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Breathing, Oxygen and Yoga.
from: David Goulet There are a growing number of people drawn to the health
benefits of yoga. For good reasons. The deep breathing exercises
taught in some schools of yoga cater to the healthy living of
every cell in our bodies. Many people don't realize that every
cell in our bodies requires oxygen on a continual basis in order
to have active metabolism. The cells of all glands and organs
require active metabolism in order for those glands and organs
to be functional and productive, and we cannot maintain a state
of good health for long without their function.
Once we understand this basic principle we can look at our
modern sedentary lifestyle and see that it is not the most
conducive to health. Coming from nature where all the creatures
are moving the majority of the time - we also were designed with
motion in mind. When we do move two things spontaneously occur:
first, the activity engages muscles which produce carbon dioxide
through their metabolism; this triggers deeper breathing in
order to eliminate the carbon dioxide and to acquire more oxygen
for continued muscular activity. Second: the activity stimulates
better circulation in both the cardiovascular and lymphatic
systems, so that both oxygen and other nutrients can be
distributed throughout the body.
The lack of activity that usually comes with a desk job, or
sitting at a computer all day, is really not to our benefit. Not
only does our circulation become more sluggish and our breathing
very shallow but all the brain activity also requires fair
amounts of oxygen, and this type of activity does not stimulate
sufficient deeper breathing nor better circulation. Consequently
we fall into oxygen depletion. The result is known as the
oxidative stress, produced at a cellular level by cells in a
panic because they are suffocating, and communicated up to the
brain as stressful anxiety. Both this stress level and the
oxygen deficit are damaging to the entire body. When these
conditions remain for long periods of time they lead to a
degeneration of our internal organs and subsequent malfunctions.
How many people accept that they have stressful jobs? Yet this
situation could easily be alleviated by breathing breaks and
exercise breaks instead of coffee breaks, or even as well as
coffee breaks. Looking into the health statistics of our modern
society we can see rising numbers of a variety of immune
deficient and degenerative diseases. Should we continue to go
this route or would it be better to start applying some simple
solutions now? The science of yoga has many practical methods of
reversing the trend. It does not require amazing flexibility nor
acrobatic feats to promote a better state of health. Simple
movement and deeper breathing would suffice and these can be
done right in the office. Breathing can be practiced sitting in
an office chair for example, so why not change the direction of
our health trends. Deep breathing does not require a huge amount
of effort, and oxygen is still free, not even taxable.
About the author:
David Goulet has been a certified international yoga teacher
since 1972. David and his wife Marina offer Yoga Teacher
Training in Victoria British Columbia and beautiful beach island
of Koh Phangan in South Thailand. Visit his websites at
Yoga Training
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