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Intro Guy 0:00
Your journey has been an interesting one up to hear you\'ve questioned so much more than those around you. You\'ve even questioned yourself as to how you could have grown into these thoughts. Am I crazy? When did I begin to think differently? Why do people in general, you\'re so limited thought process Rest assured, you are not alone. The world is slowly waking up to what you already know inside yet can\'t quite verbalize. Welcome to the spiritual dough podcast, the show that answers the question you never even knew to ask, but knew the answers to questions about you this world the people in it? Most importantly, how do I proceed? Now moving forward? We don\'t even have all the answers, but we sure do love living in the question. Time for another hit of spiritual dub with your host, Brandon Handley. Let\'s get right into today\'s episode.

Brandon Handley 0:42
Hey there spiritual dope. I\'m on here today with Giten Tonkov who is the founder and director of biodynamic breathwork and trauma release Institute. He\'s a co founder and director of the integral body Institute in Poland and lead facilitator in BV T ri screenings, I came across Gaetan by by way of trying to learn more about breathwork and came across his book, which was feel to heal releasing trauma through body awareness. And I chased them all around the world, asking him to come on to the podcast, Keaton, thank you for being on here today.

So, you know, let\'s talk a little bit about, I think, just your work as it pertains to breathwork. And your work is multiple disciplines involved in it. And I believe you\'ve got what we call six pillars in your that illustrate the modalities, would you mind sharing that with the audience, and we dig a little bit into it from there.

Giten Tonkov 1:53
Absolutely. So biodynamic breathwork is a multi modal approach, it brings together the six elements. The first one is deep connected, breathing, conscious, connected breathing. And the way that we use the breath is to activate our sympathetic response, or D activate the sympathetic response that to bring into parasympathetic activation. So breath is used in many different ways in this modality. So when we\'re beginning to go into a deeper breath, we are activating the system, and then the charge that\'s stuck in the body has a chance to to complete the interrupted response. So this is the first element, the element of breath, the second element is movement, the movement is kind of ingrained into breath. So when we\'re fully deeply breathing, there is so much movement already happening in our body of this diaphragm moving, there\'s lungs expanding, contracting, there is all auxiliary muscles that assist in the breathing are involved. So we take that internal movement that\'s already happening in our physical body and express it through the outward movement, a lot of it is on the winding of the spine. So this way, we are actually engaging the fascia, the deep core tissues as well to release to support the release of tension that\'s at the core of the body that\'s related to past traumatic event. The next element is the element of touch. And touch is used as in a form of body work, as well as in the form of resourcing to assist in the session. So touch can support the release of tension. And touch can bring the person back into the deeper connection with themselves. So there\'s ways that we use touch in the, in the in person workshops when we do hands on assist, and there\'s also self touch that\'s involved in the online setting. So it\'s very important element is touch. So the next element is sound. So we have breath, movement, touch and sound, the sound is used in the form of our own voice, as well as external sound in the form of music that supports the session that supports and bringing up emotion as well as live instruments that actually impact the body through the sound healing the vibration of the sound when it enters the body. It\'s of course it impacts ourselves. But the most powerful musical instrument we have is our own voice. So the voice really is reports that layers of release and expression, as well as letting go, as well as the vibration of the sound is healing from the inside out. So if you have the elements of breath, movement type sound, this combination supports the emergence of the next element, which is emotional expression. When we begin to release the tension in our physical body, the emotional charge that lives in that physical tension begins to come up to the surface. So moving those stuck emotions that are related to past unresolved experiences to past traumas, this is the key to creating more freedom in the body, more relaxation in the body. So we are moving through all these different various elements, breath movement, sound, tai chi, emotional expression, to support the emergence of silence, the last element is the element of meditation. So when we are clearing ourselves from past trauma, from busy mind, we are completing interrupted impulses, which trauma is actually in its essence, interrupted impulses that are stuck in the physical body. So we are coming into a place of silence, which is naturally emergent. So this gives us an opportunity to look at ourselves objectively, to allow anything that needs to still complete, to compete in the physical body. So this kind of in a nutshell, the six elements of biodynamic breathwork

