breath 2

Let’s now take a really luscious full deep breath (Don’t forget to breathe out! Ha.) Until the writing of this article it never dawned on me that we don’t have a single word for “breathe in” and another for “breathe out” The effects of each are SO different…hmmmmm. When I say breathe I automatically assume it would be “in” don’t you? Remember that every breath we breathe in is an outbreath of the plants and trees. We are that connected. It is no wonder, with the rapid destruction of our forests, that our own respiratory illness rate has increased 600% in the past 10 years.
In a dream, I was given a breathing exercise from a gigantic Cedar tree (Aren’t dreams cool?) Cedars symbolize Sacredness for me and the sheer size of the tree told me that the message was big and important. I was to do the ‘exercise’ upon awakening and then right before sleeping, in bed. I lay on my right side and breathe in as slowly as possible, as peacefully as possible. It seems like 10 breaths take forever! As I continue to do this it amazes me how long I can breathe in and how different parts of the lungs open bit by bit . Once the lungs are full, I pause a moment then begin the equally slow exhale…continue to squeeze out all the air possible by contracting the diaphragm and stomach muscles then hold it again. You can get so relaxed and at the same time energized by this practice. In the morning it wakes me up and you can’t help stretching! At night it helps me relax and sleep. It helps when I make a small sound by contracting my throat a bit. On the out breath towards the end it gets a little wheezy as I force every last particle of air out of my lungs. Don’t be shy about making sounds.
I have noticed a host of amazing improvements in my body and awareness through long term use of this technique. It only takes 10-15 min. per session and if you have to; do it in 5 min! You can adjust the number of breaths according to your time frame. Don’t speed up! I share this with you because I think you will benefit from it too. Let me know what you notice after several weeks of this practice. I am interested to see what has come forth for you. I can be reached at studiobug7@yahoo.com.