The Breath – Ancient Secret to Total Health Transformation

Today's Valuable Free Resources/Links:

·        FREE resource to help you get started on your journey into Breathwork - https://www.elementalrhythm.com/rhythm-begins-with-you/

Summary

In this episode, I introduce you to Giovanni Bartolomeo.

Gio is an entrepreneur and life adventurer who has a passion for teaching, experiential learning and creating deep connections with others. He is the founder of Elemental Wellness studio in Toronto and Co-Founder of The Personal Development School among many other ventures.

He is always looking for the next consciousness-expanding learning experience whether it be climbing mountains in his shorts with Wim Hof, participating in Traditional Ayahuasca ceremonies, or challenging his mind and body to see what new limits he can reach. Gio is a breathwork facilitator and Life/Executive coach and Founder of Elemental Rhythm Breathwork Programs and Facilitator Training.

He launched his third podcast in 2020 called the Elemental Awakening to go along with his YouTube channel (Elemental Awakening). You can watch his documentary on Plant Medicine called Psyched Out for free through his YouTube channel.

He’s an entrepreneur at heart and loves to create new ideas and ways to help improve the planet for not only the people currently living on it but for those who we will leave it to one day!

Today he speaks about:

Breathwork and its transformative power. (0:01)

Proper breathing techniques for relaxation and well-being. (8:57)

Mindfulness and breathwork for moms to reduce stress and improve well-being. (17:56)

Join me for this episode of Mommy Heal Thyself to learn how to breath for health transformations.

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Intro  0:00 

Welcome to Mommy Heal Thyself.  We featured guests that provide you with the tools, resources and strategies you need to say no to a life of pain and suffering all forms of preventable disease, toxic drugs and unnecessary surgeries. We hope to inspire you to boldly reclaim your ability to heal, and to serve ones to love.

Dr Michelle  0:13 

welcome everyone to another episode of mommy heal thyself. Today I have with me a special guest. This is Gil and he is a founder of elemental rhythm breathwork that uses the power of conscious breathing to help others to deepen their self awareness and create long lasting transformation. Now Gio is an entrepreneur and life adventurer who has a deep passion for teaching. That's how I initially got to know Gio because I was so blown away by things that he's going to start sharing that I decided to become one of his students because I wanted to learn more about being able to help people on their journey. into the world of breath work. So he is the founder of elemental wellness studio in Toronto and the co founder of the personal development school, among many other ventures. He's always looking for the next consciousness expanding learning experience, whether it be climbing mountains in his shorts with Wim Hof, or participating in traditional Ayahuasca ceremonies, or challenging his mind and body to see what new limits he can reach. Now Gio is a breathwork facilitator and life executive coach and facilitator and founder of elemental rhythm breathwork programs and facilitator training. He launched his third podcast in 2020 called elemental awakening to go along with his YouTube channel elemental awakening. And you can catch his documentary on plant medicine called sight out for free through his YouTube channel. He's an entrepreneur at heart and loves to create new ideas and ways to help us not only as people living on this planet, but also thinking about leaving the world better off tomorrow than it is today. So God, thank you so very much for joining me today.

Gio  2:03 

What an awesome intro. Thanks so much started. Well,

Dr Michelle  2:07 

any issue I can give is small in comparison to the greatness that you have given to us in this community. So I think, yes, I'm

Gio  2:17 

grateful to be here and I hope that I can share something that someone could implement in a small change that can be small change we make they add up over time and creates momentum to transform our lives. So some people are looking for, hey, I'm gonna change everything in one shot. And sometimes that happens a lot of times, just small little things that we can do. That can really create a lot of momentum and change in our lives.

Dr Michelle  2:39 

Absolutely. You know what we're in titling this podcast is the breath, the ancient secret to health transformation. And I would love for you to tell us a little bit more about how you found this secret out.

