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“I’ve just returned from the most rejuvenating, relaxing and peaceful week of my life at the fabulous Breathguru Retreat in Lanzarote. There were about 20 people on the beach and it was August! The weather was glorious with a delightful breeze which tempered the heat. Breathwork is one of the most powerful practices I know of for resetting the nervous system back in to rest and digest as well as clearing trauma that is suppressed and repressed and Alan is a master teacher and healer. If you’re after a detox and reset I highly recommend! “
Naomi Cambridge
Client Feedback
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“Alan, the work you do is amazing: thank you for showing me the way back home………..If you’re going through something tough, my advice to you: throw your phone in the sea and then go see Alan in Lanzarote. He will bring you home, where all the answers lie”
Leah Taj Joseph
Client Feedback
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“My experience at the retreat with Alan was one of a lifetime. It brought me back to feeling like myself… it’s one of those things that are difficult to explain and I’m sure more difficult to believe unless you go through this incredible journey yourself. It was quietly easily the best gift I ever gave myself- and more importantly to my children”
Maryam Keyhani
Client Feedback
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“Been feeling like a different person since the retreat, absolute game changer (in a positive way) – thank you Alan. Oh and the food was amazing!“
Chris Padmore
Client Feedback
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“The feeling of calm I experienced through your retreat has been sustained thus far and ever since my return home I sleep right through the night. I have not been able to do this for many years now and as you may imagine it is highly beneficial for my health . I am no longer overwhelmed with fatigue during the day. There has been a sea change which I cannot define precisely due to your and Matthieu’ s treatment. Incidentally I lost just over 3 kilos another benefit!”
Clive Farrell
Is Breathwork Worth The Hype?
Posted in Press
With respiratory health on everyone’s mind, conscious breathing is in the spotlight.
You breathe more than 23,000 times every day, but are you doing it properly? According to studies, 90 per cent of us are breathing incorrectly – and it’s having a negative impact on our health, causing everything from allergies to sleep apnoea. It is, however, possible to retrain our breathing patterns. Enter breathwork: the ancient practice designed to bring physical relaxation and peace of mind using simple breathing techniques.
Breathwork is hardly new; its roots date back thousands of years to Eastern practices like yoga and Buddhism. Yet it has come back into fashion as of late, spurred on by COVID, a disease causing not only global respiratory problems, but widespread anxiety. Alan Dolan, a breath coach and founder of Breathguru, describes breathwork as: ‘A self-healing modality which encourages detoxification of every level of our being: physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual – it’s like rebooting a computer.’ Devotees say it helps with everything from stress reduction to managing depression – but what’s the science behind it?
Clearly, breathing is a pivotal part of our existence: we must all breathe to survive. Yet the quality of our breath is a different ball game entirely. Studies have explored different patterns of breathing, discovering, for instance, a phenomenon called email apnoea, where people unconsciously hold their breath while responding to their morning emails.
When we’re stressed or anxious, our autonomic (involuntary) nervous system is involved. This system has two branches: the sympathetic, responsible for flight-or-fight responses, and the parasympathetic, which is at work during rest and digest states. During high-stress times, the sympathetic side becomes over-active – but breathwork aims to hack into these systems, activating the parasympathetic. This happens, for instance, during diaphragmatic breathing (or deep breathing), which lowers the heart rate and blood pressure – hence why the NHS is now recommending it for stress relief.
This is the kind of breathing Alan teaches through Breathguru. His technique is all about inhaling for longer than exhaling, without pausing between the two. Just ten minutes a day, he says, can produce tangible benefits, such as tackling sleep issues, reducing emotional baggage and even easing respiratory conditions. ‘If we wish to create any kind of positive change on any level of our being, breath is an obvious starting point,’ he says. ‘It can distance us from – and thereby give us a more balanced perspective on – our thoughts, and in creating that distance it means we are no longer enslaved by our mental processes.’
Fancy giving it a go? Below Alan shares a short breathwork practice to try at home.
- Lie down in a comfortable, warm space in a slightly elevated position so your upper chest is higher than your abdomen.
- Place one or both hands over the navel.
- Open your mouth fairly wide, imagine a balloon is in your abdomen and proceed to inflate and deflate the balloon with each inhale and exhale.
- With the inhale through the mouth, inflate the balloon, and with each exhale through the mouth allow the balloon to deflate with a short, soft sigh – like fogging a mirror.
- Make sure you are breathing in a relaxed manner, and that the inhale is longer than the exhale.
- Inflate, let go, inflate, let go, and repeat for five minutes. Then take five minutes to simply relax, allowing the breath to go back to the nose and letting it take care of itself. Stay in your awareness and notice any sensations in the body.
You can also check out Alan’s Breathe Free beginner’s package, which has free online video tutorials and guided audio sessions.
How can breathwork improve our wellbeing?
