Trauma healing and the transformative power of breathwork - with Emily Day

Picture this: a place where you can unmask your true self, without any apologies, through the use of a simple yet powerful tool – your breath.

But what about those deep seated traumas you may need to face along the way?

Come alongside my guest Emily Day, a trauma-informed breathwork practitioner, to unearth the potential impact of breathwork on releasing trauma and healing both the mind and body.

Emily's unique perspective unveils the beauty of breathwork, particularly its supportive role for first responders and individuals in armed forces, and how a trained facilitator can hold a safe space for emotion to be released from the mind and body. Emily will also let you in on some of her personal experiences with first responders and military personnel; stories of breakthroughs and the immense power of a safe space for releasing trauma.

As we journey through her personal experiences, we discuss a variety of breathwork styles, including Elemental breathwork and Conscious Continuous Breath (CCB), their distinctions, and their transformative power.


Meet Emily Day
Emily Day currently works as a Holistic Wellness Counsellor for Gateway Recovery Centre with a present focus on supporting first responders and military personnel recovering from PTSD. Emily's expertise lies in mind-body supports, somatic awareness and mindfulness-based interventions.

Connect with Emily: @modern.day.healing

Chapters

• 0:05 Breathwork for Healing Trauma
• 11:01 Yoga and Breathwork's Transformative Power
• 14:55 Breathwork for Trauma Healing
• 19:46 The Power of Breath
• 28:03 Tapping into Your Unique Energy with Breathwork

Transcript

Jen Liss: 0:05

Hi and welcome to Untethered with Jenless, the podcast that's here to help you break free, be you and unleash your inner brilliance. I'm your host, jen, and in this episode we're going to talk about how breathwork can help support releasing trauma and healing the mind and body. Let's dive in. Hey there, unicorn, it's Jen. Welcome back to the podcast for another week of episodes for Brilliance of Breathwork Month. Today.

Jen Liss: 0:41

We actually I had intended to talk about the practical application of breathwork for two days this week and we are, in some ways, talking about the practical application. However, I came across this beautiful human, emily Day, and she specializes in supporting first responders and people in the armed forces with releasing trauma and PTSD with the breathwork and the practices that she does. She also does holistic healing, yoga, meditation. She has a business called Modern Day Healing and she really speaks about breathwork in a way that I feel like is relatable, approachable. She tells you how it is, and I knew that she was the perfect person to come on the podcast and talk about this topic that I hadn't previously had in the lineup, but she's going to come on here and talk about it today, so I hope you enjoy this conversation and take something really beautiful away from it. We have both trauma-informed practitioners of the breath. We both approach it from the way that we have been trained, which is slightly different but also so similar on so many levels. So I was fascinated to hear from her the way that she approaches it and I think you are also going to be fascinated as well.

Jen Liss: 2:01

Just a reminder for you that we have an amazing retreat coming up the Awaken your Brilliance retreat. We are going to have somatic coaching, guided visualization, a human design workshop If you have any curiosity about human design, I have an amazing expert, alexandra Cole, who is coming on to teach a human design workshop specifically to get you in touch with your intuition so that you can gain clarity and confidence to step forward into your brilliance. And Misty Springer, an phenomenal somatic coach one of the best, in my opinion. I've never heard anybody coach the way that she coached. I have been a recipient of her coaching. She's spectacular. She is going to be leading us in some coaching and the guided visualizations and then I'm going to be offering some breathwork to help you let go of the things that are stopping you from really stepping into your brilliance.

Jen Liss: 3:04

So that is happening Friday, december 1st, 9am to 12pm Pacific Time. If you want to come, go to genlistcom slash retreat, sign up. We would absolutely love to welcome your beautiful heart and soul there with us and to guide you back home to your inner brilliance. Now, without further ado, welcoming onto the podcast the beautiful and amazing Emily Day. Hi Emily, hello Jen, I'm so happy that you're here and we had a quick little chat before we hopped on and I was calling out the fact that you're very real, you're one of us, you're one of our peeps. So I know the unicorns who are listening to this podcast are going to be like I, like her.

Emily Day: 3:55

Amazing, as I rock my favorite t-shirt, which is a wolf t-shirt.

Jen Liss: 3:58

How many wolves? How many wolves are on that shirt? I need to know.

Emily Day: 4:01

There are one, two, three, four, and it glows in the dark.

