Heart Breathe - Healing/Loving Energy!

Over the years I have taken many different styles of yoga classes...loving them all...and the one thing they all stressed was the importance of breathe and the need to learn how to breathe properly and consciously.  This is a very significant subject for me...because while a young 20 something in the Military (many years ago)...I was doing my annual fitness testing one day and the PERI (think physical trainer and you will be close) said that I had the lung capacity of a 40 year old smoker...well that didn't hurt one bit...NOT! I am a life long non-smoker (no judgement really)...because I am very allergic to cigarette smoke and therefor cannot smoke even if I had that desire.  So being told this at the ripe old age of 23 or 24 ...it was not sitting well with me...so I asked why he would say this...his answer was that I did not breathe properly.  Ok up until that moment I did not realize that there was any other way of breathing than inhale and exhale.  So as you can tell I had not yet taken a yoga class...and they did not teach any of this in any of my military physical training courses or activities.  So I needed to understand why I was not breathing properly...and found out that I was a very shallow breather and my breathe did not reach deep down into my lungs...so when I am exercising I am then over working my lungs and my heart rate goes mighty high.  I was a runner, hiker and very avid skier at this time... so it really had me trying to wrap my mind around breathe and doing it properly.  I tried practicing deep breathing techniques...and found them so hard to do at first and un-natural...my lungs were not use to expanding with my breathe...hmmm not a good sign.  Now fast forward 30 some odd years and I naturally breathe deep and love to fill my lungs to their very depth ...feeling that life giving breathe fill and expand them easily.  Yoga taught me how to do this...and because I have a very curious mind and nature...I have been blessed in taking many wonderful workshops over the years that have helped me to learn more and more about our breathe and how so much healing can occur just by focusing on our breathe and how we breathe in and breathe out...there are so many great techniques one can try and one I want to share is breathing from the physical heart into heart centre and sending it out to the universe as a beautiful healing/loving energy. 

First you visualize as you take in a breathe...that you are drawing in the breathe from your physical heart and filling up your heart center (center of you chest) with this beautiful golden white energy...hold a second or two and then visualize exhaling this breathe through your crown...sending this healing energy out into the universe...if you want to go further...then visualize again taking that wonderful deep breathe from your physical heart and filling your heart center with that golden/white energy ball...hold a second or more and then exhale it through your feet into Mother Earth...again sending out that wondrous healing/loving energy...you can alternate the exhaling between crown and your feet...but with each breathe feel your inner light expanding and shining brighter and brighter...becoming the Light-being you are!

If you have a hard time at first...do not get discouraged...it took me a few years to really expand my lungs properly until it truly felt natural...a yoga class will really speed that process...as they help you try many different ways of deep breathing that gently and lovingly helps your lungs expand.

So take that deep breathe and with light and love breathe from your heart and share it with the Universe!

Blessings from my heart breathe to yours...Val