Gio  2:57 

Yeah, it's funny that we refer to the secret you don't miss this thing that is happening all the time. From the moment we're born to we take our last breath. Yeah, I guess the way I initially found out about it was and making large changes in my life going from a serial entrepreneur and just really stressed out and really focusing on making money. I was convinced growing up and net worth and self worth are the same thing. And I kind of had a realization that look, I'm not happy doing what I'm doing. There's very little meaning in my life. And as I was on that kind of conquests, I guess for meaning for deeper understanding, sort of leading me to different things. So I started to understand what my intuition was, you know, this this kind of Beacon or the system within you that's kind of guiding you in different directions. And one of the points along the way, I had one of my first podcast, I met a guy named Wim Hof The Iceman who you know is one of the leading kind of breathwork brands in the world and uses cold exposure breathwork and mindset to pre change. So I went to one of his initial trainings, and I had my first real breathwork experience and had this complete out of body experience. I floating around on top of the room I snapped back into my body started crying uncontrollably, which was weird for me as a man, you know, with men don't cry type thing macho and, and it felt so good. It felt really good. And I just realized in that moment, I was releasing a lot of this expectations pressure this this kind of like need to be successful. It was just like letting it go and being okay with being exactly who I was and be happy to contend with. That was a huge transformational like, turning point for me, or inflection point, which got me really interested in Breathworks okay, like if I can reach that state from just breathing like, you know, where has this been my whole life with this secret that I just kind of stumbled upon. And the more I looked into it, you know, breathing affects every aspect of our life, our nervous systems, our heart rate. Our mental clarity, our ability to perform, you know, physical performance, athletic performance, sleep, so many things as affected by the breath, and breath work, you know, it's like a blanket term. It's like saying math. I mean, like, what's math like, there's algebra and calculus, there's, you know, all these different you know, things you can do with math. The same with the breath, you know, you can use your breath, to calm me down. You can use your breath to excite you, you can use your breath to help you sleep better. For athletic performance all the way to these deep transformational breath, work experiences, where you can resolve past traumas, you have emotional releases, you know, you can do all these things. So, you know, I started really exploring all the different like the whole breathwork Spectrum was for was trying to just gain more experience and knowledge now that my eyes had been open my lungs had been open to new possibilities.

Dr Michelle  6:00 

So when we talk about breathwork, it's kind of abstract for a lot of people because most people will say, What a bunch of hooey. I'm already breathing. What the heck are you talking about? What is the differentiation that you're making here? And what is conscious breathing?

Gio  6:19 

You yes, there's a cliche term that says like, just breathe, you know, I'm trying to like change, like, don't just breathe, breathe intentionally breathe properly, and you'll see changes. So a lot of people. I'm generalizing here, but most of us have had some form of trauma or stress in our lives or daily things that are moving our nervous system into more of this fight or flight kind of space. When you go into fight flight. hurtling goes up your stress, hormones, cortisol go up and your breathing starts to change. A lot of people will breathe more shallow, more quicker up to their chest, their mouth, because it's like a response of fight. Or flight. It's like pushing on that sympathetic nervous system. And some of us things have happened to us. We're really small. We've developed these patterns that have kind of stuck with us our whole life. And you know, science has shown that people that over breathe some more than like 25 breaths per minute or, you know, anything above 15 starts getting sick over breathing 25 as a chronic or breathing. If you look at the side effects from chronic overeating, it looks like one of those scary you know, drug commercials you see like on TV, like Side effects may include, you know, tingling sensations in the hands, Jelly legs, inability to sleep well you know, high stress, you know, poor circulation, heart issue, they can just goes on and on and on. And so, you know, just changing our breathing mechanics in the simplest way, we'll have all these effects that will ripple out into your physiology having a clear mind being able to be calm, slowing down your heart rate. And a lot of them are very effective. In other words very quickly, you know, like within one session of focus, conscious breathing, like you'll feel different in your body emotionally, physically and mentally. So it is important and you know, we are just breathing but if you look at a baby, when they breathe, when a baby's born, everything's your diaphragm degree to their nose. It's like automatically kind of evolutionary program, the proper way to breathe, but somewhere we kind of started losing that we start moving into these stressful or sympathetic breathing kind of patterns. And nowadays, it's very hard not to like there's a million stimuli in our in our lives, between social media between work between what's going on in the world, you know, things that keep us up at night that create fear within our bodies and death is the best way to kind of neutralize that and kind of bring you back into your body. Getting out of that racing mind and see things with a more logical and grounded perspective versus this like analytical fear based, you know, survival mode. Yeah. So the few tips that we want to start with is just checking in a few times a day, like how am I breathing? Are you breathing quickly? Are you breathing erratically? Or are you breathing slowly? Are you breathing through your nose or your shoulders tensed up all the time you're holding tension your job is so just taking a few breaths into your nose. We can do a couple of right now. So if you're listening, because I wouldn't

