Posts Tagged ‘Breathing’

INTEGRATIVE BODY MIND TRAINING REDUCES STRESS, ANGER AND DEPRESSION WHILE INCREASING RESTFUL ALERTNESS AND LEARNING CAPACITY

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

Integrative body mind training (IBMT) is a specific mind relaxation technique which incorporates aspects of traditional meditation practice, but can be learned in a matter of days rather than years. It helps users achieve a high degree of mind-body awareness within a state of restful alertness. A coach guides trainees in posture and balanced breathing while providing mental imagery and soothing music conducive to mind-body harmony in the Taoist tradition. Trainees are helped to keep their minds focused on the present moment instead of allowing their minds to switch rapidly back and forth between past and future.

IBMT was developed during the 1990s by Dr. Yi-Yuan Tang of the Dalian University of Technology in China. Dr. Tang is a distinguished researcher and professor in China where he works to link traditional meditation with modern neuroscience. He designed IBMT to serve as an easy, effective way to improve  self-regulation in cognition, emotion and social behavior.

Dr. Tang became a Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon in Eugene to work on IMBT with psychologist Michael Posner, Ph.D. In 2007 they did a pilot study on Chinese students. After 20 minutes of IMBT training over 5 days these students had lower blood cortisol levels than a control group while taking a mental math test. They also showed lower levels of tension, anger and depression.

In 2009 they did a second study involving 86 students at Dalian University of Technology. The study showed that students trained in IMBT for 20 minutes a day over 5 days showed physiologic changes consistent with reduced tension. Their brain waves went from a state of high arousal (beta) to a state of restful alertness (alpha). Heart rate and skin conductance were lowered. Breathing shifted from rapid, shallow chest breathing to slower, deeper belly breathing.

In the 2009 study Dr. Tang and Dr. Posner used SPECT scanning (which measures blood flow patterns in the brain). SPECT scans of the  participants who used IBMT displayed extra blood flow to the right anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC is an important area of the frontal lobes which helps regulate cognition by controlling where we place our attention and by resolving conflicts between new and old information. It also plays a role in emotional self-control and is capable of inhibiting fear messages from subcortical parts of the brain like the amygdale which can lower our stress level. Extra blood and oxygen helps the ACC function more efficiently and effectively.

Dr. Posner is no lightweight. He is an expert on the brain networks which underlie attention who is currently a Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Neuroscience at the university. Dr. Posner often uses brain imaging in his research. He has published book chapters and articles on the role of genetics, environment and training on the development of the neural networks of attention. He has frequently teamed up with the world’s best known cognitive neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., who currently heads the SAGE Center for the Study of Mind at U.C. Santa Barbara. He just won a National Science Medal.

On August 21, 2010, Dr. Posner was interviewed about IBMT on Science Friday produced by National Public Radio. During the broadcast he discussed his latest study on IBMT at the University of Oregon. For this study he recruited 45 USO students (28 males and 17 females). Twenty-two participants received IBMT while 23 were in a control group which received the same amount of general instruction in relaxation. The participants underwent a relatively new form of brain MRI called Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) at the Robert and Beverly Lewis Center for Neuroimaging.

 The processing areas of the brain in the gray matter and subcortical areas are clusters of neurons of like type. They communicate with each other through tracts of white matter composed of myelinated axons. A brain criss-crossed with dense, healthy thickets of myelinated axons functions very efficiently and is said to have high connectivity. A brain with low connectivity has fewer myelinated axons to hook up its processing areas. 

DTI helps neuroscientists look at the connectivity of a person’s brain in specific regions. DTI measures the time it takes water molecules to diffuse across myelinated bundles of axons in the brain (its white matter tracts). The less white matter in a given area the quicker the water molecules travel. The more white matter in a given area the slower the water molecules travel.

Using DTI Dr. Posner discovered that changes in the brain connectivity of the IBMT group began after 6 hours of training and became clear by 11 hours. He believes the changes represent a reorganization of white matter tracts or an increase in the myelin coating around them. Deficits in activation of the ACC have been associated with attention deficit disorder, dementia, depression, schizophrenia and many other disorders. Increased activation of the ACC through IMBT would appear to be highly desirable. During his interview Dr. Posner was asked if any of the students doing IMBT had suffered harm and he said no – they either displayed no change or positive change, and he emphasized that gains in ACC connectivity should help people learn more efficiently.  

During the interview Dr. Posner said he and Dr. Tang plan to continue to study IMBT and that right now it is not commercially available in the U.S. However, I did find Dr. Tang’s website at http:www.yi-yuan.net and when I clicked the services button it said that persons interested in finding an IMBT trainer in China or the U.S. should email yiyuanbalance@hotmail.com Lawyers who are struggling with stress, anxiety or depression may wish to try this email.  

