Sooner or later, most of us feel a little depressed or anxious, and certainly all of us know what it’s like to feel tired. There are many different ways of treating these feelings, from exercise to meditation, from medication to a long vacation in Hawaii. But you may not realize that you have a safe, effective, and inexpensive remedy right at hand for each of these conditions. What is this magical elixir? Your own breath which should be 10-12 breaths a minute. If over 16 -18 breaths over a period of days one becomes a chronic hyperventialtor!
As yogis have known for centuries—and as medical science is beginning to discover—the breath has amazing recuperative powers. By controlling the breath (a practice called pranayama), the yogis found, they could alter their state of mind. The three pranayama practices described here primarily create their effects by slowing and regularizing the breath. This engages what scientists call the parasympathetic nervous system, a complex biological mechanism that calms and soothes us.
How does slower breathing help? In stressful times, we typically breathe too rapidly. This leads to a buildup of oxygen in the bloodstream and a corresponding decrease in the relative amount of carbon dioxide, which in turn upsets the ideal acid-alkaline balance—the pH level—of the blood. This condition, known as respiratory alkalosis, can result in muscle twitching, nausea, irritability, light headedness, confusion, and anxiety.
In contrast, slowing the breath raises the carbon dioxide level in the blood, which nudges the pH level back to a less alkaline state. As the blood’s pH changes, the parasympathetic nervous systemcalms us in a variety of ways, including telling the vagus nerve to secrete acetylcholine, a substance that lowers the heart rate.
Know Your Breath
Now please note that I’m not recommending that you try to breathe away chronic anxiety, fatigue, or depression. None of these conditions is easily or safely self-treated. In fact, tackling them by yourself, without professional supervision, could make them worse. But your breath can be a powerful ally in coping with temporary physical and emotional states—whether you’re despondent about an argument with a close friend, apprehensive about an upcoming job interview, or exhausted after a tough day at work.
As with any treatment, the breathing remedy must be administered intelligently and judiciously to be fully effective. Each condition responds best to its own special breath. To calm anxiety, for example, you can purposely lengthen your exhalations; to alleviate dullness and fatigue, you can lengthen your inhalations. And to lift yourself out of an emotional pit, it’s most effective to equalize the lengths of your inhalations and exhalations.
If you want your breath to work as an extra-strength remedy, it’s a good idea to do some preliminary practice before you try to apply these techniques. First, spend some time with your breath when you’re feeling in the pink, learning to closely watch its movements and tendencies.
When you first try to look at your breath, the experience may feel akin to that of a fish attempting to describe water. Your breathing is so habitual that you’ve probably never given it much attention, and therefore you have little sense of the subtle and not-so-subtle ways it can change. But if you continue to watch, you will probably begin to notice many different dimensions, physical and emotional, to the feeling of your breath.
“Who knew? The orthostatic balance of the head and cervical (neck) spine could be linked to shoulder pain?”
My client, Sheila got rid of her chronic shoulder pain after I treated her jaw & neck. This is her story.
One morning a year ago, I began to feel pain in my left shoulder doing routine activities, such as reaching up for things, reaching backwards, and putting on a jacket or seatbelt. I have always enjoyed good health except for occasional bouts of low back aches and more recently carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands. I was told by one health professional that the
shoulder would probably start to “freeze” and was given daily range of motion exercises, to prevent this from happening. In spite of following this advice and consulting a number of people for different treatments, the pain escalated.
This started to affect my quality and length of sleep as I could not sleep on my left side. Perhaps in response to the
pain, I started to clench and grind my teeth, to the extent that my dentist said he could detect vertical cracks appearing in my teeth. He prescribed a night guard.
Years ago, I met Cathy (who specializes in TMD) to rehabilitate my jaw, post- surgery. I returned to her because I remembered her telling me, craniomandibular problems are often associated with a change in the neck’s natural spinal curve. This can compress the cervical 5/6/7 nerves as they exit the neck. These are the peripheral nerves that influence the shoulder or anywhere in the arm.
Dentists fixing the bite in conjunction with a physiotherapist working on aligning the bite with the upper neck will influence the spinal curve and therefore shoulder pain.
In the head there are 3 planes; The vertical, bipupillary, otic/vestibular and plane of occlusion. Mariano Rocobado, world renowned physiotherapist specializing in TMD states that “If any of the 3 horizontal planes are not horizontal, adaptive postures will be made over time by the rest of the spinal column to restore these planes
to level as an instinctive survival trait. In other words humans must see straight and eat to survive!” After assessing my shoulder joint and rest of my body mechanics, Cathy treated my neck joints and surrounding muscles – at
this point, I did not notice any difference. However, at my next appointment, she began working on my jaw and neck. She reminded me that the movement of my jaw and upper neck must complement each, otherwise the body posture adapts by altering the curve of the spine. After this treatment, I experienced a vast improvement in my shoulder discomfort and what’s more, my carpal tunnel symptoms lessened considerably as well! It seemed that the combination of work on the neck and jaw together had done the trick. In retrospect, I wonder why I didn’t remember,
connect the dots and figure this out!
