Breathing

Number one in importance — make sure you keep breathing available, pure, toxin-free, clean air. It is good if you can put yourself in the healthiest air possible. This can be accomplished in a number of ways — some of which I will list here for your consideration. Get an air washing and purification system for your home or a portable unit for the room you spend the most time in (if you live in a toxic-air area and moving does not seem feasible). The investment will more than repay itself in your added health. Finding a healthy-air environment and moving there is another possibility. If the above suggestions seem too difficult or not currently possible, then consider at least conditioning the air in your home with an inexpensive ion generator (or two). Run them in the rooms in your home where you spend the most time. The older used ones can often be found in thrift or secondhand stores for a few dollars. They work fine for settling dust out of the air, and though you may have to dust more often, at least you won't be breathing it! Don't run these all the time, just until you see a good amount of dust settled on surfaces, or after dusting or running a vacuum, or on dusty days. Get a good-quality spray bottle and occasionally mist the air in your home. I use one of the following solutions for misting: plain pure water, distilled water, or water to which I have added hydrogen peroxide in a ratio of one tablespoon to half a gallon of water. This will wash the air and add negative ions to the air (useful for healing and a sense of well-being). Water with hydrogen peroxide also adds oxygen to the air. Make sure not to use this misting in an already humid environment or in spaces where you are not going to be. A good rule of thumb would be once a day, to a maximum of three or four times per day if you are in a dry environment. In extremely dry environments or if using wood for winter heating, up to five or six times per day could be possible. Breathing exercises can also be very important to our health. It is reasonable to say that breath is life! Here is the Schley Conscious Breathing Training Technique. Pay conscious attention to your breathing at least three times per day and check the following: are you a relaxed breather or a tense breather? Relaxed breathers tend to allow the relaxed body to take in the air and distribute it as required. Tense breathers tend to tense certain muscle sets and related body areas each time they breathe, which can lead to various physical complaints and real body concerns, such as tight neck and shoulders, tight chest, tension-induced circulation issues, pain, and a host of other concerns. It is to your advantage to identify what type of breather you are and then retrain yourself to breathe for optimal health. If you are a tense breather, your first action is to learn how to be a relaxed breather. Take the Schley Conscious Breathing Training Techniques as described below and apply them to any tense, uncomfortable, or out-of-balance areas of the body you are aware of, until you become a relaxed breather. If you are a relaxed breather, you have a certain advantage in that you do not have to do much to train yourself to relax. There are not a lot of people who are completely relaxed breathers, so you may wish to include tune-ups during your three conscious periods of breathing each day. Consciously direct your breath to areas where you want to release tension, heal, improve vitality, increase circulation, and expand your awareness. This process of directed breathing can be achieved by imagining your whole body is breathing in and out, even your skin. Breathe in a full breath, imagining that this breath is going to certain directed areas of your body, and imagine that you are experiencing the desired effect of this breath, such as healing, relaxation, improved circulation, improved vitality, eliminated discomfort, and generally improved health. Now breathe out wholly and completely, simply reversing the breathing-in process, even breathing out through your skin, allowing the outgoing breath to eliminate any toxins and respiratory waste materials. We call this breath a "round breath," in that the breath is not held at any point. It is as though the breath is drawing a circle, with the in breath being the first half of the circle and the out breath being the second half of the circle. Most people, by consciously focusing on and experiencing different parts of the body, can identify and balance any tense, uncomfortable, and out-of-balance areas using the Schley conscious breathing training, directed breathing, and relaxation techniques. It is possible that you can be unaware of areas of tension or imbalance and that even after you have consciously focused on different body areas, some tense or blocked areas may still not be discovered. You can be assisted in discovering these areas by enlisting the help of caring friends or natural health care professionals, particularly therapeutic massage and breath therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, yoga teachers, tai chi or chi gong instructors, and kinesiology health professionals who are aware of whole body dynamics in relation to health. We have now covered simple breathing basics. As in all the important subjects of this book, one could spend an entire lifetime studying breathing and would find that the study and practice of breathing alone will ultimately provide a holographic map to body balance, super consciousness, and relationships to the holographic body generally unknown to the public at large. For those of you who have found this subject exceptionally interesting, I refer you to the bibliography (references and resources by chapter) at the end of this book for more information.

Water

Do not underestimate the value of pure water in the maintenance of your health. Since the majority of our bodies consist of water, it is only reasonable that we make the purity, quality, and amount of water we put into our bodies a priority project! Water is also life! To begin with, research and find out about the quality of the water you have been drinking on a regular basis. You may have to pay for an independent analysis to get truly accurate information. If your water is pure and of good quality, great! If not, check on the availability of pure water in your area. If you find a reasonable, trusted source of pure water (which may not be as easy as it sounds), then your drinking water problem is solved. I recommend drinking a full glass of distilled water (or two if you are thirsty) first thing in the morning, before drinking or eating...