusiness.
(02:17):
And so it was a no brainer forus to talk to you, because you
are in our world, you're thebreath guru.
I don't know, I just made thatup in the moment.
I don't know how you feel aboutthat, but that's how I see you.
So thank you again for joiningus today, and I'd love to kick
off the conversation by pickingyour brain and getting your
thoughts.
You know, really, how doesbreathing, which is such a
(02:41):
fundamental thing that we do,how does breathing affect our
ability to perform in our job,in our roles?
Laura Gutierrez (02:49):
Well, let's start with the fact that if we
or you are not breathing well,then it's going to be very hard
to be present.
It's going to be very hard tobe aware of what you're feeling,
what you're thinking, thequality of your thoughts, the
quality of your communication,the quality of the decisions
that you're making.
You know, when you are eitherover breathing or not breathing
(03:10):
at all, then your brain isactually not getting all that
blood flow or that oxygen, thenutrients.
You know all that it's neededfor physically being able to
live.
You know being able to bepresent, being able to run a
business, being able to you knowbeing able to be present, being
able to run a business, beingable to you know, like do so
many different things.
So breathing is key foreverything, but if we're talking
(03:32):
about leadership andperformance, it's such an
important part of it.
You know like we need our brainto work well, to be able to be
present, to make decisions,better decisions.
Ness (03:43):
One of the things that I noticed when we were working
together, lauda, is the pickingup on.
You know how sometimes we canjust take those really short
breaths, and it's that you knowthinking and breathing, the way
that we're breathing.
And when you just talk aboutbreathing perhaps coming back to
what do you mean?
When you talk, becauseeveryone's going, I breathe all
(04:04):
day what are what are youtalking about?
Like, of course I'm presentbecause I'm breathing, but when
you are in your world for morethan you know five minutes and
you get to hear what you have tosay and experience how you
train people to breathe what Inotice in myself previously, but
also you know, in day-to-daysituations where you're under
(04:25):
pressure or you're about to gointo meetings and you're feeling
nervous and all this kind ofstuff it's sort of like really
shallow breathing or gasping forbreath, almost.
So let's start on a mutualunderstanding definition around
what do you call breathing?
Laura Gutierrez (04:39):
Fantastic, great question and great start,
because, definitely, we allbreathe.
If we I mean, I think therecord for not breathing is
around 40 minutes by a freediver Wow, I mean, that's huge,
that's massive.
But we all breathe, we have tobreathe, and it's the quality of
the breath that changes thequality of our life, of our
(05:00):
experience.
And so when we talk aboutbreathing right now, we're
talking about functionalbreathing, we're talking about
good breathing, you know,breathing that actually supports
our wellbeing, supports ourbrain, supports our body.
And so nowadays, we could saythat 90% of the population
(05:20):
breathes dysfunctionally, youknow.
So we have becomeover-breathers.
For example, you know,breathing, as you were saying,
shallow, like breathing shallowmeans that we are taking a lot
more air than we need, orbreathing through the mouth as
well, and we are losing a lot ofCO2, which is carbon dioxide
and a very important gas when itcomes to oxygenation of the
(05:41):
body.
And so, right now, we'retalking about learning to
breathe functionally, learningto breathe well, learning to use
the diaphragm you know, thatvery important muscle involved
in respiration learning tobreathe through the nose.
Again, you know, the nose wasmade for breathing.
It's by learning in it,actually, and you both have
experienced that by learningjust a few simple things and
(06:04):
retraining your breath, you feeldifferent, you think
differently, you act differently.
So this is what we mean.
This is what we're talkingabout Learning to breathe well,
learning to breathe how natureactually intended.
Nicky (06:17):
It's so fascinating to me that breath is such a I mean,
it's an unconscious thing thatwe're doing to survive, to be
alive, to be here, and yet wecan breathe well, or we can.
You know that functionalbreathing and the fact that over
90% of people are breathingdysfunctional, dysfunctional
breathing I mean that's crazy,right?
I mean, how did this become andthis might be a rhetorical
(06:39):
question, but how did thisbecome the norm in society, the
fact that we're not breathingwell?
Do you actually know the answerto that?
That is an unfair question, ifnot, I mean that's just a big
question.
But how the heck did we get hereas humans?
And it's probably the stress,the social expectations.
Do you know how we got here?
Laura Gutierrez (06:58):
Well, we actually wouldn't be able to say
well, everything started inthis moment, yeah, yeah.
But what we do know is that our, you know, our habits have
changed throughout the years.
You know, we went from beingbeings that were in nature.
We were attuned to the cycles.
The rhythm, like the breath, isa cycle, right?
Inhale, exhale.
(07:20):
Inhale is to live and exhale isto die.
You know day and night.
You know all these cycles thatwere natural, all the circadian
rhythm, all of this.
But as we got more, let's say,industrialized, then we started
losing that connection to nature, we started losing connection
with our own body.
This is why, for example andVanessa, you experienced the
(07:41):
exercise like you had theexperience of breath awareness.
You know awareness and breathawareness is literally just
sitting, watching your breath,and it's such a simple thing.
Yet we don't do it in ourday-to-day.
We just do not observe ourbreath, we just take it for
granted.
It's something that is there,it's like we don't need to think
(08:02):
about it, right?
Nicky (08:04):
and also we're too busy.
I mean, that's got to play apart in this, because you know
particularly our listeners busybusiness owners, busy leaders,
busy parents, busy people the Bword.
So it almost, I think that itwould feel and it's certainly at
times I've felt like this, andit's a practice that I'm working
on changing but that it's awaste of time.
Oh, I'm going to sit there andobserve my breath.
(08:25):
What a waste of time, you know,it's that creating space to do
nothing.
Observing our breath is asimilar thing, and yet there's
so many benefits Like I lovewhat you said at the beginning
around being more present, butalso the quality of our thinking
, the quality of our decisionsthat we're making.
So I want our listeners toactually think about.
Imagine if you could improveeven just by 5%, even 1%, the
(08:48):
quality of the decisions thatyou're making, perhaps the
feeling of certainty about thedecisions you're making, being
1% more present with your familyor with your team.
What would that look like foryou?
What would that feel like foryou?
Because what Lauda is sayinghere is that the breath is the
bridge to be able to do that isthe shortest distance.
I also love that you said thequality of our breath is the
(09:11):
quality of our experiences, isthe quality of our life.
We're already breathing, so itcan't be that hard to make it a
little bit more functional.
That hard to make it a littlebit more functional, could it,
can we do this?
Laura Gutierrez (09:29):
Is it accessible, it's with us all the
time, right, and so it is about.
I find it very interesting that, in terms of leadership, you
know a leader that is notself-aware won't be able to lead
, so true, self-aware won't beable to live, so true.
(09:50):
And the I would say, and Iwould say that the first way to
become self-aware is to becomeaware of how you're breathing.
And when you become aware ofhow you're breathing, you become
aware of whether you'restressed out or not, what's
worrying you, what's in yourto-do list, what's in your mind.
You know, like your breath justshows you exactly where you are
at.
And the ripple effect when youconnect with your breath, when
(10:15):
you sit for even 30 seconds tojust breathe, you immediately
can attune to somebody else'sbreath.
You can see and feel and sensewhat other people are doing.
So for a leader, that is key.
I imagine that I actuallyrecently had a group, a small
(10:38):
team, coming to an experiencewith me and it was just very
interesting to see them first atthe beginning.
You know, like all different,you know they were different,
breathing differently.
Some were obviously more tense,some were more relaxed, but
their leader, their boss, he hadcome to see me a few times
before.
So he knew what he was doing,he knew how to regulate, how to
(11:01):
breathe and he actually changedthe way people were breathing.
You know, he was able toconnect with them at a different
level and he brought them to meas an experience, more like as
a bonding experience, but he had, he was leading them, he had
the lead and that was beautifulto see, you know.
Ness (11:21):
I think about sorry when you say that.
