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Transform Your Life: The Healing Power of Breathwork with Jules Cachia
How can conscious breathing techniques impact our daily lives and overall well-being? Discover the transformative power of breathwork in this enlightening episode with Jules Cachia and Anthony Hartcher. As they delve into how conscious breathing and mindfulness can revolutionize your health and well-being. Explore practical techniques such as the 4-7-8 method and coherence breathing to combat anxiety, improve sleep, and even stop hiccups. With personal stories and actionable tips, this episode highlights the simplicity and accessibility of breathwork and its profound impact on stress relief and respiratory health. Tune in to learn how integrating these practices into your daily routine can lead to a more balanced and vibrant life.
About Jules Cachia
Jules coach specialising in Breakthrough, Reiki, Mindfulness, Business, Keynote Speaking, and Beauty. She helps clients reconnect with themselves, expand internally, and mindfully breathe through daily life. Jules uses transformative methods to channel inner beauty into external radiance, focusing on empowering clients with new ideas and lifestyle tweaks. Her approach blends breathwork, reiki, perspective coaching, and makeup artistry to redefine life from within.
Connect with Jules Cachia
Website: www.julescachia.com.au
Instagram: www.instagram.com/julescachia/
About me&my health up & Anthony Hartcher
me&my health up seeks to enhance and enlighten the well-being of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my wellness which provides holistic health solutions using food as medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.
Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more
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Breathing is not optional, like paying taxes. To put it really crass, like, we all go to the toilet, we have to pay taxes, we have to breathe, three things that we have to do in life. And whenever I ask that question, most people go, they think that drinking water is the most important thing. They think that's the thing that we need to do. It's not breathing is usually the first option.
Anthony Hartcher:That was Jules Cachia and you've landed on the me&my health up podcast. I'm your host, Anthony Hartcher. I'm a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist. The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your wellbeing. And today we have Jules on the show to do that for you. She is a coach working in the modalities of breath work, Reiki, mindfulness, business and keynote speaking, and also beauty. Jules shares her insights and tools on how to unplug from your mind noise to connect back to you, to create internal expansion, and to mindfully breathe day to day. So without much further ado, I'd love to welcome you into this, this discussion I'm having with Jules. Welcome on the me&my health up podcast. How are you, Jules?
Jules Cachia:I am really good. Thank you, Anthony. How are you?
Anthony Hartcher:Fantastic. So great to have you on the show. I am very excited to be speaking to a breathwork expert. We all, we all breathe every day and it's something that we take for granted. And as I'm sure you'll share with us, Jules, that so many of us aren't breathing correctly. So we will delve into that and correct that and help people with that. But before we start with, you know, I'd love to start with my starting question, which is, how you have arrived at what you're doing today?
Jules Cachia:Oh, that's an excellent question, isn't it? And you're so correct, Anthony. Breathing is, we all do it. It is not optional. Thank you so much for having me on today. I'm really excited to be here. I came about what I do now. There's a lot of layers to it, so let's shorten that. So I worked in the corporate world for a really long time. I started my career out in hospitality and went off into PR and communications, went off into corporate, have always managed quite large teams and been in coaching environments and worked with teams that are often interacting with one another. So quite high pressure and a lot of the term I know now and I use now is holding space for other humans. And, you know, I had my own journey of a childhood where, you know, I had challenges that came up along the way and, you know, didn't live at home from a very young age and had done all of the talk therapy. You name it, I've done it. Psychotherapy, psychology, psychiatry, every different type of kinesiology, all of that. And I came about a few years ago where an acquaintance of mine actually said to me, have you ever tried breathwork? And I was like, well, yeah, like, you know, in the meditation breathing apps. So I'd done a bit of Wim Hof, like we all have, I think. And, you know, I was doing an exercise at the time in the mornings that my kinesiologist had set up for me where I just get up and do some breathing, but really intentional listening to a very specific type of music as well. And I was like, well, yeah. And then she said, breathwork, though, like, you know, in a very conscious way. And I said, well, no, no, I've not done that. And she said, it might be ideal for, you know, for you to explore. It was a suggestion at a time for actually my husband. And so I came about this beautiful shaman, breathwork guru, whose name is Davidson. He's also has a support care agency across Australia, primarily based in Sydney and in Queensland. And I messaged him on Instagram and she said, he might not message you back. He did instantly. And he said, yeah, let's have a call. So I was like, okay. We had, I think we spoke for nearly like two, two and a half hours. And he and I collectively decided for him that it should be me that actually is going to do the breathwork session. You know, at the time, you know, things were quite high stress in our house. My daughter's on the spectrum. She has a multiple diagnosis. She's highly functioning to the point where most people don't even even see it, which can be quite difficult in today's society. There's