Cancer Cured Me

What if one of the simplest ways to help your body feel calmer was simply to slow down your breathing?Welcome to Part 3 of my Summer of Beautiful Breath series. This week, we’re exploring coherent breathing, a beautifully simple breathing practice where we breathe in and out for the same length of time.We’ll practise breathing in for five counts and out for five counts, bringing the breath down to around six breaths per minute.In this short guided practice, I explain why slowing the breath can support the relationship between our breathing, heart and nervous system and why coherent breathing is often used to help with stress, anxiety, heart rate variability (HRV) and resilience.I’ll also guide you through a couple of minutes of coherent breathing so you can experience it for yourself.In this episode:• What coherent breathing actually is • Why we’re aiming for around six breaths per minute • The connection between breathing and heart rate variability (HRV) • Why HRV can be a useful marker of resilience and our response to stress • How our everyday breathing can become faster without us even noticing • A simple guided 5-count inhale and 5-count exhale practice • How to adapt the count to four or six if five doesn’t feel comfortable • Why nasal and diaphragmatic breathing still matter • How to build this into a simple daily breathwork practiceYou don’t need a wearable, an app or any complicated breathwork technique. Just a few quiet minutes and your breath.Try practising this once a day over the next week and notice what changes. Not just in the numbers, if you track HRV, but in how you actually feel.And remember what we’ve been building throughout this series: notice your breath, bring it lower into the body, breathe through your nose where comfortable and gradually begin to slow it down.Small practices. Repeated often. That’s where the magic can happen.Coherent breathing, coherent breathing exercise, breathing for anxiety, breathing for stress, breathwork for nervous system regulation, HRV breathing, heart rate variability, six breaths per minute, slow breathing exercise, diaphragmatic breathing, nasal breathing, breathwork for resilience, calming breathing exercise, nervous system regulation, guided breathing practice

Welcome to the first episode of my Summer of Beautiful Breath series.Each week throughout the summer I’ll be sharing a short, practical breathing exercise that you can return to whenever you need a moment of calm.This week we’re starting with the foundations: noticing how you breathe.Are you breathing into your chest or your belly? Through your nose or your mouth? Without judgement, these simple observations can tell you a lot about what your nervous system is experiencing.In this gentle guided practice you’ll learn how functional breathing can help you feel calmer, safer and more regulated, one breath at a time.If you find this helpful, save the episode and come back to it whenever life feels overwhelming.In this episode:Why your breathing matters for your nervous systemChest breathing vs belly breathingNose breathing and why it mattersA simple daily practice you can use anywhereSmall changes that can help your body feel safe

Let us know you’re joining here! Welcome to the very first episode of my Summer of Beautiful Breath series.If you’ve ever thought, “Breathwork sounds lovely… but I never actually remember to do it when life gets stressful,” then this episode is for you.As a nervous system coach, I’ve seen time and again how just a few intentional breaths can completely change how we feel, think and respond. The challenge isn’t whether breathwork works. It’s remembering to use it in everyday life.In this episode, I share a simple exercise to help you discover whether you’re naturally breathing into your chest or your belly, why this matters for your nervous system, and how you can begin retraining your breathing with just a few minutes of practice each day.Throughout the summer I’ll be releasing a collection of short, practical breathing exercises and somatic tools designed to help you feel calmer, think more clearly, reduce stress and build a greater sense of safety within your body.Whether you’re living with anxiety, burnout, overwhelm, or simply want to feel more grounded, these episodes are designed to become a peaceful few minutes in your day.You’ll learn:• The difference between chest breathing and diaphragmatic breathing• How breath influences your nervous system• Why the vagus nerve plays such an important role in stress regulation• A breathing practice you can start today• How tiny daily habits can create lasting changeIf you’d like to work with me one-to-one, join one of my retreats, or find out more about my Personal Reset or VIP Morning, visit:🌿 https://lalaloves.comIf you enjoy this episode, I’d be so grateful if you’d follow the podcast, leave a review and share it with someone who might need a little more calm this summer.

This is an unexpectedly emotional, funny and somewhat oversharing episode where I end up crying! Today marks 25 years of marriage to my husband, Jason, so naturally I dragged him into the studio to tell the story of how we actually ended up together, warts and all, and I promise it's a goody! We had known each other for years. We were best friends. The timing was never right. And when something finally did happen, Jason promptly suggested we should probably forget the whole thing and stay friends.Thankfully, I had other ideas.This is a very unfiltered conversation about university days, terrible 90s fashion, an extremely awkward first date, a proposal that did not go remotely to plan and what 25 years of marriage really looks like.There is plenty of laughing, bickering and Jason taking the mickey out of my love of manifestation, Reiki, sound healing and anything involving energy or frequency.But somewhere along the way, the conversation becomes far more emotional than either of us expected.We talk about love through depression, miscarriage, cancer and some of the hardest years of our lives, as well as the extraordinary healing power of feeling genuinely safe with another person.It is funny, honest, slightly chaotic and very us.And yes, I cried.