Dr Michelle  9:20 

be able to distinguish exactly what's a good breathing pattern that we can simply start with? Yeah,

Gio  9:27 

so let's do it together. So what we're gonna do is sit up straight away. It's important that we postures because it allows yourself to open up the lungs and create some space in your diaphragm so that we're not putting extra pressure on our heart. You know, when you're hunched over, you're tensed up and you over, breathe, you're putting more pressure into your chest and specifics and straight, allow your diaphragm to relax or we're just gonna breathe in through the nose and try to feel your belly expand and we'll just do five breaths together. If you're listening and slugs, you're not driving. So we're kind of like safe and if you busted me, okay, so breathe into your nose. Pause for a second or two and slowly exhale, maybe three or four seconds, three or four counts between those so slow, deep breath in. A slow exhale as you exhale, you can relax your shoulders, any tension you feel in your body. You three more breaths like that into your nose. Excellent through your nose. A little bit longer. Exhale. And inhale, slight pause the top is nice. Do one more

Unknown Speaker  10:40 

How do you feel? Talk to Michelle?

Dr Michelle  10:43 

Wonderful tick me up. Just putting everything settling it and I noticed three things when you were leading us in that guidance in that breathing exercise. The first thing I noticed is that you kept on emphasizing that we should breathe in and out through our nose. And then the second thing I noticed was that you had us hold the breath like after the inhale. And then the third thing you had us you know kind of hold the breath sometimes at the end and it was a slower rate. So if you can tell us a little bit more about those things.

Gio  11:18 

Yeah, so so the the nose actually will activate the parasympathetic nervous system and up to your mouth. It's going to the sympathetic. So initially, you just send a signal to your body, hate rest and digest safety stuff like that. So reading through the nose is really important. The nose also filters the air. It warms the air and voices the air and it actually curls the air like it spins it sounds like so if you're breathing through your mouth, you're not getting any of that plus, we have a natural ability to create nitric oxide in our nose, you know, creating our mouth. So nitric oxide is amazing for so many body functions like circulation and focus. So for not bringing to our nose, we're losing on that. So nose is like the number one killer of like, hey, read through your nose. Number one. Same thing that diaphragm we've been through a diaphragm allows the air to go deeper into the lungs also activates more the parasympathetic nervous system and there's way more blood and the lower parts of the lungs and get more of that oxygen, carbon dioxide exchange more efficiently. Okay, so that's number one is like the mechanics of nose and diaphragmatic breathing, the simplest form. Inhale, when we inhale, it increases heart rate. When we exhale decreases heart rate. So I that little pause and slowing down our exhale. does a few things but mainly it just just slowing things down. Exhales no slow down, relax. And also the pauses, exhale, just to build up little more co2 in the body. So every time you inhale, your oxygen level goes up to 90%. But what's the most important part of breathing that is kind of overlooked is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is not just carbon dioxide actually is what helps deliver the oxygen from the hemoglobin red blood cells to your tissues to your brain and muscles. So if we can't build up that co2 Because we're breathing too quickly, that means we're always blowing it out. So doesn't give our body enough time to build that up slowly slow down the breathing slowly excellent little pause just a little bit more time to build up that co2 And we're going to be able to operate our this amazing machinery that we have a lot more efficiently Yeah.

Dr Michelle  13:30 

So now what is the reason for slowing down the breath? You were mentioning at the beginning you said that many of us read rapidly, you know like 15 or more breaths per minute. And you were saying more optimal?

Unknown Speaker  13:54 

recording stopped. Do you remember what happened there?

Dr Michelle  13:58 

No, probably we'll just resume and I'll splice it in there. Okay. recording in progress. Yes. So you were mentioning before that many of us breathe 15 or more breaths per minute. And it's more optimal for us to breathe, you know, between eight and 12 breaths or even slower? Why is that?

