TAKE A DEEP BREATH & SOAR TO YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

TAKE A DEEP BREATH & SOAR TO YOUR FULL POTENTIAL

The momentous importance of deep conscious breathing

 

 John Douillard, author of ‘Body Mind Sport’

“To experience the zone in training is our birthright, and it is within the design of our human nervous system to access it. To push ourselves to exhaustion when we have the capacity to allow effortless, perfect performance to flow naturally, from the inside out, seems somehow primitive and a waste of time. I have never heard of a peak experience that was described as painful, grueling or exhausting. Rather, the descriptions always fit the original definition of exercise: rejuvenating, stress-reliving and accessing full human potential.”

It will come as no surprise that many of us are either, over tiered, over stressed, over extended and/or overwhelmed within our lives.  This constant ‘state of being’ coincidently leaves our bodies in a regular stress state response: fight or flight.  Unfortunately, there is not a great deal we can do to counter the outside circumstance of our lives (as nice as it would be to leave our jobs and have the ability to go sit on a sunny beach for months on end…It is not very realistic…but worth trying to manifest ;D), so the work of countering our bodies fight or flights responses is up to our own selves to manage. On a very basic level, fuller deeper breathing is useful for producing calm and resisting our bodies physiological responses to stress. Deep conscious breathing stimulates the lower lungs to distribute greater amounts of oxygen throughout the body. The lower lungs are rich with the parasympathetic nerve receptors associated with calming the body and mind. Unconsciously, most of us do not take these deep breaths throughout our days and rely on short upper lung breathing (chest and mouth breathing…or if you are like me, you unconsciously hold your breath for short periods of time). To the body, these short breaths are sensed by the body as a mild form of hyperventilation and will trigger our sympathetic nerve receptors, which results in the fight our flight stress reaction.

To give greater emphasis to the enormous health benefits of deep breathing, in 1931 the Nobel Prize was given out for determining that only oxygen-starved cells will mutate and become…cancer! This is mind blowing considering, according to experts, most people only breath 10-20 percent of their full capacity. Plainly put, oxygen is our main source of life and exhalation is the main way our body regularly expel toxins. Not taking deeply focused breaths can contribute to a multitude of health problems and gravely decrease energy levels in the body.   

We all want long term health that subsequently fits in our daily lives. For centuries, yogis have put a great deal of focus on deeply focus conscious breathing. This is because, and modern science agrees, conscious deep breathing is a central function in improving, maintaining and repairing unconsciously run and harmful systems of the body. Imagine, if you will, a record being played on an old rusted record player. One scratch from the rusted record player will not affect the entire record, but if the record is continuously played on the same old rusted record player and is continually being scratched over a period of time, eventually the record will be so scratched up it will be impossible to listen to its melodies and eventually find its way to the garbage. Unconscious breathing will certainly occur throughout our lives but the danger is having that breathing system be our reliable source of breath and doing so over a long period of time; eventually leading to a multitude of health risks. 

Through the work of deep breathing our whole body will become healthy, deeply nourished, aligned and calm. In this state, the whole body can soar to its truest and fullest potential.

Deep Breathing: Exercise 1

1. Sit or lie flat in a comfortable position.

2. Put one hand on your belly just below your ribs and the other hand on your chest.

3. Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let your belly push your hand out. Your chest should not move.

4. Breathe out through pursed lips as if you were whistling. Feel the hand on your belly go in, and use it to push all the air out.

5. Do this breathing 3 to 10 times. Take your time with each breath.

6. Notice how you feel at the end of the exercise

Deep Breating: Exercise 2 (advanced)

To start, put one hand on your belly and the other on your chest as in the above exercise.

1. Take a deep, slow breath from your belly, and silently count to 4 as you breathe in.

2. Hold your breath, and silently count from 1 to 7.

3. Breathe out completely as you silently count from 1 to 8. Try to get all the air out of your lungs by the time you count to 8.

4. Repeat 3 to 7 times or until you feel calm.

5. Notice how you feel at the end of the exercise

Addition Benefits: 

·  The lungs actually extract oxygen from the air during exhalation, in addition to inhalation. Because the nostrils are smaller than the mouth, air exhaled through the nose creates a back flow of air (and oxygen) into the lungs. And because we exhale more slowly through the nose than we do though the mouth, the lungs have more time to extract oxygen from the air we’ve already taken in.

·  When there is proper oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange during respiration, the blood will maintain a balanced pH. If carbon dioxide is lost too quickly, as in mouth breathing, oxygen absorption is decreased, which can result in dizziness or even fainting.

·  Air that we inhale through the nose passes through the nasal mucosa, which stimulates the reflex nerves that control breathing. Mouth breathing bypasses the nasal mucosa and makes regular breathing difficult, which can lead to snoring, breath irregularities and sleep apnea.

·  Breathing through the nose forces us to slow down until proper breath is trained; therefore, proper nose breathing reduces hypertension and stress.  It also helps prevent us from overexerting ourselves during a workoout.

·  Our nostrils and sinuses filter and warm/cool air as it enters our bodies.

·  Our sinuses produce nitric oxide, which, when carried into the body through the breath, combats harmful bacteria and viruses in our bodies, regulates blood pressure and boosts the immune system.

·  Mouth breathing accelerates water loss, contributing to dehydration.

·  The nose houses olfactory bulbs, which are direct extensions of part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is responsible for many functions in our bodies, particularly those that are automatic, such as heartbeat, blood pressure, thirst, appetite and sleep cycles. The hypothalamus is also responsible for generating chemicals that influence memory and emotion.

·  The increased oxygen we get through nasal breath increase energy and vitality

Torus Health: What is the Torus?

