Optimal Breathing: Stress
[Exploring Life] What makes you hold your breath? describes the importance of optimizing our breathing pattern in order to promote healthy digestion as well as calming the nervous system. The authors recommend that the stressors that are the root cause of holding the breath be identified as they happen. This brings us to the threshold [...]
Optimal Breathing: Pilates Breathwork
[Exploring Life] Correct breathing is a primary goal and basic fundamental in the Pilates method. Practicing Pilates exercises while using abnormal breathing patterns can be very detrimental to both the body and mind. Unless a student is capable of breathing correctly under normal conditions, the probability of breathing correctly during exercises is poor. Breathwork is [...]
Optimal Breathing: Designing a Breathwork Practice
[Exploring Life] Breathwork is a general category that describes any technique, method, or exercise used to consciously alter breathing. It is a means to explore and interact with breathing through intention. Breathwork is a physical, mental and spiritual endeavour. The nature of physical and cultural environment that surrounds us has a direct impact on the [...]
Optimal Breathing: Conscious Breath
[Exploring Life] Conscious breathing refers to specific techniques designed to improve breathing through the conscious regulation of breath. In combination with breathing awareness, conscious breathing leads toward the goal of attaining the perfect breath. [1] The health and well being benefits of natural, normal, or perfect breathing span body, mind and spirit, and in this [...]
Optimal Breathing: The Perfect Breath
[Exploring Life] In Perfect Breathing the authors describe the perfect breath as being the marriage between breath awareness and conscious breathing. [1] Breath awareness is a form of body awareness focused on breathing patterns and the resulting influence these patterns have on our body, mind, and spirit. Conscious breathing refers to the ability to apply [...]
Optimal Breathing: Abnormal Breath
[Exploring Life] Abnormal breathing habits can significantly impair our quality of life. Due to the stress and pressures of life, we may be habitually breathing abnormally without knowing it. Chronic abnormal breathing has been linked to a range of serious stress-induced diseases and conditions. Abnormal breathing degrades the experience of being alive. Understanding the core [...]
Breathing: A Confluence of Body-Mind-Spirit-1
[Exploring Life] Breath Awareness: The quality of our breathing simultaneously affects body-mind-spirit. If our breathing is disturbed or stressed we feel the conscious and subconscious affects of this physically, mentally, and spiritually. A vibrant sense of health and well being originate in optimal breathing; abnormal breathing creates disease and unease. Optimal breathing practices are an [...]