Darth Vader and the Cash Cow

Smoking is an amazingly brilliant commercial venture that lures the consumer into giving vast sums of money to tobacco executives who collect paychecks larger than yours and mine combined. Your addiction to their paper-wrapped weeds will continue to keep these Darth Vaders in summer homes, silk suits, round-the-world travel and fat portfolios. How does it feel to be a cash cow?

Not one of these executives will be there to comfort your family when smoking erases your life. Not one of them will offer to do your grocery shopping when you are dragging around an oxygen tank.

Tobacco company executives are, at this very moment, searching for a foolish consumer to replace you when you go. That replacement consumer may well be your child or grandchild.

It will take every ounce of strength and determination you have to beat these guys but you must. You cannot let them win. In spite of their philosophy, you are neither replaceable nor disposable. You are unique and you are important.

Make no mistake, you are in deadly combat with Darth Vader but you must and you will win this battle. May the Force be with you.

Be well. Breathe beautifully (and for a very long time.)

Drumming

The purpose of Drumming is to create a gentle vibration deep within the chest without causing any surface discomfort. Your relaxed drumming hand will travel from your shoulder toward your breastbone. Your drumming path is just below your collarbone. Drumming often produces a few small natural cleansing coughs.

1. Make a loose, relaxed, soft fist with your right hand. Your arms and shoulders remain relaxed, your spine erect and your right bent elbow against your ribs.
2. The palm-side of your right fist will tap just below your left collarbone, moving from left shoulder to mid-line.
3. Stop every inch and tap gently at least six times. Repeat this path several times from left shoulder to breastbone. Tap hard enough to hear the sound in your chest.
4. Then, begin under your right collarbone with your left hand in the same manner. It is important to keep your curled fingers and your wrists relaxed. Repeat until you feel the circulation has increased in your upper chest.

Breathe through your nose as you drum and cover your mouth when you cough.

Breathe well. Breathe beautifully.

Breath-counting and Pain

It is natural to tense up when something hurts or even when you THINK something is going to hurt Eeeerp! He snapped on that disposable glove! That thing looks reeeeally sharp! When you’re hit with a shock of pain, your primitive fight-or-flight syndrome kicks in, but too often you are unable to EITHER fight OR flee so you lock down!

When you are in pain, notice how quickly you begin to shallow-breathe or worse yet, hold your breath until your ears ring. Unfortunately, tension obstructs blood flow and oxygen delivery and that, in turn, intensifies the pain.

Counting each exhalation is a simple and effective exercise that will help keep your mind and body relaxed. Our goal here is to keep the pain to an absolute minimum. The exhalation is the natural release and “letting go” phase of every breath cycle so it makes sense to work with your exhalation to ease your tension. A fair portion of your “hurt” is due to physical tension and psychological apprehension. The hurt is bad enough without embellishing it?!

COUNT TEN SLOW STEADY EXHALATIONS and then begin again with ten more. Continue counting in sets of ten until your body is as relaxed as possible.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Nose Breathes. Mouth Eats.

The nasal cavities earn an “A+” for their efforts to filter, moisten, warm and otherwise prep the incoming air as it travels toward your lungs. All this processing occurs in a split-second (hour after hour, day after day, year after year). Your nose is an extraordinary design with at least half a dozen clever built-in systems to protect you from illness and even death.

Your mouth, on the other hand, provides pretty much an unprotected straight shot in and down. The mouth is built for eating and kissing, NOT BREATHING. When you inhale through your mouth, the air is not slowed down for processing the way it is in your nose. Your mouth warms and moistens the air a bit but gets an “F” for filtering out airborne garbage.

There is also a tendency to breathe high in the chest when you mouth-breathe because the air rushes in and isn’t slowed by passing through the wonderful furry, sticky, bumpy, twisted maze of your nasal cavities.

If you have a deviated septum, if your allergies obstruct your nasal passages, if you have a chronic sinus irritation, then it is time to see a specialist to diagnose, correct or at least improve the situation. Every breath you take through your mouth contributes to polluted lungs and a dried out respiratory system.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Bumps, Bites and CA-MRSA

Sorry. We need to talk about yukky stuff again. Stick with me on this one.

Beware of a “spider bite” when you haven’t seen a spider. Pay attention to an angry “boil” when it seems to be getting worse and when you begin to feel super funky. Get to an emergency room and INSIST that your skin eruption be tested for CA-MRSA.

For decades MRSA (minus the CA) has plagued vulnerable hospital patients. The infection finds its way into the blood stream and from there into the lungs. As always, bugs breed and adapt much faster than man’s arsenal of antibiotics so researchers will always be racing to catch up.

The addition of the “CA” (community associated) means that MRSA has jumped the hospital wall and is now able to travel freely among healthy people of all ages. Once it gets into your lungs, you are in for the battle of your life.

CA-MRSA is spread by skin-to-skin contact and by sharing personal items like clothing and towels. It thrives in crowded environments like gyms, playgrounds, military bases and schools.

Watch for any painful bump that feels hot, looks angry and oozes. This is not the time to self-medicate!

Protect yourself by washing your hands frequently. Avoid sharing personal items. Become politically aware of the potential problem of using antibiotics routinely on livestock and by misuse of antibiotics by doctors and patients.

If you want to do further research, the full name for CA-MRSA is Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. A nasty bugger.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Cleansing Breath

Cleansing Breath can be useful when you’ve been breathing dry or dirty air, when you have been sleeping with your mouth open, when you have just a touch of asthma. It does not cover major chest infections or more serious problems.

The mucous blanket that lines your breathing tunnels and tubes MUST REMAIN FLUID enough to be pushed along easily by your cilia but sticky enough to grab airborne garbage. Occasionally mucous gets too thick and polluted and begins to clog things up. Often a few Cleansing Breaths will kick out a little mucous plug before you get into more serious blockage.

1. Keep your mouth CLOSED during the entire exercise. You will be inhaling SLOWLY and QUIETLY through your nose to avoid pushing the offending mucous deeper down into your chest.
2. Empty first, as always. Then fill quietly through your nose. Exhale as much air as seems natural and comfortable.
3. WHEN YOU ARE ALMOST EMPTY, add two or three small coughs (mouth still closed).
4. Continue to breathe in gently and add a couple tiny coughs at the tail end of each exhalation.

These small orchestrated coughs usually trigger a deep efficient cough that grabs and expels the offending mucous.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Worst of Times. The Best of Times

We are sinking into a bad-news swamp - Bernie Madoff, Robert Stanford, Citicorp, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Freddie and Fannie. Vital rain forests vanish, icebergs melt, toxic waste oozes, oceans turn into dead zones, and our kids look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy . . .

On the bright side we are gaining new and extraordinary personal power.

We are learning that our brains can be improved until the day we die. Previously it was assumed that the human brain slides steadily downhill into the age pit, can’t be retrained and is about as malleable as a doorstop.

We are learning how to PREVENT disease instead of waiting for those terrible telltale symptoms. We finally understand how to improve our odds against type II diabetes, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis.

Thanks to the Internet you can become a smart partner with your personal medical team. YOUR REACH IS GLOBAL AND AFFORDABLE.

Today we can PREVENT countless cases of lung cancer. We have the capability to spot the disease early. We have access to extraordinary medical treatment and surgical talent. At last we have the power to hold corporations accountable for the harm they do. Our parents and grandparents never dreamed of such possibilities.

The Market will rise and fall. It always does. Institutions will rise and crumble. They always do. But today you have greater power than ever over your physical, intellectual and spiritual evolution. That power will only get better.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.