Practical Breathwork to Improve Sleep and Relaxation with Tim Thomas

Hi everybody, I'm Dr. Sanda Moldovan, periodontist and nutritionist. Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body as we explore together the root cause of disease. Remember, you're not healthy until your mouth is healthy. So take care of it in the most Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode on the Holistic Dentistry Show. I'm your host, Dr. Sanda, and today we will be talking about breathwork. So with me, I have a very special guest, Tim Thomas, who is a former Special Forces Commando. Wow. Tim, welcome to the show.

Dr. Sanda, great to be here.

What was that like to be Special Forces Commando? I'm sure you get that a lot.

The only thing unique about my service is in 2004, the Australian government, for the first time in the military history, started what was called the DRSF scheme, Direct Recruiting into Special Forces. So they knew a war was coming. They had a budget but no bums on seats. So they thought, we'll trial this system that we think will work. We'll take sort of ex-athletes that can pass the right kind of aptitude tests, psychological screening, IQ testing, obviously physical testing, and then we'll give them basic training. And if they pass that, we'll give them advanced training. And if they pass that, we'll put them through what's called the Special Forces selection. And so normally you'd have to spend 2 years in a regular infantry battalion to even apply for Special Forces. So having this slipstream from the civilian world was highly resisted. They considered us civilian queue jumpers. So, and I was the first batch to go through in 2004. But the best thing to happen to us was Afghanistan in 2006, cuz we could, we showed that we could do everything everyone else could do. Uh, and so that was sort of the tipping point. Everyone went from hating us to going, oh, this is actually really good. So the, the job itself, you're away from home over 200 days of the year.

Wow.

And, um, I had a young family. In fact, my, my firstborn was, was born on Special Forces selection. They said to me, Tim, you can see your kid being born or you can do selection. You can't do both. Right? That's a whole other thing in itself. So I used to make videos for my kids of me reading their favorite books so they wouldn't forget what dad looks like and they wouldn't forget what dad sounds like. And, and I would have sounds that would separate me from any other, um, adult. So my boy from, from a baby knew when he heard that sound, that was daddy, right?

Right.

And so, so My, my then wife would put, uh, the phone in the middle of the lounge room floor on speakerphone. I would make that sound and my boy would be crawling towards the speakerphone.

Oh yeah. You figured out a way to keep the connection. I love that.

Yeah.

So this must have been a pretty high pressure environment.

It pushes you beyond what you think is possible. Um, and it was in that space that I, I, from that complete Like there's fatiguing your body, fatiguing your mind, but then when you're outside the wire in a deployment, you are seeing things that most humans never get, never see in a, in a, in a way that is deeply impactful, deeply fatiguing. You know, you lose your best mate sometimes. And in that state of complete fatigue, complete giving up, I noticed I couldn't work anymore, but if I improve the quality of my sleep with simple breathwork, then all of a sudden the next day I felt a whole lot better. I had a little bit more energy. Um, so I didn't, discovering what I discovered wasn't, you know, an enlightened moment on top of a mountain where something falls out of the sky. This was, this was in the, in the, in the middle of a very difficult time where I didn't have access to any kind of, you know, support. And I just found something that worked. Uh, I didn't know what it was. It just kept working for me. And, and I figured, well, if it, if it worked for me in that really sort of tough situation, surely it can, it can work elsewhere.

Do you remember how you discovered breathwork or was it just one night it just felt good to breathe?

