Your Breath……Your Life

I generally start my Breathwork and Pranayama Workshops with a question and a sales pitch.

Are you willing to give a little time each day to a practice that will and is proven to make your skin shine and reduce wrinkles and ageing? It does not involve taking a tablet, but it does involve ingesting a colourless, invisible naturally occurring substance. You would be intrigued. Furthermore, it can help with digestion and digestive issues. It can increase energy levels. It can help concentration and brain power. It can help you sleep longer and deeper. It can cure Migraine and lower back pain. It can help you lose weight. It will help you live longer and more importantly; it will help you live a longer healthier life. It will reduce the chances that you will suffer from depression and overall, because of all these benefits, it will give you a better chance of being happier. Generally, the participants want at least one of these things and usually and not surprisingly they want them all. As the whole room is reaching for their cheque books and credit cards, I explain that this wonder cure is available to them by just learning how to breathe properly and by taking a little time each day to practice…

For hundreds, if not thousands of years, these practices were kept secret by small groups of practitioners and Yogis on the Indian sub-continent. Even the ancient Yoga texts say that these practices must be kept secret and that only those properly initiated by a Guru should practice. Of course, over the years there has been scepticism about these esoteric practices in the West but with new studies at major Universities these methods have now been proved to be of unprecedented benefit to our health and wellbeing. Not only are the myriad of benefits, physical, but because the breath has such an effect on the mind, the mental health benefits are astounding. In the ancient text, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the author tells us that, like training wild animals, the air in the body can be gradually brought under control using the correct methods. Once the air is controlled, the mind is controlled and if a person can control the mind, then he controls the air. Not only were the Indian Yogis discovering the power of the breath, but Hippocrates, the father of medicine had a similar view to power of proper breathing. In his view, unregulated breathing was the cause of disease and all other things are secondary and subordinate causes. Taking both ideas together, we arrive at the basic principle of Pranayama and Breathwork.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul..Genesis 2:7

The Basic Science Bit….

We come into this world with an Inhale and we leave this world with an Exhale. In between we take approximately 23,000 breaths per day. The Yoga Masters of India believe that when we are born, we are given a certain amount of breaths to use in this world and that they must be used carefully to extend a long and healthy life. Over thousands of years they have developed unique breathing exercises that help with the ideal of a long and healthy life. The idea of Proper Breathing is a very large part of Yoga Practice and is the 4^th limb in the 8 Limbs of Yoga, known as Pranayama…A breathing practice has to be mastered before progressing to any form of mindfulness or meditation, finally leading to Enlightenment.

We are all aware of sayings that relate to our breath…”it takes my breath away” and even when a child is very upset, we encourage them to take “a deep breath” and to settle down.  How our body really works is hard wired into our DNA but when it comes to our own health and wellbeing, we seem to ignore these inbuilt signals and continue doing the incorrect things.

Our nervous system is split into two separate areas…Our Sympathetic Nervous System and our Parasympathetic Nervous System. Our SNS is our in-built survival when in danger mechanism, Our “Fight of Flight” reaction and our PSNS is our “Rest and Digest” mechanism, which does what it says on the tin…we rest and digest…..There are 8 areas in our body that relate to or Fight or Flight mechanism while there are 4 that relate to our Rest and Digest mechanism. Of course, over the millennia our FOF reaction has been very important…If a lion or a tiger is chasing you and you go into rest and digest mode….then you would be known as “dinner” and the fact that your ancestors survived and you are here today is testament to the proper functioning  and high performance of the Sympathetic Nervous System…The difference between you and your ancestors is that in this information age, you are always ON, digitally obsessed and your world is generally escape based,…being bombarded by so many different types of media, pictures, images and information …When I say, “always on”. Of course, I mean that you are living your life in your SNS world and are ever ready for “Fight or Flight” …on edge, anxious, nervous, and so on…just waiting for that TIGER all the time…. Of course, this is very obvious, and we all know how this is affecting our health, our lives and most importantly, our relationships with others?

So, if your SNS is always on , that means that your PSNS is redundant, and always “off”, which means, you never REST and you never DIGEST….and like any muscle or system in the body, You “use it or lose it”…if you have ever broken a bone and been in a cast for 4/6 weeks, you know that when the cast is removed, the muscles have degenerated massively and that it takes a long time to get them back to where they were, lots of physio etc. So, let us imagine not using your PSNS for years, never Resting and Digesting, always being in Fight or Flight mode, what has degenerated and what has been lost? I’m always exhausted, but I can’t sleep, I can’t slow down, sometimes I am on the verge of tears for no reason, I’m overwhelmed, I always have heart burn, my lower back is killing me, my neck is stiff, If I could just get someone to massage my shoulders, I’m on a diet and I can’t lose weight…..Any of these statements familiar?….These are just a few examples of what has been lost, and of course if you are feeling like this, what message are you giving to your family, partners work colleagues?…How are these statements, even one of them effecting your relationships? How much “emotional medication” are you taking to relieve these symptoms? Having a glass of wine to take the edge off is probably the emotional and physical pain reliever of choice these days…

So, how do we tap into this “Rest and Digest” magic potion and turn on our PSNS?…As I said earlier there are 4 areas of out body that are connected to our PSNS as against 8 for our SNS…These 4 areas are our Eyes, Our Jaw Bones, Our Smile and our Gut…of course our gut being connected to our heart, lungs, digestive system and so on…and all of this is controlled by what is called The Vagus Nerve….The Latin for wanderer…because it wanders all over your upper body….and to turn it on and start using it and get all the myriad of benefits from it….all you have to do is Breath….but not like you breath now…really breath, re-learn something you do 23,000 times per day…and to slowly develop a daily practice, even for 5 to 10 minutes to reap all the benefits of these ancient practices.

I offer half-day workshops for groups, both online and in studio…

Please get in touch to begin your journey……Authentic Teachings for Personal Transformation