Die unterschätzte Kraft des Atems (mit Christoph Glaser)

Hello, everyone. It's great to have you here today. I have a wonderful guest with me today, Christoph Glaser. You will soon find out why I invited him. But first of all, a very warm welcome, Christoph, for coming here today. You've been away for a long time, but we'll find out more about that in a moment. Thank you very much for the invitation, Peter. I'm very happy. Nice. So, what is Christoph Glaser here about? Well, it's actually about energy. Energy is the magic word and a very, very big wish of us humans to always have enough of it. I've talked a lot about it in my YouTube sessions, that healthy foods are energy gifts, that movement gives us unforeseen powers, about another special source of energy that accompanies us from the first to the last moment of our lives. That's what I want to talk to you about today. It's about the precious life energy of our breath. But first of all, I'd like to introduce you. And why did I invite you to this topic? Well, Christoph Glaser, you're the managing director of the Telex Institute. I'll try to summarize what this institute does. It's a world-leading company that specializes in coaching executives and their employees. The goal, by the way, is to ensure that everyone is self-sufficient again and, on the other hand, that targeted methods and strategies enable employees to have more energy, which is our topic today, but also to have more well-being and higher performance. Is that right? Absolutely. Yes, wonderful. Christoph is also an international consultant. You're a coach and coach in the field of mindfulness, resilience and transformation. Yes. Perfect. And the topic of mindfulness has accompanied you, dear Christoph, for over 30 years, after a severe accident at the age of 17. From one day to the next, your dream was taken over by your football career and you began to deal intensively with your body and your mind. In particular, your travels to India and the teachings of your teacher, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, helped you to learn the topic of mindfulness and the importance of breathing in the deep. Correct. Yes, good. And then, of course, you do a little more. In addition to your consulting work, in addition to your CEO job, i.e. managing director at Telex, you are also the Managing Director of the World Forum for Ethics in Business. Since 2006, I believe, you have been leading and assisting. Every year, there is an event in the European Parliament in this World Forum with very exciting topics. Roland Icher was allowed to be part of the last one. Many thanks again for that. Now it's going to be exciting to find out a little bit about himself and now not about me. On the other hand, of course, I am very happy about your thumbs up and also if you subscribe to my channel and also to Christoph's channel, because you also have one. Actually, you haven't had much to do with YouTube so far, but now you've started and I think it's super valuable. Yes, you are responsible for that, you and Roland. Because you said at a nice dinner, you do such a great job and in the whole wide social media world, no one knows you on YouTube. Exactly. And that actually inspired me to stand in front of the camera and it's exciting. And you have set up the YouTube channel here and then you can go on it and see what Christoph has to tell there. Yes, Christoph, when I look at your work, I actually wonder how you do it. You've been on the road for the last two weeks. Well, a lot of people do that, that they're on the road for two weeks. So we also work for two weeks. But you weren't just in one place, you were in a few countries. How many countries have you been to? In nine countries. In nine countries in such a short time. And how do you feel about being in nine countries? And I think you've done some exciting things. On the one hand, of course, I want to know how you feel about it. And a very short breakdown of what you've done in nine countries. Yes, it was a long tour with events, with lectures. It started with a conference on mental health in the European Parliament, where you and Roland were there. It was a very exciting and relevant topic, because the times that are so transformative have left their mark on me. I think in all of us in society. Of course, in all of you, too. I read the new AXA report just a week ago. It says that in Germany, almost a third of the population says that they have mental problems, even feel mentally ill. And that's what it was about in the conference. And otherwise just traveling for lectures, for events. But I'm fine. I arrived here in Bad Homburg yesterday. And that was a moment when I realized that I needed rest. I laid down, slept deeply, did breathing exercises this morning. And that's where these power sources are so often. That's what I need. Exactly. That's exactly why I want to know what my community and I can learn from you to go through life as strongly and energetically as you do. Maybe we'll get into your own story. Because I think it was a milestone for you, or actually a game-changer, when you had an accident at the age of 17. Just tell us about it, please. Yes, I'd love to. It was really like this for me. I actually had too much energy. So when I think back to how my mother, who no longer lives, described me, she always said I was uncontrollable. She thought I was here in one corner of the room, and I was already there and so on. And I actually fought a lot in school, with friends. You? Yes, I actually fought. But you fought with friends? Yes, I always had to go all out. Maybe sometimes they didn't find it so exciting. And for me it was totally important to find a place where I could store my energy. And that was the football field. It made me incredibly happy. I felt alive. And that also gave me a balance. And at some point, when I was seven, my father took me to the FC Basel stadium. I hope you know the club. At half-time, they were 2-1 behind. And then they scored seven goals in the second half. And the next morning it was clear to me that I was going to be a footballer. And I went to FC Basel, and that was my