a lot of judgment that comes with that. And there's a lot of behavioural issues that go along with her. And so we're seeing therapists, speech therapists, psychologists, a behavioural management team for our family. And I'm the one that's doing it all. I'm the primary caregiver. I'm the one that's holding space. I'm the one that's setting the boundaries and rules. So when I spoke to Davidson, he's like, you're the one that's doing it all. You should be having this, not your husband, not anyone else. So he said, he gave me some homework, which I'm not going to say on here. It's a little bit left of field. I am happy to answer that question to anyone privately if they want to reach out to me, but not in a group format. I did the homework. And then a couple of days later, it'd been a really, really tough morning, particularly with my daughter and her father at the time, you know, going through something at the time. And so I messaged him and he said, yeah, sure. Come, come and see me at four o'clock. And I was like, oh, okay, I don't know if I'm ready for this. And the, the uncomfortability came up and I'm, I called my coach at the time and his wife was in the car, actually with him, and they've done everything. They now live in Byron and they're like, just go. Like it's, you're going to love it. Just lean in. And I don't know the person that walked in to that house that day. The person that walked in to the person that walked out, I think three hours later it was, is completely different. To the point that, yeah, my family, when I got home, they're like, what have you been doing? Because I was responding differently. I actually annoyed them because I got home and put myself first automatically. And it's something that I have, I have, I have juggled as a, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend, the type of human that I am, I put others first and I'm working at a lot better capacity now with me. But in that moment, I went home and I actually had a shower. I didn't go and put the washing on. I didn't go and do things for them. I went had a shower. And that breathwork experience for me, Davidson met me and he actually had to take a bit of a step back where he was like, you have a lot of healing energy. Has anybody ever told you that? Like you, I feel really held being with you. And he had to take a moment to collect his own energy to then hold space for me. Now that breathwork session, you know, isn't something that I do every single day. It's not what I take my clients through every day. It's, it was a full holotropic conscious connected oral breath experience. There was a lot going on. There was a lot of energy in the room, him being a shaman as well and having many modalities he's qualified in. There was a lot going on, but I worked through a lot in that period of time. I started a 12-week container with him and it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. However, the amount of healing that I did in that time that I did for myself through breathing and the amount of things that came up for me and the amount of stages of life that I worked through from my childhood, my teenage years, my early adulthood, giving birth, you name it. And throughout that time, I was, you know, I was working in a bit of a different, I was working in a coaching environment. I'm also a makeup artist, which I still do 30, 40% of the time. Once again, it's still holding space. So, you know, my clients, I take them through a breath when they sit down. A lot of my clientele are very, very busy and they're in the media and they are rushed. They're reading notes and scripts on their phone whilst I'm doing their makeup. So, it's a lot of people go, oh well, how is that holding space? It's a lot more holding space than than what people realise. So, Davidson and I and I at that time had some very big conversations about what I was doing in my world. I had a very detailed coaching container at the time as well. And I was really working on myself. And throughout that time, I was already a coach, a qualified coach through different modalities and psychotherapy as well as one of those. Davidson was like, you need to be doing this. You need to be doing breathwork. So, I engaged in training. I've done many certifications now. And that was what, three years ago. And now I've been able to incorporate it back into the corporate world. A lot of my clients are CEOs, often majority male as well. Like my over 40 clientele are male, majority of them, probably 70%. And to full disclaimer, they're on their second and third wives, live very, very high stressful environments and have realised that they need to come back to themselves. Because true healing happens when you are connected from your mind to your heart and to your body. And I didn't know what it was truly like to be in my body until I started conscious breath work. And even today, when I feel a bit frustrated or my heart's racing, it's because I need to come back to my breath. And I've got things that are coming up for me, or I'm a bit annoyed about some things, or I've got other people's energy. It's coming back to the breath. And it sounds really woo-woo. It's so not. Breathing is not optional, like paying taxes. To put it really crass, like, we all go to the toilet, we have to pay taxes, we have to breathe. Three things that we have to do in life. And whenever I ask that question, most people go, they think that drinking water is the most important thing. They think that's the thing that we need to do. It's not breathing is usually the first option. So especially over the last six months, I feel like I've entered a world where, you know, it's not about blowing people's roofs off and laying them down. And let's having a, you know, a somatic experience because I am trauma-informed and somatic-informed in my breathwork styles, but there's thousands of types of breathwork. And generally the best healing type of breath is learning how to breathe properly and in and out of your nose. And I can 100% hand on heart, most of us are not doing it properly, even if we think we are.
