Breathwork for Chronic Fatigue and Long COVID Recovery with Tabatha DeBruyn, C.B. (9D)

Breathwork for Chronic Fatigue and Long COVID Recovery with Tabatha DeBruyn, C.B. (9D)

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Hey everybody, welcome back to the EnergyMD Podcast where we help you resolve your long COVID and Chronic Fatigue syndrome naturally so that you can get back to living your best life. So I'm really excited about today's episode because we're going to be talking about breath work. As many of you know, I find that nervous system retraining is an essential part of getting better and breath work is an essential part of nervous system retraining. So we're going to be learning today.

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from Tabatha DeBruyn and let's learn a little bit about her. So Tabatha is a transformational breath master and one of the few certified 9D breathwork practitioners worldwide, specializing in nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and stress recovery. She helps adults, teens, and children navigate anxiety, burnout, grief, and trauma using science-backed breathwork that integrates breath

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sound and somatic practices for full body transformation. Based in Virgil, Ontario, Tabatha works with clients locally and globally through private and group sessions and collaborates with businesses and community organizations to deliver corporate wellness workshops designed to reduce workplace stress, improve focus and support mental wellbeing. Tabatha, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. So

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Let's talk about, as we kind of get into breath work, let's first talk about uh nervous system retraining and why it's such an important part of healing. Breath is part of the automated nervous system. And I think we can really take it for granted. And so what I'd like to do is help people become more consciously aware of how they're breathing, because as silly as it sounds, your breath,

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In a way, can be a superpower because even in one breath, you can change the way you feel in your body as well as how your mind is working. Most people live most of their days in that chronic fight flight freeze. They don't realize it because they just are going about their day, pushing through, breathing shallow, usually through the mouth into the chest.

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as opposed to bringing the air in through the nasal passage and pushing it down and deep into the diaphragm so it expands the belly and then having a longer exhale. When you breathe in through the nose and into the belly and a long exhale, it takes you from that fight flight freeze into rest, digest and heal where the body feels safe. The tricky part is we live so much of our days

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in fight, flight, freeze, that that becomes our familiar. So I'd love to just start the podcast because no matter where you are, what you're doing, even if you're driving, this would be just a really good way for you to realize and sink into your body, how you're breathing. So if you could take a deep breath in through the nose on the count of three in three, two, one, deep breath in through the nose, deep into the belly.

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and a long exhale through the mouth like you're breathing through a straw, longer on the exhale.

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If you notice how you're your heart rate went down, your blood pressure lowered. And what I find really fascinating is it also brought more blood flow to the prefrontal cortex to your brain. So many of us, when we're chronically in fight flight freeze, we feel really exhausted and we have brain fog. And if you can bring more blood flow into the brain, you'll have more clarity of thought.

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So I like to just help people become aware of how they're breathing and try to breathe a little more throughout the day, deep in through the nose, into the belly with a long exhale. Beautiful. And there are several different ways of changing the nervous system and retraining the nervous system. um You know, where there's the mindset components, you know, there's positive thinking, there's obviously supplements that stimulate acetylcholine receptors.

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So those, why are those things sometimes more challenging for people when they're really tired? When they're really tired, it is hard to get clarity of thought. It is hard to do a pattern interrupt when you've got those ruminating thoughts that are in that beta, that conscious brain. So that's why we start with the state in the body first. If I can bring safety into the body, more clarity into the mind, reaching for a

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better thought that is gonna serve you greater. Program that reticular activating system, that filter in the brain that helps you recognize more of those positive thoughts. Overall, your results in life are that much greater. And that's what I do. I create safety in body and then activation sometimes in the body so that we can change that state and reach for a strong, powerful thought.

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And in the breath work that I do with guided coaching with great intention, we use very strong, powerful language, neuro-linguistic programming, and sometimes even hypnotic scripting.

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Excellent. Now, sometimes people have resistance to those terms or, know, they hear hypnotic scripting, they hear hypnosis. Can you kind of clarify for folks like what that is? That's not like, you know, you make suggestions and then they, you know, quack like a duck on stage. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between, I guess, clinical hypnosis versus like stage hypnosis? I'm so glad you asked because there is a there is a big difference.

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First and foremost, you are in control 100 % of the time. When you work with a trusted facilitator who's teaching a particular breath pattern with a particular intention, what we're going to do is we are going to make sure you know how to be able to move out of that hypnotic state, which is simply meaning you are relaxed, safe, and more suggestible. That's all it is. But at any time, you are the captain of your ship.