I think there are so many waysthat we can apply this If you
have a business that's goingthrough a lot of change so some
of the larger businesses that wework with there's a lot of
change happening, there's a lotof stress around that.
A lot of people are changingjobs or maybe being made
redundant or the fear of thestructure changes and what that
(11:42):
could have.
Imagine if you're bringing yourteam together and you just
spent the first five minutes,even 10 minutes, of a workshop
or a meeting to all like just tobe fully present, to let go of
some of that stress and pressure, to think differently, to have
a different way of contributingto the discussion.
(12:03):
That is so powerful that you'dbe crazy not to take advantage
of that.
And what comes up for me then isthere'll be some people out
there going well, that soundsgreat, but I don't know what to
do because I haven't been aroundyou, laura, I haven't learned
it.
So I wonder if now would be agreat time for you to share with
(12:24):
us something that if we didhave a team and it was a
stressful time or even aone-on-one.
We often coach clients and theydo coach their team.
We help them to do that.
If you've got a person cominginto a one-on-one with you and
they're stressed and you'renoticing your breathing and
their breathing, what's atechnique that is easy for
(12:45):
anyone to be able to remember,to be able to do for themselves,
to be able to say to someoneelse Because I'm imagining that
the first step is let's justtake a moment to notice our
current breathing and then sowhat's the next step, laura?
Laura Gutierrez (12:59):
So, before I share that, vanessa, I actually
would like to add something tothis conversation, and it's that
things like meditation, forexample, have become very
popular, and because they areawesome.
But one thing that we aremissing is that stress for many
people, especially businessowners.
You know, leaders, ceos, cfosall of these roles have so much
(13:21):
pressure.
You know, people are pilingstress on top of stress, you
know, and it's like oh, there'ssome stress today, and some
tomorrow, and some the day after, and there is no release of
that tension.
And so some people try tomeditate and they can't Because
guess what I mean?
(13:42):
Like the tension is so pent up,it's just there.
You know, they try to go toyoga, they try to go for a run,
they try to do all these things,and stress just keeps piling up
.
So one thing that is super key,and especially when it comes to
running a business, is to beable to learn how to release
that accumulated tension, andthis is when things like
(14:05):
hyperventilation orsuperventilation exercise would
be great, because it works as apattern.
Interrupt of that it's like ashaking of the body.
So I just wanted to bring thisto mind, because sometimes we
talk about stress as being bad,and I mean chronic stress is
definitely not ideal, you know,but sometimes we do need a
little bit of that push ofstress to kick us out of the,
(14:29):
let's say, habit or routine ofstressing a little bit today and
a little bit more tomorrow, youknow.
So we need a little bit ofextra stress to release that
pressure cooker, yeah, andbrings us down to, you know, to
come back to homeostasis, tobalance, to harmony.
So, bringing that into accountor taking that into account,
(14:51):
sorry then we could say that oneexercise that I particularly
love is super easy to do, superquick.
It's called 20 connectedbreaths, and it's a short
exercise of hyperventilationthat anyone can do.
But I do have to say, ifsomeone is pregnant or someone
has been suffering from epilepsyor seizures, then it's just
better not to do this exercise.
(15:12):
There are other things that canbe done.
Okay, so this exercise it'sbasically was created by a guy
called Leonard Orr, who was thefounder or the creator of
rebirthing breathwork, and sothis was a while ago.
I learned this with a guy thatI studied with.
His name is Dan Brule, and sothis exercise is we count 20
(15:32):
times 20 breaths, and you can dothis either breathing through
the nose or breathing throughthe mouth, or nose and mouth,
whichever way is easier for you,and you can do it at different
rhythms.
You can do it very fast or youcan do it slow.
The important thing is thatit's uninterrupted.
And on the 20th breath you doit a little bit longer, like a
double the size, let's saydouble the inhalation, double
(15:54):
the exhalation, and I like to doat least three rounds, so it
will take you like a minute todo this.
So I'm going to demonstrate andsee what happens.
Nicky (16:02):
Yeah, would you like to do it?
Yeah, okay, okay, and if you'rewatching or listening, stop
driving your car, pull oversomewhere safe and let's all do
it together.
I love it.
Laura Gutierrez (16:12):
Yes, I'm actually going to change my
sound so that you can hear mebreathing actually.
Okay.
So we're going to start, we'regoing to count, we're going to
breathe in through the nose, outthrough the mouth, and we're
going to do it quite quick.
So please look at my fingers.
Okay, you know how many timesI've been breathing.
Okay, we're going to start in 3, 2, 1.
(16:43):
And again Again, last one, andnow.
(17:20):
Just allow your breath toreturn to normal breathing, only
through the nose, and simplylet your breath guide you, just
let your breath take you towhere you're meant to go.
If you have the time, you canclose your eyes in this moment
and simply allow your energy toshift.
You're going to be noticingthat your energy has shifted.
You feel sharper, perhapslighter.
(17:42):
So after we've done thehyperventilation or
superventilation, then theparasympathetic or the
relaxation response will kick in.
The parasympathetic or therelaxation response will kick in
, have created spaceenergetically.
We're talking about it's amoment of emptying the vessel,
(18:03):
really, you know, emptying themind, creating space.
So it's in that moment, afterdoing that, that you can bring
in, for example, some thoughtsof some positive or high
frequencyfrequency thoughts, youknow, like maybe some
affirmations if you would like,or, for example, your to-do list
what's next in the day?
You can do this on a one-on-one, you can do it on your own, you
can do it with a team, yes, wow.
Ness (18:26):
Yes, what was the experience like for you, nick?
Nicky (18:29):
Yeah, I feel I'm actually curious to listen back to hear
how my voice has changed,because I feel really quite
definitely like open.
I feel like I can breathebetter as well.
I feel like I can breathebetter in through my nose.
My mind feels like it's openedand my body feels more grounded.
So I definitely can see how,doing this, if I was overwhelmed
(18:52):
because that whole thought ofokay, I'm a bit overwhelmed.
Just take a moment, do thisbreathing and then look at my
list, what's next or what's themost important thing, or even
setting an intention for the day, or before, maybe, a meeting,
who do I want to show up as formy team, or before a pitch, like
you could go into the toilet, Iguess, and do this, which might
sound a bit weird if someone's.
Ness (19:13):
Even so, what I mean, you know, I don't know what's going
on behind the cubicle.
Nicky (19:18):
Who knows?
But I think that's an importantpoint around.
It can feel a bit silly atfirst if you've not done this,
but it's kind of just gettingover yourself because I love
that Ness.
What about for you?
How do you feel?
Ness (19:29):
now, yeah it, it was really interesting.
I've done this a few times withyou, um, louder, and it's the,
um, the light.
It's light-headed to start with, you know.
So, look, I find it quitechallenging to breathe like that
.
And then you're sort of like oh, I've missed a breath and now
I'm going to catch up.
So I'm trying to get right,which is crazy, right, but the
at the end of it, the, thelight-headedness, and then, once
(19:52):
we drop into just regularbreathing, it just feels so much
easier to breathe.
I know that sounds crazy, butplease do it Do it, do, it do it
.
I don't know what I'm talkingabout.
And then I really connect withwhat you said around that that
sort of it's almost like this,this clarity, the cloud that's
of everything that's going onand all the things you've got to
(20:13):
be thinking about and planningfor, and not just at work.
But tonight I've got to, youknow, drop that off on the way
home and I've got to pick updinner and then I've got those
people coming over on theweekend.
You know we're in that hecticspace but after doing that,
which took like what?
one, two minutes, yeah, it'sthis lightness and just clarity
of space.
I this lightness and justclarity of space.
I don't even know whether I'mdescribing that well.
Nicky (20:36):
No, I think you are, because that's exactly, and I
think when you do it you knowexactly what you're talking
about.
That's right.
Ness (20:43):
And so imagine if we brought that to, if you could go
in and have a difficultconversation with someone and
you just take that moment to go,because often and we know as
coaches that you can to buildrapport with someone it's about
like matching and then helpingthem come back into.
So if you're matching andmirroring them, we've got to
(21:03):
then lead them into the nextspace, because if they're
walking intense, stressed, youknow, sort of doing that shallow
breathing, how can we be theperson that's feeling centered
and you know, and open and thenwilling to share with them this
crazy you know, crazy simplething to do that people might
(21:23):
feel uncomfortable about.
So I think there probably wouldbe a little bit of setting up
and asking permission before wemove into hey, I'm just going to
get you to hyperventilate for aminute and she's like this is
crazy.
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(21:44):
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Nicky (22:02):
I'm curious actually, larda, to get your thoughts on
this because I even wondercalling it hyperventilating.
So I know before I did somework with you in November,
hyperventilation has been a partof my life since I was a kid
Actually, not since I did yourbreath workshop in November.
Still there's not been one timeI have not had a panic attack
(22:25):
or hyperventilated and I'msharing a little bit of personal
stuff now, but that was apretty normal part.
It wasn't all the time, but itwas a pretty normal part of my
life and it hasn't happenedsince.
But if I would have walked intoa coaching session and a coach
said to me, or a leader said,we're going to do a
hyperventilation breathingtechnique, no thanks, because my
experience of hyperventilationwas very bad and it's like I
understand it now because of ourworkshop.
(22:45):
You've taught me and you know Ithink about that whole stress
where there is healthy stressand there's unhealthy stress.
When we look at things like youknow, ness and I read the book
about fasting and I've playedaround with that it's the same
thing.
It's not a bad thing for ourbody to go into a stress state
as long as it's a functional,healthy stress and it's not and
it doesn't turn into chronic.
But what's your thoughts Likehow do we bring first I would
(23:08):
say, play around with yourselfthis yourself first, as a leader
, do it yourself and experienceit before you introduce it to
anybody?
But what's your thoughts aroundthat louder, because I you know
we want people to be open to itand we don't want people to
hyperventilate in a bad way.
Is that a hyperventilationmeditation?
How do we set it up?
If we're going to do it withour team?
Laura Gutierrez (23:35):
Because I just would be like see you later.
I'm out of here, not what Isigned up for, what?
Well, actually, this exerciseis called 20 Connected Breaths,
and so we're about connectingthe breath, not allowing space,
let's say, in between inhalationand exhalation.
Funnily enough, we are I wouldsay many of the population are
constantly hyperventilating, youknow, naturally breathing over
breathing, breathing more thanthey need to, yeah, so let's
(23:56):
start with that.
So, yeah, it's aboutpre-framing it.
It's not about we're just gonnago into hyperventilation, but
it could be framed more as uh,this is a stress release
exercise, because that's exactlywhat it does yeah, and even
yeah, maybe counterintuitive,even for people who suffer from
anxiety or panic.
This exercise is really goodbecause, once again, what we are
(24:19):
doing is just kind of likegently pushing or upping, let's
say, a little bit of that stressresponse, but in a conscious
way, so that then the relaxationresponse kicks in.
Nicky (24:32):
And I wonder as well, because when I hear you say that
it's discomfort, so the stressresponse another way of saying
that is discomfort.
So when we did that threerounds, it certainly wasn't
comfortable.
It wasn't like the mostenjoyable thing.
My nose was burning a bit.
I'm like whoa, I haven't hadthis much fresh air up there,
and you know.
So actually, what I'm hearingin that is the discomfort.
(24:53):
It's because we went throughthe discomfort of those three
rounds and look, it's not, it'sso quick.
But then we were able to enjoy.
It's like when we go to the gymor when we're doing some kind of
exercise and it's like, ah, onemore rep or whatever that might
be, one more jump in danceclass, don't stop in the cardio.
But then afterwards we feel sogood, it's like we're on a high.
(25:14):
So that's it's not.
You know, if anybody's a bithesitant, it's not.
We're creating a stressfulenvironment.
Yes, we want to create somediscomfort so people can grow.
That's the same in coaching.
We ask questions that might bea bit uncomfortable.
We don't save them becausethat's in the discomfort, that's
where they grow.
Yeah, absolutely.
Laura Gutierrez (25:32):
Absolutely, I would add, is conscious
discomfort.
Nicky (25:36):
Conscious discomfort.
Oh, I love that.
Yes, do we have time for you torun through?
And I know I'm not thetimekeeper today.
You're all lucky listeners.
Sorry, leah, producing ourpodcast and thank you in advance
, but do we have time, because Ilove it so much, to run through
the perfect breath?
Laura Gutierrez (25:53):
Yes, if you would like.
Yes, yes, yes.
Ness (25:55):
You can't set that up and say no Okay, because what I'm
going to say I'm going to.
Nicky (25:59):
I'm also going to share a super quick and I promise it'll
be quick story here about theperfect breath saved my life.
Okay, that might be a bitdramatic.
I shut my finger in a doorafter the workshop I did with
Lauda in November.
I shut my finger in a car doorand the driver my sister walked
away and it wasn't a beep, beepdoor.
So she walked away to paperparking and my finger was stuck
(26:20):
in the car door.
I did perfect breathing andeverybody.
She eventually came back andset me free.
Yay, but the response?
The people around me said Nicky, how were you so calm?
How were you?
I would have been so panickedif it was me and the answer was
I had just learned, three daysearlier, thank goodness, the
perfect breath.
(26:40):
So if it can help me in thatsituation, it can help you, I
think, in a variety ofsituations.
So it's worth the time.
What is the perfect breath?
Laura Gutierrez (26:48):
Totally.
Yeah Well, the perfect breathis basically learning to breathe
in a rate of six breaths perminute, which in this case it
would be four seconds or fourcounts in the inhalation and six
counts in the exhalation,breathing through the nose.
So, once again, there are a fewthings right.
So if you cannot breathethrough your nose, by all means
(27:09):
you can breathe through yourmouth, but just make sure that
you're breathing with pursedlips, like because the idea is
not to take in too much air.
Now let's just briefly touch onthe fact that breathing through
the nose is super important.
So if the nose is not workingwell, it's important to look at
that, you know, and you can lookat that with a breath coach or
going to something you know, toa specialist, just making sure
(27:30):
that the nose works well.
So, breathing in and out.
And the beauty of the perfectbreath is that it really brings
you to that moment of coherencebetween your brain and your
heart.
It's like if you could imaginethat there's like a line or a
thread of connection of light orwhatever.
You want to imagine that asbetween your brain and your
(27:50):
heart.
That's what it's doing.
It's just bringing all of yoursystems, all of your being into
a moment of harmony, and sothat's why it works so well,
yeah.
Ness (28:00):
I've done this quite often and it's actually much easier
than what we just did the 20connected breaths because it is
something you can sort of justsit and do.
It doesn't matter who's aroundyou.
Yeah.
And it's like just in for four,out for six, and it's a
beautiful thing and that is suchan amazing story, nick, around
what happened to you.
(28:27):
And I think one of the thingsthat really stands out for me,
lauda, is that you shared andNicky's probably covered this in
your bio, but you shared aboutwhy you got into breathwork, and
why you got into this wasbecause you had panic attacks
and had a lot of anxiety, and Ijust know that post-COVID
particularly, there's so muchawareness out there around the
impact that period of time hashad on mental health that the
you know there's legislationchanges around how we look after
(28:50):
our team members when it comesto mental health and the duty of
care that we have for them.
There's a lot of anxiety outthere in the world and to think
that if we can help one of ourteam by teaching them a
technique that they can thentake home and in life in general
, be able to apply, you know,since we've done this work
(29:11):
together, there's just so manycircumstances that I've been
able to help and see otherpeople like my daughter or, you
know, family friend it's.
It's something that's shareablebecause it's so simple, it
doesn't cost us money.
It's, you know it can't reallystuff it up, it's just breathing
.
