This week, we’re chatting with Ivan Broad, a psychotherapist and breathwork practitioner at Delamere and Ivan Broad Counselling.

Hi, Ivan! If you could recommend One Good Thing everyone can do to improve their mental health, what would it be?

This would be the 20 connected breaths. It’s a simple technique that is accessible to everyone and only takes 30 to 45 seconds. Breathing either through your mouth or nose depending on your needs at the time, this technique allows you to reclaim control and helps you to feel grounded. It is also completely unique to your personal mental or emotional state at the time. The yogis in the east have known the power of breathing practices to create change for centuries.

Why is the 20 connected breaths your One Good Thing?

In short, it is a pattern-breaker. Every thought you have has an emotion attached to it, and these emotions or thoughts can be negative and repetitive, affecting the quality of your mental health. Twenty connected breaths can help you stop spiralling, be more at one with yourself, and, most importantly, be present in the moment. Done correctly, you are conscious of every breath, bringing you into a responsive state, rather than reacting to your environment. When facilitating this technique for up to an hour with guests at Delamere who are in recovery for addiction, I have seen first-hand how this practice has helped bring new, positive and helpful thoughts into awareness.

Breathwork has boomed in the past few years because of its accessibility and effectiveness. Many people have called it the ‘new yoga’.

How do we do it?

The technique is simple – these are extended, deeper breaths than you will be used to, breathing down into your belly for a few seconds and then just letting go of the exhale. The inhale and exhale stay connected with no pause in between. It’s versatile. You can choose to do this by breathing in and out from your mouth, which activates your sympathetic nervous system, or your ‘fight or flight’ mode, and brings you more energy if you need a pick-me-up. Alternatively, you could activate your parasympathetic nervous system by breathing in and out through your nose, which helps you relax from being in a heightened state.

When breathing, keep your spine straight, posture upright, and shoulders back, and my advice would be to count breaths on your fingers so you don’t have to think about it. Focus solely on your breathing. Make sure to reassess how you’re feeling after the 20 connected breaths.

While this is a great tool for everyone to use, breathwork has tremendous depth as a practice. I trained with a company called First Breath, which has the most comprehensive training programme for breathwork in the UK. It was a three-year programme, and this is because it takes about two years to embody the practice and support others. I can highly recommend going onto YouTube to watch the 20 connected breaths in action before trying it.

What benefits could we see from using this technique?

It puts you back in control when you may feel like you’ve lost it. The world can feel very chaotic at the moment, and we are all guilty of thinking too often about what the next step is rather than being in the moment. Twenty connected breaths can help you respond rather than react, and they can help you become more aware of your thoughts and feelings.

I am told that the hour-long sessions of conscious connected breathing I facilitate are one of the most popular sessions and holistic treatments on offer at Delamere, and for good reason. Memory is stored in every single cell in the body. Breathwork can help you start to feel everything you have been avoiding. If we take guests in addiction recovery, breathwork can stimulate your body to re-experience and remember something you numbed out from. Connection tends to be what many people in recovery are searching for, and this can support that. 

What are some common pitfalls of your one good thing? How can we avoid them?

There are many considerations one should make when trying something new if you are struggling with your mental health. The first would be to be aware that if you are not seeing a positive result straight away, this is normal. I encourage you to keep trying and be patient. Twenty connected breaths helps you feel more deeply, not always better or immediately better. Breath consciousness builds over time, so daily practice is key.

Another consideration is that it is natural to feel scared and uncomfortable about your own feelings. Many people who try this practice for the first time are often suppressing emotions and searching for solutions. There are a few things you can do to mitigate this: try the practice with a friend or a loved one, try to keep eye contact as this can be soothing if it’s with someone you trust, and most of all, try to allow yourself to feel those feelings that might be alien.

There’s often a misconception that you can’t make sounds when breathing too. I think this sometimes indicates signs of conditioning where you may have been told to “speak when you’re spoken to” or to “not make a sound”. I actively encourage people to make sounds during my sessions. On a few occasions, I’ve also had people belly laughing as a result of the effects of the breathwork. Sometimes you just can’t avoid it and need to let it out. I’ve had many people in rehab coming up and hugging me because it was the first time in a long time, or ever, that they felt connected to themselves. It can be transformational.

How do you personally do your One Good Thing?

I practise this every day at home. My personal routine is a yoga sequence called Tibetan Five Rites, where I combine breathwork with movement. I believe strongly that both breathwork and movement play an essential role in supporting you to become conscious of what is going on in your mind and guiding your mental health. For me, who is less active the older I get, it sets me up nicely for the day. I feel energised and ready.

Another way I integrate this into my day-to-day life is when I’m sat in traffic. We will all have experienced a sense of frustration at not moving for hours on end. I now practise breathing in and humming when I exhale. This stimulates the vagus nerve and helps with relaxation.

Additionally, as a breathwork practitioner, I practise 20 connected breaths all the time with my clients to help them with technique, and sometimes just for support.

And how has doing this changed your life for the better?

It has completely changed my life. In the past, I suffered from depression and lived with chronic back pain for five or six years. There were several occasions when I felt angry with the world and didn’t want to leave the house. Somatic breathwork, like the 20 connected breaths, has helped reduce those feelings to one or two ‘down days’ a month now, and I feel much more resilient to handle those days.

Likewise, I now notice that my body feels like cooked spaghetti, rather than uncooked. It’s like I have breathed much of the emotional baggage and tension that was stuck in my spine out of me. It reminds me of a saying: “What we hold down, ends up holding us down – what we suppress will depress us.” That is exactly the sort of weight that has been lifted through somatic breathwork and other holistic therapies.

Frame Of Mind is Stylist’s home for all things mental health and the mind. From expert advice on the small changes you can make to improve your wellbeing to first-person essays and features on topics ranging from autism to antidepressants, we’ll be exploring mental health in all its forms. You can check out the series home page to get started.

Images: Adobe