Using Breath and Mindfulness To Improve Your Health – With Sandy Abrams

Dr. Mindy
Let’s start off with this idea. You and I talked at when we first hopped on here about how breath work keeps creeping into conversations that I’m having. And I have to really be transparent and tell you that for the longest time, I thought breathwork was just kind of woowoo. And I didn’t really understand what it did to our brain. And in recently, in the last six months, I’m starting to understand what it’s doing to our brain. And much like fasting. I’m totally impressed. So I really want to dive into why breath work is so powerful for us. But let’s start with how did you even discover breath work? Like, we’re just breathing every day? Like, how do we do we need to breathe differently? How did you come upon this information?

Sandy Abrams
First, Mindy, thank you for having me. I’m thrilled to be here. Um, yes. How I came to breath was 30 years ago, plus 30. plus years ago, I began taking yoga classes. And I became known as the girl who left yoga class right before Shavasana. No, you

Dr. Mindy
are one of those. That was me. Gosh, I hadn’t. I had a heart I had things to say about those people.

Sandy Abrams
That was me. I’m so sorry. And it’s because I was ignorant to the fact that that stillness, that Shabbat Asana, those deep breaths that you took to embody the whole rigorous practice, were the most was the most important pose in yoga. So I became obsessed with yoga class, I would go once, sometimes twice a day. And my teachers began to ask me one by one, sure enough, they would say, Sandy, why are you leaving class right before Shavasana. And I would tell them the truth shavasana makes me anxious. I don’t feel comfortable just lying. Still, I did the practice, I got things to do. Bye, bye. And out of respect for my teachers who I adored. And for this eastern philosophy that has been around for 1000s and 1000s of years, I thought I better give it a try. And that’s when three deep breaths changed my life. I was lying in Shavasana. And I used to just stare at the ceiling fan, which sort of made my heart race. And I closed my eyes one day, and I slowly took three deep breaths. And for the first time in my entire life, I felt that grounded, centered and powered feeling from just 3d breaths. And I was like that Oh, aha moment of this is what breath does, wow, this is what being still does. I can now look back and realize I probably had a DD. I just I wasn’t wired to be still. But just the power of those three deep breaths made me curious, what if I did this off the yoga mat outside in my business life and my entrepreneurial life, as you know, in any part of my life. And that’s where I got curious. And I never looked back. And it’s been more than 30 years where I’ve, I’ve utilized the power of breath to help me override my nervous system to help me create my optimal mindset and energy in small moments with mindful breath. It’s something I never really talked about. Until I felt like I needed to a few years ago, when we were all living at this bear at the pace of Wi Fi basically. And I saw that breath could really help people. And so I decided to share my tools with people and I wrote the book breathe to succeed. And now you’re right. Thankfully, it’s it’s the world is ready for this conversation of breath. It’s no longer woo woo. You don’t have to be sitting outside in a monastery, cross legged burning incense and chanting to breathe properly, and to breathe well, and to create your best mindset and best energy with breath. So that’s how I came to it. Long story short, right.

Dr. Mindy
I love that. I love that. So here’s what I find really interesting about that story. For starters, I love yoga. And I really resonate with your brain because I feel like my brains a little bit the same way. With the exception of I would sit I’ve sat in shavasana and suffered because I’m like, it’s good for you Monday, you got to do it. And what I’m discovering as I understand the science behind things like meditation, even yoga, there’s some interesting science behind yoga and breath work, is that our brains really are primed to keep us alive. And when we perceive that there is a threat The body and the brain will do everything it possibly can to run from the tiger, and something like breath work. And and I want to dive into like technique around breath work, what I’m gathering and correct me if I’m wrong, this is why I’m sort of throwing this out at you. What I’m gathering is when we breathe, we are telling our brains, like, it’s time to relax, you don’t have to run from the tiger, you can chill out. And that, to me makes the most sense. Am I my question to you is, am I accurate in how I’m, I’m approaching this? And is there more to the game of breath and what it does on the brain that would be helpful for people to know, because this is what I found about fasting is once you know why it works, it’s much easier to stay committed to it.

Sandy Abrams
Absolutely. It’s a great question. So yes, breath, when you begin to practice breath, you can immediately see the benefits. So there are immediate benefits. And there are long term benefits. And there are preventative tools. And there are also healing tools. So like you do talk about there’s so many parallels with breath, that our bodies are incredible resources for us for wellness and for healing. And so the breath is Yes, um, I do want to touch on what you talked about that breath is, is for chilling out. And I sort of want to bust that myth that it’s not just for chilling out, that is one thing that it does. But that’s sort of the myth that it’s been with that woowoo sense. It’s just like I want to breathe and chill out. But you can breathe in different ways that will balance your nervous system, calm your nervous system, or energize your nervous system. So it goes way beyond just chilling out, because and that’s what’s wonderful is that for the past 1518 months now, whatever it’s been for pandemic, we’ve been living in this state of where we feel like we’ve been in that fight or flight that you mentioned. And so what that does is it keeps us breathing up here from our chest, just the shallow, autopilot, automatic breath. And what that’s done to all of us is it’s left us in a low grade state of chronic stress. So yes, it is super important right now, probably for most people to focus on those tools that do help you relax and chill out. But also, some people have been devastated by a lot of the circumstances and situations of the past year and a half, they need help sort of energizing. So there are also ways to help you boost your energy, which then helps you boost your mindset and get back out into the world with this new, stronger foundation of inner strength. So there’s that yeah, and there is a ton of science up to the minute fascinating science, where I share just the scratching the surface of the science behind it. And it’s a shame that more doctors and more people don’t know about the power of breath. And I heard Patrick McEwen who has been sort of a mentor to me in sharing the Science of Breath, he has a book called oxygen advantage. And my new I feel like I’m getting my PhD in breathing with his breathing care, which just came out. It’s like 600 pages of basically science and practical application. But the science behind it is fascinating. And it’s this superhuman power that we have to create exactly what you need in that moment. So as we’re on this roller coaster ride, which really pandemic or not, we all have life. And so as we ride the roller coaster of life, and you practice breath, what happens is you become more self aware of your mindset, and the signals that you’re giving your brain because your body will believe whatever you tell it. So just as he mentioned, if we feel like oh my gosh, I’m stressed oh my gosh, this is you know, and we’re telling our body, how stressed we are and how terrible that our circumstances are. Your body begins to take that feeling on and take that energy on your posture as well. So I’m hunching my shoulders right now. And we’re always attached to our devices. So if we open our posture and we breathe better, there are so many other little tools that we can pair breath with mindfulness tools, fasting food, there’s just it’s It’s an endless resource that’s sustainable, and it’s free, and it’s zero calories. And it’s paleo and it’s keto. And