But the impact when we thinkabout the impact that this has
and the link between breathingand peak performance and not
(29:35):
just peak performance for thebusiness let's get real.
It's about how people canovercome some of the really
challenging moments in theirworld yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.
Laura Gutierrez (29:45):
Like I just hearing you talk, it just gave
me like goosebumps because thatripple effect, if we think about
how our breath affects ournervous system, and if we think
of our nervous system as thisnetwork of energy that not only
is within us, but that itactually impacts the outside,
you know we are impacting tonsof people and if you are leading
(30:09):
a team or a company, you knowyou're impacting every single
one of them just by changingyour breath.
And in the case of the perfectbreath, all it takes is that you
just pay attention for fiveminutes, or even less.
I love it, so shall we do it,yes, the perfect breath.
All it takes is that you justpay attention for five minutes
or even less.
Ness (30:26):
I love it, so shall we do it?
Yes, okay, Actually, I reckonwe're going to, because we do
have to wrap up, even though wecan talk about this all day.
But this people we normally saythrow to our guest and say
what's an actionable actionsomeone can take in the next 24
hours?
I'm going to jump straight inand say this is your actionable
action, Play along now.
Or if you are in a situationwhere you can't, I don't even
know what that would be, butyeah, because you literally can
(30:50):
do this Even if you're driving.
Nicky (30:52):
Even if you're driving.
Yeah, that's what I love aboutthis.
Even if you've got your fingersstuck in a car door's all good.
Just do the perfect breath andyou will live.
Laura Gutierrez (31:01):
You will survive actually before we we
practice it.
Nika, I wanted to ask you whenthat happened to you, when you
had your finger stuck there,where, where was your attention?
Nicky (31:12):
on my breath.
So I so I looked at my fingerand my brain went lots of
potential swear words that Ican't say here.
And then I went, come back tomy perfect breath and I focused
on the four.
What is it?
Yeah, four in, six out, and Ijust I even put my head down a
little bit and just focused onmy solar plexus and just focused
on my breath, just focused onmy breath.
(31:32):
That was it.
Yeah, it was.
It was actually incredible howit helped me and it would have
been a very different experiencehad I not have had that tool.
And you know the finger in thedoor is a metaphor for so many
instances in our life.
We also talk about, you know,event plus response or reaction
(31:55):
is what determines the outcomeand the fact that you can do the
perfect breath while you'retalking to somebody almost you
know drive, it doesn't matterwhere you are, what, what you're
doing then it can really impactthat outcome yeah, yeah, and
and it's thatself-responsibility right as
well like just takingresponsibility of the breath, of
our breath, we are also takingresponsibility of how we respond
(32:19):
yes world.
Yes, yes, and and goodness knows, there's many moments as
leaders, as humans, where wealso might get frustrated with
people.
So, do the perfect.
I know shocking, isn't it?
Uh, do the perfect, press, youknow?
Yeah, let's do it all righty,okay.
Laura Gutierrez (32:37):
So whenever you are sitting or standing up or
walking, I'm just going toinvite you to simply first
become very attuned to yourbreath, like become aware of
your breath, close your mouthand just simply breathe.
Take a few normal breaths inand out through your nose.
And as you breathe through yournose, I'm also going to invite
you to pay attention to yourribcage, to your ribcage.
(32:58):
So make sure that your ribcageis moving, kind of like an
accordion, opening and closinggently.
You don't really need to changemuch, you're just paying
attention right now and we'regoing to do two minutes of the
perfect breath.
So we're going to meet when Iguide you and we're going to
(33:20):
start breathing in through thenose and then out through the
nose.
We're going to meet in three,two, one breathing in four, five
, six in two, three, four outtwo, three, four, five, six
breathing in two, three, fourout two breathing in three.
(34:42):
Four out four, five, six.
Breathing in four out five.
Six.
Breathing in out five, six.
Breathing in out, breathing inout.
(35:07):
Last, one In two, three, fourOut two, three, four, five, six.
Release this rhythm ofbreathing, just breathing in,
and now through your nose.
Just pay attention.
What do you notice?
(35:27):
That's, that's the mostimportant bit now.
What can you notice?
Did you notice a difference?
Nicky (35:34):
yes, totally yes, definitely I, and I think that
those two breathing techniquesgo quite well back to back as
well.
Even you know that's sort ofalmost if you've got the time
and the opportunity to do thefirst, because it the first one
really feels like it clears yournasal passage.
For me it did anyway.
Yes, but again, like I wasdoing that some with my eyes
(35:57):
open, looking out at nature,unless you had your eyes closed,
like it's just so versatile.
And I think the other thing,just as a final reminder, if you
find it a bit challenging atfirst, it's a bit uncomfortable,
that's great, that's feedback,and I know I certainly did and
still do sometimes.
So I want to.
The more I practice, the betterwe get at this.
(36:19):
So don't be put off if it's alittle bit uncomfortable at
first.
Like we say with so many otherthings in life, if it's a bit
uncomfortable, that's probablyfeedback, that it's exactly what
you need right now and what agift you can give yourself and
then therefore give to others.
Ness (36:35):
Yeah, amazing, thank you.
It's always such a great way tojust recenter become grounded
again.
My word for the year isgrounded, so this breathing all
the things you've taught us hasbeen able to help achieve that.
I believe this is an amazingplace to finish on and it's just
such a great takeaway for ourlisteners and viewers.
(36:56):
But people will want to findout more about you, no doubt
because we've experienced acouple of workshops that you've
delivered over a longer periodof time and it's been quite
incredible to have thatexperience.
And I know you do publicworkshops and you do private
clients as well.
So, please, where can peoplefriendly, stalk you louder?
Laura Gutierrez (37:17):
Well, people can find me on my website, the
love approach projectcom, orinstagram at the love approach
project, same with facebooklinkedin, they can find me as
laura gutierrez laura yeah,we'll put links in the show
notes, absolutely amazing and Ihave a podcast as well, so it's
(37:42):
great a love approach projectand it's on Spotify Apple
podcasts as well beautiful.
Ness (37:47):
Well, we will make sure all of that is in the show notes
because, please, people, doyourself a favor and get in this
woman's world.
She's amazing, yeah, and Itrust this has been a little bit
different for our podcastlisteners today.
So I trust that you've found itreally beneficial and, and if
you've played it along, I knowthat you'll just be walking a
little bit taller and a littlebit calmer.
So thank you so much forsharing your gift with us and,
(38:10):
yeah, till next time.
We'll say goodbye for now.
Nicky (38:13):
Thank you for having me.
Thanks so much, thanks, lara.
See everybody, bye.
Ness (38:19):
Thanks for listening to today's ep.
If you what you heard, connectwith us over on linkedin and
let's continue the conversationover there.
Did you hear?
You can now buy our bookhealthy hustle the new blueprint
to thrive in business and lifeat healthyhustlecomau.
Want us to speak to your teamor run a workshop on healthy
(38:40):
hustle in your workplace?
Send us an email or go oldschool and give us a call to
discuss.
Until next time, happylistening and here's to thriving
in business and life.
Welcome to the Smart Business Growth Podcast with
Nicky and Ness.
Ness (00:11):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional
custodians of country, theTurrbal and Bunurong people of
Brisbane and Melbournerespectively, where Nicky and I
both work and live both work andlive.
Nicky (00:31):
The quality of your breath impacts the quality of
your experiences and the qualityof your life.
When was the last time youreally considered if you were
breathing in a functional,healthy way or if you were just
breathing for survival andgetting through the day?
What about considering theimpact that your breath and your
functional breathing style hason being a high-performing
(00:53):
leader?
Well, today we are talking toLaura Gutierrez, a breathwork
facilitator, emotional fitnesscoach and vibrational healing
practitioner.
Laura has been working in thefield of vibrational medicine
and coaching for over a decadeand she's all about supporting
busy people to improve thequality of their relationship
(01:13):
with change, stress andnon-clinical anxiety and
depression.
