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Breathing Away Depression

This is what why we always start and our workouts with the “Return to breath”

Breathing Away Depression

BY Rolf Sovik ON December 22, 2014

 

Few of us are completely untouched by depression. And when our mood is upended, the loss of hope and confidence can be almost paralyzing. Work accumulates. We smile and interact in familiar ways, but are not really engaged. We avoid calling friends, withdraw from social settings. And as time passes we find ourselves increasingly cut off from the sources of energy that normally sustain us.

Fortunately, most of us have recovery strategies for times when moods turn sour and energy wanes. We listen to our favorite music and spend time reading, or drawing, or whatever refreshes us. Often there is someone we can talk to. We exercise, take walks, or pray. For some, medication may also be a necessary part of mending. All these things can help—and it is important to keep every option open.

The meditative practices of yoga offer a simple and nurturing technique that you can add to your repertoire—the practice of relaxed breath awareness. A powerful tool for preventing the onset of depressed moods in the first place, breath awareness restores energy during acute phases of depression, lightens your emotional load, and creates needed distance from gloomy thoughts. And it complements other healing strategies by providing an underpinning of relaxation and emotional stability. So when low moods threaten to take the joy from life, breath awareness provides a consistent and ever-available inner focus that will help you make the journey back to health.

Three Dimensions of Life

How can the awareness of breathing be so useful? The importance of breathing is accented in a story from the Chandogya Upanishad. There, the eyes, ears, mind, and breath are found arguing about their relative importance. The eyes and ears, representing the body, claim that they are the most indispensable for life. But in turn, the mind and the breath argue their own cases. To resolve the issue each agrees to vacate the body for one year, leaving the others to manage without it. At the end of four years, when each aspect of the self has returned, a winner will be declared. One by one the eyes, the ears, and the mind depart but even through blindness, loss of hearing, and a coma-like existence, life continues. Then the breath begins to leave. Suddenly, all the remaining functions are uprooted, as if a strong horse, hooves bound with ropes, was tearing its fetters from the ground. Awestruck, the body and mind beg the breath to return and humbly accept it as supreme.

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Wall Street Journal – Larry Levy With Chris and Tracie Vlaun

WHAT’S YOUR WORKOUT
A Restaurant Chairman Whittles His Waist
Levy Restaurants Chairman Larry Levy Fitness Secrets

Fitness experts often say you should mix up your workout routine. That is easy for Larry Levy. The 69-year old restaurant executive has a workout to match each of the cities he frequents.

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V Art of Wellness Mentioned in Travel + Leisure

T+L’s Definitive Guide to Miami

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Miami Beach is booming again. Here, the most noteworthy arrivals—and a few long-standing favorites.

St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort: Across the street from the vaunted retail mecca…
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What is Vibrational Energy?

Humans are made out of energy and sustained by energy. Our bodies are ever-changing, dynamic fields of energy and vibration, not static physical structures.

Though we cannot see this vibrational energy that makes up the body/mind and sustains us, it is nevertheless a vital part of us. It is the life-force that keeps our hearts beating and our lungs breathing even when we are asleep.

Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher who has done groundbreaking work on the effect of emotions on the crystalline structure of water. In his book The Hidden Messages in Water, Dr. Emoto documents the effects of different emotions on the structure of frozen water crystals, showing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the energy of loving appreciation creates the most profoundly beautiful crystalline patterns. Given that our bodies are over 70 percent water, Emoto’s research has profound implications for health. How we think about, talk to, and feel about ourselves creates an imprint on our cells that affects not only us, but also everyone around us!

Clearly, human interactions have profound effects on health. These effects can be either positive or negative, depending upon the state of mind of the people involved in those interactions.

Through conscious movement, breath, meditation and exercise one can turn the state of mind more positive. When we begin to appreciate ourselves as vibrational fields of energy with the ability to affect the quality of our own experience, we will be getting in touch with our innate ability to heal ourselves and create health every day of our lives.

LEARN MORE | RECOMMENDED READING OR RESOURCES
The Biology of Belief, by Bruce Lipton
The Hidden Messages in Water, by Masaru Emoto and David A. Thayne