The Breath of Life

     Breath is a necessity of life.  Each breath you take is a small miracle of chemistry and physics, yet most people never think about breathing unless the air is polluted or they have asthma or allergies.  They take the everyday miracle of breathing for granted.

     Take a moment to pay grateful attention to the breath of life:  Like all movement in your body, breathing is powered by a muscle - your diaphram.  The Diaphram is a sheet of muscle that divides your midsection in half, seperating your chest from your stomach.  Each time you inhale, your diaphram flexes downward, pushing your stomach a little and expanding your lungs and chest cavity.  When you draw air in through your nose, it is warmed to body temperature, humidified, and partially cleansed.

     Your lungs are like an upside-down tree with many branches called bonchi, and leaves, called alveoli.  The alveoli expand like little balloons capillaries-blood vessels that suck in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide with each breath. 
     All your red blood cells travel through your lungs on every trip around your body.  Each time they zip through your lungs they pick up life-giving oxygen and drop off the waste product, carbon dioxide.
     When you inhale, your diaphragm relaxes and moves upward, squeezing most of the air out of your lungs, carrying away the carbon dioxide and clearing the way for the next life-sustaining breath of oxygen.
     When you're under stress, you tend to tense your stomach muscles, interfering with the full, natural movement of your diaphragm.  You may compensate by "chest breathing" making up for the limited range of diaphragm movement by using your shoulder and chest muscles to expand your rib cage.  This is an inefficient way of breathing that further increases your tension.
     To become more aware of the beauty and calming aspect of the breath of life, try this breath-counting technique:
     Lie down on your back and raise your knees a little to take the strain off your lower back and abdomen.  You can close your eyes or just gaze at the ceiling in an unfocused way.
     Take  slow, deep breaths into your stomach, making it rise and fall with each breath.  Don't strain to overfill your lungs-just make them comfortably full.
     Pay attention to each part of the breath: the inhale, the turn (the point at which you stop inhaling and start exhaling), the exhale, the pause between breaths, and so on. 
     When you've developed a smooth rhythm, begin counting your breaths.  As you exhale, say, "One." Continue counting on each exhalation up to four.  Then begin again with "One."  You may become so relaxed that your mind wanders and you lose track.  When this happens start over with "One."
     That's all there is to it. This is the simplest possible way to relax.  When you are ready to stop breath counting, tell yourself, "I am grateful for the miracle of breathing.  I can relax myself this way any time I want."

By:  McKay and Fanning