Anthony Hartcher:What a story. Incredible. I was just thinking, what should I ask you next? There's so much, there's so many places where we could go. Totally. Yeah. So my, my thinking is, is certainly starting with what is breathwork. Because for me, like with, I guess you've mentioned breathwork a lot. And unless we define what breathwork is, people are going to assume something and what they're assuming is probably not correct. So let's start with
Jules Cachia:Okay. So I'm going to keep this really, really what is breathwork. simple. It is consciously moving energy and the different types of oxygen through our body. It is a way for us to release anxiety. It is a way for us to completely come back into our bodies. Is a way for us to lose weight. There's some big studies, I know, you know, I had a brief conversation about that. I'm sure you're going to ask me about that question, and I'm, I'm ready for that one today. It is a way for you to feel completely calm. It is a way for you to work with your mental health. There are some huge studies at the moment. And I think I actually listened to something that you were talking about the other day about like medications and anxiety and ADHD. And honestly, a lot of my clients who are on the spectrum, and I live in a house with people that are on the spectrum. My best friends are. It's coming back to your breath, being conscious with how you're using your energy. It will reduce the amount of water you need to drink. I used to drink four to five litres of water a day. And now I only really need to drink about two maximum, but I was always thirsty. It will help you sleep better, sleep apnea, always sleeping problems, insomnia issues. Even just the way you digest your food, digestion is a huge one as well. But in your stress levels at day to day, like when we're feeling a bit stressed, what's the, what's the first thing that we feel when we're stressed?
Anthony Hartcher:Our respiratory rate, we start breathing, you know, panting. Yeah. Like a dog, yeah.
Jules Cachia:A hundred percent. And how are we taught to breathe when we run?
Anthony Hartcher:With our mouth, like, it's mouth breathing, isn't it? It's, yeah.
Jules Cachia:Yeah. Which is actually incorrect.
Anthony Hartcher:I just wanted to say, Jules, that we're never actually taught how to breathe. Like, like, we we come into the world, you know, we come into the world with a breath, and we leave the world with our last breath. But in between, no one's there other than Jules, and, you know, there's a few others. But Jules is the best. But there's no one there to guide us and teach us and teach around a thing that we do every, well, you know, depending on how much you breathe per minute, but it's something that you do cyclic, you know, in order to... what's life, isn't it? It's, it's, it's without breathing, where we aren't alive. So, yeah, it's incredible.
Jules Cachia:It's so true. Yeah. I realised years ago, I had a yoga instructor. I'd never done yoga, like, consistently. I would do it when I would go overseas. I would do it when I would, like, go down the coast or up the coast, like, you know, it was a way of, like, when I was on holidays type thing, like, of coming back and being connected. I started doing yoga consistently about five years ago, and my yoga instructor is actually a kinesiologist as well, and she was absolutely incredible. She now lives in Perth with her family. And she was just magical. I love doing yoga with her and one of her colleagues. She came to me after my second session. She's like, do you know how you breathe? I said, no, and I'm a chronic asthmatic. It's something that I've deliberately left out until now. I'm not a chronic asthmatic anymore. I am an asthmatic. I would not say I'm a chronic asthmatic at all anymore because of my breathing, and it is my aim to be able to reduce the preventatives that I use. And I've got a goal of about 12 months of that. But she said, do you know how you breathe? And I said, no. And she said, you breathe in and out of your mouth. And I was like, oh, and she says don't make it wrong because I went to make it wrong, and that's what we do. We make things wrong all the time because we're not taught how to breathe. And this is why it's becoming a big platform for schools and for environments around. We're teaching mindfulness programmes and wellness and anxiety, but are we teaching our children, our next generations, how to breathe? No, we're not. And that's what helps reduce anxiety. That's what helps you be connected back to your body. So when she taught me how to breathe in yoga, I started being very conscious about breathing in and out of my nose and only breathing into my nose and out of my mouth when I was going into certain positions in yoga or in Pilates. And to be honest, now I generally ignore what the instructor says when I'm in Pilates now. Although my Pilates instructor, she's absolutely incredible and she loves breath work and, you know, she is all about what works for you. But when she says breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, seven times out of 10, I don't do it because I actually don't want to waste my energy. I don't want to dehydrate myself. We're all breathing too much. So that's what the myth, that's one of probably the first myths around breath work is that we need to be laying down, doing this big Wim Hof type style breathing and don't get me wrong, Wim Hof is incredible. And there's been, I've done training with one of, you know, one of his former instructors, who's absolutely amazing. But that's not the only breath style that we should be doing. And teaching us how to breathe is something I'm extremely passionate about because even my best friend this morning, she sent me a text message and she's just a bit stressed, got a lot going on, you know, multiple businesses and children. And I have to stop myself from saying, like, let's, let's do a breathing technique because she knows and sometimes she just needs me to actually go, are you okay? Like, how can I help? Do you want to vent? But she's also the first person to go, right, I'm going to breathe when she gets, before she gets on stage and perform, uh sorry, presents to an audience. She's a top financial advisor in Australia and she talks about breathwork all the time. And she's, you know, done breathwork sessions with me and with my mentor, Davidson. But we are not, yeah, taught how to breathe and it used to be something that was so triggering for me when someone's like, just take a breath, calm down, which we still shouldn't be saying to someone who's stressed. By the way, you should not say that. But instead, I would encourage you, Anthony, your family, you know, we talked a little bit about your children and we'll definitely get to some techniques as well. We'll do a technique for everyone at the end so they can come back in and teach them how to do it because that's what I'm about, getting you to do is walk away knowing how to breathe better. And, you know, it shouldn't, I don't want people to have to come and see me every week. People sign up for for 12 weeks and then they'll have check-in sessions and the same as I do with my mentors. Like, I'm a Reiki practitioner as well and, you know, my Reiki master, I will have a check-in session with her every six weeks. I have physio, I have chiro, we've got the same chiropractor, we all know how magical Dr. Euan McMillan is, and it's all about what works for us, of coming back to our body and the energy that goes around that. So breathing less overall per minute helps us calm instead of saying someone take a breath and it's not what we say, it's how we say it. And I talk a lot about this with my clients and on my platforms and especially in keynote speaking. It's like, actually Anthony, let's just take a breath right now. Like, let's breathe in through the nose and out through the nose and it's like notice the difference of how that feels even just in your heart space and you instantly like to close your eyes and so do I. And there are, you know, mouth breathing techniques that we can, we can, we can do that can definitely shift energy a bit quicker, especially if we're feeling a bit stagnant or perhaps we just had too much of a big day. You know, we've had back-to-back podcasts or back-to-back clients or we've been go, go, go, go, go in meetings and all of a sudden you're like, hang on, I don't know whether I'm hungry, thirsty, where I'm at, I might need to do a quick breath flow, which could be in through the nose and out through the mouth for a couple of minutes. You could do them at the traffic lights. I do it all the time when I'm out in public at a lift. It's being conscious of our breath and it is something where I might I want you to learn some techniques, perhaps have a few sessions with me and then I would love not to ever see you again. I would love to see you, but it would be that the next time I see you that you're like, oh my goodness, I've learnt this and that really helped. And I want to learn about how to do what we talked about the other day, my baseline score, like, my pulse, which is your capacity to breathe. And breathing is a way for you to heal and when you say it that simply, isn't it pretty magical? Isn't it up to us, ourselves? And talk therapy scrap, but like, even my own, like, you know, I see a psychotherapist every now and again, but even she says, you know, she's like Jules, you don't, it's just validation that you're here. You know what you're doing. So it's coming back to ourselves and being connected with us and that is just breathing.
Anthony Hartcher:Yeah, I was just thinking when you mentioned that breathing as therapy, I've never really saw it as a as a therapeutic agent, you know, like, I guess in the past, certainly in the past and it's only I guess through meeting people like yourself and becoming more familiar with the published scientific literature is that breathing is therapy in itself. So what I'm really keen to explore with you now is you mentioned obviously the importance of nose breathing and not breathing through the mouth primarily. Now, what's the other foundations to good breathing? Like, what, how do we set ourselves up? So maybe you start with, how do people know if they're mouth breathing? What's the test to test, you know, to test for mouth breathing? And then from there, how do we then get a good breath? Like, what are those core foundations to a good breath?
Jules Cachia:Great. So we're going to do an exercise then, because, and that's one we were talking about when we caught up last, is doing our pulse and our baseline score. So the best way to learn if you are mouth breathing is, are you asking yourself a couple of questions first? Are you thirsty when you wake up? Do you need to have a glass of water beside the bed? Three beautiful techniques.
Anthony Hartcher:Fantastic questions because I'm thinking back like I was a bit like you. I used to consume a lot of water and and then I went into mouth taping and the mouth tapings helped me a lot, which, you know, I find a bit irritating at times, but it's helped me a lot around and particularly, what I noticed at night was not going to the toilet as frequently. Uh, so.
Jules Cachia:You just took the words out of my mouth, mouth taping and going to toilet, yeah. And, you know, even for me, like I'm drinking a lot of water today. I have been extremely sick but what I've even noticed is that I used to drink cold sparkling water, but when I was, when I'm, because I've been so sick, I've not wanted anything cold at all. I'd only wanted things at a room temperature but I don't really drink anything other than water. I will have a coffee and, you know, I will drink alcohol from time to time, but I don't, I don't drink anything else, like I'll drink tea during winter, but the dehydration aspect of mouth breathing is huge and when you start mouth taping, you'll notice some huge difference of the way you just even feel when you wake in the morning. So another question for people is that, if they don't want to jump into mouth taping. Now there's lots of mouth tapes on the market. I would be careful about what mouth tape you use because a lot of them aren't formulated for the mouth, they're just like normal tape that we use on wrapping a present. So I would look into what you, you know, are using and making sure it's formulated. It's usually the two strips that are that are the best. But I would ask yourself, when you're waking in the morning and you're not mouth taping, are you feeling like you've got a bit of a grab in the middle of your chest as well? Are you feeling a bit, how would you rate your energy levels out of 10? Were you dreaming? Do you remember? Track what times you wake up over, like, over the course of the night as well. And so when you come into the daytime, when we're talking, do you put the tongue to the roof of your mouth in between words? Do you know how to do that? How often do you swallow? They're the key signs that when you're mouth breathing you won't even be aware of any of the things that I've just asked. And even when we're talking like this, when I'm pausing, I notice myself, and I notice you, and I've noticed you and become more conscious of it since we've been talking. And so if you're not aware of what you're doing, which to be honest, most of us are not if we're mouth breathing, talk to someone else. Watch their mouth. You can tell when they put the tongue to the roof of their mouth because we often mirror other people. And I can 100% like hand on heart say that 90% of our population are mouth breathing, unless you are in the field of breath work as a coach or a lot of personal trainers, definitely don't mouth breathe, like fitness by yoga instructors, yoga instructors. But coming back to your baseline score, this is what we were talking about. And so this is about checking your capacity to breathe and it involves getting up in the morning. Takes seven days to create a habit. Getting up in the morning. Don't reach for your phone. Don't open it. Keep it on Do Not Disturb. No coffee. Have some water. Go to the toilet. Sit down or even sit your desk. I like to sit the desk and do this in front of my actual computer. I keep the spreadsheet open. And you find your pulse for 30 seconds. You count the amount of beats. Put the timer on for 30 seconds, count that in your head, double that score. That is your pulse for that time. And then you're going to do a capacity breath. And I'm going to demonstrate it now. Unless you're a breath coach or a deep sea diver, your breath score is going to be about capacity, probably about under 15. When you're sitting there and doing your pulse, you're going to sit there and lightly breathe. You're not going to over breathe, you're not going to under breathe, all in and out of your nose and keep your mouth closed. You're not going to talk to anyone. You're going to take a couple of minutes. And you're not going to be deep breathing deeply, but you're not going to be breathing lightly. You're just going to breathe and do this for a couple of minutes. Then you're going to take a deep, you're going to take a breath, not a deep breath, but a conscious breath, in through your nose for five and out of your nose for five and you're going to blow all the air out, and you're going to clasp your fingers over your nose, and you're going to hold your breath. In that moment, you're going to count until you feel the need to breathe. So you're going to sit there, tongue through your mouth and hold. You might feel a desire to swallow. You might feel a flutter at the back of your collarbones, shoulder blades. You might feel it up in your chest and I promise you that you're going to feel it before you think. I watched someone do it yesterday and her mouth started to twitch, and I said, you're breathing and she's like, ah, like, yeah, that's the desire to breathe. That number is going to be your capacity score. Now, I'll have full disclosure right now. I was sitting at about a 15 for a few weeks and then I got extremely sick a few weeks ago and I've been back to a seven or an eight most days. I would do this at first thing when you're awake and then night time as well. I try and do it around 6 or 7. Some people do it, some of my clients do it before bed. But this is your capacity to breathe and testing what it's like and how long you can hold your breath for. Now, it's not a competition, it is with yourself, your own ego. It's your number. And I've got a client that I've been seeing weekly and she's been doing this for the last month and doing it every single day. She does it in the morning and she does it now, does it in the middle of the day and does it at night. And then we're going to, we're taking her through a breath retraining exercise as of this Saturday when I see her, where she is then doing it, where she takes that score and then she goes back to three minutes of just breathing, air coming in and out, not barely breathing, not overly breathing. And then she does the test again, breathing through her nose, out through her nose, halts it. That is breath retraining. That is seeing what the capacity is. And there's many other retraining exercises, but that is one I've learned recently with Breathless Expeditions. And that is one of the biggest telltales of what your capacity is. And then we can teach you how to do breathing exercises, and there's one we'll do at the end that is called a coherence breath. Everyone talks about it, but not enough of us are doing it. And even for me, whilst being sick the last few weeks and for my daughter as well, who's been extremely sick, that has been the breath that I have been coming back to.
Anthony Hartcher:And is that coherent breathing, is that the one that people should be doing on a regular basis? Like, what's the, yeah.
Jules Cachia:Yes, 100% everything. Perfect. Coherence breathing, getting you to breathe, six breaths. And when I say that to most people, they're like, what? Only six? And it's breathing in through your nose for five, out through your nose for five. And this is the best way to regulate your central nervous system. And that is what breathing does, activating the parasympathetic, calming down the sympathetic in a very conscious way and connecting all of our organs back to our breath, because it comes back to blood flow, oxygen.
Anthony Hartcher:And how often would you recommend doing this throughout the day? Like, is there a certain number of, number of cycles or, you know, different points? Yeah, yeah.
Jules Cachia:I would. We all have the best intentions with habits. We're like, oh yeah, I'm going to do that all the time. Do it once a day. I do it multiple times a day because it's a really good way to connect back into the body. If you're feeling frustrated, it's really amazing to do that. But for somebody that's been through an accident or some deep trauma, like recently, or they're just feeling constantly anxious and they're on anxiety meds, or they're on, you know, other things, like for mental health conditions, etc, I would be bringing them back the coherence breath and do it as often as you feel you need. But if you're struggling to go to sleep, coming back to that, there's another breathwork technique we can, I'm going to teach you at the end that helps for everything, including your daughter's hiccups. And it's great. I even did it last night because I've been struggling to go to sleep at night because my my breathing has not been great because of how sick I've been and what my lungs are doing and antibiotics and all the vitamins I've been taking. My body's like, what's going on with you? But yeah, I aim for once a day. Once a day. So up it if you need to. Do it as often as you like, but have the intention of once a day. Twice a day, do it before you go to bed. Do it with the kids.
Anthony Hartcher:So that's breathing in through the nose, five seconds, out through the nose for five seconds for three minutes, was it?
Jules Cachia:You can do it for three minutes, but doing that for a minute of making sure you only got six breaths in it. And I don't really, I'm not a big meditator. I'd rather listen to, I'd rather do a breathing exercise or I'd rather listen to, like the Jay Shetty on the Karma. But people go, oh, I can't meditate. I'm like, well, then do a breathing exercise because it's the same thing. Because you're just, all you're thinking about is your breathing. Whereas meditating, you're like, let the thoughts come, let the thoughts go. But we get in our head and to do this, get too much. When you're breathing, you're just thinking about your counting, your breath. So it's really hard to think about something else, isn't it? When you're just thinking about your breath. And my own daughter now, like, if I had the capacity, she would lay down and do a breath session with me, with me every day. She loves it. And I will do some mouth breathing with her, but she is so relaxed by the end. And she gets a little bit embarrassed, and she's like, starts laughing or she'll cry. She's like, why am I crying? Energy, you're releasing. Pretty
Anthony Hartcher:Yeah, absolutely. It's game changing. cool. So as you were alluding to before, my daughter gets hiccups on a regular, I don't know, sort of sporadic, probably, you know, based on her stress levels. And when she gets them, she gets really frustrated because they just hang around, hang around, hang around. And so she's looking, certainly, for ways to get rid of the hiccups or, you know, she's tried various things. And you shared that you have an exercise that you can do for hiccups, which would be great. And as you said, it's also helpful for anyone that feels really stressed in the moment, and they want to calm themselves down, right? This is sort of...
Jules Cachia:So the fact that she's got hiccups, and it's usually when she's stressed or anxious, I would say she's a mouth breather, one of the biggest signs, because everything's getting caught up in her digestive system, probably in and out of her diaphragm. There's pockets of air that are getting built up. And that's her body's stress release. And so her body is telling her to slow down, to breathe. So hiccups and stress are very, very common. Um, it's the 4-7-8 technique. So it's breathing in through the nose for 4, it's holding for 7 at the top, and breathing out of the nose for 8. So breathing in for 4, hold for 7 at the top, breathe out for 8. This is an excellent way to go to sleep at night. I did this last night, actually. And it did really help me. I was able to go to sleep before midnight last night, which I haven't done in nearly two and a half weeks. And I usually am asleep by like 9.45. And I've retrained my sleep as well. But not being able to breathe as well, and nighttime air. But the 4-7-8 style is great for... And you can instantly feel it. You're like, oh, I can instantly feel my diaphragm calm. I would also say that she is breathing from her chest and not her diaphragm or her belly. So the coherence breath. So coming back to the breathing in for 5, out for 5, 6 breaths a minute. I would be getting her to do that daily as well. So if the hiccups are really bad, 4-7-8. So in for 4, hold for 7 at the top, out for 8. But overall, in terms of breath retraining, I would do the coherence breath. In for 5, out for 5, 6 breaths, just for a minute. And she can do that when she's at school. No one's going to watch her. No one's going to see what she's doing, because she's just gonna be and breathing in, belly rises. Breathing out, belly falls. I've really been conscious with that. Breathing in, belly rises. Breathing out, belly falls. And I can hand on heart tell you that within a week of her doing those two exercises daily, the hiccups will reduce. But we're all going to feel stressed. Yeah. We're all going to feel stressed. It's just how we how we deal with it. And for me, when I used to feel stressed, I would, it's the stories we go into. We're stressed. We make it wrong or we blame somebody else. I generally blame myself. That's just how I am as a human. I will look within first. But now it's just taking myself to a breath exercise or connecting back to nature. Even if you're just looking outside, sitting there and breathing in and out of your nose. If you can't go outside, but, you know, get some sunshine. Have you had to? Have you had a walk? Have you exercised? All the things that get us back to breathing consciously and the non-negotiables that go with that as well. But mouth taping is one of the best things at night, especially for someone also that has hiccups.
