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

Vinyasa Yoga - Where to Start & Where You Are Heading

Torus Vinyasa Yoga:

Where to Start & Where You Are Heading

Vinyasa Sun Salutation A & B function as the foundation to all Vinyasa and Ashtanga postures and flows. Perfecting these two flows will ensure a productive evolution as your body dexterity and strength improves. 

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Inhale to expand, exhale to bend. Salute the sun this morning through Surya Namaskar B with Mark Robberds and Deepika Mehta.

Flow with Deepika’s Sun Salutation A

How Yoga Can Change Your Body Shape

How Yoga Can Shape Your Body

The body shape of a yogi is different from person to person. Some practice yoga for the fitness and flexibility aspect, while other practice yoga, such as Kundalini Yoga, for the mental and spiritual benefits. The wonderful feature of Yoga as a whole, is it truly is a practice where you can achieve optimal union of Mind, Body and Soul. 

As many gym goers may have already realized, though you may garner great muscle gains, the key "troublesome" areas (ie) triceps, midsection, hips and buttock tend to take a great deal of time to see results and then that much more energy to maintain. Additionally, the physical exertion of weightlifting and cardio intensive workouts can actual cause more damage to the body then benefits. Many of us already live highly stressful lives, triggering an increase of adrenaline & cortisol released into our bodies. These releases trigger a daily elevation in blood pressure and heart rate, thus, stacking on high intensity work outs (triggering more cortisol and adrenaline released to the heart and circulatory system), although they are famous for some, often cause more damage by depleting an already stressed and, for lack of a better term, "tightly wound" body. 

The Answer? YOGA! The practice of yoga has everything to do with filling an individual up with whatever their mind, bodies and souls require to ensure optimal full body functionality throughout their daily lives. 

Here are some reasons HOW Yoga helps achieve full body health and your optimal body shape: 

1) Improves Balance

2) Improves Posture

3) Improves Breathing: Lungs begin to function at full capacity aiding in heightened muscle rejuvenation and mental awareness 

4) Easily Maintain Weight Without Dieting 

5) Improve Flexibility to the nth degree 

6) Firms & Tones every muscle from head to your tippy toes

7) Improves Self Esteem and Body Image 

Mental Health: 

Torus Health & Yoga is a firm believer that once mental barriers are broken through, the results that will follow physically can be life altering. This is because Yoga instructs your mind and body to be in a state of peace, centeredness and present throughout your practice. This mental and bodily state allow for your heart rate, hormones and other bodily systems to calm and regulate themselves naturally. As your body learns to natural align itself in a state of peaceful calm it will gradually learn to move and progress in ways that will leave you with such overwhelming gratitude. You will learn to truly trust your intuition and allow yourself to expand past lifelong mental blocks and physical limitations. 

Please stay connected as TORUS HEALTH & YOGA will soon have updates on upcoming workshops and retreats. 

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Tracking to Optimize Your Overall Wellbeing

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) to Increase Physiological Coherence & Wellbeing

The use of new technologies such as OURA and  HEART MATH are fundamental in understanding and tracking your Heart Rate Variability. These and other new devices are coming to the market to help individuals personalize their health management practices. 

Tracking your HRV is a useful indicator for several health related reasons that have been used by researches & physiologist for decades.  Understanding how to optimize your recovery and personal readiness by tracking your HVR will help improve your emotional well being as you learn how to change your heart rhythm pattern to create physiological coherence. 

How does it work? 

The heart beat contains healthy irregularities. These are variations among the intervals between your heartbeats. HVR measures the intervals between each heartbeat (R-R intervals).  

NOTE: Heart Rate Low = HRV is High as it indicates longer inter-beat intervals 

HVR can be traced back to our intrinsic/autonomic heart rate (base-line), comprised of our parasympathetic (rest) & sympathetic (activation) systems. The parasympathetic system has a lower heart rate, giving more room for variability between successive heartbeats. The sympathetic system has a elevated heart rate from the intrinsic level and thus, there is less room for variability between successive heart beats. 

Thus, measuring HVR reactions is a particularly sensitive tool that can give individuals greater insight into your your overall wellbeing and facilitates in the bodies natural regenerative processes. 

Steps to a healthy HRV: 

1) Breath Work: practice different breathing techniques that help regulate your breath and thus slow your heart rate (ie) pranayama breathing, heart lock techniques. 

For example: place your finger on your neck or wrist and find your pulse. You will feel the longest interval between pulses take place when you exhale and the shortest intervals between pulses when you inhale. 

2) Discover your baseline and use this as your starting point 

3) Measure from your baseline if your HRV goes up (heart rate lowers) or if your HRV goes down (heart rate speeds up). An increase in HRV can indicate that something is doing good for your mind and body, however, if your HRV lowers this is an indication that something may be burdening your mind and body. 

4) Regular practice will help restore low HRV to a healthy level. It is recommended to take 5 minutes 3-4 times a day and measure yourself accordingly. (Note: this is an excellent tool to use while meditating) 

Take your personalize wellbeing survey, and discover how HRV can benefit you.