Self Care: It all starts with the breath

The breath is the most important stepping stone on the path to wellness. Learn to harness the power of the breath and you're on your way to creating a new you.


This may sound like an exaggeration, but just the simple act of taking a deep breath has an immediate effect on the body. A deep breath from the belly stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic is the opposite of sympathetic, or "flight or fight" reaction. Instead of getting the body ready to handle an emergency, it's the body's "all clear" signal. The heart rate slows down and digestion is stimulated, giving it the nick name "rest and digest."

"Ok," I hear you ask, "what does this mean to me?" Well, it means that you can consciously tell your body to relax, that every thing's going to be alright. You want to try it? Great! (Um, if you answered no, ignore that last bit...but keep reading, maybe you'll change you mind.)

The best way to take a deep breath is with your belly, or more precisely, your diaphragm. Place a hand on your belly and slowly inhale, pushing the hand out and away. Now relax and exhale slowly, feeling the tension drain out of your muscles and noticing how your hand moves back to the starting point. Once you've gotten the hang of it, you can drop the hand and take a few belly breaths when ever you feel the need to be calm. Remember to inhale and exhale slowly. We're trying to relax here, not huff and puff and...well, you get the picture, I'm sure.

So, try the belly breathing next time you feel tense. Just a few breaths should do the trick. And remember what they say, "Practice makes perfect." The more you concentrate on letting the tension just drain away, the easier it will become. The breath becomes the signal to let the body know that it's ok to relax now. Nifty, huh?

Here's another take on belly breathing from an organization that promotes it as a way to quell feelings of anxiety and panic. http://www.paniccure.com/Approaches/Meditation/Belly_Breathing.htm

This information is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or illness. I am in no way associated with paniccure.com. (The little cartoon on their Belly Breathing page is really cute, though. ;)

Ix-nay on the Ailing List-May

wow, it's really hard to write in pig latin. What I was trying to communicate is that I've dropped the idea of a mailing list. Instead, I'm going to do a daily blog about self care. Yes, I mean daily. Unless I'm somewhere where there's no internet access, like camping or something. So let's get started: urm, in the next post.

Oh! I almost forgot...whacha think of the new look? I stumbled across this nature-y template and really liked it. :)

Website working!

I worked with a client today that found me through my website! yea!

I also signed up for search marketing a few days ago, a pay per click advertising service. My ads are getting viewed a good bit, but it's only generated one click. So, we'll see how that goes.

Well, it's late and I'm a bit tired, so I'm gonna make this a short entry. G'night.

Webring & newsletter

Well, the webring is helping my hit count! Yea! This weekend I'm going to take some time and visit some of the other sites on the ring. Spreading the love, that sort of thing. ;)

I haven't had anyone sign up for the newsletter yet, though, so in light of that (and the fact that finals are approaching at an alarming rate) I'm going to postpone that until next month. I've got some ideas about doing a series of stretches for before and after all those fun outdoor activities going on right now. Now if I could just find someone who would model the stretch for me, I could include pictures...or even start a youtube channel. Hmmmm....

Spirit Women taking off

The women's spiritual activism group (a millionth circle group) my mother started is growing slowly, but surely. We've had more people show up at each meeting, and this month's meeting was a good one. We had fun with the roles of both sound and silence in a spiritual practice, and came up with some great ideas about how we can make a difference in the community as a group. I'm getting really excited about it and am planning to participate in it more and more. One of the members mentioned the Standing Women movement. It's women (and men) who stand in silence for five minutes to help bring awareness to the goals of creating a safe world for our children. It's happening May 11th, at 1pm local time all over the globe. Because of conflicting schedules we didn't decide to meet as a group, but there are women standing in the Dallas area. You can check it out at standingwomen.org. I'm going to be in a continuing education class that day, so I'm going to e-mail the school and let them know about it. Maybe the class would like to participate!

If you are interested in attending a Spirit Women circle, please let me know. We had to move the meeting day and place for May. We are meeting at a member's office and she asked me not to post it online. I think we'll be back at the Spiritual Fitness Center in June, but I'll definitely post any changes here and on out website: spiritwomen.bravehost.com.

It's not a diamond...

...but it is a ring! Ok, so it's a webring, not a piece of jewelry. (I really want to make some sort of pun about "my precious" here, but I just can't quite think of something that would make sense. darn.)

anyway, I submitted my website to an alternative health webring today. It's still in the pending stage, but I've got the code on the home page for all to see. Keep your fingers crossed. :)

Where's Merry?

ok, so maybe that title would work better if my name started with a W. But, it's the best I could come up with at the moment. ;)

I've got a couple of events coming up in May. On the 3rd, I'll be giving parafin dips and hand massages at a "healthy spa day" type thing hosted by New Directions Chiropractic. I'm not quite sure where it is being held (I should know these things if I'm gonna be there, huh?) but I'll post them here as soon as I find out. Or you can e-mail Dr. Neidrich for all the gory, er um, fun details through her website NewDirectionsChiropractic.com.

Also, on the 19th, I'll be doing free, yes I said FREE chair massage at a Dallas MetroMoms event, "Getting Strong! Hop, Skip, and Jump to Family Fun!" It's at the Wiggly Play center in Frisco. If you're interested, you'll need to register through MetroMoms at this website: http://www.metroplexbaby.com/MetroMoms/2008/20080518_GettingStrong.htm According to the site, one lucky family will win an orbit baby stroller.

So, anyway, hope to see you there. (oh, btw, be on the look out for my new newsletter, Take A Moment, coming out on the 15th of every month. I'll post it here, but you can sign up for the HTML e-mail version on the left hand side of the blog, or at the contacts page of my website.)