The Power of Small Groups

The importance of small support groups has been demonstrated by such pioneers as Dean Ornish, MD in his work with recovering heart attack patients (bypassing the need for bypass surgery), and Lynne McTaggart with her “Power of Eight” groups. Barbara Sher’s “Success Teams” have helped many people succeed in their life goals, as the group shares ideas, resources, emotional support, and intentions. My holistic health teacher and mentor, Dr. Erik Peper, taught large health classes at San Francisco State College; each class had time for students to break into small groups to share their experiences with deep relaxation, imagery, self-regulation, and behavior change. The healings in those classes over the course of a semester were remarkable: recovery from chronic pain, migraines, skin problems, digestive issues, mood swings, addictive eating, and more.

In her book The Power of Eight, McTaggart details the many ways she studied and worked with the power of shared intention – from influencing the growth of seeds, to the pH of water, to violence levels, to multiple health concerns.
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Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor

Highlights (with thanks to Eyal Shifroni)

This book taught me much that I did not know about breathing, despite my years as a respiratory therapist and biofeedback therapist. The author’s dedication to understanding and trying out every possible therapy (even when difficult) to help himself and share with others, is remarkable! And his descriptions are vivid. He even traveled to a little known spot in underground Paris to study ancient skulls!

There’s a lot in this summary, so it’s in two parts. I’ve added a bit of commentary here and there. I was fascinated to learn that indigenous people’s teeth and airways were in such better shape than ours! And we have much to learn from ancient yogic pranayama methods. Continue reading →

Heart coherence is a state in which, through slow rhythmic breathing and focusing on positive emotions such as love and gratitude, our heart rhythms change to a smooth, orderly sine-wave pattern. The heart’s rhythms generate a powerful electromagnetic signal which influences all the other systems in the body, including the brain, nervous system, digestive system, and immune system. It feels wonderful!

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Did you know that sometimes anxiety is a result of how you breathe? That we don’t just breathe fast because we’re anxious, but also vice versa?

Most of the time we’re not very conscious of our breathing, and for good reason–it’s automatic, so that we won’t die because we forgot to breathe! However, conscious breathing gives us a lot more choices as to how we feel in any given moment.

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Breath: Highlights, part 2

Slow

The amount of carbon dioxide in our body is usually too low. Olson (the partner in nose vs. mouth breathing research) claimed: “Regardless of the breathing rate, the body will always have enough oxygen; what the body needs to function properly is not faster or deeper breaths, but sufficient carbon dioxide.”

Henderson, a researcher at Yale, found that “carbon dioxide is the main hormone in the entire body; it is the only one produced in every tissue in the body and is likely to act on every organ…carbon dioxide is a more fundamental component of living matter than oxygen.”

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Scott Schwenk: wake up, grow up, clean up, show up. How I breathe = how I live. Am I in the present moment, embodied? Soften the body through the breath. Receive the breath, be breathed by life. Breathe love to self, others.

Lisa McNett: OneBreathInstitute.com. Breath tunes us into our needs: what wants to move or open? Breathe into tight spaces. Pause, breathe, ask, listen.

Stephen Porges: breathwork & polyvagal theory. When we’re triggered, do self-care. Our physiological state determines how we react to the world. When we’re bombarded with threat cues, we shut down. Calmness improves relationships. Cues of safety include: calmness of the other person, music, melodic voices. When we move and breathe, can process more feelings. We all need to feel safe with others. Synchronous breathing bonds people. Remove cues of threat and replace with cues of safety. Humming, singing stimulate the vagus nerve. Continue reading →