No, no. Good question. Because I was, I was, you know, beyond physically, emotionally, mentally fatigued. And I'm like, what's the point, Tim? You're going to die in this shithole. It's like you've only got 2 cents worth of energy and after feeling Really bad for a considerable period of time. I thought, well, Tim, if you've only got two cents worth of energy, you better invest that wisely. And like I said, I couldn't have worked any harder during the daytime, but at nighttime, I thought, well, I'm going to take that two cents. And no one showed me this. This was the part that kind of fell out of the sky. I, I held a stretch in my body and I focused on the tip of my thumb, like there was a pinhole in the tip of my thumb, and I snorted. Through my nose, but pretending I was breathing down the tip of my thumb like, and that started feeling really good. And eventually I kept breathing down my thumb. That eventually turned into white light in my mind's eye. And I pulled it down my thumb, down my finger, and then I went to sleep. And the 2 cents I went to sleep with, I woke up with $2 worth of energy. And I'm like, huh, energy's like money. How you invest it's how you get it back. And this breathwork thing seems to give a really good return. And I noticed, so the next night when went to sleep with a bit of extra energy, I breathed through my thumb, my finger, down my forearm, went to sleep, $2 turned into $20. And I noticed, Dr. Sanda, when I, um, was low on energy, it was all about me. It's terrible. This is bad. That's bad. That's bad. But then as my energy increased, I become more aware of what was around me. And I got to a point where I'm like, you know, it doesn't matter if I'm having a good day, if my team's having a bad day, I'm having a bad day. So this sort of silly breathwork thing I was doing at nighttime wasn't just for me and wasn't just, you know, to have me sleep better. I was breathing for my team. And that then sort of started this sort of chain of events that has, I guess, forever altered my life post that event.

Very interesting, you know, because were you engaging them? Did you go to them and say, hey, you know what, this is a great exercise. Why don't you guys try it? Or no, you were just kind of doing it for them, almost like remote healing.

So I didn't know what it was. I just knew it worked. I couldn't show anyone else, but what I could do is ask this question. How can I serve? How can I make their day better? And what I did have was a supply of fresh coffee. And I thought, well, I'll make, I'll make coffee for these guys. Now that might sound easy, but you have to remember there's a certain dynamic within the special forces that if you do an act of service and an act of undeserved service to another kind of alpha male, they think you're below them. You're my servant now, right? And, you know, I'd worked too hard to get to where I was to be called the brew bitch.

Yeah. Okay.

And that's, I knew if I'd make coffee, they'd be called, you know, Tim, you're the brew bitch, right? Um, but, but that's when I realized, um, Dr. Sanda, that there's a difference between, um, servitude and servanthood. And I thought, it doesn't matter if these guys call me the brew bitch. They love me, hate me, tell me to fuck off. It doesn't matter. What matters is they're stronger. Because who did I want around me when good times turned bad? Do I want fatigued, disconnected people? I want, do I want connected, you know, rested people? And I, and that's what I did. I made coffee. I gave it to other teams. I got called the brew bitch. And that wasn't great, but I could, being so close to people, you could observe how that thing happened. Because often, you know, I'm sure yourself, you do good things for other people, but you can't always observe the impacts of it, right? In this sort of tight environment, I could see that, you know, I drop off the coffee and these guys are arguing beforehand, right? And then when they pour the coffee, they take a sip and then they immediately take a second sip quickly because they realize that's good coffee. And I had some caramel and chocolate put in there too, right? They'd take another sip and then everything would just stop. The fighting stopped, the rapid movement stopped. You could see them kind of looking at the horizon, taking a deep breath, and these broad shoulders would just relax. And for just a second in the middle of a war zone, they weren't in a war zone. They were in a coffee shop back home. And the dialogue changed within the team. And I'm like, there it is. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing. And eventually the officers saw this and I started making them coffee and people started sitting down and talking, not like an officer saying, this is the way it is and you do it my way. And the other ranks going, nah, that's bullshit. We should do it this way. You know, these guys were talking and I'm like, I'm the lo— I was a private. I was paid to do what everyone else does, right? But that's when I saw the power of servanthood. I wasn't saying anything in that space, but I'd created a space where everyone was getting stronger. Therefore, you know, everyone's survivability goes up, everyone's connection's going up. It does, you know, it doesn't change the fact that we had plenty of hard times ahead of us, but I knew when those times came, I'd have 50 of the world's toughest dudes, you know, Rested and connected.

That's impressive. Yeah. So what happens after you, let's say, retired? What did you do with the breathwork?

