The hospitality industry is fun, admittedly, but it can also be very rough on the body and mind. Thankfully, there’s been a new wave of wellness and health initiatives taking place in the drinks world, including several put forth and championed by Beyond the Bar, a year-round philanthropy, advocacy and wellness program by the non-profit Tales of the Cocktail Foundation. As Tales board member John Gakuru told me last year, “Beyond the Bar is all the things that are outside of physically making a drink and presenting it to a guest. It’s more about the things we need to feel complete and go to work every day well-balanced.”
To help foster that balance, Beyond the Bar hosts several events during the annual Tales of the Cocktail (TOTC) seminar in New Orleans, held this year from July 20 to 25. One program worth checking out is a breathing seminar led by Nana Sechere, a business advisory committee co-chair for Tales and a drinks professional for the last 20 years with Beam Suntory, Takamaka Rum and Monin.
How Beyond the Bar Became a Vital Resource for the Drinks Community
Developed at Tales of the Cocktail, the BTB platform is tackling wellness, substance abuse and mental health issuesSechere also runs a wellness coaching business, where he teaches breathwork, ice baths and thermal healing for people in the hospitality world. “I was in a high-stress mode coming out of Covid,” Sechere says. “A friend of mine, her dad turned out to be Wim Hof, who is the father of the ice bath and breathwork. I looked him up and saw all the benefits of what he was doing. So I decided to try it myself, and I started to see a change in how I managed my stress and the energy I had. I thought, ‘We need this for our industry.’”
While the three breathing workshops he’s hosting at Tales won’t include ice baths (“the hotel was a bit wary about having us do those”), they will be useful and quick guides to improving your breathwork and stress management on your own time. “My whole intention is to teach people things and help them unlock this knowledge so that, if they are in the service industry, if they’re bartending in the bar and it’s like six deep and they’re just getting smashed, they can regulate their nervous system and come out of the stress by just using their breath,” Sechere says.
But it’s also information the non-drinks world can use as well, as you’ll see below.
Anybody Can Use These Breathing Techniques
While Sechere is working with the service industry, these techniques are for everyone. “If I’m feeling stressed about anything, I just take note of how I’m breathing and then I’m able to get back to a good state,” he says.
There’s a Simple Breathing Technique You Can Use Right Now
“Breath is basically the remote control for your nervous system,” Sechere says. “So if you’re ever feeling stressed, take a pause. Take note of how you’re breathing, and chances are you’re going to be breathing very quickly and very shallow. All you have to do to get out of that state is to breathe slower and breathe deeper. And you don’t have to sit there and look like a monk while you’re doing it. You can just literally stand there and just change everything.”
You Can Combine Ice Baths With Breathwork
“Breathwork is used to prime the ice bath,” Sechere says. You learn the breathing techniques to deal with stress and then use the ice bath to intentionally put yourself under stress. “It’s a measuring stick,” he adds. “In the ice bath, you’ll learn the different signals your body sends when you’re under stress. Once you recognize those, you can overcome those signals. You can decide, ‘Am I actually in danger?’ No, you’re not. So all you have to do is calm down with your breath.”
Finally, a Good General Tip for Surviving TOTC
If you haven’t been to Tales before, it’s a weeklong bacchanalia that takes place in an extremely humid environment where free drinks are plentiful. “I think it’s important to get off the beaten path,” Sechere says. “There are a lot of spots in New Orleans that are quite normal and chill. Go sit in Jackson Park. Take a little time to go Uptown. Do a touristy activity. You don’t have to fully immerse yourself in Tales. New Orleans is too good of a city. Also, drink lots of water.”
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