The Power of Deep Breathing E-Book

Pauline Russell

• Herausgeber: Andura Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Experience the life-changing power of Pauline Russell with this unforgettable book.

Das E-Book wird angeboten von und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:

Leseprobe

The Power of Deep Breathing

Pauline Russell

FOREWORD

Many things in this book may seem to be far afield of the subject of Breathing, but the Deep Breathing is taken to keep the body and mind in order, it is taken also to restore order.

The different subjects mentioned in this book bear directly or indirectly upon influences that affect the health of body and mind, therefore must come in vital touch with the work of the Deep Breathing Exercises.

While much stress is put upon the breathing in of more oxygen, yet we realize that oxygen is not Life, and that no one element can constitute life; also we know that the Breath of Life is the God element, which is Supreme Being.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Heb. 11-1.

SELF FAITH

Many men and women, who are really capable of doing large things, do small things, live mediocre lives, because they do not expect nor demand enough of themselves. They do not know how to call out their best.

“Do not think downward, nor too much inward, but think outward toward men.”

“Self-faith has been the miracle-worker of the ages. It has been the great tonic in the world of invention, discovery and art/’ This is not egotistical faith, but it is a true confidence in the power that comes from God; to belittle ourselves is to belittle our Creator. “Despair crushes the brain—hope elevates it.”

These questions come to all: What am I to be in life? What am I going to do with my life? The answer is: “It all depends upon my brain.” Then Common Sense would say: “Care for this wonderful treasure.” “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Feed the brain by good blood. This comes through the exercise of the entire body. Remember that the brain is repaired during sleep; give it time enough to rest. Do not forget to feed the brain with the influence of fine feelings and harmony in Life. Enjoy people and enjoy things. Hear good music, listen to inspiring speakers, go to worth-while plays; enjoy nature and get all the mental sunshine that is possible.

My mind turns once more, for some definite purpose I am sure, to Music, and I recall a few of the wonder­ful tributes some of our great men have given to it. Plato says: “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagina­tion. It is the essence of order and leads to all that is good, just and beautiful.” Luther said: “Music is a fair and glorious gift from God.” Carlyle wrote: “Music is a kind of inarticulate, unfathomable speech, which leads us to the edge of the infinite and lets us for moments gaze into it.”

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

O God, give me courage to live another day : Let me not turn coward before its difficulties, or prove recreant to its duties. Let me not lose faith in my fellowmen: keep me sweet and sound at heart, spite of ingratitude, treachery or . meanness. Preserve me,

O God, from minding little stings, or giving them. Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly and fearlessly that no outward failure can dishearten me, or take away the joy of conscious integrity. Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see good in all things. Grant, this day, some new vision of Thy truth. Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness, and make me the cup of strength to suffering souls. In the name of the Strong Deliverer, Amen.

Phillips Brooks.

CHAPTER I.

PHYSICAL CULTURE

“There is nothing in which men approach so near the gods as when they try to give health to other men.”

Cicero.

Physical Culture is one very important factor in the basis of our success in life. Whatever we undertake in life needs physical vigor, or it will never be a suc­cess, no matter what our work is. If our health and vitality fail, then our brain work falls short of its standard and we do not accomplish our best. Every walk in life needs energy, and a weak body lacks energy. If you see a weak, frail person, with what seems to be energy, you may be sure it is false vitality; that person is working on his nerves, and if he con­tinues so to work, nerve exhaustion will follow. The nervous system cannot do double work long. What is the result? Sometimes it is years of suffering. How much better it would be for each one of us to devote at least a little time to the study of Physical Culture. Physical Culture will give us enduring power. New matter can be supplied nearly as fast as the old is destroyed, if we know how.

What is Physical Culture? It is the culture of our physical being. It is proper care of our vital organs, our life giving organs. First, we must have some knowledge of these organs—what they are placed in the body for, and what they need for nourishment. We must secure the proper position of the vital organs. The heart beats with a more perfect rhythm when lift­ed high in the chest, than when it is too low. When the vital organs are high, the lungs consume more air. No vital organ below its normal altitude can perform its work properly. This lifting up of the organs, does not, necessarily, mean to throw the chest out, although in walking the chest should lead the body. As the lungs are lifted they throw the shoulders apart and fill in the hollow at the back, thus making a more perfect figure.

