My Health and Ayurveda
INCREASE VITALITY
AND
REVERSE AGING
My Health and Ayurveda
INCREASE VITALITY
AND
REVERSE AGING
NATURAL BREATHING COMES FIRST
Why do we age?
The liver is rebuilt in a few months. The skin, stomach, and bones are constantly rebuilt – even nerves and brain cells. Why doesn't the body rebuild accurately, and not age?
CONSIDER IMPROPER BREATHING.
From an Ayurvedic perspective, the body fails to rebuild accurately because the cells lose the memory of how to rebuild. The memories get damaged. The instructions get garbled. The body rebuilds inaccurately. We age.
CONSIDER THE DAMAGING EFFECTS OF IMPROPER BREATHING
We know from High School Biology that the lungs supply oxygen to the blood which distributes the oxygen to each cell in the body. On its journey, the blood 'picks up' carbon dioxide – and other debris – and brings it to the lungs to be exhaled. If the debris has not been completely exhaled at the time of the next in-breath, what happens?
Correct, the debris is taken back to the cells.
All the exercise, all the diet, etc etc etc is not going to solve this issue. Before you do anything else get the breathing sorted. Go to my Amazon page. https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolver
Next to the book with the red cover click on 'See all details'.
On the next page click on 'Read sample'.
Take ten minutes and work through Session 1, Effective Breathing.
Don't wait. Do it now! It is free!
I teach Breathworks: Cleaning, Toning and Strengthening the Lungs. The course is taught over the phone in a one-on-one setting (you will need someone to take notes) and takes about half to three-quarters of an hour. I like a brief follow-up call three or four months later. If questions arise in the initial months an email usually clears them up. Cost is C$150.00; US$100.00
Before you sign up, go to my Amazon page
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolver and work through Session 1, Effective Breathing, in the book on longevity – the novel is also a great read.
Once you are invigorated after working through the section on breathing and have looked through the book, you will see what a useful book it is and buy it – and tell all your friends, etc.
Only then email me about setting up a time for Breathworks: Cleaning, Toning, and Strengthening the Lungs.
Note that during anxiety, anger, depression, and the like, the breathing changes. If the 'debris' the body is trying to exhale is not completely exhaled, the next in-breath will deliver the pollution back into the body. Complete evacuation is necessary. This is natural and easy to do.
Diet, hydration, sleep, exercise, lifestyle, paying attention to the circadian rhythms, the Behavioral Rasanayas, and everything else in Ayurveda is important but if breathing is not natural all these are diminished.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolver
And Lastly a Quote on Telomeres
National Library of Medicine, Lancet Ontcology, October, 2013.
The very important findings in the Abstract below are attributed to 'lifestyle changes'. I suspect that breathing is largely involved. I suspect that the results would be the same if only breathing was practiced instead of the “comprehensive lifestyle changes”. I've nothing against comprehensive lifestyle changes.
ABSTRACT
"Background: Telomere shortness in human beings is a prognostic marker of aging, disease, and premature morbidity. We previously found an association between 3 months of comprehensive lifestyle changes and increased telomerase activity in human immune-system cells. We followed up with participants to investigate long-term effects. ... Our comprehensive lifestyle intervention was associated with increases in relative telomere length after 5 years of follow-up, compared with controls, in this small pilot study. Larger randomized controlled trials are warranted to confirm this finding."
Whatever you decide to do on your journey to greater vitality make sure natural breathing is at the top of your list.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolver
Best wishes,
Paul Colver
FOR FREE ACCESS TO FURTHER INFO: Abhyanga - warm oil massage, Ayurvedic Cooking, Vedic Exercise, Marmas, Pranayama, and arguably the best Ayurvedic Body Type Questionnaire available on the planet click on
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolver
WHY DO WE AGE?
