Phoenix - Rising From 2020 - Blog Series - Breathe Again
Series Introduction
Most of the world started 2020 with hope and a 20-20 vision mantra. Not long after the year started our 20-20 vision was shut down, locked down and broken down! Fast forward to 2023 and let’s look at the fall out, what we are left with and what we need to recover.
You started staying home with the slightest sniffle or sore throat and now you leave the house with a hoarse voice or a nagging cough that doesn’t seem to want to leave. You have brain fog and low energy. You have trouble sleeping and eating. Your attitude, values and culture have been altered.
This series will discuss your body systems, one at a time, and share the challenges and helpful information to care for and support your wellbeing while you rise like a phoenix from 2020.
WARNING! This blog series has a lot of information. To avoid being overwhelmed to the point of inaction, please follow these simple steps:
- Read one entire blog.
- Journal what resonates with you.
- Choose one or two simple actions to implement.
- Journal any changes that occur because of these actions.
- Repeat as many times as you like or until you have implemented all that you can right now.
- Apply these steps to all the blogs in this series.
Breathe Again
At the end of every year, you think about your new year's resolutions. Whether it's a health goal, a travel goal or a resolution to not make yourself any promises this year, you resolve to start the year afresh. December 2019, when you were thinking about 2020, you probably adopted the analogy of 20-20 vision. You were clear about your goals and had hope for your best year ever!
Not very far into your year of hope, your vision was shut down, locked down and broken down. This turned out to be one of the worst years of your life. You stopped breathing but carried on with poise and grace, following the directions and mandates given by your leaders as much as you had to. Your life changed dramatically for a couple of years.
Then things started to settle back into some sort of normality. You kept hearing the words, " new normal." Things had changed, people had changed, you had changed and now you strive to move on as best you can.
Fast forward to 2023. You are living your life. The troubles of 2020 are memories but you are now vigilant about hygiene, social distancing and staying home when you are unwell. Sadly, your unwellness drags on and eventually you have to get back to your life even though you still have a nagging cough, a hoarse voice, or both. You realise you are still holding your breath. It's time to start breathing again!
Through Your Nose
If I ask you to take a deep breath, what is the first thing you do? You open your mouth! Your deep breath is now less effective. Why? Because there are no air filters in your mouth and the very useful nitric oxide that is secreted by your sinuses into your nasal pathways goes nowhere. Nitrc oxide opens the airways and blood vessels so your air and blood blood can flow more freely. I wonder what that could possibly prevent?
When your nose is blocked, your mouth opens so you can still breathe. This keeps you alive. Having a blocked nose is not comfortable or attractive. Next time your nose is blocked, close your mouth and breathe gently through your nose for a 2-3 minutes. Feel the difference. For even better results, block one nostril to breathe in, block the other nostril to breathe out then in again then swap and repeat. This is also a good thing to do when your heart is racing or you are out of breath.
You can enhance this action by choosing a quality, oxygenating essential oil to inhale from your palms while you breathe. I choose to breathe Young Living essential oils because of their purity, potency and power!
What's In Your Air
When you breathe in, your body is taking oxygen from the air. Did you know that only 21% of clean air is oxygen? If the concentration of oxygen were more than 22%, it would damage your delicate lung tissues. Nitrogen is the main component of air. About 1% of your air is small amounts of other gases including carbondioxide and hydrogen.
Carbondioxide is exhaled from your body when you breathe out. Where does it come from? Your cells use the oxygen to produce energy and the by-product is carbondioxide. The air you exhale has less oxygen and a higher amount of carbondioxide than what you inhaled. A certain amount of carbondioxide is required in your blood to regulate blood pH, breathing and how much oxygen is transported by your blood.
Breathing too fast, such as during a panic attack, removes too much carbondioxide from your body and causes you to hyperventilate. Breathing into a paper bag allows you to replace some of the carbondioxide to rebalance your levels.