Jen Liss: 4:08

Four wolves and glows in the dark. That is the ultimate.

Emily Day: 4:10

The ultimate shirt.

Jen Liss: 4:15

It's really bringing the energy. We're not at a full moon, but I do hope that you wear that shirt on the full moon. Is that a disco ball or is it a moon?

Emily Day: 4:24

It's a moon, it's a full moon and you know, I do 100%, I do yeah.

Jen Liss: 4:29

I saw that you offer full moon breath work. It's something that you do. It's one of my favorite sessions to offer, as well as full moon breath work. Since we're talking about the moon, maybe we can talk about that. Let's enter there. Why do you love the moon?

Emily Day: 4:47

Oh, my goodness. Well, there's a multitude of reasons why, but, in short, one of my favorites is that we're allowed to go through phases and that in these phases there is release and growth and death and rebirth and a constant opportunity to shed, to welcome in and to really kind of recognize that each stage itself is so beautiful. And I think that we sometimes forget that we ourselves, as humans, we go through phases, much like the lunar cycle, and each stage is, in its own capacity, something beautiful, and I think we tend to look at ourselves in the opposite, that it's something inadequate or unworthy or I got to hide that part of myself and so kind of attuning to the moon is a way that I've allowed myself to really become a lot more unapologetic in so many ways, kind of just like the moon.

Jen Liss: 5:46

That's so great. You know something that I was thinking about last year as I stood and looked. I live in Portland, oregon, and I was looking at Mount Hood, the mountain that is here. Mount Hood doesn't try to be beautiful, and the same is true of the moon. It's not trying, it's not pushing, it's not striving, it simply is, and it's so beautiful, it's so freaking gorgeous, no matter what phase it's in, even when it's gone, you know, because then the stars are even brighter. So it's.

Jen Liss: 6:18

There is something. There's so many and there's so much poetry that's written about the moon in general, too, for a good reason 100% yes. What a beautiful place to kick it off. We're both breath workers, we're energy workers. We care a lot about the work that we do, and I really, because of the person who you are, I'm looking forward to really talking about breath work from a really practical state, because there's something that you shared on social a while back maybe it was a month or so ago where you talked about you know, I've got this really beautiful meditation pillow, I've got this room, I've got this space, but you can start from anywhere. You can do this kind of work anywhere. Why is that? A message that was on your heart and that you felt called to share that day.

Emily Day: 7:09

I wanted to share that because when I had started this journey for myself, I thought that I would never be ready because I didn't have the right clothing or the right amount of crystals or the right props and products, and it was always something that, in my head, presented itself as a barrier. And when I really started to like actually do the work, I realized that none of that shit actually matters. Like none of it makes you a better meditator or a more enlightened yogi. It's just a bunch of, we'll say, fluff on the outsides, when really what you're looking to do is get into the nitty gritty of it, and that doesn't require anything fancy on the outside. It's just you, your body, your breath and that time to be present with yourself.

Emily Day: 7:54

So I kind of equate it to like consumerism and the materialistic world, how we're always like I need this and this and this and then I'll be ready. I just want to kind of wipe all of that away, like you don't need all that shit. You don't, you really don't. You have everything you need as you are. So you know, one of my favorite things to do is literally meditate as I am. I don't get fancy with it, I don't have any to buddy to impress or anything that I need to prove. It's just like no, let's sit the fuck down and be with ourselves in this imperfect, perfect version of what we are. So I wanted to share that. Like you don't need all that stuff, you just need yourself and that is enough.

Jen Liss: 8:34

That's enough. It is enough and you are perfect, exactly as you are right where you are. We're so used to this striving and that the consumerism 100% has painted a picture of what we think things should be, so that we can be what it is painting for us. And there is that constant push and I think that message. We can't hear it enough, truly. So thanks for sharing it.

Emily Day: 9:03

Thank you. It's like slightly piggybacking, even with healing. I think healing has become this big beacon that everybody is striving towards and again it feels this well, I have to do this, and then I'm healed, and then I have to do this, and then I'll be healed. It's like no, no, no, you don't need all of that stuff. It's just noise, just noise. Let's like strip it down, bring it back to basics and that again, it's enough. It is enough.

Jen Liss: 9:29

Yeah. So coming back to that, basics for you and your journey. Where did it really start for you? How did you end up here, where yoga and breath work and these practices are such an important part of your life?