Anthony Hartcher:Is there a particular mouth tape that you recommend? Because you said there's a lot of rubbish or ones that are just, just tape?
Jules Cachia:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I now use, and this is the one that I will give to clients as well. It is the one by Breathless Expeditions, Johannes. It's, it's been a game changer. I've been mouth taping for a long time. And it's the single strips. So we can pop it in the show notes. But yeah, you can, you can get it off the Breathless Expeditions website. Fantastic. It's formulated for daily. So you're not taking it off a big roll like a lot of them are. And you're not cutting it. It's, it's been, one of my clients was mouth taping already and she's like, this has been way better. And I'm, you know, a skin coach, beauty coach. So I'm thinking about people's skin and irritations. Winter, we all got drier skin, you know, in and out of, you know, hot to cold. Our heating systems are not so great here in Australia. We need to make sure we're taking care of our skin. So, but yeah, we can pop that in the show notes. That's really good.
Anthony Hartcher:Thank you, Jules. And the other one I thought was interesting, well, certainly got my attention. Halotropic. Halotropic. And so I'm thinking I'd love to know what that is. And if you could just share some insight around
Jules Cachia:So that's holotropic. So that. H-O-L-O-T-R-O-P-l-C, Holotropic. That is a technique around releasing energy, you know, being very conscious with our mouth breathing. So it is a Wim Hof style breathing, but Wim Hof, which I'll demonstrate a little bit now, you know, Wim Hof story. I haven't done that for a little while. My chest was feeling that, but it's more being, you know, opening your jaw. Holotropic is taking you through a journey, an experience of mouth breathing. A lot of people like to do these experiences by themselves on apps. It is not something I would be advising or suggesting as I had a few, it would void my insurances. And I had a few, you know, qualifications. So I always come back with breathwork. Come back to my coaching qualifications as well around. I don't advise my clients. I give perspective. I give suggestions with breathwork. I do advise, but holotropic is ensuring that we're keeping our mouth actually at the same opening and going like it's opening it wider than what you expect it to be. And when I'm doing a breath session with you or even a group scenario, I'm or I'm coming around even adjusting your jaw, because we don't want you walking away with a sore jaw at the end. And we don't want you actually wasting your breath. And holotropic is about getting you into an altered state because that's where people who think or who aren't sure what breathwork is, there's a big perception that it's so woo-woo. It's like, oh, you could lay down. You gotta do it for 90 minutes. It's mouth breathing. Let's get the energy out. Let's get your demons out. And, you know, that holotropic can do that definitely. And I have had those experiences and a lot of people judge me, which I love now. I think it's amazing when they judge because they're like, oh, you don't look like a breathwork coach. Like, well, what does a breathwork coach look like? You know, what does a naturopath look like? What does a doctor look like? You know what I mean? Like, what does a nutritionist look like? But, you know, I'm trained in many different types of breathwork and holotropic is something that I can do, but it's coming back to the trauma-informed style of that. And holotropic is is endeavouring to take you on a journey to release. It's having an intention often before you go in, but hang on like a hundred percent. Every time I've ever gone into a breathwork experience I should have recently, I've been doing a few across the retreat. I was like, I'm fine. I'm good. I don't want to do, I don't want to breathe. Like, when I say I don't want to breathe, it's like, I don't want to lay down and have someone hold space for me and be touched and whatever. You know, I've had everything come up this weekend. I'm good. I lay down and I actually had an asthma, also an asthma attack in that. I was very held and it was very safe and people, everyone was qualified, but I'm glad I did because I could breathe a lot better. And the things that I had come up, I've never had come up in terms of my thoughts and breathwork is getting you out of your head and connecting you back into your mind, into your body, because we make excuses for this. And our brain is an excellent tool. We learn with it. It is so beautiful. It does amazing things, but it was created last. Our heart was created first. So why do we listen to our brain first? However, breathwork is your ability to then connect back to the body and work with things that might come up in an altered state, but that almost gets a bit too woo-woo. So you don't want to go too much into that, but it's something I definitely do with my clients when they need it. And it is something that, like I had a good friend of mine, a fellow practitioner messaged me yesterday and I come out of a meeting, and all I saw on the text was, can you get a Get Out of Jail Free card for this event coming up? And I was like, yes, I would love to actually go through a breathwork experience myself, and it's with someone I've never had an experience with before. So yeah, I guess that gives a bit of an explanation on holotropic and the different journeys you can take yourself on. And there's lots of people I know that can do that by themselves, but I would never suggest that ever. It can happen sometimes when you're just doing a breathing exercise and you're a client of mine. He's a, he works in finance. He's quite high up on what he does, and he goes, I