BREATHING IS THE KEY TO AWARENESS

“Your breathing is your greatest friend.  Return to it in all your troubles and you will find comfort and guidance.” Bernard Gunther

 “Every day, we breathe in and out about twenty-one thousand times, and approximately twenty-four hundred gallons of air go in and out of our lungs daily….more than enough to fill a water tank!  *The Medulla Oblongata,, located just above the spinal cord, orchestrates the respiratory cycle by activating the diaphragm.  This muscle contracts, allowing the thorax to modify its volume during inspiration and expiration.  The movement of breathing is automatic, but our brain can impose its will.  While we have no power to control our heart directly, we can learn to control our breathing perfectly well.  The most exceptional examples of this are yogis and deep-sea divers, who can hold their breath for more than five minutes, which is absolutely unthinkable for the average individual.  However, anyone can practice breathing, relaxation and yoga techniques that help us let go of tensions in the body and the mind.” Jean-Pierre Barral D.O.

Our breath is also the means through which we can access higher awareness…..the deeper and slower our breathing the better we can work at our intuitive and mental levels.    Your breath also serves as an instant hot line to God (Spirit, Divine, All That Is, Universal Life Force) when you feel depressed, frustrated, ill or have a moment to tune in.  There’s no need to put your problem/feelings into words, or formal requests.  All you have to do is lower your eyes, take a deep breath and immerse yourself in the air surrounding you….air charged with Divine Spiritual Energy.

 Breathing develops a direct link between mind and body, between spirit and psyche.  It helps us to focus by keeping our attention on the relationship between breath (outside) and body (inside).  It helps us to clear ourselves of earthly thoughts and problems….we vibrate with pure energy, connecting with cosmic and earth energies.

Breath, Spiritus, is a primal name of God (in Christian belief the third person of the Trinity).  The attention paid to physical breath or spiritus touches your spirit at the deepest part of your being.  Awareness of breathing takes you into a nameless place where Spirit touches spirit.  This is the power in every mystical tradition of breathing meditation.

  THE DIAPHRAGM

(part of this topic was adopted from a previous article on my blog called Techniques In Breaking Through Mental and Emotional Barriers)

 We all know that our bodies breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2).  Air passes through our nose, pharynx, larynx, trachea, right and left bronchi and finally the aveoli (air sacs) of our lungs. It is the red blood cells flowing through our lungs that takes the oxygen breathed in and let’s go of CO2, which in turn we breathe out.

“The reason we don’t tend to breathe properly is the result of an under-used muscle called the diaphragm…..it lies just at the bottom of the ribcage and just below the lungs and resembles the shape of a piece of pitta bread or an oblong pancake. 

Every time we breathe in, the diaphragm flattens out, to allow the lungs to fill up with air.  When we breathe out again, the diaphragm assumes the shape of an inverted ‘U’, helping to squeeze the last of the air out of our lungs.  This process is then repeated every time we breathe in and out.

 Most of us don’t use the diapraghm properly.  We tend to go around doing what is called shallow breathing.  This means we fill the top part of o ur lungs with air, but not the bottom two thirds and thus, as the diaphragm is resting on the bottom of the lungs, it is never used fully.  Certain professions are exceptions to this.  Opera singers and athletes are people who have to learn to breathe deeply.  Musicians who play wind instruments also come into this categroy, as do stage actors.  Anyone can learn how to breathe deeply’ it simply takes a little practice.”  Tara Ward, Meditation and Dreamwork

 So the diaphragm is also very important in the role of speaking. It allows us to express our deepest feelings inside.  It helps us to connect to our power, our sexuality, our passion, our creativity and higher spiritual values. It begins at our 2nd chakra, the seat of our emotions.  This area records all our repressed as well as passionate feelings.

When we have been disempowered or held back by a dominating figure, we usually hold in our feelings of pain and humiliation.  Holding in negative emotions short circuits our nervous system, depleting our energy, circulation and digestive system.

Breath awareness is simply about paying attention to the air going in and the air going out of your body.  This ‘breathing communication’ with God, though wordless, can be very real.

*At the base of the brain stem is the Medulla Oblongata.  This area at the back of the neck feeds nerve energy to our five senses.  When our nerve energy becomes depleted, it’s unable to reach our ears, eyes, throat or mouth.  Our five senses are literally starved and react by creating sensory complications (coughing, difficulty swallowing, post nasal drip, acid reflux, eye problems, etc.).  Also, when our body system is drained of energy and power, to compensate the loss, it will steal it from our eyes, ear, nose, throat and mouth.

Breath Awareness Meditation, next…..

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BONE LOSS – OSTEOPOROSIS

“Osteoporosis; is the eating away of our firm foundation. Bones are the hardest substance in the body. They support and give strength to the body. They are also the most brittle of substances that make up the body. If we see ourselves as having little or no support in the world of a physical or of a metaphysical nature our own foundation is weakened and the structure collapses in upon itself. “
http://www.compassionatedragon.com/metaphysics5.html

“EMOTIONAL BLOCK ~On both a physical and metaphysical level, bones represent support. Bone disorders are invariably linked with a fear of not being sufficiently supported or fear of not sufficiently supporting others. Bone disorders indicate that we don’t feel “solid” enough to take care of our own lives.

…MENTAL BLOCK ~ Bone disorders are a message from your body to acknowledge your own inner strength. Your body is telling you to stabilize yourself, to regain your balance by allowing yourself to experience simple pleasures without guilt. You have everything you need to create a stable life, without having to depend on others for support.” Your Body is Telling You: Love Yourself ~ Lise Bourbeau

The word Osteoporosis literally means porous bones. Bones are our inner scaffolding, a supportive solid structure created to give our bodies form as well as protect our internal organs and works as a frame for our muscles and skin. It is through our bones we strive towards independence and find our place in the world. But in a world that is in a continual state of flux and change, women and men are physically crumpling to the increased pressures and stress that surround them. Many who have been unable to regenerate their energy against the bitterest winds and storms are now being diagnosed with Osteoporosis.

Lise Bourbeau, author of the excellent book, Your Body is Telling You: Love Yourself, also claims that bone disorders that end with “itis” (inflammatory disease) also indicates repressed anger. Anger is a form of energy; the more it builds up, the more necessary it is to release it.  Energy can’t be destroyed, so if we don’t release our anger and let it build, it can have damaging effects on the physical body.  Repressed anger can cause hypertension, headaches, PMS, heart problems, ulcers and it makes osteoporosis worse.  Holding on to anger causes you to “tense up”, putting extra pressure on your joints and muscles.  Long-term anger exhausts your life force and energy – it drains energy from the ‘foundation’ of your body.. your bones, muscles, blood vessels, immune system and internal organs..it also destroys your self-esteem and self-worth.

The need to control also creates an aura of stress and tension around ourselves…it drains our energy. Control comes from the need to dominate and perfectionism..it can also come from not trusting others. Control keeps us limited and disconnects us from our creativity, spontaneity, imagination and fun. Control can easily lead to aggression or anger…it can constrict and restrict our energies leading to oppression and depression.

Stress also causes our body to become rigid, tight and inflexible. This in turn causes the muscles, ligaments and tendons to tighten and over time shorten, creating an uneven pull on the skeletal bones of the body. Eventually the tension can build up to a point where it causes pain, inflammation and bone malformation. As energy levels drop from the buildup of toxins, this puts a ‘crimp’ in our circulation of energy, our energy backs up, and the already maxed out immune system weakens and turns on itself. Arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are autoimmune conditions as well as Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Epstein-Barr Virus.

Releasing anger takes time and patience. For some people it can take longer but if you work at releasing anger (hitting a pillow, yelling in your car, walking, exercising, etc.) it will reprogram your nervous system and will help to make you less ‘reactive’ to emotional triggers.

From http://www.alive.com/420a2a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=227

“Your immune system is the most complex and critical component of your body’s inherent defence mechanism: a vast network of specialized cells and organs including your liver, lymphatic system, thymus, spleen and bone marrow. Together they share the responsibility of maintaining your resistance to disease.

Immunity is partly inherited and partly shaped by lifestyle. Your ability to ward off disease is determined by the resilience of your natural defences.”

Most of our immune cells originate in the bone marrow, in fact there is a whole cast of characters that make up the immune system and its roots can be traced to the ‘stem cells’ in our bone marrow. When balanced, the immune system cells are able to distinguish what is the “enemy” and what is the “self”.

If you’re really interested in learning all you can about the immune system this site “The Anatomy of the Immune System” is fantastic! If you click “elsewhere” on 1. Bone Marrow, you’ll discover and learn more about the various characters of our stem cells.

Look at it here http://www.microbiologybytes.com/iandi/2b.html

One of the stem cells, the macrophage is the easiest to identify under the microscope. It looks like a dark, horseshoe shaped blob and is rather quite large compared to the other cells of the immune system. If you remember the old Pac Man game then you’ll have a good idea what the macrophage does.

“Monocytes circulate in the peripheral blood prior to emigration into the tissues. Within certain organs they have special names, e.g. in liver they are known as Kupfer cells, in brain as microglia, in kidney as mesangial cells, and in bone as osteoclasts. Elsewhere they are referred to as tissue macrophages”

The macrophage also accumulates in tissues that are injured and inflamed, such as arthritic joints. There its venemous tentacles seek out, surround and destroy its prey. It dines on the bacteria or a clump of viruses that were tied together by your antibodies. Sounds like a horror story involving poisonous spiders, doesn’t it?

As mentioned in the above quote, the macrophage exist in bone as osteroclasts. These are microscopic cells specially designed to nibble, dissolve and breakdown bone. They are similar to the demolition crew in the construction industry. How and why an area is targeted for ‘remodeling’ is still not yet understood…although they are called in when a bone is fractured or broken. What we do know is that the osteoclasts spend a couple of weeks resorbing the bone and when done, mononuclear cells, the cleanup crew pull up and prepare the surface for new bone formation. Then, the osteoblasts take over and start rebuilding. So healthy bones are constantly remodeling themselves. But what happens in the case of osteoporosis or osteopenia? What causes the osteoclasts to continue demolishing?

“In osteoporosis, the net rate of bone resorption exceeds the rate of bone formation, resulting in a decrease in bone mass without a defect in bone mineralization. In women, osteoclast activity is increased because of decreased estrogen after the menopause. (Men with prematurely decreased testosterone may also have increased osteoclast activity.) These changes result in further net loss of bone. The amount of bone available for mechanical support of the skeleton eventually falls below the fracture threshold and one may suffer a fracture with little or no trauma.” From http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11794

So somehow the osteoclasts become hyperactive and perforate and penetrate too deeply into the bone. These osteoclasts act like hungry termites, gobbling away at the framework of your house, weakning the foundation of your physical being. There are more osteoclasts then osteoblasts and the fewer osteoblasts cannot keep up the demand of rebuilding and recalking the holes in your bone. Your bones become less supportive and more fragile.

Our bones are constantly losing and replacing cells….they are ‘living tissue’ that grow as the body grows. Bones, give our bodies form, protect our internal organs and work as a frame for our muscles and skin. It is our bones that enable our muscles to move, giving motion and life to our physical being.

How do we prevent and/or reverse the cause of bone loss? What makes our bones stay strong and healthy? Is calcium the answer? We’ll be looking at these questions and more in the next article(s) of this blog. Osteoporosis afflicts both men and women. In fact studies indicate that doctors/scientists have not paid enough attention to osteoporosis in men. Perhaps the reason women are catalogued more, is because, they are known to live longer than men.

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THE HEART – THE MIGHTY PUMP

“The heart is the center of the cardiovascular system, with a network of vessels taking blood around the body. Oxygen and other essential nutrients are taken to every cell via the arteries, while de-oxygenated blood is carried back in the veins. The heart is the center of this system, and its symbolic relationship to love is deeply entrenched in our collective psyche. That the heart represents love is the one part of the bodymind we all, univerally agreed upon. The blood represents the circulation of that love, the giving and receiving seen in the constant flow to and from the heart.”
Deb Shapiro

HOW THE HEART WORKS

The heart is no bigger than your fist but powerful enough to squeeze itself at about 75 times each minute. It works like a pair of pumps……each having its own chamber. The lower chamber called the ventricles, does most of the pumping. Above each one is an atrium which works to temporarily store the blood. There are also one-way valves at the exit from each atrium and ventricle which stops the blood from flowing backward. Amazing!

The heart is covered by bags of protection called the pericardium. It is a multilayered sac filled with slippery pericardial fluid which prevents the heart from bursting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericardium

The muscle wall of the heart is called the myocardium. There is no other muscle like it in the body. If it was left to beat on its own without the input of our brain it would beat at about a 100 beats a minute! It is our nerve impulses which actually slows it down to about 75 beats a minute or speeds it up depending on our emotional state at the time.

At the start of every cycle of the heartbeat, the muscles relax momentarily……blood pours into the right atrium. As the atrium contracts the valve known as the tricuspid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricuspid_valve opens and blood surges into the right ventricle. Blood vessels channel the blood around….the arteries carry blood out from the heart and it is our veins that return the blood to the heart.

It takes about 6 heartbeats for the blood to go all around the lungs and return to the heart. When the heart muscles relax, blood, rich in oxygen from the lungs whooshes into the left atrium. Blood gushes down from the atrium through the mitral (bisuspid) valve and into the left ventricle. While all this is going on the right atrium squeezes a bit before its partner on the left. When both atria squeeze they force blood down into both ventricles….the mitral valve closes and the left ventricle contracts. This forces blood up and out through the aortic valve into the aorta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aortic_valve The aorta is the largest blood vessel in the body. As blood enters the aorta from the heart, it starts a pressure wave along the arteries. This wave is seen as a pulse and travels faster then the blood……arriving at the wrist in about a 10th of a second!!! It is the arterial pulse a doctor or nurse feels at the wrist and can also be felt in other areas of the body too…eg., the neck, the the pelvis, the knee, etc.

YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE

‘Normal blood pressure’ is about 120/80. Blood presses against the walls of the blood vessels and reaches a maximum at the aorta but is lower in the arteries and lower still in capillaries and veins. To check your blood pressure, a physician inflates a cuff around your upper arm and slowly releases the compression until he/she can hear the blood pumping through the blood vessel. When the sound is first heard, it is recorded as systolic pressure. As the cuff continues to deflate the sound fades away until it is no longer heard. The reading at this point is called the diastolic pressure. The systolic reflects the greatest amount of pressure in the blood vessel and the distolic represents the least amount of pressure which happens during the resting phase of the heartbeat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_pressure

So, the pumping action of the heart is one of contraction (systole) and relaxation (diastole) and as we have learnt is followed by a brief interval. It thrives on motion and demands stimulation. That’s why it is important to exercise, walk, swim, dance, etc. We need to have enough physical activity every day to increase our rate above its normal 68-75 beats per minute. Many have told that a good exercise routine that raises our pulse rate to above 120 beats per minute is important to keep the heart muscle strong and keep fat from from building up into the heart muscle and hindering its operation. When we don’t exercise our heart loses its ‘tone’. A normal heart rhythm also requires the balance of calcium, sodium and potassium in the blood and tissues.

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WHAT FOLLOWS

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This is one of several topics related to the heart and how it is affected by our emotions, anxieties, stress, weight gain and diet and exercise. In this section we will learn how this muscular organ continually beats and circulates blood around and through our bodies. The chapters following will focus on the heart chakra, the thymus gland, the astrological sign associated to it, the psychological causes of heart disease, high blood pressure and much much more.

It is truly a miracle how a bunch of cells somehow come together and start the first organ of the body, the heart to start beating. I still remember the ultrasound with my first child and watching in awe the pulsing light on the computer screen. I am sure this experience was one of the many motivations that lead and connected me to the path of healing.

Also, my first child was born with a hole in his heart which prompted me to seek out, comprehend and understand why this happened. My father as well suffered heart problems which started in 1941; he not only suffered a heart attack in the armed forces but while in a military hospital contracted scarlett/rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever damaged the valves of his heart, affected his nervous and immune system as well as causing arthritis in his joints. (When the heart valve becomes deformed by inflammations as in rheumatic fever, the blood may leak through them in the wrong direction!) Through all this and much more, he lived to the age of 83. My dad believed commitment and responsibility are the first steps in taking control of one’s life. The 2nd step is being optimistic and confident that we can beat back any disease and live a normal life.

The Heart chakra is where you begin the journey of converting your raw emotions from the 2nd chakra……self awareness from the the 3rd chakra and converting these gut-level emotions, tenderly and vulnerably into ‘how I truly feel’. So easy to say, so hard to do.

The 2nd chakra or Sacral chakra, located in the abdominal center and sexual organs, is important in the development of self-love. Creativity, increased feelings of security, and connection with others all help to develop your personality and behavior, from your childhood. In later years, the flow of energy through the Heart (4th) chakra will create an even deeper sense of self-love and love for others. If the 2nd chakra is stifled, however, the later development of the 4th chakra may also be hindered.

“Too much fire from the heart will disrupt the mind and emotions. Anyone who’s ever had a hot flash, trouble sleeping due to mental activity or an anxiety attack can attest to this. Going through menopause causes heat and heart symptoms. These may manifest as upper body heat sensations, sweating, insomnia or disturbed sleep, mental fluctuations, feeling unsettled and nervousness. It can disturb the moisture balance of the lungs and inflame the ministerial fire of the liver, resulting in digestive dysfunction. If left unchecked long enough, it can manifest in autoimmune disorders.” Handbook of Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda ~ By Bridgette Shea

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