Hey , hey , mamas , welcome back to Conquering Chaos a mom's guide to self-care and sanity . I'm your host , sydney Crow , and today we have the amazing Jessica Riley here . Jessica is a certified breathwork facilitator . She helps people access their self-source power through the breath so that they can achieve embodied liberation , inner alignment and increase their quality of life . Breathwork has been an incredible healing tool for Jessica over the last three years and her mission is to bring this work to as many people as she can in this lifetime . That is such a beautiful mission . Welcome , jessica , thank you .
Speaker 2Thank you so much for having me . I'm so excited to be here .
Speaker 1I'm so excited that we've been able to connect over the last little bit . So a little bit of backstory . You guys , I've been connecting with Jessica we have talked about , you know , being on each other's podcasts and she invited me to one of her sessions last week and it was totally transformative , I don't know how else to say it . I had heard about breathwork , I had been doing yoga and Pilates and and things like that for the last little bit , but actually attending one of your sessions , I going into it , I was like I don't know , like we'll see how it goes , and I got so much done that day , like I was beyond productive . And even since then , like that was last Monday , right Last Tuesday , yeah , so it's been about a week and , honestly , like I felt better this week than I have in months . I can't even tell you .
Speaker 2It's amazing that makes my heart so happy . Yeah , breathwork is different for everybody . Like you , coming into it not really knowing what to expect first of all , and not really having that need to control the experience , I think is what makes the experience so beautiful , because everybody has different experiences , like I know . For me , my experiences are usually very deep , very healing . I release a lot , but then there's other people who are like journaling for like three hours after because they're just like I had so many downloads and so many , you know , inspirations come through and so that's really cool that you're kind of flowing on that side of it . It's really fun .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean I'm really grateful because I don't know , like winter kind of can put me in a bit of a funk and I've been doing really well over the last couple of years . But I still felt myself like post Christmas just being like we had that polar vortex come through . I was just like I don't know . I don't know else to describe it other than I was kind of feeling a little in a funk and then , lo and behold , your breathwork comes along and I was like what is this ?
Speaker 1Just kind of came off a leadership travel weekend also , and so , yeah , it was just . It was such a powerful week and I'm super grateful so that we can spread this word and empower other moms and other women and just other people , Cause I know that you're not specifically targeted to moms , but if you're open to it , why don't you share a little bit about how you've been able to help your sister who's a mom ? Because that was really kind of what pulled me into wanting to learn more and do more because you've been able to help her so much with her motherhood journey . I'd love for you to share that with the listeners .
Speaker 2Yeah . So I've helped my sister who's a mom , and I've also helped other moms to just really release the guilt , release the fear of not being good enough or not being a good enough mom or you know , I don't have kids so I can't relate to having kids , but I have seen , you know , where the kid is so kind of frazzled and chaotic and then the mom is like I don't know what to do and just feeling like all of the feelings , just to take a step back and kind of really deep breathe and rebalance the nervous system . Because that's really what breathwork does . There's two different types of breathwork . There's the upregulating and downregulating . So downregulating is really good for those , those moments of chaos , those moments of high intensity , high emotion , to just kind of recenter and deep breathe into your belly and kind of balance that back out so that you have the spaciousness inside of you to navigate whatever is going on . And then , like with that , teaching your kids as well how to deep breathe , how to regulate their own emotions . So when they are in a heightened state of of emotions and you know you're , you're like why are you crying ? Like there's nothing even happened , but they're feeling all the feelings . Bringing in breath work to for them as well is very , very powerful .
So with my nephew , I'm going to just going to use this as an example he was crying one day and he was really flustered and really frustrated and I just I sat him down and I said hey , buddy , do you want to do like a rainbow breath with me ?
Speaker 2And he was like what's that ? And was like still crying and I was like , hey , we're just going to do a big deep breath and we're just going to like pull the rainbow down and you deep breath in and your arms go up and then you kind of bring your arms down in like a rainbow formation . And we did about five of those and then he was laughing and playing again and it was like the quickest I've ever seen him turn around from like just all of the feelings into like okay , this is okay and I'm fine and I'm just going to go like go play again , right , and yeah , just just teaching , teaching moms and people , I guess , how to have just overall patience and really tap into um , inner calm , inner peace , so that they can navigate those high intensity emotions with more flow . And yeah , just with more flow .
