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By Lolly Miller

I have many children. Three of them are hypochondriacs…from their dad’s side of the family.  They, each of them, own very large medical encyclopedias.  On any given day of the week, each is working through the encyclopedia alphabetically. One of them is in the T section right now and has begun to experience malfunctions in her Thyroid.  My husband and I entertain ourselves by laying bets on which disease will be developed next.

Recently, I had a call telling me that one of them was in the emergency.  I feel bad about it now…but I asked if it was due to a doctor’s diagnosis, or had she self-admitted while holding a very large book?

I didn’t tell my daughter that while I was scrambling around in her shrubs and trees along the Mississippi River I became intimate with a deer tick and now am on a series of antibiotics for Lymes Disease.  The doctor said she lived in one of two states where deer ticks are endemic!  I didn’t tell her because I don’t think I can handle watching her make way back through Ls …the Ls were tough.  You’ve no idea how many diseases start with the letter L.

I will say that all three of them are very receptive to my holistic approach to health.  And…I have noticed they they are all likely to call me and ask for supplement/herbal, yoga therapy and postures when the are looking for the cure for________________(fill in the blank). One of my daughters and five of the grandkids now have regular yoga practices.  Meditation and pranayama is the one piece of yoga I always suggest for healing. I know it works because it has done a great deal for restoring my health after some pretty serious health challenges.

Luckily, for all of us Beautiful Yogis…yoga is a huge factor in the prevention of disease.  Yogis for thousands of years have known that breath is life.  Within our breath is oxygen…and oxygenation of body tissue facilitates disease prevention and healing.

Yogis believe deep breathing, especially breathing deeply through the nose, promotes the absorption of oxygen from the air. If you breathe through the mouth all the time, as many people do, you are cheating yourself of all this free energy.  The yogis say this is a major factor in lowered resistance to disease and impairs the functioning of your vital glands and nervous system. Add to this the fact that pathogens can enter the lungs via mouth breathing leaving one open to contact with illness.

Oxygen purifies the blood stream.  One of the major secrets of vitality and rejuvenation is a purified blood stream. The quickest and most effective way to purify the blood stream is by taking in extra supplies of oxygen from the air we breathe.  Oxygen burns up the toxic waste products in the body, as well as recharges the body with energy. In fact, much of our energy requirements come not from food but from the air we breathe.  By purifying the blood stream, every part of the body benefits, as well as the mind. Your complexion will become clearer and brighter and wrinkles will begin to fade away. In short, rejuvenation will start to occur.

OH…and in case you are worried about our BY yoga not promoting enough oxygen intake…just go to Ali’s VIP Death Circle Yoga Classes…you will be sucking and gasping in more than enough oxygen! xo

Have I got your attention yet?!!!  Next week…this series will look at how to breath properly and just what happens to you when you do.

Inhale through the nose…exhale out the mouth…and have a lovely and energetic day filled with life!  xoxox love Lolly

Ann – As I was reading Lolly’s beautiful post on the benefits of the nasal breathing we do in yoga, this point immediately struck me: “…breathing deeply through the nose, promotes the absorption of oxygen from the air.” This is exactly true and I will tell you why! Human anatomy and physiology has always fascinated me deeply. To think of all the intricacies of the human body, and how these little temples we walk around in are so well equipped to deal with nearly everything thrown at them, you get a profound sense of the miracle and genius we truly are.

Now did you know that you have tiny little bones inside your nose called the “nasal concha” (aka “turbinates.” Sound familiar? That’s it! …Sounds like “turbines,” doesn’t it?), which function not only to warm and humidify the air you breathe, but also create turbulence within the nasal passageway, thus circulating and cleansing the air as well. Furthermore, the inside of the nose is covered with tiny hairs (well, I don’t think I need to inform you about the existence of nose hairs!), which further work to filter out and purify the air. This is yet another reason why our deep yogi breathing in through the nose is so beneficial. So, follow Lolly’s advice, and feel yourself become energized!

Mauro – Yoga and the health benefits that come from practicing yoga are the main reason I began studying yoga.  In 2013 I had a massive hemorrhage of hemorrhoids (sorry, isn’t an agreeable situation) and needed  to recover from my situation. I studied solutions and I started practicing yoga (which I was interested in doing anyway).  Yoga helped me immediately due to the use of breath  I also benefited by employing the  bandhas, namely mula bandha.  Unfortunately,  my health was so affected that it was necessary to have  surgery.  After surgery, as soon as I was able,  I restarted my practice.  I found some classes by Ali that started my yoga adventures.  My health status in those months got  better.  An added health benefit was that my sinus problems have  also improved due to the prana/ yogic breathing.  Breathing deeply has also improved my  singing which I do in the chorus managed by my girlfriend.   Doing Ali’s classes has also improved  my flexibility.  I am now more flexible  than I was in my twenties.  In conclusion, I am so grateful to have found  yoga and Ali.  I think that this is a path I will continue to explore for all of my life.

Luciana – Ahhhhhhhh the breath. That almighty wave of continuous ins and outs, that flows on and on, whether we are sat aware and beautifully in our lotus pose, or bundling kids in cars and barking to belt up. It is our greatest, most dutiful friend and lifelong companion that carries us, often with no thanks and always with our utmost health in top priority. Why do we have such disconnect with our most loving ally? Once we appreciate and seek to answer this question, we begin our walk to freedom. We take a great power of awareness and consciousness and apply it to our life force, our breath. We give thanks to it. We work with it. We learn of the wealth of ways in which to expand and contract to gain openness and huge reserves of focus and strength; we become warriors, Beautiful Yogi breath warriors! Follow to find out more next week… and practice with Ali, you will learn all through practice 😉 Hakuna Matata xx