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But when you can bring down the conscious mind, that monkey mind, some of those ruminating thoughts, when your body feels safe, you can bring down some of those masks, then you can get into the subconscious brain. The subconscious brain is like 95 % of your brain power. We're just not aware of it. We don't tap into it. We're usually in that conscious mind. But if the conscious mind is stuck in ruminating thoughts that don't serve you,

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using that breath pattern to feel safe in the body, to get clarity in the mind, and then to move into that subconscious mind with that hypnotic scripting, to be able to help reprogram the subconscious mind, to be able to move those positive, powerful thoughts into the conscious mind, so you can act from an aligned place and take action, you're gonna see better results in life. m

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Yeah, I would definitely agree. Um, you know, accessing the subconscious can be very powerful. I've heard some people say that it doesn't align with their religious beliefs and I don't exactly remember the context and what people have said specifically. Have you ever heard that before? And what do you say to people who say that? I remind them that they're a hundred percent in control, that they, whatever their belief system is,

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whatever's in their highest and best good is what they are going to receive. And when you're working with a trusted facilitator, these are discussions that are had before so that you're both on the same page of what it is that you're looking to retrain the subconscious mind to be thinking. And so that's what I would encourage. If anybody is curious about going down the path of

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uh somatic healing through breathwork using the power of the mind. I would encourage them to find a trusted facilitator and have a discovery call. Ask all of your questions. Make sure it aligns with your belief system. And I do that as a complimentary call if you go to my website. Excellent. Yeah. And we'll drop that link below. um

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So let's go into the brass tacks around 9D breath work. Can you kind of take us through um what that looks like? 9D stands for nine dimensions within this modality. The number one most powerful part of this is breath work, but there are different breath patterns. I teach different simple breath patterns to bring safety in the body, but also at times for particular people, we want to activate.

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We want to build up your CO2 tolerance. We wanna put the body under stress intentionally for a short period of time. But then what happens is you're using headphones and I do most, work all over the world online and I have a studio in person as well. But what we're also incorporating is music. Music evokes emotion and your beliefs are locked in.

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when you've had that thought over and over again and it's locked in with emotion. So when we use music, it starts to bring that emotion up to be able to unleash, loosen, take the shackles off of some of those limiting belief patterns that no longer serve you, but also to anchor in some of those really positive ones. We use frequencies in the music. We use a lot of 432 Hertz.

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that puts the body in homeostasis very easily without the effort. That's why this is such a beautiful practice. You are working because it is breath work, but there is so much happening in your ears that allow the body to really drop in. So people that struggle with meditation find the breath work, especially with 9D, because there's so much, I call it mind candy, going on in your ears that it busies the mind.

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so it can get out of that conscious mind. We also use something called binaural beats and they slow down the brain waves and allow you to drop into that deep state of meditation, which is where we can move into the subconscious mind where it is more suggestible, where we can get into things that may have been repressed, suppressed, and you're ready to be able to let go of the body wisdom through the breath work.

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will actually allow for these things to come up in different ways. And that's a lot of the healing that happens. So there's eight other different modalities that happen as well as the breath work in 9D breath work. Now, someone with a long uh COVID or chronic fatigue, I would encourage them to try a shorter breath work session.

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As we were speaking earlier, uh if they go to my website, I will give them a free five minute 9D reset that they can use at any time to be able to energize the body, feel safe in the body and reset the mind. And there's also a cinematic trailer that shows each of the layers of 9D breath work extracted. So you hear them all separately and then you start to hear them together. So you can

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feel what that feels like. Nice. So it's kind of like curating all of these different or a number of different therapies that have been shown to be helpful and putting them all together in synergy. Is that accurate? That is. And I guide the whole way and there is the symbolic, the hypnotic suggestion throughout. And there's a breather in there to get to continue to remind you. And then you find your own breath pattern. And some are

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down regulating, which is definitely where I'd recommend someone to start and somewhere a hybrid and then somewhere more activating. depends what it is that somebody's looking for. So for somebody who has low energy, activating may not be the way to go depending on where their nervous system is at. Exactly. Exactly. We want to build to that. I have a journey called cellular regeneration.

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uh One that is alleviating stress and anxiety. I am enough. There's an entire library. My signature program is a seven day nervous system reset with all different lengths. And it builds one on top of the other. And it's one that people can go back to over and over again. Wonderful. And how long does it generally take doing this practice for people to notice a difference?

