Wellness eJournal™

Whenever we encounter any need for first aid from being in an accident or disaster, to helping our children with a scrape or cut, the first thing to do is to focus on our breathing. Slowing and deepening our breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system to restore our body's healing resources – including clear thinking so we know what action to take. Continued full breathing increases our body's supplies of natural pain relievers and relaxes the muscles. Simple to say, easy to do as first aid.

The autonomic nervous system has two parts, the sympathetic, which controls arousal for the fight or flight mechanism, and the parasympathetic, which controls relaxation. With slow, full, deep breathing we send the message to slow down the heart rate, decrease blood pressure and restore normal functioning.

A 7-Breath Series is simple, effective and easy – try it yourself. Breathe ... now. Push your stomach out as you take a slow deep breath and feel the energy enter your belly and chest. Pull it up into your shoulders and head. Sigh as you let it go. Feel better? Do it once more. Breathe in and up, pull to the top and release. Go ahead, make the sound – Aaahhhhh – if not aloud, at least in your mind.

As you continue to read, continue to breathe. Breathe slowly and deeply, expanding the belly fully. Breathe in an easy, continuous cycle without holding the breath. Continue for seven breaths as you read. Pause until you finish the seven breaths. Notice how relaxed your body becomes.

Now breathe in slowly once more, this time imagining that you are pulling energy through the feet to a spot just above the head where a pool of energy gathers. As you release the breath, imagine the pool of energy above your head washing down your spine and flowing out your feet into the earth as you relax your shoulders and allow the abdomen to go soft. Pause and become aware of any sensations in along your spine and in your body. Repeat the process, imagining the breath collecting any tension as it moves through your body and out the top of your head to be purified by the sun. As you relax, the pool of bright energy washes back down your spine and through your body re-energizing and relaxing you. Enjoy the gentle relaxation and when you are ready, take another breath.

The larger benefit comes to us with continued practice yielding states of profound relaxation leading to physical health and emotional balance. After the stress of a first aid requiring incident, a continued practice of breathing encourages our body to self-repair.

By practicing the 7-Breath Series in normal stressful situations, you will not only gain the immediate benefits, but program your body to quickly relax and easily focus in an emergency situation, with just a couple of deep breaths. See the IBI website for several additional articles on Dr. Goode's form of Breathwork, TransformBreathing. In addition, our next issue on the attitude component of wellness, will include TransformBreathing.

Source: Dr Tom Goode has a very interesting history. survived and excelled through natural healing. He rebuilt himself after childhood polio, a devastating teenage auto accident in which he sustained severe structural and brain damage, and as a young adult, was diagnosed with a degenerative condition with no known cure which required continued medication for 17 years. He shifted his life-style and utilized complementary medicine, so that he is now symptom, drug and disease free. He went on to become an ND, lead workshops throughout the US and abroad, appear on television and radio, compose the Cosmic Waltz musical transformational series, and co-author two books: Invitation to Divinity and Celebration of Transcendence. He and his wife, psychologist Caron Goode, founded Premier Parenting, and the International Breath Institute.

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