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GADGETS THAT REDUCE STRESS, PROMOTE MEDITATIVE CALM AND AND INCREASE YOUR HAPPINESS

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

 

            We live in an age when machines increase our stress by disturbing our privacy, interrupting our flow and distracting our thoughts. They leave us no moments of peace, quiet and stillness when we can relax, focus inwards and re-connect with ourselves. Faxes, cell phone calls, emails and text messaging are some of the best known culprits. The world of cubicles we inhabit all our working lives is permeated with deadlines, time pressures, ceaseless motion and frenzied activity.

            The machines which now exist there are part of the problem not the solution. With our minds racing anxiously from one problem to another we don’t have time to catch our breath, to sense our bodies or to feel our feelings. We are so scattered, frazzled, and drained, all we can do to keep going is chug coffees or diet cokes. There’s got to be a better way.  

            During the past few decades researchers with one foot in modern medical science and other foot in ancient spiritual practices have created gadgets that provide the better way. Each one of them works by switching off the sympathetic nervous system responsible for the wired, fight-flight mode of existence that runs off high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and by switching on the para-sympathetic nervous system responsible for rest, digestion, growth, calm and well-being.

            Regular use of these gadgets should eliminate the hair trigger on the neuro-endocrine pathways that activate your sympathetic nervous system so you are better able to resist stress and stay calm, relaxed and focused. Calm people think more clearly and creatively than stressed out people. They are more energetic, healthier and live longer. They feel less pressured and see many more options and choices.

Calming the Amygdala

            In the 1970s physiologist Robert Keith Wallace, Ph.D. showed that meditation decreases anxiety, lowers blood pressure, decreases cortisol, and improves immune system functioning. In 2000 psychologist Paul Ekman, Ph.D. at U.C. San Francisco Medical Center found that Buddhist Monks were calmer, happier, more serene and less likely to get angry, upset or panicked than the control subjects in his research drawn from the normal population. He determined from brain scanning that the monks had tuned down the sensitivity of their amygdala.

            The amygdala is a small organ located deep within each temporal lobe of the brain which serves as the brain’s fear alarm. When it goes off the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is activated and the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol are released into the bloodstream, causing us to go into the nerve-wracking fight-flight response. The amygdala is like a smoke detector. When set on high it will blare in response to the slightest whisp of smoke. If set on low, only the thickest smoke will trigger it.

            Genetics, early childhood experiences and trauma help set the sensitivity of your amygdala. Chronic stress at work, home, or both, can increase its sensitivity. When stressful events get repeated and the amygdala is activated over and over, the cells of the amygdala become hypersensitive and a pattern of anxiety is etched into the neural circuitry. The anxious person responds automatically to challenging events with fight-flight, and pumps out cortisol at the mere anticipation of stress. High levels of cortisol trigger negative thinking, irritability, depression and suppression of the immune system.

            Meditation can break this pattern and replace it with positive thoughts and feelings which increase resistance to stress. Crucial work on how meditation helps the brain was done in 2005 by Richard Davidson, Ph.D., a friend of the Dalai Lama and a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Davidson used EEG machines and brain scanners to test the brains of normals, novice meditators and Tibetan monks who had meditated on loving-kindness on a daily basis for 30-40 years. Dr. Davidson found three distinct differences between the brains of the long term meditators and the others.

            Long term meditators had much more activity in their left frontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with happiness, empathy and compassion. Their brain waves were more organized and coordinated than those of the others. They also had a much higher level of gamma waves, the most powerful and highest frequency brain waves. This study showed that meditation helps people grow calmer, less irritable, less anxious, more compassionate towards themselves and others, and more aware of choices and options.  

The Focus Tool

            The Focus Tool (FT) was created by Shannon Duncan, author of Present Moment Awareness. Duncan asserts we can only be happy in the present since we can only participate consciously in our lives right here, right now. Only in the present can we notice and appreciate what is good in our lives. Only in the present can we connect with ourselves or others and reap the joy of that experience.

             Duncan laments the fact that most of the time people are day dreaming, ruminating over the spilt milk of the past or anticipating and worrying about the future. When they’re not doing these things, people get distracted and disengaged from the present by emotional turmoil of one kind or another. They may be judging and criticizing themselves or others; or they’re feeling strong negative emotions like fear, frustration, envy or anger.

            The purpose of the FT is to provide a timed, gentle reminder to rouse you from your state of distraction. The FT can be set to go off at random times within a pre-set interval or at specific times. It can be set just to alert you or to flash a message reminding you to keep to a goal or perform an exercise of some sort. The FT can be worn on your belt or used in conjunction with a Palm, a mobile PC or text capable phone. The FT can be purchased at www.pmasystem.com or www.audioserenity.com.  If you go to work each morning with the intention of being consistently alert and aware of what is going on in and around you, the FT could be very helpful. Without timed wake-ups it would be easy to revert to day dreaming, mental time travel or emotional dramas.

