I do some 10 minutes of Pranayamas (ancient yogic breathing exercises) and then I meditate in the morning. Depending on the time, I give myself some 20-30 minutes in total. If I for some reason fall out of my practice I notice after a few days how I get more unhealthy, starting with the non-mass part of me (the energy or vitality) that drops. In other words I loose Prana. I get easily irritated, worried, sad… If I continue like that I know it will sooner or later manifest in my body.
When we take a deep breath, holding the air we work the diaphragm and other muscles. It starts of a whole range of biochemical and neurological impulses to our body and mind. If you fill your lungs with air, from bottom up, you tell yourself to stop stressing. If you notice that you only breathe in the upper part of you lungs, you probably have high levels of stress hormones, and you need to stop and breath mindfully. A smoker that takes a drag from a cigarette gets calm because of the neurological effect of the deep breath before the nicotine kicks in.
Pranayamas provide higher levels of oxygen too, just as when we run. This gives the muscles and the metabolism a kick. That’s why it is a good practice if you need to loose weight. Also it is part of the detox system. It enhances the detox, and physical exercise, and is a fantastic start to a meditation. We teach all about it at the retreats.
On top of all the above, I’d like to describe mindful breathing as feeling alive and gratitude for it. Like all that we love, often it is when we loose it that we notice it. When I breathe I feel hugely grateful for being alive, for the body I was given, at the time and place it was given to me. I take air in, connect with the outside through it. I feel huge gratitude to the universe for all it has given me, and for this body allowing me to learn and explore. How can I take care of it?

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Published by O• L I V E
Naturopaths who deeply believe Natural Immunity is still the best, and therefore we work in defense of it.
Since 20+ years we have successfully been consultants in the natural health sector to support individuals and we are in particular working with entrepreneurs and professionals. Our mission is to defend natural health, the only one that really works so far. We mainly but not entirely use Eastern philosophy such as Ayurveda, TCM, Yoga, Thai chi, Falun Gong, and only honest modern science.
Everyone can heal naturally, it's what bodies and (free) minds want. Our O• Method is based on physics, chemistry and biology with emphasis on the first one as the rest often follow naturally. We divide our work in three parts: Body-Mind-Soul. To allow them all to detox and let go we work with energy (Prana, Xi, Vitality, Spirit, Pneuma or whatever you call the life force, it's the same force mentioned in ancient texts) to heal on all levels, i.e. from chronic disease, toxicity, depression and traumas using our own method, reaching 96% success rate which is unheard of by others in our sector. Would you know of anyone with that result, let us know.
Considering that we invented and dumped >120.000 (petro)chemically derived substances since 1945, of which many are very toxic, getting healthy will most likely include a good old body detox sooner or later.
My love for Ayurveda started in 1993 with Deepak Chopra and after a few turns in life I quit my job as a Nordic Brand Manager and BI strategist at the largest Nordic telecom operator and re-schooled in natural medicine. Besides Dr. Chopra I have studied Dr. Lad, Dr. Siva (Pune, India) and other prominent teachers in their field, but the real difference comes with a practiced. I added nutrition, Orthomolecular Medicine with Dr. Nielsen (USA/Spain) and herbalism.
Today we teach those whom want to continue our work and we love to dig down in etymology and the original (mainly Avestan, Pali and Sanskrit) scripts to understand the words fully and I fall in love with the concepts over and over again for every sutra. This love affair that created a few books (Amazon), presentations, essayes and many events and consultations, is still giving us Yang-Yin balance and inspiration. I guess with that we are recognizing the value of Dao De Ching 💚🌿💜
Workshops and about:
https://oliveretreat.com/about/
Books:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cristina+azcarate&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss
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