The Modern LeadHer Way

[082] Balance Beyond Burnout: Finding Your Breath with Stacey Landau

• Emma Clayton • Season 4 • Episode 82

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Discover how to reconnect with your body and mind and avoid burnout as we explore the essential tools for self-care and wellness in today's busy world. Stacey Landau passionately discusses how breath work and yoga practices transformed her health after suffering with a chronic autoimmune condition brought on by burnout. 

We cover
• Introduction to Stacey and her journey into studying all things yoga therapy 
• Importance of taking time out for quality self-care 
• Connecting breath with body awareness for mental health 
• Navigating changes during perimenopause with intentional practices 
• Daily relaxation techniques to prevent burnout 

Stacey has been practicing yoga for 25 years and teaching since 2005. She is a certified Advanced Breathwork Practitioner, Yoga Therapist, Menopause yoga teacher, Breath-Body-Mind and iRest Meditation Teacher. 

Breath has always been a fundamental pillar of her yoga practice however after becoming ill in 2017, she began to explore breathwork even more deeply and today it is an integral part of her life and teachings. Living with a chronic autoimmune condition, she has a deeply vested interest in stress and pain management, and is passionate about empowering herself and others with self-care tools to reduce overwhelm, sleep better, re-energise, navigate Menopause and promote long-term well-being.

She offers online and face to face 1;1, group sessions and workshops, incorporating elements of gentle and mindful movement, breathwork and deep relaxation practices.

Checkout the resources available through Stacey's website including her upcoming workshops and classes: www.staceylandau.com


The next Margate TIME OUT retreat is on 22nd March, get your ticket here: https://www.emmaclaytonxo.com/courses/time-out-retreat-spring25

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Speaker 1:

This is the Modern Leader Way, the podcast for corporate career women who want to feel good on their way to the top. I'm Emma Clayton and I'll be sharing with you tangible advice to help you stop sacrificing your soul in the name of success and experience more balance, confidence and fulfilment both in and out of work. Hello and welcome back to the Modern Leader Way podcast, where I'm joined today by the wonderful Stacey Landau. Hi, stacey, welcome. Hey Emma, good to be here, good to be here too, and to meet you last week in person, which was really lovely. So we've kind of been in touch the last probably six months or so, haven't we? Through the Be your own network? It's just nice to nice to meet in person and hug it out.

Speaker 1:

So I've done a couple of my time out retreats now and I've got another one planned March 22nd, if anyone is thinking about joining us.

Speaker 1:

This is the last time we're doing it in Margate and the thing that's become apparent to me is how much it is needed for us to take that time out for ourselves right and to induce a true relaxed state in our body when we move through our very busy lives in this very busy modern day, and often our relaxation time is in the evening, with a glass of wine, scrolling through social media whilst watching our latest show on Netflix, right which might be someone's way of switching off, but it doesn't really truly switch us off in the way that our body needs us to.

Speaker 1:

So I kind of introduced this idea of like taking some quality time out over the last couple of episodes. So I'm glad you're here because you get to give us some insights into the tools that you use through your work that you do in the world, that are absolutely critical in providing those pockets of time throughout our day within our lifestyle that really supports us, especially as we age, especially as women, right? So why don't you introduce what it is you do with your work in the world and who it is that you serve?

Speaker 2:

so, as you said, emma, my name is Stacey and I'm a yoga teacher. Well, that's how I started my journey about 25 years ago, and then I went to train in yoga therapy because I really wanted to use yoga within different communities and use it therapeutically. The way that I was trained breathwork, pranayama, futhilum of yoga is a very vital element of yoga, and as I went through my years of training as a therapist and then going on to training other different modalities, I don't think I really understood how much yoga was there to support me throughout my life. I knew that I was moving my body and it was amazing, because I don't really like sport, but breathwork, if I come back to that, once again came into its own because I was really, really ill. That once again came into its own because I was really, really ill, and so I had to find a way of supporting myself, finding that time to rest. Did we come back to the rest and the time out? In fact, I had loads of time out because I couldn't work. I had to drop a lot of my work.

