Speaking Tree - Getting Ready for "A whole new life":
Breathing is a perfect bridge between the conscious and the unconscious. It is one of the few bodily functions that we can consciously react to. If we want, we can speed up our breathing, slow it down, amplify it or deepen it. But it continues to work even when we don’t worry about it. In this moment, as you are reading and your attention is elsewhere, your breathing continues to exist.
In other words, it is the only function that we cannot survive without for more than a few minutes. We can fast for days, even a month or more; we can go without drinking for about three days; we can go without sleep for over twenty-four hours without having any brain damage but we cannot go without breathing for more than three minutes!
Breathing comes first
Seventy-five per cent of the toxins in our body are released by breathing. Recent studies have demonstrated that patients with heart disease and myocardial infarction who learn deep breathing significantly improve their long-term health.
Deep breathing is a full invigorating massage of the internal organs and abdominal muscles and is shown to be helpful in many cases of hypertension and anxiety.
In his handbook, on how to achieve excellent health, the celebrated author and doctor, Andrew Weil, puts breathing in first place affirming, “The only and most efficient technique for relaxation that I know is the conscious regulation of breathing.
In other words, it is the only function that we cannot survive without for more than a few minutes. We can fast for days, even a month or more; we can go without drinking for about three days; we can go without sleep for over twenty-four hours without having any brain damage but we cannot go without breathing for more than three minutes!
Breathing comes first
Seventy-five per cent of the toxins in our body are released by breathing. Recent studies have demonstrated that patients with heart disease and myocardial infarction who learn deep breathing significantly improve their long-term health.
Deep breathing is a full invigorating massage of the internal organs and abdominal muscles and is shown to be helpful in many cases of hypertension and anxiety.
In his handbook, on how to achieve excellent health, the celebrated author and doctor, Andrew Weil, puts breathing in first place affirming, “The only and most efficient technique for relaxation that I know is the conscious regulation of breathing.
By simply focusing attention on breathing, and not doing anything to change it, you are on your way to relaxation.”
Breathtaking moments
On the contrary, the first reaction we have when confronted with something or someone we fear is to hold our breath. It’s an ancient unconscious reaction that we’ve inherited from our hunter ancestors, a reaction that we can still see today in the actions of animals. Think about a wild animal sniffing danger. Its first reaction is to hold its breath and then decide whether to fake its own death, to escape or to attack.
We, too, when confronted with the challenges of life, tend to hold our breath. By doing this, the rate of carbon dioxide in our blood increases causing a numbness of our senses which allows us to forget our fear. But we don’t live in the forest any more. We don’t have to defend ourselves from tigers with saber-like teeth like our ancestors did. The dangers we face now are more or less emotional. Now we try to defend ourselves from what we perceive as verbal aggression, existential disaster, from the sense of inadequacy and from the fear of being judged. And every single time that a similar thought arises, we automatically hold our breath. You don’t believe it? The next time you drive too quickly past a police car, notice how you breathe....
Get transformed
The risk is to get used to holding our breathing capacities at a minimum, as if we had to continually protect ourselves from danger. By doing this, we constantly live with the sensation of not having enough. Do you think you don’t have enough time, money, love, friends and so on? Do your cells need oxygen?
It is only when we finally start breathing again and modify our breathing patterns that transformation can begin.
Breathtaking moments
On the contrary, the first reaction we have when confronted with something or someone we fear is to hold our breath. It’s an ancient unconscious reaction that we’ve inherited from our hunter ancestors, a reaction that we can still see today in the actions of animals. Think about a wild animal sniffing danger. Its first reaction is to hold its breath and then decide whether to fake its own death, to escape or to attack.
We, too, when confronted with the challenges of life, tend to hold our breath. By doing this, the rate of carbon dioxide in our blood increases causing a numbness of our senses which allows us to forget our fear. But we don’t live in the forest any more. We don’t have to defend ourselves from tigers with saber-like teeth like our ancestors did. The dangers we face now are more or less emotional. Now we try to defend ourselves from what we perceive as verbal aggression, existential disaster, from the sense of inadequacy and from the fear of being judged. And every single time that a similar thought arises, we automatically hold our breath. You don’t believe it? The next time you drive too quickly past a police car, notice how you breathe....
Get transformed
The risk is to get used to holding our breathing capacities at a minimum, as if we had to continually protect ourselves from danger. By doing this, we constantly live with the sensation of not having enough. Do you think you don’t have enough time, money, love, friends and so on? Do your cells need oxygen?
It is only when we finally start breathing again and modify our breathing patterns that transformation can begin.
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