Posted in Press
Twenty years ago, Alan Dolan quit a career in aerospace PR to build a business based on oxygen. Now the founder of Breathguru, here he explains how inhaling and exhaling can boost your health, happiness, and bring emotional peace
Breathing – it keeps us alive, but most of us barely notice it happening. It’s pretty astonishing, considering resting adults inhale and exhale up to 23,000 times a day – that’s more than eight million times a year.
The rewards of good breathing are well understood. The Buddha credited breath-meditation as a route to enlightenment, and research has shown that slow, deep breathing can help combat anxiety, depression, and medical problems such as high blood pressure.
In recent years, breathwork – a form of active meditation where the breathing pattern is intentionally changed to achieve a host of benefits – has gained momentum. This year, the Global Wellness Summit cited breathwork as one of its top wellness practices of 2021.
One technique is Conscious Connected Breathing, a deep diaphragmatic breathing practise that places greater emphasis on the inhale to the exhale, and uses the entire respiratory system to infuse the body with healing oxygen and energy.
And, according to international breathwork practitioner Alan Dolan, our breath mirrors our behavioural patterns, so through Conscious Connected Breathing, we could potentially transform how we think, feel, and live.
“Think about how we breathe as being ‘life’. How we breathe is how we are doing life,” explains Alan. “About 80% of us are upper chest breathers, and if somebody’s inhale is compromised, that often relates to their ability to receive. They’re great at giving, but maybe they’re used to de-prioritising their own needs, and not receiving all that they could.
“If somebody overemphasises the exhale, and breathes from the belly, like 20% of us, that tells me that there’s an overemphasis on the negative or on lack. What’s mind-blowing is when you tweak the breath pattern, the corresponding behavioural pattern also changes.”
Since launching his company, Breathguru, 17 years ago, Alan now estimates he has taught more than 15,000 people to consciously connect to their breath, including comedian Russell Brand, actress Naomie Harris, plus scores of high-flying CEOs.
Brilliantly, no equipment is required. Simply lie down, place one or two hands on the navel, and with the mouth wide, an exaggerated, long inhale is followed by a short, sigh-like exhale. The continuous flow of breathing is repeated on a loop for at least 10 minutes.
“What differentiates it from other forms of breath work is the breath is always in motion, and that’s what puts the body into an autopilot reset mode. It’s about plugging into our innate intelligence, and letting our bodies do the work for us,” says Alan, adding that the practice “opens the doors to the subconscious”, and as well as sparking physiological results, triggering powerful spiritual and emotional responses as the body clears itself of past pain, trauma, and toxic emotions.
“Think of a pyramid,” continues Alan. “The conscious mind is a tiny bit at the top, and the subconscious is a massive part underneath. It doesn’t matter whether or not you know what the emotional baggage is – Conscious Connected Breathing is not a cognitive way of working, but a bodily-led psychotherapy. It’s simply about expelling toxic energy from the body, and attracting life and light back.”
After he hit 40, Alan quit a high flying job in aerospace PR in the Middle East to retrain as a breath coach, and quickly experienced the powerful benefits of Conscious Connected Breathing, which he says healed his own 25-year battle with depression.
The key to results, though, is the investment of time.
“If you want to see tangible results, I’d say a minimum of 15 minutes daily,” says Alan. “Breathwork is like going to the gym. You’ve got to work at it!”
Alan’s top tips
- Work out what kind of breather you are by placing one hand on your tummy, and one hand on your upper chest. Close your eyes, open your mouth, and inhale deeply. Which hand moved the most? Top – you’re an upper chest breather. Bottom – you breathe from the belly.
- Avoid eating for 90 minutes before a practice. It will be less comfortable doing deep diaphragm breathing with food in your belly.
- Place a weighty book on your tummy to help keep your attention there while you get used to breathing from the abdomen.
- The mind doesn’t like change. It wants to keep you static (and safe). By ignoring this, and doing your breathing every day, you will very quickly notice tangible results!
How to try Conscious Connected Breathing
- Lie horizontally on a bed or sofa. Use a pillow to support the nape of your neck. Ensure your torso, neck, and head are aligned, and your chin is pointed to the ceiling to allow the throat to really open.
- Close your eyes and mouth, and turn your focus inwards. Breathe in and out through the nose.
- Take your attention from your head, through the body, torso, hips, pelvis, legs, and to your feet.
- Bend the knees, and put your feet flat on the bed or the sofa. Feel the connection of the soles of your feet to the surface, and allow yourself to be supported.
- Place one or both hands on the lower abdomen, just below your navel.
- Open your mouth – wider than you think is necessary – and inhale deeply into the lower abdomen. Imagine you’re inflating a balloon in your belly. Use your abdominals to inflate the balloon.
