BREATHOLOGY WELLNESS
Sea Breeze (Tune Up Music Download)
Why we Need Black Love Now, in 2021
MAKE THIS time MERRY USING LAUGHTER YOGA
We especially encouraged Laughter Yoga during the holiday, 2020, and now after a very stressful early January, we really need to breathe and a great way to do so is laugh to breathe. While tensions are high and we can't get too close to each other with"social distancing" guidelines, just call up your "old" best friends, and have a good laugh about old times.
If you have nothing to laugh about, FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT. Laughter is the best medicine
Laughter, smiling, humming, singing, screaming, toning, chanting...are all breath techniques. They encourage us to breathe deeper using our diaphragm.
These techniques are combined in Laughter Yoga sessions facilitated by Ayo Handy-Kendi, the Breath Sekou and Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher/Leader. See NEW COURSES/SERVICES for up-coming "Laughter Yoga" Leader Certification on-line".
We especially encouraged Laughter Yoga during the holiday, 2020, and now after a very stressful early January, we really need to breathe and a great way to do so is laugh to breathe. While tensions are high and we can't get too close to each other with"social distancing" guidelines, just call up your "old" best friends, and have a good laugh about old times.
If you have nothing to laugh about, FAKE IT UNTIL YOU MAKE IT. Laughter is the best medicine
Laughter, smiling, humming, singing, screaming, toning, chanting...are all breath techniques. They encourage us to breathe deeper using our diaphragm.
These techniques are combined in Laughter Yoga sessions facilitated by Ayo Handy-Kendi, the Breath Sekou and Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher/Leader. See NEW COURSES/SERVICES for up-coming "Laughter Yoga" Leader Certification on-line".
NEED TO SHAKE OFF THE NEGATIVE ENERGY YOU MAY BE FEELING NOW.
Experience Transcendence Breathwork which combines various techniques that allow us to "Carthart", Sekou Ayo's term defined as "dramatically letting go in order to breathe then relax" as practiced in Optimum Life Breathology, (O.L.B.) . She encourages you to allow your emotions, feelings, pain and anger to flow instead of suppress them. Suppressed energy that does not move becomes stagnant. Stagnant, blocked energy becomes tension, and chronic tension becomes dis-ease . This session shared as a Space to Breathe organized by Sister Tomeko.
Experience Transcendence Breathwork which combines various techniques that allow us to "Carthart", Sekou Ayo's term defined as "dramatically letting go in order to breathe then relax" as practiced in Optimum Life Breathology, (O.L.B.) . She encourages you to allow your emotions, feelings, pain and anger to flow instead of suppress them. Suppressed energy that does not move becomes stagnant. Stagnant, blocked energy becomes tension, and chronic tension becomes dis-ease . This session shared as a Space to Breathe organized by Sister Tomeko.
Feeling anxious? The way you breathe could be adding to it
Jan 8, 2021 / Kira M. Newma
Krystal Quiles
Scrolling social media, amid frantic posts about politics and COVID-19 cases, you may have come across a friend or two reminding everyone to “just breathe.”
But can just breathing really make a difference?
In his new book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, journalist James Nestor argues that modern humans have become pretty bad at this most basic act of living. We breathe through our mouths and into our chests, and we do it way too fast. There’s even a phenomenon called “email apnea,” where multitasking office workers breathe irregularly and shallowly — or even hold their breath — for half a minute or more while glued to their devices.
Besides all the worrisome health problems this may cause, which Nestor details in his book, our ineptitude at breathing may have another big consequence — contributing to our anxiety and other mental health problems.
“The rate and depth we breathe at is a huge determinant of our mental state,” says Elissa Epel, a professor at UC San Francisco.
Researchers like Epel are exploring how using breathing techniques — some new, some ancient — can help people stave off anxiety. What they’re discovering is that breathing could be an overlooked key to finding more calm and peace.
How breathing can calm usWe often try to tame anxiety by changing our thoughts — questioning the worst-case scenarios in our heads, interrupting rumination with some kind of distraction or going to therapy. But breathing offers a different approach, bypassing the complexities of the mind and targeting the body directly. Instead of trying to think yourself out of feeling anxious, you can do something concrete — breathe slow or fast, in a particular rhythm, or through one nostril — and sometimes find immediate relief.
In a 2017 study, highly anxious people were assigned to take a course in diaphragmatic breathing relaxation and they practiced twice a day at home. Diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing, involves breathing deeply into the abdomen rather than taking shallow breaths into the chest. After eight weeks, they reported feeling less anxious compared to a group that didn’t receive the training. They also showed physical signs of reduced anxiety, including lower heart rate, slower breathing and lower skin conductivity.
So, a regular breathing practice might help you feel calmer in your everyday life. But other studies suggest that focusing on your breathing in moments of acute stress could also be useful.
In an older study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers brought participants into the lab and told them they were going to receive electric shocks. Some of the participants practiced breathing slowly before the shocks (which were actually never administered), while others focused on breathing at a normal rate or didn’t regulate their breathing at all. The slow breathers — breathing about eight breaths per minute — not only reported feeling less anxious while anticipating the pain, they also showed lower anxiety on a physical level, as measured by sweat and blood flow to the fingers.
Another study followed up on this research and tested three different breathing rhythms: fast inhaling with slow exhaling; slow inhaling with fast exhaling; or evenly paced inhaling and exhaling. Here, the fast inhaling with slow exhaling (2 seconds in, 8 seconds out) was the most effective at relieving both the physical and mental experience of anxiety.
