The Power of Rituals

My whole experience as a monk for 10 years was an exercise in daily rituals. There are a few I feel are indispensable,  no matter what your role in life.  I’ll talk about them more, but first I wanted to share a post on another blog that got me thinking along these lines. check it out: Rituals

Yoga Alignment

Yoga class inspired me today! The theme was “Trust” and as such we got into a lot of poses where we had to trust ourselves, and others where we had to trust a partner. I had a particularly awesome breakthrough with SuptaVirasana, Reclining Hero pose, having to trust my capabilities as I went beyond the limits of how deep I have been able to go in the past.

By starting at my knees and being super-attentive to the engagement of my muscles all the way up my quads, I was able to transfer the bulk of the effort to my legs, which allowed the lower back to be free and relaxed (in contrast to the intense compression I usually experience there). I was able to get my head to the floor and rest there comfortably until it was time to come up (normally I would be tweaking my lower back and holding out as long as I could before aborting and coming out of the pose early!). I really believe in the power of proper body alignment as the foundation of being able to go deeper into a pose more comfortably. Then harnessing the rhythm of the breath to regroup and secure the muscular tension on the inhale and then let myself expand and sink a little deeper into the pose on the exhale. Doing this a number of times, i find I can go deep into a pose that at first I could only barely stretch into. Have any yoga tricks of your own?

Stay Inspired!

Happy New Year to everyone who is ready to learn the lessons from the past year, put those experiences behind you, and move into this New Year with renewed enthusiasm and determination to make it the best year of your life to date!

This is my resolve anyway, with the theme for this year to “Stay Inspired!”

So just how do we do that? Good question! The first answer, of course, is to BREATHE! Not just breathe like you have always been breathing…unconsciously, unenthusiastically. But to breathe like you mean it! After all, “Inspire” means to “Breathe in”…So, BREATHE IN DEEP! Take in a full breath of life into your lungs.  Do this OFTEN. FEEL your connection to the Life Force within you and the world around you. Make your determination to meet life head on to get the most out of whatever experience it brings to you!

So how do I stay inspired? I have been thinking about this, there are many random things that can produce momentary fits of inspiration, but to STAY inspired for the long haul requires a routine that supports your well-being. For me this includes:

• Daily Meditation
• Introspection
• Study of Inspiring people and thoughts
• Exercise (my favorite is Yoga)
• Service

• And of course…regular conscious breathing practices like those I teach through Breathflow!

Keeping these elements consistently in my life helps me to keep my perspective on the bright side. Oh yeah there is one more: TAKE ACTION…LOTS of it! like Reaching out and interacting with others, especially when I begin to feel low. So reach out…How do YOU stay inspired?

Sierra Hot Springs Lives On….

Blissfully Transformed

This is a forum for people to express and share and keep the “community” alive as you reenter into your daily lives as a transformed person. Sometime reentry requires some support of those who understand. I invite you to create that understanding here.

Enter memories, support, calls for help, ideas how to make this work better…

I am off  to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (!) so I wanted to get this up ASAP. This is not officially the TBF website or blog. It is actually my blog, which if you will explore further hasn’t been used in many years…Maybe this will “breathe’ some life back into it.

Inhale life! -Christian Aphrodite Minson

PS. Express your inner Goddess!

Breathing Smoke

 

It you are living many regions of San Diego or LA right now you may be aware that the air quality is not very good due to all teh amoke from the various raging fires currently underway. This may most certainly be a hazard to your overall health. Looking up reports, the air quality on the San Diego coast is moderate, and inland is unsafe for sensitive groups.If you are feeling considerably lower in the physical health spectrum than you normally do, you will want to minimize the amount of polluntants you assimilate into your system. What can be done about it?