THEORY
Consider the following. The body performs trillions of functions per second. On average, 100,000 cells die and are rebuilt every second. The body is constantly rebuilding itself. The process is automatic. Physiology has a powerful drive to rebuild - day after day; year after year. And because of this constant rebuilding, the body is new every few years. Ayurveda asks: Why then do we age?
The body doesn't need help with the specifics of rebuilding What it needs is Life filled oxygen, hydration, nutrition and rest & activity. (And the instruction "manual" of how to rebuild needs to be uncorrupted - and if corrupted re-enlivened.)
TRAUMA
The Buddhist saying, "Life is pain, suffering is optional." holds some truth.
Trauma is a fact of life.
Though our body initially functions much like a symphony, the troubles begin through trauma. (Trauma here means anything that produces toxicity in the body.)
A key understanding from Ayurveda is that a mental, or emotional component of trauma has to have a physical correlate – for example, lactic acid from over-exercising. If trauma occurs there must be a physical component. The problem for most of us is that sometimes/often these physical 'bits' - called 'ama' in Ayurveda - are not gotten rid of. And the further problem is that the body has no storage bin for them. They lodge wherever they can find a place: the joints, as arthritis; the arteries, as plaque; the kidneys, as stones, etc. And they lodge in the cells and even smaller places - in the micro-channels. When this happens – and this often begins at a very young age – they block and distort, and sometimes destroy the body's intelligence of how to rebuild. Trauma is inevitable but the residue - ama - may be released.
Of course, a good night's sleep, or an evening with friends can help the body release these physical 'bits'. And for the fortunate – those with a highly efficient physiology – most of the physical toxicity ('the bits') is easily released. In addition, most of us do our best to avoid trauma. But 'bits' are inevitable.
What happens as the years pass is that the 'bits' clog up physiology and the building blocks of our physiology become imbalanced - one dosha shows up in excess and crowds out the functioning of the others.
In addition, we may traumatize ourselves in responding to the body's cravings.
Why does the body have cravings? Is it the devil? I have written that the body wants to heal – that it wants peak performance – that it wants to be full of vitality – that it wants pleasure. Why does it prompt us – drive us – to eat foods that we know are going to make us feel terrible? Ayurveda sees health as a balance of three basic 'physical' elements - taste (hence the cravings) is the most effective way to create balance. These building blocks - Vata, Pitta, and Kapha - influence (force) our food choices; and also where we choose to live; the work we do; the spouse we 'choose'; even our choice of alcohol. The body – when out of balance – drives (controls) our life choices. In extreme cases this is terrifying to witness. Cravings need to be dealt with in a Life-supporting fashion. The doshas need to be brought into balance.
If one views oneself as trapped in a malevolent universe one may not imagine there to be a way through trauma. If one views oneself as a miracle built to enjoy a beneficent universe - as Ayurveda does - one may find a way to deal with the inevitable traumas of life .
The key is to find a way to release the residue of unavoidable trauma.
Enter Ayurveda.
DOES AYURVEDA HEAL?
Strictly speaking, the body does the healing. We give it what it needs and get out of the way. Ayurveda posits that health results from the doshas being balanced. If an individual is in relatively good health then by incorporating the protocols of Ayurveda into one's life, the doshas become more and more balanced: cravings are lessened; the body's intelligence is enlivened; the body begins to rebuild more accurately, one looks, feels and acts younger almost immediately.
On another level of health - if a person has a family history of, or initial symptoms of, some malady or another - the balancing may bring good results immediately, or, over time the symptoms may be mitigated and the 'progress' of the malady may be slowed. Ayurveda is a preventative approach. 'Avert the danger before it comes.'
At a more extreme level, if a person is beset with some 'advanced' condition the balancing will free up energy to help 'fight' the disease. While the ayurvedic protocols are useful for everyone – I recommend them no matter the state of health and while I don't present them as a magic bullet sometimes amazing things happen.
