28: The Way to Breathe – The Oxygen Advantage with Patrick McKeown

The breath is the bridge between the mind and the body.

This episode with international best-selling author of The Oxygen Advantage® and master breath instructor, Patrick McKeown, will change the way you think about breathing.  How do you increase health, performance, resilience, mindfulness, fitness, and train the brain to be focused while lowering stress?  You follow the breath through your nose. But it’s more than that. Mastering your breath is the path to finding peace and potential, and this episode is the roadmap.

In our culture, we prioritize health and fitness with an emphasis and education on hydration and nutrition.  But, we can last days and weeks respectively with out either of those. It is air/oxygen, that we wouldn’t last minutes without. Without functional breathing, we do not have functional movement. But what is functional breathing? How can we most efficiently breath oxygen from the atmosphere and get it into the cells of our bodies? Why does that process matter to the health of our minds and bodies?

We answer all these questions and more.  Patrick and his breath work has not only forever changed the way I breath, but also the way I teach my kids about breathing.  I never thought I would be the one taping my mouth closed at night, but with an open mind I realized that it was my own mental boulder that was blocking my path. I am completely grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to sit down, face to face, with Patrick for this episode.  His knowledge, passion, and humility on this topic is fascinating.  Remember I warned you, you will forever be changed after this one!

Strength is a Choice,

Scott

SHOW NOTES AND TOPICS:

Intro: The Obstacle in our Path

5:30  Why is light breathing and nasal breathing not common knowledge?  Breathing less is more.

7:55  Advice to teenager: Find the job you absolutely love to do.

Your profession is not what brings home your pay. Your profession is what you were put on this earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling. -Vincent Van Gogh.

Looking at sleep to change resilience.

13:00 THE BREATH – How you breathe and how much you breathe matters.

Why do people end up chronic over breathing through the mouth?

16:35  If you mouth breath during the day or during sleep, you’re likely to gas out too soon during physical exercise, your mind is likely to be agitated, and your sleep is affected. 

20:18  How do you train the brain to be focused? You follow the breath. 

21:08  The Oxygen (Carbon Dioxide) Paradox and the Bohr Effect

How do you increase CO2?  You slow down your breathing. Don’t over exhale your CO2.

25:37  Light Breathing Exercise – and why it lowers stress and raises performance

35:00 Wim Hof breathing, box breathing, and “deep breathing”.

Wim Hof Method vs. The Oxygen Advantage

43:38  What I do is breath holding to change the brains sensitivity to CO2. I purposefully and deliberately increase CO2 in the blood. We hold the breath to increase CO2 in the blood to change the brains reaction to CO2. We reduce the sensitivity of the body to carbon dioxide and that translates to improved physical fitness. 

46:15  Diaphragmatic and nasal breathing – If you don’t have functional breathing, you don’t have functional movement. 

52:15  Combat/Warrior/Box breathing – Focus the mind through the breath.

54:14  The BOLT Score – Body Oxygen Level Test

1:02:40  The mechanical structures involved in breathing

Why mouth breathing isn’t as healthy as nasal breathing. 

Oxyhemoglobin Dissassociation Curve (OCD)

1:25:10  Breathing Masks

1:28:30  Nasal breathing and Taping your mouth closed at night.  Why, how, benefits, etc. 

1:36:30  Nose Unblocking Exercise. How to get rid of a stuffy nose naturally. 

1:42:30  The Mindful Warrior – Breath work, meditation, mindfulness – Finding the Zone

The mind dictates our quality of life. Thinking is a disease or a cure. 

Mastering your breath is the path to finding peace. -Scott McGee

LINKS TO WEBSITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA

oxygenadvantage.com    https://sisustories.wordpress.com/

@oxygenadvantage @TheSisuWay @1scottmcgee

The Oxygen Advantage book

18: Wim Hof Method: Breathing, Cold Exposure, & Mindset with Retired Peace Officer Erik Milosevic

One of the best and simplest pieces of advice anyone could give to benefit energy, freedom, and health is:  Remember to breathe and relax. We are constantly faced with acute and chronic stress, which causes soul cavities.  Stress causes inflammation, which may contribute to many serious health problems such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes.  Chronic stress may also give rise to emotional issues such as depression, anxiety, fear, anger, feelings of despair and hopelessness, as well as loneliness. These health issues create distance from our ourselves and our loved ones.  The good news is…there is something we can do about it.

Joining me on this special episode is Certified Wim Hof Instructor, retired Peace Officer, lifetime Yogi, and my dear friend, Erik Milosevich.  Together, we discuss ways to find peace and improve our emotional resilience.  We share our personal journey with the Wim Hof Method of breathing exercises, cold exposure (via cold showers and ice baths), mediation, and mindset to strengthen our mind, body. The goal of this episode is to help you develop self-awareness skills and self-regulation tools to overcome adversity and stress in a healthy manner.

Get Up Strong,

Scott

For those lost in pain, we have to become gladiators. Power is within us all. Anything can be overcome by going within. –Wim Hof

Show Notes:

Opening:  An excerpt from the book, The Warrior and The Monk: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Potential And Finding True Happiness by past guest Greg Amundson.

11:00 Milo’s history and life experiences

20:45  Wim Hof Method intro

26:40  Stress and Trauma, first responders, organizational stress

“The ability to breath and relax is a science and an art.”

33:40  The Autonomic Nervous System and the two branches, Sympathetic (Fight/Flight) and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems (Rest/Calm/Relaxed).

37:20  The Vagus Nerve.  Understanding these systems helps your self-awareness which leads to the ability to self-regulate.

41:00  Mastering Peace

42:00 Purposeful and Mindful BREATHING.  Different types of breathing tactics including nasal breathing, Wim Hof, box breathing, circular breathing, ocean breath, etc. all aimed at giving us tools to self-regulate our stress.

58:48  The gift of Wim Hof breathing. How to do it and why.  The power of the journey inward.

1:11:30  Breathing and its relationship to Grief. Mindfulness – Be here and now without judgement.

1:19:20  COLD EXPOSURE – (Cold showers and Ice Baths)  How, why, what are the benefits. Mindset and emotional, psychological, and physical benefits.

1:34:30  Chest freezer turned into Ice Baths

1:45:50  Mindset and MEDITATION

1:47:00  Ice bath conversations

1:51:32  Pursue Satori

Links:

TheSisuWay.com  The Wim Hof Method

@erokdaworld  @1scottmcgee  @TheSisuWay  

Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman