Breathe--The Easest of Exercises, and Pet Your Cat--a Stress Reducer

Obi petting me.

Put aside the cares of the world for a moment. Put aside the house that needs to be cleaned. Take a moment to be you.

In my first blog post, I mentioned that I was three pages into Christiane Northrup’s book Goddesses Never Age when I became excited about creating this blog. We need a place to talk about how it is to be 50 and beyond, or coming up on it, and the issues and concerns that swirl around us now. 

Perhaps with that extra testosterone we are getting, we are more able to put aside the BS. Maybe I'm missing my women's group, where we talked about anything, our feelings,  hurts, emotions, spiritual path, and our body parts. They all work together, and when you squelch one, whatever the issue, it will squirt out someplace else.

Although my motivator of this blog, Dr. Christian Northrup, said that when she comes up a group of women having an "Organ Recital," (Not a musical instrument) she moves on, we will talk about organs here. But not in a gleeful way, like sharing how much we suffered in childbirth to get sympathy from those who have yet to experience it.

 “Let’s make it easy to be healthy and happy.”

I hope the word holistic or “Mind, Body, Spirit" doesn’t become cliché, for it is thrown around like peanut shells on a bar floor. Holistic means it's all working together, which is the way the body works. I am sensitive about using the holistic approach, for my husband has had health issues for the past year, and we have gone to one "specialist" after another as though the body is divided into zones.

Okay, here is what I set out to talk about today before I got carried away:

 The Breath.

 And the Lymph System.

You know about the circulatory system. The blood has a pump, your heart. Yet your cells are bathed in lymph, which has no pump and relies on body movement and deep breathing to move it.

Of course, breathing is automatic most of the time, but if you include some deep breathing and hold that breath, it will help move the lymph through your body, thus giving your cells more oxygen and washing away waste material and dead cells. As a result, you will have more energy and vitality.

Lymph contains many substances, including proteins, minerals, fats, damaged cells, cancer cells, and germs. The movement of the lymph can wash them away. Lymph also transports infection-fighting white blood cells (lymphocytes).

 A study on chicken cells kept in a clean substance—like lymph—caused those cells to almost achieve mortality—well, 30 years instead of 11.

Plasma passes from your blood into the lymph system, where it bathes every cell, providing oxygen and nutrients and removing waste material, dead cells, and such. Close to the heart, it is absorbed back into the blood, where the waste is removed and dumped from your system. 

Two things move the lymph: body movement and deep breathing. So, take a few deep breaths on purpose. (If you are sitting at the computer, stop, breathe in one for second, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 2.)

Remember the ratio: 1-4-2

You can double of triple those numbers. Inhale for  inhale for the count of one, two, three, four, hold for 16, exhale for 8.

 4-16-8--same ratio.

 If you feel strong, go for 6, 24, 12.

That feels good.   

Try this breathing exercise 10 times a day for 10 days and see if your energy isn’t more incredible.

See, it’s easy, breezy, beautiful. 

I'd love to hear how this breathing exercise works for you. Share your experiences in the comments below.

 Or, what do you want to talk about?

Girls, It's Up to Us

 

There is a battle happening.

 

It’s a battle for our thoughts.

 

It’s a battle for our beliefs, emotions, and humanness.

 

“There is something in us so beautiful, so powerful that countries will go to battle to keep us distracted from our humanness. “—Gregg Braden.

 

We are over chemicalized and overburdened with media trying to keep us reading their material. They want eyeballs, your time, attention, site numbers, and money.

 

Chemicalized? Please think of this: doctors are prescribing Birth control pills for young girls to regulate their periods. Take them off long enough for them to reproduce, and then chances are artificial hormones come next. Possibly, they will have a hysterectomy, for they don’t need a uterus anymore. Then back on hormones. (Please read my comments on Premarin on the pages at https://Goddesses50andbeyond.blogspot.com.

 

Suggest a pill to a man to lower his testosterone to reduce his aggressiveness, and he will go ballistic.

 

Life isn’t all stable and regulated. We have ups and downs. Our emotions get tricky. I take Armor Thyroid rather than a synthetic. (I don’t think they killed a pig for it.) My Naturopath said the difference was that the synthetic was more stable. Natural is like a fruit cocktail. You dip a spoon in, and you might get a pineapple chunk and a grape or, another time, a peach slice and a cherry.

