Breathing to Reduce Stress and Enhance Energy

Building health is all about making mindful choices throughout your day. There are many tools that you can use to improve your health, and the most powerful of these tools you have with you all the time, and they are free. The ancient Chinese healers referred to these as your three treasures, your breath, your mind, and your body. When we make mindful choices to pay attention to the needs of our three treasures, and then take action to adjust these areas to balance them, we turn on our inner healer within.

This morning I just want to focus on one of these three treasures, the breath. I’d like to share with you a few exercises that you can do to adjust your breath to help with relieving stress or enhancing your vitality. I also want to give you a deeper understanding of the breath and why it is important. We take about 27,000 breaths a day, we inhale life-giving oxygen, and we exhale carbon dioxide and other waste products. With our breath we also inhale life force energy into the body, and we exhale tension and emotional stress. Join me in watching this video, to explore ways you can use your breath to enhance vitality and reduce stress.

Between every inhale and exhale is a pause.

Within that pause is the power of choice,

A choice to embrace healing, illness, weakness, or strength,

Inhale…. Pause…. Exhale

The power of choice, it is yours,

I pray you choose life,

and to live life more abundantly.

Honor your Three Treasures

As I was walking through the forest, I came across this beautiful tree while taking a walk, it had 3 equally balanced trunks coming from a single trunk at the base. This reminded me of the concept of the 3 Treasures in Qi gong, which teaches how we must keep our body, mind, and spirit balanced to maintain optimal health and well-being.

The Ancient Chinese healers taught that to build and maintain health, we should be mindful of our 3 treasures: the body, mind, and spirit, and check in on them throughout the day.

The Body is grounded in the physical realm. It reaches deep and creates roots to create stability and feel connected. Pay attention to your body what does it need? Where is it holding tension? How can you relax? Does your body need nourishment?

The Breath - turn your attention to your breath. We take about 27,000 breaths a day. We inhale life giving oxygen and we exhale carbon dioxide and other waste products from the body. We inhale Life force energy, Qi into the body. We exhale tension and emotional stress. Check in with your breath throughout the day. Is your breath relaxed? Are you breathing deeply? Or is your breath constricted or are you holding your breath for periods of time. Explore the breath and consider the reasons for these imbalances. Take a few moments to practice the essential gathering breath to help you restore the flow of oxygen and chi through your body.

Another aspect of the breath is it's connection to our spirit and to the the unseen realms of energy and information. Your spirit reaches upward to connect with Source energy. Pay attention to your spirit, are you connected? Are you taking time to pray or mediate and commune with Spirit each day? Have you connected with your heart center today? We can use our breath to open our hearts to receive love and peace, or to express joy and gratitude to our Creator or the Universe.

Your Mind is free to roam in either world. But it must be carefully watched by your spirit to make sure it does not get off track. Pay attention to your thoughts. What are you dwelling on? Are you being too analytical, or do you need to be more creative? Be careful, as the mind likes to be the leader, and if allowed to do so will often neglect the body or spirt.

Find the balance. Health, strength, and vitality are created when we learn to nurture and balance body, mind, and breath.

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