Speaker 2:

We're talking about time out and how, actually, if we become ill, it upon our businesses as women particularly so I had to drop half of my workload, which was a really difficult decision, but it was one that was needed because I was burnt out and so now having trained in breath work and sort of different iris, meditation and other deep relaxation practices, for me it's not just about having or creating pockets of time out, which 100% are so important you know if we go to a spa for the day or we go away, etc.

Speaker 2:

But what I'm really trying to encourage people to do in my work is actually can you bring or weave these practices into your daily life so they're not just I take an hour here intentionally to do something, but actually they are part and parcel of my daily living, so that I'm supporting my well-being 24 7 and understanding that actually relaxation, that looking after myself, that self-care is vital. They're not elements that just should be visited occasionally, because ill health can come upon us, as I found out, really quickly, really unexpectedly, if we don't really listen to the messages that the body is saying and give it time to rest. So hopefully that wrapped up a little bit doing where I am.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel like we can finish the head. You said a few things that I want to come back to, so burnout. What do you know now in hindsight that led to that point of burnout where you were like I have to stop. I am forced to stop.

Speaker 2:

I think already at the age of 30, so a long time ago, but I'm not going to share my age. I had chronic fatigue and I don't think I really knew that or actually had the time to stop. I was, at that time, a single mum and I had to work, bring up my son before I met my now new husband and I didn't have time to I pander to myself or my needs. So I carried on and my body over the years was giving me signals, very subtle signals. So I was getting pain here, I was getting pain there, and then it was something else. But you know, it's, it's carry on, despite the fact that you know I have, I've done all my trainings.

Speaker 2:

And today I look back and I say, wow, how did you do this? Why didn't you listen more carefully to your body? You know this is what I'm talking to people about all the time now and I suppose why I'm so passionate about saying to people don't go down my route until eventually. I think really, the symptoms started getting louder a couple of years before I was ill, but you know, when I went to the doctor, it was. We look at this individual symptom and you know, it's nothing, Just take this pill for that or that individual symptom and I didn't really hook all the dots together or symptom and I didn't really hook all the dots together. And I remember very distinctly September 2017 my boys got a virus.

Speaker 2:

I thought hey, I haven't got it amazing, and a couple of weeks later, I started to get a little bit of pain, and that pain, within a few days, was all over my body and I was in such pain. I was flawed, but to the point where I couldn't sleep 24 7, and I had, in fact, I had to come back to breath, which is why breath has become, for me, such an important element of my life.

Speaker 1:

So I think the message that I'm saying here is don't wait for that, educate yourself, educate those around you and don't go with the norm yeah, and you make some good points because you know we have a pain there, so we go to the doctor and they treat that pain there, rather than necessarily connecting the dots for us, because you said you know I didn't connect the dots. Why were you supposed to connect the dots? We've got this whole professional body of doctors that we go to to help us connect the dots but they don't do that. They work very much in their specific area of speciality and I'm finding this at the moment with my friend whose husband had a really severe stroke at only the age of 55.

Speaker 1:

And, you know, trying to get the stroke unit to talk to the neuro unit, to talk to the ophthalmologist to, you know, to talk to the physio. It's kind of like she's holding all these pieces together and she can because she has some experience in care, in like later life care, in palliative care. She has some experience in insurance claims in the life and health arena, so she has some language. She has some experience in insurance claims in the life and health arena, so she has some language, she has some confident to be able to do that. But a busy woman with a household to run, probably with children, with a career to hold down with dinner, to go and get on the table, you know, and clubs to go get to.

Speaker 1:

We don't have time to necessarily connect the dots and ask the questions and advocate for ourselves. And the other point you made was you weren't listening to your body, even though there were clues. And so talk to us about how we get to this point where we don't listen to our body or we don't hear it screaming, and how we can start to educate ourselves in our body, knowing.

