Posted in Press
After 65 anxious years, trying every conceivable treatment and therapy available, just one session of breathwork was all that was needed to calm a troubled mind.
I’d agreed to go along to a breathing workshop thinking no more than it couldn’t do any harm and that it might make for a fun article. I left with the possibility that I had found a missing piece of the jigsaw. Something that might just make my depression and anxiety bearable. Shame it had taken me 65 years to get there.
Even now, several days later, I am struggling to understand quite what happened to me. All I can do is offer up my best impressions based on what I remember, as well as on what I don’t, as thankfully I left my audio recorder running throughout the session. Together they may approximate to what for me was a remarkable truth.
I’d spent the first 20 minutes of my session talking to Alan Dolan, aka the Breathguru, about his practice. What he did and how he’d come to be doing it for the past 20 years. Then he’d asked me if I was ready to begin. All I needed to do was to follow his instructions and to keep breathing into my abdomen and exhaling gently, as if fogging a mirror. The connected circular breath.
First I lay down on the grey sofa of the unremarkable King’s Cross flat Dolan uses when he is in London – his normal base is in Lanzarote, where he runs retreats. Dolan arranged a cushion under my head to make sure I was comfortable and gave me a pre-session briefing. He would be touching various pressure points from time to time; if any area felt particularly sensitive, I wasn’t to worry. It was just some old feelings that had been stored in the body being processed. My bullshit radar, which was already quite high, ratcheted up another level or two. Me and the New Age have seldom been on nodding terms.
“Just close your eyes and do nothing,” Dolan said. That was more like it. I could manage that. “Now just notice how things are feeling. Notice the sofa.” He then threw in a question that took me off guard. If miracles were possible, “What would I like to bring more of to me in my session?” I wasn’t to answer, but to think about it.
I did so for a moment before realising it was a no-brainer. I’d come to see Dolan because I was both curious and desperate. For the last year, I’ve been haunted by nightmares and every morning I wake up in a state of acute anxiety. I feel like I’ve failed before the day has even started and sometimes it can take several hours before I feel mentally strong enough to get out of bed. It’s no way to live. If miracles were possible, I just wanted my anxiety to stop. If only for a little while.
We returned to the mechanics of keeping my mouth open throughout the inhale and the exhale. This is different to other breathwork techniques, such as the method championed by James Nestor in his best-selling book Breath. It was surprisingly difficult to remember, especially when breathing out. I eventually got into a good enough pattern and at this point Dolan said he was going to make a short invocation. Neither I nor my audio recorder picked up exactly what he said. All I caught were the words “sacred space … guidance … support” and “I dedicate this session to all sentient beings”.
Again, I could feel myself resisting. Couldn’t we just be getting on with this without the hippy stuff? As if he could read my mind, Dolan said that it was fine to be thinking negative thoughts. They were bound to come up. The trick was to acknowledge them without dwelling on them too much. To let them pass through my mind. I gave myself a talking to. Dolan wasn’t doing this for his benefit. He almost certainly had far better things to be doing on a bank holiday afternoon than see me. So the least I could do was keep my negativity in check.
“That’s very good,” Dolan said, as he rechecked my breathing and started applying pressure to various areas of my body. When he touched the top of my left thigh and the groin, I winced. He encouraged me to listen to the sounds of the room and to be aware of my surroundings. And here’s where it starts to get seriously weird. Because when I play back the recording, all I can really hear is the noise of the traffic and the police sirens outside on the Pentonville Road. But at the time, everything felt perfectly silent and still. There was just me, my breath and Dolan instructing me it was safe for my body to tell its truths.
What I now know from the recording was only a few minutes later but on the day felt like an age. I became conscious that there was yogic music with a woman chanting playing in the background. Weirdly, I had no recollection of it having started. Somehow it felt as if it had always been playing. What was even stranger was that I found it almost comforting. Normally that sort of thing sets my teeth on edge. But now I was in a state of deep relaxation. My head felt too heavy to lift while my body had become part of the sofa.
“Start breathing through the nose again,” Dolan instructed, as he gradually brought me round from the blissed-out trance in which I could happily have remained for the rest of the day. It was several more minutes before my body didn’t feel like a dead weight and I could raise myself into the sitting position. “You did well,” Dolan said. “You were very open. Very intuitive. You can read other people well. What you really need to learn is how to protect yourself.” “Mostly from myself,” I thought. Even so, I felt absurdly proud. As well as totally seen.
