Breathing Into Our Divinity

Breathing is such a natural and life-giving activity that most don't give it a second thought. However, what if I told you that by consciously breathing in every moment you could discover your divinity and lead a peaceful, loving and empowered life. Not only that but many health issues would clear up such as anxiety and depression and physiological stress would be considerably reduced. Since all disease arises from physiological stress which in general causes acidosis and dehydration many issues in the body including disease would be cleared up and homeostasis returned to the system simply by breathing properly. 

The issue for many is the lack of understanding of how the body really works. A complete disconnection in some cases of who we are and maybe even a rather arrogant refusal to know thyself and take responsibility for our "house" the body that holds the incarnated consciousness. The ego or lower self runs amok and unchecked and has a profound effect on the way we breath. Left without interference the autonomic nervous system breathes the body in perfect harmony between sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic systems (PNS). The body alternates between "speeding up" to deal with stressful situations (or what is perceived as stressful) and slowing down or bringing peace back to the body. However with the ego or lower self unconsciously engaged we can broadly categorise that most of the population are now engaged in "speeding up" (SNS) the body and chest breathing as opposed to abdominal breathing (slowing down/PNS).  

Yes, you have been unconsciously influencing your breathing all your life and therefore your health. The problem is in epidemic proportions.

When we are small children we breath naturally, we engage in abdominal breathing we inhale while extending the abdomen and exhale while pulling the abdomen in and slightly up. This allows the diaphragm to fully extend downwards allowing the lungs to completely fill and oxygenate the body fully. As we become older children and develop unresourceful programming (lower self or ego) because of negative situations or perceived negative situations in our lives we slowly move towards chest breathing whereby the diaphragm does not fully extend all the way down, the lungs do not completely fill up with air and we develop a tendency to hyperventilate to a greater or lesser extent. We breath the opposite way round, we inhale while pulling the abdomen in and puffing the chest out and exhale while allowing the chest to fall and abdomen extend...oops thought breathing was easy!! By the time we are adults and 'set in our ways' poor breathing techniques become habitual and the pattern to dysfunction and disease becomes the norm. 

By consciously abdominal breathing we bypass our lower self/egos need to be in control and return to our divinity. We begin to feel calm and serene and refuse to be perturbed by the "illusion" of life. Unfortunately many are quite simply not willing to make that journey, will continue to chest breath, remain in the ego and outwardly focused which has a huge toll on the body. We continue to think that life just happens to us and have no option but to use the prevailing health systems which are built on treating symptoms instead of causes. Broadly speaking chest breathing can lead from mild to severe hyperventilation which causes upper body aches and pains in the short term to physiological stress in the long-term and often ending in dysfunction and disease.

Let's look at this process in a little more detail. A perceived negative situation is felt or experienced. Remember there are no negative situations however the way we view it can be negative. This is why two people can have completely different views to a "negative" situation, one focuses on it and makes it bigger and the other sees it as an opportunity to grow, develop and perhaps change their life circumstances completely. So as we move into this perceived negative situation or feeling we activate the SNS, the fight or flight response.  It doesn't have to be as dramatic as that. In fact it is the less dramatic situations that appear to be the problem, that is the low-level anxiety that is bubbling under the surface but keeps the sympathetic nervous system stimulated (and chest breathing prevalent). Very often an invisible program has been activated without our awareness. We unconsciously try to suppress it by using one of our addictions, for example overeating, drinking too much alcohol, drug taking, constant internet surfing and/ or social media site visits instead of sitting quietly with it and consciously abdominal breathing and meditating. Remember SNS arousal is a necessary part of our lives, for example just by standing up our SNS is stimulated to increase blood pressure so we don't become dizzy and fall over. However it is the unconscious ego programs that stimulate the SNS that must be eradicated if we are to live healthier lives.

By conscious abdominal breathing we are bringing those programs to our awareness and can therefore transmute them. If we step into courage we can do this and transmute the lower energies of the ego and begin to enjoy much improved health benefits. Not only that but if we are aware of our lower self programming and its constant need to be ruling the roost we become much more aware of the patterns it creates in our lives such as poor eating habits or behaviour that is not in our best interests. If we don't then our life circumstances may become extreme until we eventually "get it" and are willing to make that leap in consciousness levels away from reactive thinking and back into wisdom. This process is purely voluntary and nobody can be persuaded to be more aware. Each person must listen to their soul promptings which are very quiet and subtle compared to the loud lower self and outwardly focused personality, much to the frustration of conscious loved ones and family.

In a nutshell long term chest breathing and SNS arousal shunts resources away from growth activities such as proper immune, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, endocrine and nervous system function. The effects of this are enormous in terms of the way we feel on a minute by minute basis, for example anxiety, anger and fear and so on to longer term issues such as disease and dysfunction in the physical body. When we awaken and see clearly what we have been doing to ourselves we can't help but take back control of our bodies and our minds. We can't help but disconnect from the illusion and take the time to breath into our divinity or perhaps more appropriately abdominal breath into our divinity.