"Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders."
-Andrew Weil, M.D.

What could be more natural than breathing? Most people don't realize that breathing, something each of us experiences around 20,000 times each day, can deeply influence our health and happiness on many levels. Our daily lifestyles can be very chaotic and a fast paced life leaves many of us feeling fatigued, anxious and depressed about our daily experience. At times this can leave us unable to cope with the many stresses of daily life. While these symptoms may be negative they are also our body’s way of telling us to slow down and to take a few deep breaths. A daily breathing ‘recharge’ or ‘reboot’ is something we can all benefit from.

Building self awareness is very beneficial when we seek to enhance the quality of our daily life. Before we discuss specific breathing techniques, let’s try to build our awareness of ourselves when we breathe. What kind of ‘breather’ are you- chest or belly- nose or mouth? By changing the way we breath can reduce stress, benefit our immune response thus improving our quality of life.

Try a simple breath awareness exercise: Place one hand on your chest and one hand on you abdomen. Take a normal breath while looking down. Now, if the hand on your chest rises first, then you tend to breathe from your chest. If the hand on your abdomen rises first, you are more of a belly breather. To find out whether you are a nose or mouth breather, unless you already know, just ask a friend or your partner or some in your family. Chances are they’ve noticed if you’re a mouth-breather.

We may also notice that we breathe from the chest and neck when we experience times of stress. When we experience long-term low grade stress shallow chest breathing can become our normal mode of breathing over time which reenforces the cycle. Yet, in as little as two minutes, our bodies will respond positively if we take the time to consciously observe the way we breathe. Deep breathing into the belly, through the nose provides the greatest benefit for calming mind, relaxing the body and helps us to increase our energy during the day. When we breath in this manner we know that science suggests we have improved nitric oxide levels just one of the many supporting constituents of our body's ability to repair from stress.

Let’s practice a very simple deep breathing exercise. We will do away with fancy names and complicated exercises. This is just basic daily deep breathing and with practice you may find that you are letting yourself breathe a little deeper each day while your body and mind are reaping all the health benefits!

Simple deep breathing

The most basic thing to remember is that your breath begins with a full exhalation. We can’t fully inhale until we empty our lungs completely. It is also important to breathe in through your nose as we fill the lungs with fresh air.

Sit in a comfortable position with your hands on your knees. Relax your shoulders and close your eyes slightly so that we are more aware of our body. On your first exhalation, breathe out slowly through your nose, counting to five. Contract your abdominal muscles while drawing in your diaphragm to help your lungs fully deflate. At the bottom of your breath, pause for two counts; now inhale slowly to the count of five. Expand your belly as you breathe all the way in. Notice how your belly is expanding instead of your chest. Now close your eyes and repeat 5–10 times. Think of your diaphragm as the pump and imagine your belly as a flexible balloon filling with air, as if your lungs expand down into your abdomen.

Focus on listening to the sound of your breath. It’s very common that your mind wanders during this practice, but don’t worry. Just let that thought be and refocus on your counting. If you can count 24 deep breaths you are making great progress. As your awareness of your breath increases, you’ll find that it becomes easier to breathe deeply.

Give yourself the opportunity a few minutes each day to calmly be with yourself, to relax your mind for a moment and allow yourself to just simply breathe.

Returning back to my native MN from a life in the tropics, I brought with me a few treasured souvenirs: a fading tan, a jar of sunshine (which may have a leak), and a newfound appreciation for the wonders of turmeric root. Along with the sand, sea, and exotic plant life, the tropics offer some pretty heinous jungle-strength infectious organisms. It was as a result of one of those nasty buggers that I was first introduced to the healing, protective effects of turmeric root.

The Hawaiian Kahuna L'au Lapa'au (the native hawaiian herbalist) that I desperately sought for advice suggested taking a spoonful of crushed, raw turmeric root ('Olena in Hawaiian) mixed with honey each morning to help reduce inflammation and improve immune function. I was happily amazed with the results, and soon I learned how people have been been benefiting from the properties of turmeric root since ancient times, in cultures around the world.