Dolan had one last surprise. He asked me to imagine my feet were connecting with the ground some five storeys below. That I was putting down roots and was in touch with the Earth’s gravitational pull. I swear that as I went through this visualisation I could feel my feet getting hot. Almost unbearably so. So hot, I had to lift them off the ground to cool off. My spiritual hocum meter was going to have to be recalibrated.“How was that?” Dolan asked.
“Wow,” I replied, fumbling for speech. “I feel deeply relaxed.” Though that scarcely began to describe how I felt.
“Perfect,” he replied. “Then my work is done.”
Mine might just be starting. Dolan had asked me what miracle I wanted and he hadn’t just delivered respite from my anxiety. He had taken me to an altered state of consciousness. One that could be attained through just a few minutes of connected breathing.
I was first diagnosed with depression and anxiety in the mid-1990s, though in hindsight it had dogged me through much of my adult life – not least in my 20s when I medicated with heroin. An act of profound self-harm, punctuated with numerous overdoses. After I cleaned up with the help of Narcotics Anonymous, my mental health improved considerably for about 10 years; but around the time I turned 40 things began to seriously unravel. I started getting severe regular panic attacks and I became totally dissociated. The outside world didn’t feel real and my conversation had become monosyllabic. I felt as if I was falling apart.
I was referred to a superb psychiatrist who had me admitted to hospital where I remained for more than a month as we waited for the antidepressants to take effect. Eventually I was allowed out, and some months later I returned to work. Ever since my mental health has at times been a struggle, despite having been in therapy for more than 30 years. I started before my first breakdown, along with exercising regularly and adjusting my medication as required under the guidance of my shrink.
But nothing I’ve tried has ever been foolproof, and there have been long periods when life has been a white-knuckle ride. Trying to remain at work, keeping the show on the road when inside I’m falling apart. It is not always possible though. Last year, during the second lockdown, the panic attacks and sense of despair became so intense that I could no longer cope and I was again admitted into a psychiatric institution. There I gradually improved enough to be allowed home but not so much as to feel any sense of normality again.
You could say I was ready for someone like Dolan. But I’ve tried all sorts of other coping mechanisms – alongside the meds, the group therapy and exercise, and nothing has really worked. Yoga and meditation should have been a shoo-in but I could never make the time or fight off my own inner sense of ridiculousness at the thought of doing them. So I can’t avoid the irony that something that most people would agree was far further out on the alternative therapies scale has been the one that has proved effective. Or that I came across it by chance and that it worked despite my psyche’s best attempts to sabotage it.
Work it undoubtedly did, though. As it has for many of Dolan’s other clients, from Russell Brand and some anonymous Hollywood A-listers to ordinary people like you and me. Since my one-to-one with Dolan, I have been using the Breathguru app to guide me through breathwork at home. It hasn’t been as powerful as my original session, but Dolan assures me that this is quite normal. It is just a matter of finding 10 spare minutes every day and putting it to practice.
All that is needed is you, your breath and a pillow for your head to access a moment of profound calm. A feeling of peace and tranquillity when all seems well in a troubled mind. Who knows whether it will last, but I’m up for the journey. Join me. Cast off your chains. You have nothing to lose but your scepticism.
Posted in Client testimonials
“The Breathguru Online Training has surpassed my expectations. The sessions have been super informative, useful, and powerful. I always have felt very supported. I notice how well Natalia prepares us for the online work environment and how well everything is explained in detail (both video and documents)”
Posted in Client testimonials
“Breathguru Online Training with Natalia is a game-changer. The comprehensive programme covers everything from mastering Zoom to facilitating online sessions, using precise language, and providing essential safety documents. This training has not only expanded my client base but also transformed my confidence in delivering breath work and other services I had never dreamed of online. Highly recommended!”
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“The biggest takeaway from my experience on the training programme was having a greater understanding of myself and my shadow side, understanding how our breathing underpins so much of how we function, and how to hold space for people. Working with and alongside Alan continues to amaze me. The way he is SO patient. The way he ALWAYS has time for my stream of questions. His WISDOM. His INTEGRITY. And his HUMILITY as a non-guru who guides rather than dictates.”
Posted in Client testimonials
“There was some heaviness in me I was not quite aware of, and after breathing, I feel that it has gone. I feel lighter, and I move effortlessly.”
Posted in Press
We do it 20,000 times a day but the way we breathe in different scenarios can have a big impact. From tongue position to finding your D-spot, experts share breathwork techniques.