Of course, breathing is a major component of many meditation and Buddhist mindfulness practices, and it may be a key reason why they work. In a small 2017 study, researchers asked people with anxiety disorder to try either alternate nostril breathing or mindful breath awareness for 10 minutes, two days in a row. They found that practicing alternate nostril breathing was about three times as effective at reducing people’s feelings of anxiety.
These benefits felt profound to the participants in a small, 12-week yoga breathing class in the United Kingdom. According to researchers from the University of Southampton:
Participants described feeling “more in control,” noting “anxiety doesn’t feel debilitating anymore.” One participant reported marked increases in confidence, mindfulness, and spirituality; [and] greater ability to relax … Three participants returned to paid employment, another was able to secure a long-desired job, and another became able to contemplate a return to work, having been unable to do so for many years.
The ripple effects of breathingThe way we breathe can set off a cascade of physical changes in the body that promote either stress or relaxation.
“If we’re breathing really shallowly and fast, it causes our nervous system to up-regulate and we feel tense and anxious,” says Epel. “If we’re breathing slowly, it actually turns on the anti-stress response.”
Technically, breathing influences the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) branches of our nervous system, and certain techniques can promote more parasympathetic calm and relaxation. Some may also cause us to release hormones like prolactin and possibly oxytocin, the feel-good hormone of love and bonding.
“[Breathing techniques] are allowing you to consciously take control of your breathing so you can take control of your nervous system so you can take control of your anxiety,” says Nestor. “When we breathe in a certain way, we are sending messages to those emotional centers of our brain to calm down.”
Other techniques, like tummo — a yogic breathing practice that involves forceful or gentle breathing, abdominal contractions during breath holding, and visualization — actually amp up the sympathetic nervous system, spiking our body’s stress to activate a deeper relaxation afterward, similar to how tensing a muscle and then letting it go works.
This is similar to the kind of breathing that “Iceman” Wim Hof teaches his followers, a method that Epel is currently researching. Hof is famous for his seemingly superhuman feats, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts and changing his immune response to E. coli, which he attributes to a finely tuned control over his own physiology thanks to breathing practices and more.
Fast breathing can be triggering for people with anxiety — causing the tingling limbs and lightheadedness that often accompany panic attacks — but that’s part of the point. When you breathe fast and start to feel symptoms you normally associate with anxiety, it may help you re-interpret those symptoms in a less threatening way. They become less worrisome because they have a clear cause, the same way that an elevated heart rate during exercise doesn’t bother us. And if you can connect anxiety to faulty breathing habits, it means you can change the way you breathe and potentially see some improvement.
How to breathe betterIf you want to practice breathing for better mental and physical health, there are endless techniques to try. Although these shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for therapy or a cure for severe anxiety, they can be a free and simple tool for both short-term relief and long-term benefit. “Breathing techniques could be used as first-line and supplemental treatments for stress [and] anxiety,” write Ravinder Jerath and colleagues in a 2015 study.
Many of the techniques that have been formally researched are derived from pranayama, yogic breathing that dates back to ancient India:
In the same way that mindfulness practice isn’t just meditation, breathing as a practice isn’t just waking up every morning and doing 10 minutes of box breathing. It’s also important to be aware of the way you breathe in everyday life (or while you’re checking your email).
In Breath, Nestor’s tips boil down to a short list of general principles, including make sure to breathe through your nose and not your mouth, slow your breathing down (to five or six seconds in and five or six seconds out), and extend your exhales for even greater relaxation.
Now so much talk about breathing might have you feeling anxious — that’s how I felt, at least, while reading about all the ways that our breathing habits are faulty. In one study, the researchers noted that anxious people were skeptical in the beginning of the experiment and had some difficulty practicing. But this group still went on to feel better at the end of 12 weeks of practice.
All this research illustrates just how much influence our body has on our mind. Modern life brings many things to be worried about, but, as Nestor writes, not being able to breathe remains one of our deepest and most primal anxieties. If somehow the way we’re breathing is signaling to our brains that something is wrong, it’s no wonder we feel anxious — and it’s no wonder all these breathing techniques can bring such profound healing.
This article was originally published on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
Watch James Nestor’s TEDxMarin Talk on diving and whales here:
Jan 8, 2021 / Kira M. Newma
Krystal Quiles
Scrolling social media, amid frantic posts about politics and COVID-19 cases, you may have come across a friend or two reminding everyone to “just breathe.”
But can just breathing really make a difference?
In his new book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, journalist James Nestor argues that modern humans have become pretty bad at this most basic act of living. We breathe through our mouths and into our chests, and we do it way too fast. There’s even a phenomenon called “email apnea,” where multitasking office workers breathe irregularly and shallowly — or even hold their breath — for half a minute or more while glued to their devices.
Besides all the worrisome health problems this may cause, which Nestor details in his book, our ineptitude at breathing may have another big consequence — contributing to our anxiety and other mental health problems.
“The rate and depth we breathe at is a huge determinant of our mental state,” says Elissa Epel, a professor at UC San Francisco.
Researchers like Epel are exploring how using breathing techniques — some new, some ancient — can help people stave off anxiety. What they’re discovering is that breathing could be an overlooked key to finding more calm and peace.
How breathing can calm usWe often try to tame anxiety by changing our thoughts — questioning the worst-case scenarios in our heads, interrupting rumination with some kind of distraction or going to therapy. But breathing offers a different approach, bypassing the complexities of the mind and targeting the body directly. Instead of trying to think yourself out of feeling anxious, you can do something concrete — breathe slow or fast, in a particular rhythm, or through one nostril — and sometimes find immediate relief.