Speaker 2:

I think it's a journey. I think we can and often are so disconnected from our bodies in the life that we lead today, and I've seen it before, but I don't think I really understood so much of it from my own perspective. So I'm thinking particularly I, you know, when I worked with cancer patients and understandably, connecting to the body could sometimes be difficult, because when or if we get unwell, there can be frustration with the body, there can be anger with the body. You know I've gone through all these emotions as well of disappointment, of how did I get here? You know my body's in some way betraying me, but actually my body wasn't betraying me. My body was talking to me but I wasn't listening enough. So I think it really is about how can we slow down, and a lot of us don't want to slow down. We'll often choose activities where actually we are perpetuating the constant running, the, especially if we're sort of, you know, maybe alpha type, that go, go, go, high energy. But actually can we slow down, can we reduce the pace so that actually when we're doing movement, for example, if we take this movement, I can listen more carefully to what my body is saying to me, even during that movement, which is why I love today, very slow, mindful yoga or movement.

Speaker 2:

Can I listen to my breath? Because breath is really the pivotal point or the bridge between the mind and the body. So can I listen to my breath? What's happening with my breath on a daily basis? Most of us, including myself years ago, would not even acknowledge our breath. Including myself years ago, would not even acknowledge our breath. We breathe 24 7. Why should we listen? But actually, when we begin to notice the nuances of the breath, it can really be an indicator of something going on in our mind or in our body, for example. So it's about really cultivating body awareness, breath awareness. Can I notice where my mind is going? What's it doing? Am I ruminating? What can I do to help myself, my mental well-being? So I think all these things coming together encouraging us to actually really listen before the body screams, because that's the way of getting your attention. Can I listen to the niggles? What can I tune into this niggle and just almost ask that niggle, what are you saying to me? What do you need? What is going on?

Speaker 1:

it's so true because I often talk about like we walk around, cut off from the neck down almost, don't we? Because we're so up in our heads most of the time that we are in our to-do list I should be doing, I should be, could have, would, would have, should have, be doing all the things like where do I need to be next, where do the kids need to be? Like it's just this barrage of things that I need to be doing. And then there's all the thoughts that are running in the background that we might not even be aware of, that are like dictating how we feel in our body. And actually my biggest shift in my own personal development journey, if we're gonna call it that, has been getting out of my head and paying more attention to my body.

Speaker 1:

And I felt like I did have body awareness because I was a gymnast from about the age of four or five till 16 17, so I had a lot of body awareness and still today I've got that muscle memory right.

Speaker 1:

If I go into the gym, I I'm aware of what muscle I'm engaging and I'm aware of how I move my body. Yet in the run of the normal life, you kind of again switch off and you get caught up here in, you know, above the throat. So I've tried yoga and I found some methods I prefer and this is another interesting thing right, I've kind of made the switch from needing to exercise to achieve a sweat or be strength training or, you know, have some kind of outcome that I'm I can feel like, I can positively feel like I've worked hard, and that's changed over time to now my favorite is a good old yin yoga where we're laying in those stretches for minutes feels like hours sometimes, but it just feels like the best kind of being in my body for me. So talk to us about some of the yoga practices that you kind of bring into your work and help people explore. Have you got some favorites?

Speaker 2:

I think my practice has always so. I'm taught in the Krishnamacharya lineage so for me, as I mentioned beforehand, movement has always been underpinned by breath. So the slower that my breath has become, the slower my movement has actually become. So I'm not into if I'm practicing yoga, into a fast practice Myself, my own individual needs. It's actually can I really use a slow, even calm breath to support every single movement I do within my yoga practice. So it almost becomes like a meditation in itself, that physical practice, not a classic meditation of sitting still, but a moving meditation. So I think that's one thing.

