SoleHealing – Fresh Air

This article is part of the SoleHealing Fundamentals series.

Dynamic Nourishment – Fresh Air

Breathe fresh air, this seems like a simple statement, but many people don’t actually breathe life. SoleHealing is about coming to a new and wonderful appreciation of your body. Treat your respiratory system as a dear friend. What would you give a friend? Laughter, joy, song, conversation? 

Your consciousness is intrinsically tied to your respiratory system. Breathing is about life. Breathing integrates the external with the internal, your lungs are essential for you to be living as a conscious person. If you are not breathing properly, the rest of your bodily system is in failure.

It is not just inhalation and exhalation; it is inspiration and expiration. Many traditions see the breath as an aspect of spiritual renewal. Even, if you don’t share this perspective, you can understand that without breath, you are without life.

The air you breathe is the landscape of your form, and so for each and every breath you take you are breathing in the breath of living or watching it struggle by.

Remember, the air in your system creates space for new and vibrant opportunities. Just breathe deeply. Just breathe fresh new air. Just breathe new choice. Just breathe new energy. 

Tips for Breathing

• Come to view each breath as you would a new day, an opportunity for something new to transform.
• Fulfill your breathing requirement by consciously breathing into your diaphragm at least a few times an hour.
• Try to be peaceful and easy with your breathing, breathing sets the tone for the next performance; so if you are breathing frantically, your next experience will be frantic.
• Peace comes with ease. Ease comes with allowing. And allowing comes with choice.
• Fresh outdoor air is revitalizing. Seek those opportunities even for a few minutes. 
• Pay attention to what the air feels like around you. I’ve been in spaces where the air feels ‘too tight’.  You may experience this as a kind of head fogginess or headache. If the air flow seems stagnant, crack a window and get some fresh air in and see how quickly you pep up.
• If you are experiencing stress, anxiety or perhaps trying to find a place of calm to reach a more meditative space, look for the space at the bottom of an exhale. There is a little space right in that pause of breathing that holds peaceful stillness. You can enter that space to regroup and it only takes doing this for a moment or two. Try it for a three count in the pause, feel the stillness. Inhale. Repeat 3 times.

Holding Apart

Your life is experienced with every breath, conscious breathing brings you back to the here and now. Really try to come to terms with this because this will help set you free more than any other form of relinquishment. Relinquishing to the fact that your life is everywhere you are. Not on the other side of the victory. Not on the other side of the goal. Not on some remote desert island. But right here in this moment as you are living and breathing. This is your life. 

Unconsciously, holding your breath is resistance to the moment you are experiencing; resistance to life. It is a type of refusal to participate. Will life slide by without noticing you? Can you keep it apart from you? Will holding keep you safe? Safe from feeling? Safe from experiencing whatever is occurring in the moment?

Remember, the body can only hold for so long, you may be consciously or unconsciously deciding to hold yourself apart but the body must comply with its requirement for life. It will breathe because it must; whether you try to keep it apart or not. Understand that it is a mental emotional process that is illicting an unconscious breath holding experience.

Become aware of your feelings and see where you can help yourself by simply breathing. Best to just sit and breathe through whatever you are holding apart from. You will have a much richer and more supportive experience. Let your body breathe you.

Rhythmic breathing will help re-establish order and congruence in your bodily system.

Breath Prayers

Breath prayers help excavate your mental construct. They are a simple, powerful way of integrating conscious thought, intention and rhythm into your bodily experience. It is a powerful reset that can be done in a few short minutes.

Here is a powerful series of breath prayers created by Dr. Debra Ford, these breath prayers are a part of her work, Daily Pulse rhythm of the Tao.

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ACTION: Let your body breathe you.

Try something different, instead of lying on your back and breathing and watching the rise and fall of your belly, flip over and lie on your tummy.

Find a gentle relaxed position, head turned to whichever side is most comfortable. Take some slow deep inhalations and exhalations into your belly and rib cage and feel how powerfully your inhalation and exhalation actually moves you while you are lying there.

Notice where and how your body is moving. Is it symmetrical? Is your rib cage pressing into the bed equally? Can you feel your spine reposition itself by the simple act of breathing? Can you feel how many places your breath massages and reaches in your body. This is power. This is your power. Don’t give it away by denying its presence. You can come into a powerful congruence with your body by witnessing the partnership of breath and body. Give it some space and give it some time in your life.

Dr. Janice Brown D.Ac.

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This article is part of the SoleHealing Fundamentals series.