How to Protect Your Family from the Health Effects of Smoke

Breathe Less. Yes, there actually are situations where a breathing expert would condone taking small shallower breaths than fuller, deeper ones. Breathing in fire smoke is just one of those times. However, it does still affect your ability to be super alert and energetic, but this is a better trade off than breathing deep a lot of soot.Pay attention to local air quality reports and stay alert to any news coverage or health warnings related to smoke.Use common sense. If it looks smoky outside, it’s probably not a good time to mow the lawn or go for a run. And it’s probably not a good time for your children to play outdoors.If you are advised to stay indoors, take steps to keep indoor air as clean as possible. Keep your windows and doors closed – unless it’s extremely hot outside.Check the Air Quality Index (AQI) forecast for your area. The AQI, based on data from local air quality monitors, tells you about the daily air quality in your area and recommends precautions you can take to protect your health. As smoke gets worse, the concentration of particles in the air changes – and so do the steps you should take to protect yourself. Visit www.AIRNow.gov for local forecast and conditions.Run your air conditioner, if you have one. Keep the fresh air intake closed and the filter clean to prevent bringing additional smoke inside. Note: If you don’t have an air conditioner, staying inside with the windows closed may be dangerous in extremely hot weather. In these cases, seek alternative shelter.Help keep particle levels inside lower. When smoke levels are high, try to avoid using anything that burns, such as wood fireplaces, gas logs, gas stoves – and even candles! Don’t vacuum. That stirs up particles already inside your home. And don’t smoke. That puts even more pollution in your lungs, and in the lungs of people around you.If you have asthma or other lung disease, make sure you follow your doctor’s directions about taking your medicines and following your asthma management plan. Call your doctor if your symptoms worsen.If you have heart or lung disease, if you are an older adult, or if you have children, talk with your doctor about whether and when you should leave the area. When smoke is heavy for a prolonged period of time, fine particles can build up indoors even though you may not be able to see them.Make sure you are protecting yourself through proper Nutrition. A high grade pharmaceutical-quality natural supplementation regime will go a long way to minimizing your reactions to pollutnats that enter your body. Taking a vitamin and mineral supplement, as well as oils is a good front line defense. Especially helpful are antioxidant supplements. I recommend USANA brand and can help you to order if you would like these products. email me at christian@breathflow.com.

Some of this info was found at www.airnow.gov

Rehab Breathing Sessions

For the past month-and-a-half a Breath colleague of mine, Juli Connolly, and I have had the opportunity to breathe the inpatients of the Three Hills Ranch Sober Living rehab program (www.hillrecovery.com). This is a program for alcohol and drug treatment, and as one can imagine the people that come there are really in need of finding some tools to help them to move forward and live a sober lifestyle. Our initial sessions with the Transformational Breathing technique have been met with much enthusiasm and success (through the grapevine I hear it is one of the facets of the program the patients like the most!).

While incorporating the breathing technique into the Three Hills Ranch rehab program is still in the beta stages, there has undoubtedly been progress in each session for the patients. Just beginning by closing our eyes and taking a few deep centering breaths changes the energy in the room almost instntly. And after a full Transformational Breath session, the patients can’t wait to share their individual experiences.

What is most rewarding to me is that I feel that teaching them this awareness of the breath is giving them one of the most profound tools they can have for helping themselves through trying periods in their future lives–whether an emotional upheaval or physical reaction. By having the experience of what the breath can do for them, they are more likely to use it to regulate the ups-and-downs in their lives when they have nowhere else to turn.

And in reality, the patients of this rehab program aren’t much different than the rest of us; perhaps only in the degree to which they have allowed their circumstances to take them into a tailspin. Don’t we all get into downward spirals at times? And the degree to which we go down is largely a result of how many tools for coping we have been able to learn along the way, and how effective each of those tools is. Fortunately for all of us, our breath is always with us and we can use it instantly whenever trials become overwhelming to find immediate relief.

I would love to do more of this kind of work, because the patients seem to get so much out of it. Either they are just ready to face thier ‘stuff’, or they have no other choice. Who can direct me to other rehab centers that are willing to budget in new progressive and effective methods of wellness training?

