Danielle Mercer -Yoga-Breathing Techniques For Recovery & Stress!

Mike Hartman, performance mindset strategist. This is develop the Mindset of a Champion with former Stanley cup champion Mike Hartman. Welcome to another episode. Today my guest is Danielle Mercer. Danielle is an international yoga teacher that has an abundance of training next to her. It's incredible what she has. She will help us not only with yoga today, but breathing techniques, meditation. She's really big on breathing techniques. Today we're going to hear a little bit about her story and how she started this, where she's from. And we're also going to learn methods within breathing because it's so important breathing techniques and I'm not an expert at Danielle, I'm going to Daniella, I'm going to take it over to you. Please share your story and we'd love to hear more about it.

Hi, Mike. Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be on here with you. And so, yeah, I as, as you just mentioned, I am an international yoga teacher. I literally travel all around the world sharing techniques and tools of breath work and yoga and mindfulness. My journey started about 10 years ago and I was in pharmaceutical sales at the time and I kind of stumbled into yoga. I had actually misread a schedule at a gym and I thought it was a body pump class. I showed up, it was yoga. So I decided to give it a try. And I wish I could say that that class was the end all be all for me. That's the moment that changed my life and I quit my job and I traveled around with the intention of teaching yoga, but that simply really wasn't the case. My first yoga class, quite like the majority of our listeners, I would assume, was not the best. I didn't really enjoy it. And the only thing I can say I really took away from that experience was that I felt a shift. And that's the best way I can describe it. It wasn't even necessarily a shift for the better or a positive shift, but it was enough to, to intrigue me because it was unlike anything I had experienced in any other form of fitness or anything really in life. So it was just a very unique experience. And so that kept me wanting more. So I continued on taking yoga classes and eventually that shift that I was feeling went from gradual shifts here and there to starting to really feel a pull towards this practice. And not that it was something that was just nice to do every now and then, but that it was something that was absolutely necessary in my lifestyle. I was in pharmaceutical sales. I was an extremely type a person that saw no value whatsoever in anything that yoga encompassed at that point in my life. And so eventually that shift was enough to pull me into taking my first yoga teacher's training. And it was at that time that I just said, you know, my passion is not in marketing and sales. My passion is in this. And this is a life changing practice and it is something that I need to share with other people. And so it was then that I literally just quit my job, left the financial security and the, you know, what we consider the routine adult daily life to travel around the world and to teach yoga. And that's what has brought me to where I am now. I currently live in the Bahamas and I continue to travel around and teach particularly yin yoga teachers trainings which really embody the idea of connecting with your breath and finding stillness and finding that, that missing piece, the contentment that a lot of us are lacking in our daily lives.

Well, yoga is so important because I wish as a former athlete that I performed yoga, trained using yoga way back in 1986 when I started professional sports. I mean I was one of those guys that were stressed and I was uptight. And now I incorporate yoga in my everyday life. I love it. In fact, I did it this morning. Even if I don't do it from watching a YouTube video or I have a friend that also, she's, she's got a great program that's like a stretch program for, it includes yoga. Or I'll flip these yoga cards over and I'll do yoga. But I really like, you know, I like everything you stand for. Like what people don't know is you've really became an expert at this and now you're traveling all over the world teaching it and helping people.

Yes. Well, first off, it's amazing that you now incorporate that into your life. And that is what I love most about yoga is there are not many things you can say in life that there it's a one size all fits all approach. Yoga is that if you stick with it, you will experience what you need to experience. And I firmly believe that it doesn't matter what you do for a living or what your daily lifestyle is like, you will benefit from this practice. And it's just so powerful. And what I have found particularly unique, at least in my yoga journey, is how the practice starts as purely physical. And for most people, I would say, you know, you have a person here and there that start off meditating, but that, that wasn't me. And that's not what I found in the majority of my students. They do yoga for flexibility or for strengthening even. There's some very dynamic, powerful styles of yoga. And if you do it for those reasons, eventually you're going to start to see the energetic benefits and the benefits of the mind. And there's no way to not because there will be a shift. And it really comes down to, at least from what I have studied and in my teachings, the breath. The breath is the key to linking the mind and the body. And most of us walk around throughout our daily lives running on complete autopilot. I read a statistic the other day that 75% of our decisions on our actions throughout our daily life are based off of our subconscious thought. So they're habitual. We're not even really consciously responding to things as they unfold. And the breath helps us to tap into the part of our nervous system that that takes us out of reactive. That autopilot that just doing and walking around like a zombie and moves us into a state of response. And that can be extremely beneficial for people like professional athletes or anybody that is in a high stress situation on a daily basis. The power of the breath to shift that to have an actual scientific internal shift in the nervous system by simply manipulating the breath. And I just, I can't speak highly enough of the power of breath work. I just really feel passionately about it.

