Bonus Episode: The 60-Second Breathwork Practice Every Mom Should Know

In this bonus episode, Amanda Granberg (The bEarth Doula) walks us through a simple breathwork practice—Bumblebee Breath (aka Bhramari Pranayama) —that has become a go-to tool in our daily lives. The science behind it is legit — it works on babies in utero, and Emily used it once on a hysterical 2-year-old, and he immediately started asking for it when he was dysregulated. His dad now uses it too. We're not saying it's magic. But it's pretty close.

We talk through how this practice works to regulate your nervous system, why it’s so effective for co-regulation with kids, and how you can use it in real-life moments like tantrums, overwhelm, or even just a stressful day. 

Main Topics & Discussion

Your Nervous System Is Running the Show

Amanda breaks down how the vagus nerve acts as your body's built-in chill switch, signaling the shift from fight-or-flight into rest-and-digest mode. When you're stuck in traffic, spiraling at 2am, or white-knuckling through a witching-hour meltdown, your nervous system doesn't know the difference between a tiger and a toddler. The bumblebee breath gives it a way out.

Co-Regulation: Why Your Calm Is Their Calm

Here's the part that kind of blew our minds: when your nervous system is regulated, your baby or child literally has a regulated nervous system to sync with. It's called co-regulation, and Amanda explains how practicing the bumblebee breath — especially during pregnancy — actually teaches your baby the technique before they're even born. They're learning it through vibration and sensation in the womb. So by the time they arrive, it's already familiar.

How to Actually Do It (And Make It Stick)

Amanda guides us through five rounds of the bumblebee breath live in this episode, so you can feel the difference in your own body before you try it on anyone else. The goal isn't perfection — it's practice. The more you use it, the more your kids will recognize it. 

Connect with Amanda: www.amandajgranberg.com

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Host & Show Info

Hosted by: Cally & Emily O’Leary

About the Hosts: We’re real moms and real sisters. We may look and sound alike, but our motherhood journeys are uniquely ours. We all do Motherhood differently, and thank goodness for that. Let’s learn and grow together. 

Podcast Website: https://therealmomhub.com/

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Transcript

I love the bumblebee breath.(...)

also called the brahmari breath. And this helps to stimulate our vagus nerve. The vagus nerve

from our spine. It branches off in our neck to our ear and then travels down our neck through

our

and connects to all of our vital organs. And so this is the part of our nervous system that signals to our body that we are in rest and digest mode. If our nervous system feels threatened, then we'll go into fight or flight mode or fawn or freeze.

And so this is when our body says, I don't really have the resources to be focusing on rest and digest. I need to get to safety. And so that's when all of our blood will go into our hands and feet to mobilize, to get away, to fight.

(...)

And the blood literally leaves our gut

because we don't have the resources to be digesting our food in that space.

(...)

So this is a good technique to use if you've already gotten to a safe space. Say, maybe you're in the car and you're stuck in traffic. And objectively,

no real threat of danger. But you're still feeling really aggravated and like, I want to punch someone because I don't have any control over this traffic jam I'm in. So that's the kind of situation we can use the bumblebee breath or the brahmory breath in when objectively we can say, OK, there's no real threat of danger.(...) I am in a safe space. And yet my body is still behaving like there's tigers chasing after me. And I don't understand why I still feel so stressed out right now.(...) Or maybe you do understand why you feel so stressed out, but you just want to calm your body down.

(...)

Makes sense why you feel that way.(...) And so this is a way that we can kind of soothe our nervous system to come back into rest and digest mode, especially if you have a baby that's having a hard time sleeping,(...) having a hard time soothing.

(...)

And then your anxiety is getting-- you're like, I don't know why you're crying. We've tried everything, right? And the bumblebee breath is a great technique

(...)

to soothe your own nervous system so that you can-- when your nervous system is regulated, then your baby has a regulated nervous system to co-regulate with. And then they're able to feel that sense of safety, right?

(...)

So that is the benefit of the bumblebee breath,

(...)

it's your co-regulation skill.

(...)

And I like to close my eyes because I like to kind of close off my senses.

(...)

So

your eyes, if that feels safe,

I like to place my thumbs over my ears to kind of close off

hearing in the background. And then I'll use the rest of my fingertips to place over my eyelids to kind of create a darker space so that the sunlight isn't coming through my eyelids.

This kind of-- I almost imagine myself in a beehive, in this dark cocoon beehive.

you can place your tongue on the roof of your mouth, and this helps to relax the back of your throat. You'll feel a nice opening in the back of your throat, a relaxing in the back of your throat. And then you'll just inhale through your nose. And it's just a humming sound like the M in "Ome." And we'll do this for five rounds together, just noticing you might place one hand on your heart space, one hand on your belly.(...) And after five rounds, just notice how your body feels.

(...)

So we'll inhale together and start for five rounds of the bumblebee breath.

(...)

(Humming)

(...)

And just noticing how your body feels

(...)

with the vibration of the bumblebee breath vibrating(...) throughout your body.

(...)

And if your eyes are closed, you can gently link them open.

(...)

Come back into the room, feel the chair underneath your sit bones. You can look around you and just name three items in the room. Just really orient yourself back into the space. And again, the bumblebee breath is a great technique

for coming back into our rest and digest mode. I love practicing this during pregnancy.

(...)

And the reason being, while your baby is in utero, they can still feel the sounds and the vibration.

(...)

And they can feel your emotions. And so they are already learning this regulation technique of, oh, yeah, we're feeling stressed right now. And we're going to come back to our breath and do the bumblebee breath. And this actually helps me feel better. And then once baby is born, they've already learned this technique. And then you can practice the bumblebee breath when you're feeling stressed. And your baby will be like, oh, I know this. You did this when I was in utero. And it's really amazing how they'll just like zen sometimes. Not always, but sometimes.

(...)

(Laughing)