Swimming Breath Training And Resilience

A Wave Of Emotion In Water

Distraction The Hidden Coping Tool

How To Create Real Space

Breathwork Without The Pool

Your Nervous System Knows

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SPEAKER_00 1:41

Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome to today's episode of a Healthy Shift Podcast. My name is Roger Sutherland, and I am your guide on this shift work journey of yours. Well, today I want to speak about this. Episode's going to be something that is just completely different. It's coming straight out of something that happened to me in the last week. This is not theory. There's no research paper breakdown. I just want to talk about a real moment. And it's a moment that explains something that majority of you are missing, but it's something that I really want you to be aware of, particularly if you are working in frontline health or you are a first responder. But you know what? In all honesty, it's every single one of you today. Even if you are not working in frontline health, even if you are not a shift worker, it no matter who you are, today's episode will land. It's just a real moment for me. And if you're in frontline health emergency services, you're in any form of shift work, this will land with you, but it will land with a lot of other people as well. Because what happened to me is literally what is happening to you too. You might not be giving it a chance to actually show up and just distracting yourself. And this is important. Now, let me just go into the personal story. I was actually in the pool. Now, this is nothing unusual for me. I swim five days a week and I do it early in the day, and I actually swim for 30 laps and I do push myself reasonably hard. And in fact, I've been working on particular breathwork practices while I've been doing it to explain. As you know, with the uh swimming in the pool, you can breathe both sides, you can breathe every second stroke, you can breathe every fourth stroke. And what I've been trying to do, because I know that it actually supports stress management and supports you, is I've actually been uh building up my resilience to CO2, to carbon dioxide, and making the body use it more efficiently. And one of the best ways to do this is to do it through swimming. Now, you can do it through just natural breath work, but swimming more forces you to do it. And what I've been doing is swimming up the pool one lap breathing every second stroke, and then coming back, I've been breathing every fourth stroke. So when I go up and back for the first 10 laps, I go up and back, breathing every second stroke. In the second set of 10, I breathe every second stroke going up, and I breathe every fourth stroke coming back. And then in the last set of 10, I breathe every second stroke going up, and then I breathe every sixth stroke coming back. Now, to those of you that swim, that will tell you a story that I can only breathe on one side at this point. But I've got a goal in the winter to work on something. So I'll talk about that more later on. So what I've been doing is by holding my breath for longer, it actually means that my body becomes more tolerant to actually using the CO2 or becomes more tolerant to CO2 because you know as well as I do, when you put your head in the water and you can't breathe, you actually it creates panic. And by doing this and knowing that I'm going to breathe and forcing myself to do it this way, what it's doing is it's actually teaching my body not to panic and to actually relax in the water and to stroke properly and breathe properly and build up that resilience. Now, what this has done to me long term, because I've been doing this since it's now the end of March, and I've been doing this since the early December. So I've been doing it for four months. And what it's done is it's dropped my heart rate per minute down three beats a minute. So I'm now averaging 51, 52 beats a minute, um, which is pretty extraordinary for a 61-year-old, or nearly 62, right? So I've got my resting heart rate per minute down. Well, it's lower than that, but my average heart rate during the day is around about 51 to 52 beats a minute. My goal is to get it down under 50. And by doing swimming like this, that is what actually improves it. Another observation, another metric that I have noticed through the swimming also is that I've reduced my breath rate down. This is my average breath rate every single day. I've reduced it down to under 12 breaths per minute. Now, this is pretty extraordinary for someone my age. Um, and you will find that you most first responders would probably breathe somewhere in the order of 17 to 20 breaths a minute. I've got mine down relaxed. And I've worked very, very hard on this. Make no bones about it. It doesn't just happen. And it's not something like you go to the gym and you make a muscle stronger and you go from 10 kilo dumbbell to a 12 and a half. This literally takes time to teach your body to relax. I want you to remember that I was diagnosed with PTSD anxiety and depression, and that literally raises your heart rate because you're in a highly vigilant state and you are literally breathing a lot harder. So I've now self-regulated that through the breathwork course that I did, and I'm now a facilitator, but I'm in a position where I've learned how to control my breath more. And this is where it happened. And this is weird because I've done breakthrough breathwork sessions before, um, where you know you lie on the floor and you purposely hyperventilate