            In a typical office a reminder to meditate for thirty minutes would not go over well with the boss. In Happy For No Reason, Marci Shimoff extols the benefits of multiple mini-meditation sessions that she calls Practice Pauses. Seven times a day she will take two minutes to sit still, breathe deeply, turn inward and reconnect with herself. Shimoff says these Practice Pauses gives her a greater sense of peace, perspective and renewed energy. You could use the FT to remind you to take Practice Pauses during the work day.

 HeartMath

            The Institute of HeartMath was founded in Boulder Creek, California in 1992 by Doc Childre. Doc meditated 5 hours a day 5 days a week and was a self-taught stress researcher. He brought together a team of scientists to study the intelligence of the heart and its role in bringing body and mind into balance and coherence. Childre knew that ancient traditions including Taoism in China and Ayurvedic medicine in India viewed the heart as a source of wisdom. 

            Childre was also aware of some remarkable research done in the 1970s by physiologists John and Beatrice Lacey at the Fels Research Institute. The Laceys discovered the human heart had at least 40,000 neurons which communicated with the brain. These neurons told the brain how the body felt. This “brain within the heart” effects our thoughts and emotions. The Laceys found that negative thoughts generated a disorganized, incoherent pattern of heart rhythms which in turn produced full fledged anxiety. When subjects focused on their hearts and had positive, self-nurturing thoughts of love, caring, compassion, and appreciation, their hearts generated coherent, well organized EKG patterns leading to feelings of wellbeing.

            The Laceys’ physiological research showed that coherent heart rhythms reduced secretion of cortisol, increased activation of human growth hormone (HGH) and increased secretion of an anti-stress, anti-aging hormone called DHEA. Their conclusion was that cultivating feelings of love, compassion, caring, and appreciation, will provide us with healthier, happier and longer lives because these feelings stimulate the heart to beat in a coherent pattern.

          Doc Childre and his group measured the electromagnetic waves (Em waves) coming from the brain, heart and digestive system. They found the heart’s electromagnetic field is 5,000 times more powerful than the brain’s, and can be detected several feet away from the body in all directions. This explains emotional contagion – the phenomenon of one happy or one cranky person raising or lowering the mood of a whole group of people around them.   

             Childre’s group also studied heart rate variability (HRV). This refers to how the rate of heart beats per minute keeps changing over time. This can be plotted in such a way that heart beats per minute appear as sine waves oscillating up and down over 5 second intervals. They discerned that children have much more HRV than old people, that the progressive loss of HRV is a feature of aging and that when your heart rate has no variability you’ve got one foot in the grave.

             The most remarkable thing they found was that when someone’s heart rate changed regularly every 10 seconds the person would breathe gently and feel relaxed  irrespective of all other variables including gender, age, and body mass. When people became angry, frustrated, worried, or anxious, Childre’s group observed their heart rhythm pattern became disorganized and jerky. When people felt appreciation and other positive emotions their HRV became orderly and smooth.

             Childre says a calm heart calms the brain and that coherent heart rhythms evoke feelings of security and wellbeing. He wrote that coherent heart rhythms pull your brain waves into synchrony with your heart, which integrates mind and emotions and leads to mental clarity, improved perception and access to the genius of your own intuition. He  says that coherent heart rhythms improve your health, vitality and slow pre-mature aging.

             According to Childre a coherent heart rhythm entrains the amygdala and synchronizes its activity to the heart, making it less likely to activate the sympathetic nervous system and kick off the fight-flight response. When cortisol levels are low, and levels of DHEA are high people feel more vital, energetic and positive. Childre says a person who uses HeartMath’s products to bring his heart rhythm into coherence can lower his cortisol and raise his DHEA.

             HeartMath sells two products that can be taken to the office to bring your heart rhythm into coherence. Each one measures the Em waves of your heart through the pulse. The emWave PSR (Portable Stress Reliever) is a handheld device the size of an i-pod. You can measure your pulse by placing your thumb on the device or by attaching a small plastic clip to your earlobe. The device guides you on when to inhale and exhale and helps you reach coherence. It awards you points for staying in coherence and takes them away when you fall out of it. You can monitor your state of coherence by flashing lights, bleeping sound or both. You can use the device while working at your desk, driving in your car and anywhere else (except the bathtub).