Brandon Handley 6:49
I love, I love this, because if you take a look at your history, you know, you started with, you know, kind of hands on doing massage therapy, you joined a couple of breathwork sessions if I recall correctly, you would attended an Osho event as a facilitator as a translator for somebody who was Russian there. And that was like one of your first taste to that and then you you figured out ways to incorporate that in other modalities and you put these all together for one complete and cohesive kind of packaging system. So I think that that\'s that\'s super interesting one of the things that I really need to go ahead get getting

Giten Tonkov 7:54
I was gonna say it\'s a 20

Brandon Handley 7:55
years. And this is this isn\'t something that you just came up with either as I believe, right around 20 years of active work on this is that correct system?

Giten Tonkov 8:22
Yes, it\'s around 20 years of working with these modalities and experimenting, seeing what works, what doesn\'t work, how they support each other.

Brandon Handley 8:32
And one of the things that I think that you found was really were was the idea and the concept. Maybe not you but you stumbled on it in one area, it\'s the seven bands of tension. Right? Could you talk to us a little bit about this seven bands of tension and how they might even aligned to the chakra system? Were was the idea and the concept? Maybe seven bands of 10 Right. Talk about this?

Giten Tonkov 9:03
Chakra. Yes. So the seven belts of tension is the whole western body oriented psychology is actually rooted in the concept of Reichian approach which German therapist will Unbreak who was student contemporary of Freud found that the the past traumatic event manglik mainly developmental trauma is distributed in the form of tension in the body in we\'re in seven bands of tension. And sure enough of these seven Bell bends of tension are more or less in exactly the same areas of the chakra system. But the way that we work in the seven belts of tension, it\'s actually the biodynamic breathwork is it is a body oriented therapy. So we took that as, as a foundation, the working with the, with the distribution of physical tension in the in the body, and how these bands hold that developmental trauma effects in our physical body. So their ocular belt of tension that is involves the eyes, the forehead, the top of the head. And then we move down into the oral belt of tension with you, which is a jaw and the mouth and the back of the head. And then moving down into cervical, which is our throat expression and creativity also blocking our expression through our throat is very common, then moving down into a thoracic belt, which includes the chest, the heart, the lungs, this, this kind of armoring that we build to protect our heart, from feeling pain, pretty much this is this, all of these belts are in essence have formed for us to feel protected from feeling emotional pain, pretty much. So this in essence, creates this physical armoring that she has right talked about a lot and this physical armoring blocks the flow of energy through our our physical body. So moving down through the through the body, under the thoracic belt of tension is diaphragmatic belt, which includes our diaphragm, our ribcage. And of course, the movement of the diaphragm is very important. The big range of movement of the diaphragm is important because it controls the flow of impulses from the sex to the heart. So as well as how intensely we feel, the more you want to block your feelings, the shallower you will breathe. So that diminishes the movement of the diaphragm and brings the tension around the ribcage, of course. And then moving down into the belly, we have abdominal belt of tension, which includes the abdomen, all the organs, it houses as well as the lower back. And of course, the base is our pelvis, our sex organs, our reproductive organs, and of course, our legs, which is all involved in the in this belt of tension. So the theory behind the Reich\'s formation of personality structures that the Sexual Energy wants to arise from the pelvis it wants to move up into the belly into the heart and the flow higher turned into expression. But we are conditioned to block these impulses. And because these impulses are blocked, for whatever reason, the physical tension is created. And then after some years, this physical tension is settled in the body in this form. So what we do with biodynamic breath work, we approach working with these belts of tension in very specific order to support the release of tension, the emotion that they this tension holds, as well as supporting the flow of natural impulses through the physical body. In this way we complete the interrupted impulses and heal from developmental trauma as well as any form of trauma. It could be a shock trauma, it could be acute traumas. So this approach works pretty much for a wide variety of