In a 2017 study, highly anxious people were assigned to take a course in diaphragmatic breathing relaxation and they practiced twice a day at home. Diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing, involves breathing deeply into the abdomen rather than taking shallow breaths into the chest. After eight weeks, they reported feeling less anxious compared to a group that didn’t receive the training. They also showed physical signs of reduced anxiety, including lower heart rate, slower breathing and lower skin conductivity.
So, a regular breathing practice might help you feel calmer in your everyday life. But other studies suggest that focusing on your breathing in moments of acute stress could also be useful.
In an older study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers brought participants into the lab and told them they were going to receive electric shocks. Some of the participants practiced breathing slowly before the shocks (which were actually never administered), while others focused on breathing at a normal rate or didn’t regulate their breathing at all. The slow breathers — breathing about eight breaths per minute — not only reported feeling less anxious while anticipating the pain, they also showed lower anxiety on a physical level, as measured by sweat and blood flow to the fingers.
Another study followed up on this research and tested three different breathing rhythms: fast inhaling with slow exhaling; slow inhaling with fast exhaling; or evenly paced inhaling and exhaling. Here, the fast inhaling with slow exhaling (2 seconds in, 8 seconds out) was the most effective at relieving both the physical and mental experience of anxiety.
Of course, breathing is a major component of many meditation and Buddhist mindfulness practices, and it may be a key reason why they work. In a small 2017 study, researchers asked people with anxiety disorder to try either alternate nostril breathing or mindful breath awareness for 10 minutes, two days in a row. They found that practicing alternate nostril breathing was about three times as effective at reducing people’s feelings of anxiety.
These benefits felt profound to the participants in a small, 12-week yoga breathing class in the United Kingdom. According to researchers from the University of Southampton:
Participants described feeling “more in control,” noting “anxiety doesn’t feel debilitating anymore.” One participant reported marked increases in confidence, mindfulness, and spirituality; [and] greater ability to relax … Three participants returned to paid employment, another was able to secure a long-desired job, and another became able to contemplate a return to work, having been unable to do so for many years.
The ripple effects of breathingThe way we breathe can set off a cascade of physical changes in the body that promote either stress or relaxation.
“If we’re breathing really shallowly and fast, it causes our nervous system to up-regulate and we feel tense and anxious,” says Epel. “If we’re breathing slowly, it actually turns on the anti-stress response.”
Technically, breathing influences the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) branches of our nervous system, and certain techniques can promote more parasympathetic calm and relaxation. Some may also cause us to release hormones like prolactin and possibly oxytocin, the feel-good hormone of love and bonding.
“[Breathing techniques] are allowing you to consciously take control of your breathing so you can take control of your nervous system so you can take control of your anxiety,” says Nestor. “When we breathe in a certain way, we are sending messages to those emotional centers of our brain to calm down.”
Other techniques, like tummo — a yogic breathing practice that involves forceful or gentle breathing, abdominal contractions during breath holding, and visualization — actually amp up the sympathetic nervous system, spiking our body’s stress to activate a deeper relaxation afterward, similar to how tensing a muscle and then letting it go works.
This is similar to the kind of breathing that “Iceman” Wim Hof teaches his followers, a method that Epel is currently researching. Hof is famous for his seemingly superhuman feats, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts and changing his immune response to E. coli, which he attributes to a finely tuned control over his own physiology thanks to breathing practices and more.
Fast breathing can be triggering for people with anxiety — causing the tingling limbs and lightheadedness that often accompany panic attacks — but that’s part of the point. When you breathe fast and start to feel symptoms you normally associate with anxiety, it may help you re-interpret those symptoms in a less threatening way. They become less worrisome because they have a clear cause, the same way that an elevated heart rate during exercise doesn’t bother us. And if you can connect anxiety to faulty breathing habits, it means you can change the way you breathe and potentially see some improvement.
How to breathe betterIf you want to practice breathing for better mental and physical health, there are endless techniques to try. Although these shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for therapy or a cure for severe anxiety, they can be a free and simple tool for both short-term relief and long-term benefit. “Breathing techniques could be used as first-line and supplemental treatments for stress [and] anxiety,” write Ravinder Jerath and colleagues in a 2015 study.
Many of the techniques that have been formally researched are derived from pranayama, yogic breathing that dates back to ancient India:
- Ujayyi: Deep breathing with a narrowed throat, creating an ocean-like sound, often recommended while doing yoga asanas.
- Bhastrika, or “bellows breath”: inhaling and exhaling forcefully.
- Nadi Sodhan and Anulom Vilom: Types of alternate nostril breathing, where air is inhaled in one nostril and exhaled through the other, sometimes with breath holding.
In the same way that mindfulness practice isn’t just meditation, breathing as a practice isn’t just waking up every morning and doing 10 minutes of box breathing. It’s also important to be aware of the way you breathe in everyday life (or while you’re checking your email).
In Breath, Nestor’s tips boil down to a short list of general principles, including make sure to breathe through your nose and not your mouth, slow your breathing down (to five or six seconds in and five or six seconds out), and extend your exhales for even greater relaxation.
Now so much talk about breathing might have you feeling anxious — that’s how I felt, at least, while reading about all the ways that our breathing habits are faulty. In one study, the researchers noted that anxious people were skeptical in the beginning of the experiment and had some difficulty practicing. But this group still went on to feel better at the end of 12 weeks of practice.