           The emWave PC consists of software to download on your PC or Mac plus a sensor for your ear or finger. It produces a graphic display in real time of each heart beat, your heart beats per minute, your coherence ratio and accumulated coherence. There are four levels of coherence with 1 being the lowest and 4 the highest. Your TC (total coherence) score is the percentage of time you were in coherence. The software lets you play games like using coherence to lift and fly a hot air balloon. Trained meditators can use these devices to signal when they are losing attention or holding onto negative thoughts, because either circumstance produces heart rhythm incoherence.   

            The emWave products can be purchased at www. heartmathstore.com The HeartMath website has a list of instructors who can teach you how to use the products, typically in 4 one-hour sessions over the course of one month. Instructors charge separately for their services.  

 Sound Healing

             Jan Cercone, R.N., who runs the Song & Spirit Center in Novato, CA, is a leading practitioner of sound healing. As Jan explained to me, the paradigm which underlies sound healing is that human beings are quantum beings whose ways of thinking, feeling and relating derive from the vibrational frequency of the quantum waves and particles out of which they are made.

             Hurtful messages sent unintentionally by parents during childhood, trauma, maladaptive beliefs absorbed from our culture and unhealthy eating habits are some of the factors that can lower your vibrational frequency. People with a low vibrational frequency experience depression and dis-ease, a frustrating sense that they are not meeting their potential. 

             Sound healing is designed to unblock your energy, let it flow and raise your vibrational frequency. It is also meant to give you direct access to the knowledge of who you are and why you’re here, knowledge that lies in the unconscious and which can remain obscured for years, even a lifetime. Sound healing is aimed at enlightening you in a double sense. It makes you lighter by draining off the heaviness you feel from older, negative patterns of vibrational energy that held you back or sickened you, and increases your self-awareness, thus turning on the proverbial mental light bulb.

             Jan does the sound healing in a special room. Its walls are covered with art works seeped in spiritual symbolism and lined with wooden display cases housing gorgeous crystals. Exotic stringed instruments lie near a bed in the center of the room. The bed is composed of a very comfortable mat on the floor. The soft pillows and blankets display spiritual symbols on them, such as Celtic runes. The room is quiet and peaceful.

            Before the sound healing commenced Jan asked me to speak into a microphone hooked up to her laptop computer. The software displayed my speaking voice in graphic form according to how much or how little I hit notes A though F. The software decoded my individual pattern of notes into information about my emotional, nutritional, glandular and cardio-vascular health that Jan interpreted for me.

             After my session on the computer, Jan had me lie down on the bed. She covered me up in the blankets and had me close my eyes. Although what transpired next probably took just 30 minutes of clock time, it seemed like a journey of at least 12 hours. Jan circled me while singing and chanting in a language I didn’t understand and played the exotic stringed instruments. She had me “ask and intend” certain things out loud and participate in the release of old negative energy and the in-flow of new, positive energy to raise my vibrational level.

             After the sound healing was done, I opened my eyes and took stock of my body. I felt incredibly serene, peaceful and contented. It was a windy day and I watched the tops of the green trees blow back and forth through the window. I could have stayed there forever in that blissed out state, but eventually it was time to get up and go. Jan encouraged me to check in with her in about 3 months and suggested some books for me to read given my interest in the new quantum paradigm.

             I asked Jan how she knew what to sing, what to chant, what instruments to use and what melodies to play. She told me she downloaded it effortlessly in the moment in the form of instructions from the transcendent intelligence that Lynne McTaggart called The Field in her book by the same name. Jan says she uses a different combination of singing, chanting and instrumental music for every client and it’s always just what they need, because it’s what they’re asking for unconsciously.

             Jan has a variety of gadgets to keep your quantum energy pattern in tune and your vitality level high. One is a tuning fork that you can bring to the office or use at home. To use the tuning fork you simply strike it and place it on your body or sing or hum with it. It’s a true tune-up to re-balance your body. She also sells pyramids and jewelry made from specific forms embodying sacred geometry that can shift energy.

             Jan showed me an aquahealon which is a device to energize the water you use everyday. The aquahealons are fascinating objects coated in blue ceramic with fantastical geometric shapes made by Rod Butler according to a proprietary formula. Jan says they increase water’s frequency, absorbability, alkalinity, clarity and available energy by intention. You can have a plumber put them in the in-flow pipe to your sink. You can also put them in your bathtub or hot tub when you bathe.

             The most interesting device of all is not portable, but can only be used at Jan’s studio and is now under construction (as of this writing in October 2009). It is a Sound Light and Color Immersion experience. The entire room fills with just the right pitches and colors to re-pattern your stress, emotions and physical frequencies for profound and permanent healing. You can reach Jan at www.Musicforjoyandhealing.com or 707-206-5068.     

