Spirit and breath The Latin word“ spiritos” means many things, including“ energy,”“ life force” and“ breath.” While to some the English derivative of this word connotes a religious affiliation, the truth is that the word denotes being alive and“ aerobic,” meaning“ in the presence of oxygen.” The word spiritual, in its most literal sense, refers to someone very connected to the process of breathing.
Breathing forms part of our autonomic nervous system, which includes our two systems of parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. While we normally do not focus on our breath during all conscious moments— we are highly developed species who do not need to do this— current research reveals the benefits from taking just one full minute per day invoking an ancient Eastern meditation technique to focus on conscious awareness of our breath has many benefits.
It is not coincidental, therefore, that even developers of the Apple Watch ® have implemented a normal reminder several times per day for us to pause and take deep breaths to enhance our overall wellbeing and productivity. In addition, conscious breathing has a plethora of other benefits, including: lowered heart rate, improved blood pressure ratios, assisting with depression and anxiety, and can even help sufferers of chronic pain, addiction, and tinnitus. Breathing can also mentally assist with improving our overall body awareness.
TRY THIS! Sit tall so your lungs and spine are unrestricted. Alternatively, lie supine. Practice inhaling for a count of three and exhaling for a count of three, trying to match the rate of your inhalation to the rate of your exhalation. Make no judgements about success or difficulty; merely try this for a minute. As you become more comfortable with this technique, try adding a number each day, so you inhale for a count of four and exhale for a count of four. notice how quickly you feel the benefits!
Psyche Our“ psyche” refers to our mind— the part of our brain that maintains consciousness, awareness, well-being and happiness. To be able to allow the millions of normal, stream-ofconsciousness thoughts that the brain processes each day, the brain needs repose— this comes from two sources. The first is sleep, which allows the brain to undergo what we now know in
“ The word spiritual, in its most literal sense, refers to someone very connected to the process of breathing.”
science is a purification system each time we sleep. Among operations that occur, the glymphatic system helps the brain recover and rids the brain of toxins. This process of sleep can be coined“ passive meditation.” However, sometimes we do not all sleep properly, adequately, and deeply enough for this to occur.
Enter the second source: meditation. Active meditation occurs when we focus on very little for a specific amount of time, which varies with practice. The overall purpose aims at reducing the stream-of-consciousness thoughts that flood the brain down to just one conscious thought per breath, called a“ mantra.” Usually this becomes a word or short series of words in any language. In short, the ultimate goal of meditation is not to control our thoughts as much as it is about keeping our thoughts from controlling us. When we focus on just one thought, the brain quickly rests and recovers.
Spending as little as one minute per day meditating can help us be more productive when we are awake. This includes more than just being physically present at work during waking hours. Productivity also includes helping the body achieve its goal at any particular task, so even promoting a deeper sleep and more restful repose becomes a purpose of meditation.
MRI scans taken after an eight-week course of mindfulness practice show a shrinking of the amygdala, the brain’ s“ fight or flight” center. As the amygdala shrinks, the pre-frontal cortex –
January / February 2018 ■ PULSE 29