An interview with breathwork expert James Dowler

MIRROR WATER: Hi James! Please could you introduce yourself and the work you do.

James Dowler: Battling years of chronic illness led me on a journey of exploring all types of healing modalities. It wasn’t until I discovered the connection between the mind and the body and understood chronic stress to be the cause of my physical dis-ease that symptoms began to ease.

I now teach thousands of people around the world to alleviate stress and anxiety through their breath. My aim is to provide people with knowledge and practices that help to re-wire their neurobiology and in doing so restore people’s ability to regulate their emotions and build resilience.

MIRROR WATER: For anybody who’s unfamiliar, what actually is breathwork?

James Dowler: Breathwork broadly defined is any time you take conscious control of your breath and use it as a vehicle to create a shift in your physiology and/or the state of your mind. There are lots of different ways in which you can use your breath - whether that is to calm you down, energise you, improve your focus, optimise your sports performance or even improve your sleep - there are different breathing techniques for all of these. The modality of breathwork that I teach is learning how to use the breath to down-regulate one’s nervous system which helps people to move into a more relaxed and settled place.

MIRROR WATER: Feeling relaxed is a top priority for us at MIRROR WATER, what’s the science behind breathwork and it’s link with calming the nervous system.

James Dowler: Conscious breath regulation such as extending our exhale sends a signal to our brain that we are “safe” and so can help the parasympathetic branch of our nervous system come online. With the parasympathetic branch of our nervous system online, our endocrine system secretes a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine that has the effect of slowing our heart, stimulating our digestive process and moving our body back into a place of homeostasis.

MIRROR WATER: What’s the biggest misconception about practicing breathwork?

James Dowler: That a functional way to breathe is to breathe deeply by taking big, volumous breaths. As much as we do want to breathe low into our belly and lower ribs, we actually want to be breathing as lightly as possible. This is because the primary stimulus to breathe is your brain perceiving that there is too much CO2 in your body. The bigger the breaths that you take, the more CO2 you blow off and the more sensitive you become to the build up of it - quickening your breathing rate. The quicker your breathing rate, the more the sympathetic (mobilisation) branch of your nervous system is activated and the less settled and relaxed you will tend to feel. As such, we want to breathe as lightly as possible, to increase our tolerance to the build up of CO2 and in doing so slow down our breathing rate - activating the parasympathetic (slowing down) branch of the nervous system.

MIRROR WATER: What advice would you give to someone who’s looking to begin their breathwork journey?

James Dowler: I always recommend listening to guided sessions and sticking to a time each day to practice. I like practicing in the evening before bed to down-regulate my nervous system and move into an optimal state for sleep.

MIRROR WATER: What does downtime look like for you, describe a typical Sunday? Is there anything you do to mentally prepare for the next week?

James Dowler: I moved to Somerset, the English countryside, this time last year. I like to spend as much time outside as possible on Sundays going on long walks with my girlfriend. We’ll often walk to a pub for Sunday lunch and fill ourselves up on delicious roast beef and veggies. I like to wind down with my girlfriend in the evening in front of the fire, sometimes with a series on the tv - we’ve just started watching The Last of Us which we’re really enjoying.

MIRROR WATER: Where can our MIRROR WATER community find you?

James Dowler: The best place to connect with me is on my Instagram, @breathewithjames. I also released my app, Breathe With James, at the end of last year which people will be able to find on the App Store and Google Play if they’re interested in practicing breathwork with me.

Written by
Team MW

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