Just Breathe
It’s been a reflective start to the new year for many reasons, one of them is due to enrolling in the Health Coach Training Program (HCTP) through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN). The year-long program begins next week toward becoming an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. To the family and friends that I’ve shared this news with, this makes sense. Nutrition has been a hobby of mine since I was a teenager, and competed in Nutrition Bowl - a competition team like being on a game show, buzzing in if you knew the answer. It was a lot of fun. What I think is probably more surprising — maybe just to myself — is that I didn’t pursue nutrition as a career, especially since my family owned a restaurant for 61 years and growing up me, my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, grandpa, and mom and dad all worked there at one time (1961-2022). I’m looking forward to becoming more focused with my content consumption in the health space, which has been consisting of several books each year, listening to podcasts and YouTube content with the latest scientific research put into action. I’m anticipating the HCTP will use up most of my “free” time in 2024, and I’ll have something real that I can share on the other side.
This week, I’ve been reminded how important it is to “Just Breathe.” Last weekend my Dad mentioned that he had a doctor’s appointment and the doctor might want to put him on blood pressure medication. My response was, “You need to meditate.” In hindsight, that was not very helpful. It would have been much better received if I had asked if he could set aside a few minutes a day to do some breathing exercises. Much more palatable for a non-meditator. I proceeded to find a few YouTube videos from trusted experts on blood pressure, how to bring it down naturally, and simple breathing techniques that would take a minimum of 5 minutes a day.
We all breathe everyday, most of the time unconsciously, as it is the life force of our body. I first was introduced to meditation by our pastor in confirmation class in 9th grade. I became so relaxed lying on the hard carpeted floor of our church classroom that I fell asleep briefly. I counted that as a success! Looking back, I’m sure I was sleep deprived at that age and with the schedule I had with the many extra-curricular activities I was involved in. Thirty years later, a friend invited me to join her at a Yoga Nidra class. It was lovely. We got cozy on our mats and blankets and although we were cautioned to not fall asleep, but to remain in a deeply restful state…I fell asleep. I felt very refreshed, but also embarrassed and never went back. My attitude has shift again. What’s wrong with falling asleep in deep relaxation (if you’ve got nowhere else to be)? I say, you’re listening to your body and that is a good thing. Keep on rocking adult nap time!
Conscious breathing has been a tremendous tool for me in my life, not only in my yoga and meditation practice (I do yoga at home with YouTube channels Yoga with Adriene and Yoga with Tim, and use the free InsightTime App for guided meditations) but possibly most profoundly, through the Hypnobirthing(R) technique of self-hypnosis to pursue a drug and medical intervention-free birth.
My husband and I took the course through the major health system where we live, so it was pretty mainstream. I read the book by Marie Mongan, and did a guided meditation using breathing and visualization on CD (yes, I’m that old) to the music of Steven Halpern, every night while falling asleep for months. Well, it worked spectacularly. It worked almost too well, because I was handling my contractions so well, we almost didn’t leave for the hospital in time. With our second birth, the doctor didn’t make it there before the baby did, and she was disappointed at missing the fun part. I was happy and amazed by my body’s ability to do its job, when I gave it the space to do its thing. The music from that CD can still relax me almost immediately, and I sometimes still repeat the words that we chose for my husband to say to me, to help keep everything else out, “Relax, Release, Let Go.” Big sigh exhale on “let go.” It feels so good.