Now we took the conversationwith Lauda today really, in
terms of how does it affect peakperformance and how does it
affect you in your day-to-dayrole.
Strap yourselves in, because weget pretty practical.
We do some hands-on breathingexercises which we really invite
(01:36):
you to get involved in and havea wonderful conversation around
the different perceptions thatbreathwork can have for you and
your team and, most importantly,the positive impact in terms of
yourself, your people and theresults of the business.
So enjoy, make sure you go inwith an open mind and see what
(01:57):
you can take out of this episodeto really apply to your
everyday life.
Laura, we talk a lot on thispodcast and behind the scenes,
when the mic's not on, aboutpeak performance, people
leadership to get peakperformance in business, and we
believe that it is one of thebackbones of smart business
growth and a really successfulbusiness.
(02:17):
And so it was a no brainer forus to talk to you, because you
are in our world, you're thebreath guru.
I don't know, I just made thatup in the moment.
I don't know how you feel aboutthat, but that's how I see you.
So thank you again for joiningus today, and I'd love to kick
off the conversation by pickingyour brain and getting your
thoughts.
You know, really, how doesbreathing, which is such a
(02:41):
fundamental thing that we do,how does breathing affect our
ability to perform in our job,in our roles?
Laura Gutierrez (02:49):
Well, let's start with the fact that if we
or you are not breathing well,then it's going to be very hard
to be present.
It's going to be very hard tobe aware of what you're feeling,
what you're thinking, thequality of your thoughts, the
quality of your communication,the quality of the decisions
that you're making.
You know, when you are eitherover breathing or not breathing
(03:10):
at all, then your brain isactually not getting all that
blood flow or that oxygen, thenutrients.
You know all that it's neededfor physically being able to
live.
You know being able to bepresent, being able to run a
business, being able to you knowbeing able to be present, being
able to run a business, beingable to you know, like do so
many different things.
So breathing is key foreverything, but if we're talking
(03:32):
about leadership andperformance, it's such an
important part of it.
You know like we need our brainto work well, to be able to be
present, to make decisions,better decisions.
Ness (03:43):
One of the things that I noticed when we were working
together, lauda, is the pickingup on.
You know how sometimes we canjust take those really short
breaths, and it's that you knowthinking and breathing, the way
that we're breathing.
And when you just talk aboutbreathing perhaps coming back to
what do you mean?
When you talk, becauseeveryone's going, I breathe all
(04:04):
day what are what are youtalking about?
Like, of course I'm presentbecause I'm breathing, but when
you are in your world for morethan you know five minutes and
you get to hear what you have tosay and experience how you
train people to breathe what Inotice in myself previously, but
also you know, in day-to-daysituations where you're under
(04:25):
pressure or you're about to gointo meetings and you're feeling
nervous and all this kind ofstuff it's sort of like really
shallow breathing or gasping forbreath, almost.
So let's start on a mutualunderstanding definition around
what do you call breathing?
Laura Gutierrez (04:39):
Fantastic, great question and great start,
because, definitely, we allbreathe.
If we I mean, I think therecord for not breathing is
around 40 minutes by a freediver Wow, I mean, that's huge,
that's massive.
But we all breathe, we have tobreathe, and it's the quality of
the breath that changes thequality of our life, of our
(05:00):
experience.
And so when we talk aboutbreathing right now, we're
talking about functionalbreathing, we're talking about
good breathing, you know,breathing that actually supports
our wellbeing, supports ourbrain, supports our body.
And so nowadays, we could saythat 90% of the population
(05:20):
breathes dysfunctionally, youknow.
So we have becomeover-breathers.
For example, you know,breathing, as you were saying,
shallow, like breathing shallowmeans that we are taking a lot
more air than we need, orbreathing through the mouth as
well, and we are losing a lot ofCO2, which is carbon dioxide
and a very important gas when itcomes to oxygenation of the
(05:41):
body.
And so, right now, we'retalking about learning to
breathe functionally, learningto breathe well, learning to use
the diaphragm you know, thatvery important muscle involved
in respiration learning tobreathe through the nose.
Again, you know, the nose wasmade for breathing.
It's by learning in it,actually, and you both have
experienced that by learningjust a few simple things and
(06:04):
retraining your breath, you feeldifferent, you think
differently, you act differently.
So this is what we mean.
This is what we're talkingabout Learning to breathe well,
learning to breathe how natureactually intended.
Nicky (06:17):
It's so fascinating to me that breath is such a I mean,
it's an unconscious thing thatwe're doing to survive, to be
alive, to be here, and yet wecan breathe well, or we can.
You know that functionalbreathing and the fact that over
90% of people are breathingdysfunctional, dysfunctional
breathing I mean that's crazy,right?
I mean, how did this become andthis might be a rhetorical
(06:39):
question, but how did thisbecome the norm in society, the
fact that we're not breathingwell?
Do you actually know the answerto that?
That is an unfair question, ifnot, I mean that's just a big
question.
But how the heck did we get hereas humans?
And it's probably the stress,the social expectations.
Do you know how we got here?
Laura Gutierrez (06:58):
Well, we actually wouldn't be able to say
well, everything started inthis moment, yeah, yeah.
But what we do know is that our, you know, our habits have
changed throughout the years.
You know, we went from beingbeings that were in nature.
We were attuned to the cycles.
The rhythm, like the breath, isa cycle, right?
Inhale, exhale.
(07:20):
Inhale is to live and exhale isto die.
You know day and night.
You know all these cycles thatwere natural, all the circadian
rhythm, all of this.
But as we got more, let's say,industrialized, then we started
losing that connection to nature, we started losing connection
with our own body.
This is why, for example andVanessa, you experienced the
(07:41):
exercise like you had theexperience of breath awareness.
You know awareness and breathawareness is literally just
sitting, watching your breath,and it's such a simple thing.
Yet we don't do it in ourday-to-day.
We just do not observe ourbreath, we just take it for
granted.
It's something that is there,it's like we don't need to think
(08:02):
about it, right?
Nicky (08:04):
and also we're too busy.
I mean, that's got to play apart in this, because you know
particularly our listeners busybusiness owners, busy leaders,
busy parents, busy people the Bword.
So it almost, I think that itwould feel and it's certainly at
times I've felt like this, andit's a practice that I'm working
on changing but that it's awaste of time.
Oh, I'm going to sit there andobserve my breath.
(08:25):
What a waste of time, you know,it's that creating space to do
nothing.
Observing our breath is asimilar thing, and yet there's
so many benefits Like I lovewhat you said at the beginning
around being more present, butalso the quality of our thinking
, the quality of our decisionsthat we're making.
So I want our listeners toactually think about.
Imagine if you could improveeven just by 5%, even 1%, the
(08:48):
quality of the decisions thatyou're making, perhaps the
feeling of certainty about thedecisions you're making, being
1% more present with your familyor with your team.
What would that look like foryou?
What would that feel like foryou?
Because what Lauda is sayinghere is that the breath is the
bridge to be able to do that isthe shortest distance.
I also love that you said thequality of our breath is the
(09:11):
quality of our experiences, isthe quality of our life.
We're already breathing, so itcan't be that hard to make it a
little bit more functional.
That hard to make it a littlebit more functional, could it,
can we do this?
Laura Gutierrez (09:29):
Is it accessible, it's with us all the
time, right, and so it is about.
I find it very interesting that, in terms of leadership, you
know a leader that is notself-aware won't be able to lead
, so true, self-aware won't beable to live, so true.
(09:50):
And the I would say, and Iwould say that the first way to
become self-aware is to becomeaware of how you're breathing.
And when you become aware ofhow you're breathing, you become
aware of whether you'restressed out or not, what's
worrying you, what's in yourto-do list, what's in your mind.
You know, like your breath justshows you exactly where you are
at.
