With this article I hope to help increase your awareness of breath and how to use it in a way that will lead you to greater wellness. Wellness is defined as a positive approach to living, an approach that takes into consideration the whole person. Wellness is a lot of things, but most of all it is the integration of the body, mind, and spirit; and the appreciation that everything you do, think, feel, and believe has an impact on the overall state of your health. The whole person has to be addressed and nourished for there to be a state of wellness. Realizing that you are a triune being is a good beginning. Know that you are a person that is body, mind and spirit and each of these parts of you has to be taken care of and nourished in a balanced way for you to experience wellness. One part of yourself cannot be acknowledged and developed to the exclusion of the others. For this will create and unbalanced and fragmented state.

One avenue to wellness that I would like to make you aware of right now is that of using your breath. The breath connects the body, mind and spirit and through it we can influence and affect the three aspects of ourselves. This connection becomes more apparent when we notice the interaction that happens between our mental states, emotions and our breath. For instance our breath can become quick and shallow when we feel fear or suspended when in shock, and it can become deep and smooth when we are in a state of relaxation. It is interesting to notice that it works in the other direction as well. If we consciously breathe in a deep smooth and extended way we can become relaxed and release stress. This indicates to us that we can have control and influence over our physical body and mental states through our breathing.

According to Yogic traditions, life expectancy is linked to the frequency of breathing. They observe that mammals like the sea turtle has a slow rate of breathing and has a life span of about 350 years where a mouse has a rapid breathing rate and a short life span. Because of these observations they devised and taught themselves to breathe in a deep, extended and rhythmic fashion. This method of breathing was use by the learned cultures of the Far East to increase and prevent the loss of their Pranic and Chi energy, or in other words their Vital Essence. Therefore to achieve a greater state of wellness we will also employ the use of a deep extended and rhythmic breathing pattern.

One way of deepening and strengthening your breathing and gaining more control over it is by doing a type of workout which I call Breath Moving Workout. By combining and joining breath and resistance as we do in Breath Moving Workout we find a path to greater wellness as well as other benefits like strength and longevity. Using breath and resistance this way allows for focus primarily on your breathing and then applying resistance to it. Working this way will gradually strengthen your breathing muscles so that you more easily take fuller, deeper breaths and consequently more of the Vital Life Essence transported by the breath.

By maintaining this form of breathing and coupling resistance to it we create a synergistic interaction that accentuates the benefits that come from each. Now, if to these two we add mindfulness practice we end up with a truly holistic way towards wellness, strength and longevity. If you are not familiar with the benefits that come to us when we practice deep breathing, resistance training and mindfulness practice I suggest you Google them and see for yourself. The message of this article is to make you aware that you can have greater wellness by doing a practice that focuses on breathing in more of the Vital Essence and using resistance and mindfulness to store and keep more of it in your body. I invite you to visit the Breath Moving Workout site and learn more of how it can help you achieve greater wellness, strength and longevity.

M E Leon