Ed's Story
I am a certified Oxygen Advantage Functional Breath Coach on a mission to help one million individuals transform their lives through the power of breathwork.
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Like I did for myself.
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I had been aware of the powers of breathwork since my teenage years when I was using my breath to maximise my performance on and off the football pitch.
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However, it wasn't until the Global Lockdown in 2020 that I had the opportunity to delve deeper.
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Around five years ago, I used to spend 95% of my waking day either anxious or stressed.
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I was drinking too much, smoking too much, working a 9-5 that I had no passion in, getting minimal sleep, and doing no exercise at any point during the week.
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If you could create a formula that would undoubtedly lead to both mental and physical burnout, the list above would provide some pretty good foundations for these two diseases to take control.
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And of course, it did.
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My anxiety levels were massively increasing and as someone who’d never really experienced anxiety, I craved “normality”.
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As I look back at this period of my life, it may sound strange but I am truly grateful for it.
It made me realise that my habits were destroying me and that things needed to change ASAP.
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I knew it was time to take action.
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There is one quote that has stuck with me from this period in my life:
‘No one is coming to save you. You are 100% responsible for your life.’
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So I decided to save myself.
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Why Breathwork?
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I started looking everywhere for a way to switch my habits and take control of my life again.
And the more I searched, the more I was coming back to breathwork.
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I was first properly introduced to conscious breathing or breathwork during my teenage years and more specifically, playing high-level soccer in the UK.
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My coach introduced me to a simple and easy breathwork technique.
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He outlined that when we stepped on the pitch, we caught eye contact with our direct opponent and practised three slow and calm cycles of the technique.
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Lo and behold, the technique worked as expected as an on-demand kill switch for any stress or pre-match anxiety.
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It allowed my mind to be free and focus on the game.
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To be present and forget all my worries off the pitch.
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From that moment onwards, I was hooked on the power breathwork had on me.
I would be so nervous and about to start a big game.
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Then, after a few cycles of practice, I’d be in the zone.
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I knew there was more to this and other ways breathwork could enhance my life outside of the football pitch.
This is where I discovered how I could use breathwork to help manage my stress and anxiety, help me sleep better, and improve my athletic performance both on and off the pitch.
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The beauty of breathwork is that all that needs to happen is for me to take conscious control of my breath.
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That may be me stopping on the platform waiting for the train and doing a cycle of box breaths.
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Stuck in traffic practicing some Physiological Sighs.
During a run noticing the rhythm and depth of my breathing.
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Anything as simple as the examples above is breathwork and that is the beauty of it.
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Through these years of personal practice and a deeper understanding of the power of breathwork, in September 2023, I became a certified Oxygen Advantage Functional Breath Coach to achieve my goal of helping 1 million individuals transform their lives using the power of breathwork.
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Breathwork is now one of the key parts of my and all my client's day.
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But let’s be honest.
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It’s all well and good showing my wins.
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The real question is, will breathwork work for you?
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Luckily you are in the right place to find out.
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Ed's Threads
See below for a selection of Ed's most useful Twitter threads around breathwork, high performance and self-development.
How to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve
A Performance Anxiety Hack to Alleviate Pre-Event Anxiety in Seconds
The Power of Humming Breathwork
A Sleep Hack to Help You Fall Asleep in Seconds
Make sure to drop me a follow if you enjoyed these threads!