All this research illustrates just how much influence our body has on our mind. Modern life brings many things to be worried about, but, as Nestor writes, not being able to breathe remains one of our deepest and most primal anxieties. If somehow the way we’re breathing is signaling to our brains that something is wrong, it’s no wonder we feel anxious — and it’s no wonder all these breathing techniques can bring such profound healing.
This article was originally published on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
Watch James Nestor’s TEDxMarin Talk on diving and whales here:
ARTICLE
Why this Winter Solstice is such a Powerful time for Reflection & Divine Intervention https://www.elephantjournal.com/2020/12/the-divine-intervention-of-a-once-in-an-800-year-event-the-great-conjunction-the-solstice/?fbclid=IwAR3w3JOtG3qpxt0KcDNQ7bcNRul7kljZIbzBpeX3tVHBHxs8m8ljFG9E4xc |
Understanding this New Age, the current Winter Solstice Conjunction, and how to Manifest this Time.
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3 Meditations to Get You in the Holiday Spirit
https://chopra.com/articles/3-meditations-to-get-you-in-the-holiday-spirit?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Chopra+Living+201208&utm_campaign=Newsletter2020128
https://chopra.com/articles/3-meditations-to-get-you-in-the-holiday-spirit?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Chopra+Living+201208&utm_campaign=Newsletter2020128
9 Facts About Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Why People of Color Must Harness Holidays in Their Own Way for Their Own Health, Especially in this COVID TIME
By Ayo Handy-Kendi, founder of Black Love Day, Feb. 13, founder, Optimum Life Breathology, founder/CEO, PositivEnergyWorks
This years' holidays, starting already with the Day of Thanks, traditionally called Thanksgiving, and now moving into Christmas, Kwanzaa and the New Year's, are already proving to be different due to the COVID pandemic . The traditions of getting together with family around a family meal; buying and sharing gifts; watching our health and our loved ones; and just resolving the feelings of un-certainty and for many - grief- as many have lost, loved ones - all are going to make 2020's year end celebrations different.
Since 1989, I have been blessed to offer holiday stress management and holiday wellness support, through workshops, lectures, storytelling and consultations at schools, workplaces and community-based organizations, at sliding fees through my organization, the African American Holiday Association (AAHA) and then morphed AAHA into my business, PositivEnergyWorks.
People of Color (POC's) have always had to find their own culturally sensitive way of managing their own cultural identity during the end of year holidays, because most were born in Europe and do not totally speak to our cultural roots. POC's have had to assimilate, accept what has been given to them, and then carve out our own traditions. We have often merged our cultural traditions and rituals with those imposed upon us, and from this synthesis , we then celebrate. Kwanzaa is a perfect example.
This year, 2020, then is perhaps not much different, but yet it is. The COVID pandemic has hit communities of color harder. Disproportionally, more POC have lost their lives and have become ill with the virus. We've lost our livelyhoods, homes and businesses while still being on the front line helping others.
This year, we must look at cultural sensitivity in the diverse ways in which people celebrate, and cultural competency particularly at the workplace and in the schools, acknowledging that the diverse way that we celebrate enables us to learn more about others, have greater appreciation for culture, and encourages us to have patience, compassion and more awareness of our similar interests – our “unity in diversity”. This allows us have real peace on earth and less stress, by allowing others their grace to be themselves. The U.S.A. is not all Christian nor of European descent, yet most of the year-end holidays (and actually almost all of the U.S.A.’s major holidays) have their roots in Christianity, and/or European pagan rituals
I was reminded of my many years of attempting to help the world community understand this reality, as a way of bringing us all to peace and sanity during days in the U.S.A. that we call “holidays”.
There is a direct link between emotional health, cultural sensitivity and holidays. We must recognize the importance of harnessing holidays for people of color in particular, who are already marginalized dealing with critical issues of immigration rights; access to health, jobs and good nourishment. Impoverished and working class folk are already living with more sickness and dying sooner than other communities showing disproportionate issues of Obesity, High Blood Pressure (HBP), Cancer, Stroke, Diabetes, Heart Attacks, Breast Cancer, HIV-AIDS, as well as over-whelmed with public health challenges, such as Black/Brown on Black/Brown homicide, domestic violence, unemployment, underemployment and racism.
I.ve found that during every holiday, many of these challenges spiked and I saw the common factors that contributed to “people of color” issues of just living, let alone their living during holidays. This year, we must be especially careful of our life-styles.
In 1980, I introduced the concept of “holiday stress syndrome”. I defined holiday stress syndrome as “seasonal periods of out of balanced behavior, gross consumerism, people pleasing, over-indulgence and cultural/spiritual mis-identification. This simply means that people go a little crazy during holidays- over stressing, over spending to please oneself or others, over partaking and not self-caring as much in the whirl-wind of parties, gatherings and shopping. Sometimes people actually lose touch with their own cultural and spiritual self-acceptance and identification, i.e, a black person celebrating St Patricks day.
Since ‘89’, more research has documented how stressful holidays are and how stress increases during every holiday because of this holiday stress syndrome. Today’s statistics show an even more alarming spike in holiday social and public health concerns, such as depression, suicide, relationship violence, work-place absenteeism, over-eating, over drinking, and substance abuse during holiday seasonal periods.