Flotation Tank

            A flotation tank is a lightless, soundproof tank in which a person floats on a 10 inch layer of super-salinated water kept at skin temperature of 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The salt in the tank is Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) not sea salt (sodium chloride). Epsom salt relaxes the muscles and draws toxins from the body. Flotation tanks give you the experience of weightlessness and of loss of proprioception – the consciousness of where your body is located in space. The flotation tank came into mass consciousness in 1980 with Altered States starring William Hurt. The device was invented by neuro-psychiatrist John Lilly, M.D. in 1954.  

             Initially Dr. Lilly used the tank for research purposes to find out if human consciousness would continue to exist in the complete absence of stimulation. He continued to explore its affects on the human mind for many years. He used it for solitude, relaxation, meditation, prayer, visualization, enhancement of creativity and problem solving. Dr. Lily worked with the Samadhi Tank Company to invent the first commercial flotation tank in 1972.

             Float tanks used to be called isolation tanks or sensory deprivation tanks, but these terms have fallen out of use since they are negative and conjure up visions of torture and interrogation. Although some people do feel claustrophobic and panic in a float tank, most people overcome their resistance to floating in a black, soundproof environment and enter into a deep state of relaxation.    

             Flotation tanks activate the para-sympathetic nervous system, decrease cortisol and decrease heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure. They increase blood circulation, which is excellent for anyone with circulatory or inflammatory problems. By taking the weight off the body they reduce pain from spinal arthritis, bulging or herniated discs and the discomfort from standing and walking during late pregnancy.     

             In the late 1970s Peter Suedfeld and Roderick Borrie of the University of British Columbia began experimenting on the therapeutic benefits of the flotation tank. They named their technique “Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy” or REST. Their work, and the work by the people who came after them, showed the flotation tank helped people with stress, anxiety, chronic pain, swelling from acute injury, insomnia and jet leg. Recently Sven-Ake Bood, Ph.D. of the Human Performance Laboratory at Karlstad University in Sweden, demonstrated that regular float sessions helped people with stress to decrease long term symptoms of anxiety, depression and fibromyalgia.

             I tried floating at The Float Center in Oakland, CA run by Allison Walton who has floated regularly for 17 years. She explained that floating increases visualization, creativity and insight by enabling the brain to function without all the distraction and extra work of having to process loads of external stimulation. Just perceiving an object exerts pressure on us to identify it, interpret its significance and respond to it. Being in an environment devoid of objects is freeing, which is why so many people love to walk on the beach along an empty expanse of vast ocean, and which is one reason floating is so enjoyable.

             During a float after a period of settling down your alpha and beta waves gradually give way to theta waves. These are high amplitude, low frequency brain waves which normally occur in the twilight state when we are just drifting off to sleep or just beginning to wake up. This is the magical time when people experience heightened receptivity, inspiration and creativity.

             I followed the normal procedure during my float. No shaving that day because shaving nicks can really hurt in salty water that is much saltier than the Dead Sea. No coffee two hours before getting in the tank so I would not be restless or agitated. First I showered so I went into the tank completely clean. I opened the tank door, got in, turned around, sat down and closed the door from inside. Then I lay down on the water and began floating. It was totally black and noiseless inside. I used meditative breathing to relax and get myself mentally accustomed to being in there. Then I stretched my body to become physically comfortable. I remembered Allison telling me to check the muscle tension in my neck. She said most people tighten their neck muscles out of primal fear of drowning, and that I should clasp my hands behind my head to support it from behind for a few seconds to inhibit this reflex.

             This worked. Soon I was in a peaceful but alert state. I was able to hear the rhythmic sound of my own heart beating along with my slow, gentle breathing. After a short while these sounds disappeared and I started fantasizing all kinds of things. I just let my mind go with the flow. These fantasies were interspersed with creative ideas related to enhancing my website. Later on I went into a semi-sleep state. When Allison knocked on the outside of the tank to let me know my hour was up, I didn’t want to leave because it was so incredibly cozy in there. Allison had told me it would be a womb-like experience, because I would be floating weightlessly in salt water, and she was right.

             It’s been two days since my float and I’m still in a rather cheerful, positive mood. At this point I’ve only tried the float tank once, but I can see the enormous potential for some highly stressed people. While a float tank is not for everyone, since some people do have claustrophobia, it can be a very effective tool for stress reduction, decreasing anxiety and promoting the same kind of positive mental and emotional states that daily meditation does. The best way to overcome a hair trigger sympathetic nervous system (with frequent episodes of fight-flight) is to strengthen your para-sympathetic nervous system. Floating is one good tool for achieving this goal.      