Well, again, I didn't know quite what it was and I left, uh, the defense force. Let's just say not on my terms. I had undiagnosed PTSD. I was reacting to things I didn't know. And I lost a lot of my life to pharmaceuticals because when I told a doctor my head hurts and I can't sleep, they're like, Here's all these pills. And initially it was great. I'm like, oh, this is long service leave in a bottle.

Glug, glug.

But no one told me the cost of taking those pills. And I'm not against pills, but no one tells you how hard it is to get off these things. And no one tells you that they're a short-term loan. Yes, they'll give you $100 this week, but you've got to pay back $150 the next. And, um, no one told me how breathwork could change your system when you needed it. I used it sort of in emergencies, but I didn't quite have that awareness of how to use it outside of that.

Um, you know, such a big problem what you're saying with addiction. I, you know, it's the same in United States. Um, it's just so easy for doctors to hand out pills and especially now, you know, post-COVID, there's a lot of people with anxiety, a lot of people with headaches and stressed out. Well, that's okay. Here's some Xanax. Here's some pills. Here's Vicodin. Um, it is unfortunate, but you know what you're, you had to deal with a lot of people and young people, including in my practice that I see that are struggling with addiction.

And here's what I discovered. I'm, I'm dyslexic, so I see things in patterns. And so what I noticed that the pills, the pain, emotional or physical, it didn't matter what it was. The worst thing that pills or pain could do is create a sense of loneliness, isolation. I'm the only person going through this. And that extra imbalance, in my experience of it, had people lean further into the external sources of comfort or solutions. And so I created some of Australia's most powerful veteran recovery programs based off the idea that it's not the pain we can't handle, it's the loneliness and isolation that it causes. And if you can break the isolation and then restore them out of their fatigue, It's like this internal compass turns on and they know exactly what to do next. And I noticed that, you know, feeling all alone in this world, not knowing who to trust. And when you're like that, it's really hard to sleep because when you go to sleep, you have to drop your guard for a second. So those 2 things cause all these sort of downstream problems that, you know, people like myself lost a lot of years trying to solve through mainstream sort of solutions. But seeing that once people had their isolation broken, having their sleep restored, they could then meet whatever problems they had with so much more power and presence. And it was amazing how little people need once you went upstream of all these, of all the sort of problems people experiencing. And we had a goal to save 40 veteran lives from suicide. That was my lifetime goal. I chose that number because that's how many people we've lost to bombs and bullets in Afghanistan. And I thought, if I can achieve that, I'm going to die happy, right? But that lifetime achievement was achieved within 12 months simply by breaking isolation and helping people sleep better.

I love that. And sleeping is another thing that, you know, my practice being integrative actually focuses in diagnosing sleep disturbances and sleep issues in people. Because if we can't sleep well, we can't regenerate. It's like no matter what we do, Sleep, sleep cannot be replaced by anything. So what kind of tools was it? Did the breathwork that you started in special forces, did that develop into a sleep exercise?

Well, I just want to enhance your point there. So you've got to remember at war, when you want to destroy somebody, the first thing you target is the enemy's sleep. So the whole thing about special forces is when that enemy is going to sleep, he doesn't know if he's going to get a knock on the door.

Right?

So if you can, if you, and we didn't know the science of sleep, we just knew if we could take it out for 3 nights, it would mess them up better than a bullet. So consider if you care about somebody, you care about their sleep. And that kind of makes sense, right? But the culture we're in right now, poor sleep is so accepted, you know, shut up and have a coffee, right? Um, and I challenge people here because we have people we care about. Right? And we do nice things for them, but how many things have we done that specifically helps the people we care about sleep better?

Yes, that's a great question to ask ourselves. I agree with you. It's the best gift to give somebody, like the right environment and the time for them to sleep well.

And considering, you know, um, if you want to destroy someone, destroy their sleep. And, and in a lot of, you know, abusive relationships, people are scared to sleep because they don't know when they're You know, other half is going to attack them because that's a, that's a devilish tactic to, to really get into somebody. So I, I like, I only highlight the negative to highlight the positive. So, you know, my, my kids, you know, they know about breathwork, right? But I've bought them a bunch of, um, biolights so they can, at least I know they, the last light they're seeing is like a non-blue light at night.