Gio  14:25 

Yes, there's a lot of reasons. You know, when you're breathing quickly, again, it's sending that signal to the body like fight or flight sympathetic. It's like it's really like building up the adrenaline the cortisol. Yogi's in ancient times, used to study animals and they noticed that the animals that breathe the slowest, the quickest the shortest lifespans. So it's almost like we have a certain number of breaths per life. And it kind of makes sense because when you slow down your breathing, you're going to be a lot more efficient in using each breath, you're going to be a lot more calmer, a lot more centered, a lot more like in the present moment than if you breathe quickly. And a lot of science supports that. That. If you're doing athletic activity, even then, if you can breathe slower, you'll be more focused, but it takes your body some time to adjust. So you're not going to go from 20 breaths a minute to like eight breaths a minute overnight. Yes, slowly start training your body in something called co2 tolerance. So every single human on the earth has an amount of carbon dioxide they can tolerate in their blood. That's what actually triggers us to breathe. It's when that carbon dioxide level hits a certain thing with oxygen. It's what's your carbon dioxide level hits a certain level. It sends a signal and you feel that breathlessness that urge to breathe, the more you practice breathing techniques, and when you slow down your breath, your ability to tolerate carbon dioxide will actually see be able to breathe slower and more efficiently. So then what happens is when you start playing sports, to be able to get as much energy output with less breathing so you have a clearer mind be more present and you'll be using all the energy way more efficiently.

Dr Michelle  16:00 

What have you found to be the biggest sabotage to proper breathing when work with people

Gio  16:13 

so number one is people mouth breathing at night so unconscious, you know so now you might see online like people keeping their mouth shut and athletes doing it and it's seems a bit weird and scary or like out on the fringe but is one of the most effective tools I've seen the biggest impact certain amount of time because you breathing with an open mouth to do snoring just the apnea. Imagine your mouth breathing all night long. It's dry air is not filtered. It's not moisturize, quarries can dehydrate you even more as it impacts on your home. So that's number one. And number two is just the ability for people to be aware of their breath, especially in stressful situations. Right? So once you start bringing awareness like oh, like I'm feeling stressed right now I have this to my breath. I can calm down my system. So a lot of people that don't have that awareness, you know, once they start applying that everyday like and I would say like an alarm in your phone random alarm for five times a day that just seems brief. So when it goes off, you see it as okay, how am I breathing? Let me slow it down. Let me just get in the present moment. And what you what happens is you can train yourself to change that pattern. It just takes some repetitions and practice every day. And you won't even have to think about it anymore. It would be as some people say like every breathe, you know, why do I have to change anything, it'll just become your second nature and the normal way you breathe, but you have to practice a bit and just train your body. Okay, this is the proper way to breathe, not whatever I was doing before if you weren't breathing properly. And

Dr Michelle  17:47 

so I'm curious, what do you feel has been the most impactful either person or event that has occurred in your life? That brought you to this point?

Gio  18:00 

Oh, man you know, it was for me it was that realization. You know, like, years ago, like I said, I was as a serial entrepreneur. And I always come back to this point like why did things really change? And it was a self awareness point. You know, I had this vision I was sitting at the side of my bed it was the kind of first time like, like, I felt like something bigger was speaking to me. I didn't know it was my imagination or what but I had this moment of realizing okay, like you figured out how to live a pretty comfortable life and you're making a little bit money and you know, but in that moment, I looked at my hands and I saw these old wrinkly hands like, like my grandfather's hands. And the thought that came to my mind like, you figured you figured it out. You're gonna do the same thing on a vacation each year you get to drive a somewhat decent car, and one day you're gonna wake up an old man. You look back at your life and you're gonna be like, okay, who cares? Like, what was the point? What did you do that mattered? Would you do that had impact like what are you leaving behind? Like, how are you really making the world a better place? And I had no answer. And I was able to recognize what unfulfillment felt like for the first time. I think that's what I was distracting myself all those years. overworking, trying to like do all these businesses was like I was unfulfilled and I thought and success was going to fill that void. So that led me on this quest of inner exploration. And, you know, some of my mentors along the way was, you know, Wim Hof was a teacher of mine, ayahuasca and plant medicine, you know, that's like a personal mentor, I would say so, you know, and I would say, like my wife and kids, you know, like the interactions with them and seeing myself change and be inspired. Just for myself, but, you know, what's it going to be like when my kids are older, right? Like, how do I do what I can knowing that, you know, I can't change the world. You know, what's going on out there? Like, I can't stop what's going on, but I can if I can impact in my sphere of influence in any way that I can. I'm going to do it, because that's all that I can do. You know, work on myself share, hopefully inspire others to kind of you know, want to make changes in their lives. And hopefully, that, you know, supports the ripple effect of change that's happening throughout the world right now.