Emily Day: 9:42

I was introduced.

Emily Day: 9:43

Actually, yoga was my gateway drug, if you will to the healing world, and I was introduced to yoga in 2009 and I stepped into my first hot yoga class at the age of 19.

Emily Day: 9:57

And I had recently survived a pretty traumatic assault and it coincidentally that was the same year that I had been introduced to yoga and that was it. As I said, it was like the gateway to working through the things that I had been through, and it just kind of slowly snowballed over the last what, 13, 14 years now, and it's just kind of one layer that I worked through. I was like, oh my God, I love what I'm gaining from this. And then it led to another piece, and then another piece and another piece, and it's like kind of slowly climbing this ladder out of my own hole, if you will. So, if that makes sense, it all started with yoga One, my first hot yoga class, and it was actually through Moksha Yoga, and I believe there used to be a studio in Oregon. Actually, I think they're now called Modo Instinct, so Modo Yoga, but that was my first studio and it saved my life, quite frankly.

Jen Liss: 11:00

Oh, that's so beautiful. So what was it about that yoga that particular? Was it the hot yoga? Was it the breath? Was it the movement? What did you fall in love with?

Emily Day: 11:10

All of it. So the studio that I had originally went to, they practiced with mirrors and at that time in my life I couldn't look myself in the eyes. I absolutely loathed the reflection that I was seeing. And then I started to learn how to breathe and in that process of breathing I gained compassion for myself and I gained empathy through my experiences and I was slowly able to actually shift my internal narrative. So I went from speaking to myself with so much distaste and so much just disgust to speaking neutrally, to then speaking with empowerment and compassion and love. It was a combination of movement, of breath, of sweating my ass off and leaving everything on that mat. It was literally like being birthed. I know that sounds weird, but it was. It was like a death and a rebirth happening within a 60-minute session. Wow.

Jen Liss: 12:12

How did it end up transmuting over into a focus on breathwork? And you still have a yoga practice. Is that right? How is that dance for you today?

Emily Day: 12:22

I do so.

Emily Day: 12:23

I teach weekly, I practice weekly.

Emily Day: 12:27

It's something that has become a non-negotiable in my life. I actually just went to a restorative class last night because my body needed to slow down, and so breathwork is something I've done over the last five years and I was kind of introduced to that as well, in just seeking more healing for myself as I've kind of evolved and progressed in my own journey. It's like a new level appears and you're like, oh shit, I have more stuff to work through. And I found myself doing a style of breathwork called elemental breathwork five years ago and it just like it changed my life, absolutely changed my life, and I knew that I'm like, oh my God, if this is something that can help me, this is 100% something that can help other people, and my work predominantly is first responders and military based, and so I use all of these modalities with this demographic and we are seeing like magnificent life changing happening in these types of sessions. So I just kind of fell into it and I'm so grateful that I went to that first class, because I haven't looked back ever since.

Jen Liss: 13:37

Wow, that's really phenomenal. So tell us, for those at this point in Brilliance of Breathwork Month, if somebody's been following along with us, they've heard a lot of different things about breathwork and the different ways that people teach it what's different about Elemental. I'm curious about what's different about the way that you teach it.

Emily Day: 13:55

I actually don't teach Elemental, but it's one of my favorite styles to take, so I am a CCB practitioner.

Emily Day: 14:00

Conscious continuous breath Circle breathing is my favorite modality in breathwork that I use. But Elemental focuses on literally the four elements earth, air, fire and water. So for one period of time you would be breathing slow and steady, with a rhythm of the earth, and it's matched to drumming, and then you would move to water and then so it speeds up a little bit and then you move to air, speeds up a little, and then fire is really really quick and rapid, and then you slow down and you repeat the cycle again. So it's kind of like you're building, building, building, building, and then you come back down and then you go through it again. So it's really intense. But it's neat because there's kind of like this pause in between, whereas conscious continuous breath that I teach is continuous the whole time. There's no kind of break in between, so to speak. So this one was a little different and I did like it, because I also really value the elements and being able to connect to them too. I found it really really just really neat, a different form of it.

