I can go for walks with others, with music, or with podcasts, and those things usually crowd out my frenzied thoughts and internal monolog. But it’s much better when I manage to leave enough space for my thoughts to settle. Wrestling with my own thinking just gets both of us riled up.
This practice teaches you that you donât need to address every instance of mental talk you have. In fact, your thoughts will never leave you alone if you try to resolve every train of thought that arises. Instead, you can just enjoy the world as it reveals itself before you.
What insights can movement and breathwork practices offer about self-awareness, adaptability, and the interplay of emotional, physical, and creative aspects in our lives?
Julie Angel describes her multifaceted approach to movement, breathâwork, and life as ‘everything everywhere all at once,’ revealing a seamless blend of creativity, transformation, and minimalism in her practices.
I’m really lazy. I’m a high performance slacker. And so it has to be simple and minimalist in doing it. If there’s any practice where it’s like: You need to buy all of this equipment, and you need to do all of these things, and you need a membership⌠I’m just like, no no that’ll be a no. All of those things cause friction points for me, and I don’t do them. So I mean there’s a minimalism, a simplicity, a creativity, and an adaptability; which is why to other people it may seem very different that I I wear all these these hats which I’m equally multi-passionate about. But for me I’m like, same same. [ed: It’s all the same.]
~ Julie Angel, 2:50
Julie Angel and Craig dive into the worlds of movement, breath-work, and the emotional landscape of physical practice. Julie shares her holistic view on movement, emphasizing that everything she doesâwhether it’s filmmaking, practicing parkour, training others, or walking her dogâinterconnects through common threads of exploration, transformation, curiosity, and creativity. The absence of division between her various interests, highlights the blending of her professional and personal pursuits that are driven by a consistent creative spark and a quest for simplicity and minimalism in practice.
Julie also introduces the transformative power of breathâwork, recounting her journey from being intrigued by MovNat Aquatics courses to exploring the physiological and psychological impacts of breathing techniques. She discusses her discovery of dysfunctional breathing patterns and how addressing these can profoundly affect one’s health, wellâbeing, and movement capabilities.
Julie’s exploration into breathâwork is not just a personal quest but also an educational endeavor, as she aims to share this knowledge through her work, showcasing the significant, often under-appreciated role that breathing plays in enhancing movement, reducing anxiety, and improving overall life quality.
Takeaways
Exploring the interconnectedness of activities â how different aspects of life, from professional endeavors to personal hobbies, can intertwine and inform each other, creating a seamless blend of experiences.
The significance of creativity in movement â discussing how a creative element is vital for engagement and passion in practices like parkour and breathâwork, emphasizing the role of creativity in sustaining interest and exploration.
Breath-work as a transformative tool â highlighting the journey into breath-work and its profound impact on mental and physical health, from enhancing movement capabilities to reducing anxiety and improving overall well-being.
The emotional aspect of movement â exploring movement not just as a physical activity but as an emotionally charged experience that can influence thoughts, actions, and overall life quality.
Simplicity and minimalism in practice â the importance of adopting a minimalist approach to practices, avoiding over-complication to maintain focus, enjoyment, and consistency in various activities.
The role of breath-work in functional movement â detailing how efficient breathing patterns can significantly enhance movement quality, recovery, and performance, underpinning the foundational role of breath-work in physical practices.
Addressing dysfunctional breathing patterns â uncovering the widespread issue of dysfunctional breathing and its implications, with strategies and insights into how correcting these patterns can lead to significant health and performance benefits.
The impact of mindset and perception on physical health â discussing research on the mind-body connection, emphasizing how one’s mindset and perceptions can tangibly affect physical health and aging.
Resources
https://julieangel.com â Julie Angel’s website offers insights into her work with movement and breathâwork, including courses and resources for those interested in exploring these areas further.
The Mindful Body by Dr. Ellen Langer â A book discussing the power of the mind over the body, including the famous Counterclockwise study, which explores concepts of mindfulness and placebo effects on health and aging.
https://fitomize.ca â Julie Thom, trauma informed movement & life coaching.
Built to Move by Kelly Starrett and Juliet Starrett â This book emphasizes the importance of movement and breathwork as foundational elements for health, detailing practical strategies for improving physical and mental well-being.
https://oxygenadvantage.com â Oxygen Advantage program focused on improving health and performance through specialized breathing techniques that aim to optimize oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body.
https://vicverdiercoaching.com â Vic Verdier, a MovNat Aquatics instructor known for his deep cave and wreck diving records, Verdier’s teachings on breathâwork highlight the importance of understanding respiratory chemistry for enhanced movement and health.
https://www.movnat.com â MovNat is a physical education and fitness system based on natural human movement skills, aiming to improve strength, mobility, and the ability to perform practical tasks.
https://www.wimhofmethod.com â Wim Hof Method is a combination of cold therapy, breathing techniques, and commitment that has been claimed to contribute to physical and mental wellness.
Simply put, all of my problems stem from trying to jam too much into each day. Partly that’s from my having too many ideas. But mostly that’s from insufficient self-awareness to let things go. Over a few decades I’ve steered away from the typical schedule (and it was never anything like a 9-to-5 job.) But I’m still on a strict sleep schedule, with strict light hygiene practices, and no alarm clock. I sleep in utter darkness, and I awake as the room lighting slowly comes up to full brightnessâa mimicked sunrise. But I’m still clinging to set times.