Speaker 1I guess I love that and I mean , like the co-regulation piece is such an important part for them to learn because you know , we we send them to their room or there's all of these things where there's those heightened feelings and they don't have the capacity at a young age to learn how to like self-regulate in those moments . So when you can be the leader and the example and even co-regulate with him , like the way that you did the rainbow breath with him or you even taught me about the candle breath , and so I've been using that with my kids where they like have to blow out the five candles and that's just . It's such a powerful tool where they can like they focus on something else for a second and then they're like , okay , is this actually really a big deal ? What am I even upset about ? Maybe something just like spook them or just scare , like whatever . That is where they got into that heightened feeling of like fight or flight and you can just focus on something else and help them co-regulate .
Speaker 1Out of that . It is really a powerful tool and it does it kind of starts with the mom right , like learning how to be able to do that myself . So there's times where I'm like I'm not necessarily blowing my fingers out , but I'm like , I'm like counting them down beside me and it helps , right . So I'm able to show up for my kids and lead by example , and I'm sure other parents feel the same way , right ? So that's really , really powerful . So you mentioned that there's two ways there's downregulating and upregulating . Why don't you talked a little bit about the downregulating ? Why don't you share with the listeners about upregulating ?
Speaker 2So upregulating breathwork is more to get to the root cause of why you're feeling like this . The downregulating just a little bit more about that . It's really good for activating the parasympathetic nervous system , which is the rest and digest the calm , the peace , all of those things . The upregulating breathwork again is to get to the root cause . So the upregulating breathwork is kind of a form of it can be a form of hyperventilation and with this it temporarily shuts off the prefrontal cortex because it limits the blood supply or the blood flow sorry to the , to that part of the brain and the prefrontal cortex is for sorry . The prefrontal cortex is responsible for the thinking mind , the ego mind , the monkey mind , all of these different things . And so when that's shut off we can journey into the subconscious and we can really get to the root cause and why we're feeling these things .
Speaker 2So we might be anxious in a relationship , but why are we anxious in the relationship ? Why are we showing up the way that we're showing up ? That's what the upregulating breathwork can do for us , and with inspiration as well . How you went through inspiration and that boost of creativity is because you shut off that thinking mind right , and so you were able to deep journey deep into the subconscious and move forward with a clear mind and a better relationship with source or with the universe or God or whatever it is that you identify with , that higher energy . So it's a really . It's a different way of breathing . It's more commonly faster than the down-regulating breath work , but that's essentially what it does and it's one of my absolute favorite ways to breathe . It's very energizing , very clearing , very healing and just overall amazing . I just love it .
Speaker 1I think that that's amazing , and so when you're , when you're working with your clients , is it the up regulating that you're tending to like work with them on ?
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah . So we start with down regulating in the beginning of the journey and then we go into the up regulating to really drop them into that state of subconscious so that they can , you know , remember things , because your subconscious , it holds all of your longest memories , your deepest memories , your deepest thoughts , your belief system , all of those things . And so journeying them into that , and then , after the journey , we come back into the down-regulating , where it's in and out through your nose , deep into the belly , just to kind of like balance it out . And then it also teaches like going between down-regulating and up-regulating . It teaches your nervous system how to kind of balance back and forth between the two .
Speaker 2The up-regulating breathwork is basically designed to induce stress or anxiety in a very safe way . So it's not necessarily like putting you into a panic attack or an anxiety attack , but it's bringing up those feelings so that you can journey into those parts of yourself that need healing . And then , like , the more you practice it , the more your body says , okay , these feelings , I'm feeling these feelings of anxiety or I'm getting triggered by a past event , but now that I have gone through the breath work and , you know , have practiced it for so long , the body automatically will go into the parasympathetic type breathing , which is the long inhales , longer exhales , kind of thing .
Speaker 1Okay . So that's really interesting for me . And so when you're working with a client , how often are you doing these sessions with them ? Like , how often would you recommend listeners , you know , go through this cycle ?
Speaker 2Yeah , the down-regulating you can do every single day .
Speaker 2For the up-regulating because it is so powerful and you can have such crazy experiences with it and such deep healing , I would recommend starting out like twice a month for the big up-regulating , like hour to hour and a half long sessions , after you kind of figure out a how you respond to these breathwork activations , then I would move it into once a week and then I wouldn't do it any more than twice a week .