Whoa.

And then when they wake up, they've got that non-blue light sort of getting their system, you know, in, in check. Uh, so I just wanted to sort of reinforce that point and not, and not step over it because, because if, if you can be the one and you said it in one of your episodes, sort your sleep out and then all these other things sort out. But this was, this was my dilemma when I was going through PTSD. A lot of people would say, yes, you need to sleep better. And I'm like, yes, I agree. But how the hell do I do that? You know, work with me here besides, besides the obvious, uh, you know, pharmaceutical options. Um, so it wasn't until I had a COVID divorce that I realized the power of breathwork for getting you into a state of peace when you really needed it and helping you sleep. So I knew, I see when I got out of the military, I heard about Wim Hof. You know, I even met the guy and I knew that I discovered that breathwork was actually a thing, but it wasn't until I was going through my divorce. Uh, lost house, home, regular access to kids, lost my money. And you can, and I was sleeping on the couch in my parents' place that all my mind, it was worse than the war zone of Afghanistan. It really was. I would have gone to Afghanistan in a heartbeat before feeling that.

Yes, I can feel you saying that for sure. So with breathwork and actually discovering this, like how, and by the way, some people listening to this podcast might not even know what breathwork is necessarily. I actually took a workshop in breathwork with a practitioner, a guided breathwork workshop. So maybe we should explain, I guess, what is breathwork? Is it just like breathing deeply or is it more than that?

Yeah, I will give you a lived example. So how would you react if someone was doing this?

Hyperventilating. Yeah.

Hyperarousal, shallow breathing. Okay. And that kind of affects other people when they're looking at it. They're like, whoa, right? And imagine if someone went, ah, okay. So when we breathe, it doesn't just affect us and our state, it affects others. And so breathwork in, in and of itself is something that happens. If you're not aware of it, it'll happen as a result of your state. Okay, if you get hyped up, your breath will change. If you get relaxed, your breath will relax. But what you can do is put the, put literally the wag the tail of the dog. If once you learn what breathwork is, you learn that a certain breath elicits a certain state. So it's not the state controlling the breath, it's the breath controlling the state. So what the breath does is make breathwork helps you work the way you want to work. All right. So if I want to, you know, connect with somebody, I'll go, ah.

I like it. That's well said for sure. So we could use breathwork. I know we're talking about sleep, right? Improving sleep through breathwork, but I actually use breathwork. Let's say if I go on stage or I give a lecture, I use it for that to stay grounded.

That is, that is so good because everyone's got a piece of the wellness pie and, you know, There's a certain, I was a combat first aider, right? And that meant that if something went down, I had to triage. So with my limited resources, what's the most amount of good I could do? And so when it came to breathwork, I'm like, well, what's the most amount of good I could do with my limited resources? And I'm like, well, I can't do what other people do, but if I, but if I can help improve their sleep, then their gifts are coming into the world even better. And, and what people start realizing is sleep is the soil from which everything grows. And the world we currently live in is very visual. You know, the, the gym is full of mirrors. Okay. So, so, so this is where a lot of stuff gets, a lot of the most powerful parts of us don't get the attention they need because they're not visual. So just like a tree growing out of the soil, if there's something wrong with the leaves, there might be a bunch of stuff that tree could buy to, to make the leaves greener. If the trunk's It's not in the right shape. There's a bunch of stuff it could buy if it doesn't have the fruit and the life that it wants, right? But someone who actually understands what makes a tree grow will go into the soil, go into the unseen part of that tree. And I go into that unseen part of the person improving their sleep. So it's, it's not about breath. It's not even about sleep. It's about inside of everybody. I see these dormant seeds of greatness, dormant seeds of uniqueness, dormant gifts. that once you improve that soil quality, all these wonderful things start coming out that you never knew was in there. So that to me is the joy of it. You know, the breathwork and sleep is simply enabled. It's simply there to help that person flourish the way they're supposed to flourish.