And the ripple effect when youconnect with your breath, when
(10:15):
you sit for even 30 seconds tojust breathe, you immediately
can attune to somebody else'sbreath.
You can see and feel and sensewhat other people are doing.
So for a leader, that is key.
I imagine that I actuallyrecently had a group, a small
(10:38):
team, coming to an experiencewith me and it was just very
interesting to see them first atthe beginning.
You know, like all different,you know they were different,
breathing differently.
Some were obviously more tense,some were more relaxed, but
their leader, their boss, he hadcome to see me a few times
before.
So he knew what he was doing,he knew how to regulate, how to
(11:01):
breathe and he actually changedthe way people were breathing.
You know, he was able toconnect with them at a different
level and he brought them to meas an experience, more like as
a bonding experience, but he had, he was leading them, he had
the lead and that was beautifulto see, you know.
Ness (11:21):
I think about sorry when you say that.
I think there are so many waysthat we can apply this If you
have a business that's goingthrough a lot of change so some
of the larger businesses that wework with there's a lot of
change happening, there's a lotof stress around that.
A lot of people are changingjobs or maybe being made
redundant or the fear of thestructure changes and what that
(11:42):
could have.
Imagine if you're bringing yourteam together and you just
spent the first five minutes,even 10 minutes, of a workshop
or a meeting to all like just tobe fully present, to let go of
some of that stress and pressure, to think differently, to have
a different way of contributingto the discussion.
(12:03):
That is so powerful that you'dbe crazy not to take advantage
of that.
And what comes up for me then isthere'll be some people out
there going well, that soundsgreat, but I don't know what to
do because I haven't been aroundyou, laura, I haven't learned
it.
So I wonder if now would be agreat time for you to share with
(12:24):
us something that if we didhave a team and it was a
stressful time or even aone-on-one.
We often coach clients and theydo coach their team.
We help them to do that.
If you've got a person cominginto a one-on-one with you and
they're stressed and you'renoticing your breathing and
their breathing, what's atechnique that is easy for
(12:45):
anyone to be able to remember,to be able to do for themselves,
to be able to say to someoneelse Because I'm imagining that
the first step is let's justtake a moment to notice our
current breathing and then sowhat's the next step, laura?
Laura Gutierrez (12:59):
So, before I share that, vanessa, I actually
would like to add something tothis conversation, and it's that
things like meditation, forexample, have become very
popular, and because they areawesome.
But one thing that we aremissing is that stress for many
people, especially businessowners.
You know, leaders, ceos, cfosall of these roles have so much
(13:21):
pressure.
You know, people are pilingstress on top of stress, you
know, and it's like oh, there'ssome stress today, and some
tomorrow, and some the day after, and there is no release of
that tension.
And so some people try tomeditate and they can't Because
guess what I mean?
(13:42):
Like the tension is so pent up,it's just there.
You know, they try to go toyoga, they try to go for a run,
they try to do all these things,and stress just keeps piling up
.
So one thing that is super key,and especially when it comes to
running a business, is to beable to learn how to release
that accumulated tension, andthis is when things like
(14:05):
hyperventilation orsuperventilation exercise would
be great, because it works as apattern.
Interrupt of that it's like ashaking of the body.
So I just wanted to bring thisto mind, because sometimes we
talk about stress as being bad,and I mean chronic stress is
definitely not ideal, you know,but sometimes we do need a
little bit of that push ofstress to kick us out of the,
(14:29):
let's say, habit or routine ofstressing a little bit today and
a little bit more tomorrow, youknow.
So we need a little bit ofextra stress to release that
pressure cooker, yeah, andbrings us down to, you know, to
come back to homeostasis, tobalance, to harmony.
So, bringing that into accountor taking that into account,
(14:51):
sorry then we could say that oneexercise that I particularly
love is super easy to do, superquick.
It's called 20 connectedbreaths, and it's a short
exercise of hyperventilationthat anyone can do.
But I do have to say, ifsomeone is pregnant or someone
has been suffering from epilepsyor seizures, then it's just
better not to do this exercise.
(15:12):
There are other things that canbe done.
Okay, so this exercise it'sbasically was created by a guy
called Leonard Orr, who was thefounder or the creator of
rebirthing breathwork, and sothis was a while ago.
I learned this with a guy thatI studied with.
His name is Dan Brule, and sothis exercise is we count 20
(15:32):
times 20 breaths, and you can dothis either breathing through
the nose or breathing throughthe mouth, or nose and mouth,
whichever way is easier for you,and you can do it at different
rhythms.
You can do it very fast or youcan do it slow.
The important thing is thatit's uninterrupted.
And on the 20th breath you doit a little bit longer, like a
double the size, let's saydouble the inhalation, double
(15:54):
the exhalation, and I like to doat least three rounds, so it
will take you like a minute todo this.
So I'm going to demonstrate andsee what happens.
Nicky (16:02):
Yeah, would you like to do it?
Yeah, okay, okay, and if you'rewatching or listening, stop
driving your car, pull oversomewhere safe and let's all do
it together.
I love it.
Laura Gutierrez (16:12):
Yes, I'm actually going to change my
sound so that you can hear mebreathing actually.
Okay.
So we're going to start, we'regoing to count, we're going to
breathe in through the nose, outthrough the mouth, and we're
going to do it quite quick.
So please look at my fingers.
Okay, you know how many timesI've been breathing.
Okay, we're going to start in 3, 2, 1.
(16:43):
And again Again, last one, andnow.
(17:20):
Just allow your breath toreturn to normal breathing, only
through the nose, and simplylet your breath guide you, just
let your breath take you towhere you're meant to go.
If you have the time, you canclose your eyes in this moment
and simply allow your energy toshift.
You're going to be noticingthat your energy has shifted.
You feel sharper, perhapslighter.
(17:42):
So after we've done thehyperventilation or
superventilation, then theparasympathetic or the
relaxation response will kick in.
The parasympathetic or therelaxation response will kick in
, have created spaceenergetically.
We're talking about it's amoment of emptying the vessel,
(18:03):
really, you know, emptying themind, creating space.
So it's in that moment, afterdoing that, that you can bring
in, for example, some thoughtsof some positive or high
frequencyfrequency thoughts, youknow, like maybe some
affirmations if you would like,or, for example, your to-do list
what's next in the day?
You can do this on a one-on-one, you can do it on your own, you
can do it with a team, yes, wow.
Ness (18:26):
Yes, what was the experience like for you, nick?
Nicky (18:29):
Yeah, I feel I'm actually curious to listen back to hear
how my voice has changed,because I feel really quite
definitely like open.
I feel like I can breathebetter as well.
I feel like I can breathebetter in through my nose.
My mind feels like it's openedand my body feels more grounded.
So I definitely can see how,doing this, if I was overwhelmed
(18:52):
because that whole thought ofokay, I'm a bit overwhelmed.
Just take a moment, do thisbreathing and then look at my
list, what's next or what's themost important thing, or even
setting an intention for the day, or before, maybe, a meeting,
who do I want to show up as formy team, or before a pitch, like
you could go into the toilet, Iguess, and do this, which might
sound a bit weird if someone's.
Ness (19:13):
Even so, what I mean, you know, I don't know what's going
on behind the cubicle.
Nicky (19:18):
Who knows?
But I think that's an importantpoint around.
It can feel a bit silly atfirst if you've not done this,
but it's kind of just gettingover yourself because I love
that Ness.
What about for you?
How do you feel?
Ness (19:29):
now, yeah it, it was really interesting.
I've done this a few times withyou, um, louder, and it's the,
um, the light.
It's light-headed to start with, you know.
So, look, I find it quitechallenging to breathe like that
.
And then you're sort of like oh, I've missed a breath and now
I'm going to catch up.
So I'm trying to get right,which is crazy, right, but the
at the end of it, the, thelight-headedness, and then, once
(19:52):
we drop into just regularbreathing, it just feels so much
easier to breathe.