Speaker 2And the reason behind that is because you want to give yourself a couple of days in between for integration , because not only do you go through the experience , but the experience carries right , like you were saying , like you're still feeling the experience or the benefits of last week . Yeah , and so for you , like I would recommend doing it once a week because you're probably feeling like you want to go in for another one right now . Even twice a month , like biweekly kind of thing is is really good . But yeah , for long story long , the down-regulating every single day , you can do that to really balance yourself . And then the up-regulating you can do , starting out twice a month and then moving into once once a week .
Speaker 1That's amazing . And how did excuse me ? How did you get started in this ?
Speaker 2Oh , my breathwork journey has been so amazing . So I was diagnosed with the anxiety disorder when I was like 14 and I was put on anxiety medication when I was 14 . And so 14 years later I am now 28 . I have been off of my anxiety medication for almost a year now .
Speaker 2And as I was coming off of this medication , I guess first of all like I met my partner about two years ago and he asked me if I've ever done an upregulating breathwork session before , and so I he sent me one to try and it was an 11 minute activation . It was the Wim Hof activation and if you're very new , the Wim Hof is so beautiful to start out with . But basically after that activation I felt so much of my energy shift , I felt like a new person and I really wanted to learn , like why this is happening and how this is happening . So eventually I went into a rabbit hole of the what , the why and the how of breathwork and it kind of just started my journey on this . Yeah , this journey of becoming certified and practicing more , so like just becoming certified to practice on my own and to deepen in my journey , and now it's kind of blossomed into this huge journey that I'm just on on the path of sharing with everyone , cause I think that everybody needs to needs to know this .
Speaker 2But yeah , basically sorry my , I go off tangent sometimes but basically , like the the reason that I started breathwork was because it was so transformative in my life and helping me come off of my anxiety medication , because in those 14 years that I was medicated , I was feeling stress as feeling anxiety , but I didn't know . I didn't know what those feelings were because I was numbed Right , and so when I came off of my anxiety medication , I was all of a sudden feeling all of these things and not knowing what these feelings were , and so breathwork was really an amazing tool for me to go into myself and figure out what , everything like what , was going on .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , that's really powerful and I think a lot of coaches find themselves in that kind of journey right . Like it starts with healing ourselves , healing , finding that modality that resonates most and like have the biggest impact . And then it's like it was so transformative that you have to pay it forward . Like how could you not share that experience with the rest of the world ? Because now you're living medicated free , you are , you know , building this amazing business . You're so passionate about it , you're very good at it . Like I had never experienced it .
Speaker 1I was like , wow , this is amazing , and I'm not even going to lie , cause I did kind of like I love holistic health and wellness and all of that stuff . But I was like , can breath work , really do this ? Like I know to take like a couple of breaths , but I really didn't , you know , didn't fully understand or believe how , how impactful it could be . And so having people like you out there sharing this word , spreading it , so that people can feel better in their own bodies and just show up more energized , more passionate , more in love , like whatever that looks like , right , dealing with all of these old traumas and then just living their best lives . So kudos to you and I'm so grateful that our paths connected . If there's any last piece of advice that you'd love to share or information that you'd love to share with anybody , let us know . Yeah .
Speaker 2So I think , going back to , like you know , people are always trying to find their modality , their thing , the thing that works for them . And I tried meditation . I've tried , you know , journaling and yes , like those things work , but I found it really hard to get into it . And that's why breathwork is so different is because it literally shuts off the thinking mind . With meditation , you have to practice and practice and practice to shut off that thinking mind . With the breathwork , it is so quick and it happens within the first session , so you get really profound experiences in the first session
. So for anybody who's , you know , struggling with meditation or struggling with finding something that works for them , I would say give breathwork a try and just come into it with an open mind , because every single session is going to be so different , like so different and it's such a beautiful , beautiful thing that I think that everybody really needs to try , like everybody needs , to bring it into their life .
Speaker 1I love that and I will second that because you know , I've always tried meditation and I'll say this like loosely , because I sit there , I have to do the guided meditation . My brain is always running a mile a minute and with you it was just like instant . So , yeah , it really was a wonderful experience . You guys , we're going to have ways for you to get in touch with Jessica in the show notes so that you guys can get in touch with her if you guys have any other specific questions , and I just really am grateful that our paths connected and that you were able to be our guest today , jessica . So thank you for being here and thank you all for tuning into today's episode of conquering chaos , where we help you conquer the chaos one day at a time .