Speaker 2:

I also trained in the modality of breath, body, mind where again there is a combination actually actually of yoga, qigong etc. And there's very, very gentle movement as well, combined with coherent breathing. So that is a major part of my own daily practice because it's such a stabilizing practice and one that really brings us back to balance. And then I will have my walk because I want movement, I need faster movement. So I think it's important that we also diversify. But where do we want to bring that in? In different elements? And if we're talking about strength, I'll do also a few strength and exercise because I need that. You know I'm middle-aged, I have to keep my strength up or try as much as I can, so I'm not saying we put that aside, but how can we find the balance in our maybe exercise routine if we want to call it that the same way that we want to find the balance in our life?

Speaker 1:

yeah, and actually, as you were talking, I was reminded of like another time I made the switch from like having to have that exercise routine to just what movement am I choosing? Like how do I want to move my body and, as a result, be in my body? So, similarly, I have my daily dog walks right and they these are like little rituals for me now actually when I don't have it.

Speaker 1:

I really notice it because not only are we exercising the dog and actually even that, like this, is an interesting parallel to draw but you know, the the dog. We think we need to run the dog for five miles. Actually, no, the dog needs to be in its senses, it needs to sniff all the sniffs. Because I heard someone say that's like they're checking in with social media, they like to like, they have to go and sniff, like who's been here before and oh, I recognize that one, I'm going to leave my scent there. But that's their movement requirements and in fact, if we just took half an hour to walk up the road and back and all that buddy did was sniff and leave his scent, he would be fulfilled for the day. Um, so, in a similar way, I find that movement.

Speaker 1:

For me it's like how do I get in my senses, how do I get out of my head and in my senses? And it's oftentimes in nature up the cliffs. This morning before, I think we were up there about half seven. Well, I'm. There's very few other people up there, so quiet, so calm. You can hear the birds, you can hear the distant ferries, and it's like I'm in my senses, right, and actually it's when I get out of my head and in my senses that my best ideas come.

Speaker 2:

I was just about say, isn't that, when the clarity comes and you know, almost that inner wisdom that you allow to come to the forefront, rather than actually thinking from the critical brain of I should do this or whatever, but those moments of inspiration that happen in nature or whenever else, wow, they're the powerful ones.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So I always speak to my clients about you know we we often think I haven't done any exercise this week, but it's like how can you just get some movement in this week? Whether that's like leaving your desk for half an hour at lunchtime. If you're at home, even even better. Leave your house for half an hour even and just get that movement in and and see it as an opportunity to like really connect to your whole body.

Speaker 1:

You don't have to sit in meditation and do a body scan, like I left um on YouTube for you last week. You don't have to do that to get out of your head and connect to your body. There are other ways, um, that might kind of feel good for you, and I think that's what I'm really an advocate for is like really exploring all these different avenues to work out what does feel good for you, because when it feels good for you, you're going to want to do more of it, right? So with the breath in mind, then I'm very aware when my breath is up here in my upper chest, but I don't. I couldn't tell you how long I might have been there possibly all day until I become aware that actually my breath is quite shallow and I really need to get some air in there. So what are the ways that we as a society, how are we walking around breathing wrong?

Speaker 2:

because like you.

Speaker 1:

You said we breathe 24, seven, we don't have to think about it. But where are we getting it wrong? Where are we missing an opportunity to better our breath?

Speaker 2:

From what I'm seeing, generally most people, like you were saying, are upper chest shallow breathers, and a lot of that comes about also because of the lives we lead, because we are so busy and the busier we become we're in almost that doing mode, that stress mode, so we're not in the calm state, a stutch, and we can forget then how to breathe or even to breathe.

Speaker 1:

And I'll give you an example, e-mail apnea.

Speaker 2:

It's well known now and I've noticed myself. Sometimes, if I get so engrossed on the computer, I'm actually holding my breath. So this can happen to us at different times during the day. We might get or have an altercation with somebody. It stresses us out, it impacts the breathing We've gone into again this slightly shallow breath. Maybe we're upset and then we haven't made the time to reset, and this can be going on throughout the day. It can.

