Episode 40: BreathWork Will Transform You, with Jen Broyles

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified OB, GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey. And I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi friends. So today we are going to be talking about breath work.

I know it's a little bit different.

It's not your mainstream issue for gynecology. But I will tell you that taking care of your mind and your soul is just as important as taking care of your physical body. They're all connected. And what I have found on my journey of studying functional medicine and healing myself and is that doing things like breath work and guided meditation and anything that helps bring awareness between the connection of your mind and body heals you. It's so incredible. So I'm really excited for our guest today, Jen Broyles, because she has a really cool story about being a pharmaceutical rep and living in her normal daily life and switching, making the switch, the transition into becoming a breathwork instructor. And so she's going to tell her story about how that transformed and why. But more importantly for you, we are going to talk about what breath work is, why it's important for your daily practice of living and being, what are the benefits of it?

So I'm gonna actually share a really.

Cool story of something I experienced in Arizona last year. And it was just really eye opening for me to see what breath work can do in terms of opening your mind to start healing your physical body. So it's really cool episode. I want you stay for the whole thing and I want you to think about like, how could you incorporate something from this episode into your life? What is one little thing that you could start doing every day to help make that shift in your life to reclaim your health? So I definitely do these episodes with the idea that you're going to think about your own situation, your own health struggles and how this pertains to you and what you can take away from it. Because I think we can learn from each other. As women, our stories don't matter unless we share them and learn from each other. That's what I believe. So cool. Stay tuned. I'm going to just tell you about Jen real quick. She's a Holistic health coach and a SOMA breath work instructor. That's s o m a. She's an ESS oils coach and founder of the Sacred Breath community who helps individuals restore and optimize their health by calming the nervous system and addressing the root cause of their symptoms. So Jen has a specialty in reducing chronic stress and anxiety and optimizing gut health. If you don't need that, then you're doing pretty awesome. Because I think honestly, we all need help with reducing our chronic stress and anxiety spread, especially since COVID Hello. She recognizes that an over stimulated nervous system, compromised digestion and suppressed emotions lead to imbalances throughout her mind, body and spirit. So she combines breath work, essential oils, nutrition and other holistic modalities to help clients create a healthy lifestyle, vitality and freedom. Her personal story is what inspired her to educate and guide others. She dealt with digestive issues, anxiety and hormonal imbalances for years and was unable to find relief from conventional medicine. That sounds like a reoccurring theme in my world. So I really hope that you will listen to her story because she is going to inspire you to take control because she believes that nourishing the mind, body and soul with healing foods, proper breathing, self love, and healthy emotional processing leads to a transformative healing experience. So let's talk to Jen and find out why you should be doing breath work and how to even get started on that type of journey. So here we go.

All right, Jen. Well, welcome to the functional Gynecologist podcast.

Thank you, Dr. Tuffeth. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, I'm really excited for you to talk about SOMA breathwork. I think it's so important for us to be mindful in this day and age, right?

Oh, it is. Now more than ever. It's amazing how impactful our breathing patterns can be to our overall health and stress levels. And it's one thing we're never taught how to do. We don't get a breathing manual when we're born. And so it's something that many of us are not doing properly.

Yeah. Have you seen that you've become busier since COVID hit?

Absolutely. Much more so for sure, because breath work, and we'll talk about what exactly breathwork is, but the particular breath work that I teach is a fantastic way to calm the nervous system, to reduce stress, reduce anxiety and depression. And all of these things have been heightened lately with the current situation that we're in in the world. There's a lot of fear, there's a lot of uncertainty. There's a lot of worry, there's heightened anxiety, and people are looking for solutions to help tame that a little bit, help reduce that in a natural, safe, and effective way. And breathwork is such an incredible tool because it's something that you have with you all the time. You know, you can tune into your breath and alter it and modify it to really help calm you down anytime. And so it's a really powerful tool to have access to.