Dr. Mindy
it checks all the boxes. I love it. I love it. So I, I love this idea that it’s not just for chilling out, I think that you, you really helped me see a bigger vision there. And I remember one of the if you ever been to a Tony Robbins seminar, love Tony, right? So his UPW he has you do this thing where Yeah, you like, like, breathe out your nose, and you say mantras, and you get kind of really like, amped up. And he recommends you do it before you go out and you give a big speech. So it’s really interesting, the different styles of breathing and, and what you just said that some will amp you up. And I know my yoga instructor, she has all kinds of different breathing techniques we do before and after a yoga session. So let’s dive into like the how to breathe and and how to use different breath forms of breathing to calm or to amplify. I know you talk about nine different types of breathing. Is that right in your book?

Sandy Abrams
Yes, I just really scratched the surface of several breath tools. But let’s unpack a few here. And yes, Tony Robbins, he definitely gets you pumped up with that mindset. Tony Robbins when I first started my business on back in 1993, I bought all these business books. And then I ended up so I have a broadcasting journalism degree. And I bought these books to start my first business. And I didn’t understand any of them. They were written by MBAs and I didn’t understand the lingo. I returned to the books. And I bought Tony Robbins books, I was like, let me teach myself to get into the mindset to believe in myself that I could be an entrepreneur. And so that’s what I learned from Tony Robbins and still always recommend his books. But since we don’t have an on off switch for feeling insecure, or fearful or scared about things, what we have breath is the closest thing we have to that on off switch to get into that Tony Robbins mindset. So, first of all, I want to talk about breathing through your nose and the importance of that today, because I think that’s what generated so much buzz. During pandemic, James Nestor, a journalist went out and did a deep dive. And one of his key golden nuggets from his book is that nasal breathing changes the game for well being. And it also is a really important part of sleep, which is something that we all need a bit more these days, or a better quality of sleep. So one of the things I want to leave people with today is the importance of noticing, are you breathing through your nose most of the time, if you’re doing certain breath tools, like I’ll show you a couple, we do use the mouth for some of them. And that’s fine for certain breath tools or certain athletic events. But most of the time, you want to be aware that you’re inhaling and exhaling through your nose. Why? Because when you inhale through your nose, let’s all just take a deep breath through the nose

what we just did there is first of all, we got 20% more oxygen into our body by inhaling through the nose versus the mouth. That’s a lot of air. That’s a lot of oxygen. Yeah. And also that oxygen was better quality than inhaling through your mouth. Why because in your nasal cavity, it filters all of the the junk from your air so you’re getting better quality air through your nose. So also there’s there’s so many issues about the damage that mouth breathing causes. That’s a whole long other topic but just be aware and just notice because some of your issues with sleep fatigue and things like that could be coming from the fact that your mouth breathing and there’s a big percentage of people that are mainly breathing through their mouth.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, have you heard of I have a couple of friends that specialize in Holistic Dental Care. And they’re they’re recommending mouth tape so that it trains the sound scarier, scary as all get out to tape your mouth and then tried to sleep. But it do it would that be a good thing to really look into to start to train you to be in a nasal breather?

Sandy Abrams
Absolutely. And that’s another thing that Patrick McEwen, he’s specialized in asthma and sleep apnea for decades. Because of what it did for him. He grew up with asthma. He had some surgery on his nose, but then he went back to mouth breathing and it wasn’t until he was 26 years old, that he realized he needed to be breathing through his nose So yes, he sells also like some sort of tape. That’s also great for children, just a small piece of medical tape. Also can can work. So you don’t need to, like, you know, do anything more than a small piece of medical tape. And also, for parents out there, notice how your children are breathing. This is something that he talks about that if his parents had noticed, wow, he would have really improved his sleep when he was younger. So um, so yeah, that’s really one important tool is, is breathing as much as possible through your nose.

Dr. Mindy
Let me ask you, before we move on to like the next technique, I’m thinking as you’re talking, especially when you brought it up around children, one of the things we’ve noticed with fasting is that we’ve beat it or no another way to say this, but we’ve beat the intuitive sense of when to eat out of our children. Yeah, like we have trained them, you get up, eat breakfast, lunch, eat dinner, like nobody sits with their kids and says, let’s find your natural eating rhythm. I finally ended up doing this with my son when he was in high school, and it was a game changer. Do you think we’re doing the same thing with breathing like, there’s so many of these primal mechanisms that the human body was designed to do that the modern world is really changing, and our health is suffering because of it. If you’re a parent listening to this, or a grandparent, like just having a conversation with your child, helping them come back to their normal breathing pattern, can it be that simple as just observation?

Sandy Abrams
Yes, and thank you for diving a little bit deeper into this, I think it is really, really important for parents to notice and observe their children’s breathing. And then also use fun breath tools, not only for the kids, but for ourselves, to show that and empower your children that they can control their nervous system with breath. Yes, there’s a fun tool called Lion’s Breath, I taught it to my boys, who are now 23 and 25. I taught it to them when they were little. And it’s just a great tool, I’m going to show it to you now. It’s like an immediate exorcism of negative or stagnant energy. And so sometimes kids don’t even know why they’re feeling negative or why they feel angry. And teaching them this fun breath just helps them to understand that whenever I feel that way, that yucky way or that negative way, I’m going to do this breath and make myself feel better. So what Lion’s Breath is, and by the way, I I still do this every single morning, I love to start my day with three lions breath, because it just clears that negative or stagnant energy. And it also every single time I do this at a corporate workshop, or an in person event, it makes people laugh. So laughter is breath two, as you all know. So what lions breath looks like is you can be standing, you could be sitting, you can be sitting up in your bed, you close your eyes, fix your posture, so that you’re making room for a good deep breath. And beginning down at the belly through your nose, you take a long, slow, deep inhale. And on the exhale, it looks like this.