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I find it depends on the person and what it is their intention. When I found this type of breath work within one session, I had felt a real difference. Now, just like when you have a shower and you feel clean and then you're lifing and you get dirty, it's something that I recommend people go back to. In fact, I encourage people. That's why I offered that five minute reset.

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of a daily breath work practice, becoming consciously aware of how you're breathing and using it to optimize. We want to get really focused. We can show you how to activate for a short period of time. want you want to feel safety in the body. We're going to show you how to down regulate. So to answer your question within one session, people will feel a difference in their nervous system, especially if they move into that somatic healing, because a lot

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can come out and when it comes out, it's like it's seen, comes to light, it no longer serves you, you can have that move out of the body and it makes space for something new. When you make some space for something new and feel safe in the body and have clarity in your mind and have a little bit more energy in the body to be able to take some of those actions, your life changes because the mindset is there.

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The reticular activating system is programmed to see some of those more positive things. And then when you take action in the right direction of what you're truly wanting in life, you start to see those results. But of course, the more you do it, the more you build on it, the greater the results you're going to feel. It's kind of amazing that you can get so many benefits from breath work, right? Just from breathing differently.

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Can you speak a little bit to like, how did we get in this position? Like where we don't know how to breathe? I think we have taken it for granted. I think our life has become so frenetic. I think we have been asked to do more in less time. I think screen time, I think negative bias. I think it's a whole combination of the way.

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Our society works today, but I think the more we can start to take ownership of how I feel and know that I can feel better. I'm not saying this is going to be easy, but there are ways, there are tools and your breath is with you at all times and it's free. It's literally becoming aware that if I took a deep breath in through my nose right now into the belly and a long exhale,

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I can feel safer, I can slow down and I can have more clarity in my mind. And I think that's a really big gift to give people is for them to realize they have that at all times. Yeah, that's a win-win. And for those of you who are listening, I highly recommend that you go and check out that free five-minute exercise and just taking these breaths like she's talking about. so,

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Having the exhalation be longer than the inhalation, is that an important part of this? It is. And if you're by yourself, what I would love for you to do is, if you can, have an audible exhale. I like to blow through my mouth like I'm blowing through a straw, but make a little bit of vibration, a little bit of sound, because what happens is that stimulates the vagus nerve.

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vagus nerve is that largest nervous from the brain to every organ and it indicates to the body unsafe. So that's the long exhale puts you in the parasympathetic nervous system that vibration stimulates the vagus nerve as well. Wonderful. And would that same sort of breath work work to help somebody who's having sleep issues? You know, let's say they wake up in the middle of the night, they're having a hard time getting back to sleep.

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Is this what you would recommend for that? Or is there something else? So I would recommend it for sure. But I do have one that I like to recommend a little more. And I have uh created breath exercises and meditations to help people with sleep. But I like in for four through the nose. I like hold for two at the top. And then I like to reverse the count. Six, five, four, three, two.

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one loop it around so it's conscious connected breathing. No pause other than the two at the top, none at the bottom in through the nose, hold for two longer on the exhale. And I like to count backwards. The reason being sometimes when we wake up, we get right into thinking ruminating thoughts. And if you're concentrating on counting to four, holding for two, and then having the brain have to count.

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backwards and breathing longer on the exhale, you're in rest, digest and heal and you're looping it right around. And I find that after about 10 of those, for most people, they feel calm enough. The mind has been busy enough and they can get back to sleep. That's wonderful. It's kind of like a counting sheep, you know, the idea around being, you know, getting the mind focused on something that's not those ruminating thoughts.

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Yes. Brilliant. And can people, you know, for people who are more sensitive or who are fatigued, can they feel worse from doing a practice like this?

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They can, but this is why I think it's really important to have that discovery call, talk to your facilitator, let them know what you're feeling so that they can tailor make the breath patterns and how long the breath work session is. If they go into an hour and a half somatic breath work healing session, they may feel really tired. Somebody who doesn't have long COVID and chronic fatigue,

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often will feel tired. Now, some feel very energized, but what I would really recommend if they are concerned about that at all, I would make sure that they do the down regulation that keep activation to a minimum until they build that tolerance. And the biggest thing is when you're working with a trusted facilitator to have that integration after. So if you are feeling that way, they can help you

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with different, I would recommend if you can, uh a shower, uh a bath, getting yourself into water, making sure the body feels very calm, very safe. Maybe even if you can sit outside in nature, can be very grounding, can bring you back, journaling, talking, hydrating your body, nourishing your body. So there are a number of things that...