How to breathe … when you’re exercising
“Running is often where it goes wrong,” says breathing retrainer Jane Tarrant, founder of Link Breathing. “The errors are switching to mouth breathing, upper-chest breathing and thinking you need to go visually big by taking gulps of air when actually you want to breathe low and efficiently into the bottom of the lungs.”
Fast chest breathing will also raise the heart rate, which is natural in exercise, but ideally you want to try to lower it by slowing your breathing down, inhaling through the nose and expanding the ribs out sideways like an accordion. Tarrant suggests pacing your breathing – “Try going in for five, out for five, or whatever you can manage” – which should increase efficiency and help you exercise for longer.
“Humming is good for exercise, too, as it helps open up airways by creating more nitric oxide,” she says, which acts as a blood vessel and airway dilator, helping deliver oxygen to your cells more efficiently. “I hum on my bicycle as it helps me slow my breath.”
…to help your core
Breath coach and Breathguru app founder Alan Dolan says he often sees clients who have a “master-servant” relationship with their body, where “they’re amazingly toned but they’re also imprisoned by their core as the muscles are so tight. It’s important to put flexibility into your body as well as tension – if you’re doing core work, what are you doing to release the core?” He recommends some breathwork after every workout.“That might just be stretching – , or the yogic practice of shavasana – lying down on the ground doing nothing, just a very soft abdominal breath.”
…when you need to focus
“Box breathing” is a technique used by US Navy Seals to steel the nerves and increase focus, but it can be applied to civilian life when you have a daunting task ahead, says breath coach Aimee Hartley, founder of The Breathing Room and School Breathe CIC, which teaches primary schoolchildren the benefits of breathing well. “Breathe in for a count of four, hold for four, breathe out for four, then hold for four.” This technique is effective because you produce more nitric oxide on a breath hold, which helps lower blood pressure and calm the mind. “It’s a proven breath technique that I often use in sessions when I’m coaching CEOs,” she adds.
…when you’re struggling to sleep
Hartley recommends left nostril breathing if you’re trying to drift off. This activates the right part of the brain, which stimulates the parasympathetic – or “rest and digest” – nervous system. Just lie on your side, block your right nostril and slowly breathe with your left.
Otherwise, Tarrant says two minutes of conscious breathing with an extended exhale – “a simple in for four, out for eight” – will help slow down the heart rate and relax the body, while Dolan recommends Yoga Nidra, “a beautiful guided relaxation throughout the whole body” which uses gentle abdominal breathing. Try YouTube for videos.
…when you’re feeling stressed
A stressed person is like an upside-down pyramid, says Dolan: “The mind is super-stimulated and there’s not much connection to the body.” The best way to flip this is to focus on your feet. “Stand still, with one or both hands on the abdomen and do a slow, abdominal breath through the nose. Then bring your attention to your feet – do this by envisaging the soles touching the ground, rather than physically looking at them – sending those energetic roots into the earth to recharge.”
Another good stress-reduction technique is coherent breathing, says Hartley. “Try going for a walk, breathing in for five steps and out for five steps. Depending on your pace this can bring you to the optimum breath count of about five breaths a minute.” Most of us are overbreathers, with the average adult breathing at rest between 12 and 18 times a minute. Slowing things down can reduce stress and improve circulation and heart health. “To be healthy you need to have a variety of spaces between heartbeats – like five milliseconds, 10 milliseconds, six milliseconds – ,” she says. “This is called heart-rate variability, which coherent breathing has been proven to help with.”
…when you’re having digestive problems
Deep abdominal breathing massages the vagus nerve, which runs down the body through the diaphragm, and is the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system. “We breathe between 17,000 and 20,000 times a day, so if each one of those breaths is massaging the vagus nerve it will help create a healthy digestive system,” says Hartley.
One way to practise deep abdominal – or diaphragmatic – breathing is the “belly bag” method. “Lie on the floor, legs bent, hip-width apart with knees touching,” says Hartley. “Place a book or wheat bag on your stomach below the belly button. Breathe in for five, out for five, and feel the resistance of the book’s weight as you breathe in. It comes with practice but this will eventually activate a diaphragmatic breath.”
Though there is more to IBS than poor breathing, it doesn’t help that many of us are in “fight or flight” mode at mealtimes, adds Tarrant. “Your body will struggle to digest if you’re in a stress state. The best thing to do before mealtimes is take some conscious slow breathing, just in the time it takes to walk to the kitchen. Slowing your breath down will switch your nervous system into ‘digest’ mode.”
