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

Peace is based on the Four Great Virtues:  Bravery, Wisdom, Love, and Friendship, symbolized by Fire, Heaven, Earth and Water.  The only real sin is to be ignorant of the universal, timeless principles of existence.  Such ignorance is the root of all evil and all misguided behavior.  Eliminate ignorance through the art of peace, and even hell will be emptied of tortured souls.  The delight of mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, beasts, fish, and insects is an expression of Peace. 

By: Morihei Ueshiba

Visualizing relaxing metaphors

     Poets know that the way to understanding is through metaphor.  "My heart is a soaring hawk" conveys much more than "I feel good."  There's something about the human mind that intuitively grasps and prefers metaphorical expression.

     What metaphors do you habitually use when you thinking or talking about stress?  Do you describe your cold hands as "ice blocks" or your headache as pounding?  Do you think of your sore muscles as tied up in knots?

     Metaphors are powerful - they can literally create feelings.  For example, you can use metaphorical images of relaxation to visualize tension away.  A metaphorical image is any imaginary sense impression that changes, representing the shift from tension to relaxation. 
     For example,  a hot color, like red, could represent tension, and you would change it to a more relaxing color, like blue or green. 
    
  Here are some metaphorical images you can use for quik relaxation visualization:

   -  Screeching chalk on a blackboard crumbling into powder
   -  A tight cable or rope going slack
   -  A screaming siren fading to the whisper of a flute
   -  The harsh smell of ammonia or tar becoming perfume or baking bread
   -  A glaring searchlight changing into a candle flame
   -  A dark, confining tunnel giving way to a light, airy meadow
   -  The pounding of a jackhammer changing into the hands of a masseuse kneading your muscles

     The following rules for visualizing relaxing metaphors are very simple:
  
   1.  Lie down in a quiet place and close your eyes.
   2.  Scan your body and will your tense muscles to relax.
   3.  Form mental sense impressions involving all your senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.  For Instance, imagine the sights of a green forest with the trees, blue sky, white clouds, and pine needles underfoot.  Then add the sounds of wind in the trees, babbling brooks, and bird song.  Include the feel of the ground under your shoes, the warm sun, the smell of pine, and the taste of mountain spring water. 
   4.  Use affirmations in the form of short, positive statements that affirm your ability to relax at will.

     The key to making this simple process work wonders is to use metaphorical images when you make up mental sense impressions.  So you don't simply see white clouds; you see billowing cotton balls against a faded denim sky. 

By:  McKay, Fanning
  

Deep Breathing

     Deep, abdominal breathing is among the most powerful stress-reduction techniques ever devised.  Used properly, it’s as effective as Valium and a whole lot faster.  It only takes five or six deep breaths to begin reversing a tension spiral.  That’s because deep breathing stretches and relaxes your diaphragm, the muscle most effected by stress.  As your diaphragm relaxes is sends an “all’s well” message to your brain, which becomes a signal for your whole body to release tension. 

     As stress and abdominal tension increase, your breathing becomes shallow and rapid.  You breathe mostly in your upper chest.  For some people this leads to hyperventilation and the feeling that they can’t get enough air.  Shallow breathing also changes your blood gasses so the oxygen to carbon dioxide ratio gets out of balance.  At best you feel tired, at worst you can get panicked.  All this is corrected by slow abdominal breaths that help turn off anxiety by giving you more air. 

     When you first learn deep, abdominal breathing, it helps to do the exercise lying down.  Later you can do it in any posture, virtually any time you need to relax. 

     Start by putting one hand on your chest and one on your abdomen (just above your navel).  Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose.  Try to direct the breath downward into your belly, so it pushes up the hand resting on your abdomen.  The hand on your chest shouldn’t move much at all.  Exhale through your mouth making a quiet whooshing sound. 

     If you have difficulty breathing into your abdomen, and the hand on your belly doesn’t rise, there are several things you can try.  Press your hand down on your abdomen as you exhale and then breathe in to push you hand back up.  Or, put a phone book on your abdomen at your naval and breathe so that it rises and falls.  Another possibility is to lie on your stomach and breathe so that your lower back moves up and down. 

     If the hand on your chest is rising along with your belly, try pressing with that hand.  Direct your breath down and away from the pressure on your chest. 