Yeah, that is so amazing. I, you know, see patients all day long who are feeling all that anxiety and that increased stress. I think all of the energy going out in the universe right now is so negative and fearful and. And if we can just learn how to stop and realize how we're reacting, I think it's so empowering. So I'm glad that we're going to talk about this today because I think that you are going to give us a couple little golden nuggets, Right, to start with. And before we jump into all that, I want to know, like, how you even got on this path. Is this something that you did to help heal yourself?

Yes. Yes. And so, you know, my background is as a holistic health coach and also essential oil specialist, and I've been doing that since 2012. And so I got into the world of natural health and healing through resolving, you know, on a mission to resolve my health issues that I was dealing with at the time in the way of digestive issues that had been. And I had been experiencing since my early 20s and was just kind of managing and not really paying much attention to until they got to the point where I needed to pay attention to them. And at that time, I was working in pharmaceutical sales. I only knew the conventional model of medicine. I believed in it. I thought the drugs I was selling were helping people. And now I, you know, then I started to question that. And I was seeing so many different doctors, so many different specialists, trying to figure out what was going on with my gut, what was going on with my hormones, what was going on with my skin, what was going on with anxiety, all these different things. And I, in my 20s, was put on all these different medications, from birth control to antidepressants, to medicines to support my digestion, to medicines for my skin, just all of these things. And I'm like, I'm in my 20s, like, why am I on all these medications? And most of them weren't helping, and a lot of them were causing other symptoms that I didn't want. And so, yeah, it was. And it was frustrating and I know a lot of people have been in the same situation and I felt that I was kind of left to figure it out on my own. And so I just started reading a lot of books, mainly in nutrition, because I didn't know what real nutrition was. And the more I read and the more I kind of navigated these books and this research, it kind of led me down the path of integrative medicine and functional medicine. And I was learning all these new things and it kind of lit this fire in me and sparked this passion of a new path that I wanted to take. And so I went back to school and studied integrative nutrition and started health coaching people really in the area of gut health. And since then, the journey has kind of unfolded in different ways. I brought essential oils into my practice and have done a lot of education around that. And then more recently discovered breathwork. And for me personally, I found that the stress piece and the emotional health piece was something that I wasn't addressing enough. And until I feel like for most of us, until we do that, it's really difficult to fully heal. You kind of hit a plateau, like nutrition is incredible. You got to do it. You have to get good quality sleep. You need to move your body, but you also have to prioritize self care. You have to learn ways to manage your stress. And that may be freeing up space in your schedule, but also really tuning into your emotional well being and tuning into the thoughts that are playing in your mind, that are running throughout the day, that are often subconscious. And so all of these things and breathwork allowed me to do that, allowed me to go into this deep meditative state and tap into my subconscious mind and start to reprogram negative imprints that had been formulated. Oftentimes this happens early in childhood and then as a result reduce anxiety and calm stress and really stimulate self healing within the body. So it's a really powerful tool for that. And I just, from the first experience of breath work, the first session, I noticed a difference and I was hooked.

Wow.

I couldn't agree with you more. You hit on so many important things. You know, we can only do so much to get our health on par. But if our emotional well being is still struggling, if we have old wounds, old traumas, or we don't love ourselves, you know, even negative self talk is enough to, to prevent you from taking your health to that next level. It's so important to actually get into tune with what you are saying to yourself because really it's like having a friend or an enemy Next to you, talking all day long, 24, seven, never shutting up. It's like you would never let someone walk around and talk to you non stop.

Right.

Yet we let our brains do this to ourselves. So as soon as we can start to be aware and say, you know.

What, I don't think that's true.

I think you need to shut your mouth and say something else.

Right.

So you hit on so many important things I think, you know, is that when you felt like you finally were able to reclaim your health and heal, when you started being more mindful?