Our middle-class family gatherings for Christmas were complete with the traditional foods, gift-giving and gatherings of distant cousins and relatives coming to our house. These earlier recollections of holidays were that of my large family coming together to laugh, dance, eat sugar cookies and stay up really late. I also remember watching my Dad falling asleep after taking his “little taste” at the dinner table and later he would re-awaken much nastier and out of sorts. Such earlier roots of happy holiday gatherings, were recreated in my own family gatherings, once I started celebrating the African American holiday, Kwanzaa in 1971 with my husband and later our children.
It became apparent to me, that in our African American communities’ love for social gatherings, picnics, family reunions, church suppers, etc, it was a cultural re-creation of our African roots. Africans, historically, have been ceremonial people who have used communal gatherings as a time for spiritual edification, rituals and socializing. In the African context, such gatherings signified unity of the tribe and the family, and in this unity, it was considered an expression of love.
Today, as a displaced people, whose culture was disrupted, we still hold the cellular memory of our African concepts, evidenced by the outpouring of social gatherings, and special occasions that abound in our community, especially in the summer and how much love evolved rapidly for Kwanzaa, Black Love Day and other cultural holidays.
African Americans and other people of color, must embrace our special occasions to better reconnect with our family for self-care and to empower our communities to take hold of our own health, cultural and spiritual needs so that we can continue to celebrate ourselves. As we celebrate ourselves, we must not only survive and persevere, as we have proven in the past as the original civilization that we can, but that we must thrive in these modern, stressful times, as a healthy, whole people, armed with the knowledge that we can make choices to live with quality lives, with good health, as our greatest wealth all year round.
SO HOW CAN PEOPLE OF COLOR MAKE HOLIDAYS STRESS-LESS ESPECIALLY IN 2020?
By Ayo Handy-Kendi, founder of Black Love Day, Feb. 13, founder, Optimum Life Breathology, founder/CEO, PositivEnergyWorks
This years' holidays, starting already with the Day of Thanks, traditionally called Thanksgiving, and now moving into Christmas, Kwanzaa and the New Year's, are already proving to be different due to the COVID pandemic . The traditions of getting together with family around a family meal; buying and sharing gifts; watching our health and our loved ones; and just resolving the feelings of un-certainty and for many - grief- as many have lost, loved ones - all are going to make 2020's year end celebrations different.
Since 1989, I have been blessed to offer holiday stress management and holiday wellness support, through workshops, lectures, storytelling and consultations at schools, workplaces and community-based organizations, at sliding fees through my organization, the African American Holiday Association (AAHA) and then morphed AAHA into my business, PositivEnergyWorks.
People of Color (POC's) have always had to find their own culturally sensitive way of managing their own cultural identity during the end of year holidays, because most were born in Europe and do not totally speak to our cultural roots. POC's have had to assimilate, accept what has been given to them, and then carve out our own traditions. We have often merged our cultural traditions and rituals with those imposed upon us, and from this synthesis , we then celebrate. Kwanzaa is a perfect example.
This year, 2020, then is perhaps not much different, but yet it is. The COVID pandemic has hit communities of color harder. Disproportionally, more POC have lost their lives and have become ill with the virus. We've lost our livelyhoods, homes and businesses while still being on the front line helping others.
This year, we must look at cultural sensitivity in the diverse ways in which people celebrate, and cultural competency particularly at the workplace and in the schools, acknowledging that the diverse way that we celebrate enables us to learn more about others, have greater appreciation for culture, and encourages us to have patience, compassion and more awareness of our similar interests – our “unity in diversity”. This allows us have real peace on earth and less stress, by allowing others their grace to be themselves. The U.S.A. is not all Christian nor of European descent, yet most of the year-end holidays (and actually almost all of the U.S.A.’s major holidays) have their roots in Christianity, and/or European pagan rituals
I was reminded of my many years of attempting to help the world community understand this reality, as a way of bringing us all to peace and sanity during days in the U.S.A. that we call “holidays”.
There is a direct link between emotional health, cultural sensitivity and holidays. We must recognize the importance of harnessing holidays for people of color in particular, who are already marginalized dealing with critical issues of immigration rights; access to health, jobs and good nourishment. Impoverished and working class folk are already living with more sickness and dying sooner than other communities showing disproportionate issues of Obesity, High Blood Pressure (HBP), Cancer, Stroke, Diabetes, Heart Attacks, Breast Cancer, HIV-AIDS, as well as over-whelmed with public health challenges, such as Black/Brown on Black/Brown homicide, domestic violence, unemployment, underemployment and racism.
I.ve found that during every holiday, many of these challenges spiked and I saw the common factors that contributed to “people of color” issues of just living, let alone their living during holidays. This year, we must be especially careful of our life-styles.
In 1980, I introduced the concept of “holiday stress syndrome”. I defined holiday stress syndrome as “seasonal periods of out of balanced behavior, gross consumerism, people pleasing, over-indulgence and cultural/spiritual mis-identification. This simply means that people go a little crazy during holidays- over stressing, over spending to please oneself or others, over partaking and not self-caring as much in the whirl-wind of parties, gatherings and shopping. Sometimes people actually lose touch with their own cultural and spiritual self-acceptance and identification, i.e, a black person celebrating St Patricks day.
Since ‘89’, more research has documented how stressful holidays are and how stress increases during every holiday because of this holiday stress syndrome. Today’s statistics show an even more alarming spike in holiday social and public health concerns, such as depression, suicide, relationship violence, work-place absenteeism, over-eating, over drinking, and substance abuse during holiday seasonal periods.