Speaker 2:

Then a pattern can be created, so a sub-optional breathing pattern, if we want to call it that, upper chest shallow breathing being one of them. Even Even, for example, me talking a lot now to you, my breath is changing, so I'm trying almost to pause for a moment and breathe, because I'm expelling too much carbon dioxide as it happens, so it's fueling a faster breath. For me it really is about managing ourselves throughout the day. Can we introduce those pauses? They don't have to be long, really, to come back to what I would call optimal breathing, which is breathing with the diaphragm, our primary breathing muscle, which really should be doing about 80% of the work, but most people I meet do not have good diaphragmatic control.

Speaker 1:

And actually we were talking another time about how I was guilty of actually breathing fundamentally incorrectly because of how I'd been taught, probably as a gymnast, to stand in a certain way where you were sucked in and then you know, as a teenager, being very conscious of any like rolls or tightness in clothes, again holding it in and then this actually affecting your breath. I can't remember where it was, but someone pointed out to me I think it was a yoga class and someone pointed out to me that I was breathing incorrectly in that I was inhaling and sucking in and exhaling and letting it out, and that's the opposite paradox of cool breathing. Yeah, right, but and actually in my last retreat I can't we kind of had this conversation and people like, oh god, I think I do that, and then that's like we've been walking through our lives for however many years now, potentially breathing incorrectly. So if you were to walk us through now, if the listener gets to just experience two or three breaths, can you walk us through what that should feel like?

Speaker 2:

yes, but before I do, I want to. That is a really just say to you what a beautiful example actually, or what happens to so many of us and how we lose the ability to be able to breathe optimally. So thank you for sharing that and I think that will probably resonate with so many people.

Speaker 2:

And often I will meet people often gymnastics, for example who have been holding their stomach in and then the diaphragm can't descend. So we could do just a couple of minutes of breath awareness and what I would suggest. Actually, if anybody's interested, I've also got a five minute on my website of breath awareness that people if they wanted to tune into a little bit longer just to get an idea of becoming aware of the breath, but it really is then about how can I change my patterns, how can I correct any dysfunctional patterns that I might have in my breathing. It's a bit longer than the time we've got to be honest.

Speaker 2:

I'll make sure there's a link to that in the show notes, for sure but let's just even give people maybe an opportunity, just for a couple of minutes, even to tune into their breath, which is something they may not have done at all at any point. So let's just take a breath together and I like to sometimes sigh the breath out and just letting it sigh out that I might close my eyes or lower the gaze In fact I'm going to do that now with you and then just give yourself even the chance to notice how you're seated, so just noticing the physical body before we even come to the breath, noticing maybe any twinges or niggles, and can I then invite any areas of my body that are feeling slightly tense to soften, because if the body is tense it will be harder to breathe optimally. So notice for yourself and maybe just softening or sending that invitation to yourself, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, to soften down through the body for a moment. And then maybe you could take your attention to your belly and just notice as you breathe. Can you feel any movement around the ribs, around the belly? You may not, that's okay. Just asking at this moment to notice and you could even put a hand or hands on the belly and again noticing as the breath comes in, what do you notice for yourself?

Speaker 2:

And as the breath moves out, what happens in your body and how do you sense or perceive your breath? Is it a calm, smooth, even breath? Are you holding your breath at some point, just noticing different qualities of the breath just for the next moment? At some point just noticing different qualities of the breath, just for the next moment, just focusing on the breath coming out of the mind and bringing the mind back, if it does wander, just for another moment. I breathe very gently, no need to over breathe, just watching my own natural rhythm and just reflecting for a moment. What did I pick up on? What did I notice about my breath? And then, once again, you're just sighing the breath out or moving the fingers, the toes, even a little bit of a stretch, if you wish, allowing the eyes to drift open if they were closed, like mine were, and just coming back into this space really with, with this awareness, what is happening in your body and your breath and, in turn, your mind.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for that Interesting as you were talking. What I noticed was actually my breath was a lot more shallow than I thought it would be and actually when I expanded into my belly it felt really uncomfortable because, probably because I've just eaten my lunch, so it felt like quite like there wasn't room to expand in that moment, so it felt like more of a oh okay, I've obviously got some deepening that I can do, um, and also I did a big yawn just before you sort of brought back round, and that for me, is like always a sign that energy's moved.