Brandon Handley 13:58
offers is great, you\'ve got all the you know what I think is really cool. First of all, I\'m thank you for walking through the the belts attention. It\'s, it aligns so closely to the chakra system, and you know, Eastern medicine and the way they look at the body, that I was pretty shocked to find that and your book. The other thing that I thought that was really neat in your book is that even the very beginning talks about what you\'re talking about, right? Is this this tension that gets trapped in our bodies, and how animals have a natural release system. And humans, I guess, we tend to do to whatever conditioning, we\'re kind of blocking and trapping this energy within us. Can you talk a little bit about that? And like what would be Have you found what a natural release system may be for humans if we go through all of this, biodynamic, you know, work and we get the tension releases? What is a natural release for us?

Giten Tonkov 15:17
Well, we are in like all mammals are programmed to release the tension in more or less the same way to release the shock to release the trauma and more or less the same way by completing the response that that naturally is released in the term into in time of the traumatic event. But we are as humans are the only ones that learn to interrupt that natural impulse and the impulse is to shake to tremor. So when we work with biodynamic breathwork, we actually support the practitioner, the participants to complete the interrupted response to tremor, a lot of the times the interrupted response comes in tremoring. And other times it comes in the movement in,

Brandon Handley 16:15
so we\'re talking, I lost you like, right around, I guess, you know, some of the tremoring and allowing that movement to complete to run through its motions. And that would be the natural thing. Whereas we typically we\'ve been trained to kind of interrupt that.

Giten Tonkov 16:31
So we we somehow, as humans interrupt that natural response for the body to complete the activation. And the key for our work is to support this natural response to complete the activation to come back. Because it\'s still there, no matter how long the activation has been interrupted in the body, our body looks for chances to complete it. And once our body is given that chance, it will take it. So pretty much what we provide in the session is the chance for our physical body to complete the activation, therefore, move in out of living as a traumatized individual.

Brandon Handley 17:24
So releasing all that stored trauma in the body, right, letting that energy dissipate, right, you\'re allowing for for, it\'s kind of like coming back, and just, you know, turning the machine back on to allow for it to turn the faucet back on or whatever, it just allows for that energy to flow out. Yeah,

Giten Tonkov 17:43
pretty much, pretty much yes, it\'s the the response. Like I said, no matter how long it\'s been stuck in the body, it\'s, it\'s still there. And it\'s settled in the form of change, which is pretty much Brahma is interrupted response. If the response is that the moment of the traumatic event, there is no trauma, we move through it. But the fight or flight is, is that\'s been interrupted, that turns into freeze, which is still has fight or flight running under the freeze. So this is the way to work with with this modality like any other trauma oriented modality.

Brandon Handley 18:34
I love it. And then one of the things that you talk about is resourcing in the book and you brought it up today. Let\'s know a little bit more about that. I think I got a little bit confused, especially like if we\'re trying to self resource in a breath working space, can you bring it talk us through what resourcing is and what that would look like in a full in person session as well as a you know, at home session.

Giten Tonkov 19:02
So, resource is pretty much based on the concept that we use Pendulo ation within the session ventilation meaning that we move between activation, we create the support the activation in the body, that kind of so we have something to work with. And then after sustaining this activation for a certain amount of time, as long as the person is able to be with this activation without feeling overwhelmed. After a while we move the attention back to the place in the body which feels safe and connected which is called internal resource which For this we use the concept of felt sense. So we sense our physicality without attaching much meaning to it. We just look for physical sensations that feel comfortable this as a resource, so we have internal resource which can be located within the physical body. And we have external resource, which is something from outside of ourselves that can be also translated into how it affects us physically. So, in the use of this, of the resources gives an opportunity to feel safe within the session. So we\'re not going into a place where we feel overcharged or overstimulated, so we can go through the process of releasing without feeling overwhelmed. This is the reason for using a resource. And it\'s very, it\'s a very effective way to release trauma because usually, trauma means that we are disconnecting from our physical sensations, it\'s too much to experience, a lot of the times they\'re painful. So we disconnect from physicality. So now we\'re providing an opportunity to come back into feeling our physical bodies in safety. So resource provides that. Could you

Brandon Handley 21:21
give me an example of like, what some people might use as an outside resource?