 

 

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Relax Your Belly, Breathe Slower and Deeper and Become a Happier Lawyer

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Why Breathing Matters – Getting the Facts

             Although we take approximately 20,000 breaths per day, breathing requires no conscious input and so most people pay no attention to it. Yet breathing is the foundation of our existence and it has a huge impact on our overall physical health, energy level, mood, and quality of life. Breathing deeply gives us vitality and the capacity to lead an inspired life of fully realized potential. Shallow breathing leaves us fearful, sluggish and depressed and consigns us to a shallow life. Breathing can either eliminate stress and free us to be at our best or it can load us up with stress. It’s all in how we do it.

             The creation of energy within our bodies comes from breathing. Seventy percent of the waste from metabolism is eliminated through our lungs by exhalation CO2 and water vapor. Energy is created when we take oxygen into our lungs by breathing, transfer that oxygen to the hemoglobin in red blood cells and transfer the oxygen from the hemoglobin to the mitochondria in our cells. The mitochondria combine oxygen with the carbon in food to generate chemical energy in the form of ATP molecules. The more oxygen we take in and get to our mitochondria, the more energy we have. When we constrict our breathing from unresolved anger or fear, we reduce our energy and constrict our lives. 

             The average human lung capacity is 4,000 ml. of air per breath, but the average person only inhales 500 ml. of air per breath. Most of the blood awaiting oxygenation from the lungs is pooled at the base of the lungs, yet most people engage in shallow, upper chest breathing not deep, full belly breathing that brings oxygen to the lower lungs.

             It has been proven it is possible to for the average person to increase his intake from 500 ml. to 1,500 ml. of air per breath (and to bring this air to the base of his lungs) by practicing simple breathing techniques. Yet, the vast majority of people are unaware of these techniques and not motivated to learn them. They simply don’t appreciate all the benefits they could reap in the form of increased vigor, energy and endurance for all forms of mental and physical activity.       

Learn Full Body Breathing From Expert Dennis Lewis

             Dennis Lewis is an expert on full body breathing. He has a 3 volume set of audio CDs called Natural Breathing published by Sounds True (www.soundstrue.com). Lewis says that unconscious muscular tension and body posture dramatically affects our breathing, usually for the worse.

             To help the listener really get the point he leads you through a lengthy series of different postures with different levels of muscle tension while asking you to keep breathing and to notice the changes in your breathing. Slumped postures, asymmetrical postures (where body weight is shifted more in one direction than others) and muscle tension each made it more difficult to breathe freely and evenly.

             Whether you are seated, standing or walking Lewis recommends keeping your belly as relaxed as possible and holding your spine erect without stiffness or rigidity. Spinal compression and belly tightness are the most common factors that restrict natural breathing. To avoid spinal compression you need to avoid leaning forward, backwards or sideways and avoid slouching. This requires a strong core, and so doing Pilates would be of great assistance here.

             Full body breathing requires that as you inhale you are moving your diaphragm downwards, expanding the belly, expanding the lower posterior ribs and expanding the lower back. When you get it right, it feels as if a giant balloon is pushing your belly forwards and your lower posterior ribs and lower back backwards. Simultaneously you feel an enormous expansion of the bottom of your lungs.

             Lewis’ guided exercises on softening the belly are effective and feel great. Each one requires that you lay on your back with feet on the floor and knees bent. You start off each one by rubbing your hands together until they are warm and massaging the belly around the navel. Then you try different kinds of breathing with your hands gently resting on your belly in different positions. By the time you’re done, your belly feels incredibly soft and expands easily under your hands as you inhale.

             Lewis says that anytime you’re feeling highly stressed you can lay on your back, rub your hands warm, gently place them on your belly and breathe slowly and deeply – feeling the rising of the belly during exhalation and the falling of the belly during inhalation. His CDs also contain five breathing meditations to aid in improvement of your daily breathing.

 A Whole New Belly – Using Kundalini Yoga to Activate the Navel Center and Re-energize the Body and Spirit Through Breath Work

             Easy breathing requires a relaxed belly. Many people in our society dislike their bellies. Some believe they are too fat. Some are unhappy, because they can’t fit into small sized clothes. Some are seeking to develop perfect six pack abs but no matter how much they exercise, diet and use supplements they can’t look like a magazine cover and so they feel frustration. If we could enjoy our bellies, and see them as source of energy, vitality and life, we could have a whole new relationship with them.

             Kundalini yoga is the antidote. It is a highly energetic form of yoga in which participants try to pump as much oxygen into their lungs as possible. In this practice having a soft, flexible belly is a great advantage and full expansion of the belly into a protruding dome is desirable.

             In 1969 a remarkable man named Yogi Bhajan left India to teach Kundalini Yoga in the United States. He started in Los Angeles. In 1970 he established 3HOs (Happy, Healthy, Holy Organizations) which spread Kundalini yoga across the country. In 1971 he established the Kundalini Research Institute to train and certify instructors.

