Here at MOST LIFE we cover one of our eight themes each week. This week we cover “E” for Energy
Breath is so fundamental to living, it is ALL we need to survive a day! We can live a day without food or water, but we can ONLY survive less than 4 minutes without breathing. As a nurse, I have seen people recover from not breathing longer than 4 minutes, after a cardiac arrest, they were saved on the street and rescued, their brain undergoing massive damage because of the lack of oxygen, hypoxia. This is not a desired state! We need oxygen and to breathe it in!
We breathe on our own with no conscious mental awareness at all. We do however, have habits of shallow or chest breathing that do not maximize our breathing architecture. Yes, our rib cage, diaphragm and heart-lung machine has a physical working basis or expansion when we breathe IN and contraction when we breath OUT.
Our heart and lungs are pumps and work in unison with each breath. We need to maximize this once a day, at least, one big breath and HOLD and slow exhale. Each of the little sacs in the lungs needs a bit of help getting fully inflated. If you exercise regularly, make sure you get very out of breath and push hard a few times in your workout, this will expand the lung capacity and you will reach into the physics of your circulatory system. It wants to be used to it’s potential. The heart and lung machine in our bodies is a precious and underrated system! Use it, push it, breath hard and fast and slow and deep!
A good daily ritual is to expand and contract this machine deliberately at least once a day, a few times, all the better. There is a breathing exercise on the IdeaSheet below.
Meditation is an essential part of a MOST LIFE as it is the combination of breathe work and quieting the mind and connecting with source. We are at our best when we connect with a quiet mind at least once a day and become centered with our inner spirit. Centuries of documentation about the value of meditation can be found.
The western practices of yoga, Tai Chi and many other forms of meditative exercises are popular now because we are yearning to connect to our inner spirit and have an exchange of energy with our inner self. It recharges our depleted, busy, hurried, exhausted self!
When we breath and move our body in purposeful ways, we connect our mind, body and spirit. You will find some free yoga videos on the YouTube channel “mymostlifetv”. These are great instructionals to help you get acquainted with breath work and yoga positions.
Yoga starts and ends with intentional breath and meditation work, it encompasses all that our body needs to connect. If it is part of your weekly routine, terrific! If it is not something you do regularly, seek it out.
A few things to consider in breathing more:
- Your heart and lungs work in unison. When you inhale your lower belly pushes OUT! This is not how we want to look, we want a flat stomach, well, the diaphragm pushed DOWN when we INHALE, opening the rib cage and allowing air to come into the lungs, this pushes the diaphragm down and causes the intestines to be pushed outward. Babies breathe this way, it is natural.
- We have come to rely too much on the rib and shoulder muscles to expand our lungs, this is not efficient and not what these muscles are made to do. Focus on the belly pushing out to breath. Release your self-conscious ideas about this and let your body breath!!!
- It is important to incorporate exercise in your daily routine. Exercise is so fundamental to our physical bodies, it also gives us time to expand our lungs and breath more deeply- DO IT!
- The MOST LIFE Power Day Checklist starts with gratitude and ends with gratitude. Gratitude is the beginning of any meditation, as we quiet the mind we have a gateway for that through gratitude. Gratitude begins the quiet, graceful mental and spiritual ride toward a quiet and fulfilled mind.
Let’s do a few deep breaths NOW
There is a great meditation and and practice exercises for you to get in the FLOW of your breath.
Take some time this week to honor your breath!
Namaste and have a MOST LIFE week!
