This first week our focus is introducing you to the elemental concepts of mindfulness and beginning to put them into practice. The most foundational aspect to mindfulness is the breath. Your breath connects you to life itself.  So it is truly worthy of your attention.  And yet you are probably unaware of your breath.  When you are born and in the early years of your life, your breath comes from what we call belly breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing.  At a certain point in time, your breathing often shifts to breathing from the upper part of your lungs. It's a shallower form of breathing, and it is often also a faster form of breathing.

When you mindfully bring your focus back to a more centering way of breathing, the belly breath, your mental state changes. Your physiological state changes. Your focus changes. And your well-being changes. This is how important the breath is and why it is such an elemental aspect of mindfulness and meditation. It is your body’s natural way of bringing yourself back into equilibrium. And so it is a good place to start your mindfulness journey.

Benefits of Belly Breathing

The benefits of belly breathing are that you bring oxygen fully into both the upper and lower lungs. When you are doing shallow, upper-chest breathing, you are not fully oxygenating the blood or the cells. When you breathe from the abdomen, you bring oxygenated air all the way down into the lower lungs. This allows the lungs to oxygenate the blood fully so it can carry that oxygen to all parts of your body and into your cells. When your cells are fully oxygenated, they can perform their functions with more efficiency. 

This means that on a cellular level the body is able to function with more ease because it is getting all the oxygen it needs.  That oxygen is moving into the organs, muscles, bones, brain and every aspect of your body, enhancing optimal functioning.

The effects of belly breathing are almost immediately felt, which you will experience below as a sense of ease, relaxation, tranquility, and clarity. 

Fight/Flight versus Rest/Digest

This sense of ease and relaxation allows you to move out of the sympathetic nervous system, the state of danger and fight/flight, to the parasympathetic nervous system, the state of rest and digest. These are two completely different physiological states for the body. When you are in the sympathetic nervous system, the state of danger and fight/flight, you are producing different chemicals and hormones to prepare you to protect yourself from danger, to fight or run.  You are in survival mode.  Blood is moving away from nonessential parts of the body to the most essential parts of the body for survival. This means certain organs or limbs may not get their optimal supply of oxygen to function well.  Your body is meant to be in this state for only a very short period of time until the danger passes.

When the danger has passed, the parasympathetic nervous system kicks back in. This is the rest and digest state when you are safe. This is an entirely different hormonal, chemical, and physiological state of being. Oxygen is flowing to all parts of the body.  The heart rate slows down.  The blood pressure eases.  This is the state that your body is designed to be in 90% of the time, where your optimal health and well-being flourishes.

But in modern-day living, things get switched. And you may spend much of your time in the sympathetic nervous system, where the adrenaline is going, the breathing is shallow, and the physiological state of stress is taking its toll on your organs and the way your body functions. This stress truly does create states of illness in the body. Not only is it an emotional response, but it is a genuine physiological response, and a chemical and hormonal bath in which our organs are not adapted to flourish.

Bringing the body and the mind out of the sympathetic nervous system and back to the parasympathetic nervous system can be very healing and rebalancing. And a very effective way to induce that is by focusing on the breath.

We all know that life can be challenging. Taking time to be present with your experience within and outside of yourself can help reduce stress, fear, and other intense life experiences. Learning mindfulness can develop your awareness and enable you to create more ease in your life.

So let's get started.

The Practice - 10 minutes

Step One

Start by taking a dose of your tincture. Just as Tingsha bells are used to punctuate a meditiation practice, use your tincture as a tool to bring yourself into the present moment. If you are taking multiple tinctures throughout the day, you only need to do this with one dose.

Find a comfortable position for your body. This can be sitting or lying down. The most important thing is that you are able to focus on your breath and that your breath comes easily. If you are sitting, you want to be able to sit upright and comfortably so that the breath can flow. If you are lying down, you want your body free and open, without pillows or heavy blankets on top of you.

Step Two

Close your eyes and place one hand on the top of your chest. Place your other hand on your abdomen. As you inhale through your nose, keep the hand on your chest quiet and keep the upper chest as still as you can. You don't want to be feeling the upper chest expanding or the shoulders moving up. You want the upper chest to be quiet and still.

As you inhale, allow the abdomen to gently expand. Be aware of how your hand on your abdomen is gently rising as the abdomen fills with air on the inhale. As you exhale through pursed lips, let the abdomen gently relax. Notice that the upper hand is barely moving. The lower hand is rising up and down as the abdomen moves by expanding on the inhale, relaxing and contracting on the exhale. It may be helpful to imagine you are softly inflating a balloon on the inhale and letting it deflate on the exhale.

Continue breathing in this way in your own natural rhythm, your own natural pace. You don't need to force the process or count or try to take deep breaths. Just let this be a gentle process where your focus is on learning to inhale into the abdomen and exhale by letting the abdomen relax.

Step Three

Do this for 5-10 minutes. Do what feels comfortable as you are learning this new way of breathing, which is your first way of breathing before the stressors of life caused you to breathe from the upper lungs.  If you notice that your breathing feels a little out of rhythm or you can't quite get enough oxygen, just pause and take a couple easy breaths in whatever way feels comfortable for you until you get your rhythm back.  Then when you are ready, bring yourself back to belly breathing, expanding the abdomen on the inhale and relaxing the abdomen on the exhale. With attention and practice, this will feel very easy and effortless.  After a while, you may notice this becomes your automatic way of breathing as your body remembers how to do this.

Step Four

When you are done, take in a nice deep breath, hold it for a moment, release it, and stretch your body.  Then enjoy your day.

Step Five

As you are learning this new way of breathing, bring to mind the concepts of intention, attention, and attitude. Set your intention that you are going to breathe this way throughout the day. Then use your attention to check in with yourself throughout the day and notice if you are breathing from the upper lungs or from the belly. Then use your attitude to gently and patiently bring your awareness back to belly breathing. Take a few moments to reestablish your breath. And then go back to whatever it is you are doing while continuing to breathe from the belly.

By checking in with yourself throughout the day, you will become aware of how you may be either holding your breath or breathing from the upper chest. It is very common to find that you are actually holding your breath. When you notice this, gently bring your focus back to doing belly breathing. Every time you do this, you are retraining your system to remember how to breathe more comfortably. And with this consistent awareness of your breath, your body will breathe more consistently in this manner.

As that happens, you may begin to notice some wonderful benefits. Bringing attention to each breath in this way helps to quiet the mind. You may feel more relaxed throughout the day. You may find that your focus is better or that you have more energy because your entire body is being fully oxygenated.  The heart rate and blood pressure may normalize.  Stress hormones may reduce.

Many of these wonderful results can come about simply by properly oxygenating the body. So it is a good and useful way to use your intention and attention.

Step Six

At the end of seven days, reflect back on what your experience has been as you develop this relationship with your breath. Re-evaluate the symptoms you listed in your 'State of Body' and 'State of Mind,' along with any perceived benefits from your extract in 'Tracking My Extract Benefits.' Enter these notations in the space provided for Week One Experience on all sheets. As well, if you have discovered any changes or benefits not previously recorded, be sure to enter them in your 'Discovered Benefits' sheet.