Speaker 2:

it's a good sign, right, um, and yeah, just to just to take those what that probably wasn't even three minutes and just to like check in and notice that it's like, quite, you pick up on a lot it can be quite profound, and I think it just gives us an opportunity to stop in the moment, gives our give ourselves that pause, this time out, that we were talking about even these snippets of time out, just to reconnect, see what is happening, rather than getting to the end of the day absolutely wasted and then thinking, god, I've got to do something for myself.

Speaker 1:

They're going into and knowing full well that almost those symptoms of anxiety start to arise, right, and they tend to be that shallow breathing, some palpitations, some heat, some sweat, maybe, um, the the thing, the tool that I give them is just to even if they go to the toilet on their way into that presentation, and just give themselves those few moments to just really connect with the breath and slow things down and just see how that improves their physiology and and hence their headspace. Right, they have the headspace to then think about what they need to say rather than being so focused on, like, what's going on in the body. So I love the breath as that kind of quick, like quick access tool to calm and to re-embody, like to actually be here now. So I love that.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for walking us through that you're very, very welcome so we'll make sure that you know where to go on Stacey's website for the freebie you said that there was for download. We've talked a lot about how we can implement this in our daily lives. One of the things that you also work with is perimenopause, and I wonder what changes you can kind of highlight for us to notice. Ah, not from oh gosh, fear of going into that sort of stage of our lives, but just like really honoring that kind of transition that we're making. What are some of the things that you notice most and like what's, I guess, most helpful, but just like really honouring that kind of transition that we're making?

Speaker 2:

What are some of the things that you notice most and like what's, I guess, most helpful and supportive in those moments. I think perimenopause is really an opportunity for us again to notice if we want to. The symptoms coming up again are often ways or messages from our body to try and listen, and again, often we don't have that time. So I think there's a couple of things that I wanted to pull on here regarding perimenopause. One is if you're still menstruating. Studies are showing that actually the breath can differ at different times during the cycle. So, as a woman who is still menstruating, it may be a good idea to notice also if the breath is changing throughout your cycle. I think that's one thing. I think the other thing is one of the symptoms of perimenopause. One of the known symptoms is heightened feelings of anxiety. In fact, it was my biggest symptom. I would probably also tuned or related to everything else that was going on in my body, but I think we really have to take very seriously the fact that we need to de-stress, that we need to very much create. It's coming back to time management. It's coming back to implementing different pockets of time during the day to support our well-being, because during perimenopause, as I said, often there can be heightened feelings of anxiety, stress, etc. And if we don't listen to those we're heading for more trouble and often they will fuel even more, for example, the hot sweats you spoke about, for example, your client going into a speech or presenting, and a sweat. That's our body's natural way. It's getting stressed and it you know, it happens to me, for example, if I've got to give a big talk or something.

Speaker 2:

But again, it's about listening so we can use. There is a particular technique called the cooling breath actually, which we can use for hot flushes, which is really nice and can be really productive. I think there's a, you know a couple of the. The main things that I'm thinking of when we're going through menopause is just again allowing ourselves that time to notice what the symptoms are and how we can address them in different ways. And sleep, obviously, which for all of us in all times that sleep can often be disrupted in menopause, postmenopause due to declining hormones, post-menopause due to declining hormones. So how can we also use the breath to make sure that we're breathing optimally during the day, to support also better sleep at night, because the way we breathe during the day will also impact, it can cause us, for example, if we've got suboptimal breathing pattern, to wake up more during the night. So just little things like that, just observing, really taking the opportunity to listen.

