The Mechanics of CCB

The Technique

Conscious Connected Breathwork (CCB) is an open mouth technique, using an active inhale and a soft passive exhale.

In normal life you should always be breathing through your nose, ideally even when exercising. But for CCB we are looking to move a larger volume of air in and out, and we are also trying to do this with as little tension and effort as possible, to allow the breathing system to relax and let go. If you are interested in the science behind why this works, check out this blog entry.

The breath is a diaphragmatic breath. The diaphragm is the primary breathing muscle of the body. When you are breathing using your diaphragm, then with every inhale it will feel like your belly (under your ribs) will expand in all directions like a ball as your lungs expand down and all the organs are gently massaged by the action of breathing.

We breathe either lying down flat, or sitting up in a relaxed position (typically a reclined angle). If lying flat then the knees are bent/raised to take any pressure off the lower back and to allow the diaphragm to move more easily.

The Protocol – What happens in a session

The first session lasts for 90 minutes (due to initial explanation). Subsequent sessions last for 60-75 minutes.

At the start of your first session, I would give a quick history of CCB, cover any concerns or temporary side effects you might experience, discuss any position changes we might want to make during the session and an overview of how the breathing technique is done. This explanation would only be required once and typically takes 20 to 30 minutes.

Once you are settled, you would lay down flat (with a pillow), start with breathing gently, building up to a full CCB active breath. This active breathwork section lasts for 30 minutes.

During this time there would be music playing, I would be using guidance and affirmations, and using (optional) safe gentle touch (through clothes) and acupressure to help your breath expand throughout your body.

After the active section we move into a 10 minute quiet integration period where the breath returns to your normal way of breathing (probably through the nose), putting knees down and relaxing. This is where the body returns to its normal state and the nervous system can fully integrate any shifts.

At the end of integration I will gently bring you back to the room, you can have a drink of water, we can optionally discuss anything that came up for you during the session, although probably not in great detail.

After the session, make sure you don’t have anything demanding you have to do. Ideally you could take a 5 or 10 minute walk around a park or in nature.

If this feels like something you would like to experience, book a call to discuss or see my offerings page.

Healing your Breath Pattern

Throughout your life stress and emotion can occur that you felt you had to suppress in the moment. This could be because there is no space for that emotion due to social pressure, being at work, or during childhood when your system was unable to cope with such large feelings. This is a useful system ability, but it requires us to clean up later.

When we are unable to feel and integrate in the moment, then the stress of the situation is stored as tension in your body – you may have heard the phrase “the body keeps the score”. This physical holding can then impact our ability to retain the free and open breath of a newborn child. Often the mental awareness of these tensions is very limited, and tensions can build up over time further reducing our physical freedom.

This means that everyone’s breath pattern is unique, just as everyone’s body is unique. How you breathe is affected by what happens in your life. If something stressful happens, it will change your breathing pattern, possibly closing down your breath, and thus your life, until you release it.

Most of us hold onto a lot from life, and this holding impacts our ability to have a free and open breath, and therefore a free and open life.

CCB works to dissolve these physical blocks, by using the breath to safely reawaken awareness within the body until the body is ready to let go and fully integrate the stored tension, allowing your breath to return to its natural state.

Titration – safe emotional release

CCB can sometimes bring up very strong emotions or sensations. There are now many videos online of people having very strong emotional releases. This is not a requirement and is generally not advised since it can be so strongly activating for your system.

Titration is the process of gradually feeling into big emotions, slowly building the nervous system’s capability to hold that emotion safely without a risk of going into fight-or-flight or even freeze. This is done by deliberately reducing the intensity of the breath at times to allow your nervous system to gradually integrate the strong emotional charge. Often it is right for things to unfold slowly and gently. If this is a concern of yours then please let me know and we can discuss before we start any breathwork.

The word “titration” comes from a laboratory technique of slowly dripping a substance into a mixture until the required result or reaction occurs. It is deliberately slow and gradual to allow for as much control over the rate of the process as possible.

Benefits of CCB

System:

• System Capacity: Expands your Window of Tolerance by somatically integrating the physiological “backlog” of stored stress
• Nervous System Regulation: Reduces your baseline of stress, anxiety and panic by recalibrating your nervous system
• Pattern Disruption: Shifts negative repeating patterns in your life by addressing their subconscious physical roots

Emotional:

• Somatic Complement: A “bottom-up” practice that works alongside talking therapies to move physical blocks without talking
• Vibrant Presence: Facilitates the transition from “functional grey” to an integrated, vibrant life, at work and at home

Physical:

• Structural Release: Dissolves unconscious physically held stress and tension from the muscles and fascia, reducing “system lag”
• Detoxification: The movement of the diaphragm during CCB activates the lymph pump, helping the lymphatic system remove toxins. Exhaling purges the body of many VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), byproducts of your system or absorbed from the environment.
• Energy: Boosts your physical energy and vitality
• Strength Enhancing: A stronger core simply from breathing
• Sleep: Improved and deeper sleep
• Improve organ health: Diaphragmatic breathing massages the internal organs as you breathe
• Respiration Improvements: Can help with asthma and other respiratory conditions, can increase lung capacity

Many people say that after a session they feel relaxed, lighter, more grounded and have better, deeper sleep.

If you feel ready to take the next step, please get in touch.