Our Earth Breathes – We Can Help Her!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JViFugTtNQ

“Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.  Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out”, is a beloved saying of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn.  As the video shows above, we are not alone in the act of respiration.  Our Earth that sustains and feeds us is breathing as well.  The question could be asked, what are we feeding her??

The Institute of Hearth Math who has done many years of scientific research on the power of the heart to inform our actions, feelings and thoughts believes that we should ask this question.  The passage below from their most recent newsletter addresses this question:

What Are You Feeding the Field?
This Earth Day, we all can pause to assess what our emotions are contributing to our environment, how we are feeding the field environment. This goes beyond conserving and respecting Earth’s resources. Everyone must ask, “What am I feeding the field?”Personal experience tells us when we are angry, inhospitable and uncaring, we affect not only ourselves, but also those around us. Consider how one unkind, thoughtless or angry person affects a roomful of people; the feeling of discomfort and negative energy is noticeable. Conversely, have you ever felt the change a room’s atmosphere undergoes upon the entrance of a vibrant, cheerful or positive person?What if people around the world intentionally experienced sincere love, care, compassion and other positive emotions simultaneously and fed this positive energy into the global field environment?This question led to an experiment, and after nearly five years, more than 40,000 members of the resulting Global Coherence Initiative, with members in 87 countries, regularly feed positive energy and heart-focused care and intention into the planetary field environment.Collectively, we create a field that interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field and energetic systems. As people intentionally send coherent love and care to the world, a more powerful heart-filled environment is created. This helps to build a reservoir of positive energy that benefits the planet. This reservoir can then be utilized to help bring balance and stabilization to people, thereby making it easier to find solutions to problems like climate change, the destruction of the rain forests and other global issues.There is more to this phenomenon than the feeling you get. HeartMath researchers repeatedly have categorized real mental and physical changes study participants undergo when they experience positive and negative emotions. HeartMath and other research shows that focusing on core heart-felt emotions can enhance one’s connection with others, and that this connection extends far beyond the individual.The research article Coherence: Bridging Personal, Social, and Global Health concludes that being responsible for and increasing our personal coherence are not only reflected in improved personal health and happiness but also feed into and are reflected in a global field environment. ” Institute of Heart Math**************************************

As we breathe from a place informed by our heart our breath opens and becomes more fluid and easeful.  We then change the environment of this “global field”….thus making better decisions for the health of our planet, which is essentially intimately connected to our own health.  Remember on this 2012 Earth Day celebration………EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY!

www.ResonanceWithLife.com

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Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview and Reviews can be found here:
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See new review by Richard Miller, Ph.D!!!

 

Belly Love and Body Image

In a recent post by Melissa Geiger called Reclaiming The Wisdom of Your Belly   she talks about the power that is located in this part of your body.  Our modern culture has us not only being ashamed of our abdomens, but also doing everything we can do to hold it in so that we will supposedly “look better”, or fit the cultural standards that have evolved from who knows where.  This applies to males as well as females.

The fact of the matter is, if we hold our bellies in trying to achieve something that our natural body does not want to conform to then we can NEVER get a full embodied breath, nor expand that lower portion of our lungs.  With belly held tight the breath inhabits upper chest and shoulders resulting in perpetually tight neck, shoulders, upper back and jaw.  No wonder we continuously need massages to help relieve these chronically tight muscles!

To help us in our decision to have a renewed loving relationship with our bellies here are a few things to remember (from Melissa Geiger/link above):

The Power of Your Belly

*In other cultures around the world, the belly is honored as the center of our physical & spiritual power.

*The Japanese word for belly is hara, and they use this word as a description of a person’s character. A “person with belly” (hara no aru hito) refers to someone who is calm, centered, warm-hearted and wise. Developing your hara is synonymous with developing maturity & integrity.

*On a physiological level, your belly is home to your Enteric Nervous System (ENS), which is often called “our second brain.”

*Psychological stress has an immediate impact on your digestive system. Chronic stress often leads to chronic digestive issues.

*60-70% of your immune system is located in your digestive system.

*Our digestive health has a direct effect on our daily sense of well-being.

*Diets that are high in sugar, fat & processed foods make your belly an environment where pathogenic bacteria, viruses & cancer cells can thrive.

*Eating raw & living plant-based foods bring more oxygen into your belly. Oxygen helps to create an environment where healthy cells thrive and unhealthy cells get crowded out.

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Many of us hold stress and tension in the area of our bellies, and the extra weight which is often gained there as we age adds to our refusal to simply love and accept this part of our body.  Breathing Spaces has talked about relating with the breath as if it was your lover.  What if you treated your belly just as mindfully?

Place your hands there and feel the warmth of energy that flows in as you bring loving thoughts and feelings through your hands into your belly.  In stressful times take time to move from this part of your body, rest your nurturing hands there, allow the belly to softly expand outwards as you inhale releasing any held tension, use your favorite massage oil to increase circulation and promote lymphatic flow, or simply be mindfully present to this powerful center and breathe.