great, great love. And then I was on the right track. There were different teams to choose from. We were also Swiss champions and so on. And then I had an accident. I went to the hospital and they looked at me and said, that's not going to work. Sports injuries or something? Exactly. It was really during sports. A vertebra was shifted. I could hardly walk for several months. And the doctor also said, with football it won't work anymore. You have to be happy when you can walk again. And in fact, I experienced exactly that for months. Intensely. As you are well aware, I had pain. And it was such a strong pain that I can remember, I talked to my father when I was 20 years old. And I told him what I thought. I thought, I certainly won't get older than 30 years old. That was in my head. Because I knew I couldn't stand this pain. It was just so strong. And I didn't know what to do. So physical pain, really. And you're a little older than 30 now, even though you still look pretty young. So you got older. How? What happened? What did you do? I did intensive bodywork. I tried everything there was. I was in physiotherapy every day, in the fitness studio. I really put a lot of effort into it. Also in musculature. I was able to get stronger. I could even run again. But I just had pain in my body. There was a basic tone in me. And luckily, when I was 22 years old, I got to know the subject of mindfulness. Breath-based mindfulness. And it was very exciting. My best friend came from India. Her mother was a mindfulness trainer. And my friend, Anni, found it all very strange and complicated. And she had the feeling that my mother was less involved in mindfulness. She didn't really promote it. But one day I took part. And I first felt a physical effect. That I could suddenly go jogging much better. But suddenly I also noticed that something was relaxing in me that I longed for so much. I didn't even know that I had so much love, so much strength, so much relaxation, so much fluidity in me. And to discover that was great. How was it when you had this accident and your dream just shattered? Weren't you somehow totally sad, angry? Did you ask for a sensuality in your life? Totally. For me, a world has really collapsed. And interestingly, I felt it a few years before. I really wanted to become a professional footballer. Until I was 13, 14 years old, it was a community that gave me incredible strength. But then I never felt so comfortable in the community, in the team. And inside me I felt that something else was coming. But I didn't want to realize it because I didn't know what was coming. And when it was time, I really had the feeling that I had to reinvent myself. I had no idea where and in which direction. And then I started to read a lot, to think about life. I remember I got to know Hermann Hesse and was there for hours and read Demian and so on. And I just started to think differently about myself, to talk to other people. And yes, it interested me so much who I am, why I am here, what makes me tick. And it didn't make you feel bad? You weren't afraid that you wouldn't find your way? Or did it even make you strong? Because you do say that when things like this happen, you become stronger. And that's a term that appears everywhere at the moment, that you become more resilient. Was that the case with you? Yes, in retrospect. In retrospect, I can say that I became more resilient. It was tough in the crisis and I couldn't accept it. My best friend was very successful in athletics, he was also Swiss champion. I was always very good and then I actually went into athletics for half a year after the accident, although I had pain all over my body. And I tried it there, of course I didn't have any more success, it wasn't fun. And then came the moment when I took these shoes, these were athletics shoes, and I really nailed them to the wall. And that felt good. To be honest, I get goosebumps when I think about it, it felt good. And I think what I learned is that we all suffer, or rather, pain and loss is part of this life. But whether it makes you suffer, that's in our hands. And I think acceptance is incredibly important. Yes, that's a very important point that you keep saying and that you talk to people about, the people you work with, the people you meet, that you can gain a lot by accepting the state of being and by actively accepting it. I think that's very important. Okay, then there was another step in your life, because you left Switzerland. Yes, that's right. That's right, and I would have never dreamed of that. For me, the borders of Switzerland, or the borders that feel at home, were always very narrow. I grew up on the country triangle in Basel, and I always thought that when I went to France or Germany, it was completely different. But after I became a mindfulness trainer, I thought about what I was going to do with it. So I moved to Germany and taught mindfulness at universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in the field of sports. Stress management for athletes. And that was my next step. Okay, so Germany is not that far away from Switzerland, but you also traveled again. When was that? Exactly, I don't know. About 20 years ago, I started traveling again. I was invited to seminars, and I also started teaching the topic of breath-based mindfulness, resilience and stress management in companies. And you mentioned the topic of sensitivity. Originally, the plan of my father, when his football career failed, was not that I should take over his company. And I would have liked to make it possible for him, but I always noticed that I was looking for something that did not feel like work, but what I really am. I was looking for my calling. And at the age of 27, 28, when I taught for the first time in a company, I had the feeling, to be honest, I had the feeling at the time, I was born for this, to do this at this moment. And that was a great feeling. And because it was just right for me, it was also right for the participants, and then there were a lot of invitations, and then in the next 20 years, I was actually traveling in almost 60 countries in the world. Exactly, so