Too much is written about holding the shoulders back. To bend the back and bulge the front of the body is to sacrifice the back; it is an injury to the back and stomach. It is not always easy to bring up the vital organs after a long time habit of allowing them to be in too low a position. We see so many with round shoulders and sunken chests—in some cases it takes a long time to straighten the back, and bring the vital organs into a proper position, but it can be done. Bad habits are stubborn things, there­fore patience and will power are needed to overcome them.

PROPER CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD

Much that is necessary for life must be conveyed to the blood by our food. The ripening of the blood is constantly going on, with rapidity proportioned to the vigor of the heart, the suitability of the food, and the freedom with which the lungs act in pure air. The old blood corpuscles liquefy and pass away; new ones are produced only from chyle and lymph. Thus we see the necessity of a constant current of blood and of a ceaseless supply of materials for forming it. If the new corpuscles in the blood were produced as the offspring, so to speak, of the old ones, loss of blood would be far less readily reparable than it is; but food, air and right thinking are the real origin of good blood and the process of renewal is always going on, while digestion and circulation are maintained.

The blood cells are not directly converted into the substance of the body, but by the circulation, oxygen is conveyed from the lungs to all parts of the system, and the circulation returns to the lungs laden with carbonic acid, there to be discharged in exchange for the vital air. Thus it seems that the chief object to be attained by the circulation of the blood is to keep the cell life in constant motion as the conveyors of oxygen between the air and every part of the body. The vital air is carried by the blood to every part of the body when there is a proper circulation going on. The lungs are so adapted to the heart and its action, as in health to receive and return the whole mass of blood in the space of about one hundred and sixty seconds; and they are so constructed that every par­ticle of blood is brought under the influence of the air, through the delicate air cells in the lungs, which are distended with air by the act of breathing. The state of the circulation determines the condition of the

health of the body. When the circulation is good, oxygen is taken into the system in greater quantity than when the circulation is not good. Old cells are being broken down by work and worry, then carried away and cast off from the body by the various organs of excretion, and material is taken from the food supply to build up new cells. The blood, starting from the heart, the force pump of the organization, is sent into the lungs to get a supply of oxygen from the atmosphere. Then being forced through the arteries, the oxygen which it carries with it is used to bum up the refuse matter left in the system before it is ex­creted, just as piles of rubbish are burned. The blood, is then drawn back to the heart through the veins, and it is ready to go on again in its ceaseless activity as common carrier of the body, conveying the material for new cells, carrying off the old ones, and causing the oxygen to act as a force producer and a consumer of used-up material. Our food supply acts as fuel for the heart, the combustion of this food, caused by the uniting with the oxygen of the air, gives us force, energy, physical vigor.

Air is a mixture of gases, of which the two most prominent ones are oxygen and nitrogen; we need the oxygen to bum up the waste material of the food, and that burning of the waste gives us heat.

Make yourself healthy and form the habit of deep breathing.

Breathing is of the utmost importance in developing the lungs, increasing their area, and enabling them to throw off whatever is taken into them in the way of poisons, that work so much distress as producers of the contagious and infectious diseases, and also by enabling them to overcome inherited tendencies to diseases.

Everybody has to breathe, be it ever so little, as it is a necessary condition of life; but when the lungs are only partially filled with air, it leaves what is called the residual air, which does not, and cannot, circulate while in the lungs, and when we consider that it is only by some unusual effort that this air is changed, we can form some idea of what the evil effect will be when that effort is not put forth, and the same air is allowed to remain in the lungs for a length of time.

It has been said that one-seventh of the human family die of some lung trouble. What is known as consumption, is usually supposed to be hereditary, from which there is no escape. People do not inherit consumption, but simply a tendency to it, and the tendency may be overcome by developing a healthy condition. This can be done by breathing, by devel­oping a naturally weak pair of lungs, and living up to the laws of health, otherwise.

There are a great many people who seldom, if ever, breathe as nature intended they should. The way we breathe is purely a matter of habit, and the more we study the subject the more apparent it becomes that many people would have better health if they would take more air into their lungs. The re-absorption of carbonic acid gas, while exhaling the air from the lungs through the mouth, instead of the nose, is a frequent and constant source of disease, by loading the system with poisons that should be eliminated.