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If I know somebody is feeling this way and they reach back and talk with me, I make myself available and we can make sure that they are building that energy backup. But yes, it can happen. I would just say start slow and know that the other thing is I'm going to prime your brain to know how great you can feel on the other side of this. We want you to push yourself enough to know that you can, but we don't want to push you beyond that. But the beauty is

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Breath is automated. So when your body says, you know what, I've had enough of this activation quite often, mouth closes. And I teach people they can do this at any time. Mouth closes, they start to breathe deep in through the nose, the longer on the exhale to bring that calm back into the body. Wonderful. So how does this work practically over Zoom? You know, I know you're working with people internationally. Are they lying down?

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or, you know, are you in their ear? Like, how does that work? It depends on what it is we are looking for. Sometimes to build up the safety, the trust to build the skill, we might be working just like this, if it's just one-on-one. And I do group sessions like this as well. And when they're ready, yes, you can be lying down on a mat, a couch, off in a bed. You do have headphones because we are using those eight other dimensions in that intricate soundscape.

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I, you have your camera, ideally you have your camera and your uh volume on, but there are people who say, I feel more comfortable without my camera on and they come back and talk after they've done it. But yes, when I do a full length somatic session, first we start by talking and you're just in front of your screen.

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then you find a comfortable place to lie down, you're breathing, I'm watching, I'm guiding, I'm coaching, and then we come back and we integrate after. And it sounds like they sometimes go 90 minutes, 60 minutes? My average session, my regular session, if they're looking for a somatic healing session is an hour and a half total. We ground, we talk, I teach for the first 15 minutes.

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This session is going anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes, and then usually about 15 minutes of integration, making sure all their questions are asked, making sure they feel really good and safe and comfortable in their body. And that's usually the entire session. And I do those online in a group setting every Tuesday night uh at 730 Eastern Standard Time. I have different ones on my calendar uh every Tuesday.

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And then of course I do private sessions as well. Excellent. And so with the headphones, do people need to go out and buy a set of headphones or? Great question. Any set of headphones will do. Like the little earbuds are great. These are the headphones that I use when people are here. They are noise canceling. So if there is any somatic releasing, which does happen sometimes, people feel very comfortable. But when you're in your own home,

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uh in front of your computer or on your phone, any headphones will do. But there is stereo sound, so you never know where the sound is coming from again that busies the brain. that mind candy is something that we just, it's entertaining. Like breath work is work, but it can be a lot of fun and extremely positive, really, really powerful. And so the releasing is, what does releasing look like?

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Releasing looks different for everyone. Sometimes, quite often, people will start yawning. And this is not because they're tired or bored. It's because the body is releasing old stale fatigue. And it's incredible how the body wisdom works when you are deep into the breath pattern. So yawning is very normal. Sometimes people get very cold and that's old stale energy coming out of the body.

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Sometimes people get very hot. Sometimes I sweat like a piglet. Sometimes spontaneously tears start flowing. And I don't want your listeners to be afraid of this. That is the body letting go of what it no longer needs. And it might be sad. It may be shame. It may be guilt. It may be complete joy and euphoria, but it comes out of the body. So it's just tension that's been pent up. And that's how the body starts releasing.

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but I have seen interpretive dance. I have heard primal moaning and screaming. I have personally hysterically laughed as a somatic release and just know it's all welcome. And I've had the pleasure of breathing thousands of people and they're all so different every single time. Sometimes it's shaking and sometimes it's quiet and you wouldn't hear or see anything happening.

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And yet they'll come out and say that was one of the most profound things I've ever done in my life. So it's different for everyone. It's different with every session. But those, always say, I'm going to tell you all the things like carrying an umbrella. So if it happens, you'll know what's normal. Right. Yeah. That's really important. You know, it's that acceptance and that understanding that what you're experiencing is normal. That really helps people. Yeah. When they're doing something new.

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And so you probably had a lot of options for what kind of breath work you wanted to learn. What was it about 9D versus other ones that you felt drawn to? I had used many of the different modalities within 9D, neuro-linguistic programming, hypnotic suggestion, binaural beats, music I am in love with for so many reasons in the realm of healing, uh guided coaching.

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powerful mindset coaching, and I had used a lot of down regulation. I found somatic breath work myself after my mom passed. I was grieving and I knew that on a conscious level, but I was fine as long as I was working or serving somebody else. If I was with clients, if I was doing the mom thing, the wife thing, the daughter thing for my dad, or I was also an entrepreneur as long as I was doing.