there are also many famous companies in which you have already taught and worked as a coach. So what stuck with me when I looked, it's Google, it's eBay, it's Siemens, Harvard, Business School, the apps here in Germany, Telekom, so many, many, many. Oops! So beautiful. I think you have found your way, and you have found your calling. And I also wish for you that you of course find your calling. And it's never too late to find it, by the way. So no matter what age you are, but if you are, for example, still very young, I think there are fewer of you on this channel, but there are also young people listening, then feel at home. There is something like an intuition that each of us has. And I always say, whoever searches, finds. A little courage is also part of the change, and energy is part of it. And now we actually come to our topic at all, namely the topic of breathing. Breathing is actually the easiest way for us humans to refuel. It is available at any time, in any place, in any situation. You have to think about that too. So here, for example, when I'm excited or would be, then I could concentrate on my breathing for a moment and a lot would happen. So you can also use it in everyday life. And I think that's super fascinating. And I think, however, that we take in too little of the breath. Because it is so that our life really starts with the first breath and ends with the last one. And I just wanted to know how often we actually breathe in a normal maybe 80-year-old life. And it's 850 million times after all. And on the day alone we breathe in and out between 20 and 25 thousand times. And we don't even feel it. We do it with ease. But many of us have also forgotten how to breathe. And that's why using breathing as therapy for healing and refueling with more energy. That's what we can do. And above all, it's free. Breathing? Does it cost anything? No, it doesn't cost anything at all. And that's why, dear Christoph, please tell us why for you breathing is such an important topic. There are many reasons. But you mentioned the topic of energy. And I think it's really exciting. We all unconsciously, but also consciously manage our energy. We have a coffee because we want to replenish our energy. We want to sleep. How long can we live without eating? A few days is enough for everyone. No, a bit more. Sometimes a few weeks. Sometimes months, or even several months. With water, it's different. Then it's just a few days. But with breathing, it's different. Food is a very important source of energy. But we can't manage not to eat for a few days. Sleep is very important. But each of us can't sleep for two or three days. Then it's unhealthy or difficult. How long can we live without breathing? Very short. Two minutes if someone practices. Then it's actually that we have six to ten minutes maximum if the brain is not supplied with oxygen. Then it's irreversibly damaged. That means you can't do well again. And accordingly, it's totally exciting when we meet each other in the morning. It's normal that we ask, did you sleep well? Did you eat well? When I listen to you, did you get up and go to work? Or did you ask yourself, how is your breathing today? It's a good question. It's actually a good question. You might get it wrong. The point is, as you said, it's so natural. We always have it with us. It's free, and yet we don't talk about it so often. We don't pay attention to it and we don't use the potential. The lung volume, simply because we move too little, we know it, because we don't breathe consciously, and going in there can help us to gain more energy. Interestingly, there is also a very direct connection between the breath and our mind. You will explain it to us in more detail now. Exactly, it's totally exciting. Let's think about it. When we are stressed, the mind is not present. Suppose we have a sleepless night. Our mind goes into the future, into the past. When we are very stressed, we worry about tomorrow, regret the past. If we say in the middle of the night, I have to sleep now, immediately, it's often not a good idea. The access to the mind through the willpower is very difficult. You have to remember that. To control the mind with the mind is difficult. But there is a way to control the mind. There are some things that are always in the now. We both speak now and think a thousand thoughts, but the body is always in the present moment. Even if the mind would fade away, for me or for you, dear listeners, the body is always there and so is the breath. The basic thesis of all relaxation techniques is that you say, I direct the attention, I direct the mind, which is like a pendulum, into the future, into the past, to something that is in the now. For example, the body and the breath. Then the mind slowly comes to rest, comes into the now. There is power, energy, but also clarity and access to intuition. Yes. That is so beautiful for me, because there are also the teachings of mindfulness. The main thing is that we try to be in the here and in the now. That is also a very big topic of this time, because we are so distracted by the crazy information that we can get everywhere and always. I have the feeling that we sometimes lose ourselves extremely. That is why the need for us to be there again and to feel ourselves is so incredibly big. That is why the topic of mindfulness has become so big in recent times. Maybe one of your approaches is the mindful breathing. That is one of your approaches, isn't it? Exactly, breath-based mindfulness. I think if you ask someone, you would like to relax, you would like to feel comfortable, you would like to feel happy. It is intuitive. We want that, of course. We want to feel happy. But if we are very active, if the rhythm of our mind is so fast, and if we are always in the tools, then it is sometimes extremely difficult to come down, to let go. At the seminars, especially with guides, I experience that the participants close their eyes, want to relax, but also do it with a lot of pressure. They want to feel how restless they are. The breath is the link between the outside, the dynamics, and the inner peace. With the breath, the