Very nice. What are some simple breathing practices that people can use in bed?

It is so simple. It is so simple. Well, I'm going to give you one that you can use anytime because you mentioned one for your public speaking. The easiest one I know, and I call this the breath of peace and possibility. Okay. And it's, it's really, really simple, but because we've been breathing our whole life, Dr. Sanda, it's a bit of a habit, right?

Yes, it is.

So when we breathe differently, sometimes we can feel things differently. We can respond differently. So everything I do is an invitation. So for anyone listening that wants to do this, I've got 3 invitation questions for you and Dr. Sanda, I'll ask you the same if that's okay.

Sure.

So Dr. Sanda, do you give permission to your very own breath to make every cell in your body feel really, really good?

I do.

Awesome. That was easy. Second one's just as easy. Do you give permission to your very own breath to make your conscious thinking mind feel really, really good?

I do.

Great. Last one. Do you give permission to your very own breath to make your unconscious mind feel really, really good?

Yes, I do.

Fantastic. This is going to be super easy. I'm going to be with you the whole time. All we're going to do is breathe in, but then breathe in more, more, more, more, more, more, more. Give that a try. Breathe in more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more. Now just hold it and wriggle and stretch like you're in bed. Wriggle and stretch like you're in bed. Wriggle, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. And if you're brave enough, let out a nice big sigh. Hide a low.

Yes, that's good. I like it.

So you might have noticed when we breathed in a little bit more, we filled out that top third. Okay. To me, this is where the energy sits. So when the weight of the world's on our shoulders and I've got a bunch of negative stuff, look what happens to my shoulders.

Okay.

I'm just going to exaggerate this by, by showing my shoulders and my structure, because this is actually really important. People do this without knowing it. So when I've got the weight of the world on my shoulders, shoulders, I'm hunching forward. And what's that doing? That's compressing my top third. Conversely, when I breathe properly, I feel that, and that brings my structure into alignment. So I'm not just getting more energy from more breath, I'm getting more energy from my being structurally aligned. Consider your brain's like an electrical generator and you've got these cables running through your system, but they're not like solid cables. They're like squishy garden hoses. So if you're If your posture's out, it's like stepping on your garden hose and there's less water going through. So when we breathe properly, okay, we're actually giving ourselves, we're taking the foot off the garden hose, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I actually felt some of my vertebrae in my neck readjust. I probably needed that.

Man, we all do and we don't know it, right? So, so this is, this is the good thing. Now I'm going to show you how to juice up that, that secondary inhale. Okay. Now, a lot of people don't know this, but just hold up your 2 fingers and your thumb. Now pinch the thumb and the finger together really hard. Pinch it together really hard. Okay. That's going to help you boost your secondary inhale. So what we're going to do right now is breathe out and halfway through our inhale, we're going to hit these power buttons and look up. And that's going to help boost this top third. All right. I'll walk you through it. So have your power buttons ready. I encourage you to blow it out. Out, out, out, out, out, out, out. Start breathing in. Then hit those power buttons. Look up. Open, open, open. Now hold it and stretch. Hold it and stretch like you're in bed. Feel good. Stretch it out. Push it around. Feel it opening. And then a nice big sigh. Just let register that in your system. Just check in with your body for a second. Okay. You did that for you. I didn't fly in from Australia and do anything. This is your body responding to your breath and your realignment.

I love it. I feel like definitely like a burst of energy just from doing that one breath. And I definitely feel more heat generated in my body. So very interesting. So I could, you recommend this before sleep or when you wake up or?

What I'm giving people now is something that they, if they forget everything that we've spoken about, because something I'm feel very strongly about is permanency. If we care about people, we've got to care about them tomorrow, the next week, the next year. And the only way for people to have permanent access to something powerful and positive is to give them something to use straight away. So next week, if they forget everything we say, they know they can, okay?

Yes.

