342. Discovering Calm Through the Power of the Breath - Stefanie Broes

Kara Goodwin: [00:00:00] Welcome to the meditation conversation, the podcast to support your spiritual revolution.

 I'm your host, Kara Goodwin. And today I'm talking to Stephanie Bruce. She shares a lot about her struggles with sleep and anxiety and how this led to developing a kinesthetic device to help others access deeper being 

Kara Goodwin: through their breath. Stephanie is a CEO and co founder of Moonbird, a health tech startup active in the well being space. Moonbird is the world's first handheld breath pacer and is all about making breath work accessible to let people live healthier and happier lives.

It's used to decrease stress, manage anxiety, and combat insomnia.

When Stephanie discovered the effectiveness of breathing exercises to tackle her own insomnia, she submerged herself in the matter. before starting Moonbird, [00:01:00] there was no company translating the scientific insights into Attractive products for consumers, this is why Moonbird exists to make breath work accessible, cool, and convenient.

In this episode, Stephanie shares insights about why the breath is so important, which no matter how many times I hear, I need reminders. I could feel myself expanding my diaphragm as she was discussing what deep breathing does. So I know I got healthier just listening to her explain it.

 Check out Moonbird for yourself. You can use the link in the notes and code Kara Goodwin for 5 percent off your order. Moonbird is your personal breathing coach. It's an intelligent little companion that easily guides you through rejuvenation and centering breathing exercises. To relax you. Moonbird turns meditation from abstract to accessible, making calm breaths a seamless part of your daily routine.

It helps you [00:02:00] improve your sleep quality, have longer sleep duration, improve your daytime functioning and feel better rested upon waking.

So again, use the link in the show notes and the code Kara Goodwin, K A R A Goodwin for 5 percent off your order. And now enjoy this episode.

So welcome Stephanie. I'm so happy to have you here today.

Stefanie Broes: Thank you so much for the invitation. I'm really glad to be here. This is super exciting. 

Kara Goodwin: yes. And you're joining from Brussels.

Stefanie Broes: Antwerp, Belgium. Yes,

Kara Goodwin: Oh, okay. All right. And which is pretty close. it's a small country, but 

Stefanie Broes: it's the spot. 

Kara Goodwin: don't know that I've been to Antwerp.

Stefanie Broes: Have you been to Brussels?

Kara Goodwin: I've been to, I had a stint in my twenties where I worked in Brussels. I was located in the UK, but I traveled there, for several weeks to Brussels. And, we call, and Mont Saint Gibert. 

Stefanie Broes: And? 

Kara Goodwin: Do you [00:03:00] know 

Stefanie Broes: No? No. 

Kara Goodwin: Saint Gubert. 

Stefanie Broes: Mons is like a place not too far, it's an hour from Brussels. Mons, yeah. And there are like small little villages in the Ardennes that I don't all know, unfortunately.

Kara Goodwin: Okay. Okay. And then I've been to Bruges, which is gorgeous. So beautiful. I haven't been to

Antwerp. 

Stefanie Broes: it's really nice as well. It has a Scandinavian touch to it, so definitely worth a visit.

Kara Goodwin: Ah, oh, wonderful. Good. let's talk about your journey and what led up to you creating Moonbird.

Stefanie Broes: Yeah, I'd love to. so Moomart is a health tech company. We're based in Belgium and it's founded around four years ago. we started the company, I started it together with my brother, who's my co founder. and, We started together basically to solve a problem that I had. so I used to suffer from insomnia pretty badly.

and I tried [00:04:00] different, techniques for that. And one of them was meditation techniques first that I already was practicing for a number of years. And then eventually I ended up with breath work. I have a scientific background as well. So I dove into the research behind this and I found basically.

This beautiful body of research, that was out there showing the improvements and the impacts that people have when practicing breathing, deep breathing exercise or slow breathing exercises and how it relaxes the body and the mind. And so I started to experiment with that, to deal with my sleeping problems only to find out that when you are really, really, really stressed or anxious, it's super difficult to stay focused on these.

techniques and then I tried different apps, I tried different tools and products out there, but I found it really difficult to keep my focus. And I didn't want to use an app when I was in my bed lying awake. So then eventually I was like, how can I guide myself in a better way to [00:05:00] stay focused and to keep my focus on these deep reading exercises?

And then I came up with the idea of why don't we develop a product, a physical tool that guides you in an intuitive way. it's a device that you hold in your hand and that breathes for you, you can say. So the device expands and contracts, giving you a pace that you need to match with your breathing.