Absolutely, absolutely. And it's a process. I mean, you've had these kind of subconscious, you know, belief systems and patterns running our life for years and years and years. You don't fix it overnight. It is practice. But the great thing now is I can see when I slip back into an old pattern and I'm aware of it and I can do something about it. And oftentimes I'll go do some breath work or I'll meditate or I'll journal until I have these tools that I can go to rather than kind of letting it take over. Right. And so, yes, I noticed such an impact, such an improvement when I started implementing things like breath work. And we use the term self care, which I also view as self love and self compassion. It's not necessarily going to get a pedicure every week, which is great if you can do that. But it's really like sometimes doing the uncomfortable things as well, like sitting in a breathwork session and allowing emotions to come up or, you know, journaling some things that you don't want to admit that you're thinking about. Right. So it's sometimes doing the things that are uncomfortable to allow them to release and to pass. And that's where you experience so much growth and healing.

Yeah. So a lot of times I have patients who tell me, you know, oh, I couldn't do that. My mind was racing, I couldn't find focus. You know, they describe that monkey mind and I try and explain to them that's exactly why you need to do it. Right. We're trying to get control of that. Is that usually a barrier that you see for people? And what do you, how do you help them through that?

Oh my gosh, I love that you asked this question. Because I tell people that breath work is perfect if you have trouble meditating. That was me. Like, I had a meditation practice, but it always needed to be a short guided meditation, like 10 minutes, because I would have this racing mind and I would have Trouble just sitting there. And it's not like meditation. You have to clear your head. You're going to have thoughts running through, but acknowledging them and allowing them to pass. But what's great about breath work is that it allows you to go into this deep meditative state so much easier. Like, I have never been in such a deep meditative state as I have with Breathwork. It's just so powerful. And with Soma in particular, we're combining a lot of ancient pranayama techniques, which encompasses rhythmic breathing and some breath retention phases. And we're blending this with amazing beat driven music that provides this therapeutic experience. And so we're breathing in a rhythm, two beats of really great music. I think the music is such a big component of this. And so the music combined with the rhythmic reading and then the breath retentions, it just, it calms the nervous system and it gets you into the present moment, get you out of your head and it allows you to go deep. And some, you know, I have had, I have countless testimonials of people's experiences just after one session. And people will explain it as if they've had an out of body experience. Many people explain it that way. And other people just say they feel incredible. Like they came into the session feeling stressed or frustrated, and afterwards they feel so calm and at peace, you know, or they feel motivated to go do the things that they've been procrastinating, doing. Or I've had people say that this chronic, the chronic pain that they had been dealing with, they didn't feel it during the breath work.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

Can I share my story with you? So were you at Revitalize in Arizona last year for mindbody Green? Okay, so we had a SOMA breathwork session and it was incredible. So I had a really delayed flight and I was in the airport for I think 20 plus hours. You know, I'm coming from Michigan all the way to Arizona. And by the time I got to the resort at about midnight, my back was absolutely killing me. And I signed up for this breath work, you know, just to try it out and whatever. And we're laying on the ground outside, the music is going, you know, they're guiding us, telling us when to breathe, how to breathe. And I kid you not, like, I just had this whole experience of laying on the hard desert floor and my back pain just kind of melting like liquid away from my back and seeping into the dry desert and nourishing the desert and freeing me. And I just, I was like almost crying it was so beautiful. And I stood up afterward, and I had no pain the rest of the weekend. And I just thought, I, oh, my God, I need to do this all the time.

Like, this was incredible.

So, yeah, it can be so freeing. It can energize you, like you said, and it can just hit on so many levels because I never could have gone there by myself, just focusing on my thoughts or whatever, but getting that oxygen flowing through my blood and feeling the music and the community that I was in, it was, like, transformative.

I love it. I love it. It is so transformative. And I love how you said you were kind of visualizing it going into the earth and nourishing the earth. And that, too, is part, as you experienced of soma. Breath work is the affirmations and the visualization and doing that alongside the breathing and the music, all of it combined, just is incredibly powerful. Oh, I love that experience.

Yeah. I mean, if that doesn't heal you, I don't know what will.

