The Importance of Breathing Well
Breathing properly is probably the most important thing you can do for your own health and

The diaphragm muscle is umbrella shaped under the rib cage

well-being.  I'm not trying to be morbid but the facts are:

• after one minute without oxygen brain cells begin to die
• after three minutes without oxygen serious brain damage is likely
• after 10 minutes brain cells have died.
• after 15 minutes without oxygen a person's recovery is virtually impossible. 

This is how important breathing is, and how many of us think about improving it on a daily basis? 

Exercise and Breathing
I reckon more time is spent in the gym toning the muscles, being out on a bike or running.  Yet breathing is a key ingredient to sports performance.  At least doing cardiovascular exercise, you are forcing the body to breathe in deeper than normal to supply the necessary oxygen to the muscles for energy production. 

The more relaxing approaches to exercise such as pilates and yoga  do take breath work into consideration.  Every movement is performed with the breath, usually moving into the posture on the out breath and holding it until the next out breath.  The breath allows muscles to perform in specific ways during these types of movements.  The fact the movements are slower, it means more control is required so you can literally lengthen the muscles at will.  This is why pilates and yoga are seen as complementary sports for all athletes whether rowers, runners or rugby players.  You only have to look at a body builder to see the short, tight muscles compared to a ballet dancer's torso which has longer and leaner muscles. 
 
The longer, and leaner the muscles, the easier it is on the joints.

Longevity Breathing
This is a Taoist breathing practice introduced to the west by a gigong teacher called Bruce Frantzis.  Its purpose is to improve the functioning of the body, centre the mind and balance the emotions.  It is not rocket science either!  A great example of this type of breathing into the belly is a baby.  Watch how everything moves in rhythm with the breath.  As their lungs fill with air, all the internal organs expand.  Look at how effective their breathing is with the amount of time they can scream and cry.  Adults would be wiped out with this amount of effort!  The goal of the Taoist breathing is to relax your belly so that it can expand and contract with your breathing.  As simple as this sounds, your focus is from below your navel, up to your diaphragm and back to where it meets the spine.  So it is the whole cylinder encompassing your liver, spleen, stomach and kidneys.  It does not include your chest or ribs.  It can take a minimum of 3 months of regular practice to enable new breathing patterns to become as natural as all other activities. 

Breathing through Pain
Breath work is also a key part of pain relief.  Pain has an annoying habit of creating muscular tension and odd posture habits.  If a disc prolapses in your back, the chances are your hips and shoulders will be uneven when you look in the mirror.  It is simply the body's way of adapting to discomfort.  The trouble is, leaving this distortion can create other painful areas.  A good habit to get in to is lying down on your back at the end of every day with your legs bent and arms out to the side at right angles like a baby in a cot.  And breathe!  Breathe out any tension in the neck, shoulders, back, hips and legs.  It really does unravel the body from the day's exertions whether mental or physical.  Especially if your day is spent in front of a computer and in a car.  Once you have relaxed the body, then you can comfortably stretch it.  There is no point stretching a tense body as you're more likely to do harm than good.

The Key Muscles:  Diaphragm & Psoas



Psoas major/minor muscles with arrows

What takes our breath away?  Not simply an attractive body on the beach.  Often we react to something in the outside world by stopping our breath.  It could be an accumulation of stress, bad news, or discomfort after physical trauma and we try to hold it at arms length by breathing in a shallow way.  By breathing in this way, we become tired, lethargic and ill.  That is why it is so important to breathe through tension in the body or while stretching.  When anyone is having a massage treatment i encourage breathing into the tight spot to release the tension.  Inevitably the area of scar tissue becomes softer and easier to break down. 

One area of the body particularly prone to tension is the diaphragm muscle.  If there is a restriction in the diaphragm or the psoas muscle which link the upper and lower body together, then there is no communication going on.  A little like a man and woman discussing the same problem at work.  The wires can become crossed.  A ballet dancer is more likely to have resilience in the diaphragm but many of us have strength and tension.  The diaphragm is like an umbrella which cushions the heart from above and the stomach from below and attached to the lower ribs.  The breath pushes this 'umbrella' up and down by moving air into and out of the lungs.  Often we have forgotten to use this muscle by holding our breath.  In addition, just behind the diaphragm is the aorta which is the main channel delivering blood to the body.  The types of conditions which can evolve from the tightening of these muscles (diaphragm and psoas) are:

• emphysema
• lung disorders
• panic attacks
• anxiety
• hiatal hernia
• acid reflux

By paying attention to our breath and by learning to relax our minds, we can make huge progress with our health. 

I am happy to introduce a short instruction on better breathing practices as part of your massage treatment. Please contact me on 01491 577480 or vmansergh@hotmail.com

Resources:

Healing Meditation CD by Kelly Howell - highly recommended by doctors in the USA and offered to patients.  I find it incredibly relaxing for muscle tension and stress.

