Читать книгу The Giant Oak Speaks Wisdom: Listen With Your Ears and Heart - Marti Eicholz - Страница 18

You breathe more than 14,000 times every single day. Yet, I imagine, your breath is something you rarely devote any attention to. Your breath is one of the most powerful ways to connect virtually with every other aspect of your being. The more you become aware of your breath, the more you will understand the profound effects that breathing has on your consciousness.

•People in India have understood the importance of breath for thousands of years. Prana is a term used to describe the body’s vital “airs” or energies. It literally means “breath,” but it’s really much more than just the process of inhaling and exhaling. According to ancient Indian philosophy, Prana is the principle of vitality and the subtlest form of biological energy which helps a person in breathing, distribution of food in the body and digestion.

•Hindus believe that Prana energy is present in every mental and physical event, and it flows directly from spirit or pure awareness. It brings intelligence and consciousness to every aspect of life. Balanced Prana leads to mental alertness as well as sound sleep, a responsive nervous system, and balanced bodily rhythms such as hunger, thirst, sleep, digestion, elimination and so on. Balanced Prana also imparts enthusiasm, a sense of exhilaration and spiritual realization. Many cultural traditions identify this vital force. The Chinese tradition calls it Chi. You can also find it in the teachings of the Sufis, mystic Christians and ancient Egyptians.

•The body’s main source of Prana is through the breath, which brings oxygen into the body. On a more subtle level, Prana also brings us life energy. The quality of a person’s life, according to the ancient sages, was reflected in the quality of breathing.

Now let’s think about the quality of your breath. How would you describe the quality of your breathing? Are you a shallow breather? Perhaps you even hold your breath at times, as someone who’d rather be unheard and unseen? Or is your breath deep and regular? Do you sigh frequently? Perhaps you do, but aren’t aware of it. Do you yawn a lot? Yawning and sighing are both signs that your body needs more oxygen. So if you find yourself doing either of these things, you may be a shallow breather.

Let’s do a quick review of the anatomy and physiology of breathing. Oxygen comes into the body through the nose or mouth, enters the throat, then goes down through the trachea or windpipe and into the bronchi. The bronchi keep subdividing until they end in tiny air sacs filled with small blood vessels, or capillaries. Gases from the air in the air sacs are exchanged with gases in the capillary blood vessels. The oxygenated blood is then transported to the heart which pumps it to the rest of the body. So air comes in, and oxygen goes to the blood. Carbon dioxide, or the part of the air our bodies can’t use, gets returned to lungs to be exhaled.

Some physical factors that will influence the quality of your breathing include:

•The elastic properties of your lungs and chest.

•The strength of the muscles of your lungs and chest.

•The strength of your abdominal muscles-contraction of these muscles forces air out for full exhalation.

•The quality of the air in your environment. The air quality in your home or office. How often you get out into the fresh air. Smoking, of course, whether active or passive.

•The strength of your heart muscle which transports oxygen throughout your body.

•The level of hemoglobin in your blood. Anemia or iron-poor blood can compromise the ability of your blood to carry oxygen.