Right? I know.

So talk to me a little bit more about how the rhythmic breathing helps and what's that doing?

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I know probably a lot of your listeners have heard of, you know, deep breathing, different forms of deep breathing, whether it's the box breath or something else. But we know that, like, slow, diaphragmatic, rhythmic breathing has been shown to reduce stress, not only in the short term, but in the long term almost instantly. The problem is, you know, if you tune into your breath on at any given instant, you know, and especially I encourage people to tune into it when they're really busy or they're working on a project or they're trying to juggle a bunch of different things and just take a second and tune in and see how you're breathing. And if we. If we tune in, if we're honest with ourselves, most of us are doing either very shallow breaths from the chest, we're breathing in and out through our mouth, or sometimes we're even holding our breath without even realizing it for sure. And so our breathing is very erratic. Like it might be fast and then slow. And then you take a big, deep breath and sigh it out, and then you hold your breath, you know, and it's just all over the place. And erratic breathing links to erratic thoughts, and it leads to stress and it leads to dysfunction in the body. So bringing your breath back into a rhythm, slowing it down, breathing in deep from the belly, in through the nose. And when we do the breath work, we breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. And this really helps reduce oxidative stress in the body. It increases heart rate variability, really increases and improves coherence in all the functions of your body. There's so much of our body is functioning in rhythms, right? So our digestion, our heart rate, our blood pressure, all of these things work in a rhythm. And so if we can really start to bring our breathing back to a proper rhythm, we can start to harmonize everything else in the body. It improves symptoms of copd. It facilitates lymphatic drainage, which we know how important that is. It's even been linked to healing IBS and reducing those digestive symptoms of disorder. That's really huge. And I've noticed that personally for me, improvement in gut function, reduction in stress, reduction in anxiety, clearer thinking, being more motivated. Again, that rhythm just really helps bring harmony to the nervous system. It helps to calm and balance the nervous system. And you can change up the rhythms too. And we often do this in a breathwork session. So sometimes we may breathe in for four and out for four and keep those, the inhale and exhale equal counts. And again, that's really all about bringing balance. Now if we were to breathe in for two and out for four, so we're doubling the length of our exhale, this is great at activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which is your rest, relax and digest state. So we're switching off that fight or flight response and helping you get into a state of relaxation and helping enhance digestion. So this is a great rhythm to breathe in at night, before bed, or even if you wake up in the middle of the night and have a hard time falling back to sleep. Doing some rhythmic breathing, where you're doubling the length of your exhale is going to really stimulate that parasympathetic nervous system and help relax you and calm you down and help you get back to sleep much quicker. And so again, just bringing that rhythm into your breath is going to really help just overall health, everything from physical, mental and emotional.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I even recommend it for, you know, when you sit down to eat for fast eaters, stress eaters, you know, people I know for, you know, being a surgeon for 15 years, I just ate on the go, standing up, running down the hall, going to my next case or whatever. And so I didn't even know how to digest my food by the time I was able to relax and actually enjoy it. And so I think getting into that frame of mind, stimulating your vagus nerve, like you said, for rest and digest is key. So that is really awesome. So you work one on one with people or is it all group coaching?

So I do both. I do private sessions and I do group sessions right now. At the time of this recording, they're mostly online.

Right.

But as things start to open up more, I do in person sessions as well. So yeah, private sessions, if someone is really wanting that one on one support. And customized sessions and meditations targeted to their specific intentions. Because it is nice to kind of go into a breathwork session with an intention. Whether it's physical healing or letting something go, or cultivating gratitude or forgiveness, having that intention is always beneficial. So private sessions are really good for that. And then the group sessions are great as well, because I find that the energy of a group just kind of elevates the whole experience, even when it's online. Because energy has no boundaries. Right. So even these online group sessions are really powerful. And I also have a community called the Sacred Breath community where you can join the community and get access to monthly live online breathwork sessions and recorded audio breathwork sessions that allow you to do this anytime during the day and also attend the life group sessions, which is nice, I love that.

