Special Breathing Bundle 2022 – Simon Borg-Olivier

• A 45 minute lecture that simply and clearly explains the physiology of breathing and the exercises i show you can benefit you
• 15 short video practice classes of between 15 to 27 minutes each that you can practice with.
• Explanatory text and further resources you can draw from to enhance these practices.

WHAT I AM TEACHING YOU ON THIS COURSE

In this course, I give you 4 simple breathing exercises that can truly energise you. This is one of the special ways that you can get more energy by doing less than you normally do – by breathing less than you normally do! But in a focused and relaxing way.

Natural breathing is usually the best breathing for most people to practice during most exercise. In that way, you can concentrate on doing your exercise without having to worry about breathing. If, however, you are doing something very simple and relaxing such as lying down or sitting, then you can take the time to do specific breathing exercises, and that is what I will teach you in this course.

Essentially, there are two types of breathing exercises. One type of breathing exercise, which is commonly taught in many physical training activities including many modern yoga classes. This often includes locking your core, inhibiting your diaphragm, and stressful over-breathing (hyperventilation) into your chest. While this can give you some benefits in your physical body in terms of strength and flexibility, it tends to reduce the flow of oxygen to your brain and your cells and overstimulates your sympathetic nervous system (the flight, fight and fear response’). This not only reduces your energy levels, and reduces the function of your internal organs, but it can also bring your subconscious to a state of anxiety and fear.

The other type of breathing exercise, the one I wish to share with you here, is breathing for increasing energy. This type of breathing is designed to increase the amount of oxygen entering your cells. In the breathing exercises, I teach you on this course, the trick is to breathe as little as you comfortably can to build up carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has an important role in your body of being able to signal the red blood cells to give the oxygen they carry to your body cells. If there is not enough carbon dioxide in your body then red blood cells tend to retain their oxygen and not release it into your cells. This is referred to as the Bohr-effect. When you get oxygen into your cells you have the possibility of making 18 times as much energy for every glucose molecule of ‘fuel’ you ‘burn’.

The four simplest breathing exercises (apart from relaxed natural breathing) are as follows:

• Inhalation emphasis breathing: make a long slow inhale and then a short natural breath out.
• Inhalation retention emphasis breathing: Make a gentle full breath in, and then hold your breath in as long as you comfortably can, and then a short natural breath out.
• Exhalation emphasis breathing: Make a gentle full breath in, and then breathe out as slowly as possible for as long as it is comfortably possible.
• Exhalation retention emphasis breathing: Make a gentle full breath in over 3-5 seconds, then a short full breath out about the same length, and then hold your breath out as long as you comfortably can.

You should stay as relaxed as possible in all these exercises and never force them. Whenever you need to breathe, simply take a few natural relaxed breaths.

In each of these four exercises, your ideal goal is to try to make each breath you take last as long as possible. Many people find they can do one breath for as long as 45 seconds. Some people will find that even one breath in 30 seconds is hard. Once you can breathe one full breath (in any of the 4 exercises I have described) lasting from about 30 seconds to one minute in length while relaxed, then the energetic benefits of breathing will manifest. You will then find an increase in body heat, internal energy, mental clarity, reduced hunger as well as a profound sense of inner peace and relaxation. If you are a smoker, then these exercises can help you to easily quit smoking as they have the same calming effect as cigarettes. So by doing these exercises, you will not have the urge to smoke, yet you will feel calm, focused, warm and energised.

It is great for your health if you can sit quietly from as little as 5 minutes to 30 minutes or more each day and do some simple breathing exercises. You can do all four of these exercises in one practice if you like, but for most people, it is best to learn only one exercise at a time. All four exercises can be very effective at giving you energy but some people will find they prefer doing only one or two. To get the best effects it is important to do at least 6 breaths in each practice and it is also important to breathe less air than you normally would. If you start to get dizzy then it is a sign you may be breathing too much air too quickly. In this case, simply go back to natural breathing. This practice is very beneficial and can be done as I describe above but if you would like some more instructions then I strongly recommend you join my 16 sessions online course.

The course includes a 45-minute lecture that simply and clearly explains:

• What you are trying to with your breathing
• How to do breathe to get the specific effects you desire
• The benefits of breathing in the ways that I suggest

The course includes 15 short video practice classes of between 15 to 27 minutes each that you can practice with. I have also included some explanatory text as well as some further resources you can draw from. This practice is designed to give you the energetic benefits of breathing exercises by building up carbon dioxide and enhancing the activity of your diaphragm.

Increasing carbon dioxide in your body with these exercises will:

• Bring more blood to your brain and heart by expanding your blood vessels (vasodilation)
• Allow more oxygen to enter your body via your lungs by expanding your bronchial tubes (bronchodilation)
• Increase oxygen uptake into your cells, which can increase your energy levels by 18 times
• Calm your nervous system
• Increase your digestion of food, absorption of nutrients, and the elimination of wastes and toxins

Enhancing the activity of your diaphragm may help to:

• Relieve lower back pain
• Increase the flexibility of your spine
• Improve the power of your trunk
• Improve the health of your digestive system
• Improve the health of your immune system
• Help to reduce anxiety and stress by allowing you to more easily access a dominance of your parasympathetic nervous system (your ‘rest, relaxation, rejuvenation and regeneration response’)

These exercises are a simple effective way to increase your health and longevity, that I have successfully taught to thousands of people around the world over the last 30 years.

Intermediate to Advanced Breath-Control Course

This course is for intermediate and advanced practitioners who would like to learn how to practice advanced breathing techniques such as the Valsalva Manoeuvre (the Western medical analogue of compressive bandhas in Indian Pranayama) and the Müller Manoeuvre (the Western medical analogue of expansive bandhas in Indian Pranayama).

Simon will also teach you special types of autogenous hyperbaric oxygen therapy and intermittent hypoxic training. These techniques are highly regarded methods used to improve your immune system.