I mentioned clean air. What about polluted air? What you breathe sometimes has an impact on how well you breathe. Personally I have a habit of breathing shallow when I don't like the smell of the air and I believe my body does something similar when the air is full of toxins. The thing is, your nose is designed to filter out toxins. Gentle, deep breathing allows you to maintain sufficient oxygen levels which is crucial for your health and immunity.
Minimising Your Air Pollution
Do you know what is lurking in your bottles of cleaning and cleansing products? Why is it important to know this? What do you smell when you walk down the supermarket isle where all the cleaning products are lined up? That smell is proof that unopened containers do not seal in the toxins, and they do not belong in your healthy home!
You already know to "keep out of reach of children" all chemical cleaning products. What you may not have thought about is that those cleaning products are on the surfaces on which your children and pets spend most of their time. There have been instances where sick pets in homes, where the toxic products were switched to clean and green, with no toxins, were no longer sick. Maybe your children will be sick less often if you reduce their toxic exposure in your home. Maybe you would be sick less often as well.
Hand sanitisers and antibacterial soaps have been highlighted as effective hygiene against getting sick. These are also laden with chemicals that will not help you! In fact, all of these toxins will compromise your resistance to sickness.
Why stop there? Removing toxins from the environment where you spend most of your time, your home, not only cleans up the air you breathe but also reduces the toxins that leave your home and effect the greater environment. Wouldn't you breathe easier if your personal air was cleaner?
You can find more information on ditching the chemicals and switching to environmentally friendly solutions, that have the added bonus of being therapeutic, here: https://library.youngliving.com/en/au/Natures-Home-Essentials-Booklet/129359244?query=booklets
Respiratory Care
How do you take care of your breathing tools? Eating lots of naturally nutritious food, keeping your body well hydrated and getting plenty of movement is a start. Understanding your respiratory system and listening to what it tells you is much easier when you start from healthy! If you're catching up, take heart and keep it up. It will pay off in so many ways!
Breathe again! Breathe deep means into your belly. Breathe gentle to allow the nitric oxide to join your breath. Breathe through your nose, alternate nostrils and use a premium essential oil. Your body can handle the rest!
It's important to remember that all your body systems work together in harmony as long as you keep taking care of them. Respiratory care is not just about inhaling, oxygen and exhaling carbondioxide. It's about all of the connecting systems that rely on each other to support your whole body wellness. Keep coming back to learn about the other systems and how to take care of them.
Breathe Again is a 10ml roll on bottle of 4 types of eucalyptus, bay laurel, rose hip seed, peppermint, copaiba, myrtle and blue cypress essential oils formulated to help you breathe again!
At the end of every year, you think about your new year's resolutions. Whether it's a health goal, a travel goal or a resolution to not make yourself any promises this year, you resolve to start the year afresh. December 2019, when you were thinking about 2020, you probably adopted the analogy of 20-20 vision. You were clear about your goals and had hope for your best year ever!
Not very far into your year of hope, your vision was shut down, locked down and broken down. This turned out to be one of the worst years of your life. You stopped breathing but carried on with poise and grace, following the directions and mandates given by your leaders as much as you had to. Your life changed dramatically for a couple of years.
Then things started to settle back into some sort of normality. You kept hearing the words, " new normal." Things had changed, people had changed, you had changed and now you strive to move on as best you can.
Fast forward to 2023. You are living your life. The troubles of 2020 are memories but you are now vigilant about hygiene, social distancing and staying home when you are unwell. Sadly, your unwellness drags on and eventually you have to get back to your life even though you still have a nagging cough, a hoarse voice, or both. You realise you are still holding your breath. It's time to start breathing again!
Through Your Nose
If I ask you to take a deep breath, what is the first thing you do? You open your mouth! Your deep breath is now less effective. Why? Because there are no air filters in your mouth and the very useful nitric oxide that is secreted by your sinuses into your nasal pathways goes nowhere. Nitrc oxide opens the airways and blood vessels so your air and blood blood can flow more freely. I wonder what that could possibly prevent?