And so people who are struggling with anxiety.

Right.

Or stress or even insomnia, gut issues, who else would benefit from this?

You know, I feel like everyone, right?

Yeah.

We can all benefit from it because we all have some level of stress in our life. But just to give you a few of the benefits of Soma breathwork, it's great for the business professional because it helps to awaken dormant functions of the brain and enhance creativity, problem solving and improve brain function and mind power. So whether you're an entrepreneur, you run a business or whatever it might be, it's great for the work environment. It's wonderful for again the physical health because it helps cleanse and purify the bloodstream and lymphatic system and it helps improve gut function and other functions in the body. It helps to stimulate self healing and reduce anxiety and depression. But then someone who is also really working on their emotional state. This is a great practice to help clear negative imprints and traumas from early life, usually from the womb to seven years old, and really re imprint your mind with more empowering beliefs and habits. It's great for intention setting and manifesting and really helping you create the motivation energy to complete and achieve important goals and really tune into yourself and help you discover your true self and your deepest inner calling and connect on a more spiritual level as well. So it has so many benefits and again, it goes back to the intention of why you want to do this. But it can really serve everyone. There is part of the breath work where we're doing breath retentions or we're holding our breath and that does have a couple of contraindications, but otherwise the rhythmic breathing piece is great for everyone.

Yeah, I think everyone should do this. I think it should be part of your necessary self care. Right. I think that like you said, it's a free tool. It's innate in our body bodies. It's easy to pull out and utilize anywhere, anytime. You know, why wouldn't you use this tool? I think that's amazing.

It's so true. And I feel like most people, once they've experienced one time, they want more. That's how I was.

Yes.

I was like, where I want more of this? Why did I not know this existed? And where can I get more?

Exactly, exactly.

Are there other tools that you use along with breath work when we're healing people?

Yeah, there are, absolutely. I mean, nutrition for sure. You have to address, you know, what you're putting in your body, how you're nourishing your body and your cells and, and everything. And that impacts your mood as well. I do a lot with essential oils and I love blending the essential oils with the breathwork because I just think that enhances the entire experience. So whether you're wanting to do a breathwork session to really calm down stress and anxiety, you can add essential oils to that that are calming and have them diffusing in your space or you know, wear them on your wrist and your chest so you get that aromatic benefit. So like floral oils like lavender and rose and Roman chamomile, those are all great at calming the mind and the emotions and helping reduce stress. If you're doing a breathwork session to boost energy and boost positivity, then citrus oils are a really good one to incorporate into your practice. So. So using different essential oils for different intentions in the breath work is really powerful. So I do a lot with that as well. And then I really work with people to implement other self care techniques as well. So whether it's journaling or just straight on meditation or I encourage people to find the things that they love dancing. For me, I love to dance. And so a lot of times in our breathwork sessions will incorporate some dancing or some shaking with it because those tools are again great for releasing emotions that you might be suppressing or holding onto. And it's just also a great way to kind of release, tension and calm the mind. So we'll blend those in too.

Oh, that is so cool. I love it. I think that is the best combination that you can have. I think it's so true that when you have the senses going right, stimulating your other feelings and it's just all working together, I know that I do best when I have, like, lavender essential oil going, and that really just takes it to the next level.

So, so cool.

So.

Yes.

So you have a free session, right?

Yes. So you can go to jenbroyles.com breathwork and get access to to a free 20 minute guided breathwork meditation for boosting positive energy. And so you'll be able to download the audio so you can listen to it anytime, anywhere. It's a great breathwork meditation to start your day on a positive note or really do it anytime during the day. And along with that, you'll get instructions for how to do the breath work and get you set up. And I included a few other techniques as well in terms of different ways of breathing for different purposes. So that's a great way to kind of get started. If you want to dip your toe in and see what it's like, then give that a try.

Awesome.

