The Breath

For this, our very first installation of the Meditation Monday series we are going to focus on the basics. Something very important, something you do every single day without any thought to it whatsoever. We are going to focus on the breath. The breath is very important, Your life begins with your first breath and ends with your last. You want to make sure that the quality of the breath that you take is up to par. Let's start with a little bit about the anatomy of the body, to better understand how the breath works. Your lungs are shaped similarly to a tear. With most of the surface area closer to the bottom. So, in order to use your lungs to their fullest potential, you want to activate that lower lung. The way you can do that is by activating more of your diaphragm. The way you want to do that is with every breath you bring into your body, you want to imagine that you are filling up your belly like a balloon. This will activate more of the lower lungs, which in turn will use more of your lungs. Thus increasing your lung capacity and bringing a lot more oxygen into your blood.

Secondly, you want to use your nostrils to do all of your breaths. There are three reasons for that. One,your nose hairs act like a filter, allowing all the dust and germs you breathe in to get caught in those hairs and pushed up with every exhale. Two, your tear ducts also work as a humidifier, keeping the oxygen you breathe moist and easy for your body to process. Third, is the heater, your nose works as a natural heater.

To gain the most out of the process, you want to take slow deep breaths in through your nose and fill your belly like a balloon. When you exhale try to imagine that you are pushing all of the stale carbon dioxides out of your body. Breathing this way will help to calm your mind and make your body overall a lot healthier.

We take around 23,000 breaths a day. Make them count.

-Jerron Wallace