Dear Torus Health & Yoga:

What is the Torus & how does it contribute to my Health & Healing?

Torus Health is a business community committed to health and healing, but perhaps not in a typical function. Our healing models and programs are built around new age philosophies and findings to aid each of us take conscious responsibility for our own healing, health and sensational present and future selves. 

One facet of these philosophies is through the use of a combination of physical, mental and emotional works aiding in energy alignment and the strengthening of the Torus energetic field. 

Full stop! 

What is that, that sounds fluffy and what does that have to do with yoga? 

I hear you. Much of what I will discuss in this blog may sound a bit “fluffy” but stay with me. I will do my best to explain, inspire and will leave you with a couple short mediations to try at home. 

Of course, the practice of yoga provides physical health benefits (trust me, the first time I was able to successfully put myself into an inversion gave me the best feeling of physical aptitude!) but the practice of yoga goes far beyond the physical. The word Yoga in Sanskrit means Union and is defined as “the cessation of the modification of the mind”. This “modification of the mind” is achieved through the physical postures along with the integration of disciplined breath control and simple focused meditation. Harnessing these three entities at once helps provide a greater connection to your whole self. Often the great surprise experienced when practicing yoga, is not that an increase in strength or endurance are the leading factors to the inevitable achievement of complex physical postures and flexibility but it is largely due to mentally aligning your body and mind to focus on the present moment and maintain cohesive and constant breath works. With these key elements at play, your mind ignites and takes your body to new heights.  As the mind and body improve, so does your emotional welfare and your inner energies start to align inducing the Torus the take shape and strengthen. Imagine the Torus as an invisible shield surrounding your entire body, fueled with nothing but fulfilling and heightened positive energies protecting you from the negative and depleting energies of this world.

Full stop! 

Even if this concept sounds fluffy to you, the allusion of an invisible bubble of joy surrounding and protecting your body must bring some element of pleasure. 

So read on… 

In a very basic scientific sense, through mediation, breath work and the motion of the yogic postures, you are moving the cerebral fluid in your central nervous system (your lower energy centers often referred to as your root, sacral, solar plexus chakras) up the spin to your brain. These actions give your over worked, over stressed, over tiered brain a rush of fresh fluid to nourish itself and calm.  Once this stored energy is dislodged by the acceleration of the cerebrospinal fluid up the spine, it will draw the stored energy from the first three centers back to the brain. Once there is a current flowing from the base of the spine all the way to the brain, the body becomes like a magnet and an invisible three dimensional electromagnetic energy field is created around the body; the Torus (torsion field). 

Try This Meditation Practice for Starters: 

1) Sitting cross-legged (or how is most comfortable) on the floor or chair. Make yourself comfortable! If you require pillows or other accessories to sit upright comfortably, do so. 

2) Take a moment to place your attention on the top of your head, as if to say, “this is where I want my energy to flow”

3) Take one slow steady breath through your nose and at the same time, squeezing and holding the muscles of the perineum (area between the anus and the scrotum or vulva) 

4) Imagine as you inhale through your nose that the air is breathing up your spine, through your chest, your throat, and your brain, all the way up to the top of your head. 

5) Hold the breath here for 5 seconds while squeezing your perineum and then exhale out your nose. 

Again…adding some more steps 

6) Take one slow steady breath through your nose and at the same time squeezing and holding the muscles of your perineum, then those of your lower abdomen and then those of your upper abdomen. 

7) Imagine as you inhale through your nose that the air is breathing up your spine, through your chest, your throat, and your brain, all the way up to the top of your head. 

8) Hold the breath here for 5 seconds while squeezing your perineum and then exhale out your nose. 

This breathing exercise is one of many that helps to activate blocked energy through the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and helps elevate this energy to the brain.  As Dr Joe Dispenza puts it, “It is as if the traveling energy from the lower centers is ejaculated in to the brain”. 

Much of our vital energy becomes stuck within the first three centers because they are, as many would refer to them as, the “feel good centers” or “survival centers”. However, the more energy we draw from these centers the more energy we pull from the invisible field of energy around our body (ding! Ding! Ding! Yes! The Torus). By initiating all of our energy centers (FYI: there are 8 energy centers…ideal we want to be using all 8 and not only the first 3) our entire bodies become engaged, aware and fully conscious. For some, however, the concept of living with elevated emotions such as, compassion, love and gratitude is a scary concept as we all have fallen victim at one point or another to leaning on our anger, resentments, jealousy, competitiveness, or as I personally resorted to at a point in my life; complete numbness.

All though the ignition of your energies is a great big step forward in the right direction, the next step for many can be the most difficult. That is what Torus Health is here for, to help you every step of the way as you commit yourself to reconditioning the body to a new mind; a state were you can allow yourself to live in a state of elevated emotions as your body is lifted to a new state of elevated consciousness. 

Just Imagine…

How would you live from this state of being? 

What behaviors would you potentially demonstrate from this state of being? 

How would it feel to be healed and to be free; to believe in yourself? 

Try this meditation twice a day: 

Morning: before getting out of bed

Evening: before falling asleep 

Place your left hand over your chest in your heart center. Out loud or in your head say: 

~ I Bless my future – that it never be my past 

~ I Bless my past – that it turns to wisdom

~ I Bless the adversity in my life – that it initiates me into greatness & that I see the hidden meaning behind all things 

~ I Bless my soul – that it wakes me up from this dream 

~ I Bless the divine within me – that it moves me, that it moves through me, that it moves all around me, that it shows cause in my life 

~ I give thanks for my new life before it is made manifest  

Visualize and feel these emotions.  

Memorize this feeling. 

Namaste