I know that sounds crazy, butplease do it Do it, do, it do it
.
I don't know what I'm talkingabout.
And then I really connect withwhat you said around that that
sort of it's almost like this,this clarity, the cloud that's
of everything that's going onand all the things you've got to
(20:13):
be thinking about and planningfor, and not just at work.
But tonight I've got to, youknow, drop that off on the way
home and I've got to pick updinner and then I've got those
people coming over on theweekend.
You know we're in that hecticspace but after doing that,
which took like what?
one, two minutes, yeah, it'sthis lightness and just clarity
of space.
I this lightness and justclarity of space.
I don't even know whether I'mdescribing that well.
Nicky (20:36):
No, I think you are, because that's exactly, and I
think when you do it you knowexactly what you're talking
about.
That's right.
Ness (20:43):
And so imagine if we brought that to, if you could go
in and have a difficultconversation with someone and
you just take that moment to go,because often and we know as
coaches that you can to buildrapport with someone it's about
like matching and then helpingthem come back into.
So if you're matching andmirroring them, we've got to
(21:03):
then lead them into the nextspace, because if they're
walking intense, stressed, youknow, sort of doing that shallow
breathing, how can we be theperson that's feeling centered
and you know, and open and thenwilling to share with them this
crazy you know, crazy simplething to do that people might
(21:23):
feel uncomfortable about.
So I think there probably wouldbe a little bit of setting up
and asking permission before wemove into hey, I'm just going to
get you to hyperventilate for aminute and she's like this is
crazy.
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(21:44):
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Nicky (22:02):
I'm curious actually, larda, to get your thoughts on
this because I even wondercalling it hyperventilating.
So I know before I did somework with you in November,
hyperventilation has been a partof my life since I was a kid
Actually, not since I did yourbreath workshop in November.
Still there's not been one timeI have not had a panic attack
(22:25):
or hyperventilated and I'msharing a little bit of personal
stuff now, but that was apretty normal part.
It wasn't all the time, but itwas a pretty normal part of my
life and it hasn't happenedsince.
But if I would have walked intoa coaching session and a coach
said to me, or a leader said,we're going to do a
hyperventilation breathingtechnique, no thanks, because my
experience of hyperventilationwas very bad and it's like I
understand it now because of ourworkshop.
(22:45):
You've taught me and you know Ithink about that whole stress
where there is healthy stressand there's unhealthy stress.
When we look at things like youknow, ness and I read the book
about fasting and I've playedaround with that it's the same
thing.
It's not a bad thing for ourbody to go into a stress state
as long as it's a functional,healthy stress and it's not and
it doesn't turn into chronic.
But what's your thoughts Likehow do we bring first I would
(23:08):
say, play around with yourselfthis yourself first, as a leader
, do it yourself and experienceit before you introduce it to
anybody?
But what's your thoughts aroundthat louder, because I you know
we want people to be open to itand we don't want people to
hyperventilate in a bad way.
Is that a hyperventilationmeditation?
How do we set it up?
If we're going to do it withour team?
Laura Gutierrez (23:35):
Because I just would be like see you later.
I'm out of here, not what Isigned up for, what?
Well, actually, this exerciseis called 20 Connected Breaths,
and so we're about connectingthe breath, not allowing space,
let's say, in between inhalationand exhalation.
Funnily enough, we are I wouldsay many of the population are
constantly hyperventilating, youknow, naturally breathing over
breathing, breathing more thanthey need to, yeah, so let's
(23:56):
start with that.
So, yeah, it's aboutpre-framing it.
It's not about we're just gonnago into hyperventilation, but
it could be framed more as uh,this is a stress release
exercise, because that's exactlywhat it does yeah, and even
yeah, maybe counterintuitive,even for people who suffer from
anxiety or panic.
This exercise is really goodbecause, once again, what we are
(24:19):
doing is just kind of likegently pushing or upping, let's
say, a little bit of that stressresponse, but in a conscious
way, so that then the relaxationresponse kicks in.
Nicky (24:32):
And I wonder as well, because when I hear you say that
it's discomfort, so the stressresponse another way of saying
that is discomfort.
So when we did that threerounds, it certainly wasn't
comfortable.
It wasn't like the mostenjoyable thing.
My nose was burning a bit.
I'm like whoa, I haven't hadthis much fresh air up there,
and you know.
So actually, what I'm hearingin that is the discomfort.
(24:53):
It's because we went throughthe discomfort of those three
rounds and look, it's not, it'sso quick.
But then we were able to enjoy.
It's like when we go to the gymor when we're doing some kind of
exercise and it's like, ah, onemore rep or whatever that might
be, one more jump in danceclass, don't stop in the cardio.
But then afterwards we feel sogood, it's like we're on a high.
(25:14):
So that's it's not.
You know, if anybody's a bithesitant, it's not.
We're creating a stressfulenvironment.
Yes, we want to create somediscomfort so people can grow.
That's the same in coaching.
We ask questions that might bea bit uncomfortable.
We don't save them becausethat's in the discomfort, that's
where they grow.
Yeah, absolutely.
Laura Gutierrez (25:32):
Absolutely, I would add, is conscious
discomfort.
Nicky (25:36):
Conscious discomfort.
Oh, I love that.
Yes, do we have time for you torun through?
And I know I'm not thetimekeeper today.
You're all lucky listeners.
Sorry, leah, producing ourpodcast and thank you in advance
, but do we have time, because Ilove it so much, to run through
the perfect breath?
Laura Gutierrez (25:53):
Yes, if you would like.
Yes, yes, yes.
Ness (25:55):
You can't set that up and say no Okay, because what I'm
going to say I'm going to.
Nicky (25:59):
I'm also going to share a super quick and I promise it'll
be quick story here about theperfect breath saved my life.
Okay, that might be a bitdramatic.
I shut my finger in a doorafter the workshop I did with
Lauda in November.
I shut my finger in a car doorand the driver my sister walked
away and it wasn't a beep, beepdoor.
So she walked away to paperparking and my finger was stuck
(26:20):
in the car door.
I did perfect breathing andeverybody.
She eventually came back andset me free.
Yay, but the response?
The people around me said Nicky, how were you so calm?
How were you?
I would have been so panickedif it was me and the answer was
I had just learned, three daysearlier, thank goodness, the
perfect breath.
(26:40):
So if it can help me in thatsituation, it can help you, I
think, in a variety ofsituations.
So it's worth the time.
What is the perfect breath?
Laura Gutierrez (26:48):
Totally.
Yeah Well, the perfect breathis basically learning to breathe
in a rate of six breaths perminute, which in this case it
would be four seconds or fourcounts in the inhalation and six
counts in the exhalation,breathing through the nose.
So, once again, there are a fewthings right.
So if you cannot breathethrough your nose, by all means
(27:09):
you can breathe through yourmouth, but just make sure that
you're breathing with pursedlips, like because the idea is
not to take in too much air.
Now let's just briefly touch onthe fact that breathing through
the nose is super important.
So if the nose is not workingwell, it's important to look at
that, you know, and you can lookat that with a breath coach or
going to something you know, toa specialist, just making sure
(27:30):
that the nose works well.
So, breathing in and out.
And the beauty of the perfectbreath is that it really brings
you to that moment of coherencebetween your brain and your
heart.
It's like if you could imaginethat there's like a line or a
thread of connection of light orwhatever.
You want to imagine that asbetween your brain and your
(27:50):
heart.
That's what it's doing.
It's just bringing all of yoursystems, all of your being into
a moment of harmony, and sothat's why it works so well,
yeah.
Ness (28:00):
I've done this quite often and it's actually much easier
than what we just did the 20connected breaths because it is
something you can sort of justsit and do.
It doesn't matter who's aroundyou.
Yeah.
And it's like just in for four,out for six, and it's a
beautiful thing and that is suchan amazing story, nick, around
what happened to you.
