Tag: breath exercises

IGNITE! – New Beginnings

As I walked the nature path with my neighbors dog today seeing the smiling faces of many, I realized that my energy was low.  The sun shining down upon me, the brisk air, and the contact with the Earth was enlivening me in a way that staying indoors and resting had not.

Allowing my shoulders to relax and my feet to make connection with the ground beneath me, I became aware of the earth supporting me as I breathed.   Self- image, at times based on a sense of separation from others and from the objects that senses perceive, let go of its grip.  It was at this moment that breath expanded lower into my belly and throughout my body.  A new and vibrant energy pulsed through me.

These changes were not produced by any kind of “doing”, but instead experiencing the moment as it is  with absolute presence.  The sense of “being supported by the Earth” will shift your breath and your awareness, and when practiced on a regular basis will allow you to energize, ignite,  and take action on the changes that will alter your life in the ways you dream and vision for this coming year.

With the coming of the New Year you may feel this need to renew, energize and shift into new awareness.  The astrology for this first month of 2011 also brings with it opportunity to expand beyond our old patterns and beliefs, and energize life altering changes freeing us from perceived limitations.

Scott Wolfram of The Travelers Well  www.travelerswell.com speaks on “igniting a vibrant explosion of energy” in your life now in the month of Janus. 

He says in his most recent newsletter:

“… as we move into the New Year, we move into the month of January, which is named for the Roman god Janus.  Janus is the god of boundaries and transitions, of doorways and new beginnings.  At each New Year, we all pass over a boundary of time and transition from one year to the next.   From the perspective of Janus, the New Year is more than changing the calendar it is the crossing of the boundary between the past and the future.”

He goes on to say that “the first 2-3 weeks of this year are the best times to energize 2011 as Jupiter will conjunct Uranus (at 27 degrees of Pisces) – which will not happen again until the year 2024!  The conjunction of these two forward-looking and powerful planets provides an opportunity to energize the future oriented perspective of Janus.  Jupiter and Uranus provide one of the most powerful astrological combinations to energize life altering changes, freeing us from the limitations of the past and projecting us into the future.”

The beautiful video below reveals to us the vastness, light, mystery,  and ever evolving Presence of all life – you included.

Time for a New Beginning


A spacey eclipse in the vacuum of space Nominee in the 1st Annual Firmament Video Awards Category.  Music: ‘Dawn of a New Century’ by Secret Garden

Practice the breathing space of connection with the Earth this month.  Feel the support, open the breath, and ignite your passions and creativity – freedom!

 

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:  WildlyFreeWoman

Energy Medicine

“Energy runs in established patterns or habits.  Left to their own devices in the modern world, your energy systems must rely on patterns out of resonance with the environment.  If you are to thrive, you must participate in the evolution of your body’s energy patterns.”

– Donna Eden, Energy Medicine: Balancing Your Body’s Energies for Optimal Health, Joy, and Vitality.

Our bodies are continually trying to adapt to an environment that they did not choose.  In fact our bodies still have energy software to live in the wilds, yet our daily modern life is anything but that for most of us.  We are blasted daily by electromagnetic radiation, artificial chemicals in our food, and high concentrations of pollutants in our air and water systems.  This means that our immune systems are continually on alert  – or emergency response  – which drains our energy and depletes our vital life force.  In addition, the constant stress of modern life activates the “fight or flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system which puts everything in overdrive and depletion.

This constant activation has costs to it.  There is a chronic request for more and more energy for the immune and fight-or-flight response which then undermines overall health, vitality and a feeling of well being.  The normal pattern of healthy and balanced energy systems become chaotic and reversed.  We feel drained, our breathing is shallow, and we are open to mental and physical illness and disease taking over.

It is time for harmonizing with the forces of nature and a return to practices that are natural, friendly, and familiar to body, mind and soul.  As we evolve by returning to balance within the natural energy systems of our own bodies, we communicate that to everyone  and everything we touch. 

The deep interconnection between matter, spirit, and subtle energy informs not only our health and well being, but that of the planet we inhabit.  These subtle energy systems operate outside of the mind and are perhaps THE mastermind, if you will, behind the evolving universe.  Everything is energy!