Speaker 1:

And sleep is so important, right? Because it just affects everything. It just affects the rest of the day. So Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And the brain at nighttime, when we sleep, is, you know, getting rid of all the debris. So that is vital and, as I said, it's one of those symptoms A lot of women talk to me about during perimenopause. As I said beforehand, the breath is very much linked to this. So, again, coming back to really good, functional breathing and also thinking about how can we have a wind down at night time and really create a space for ourselves where we're encouraging ourselves, the body, to move into parasympathetic state, that rest and digest, so that we can sleep well. You know, I have a ritual every single night. Tell us about telling my ritual. Yeah, okay, so I will always.

Speaker 2:

You know my husband, I'll go up to him and say, okay, I'm going off to do my bits now. So, first of all, I will do, uh, some kind of affirmation work that I'm working on and I'll combine that with, um, maybe gentle, sort of touching of the upper arms or the hands, just grounding into the body. That will often come first once I've, you know, brushed my teeth, etc. Etc. Won't walk you through all of it, but I will literally come back and I'll use, maybe some essential oils, so I'm thinking lavender, something else that I really enjoy the moment I'm using the deterra stick and then I will practice specific breathwork techniques again to move myself, to calm myself down.

Speaker 2:

But again, tuning into, okay, is there something particularly I need right now? So I do have my personal favorites of the techniques that I'll be using and then, once I finish that, it might be if I haven't uh, you know, if I'm not already half asleep, then it may may be just a very, very gentle focusing, just keeping my mind then on the breath or on something else, just having a little bit of a meditation. So I'm really going through stages of how can I encourage myself and I find that's a wonderful way for me to really start to calm down? Nice yeah, for me to really start to calm down nice yeah. But I think in tune with that also, I would suggest avoid any strong exercise in the evening. You're going to have an evening practice. It should be really or it's my suggestion anyway gentle calming for the nervous system. Do the strong work in the morning not my hit class.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to tonight, then shall I?

Speaker 2:

refrain from commenting. Yeah, maybe, I will refrain, I will refrain. I would suggest something else, but you know, sometimes we don't have a choice, but I would suggest that you notice how that impacts your energy and your sleep, actually yeah, noted.

Speaker 1:

Tonight I will be tuning in for sure. It just strikes me like I think I've always intuitively known this, but like how underestimated the breath is and the importance of getting the breath right and how easy it is and how accessible it is to focus a little bit more on improving the quality of our breath and the knock-on impacts that can have on not just our day-to-day management of stress but our sleep and health and all things. So I appreciate you for sharing your wisdom.

Speaker 2:

No worries, I think the one thing I want to say before we log off is come back to functional breathing, as you were talking and saying that, I thought I've just got to say this. So make sure that we get out of these bad habits and we start to learn to use the diaphragm optimally, as you were saying, having dysfunctional breathing habits, which then will impact on everything.

Speaker 1:

So apologies for that but I needed to know absolutely, absolutely so, where can people find you, how can people work with you? I know you run some online and in-person workshops, so tell us a little bit about that yes, I do so.

Speaker 2:

I run a weekly breath body mind class, which is very gentle movement, winding down before sleep, and a breathwork deep relaxation practice. I run a monthly also online reset and restore, which actually is more yoga based, and then I also obviously one-to-one, but I run quite a lot of face-to-face breathwork workshops, really focusing on exactly what we've been talking about learning to breathe optimally, coming back to functional breathing habits and then using breathwork for specific purposes. So, again, sleep building, resilience these are a lot of topics that I'm really interested in. So those are ones I'm focusing on, particularly this year and, I think, later on in the year. Something around the gut health and how also that's impacted with breath. So all things in the pipeline.

Speaker 1:

Amazing, and I will ensure that all the links to your website and everything is included in the show notes. So go check that out, guys. Stacey, thank you so much. It's a pleasure just listening to you. This like calm, soft, like we're in no rush, and it's such, it's so refreshing. So, thank you, thank you, you're so welcome and I will see you all next week. Guys, take care you.

People on this episode

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Emma Clayton

Host
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Stacey Landau

Guest