Jen Liss: 15:07

So yeah, I don't know if that explains it well, but I think it does, and I bet you bring because you have yourself enjoyed it and journeyed with it. There's little bits of that that you probably bring into your practice in your unique way as well, and that's why I think every facilitator is so unique, because whatever journey you've been on with it, you end up bringing. This isn't just with breath work, by the way, anybody who's listening. It doesn't matter if you're a teacher, it doesn't matter if you're a writer, it doesn't matter what you do. The experience is that you have I'm very passionate about this, you bring them with you always and so you're bringing it to the table because it's something that has interested you, and so you've been down that rabbit hole as a yogi. That comes into play, I'm sure, in your breath work as well 100%.

Jen Liss: 15:54

Yeah, so for the listener, just for comparison's sake, because we did go through a couple, the breath work that I do is also trauma-informed and I do a lot of grounding and a lot of safety throughout. So we'll use holds or we'll use tapping back into the surface beneath you, all of those kinds of things in order to support. So you do your trauma-informed, you work with a lot of, you said, first responders. How did you get into that? What is it that brought you into that kind of work?

Emily Day: 16:23

My original background is actually in the school systems, and so I had created a program in. So I'm in, we'll say the closest city to me would be Toronto, and so I created a program that was running in the alternative school board sector of the Toronto District School Board, and so, predominantly, I was working with at-risk youth that would be in alternative schools, so they would be like the kids that would get expelled from regular public systems. But these kids are struggling. Nobody wants to just get expelled, nobody wants to get in fights constantly all the time. There's a formula that's behind all of that. So I had a program that was created and that was running in nine different schools, and then COVID hit.

Emily Day: 17:05

So I lost all my contracts, I lost my job, I lost everything, and luckily, though, I had been doing that, for I was going into my seventh year and I had built a bit of a name for myself in doing this, and so the company that I'm currently working for, gateway Recovery Center, they had caught wind of the work that I was doing holistic based with students, and I got a phone call one day from our clinical director offering me a position where they thought I would be perfect for the job and so I've been there for the last two years.

Emily Day: 17:38

So I didn't even know Gateway existed until I got the phone call and again, it was like the universe kind of perfectly timed because I had to pick up a job as a custodian. So in that that interim of losing my job from the school board and my passion and doing all the work that I had done, I was scrubbing toilets to make ends meet for myself and my son. And then I got that phone call one January morning and I was like, yes, I want this. Oh my God, yes, and I've been there for the last two years and it's just been an incredible experience.

Jen Liss: 18:11

Isn't that amazing the way that things arrive for us and also how you showed up for yourself in that interim. You said I'm going to do whatever it takes, it doesn't matter if it's scrubbing toilets, I'm going to make it work for my son and I, and then that aligned opportunity has come through for you and the transformation that you're getting to see. Are there any? I don't know if you can share any stories at all. Is there anything that you can share? Any of the experiences that you've seen or heard?

Emily Day: 18:39

Yeah, it's honestly, it's been so like profound, like just it's hard to even put into words because the demographic that I support in first responders and military based I mean, it's already a really challenging market to support holistically, because a lot of, a lot of my clients kind of see me as really or I often get labeled as, as the witch at work, the white witch at work, because they just think it's like a bunch of hocus pocus and then I get them in there and we start to go through these, these, these sessions and then they have the most profound breakthroughs where, for example, I have, you know, held grown men while they sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and that was the first time that they had talked about, you know, sexual trauma from childhood or, or you know, traumas from their careers, things they had been through, and they never talked about it, they never felt it, they never had a safe space to actually release it from their bodies and to create that container for somebody to feel and release and have that experience.

Emily Day: 19:46

It's I'm just like, I'm so unbelievably grateful. It has been life saving, life changing to the point where people you know have messaged me since, since leaving the recovery program, to be like you have saved my life, you've changed my life people even going to become yoga instructors that were formerly in the military for 25 years. Like it's, it's changing people's lives, changing their lives, and I get to see it and witness it every single day, every day.

Jen Liss: 20:15

It's a wild experience for any of us. I mean, any of us who come into this work have had some kind of an experience that has brought us to tears, has cracked us open in some way, and then to get to hold the space for others, to have that experience as well, there's. There's nothing like it. It's such an honor. The honor is the only word that I can come up with.

Emily Day: 20:44

I often use that it is. It's an honor to share space and to be that container for people and you know, just witnessing their truth and and giving them that safety to feel that it's it's, it's priceless, really, it's life saving.