Giten Tonkov 21:26
Nature is a fantastic external resource, going into a tree being with the tree, touching a tree, getting your feet, in the sand or on the ground, feeling how that actually feels for you. A memory from the past where you can remember yourself, feeling very good physically. Pat\'s friends saw their people are amazing, external resources. So anything from the outside that makes you feel safe and connected to your physical body in a positive way? No, thank you.

Brandon Handley 22:11
I appreciate that. Because again, you know, like you\'re saying, if we\'re going through this trauma, we want to stay connected. I think that you\'ve also mentioned it in the book and some several videos. We don\'t want to go into a state of catharsis where we disconnect, right? Because then we\'re not working through that trauma and releasing it. And since it is such a deep is sensation, does processes seeing the trauma, when we connect and have a place of safety to go to that would be what you consider a resourcing. Right, that would be the thing that we can use to help us through that situation. Okay, thank you. Thank you. That\'s perfect. So there\'s a couple more pieces I want to get get to here for you. One of the things is, you know, this is a modality that what you what you brought, is something to heal through trauma, and there\'s trauma and a lot of different ways throughout the world. And one of the things that\'s happening right now is the War of the Ukraine. And we did not mention the beginning here. I believe that your your Ukrainian descent, and you\'ve recently just come back from there where you\'ve been raising awareness, as well as teaching others in Ukraine, how to leverage this to work through their traumas. Would you like to share a little bit about that?

Giten Tonkov 23:30
Yes. Thank you for asking Brandon. Yes, I\'m originally from Ukraine. I left Ukraine as a refugee. In fact, when I was 18 years old, and with my parents, we were leaving from my ethnic persecution in Ukraine, and back then it was Soviet Union. And as well as political persecution. So when this conflict started when Ukraine was attacked, completely unprovoked by by Russia, we, I was in Poland and we had already running training for biodynamic breath work and trauma release training, so we to couple of Ukrainian students on scholarship to, for them to bring this work more into the into the field. And once the training is was finished, this was already we were going on to about three weeks of conflicts at that point. And we set up in Warsaw in Poland, a hub for Ukrainian refugees to come and receive the trauma release technique. So we created a very special approach which is geared for acute trauma. which is mostly the trauma that people are experiencing now with this situation. So this, this project is still ongoing, the hub is operational in Warsaw. And now we are in contact with the US State Department, an organism in organization that is subdivision for US State Department, that is actually bringing the work going to bring the work to a Ukrainian aid workers. So we are sending a team going to be sending a team in Warsaw, again, as well as in western Ukraine. And we\'ve so this is a very much needed response. And this is where the modality gets to show up in in actual action, where it\'s needed most for people that are dealing with a very acute trauma. And as well as the aid workers, they\'re, they\'re exposed to, first of all, through vicarious traumatization through through the people that they\'re helping, as well as being on the territory of Ukraine. It\'s, it\'s a very traumatic situation for the entire country for the entire population. Right now, there\'s over 5 million refugees that left Ukraine, and many of them more than half of them are in Poland. So that\'s why we set up this hub in Poland, specifically more so. But now, with First of all, we have no idea how long this conflict is going to last. And there are still people are fleeing Ukraine, there are still people that are traumatized, and for sure, we want to, as much as possible avoid for the trauma to continue to build within the country. So it we no matter how you look at it, there will be long lasting consequences from this conflict. And so my organization, biodynamic breathwork, and trauma release Institute, we are fully committed, and we are also started the foundation. Based on this project, we\'re fully committed to support people who are on the front line, as well as the refugees as well as the people who\'ve been in active combat, to support them to do whatever is possible to release the effects of this horrible events from their physical body. So we don\'t have to pass it on to future generations. We know how it all ended up after World War Two, and many conflicts that followed. Throughout the world people hold this trauma did becomes generational, and we pass it on to our children and their children\'s children. This it doesn\'t go away, just simply with time it gets passed on.