About a month ago I attended a course in Glastonbury on Sound Healing that quite simply dazzled me with its ability to relax the body, empty the mind and leave you feeling energised and completely at peace with the world.  Few things in life achieve this so i could not ignore it.

I will start at the beginning.  Back in April, I came across a work shop at Studio One called Sound Healing by Tony Nec.  It was a one day introduction to sound therapy instruments.  I had never heard of sound therapy although was aware from playing music in my massage room over the years how evocative a piece of music can be.  To find music that sends you into a state of relaxation is quite an art form as i have discovered.  Often the most beautiful classical CD will have one or two outrageously loud tracks which kind of ruin the mood when you feel yourself drifting off to another place!  Sound therapy is not "music" in this sense, it is the art of playing instruments like the Tibetan bowl, crystal bowl or drum which produce a certain state of relaxation in the mind and body.  That particular day on the course i warmed to Tony as he explained his background in Gregorian chanting and being told he could not sing by his music teacher at school.  Funny how he ended up as the head honcho of the Colour of Sound Institute. 



Crystal Bowl

Tibetan Bowl

His approach to introducing sound healing struck a chord with me. No pun intended.  First we loosened up by shaking ourselves, stretching,and  mobilising our joints.  There is nothing relaxing about launching into song in front of a group of strangers but i found myself "toning" quite happily.  The idea behind toning is that the body, from eastern philosophy, consists of 7 chakras or energy centres starting at your feet and ending up above your head.  We all know energy surrounds us day to day as we can feel energy deprived when we are staring at a computer screen for hours on end, in an airless environment or with certain people that leave us drained of energy.  Parts of the body can be affected too.   For example, stress can accumulate in the stomach area causing poor digestion and a stagnant energy in the solar plexus which covers the digestive system, autonomic nervous system, lower back and abdominal cavity.

The Sounds for each Chakra

 

The Chakras

So hopefully you can see the solar plexus chakra in yellow and its corresponding tone "oh" like go.  Imagine opening your mouth and making that sound at a certain pitch.  I was amazed that as we moved from the lowest sounding note at the root chakra up to the highest note in your crown chakra i could feel a definite change in my body.  Having started out quite cynical and apprehensive about this group "chanting", i could not believe how good i felt afterwards.  It only took a few minutes to tone the whole body and by the end i felt very relaxed, my mind was quiet and i was ready for the instruments with no apprehension or tension in my body.

It is interesting to look at some of these philosophies from the East as  means of relaxation in our fast paced world where everything is becoming instant. We all have our own ways of switching off but i can thoroughly recommend getting vocal.  You create this vibration in your body by creating the sounds which balance the body energetically, and physically.

From a more scientific perspective, sound is being used day- to -day in the medical world already.  Ultra sound is a sound so high that it is not audible to the human ear.  It is used in hospitals to see a baby foetus in the womb and by physiotherapists for injury treatment.  At the other end of the spectrum is the Infra sound which is incredibly low.  Sound is measured in Hz. Humans hear sounds with a frequency of between 20-20 000 Hz.  Ultra sound is above 20 000 Hz and Infrasound is below 20 Hz.  An elephant's range is 5-12 000 Hz while a dolphin's is 75-150 000 Hz.  This means that there are many sounds we simply don't hear as humans but they exist.  Infrasound through infrasonic therapy has been used in Japan to reduce pain, and help with headaches and migraines.  There have also been clinical trials on the affect music has on disease. Sound therapy plays a positive role treating the following conditions:

• insomnia
• chronic pain
• hearing difficulties
• depression
• stress (high BP etc)
• recovery from major ops

 

That one day work shop became a 4 day work shop in Glastonbury where i was introduced to the instruments properly.  I played a kaleidoscope of instruments from the Tibetan bowl, crystal bowl, tuning forks to drums, rattles and gongs.  It wasn't band practice! The most phenomenal feeling was having 16 drums being played close to your body.  The vibration runs down your entire spine.  Add in the booming gong and you have left this world entirely.  My particular favourite was during a rain ceremony where a multitude of instruments are played while you close your eyes.  The sounds play out a form of guided meditation by creating the gentle patter of rain falling, before it becomes a full on thunder storm.  As the rain gently recedes, the native American flute comes hauntingly across the room.  By that stage I was by a camp fire with the elders open to all their wisdom.  It was a beautiful moment.

I have begun to add a short sound healing experience at the end of a massage treatment for those who would like to receive it.  By all means, do ask me if i have not suggested it.  For pictures of the course and the instruments being played, please visit my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Complete-Worx-Massage/469615179746536



 



If you would like to book a treatment, my contact details are 01491 577480 or vmansergh@hotmail.com.

Resources
Free Chakra Toning download:
http://www.healingsounds.com/