Jen Liss: 21:02

Yeah, can you walk us through, if possible, what is happening for somebody in a moment of release, when that release is happening, what is what's happening in their body? How is that occurring? And you can talk about it on the energetic level or at the physiological level, or at the whatever, in whatever way feels good. I'm just curious how you might describe that to somebody who's like okay, but what's really happening? Why are, why are people crying? Why, why is this happening?

Emily Day: 21:34

So the way I like to explain it to my clients especially my, you know, my first timer as I explained it as a purge that this is a purging session. It's the opportunity to unpack what you have shoved so deep down in your body for so long, and breathwork is that, that modality that allows us to kind of really stir it up, bring it to the surface, with that permission to release it. So I call it the purge. And in that process of purging it can look like crying, it can look like screaming.

Emily Day: 22:05

I've had people laughing, I've had like sweating moving all over the room. I've seen some really powerful, you know stuff like almost like a death and burst at the same time, just people going through major, major trauma but shedding that in the most beautiful ways that they never thought possible, and at the end of it they're just like holy shit. And I'm like, yeah, man, you did that. Just by breathing, like you did that, you have everything you need. You have everything that you need and it is it's, it's this purge, but at the same time, in releasing it's just creating so much more space for them.

Jen Liss: 22:46

That's really beautifully described, especially in those big trauma release sessions, talking about it as a purge, in the way that you talked about it's. It's stirring it up. It's stirring up energetically, emotionally, things that we haven't allowed ourselves to feel in so long. It's like somebody like you who can hold that safe space, partially because of the experiences that you've had in life and because of your training and because of what, what you can hold. Because of all of that, you can hold that space for people to feel safe. Does that feel right to you? That's how I feel.

Emily Day: 23:21

Yeah, absolutely, and a lot of what I do is it's emotion and somatics.

Emily Day: 23:26

So I often, you know, reference our emotions as energy and motion. Emotions are a form of energy and energy needs to be moved, and and we run into a lot of problems when we have stagnancy, you know, and we shove those emotions deep down somewhere. And that's, of course, where, you know, energy doesn't lie and energy is what we feel first, and then the body is what comes second, so to speak. And so I encourage my clients, you know to, to move that, and it doesn't always mean tears. I like to reference, like you know, don't put all, you know, the, the, what's the word I'm looking for Don't put all, like the eggs in the emotional basket, because some of the most profound breath work sessions I've had, I never shed a tear and some of the most, you know, cathartic, powerful ones that cried. So I kind of like to create the space of let's see what happens, but understand, either way, that this is a purge and we are going to move something for you in this purge as well.

Jen Liss: 24:19

Yeah, yeah, the purge.

Emily Day: 24:22

The purge, yeah, yes, which I know. The movie itself is pretty violent, but I love, I love a good scary movie, but but it is. It is also, it can be. It is a deep purge and the big, heavy, heavy emotions and deep, deep, deep trauma. It is violent and it and it has created this rippling effect on our bodies, on our minds, on our spirits and and there needs to be a way that that we release that and and again, this is it, this is the purge. It's time to pull this shit out of our bodies so that we can welcome back in peace and joy and and simply just being content and present and shit, happy like moment to moment, right.

Jen Liss: 25:07

Yeah, because that's one of those emotions that people don't feel safe to feel. We don't feel safe to feel joy and happiness just as much as we might not feel safe to feel into the trauma. So, in a breath session as well, holding space for joy, oh yeah. So okay, I have a question because I want to go back to the elemental thing from earlier. We're going to side tangent for a second. Is there an element that you feel like you associate the most with? I asked somebody this last week and I want to know what yours is.

Emily Day: 25:39

Oh, 100% fire, 100% fire. I'm an Aries myself, so my ruling planet is Mars and it is fiery. I am a very fiery woman. I'm very passionate. I am very, just, intense. I was raised by a first responder myself, so I got a little bit of spice from my dad as well, and watching his career and I just justice and just I just have a lot of like I don't know, just like fucking, you know, and fire. I resonate with fire. Anger is my go-to emotion and you know, when I'm struggling with my own, my own stuff like anger is quick and easy for me. I'm here and it's comfortable and so, yeah, fire, if I had to put it it's just oh, yeah, fire.