Well, I recently heard this and it's so important that I share this but I was listening to a world renowned holistic doctor who, who's an MD and we talked about the weekend warrior who we work with a lot. And how a weekend warrior has to realize is that they're not the same level as a professional athlete. I don't mean an old guy like me now, but I'm talking about somebody who is a former professional athlete, a world class athlete, whether it's an, or an Olympic athlete. And they try to do these mud runners, they try to do all of these different things. And we have to say this for another show. I'm going to be doing this with our dietitian who teaches a lot about gut health. But breathing is excellent everything because it's about recovery and energy. And I'm going to let you do it. So our guest is very fortunate because now you're going to, I know you're going to put, put us through some of these exercises but what I was told was they stress their body so much like, so when and somebody in like a dentist or anybody, they're stressed all day long and then they start doing things at night that's even making it More stress on their body and that leads to a bigger gut. I am not an expert at this. I'm just going by what this doctor said. It was amaz, amazing. But I. And breathing is also the biggest factor in it. So I want you, if you can, to put us through these certain breathing techniques that you use, because everybody needs this. So let's start with the first one and share with me what that would be.

Yes. Okay. So, well, first off, Mike, you're exactly right in what you read. And the reason for that being this, this increase in, in fat in your, in your abdominal region is the increase in cortisol that's produced when you're in a sympathetic nervous system state. And so what these breath techniques do, the ones I'm going to guide you through, are they're going to shift you into the parasympathetic nervous system, which is your rest and digest. It's putting you in an anabolic restorative state as opposed to a fight flight catabolic state that, as you just mentioned, most of us, particularly professional athletes, are engaged in 24 hours a day. All right, so these breath techniques, as you'll experience, will be effective after just a few short rounds. All right, so the first one is 10 second breath or even breath. And it's the most basic of breath exercises. And that's why I love it so much. It is a five second count inhalation and a five second count exhalation. So I'll guide you through three rounds of that. But first I'd like you to find a nice comfortable seated position. Okay.

And I think all of our guests, all of our guests need to do this. So if you're sitting, unless you're driving in a car, I don't recommend you doing this. But everybody or you could replay this podcast. But we need to do. We're going to go. Even if we take extra time here. This is so important. So let's do it. So I am going to relax my mind. I'm nice and loose and I'm ready.

Yes, that's a good point. Please. If you're driving a car, refrain from closing your eyes, but you can still do this, particularly this breath technique that the 10 second count. All right, so those of you who are in a safe space, go ahead and close your eyes and just rest both hands down onto your thighs, finding a nice straight spine as you relax the muscles around the eyes, release the wrinkles around the eyebrow and soften the jaw. To get us all on the same page, we'll take a side Breath together to begin, a side breath is simply an inhalation through the nose and an exhale out of the mouth. So we'll do this together now or if you've already done it, that's fine. All right, so we'll do it all together now. Inhale through the nose, open mouth, exhale, let it out. Beautiful. Closing the lips, inhaling through both nostrils for a slow count of 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale out of the nostrils for 2, 3, 4, 5. Again, inhale through the nose. 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale out of the nose for 2, 3, 4, five. One more round. Inhale through the nose. 2, three, four, five and exhale. 2, 3, 4, five. And release. So as you can see, just a few rounds of that and I would recommend up to 6, but we just took 3 rounds of that. What that is doing is it's slowing our breath cycle down to about six breaths per minute. Now, our average daily breathing, even when we're not stressed, which most of us are running around like, you know, chickens with our head cut off, even when we're not stressed, we're taking about 18 breaths. Perfect. Per minute. So that 10 second breath is cutting our breath down by a third, which means less stress on the heart, tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system response and just really generating that calm and that kind of inner peace that a lot of people are out there seeking and they can find it just by taking a few slow, deep breaths.

Wow, that is fantastic. Something like that, I mean, we used to call it imagery. As an athlete, we close our eyes and work on deep breathing techniques. But that is amazing. Can you give us another one? Is there something that we could do?

I might, yes. So, so as I mentioned, that is the most basic one I like. I mean, I think that's pretty accessible to just about everybody. So the next breath technique I will guide you through is 4, 7, 8. And it's a simple 4 second inhalation, a 7 second breath retention and an 8 second exhale. Now the breath retention might be a bit challenging, but the benefits to the breath retention are that it really allows the hold. So you're exchanging stale to fresh oxygen. So the typical person, when they're breathing shallow throughout their day is really only ever utilizing the top 2/3 or so of their total lung capacity. Which means, as you can imagine, the bottom third and what lies beneath that, it gets a bit stagnant. So you really want to allow that seven second hold for exchange of stale, toxic, stagnant energy for fresh. Alright. So again, if Seven seconds isn't accessible to you, then just shorten it a bit. But do the best you can. 4 second inhale, 7 second retention and 8 second exhale. So again, to begin, we just find that easy seated position or it can be done lying down. Eyes will close down. We'll take that side breath together in just a moment to get on the same page and begin inhaling through the nose. Open the mouth. Exhale, let it out. Beautiful. Closing the lips. Inhale through the nose for A count of 2, 3, 4. Hold the breath in. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Slow exhale out of the nose. 2, 3, 4, five, six, seven, eight. Again, big, deep inhale. 2, 3, 4. Hold at the top. 2, 3, 4, Five, six, seven. Exhale, slow. 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7, 8. Last round. Inhale deeply. 2, 3, 4. Hold for 2, 3, 4, 5%, 6, 7. And exhale. 2, 3, 4, fifth, six, seven, eight. And release.

Wow, that is fantastic. That's great.

Yes.

So I could tell. I could. I was driving in the car today. I can't. I can't exaggerate this. I go for my morning coffee and I. And I have my headset in because I listen to different podcasts and just different friends that I even have on their podcast. And I was driving in and the one thing they talked about was breathing and meditation. And then one thing people don't do enough of is work on their breathing. Like it's. I mean, they work on their body, they work on training, they work on. They might lift weights, but this is so key and so important. And I, again, I'm not an expert on this. I don't claim it could help you lose weight. I know, because people would think I'm crazy saying that. But when I listen to this doctor talk about how important breathing is for you and the problem with the weekend warriors and some of us that just go to the gym because they're working all day, they're stressed, and their body comes home and they're stressed at night, and then they're stressing it more. They have found that this creates that little belly that people can't get rid of. And this is coming from the dietitian as well. That's our lead dietitian, Cheryl Buckley, on our show. So, Danielle, this is great. Do you have one more we could practice? Is there one more week?

I do, yeah, absolutely. So this one is alternate nostril breathing, and it's a little bit more involved. But what I really appreciate about this technique is it really helps if you're just. If Your thoughts are completely scattered. We all have those moments where you just. Even these first two breath techniques would just be a bit too much, right? Because you can't get out of your own head. So with this technique, it's actually helping to balance the right and left hemispheres of the brain. So to begin this, we are going to have to take our right hand and just lift it and put it in front of your face for the moment. So right hand is in front of the face. Then you will take your. Your peace fingers, so your middle finger and your pointer finger and just rest them in the space right between your eyebrows. Then take your thumb and rest it on top of your right nostril. So just resting atop the right. And take your ring finger and rest it on top of your left nostril. Okay, so side breath again to get us all on the same page. Inhale equally through both nostrils. Open mouth. Exhale. Let it out. Beautiful. Closing the right nostril completely using the thumb. Inhale only up the left nostril for 2, 3, 4, 5. Close the left nostril completely. Exhale only out of the right for 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale only up the right nostril for 2, 3, 4,5. Close the right nostril completely. Exhale only out of the left nostril for 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale only up left for 2, 3, 4,5. Close the left nostril. Exhale only out of the right for 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale only right, 2, 3, 4, 5. Close right. Exhale only left, 2, 3, 4, five. And complete. Powerful, huh?

