Breathe right!
Enhance your health with proper breathing. Breathing is so simple we often take it
for granted, but it has fundamental influence on body, mind, and spirit. Every time
we breathe in air, we bring oxygen into the body and spark the transformation of
nutrients into fuel. Every time we breathe out, we purge the body of carbon dioxide, a toxic waste.
Breathing influences our state of mind. Shallow breathing can make us tense.
Deep breathing can make use calm. Breathing can make our thinking confused or
clear. In the yogic tradition, breathing is the means of acquiring prana, the ethereal substance that powers life.
Pranayama is the optimization of prana through the control of the breath.
Pranayama can be practiced with or without the practice of other poses. You already know how to do this.
1. Sit comfortable with your spine straight or lie comfortable on your back. Take
deep breaths through your nostrils.
2. Relax your breath as you slightly contract the back of your throat. The first time
you do this, you may create an "oinking" sound rather like a pig! Do not worry about
unusual sounds. With a little practice, you will create a steady hissing sound as you
breathe in and out. You do not have to force this sounds, but it should be loud
enough that another person in the room could hear it.
3. Breathe as long and deep as you can without creating tension anywhere in the body.
Perfect your technique with help of an instructor.
What diseases can be relieved by pranayama? Pranayama purifies the channels
along which the life stream of 'prana' flows in the body and prevents various
disorders. It increases one's resistance to respiratory diseases. It helps cure
cough and cold, insomnia, chronic headache and asthma. And, as recently
reported in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, pranayama can even relieve diabetes and heart disease.
Enhance health with colour.
The complete healing spectrum of natural light is essential to health. The full
moon is the ancient symbol of completion. The rays of light cast by the moon on
the earth contain colour in the form of white light. The white light of the moon
originates in the sun and contains seven different colours - violet, indigo, blue,
green, yellow, orange and red. These are natural colours which are highly beneficial to the maintenance of health and for healing diseases.
How can you tell if you are receiving all the colours of the healing sun? In 1932,
Gerrard and Hessay, two Californian psychologists, scientifically established that
blue light had a calming effect and red a stimulating power on human beings. A
patient is first subjected to an examination to ascertain which colour he lacks. The
deficiency is determined by observing the colour of the eyeballs, nails, urine and
excrement. In cases of the lack of red, the eyes and nails will be bluish, and the
urine and excrement white or bluish. If there is a deficiency of the blue colour, the eyes and nails will be reddish and urine and excrement yellowish or red. This
is a good day to consider whether you are receiving all the vital colours of health in your daily
life.
Drink water regularly.
Regular drinking of water is beneficial not only for constipation but also for
cleaning the system, diluting the blood and washing out poisons. Normally six to
eight glasses of water should be taken daily as it is essential for digesting and
dissolving food nutrients so that they can be absorbed and utilised by the body.
Water should, however, not be taken with meals as it dilutes the gastric juices
essential for proper digestion. Water should be taken either half an hour before or an hour after meals.
Chew, chew, chew, for it's the thing to do.
The process of digestion begins in the mouth. The saliva in the moth, besides
helping to masticate the food, carries an enzyme called ptyalin which begins the
chemical action of digestion. It initiates the catabolism (breakdown) of
carbohydrates by converting starches into simple sugars. This explains the need
for thorough mastication of starchy food in the mouth. If this is not done the ptyalin cannot carry out its functions as it is active in an alkaline, neutral or
slightly acid medium and is inactivated by the highly acid gastric juices in the stomach.
Although enzymatic action starts while food is being chewed, digestion moves into
high gear only when the chewed food has passed the esophagus and reached
the stomach. While the physical action of peristalsis churns and kneads solid
food into a semi-solid amorphous mixture called chyme, this mixture undergoes
chemical changes initiated by gastric juices secreted by the walls of the stomach. These juices include mucus for lubricating the stomach, hydrochloric
acid and gastric juice.
The enzyme or active principle of the gastric juice is pepsin. This enzyme in
combination with hydrochloric acid starts the breakdown of proteins into absorbable amino acids called
polypeptides. An additional enzyme, rennin, plays an important role in the
stomach of the infant. It curdles milk and allows the pepsin to work upon it. The
gastric juice has no effect upon starches or fats.
Tip 64. Eat plant foods for faster healing.
An exclusive diet of raw juices of fruits and vegetables results in much faster
recovery from diseases and more effective cleansing and regeneration of the
tissues than the fasting on pure water.
Dr. Ragnar Berg, a world-renowned authority on nutriton and biochemistry observes:
"During fasting the body burns up and excretes huge amounts of accumulated wastes. We
can help this cleansing process by drinking alkaline juices instead of water while fasting.
I have supervised many fasts and made extensive examinations and tests of fasting
patients, and I am convinced that drinking alkali-forming fruit and vegetable juices,
instead of water, during fasting will increase the healing effect of fasting. Elimination of
uric acid and other inorganic acids will be accelerated. And sugars in juices will
strengthen the heart. Juice fasting is, therefore, the best form of fasting."
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