go off with the fairies. So I was like, yeah, that's what you do, but you're actually, you're healing and you're working through energy. And I guess to loop around, because I know we talked about this previously, is that I had an injury that Dr. Euan McMillan from WellWellWell helped me with, but I had an injury that had occurred from several injuries. And I had stopped my physio at the time. He was an incredible doctor. Had said, you're giong to have to stop working as a makeup artist. And I was about to have surgery. I have a condition. I still technically have it, that's called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. When I started working with Euan, he helped me release a lot of the pain and energy around it, but it was all because it was going back to my breath and what he was doing and where he was manipulating or just holding the energy. But now, whenever I get that twinge, I went from, I could barely drop. I couldn't pick up a glass of water without dropping it. I couldn't feel properly in my arm and my hand. I was having very conscious, specific physio and massage and Pilates. And I was in, I was in a nine out of 10 in pain. I was taking painkillers and not even properly because I don't like the way I make me feel. When I really started proper breathwork myself, my injury disappeared. I cancelled my surgery. And now, when I get the pain, I will go and lay on the roller or I sit and do a breath if I can't do that. Because it's, it's stored energy. Our breath can move our energy through our body. And so if you feel like you've got some pain or you feel like your muscles are spasming, you're not breathing properly. None of us are. And I definitely haven't in the last few weeks, it's been sick as well. So.
Anthony Hartcher:Thank you for sharing that remarkable story in terms of how you've turned your health around as a result of the accident and how you've been able to manage that and really grow, as opposed to it being debilitating, you're actually thriving with it through your breathwork. And for the listeners, how can they best connect with you to get more of this amazing insight and potentially might want to work with you? How can they best connect with you, Jules?
Jules Cachia:So you can hop on my website to book in a breath session, which is my full name, www.julescachia.com.au. You can check my Instagram out. That's also, we can put that in the show notes and that's just my name @julescachia as well. That's C-A-C-H-I-A. A bit of complicated word, but yeah, or, you know, my, my details are everywhere there. So, you know, contact me. We can even just do some breath retraining. It doesn't have to be a full lay down coaching experience. Some people come, come and see me for a one-off session. I actually had a client recently just come to me for one-off session, and he'd done heaps of breathwork and his testimonial was insane. And he's high up in finance and he sat up and he was like, I had never had an experience like that. And I was like, I didn't even, didn't even push you very hard because I wanted him to come back to, you know, connecting to his body. And we taught him the exercise that we just taught around baseline score. But yeah, he's now like, let's have a couple more sessions because he was just able to feel much more calmer and centered. So, yeah, it's intended to be the intention that you create around it. And that's what I do now when I'm going into a bigger session for myself or for clients where they're feeling a bit stressed, is that make an intention and we can create that and you can hold that in your thoughts going in. However, I can't 100% confirm that that's what you'll work through. You're probably end up working through that and a few other things as well.
Anthony Hartcher:Yes. I would say that the best, best things in life are often for free. And I think it might be a song as well. And breathing, yeah, just something we're not taking advantage of, and can make such a profound difference in everyone's life. If we can breathe properly and it would have a profound difference in society and the way we interact if we're a lot calmer as as opposed to in that fight-flight mode and, you know, letting our tempers flare and our anger outbursts and things like that. A lot more having control of our breath. Maybe we could solve a lot of health problems and mental health issues with just teaching people how to breathe at school, teaching the children how to breathe. So I really thank you for your profound insights and sharing that with the listeners today. And we'll probably do a part two, Jules, no doubt. So thank you once again.
Jules Cachia:Oh, my absolute pleasure. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's been, it's been such a privilege. So thank you.
Anthony Hartcher:You're very welcome. And to the listeners, please reach out to Jules if you think you or you are now aware that your mouth breathing based on the questions that Jules proposed and reach out to her, get some assistance and get your breath in order. And that's probably a fantastic step to elevating your health and wellbeing. Stay tuned for more insightful episodes of me&my health up. Please share it with others that you could think that may benefit from hearing this episode, that may have a maybe in pain. They may be struggling with their mental health, their energy levels or anything else that Jules has shared. Please share it with them. Get the word out there. We certainly it's all about helping people elevate their health. And that's what this podcast is all about. So we really appreciate if you could share it with others. And thank you once again, Jules.
Jules Cachia:Oh, thank you so much.
Anthony Hartcher:You're welcome.
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