and you can get it, you get that tingling. And anyone that's had a breakthrough breath work will know what I'm talking about. But it actually comes over you in a wave and it releases a lot of emotion out of your system. But during the week, I was actually going up the pool. No music, because I don't use those stupid bone-conducting headphones. I just want to be me, the pool, the black line, the quiet, just the bubbles, and that's it, right? So there's no music, there's no distractions at all. It's just me stroking, concentrating on my breathing, and watching the black line on the bottom of the pool. And I swim for about 34 minutes, but at about 18 minutes, 18 to 20 minutes, it hit me really hard. And it was a wave of emotion that just came out of nowhere. I felt it come up, I felt it come up from my legs right through my lower part of my body and come up. It was strong enough that had I not have been in the water, I've got no doubt at all, and this is being very vulnerable, I would have been in tears. I've got no doubt about it that I would have literally been in tears because it was very strong. Now, I've done this in breath work before. Um, and to be perfectly straight with you so that you're aware, I am dealing with some really heavy internal stuff right now, and I mean real trauma. And I'm heavily affected by it, but you wouldn't know it. And people that hear this podcast that I still pump out two episodes a week and they see me on social media and things like that, they wouldn't have any idea of what's going on in the background. And this is literally the problem. This is a problem with first responders. This is the problem with you, you people who are working in frontline health, you nurses or doctors that are listening, or even um police who have recently retired that are listening to this. And I've had a lot of feedback from a lot of people about this. And this one here is pretty vulnerable because yeah, I'm dealing with some heavy stuff, and and it and it's very, very traumatic to me. But like most people, I've been managing this the way we all do. I've lost sight of something, but what I've been doing is I've been doing what you do, and that's staying busy in work, at life, in responsibilities. Just keep moving forward, keep yourself distracted. Because when you keep moving, you actually don't have to deal with what's sitting underneath. So what happens is think about this, and you'll relate to it. You won't stop in case those feelings come up. And what you do is you keep going, you pick up your phone, and then you're talking to the kids, and then you're talking to your husband or your wife, and then you're talking on the phone, and then you're scrolling on the phone, and then you're um out jumping in the car, going to pick kids up from school, dropping kids off, talking to mums at the school. It goes on and on. And if you think about it, you are highly stimulating your nervous system. But when things happen, when grief happens or uh some pretty heavy stuff happens in your life, what happens is that distraction, you lean into it even more so that it distracts you from it. And you think you're doing the right thing. You think that by distracting yourself, it's not allowing it to come up. But this is diabolical. It's diabolical for your mental health, it's diabolical for your physical health as well. And this is where it's really important. But in the pool, while I was in the pool the other day, while I am dealing, I'm very heavily in at the moment into this trauma that I'm dealing with. I had no phone, there was no scrolling, there was literally no noise other than just my breathing in the water. And I was just breathing. I was in a rhythm, there was space, and I was quiet. And for the first time in some time, even though I breathe every week, my body stopped holding it all down. It allowed it to come out, and that is literally what happens to a lot of people. And we see this as a breakdown, but it's actually a breakthrough. And it's really important that we understand the difference. It's okay to let that emotion out. It's okay. We need to open it and deal with those loops and close them. Because what happens is over journey and over the journey, and you've got to remember, I've done 40 years of frontline um shift work in the police, and all those traumas that I've been exposed to, I just moved on from. You just move on, make yourself busy, you move on to the next shift, you move on to the next thing, and you think, no, I'm fine. But they are all open loops that are trapped within your nervous system, and this is what happens, and they get trapped and they're sitting there all the time. And then what happens is when we least expect it, they come out. When our body feels safe to let them go, it lets them go. And we need to lean into this. This is very important. So let's break this down because it wasn't random. When you're swimming, your breathing changes, you're actually forced into a rhythm. We're not mouth breathing, and I know you always call people mouth breathers, but you and everybody else are actually the worst offenders at mouth breathing. Check in with yourself and you'll find that you mouth breathe an awful lot. Now, I was into a rhythm. I had longer exhales into the water, I had short breath holds between strokes, and I had controlled inhales as well. Now, that alone starts shifting my autonomic nervous system. And what it does is it moves it away from that constant amped-up state into a more parasympathetic state, which is that relax and digest state. And that's the side that is responsible for your recovery, for your regulation, for processing. Now, layer in the environment. Water itself has a compressive effect on the body. It's calming, it reduces sensory load. Then you've got repetition, stroke after stroke after stroke, left, right, left, right. And it's not far off what's used in trauma therapy with bilateral stimulation. And then there's the big one no distraction. And this is where most people fall over because your day looks like this job to job, call to call, task to task, home, family, out, friends, dealing with one thing. Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, go to sleep, scroll, wake up, scroll. Family, family, family, kids, kids, husband, wife, wife, colleagues, work, messages, whatsapp groups, chat, Facebook, Instagram, TikToks, bang, bang, bang. And then when you finally stop, you don't actually stop, you scroll, you put something in your ears, you fill that space. You turn the TV on, you flop on the couch and you grab the remote control, turn the TV on, because you just need some noise. But what you're actually doing is you are filling that space. And what do you call it? Oh, this is my me time, but it's not, it's more input. You're putting more input in all the time, you're overstimulating your brain non-stop all the time. It's having to think, it's having to process, it's processing the sounds, it's processing what you're looking at. Now it's more stimulation on what is an already overloaded system. So your nervous system never gets a break, it never gets a chance to actually downregulate. And when it finally does, things come up. And it's not because something is wrong, it's because your body finally feels safe enough to actually process what you've been carrying, and that is exactly what happened to me. Now, here's the part that people don't like hearing. You are not as fine as you think you are, you're just well distracted. And I'm not saying this lightly because I've lived it. 40 years of shift work, policing, high stress environments. My exit from the police was less than ideal, a long way. You learn to function, you learn to just push things down. I couldn't work out why when I was seeing my psychologist, my psychologist kept saying to me, How much time are you spending on a healthy shift? Oh, I love it. I do it all the time, you know, and how many days a week? Oh, seven, and how many hours? Oh, as many as I can squeeze in. And she looked down the end of her nose at me over the glasses, and I'd think, Oh. Because this is the exact reason, and you can hear it now, and you can see why. You learn to function, you learn to push it down, and you get really good at staying busy so you don't have to face it. But the body keeps score, and it will wait until you give it space, and then it shows up. Now you don't just sit there for 10 minutes and go, yep, that's it, my brain's relaxed, I can't do it. Because I'll tell you now, I'm gonna make this very, very clear to you. If you can't sit in silence and just stare at a wall for 10 minutes, then you need to learn to sit and stare at a wall for 20. Because 10 minutes is not a long time. And if you can't quite in your brain, that is gonna tell you that you are a victim of this, exactly what I'm talking about. All of that chitter-chatter, all of that distraction, everything going on in your head all the time. Let this be your lesson. That's what you're doing is you are suppressing a lot of emotion that is taking place during the day, the night, during your shifts at home. Everywhere you go, everything you see and do is all getting suppressed and pushed into your nervous system until you make your body feel safe to release it. So, what are you gonna actually do with this? Because it's not about going in and having an emotional breakdown in a pool. That's not what I'm talking about. It's about understanding what your system actually needs. And most people have this wrong. You don't need more hacks and you don't need more stimulation, and you don't need another podcast in your ears 24-7. What you need is space, real space. So let's talk about how you can actually create that space because it's really important that you understand this. Number one, you need undistracted time. 30 minutes, 30 minutes, no phone, no music, no input. Walk, swim, sit. It doesn't matter. Sit and stare at a white wall in your house. Yep, it's gonna be boring, but you watch your body's gonna calm down because there's no input coming into it. It's run out of input. And all those thoughts that come just come back to face focusing on the wall, focusing on breathing. And your body will start to feel safer and safer because there's not so much input coming in. And that is the key to remove the distraction all the time. Not the noise. Oh, what's that noise? Oh, what's that? What am I looking at? Oh my god, I can't sit here, it's too quiet. That will tell you you've got a problem. The next one is control your breathing. Number two, control your breathing, slow it right down. I want you to remember this for as long as you live from today. Longer exhales than inhales, no matter what your inhale is, and it's got to be through your nose. And there's a reason why it's through your nose. Because of the functions, the chemical functions that occur in your sinuses and through your nose when you breathe, which doesn't occur in your mouth when you breathe. So breathing in through the nose, but when you breathe out, and it doesn't matter through the mouth or through the nose, who cares? But that breath has got to be longer. The