Hurdle 358. Everything You Need Is Within You: How To Use Your Breath To Improve Performance & Manage Stress With Kristina Centenari
Fun fact: We breathe approximately 22,000 times per day, and most individuals are only aware of a handful of those breaths. Today, Kristina Centenari — a Tonal and Nike Running coach, as well as breath work facilitator — and I talk about what happens when you take advantage of one of your most important tools, and how becoming more aware of your breath can help you cope with daily stressors and navigate challenge — as well as improve performance.
This episode’s so special to me, not only because KC is a good friend, but also because we talk about another thing that’s so important and under appreciated when It comes to performance: Mindset. Kristina talks us through how we can use our breath to our advantage within sport and stressful situations, and also shares about her backstory as a competitive tennis player. She also gets vulnerable about dealing with disordered eating, and we have this great conversation about what it takes to become a master of your craft.
IN THIS EPISODE
(5:22) Kristina shares about her tennis career through college and how the sport shaped her into who she is today.
(5:48) Kristina talks about being an anxious teenager and the pressure she put on herself as a college athlete
(6:05) What is arrival fallacy?
(10:20) Kristina talks about where she thinks the root of her anxiety stemmed from and talks about the societal pressures on performing at the highest level
(17:10) Kristina talks about what she wishes she knew about breath work when she was younger
(17:32) What’s it mean to regulate your emotions and how does someone begin?
(20:36) Kristina shares when she was first exposed to mindfulness and breath work
(24:32) How breath work makes Kristina feel in real time
(25:00) Kristina shares her crazy goal for after knee surgery to run the New York City Marathon — and how she ultimately snagged a personal best
(29:05) Kristina helps to reframe the difficult components of injury and offers advice to pick yourself back up
(35:00) Where Kristina did her education on breath work
(36:16) We breathe 22,000 times per day, how to curate an optimal environment to breathe better
(39:25) What longer exhales versus inhales do for your nervous system
(45:38) Kristina details a resonance frequency breath and how to do it
(50:55) How to get over the hurdle of starting and combat beginner’s anxiety
(56:30) Why Kristina’s big on considering herself a constant student over an expert
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