The Best Breathing Exercises
One of the best breathing exercises is rhythmic breathing. Breathing
exercises are essential for a clear mind and a healthy body. Health
and balance are maintained through different forms of breathing. Various
breathing exercises lead to physical and mental development, but deep
and rhythmic breathing is essential to personal growth in all areas.
Breath is life, so live life to the fullest with closer contact with
the life power contained in the breath.
Spend some time each day practicing deep rhythmic breathing.
• Sit upright in a comfortable chair and focus on relaxing
your entire body. Put aside the day’s activities and focus
on a nature scene, for example, or anything that does not disturb
your emotions.
• Inhale the breath gently through your nose focusing on the
breath going to the back of your throat and feel it filling the
lower part of your lungs as it pushes the diaphragm outward and
downward.
• Then fill the middle part of your lungs pushing out your
lower ribs, breastbone, and chest.
• Then fill the upper portion of your lungs forcing your upper
chest outward and lifting the whole chest while completely expanding
your ribs.
• While you retain the breath, make sure the muscles at the
base of your neck and shoulders are relaxed. Make your shoulders
droop so that you do not create tension.
• Then gently exhale the breath.
• Try to inhale the breath to the count of six, hold for the
count of three or six, and exhale to the count of six. Start with
five minutes a day and increase the time as you are able to keep
your mind and body relaxed.
This is only one of the many powerful breathing exercises taught
in the Healthy Living course program that builds bodily strength and
vitality and produces anti-aging effects. Breathing is the elixir
of life. Without breath, there is no life. Greater use of the breath
brings life-long energy and freedom from aches and pains.
Relaxation Exercise
Relaxation should not be confused with inactivity. Relaxation Exercise,
to be more specific, is a method of withdrawing consciously from the
active states of existence.
The demands of modern life are intense. Living to those demands is
exhausting, weakening, and devitalizing. Relaxation, on the other
hand, is invigorating, recharging, and vitalizing. After a day of
physical hard work or mental concentration, it is important to withdraw,
detach—to separate oneself from the work—and to relax.
Try this simple Relaxation Exercise:
• Sit on a chair with both feet flat on the floor or ground,
hands on your knees, with head, neck, and spine straight. The fingers
should be well apart.
• In this position, let yourself go; i.e., relax completely
all over, without a single muscle in tension in the entire body.
• Keep the thought of peace in your mind; push away any other
thoughts that will tend to disrupt your relaxation time.
• From five to fifteen minutes of this relaxation will bring
unexpected results in the process of recharging a devitalized body.
• Do not fall asleep.
• If you can, practise relaxation two or three times a day.
It will keep you from being unnecessarily irritable or angry.
The Relaxation Exercise is one of many techniques and approaches
to good health taught in the Healthy Living philosophical study program.
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