Sometimes I break routine by staying out, or up, past my usual bedtime. Sometimes I’m traveling and staying with others. In either case, I don’t seem to have trouble bending my sleep schedule. I’m often the first person to “crash”, but other than that, with a bit of balance-the-total-sleep-time over-sleeping⌠I feel pretty normal the next day.
All humans, animals, insects and birds have clocks inside, biological devices controlled by genes, proteins and molecular cascades. These inner clocks are connected to the ceaseless yet varying cycle of light and dark caused by the rotation and tilt of our planet. They drive primal physiological, neural and behavioural systems according to a roughly 24-hour cycle, otherwise known as our circadian rhythm, affecting our moods, desires, appetites, sleep patterns, and sense of the passage of time.
Except for how much I can get done. On those “next days” where I’ve been off my rigid sleep times. I get vastly less done, and not just because there are fewer hours in the day when I sleep longer in the morning. In fact, the more I glimpse that other worldâwent to bed whenever, slept until the right amount of time⌠and then face a less-productive day. The more I realize, that is the better amount of things to attempt to accomplish: Sleep on a healthy, light-driven cycle, and do half as much in the day.
The Whole Earth Catalog. Now there’s someone who poured their time, energy, money and personal brand of sanity into a project, and it succeeded. Then the Internet came along and supplanted the entire project.
Yet for years, access to the Whole Earth Catalog itself has been difficult. 55 years on from the first publication of the Catalog, it mostly lives on in the interstices â as a symbol of a vibrant countercultural history and an inspiration for writers, designers, and technologists, but less so as an actual set of catalogs that you can read. The Catalog is not lost media per se â copies can be found in libraries, archives, and personal collections across the world â but accessing its trove of information is no longer as easy as it was in its heyday.
âŚand then, that original project rose from the ashes to be something even better.
Sometimes, I find something that warms my dark, frozen, disenchanted, bitter, burnt-out heart. I don’t subscribe to notions like “information wants to be free” but when I see things like this⌠well, I get a little warmâfuzzy inside.
The law of the pleasure in having done anything for another is, that the one almost immediately forgets having given, and the other remembers eternally having received.
There’re countless decisions one makes and simply put, the smallest decisions are just as important as the biggest ones. Few are biggest. Innumerable are the smallest. Plus, there’s huge variation in the amount of time I have to considerâor to over-think as the case may beâeach choice. Some say choose sooner; Some say delay choosing. Even when we choose to not decide, that’s still a choice.
Every event has two handles, Epictetus said: âone by which it can be carried, and one by which it canât. If your brother does you wrong, donât grab it by his wronging, because this is the handle incapable of lifting it. Instead, use the otherâthat he is your brother, that you were raised together, and then you will have hold of the handle that carries.â Another way to say that is that there are multiple ways to look at every situation, multiple ways to determine how youâre going to react. Some of them are sturdy and some of them are not. Some are kind and resilient, some are not. Which will you choose? Which handle will you grab?
There are a handful of small but mighty ideas that have the ability to often get me off the floor, or out of bed, when all seems pointless. This particular one works quite often. Pick that article apart. Keep what you find useful. Discard the rest.
What influences the approaches and perspectives of podcast creators as they navigate both technical and personal aspects of their craft?
Suzi Nou joins Craig to discuss how passion and curiosityâfor podcasting and anesthesiologyâintertwine, revealing the depths of medical podcasting and the art of engaging conversations.
There is this breadth of what people recallâ what people know. Medicine has advanced, and they might be stuck in their practice that they were doing five, ten years ago, with that technique because it works for them. It works really well. And I don’t want to say it’s a bad technique, but there’s newer techniques coming through, and those new techniques work really well in the hands of those people learning them and practicing them regularly.
~ Suzi Nou, 7:10
Suzi Nou and Craig Constantine meander through the intricacies of medical podcasting, the evolution of an anesthesiologist’s career, and the impact of podcasting on personal and professional growth. Suzi shares her experiences as the president of the Australian Society of Anesthetists during the pandemic, as a podcast host keen on exploring the vast landscape of medical advancements and techniques. She reflects on how podcasting served as an efficient tool to disseminate vital information during the early days of COVID-19, addressing the urgent queries of anesthesiologists nationwide.
I think as long as I am intrigued and curious about anesthetists in Australia, there’ll be something in there that makes me want to do it.
~ Suzi Nou, 26:20
The conversation also explores the creative challenges and opportunities presented by podcasting. Suzi discusses her vision for her podcast as a platform to showcase the depth of talent within the Australian anesthesiology community. Beyond the technicalities of medicine, they touch on the concept of “podfade” and the continuous quest for relevance and engagement in the podcasting space. Suzi expresses curiosity about the future directions of her podcasting endeavors, including a potential sabbatical in Europe and the concept of podcasting 2.0, which intrigues her due to its technical complexities.
Takeaways
The power of podcasting â how it serves as an efficient means to disseminate information rapidly.
Impact on personal and professional growth â podcasting as a tool for learning and improvement, enhancing questioning skills, and better engagement with trainees and patients.
Challenges of staying relevant â the concept of “podfade” and the continuous quest for engaging content and connection with the audience in the ever-evolving podcast landscape.
Creative side projects in podcasting â the potential for branching out into other areas of interest, such as podcasts aimed at children or exploring completely different topics, to keep the creative juices flowing.
The significance of networking â the importance of expanding oneâs network through podcasting, which can facilitate connections and provide resources across the globe.
Personal anecdotes as learning tools â using personal experiences and stories to make complex topics more relatable and understandable for a wider audience, including non-specialists.