In this episode of Cancer Cured Me, I’m talking about love, but not in the smoochy, romantic sense. This is about the kind of love you feel in your whole body, the collective, all-consuming, joy-filled energy that reminds you what it feels like to be fully alive.After attending Harry Styles’ record-breaking 12-night run at Wembley Stadium, I wanted to share what I experienced inside that stadium, because it was so much more than a concert. It was live music, nervous system regulation, sound healing, freedom, identity, inclusion, joy, connection and pure magic, all wrapped into one unforgettable experience.I talk about the power of live music and why it can move us so deeply, from the vibration of sound in the body to the way singing, humming and music can support the nervous system. Whether it’s Harry Styles, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, a local band in the park or your favourite song in the car, music has the power to shift our state, lift us out of darkness and bring us back to ourselves.I also share the story behind my Harry Styles ticket giveaway, the beautiful messages I received from strangers, the winner’s magical birthday experience with her mum and the reminder that joy is contagious, love is healing and kindness can ripple much further than we realise.This episode is about permission. Permission to have fun, to be childlike, to dance with strangers, to sing at the top of your voice, to follow what lights you up and to create more moments of love in your everyday life.In this episode, I talk about:Harry Styles at Wembley and the magic of live musicThe healing power of collective joy and shared experiencesWhy music, singing and humming can support nervous system regulationSound, frequency, vibration and why music can feel so powerful in the bodyThe emotional power of concerts, connection and communityThe Harry Styles ticket giveaway and the beautiful stories it brought into my lifeWhy fun, freedom and childlike joy matter so much for our wellbeingHow to create more feelings of love, joy and aliveness in everyday lifeI also give a little preview of next week’s very special episode with my husband Jason Simms, as we celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and share the story of how we got together.GET IN TOUCH! If this episode moves something in you, or if you want to connect with me about healing, retreats, nervous system work, manifestation, cancer recovery, live events or creating more joy in your life, I would love to hear from you.You can email me at alex@balancedbodyandretreats.com

In this mini episode, I’m exploring fear, not the obvious kind, but the quiet, everyday fear that keeps us small.I share what I learnt from watching my husband Jase perform stand-up at The Comedy Store, and a powerful moment I witnessed at HX26 when a woman who had always dreamed of singing found the courage to sing in front of a huge audience.This episode is about intuition, nervous system safety, limiting beliefs, courage, purpose and what happens when we stop waiting to feel fearless and choose to feel everything and rise.If this lands with you, I’d love you to get in touch and tell me what you fear and what you want to move through.

For the free PDF summary of my Healf HX26 highlights and practical applications you can use for yourself in the simplest of ways, CLICK HERE or dm me on Instagram @cancercuredmeIn this episode, I’m sharing my personal takeaways from HX26 by Healf - a huge wellness, health, biohacking and longevity event in London, where I was lucky enough to hear from some incredible speakers including Dr Andrew Huberman, Roxie Nafousi, Dave Asprey, Peter Crone and David Ghiyam.This isn’t a full conference roundup, because honestly, there was so much going on and only so many hours in the day, but this is my own personal summary of the speakers I saw, the messages that really landed for me, and how I think we can bring some of these ideas into real life without making wellness feel like yet another thing on the to-do list.I talk about Andrew Huberman’s reminder that science, prayer, intuition and miracles do not have to sit in separate boxes. I share what landed for me from Roxie Nafousi’s work on manifestation, self-worth, gratitude and becoming the version of yourself who can actually receive what you say you want. I also talk about Dave Asprey’s message around fear, forgiveness and where we are leaking our energy, Peter Crone’s incredible work around the thoughts and beliefs that quietly shape our lives, and David Ghiyam’s teachings around soul purpose, receiving and the patterns we are here to move through.The thread running through all of it, for me, was this:The body matters.The breath matters.The nervous system matters.Belief matters.Light matters.Forgiveness matters.Gratitude matters.Receiving matters.Intuition matters.And the state you are living from shapes the life you are able to create.As always, I bring it back to the nervous system, because before we try to manifest, optimise, biohack, forgive, receive or change our lives, we have to ask:Does my body feel safe enough for this?I’ve also put together a simple guide with my key HX26 takeaways and a reset practice you can use in your own life. If you’d like a copy, click the link in the show notes or message me on Instagram and I’ll send it over.In this episode, I talk about:My personal takeaways from Healf HX26 in LondonAndrew Huberman on neuroscience, prayer, intuition and miraclesRoxie Nafousi on manifestation, gratitude and becoming available to receiveDave Asprey on fear, forgiveness, energy and longevityPeter Crone on the beliefs and stories that keep us stuckDavid Ghiyam on Kabbalah, soul purpose, receiving and repeated patternsWhy nervous system safety is the foundation for real changeHow breathwork, gratitude, forgiveness and receiving can shift your stateWhy you cannot outsource your own inner knowingSimple practices to bring these big wellness ideas into everyday lifeIf this episode speaks to you and you’d like to go a little deeper, I’m now offering my Personal Reset Method alongside lymphatic drainage locally in Berkhamsted and Hertfordshire, as well as deeper VIP reset sessions and retreats.

In this solo episode of Cancer Cured Me, I’m talking about manifestation, comfort zones and what can happen when you finally decide to stop playing small.After setting an intention under the full moon, I was invited to give a paid wellbeing talk on nervous system regulation, breathwork and wellness - exactly nine years to the day since my cancer diagnosis.I’m also sharing the very funny story of my husband Jase doing a stand-up comedy course at The Comedy Store and somehow making me, my wellness business and all my breathwork ways the centre of his set.This episode is a reminder not to wait for a crisis, a cancer diagnosis or a huge life shake-up before you do the thing you’ve always wanted to do.Sign up for The Happy Monday newsletter HERE for more honest stories, wellness tools, manifestation moments and midlife encouragement:https://lalaloves.com/newsletter