exhale has got to be longer than the inhale. Whatever happens, that's what it needs to be. Because that is what tells your system it is safe and to settle. Your breath is informing your nervous system. Now, number three is repetition. Rhythmic movement matters, and this is why swimming is so good. Walking works too. Left, right, left, right, left, right, and cycling as well. Pedal, left, pedal, right, pedal, left, pedal, right. That's why that works too. Anything that gives your body a steady and predictable pattern, your body will respond extremely well to it. Number four. And this is incredibly important. This is one of the most important takeaways from this podcast. I want you to expect discomfort and I want you to embrace it. This is important because when you move dis remove distraction, things might actually come up. Thoughts, emotions, attention. Don't run from it. Don't go, oh no, I feel uncomfortable with this. That's the point. It's your system literally trying to process it. There's a lot going on in your nervous system daily. If you're addicted to your phone and a chronic scroller, you have a massive issue because you are literally distracting yourself from life by looking at it all the time. You don't realize it, but you are overstimulating your nervous system with this as well. You will feel like I just explained when I was in the pool, I felt it come up. I felt it come up from my lower legs right through my butt and then right up through my body and up into my upper body and into my neck. And I just felt it was going to come out. And all I did was just regulate my breathing a little bit more because I know what that feeling feels like. I actually embrace that feeling to let it go because it means that the loops, opening loops, are being dealt with and then they get closed. Finally. Number five is don't analyze the moment, just let it move through you. There's a time to reflect on it later, but mid-process is actually not it. Understand that. Stay with the breath, stay with the movement, let it keep coming and let it wash over you. Because this is such an important biological process for you. So, where does breath work fit in with all of this? Because this is exactly why I'm now branching into and pushing into the breathwork area. Because breath work gives you a structured way to access this state without needing a pool. Because let's be honest, you're not going to get in the pool and swim laps. Some of you listening are great swimmers and you enjoy your swimming. But that's not a thing that you do. And if you did do it, you would probably struggle. More with it, and it would stress you more and actually put you into a sympathetic state. It's got to be something that you can do easily if it's going to be swimming. And I do that easily. Now, every not everyone's going to go and swim laps, but everyone can learn how to use their breath to regulate their system. To create exactly the same shift, to give the body a chance to land safely, to come down safely into a safe state, and actually process what is trapped within. This is why I do it. Because I can tell you that since my time in policing and coming out of policing, all the psychology, all of the psychiatry, all of the medication, the psychotherapy, everything that I did, the one thing that it landed really well for me was learning to self-regulate through the breath. Because PTSD is a dysregulated nervous system. And we can learn to regulate that and control it. When you are feeling really flat, you can learn to control your breath to bring yourself up, get yourself hyped up. When you are up and hyped up, you can use your breath to bring yourself back down. And it's an art. And it's a learned skill. So I'm going to leave you with this because I want you to really think about it. What does your me time actually look like? I want me time. I go to bed, I put the TV on and I scroll. That's me time. Really? On the back of what I've just told you, do you think that that is actually me time? What you are doing, and you're not going to like hearing this, is you are literally just distracting yourself. Because me time should literally look like lying on your back, eyes closed, and focusing on your breath. One hand on your navel, one hand over your heart, and breathing slowly. Four in, eight out. Four in, eight out. And do that for half an hour. And close the loops. Open them, deal with them, close them. Let your body know it is safe. Because is it real recovery? Or is it just a distraction dressed up as rest? Because there is a massive difference. And I'm going to tell you this right now. Your nervous system knows the difference. Now, if this landed for you, this podcast, and I'm sure it will have done. Don't poo-poo this and call it happy clapper, because this is where it's at today. This is the way forward. And you know what's even better? You can do this anytime and it's free. You don't need it at a gadget, you don't need a pill, you don't need a supplement, you don't need anything. The nose is right on the front of your face. You've just got to learn how to control it. So if it landed for you, and if you know that you personally are carrying more than what you're actually dealing with, I beg you to reach out to me. Because this is exactly what I am starting to help people with now. Breathwork programs, simple structure, real tools, so that you can regulate your system in a world that never slows down. I want you to really think about today. You and I are going to chat soon. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.