Jen Liss: 26:29

I would have guessed fire. That's what I would have guessed for you Tapping into your energy, it feels very fiery. I am very attracted to fiery people because it brings out the fire in me. When I'm around somebody like that, I feel safe to feel fiery when I'm around another fiery individual, so totally cool, yeah, yeah, beautiful. So it's a little breath practice or something that you can share with the listeners, something that they could try right now, to just something really practical that they could pull out of their pockets and that could be related to trauma, or it could simply be related to relaxation or something that feels like you would like to share with the audience today.

Emily Day: 27:15

Absolutely. I feel like this is something I've seen on your, your own feed, but I'll reiterate it in a different word. It's called a fire breath. It's also known as the physiological sigh, and the way that I like to kind of explain and express this to my clients as well is being somebody that is quick to anger or has been quick to be reactive in the past, before you know, doing my own, my own work. So I'm not the type of human that let's say I'm really frustrated and upset. I'm not going to sit down and breathe for four seconds and then hold that for four seconds and then let go. Like box breathing is probably my least favorite breath. No offense to anybody that loves it it is great to each their own but it is not my go to. But when I am elevated, when I am activated, when I am in that fight. Date of nervous system. Fire breathing is instantaneous. It is hella effective and it instantly stimulates the vagus nerve and starts to down regulate the nervous system. So the way I like to express and explain it is unapologetic.

Emily Day: 28:17

It's basically like a giant glorified sigh the physiological sigh but a big piece of it is actually taking up space and that can be really fucking scary for people using that breath. It draws attention to you. People might be like oh my God, are you okay? It's like I'm just breathing and that's kind of my elevator pitch, that I say I'm just breathing and I've even taught my son this as well, so it's something that he has been using since he was a baby. So the fire breath I'll kind of do a quick little demo on my laptop there down. But your goal is breathing in through the nose and filling up the belly like a big giant balloon, opening the mouth, sighing it out, and you're mimicking that H-A noise, so kind of sounds and looks like and that's it. It's simple, it's effective and it works. And then once you kind of have those couple of breaths, that's your foot in the door. It is and that's the way I like to kind of explain it one of my favorite quotes by Victor E Frankel.

Emily Day: 29:16

The Holocaust survivor had written the book A Man's Quest for Meaning. Between the stimulus and the response there lies a space. It is within that space that you have the power to choose. It's within that power of choice that lies your freedom. So I tell my clients your breath is your freedom. It's where you can become responsive versus reactive. I have a beautiful seven-year-old. I love my son more than anything, but when I hear mom for like the 97th time before six in the morning and then I step on a dinosaur.

Jen Liss: 29:45

I am more likely A fire comes out.

Emily Day: 29:47

Oh yeah, and that's when I need to step away and just be like okay, yes, buddy, please pick up your dinosaurs, mommy doesn't want to step on them anymore, you know versus hooking them all over the room and losing my shit, which is something I don't want to model for my kid. So my fire breath, that is. It is my go-to. It is unapologetic, don't forbid, I have to go to Costco or something like that. I'm going to use those breaths before I have to be in a crowded space. I use them when I'm at the grocery store and typically, when you're taking those big, deep sighs, people tend to like, go away from you, which is wonderful, like, versus, you know, crowding you. So it works in a multitude of ways, but to start down, regulating the nervous system, the physiological sigh, also known the fire breath, that is it. That is my go-to. I teach it to every single client I work with and it works.

Jen Liss: 30:42

Really powerful. Can you verbalize the steps one more time?

Emily Day: 30:45

You said through the nose into the belly, so you breathe in through your nose, fill up your belly like a big balloon, open your mouth and as you exhale you're sighing, but you're mimicking like an HA noise, like ha. So instead of it kind of being forced out, it's just gentle. And in that same kind of sound you'll notice the shoulder start to drop right when you're breathing. A shoulder's drop, the belly softens, the jaw loosens, so that noise itself also sends this beautiful message to the brain. Where the brain can receive it, complete the circuit and be like okay, I can relax now I can start to soften a little bit. I don't have to be so tense, right? So in through the nose, fill the belly up, open mouth, sigh, nice little HA noise coming out as you release that breath.