Rereading the above I see it as an accurate introduction to the practice of Ayurveda. What is needed is a guidebook to introduce the practices of Ayurveda into one's life. I've written that book. To preview The Aging Reversal Course go to https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolver
THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBES HOW I INCORPORATED AYURVEDA INTO MY LIFE.
Twenty years ago I was pretty much lifeless. My health was shot. Thirty pounds of much-needed fat was gone. I was burning muscle. I was sure I was going to die.
I recovered.
There was a message in the misery - though it didn't seem so at the time.
Physiology desperately wants to heal. The body is our ally, not our enemy, it wants peak performance, enjoyment, and pleasure – and it needs proper support.
Enter Ayurveda.
In 2010 I published the book The Aging Reversal Course: An Ayurvedic Approach to Wellness and Vitality and wanted every person on the planet to have a copy.
Fast forward to today: I've taught 600 people – face-to-face, old-school seminar, and classroom-type teaching. During the twelve hour course we covered breath-work, spice-waters for hydration, Ayurvedic cooking, herbs and spices for energy and digestion, Ayurvedic body-type, the importance of circadian rhythms for digestion and sleep, and unintentionally, weight management - a year later a former student showed up for a cooking class boasting sixty pounds of weight loss.
Whatever your energy and fitness goals you can quickly move towards them - easily and enjoyably.
But there's more. What I discovered is that every approach towards better energy seems stuck on a single focus. Sometimes the focus is diet and nutrition – nothing wrong with proper diet. Sometimes exercise and performance – nothing wrong with suitable exercise. But the revelation I had is summed up in an Ayurvedic saying:
“Everything is connected to everything.”
What I 'discovered' is that without natural breathing all else suffers. Without proper, effortless hydration all else suffers. If digestion suffers, all else suffers. If sleep suffers, all else suffers. Everything is connected.
If you have one area of your life giving you trouble and you are trying for weight loss, fitness, or whatever, a shortfall in that one area is likely holding you back.
BREATHWORKS
I teach Breathworks: Cleaning, Toning, and Strengthening the Lungs.
The prerequisite for this course is to have read The Aging Reversal Course and incorporated the protocols of Ayurveda into one's life. Given what I said above about the effectiveness of breathing, hydration, assimilation, and sleep being dependent on each other I'm sure this prerequisite makes sense.
Breathworks is taught over the phone in a one-on-one setting and takes about a half hour. I like to receive a follow-up call three months later. If some questions arise an email usually clears them up.
Breathing naturally is good for the body.
You will be more alert.
If you are going into a tense meeting then practice Breathworks while walking down the hall and enter the room aglow and with an alert mind.
If you are in a rage, or beset with anxiety,
practice Breathworks for a minute and notice the change.
These exercises have their beginnings in Ayurveda. Recommended daily practice time is 2 minutes – 3 or 4 minutes is okay.
There is no sense toning and strengthening if the lungs are not clean.
Three Concepts Central to Breathworks
1) Ancient cultures considered breath to be Life. Note the Latin root 'spir': is the same root for the word spirit, as well as the word respiration.
Consider also the notion of Prana, and the concept of Chi from Chinese thinkers.
2) Diaphragmatic breathing activates the lymphatic system. Note that the lymphatic system does not have a pump to move the fluid and the toxicity collected. Note that insufficient lymphatic cleaning of the brain contributes to dementia and similar disorders.
3) The body's urge for emptiness is a principle recognized as natural in Ayurveda. (As well, Ayurveda recognizes the body's urge for fullness.) We hear from Ayurveda the recommendation to evacuate the bowel first thing in the morning. Also, a complete evacuation of the bladder is a must. A complete evacuation of the lungs is equally important - the lungs release toxicity. If this toxicity remains in the lower lungs and is not released what happens to it?
Natural Breathing enlivens. It is very clear that if breathing is not at its optimum the other areas of Life are diminished.
https://www.amazon.com/author/paulcolver
Best wishes,
Paul Colver
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