Deep Breathing – When?

When you sleep, you breathe deeply, slowly and beautifully. Once you awaken and you are slammed by your hectic day, your breathing begins to creep uphill into the narrow, rigid and tight upper ribcage. By dinner the stress of your day is written all over your upper body - clenched jaws, hunched shoulders, tight neck muscles and shallow erratic breathing.

Shallow inhibited breathing changes the cadence, tone, pitch or your voice and people do react subconsciously to the quality of your voice. As the day progresses, you are working harder and harder for less and less oxygen and your blood is burdened with spent fuel. It is important to break this tension cycle.

Deep slow breathing gives you maximum oxygen and cleansing power for minimal energy expended. Stop frequently, close your eyes, relax your shoulders and your jaws and lower your breathing into your lower elastic ribcage. All systems will relax automatically. It takes only a few breaths to re-boot your machine.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Know Your Enemies: Bacteria or Virus?

VIRUSES DO CAUSE COLDS AND FLU.
BACTERIA DO NOT CAUSE COLDS AND FLU.

When your antibiotic is properly matched to your particular type of BACTERIA, the medicine usually flattens your SYMPTOMS within 48 hours. If you haven’t improved within three days, you may have a mismatch or there may be something else going on. In that case, check with your doctor’s office just to be safe.

When the antibiotic kicks in and you begin to improve, do NOT stop taking your medicine until every last pill has been swallowed. After the first few days, the bacteria have been knocked down but not out and will stay busy adapting to your partial dose of antibiotic. Hit them with a full blast so you will bounce back but they won’t.

There isn’t much to do with a virus-induced cold except tough it out and use common sense: lots of rest, lots of fluids and lots of hand washing.

Never badger your doctor for a prescription unless you know you have a bacterial infection like pneumonia or bronchitis. Overuse of antibiotics has created nasty new medicine-resistant bugs that are increasingly difficult to kill and bugs that have no conscience about killing you. Gesundheit!

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Fight the Hump

We begin life in a curled-up fetal position and as the decades fly by, our bodies begin to drift back into that initial pose. As long as the vertebrae are balanced more or less one atop the other, gravity’s pull is straight down through the center of the stack. But when you slouch (either unavoidably or carelessly) you lose the bone-over-bone balance. When there is no longer a strong bony stack under your heavy head and shoulders, you are losing the tug-of-war with gravity. Once your head is no longer balanced over your tailbone you are heading for a heap of trouble.

Fortunately, scientists have come a long way in understanding the part osteoporosis plays in our posture. We are learning the importance of monitoring the intake of calcium and vitamin D, of resistance exercise, of bone-density testing, of the role of strong and flexible support muscles. Prevention and awareness are your most effective weapons. Don’t wait till your spine is riddled with tiny fractures and atrophied discs.

Remember that ideal breathing springs in part from an open, flexible, relaxed, erect ribcage. The ribcage should be balanced directly above the pelvis. Deep lung tissue is devoted to oxygen deliver and it relies on ribcage muscles and the diaphragm to do the pumping and squeezing to actually move the air. It is a daily battle to retain your height and good posture as you age but the battle is important. A compressed warped ribcage leaves you with compressed warped breathing.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Small Star

Small Star is one of those meditation-in-motion exercises that are useful when you feel too fragmented to move directly from a crazy busy day into a subtle quiet deep breathing exercise.

1. Bring palms together in front of your breastbone with your elbows resting against your sides. Keep your shoulders down and relaxed and your eyes open. Breathe through your nose.
2. With palms and fingers still together (as in a gesture of respect) fan your joined fingers apart about an inch (thumbs and index fingers moving toward your chest and little fingers moving forward, away from you).
3. During each inhalation, slowly pull the heels of your hands apart about four inches. Pull the length of your fingers apart also but the fingertips stay glued together.
4. As you breathe out, gradually press your palms together again. Keep your movement and breathing smooth, quiet and easy. As always, breathing leads and movement follows.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.