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Conscious Breathing: What is Breath Integration
Breathe Integration, and other terms such as Breathwork, Rebirthing, Transformational Breathing or Holotropic Breathing is a powerful approach to self-exploration and healing that integrates insights from modern consciousness research, anthropology, various depth psychologies, transpersonal psychology, eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions of the world.
The process itself uses very simple means: it combines accelerated breathing with evocative relaxing music in a safe and comfortable setting. With the eyes closed and lying down, each person uses their own breath and music in the room to enter a non-ordinary relaxed state of consciousness. This state activates the natural inner healing process of the individual’s psyche, activating a vast and varied number of personal internal experiences. With the inner healing intelligence guiding the process, the quality and content brought forth is unique to each person and for the particular time and place. While recurring themes are common, no two sessions are ever alike. Additional elements of the process may include focused energy release work and deep inner peace.
When used in specific ways, Breath Integration allows us to release and resolve emotions, stresses and memories which are often inaccessible through the more conventional talking therapies. Breathing, beyond the basic need for survival, acts as a bridge between spirit, mind, and body; a bridge between the conscious and the subconscious. "Breath Integration" is one of the quickest ways to open our hearts to love and inner peace, and to fill our bodies with life and health. Connecting the inhale with the exhale consciously and continuously is one of the most effective ways of connecting us to our bodies, our thoughts and emotions, to each other, nature and existence itself.
The effects of this transformational breath process can be indentified on at least four levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
1) Physically Conscious Breathing reduces stress and releases pain that may be held in the body.
2) Mentally, it helps us become conscious of beliefs and patterns in our unconscious, which are preventing us from manifesting what we desire.
3) Emotionally, this breathwork allows us to release and integrate what we have suppressed.
4) Spiritually, Conscious Breathing awakens our intuitive powers and our awareness of our essential innocence. In other words, we become fully conscious -- conscious thinkers, conscious feelers, conscious breathers, and conscious participants in our own life experience.
Did you know:
• The average person breathes between 18,000 - 20,000 breaths per day. This totals an average of 5,000 gallons of air.
• 70% of toxins are eliminated during the breathing process. Only a small % of toxins are eliminated through perspiration, defecation and urination
• 90% of the nutrition needed by the body comes from the oxygen we breathe. Only 10% comes from the food we eat and without sufficient oxygen, we will not get proper nutrition from our food. Oxygen is the fuel that burns our food.
• We can go 10-14 days without food, 4 days without liquids, hours without heat but only 4 minutes without air before brain damage occurs.
• Air is the most quickly distributed element in the body. It immediately enters the bloodstream as oxygen must be constantly supplied to each and every cell.
• Each breath nourishes and feeds the circulatory system. Deeper breathing enhances cellular activity and therefore our very strength.
• Only three percent of body waste is expelled through defecation and only a further seven percent through urination. The skin is responsible for a further twenty percent of the discharge of body waste. Seventy percent of bodily waste matter is breathed out.
• The rate of blood flow at the top of the lungs is less than a tenth of a litre per minute. By contrast, the bottom of the lungs has a blood flow at a rate of over a litre per minute. With proper diaphragmatic breathing we can increase our capacity to discharge waste material ten times; our breathing rate can drop from 14-15 breaths per minutes to 8-12; we become more deeply oxygenated and our lungs and heart don't have to work as hard.
• According to one medical researcher, seventy-five percent of the ills people bring to their doctors are related to poor breathing. Gay Hendricks states that "poor diaphragmatic breathing has become a universal breathing problem" and if we could develop only one generation of children who breathe correctly, diseases could almost be eliminated.
The following Conscious Breathing activity is easy to do and has been shown to be helpful for high blood pressure, insomnia and asthma.
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