Breathing Through The Years
Adding years to your life… and life to our years.
Aging is a paradox. Everyone wants to live a long time and yet no one wants to get old. We’d like to be around forever if forever meant being in our 30’s and being healthy. We’re aging every day… like it or not the calendar pages keep turning, but it’s important to remember the old adage: “Age is inevitable; aging isn’t!”
The very process of aging is poorly understood. Multiple factors are at work including diet and nutrition, exercise or the absence thereof, past illnesses and environmental factors. Some health authorities believe aging is a predetermined, genetically controlled process. What we do know is that everyone ages at a unique rate.
The most powerful anti-aging tool you can muster is your desire to live a longer, healthier life. You can do a lot in this regard even before ever stepping foot in a doctor’s office.
As with so many medical issues, the key to a better, longer life is a healthy, balanced attitude. The control of breathing, called breathwork by Dr. Andrew Weil and others is an important ingredient to achieving inner peace. Tied to the autonomic nervous system that includes the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, breathing is the only bodily function that proceeds without the need for our conscious control and yet can be changed and modified at will. Slow breathing slows the pulse and lowers blood pressure. Rapid breathing is associated with an increase in “firing” of the sympathetic nervous system that increases the pulse rate and raises blood pressure.
One of the first places breathwork was realized and used was with the ancient Indian peoples who made breathing an integral part of yoga. But you don’t need to be a yogi, or travel to India, to benefit. With practice, you can learn to control the rate and depth of your breathing, slowing and deepening each breath to the point where pulse and blood pressure slow. From here, it’s a small step to meditation, the process of quieting one’s thoughts.
We’re living longer… far beyond the imaginings of our grandparents. The world to come will add years to our life. Our challenge will be to add life to our years.
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