Um, to have that. And, and, and I noticed when I was sort of vulnerable and recovering, you could have these powerful and positive experiences, But a week later, nothing would, you'd sort of go back to normal. So, so everything I do has to be powerful, positive, and permanent. Permanent's the most important thing. So this, this technique you can use to create what I call a zone of sovereignty. So when I'm walking down the street and something's got me off-centered, I, I, I, I, even though I'm a breathwork coach, I won't breathe. But if I pinch my fingers, that'll override my circulatory and I'll And I'll shake it off, right? Discreetly in public. You know, I'm not like in someone's face, right? So, so, so I wanted to give people something that they can use and just discover the power of their breath. So in the past, when I didn't have tools like this to connect myself back into my power, to make myself centered, I'd go, okay, that was shitty. And it was like a handful of gravel in my backpack. And time would go on, all these things would pile up and I didn't know why I had to drink all this beer at the end of the day. You know, so, so to clear that stuff as you, as you move through the world, um, that's, and, and, and, and essentially to have that, which is you coming into the world without the, the filters or, or that, or that heavy backpack. Um, that's why I wanted to show that. Um, but I do, I do want to just, can I give you just one more thing to give it an extra boost?

Absolutely.

So, When you exhale, close your mouth and then snort through your nose as fast as you can. I'll give you a little demonstration. So I was like, okay. And I'm really sucking that air. So before I was in the special forces, I was a professional fighter, right? And my coach used to say, Tim, before you do a combination, do a big— and to him, he said that puts oxygen through to your brain. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but the thing is it worked in combat and The nose is the one place that we can generate nitric oxide. Not, and we don't generate that breathing through the mouth. And nitric oxide is a vasodilator. And these sinuses that sit behind your nose, um, are one of the things that we can access to help regulate ourselves. So all we're gonna do now is we're gonna blow it out, shake it out, but we're gonna double or triple the speed of our inhale as we, and we're gonna hit the power button. And suck it in twice as fast to get that, like you're trying to blow something negative out the back of your head type thing. So on this, on this rotation, I'll just get my shirt back on. On this rotation, we're going to blow it out and shake it out. And we're going to do a little cough at the end, like, and to get that last bit out.

Okay.

And then power up as fast as we can as we look at the ceiling. Ready? Blow it out, shake it out, blow it out, shake it out, out, out, out, out, out. A few coughs and then power up. Open, open, open, open, open. Then hold it and wriggle, hold it and wriggle, hold it and wriggle. And when you wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, and when you're ready to let go of all your tension, let out a really big sigh. Wow.

Well, I know all about nasal breathing because I could tell if somebody is a mouth breather coming to my office. Number one, they get more cavities. That's one of the problems. And their teeth are more brittle, especially the front teeth. Uh, and plus the nitric oxide, like you said, it's so important. So creating this nasal breathing exercise, especially for mouth breathers, I think it's really going to help them with the nasal breathing more.

Can I, can I, look, we're talking about this, but I, considering what you're doing and considering what you just said, um, I'd love to show one more thing that was really beneficial for, um, because they, they say, I've heard this said, I haven't, I don't know the data. But I've heard this said that when you hum, it increases nasal nitric oxide uptake by a certain percentage, like 200% or something.

Oh.

And I've got a little technique which may help people who are mouth breathers open up their nasal pathways. So all we're going to do is breathe in and then just practice humming out your nose. Feel that vibration. Okay, great. And now what we're going to do is slow, restrict slightly. So we're not going to pinch our nose. We're just going to sort of gently, just like when you're trying to blow out through your hand going, we're going to slightly restrict it. So when we hum, the airways back up a little bit. So take a deep breath in and then start humming. Now stick your jaw forward, stick your jaw forward as you're humming and notice how that goes back into your brain. Jaw forward. Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. Jaw forward.

Wow. I ran out of breath. Yeah, I could definitely feel the vibration in my brain by doing that.