…when you’re having a panic attack
Tarrant says: “Someone having a panic attack will think, ‘I need more air’, but what they actually need to do is pause, and restart with a slower breath. It’s also important to stop upper-chest breathing, which is shallow, anxiety-inducing and inefficient.” She adds that when an attack comes on you should try to focus on your “D-spot” (the point just below the split of the ribs, where your diaphragm is– see Find your D-spot, below ) – to bring the breath down into the bottom of the lungs and breathe as quietly and calmly as possible.
Carbon dioxide acts as a dilator, which opens up the airways and blood vessels, says Tarrant, so by pausing or prolonging your exhale, you allow oxygen to be more efficiently delivered to the body’s cells. “During optimal breathing, imagine you have three red buses side-by-side on a ‘motorway’ [blood vessel] carrying oxygen to the cells. CO2 keeps the road wide as well as letting the oxygen off the bus, like porters opening the doors. The CO2, finishing its shift, gets on the bus and goes back around to the lungs to be breathed out, but it needs time to do its job before it leaves. If you start to over-breathe, you don’t maintain enough CO2 and your blood vessels reduce down to two lanes, and if you become panicky, then one lane. That’s why you can’t think clearly.”
Getting the breathing basics right
Breathe through your nose
“Inhaling through the nose is better for a number of reasons,” says Tarrant. Unlike the mouth, “it filters out viruses, bacteria and allergens, and it moistens the air and warms it in the cold.” The latter is particularly important for asthmatics, as cold, dry air can trigger an attack.
“Then there is nitric oxide, which you make through nose but not mouth breathing,” says Tarrant, and which can help lower blood pressure and boost exercise performance.
While some people have structural issues which can prohibit nose-breathing, Tarrant says for many of us it’s about retraining. “Start with nose breathing for a minute, then two minutes, and slowly build up from there over time.”
Find your D-spot
Place one hand on your chest and with the thumb of the other hand find the “bouncy” spot just below the split of your ribs, where your diaphragm is – this is what Jane Tarrant calls the “D-spot”.
When we breathe in, the diaphragm is meant to plunge downwards, moving your thumb outwards. “If you picture the lungs as an upside-down tree, we should be breathing into the canopy, with a slight flare of the ribs, but most of us are breathing into the lower branches (or upper chest breathing),” says Tarrant, which will move the hand on the chest upwards.
Don’t forget your tongue
The position of the tongue plays a crucial role in supporting good nose breathing, says Tarrant. Ideally the tongue should be sealed against the roof of your mouth, but not touching the front teeth, in the shape it would be if you said the letter “N”. This will open up the nasal airway.
“Try dropping your tongue to the bottom of your mouth while nose breathing, and you will notice that it feels narrower,” Tarrant adds.
Posted in Client testimonials
“When I applied for training with Alan I had only got in touch with breathwork a few times and found it interesting and appealing. Little did I know what this journey ahead was all about and maybe that was good at that point. Diving deep into one’s own shadow and traumas is a big part of the Breathguru training and in retrospect I think it really is the only way to become a good facilitator.
Alan is a fantastic mentor and definitely has become an important companion in this part of
my life.
I think the training is for everybody who is willing to dive deep and be vulnerable about their own journey as much as learning about the breath technique itself. I think the combination of embodying the breath as a tool of healing yourself and learning how to share this with others carries the most potential of becoming an authentic breathworker.
I am more than grateful for those past months which made me grow so much and took me further towards living my full potential. It’s a new piece of the puzzle of understanding what I came to this planet for.”
Posted in Client testimonials
“I did a lot of research when deciding who to do my Breathwork training with. I found Alan through several recommendations & decided to go with him / Breathguru. I couldn’t have made a better choice. Alan himself is so knowledgable & yet so grounded. He is there for you every step of the way, to answer questions, share wisdom & hold space.
What I love most about the program is that you’re guided on your own healing journey, this deep inner work has definitely made me a better Breathwork Facilitator. Venturing off to Lanzarote for the in-person modules is definitely a highlight too, those modules were life changing experiences that I’ll forever be grateful for.
I started the program feeling nervous & doubtful about my abilities, but it was an exciting, rewarding, eye opening experience & I graduated feeling so confident!
I have hosted 4 breathwork workshops in the short time since graduating, all of which sold out within days & I just can’t thank Alan enough for his mentorship & teaching.
If you want to be trained by the best then invest & go with Alan / Breathguru.”