Brandon Handley 28:07
Yeah, and so I think that it\'s great that you\'re able to get out there and provide a modality like this something that they can do, by themselves, both the refugees and the frontline workers that are out there, and something that, you know, they can do as a community, right. It\'s a visual, it\'s something that, you know, shows community and I think that in, given the circumstances, to be accepted into a community like that, and then the work through that, and probably to release that. And that\'s got to be a moment in their lives that that they end up being eternally grateful. So for for you to do that. I know you\'ve got a I think it\'s a GoFundMe set up, that I\'ll be able to share out as long as that\'s going. And I can share out some links about the ongoing work that you\'re doing. And I think that that\'s, it\'s tremendous that you\'ve been able to find something throughout these years. And as unfortunate as this event is now you\'re able to go home as it were to provide this incredible resource.

Giten Tonkov 29:14
Thank you. Thank you, Brendan. Yes, we have a GoFundMe account, one of the it\'s for for another week or so until next Friday, so it would be awesome to to receive some donations to support this project. And yes, this is this is real help in action. It\'s support to the people that really need it. And the it\'s great that I mentioned community. Community Building is part of what we\'re doing, bringing people together where they can share in a safe environment where they can share in the environment where they when they speak They are supported in that process. Storytelling is also used as we brought it in as part of one of the tools that are very creative trauma, healing storytelling, where people can tell their stories without feeling. Like they\'re being re traumatized by telling it. So this is a very specific way that we included in it as well. Wonderful.

Brandon Handley 30:31
And so, you know, let\'s say that I wanted to train in this, I think this modality speaks to me, I\'ve tried other modalities like Wim Hof, you know, getting the heileman supply, but I feel like there\'s more, you know, and as his work has been great, so is this, talk to me a little bit about, you know, what it would look like to train with you, and how would I go about doing that?

Giten Tonkov 30:53
Yes, we have a training running for many years, the training is divided in two parts, part of it is online, and part of it is in person. So it though, in person workshops are happening in Poland, US and Mexico. So pretty much, we\'re also adding in one in Australia, we had it going in Australia as well. So people pretty much it\'s accessible from anywhere in the world, whether it\'s in the in the Americas or in Europe. And so that\'s an in person part, and there is an online, five months training that just that is part of the practitioner training. Next enrollment, it begins in September. I mean, the enrollment is already happening now. But the next course begins in September. And the training is very flexible to people can go first in person and then continue online or start online and then continue in person. So altogether, it\'s around 400 hours of training. And it\'s certified training was certified by Australian breathwork Association as well as international breathwork Foundation. And the it\'s a registered us continuing education courses by licensing divisions of massage therapy and acupuncture. So this is a very serious training program, especially now when after COVID. So many people left their jobs and looking for a career change and something new in their lives. This is a fantastic way to stay connected to yourself to heal your own body and learn a very valuable modality to support others in their growth. Whether you are already a practitioner of any body oriented modalities or a psychology, this will definitely add to your training that\'s awesome.

Brandon Handley 33:19
Thanks for Thanks for sharing that. One of the use a couple pieces here to left in my mind. One is you\'ve got an exercise, I believe that can help to release like some of the myofascial tissues, right, like and some of the tension. What is that exercise? Would you mind sharing with the audience? Something they could do at home by themselves to try and relieve some of the tension in their body?