Um, if you, if you go off the idea that you've just increased the nitric oxide uptake, but you're with your jaw forward, you're also opening up your Eustachian tubes. And, um, for me, that sinus cavity doesn't get enough attention. So when I do those, when I first wake up in the morning, that's one way to sort of open my head up from the inside. So that's just, that's just one way for people to access what's inside their head that they possibly, they possibly never knew was even there. And it's quite a nice, because, you know, you can have speakers playing frequencies, but you can create that frequency in your own head.

Oh, sure, we can. And I didn't even know that. In our practice, we actually have this vibroacoustic bed that I have people lay down on because it puts people in a relaxed mode. But of course, these kind of equipments are expensive, but we can actually create our own vibration, which is just what you showed without costing money. Pretty much at a snap of a finger. That's amazing.

Just had to speak to some Aussie.

So true. And, and, you know, there's so many high-performing people listening to this podcast that are always switched on, always. And I think finding a simple tool like this and really practicing something like this to help their nervous system learn how to switch off, it's super important. Otherwise, they're going to end up with adrenal fatigue. With anxiety, lack of sleep, and other chronic diseases. It all piles up.

And you spoke to something really powerful there. High-performing people, there can be a certain form of isolation because if, and often high-performing people have this association that I get so much affirmation of my worth by what I do. Okay. And I'm doing these things and people are saying, you're great. You're great. You're great. But then somewhere inside their head, sometimes they think, well, if I'm doing nothing, then maybe I'm worth nothing. And this is where, you know, you can give people like that all these different biohacks. But if, if, if I could speak to those people, I ask them to consider performance like a pyramid. Top of the pyramid, you're achieving what you want in the external world, right? Then underneath that, you've got the actions that you need to take. That's the kind of stuff people know. But then underneath that is your rest, recovery, and healing art forms. And these particular art forms look nothing like the version of you that's out there performing in the world. In fact, it actually looks like you're going in the opposite direction. So the only way I could have a rest day was tell myself, this isn't a rest day. This is what I call a bow day. Because as a person who likes hitting targets, I love, you know, think of a bow and arrow, love hitting targets, but when I'm pulling the bow back, if my conscious mind is like the tip of the spear, it's saying, hang on, I'm getting further away. This is not making any sense, right? But the further I go away from the target, the more momentum I have to hit the target. Because what most people do and what this world tends to do is when the arrow falls short of the target, they go, okay, look, you were 10 meters short of the target. We've got to, you know, close this gap. We've got to move the tip of your spear closer to the target. And we'll adjust the target, we'll adjust the arrow, we'll do all these different things, but no one's actually realizing that it's not the distance between the tip of the arrow and the target, it's the distance between the bow going away from the target. And so as much as when I was doing nothing, there was a part of me saying, hey Tim, you're doing nothing, maybe you're worth nothing. That cortisol that burns through you, that leads to adrenal fatigue. It's the awareness that when you're doing nothing, you're creating momentum for the thing that you want to achieve. And ideally in the performance pyramid, when I'm working with people, is you want to go, yes, go up, kick ass, chew bubble gum, but then go down, rest, recover, heal. That creates a slingshot for then you to go up. And then that creates a slingshot for you to go down. And, and you know what, you're a— I found that people are much nicer if they're going, if they can go between the states. As opposed to saying, I can't drop my guard for a second because if I stop doing what I'm doing, I won't be as valuable as what I think I am.

That's a great analogy, Tim. And I can definitely relate to that. When I'm really rested, I'm more focused and I could do more, like think differently when the brain is not tired. Yeah, absolutely. Where can people find you? Where can they find the resources that you have to offer and what do you offer?

Well, work with me personally, uh, reach out through my LinkedIn, Breathwork in Bed. Uh, if you just want a better night's sleep tonight, I've got a very easy to use, uh, app on your phone. You just have to tell it when you want to sleep, when you want to wake up, and then we take care of the rest.

Um, that's awesome.