THE BENEFIT OF DEEP BREATHING

The lungs have no power of their own to expand or even to aid in their own expansion; we must breathe in the air ourselves and when we know that upon the blood the body depends for its existence and that the blood depends upon the pure air to clear it from impurities and to give to it oxygen and whatever food it, may require to feed the vital organs, and when we consider the enormous quantities of blood and air which daily pass through the lungs, and that the purer the air inhaled, the better will the blood be fitted to give health and energy to the body, then we must realize the necessity for correct breathing. We must breathe deeply, we must open up the lungs to receive the oxy­gen and cleanse the blood as it flows through the lungs. We get into the habit of taking little, short breaths, and continue to do so, year in and year out; thus, through our own neglect, we do not claim our inherit­ance of good health.

Deep breathing is a strong preventive of disease. Always empty the lungs of impure air before inhaling, when taking the Breathing Exercises.

Correct breathing, which is deep breathing, means correct use of the muscles of the lungs. Short breath­ing (incorrect breathing) brings about weak throats, disused lungs, sunken chests, poor digestion, and many serious diseases, such as colds, bronchitis and con­sumption, which are very common results of incorrect breathing.

We go around with the vital organs too low. Why? Because we have not breathed correctly; our breathing has been too short. In deep breathing the vital organs are brought into correct position.

Every twenty-four hours there flow to the lungs sixty hogsheads of air and thirty hogsheads of blood.

BREATHING

There are so many books on correct breathing, so many methods, that a student becomes confused when searching for a few simple rules. There is good in all methods for breathing, but my advice would be to obtain a few simple rules that seem to fit the necessary requirements for health, and let the complicated, overdressed ideas alone; especially would this be true for a beginning student.

We do not get pure air enough, for air is life itself. To know how to breathe properly, to get freedom in breath, means health, not only on the physical plane, but on the mental plane. A healthy body and a healthy mind bring a well-developed state of high spiritual unfoldment. The divine life cannot be nor­mal and well unfolded when the physical and the mental are lacking in strength.

Many people think it is such a task to learn breathe properly. This is not so; the breathing exer­cises should be a great joy and a real physical, mental and spiritual pleasure and inspiration.

We should always inhale through the nostrils; the exhalations, during the exercises, are generally through the nose; sometimes, for special exercises, as in the exhaust breath, we exhale through the mouth. The exhaust exercises will be spoken of later on.

EXERCISES FOR DEEP BREATHING

Stand evenly on both feet, with arms relaxed at sides. Inhale slowly while raising hands upward until they are above the head. Then hold breath for a very few seconds, then slowly exhale, allowing the hands to gradually come to position at side. In this exercise the hands should be relaxed and the fingers free, the forearm leading in the upward position and the wrist leading in the downward movement of arms. Take this exercise seven times, inhaling slowly; holding breath for a few seconds, not more than twelve, before exhaling. Exhale evenly and not with an explosive breath. (Inhale and exhale through the nose).

Repeat this exercise with arms held front, slowly raising arms from the front of the body up to the sides of the head, palms open out, then slowly bringing arms down to position; during this exercise inhale slowly, as the arms are raised; when they are up, straight from the shoulder, hold breath twelve seconds, then slowly exhale and lower arms to position.

After taking an exercise, exhaust breath, sending the breath out rather forcefully (but not explosively) through the mouth; then rest for at least a minute; if you feel the need of a longer rest, take it before taking up another exercise.

Inhale—at the same time extend arms from the shoulders and swing them around in a large circle, giving free, full swings from the shoulders. Do this six times, very vigorously, inhaling and holding breath ; inhale as you take three circles then hold breath for three circles, then exhale, dropping arms to position. Repeat this, holding arms out front and swinging in circles, keeping them to the front of the body. Repeat, extending arms straight up from shoulders, either side of head, and swing in the circle. Repeat, holding arms down at sides, and swinging in outward circles.

Inspiration is the intaking of air; the expulsion of air is expiration. Respiration includes inspiration and expiration. About twenty to thirty cubic inches of air are taken into the lungs with one inspiration; that is in the ordinary breathing.

In the deepest inhale about eighty cubic inches of air are taken in. This would be a very strong, deep breath; a very strong expiration would expel about eighty cubic inches of air. People who have not been developed by deep breathing exercises could not take in eighty cubic inches of air, nor could they expel so much. The power comes through daily exercise.

In ordinary breathing the usual rate is fourteen to eighteen inspirations and expirations in the minute. Expiration, in the usual breathing, takes a little longer than the inspiration. Individuals vary in the rate of respiration, even in normal health condition. Some naturally breathe slowly, others much faster. Breath­ing is largely controlled by individual temperament.

There is always some air left in the lungs, this is called residual air and is not far from one hundred cubic inches.