CoppaFeel! founder Kris Hallenga tells how mindful breathing exercises help treat her brain tumours
We don’t take a full enough breath to take advantage of our full lung capacity — but mindful breathing can relieve all sorts of ailments
I AM slowly but surely starting to feel more like myself again after having treatment to zap tiny little tumours from my brain.
As usual, I thought I would recover super-quickly and be back to normal speed. But my body and brain had other ideas and put me back in the slow lane, reminding me to take each day as it came and learn to appreciate that recuperation was all part of the treatment. That’s something I really struggle with.
It took some serious napping, copious pain meds, daytime TV and complementary therapies such as acupuncture and reflexology to shift my lethargy and the treatment side-effects.
I am lucky to have found practitioners in Cornwall I can call upon at short notice to help me come back to life. I am always on the lookout for new, clever, holistic treatments to add to my arsenal.
I have been discovering the power of breath work. Before you call me a mug for paying someone to do a simple thing we were born with, hear me out.
Hardly any of us know how to really breathe. That means we don’t take a full enough breath to take advantage of our full lung capacity. Mindful breathing can relieve all sorts of ailments, such as pain and stress, and I have been keen to explore this more.
The other day I visited a breath-work expert, only to turn up at her house to find a wall of cigarette smoke. I couldn’t help but think how ironic it was that I was in a room I could barely inhale in.
Needless to say I ended that session pretty swiftly. When I left, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. I decided to look at it more philosophically.
There must have been a reason my path led to her, to sit in that room and be reminded of how much I hate smoking. I was proud to stand my ground with my views on it.
My search for a breath-work practitioner continues. But it got me thinking of all the people in the world who think it’s OK to push their complementary therapies on sometimes quite vulnerable patients.
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I know when someone is seriously taking the mickey – but many don’t. I have found the best way to someone good is through recommendations – from people you trust and know well.
Unfortunately I have slim pickings here in Cornwall, but another lesson has been learned.
Meanwhile, I will keep breathing in the fresh Cornwall sea air – and don’t need to pay anyone to know that will do me the world of good.