(28:27):
And I think one of the thingsthat really stands out for me,
lauda, is that you shared andNicky's probably covered this in
your bio, but you shared aboutwhy you got into breathwork, and
why you got into this wasbecause you had panic attacks
and had a lot of anxiety, and Ijust know that post-COVID
particularly, there's so muchawareness out there around the
impact that period of time hashad on mental health that the
you know there's legislationchanges around how we look after
(28:50):
our team members when it comesto mental health and the duty of
care that we have for them.
There's a lot of anxiety outthere in the world and to think
that if we can help one of ourteam by teaching them a
technique that they can thentake home and in life in general
, be able to apply, you know,since we've done this work
(29:11):
together, there's just so manycircumstances that I've been
able to help and see otherpeople like my daughter or, you
know, family friend it's.
It's something that's shareablebecause it's so simple, it
doesn't cost us money.
It's, you know it can't reallystuff it up, it's just breathing
.
But the impact when we thinkabout the impact that this has
and the link between breathingand peak performance and not
(29:35):
just peak performance for thebusiness let's get real.
It's about how people canovercome some of the really
challenging moments in theirworld yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.
Laura Gutierrez (29:45):
Like I just hearing you talk, it just gave
me like goosebumps because thatripple effect, if we think about
how our breath affects ournervous system, and if we think
of our nervous system as thisnetwork of energy that not only
is within us, but that itactually impacts the outside,
you know we are impacting tonsof people and if you are leading
(30:09):
a team or a company, you knowyou're impacting every single
one of them just by changingyour breath.
And in the case of the perfectbreath, all it takes is that you
just pay attention for fiveminutes, or even less.
I love it, so shall we do it,yes, the perfect breath.
All it takes is that you justpay attention for five minutes
or even less.
Ness (30:26):
I love it, so shall we do it?
Yes, okay, Actually, I reckonwe're going to, because we do
have to wrap up, even though wecan talk about this all day.
But this people we normally saythrow to our guest and say
what's an actionable actionsomeone can take in the next 24
hours?
I'm going to jump straight inand say this is your actionable
action, Play along now.
Or if you are in a situationwhere you can't, I don't even
know what that would be, butyeah, because you literally can
(30:50):
do this Even if you're driving.
Nicky (30:52):
Even if you're driving.
Yeah, that's what I love aboutthis.
Even if you've got your fingersstuck in a car door's all good.
Just do the perfect breath andyou will live.
Laura Gutierrez (31:01):
You will survive actually before we we
practice it.
Nika, I wanted to ask you whenthat happened to you, when you
had your finger stuck there,where, where was your attention?
Nicky (31:12):
on my breath.
So I so I looked at my fingerand my brain went lots of
potential swear words that Ican't say here.
And then I went, come back tomy perfect breath and I focused
on the four.
What is it?
Yeah, four in, six out, and Ijust I even put my head down a
little bit and just focused onmy solar plexus and just focused
on my breath, just focused onmy breath.
(31:32):
That was it.
Yeah, it was.
It was actually incredible howit helped me and it would have
been a very different experiencehad I not have had that tool.
And you know the finger in thedoor is a metaphor for so many
instances in our life.
We also talk about, you know,event plus response or reaction
(31:55):
is what determines the outcomeand the fact that you can do the
perfect breath while you'retalking to somebody almost you
know drive, it doesn't matterwhere you are, what, what you're
doing then it can really impactthat outcome yeah, yeah, and
and it's thatself-responsibility right as
well like just takingresponsibility of the breath, of
our breath, we are also takingresponsibility of how we respond
(32:19):
yes world.
Yes, yes, and and goodness knows, there's many moments as
leaders, as humans, where wealso might get frustrated with
people.
So, do the perfect.
I know shocking, isn't it?
Uh, do the perfect, press, youknow?
Yeah, let's do it all righty,okay.
Laura Gutierrez (32:37):
So whenever you are sitting or standing up or
walking, I'm just going toinvite you to simply first
become very attuned to yourbreath, like become aware of
your breath, close your mouthand just simply breathe.
Take a few normal breaths inand out through your nose.
And as you breathe through yournose, I'm also going to invite
you to pay attention to yourribcage, to your ribcage.
(32:58):
So make sure that your ribcageis moving, kind of like an
accordion, opening and closinggently.
You don't really need to changemuch, you're just paying
attention right now and we'regoing to do two minutes of the
perfect breath.
So we're going to meet when Iguide you and we're going to
(33:20):
start breathing in through thenose and then out through the
nose.
We're going to meet in three,two, one breathing in four, five
, six in two, three, four outtwo, three, four, five, six
breathing in two, three, fourout two breathing in three.
(34:42):
Four out four, five, six.
Breathing in four out five.
Six.
Breathing in out five, six.
Breathing in out, breathing inout.
(35:07):
Last, one In two, three, fourOut two, three, four, five, six.
Release this rhythm ofbreathing, just breathing in,
and now through your nose.
Just pay attention.
What do you notice?
(35:27):
That's, that's the mostimportant bit now.
What can you notice?
Did you notice a difference?
Nicky (35:34):
yes, totally yes, definitely I, and I think that
those two breathing techniquesgo quite well back to back as
well.
Even you know that's sort ofalmost if you've got the time
and the opportunity to do thefirst, because it the first one
really feels like it clears yournasal passage.
For me it did anyway.
Yes, but again, like I wasdoing that some with my eyes
(35:57):
open, looking out at nature,unless you had your eyes closed,
like it's just so versatile.
And I think the other thing,just as a final reminder, if you
find it a bit challenging atfirst, it's a bit uncomfortable,
that's great, that's feedback,and I know I certainly did and
still do sometimes.
So I want to.
The more I practice, the betterwe get at this.
(36:19):
So don't be put off if it's alittle bit uncomfortable at
first.
Like we say with so many otherthings in life, if it's a bit
uncomfortable, that's probablyfeedback, that it's exactly what
you need right now and what agift you can give yourself and
then therefore give to others.
Ness (36:35):
Yeah, amazing, thank you.
It's always such a great way tojust recenter become grounded
again.
My word for the year isgrounded, so this breathing all
the things you've taught us hasbeen able to help achieve that.
I believe this is an amazingplace to finish on and it's just
such a great takeaway for ourlisteners and viewers.
(36:56):
But people will want to findout more about you, no doubt
because we've experienced acouple of workshops that you've
delivered over a longer periodof time and it's been quite
incredible to have thatexperience.
And I know you do publicworkshops and you do private
clients as well.
So, please, where can peoplefriendly, stalk you louder?
Laura Gutierrez (37:17):
Well, people can find me on my website, the
love approach projectcom, orinstagram at the love approach
project, same with facebooklinkedin, they can find me as
laura gutierrez laura yeah,we'll put links in the show
notes, absolutely amazing and Ihave a podcast as well, so it's
(37:42):
great a love approach projectand it's on Spotify Apple
podcasts as well beautiful.
Ness (37:47):
Well, we will make sure all of that is in the show notes
because, please, people, doyourself a favor and get in this
woman's world.
She's amazing, yeah, and Itrust this has been a little bit
different for our podcastlisteners today.
So I trust that you've found itreally beneficial and, and if
you've played it along, I knowthat you'll just be walking a
little bit taller and a littlebit calmer.
So thank you so much forsharing your gift with us and,
(38:10):
yeah, till next time.
We'll say goodbye for now.
Nicky (38:13):
Thank you for having me.
Thanks so much, thanks, lara.
See everybody, bye.
Ness (38:19):
Thanks for listening to today's ep.
If you what you heard, connectwith us over on linkedin and
let's continue the conversationover there.
Did you hear?
You can now buy our bookhealthy hustle the new blueprint
to thrive in business and lifeat healthyhustlecomau.
Want us to speak to your teamor run a workshop on healthy
(38:40):
hustle in your workplace?
Send us an email or go oldschool and give us a call to
discuss.
Until next time, happylistening and here's to thriving
in business and life.
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