The Breathing Mind

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, health, peace, and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect.

    I often wondered about the human capacity to breathe. An exercise our bodily organs perform 24/7. Non-Stop. To keep us alive. But because it is a given that we have to breathe to live, breathing is often taken for granted. It's only when we experience problems with our breathing, and experience  symptoms alongside, that we begin to understand the importance of breathing. I was reminded of not only the importance of breathing, but the many capacities / potential of breathing, especially when accompanied with meditation, or meditative exercises, derived from Yoga. 

     It is something that I have been trying, and also taking more seriously not only to practice health care at a holistic level, but to try to take it more seriously as a form of mind training. As I tired the exercises, experimented with the self. I noticed, and intertwined the breathing and contracting the body muscles, with the brains capacity. I began to understand that to really perform the exercise properly, and reap its benefits - one can only focus on breath and the movement that the body has to perform. Such as tightening the muscles in a specific area. By focusing on breath and body, one can really not focus on anything else. 

     When performed accurately, with practice we are in a sense forcing the mind / brain, to stop thinking about any worldly events. To take the time for a brain and body pause. Whilst I do wish I could discipline the self more to perform the exercises on a regular basis, I have to say that with the experimental phase - I have felt a mind's renewal and almost a brain cleansing. A bit of relaxation that allows us to take a pause, whilst continuing to breathe for the purposes of keeping ourself alive.  

     Meditation reveals how the breath can be manipulated with the muscles to create a desired effect. With meditation there are also certain preconceived notions, that we ourselves carry: Such as one is in a state of stress, upset, and needs to meditate. To facilitate and encourage the brain, we can add simple smiling movements, that send messages to the brain such as: I am happy. Which can easily eliminate our thoughts of feeling stressed to begin the meditative process. 

Further Reading:

*Neuroscience of Smiling Face in Meditation
 
*NEUROSCIENTISTS HAVE IDENTIFIED HOW EXACTLY A DEEP BREATH CHANGES YOUR MIND

*How We Breathe Affects Our Thoughts and Emotions, Northwestern Researchers Find

*CALM - The #1 App for Meditation and Sleep

My thoughts to share with love & kindness! :) 

Notes: These thoughts were originally hand-written on June 9th, 2019. Please note that these thoughts are based on my own personal experiences, please consider discussion with health care practitioners / care providers for individual cases. Any recommendations on this page are for starters, with the encouragement of joining actual groups or working with trained individuals. 

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