For a 5-minute daily practice that will keep your energy systems healthy and flowing (and your breathing alive and full) I invite you to explore these practices taught by Donna Eden.  For more information on her and her husband, David Feinstein, Ph.D. please go to:

http://www.innersource.net

The Daily Energy Routine with Donna Eden

OTHER BLOGS BY GAYE ABBOTT:  www.WildlyFreeWoman.com

Ecstatic Breathing – Birthing the Breath

This week I was privileged to view a video that stunned me with its beauty and sacredness.  If you go to the dictionary, ecstatic is described as “in a trance like state of great rapture or delight.  Showing or feeling great enthusiasm.  And….a person who has periods of intense trance like joy”.

In this video you will view a woman giving birth in the most sacred and natural of ways – the way in which it was meant to be.  The most important component in these hours of “labor” was breath, and the sounding that birthed from the breath.  There is no doubt that there is pain involved as you watch this beautiful woman in her birthing passage, yet it is the breath that washes the pain through and expands the stressful process of birthing through “sounding out breath” into an ecstatic state.

I invite you to watch this video now and then come back to see what you can do to practice “sounding out” your breath.

Dr. Chris Northrup posted this link on her twitter feed.  It’s a video of a woman going through labor and birth – an ecstatic birth experience.  The video is 18 minutes long.  I say take the time to watch the entire video.  It is worth every moment spent whether you have ever given birth or not.

You’ll find it here: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=149916791692395&ref=share

Sounding Out Breath Practice:
Last week we talked about how the breath is such an integral part of being able to sing with your full being and voice.  A big part of the healing power of singing, sounding, and chanting is that they work to regulate our breathing. When we sing, whatever the words of the song, we tend to “sound the breath out” until it’s time to inhale. The more often we sing, the better our breathing as it expands our capacity to not only bring in more life giving breath, but also intimately supports the letting go within the exhale.

Chanting adds to this the inherent power of certain sounds. Sounding the breath out with ooooommmm has long been practiced to deepen meditative states. And aaaahhhh, the sound that people often make when feeling pleasure or satisfaction, can be used to intentionally generate healing energy in the body.  This sounding out breathing also “turns on” the parasympathetic system in the body which signals the relaxation response, and stimulates the “feel good” chemicals of the endorphin system.

PRACTICE:  With a long slow inhale
 let the air out through the mouth with a
 long sustained sound of aaaaaahhhhhh . . .
Breathe all the way out, until it’s time to inhale
.  Then breathe in through the nose a long slow inhale
 and sound the breath all the way out
 with a long sustained sound of aaaaaahhhhhh . . .Pause for a few moments noticing any feelings or sensations.
Now continue for several more breaths,
 breathing in through the nose, 
filling yourself with energy, and sound out the breath
 with a long, gentle aaaaaahhhhhh . . .

then experiment with a fuller, more powerful aaaaahhhhhhh….changing the texture, sound, and vibration as you feel so moved.

Practice this daily whenever you feel stress or you feel “stuck”.  Breathe into the stress or the frustration and release it with a long slow exhale –  sounding whenever you are able, and experimenting with types of sounds and perhaps movement.  This will become an automatic response to stressful or difficult situations as they happen – and can lead you into a place of ecstatic breath.  Enjoy the moments…birth the breath…    

OTHER BLOGS:  www.WildlyFreeWoman.com

Songs Are Thoughts Sung With The Breath

“Songs are thoughts sung with the breath when people are moved by great forces and ordinary speech no longer suffices”.

“There are so many occasions in one’s life when a joy or a sorrow is felt in such a way that the desire comes to sing. All my being is songs, and I sing as I draw breath.”

— Orpingalik  (Inuit poet and shaman)

From the beginning of time humans sang their stories.  Sacred, playful, joyous, sensual, blues, gospel, or wild – song has woven our history on this planet.  It was at a “Song Weavers” event last weekend that I realized that it is rare that I break out in song myself, and certainly don’t sing with my friends or my community.  It was also at this event that I discovered how tight my singing voice actually was.  Yet, within the space of a couple of hours I also realized how easily, within the company of others, that voice can be released and played with.

The video below instructs us on how to breathe for singing.  Watch and listen carefully and notice that this breath strengthens and expands our diaphragm muscles and relaxes the upper chest, neck and facial muscles –  secondary breathing muscles that are often used in tight, contracted, chest breathing and stressful situations.   The emphasis on lengthening the exhale with the hissss sound allows us to find our ground of being, relaxed voice, and our full expression.  This also builds and expands our capacity for breath and thus for LIFE.  Practice this and then let loose with a song, a sound, a tone!

P.S.  For those of you that are Carol King/James Taylor lovers here is a treat – they are back together and are touring.  Not only do they love to sing the “hits” –  we love to sing along with them!