Chapter 7 – Breathing
As a birthday present, one of my students wanted to attend a course I was giving in Majorca. Her father-in-law – who was a bit skeptical about the idea – asked what she would learn there. ”I will learn to breathe,” she replied. ”Breathe?” said her father-in-law, ”we do that all the time.”
Yes, we do indeed, but how? In my opinion, breathing is the single-most important factor to enhance our wellbeing. Through proper breathing, we can increase our energy and maintain a steady flow throughout the day. We can improve our health – circulation, the immune system and more – and also work our way through difficult emotions and thus create balance in the body. Breathing is everything for our wellbeing and this is sadly undervalued in the western world, especially in health care.
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The breath is considered to be the connecting link between body and soul and is one of our primary tools for personal development. Breathing is exceptional, in that we can choose to breathe consciously, or allow our autonomous nervous system to manage it for us, in other words let breathing take care of itself.
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Through breathing, we can reach higher levels of consciousness and we can experience strong feelings of happiness simply by changing the way we breathe. If we start working with our breathing, do breathing exercises regularly and are sensitive, the body itself usually takes us to the next step in our development. An interaction comes about, where sometimes we lead and sometimes the body takes over and guides us.
Gradually, we can discover the incredible pleasure of breathing, how to deliberately activate the life energy within us and experience harmony and joy.
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