In India, turmeric root is used by the traditional Ayurvedic practitioners to aid the digestive system, promoting proper metabolism proteins. Curcumin, one of the active ingredients in turmeric, has been shown to stimulate the gallbladder to induce the flow of bile, which breaks down fats. It protects and detoxifies the liver. It is used to strengthen the circulatory system, purify the blood, (228) prevent blood clot formation, lower cholesterol and prevent the accumulation of plaque in the arteries. Traditional Chinese Medicine also uses it for its mood-lifting abilities.

With so many positive health benefits, it's no surprise that many folks in Minneapolis are starting to incorporate turmeric root into their diets. What's more fun than a daily spoonful of turmeric? How about trying a tasty Indian curry instead? Turmeric is one of the three staple spices used in traditional Indian curries, giving them the distinctive yellow color. For a fun infusion of turmeric in your day, try one of these mouth-watering recipe ideas.

Breakaway Cook Eric Gower gives a great interpretation of Jehanghir Mehta's Turmeric Chips featured on Iron Chef. To try the recipe yourself, thinly slice turmeric root and fry it up in walnut oil or olive oil and butter with sea salt and black pepper. Sprinkle these on top of fish, salads, or soups, or nibble on the tasty morsels all by themselves. For more info by the Breakaway Cook Read More

Add a pinch of it to egg salad. It adds a nice flavor and gives the egg salad a rich yellow hue.

As I begin this entry I am sitting in the airport waiting for another adventure to begin. This time my travels are taking me to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. This will be my third Olympic adventure and while being an enjoyable personal endeavor that I would recommend to everyone there is also a lifestyle practice that I wanted to share. The challenge of this adventure is that I have no tickets for any events. This is partially because tickets were sold out within weeks of them going on sale except for outlets that grossly over-inflate the price, which is another discussion entirely. The opportunity for Everspring Living is for us to realize that we’re invited to participate in our own lives. The practice of Everspring Living is to observe how only when we “show up” and accept the invitation can a fulfilling life be truly possible.

Year after year, book after book we see presentations of the concept of a “positive attitude” or having a “vision” as being the secret for good things to happen. While having a positive attitude and a clear vision certainly have their place the reality is that good things happen because first and foremost we decide to participate. Showing up involves having an awareness that opportunities oftentimes only reveal themselves when we are present in the moment. The concept of showing up means being both physically and mentally present in our lives. Our invitation for an inspired life is renewed each and every morning when we wake up. The benefit is that each day is a new opportunity to accept our invitation to show up and be present in our own lives; the challenge is to actually follow through.

So how do we bring to life this concept of Everspring Living and the concept of showing up? Like any lifestyle practice it can be a challenge to incorporate something new into our daily lives. To assist us in this endeavor it can be helpful for us to create isolated opportunities, like setting a goal to attend the Olympics, where we can focus on learning how extrinsic practices can be personalized within our daily lives. One of the challenges we face in incorporating new practices is internalizing an experience and making it our own. Oftentimes we get advice from someone or read about a new lifestyle practice and find ourselves struggling because we try to follow someone else’s practice. Accepting the invitation to our own lives must involve embracing our own true nature and pursuing the life we want to lead. If we never find our own connection, our own value to a lifestyle practice it will be difficult at best to truly make it a part of our lives.

For many the commitment involved seems like a daunting or even unrealistic task. To commit everyday for the rest of our lives to some practice that we hope will be beneficial is admittingly difficult. This is where this lesson comes to light, while fulfillment comes from embracing our lives as a whole we must also keep in mind that our lives are not lived as a whole they are lived day by day. When we choose to show up to our lives and be present in the moment the most demanding part of the process has been addressed. Once we show up even though demands may vary from experience to experience the rest is about embracing the opportunity and enjoying the experience. We can test and develop this practice by taking on tasks that are enjoyable while at the same time offer a bit of a challenge that may push us outside our normal area of comfort.

