OUR DAVE WOOD EXPERIENCE + A QUICK BREATH WORK TIP FROM THE MASTER HIMSELF.
A week ago, Stacey (product developer) and I attended Dave Wood’s 1:1 WMW Integrated Training 'Calm Under Pressure' workshop in Piha, NZ — what an incredible experience!
Dave is a specialist in stress mitigation, recovery, and mental preparedness. His courses are designed to help you achieve your full potential by providing the tools, techniques, and strategies needed to manage stress and stay calm under pressure.
Dave has a set of INXHALE’s inhalers, so there was a lot of chat about the Calm and Alert functional fragrances. We had some good laughs, learned a lot about the sympathetic (me) vs. parasympathetic (Stacey) nervous systems, but most importantly, I came away feeling like I’d been on a retreat for a week—except this retreat included running up and down sand dunes and taking ice baths!
If you're looking to elevate your mental fortitude and overall wellbeing, Dave's workshops are a must. While there were many valuable takeaways, the most crucial aspect for me was learning about breathing mechanics and the respiratory system. Understanding proper breathing techniques and matching the rate and depth of my breathing to the intensity of exercise had profound effects on my endurance, focus, and recovery.
Dave has kindly shared a quick exercise to help the INXHALE community manage stress, and boost energy, focus and balance on the spot. SEE BELOW
Implementing these functional breathing practices in conjunction with regular use of INXHALE’s olfactory tools will enhance sleep, focus, concentration, and overall calmness, while also promoting better posture, spinal stabilisation, and functional movement to reduce the risk of injury. Sometimes, it is the most unassuming habits that make the most significant changes in our daily lives.
Stacey, Dave and Kate practicing the importance of breath work.
CADENCE BREATHING EXERCISE FROM DAVE WOOD
Cadence breathing is a powerful form of rhythmic breathing that enables you to take conscious control over your respiration. It will help you manage stress, improve your mental game and control your energy output by balancing your nervous system over time and will bring conscious awareness to what you’re doing.
Find out which of these cadence breathing examples below works for you: Remember to always keep the exhale longer than the inhale as it creates a more parasympathetic tone in your nervous system.
Important points to understand and integrate into your cadence breathing routine:
If you want to inhale slightly longer do so, if you want to exhale slightly longer do so. No need to abruptly stop, just borrow time from the hold phase.
Sometimes when you try to switch off you will actually find it agitating. This is particularly the case if you have been switched on and on the go all the time. Meditation is not all about getting calm; it’s also about learning to work with that agitation and learning from it.
Sometimes you may not feel like doing 20 minutes, and you may opt for a shorter 10 minute session. Find what works best for you on any given day. It is better to do something rather than nothing.
We are not trying to create one point of focus for 20 minutes. That is impossible. Allowing the mind to wander and then bringing it back for short periods is the goal. This strengthens the higher brain centres associated with deep focus.
Relax into the exhale. The more relaxed you get on the exhale phase (out breath) the more parasympathetic tone you create.
Perform a body scan to find tension and then let it go. In particular the jaw, face, shoulders and chest.
Soften and quieten the breath.
We want the mind to wander, as it allows us to bring our attention back again, onto the body or the breathing cadence. Practising doing this has a profound effect in terms of improving your ability to focus your mind.
Enjoy it all, embrace it all, and when there is stress just bring it in and relax into it. You need stress; it’s a good thing when you embrace it and use it to your advantage.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON DAVE + WMW INTEGRATED TRAINING, CLICK HERE
Implementing ‘breathing gears’ into our training.
This week's Friday Muse Kate Guthrie left us feeling so inspired. From discussing her style icons (spoiler: Victoria Beckham & Fred Dagg) to launching her olfactory wellness brand INXHALE, you don't want to miss this read, FQ. CLICK HERE
