silent time into your daily routine, it will give you additional energy. You are the only one who can give yourself the gift of time.
When you manage your energy, it frees you to attend to the priorities in your life. You learn when your mind is sharpest and guard yourself from tiresome people and situations. The aim is to create balance between work and relaxation so that you can take care of business, but also take care of your soul.
Other changes are more complex. You may decide you want to find another job—one that isn’t such an energy drain—or end a romantic relationship because the differences are consistently uncomfortable.
Start with some goals that you are sure you can reach. Build your confidence then gradually take on more and more difficult changes.
You have very little control over most of the events that come your way during the day, but you do have tremendous control over your own thoughts and attitudes.
Make a commitment to yourself to weed out those harmful, negative thoughts that hold you back and drag you down, and make room for supportive, uplifting, encouraging thoughts that will boost your energy level.
You simply cannot afford to waste any of your precious energy reserves. You have got to conserve them and spend them wisely, so you will have the inner resources you need to be a successful, happy and fulfilled individual.
One easy and effective way to reduce stress and increase your energy level is by making time, every day for deep breathing. Breath is your next topic.
Breath
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.
Stepping up to control your breathing
1.Explore Yoga. Yoga works to condition the body, making it supple, flexible and healthy. Yoga also encourages deep breathing. Yoga breathing can help to relieve headaches, tension and insomnia.
2.Take a few moments to do a breathing exercise that will show you how to utilize your lungs fully.
Complete Breath Exercise:
Sit in a comfortable position, cross-legged on the floor if possible. During this exercise, you will be inhaling very slowly, so try to stay relaxed.
•First, take a deeper-than-normal breath.
•Hold it a moment.
•And then exhale very deeply so that your lungs are emptied of air. To help expel the air, pull in your abdomen as far as possible.
•Now begin a very slow inhalation through your nose. As you inhale, also begin to distend your abdomen.
•Continue slow inhalation. Now distend your abdomen as far as possible. Exaggerate this movement, making your abdomen as large as you can.
•Continue the slow inhalation. Now expand your chest as far as possible. Make this expansion exaggerated.
•Continue inhaling keeping your chest expanded and now raise your shoulders to let in even more air. This is the complete breathing posture. Now hold for a count of 5.
•Very slowly exhale completely through your nose, and at the same time, allow your body to contract and relax.
•Let your shoulders drop.
•Let your chest flatten.
•Let your stomach empty.
•Then slowly, start all over again…
When you do this exercise, do three complete inhalations and exhalations in a row. The goal is to learn how to refine your breathing process. You can do this whenever you want, making your breaths slow and regular so, your vital life energy reaches all levels of your body and mind. This contributes to a complete state of balance.
