Are You Alive?

It would appear if you are breathing, you are alive…. But how much are you living?  Our daily stresses keep building up, our health is compromised – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually we are stifled.  Where is the release/relief button?  Believe it or not, it begins with our breath.

Breathing creates movement as we inhale and exhale, our whole body moves in synchronicity with that movement.  This helps with the circulation of all fluids including blood, lymph and cerebrospinal fluid all of which help nourish and cleanse the vital body.  Fluids flowing against gravity are assisted with movement.  This movement also allows the connective tissue throughout the body to release stored emotions and rigid beliefs, keeping the body supple and flexible.  Imagine a workout and a massage for our organs, just utilizing the breathing cycle!

In the Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, breathing affects Qi (energy) flow.  The energy that builds in the lungs, collected from the air and the food energy sent up to the lungs from the digestive system, which is circulated to all of the meridians via the lung meridian.  The more powerful the breathing cycle, the more powerful the flow of energy is throughout the body.

As each breath is taken, the brain scans all the different frequencies of the body.  Our denser frequencies are all the things we can touch, bones, blood, muscles etc.  Our higher frequencies are the Chakras, meridians, emotions, thoughts etc.  On an inhalation the scan is from lowest to highest frequencies and is reversed on the exhalation.  During this scan information is gathered and the central nervous system then deploys the resources needed to maintain a healthy balance in the body, based on the perceived needs from the scan.  So if the breath is restricted, information will not be properly gathered and the nervous system does not have all the information to make accurate decisions on where the resources are most needed and areas of the body without a proper scan get left out of the balanced equation of health.  If these un-scanned items are chronically missed, symptoms begin to appear in the body.  This is the body’s cry for attention, if the cry in unattended to it becomes a scream in a place that perhaps it can get your attention.  Would you ever deny a neglected child the attention or survival resources it needs?  No…Then why would we neglect our body’s cry for attention that could prevent further destruction and disease?  Beginning with our breath and allowing our body’s need to be heard, it doesn’t get any easier than that!

Typically, an inability to breathe in results in emotional and mental disturbances and an inability to exhale results in chronic pain such as arthritis. Simply fully inhaling, getting in touch with life and all it has to offer, fully exhaling and letting go of all the burdens we cling to, is a powerful way to become responsible for your own health and listen to what your body has to say.