Dr. Mindy
Yes, we’ve done this in yoga, yeah,

Sandy Abrams
you open your eyes, you stick out your tongue, and you exhale through your mouth, and you let everything go. And the great thing about breath is that you can customize all of these tools. So maybe you feel like shaking out your hands. When you do it. Maybe you feel like shaking out your body. You do whatever feels good to you so that you want to keep coming back to it over and over and over. But that is one tool where you do exhale through your mouth. It’s also another tool that’s fun to do with your kids. And they will carry that as an example of knowing that breath can really transform your energy in small moments. That’s another nugget I want to leave everybody with that. You don’t have to reserve chunks of time in your day. I’m not asking you to take up this new habit. Breath is meditation at the speed of life. You can do it that quickly as Alliance breath email, or what

Dr. Mindy
I’m thinking now great tool way to use that would be like, you know, when you’re in a negative situation, like you’ve come in contact with somebody who’s stressed you out. One of the things that I’ve learned over the years working with patients is that we when we’re stressed we tend to go and like breathe in like you meet anybody who’s been in a car accident or had a tragedy like that breath get sucked in and then they’re they’re stuck with that shallow breathing. So could it be a cleansing way to get rid of a negative situation or something as simple as you turn on the news and you’re like, oh God, and then you see the three lions breast can we like visualize like the negative tivity coming out of our mouth and getting it out of our body.

Sandy Abrams
Exactly, exactly what a great example and also then pairing it with that mindfulness of visualizing the negative, whatever

Dr. Mindy
situation like, like, like dark, you know, I was just doing meditation this morning. And they kept saying it was a guided meditation. And the person kept saying, give it a color of what you were thinking, yeah, maybe you just visualize like black coming out of your mouth, because it is that negative, those negative thoughts that build disease and people I mean, Bruce Lipton, I had him on the podcast. And you know, he was the guy that prove that scientifically. So I really love lion’s breath as a tool right now, especially,

Sandy Abrams
yes. And you mentioned it just right then also that when you’re when you’re in a traumatic situation, and you do you breathe in, and you’re holding your breath, yep, it’s on the exhale where relaxation comes. So everybody as they’re beginning to experiment with slowing the breath down and taking deep breaths, and let’s go over what just one deep breath is. Let’s practice that next. But I just in the meantime, focusing on the exhale is really important for stress relief, because immediately, like, let’s right now, take an inhale to account for through the nose. And slowly exhaling through the nose to account of six or eight.

So anybody listening right now, as I begin to explain this, maybe take a few more rounds, inhaling slowly through your nose to account of for exhaling to six or eight.

Dr. Mindy
It’s so relaxing, right?

Sandy Abrams
Because science. Yeah, this is what happened. Your heart rate just slowed down. And you moved from here’s, here’s what I see you talking a lot about this, right? Yeah, switching, I’m doing the Mindy positions moving out of fat Breann talker. I’ll use this as an example of that. So you want to move in and out of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. That’s what we just did. When you make your exhale one and a half to twice the length of your inhale, you have then switched from sympathetic to parasympathetic nervous system. So you have sent that message to your body, and I am calm, I’m relaxed, I’m okay. And that’s also what you just talked about. Maybe say that to yourself, either aloud or silently depending on where you are and what you’re doing. But as you take those long, slow, exhale, say to yourself, whatever you need to hear, nobody knows better than then you what you need to hear in any given moment. So tell yourself, I’m calm, I’m okay. This is fine, instead of the F word repeating in your head over and over and over, because then you’re raising your heart rate again. And it’s incredible.

Dr. Mindy
So i i years ago, Dr. Andrew Weil came out with a blog post that happened to go through my Facebook on 478 breathing. And at the time, my kids were teenagers. And as you know, as a parent, you know, teenagers in your house is an extreme sport. And I’m remember driving in the driveway and feeling tense before I even got into the house because I didn’t know what was going to await me once I got in there. So I started doing this 478 breathing, which was very much like what you just did, and I felt like when I got in the house, I was calmer. I could I could handle any stress that was put my way any snarky comments. I was able, I was better prepared. And I didn’t jump on the roller coaster ride with my teenagers. Is there something the 478 breathing was very much what you just took us through. So it was for in through your nose? It was hold for seven, exhale through your mouth for eight is does it matter? If you breathe in through your nose, exhale through your mouth? Does it matter how long you hold it? Like Are these all signs for our neurology? Because I’m like the type a person that doesn’t want to get breathing wrong.

Sandy Abrams
Well, let’s go transparent. I can tell and I love that about you. So we will go through technique. And so yes, Andrew, while Dr. Andrew Weil came up with that 478 breathing and you’re exactly right, it’s for an eight so your exhale is twice as long as the inhale. So that is a relaxation tool. The middle part of that the retention part, the holding the breath for seven. What that does for a lot of people well there’s there’s two sides have a thought on this is that holding your breath for some people makes them anxious, just like being still used to make me anxious. So he designed that tool to help people calm down. And also people use it to help them get back to sleep in the middle of the night. However, if you’re somebody that is anxious, holding your breath, you don’t have to do that part, you can get comfortable with the four, eight. But when you’re holding your breath for just seven, or maybe you hold it for just four or five, that’s good, too. But what it does, is it it helps you to be present in the moment helps you to refocus on your breath. And it helps you to really be inward. So these days, we are so externally focused, yeah, that going, right? And going inward is like a coveted destination these days, because closing your eyes and doing these relaxation breaths reconnects you to yourself. So yes, I love 478. But I have come across several people in my workshops, where it’s not something to begin with, it’s get used to the four, eight, and then play around with retention. Breath retention is like an extreme sport.

Dr. Mindy
Oh, yeah. Right. I I have questions on that, too. It is an extreme, but go ahead.

Sandy Abrams
Yes, I love it. And what I love about breath also is there are as as many different modalities of breathwork, as there are different foods, right? So as I talk about breath, when people say, Oh, I don’t breathe, I don’t you know, it’s like saying you don’t eat or you don’t sleep like yeah, do you mean there is a tool for everyone? And so nowadays, like Wim Hof is, as you know, obviously leading the way. And he has led it scientifically as well and proven that his style of like the hyperventilating and holding your breath for long periods of time. But I love that, I have to say it took me a few times to get used to it. And I had I went to a class A couple years ago with a yoga teacher, friend of mine, and I left and was like, That is not for me. Do you know what? Give it three times. And I thought just like my experience with yoga with yoga, you’re right. I’m going to give it three times. Well, by the third time, like I love it, I do it. Probably every other day. I do a morning session of Wim Hof breath. So, um, yes. So getting back to the beginning about the technique. Can we talk about the difference of chest breathing? And then

Dr. Mindy
yeah, okay, please. Can I ask you one question about Wim Hof because my brain is curious on this. So when I started doing Wim Hof, he really has you exhale all the way out, and then hold on the exhale, which is fascinating. I actually took a pulse oximeter and put it on my hand to see what my oxygen was doing. And that was kind of fun. But you know, I got what once I got into it, it was such a high. I was like, why would anybody need a drug? Like, this is amazing. So is there are there some safety measures we have to have like he had, he has you hold it for like three to four minutes. And I told my husband one day, I was like, I can hold my breath for four minutes. And he’s he looked at me and he goes, I don’t know if that’s safe. I’m like, I’m here talking to you. So it must be safe. But is there a boundary when we’re working on some of these holding of the breath that we need to be aware of?

Sandy Abrams
Absolutely. And I’m glad you brought that up. I don’t teach that technique in my workshops, because it does require a disclaimer. And it does require that you are not, you know, in a bathtub or by water or anything like that. So yes, it’s there are definitely safety precautions that you can’t be pregnant while you’re doing that, you know, there’s lots of other medical contraindications to that style of breath. So people do need to do their research before doing that. Also, I have never, I think two minutes is the longest hold I’ve done. But normally I also have adjusted his I follow his format. But most of the time I do my inhales and exhales both through my nose. And the holding the long hold that is at the bottom of the exhale does indeed take some getting used to because we’re not used to holding our breath that way. And then he has you after that you hold on the inhale at the top of the inhale for just 15 seconds, and then you start those sessions again. So again, I do feel that Wim Hof Method is customizable so I don’t feel comfortable doing the in and out through my mouth in like that hyperventilation speed. I sort of slowed it down to be good for me, but um yeah That’s, it’s you got to be careful and know what you’re doing before you experiment with that.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Okay, I just was curious because we do have a lot of our listeners that just, you know, are getting into Wim Hof or doing things like that. And I just, it’s like fasting, there always has to be a boundary of safety. So, so Yeah, talk about chest breathing versus belly breathing, because this is another tool that I have found difficult. This idea that when you’re breathing from your belly, you’re inhaling, and your belly is expanding. When I inhale, my belly wants to contract. And I’m like, wait a second, this has to be some pattern of sympathetic nervous system activation from years ago or something, because that took me some time to train out of me. But so talk about chest and belly, because that’s key for people to know.

Sandy Abrams
Yes, it is really key. And it’s, it’s a shame that it feels cold, it feels unnatural for us. Because we actually all started out, like, if you look at a baby, when they’re inhaling, you know, their belly goes up, it expands out, that’s the way we want to get back to breathing. But these days, we’re all always sort of holding in our gut. And so that’s why we’re breathing just shallow autopilot breaths up here in our chest. And that’s also as I said, before contributing to our low grade state of chronic stress. So give yourself a breath upgrade, by just trying to begin your breath down at the belly again, because what that does is, as you mentioned, it activates the diaphragm. And when your diaphragm is activated, what happens is, first of all, you’re getting so much more oxygen into your body, because we’re doing these long, slow, deep inhales from the belly all the way up. And because it’s it’s going through your nose, you are getting that much more oxygen in. And then what happens is your body can better absorb all of that oxygen, the gases exchanged better, your organs absorb the oxygen better, and everything is run, it’s like a well oiled machine. And it’s so much more efficient. Yes, it might take a bit of getting used to the belly breath again, and honestly, I wasn’t doing belly breath for years until I read something about it, I was maybe starting it like almost down there. Um, but taking a deep breath really means first of all starting down at the belly, and we’ll do I’ll explain that. And then it also means taking that inhale to five or six seconds, and also taking the exhale to five or six seconds, that is considered a deep breath. And that’s where again, you’re doing that shifting from sympathetic to parasympathetic. So put, everybody can put their hands on their low belly like just below the last rib there. And as we begin this first deep breath, if anybody is sitting in a chair, just first, Adjust your posture making room for air. And then as you begin your inhale, expand your belly out towards your hands. And then you begin to bring the breath up through your lungs through the intercostal muscles, and finally into your chest, your shoulders do not participate in this exercise, I used to bring my shoulders up to my ears, that just causes stress to stay in your shoulders. And then slowly exhale, and your belly actually moves back towards your spine and you can gently push with your hands. So let’s do another round of that. On the inhale, starting down at your belly. Feeling your belly so that your hands move out. slowly bringing the breath in and up finally into your chest last and then slowly exhaling pushing the belly back towards the spine. And one more round of that

Dr. Mindy
see that alone, is I have to focus on that. Yep. And great body does not want to push the belly out. It wants to contract every every each. Inhale, exhale. It’s so true. Is that Is that common?

Sandy Abrams
Yes, it’s very common because as I said, we’ve been sort of sucking in our gut for years and eight. This is a really important once you try this several times though, again, just like breath or just like fasting it becomes second nature because you see and feel how great it is for your mind and your body. So I would just have people ask people to focus on this for the next few times that they begin to do a deep breath. And you can also live flat on the floor and put a book or a pillow on your belly. And watch it go up on the inhale and watch it go down on the exhale. And, and then you just start to begin to take deeper breaths. But it’s again, it’s the diaphragm. And when it’s activated, it connects to the vagus nerve, which I feel like I’m getting my PhD. And everybody should focus on this New Vegas, not Las Vegas, this is the New Vegas beta.

Dr. Mindy
I love that it needs to be the New Vegas, especially in 2021, the new guys needs to be breath.

Sandy Abrams
Oh my gosh. And yes, so the vagus nerve is the most important nerve in our body that taps into that parasympathetic relaxation tool. And it doesn’t work when we’re doing shallow auto pilot breath, and especially doesn’t work through your mouth. So yeah, so first of all, the balancing breath of just one deep breath, making that inhale and exhale to five to six seconds. When you’re new to that tool, that can be a relaxation breath. Once you become used to deeper breaths, I use just one deep breath as a balancing tool to just get back into feeling balanced. So our noses use the left nostril and the right nostril, they alternate, automatically. That’s part of our autonomic nervous system. However, there is a breath tool and I talked about this in the book, alternate nostril breathing, where we can sort of use it in a more strategic way. And do it mindfully by plugging one nostril on the inhale and then exhaling on the other side. Or the secret is also using just one side of your nose. So for example, when you plug your right nostril, and you inhale and exhale only through your left, that’s the parasympathetic, that’s the relaxation side. If you plug your left nostril and you do some breathing through the right nostril only, that will give you a boost of energy, a boost of adrenaline. And so when you do the alternate nostril breathing, that balances out the left and right side of the brain. And the left side of the brain is that logical analytical side that we have. The right side is the more creative side, I tend to live in my right side of the brain a little bit more, and I love alternate nostril breathing, because it does give you that balance.

Dr. Mindy
Okay. Oh, I got that was good. I’ve got so many thoughts on that. The first is are you telling me when I’m breathing right now? I’m not breathing in through both nostrils evenly. My my nervous system will alternate. Yeah, like that’s just how we’re meant to be. Yeah, it’s, it’s crazy. I’ve been breathing for 50, almost 50 years now. And I’ve never noticed that it goes different. It goes in one nostril different than the other.

Sandy Abrams
I’ve never noticed either until I started doing the research and the science and it automatically switches on it’s part of homeostasis. Yeah, we’re so balanced. We’re amazing.

And we are amazing. And so the fact that we can override our nervous system, by simply plugging when you want to chill out, you plug that right nostril and just do the inhales and the exhale slowly through the left and you will feel more relaxed. And so yeah, again, it’s just

Dr. Mindy
so if you’re going into a tense situation, you could just cover your right nostril, breathe in through your left a couple of times. And now you’re activating parasympathetic. If you’re not if you don’t have enough energy, or like you’re maybe about to go do a presentation or go do a speech or something you would do the opposite, cover the left and breathe in through the right to get your sympathetic

Sandy Abrams
up. It depends. I’ve done so many corporate workshops over the past couple of years. And you know what, some people need calming energy before they go out on stage. They haven’t enough depends on what you need. So yeah, so you that’s what’s great about breath. You use what you need in that small moment. Yeah, I I got to know um, Janelle McCauley. She was she’s a retired pilot in the US Air Force, and she taught battalions of hundreds and hundreds and 1000s of young, mostly men aged 22 to 24. She would teach them the power of even just one deep breath while they were piloting so That’s when you have, you have to focus. And so she would teach them to do a deep breath. And that’s where you tap into your sympathetic, but also your focus and you can make decisions from that place of clarity and focus. And so yeah, so there, there are so many ways to breathe for exactly what you need. And Patrick McKeown lately was was, and I spoke with him, told me he was working with snipers and police forces, and he would tell them not to pull the trigger until the bottom of an exhale are like miniscule parts of breath, nuances that are fascinating. But in the meantime, for people who are beginning, begin with just one deep breath, then maybe three deep breaths, and then focus on beginning from the belly and breathing it up. And that’s almost enough to spark the curiosity after maybe a year, maybe three, five years. And then someone might say, Okay, I’m ready for more and different breath tools. But I’m just I just want to encourage listeners that you don’t have to get fancy, you, you know, changing just from shallow autopilot breaths to getting to know the feeling of some deep breaths, will both will feel good for both balancing calming and energizing

Dr. Mindy
love it. I’m laughing to myself because I fly a lot. And I, I don’t really love to fly. But I’m thinking that the next time the cab the captain, his door is open, I’d be like, Hey, I just want to make sure I arrive there safely. So can I show you a couple breathing techniques to calm your nervous system so you can guide us to try that.

Sandy Abrams
That is that is so important. And I feel like it should be taught to pilots, it should be taught to doctors, it should be taught to kids. I just spoke at the this new conference called ending physicians burnout conference. And you know, burnout is a major, it’s a dire situation right now for our caregivers and save them some breath felt kind of awkward to me because I am not a doctor. And I don’t have that science background. But the the doctor who started this conference, Dr. Jonathan Fisher is a cardiologist who’s suffered from burnout. And he’s young. And he came to mindfulness and breath practice. And now he wants to share it with all these other caregivers. And he developed this conference, that was something he wished he had had, even during medical school, they don’t teach about the power of breath, and how to use it as a tool for well being and for calm and for mindfulness. And I mean, you want to go into surgery under a doctor’s care who’s just not focused and not calm and not mindfully connected to you as a patient. So he really, right, yeah, he’s on this mission to help caregivers care more mindfully, but also while helping them heal from this, the trauma of pandemic, but the situation for burnout with with physicians is not new.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, that’s been around even before the pandemic, I would know that. Yeah, yeah, you know, um, the other thing that I find fascinating about the description of breath work, the way that you’re teaching us is that we don’t have a true sense of how well equipped our body and our brain can be. We have been taught what I call outside in living, where if you have a problem, you got to go outside yourself, you got to go, especially mental health, you got to go and get a therapist, you got to go and get a drug to change the inside physiology. And what I’m hearing from you is something as basic as breathing, we haven’t been taught how to do. Do you feel like that’s what I mean, a big part of anxiety, depression. I mean, the way that people are handling this craziness in the world, could really be solved if we just got back to teaching people how to breathe.

Sandy Abrams
Yes, yes, yes. And that’s what I am on a mission to do is to help people get to know the power of their breasts so that they can see the difference of and they can move through life easier. It’s better when you can make decisions based on responding versus reacting. I mean, I am so grateful that I got to know the power of my breath as an entrepreneur when I was young, because I was able to constantly recalibrate my mindset and energy. I mean, you get thrown problems all the time as they are right that you don’t know I didn’t even know that existed. Now I have to solve that problem. Amen. So that’s what breath does, it brings you back to the internal connecting with yourself so that you’re more self aware of you your thoughts and your energy and then you can respond versus react. Not only does it did it help me in business, it helped me in parenting, it helped me as a spouse, as a daughter, as a friend, as a citizen. It made me more mindful, it made me more clear on my priorities and intention. The breath has so many trickle down effects, that it’s incredible, just like fasting. And so that is my mission. Yes, there isn’t enough conversation or awareness about it. I feel like I am breaths publicist.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, I love it. You know, I recently saw that there’s a book coming out, I I’m gonna have to go find the author and bring them on the podcast. And but the title of the book caught my eye on Instagram. It’s called Why woowoo works. And I was thinking, when I saw that title, I was thinking about all this stuff around ancient healing strategies like fasting and breathing, and yoga, even light therapy, things that we have dismissed over the years as being woowoo. Science is now proving why they work and you’ve got people, medical doctors, you’ve got researchers that are really bringing this to the surface. So I love that you’re a breath, publicist, and trying to get that out. Because it seems to me as crucial as somebody’s learning too fast. So I just appreciate that. If if you’re listening to this, and you’re like, Okay, I get the breath is important. Now, where do I start? Can we give people some steps to go from just breathing like a modern human to becoming a breath? You know, advocate?

Sandy Abrams
Yes. So one of my favorite quotes is from BK si anger and you know, you’re not in your head. It’s that the mind is the king of the senses, but the breath is the king of the mind. So when people understand that, first of all, I know you talk about the importance of a why behind fasting while I talk about the importance of finding your why with breath, and it goes back to that quote, that the mind is the king of the senses, and the breath is the king of the mind, you can help control your mind with breath. So getting back to the basics of what do you do, how do you integrate it into your busy schedule is a great question. And I would suggest that people begin by habit stacking I think Arianna Huffington. Maybe she coined that that word and what it means is stacking it onto habits that are already part of your daily routine. So I do a morning workshop with with a lot of corporate offices. I’ve become known as the breath barista, because I serve up morning coffee with breath. So you can attach breath. Most people have a love affair with their morning coffee or tea right. So you can now utilize that time while you’re brewing your water, steeping your tea, sipping your coffee, just begin to move from the auto pilot shallow breath to some deeper breaths, just spending maybe one to three minutes on. Inhaling through your nose, exhaling through your nose, lengthening the inhales and exhales beginning that felt that breath down in your belly and then maybe attaching it to every single time you fill your water bottle. Take one deep breath. Love that deep breaths, right? I mean, yeah, not anyway. So while you’re refilling your water, focus on some deeper, slower, nourishing breaths. Maybe every time you shower, you’re you’re taking some more breaths, maybe every time you walk from your car into your home. Breath is also an incredibly wonderful transitional tool. If you’re moving from zoom to zoom session, Zoom meetings, online meetings, maybe every time you’re you come from your office back into your home and you want to decompress and you want to move from business mode to family mode. So just attach it to things that you are otherwise normally doing. And that way it doesn’t become an extra thing you have to add to your schedule. And that’s when it becomes second nature. And I promise if people do these tools in those small moments, you will sooner than you think become addicted to that feeling of the more nourishing deep, slow breaths.

Dr. Mindy
I love that, you know, years ago I heard Wayne Dyer say that when you’re learning to meditate, don’t necessarily take on like 20 minutes in the morning, but just meditate at stoplights. And then he went on to say the person behind you will let you know when the light turns green. Growing up enough la, la. I was like, oh, yeah, they’ll let you know.

Sandy Abrams
Oh, yeah, that is so funny. And yes, in your car in LA, of course, it’s like we are stuck so often on the freeway, that is the best place to just begin to also, while you’re sitting there, what else are you doing? Listening to a Dr. Mindy podcast and breathing. And it’s yeah, the car is a wonderful sometimes, for moms that I’ve met, the car is a sanctuary these days. And right after you drop a kid off somewhere, they definitely use that time to then do some breathing. And also do it with the kids in the car.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, yeah, I love that. And again, I think it’s important for people to see that this doesn’t have to be a time consuming event. And that’s why I like the habit stacking. I also love that you’re taking it into corporations, because what I’ve found, at least in teaching people how to fast is that until you understand the power of it in your life, it’s easy to dismiss it. And I had a really interesting conversation a couple years ago with Todd White, who founded dry farm wines. And I asked him, he was at the I sat next to him actually at a dinner party. And I asked him, gosh, you know, I heard your business is doing incredible, like, what’s the number one secret to having this in this fast growing business? And he just he stopped, he looked me straight in the eye and he goes, meditation. And I’m like, What do you mean meditation to grow a business. I mean, this was my more naive version a few years back. And he said, before we start our day, as a team, we meditate so that we are in the right space to grow a business serve humanity, and get this incredible, you know, hit dry Farms is a non toxic wine, get this out to the world. And that really shifted how I looked at some ancient healing practices like breathwork, and meditation, for those of you that are achievement oriented, that are Type A’s. Tell us a little bit about what you’re seeing in the corporate world. When people are using a regular practice of breath work, as far as results go, are they seeing more productivity? I mean, how can we measure this?

Sandy Abrams
Yes, it is being measured SAP was one of the corporations that and Google that led the way for mindfulness in business. It is something that uber successful people do. Breath and meditation and what that means basically is going inward and getting clear on their intentions and focus. And there are so many business applications for breath. And it is wonderful to see many corporations now bringing this in, they have chief wellbeing officers at several companies.

Unknown Speaker
Right? Amazing. They name it that she knows

Sandy Abrams
it’s a full time gig for some companies. And it is incredibly wonderful. And now post pandemic, people are looking to their their leadership in big corporate brands to for well being benefits and for these companies to prioritize the well being of their employees, and if they don’t, and if they’re not changing the ecosystem of remote work right now to include some benefits for people to have downtime. People are leaving those companies to work for other companies, where their wellness is being prioritized. A man

Dr. Mindy
lives amazing.

Sandy Abrams
It’s about time is about time. And also, I admire those leaders who will start a meeting by saying let’s close our eyes. First of all, what I’ve seen that a lot of my corporate workshops is no buddy closes their eyes from the minute you wake up until the time you go to bed and closing your eyes before you breathe is an incredibly powerful tool that sets that boundary from external noise stimulation, upset anger news bites to going inward so before you breathe when you can close your eyes. And then if everybody takes three deep breaths together, do you know how much more creativity collaboration and productivity you’re going to get from that group of people? Not only that, when they do it then on their own? You do there are there is data there is an analytics about the the benefit of breath and mindfulness tools for for us all whether you are an employee, whether you are an entrepreneur, whether you are a stay at home, mom, whatever it is, whatever you’re doing, there are practical applications that come from breath that will help you on so many different levels from Yeah, creativity, connection. compassion, kindness first yourself and then to other people as well. And it just, it there’s so many ripple effects to breath as self care as a healing tool as a preventative tool. And it’s really important in the workplace, even if everybody in your workplace sees it as woowoo, if you can be that one person, that’s how it changed the culture at all of these brands and businesses and is from one person standing up and saying, You know what, I’ve been doing meditation, I want to share one breath with you or share 90 seconds with you. And then people realize, and now because breath is more acceptable, it’s not woowoo it’s science based, the big corporate brands are getting behind it, because of

Dr. Mindy
it works. Oh, my God, I love it. I love it. I want to go into rapid fire five questions for you. But talk before you do that, talk a little bit about your book. Cuz hopefully, those of you that are listening to this, you see that there’s more to breathe in than just breathing, then there’s, there’s a lot of levels to it. And if you’re like me, and you want to know the, the why behind it, and how have a little more structure with it. Is that what your book a good go to? Is? Is your book breathe to succeed?

Sandy Abrams
Thank you. Yeah, that’s it’s sort of just my holistic view of how I came into practicing breath and how it has changed the way I move through life. And so I do talk about finding clarity and finding purpose and starting each day with it, and what a game changer, even one deep breath in the morning can be where you go inward and decide what are my priorities today? What are my intentions for the day? Who am I meeting with? What am I you know, when you set everything up in your mind in the morning, it makes such a difference. So I cover a lot of different topics from morning ritual to the mindset pairing breath with mindfulness tools, going back to that Tony Robbins type of thing I’m sharing how breath makes you more self aware of your thoughts and your body. So you become more, you have a better a keen sense of self awareness about for example, fasting, or what you’re going to nourish your body with the quality of your food, the quality of your breath directly and immediately affects the quality of your experience in any given moment.

Dr. Mindy
You know, I just had this thought so well, in some of the breath work that I’ve been doing in the in my morning ritual, not to get too personal. But the minute I start doing breath work, I have to go the bathroom. But and I thought like, oh my gosh, this is a cure for constipation, if anybody had constipation, because I’m sure it’s stimulating the vagus nerve. And then all of a sudden, you know, boom, you’re off. Like I have to sometimes interrupt my breath work. Because of that is and is that, you know, that’s what I’m hearing and what you’re saying around the morning routine?

Sandy Abrams
That’s I don’t know, I have to ask Patrick McEwen or somebody in the science community about that. I don’t know as as it attaches to a bowel movement in the morning. Yeah, no, no, but I’m super curious about that. Let me know, I will let you know, I will get back to you on that. And we get a lot of fasters

Dr. Mindy
that get constipation and a cup like a month ago, I was like, I gotta tell them to do breath work, because it would make sense that if you’re stimulating the vagus nerve, the vagus nerve is going to relax your gastrointestinal system. So that in my neuroscience brain, it would make sense. But I was curious, have you ever heard of that?

Sandy Abrams
Definitely makes sense. I am going to get back to you on that. But one other thing is that that stress causes inflammation in the body, right? Yeah. And inflammation is the beginning of every illness or disease and so breath does help with the inflammation and it’s amazing on how many levels like for sleep and autoimmune disorders and HRV and all of that. So maybe, I don’t know, it’s making me think that maybe that connection is through like, you know, getting out the inflammation that might be I don’t know, I’m gonna get back to you.

Dr. Mindy
Now let me know that because it’s my own no one noticed it and but we’ve had so many of our resetter fasting community that have asked us about constipation and you know, there’s different like magnesium and things like that, that can help but I’m seeing it consistently with breathwork. And it might be that I do it in routine, you know, the body is you know, does it in a once you set up the routine of morning rituals, the body gets used to everything in a routine, so it’s

Sandy Abrams
true. And also just quickly, your book The the menopause reset has been amazing. And those tools paired with breath. I do talk to many people. My age about that the how, what a powerful pairing the two are?

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, well, so the part of the constipation again, not to get too personal. But with menopause, estrogen goes down, and when estrogen goes down, it slows down digestion. So what I’m finding is that you need more tools outside of just eating leafy green vegetables, you need more tools for consistent bowel habits as you move through menopause. And that’s where I found breathwork to be one of those tools that’s working for me.

Sandy Abrams
Yeah, it’s it totally makes sense. And also, because somebody had said, when you’re eating a delicious kale salad, do you still get all the nutrients if you’re feeling stressed? No, there is no there is some science behind that. Right? Yes. So I I would beg to differ with anybody that says that those two aren’t connected. So I’m going to find out exactly how but i i is fascinating.

Dr. Mindy
Okay, here are my five questions if you’ve been listening to my pod, probably know some of them, but I have a few new ones. Okay, we’re starting a book club. So at the end of the of each year, we’re going to put out all of our guests favorite books. So what’s one book that or two that you feel like are must reads that everybody should dive into?

Sandy Abrams
I knew you’re gonna ask this. And I’m glad you just said or two because I do I

Dr. Mindy
don’t know. I know, authors. Most authors are like, I can’t tell you what, because we write books because we love books.

Sandy Abrams
zactly. So my first one is an oldie but a goodie. It’s called the artists way by Julia Cameron.

Dr. Mindy
I read that in college. Yes, it’s, it’s,

Sandy Abrams
it’s she has a new version. Maybe the new version came out just five years ago, or maybe 10 years ago. But I love it. Because when we tap into our creativity, and that’s what this book is about the artists way. What happens is you can get creative in your life, you can create opportunities for yourself in life. That’s what I’ve done. My whole adult life as an entrepreneur is create opportunities. So I’ve gone back to her book every few years as an exercise of getting my creative juices flowing. So I highly recommend the artists way by Julia Cameron. And then the other book that I love is Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. It came out a few years ago maybe several years ago now she She’s the author that wrote Eat Pray Love Aska say

Dr. Mindy
she Eat Pray Love. I always get her and the Happiness Project woman. Gretchen Rubin. Yeah. So Eat Pray Love. Yeah. Okay, the magic. It’s

Sandy Abrams
so good, you will love it. And she’s also it’s all about creativity and tapping into your creativity. And when you have ideas, she has such an amazing philosophy about ideas and how when you have an idea for something, if you don’t actually act upon it, that idea is now live in the universe, and someone else is going to go with it. And so there’s so many other stories and advice and insights in that book. But that one thing that one little nugget stuck with me for a long time, because there are I meet so many entrepreneurs that have good ideas, but they don’t act on that. Oh, yeah. Yes.

Dr. Mindy
I love it. Okay. Second question is what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for your health? It’s the fact that you’ve done yoga and breath work, like is there something totally crazy that most people wouldn’t do for their health that you do? That’s a great

Sandy Abrams
question. I would say I’ve experimented with the, with the broth tools over the past few years that are like the Holotropic bra, and that kind of stuff that is like even leave someone like me who’s done yoga for 30 years in that like, Whoa, that was like next level like you’re in a class and people are laughing while they’re crying and someone else’s moaning and someone’s lost control of their limbs or you know, like yep, I when I left those few classes that I’ve experimented with recently, it’s kind of like well, I would put that under the crazy category but otherwise fasting for me I would also have put in the crazy category because I like you’ve talked about was one of those people that was always like a Jewish mother nervous that I wouldn’t have enough food with me all the time and so always packing the snacks for my car or my at my desk or and when I’m asking isn’t exhausting and travel to like now I fast while I travel and I don’t have to worry about using the restroom in the plane and there’s enough other worries with flying these days.

Dr. Mindy
Right so yeah, fasting was also would longest fast you’ve done

Sandy Abrams
I only recently did a 36 hour thanks to you. I’m probably a month ago otherwise I just started you know pushing back breakfast in our two hour three hours now my go to is I mean every day I’m I really only have like a six to eight hour eating window. Perfect. Again, it’s parallel with breath. Because it’s like how you say just peeking by pushing breakfast went back one hour. That’s so simple. And my advice would be like, just start by getting to know the power of one deep breath, and then three, and then and then you continue. And so I love the way that you eased me into that. And honestly, at 36 hours, because I wasn’t doing, I wasn’t checking my numbers or anything at that point, I stopped just because I felt like, Okay, I’m going to check the 36 hour box. And now I’m going to ease back into eating but I felt so good. So clear, no brain fog. I was energetic. And like I said, I didn’t even really want to stop. But I did. So yeah. Goals for me. 72 hours now, but I’m

Dr. Mindy
y’all know when you’re ready. The last one I did. I literally woke up on one morning, and I was like, I’m gonna fast for three days. That’s feels right. It was like an intuitive thing. So you’ll know it your body? I’ll tell you. Yeah. Okay, if you could go back to your 20 year old self. And you could give her some advice. What would you tell her

Sandy Abrams
to go inward? More to not be so externally focused and to spend more time and here this is where the magic happens? Yep. I remember like the Marie Kondo phenomenon, right where we were all decluttering our desks in our cars on our kitchen counter, that does feel darn good.

Dr. Mindy
It feels amazing, right? But

Sandy Abrams
this is where it’s more important to declutter inward decluttering, your energy decluttering, negative thoughts and negative dialogue. That’s what I would tell my younger self and tell any young people that I know start now. Empower yourself by knowing that you can control your mindset and your energy and your thoughts and the way that you feel. And that’s, it’s the energy in here. Once you declutter, maybe people can’t see that, but trust me, they can. They can. Yeah, energy, right. They can feel it in the way that you move through life more compassionate, more slowly, more kind. And it’s for me, it is a daily practice. I am wired to Taipei fast. And if you ask anybody who knows me, most people will say, Oh, yeah, she’s so calm. And she’s, you know, really cool and calm. And, like, it’s something I work on daily. Right? And, um, so yeah, so you can change and you can create your best mindset and energy with broth.

Dr. Mindy
I love that. Okay, what was one of the greatest gifts of 2020, we got to repattern 2020. What’s a personal gift that 2020 gave you

Sandy Abrams
more time in nature, just being able to we live at the beach. And so being able to, I was thinking the other day, I’ve probably done well over 5 million steps in the sand over Panama. That’s

Dr. Mindy
so powerful to go power. Yeah.

Sandy Abrams
And as I walked by the ocean every day, I like to say the only negativity I want in my life these days is negative ions

Dr. Mindy
from I love it. And the ocean gets that that’s amazing.

Sandy Abrams
Exactly. So I just encourage people to put your bare feet into whether it is the sand or the ocean, or dirt or grass or mountains, get out into nature, it is the best tool for breathing and going inward. And again, the science around what’s called earthing or forest bathing is fascinating. You immediately change the chemistry in your body when your bare feet hit the ground of nature.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, whenever I’m in nature, I’m at the beach, I always think oh my gosh, look at all like there’s so many great microbes here that I’m not getting in the city. And I’m like, let me breathe. Let me take my shoes off. Like, let me get in the water. Because it’s not more of a recreational thing. It’s more of a microbe, I want to get the microbes that are that the earth is providing me so I love I’m going to add negative ions to that. So last question, what if you had one message for the world that you could get into everybody’s brain? What would that be?

Sandy Abrams
The struggle is that it’s hard to boil it down into one but the message people is that breath transforms energy and that now is the time to get to know the power of your breath for wellbeing and success. Breath equalizes well being because it is accessible to everyone. It’s free. It’s available 24/7 365 And so that’s what I want to leave everybody with. Just tap into that everything you need is right here with it.