After all Buddha had a belly!

WEBSITE:  www.ResonanceWithLife.com

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT: 

www.NaturalWealthJournal.com
www.WildlyFreeWoman.com

Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview and Reviews can be found here:
http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

Soulful Breath

There is an organization called Playing For Change that travels globally, as well as connects musicians all over the world, on behalf of healing and connecting all of us through music.   I haven’t yet found a video that they have done that I haven’t overwhelmingly enjoyed.  However the most recent one below has to be one of the most SOULFUL pieces I have heard in a very long time!

Listening to this I couldn’t keep still and I found the music moving me in body, heart, soul and breath!  It wasn’t about the words….it was about the feeling within the voice, the passion in the depths of the music, the interconnection between all of the group that created the deep soulful rendering of a very old song.

When I drop into what a “soulful breath” is I feel that it has these same qualities.  The feeling and quality within the breath.  You have an opportunity every time you breathe to put some “soul” in it so to speak.  Passion for your life, the relationships you are creating, and the way you treat your environment.

Does your breath reach way down into the depths of your lungs, belly, hips, and back?  Or does it show up as a shallow rendition of your life?  Is there passion as you breathe and move, or are you on automatic?  What if your breath was your lover.  Would you pay more attention to it then?

Take some time to listen to this Playing For Change song soulfully rendered by the Blind Man….and if you are not moved physically and deep down into your very soul…… then you better check your pulse! (and your breathing!)

Spiral Of Breath

When we really pay attention to our breath a spaciousness arises that has a quality of art in movement.  Have you ever thought of your breath as an art piece? As a representation of a timeless geometric code?

The exquisite Thomas Rucker photo above captured my attention in a very breath and body oriented way.  It represented to me the Golden Ratio Spiral which is the mathematical expression of the life breath of a living universe.  Golden Ratio Spiral spins the breath up, around and through the spine as well as spiraling back and forth through right and left nostrils.  This is all a microcosm of the galaxy we spiral within.

The air we breathe, and all life forms as we know them emerge out of timeless geometric codes.  The very nature of our breath is a sacred representation of all life on Earth….and the entire Universe.  Can you imagine what it would be like to be a tiny particle traveling on the back of the breath?  The inner worlds you glimpse might take you shooting off in directions unknown and drop you down into the knowing of a moment nestled in the silence of a pause.

We are an integral interconnected part of the spiral of life.

Allow breath to emerge as an artistic expression of the universe

Wrapping you in carefully selected layers of receptive earth, air and stone.

Touch the layers of life around and within you.

Ride the spiral of breath……

WEBSITE:  www.ResonanceWithLife.com

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.NaturalWealthJournal.com
www.WildlyFreeWoman.com

Give Us This Day Our Daily Breath Preview and Reviews can be found here:
http://resonancewithlife.com/daily-breath-book/

Heart Focused Breathing

At the recent Breathwork Summit put on by The Shift Network I was extremely privileged to hear many gifted and wise breath “experts” share their particular expertise and stories.  It was actually a delight!

Among those who spoke were Deborah Rozman and Rollin McCraty of HeartMath.  Since it is only days before Valentines Day I thought it appropriate to share some of their findings and practices here on BreathingSpaces.

The bottom line is that the heart rhythm is affected by our breath.  The heart then sends neural information to our brain on how to react based on how we are breathing.  The more shallow and faster the breath the more emotional response.  As we continue in the “fight or flight” or sympathetic nervous system response pattern the hearts more chaotic rhythm will send more input to the brain that then keeps our breathing stuck in the quick and shallow pattern.  As you can see this could be a vicious cycle!

If our heart rhythm is out of sync, as happens when our breathing rate is faster and more shallow when we are under stress of any kind, then we are out of what HeartMath calls “co-herence”.  This heart rhythm of co-herence is one that is natural and in balanced alignment with all systems of our body, mind and emotions.  It turns on the parasympathetic system – our natural restful state.

Here is a Heart Focused Breathing practice that you can use in times when stress hits and you feel your breath rhythm change:

1)  Focus your attention in the heart.  (you can place a hand there as well)

2)  Pretend the breath is going in and out of the heart.  Count to 5 with each inhale and 5 with each exhale. (A rhythm of co-herence)

3)  While you are doing this breath rhythm, focusing on breathing in and out of the heart, bring a positive feeling like gratitude, appreciation, and compassion –  or imagine a beautiful scene out in nature that makes you feel good.

In a short period of time you will come back into a heart rhythm of co-herence through focusing your breathing towards the heart. All systems will come back into alignment.  This only takes minutes and can be very effective.  (HeartMath also has a biofeedback device called EmWave that can actually show you when you come back into a smooth and life enhancing rhythm)

On this Valentine’s Day share a heart-focused breath with someone you love!

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:

www.WildlyFreeWoman.com
www.NaturalWealthJournal.com

WEBSITE:  www.ResonanceWithLife.com

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