- Deflate the balloon by exhaling through the mouth with a short, soft sigh. Imagine you’re fogging a mirror. There should be no squeezing, tightening, or crunching of the abdominals
- Keep this breathing going for five minutes, with no pauses between the inhale and exhale. Feel your tummy rise and fall. Keep your attention on the inhale. Suck in the most oxygen and energy that you can. This is your fuel. Then let it go.
- Whatever you notice – sensations around the throat and top of the head, or thoughts in your head – allow them to be there, but keep focused on your breath.
- After five minutes, pull your feet back to your bottom. Place your palms flat on the sofa or bed, and very quickly tap your palms and feet soles on the surface as though you’re jogging. Add in sound while you inhale and exhale.
- After one minute, relax your arms and feet. Return to the open mouthed breathing – a pronounced inhale followed by a short, sigh-like exhale.
- After five minutes flip on to your tummy. Lose the pillow. Place your arms by your sides and continue with a more gentle pronounced inhale and light exhale. Keep it flowing. Feel the inflation of the tummy against the sofa or bed beneath you. Continue for two minutes.
- Now close the mouth, and continue to breathe gently through the nose. Allow yourself to completely relax. Wiggle your fingers and toes, and scan your body from bottom to top.
- Bring your attention back to the room.
- When you’re ready, open your eyes. Always allow five or 10 minutes at the end of the session to relax.
Conscious Connected Breathing
Posted in Press
Conscious Connected Breathing
Is it possible to improve our mental and physical health simply by changing the way we breathe? According to Alan Dolan, the Breath Guru, it certainly is. Most of us use only 20-25% of our respiratory capacity because we breathe from the top of our chests. As our normal breathing pattern doesn’t use the entire lungs, we aren’t getting the full physical and mental benefits we could be achieving by engaging in “conscious connected breathing.” An advocate of this simple, effective practice, Alan Dolan, teaches the technique at an idyllic villa in the hillside village of Oasis de Nazaret on Lanzarote, one of Spain’s Canary Islands. Lanzarote has had a bad rap, in part, thanks to a travel program with Michael Palin who described the island as “lanzagrotty.” If visions of lager louts and clubbers have put you off visiting, rest assured this stereotype couldn’t be more wrong. The landscape, with its 352 dormant volcanoes and sandy beaches, plus a mild climate (the island is only 60 miles from the coast of Africa), makes Lanzarote the ideal sunny getaway anytime of the year. And it’s the ideal setting for a mind and body retreat.
Who Is the Breath Guru?
Alan Dolan, founder of Breathguru® and breath coach, has spent 17 years changing people’s lives (not least his own) with the simple power of breathing. And his practice has gained many fans including actress Naomie “Miss Moneypenny” Harris who said “Alan Dolan is one of the best alternative practitioners/ breathworkers I’ve had the privilege to work with….I highly recommend him to any and everyone embarking on a journey of self discovery and/or looking for a way to live a happier, healthier and more peaceful life.” Likewise, comedian Russell Brand says “Alan does some amazing Breathwork and has an amazing App.”
The Location
The retreat is for small numbers (up to four people) in order for clients to have a bespoke experience and optimal individual attention. The villa is in a tranquil location on a hill with stunning panoramic views, guest rooms are mainly arranged around a lovely pool and hot tub; the ideal place for a mind and body retreat. The well thought out and very tasty vegetarian meals provided by a local chef are taken together in a serene dining room.
The program features twice-daily breath sessions, one session is one-on-one with Alan, the other is a group session. Using our lungs properly can have all sorts of surprising benefits, like reducing stress or even helping with medical conditions like high blood pressure. And it’s never too early or too late to make most of your respiratory capacity. At six weeks old, Alan’s youngest client was suffering from bad colic; his oldest so far was 86.
The Technique
So what is conscious connected breathing? Simply put, conscious connected breathing involves breathing in through your mouth and out through your nose (the opposite of normal breathing). There’s an easy to follow demonstration on Alan’s website that makes the process very clear. Put one hand on your belly and one on your chest, between your collar bones. Breathe slowly and deeply from the diaphragm. Your belly should expand in an exaggerated way on the inhale, your top hand should be still. This is the sort of “horizontal” breath you should aim for. Now breathe incorrectly, to feel the contrast. Breathe upwards into the chest, so your top hand moves but your bottom hand is still. This is the “vertical” breathing you should try to eliminate. The reason to do this is to better fuel the body’s cells with oxygen so they work more efficiently. Alan’s clients say they have felt tangible benefits ranging from easing anxiety, depression and stress to elevated energy levels. Of course, when you remove yourself from the demands of everyday life in beautiful Lanzarote it’s easier to experience the benefits of breath work. The ideal outcome is to continue with the technique at home, either on your own or with the help of Alan’s online sessions. Fifteen minutes daily can have great long term effects.
A four night retreat in Lanzarote with Alan Dolan starts from £1140 GBP fully inclusive (except cost of flights). This includes accommodation, airport transfer, all meals, twice daily breathwork sessions and an arrival massage. Online breathwork packages are also available, including a free membership.
Client Feedback
Posted in Client testimonials
“I just wanted to touch base and say a huge thank you for running the Beginners’ Course. I have absolutely LOVED it. I always feel relaxed but also energised after our sessions and after my own private practice (which is now becoming a solid part of my daily routine). I also really love the way you hold the space Alan and the language you use when you’re teaching us”
Katie Sutton
And Breathe…
Posted in Press
The secret to feeling less stressed, more energised and much happier? It’s been under our noses all along…
When was the last time you thought about your breathing? Probably the last time you ran for a bus! But given that we take more than 17,000 breaths a day, it’s worth paying attention to. ‘When we harness breath work, we can use our body to tell our mind to slow down,’ explains breathing expert Dominique Antiglio, from BeSophro clinic. In moments of stress our breathing can become short and shallow. But simply taking some slow, deep breaths is a quick-fix calming method.
‘By aiding relaxation, controlled breathing lowers the impact of the stress hormone cortisol on your body and even improves core muscle stability,’ says GP Dr Ismat Nasiruddin. ‘Stress leaves your immune system susceptible to numerous health conditions, so deep breathing can help reduce these effects, too,’ One study, conducted by the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention in Iowa, found that diaphragmatic breathing helped lower blood pressure. Another, from Brigham Young University,
Utah, found breathing at resonance frequency (six breaths per minute) plays a role in lowering heart rate.
The best breath-work exercises for…
What are you waiting for? Take a deep breath and get started.
Combating stress
By Alan Dolan, a breathing coach and the founder of Breathguru
TECHNIQUE: CONSCIOUS CONNECTED BREATHING
● Lie down in a comfortable, warm space in a slightly elevated position, so that your upper chest is higher than your abdomen.
● Place your hands over your navel.
● Imagine a balloon is in your abdomen. Open your mouth and inflate the balloon as you inhale.
● Deflate the balloon by exhaling through the mouth with a short, soft sigh (like fogging a mirror).
● Repeat this for five minutes, making sure you are breathing in a relaxed way and that the inhalation is longer than the exhalation.
● Then, simply relax for five minutes, allowing the breath to go back to the nose and letting it take care of itself.
First thing in the morning
By Dr Buathon Thienarrom, a holistic practitioner
TECHNIQUE: YANG BREATHING
● Inhale through the nose for a count of four.
● Exhale through the mouth for four counts.
● Imagine circulating the air down the front of your chest to your belly and your pelvis.
● Then, imagine it flowing up along your back, around your head and back to your chest.
● Repeat this loop 10 times.
Last thing at night
By Dr Buathon Thienarrom
TECHNIQUE: YIN BREATHING
● Inhale through the nose for four counts and hold.
● Imagine circulating the air up to the crown of your head, down the back of your head and through the back of your body to your bottom.
● Then, imagine it flowing up from your pelvis, through your belly and your chest, and up to the crown again.
● Exhale through the mouth for four counts.
● Repeat 10 times.
Boosting energy
By Dominique Antiglio
TECHNIQUE: THE PUMP
● Standing up, inhale through the nose for a count of four.
● Hold your breath and ‘pump’ your shoulders five times to get the blood circulating.
● Relax the shoulders and breathe out through the mouth for eight counts.
● Repeat three times.
Calming anxiety
By Dominique Antiglio
TECHNIQUE: THE TENSION RELAX
● First, breathe in and out naturally a few times to establish your rhythm.
● Take a long and slow inhalation through the nose.
● Hold the breath for four to five seconds, whichever feels most natural to you.
● Tense up the muscles in your body on that hold-breath.
● Exhale through the mouth vigorously, simultaneously releasing the muscles on this breath.
● Repeat three times.
Getting to sleep
By Dominique Antiglio
TECHNIQUE: THE SLEEP GATEKEEPER
● Close your eyes and bring focus to the breath.
● Take a steady, deep breath in through the nose, mouth closed, to the count of three to four. Feel your chest expanding and your diaphragm contracting.
● Exhale to double the length of time, opening the mouth slightly. Feel your chest contracting and your diaphragm expanding.
● When it starts to feel rhythmic, so you almost no longer need to count, every time you breathe in, think of a positive word, such as ‘recuperation’, ‘relaxation’ or ‘calm’.
● Focus on the sensations these words trigger throughout the body and let them go as you exhale.
● Repeat until you fall asleep.
Tools to help you breathe better
● READ Breathe Well (Kyle Books) by Aimee Hartley.
● DOWNLOAD The Breathing Zone app to access useful breathing exercises.
● VISIT breathguru.com for retreats, workshops and virtual breath-work classes.