When your nose is blocked, your mouth opens so you can still breathe. This keeps you alive. Having a blocked nose is not comfortable or attractive. Next time your nose is blocked, close your mouth and breathe gently through your nose for a 2-3 minutes. Feel the difference. For even better results, block one nostril to breathe in, block the other nostril to breathe out then in again then swap and repeat. This is also a good thing to do when your heart is racing or you are out of breath.
You can enhance this action by choosing a quality, oxygenating essential oil to inhale from your palms while you breathe. I choose to breathe Young Living essential oils because of their purity, potency and power!
What's In Your Air
When you breathe in, your body is taking oxygen from the air. Did you know that only 21% of clean air is oxygen? If the concentration of oxygen were more than 22%, it would damage your delicate lung tissues. Nitrogen is the main component of air. About 1% of your air is small amounts of other gases including carbondioxide and hydrogen.
Carbondioxide is exhaled from your body when you breathe out. Where does it come from? Your cells use the oxygen to produce energy and the by-product is carbondioxide. The air you exhale has less oxygen and a higher amount of carbondioxide than what you inhaled. A certain amount of carbondioxide is required in your blood to regulate blood pH, breathing and how much oxygen is transported by your blood.
Breathing too fast, such as during a panic attack, removes too much carbondioxide from your body and causes you to hyperventilate. Breathing into a paper bag allows you to replace some of the carbondioxide to rebalance your levels.
I mentioned clean air. What about polluted air? What you breathe sometimes has an impact on how well you breathe. Personally I have a habit of breathing shallow when I don't like the smell of the air and I believe my body does something similar when the air is full of toxins. The thing is, your nose is designed to filter out toxins. Gentle, deep breathing allows you to maintain sufficient oxygen levels which is crucial for your health and immunity.
Minimising Your Air Pollution
Do you know what is lurking in your bottles of cleaning and cleansing products? Why is it important to know this? What do you smell when you walk down the supermarket isle where all the cleaning products are lined up? That smell is proof that unopened containers do not seal in the toxins, and they do not belong in your healthy home!
You already know to "keep out of reach of children" all chemical cleaning products. What you may not have thought about is that those cleaning products are on the surfaces on which your children and pets spend most of their time. There have been instances where sick pets in homes, where the toxic products were switched to clean and green, with no toxins, were no longer sick. Maybe your children will be sick less often if you reduce their toxic exposure in your home. Maybe you would be sick less often as well.
Hand sanitisers and antibacterial soaps have been highlighted as effective hygiene against getting sick. These are also laden with chemicals that will not help you! In fact, all of these toxins will compromise your resistance to sickness.
Why stop there? Removing toxins from the environment where you spend most of your time, your home, not only cleans up the air you breathe but also reduces the toxins that leave your home and effect the greater environment. Wouldn't you breathe easier if your personal air was cleaner?
You can find more information on ditching the chemicals and switching to environmentally friendly solutions, that have the added bonus of being therapeutic, here: https://library.youngliving.com/en/au/Natures-Home-Essentials-Booklet/129359244?query=booklets
Respiratory Care
How do you take care of your breathing tools? Eating lots of naturally nutritious food, keeping your body well hydrated and getting plenty of movement is a start. Understanding your respiratory system and listening to what it tells you is much easier when you start from healthy! If you're catching up, take heart and keep it up. It will pay off in so many ways!
Breathe again! Breathe deep means into your belly. Breathe gentle to allow the nitric oxide to join your breath. Breathe through your nose, alternate nostrils and use a premium essential oil. Your body can handle the rest!
It's important to remember that all your body systems work together in harmony as long as you keep taking care of them. Respiratory care is not just about inhaling, oxygen and exhaling carbondioxide. It's about all of the connecting systems that rely on each other to support your whole body wellness. Keep coming back to learn about the other systems and how to take care of them.
Breathe Again is a 10ml roll on bottle of 4 types of eucalyptus, bay laurel, rose hip seed, peppermint, copaiba, myrtle and blue cypress essential oils formulated to help you breathe again!