Our middle-class family gatherings for Christmas were complete with the traditional foods, gift-giving and gatherings of distant cousins and relatives coming to our house. These earlier recollections of holidays were that of my large family coming together to laugh, dance, eat sugar cookies and stay up really late. I also remember watching my Dad falling asleep after taking his “little taste” at the dinner table and later he would re-awaken much nastier and out of sorts. Such earlier roots of happy holiday gatherings, were recreated in my own family gatherings, once I started celebrating the African American holiday, Kwanzaa in 1971 with my husband and later our children.
It became apparent to me, that in our African American communities’ love for social gatherings, picnics, family reunions, church suppers, etc, it was a cultural re-creation of our African roots. Africans, historically, have been ceremonial people who have used communal gatherings as a time for spiritual edification, rituals and socializing. In the African context, such gatherings signified unity of the tribe and the family, and in this unity, it was considered an expression of love.
Today, as a displaced people, whose culture was disrupted, we still hold the cellular memory of our African concepts, evidenced by the outpouring of social gatherings, and special occasions that abound in our community, especially in the summer and how much love evolved rapidly for Kwanzaa, Black Love Day and other cultural holidays.
African Americans and other people of color, must embrace our special occasions to better reconnect with our family for self-care and to empower our communities to take hold of our own health, cultural and spiritual needs so that we can continue to celebrate ourselves. As we celebrate ourselves, we must not only survive and persevere, as we have proven in the past as the original civilization that we can, but that we must thrive in these modern, stressful times, as a healthy, whole people, armed with the knowledge that we can make choices to live with quality lives, with good health, as our greatest wealth all year round.
SO HOW CAN PEOPLE OF COLOR MAKE HOLIDAYS STRESS-LESS ESPECIALLY IN 2020?
- This year, be ready to adjust and create new traditions. Be creative to alter the family gatherings, so if you can't physically get together, get together on Zoom or over the phone. Be open to playing games, music and party ON-LINE. Find gratitude in what you can do, and don't despair over the restrictions that COVID presents to our life-styles.
- Be true to yourself – define yourself, your beliefs, your culture and if it different than the society you live in, don’t shrink, but live your life and be yourself – celebrate your differences, don’t assimilate. If you decide to celebrate in the traditions of this country, still feel good about mixing in your own traditions; Be proud of your traditions and rituals; decorate your home to reflect them; and challenge the “holiday committees” at the job or at school, to display the many symbols of holiday celebrations from around the world.
- Also, “stand up” for truth and justice by researching the historical roots of holidays, which have created oppression of Native and Indigenous cultures, as well as others, and make every effort to be real and authentic about these truths by not exploiting the myths, falsehoods, and stereo-types;
- If you do decide to “go all out” this year, still don’t “over-do it” based on “outer-directed’ motivations and commercialism. Create a budget for spending and gift-giving; be organized in your shopping, work and hanging out balance; Make a list of things to purchase, that are priority to you and no one else;
- Don’t try to change a habit during the holidays, a major stressor destined for failure. Just relax and try to change a habit, after these high-energy days are over;
- More than ever before, watch what you drink and eat. Many sugar-laden foods eaten during holidays will spike your blood pressure as well as strain your nerves. Remember that alcohol has high sugar content, while drinking at the “desert” table;
- If you are not so merry as the commercials and Christmas movies encourage us to be, it’s also a wonderful time to turn off the t.v. and listen to music, turn on your own movies, get outside, make things to give away, volunteer to help someone less fortunate or just be still. There is peace and power in acceptance of one’s true feelings.
- With many dealing with grief, and If you are feeling really despondent, grief stricken, or very depressed and have not found a way to shake off such feelings, please, don’t struggle alone. Reach out for help to hotlines, ministers, friends and relatives. Contact P.E.W., as we are trained as good listeners and have knowledge of stress management and cultural competency.
- Don’t attempt to cope with your empty feelings by self-medicating, repressing and avoiding. Emotions are real and really come back, so consider addressing them now when they come up. Write down feelings in a journal or on paper. Stop and reflect …breathe, shake off any negative thoughts that come up, take another deep breath and another. See the negative thoughts as if they are in a bubble. Breathe that bubble right out of you into the air and beyond. Thoughts are energy that can be transformed when we deal with them and not suppress them. We have to “get to them to get through” them.
- Last, recognize that every uncomfortable moment of any day or any holiday, will pass. Do your best to lighten up and make every moment of your life an opportunity to celebrate yourself. You can cope if you are flexible, and allow yourself to flow, in the way that fits you. Holidays are NOT one size fits all, and this year, 2020, are perseverance is something that we can all celebrate, along with gratitude that we have made it through another year.
AFFIRMATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL BREATH DAY, 2020
Today, I will honor our breathing as the sacred connection between Spirit, Mind and Body.
Today, I will not take my breath for granted but will show gratitude for this life-force that connects me with all other life forms - plants, animals, our clothing, the air, the soil, the environment. the plastics, etc. An African proverbs says, "Everything that has life, has breath".
Today, I will breathe for those who cannot, for many who are struggling to breathe or holding their breath in stress, in trauma, in grief, in sickness, in quarantine, in ill health, in fear, in pain, in despair, in confusion.
Today, I will breathe to lesson my fears of Covid 19 and see my immune system strengthen for my protection.
Today, I will breathe to end the "divides" of race, gender, health inequality, gender, sexual orientation, politics, religion, ethnicity, and mitigate these issues.
Today, I will breathe deeply, fully and consciously, aware of every breath I take and every breath that I don't, being sensitive to breath's ebb, flow, shifts and holds.
Today, I will breathe for myself for self care. Today, I will watch my "holding my breath" as an indication of my stress, tensions and sub-conscious reactions.