The challenge of showing up is not knowing if it is really possible to get tickets to our intended event or that whatever else we feel makes an experience worthwhile will actually happen. Part of the point of putting this practice into action is to see if we actually decide to show up what will truly come of that effort. This leads to the second part of our practice, which involves our expectations. How we view and react to a situation certainly plays a role in how we ultimately value that situation. If for example we are not able to get tickets and our hopes were entirely invested in that reality it makes sense that we set ourselves up for a significant disappointment. Then instead of enjoying the myriad of opportunities available to us we would just sulk about how we traveled so far or worked so hard and missed out on the event. Having the courage to show up must be balanced by a perspective that life in and of itself is an enjoyable experience and wherever we are there will always be an opportunity for us to embrace the concept of Everspring Living.

Once we have the courage to show up then we can begin the practice of refining our ability to make the most of our experience once we get there. As for my trip we were able to get tickets for three events, each event was supposedly sold out and we paid face value for those tickets despite requests asking for 3 or 4 times that amount. While the details of this may be for another discussion the reality is that we were present, we were in Vancouver and despite “advice” against doing so we just walked up stood in line and asked if they had tickets. Chalk it up to luck or coincidence or our own secret formula but what we did was something that everyone can do – show up and be present for our life. Our invitation is waiting.

While considering an appropriate introduction for this blog I was reminded of a story I have heard a number of times over the years. The story is about a student meeting with a teacher to discuss how to experience a fulfilling life. The story essentially leads up to the point where the teacher was pouring tea and as the student's cup fills with the tea the teacher keeps right on pouring. Soon there was a mess on the table and even on the floor. Only when the student said to stop did the teacher retract the tea pot. The student asked what happened, “Why did you pour so much tea and make such a mess?” It was then that the teacher asked the same question of the student “Why do you pour so much into your life and make such a mess?”

The lesson is that it is only when we say stop and choose to make room in our cup that we can even begin to decide if more is possible or even needed. I think one of the challenges we all experience is when we do so much and yet still experience a lack of fulfillment in our lives. Many of us may look at lack of fulfillment as an experience of not having enough. However, we must consider that fulfillment in any natural system and especially in our own lives results from a relative state of balance. A balanced experience requires that we understand that doing too much or too little can both result in a similar unfulfilled experience. Fulfillment is not just about filling the moments of our lives but allowing the moments of our lives to be fulfilled with valued and meaningful experiences.

A balanced experience requires a dynamic commitment and valued experience requires an opportunity for awareness of what it is we want or need. The challenge then is for us to let go of something we feel to be important or that has value because it offers the comfort of reliability. If we are always hanging on then it is difficult to be aware of what it is like to not hang on and our ability to be aware of our experience is restricted. Much like letting go of the side of the pool allows us to experience the fun and freedom of swimming a part of learning to let go is gaining the understanding that we can always return to a point of comfort. The more we experience this process the more empowered we become because the increased awareness of our lives actually results in better understanding and greater comfort.

Leading a fulfilling life is a dynamic experience; everyday is a new day and a new opportunity. Sometimes it is best to stick with what is familiar and other times it is best to push our boundaries as far as we can. Either of these choices and any choice in between begins with the ability to let go, to let go of what is expected or assumed and to ask what is appropriate. We cannot fully answer the question of what is appropriate if our perspective is locked in a familiar state. By letting go and stepping back we can consider whether or not our cup is too full or not full enough. Then as we gain perspective we can ask what is appropriate and decide what best contributes to a fulfilling life.

This is the intention of Everspring Living as a resource in general and this is the intention of focusing the concept of Everspring Living into this blog. The goal will be to challenge us to let go, even if only for a moment at a time, and consider alternative options and experiences. The challenge for us as readers will be to realize that solitary or momentary practice may or may not lead to short-term revelation. Awareness and understanding result from a persistent commitment to seek a more fluid, more meaningful perspective and in turn a more fulfilling life.