And so that was like the genesis and the concept of Moonbird that was born actually while I was laying, lying awake in my bed.

Kara Goodwin: Oh, I love it. And Moonbird is it feels like you're holding something that's 

Stefanie Broes: Mm hmm. 

Kara Goodwin: Like, I

think that's the, What I love about it so much is that because you, the way that you, you say like it breathes for you, it's like this companion almost, I think

you have one there. Yeah. if you're, if you're watching on video, you can see that Stephanie's holding one up. So explain a little bit

about the concept.

Stefanie Broes: So it's a device. [00:06:00] the, shape is based on the shape of an avocado, which we found was very organically in your hands. So the night that I had the idea, my brother came over for dinner and I explained the idea to him. And, we literally had a fruit basket in front of us and we were like, Hmm, what shape should this ideal.

What would be an ideal shape? And so we tried like a pear, an avocado, a lemon, and then eventually we took like the avocado shape. So for the people who don't have the video in front of you, it is, an avocado shaped device that fits in the palm of your hand and it, has a sensor incorporated as well.

And when you shake the device and put your thumb on the sensor, it has these like wings inside the device and they start to expand and contract in the palm of your hand, giving you that pace that you need to mimic. And so when the Moonbird expands, you breathe in, you expand. And when the Moonbird contracts, you breathe out, you contract.

And this at a pace of which it's scientifically proven that it helps [00:07:00] you to. Calm down and calm the nervous system down, basically.

Kara Goodwin: It's beautiful. Now you mentioned about the body of, work that you came across that talked about how the breath is so powerful. Can you talk a little bit about why the breath is so important physiologically?

Stefanie Broes: So it's pretty cool. Actually. We all breathe our whole lives long and usually do. We don't think too much about it. So it happens autonomically, but the cool thing about breathing is that we can also steer it voluntarily, so we can upregulate it or downregulate it. And this triggers immediate physiological, but also emotional effects in our body.

And I'm not sure, some people might be aware of the Wim Hof breathing types where you up regulate your breathing and this triggers the stress reaction of the body, which is okay if you do it like for short moments, but you can also down regulate the breathing. and that, activates the relaxation, the natural relaxation response of the body.

So the parasympathetic [00:08:00] nervous system is activated while you do that. And that's really what we, yeah, what we use or what we work with, when you use Moonbird.

Kara Goodwin: And it's helping people because you talk about it with insomnia. So what were the effects when you started using this type of breathing? what changed with your insomnia? and also a little bit about like how long had you been dealing with it? And.

Stefanie Broes: So I had it for a couple of months. it came really, so I was doing my PhD at that time and I was very stressed by the end of it, when everything had to come together and I had to do the big presentation and so on. And then I started to develop it and it took me, it was there for a couple of months and I think it never left afterwards anymore.

I still, when I'm stressed and that still happens, I still have difficulties falling asleep and easily I can lie awake for two hours. and so I use my Moonbird really when I feel that I'm stressed and I'm lying awake and then, For mine is set at 10 minutes, but you can like easy [00:09:00] customize the breathing rate, but also the duration of an exercise.

Mine is set at 10 minutes and I give it a little shake. I breathe with it and that just calms my nervous system net. And most of the time I fall asleep within that 10 minutes. And that's also, What we see in the scientific research that we did. So we did a first user study with 40 people suffering from insomnia, where we gave them the device for one month and we saw significant improvements.

Like 80 percent of the group slept 40, almost 40 percent better on average. That's at least what they scored, in, in, in questionnaires. and we saw other parameters improve as well. and so I would always recommend if you have sleeping problems, Practice during the day as well, because it's during the day that you have the buildup of the stress.

But also do a longer session before you go to bed, or when you're in your bed and you're wanting to fall asleep. Or for people who have troubles waking up at night and then having difficulties falling asleep, it's also very good to use Moombrit then as well.

Kara Goodwin: Is there a difference? Because you can also use it for [00:10:00] meditation, 

Yes. Yes. Yeah. be any

sort of difference between if you're wanting to use it to fall asleep versus for meditation?

Stefanie Broes: yeah. So I'm talking about the, sleeping case because that's the reason why I use the product, but obviously you can use it for many other, yeah, for many other things. for instance, meditation purposes, people who just want a bit more focus and wanted to bake, make it a bit more easier to keep their focus and Moomert is like a.

Physical guide that helps you through that. and, as I said, like you can select different exercises in the app. We have a couple of presets in there. but you can easily customize it. And I think if you want to do just a normal breathing exercise, you can do like a five seconds in five seconds out, which is like.