autonomic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, is activated. And then the participants suddenly realize, I feel calm now, it works, it is playful and easy. That is why in our work we use the breath as a link There is also the topic of meditation. There are so many infinite forms of meditation. When I hear you speak, and of course I also have experience in this regard, but also for you as beginners who have not heard so much about it yet, the breath is possibly also an entry into meditation. Because meditation wants to achieve the same. And the great thing is that the breath meditation, when I combine these two terms, is something ancient. It is nothing new. But there is a lot of research about it now. And I think that is also the reason why guides are getting involved in meditation. Because often when there is a lot to do with spirituality, you tend to hold back and question the whole thing. But the research on the topic of breath-based meditation or vice versa, as you said, or mindfulness, there is quite a lot. Can you say something about the best results in this regard? I could talk about it for half an hour. Five minutes. I'd love to. There are actually 20,000 studies, of which 500 from Harvard University, of different nature, which prove how powerful mindfulness techniques can be. And many of them show how powerful the breath is when it comes to mindfulness. For me, meditation or mindfulness is a situation where I am in the now. And I accept what is happening as it is. There are many studies. And as you said, it is very important to look at it objectively and to convey it scientifically so that it can be accepted and spoken about. What fascinates me is the relationship between mindfulness and our ability to be creative, to be innovative, to experience the state of flow. This is something that is very important to me in my personal work, that the thoughts flow. And there are, for example, research results that show that when we perform breathing techniques and measure our brain waves, two things can happen at the same time. On the one hand, the alpha waves are high when we are fully awake, but also relaxed. The beta waves are high when we are dynamic, when we are in action, when we are in motion. And often we are either completely relaxed, but a bit restless, or so dynamic that we are almost turned over again. But the research has shown that breathing techniques allow us to be in a state of relaxed awareness. This is a state that can also be called a flow state. There are different ways of looking at it. A study by McKinsey with over 5,000 employees showed that in this flow state these employees are almost five times more productive, which is of course wonderful. Do you know what this reminds me of? Of children. Of children when they play, when they are focused. They are very, very attentive, but they also take a lot with them. And what I would like to say in this context is that I am convinced that we all have this creativity, that we all have an incredible treasure hidden in us, that a lot of everyday life has simply been poured into us, and that we can possibly awaken it again and that we come back to this state in which happy, satisfied children are present. And how great would it be if we could achieve this? And to be honest, it is quite easy to carry out breathing techniques. Easy learning. We learned it from you, just a very small excerpt of what you teach, but it is so great and so easy and you can do it too. And we will try it out, but not in this video, but in the next video Christoph, I would ask you to do a relatively short breathing session with us. But what I can still think of is the topic of breathing and sleep. There are a lot of people who have insomnia and they wake up at night when the cortisol production starts again. Because they get the sleep hormone and the cortisol inflammatory hormone or the alarm hormone and who wins now? Either you manage to sleep through it and you have more melatonin but often you just can't because you are so stressed in your daily life that too much cortisol is produced and then you wake up and you find yourself in this negative thought carousel. What I notice, of course it happens to me too, we are simply in such stressed times, that if I use a certain breathing technique and I will tell you what you can do so that I fall asleep like a baby or a happy little child which we still wish in our age because sleep is something valuable that we achieve it with a good breathing. Breathing is energizing, creative, it is relaxing and Christoph, what do you do when you wake up at night? What do you do when you wake up at night? Of course, I even had in this transformative phase a half year where I couldn't fall asleep sometimes only at 3 or 4 in the morning and I experienced a sleepless night for a long time. Today I sleep very well, thank God. You know, sleep is so complex, it has a lot to do with nutrition, a lot of life situations and I think it is important that we don't simplify it too much because the user can be disappointed but breathing plays a big role because to relax it is very important to activate the vagus nerve. And if we are always on full throttle the sympathicus is activated and the point is that we are relatively helpless. The great thing about the autonomous nervous system is that it does its job independently. Imagine that you have to manage your heart and digestion and if you don't think about it, nothing works. But if it comes out of the balancer it is incredibly difficult to influence it. For example activating the vagus nerve the biggest and longest nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system so that we can find peace and calm and balance. Exactly. And what I find very exciting is not only that you should do it when you wake up but regular training even in the morning when you regularly practice breathing techniques then the body learns to let go. Then the parasympathetic nervous system is activated again and again and we can practice letting go. We can train how we can also train tension. Letting go again and again. Is it like when we have learned how to ride