Yeah, I'll definitely have the link to that in my show notes because like you said, I think once you start it and realize how good it feels, how empowering it is, you're gonna want more, right?

Absolutely, absolutely.

So when women work with you, is there a set time of the program.

Or is it all dependent on the individual?

Yeah, so if someone's doing private sessions, it is totally dependent on the individual. I will, you know, if they reach out to me for a private session, I'll send them the options of doing a single one or a package, and then I'll send them a form to complete so I can understand kind of what their intentions are for the breath work, what they want to work on, and then I'll start formulating, you know, the meditations and the sessions for their purpose. And we connect on zoom and have a great interaction and go from there. So it's a very customizable experience.

Wonderful.

That's awesome.

Okay, what else do you want to share with my listeners? You're just a wealth of knowledge. You got all kinds of good stuff.

Well, thank you. Yes. I would just encourage everyone to give breathwork a try. I was, I was skeptical in the beginning. I had to hear about it multiple times before I actually said, okay, I need to look into this, because I always tell myself, if I care about it three times, then maybe that's a message that I need to tune in. And it came up multiple times for me from different people. And I was like, there's something to this. And so it was actually on one of my trips out to California, where I finally got the hint, and I was like, okay, let's try some breath work. And my husband and I found several different ways to try several different classes. And we tried a variety of different modalities of breath work, one of them being soma. And I was just blown away. I had no idea that using my breath and breathing in certain ways could make me feel so different. I was like, I literally had a doctor. This is probably like, five years ago, tell me if I just breathed properly, I could heal myself. And I was like, that's weird. You know, it can't be that easy, you know, And. And that I'll remember that forever now. Because I didn't believe him. I was like, surely if that was the case, I would have known about that right now. And. But your breath is powerful, and. And if we just tune into it, then there's a lot that can be done. And I think just having that belief, our body's ability to heal.

Amen.

Many people have lost it. So, yeah, so just. Just reigniting that. That belief that. That you have this inner pharmacy within you. We just need to activate it.

Yeah. Oh, I love that. And, you know, like you said, it's a lot easier than meditation. So I think just give it a try, because I think you're gonna notice it, even just the first time. And so hopefully we can get people hooked, right?

Yes, for sure. For sure.

Cool. So where can my listeners find you, Jen?

Yeah, so you can Visit my website, JenBroyles.com. that's J E N B R O Y L E S dot com. And you can find me on all the social media outlets. I'm on Instagram @jenbroyles help coach, and then on Facebook, if you search Jen Broyles, you can find me. So I'd love to connect. Would love to connect with you. And you can also contact me through my website if you have any questions.

Wonderful. Well, I encourage everybody to definitely check you out, because I think that's an amazing tool that everybody should sharpen in their toolbox. You need to know how to use it, because it's gonna help you reclaim your health and take it to the next level for sure.

Right?

Yes.

So glad that you came on and talked about this today. I think it's really helpful, and hopefully people will reach out and connect and give you a try.

Yes. Well, thank you for the opportunity to come on your show and speak with your audience. I really, really appreciate it.

Awesome. Hope to talk to you again soon.

Okay. So I hope that conversation piqued your interest in maybe tapping in and trying some breath work or any type of situation where you are connecting your mind and your body, because that is where the healing truly begins. So definitely check Jen out. The links are in the show notes, and come work with me. I incorporate this as well. As we are trying to heal your physical body, we need to address your mental and emotional and spiritual issues.

So I love that we're all in.

This together as women. It's a sisterhood, not a competition. Right. So I really want you to take a little nugget from this episode and see what you can start doing differently to reclaim your health. And don't hesitate to send me your.

Questions or what you want to hear.

About on the episode podcast, because I am here for you. I do this for you. So go out and have an amazing week. You are an incredible woman, and I want you to remember how amazing you truly are and what you're capable of. Don't hold back. Don't live in fear. Life is definitely too short for that. So go out and have an amazing.

Week and I will see you next week.

Bye.