 

But isn’t that the way life is? Not predictable? We vary; we are organic, after all.

 

I say it is up to us, we 50 and beyond, because we’ve been around the block a few times, and we remember the strides we’ve made and how hard we fought for them. Don’t slip back. If you think we have no control, think of this: women 50 and beyond are becoming premier buyers because they often have discretionary money to spend. That’s one way to spell out our preferences. 

 

Think of it this way: Darwin missed an essential aspect of human evolution. (And, I was a biology major steeped in evolution.) What he missed was cooperation.

 

Why do you think Zebras look alike? Why do you believe herds stay in a bunch? Why do wolves hunt in a pack? And why did women create language? 

 

It works better if we bond with a group.

 

My daughter told me today that Pilates sprang from Yoga. I didn’t know that. Some people objected to the spiritual aspect of Yoga, so they took it out.

 

Maybe that’s what is missing from our culture—the morality that comes with a spiritual connection. Lying is accepted. There is a disrespect for our laws that we try, not perfectly, to make fair. It’s okay to criticize our fellows because they look different or act differently from us. Revenge is encouraged, and many men still use and mistreat women because they can.

 

Gregg Braden defined Divinity as “the ability to transcend.” That is the something in us that is so beautiful and powerful that countries will battle to keep it from us.

 

We are Body, Mind, and Spirit here.  Our bodies are brilliant. Our mind is bright, and Our Spirit is so big we don’t have words to contain it.

 

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”—Mark Twain.

 

The Buck Stops Here

 Let’s say your mother neglected you.

 “I’m going to release this feeling of being unloved once and for all, “you say.

 So, you begin to yell or scream, pound a pillow, or scratch out your complaints on paper, and then you think, “Oh, her mother neglected her when she was young. That’s why she neglected me.”

 All that is true and perceptive of you, but it doesn’t release the hurt from your body, soul, or mind.

 First, get it out, then you can be understanding of their psychological hurts. You know the story: “Put on your own Oxygen mask first, then help someone else.”

 We know that the body tries to speak to us. We store our emotions in our energy fields and tissues, where they wait for us to have the courage to express them.

 They try to tell us we need to address an issue, for anger, grief, sadness, and shame cause the body to create and hold onto stress hormones. This leads to cellular degeneration, inflammation, and physical ailments—all associated with aging.

 We know when we have some physical challenge, but often, we do not know its cause. Perhaps we’ll find out later after it is resolved. Then, we can see the connection. Until then, we must ask for the next step.

 (People often cry when getting a massage or other bodywork. That is releasing it from their tissues.)

 I’ve written about Dr. Gabor Mate before. I am repeating it here: He said that when he was an infant, his mother called the pediatrician, saying, “Little Gabor is crying all the time.” The doctor said, “All the babies are crying all the time. They are picking up the anxiety of their mothers.”

 Germany was about to invade Poland, and the mothers were understandably afraid. Not all injuries are intentional. And it was good that Mate’ knew of the trauma.

 Mate’ felt that incident contributed to his addictions. We know enough psychology to understand that people sometimes hurt us because of some deep-seated hurt they sustained—intentionally or not.

 Dr. Christian Northrup suggests whacking a chair or some sturdy object with a towel while screaming to do a releasing exercise.  If you don’t feel complete the first time, do it again. But don’t get stuck in anger. You can say, “That’s enough.” Then go outside, sit in the sun, soak in a hot bath with or without Epson salts, and when the water goes down the drain, so does your trauma. Petting your cat is helpful or have something to eat, All that tends to put a period at the end of your ranting sentence.

 One thing to remember is that forgiveness does not condone what the other person did. It is saying, “I’m not carrying it anymore.”

 Northrup recommends Iyanla Vanzant’s book 21 Days to Forgive Everyone of Everything. Smiley Books, 2013

 In searching for it, I found another one that looks even better: “Get Over It.” Thought Therapy for Healing the Hard Stuff.

 Thought therapy is “Getting your mind right so you can live better.”

 “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom”—Viktor Frankl.

 

“Agelessness happens in that space where we choose to step into joy and possibility rather than remain stuck in a vicious cycle of anger, fear, and grief. —Christiane Northrup.