Jen Liss: 31:36

That sigh, sighing is my favorite. My go-to relaxation is humming and sighing and I saw you actually shared a really awesome video that I'll probably reshare later tonight. I saw it on your feed about humming and how that can support the science behind why humming does calm our nervous system and helps to support us. I bungee jumped a while back and one of the things I was doing to calm my nervous system down before I bungee jumped which was not entirely possible, calming my nervous system down when I was about to jump off of this bridge but humming was so helpful and so supportive. And so the humming, the sighing, those are your bodies. It's a natural way of getting yourself out of that fight, flight, freeze and back into the rest and digest of the parasympathetic.

Emily Day: 32:25

It is. Breath humming and cold exposure are your top three supports for your vagus nerve. So they are scientifically proven, they work and that is exactly what the body needs to shift back into, like you said, that parasympathetic state of rest and digest.

Jen Liss: 32:42

Yeah, that gives us a little preview to next week because we've got somebody coming on who talks about cold plunges, that he combines breath work and cold plunging together in his retreats and he speaks about that, so you can look forward to listening to. Listening into his name is Wolf, speaking of your shirt.

Emily Day: 32:57

Super cool. Oh, I love the alignment.

Jen Liss: 33:00

Perfect alignment. I always ask every single person who comes on the podcast this question where do you see the magic in the world?

Emily Day: 33:12

Oh my gosh, that's such a great question. Instantly I thought of my son, but when I kind of dial and zoom out of that, where I see magic is in nature, all around nature. That's probably my favorite place to find magic is in the tree bark, in the trickle of the stream and a mushroom growing out of the earth and a tree that I feel like climbing, anything that is nature, and the birds and the wind just outside, outside in the woods. If I could be a troll, I so would.

Jen Liss: 33:47

Beautiful, a treasure troll. I you know mushrooms. I live in Portland, oregon and the mushrooms this is the time of year where they appear because the rain starts. Magical, they appear out of nowhere, like one day they're not there, the next day they're. Massive Mushrooms are so, they're so crazy.

Emily Day: 34:08

Fascinating.

Jen Liss: 34:10

It's fascinating. Thank you so much. What a beautiful answer. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Where can people connect with you, find you, get to know you?

Emily Day: 34:18

So Instagram is probably the best place that you can keep up to date. Now I'm building a website, but moderndayhealing is my handle on Instagram. I do have a Facebook page, moderndayhealing. My name is Emily Day, but those are probably the best spots right now where you can keep up to date with all the shenanigans that I share.

Jen Liss: 34:38

Beautiful and you do share a lot of really great content, so I recommend giving her a follow. The link is in the show notes, so you can just go click that and follow over there. Thank you once again, emily, for coming on the podcast.

Emily Day: 34:48

Thank you, jen, so much for having me and it was an honor to kind of connect and share space and I really appreciate everything that you're doing in the community and having these conversations. Just don't stop, please keep going.

Jen Liss: 35:00

It's definitely lit a fire for me doing this brilliance of breath work month and one of the things for me that I am so passionate about, that I myself and I share this to the listeners because when we follow a little nudge, we follow something that excites us. It leads you somewhere beautiful. It always always does, even if you're like there's all the reasons in the world why I'm not qualified to lead this or I'm not qualified to start this. We do it because I remembered how passionate I am about helping other people, who are so good at what they do, to get out there and do it. And this month has sparked in the people who have come on. One has started her podcast she was wanting to start. Another has started something else. It invigorates us. So for you, for the listener, for anybody, follow whatever that nudge is for you right now, because this was one for me and I had all the reasons in the world to say absolutely not, I don't have time. And I did it anyway. And now I got to meet you and got to meet all kinds of cool people and really rekindle that spark in myself. So thanks for being part of it. So cool, thank you.

Jen Liss: 36:11

Thank you for listening to this episode. If it sparked any curiosity in you at all about trauma, about healing, about breath work. You can reach out to Emily or myself anytime. We're both on Instagram, always in the DMs, sharing with people. We love talking about breath work and helping to answer any questions that you might have. If you're interested in joining Brilliant Breath Work, you can go to genlistcomcom. Slash join. A reminder that the founding member discount is going to end on November 30th, so if you're interested in joining also members of Brilliant Breath Work get the Awakend your Brilliant's virtual retreat for free. So it's a beautiful time to join. Be sure to check out the show notes, where you can connect with both myself and Emily on social media. If you enjoyed anything from this episode at all, I encourage you to share it with a friend who might need to hear it. Thank you again. So much for listening. Now you just keep shining your magical unicorn light out there for all to see. I'll see you next time. Bye.