Because I know when people are busy, they don't want to remember 6 things going to sleep. They just want to go, I want an Uber Eats in my sleep. hit that button, have it delivered exactly when they need it. And, and going to sleep is one thing, but waking up with breathwork, like that is probably the most super powerful way to start the day. If you can win the first 5 minutes, you've, you've kind of won the day. So breathwork in bed, um, on your phone will give you a good night's sleep tonight. But if you want to work with me personally, look me up on LinkedIn, Tim Thomas.

How do you work with people, Tim? I'm glad you brought that up. I know I had a one-on-one session before, not with you because I didn't know you then, but, uh, is it like half-hour sessions? 1-hour sessions? Like, what does that look like?

Well, the first thing I like to do is find out where people are at. And so I have this sort of 21-question finding where they're at so they can see for themselves and just often for people to see, oh, I see that now, right? And then I can find the places that would make the best return for that individual. So there's definitely no one-size-fits-all here. So I do, I find out just exactly where people are at. And then find out that one thing that if they were to improve, that would make the greatest amount of difference. And once you do that, you're like, oh geez, it's actually only one thing. It's not like a thousand things you kind of have to do.

That's really good. So you break it down basically for people so they're not like overwhelmed. You take it to its impact.

Ask the right questions of people and things get a whole lot easier. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I highly encourage people who are listening who have never tried breathwork to definitely give it a try. Um, what I found for me, at least when I tried it, is that it actually also brought up some bottled up emotions. Do you find that that happens?

Dr. Sanda, you just, what you're discovering is that every element has a nature to it. Okay. Now air, if you try and hold air, you can't hold it. Okay. Air can't be held. That's its nature. It's kind of obvious, right? So when we breathe and we take on the nature of air, it doesn't allow us to hold onto any Physical tension. Okay. So this is why I have to ask permission, body, mind, unconscious mind, so we can actually let it in. So we can actually let go of the tension that's controlling that breath. So when people are locked down in a negative headspace, they're shallow breathing. They might not be doing it fast, like, but shallow breathing, even done slow, still creates a state of fight or flight.

So, um, yes, I like it. I think tomorrow morning, you know, we have our morning huddles. So before we start our day, We talk about our patients, but I think one of the exercises I'll do with the team, I'll just do what you just shared, that little exercise with breathing in the beginning. I think that'll help.

You know what? Here's what I'll do for you and your team. When you have your team huddle, if it works for me to be there, I will simply guide you through and I'll guide you through once, but once you have these skills, you've got it for life. And that's my vision of what I want to do. If I really care about people having permanent access, it can't be about me. It's got to be about that powerful thing. And it might've taken me 10 years to create that connection, but once people have that, I kind of see people like solar panels. Once you have them facing the things that gives them the most reward, you kind of just stand back and watch the show. Unfortunately, the world we live in, it wasn't until I was really vulnerable that it's not an age of information we're in, it's an age of marketing. And a marketer's goal is to repeat sales and put you in an early grave as far as I'm concerned. But then on the other side of things, and the first 6 pages of Google are marketers, right? But then, then there's what I call the healers. They're the people that know they're human. Their energy is not enough for 2 people, but they've got a, they've mastered a connection to something super powerful and they're able to connect you to that thing in far less time. And then it's just a case of stand back and watch the show.

Yeah. I love that. Well, Tim, thank you so much. We're going to put your information down in the show notes, the link to the, um, uh, Apple Store and also the Google Play Store for the apps, but also your LinkedIn profile so people can find you. You know what?

I'll even, I'll even put in the, um, the little questionnaire so people can find out where they're at. Yeah. Cause that, that would be, that's quite, quite beneficial knowing, seeing where you're at and then also having a nurture series specifically tailored to you.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a great idea. Thank you for, for giving that to our listeners. We're going to put it down in the show notes. Um, and with that, everyone, thank you so much. I hope you got some important tools for your life. And if you feel this information is helpful for somebody in your life, uh, family or friend, Please share this episode with them and give us a review. Until next time, keep breathing deeply. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. If you like today's show, please invite your friends to listen as well. That would mean a lot to me. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram at Dr. Sanda. This is Dr. Sanda, and remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health, so take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.