Dr Michelle  20:21 

What would you suggest to a mom who's busy, overwhelmed with life overwhelmed with taking care of so many people and losing? Ah, god, another thing, what would you what would be your suggestion to her to get started in this?

Gio  20:39 

Yeah, so, you know, like, if you were living more calmer throughout your day, if you had a little more energy throughout your day if you slept a little bit better at night you know how to be. Right? So now, if it took you 10 minutes a day, it's gonna make you feel better, you're going to be calmer. You might even sleep better and you have a little more energy. Is that worth it? Like, would you take a pill that would do that for you? You know, how about something free? That's gonna just take you 10 minutes a day. Of just conscious breathing, that you can use anywhere, anytime, once you learn how to do it, you know, would it be worth it? Right? So a lot of time we think we don't have time for things and we probably don't in our minds, but if doing a practice is going to create more time and space and allow you to feel better, you know, it's it's it's in my in my opinion worth it. And what I would ask you is like, what's the cost of not doing it? Continuing to feel the way you feel like what is that costing you? You know, and sometimes when you frame it like That's okay, I'll give it a try.

Dr Michelle  21:39 

To help you ladies on that journey. Gio is giving a special gift so, Gia, can you tell us a little bit more about this phenomenal gift that you're giving to our mom?

Gio  21:51 

Yeah, so there's a completely free mini course on our website. He's going to talk a little bit about some breathing mechanics gonna give you a few exercises to do and there's a full grid breathwork experience that will take you to a three minute cherry at the end of the mini course. And, you know, make sure you block off 30 minutes for you because you deserve it. And it might bring up some emotions. It might help you to release some stress and it's a very profound experience. So go through it. At your own at your own pace. But these things that you learn you take with them with you for life, and this one is completely free. It's a five module mini course for you guys to explore. And then from there, if you want to keep learning more, you know, you can reach out and we can talk to Dr. Michelle about how to get more access to continued education, learning and support. So ladies,

Dr Michelle  22:41 

I have to tell you forewarned there's a side effect to this. I went through that five module course and I just felt so and I fell in love with breathwork and I just wanted to not only learn more for myself, I wanted to learn more to be able to teach and share with other people. And I want you to consider as you go through this, how can this actually even help the ones in my that I love the ones that are around me? So I'm just letting you be forewarned. I think you're going to be blown away when you take uptake to up on his offer with this free gift. And if you choose to move further, you know, I would excitedly encourage you to do so because the world needs a lot more of us breathing consciously. So Gio as we wrap up today, what is the one thing that you would like to share with our audience that you think will help them?

Gio  23:42 

Yeah, is ultimately is to believe in yourself and that no matter where you are right now that you have a conscious choice that can change the direction at any moment. You know, whatever it is, whatever challenges you're facing right now, one thing I've learned no matter how high that mountain looks or how low it's always, I always have that choice and how I want to respond and there's always something that you can do to improve a little bit. Better. Every step you take in that direction is to open up new opportunities that you couldn't previously see. So, you know, if this resonates with you, try it. Follow your curiosity, follow your intuition. There's stuff out there just waiting for you to explore to find it's going to really help you on your on your personal attorney, whether it's health, wealth, relationships, like there's things out there but you gotta believe in yourself trusting your intuition. And mom's intuition. They're usually pretty, pretty bang on so yeah, just just follow that lead you in some beautiful, beautiful directions.

Dr Michelle  24:42 

Well, ladies, I encourage you to embark upon that journey. One breath at a time. Until next time,

Gio  24:52 

and blessings. Thank you so much for listening. So great to share with you and thank you so much Dr. Michelle for having me. Awesome. Yay.

Closing: Thank you for tuning in for this episode of Mommy Heal Thyself, if you liked what we're doing here, please share subscribe, like us and leave a comment. Your feedback is very much appreciated.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai