How long could you survive without breathing? About four minutes before serious, irreversible damage occurs to your brain and body.

 Some sports people (free divers) have extended these limits while at the same time slowing their heart beat quite drastically, to about 4 beats per minute. To compare, our normal pulse rate is between 60-70 beats per minute. Breath (or oxygen to be more precise) is the most vital thing for our bodies.

We can do without food for quite a while and we can do without water for some time but lack of oxygen will kill us within minutes. I am a firm believer that chronic, shallow and fast breathing leads to a continual under supply of oxygen which over time will lead to various problems.

Stress and breathing are closely linked: (more…)

With the recent bushfires and the terrible damage and trauma they have inflicted on so many people I want to do my little bit to help children and adults to deal with it.

I am giving you a link to a beautiful ritual which was designed by Petrea King. If you haven’t heard about Petrea and her amazing work, have a look at her website after you download the Rainbow Ritual. Go to:

http://www.questforlife.com.au/

Click on the “Services” link on Petrea’s page (on top of the page, just under the lotus flower) and in the drop down box you will find a link to “Rainbow Ritual”. From there  download the free PDF file and save it to your computer - it is really beautiful.

Children who have been traumatised need lots of reassurance and patience. They deal with feelings in a different way to us adults. Their feelings are expressed through behaviour. Most children cannot verbalise that they feel upset, angry, distressed or sad – but they certainly show it in their behaviour.

Be patient with your child, give lots of reassurance and help them feel secure by doing a nightly ritual like the rainbow one. It will help children and adults alike.

Yoga also can play a big role in recovering from trauma. According to yogic philosophy trauma stops the proper flow of prana (life energy) and this leads to all sorts of problems. The diaphragm (a very important internal sheet of muscle that stretches across the bottom of the ribcage and helps with breathing) gets contracted or “frozen” and breathing becomes shallow and too fast. Different imbalances arise from there.

The first thing to try and restore in a traumatised person is slow, steady and deep breathing. This will take quite some time but even short bursts of deep breathing will be very helpful. Breath is the main vehicle for getting prana into the body.  When the respiratory system starts to malfunction, the ability of prana to enter, be absorbed and circulated through the body’s energy channels becomes severely compromised. This will lead to all sorts of other problems, so prana flow needs to be restored to the body as quickly as possible to avoid further issues.

One technique would be to inhale through the nose and mentally say to yourself: “I am”. When you are exhaling say to yourself “letting go”. Try it, I sincerely hope that you will benefit from this simple technique.

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

During the course of our life most of us end up with an unhealthy breathing pattern, regardless of what sort of work we do. Breathing often already deteriorates during the first years of school – too much sitting, lots of stress and tension and lack of exercise in general all play a role.

The more hectic our life becomes, the faster the breath becomes. Also, an imbalance between inhalation and exhalation starts to happen. Most people are still ok with their inhalation but the exhalation becomes a problem. The exhalation becomes too short or people even tend to hold their breath without being aware of it.

Most of us have to re-learn to exhale properly. Breathing is a big part of any yoga class and you will learn different breathing techniques during class. Practice makes perfect!

In the meantime, here are some simple tips how you can get back into good breathing patterns:

As often as you can, wriggle and stretch your body softly and very slowly, yawn and sigh. Don’t stretch fully as this will create tension.

When walking or jogging inhale to a count of 2 and then exhale to a count of 4. You can also do this when sitting on your desk or driving but it will be more difficult to focus.

You will also find that by doing that, there will be no such rush for the next inhalation. You will come to a point where your breathing has 4 distinct parts:
Inhalation, pause, exhalation, pause.

The pauses are just as important as the breath. For now it is sufficient, just to be aware of them and let them happen naturally.

Till next time,

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com