Today, I will send my breath as vibrational energy to my family, my community, my world.
Today, I breathe to be in harmony and to harmonize with the planet and beyond. Today, I breathe as millions do, 20,000 estimated times a day, and I will connect each breathe, as a common bond to our common shared humanity.
Today, I will talk less and breathe more, to be more loving, caring, compassionate, kind, tolerant, joyful and abundantly well.
We may not be able to control everything going around us, but we can control the breath.
Today, I breathe and affirm that we take this INTERNATIONAL BREATH DAY, November 22, 2020 very intentionally so that we will continue to be conscious and use the breath of life to cope and "wake-up" to our best selves and our empowerment.
So, Breathe... now more than ever. Pause and breathe through what-ever. Breathe on this day and beyond to make this world a better place with abundant life and best health.
What the world needs now....Breathe! HONOR THE BREATH BECAUSE THERE IS POWER IN THE BREATH.
Today, I will not take my breath for granted but will show gratitude for this life-force that connects me with all other life forms - plants, animals, our clothing, the air, the soil, the environment. the plastics, etc. An African proverbs says, "Everything that has life, has breath".
Today, I will breathe for those who cannot, for many who are struggling to breathe or holding their breath in stress, in trauma, in grief, in sickness, in quarantine, in ill health, in fear, in pain, in despair, in confusion.
Today, I will breathe to lesson my fears of Covid 19 and see my immune system strengthen for my protection.
Today, I will breathe to end the "divides" of race, gender, health inequality, gender, sexual orientation, politics, religion, ethnicity, and mitigate these issues.
Today, I will breathe deeply, fully and consciously, aware of every breath I take and every breath that I don't, being sensitive to breath's ebb, flow, shifts and holds.
Today, I will breathe for myself for self care. Today, I will watch my "holding my breath" as an indication of my stress, tensions and sub-conscious reactions.
Today, I will send my breath as vibrational energy to my family, my community, my world.
Today, I breathe to be in harmony and to harmonize with the planet and beyond. Today, I breathe as millions do, 20,000 estimated times a day, and I will connect each breathe, as a common bond to our common shared humanity.
Today, I will talk less and breathe more, to be more loving, caring, compassionate, kind, tolerant, joyful and abundantly well.
We may not be able to control everything going around us, but we can control the breath.
Today, I breathe and affirm that we take this INTERNATIONAL BREATH DAY, November 22, 2020 very intentionally so that we will continue to be conscious and use the breath of life to cope and "wake-up" to our best selves and our empowerment.
So, Breathe... now more than ever. Pause and breathe through what-ever. Breathe on this day and beyond to make this world a better place with abundant life and best health.
What the world needs now....Breathe! HONOR THE BREATH BECAUSE THERE IS POWER IN THE BREATH.
THANK YOU ANCESTORS, MUD MAN AND BROTHER OKERA RAS,
Stewards of International Breath Day with Baba Paa-UR
Stewards of International Breath Day with Baba Paa-UR
Controlling our breath is the easiest change we can make for the greatest impact on our spirit, mind and body.
Better breathing will slow down the stress response which will further turn on the bodies best cellular "uptake" for best health, immunity and wellness prevention.
This video below, tells you many of the benefits of efficient, deep breathing...
Better breathing will slow down the stress response which will further turn on the bodies best cellular "uptake" for best health, immunity and wellness prevention.
This video below, tells you many of the benefits of efficient, deep breathing...
"Relearn How to Breathe tm"
A Signature Training of Sekou Ayo Handy-Kendi
A Signature Training of Sekou Ayo Handy-Kendi
In Optimum Life Breathology (O.L.B.) training, we start off at the foundation, the basics. "Relearn How to Breathe' is Sekou Ayo's signature work created in 1998.
She asks the question often, "what if you found the perfect, natural solution, that's always available, easily accessible 24/7, critically impactful and is Free to use wouldn't you want to know more about it?"
She did and the knowledge of "deep breathing" changed her life, and she has been blessed to share this awareness to millions of others.
Of course, you say, you already know how to breathe.
You would not be alive, if you were not breathing - Right?
Like Snoop says, "if you're Breathing you're achieving".
Yet, research has suggested that 9 of 10 American do not breathe efficiently and effectively and this puts our health at great risks.
And many ARE NOT achieving due to poor breathing because their energy levels are low, they are imbalanced, and unfocused with brain fog.
Sekou Ayo has developed a system of checking your own breath pattern and retraining oneself to breathe an effective "belly" breath for daily, optimum living.
On average we breathe 20,000 or more times daily.
Don't You Want to Optimize Every Single Breath You Can?
USE THE TOOL OF BETTER BREATHING AS SOLUTIONS TO EVERYDAY ISSUES.
We guarantee that you will BREATHE BETTER - LIVE BETTER - DO BETTER.
Relearn How to Breathe Basics tm
THE IMPORTANCE OF OPTIMUM BREATHING
With all that is going on in the world today, one of the most critical tools that we can learn is better BREATHING to be better at all that we do.