a bike that we don't forget it and can let go again and again? On the one hand yes and on the other hand we often use the term presence muscle. And how it is with muscles it stays for a certain time but it is good to train regularly. But I would say when we have experienced deep relaxation then the system reminds us and we have the desire to get back there. And that leads to training again. Is there a possibility when I wake up at night and my thoughts are racing or your thoughts are racing a breathing technique that you can apply and with which you may fall asleep again until the next morning when the alarm clock rings and you should or want to get up? We can do an exercise together if you like Peter absolutely because it is the first training session for the muscles that we want to train. And as an experienced non-sleeper I would like to emphasize that the most important thing to fall asleep is that we accept that we are not sleeping right now. And that we say even if I don't sleep at all there is a reason why I wake up and I let it be. If we think about where we relax and when we relax the best in a situation where we are accepted for example when a child screams and is sad and it comes into our arms then we simply say it is ok. And you can say to yourself it is ok. I am ok as I am and the more you say it the more you realize it. And in this situation I call it the triple A first being aware of what is happening awareness then the second step acceptance of what is happening So first being aware In English it is awareness I don't notice that I am sleeping The second step acceptance of what is happening and then to go out of acceptance And often it is like I don't fall asleep and now it has to be changed and if the acceptance is missing then it is a reactive action and then nothing works because you have such a pressure and you don't get into the peace in which you want to come. And we don't want him to sleep anyway so everything is fine but you can normally in these breathing exercises I would say sit up straight but we are imitating a situation where we are lying and I would suggest you to put one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest It doesn't matter which hand plays no role exactly and then you could close your eyes that is a good situation when you fall asleep and when we close our eyes we get a little bit stronger from what is happening inside us and then observe your breathing how it flows maybe you notice that your stomach moves a little bit maybe your chest area and maybe it doesn't move that much that is totally ok and then breathe in deeply through your nose and breathe out and we consciously breathe through the nose that means the mouth is closed breathe in and out when we breathe through the nose many nerve channels are activated which lead through the nose into the brain breathe in and now breathe in and out and with the next breath in consciously breathe into the stomach and breathe out breathe in into the lower part of the lung stomach comes forward and breathe out and very important here without effort it is more like an intention without effort you breathe into the lower part of the stomach and breathe out in and out in and out and now breathe into the stomach and even further into the chest area that means the chest raises a little bit and when you breathe out first the stomach and then the chest like a wave breathe in the stomach then the chest and breathe out the stomach and the mouth moves further in its own rhythm and maybe you notice that you want to do this exercise very well that is not necessary without effort long deep breaths into the stomach then the chest and breathe out the stomach and the chest again then you can breathe normally again if you like you can put your hands on the thighs and observe the sensations in the body relax and deep breaths in and out let go and when you are ready you can slowly open your eyes again thank you very much dear Christoph it felt like a wave but I think you also call it the wave breathing yes it happens every time that I don't want to open my eyes again because I am in a peace and I love it and what can happen is that some of you are a little bit nodding away everything is fine that is why it is important to relax and with this breathing exercise only with this one breathing exercise that you can do during the day if there is an event that is not so good then you can go to another room and relax and refuel that was our topic and for those who want to try it at night when they usually don't fall asleep then maybe put your iphone or laptop and when you wake up just listen to Christoph's voice and I think you will fall asleep faster than the exercise is done so try it and as I said it is like a muscle that has to be trained and the more often we do it the safer we become the more we trust each other and I think the most beautiful part when I trust myself then I am ready to trust other people and how great is it when we trust each other more because it is a kind of loss of trust I think and how valuable it is to get it back Christoph I think that was a great ending with this exercise with you again Christoph has his own channel here it is shown again you do many wonderful things on your channel you explain a lot just find out what you need right now it only does good and it makes us humans more human again I think more good human thank you for your work in any case dear Christoph and we will make another video with him and he will lead us through a meditation and you can look forward to it and I thank you that you were with us that you stayed until the end I don't even know how long this video has become much longer than the others we could have talked much longer but I think we have already summarized a quintessence in this video for you thank you very much and just take your breath every now and then it is something natural but he is also wonderful and he can give us wonderful things and if you want to see more of my videos you can do it here thank you dear Christoph thank you Peter for the invitation thank you all for watching for staying with us it was a lot of fun thank you bye