And six breaths per minute. And that's typically what's used in scientific research as well. So that's like the most used exercise. And we also see that most of our users just keep that basic default preset. but for sleep, for instance, you can play with a longer exhalation because that triggers a [00:11:00] parasympathetic nervous system even more.

So it's a little bit up to the person using the device that I would say Try a number of the different breathing exercises and see what feels comfortable for you. do you want a bit of higher breathing rate, a lower breathing rate or a slower breathing rate, or do you want to fully customize your own breathing, rate that works as well?

so that's for meditation, but same goes for anxiety.we have people also suffering from HDHD or people dealing with autism that uses to lower their stress symptoms. Moomert is not a medical device, however, so there is research that, shows that breathwork is also very beneficial for blood pressure, for instance, but obviously we're not certified, for that.

So it's a consumer product. Yeah.

Kara Goodwin: Wonderful. 

 so I understand that Moonbird also helps a person to utilize their breath more fully. So why is that important?

Stefanie Broes: Well, as I said, we all breathe and we tend to forget that. And just [00:12:00] bringing more awareness and attention around the fact that we're breathing and that we can start using this as a tool can be like very efficient into already, yeah, creating more that awareness around the fact and then doing something with that, right?

So becoming aware of the fact that maybe your breathing is too high in your chest, becoming aware of that will make you already shift to more of a lower breathing that's maybe more in your abdomen or in your engaging your diaphragm. So I think that Just being more mindful of that will make sure that you shift to a more efficient breathing pattern.

And that is not to say that every minute of the day, you need to take like very deep, slow breaths. that's not what I always want you to do, but it's like being more mindful of that throughout the day. And then sometimes shifting your breathing rate as well a bit, and that will lead to positive effects. 

Kara Goodwin: can you explain a little bit about why that lower breath is so important? Because there may be people who just, want to utilize it, but [00:13:00] they don't understand to take the breath low into the 

Stefanie Broes: Yeah, absolutely. So we have a diaphragm in our body, which is the muscle we all know, because it's the one that, has spasms once we have the hiccups. and, so that's like a, an umbrella shaped muscle, separating our lungs from our lower, from our abdomen. And it's the most important, breathing muscle you could say.

But when we breathe. As a consequence of stress, when we breathe high up in our chest, we don't maximally engage that muscle. And so when people say, Oh, belly breathing is really good for you. That's basically because you'll then engage the diaphragm into the whole breathing exercise. And so what it does is it's a, an umbrella shaped muscle that when you inhale it.

It expands and it actually pulls the air into the deeper parts of the lungs there where the alveoli are. So where the gas exchange happens. And then when you breathe out, the umbrella like closes and it pushes the air out of the lungs again. So engaging [00:14:00] your diaphragm really makes that the air comes in the lower parts of the lungs.

There where the gas exchange happens and it makes a whole breathing experience much more impactful because you'll have more gas exchange and for the people who want to practice that so you can easily just close your eyes and imagine that there's a balloon inside your belly and every time that you inhale the balloon inflates and every time that you exhale the balloon deflates and that's how you practice that you are yeah belly breathing or engaging your diaphragm in this exercise.

Kara Goodwin: Hmm. Well, one thing that keeps coming up when you're speaking is about the mindfulness of become becoming aware of the breath, because like you say, We breathe all day long our whole lives, but how often are we even noticing that we're doing it? So we're not usually bringing, Such the breath so low for [00:15:00] example and really engaging the full torso Tell me about how what role mindfulness has played in your health journey

Stefanie Broes: I think it's just super important and it's probably the key to unlocking, it may sound cheesy, but like a healthier and happier life, as looking through the world and your life through a mindful lens makes you so much more aware of everything that's happening around you. And you can, it makes you more appreciative of everything.

And it allows you to make like small little changes that causes like massive, that have massive impact. And without that, we just, we're in this constant rush of chasing these big things in our lives that once we reach them. We're already on to the next. And so that keeps us like in some kind of rat race, that's just [00:16:00] not really healthy and that never ends and that never will make us happy.

But if you're, if you just succeed in realizing every day that you have two legs that carry you around, there is a sun that shines like warm light on you. You are breathing. And by just changing your breathing rate, you might feel more relaxed and just is very small little things. That is essentially what mindfulness has learned me to do and has made like big changes in my life rather than the big things that were always changed, always chasing, or at least that's how it was for me.

I don't want to generalize it, but that's how I try to adopt it.

Kara Goodwin: Hmm. Well, and it's really saying something with you as the CEO and the co founder of Moonbird and I can imagine, as a startup, how much work has gone into that and I'm sure a lot of stress and activity. so as you've been on this journey, how has, [00:17:00] how easy has it been to make self care a priority?