     Once you’ve mastered the deep, abdominal breath, use it any time you feel stress or tension.  Take long, slow, deep breaths that raise and lower your abdomen.  Breathe only when you need to, to avoid hyperventilation.  Focus on the sound and feeling of breathing as you become more and more relaxed.  Continue deep breathing for two to five minutes. 

By:  McKay, Fanning

Necessary to seclude

Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life.  Sit comfortably and first contemplate the manifest realm of existence.  This realm is concearned with externals, the physical form of things.  Then fill your body with "ki" and sense of manner in which the universe functions - its shape, its color, and its vibrations.  Breathe in and let yourself soar to the ends of the universe; breathe out and bring the cosmos back inside.  Next, breathe up all the fecundity and vibrancy of the earth.  Finally, blend the breath of heaven and breath of earth with that of your own body, becoming the breath of life itself.  As you calm down, naturally let yourself settle in the heart of things.  Find your center, and fill yourself with light and heat. 

All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you.  Life itself is the truth, and this will never change.  Everything in heaven and earth breathes.  Breath is the thread that ties creation together.  When the myraid variations in the universal breath can be sensed, the individual techniques of the Art of Peace are born.

Consider the EBB and flow of the tide.  When waves come to strike the shore, they crest and fall, creating a sound.  Your breath should follow the same pattern, absorbing the entire universe in your belly with each inhalation.  Know that we all have access to four treasures: the energy of the sun and moon, the breath of heaven, the breath of earth, and the ebb and flow of the tide. 

By:  Morihei Ueshiba

Where is here? When is now?

     In the sixties, Havard Professor Richard Alpert went to India, studied Buddhism, changed his name to Ram Dass, and wrote "Be Here Now," a book whose title sums up a key principle of meditation: staying rooted in the here and now. 

     Buddist teachers compare the mind to a restless monkey, always darting off to grasp something new, something not here and now.  If you spend alot of time obsessing about the past, worring about the future or wishing you were someplace else, that's your "monkey mind" at work. You can tame the monkey by consciously focusing on the here and now.

     Sit quietly and ask yourself, "where is here?  When is now?"  Close your eyes for a moment and visualize the room you are in.  Then open your eyes and look.  Notice the furniture, the doors and windows, the floor covering, the ceiling.  Close your eyes again and imagine the room in greater depth, adding in the details you just noted. 
    Open your eyes again and notice some of the contents of the room:  the books, magazines, toys, appliances, and so on that are present.  Close your eyes again and populate your mental "here" with these objects.   Repeat this eyes open-eyes closed process until you develop a rich, detailed visual map of your surroundings.  This will help anchor you to your location and quell restless thoughts. 
     Some of the things you see will bring up memories or future plans.  When this happens, tell your monkey mind, "That's not here right now."  Then return to exploring the here and now.
     With your eyes still closed, listen to all the sounds you can hear right now:  the air conditioner, the computer fan, birds, traffic, dogs barking, an airplane passing overhead.  Notice that every moment in time is orchestrated with a subtle sound track, ever changing, barely noticed.
     What do you smell?  Cooking, perfume, cat litter?  What do you feel on your skin?  A draft, warmer on one side than the other, itches and twitches?  Closing your eyes and paying attention to the senses of smell and touch, which are frequently drowned out by your dominant visual sense, is a valuable way to connect to the present moment. 
     Whenever you feel stressed by a busy schedule or frustrated aspirations, you can relax by taking a moment and asking yourself, "Where is here? When is now?"

By: McKay, Fanninig

Cure for Materialism

One of the only cures for materialism is the cleaning of the six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind.) If the senses are clogged, one’s view of things are shifted. The more they are shifted, the more polluted the senses become. This creates confusion in the world, and that is the greatest evil of all evils. Clean the heart, open the six senses and let them serve without limitation, and our whole soul will shine. To purify ourselves, we must break away all external defilements, remove all obstacles from our path, separate ourselves from affliction, and refrain from negative thoughts. This will require a clear state of mind. Such purification allows us to return to the beginning, where all is fresh, bright, and we will see once again the world’s scintillating beauty. We will also notice that we are all brothers and sisters who should walk the path of peace together, hand in hand. If we continue to our path, nothing else will matter. When we lose our desire for things that do not matter, we will be free.