Half breath= Half dead!

How much thought have you ever given to your breathing? I think about my breathing every once in a while, mostly at night when I am trying to clear my mind so that I can fall asleep. But what I haven't given any thought to until just moments ago is what about all the other times I am breathing, and how my "half breaths" might be killing me! Ok if this doesn't make sense please keep reading, I am going to try and make it make sense.

I don't know how many times I have heard someone talk about how many days people can live without food, and then how many days a person can live with out water. Doctors will tell you the average person can live 4 to 6 weeks without food. Obviously there are numerous factors that can influence this number. Without water the average person can live somewhere between 3-6 days, this will fluctuate according to the temperature. So what about air? I never hear people talk about this. We have all probably tried holding our breath to see how long we could last, maybe in a pool or at a party (ha!) I have read that anywhere after 3-5 minutes without air your brain will start dying. THREE TO FIVE MINUTES! That is all. Our body's MUST have oxygen, it is ESSENTIAL to life. So what happens if you spend your life only breathing half way???

It was brought to my attention recently that I needed to "work" on my breathing. I was left a little mystified. Not sure what to do or think about this comment.I started by really trying to think how I normally breathe. I guess the fact is that I give little thought to the quality of my breaths, I take in oxygen and air but I never think mush about the quality of that air. The more I research life, energy, and of course breathing, the more convinced I am that learning to REALLY breathe will ensure me a longer, healthier and happier life.

So how do you do it? Here is one neat little trick I learned so I thought I would share it here. This is called Prana: the breath of life.

Sit in Lotus pose, close your eyes, breathe in and out slowly for as long as feels comfortable, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, focus on breathing in and out for the same amount of time, count your breath if this helps, hold the palms of your hands over your navel, feel the movements as you breathe in and out, try doing this everyday, if you can: start with 10 minutes and gradually increase to one hour over the course of one year. I found this pose in a book called The Chakra Bible http://www.amazon.com/Chakra-Bible-Definitive-Guide-Energy/dp/1402752245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276553305&sr=8-1 Here is a quick video on youtube that also shows Prana breathing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7WFq17NxWA

As a parting note I will leave you with the original question at hand: What if we only half breathe all our lives???