             Kundalini refers to the primal energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine and can be released to flow to the navel center. The navel center is the body’s center of gravity. You can feel your navel center while doing Kundalini yoga kriyas (exercise sequences). Certain kriyas stimulate nerves leading to the navel center and eventually you can feel a ball of pulsing energy there. With the right set of exercises in the right sequence you can raise your Kundalini from the base of the spine, up to your navel center and on to your heart, throat and mind. This journey is accompanied by the experience of self-transformation.

             Specific kriyas in Kundalini yoga focus on the third chakra and the lower triangle of our body which contains the ribs, lungs, belly, navel, genitals and pelvic floor muscles. The lower triangle is envisioned as a cup which exists to hold the “universal tea of love.” The cup needs a strong bottom so the tea won’t drain out, which is why Kundalini yoga uses strenuous exercise to strengthen the abs and PC muscles. The cup needs to be emptied of old, unresolved anger, fear, and sadness, to make room for the tea of love. Kundalini yoga helps with emotional clearing of past hurtful memories through vigorous breath work. Finally the cup must be filled with the tea of love through opening the third eye and use of mantra.

             Kundalini makes use of the “breath of fire,” which is a method of breathing in which you do many, rapid, forceful exhalations for a pre-set period of time. Inhalation occurs naturally and on its own during breath of fire. During breath of fire, you engage the root lock which means you squeeze your genitals and PC muscles. Breath of fire thoroughly oxygenates the body and raises your body temperature 

             Here is an example of a Kundalini yoga kriya called Nahbi Kriya (navel power exercises):

 (1)       Lay on your back with arms at your sides, palms down. Inhale and lift one leg to ninety degrees while mentally chanting Sat. Exhale and lower the leg to the floor while mentally chanting Nam. Switch legs. Keep doing this for 2-5 minutes until you’re able to tolerate 5-7 minutes. Eventually move up to 10 minutes.

 (2)       Lay on your back with both arms raised straight overhead, palms facing each other. As you inhale bring both legs up to 90 degrees while mentally chanting Sat. Then exhale and lower both legs while saying Nam. Keep repeating for the desired interval. Work up from 1 to 5 minutes.

 (3)       Rest by drawing both knees to your chest and holding them to your chest with your arms. Breathe slowly and deeply while using the pressure of your knees against your chest to help you fully exhale. 5 minutes

 (4)       Remain on your back with knees bent. Open both arms out to your sides. Inhale while extending both legs out in front at a sixty degree angle. While exhaling, draw both legs in back to your chest. This is called the cocoon-butterfly. 6-15 minutes.

 (5)       Now do wonder-bends. Stand up with arms raised overhead and wrists extended backwards with palms facing the ceiling. While exhaling, bring your arms down while bending at the waist. Keep your arms and wrists fully extended and in that position touch the floor (or the tops of your feet). On the inhale come back up and finish with arms overhead and wrists extended with palms facing the ceiling. Extend the spine and feel yourself become taller with every inhale. As you bend at the waist you should feel your navel center activated.   

            In a group session of Nahbi kriya with a Kundalini Yoga teacher you will first tune in with the mantra ong namo guru dev namo to call upon your life force, then you do each part of the kriya, relax and/or meditate for 7-20 minutes, and end with the Longtime sunshine song. It is always recommended to work up to the full times gradually. There is a nice description of the navel center and this kriya at: http://www.kundaliniyoga.org/kyt09.html

 Three Kinds of Tight Bellies

             Some people have difficulty taking a full breath, because of a tight belly. There are three kinds of tight bellies. One kind results from avoiding exercise, another from exercising solely to get six pack abs and another from fear. 

             By the time we hit middle age our metabolisms have slowed and we’re producing a whole lot less human growth hormone so it’s much easier to add pounds from fat around the middle than to stay muscular and lean. If we don’t make an effort to eat right and exercise frequently, we can end up with a soft pear shaped belly with fat mostly distributed around the hips, buttocks and thighs, or we can acquire a dense, hard, apple shaped belly. The fat inside an apple shaped belly is not subcutaneous and jiggly like that of the pear shaped belly. Apple belly fat is visceral fat that coats our organs. It’s hard and doesn’t rebound when you poke it.

             Adults with this type of belly have markedly elevated rates of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea and depression. Why? These kinds of bellies store and release toxic chemicals from the environment as well as bad cholesterol, trigylcerides and hormones. They build up artery clogging plaques. They also encircle and penetrate the heart, liver, kidneys and intestines, reduce blood circulation within those organs and compromise their function. Many obese individuals with sleep apnea have an apple belly.

             They snore like buzz saws. They have hundreds of very brief night-time awakenings caused by their brain forcing them to gasp for air when their throats constrict their breathing passage. All those episodes of oxygen deprivation cause day-time grogginess and fatigue. Physicians who treat apnea may prescribe a CPAP mask which forces air into your lungs at night while you’re asleep.