Thankfully, Cathy was able to put it all together. I am very grateful
that she was able to help, when I was close to giving up and living with it. She’s one amazing gal and I always enjoy my time with her – I appreciate her sense of humor, her positive attitude, knowledge and her global approach to assessing body mechanics.
If you know anyone that has Tourettes or Parkinsons? Check out my you tube channel and click on “dental videos” playlist for some interesting ways Dr Brendan Stack helps these conditions using dental appliances
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS-exert from Super-colossal Book of games by Sheila Anne Barry- my “Bible’ of fun
This is our favorite game to play in our family and with our friends which has provided endless hours of laughter. I hope this will be same for you all
You play this game with “actions instead of words”.
3 or 4 players leave the room while the the group decides on a scene that one person -say Dick will act out. The scenes can be something like “eating spaghetti , playing tennis or ping pong.or taming a lion
It should be fairly complex so that the act lasts a couple of minutes.
Then the 1st player -Meredith ia called in and watches Dick pantomine the agreed on scene
Then the 2nd player Edward is brought in. Ed watches Meredith repeat (or try to repeat) the actions which Dick just performed.
Then the 3rd player- Sandy comes back and watches Ed’s version of Meredith’s performance.
When the 4th player Angelo is brought in, he sees Sandy’s translation of the actions, and announces what he thinks she’s doing. The results are hilarious and will result in many happy memories that when recalled, is a gift that keeps on giving. Enjoy!
Consequences- the guy above did not secure his ladder and has become as a CHRISTMAS DECORATION!
This Christmas game is called Consequences : We played this in a restaurant at a work party and we were laughing so hard another office party came by and asked me to email him the game!
Gather at least 5 -10 other people to help you write your story. Then give them each a paper & pencil
Each player is going to write a section of the story, as instructed by the leader at the top of a sheet of paper.
Then the player will fold back a part of the page( sparingly) they wrote on and passs it on to next player, who does the same thing. As you can see each player is writing on a different sheet for every installment the leader calls for
These are what I use for installments.The leader can use these or make up new ones
Write a boy’s name and brief description of him
Write a girl’s name and brief description of her
Write where they met
Where were they supposed to be at the time?
How they met
His first words to her
Her first words to him
At this point if yor’s playing in a team of 7 players, the players get back their papers they started. It doesnt matter, just keep going around. There can be as many installments as you want-as long as the paper holds out.
What happened next
Whatthe neighbours said
The CONSEQUENCES
Where they are now
The Outlook for the future
At the end unfold the papers and each player reads out loud the story he or she has in hand, putting it all together so it reads smoothly. And there you have it-5,10,15 or 20 possible plots for the best seller lists- or for unforgettable TV viewing!
As the Holiday Season is upon us, we find ourselves
reflecting on the past year
and on those who have helped to shape my
business in a most significant way.
I value my relationship with you and look forward to staying connected with you in the year to come. I wish you a very happy Holiday Season and a New Year filled with peace and prosperity!
I’m back! Yes, Tilley hats help one to blend in! Over the last 5 weeks I travelled to Uganda, Zanzibar, Tanzania and Cape Town. Family & Friends have asked me if there was one experience that stands out. The answer is no, because I was lucky enough to have had a variety of breath taking, unbelievable and exciting moments.
The first was an hour with Mountain gorillas in Uganda, watching them from 21 feet and less at times. This baby seemed to enjoy our company and posed for the cameras!
I saw all the Big 5 animals (elephant, lions, leopard, buffalo and rhino) so close, unfazed by our presence. Luckily the short rains had started 2 weeks before we arrived and therefore the Serengeti plains and the Ngorongoro Conservation areas, I will never forget. The sight of 1.5 million wildebeest and 800,000 zebra on the start of their long trek was mind blowing.
However “Shark cage diving in South Africa’, got my adrenaline going the most! It is truly one of the most breath-taking adventure activities having a personal eye-to-eye encounter with a great white shark. These amazing animals were curious and swam very close to the cage responding to my “warp speed” heart rate, and look at my “quivering mass”, as they brush their tails against the cage.
Here are a few photos of big five.
Water buffalo. Notice they provide taxi service to birds!
The first lion to welcome us on safari.
I have decided that African women have the right exercise to improve one’s posture! Just need a few bananas and sticks from the forest. Stay tuned for photos and videos in next newsletters and on my face book page.
Laughing your way through Life’s challenges with friends always helps