Of course, we say, we all breathe, but 9 out of 10 people breathe inefficiently. An effective breath enhances the quality of life as it evolves the Spirit, Mind and Body. Effective, Deep breathing, is the most easiest thing that we can learn to make the critical difference in ways that most have never thought of:
1. Intensifies our conscious connection with the Almighty, the highest source of Hope, Joy, Peace, Inner Strength and Power
2. Ability to get more oxygen into our bodies from an under-oxygenated environment Oxygen is the source of life.
3. Increases the capacity of every function in our physical bodies;
4. Clears the stress hormones that fog our minds, breaks down our immune system, ages us, adds weight and is at the root of ill-health;
5. Increase of energy, peak performance and stamina in a world that demands a lot from us
6. Ability to better filter polluted air;
7. Survival technique to combat shock, trauma, fear by calming our nervous system
8. Provides us with the first food of the cells, that we must have to sustain life. We can live without water for 21 or more days; without food for 48 or more days; but without breathing that brings in the vital oxygen meal, we live not much longer than 6- 8 minute
9. Breathing 20,000 times a day in a more efficient way, aides us in not getting sick thus supporting preventive wellness,
And much, much MORE. Oxygen is Life. There is “power in the Breath” to increase our Oxygen to create more “PositivEnergy” in our life.
Relearn How to Breathe for Better, Life, Health, Work and Longevity tm
Get “The Power of the Breath” Book,
by Ayo Handy-Kendi, founder, Optimum Life Breathology, C.O.L.B.
With all that is going on in the world today, one of the most critical tools that we can learn is better BREATHING to be better at all that we do.
Of course, we say, we all breathe, but 9 out of 10 people breathe inefficiently. An effective breath enhances the quality of life as it evolves the Spirit, Mind and Body. Effective, Deep breathing, is the most easiest thing that we can learn to make the critical difference in ways that most have never thought of:
1. Intensifies our conscious connection with the Almighty, the highest source of Hope, Joy, Peace, Inner Strength and Power
2. Ability to get more oxygen into our bodies from an under-oxygenated environment Oxygen is the source of life.
3. Increases the capacity of every function in our physical bodies;
4. Clears the stress hormones that fog our minds, breaks down our immune system, ages us, adds weight and is at the root of ill-health;
5. Increase of energy, peak performance and stamina in a world that demands a lot from us
6. Ability to better filter polluted air;
7. Survival technique to combat shock, trauma, fear by calming our nervous system
8. Provides us with the first food of the cells, that we must have to sustain life. We can live without water for 21 or more days; without food for 48 or more days; but without breathing that brings in the vital oxygen meal, we live not much longer than 6- 8 minute
9. Breathing 20,000 times a day in a more efficient way, aides us in not getting sick thus supporting preventive wellness,
And much, much MORE. Oxygen is Life. There is “power in the Breath” to increase our Oxygen to create more “PositivEnergy” in our life.
Relearn How to Breathe for Better, Life, Health, Work and Longevity tm
Get “The Power of the Breath” Book,
by Ayo Handy-Kendi, founder, Optimum Life Breathology, C.O.L.B.
In this video, Sekou Ayo asks the question
"Are You Stressed?"
"Are You Stressed?"
IS THE STRESS OF LIFE GETTING TO YOU - A VIDEO ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BREATHING
Breathing and Stress
WHY FOCUS ON BREATHING?
Of course we’re all breathing, right? Unfortunately, volumes of medical research documents that 90% of all Americans are not breathing efficiently and therefore putting their health at great risk.
Studies on shallow breathing have documented that it is the first place, not the last, that one should look at when fatigue, disease, stress or other evidence of disordered energy, or trauma, presents itself. (Dr. Andrew Weil, noted wholistic physician)
HOW OXYGEN REACHES THE BLOODSTREAM
Breath comes from the same section of the Brain as our Emotions (The Limbric).
The function of Breath is to bring air in and out of our bodies.
When we breathe with the mouth closed, the NASAL passages filter air as it passes the throat (the Pharynx). Air is bought into the nostrils and expelled through the nostrils.
Air passes the Larynx (the upper end of the windpipe) and passes the TRACHEA (windpipe). is the main airway to the lungs Air passes down the trachea and fills the lungs and is forced out through the trachea.
The Trachea divides into the BRONCHI, which stems into each lung. There is a right and left lung.
As air is inhaled - drawn into the LUNGS, air sacs called ALVEOLI transfers OXYGEN into the bloodstream converting it into energy. As we exhale we remove CARBON DIOXIDE (gas not needed).
The Alveoli air sacs are encased in tiny blood vessels. With each breath, oxygen is absorbed into the BLOOD, enabling the production of energy that is the vital fuel of every body function. Carbon dioxide, the waste product, is picked up by the blood, and carried back to the lungs where it is expelled during exhalation.
The DIAGPHRAGM is the Muscle attached to the ceiling of the BELLY and to the floor of the lungs. It is used for Belly Breathing (called Abdominal, Belly or Diaphragm Breathing)
When we push the Belly out on the inhale, we expand the Diaphragm downward, expanding the lungs. When we exhale, the Diaphragm relaxes and moves up, forcing the lungs to expel the waste (TOXINS).
On a regular basis, a simple change of breathing deep within the body, from the Diaphragm instead of shallow from the Chest - optimizes each breath that we take.
According to the authoritative book, “The Science of Breath”, we breathe an average, 20,000 times a day. This means we have 20,000 times a day to increase our life, through our breath, thereby creating more energy to optimize every function about life.
OUR BREATH IS THE EASIEST THING WE CAN CHANGE FOR THE GREATEST IMPACT ON SPIRIT, MIND & BODY. PositivEnergyWorks helps people master better breathing and teaches them how to apply breathing techniques to impact their Spirit, Minds and Bodies. There is Power in the Breath to increase our
POSITIVENERGY™.
So, Relearn How to Breathe for Better Life, Health, Work & Longevity.