Post-Workshop Notes

 

 

On Saturday, October 3^rd, I conducted a monthly workshop in Chula Vista. The venue was “Our Garden Sanctuary,” a beautiful large historical home, which my friends and colleagues have turned into a Healing Center.

I was honored to have the assistance of Moni Osbourne, Judith Kravitz’s (the co-developer of the Transformational Breathing technique) oldest daughter. I felt that there was a real synergy between us. I really enjoy the yin/yang energy balance of a male/female facilitator team. She chimed in at just the right places in my presentation, and really displayed a keen attunement of emotional empathy with all the people who attended, which was great to watch and learn from.

Moni has a breath studio in Hillcrest, San Diego. She is definitely a key person to look up if someone would like a breathing session in that area. I plan to check it out soon and set up some workshops there with her, if she is game.

 

Workshop Ideas

I went to help mentor Judith Kravitz at the Transformational Breathing, Level IV part 3 Training this afternoon. Judith made the call to have me breathe instead of assist during the daily group breathing session; I was ambivalent—I felt OK and didn’t think I saw the ‘need’ to breathe. She must have known something I didn’t because this session was one of the most intense breathing experiences I have had in a long time.

I went into the session with the intention, “I set aside my personal agenda for the will of Spirit.” What came out at the end was that my true role is to facilitate group synergy with my energy. By this I mean that I am meant to be in groups and to create a harmonizing energy by setting aside my agenda and tuning in with the group so that I can act and send out energy in such a way as to be a catalyst for the group to realize its collective potential on an energetic level.

What kind of group workshop series’ would you as an interested (and interesting) readers be enthusiastic about creating?

One workshop I would like to create is to have a music listening group experience, which has a breath session together with listening to a different album (brought to the group by a member?) each week, then a discussion of the music and the listening/breathing experience afterwards. Sound and its powers is such a fascination to me that I think a lot could be revealed while experimenting with it during the breathing process.

In fact, a friend of mine and fellow facilitator of the breath, Tim Glynn, played for me recently some healing chants from a sound healer named Tom Kenyon. I was amazed at the realizations of the power of sound energy that came through me while listening to—experiencing, rather—the incredible vocal tones of this healer, tuned into the Universal Vibration. So lets have a series of group sessions listening to these CD’s and breathing in saturation of healing sonic vibration!

Purpose of this blog

I have begun the communication into cyberspace! It is an honor to have this communication with you, who have come with a desire to know something more in particular about the breath and breathing. This blog serves many purposes on a personal as well as service level.

On a personal level, this blog is a manifestation of coming to understand my purpose and special gift to share with the world, for the betterment of humanity as a whole through improving the wellness of the individual–specifically through awareness of the breath and its uses as a tool for improving the human condition and opening the pathways to full connection with the spiritual dimensions of Life.

As far as service to you and others, this blog is intened to provide:

• Thoughts and musings on what breath means to me over my 14-year focus on the phenomena of breathing; and what the breath means to the clients I serve though breathing techniques and make exemplary improvement in all-around well-being (physical, mental/emotional, spiritual) on a weekly basis.

• Information on the latest world developments regarding the breath and it’s capacity to heal the physical and mental/emotional bodies, and open a greater connection to the spiritual bodies.

• Links to nationwide/worldwide workshops, seminars, and trainings on using the breath as a healing tool, and facilitators who can serve individual needs to the end of healing old issues and embracing a new, more positive mode of living and feeling/thinking.

• Reviews of products related to breathing and emotional wellness, and links to where to buy.

To this end I currently welcome any comments, suggestions, and/or questions that steer the interest of where this information resource might lead. I look forward to a long and prosperous relationship in communication around the breath!

R. Christian Minson, CBF

Founder, Breathflow Healing & Wellness (www.breathflow.com)

Certified Transformational Breath Facilitator

Wellness Coach