Stefanie Broes: That's a good question. And a trick question. I have to admit there that I'm probably not the poster child. I'm not the person that wakes up at 5am to start for an hour, to start with an hour meditation each day. But I do try to, I practice what I preach. That's for sure. I do my meditation sessions once in a while.

I, I am a person also that needs external motivation. That's for sure. I'm very bad at like having consistent practices, whether that's with running, which I really like, or my meditation practices, it's very difficult for me to do a 10 minute jog, a 10 kilometer jog every day or a 10 or an hour meditation session every day.

So I try to subscribe myself, for instance, for courses. So I took three mindfulness based stress reduction courses. I take online courses to sustain my practice and to make sure that I have an external motivation to do these kinds of things. And then obviously, I guess it's also the reason why we developed Moomert in the first place.[00:18:00] 

Because that's an external motivator is there on my nightstand and on my desk. So whenever I see it, I do my exercises. So that's like really external motivation for me. that's there. And then, yeah, during the course of Moomer, it has been tricky. Sometimes there is just like a lot of things that you need to juggle with.

There are like investors, there is like pressure, there is pressure for myself. There is like an endless motivation and ambition to make sure that this succeeds, that we can help as many people as possible, that we can reach as many people as possible with our mission. and that sometimes ensures that it's, that it never stops because sometimes I'm working late in the evening and then I think Oh, if I just sent this last email and maybe this influencer will really work with me and that might change everything.

Then I like, then I just do not stop working because I always feel like maybe this next thing is the thing that will make the big change. So I do have to be mindful about that as well. And then sometimes just help myself and say, okay, no, [00:19:00] enough is enough. you have to stop, you have to take care of yourself and things like that, and then building in pauses and make sure that you take your weekends, that you go on holidays, that you take vacations and things like that.

Just. Actually, the very basic things, but make sure that you do them. Like sleep well, eat well, move a lot, take pauses, things like that.

Kara Goodwin: Beautiful. I love that. So how, is there anything as we wrap up here that you want to leave with the listener for them to take into consideration in their own life and how to take better care of themselves or, any little things that are important in your life right now that are worth sharing?

Stefanie Broes: I think I shared like most of my basic tips around mindfulness, which is like the general layer I think everybody should add to their life. That's the most important one. And, yeah, What we want [00:20:00] to make sure is that everybody has to find out for themselves what they can use to make them more relaxed and calm down because I think we all know how to put more tasks on our plate, but we also need to balance that with the brake pedal and to calm ourselves down and everybody can like.

Jog or read a book or do whatever. But we really want to make sure perhaps you can try breathing exercises as well, because it's such an easy tool and you have your breath always with you, but you might not always have your running shoes with you. So why not experiment with breathing exercises as well?

And maybe from now onwards, you can always do that. And it's safe for everyone. You can do that with your children, with your parents, with a colleague that's having an anxiety attack or whatever. And if you have any difficulties in doing that on your own, there are tools out there to help you. Like for instance, the Berg.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. And that is a great point as well. you mentioned there are already settings in there and there's an app as well. So are there different [00:21:00] ways

breathing exercises that are preset in 

Stefanie Broes: yes. So we have a couple presets in there, and there's one for sleep, for anxiety, for, there's the box breeding, there's like a balanced breeding, five in, five out. And then there's a, an functionality where you can customize the breeding rate as well. We also have a check in that allows you to use the Moonbird.

And so while you're using the device, we measure your heart rate through your heart rate sensor. So there's a sensor incorporated in the device as well. And if you combine it with the app, which is completely optional by the way, but if you combine it with the app.you can see your heart rate displayed in the app as well.

So you get biofeedback and you can actually see the impacts of the breathing exercises on your body and can you can see progress. And so when we do this intake, we see how your heart rate behaves while you're doing the breathing exercises and we let you breathe at different rhythms. And then we Find an optimal breathing rate for you, and then you can program that as well. So there are [00:22:00] lots of functionalities in the app, a lot of things to play around with, there's also a lot of content in the app, like articles, podcasts, episodes, videos, and so on, everything that you need to know to discover what breathing can do for you, that's in the app as well.

Kara Goodwin: Hmm. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Stephanie. This has just been packed with valuable insights about the breath. And thank you for everything that you're doing to help other people to get a handle on their anxiety and their sleep and improve their meditation practice. Thanks for being 

Stefanie Broes: Thank you so much for inviting me. Thanks.

[00:23:00]