Mindfulness of the Breath:
Breath is life so we can expect to feel more alive, vibrant and healthy if we bring our awareness to our breath and retrain the way we breathe. When we breathe perfectly we can live more perfectly in health because our breath is the most important source of energy. Hippocrates said, “Air is a pasture of life and a greatest ruler of all.” I suppose he knew what ancient oriental philosophers knew—that in the air is “an ocean of energy” ready to be tapped directly into.
1. Bring your attention to your breathing.
2. Follow the air as it comes in through your nostrils and goes down to the bottom of your lungs. Then follow it as it goes back out again.
3. Follow the air, as if you’re riding the waves of your breathing.
4. Notice the air moving in and out of your nostrils… how it’s slightly warmer as it comes out, and cooler as it goes in.
5. Notice the gentle rise and fall of your rib cage.
6. Notice the gentle rise and fall of your abdomen.
7. Fix your attention on one of these areas, whichever you prefer: on the breath moving in and out of the nostrils, on the rising and falling of the ribcage, or the rising and falling of the abdomen.
8. Keep your attention on this spot, noticing the movement – in and out – of the breath.
9. Whatever feelings, urges or sensations arise, whether pleasant or unpleasant, gently acknowledge them – as if nodding your head at people passing by you on the street. Gently acknowledge their presence, and let them be. Allow them to come and go as they please, and keep your attention on the breath.
10. Whatever thoughts, images, or memories arise, whether comfortable or uncomfortable, simply acknowledge them and allow them to be. Let them come and go as they please, and keep your attention on the breath.
11. From time to time, your attention will become distracted by thoughts or feelings. Each time this happens, notice what distracted you, and then bring your attention back to the breath. No matter how often your attention “wanders off” – whether a hundred times, or a thousand – your aim is simply to note what distracted you, and bring your attention back to the breath.
12. There is no need to be frustrated or impatient or disappointed when you get carried off by your thoughts. It is the same for everyone. Our minds naturally distract us from what we are doing. So each time you realise your attention has wandered, gently acknowledge it, notice what distracted you, and return your attention to the breath.
13. If frustration, boredom, anxiety, impatience or other feelings arise, simply acknowledge them, and maintain your focus on the breath.
14. No matter how often your attention wanders, gently acknowledge it, note what distracted you, and gently bring your attention back to the breath.
15. When you are ready, bring yourself back to the room and open your eyes.
Practice Instructions:
Initially practice this for 5 minutes twice a day. Aim to increase the duration by 2 or 3 minutes every few days, until you can do this for 15-20 minutes at a time. Even if you only practice this for 1 minute each day, that is better than not practicing at all :-)
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.
Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.
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Quick and Easy Breathing Exercises to Cope with Stress, Anxiety and Emotions
Easy and quick breathing techniques:
Deep breathing supplies oxygen to your vital organs and releases toxins, including those caused by stress. It also calms the nervous system and quiets those racing thoughts, helping to cope with anxiety and improve mental clarity.
https://discover.hubpages.com/health/Breathing-Exercises-for-the-High-Stressed-Individual
Do click on the above. Well worth the read :-)
"Once we learn how a lack of CO2 causes blood vessels to constrict, it should come as no surprise to us, then, that the opposite is also true. Holding your breath allows CO2 to increase, and CO2 dilates blood vessels throughout the body. As a result, it lowers your blood pressure and induces a state of relaxation. Breathing slower and deeper improves arterial oxygenation, cardiac output, pulmonary gas-exchange efficiency, and other things that are important to a human body, all important when dealing with viral infections.
Deep breathing is just another way of saying belly breathing as opposed to shallow, superficial chest breathing. Deep breathing should be very slow so that one accumulates more CO2 in the blood. Deep breathing means breathing less air not more. Some people actually think it is wrong to call therapeutic breathing "deep breathing". “If you breathe less and accumulate CO2, the correct name is 'reduced breathing,' writes Dr. Artour Rakhimov PhD."
https://drsircus.com/coronavirus/free-medicine-for-the-coronavirus/
and Just B r e a t h e ...
One of the greatest difficulties in first beginning to meditate is to direct the fickle mind from wandering around onto everyday thoughts involving work, relationships, health, or other worries or concerns. You name them, people will have thoughts about them!
What pranayama can do for you is bring the mind to bear upon the act of breathing. Pranayama really is a concentration practice, and without proper concentration meditation is impossible.
The breath flowing into the nostrils has a calming effect upon the central nervous system and is one of the best things that you can do for well-being and general health. Once you have focused upon your breath for a few minutes, you will find that your thoughts will calm down and relax, rather like going to sleep; except that in this case, you are not going to sleep, you are focusing on being present in the moment.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh..................
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Learning to avoid or control stress can help you avoid the cycle. You can learn tips to help you relax and learn breathing techniques to get more air into your lungs.
American Academy of Cardiology
If we were able to breathe “naturally” for even a small percentage of the more than 15,000 breaths we take during each waking day, we would be taking a huge step not only toward preventing many of the physical and psychological problems that have become endemic to modern life, but also toward supporting our own inner growth—the growth of awareness of who and what we really are, of our own essential being.