Giten Tonkov 33:43
Yeah, I absolutely the exercise I can, I can guide the audience for the next five minutes into the exercise and the exercise. It\'s called tans release, unwind. So there is a certain process happens in our physical body. If we consciously tense the tissues, hold it for 30 seconds, and then release that holding. So the energy that\'s been held in the body releases and it releases to the deeper tissues as well. So once the release is happening, we take that energy, this bio energy and move it through the body with this unwinding, undulating movement. So this exercise can be done at any time of day. It can be done at any areas in the body. You can start with the face, you can do it the holding your jaw, you can hold your shoulders and then release and then unwind. So the three major step is tensing, holding for 30 seconds, letting go of the holding, releasing, and the final step is to unwind to laugh that movement come up as an expression of the energy that the body is releasing. So let\'s take a moment you can sit or be standing and take a few deep, full breaths, one after the other. Bring your attention to where the breath is flowing in your physical body. Be aware of the felt sensations that are present in this area. And now let\'s start by bringing our attention to our shoulder. So I want to ask you to raise your shoulders up to your ears and tense that area and hold that tension. And let\'s hold it for about 30 seconds. And I\'m gonna time it for 30 seconds, and then I\'ll let you know when to release.

And hold it, hold it, hold it. And now let\'s begin to bring that holding to a peak. Let\'s hold it tighter. And you have about 10 More seconds left. And 54321 now releasing the tension, letting your shoulders flow down, releasing, relaxing, and let your body softly move, letting that movement come from the inside out. Especially bring in that movement into your spine. So moving your shoulders, moving your head and neck, let this movement come down your spine. Now bringing the breath back, breathing deeply in through the nose, out through the mouth. Deep full breath in through the nose out through the mouth, and let your body softly drop into this movement. There\'s still this energy that wants to move you if you simply let go of your control, the body will move on its own

Yeah, very good. The brain some movement into your neck and head into your lower face into your jaw. Yeah. And take another deep, full breath. Noticing how the when the breath comes in, it fills you up from the inside. It\'s kind of DISRE rubber ball that expands with the breath. And when you exhale, letting yourself go dropping letting the the gravity work and letting the movement arise. Your body naturally wants to release tension by movement. Yes. And then now the deep full breath. Being aware of your physicality of your whole body as a one unit as a whole. Being aware of your felt sensation, being aware of the place of comfort that we talked earlier about resource How do you experience this resource in your physical body and take a deep full breath and once again, shift your attention to just outside of yourself

and whenever you\'re ready, you can open your eyes even short few minutes of practice already make a difference

Brandon Handley 39:44
feel tingly? You know I feel great. Even just even with just short exercise and the reminder to the guidance is always great. The reminder to kind of find the resource is absolutely wonderful and Um, you know, just feeling that kind of release, right, letting that natural movement happen. So that\'s, that\'s, that\'s definitely feels wonderful. So I appreciate you sharing that with me walking me through it myself and, and doing it once like that. So listen, you know, I know we\'ve got a short period of time today\'s thank you for hopping on today. Hopefully, we recorded and we did everything we\'re supposed to do it it all works out Where Where should I send some people to connect with you

Giten Tonkov 40:31
biodynamic breath.com is our website it has ways to get in touch with our organization, there\'s contact form at the schedule of all the events. There\'s links to videos and many resources. It\'s biodynamic breath.com We\'d love to see you at our workshops. We have a weekly class free, free, biodynamic, breathwork session running every Sunday. And you can sign up on our website through it to receive the link and join us every Sunday for free for 490 minutes of breath exploration, myself and our teaching staff running these sessions as they\'re happening regularly on 10am pacific time on Sunday.

Brandon Handley 41:30
So that\'s very generous of you to offer that and host that thank you so much Keaton and appreciate you taking the time here today and excited to see how this work continues for you. Thank you.

Intro Guy 41:46
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of the spiritual dope podcast. Stay connected with us directly through spiritual dove.co. You can also join the discussion on Facebook, spiritual and Instagram at spiritual underscore Joe. If you would like to speak with us, send us an email there Brandon at spiritual dove.co And as always, thank you for cultivating your mindset and creating a better reality. This includes the most thought provoking part of your day. Don\'t forget to like and subscribe to stay fully up to date. Until next time, be kind to yourself and trust your intuition

Transcribed by https://otter.ai