             The other tight belly that restricts free breathing is the six pack belly coveted by so many people because every men’s and women’s health and fitness magazine promotes them as the apex of health and sex appeal. Having six pack abs provides cosmetic benefits but can harm your health. How? Instead of doing whole body exercises to promote strength, fitness and a strong back, the person focuses totally on their upper abs, which does not support the spine. The tighter the abs the less room you’re your lower lungs have to expand, and the less your intake of oxygen when you breathe.

             If you want to breathe right and enjoy good health, eating right, exercising your whole body regularly and not getting suckered into the obsessive quest for six pack abs are all good ideas.

             The third type of tight belly occurs in the presence of anxiety. This type of belly can be relaxed by using Dennis Lewis’ breathing technique, Kundalini yoga or by meditation.

 The Neuro-physiology of Breathing, The Vagus Nerve and Why Deep Breathing Practices (Including Meditation) Make Us Happier

             The area of the brain responsible for involuntary (mindless) breathing is the respiratory center located at the top of the medulla oblongata and the floor of the fourth brain ventricle. It is connected to the vagus nerve (the 10th cranial nerve) that stimulates  the larynx, the lungs, the diaphragm and the heart. Some treatments for depression involve stimulating the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is sometimes called the happy nerve or the compassion nerve, and is associated with empathy and altruism. 

             Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. is the Director of the Social Interaction Laboratory at UC Berkeley and the author of Born To Be Good. Dr. Keltner says activation of the vagus nerve is what gives people that warm feeling of expansion in their chest when they witness or participate in an act of kindness or when they experience something that is beautiful or inspiring. Keltner’s research group shows that people who have a high level of vagus nerve activation are more prone than other people to feel positive emotions like compassion, gratitude, love and happiness. Nancy Eisenberg, a psychologist at Arizona State University, has found that children with high levels of vagus nerve activation are likely to be cooperative and giving people.

             Although the optimal rate of breathing for human health is 6 breaths per minute, the average person breathes 12-14 times per minute. When a person is anxious his respiratory rate goes still higher. A person who is calm and relaxed, and who is breathing at 6 times per minute or less, is likely to feel good.

             The vagus nuclei tells the lungs how many times to breathe based upon sensory inputs that include such things as fear, the location and level of muscular tension in the body, the level of stress hormones in the blood and the level of byproducts of physical exercise in the blood (carbon dioxide and lactic acid). A person who is frequently stressed out by his work but doesn’t meditate or engage in other relaxation practices (such as Dr. Herbert Benson’s relaxation response or Dennis Lewis’ belly breathing on the floor) is going to respire way above the healthy rate.

             Although the object of meditation is achieving happiness by means of seeing through delusion, releasing one’s attachments and repulsions and cultivating compassion for oneself and others, meditation involves relaxation. In order to meditate it is necessary to calm and quiet the mind and this is done through slow, deep breathing. When you practice meditation, you learn to slow your rate of respiration and to breathe more deeply. Guess what? Medical research shows that meditation increases vagus nerve stimulation.

             Many of us learned as children to hold our breath when we were frightened and attempting to avoid emotional pain. As adults, we continue to engage in rapid, shallow chest breathing when we are anxious. Far from helping us solve the problem at hand, this response serves only to increase our stress level, increase our disconnect from the environment and reduce our options for successfully adapting. If we can breathe better, we will work better and live better.

 Conclusion

             Karyn Krause, my Kundalini yoga instructor, uses a metaphor of horses, a cart and driver to explain the mind, body, breath connections. In this metaphor, the cart is the body, the horses are the mind and the breath is the driver who holds the reins.  Most of us allow the mind to dominate our lives, which allows the horses to pull us and jerk us in all directions. If we focus our attention on the breath and put the breath in control of the mind, the breath will have the reins and can guide the course of the horse. This makes our ride through life much smoother and more enjoyable.

             Karyn also says that the mind is the ticker tape message at the bottom of the TV screen of our awareness. It is always on and always alerting us to distracting trivia and messages that could needlessly upset and frighten us if we paid attention to them. She encourages her students to focus on their breathing, their feelings and their relationships with others. Healthy breathing will contribute to more positive feelings and relationships, whereas shallow breathing combined with a riveted focus on the blinking messages of the mind will take you in a negative direction.

             The good news is that we can choose where we go. When you make breathing your focus, you are able to live in the Now instead of getting distracted by mental messages. Living in the Now, your emotional intelligence is activated. You are in tune with your feelings and the feelings of others. Your feelings of awkwardness, tension and anxiety in dealing with others recedes. You’re able to experience life directly and respond naturally.  What a wonderful and welcome change!

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