There is a profound effect to people’s health when they start dropping off a few of those thousands of breath. If 15,000 is about normal what would life be like if we reduced that to 10,000 breaths a day or less?
1. Breathing detoxifies and releases toxins.
The Calm
The Calm Breathing Room starts at a calming pace of five breaths per minute for one minute and then slows you down even more into a breathing rate that relaxes you and allows you to sink into a state of calmness and relaxation, which releases stress and allows your body, mind and soul to experience peace.
1. Breathing releases tension.
2. Breathing relaxes the mind/body and brings clarity.
3. Breathing relieves emotional problems.
4. Breathing relieves pain.
5. Breathing massages your organs.
6. Breathing increases muscle.
7. Breathing strengthens the immune system.
8. Breathing improves posture.
9. Breathing improves quality of the blood.
10. Breathing increases digestion and assimilation of food.
11. Breathing improves the nervous system.
12. Breathing strengthens the lungs.
13. Proper breathing makes the heart stronger.
14. Proper breathing assists in weight control.
15. Breathing boosts energy levels and improves stamina.
16. Breathing improves cellular regeneration.
17. Breathing elevates moods.
Dr Mathew White is on a mission to garner Mother Nature the respect he thinks she deserves when it comes to human health. For decades, scientists and health-care professionals have recognized that exposure to green spaces, such as public parks or forests, is linked with lower risks of all sorts of ailments common in the developed world—including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and mental distress—and even of mortality.
Do watch the Podcast...
Experimental work has demonstrated myriad physiological responses that occur when people spend time in natural environments:
- blood pressure drops,
- heart rate decreases,
- immune function improves, and
- the parasympathetic nervous system directs the body to rest and digest.
As humans increasingly populate urbanized areas, they are spending less and less time in natural environments—perhaps to the detriment of their health.
This is just SO true. Many thanks for drawing attention to this All Important Aspect of our lives. Breathing just cannot be underestimated. It's called, Living Your Life...
"When we deal with a person’s breath in a medical way we are able to quickly intervene on the most basic physiological parameters that affect the health of the cells. The second we pay attention to our breath our breathing changes and when we are emotionally upset we can see how quickly conscious breathing can bring us back to emotional tranquility. That’s what we feel on an emotional level but on a cellular level the cells start to sing a more beautiful song as oxygen and CO2 levels rise together through slower breathing."
"The fragile nature of life and health has never been more apparent, but the partnership of human and artificial intelligence promises to accelerate new discoveries, new therapies and new hope for patients."
Joanna Shields — CEO, BenevolentAI
https://www.benevolent.com/
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The Calm Breathing Room
The Calm Breathing Room starts at a calming pace of five breaths per minute for one minute and then slows you down even more into a breathing rate that relaxes you and allows you to sink into a state of calmness and relaxation, which releases stress and allows your body, mind and soul to experience peace.
Om of Gong: Mediation Music to Slow Breath, Relax and Heal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBcBDvEu8eg
for 34 mins and 19 seconds... Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!
Breathing Slower and Less: The Greatest Health Discovery Ever
https://www.normalbreathing.com/
By Dr. Artour Rakhimov, Alternative Health Educator and Author
- Medically Reviewed by Naziliya Rakhimova, MD
- Last updated on October 21, 2018
While breathing 2-3 times more than the medical norm, most people believe that they have good or normal breathing. Some of them even say that they are just "barely breathing". But normal breathing is so tiny that healthy people experience virtually no sensations in relation to their breathing at rest.
Over 90% of modern people suffer from breathing problems. The common problems include chest breathing, mouth breathing, and hyperventilation (increased minute ventilation), all of which reduce oxygen levels in body cells and promote chronic diseases.
Talking informally with other Carers Does Help!
Angels Carer Support Group. Held the last Tuesday of each month at St. Paul's Anglican Church Hall, 69 Palm Beach Ave, PALM BEACH - Come just after 1.00pm for that cuppa and a chat. Often we have Speakers on subjects of interest to us as Carers - they start about 1.30pm and go to about 3.00pm. Other times we just sit, relax and enjoy each other's company and support each other as we face the daily caregiving tasks. Sit and chat, and take a brief break - for YOU :-) We hold our meetings on the last Tuesday of each month.
YOU are most welcome to join us :-) Do take CARE of YOU too...
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Blessing for the Caregiver
By Bruce | Oct 26, 2019
Blessing for the Caregiver
Sending Encouragement
You wait.
You manage.
You do things you never thought you would do,
For someone you love.
You are well acquainted with pharmacy lines,
Expertly navigating hospitals,
Knowing what to ask at Doctor’s appointments,
And fully tuned in to the benefits and shortcomings of health insurance.
You are the caregiver, the care partner,
And so much more.
Your life, even on your bad days,
Makes someone else’s life better.
May you breathe the fresh air of peace,
And smile with unexpected joy.
May you receive the profundity of the simplest thank you,
And sense the return of love whether articulated or not.
May your kindness and loyalty
Be returned to you many times over.
And may you know deep within during quiet moments
That you have done well.
-Bruce McIntyre
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