Yeah. So I'm gonna need you to go into our Facebook group, Hartman Academy, and we're gonna mention this. This needs. Everybody needs us. So you can even mention when it's gonna be live. September 11th, we're doing this, and I want everybody to practice this. We have so many weekend warriors, dentists, professionals, moms, dads with the stress. And this is key. I mean, you're an expert at what you do. You're amazing at what you do. Now, I don't know if you have a website for this, because I know you is you do, Danielle. I mean, do you ever think about starting your own breathing podcast?

Yes. No. That's a good idea. For the future. I'm always open to. To new ideas, but yes. So I do have a website. It's www.DanielleMercer yoga.com. and you can find most of the trainings and things that I offer on there. And I do have a YouTube channel with just some of the basic Breath techniques on there that we went over today, and I will post some of those on your Facebook group as well. And I also have an app that just launched called the Yoga Buddy app, where you can actually find local instructors, mindfulness breathwork teachers in your area that can come to you for private lessons and things of that nature. So again, that's called the YogaBuddy app, which can be found in the App Store.

That is great. You know, I'm not kidding. I have allergies and maybe I'm talking out of both sides of my nose. That's a joke. But I could breathe like, Like, I feel my breathing is better in my nose. And I'm not kidding right now. Like, I had, I. I had a deviated septum and broke my nose like six times, right. And I've always had a breathing problem, but I, I feel like I've opened the passageways. What have I. What did I just say?

Yeah. So actually, with alternate nostril breathing, we are ever only breathing, or about. I should say about 90% of our breath comes from one nostril. And that changes about every 60, 120 minutes. So if you, you can test it on yourself. So you can. You're either predominantly breathing out of the left or right nostril, and this helps to balance that out. So you'll notice you're able to take deeper breaths through both nostrils and in turn, you just feel more balanced energetically. So it is. I, I consider breath work to be like magic. I really, really enjoy teaching it.

Well, I have some great. I have a lot of dental friends that are going to listen to this. In fact, one of our. A friend of mine will be on our show, and he works with dentists all over the world. He does mini dental implants. His name is Dr. Todd Shack, and Todd's going to be our guest. He's built up a, you know, a big mini dental implant business. And we go around and speak about different things. So I always talk about recovery. I talk about different things. I can't teach this. I don't want to, but it's. I think you should really get this out there because dentists need it. Like I said, athletes need. If you ever watch a baseball game and they're always taking deep breath or the pitcher, they're up on there on the mound and they're ready to take this deep breath before they go. And I don't. I mean, I'm not a pitcher in baseball, but I knew as a hockey player, I would sit between periods and try to work on my breathing. But it's important. It's just like yoga and I don't want to speak for, for you, but I'm sure it's. Everything's about the form and the technique, so, so doing it correctly is so important. So I'd really appreciate you even putting some steps in for people. But so tell us you have an instag account as well or so people can follow me?

Yes. On Instagram it's Danielle Mercer Yoga. So straight across the board, Danielle Mercer Yoga. So pretty easy to remember. And I just agree with you Mike, that I feel like this breath work is necessary for everybody. Everybody can benefit and particularly your athlete listeners. I mean when you're performing at that high level. I myself don't perform at that high level but I would assume you would want to make the absolute most of your recovery periods and that's when you would incorporate this breath work.

Yeah, a lot of people have heard this from me before because I, every time I talk to a professional or an expert like yourself, I always say the definition of fitness is the ability to recover because if you're not recovering properly, you're not getting everything that you need because you're just going to over train, overuse, hurt yourself and people always forget about breathing. Danielle, it's been amazing that you've been with us. Share your website one more time for our listeners because I think they should hear it. What's the website?

It's just Danielle Mercer yoga.com and you can find everything that I offer. I update it pretty regularly.

Thank you so much for being on. Thank you for what you're doing and it was great. This was something different and I think our listeners are going to really love this. It was great.

Yes, thanks so much for having me.