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I was fine. When I was all by myself, I started having panic attacks. I started to have my hands go numb. My heart was palpitating and I had insomnia. So what I realized was I had functional depression and I had a treasure trove of modalities and nothing seemed to be working for me because I was utilizing them all. And I think when the student is ready, the teacher will come. As we've talked, I am a very curious cat.

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And that's when I found 9D Somatic Breathwork and a trusted facilitator, the founder of 9D Breathwork came across my internet feed and I studied it. I felt very much aligned and I knew I needed something different. And on the other side of that 90 minute session, I felt more peace, more joy, more understanding. I realized I'd been repressing uh anger.

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frustration, resentment, disappointment, things I had no conscious awareness that I was shoving down. And through that somatic release, on the other side of it, I felt such joy and expansion for the first time since mom had passed. And probably for a lot longer before that, the grip of grief no longer had its hold on me. And I thought, you know what? I knew breath was important. I love these other modalities.

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And I think this could be the through line to all of my transformational coaching. So I started studying and I've never stopped. Wonderful. Yeah. Thank you for sharing your journey with us. That's really meaningful. So as we kind of come to the end here, um, can you give people, I mean, you've already given us some practical tips. Is there anything else that you want to share that you feel like is something that people can start doing today besides the five minute or is the five minute session the best place to go or just.

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doing kind of the inhalations that you've talked about today. Anything else you want to add? I will just say one more breath pattern because we did talk about the inhale through the nose longer on the exhale. That's just a great one to go to. We talked about four to six to help with sleeping, but the physiological side, the physiological side is the fastest scientifically based way to be able to change your state.

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So if you feel anxiety, you feel that cortisol rising, you feel a little bit anxious, you feel like you're in reaction, which we often are, I just want you to remember that if you take a deep breath in through the nose, into the belly, inflate that belly about 60%, and then take another sniff of air, and then relax and let it go longer on the exhale.

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you will bring safety into the body. You'll also have more blood flow to the brain. You can act from a more aligned state. So just a deep breath into the belly about 60%, another sniff of air and longer on the exhale. And if you can make that sound on the exhale with the sigh, it'll stimulate the vagus nerve as well. So yes, that is the physiological sigh. I just think if.

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Everybody has that in their back pocket, whether they're at work, whether they're frustrated with themselves, whether they're parenting any difficult situation, just having that deep breath in another sniff of air and exhale, put your body in a much better state. Nice. And you can do that anytime when you're driving and there's crazies on the road or when you are uh with your boss and you're not, don't like what they're saying to you, right? It's just,

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You've got it in your back pocket. Yes. In actual fact, when you take that time to take a breath, sometimes, especially our frenetic pace of life, and if you're in reaction, and the adrenaline is going, sometimes we feel like we have to respond on the heels of what somebody else is saying, taking that breath and make people feel seen, heard and felt so you feel good. But when you're regulated, they mirror your regulation.

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and they often feel like, wow, they listened. So I think it can be a really powerful one. That's brilliant. So the best place to send people is www.tabatha.online, is that correct? Yes, that's my website. And if they're on social media, I would love to have them follow me on Instagram or Facebook. I put all kinds of nervous system regulating tools and mindset tips on there. And I really like to communicate with people and see how I can add value.

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Wonderful. And I don't think we have those. Oh yes, we do have the links to your social media. Yes. So it's at Tabatha DeBruyn, B-R-U-Y-N '@tabathadebruyn' and at @tabcollective. Yes. Okay, wonderful. And that's Tabatha with an A. Yes. Yes. Excellent. Any last things that you'd like to share with people before we adjourn? Just...

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I would encourage people to become aware of their breath. Bring breath into your vocabulary in your home. Let's all just take a breath as you can feel better in the body and in the mind. And I think we all deserve that. And all ancient traditions have, um, have breath work as, part of, as part of the, um, the practices that are so important. So Tabatha, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been incredibly valuable.

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For those of you who are interested in breath work and you want to learn more, please reach out to Tabatha and take advantage of that free session to see if you guys are a good fit to work together. And if this was helpful for you, please give it a thumbs up, like and subscribe, share it with somebody you love if you think this will be helpful for them and we'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for being with us. Thanks so much. So if you have chronic fatigue, whether it's from long COVID or chronic fatigue syndrome,

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go ahead and click the link below to watch my latest master class where I go deep into our four step process that has helped thousands of others resolve their symptoms naturally. After you watch that video, if you're interested in seeing if we're a good fit to work together, you can then get on a free call with me. All right, thanks so much. I'll see you over there.