Last week, we talked about what to do when instability strikes. This week, let’s go a little deeper into one of those tools: focused breathing with long exhales.

It’s generally best to start with short, frequent sessions rather than trying to eliminate all your stress at once with one long session. Even a few focused breaths with extended exhales can make a meaningful difference — especially when practiced consistently. The goal is to use the breath as a pattern interrupt for the stress response.

As your nervous system begins to regulate, you can gradually add longer breathing and/or meditation sessions. Longer sessions can offer greater benefits — as long as your body is ready for them. The way to know is simple: notice how you feel afterward. If you feel calmer, clearer, or more grounded, you’re in a good time range and can slowly increase as needed.

However, if you feel overly tired, agitated, or spacey after a longer session, you may be doing more than your body can comfortably handle. In that case, shorten your next session to better match your nervous system’s needs.

Stability grows through attunement, not force.

I had a great trip to Orlando to work a Network immersion with Dr Sherina. These trips are good for me as they get me outside of my comfort zone which helps me grow. While the growth is great, the best part of the trip was uninterrupted sleep :).

The growth I get from being outside my comfort zone (traveling and being around lots of new people) is more of the vertical kind of growth which expands my overall capacity. This is the traditional type of growth people think about. 

Another kind of growth is horizontal growth. This type of growth is more available within our comfort zones. This type of growth involves growing at the level you are at by getting better at what you already do or by doing things closely related to what you already do. Sometimes this type of growth can feel like a plateau, but what it’s actually doing is getting you ready for vertical growth or upgrading.  

Both types of growth are important for your evolution and they stack on top of each other. 

Too much vertical growth without horizontal growth lacks stability and it’s easy to crash back down to previous levels. Conversely, you eventually run out of room for horizontal growth and are pushed towards vertical growth. The way to avoid the push is to choose to be outside your comfort zone willingly.

I reorganized our office layout last week. It was completely unplanned, and I am very happy with how it has turned out. Thank you to everyone who has given feedback, it has been very helpful in fine tuning the structure of the new layout.

I often tell people that when you grow, you will have new options available to you where there were none previously. This is very much what happened to me last Monday morning. I was back from my trip to Orlando and had forgotten the chiropractic table I took with me in the car at home. Seeing a missing table somehow allowed me to perceive a new more energizing possibility for the office layout. Despite being tired from the trip, I got right to work on the new layout of the entraining room, front kids play area, our home school room and the closet.

In these situations, it’s often best to take action on the new option right away to reenforce growth and positive change. Too often we see or feel a new option, but still do things the same old way- this does not lead to growth and is how people get caught in the discover loop (ill write on this soon).

One of the biggest changes you might notice is the there are only 4 tables in the main entraining area. There is a 5th table in the exam room if needed to help with a rush or if someone needs a lower table. I believe having 1 less table overall will allow me to be much more efficient and impactful.

I wanted to share a couple cool things from an Audio book called The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher.

The first is a fun quote or paraphrase about awareness and it goes like this,”Awareness lets you take an emotional self inventory, and when honed awareness turns into alignment as you get continuous feedback if your current condition is aligned with the current moment.”

The other is a breath to help reduce stress and to calm your nervous system. The breath technique is to take a full inhale through your nose and then to take an additional sharp inhale to fully fill your lungs before slowly exhaling.

This is the second time this breath has come up recently, the first time in a podcast with Neuro Scientist Andrew Huberman. As Huberman talked about, we often see this type of breathing in dogs, and our late pup Emilio used to do it all the time. The final place I’ve seen this breath is on the entrainment table. I have both seen and experienced this breath on the table and it feels like you can not get air in fast enough. Sarah and I have been having alot of fun with this breath especially doing it in the fashion Mr Bubbas (Emilio)used to do.

Last week we related the concept of focusing on contribution rather than blame to the season of discover. This week I wanted to follow up with relating this to another Network concept – AAA.

Overall, taking blame out of the equation lowers defense and judgement, and this helps conversation and energy flow openly.

When we sense that we are being blamed, we tend to get defensive, and this stops the open flow of conversation. The same thing happens when we judge our situation or blame someone for the way it is, it stops the flow of energy. When we accept how things are without judgement, we let the energy flow and this opens the possibility for change.

A personal example is trying to get Sarah to stop blaming me for getting her pregnant and to instead acknowledge how we each contributed. It’s going ok so far:)

Here is a recap of AAA in case you have forgotten or have not heard this yet.

AAA stands for being Aware, Acknowledge and Accept. This formula can be applied to any situation that we don’t like the way it is.

Aware – you first need to be aware of the thing you don’t like or want to change.

Acknowledge – you have to admit or acknowledge the situation. Donny states this is best done out loud and its even better if you say it out loud to another person.

Accept- accept that it is what it is without judgement, blame or wishing it was different. Accept that it hasn’t changed yet. 

Doing all 3 steps allows the energy to flow and opens the possibility for easier change. The last step can be the hardest. Here is an old newsletter about acceptance in layers. Link https://nextlevelchirodallas.com/acceptance-in-layers/

Let’s take a closer look at the 3 A’s we talked about last week.

You could argue that being aware the most important A as its the first step, and you won’t have an opportunity to acknowledge or accept something if you are not aware of it first. Without awareness, there is not much chance of change happening.

The second A or acknowledging that you are aware is usually the easiest step. This is best done out loud to another person, but you could also simply acknowledge it to yourself. A fun in-between is acknowledging something to yourself in the mirror. We also have an old blog post where we talk about journaling or writing our acknowledgements down as a substitute to doing this out loud.

Without a doubt, acceptance is the hardest A, and many people get stuck here. Non acceptance or denial takes a large amount of physic energy that can drain us over time. Overtime, there becomes a bigger and bigger gap between what we hope is true and what we fear is true, and this can create a shift in our body (usually in the pelvis). Eventually, the story becomes too painful, and we accept what is. This is when things can magically begin to change. Acceptance is very similar to ripping a bandaid off, it sucks at first but then it rapidly improves.

There is a misconception with Network Spinal and Chiropractic in general that something needs to be wrong to be under care. Although many people initially start care because something is wrong, it’s definitely not required to have pain, dysfunction or other symptoms to start or continue care. 

Other reasons people start and continue care include wellness, optimization of Nervous system function, stress management, growth, wanting more in life, maintenance and more.