Experience Optimum Vitality by Ingrid Bacci, PhD, CST
Most people do not realize that they possess within themselves the ability to create one hundred percent optimum health and vitality. In an era where our medical system is failing us, it is extraordinarily important to access within yourself your own power to heal yourself. In addition, contemporary medical care has major drawbacks. It is a commercial enterprise motivated by the profit motive. It therefore encourages you to think that someone else, and not you, has to take care of your health. This is disempowerment at its worst. Reclaim your right to your life and to your health!
Your optimal health is truly in your hands. You have far more power than you think. Unfortunately, our culture and our educational system may teach us how to develop certain professional skills, but they do not teach us even the most basic principles of self-optimization. Not only can you increase your vitality through proper understanding of nutrition and exercise. In addition, mind-body psycho-physical exercises that train you to optimize your energy flow can dramatically improve your health. Such exercises are virtually ignored by the mainstream. They form part of an esoteric subculture known only to the few who have seriously researched the wisdom of the ages. You deserve to have access to this knowledge. It can make all the difference in your life.
Psychophysical exercises teach you how to be deeply present to and in tune with your own body. They give you techniques for self-improvement in all aspects of your life, and a heightened awareness of how you function that adds exponentially to your potential. The more you study psychophysical exercises, the more excited you become about how you can empower your whole life – not only physically, but also emotionally, spiritually, and mentally – through using them.
The beginning of all psychophysical self-awareness and life enhancement work is work with the breath. Breathing techniques are frequently taught these days. They also are frequently taught poorly. If you understand that the ultimate goal of breathing techniques should be to foster complete bodily relaxation, combined with heightened awareness and expanded energy, this will help you to find the right teachings. For the moment, and just to give you an idea of how a simple exercise can change your life, let’s explore a few examples of the physical benefits my clients and students receive from simple breath awareness exercises. These exercises teach them how to breathe deeply, softly, fully and slowly – in short, in a profoundly relaxed and pleasurable manner!
1) Soft, deep breathing eliminates chronic pain. Wow! Soft deep breathing releases the diaphragm muscle, and simultaneously relaxes all the related major muscle groups of the body. Since pain is often a result of excess tension, eliminating that tension eliminates the pain! Yet how many people in chronic pain are taught to work with relaxed breathing? Very few. Most are just given pills, or at best exercises. Even exercises will have limited value if you are not taught to release the tensions that underlie pain.
2) Soft, deep breathing reduces constipation. Constipation is a major cause of ill health, because it leads to a buildup of toxins in the body. Interestingly, deeply relaxed breathing often eliminates constipation. How? The more your diaphragm relaxes, the more it descends into the abdomen on the in-breath. This acts like a massage to your small intestines and colon, moving waste through your system. And presto! Elimination becomes automatic.
3) Soft deep breathing reverses chronic adrenal exhaustion and soothes the central nervous system. Most people suffer from the long term effects of excessive sympathetic nervous system tension, commonly called the startle reflex. Over time, this destroys your immune system and wipes out your adrenals. Enter soft deep breathing, and you find a more balanced approach to life and much improved health!
4) Soft deep breathing is one of the best defenses against heart disease. The deeper you breathe, the less the heart has to work to oxygenate your blood. That saves your heart. Proper breathing also reduces hypertension. Finally, soft deep breathing eliminates the tension and anger that often contribute to heart disease.
5) Soft deep breathing is the ultimate preventative and cure for all sorts of anxiety, obsessive disorders, ADD and ADHD problems, and all attention disorders, including disorders of aging like Alzheimer’s.
So you see, learning proper breathing techniques can impact your health profoundly for the better. But that is just the beginning, because the truth is that the more easily you learn to breathe, the more happy you feel. Contentment is synonymous with a calm body, and calm breathing is one of the most powerful tools for creating that calm body. Now isn’t inner happiness and contentment a goal worth pursuing?
Psycho-physical exercises for self-healing and self-optimization form a major portion of the classes and workshops I offer on self-actualization. To find out more about these classes and about self-actualization, feel free to email me at ingrid@ingridbacci.com or to visit my website, www.ingridbacci.com , I teach quite widely through the Tri-state area (New York, Connecticut and New Jersey) and in Europe, and am available to discuss workshops elsewhere as well.
May your journey be ever more effortless!
The Art of Effortless Living by Ingrid Bacci, Ph.D.
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