Managing Symptoms in Pets and People Through BEAMing and Breathing

[Dr. Jeff]

Hi @everyone-

Amy (my wife of 28 years in 1 week!) and I were discussing quality of life and symptoms while watching Bird TV this am.

The discussion was about another potentially concerning symptom of mine last night (a tender and swollen lymph node in my neck) and what's going on with it this am (it's gone).

We realized that all of the strategies I use to relieve my own symptoms (of which there are many, every day) and how they are the same ones that we teach y'all at HA!

They all come down to working with nature.

It's super simple to describe specific actions that follow that course.

They all come down to BEAMing and Breathing.

BEAMing as in smiling from ear to ear (smiling so broadly that the skin around your eyes crinkles up).



BEAMing for 3-5 minutes while doing breathing exercises has helped me to "go with the flow"and optimize my own physiology to reduce and resolve symptoms.

These breathing exercise are either 4 breaths in-6 breaths out (what Dr. Leah Lagos calls "resonance breathing") or rapid forceful belly breathing such as Bhastrika breathing and the Khlabati breaths of yoga.

Amazon.com: Heart Breath Mind: Train Your Heart to Conquer Stress and Achieve Success: 9781328604408: Lagos, Leah: Books

Amazon.com: Heart Breath Mind: Train Your Heart to Conquer Stress and Achieve Success: 9781328604408: Lagos, Leah: Books

www.amazon.com

A few minutes of breathing and breathing before bed last night helped my body resolve the symptom by this am.

Here's a short video of Tiggy (our kitty) and I doing resonance breathing yesterday am. She purred while I breathed (and BEAMed). Purring cats are "resonance machines!

Anyway, I thought I'd share this strategy that has worked so well for me and is at the foundation of HA!

 

[Dr. Christina]

thanks, Dr. Jeff. Always a good reminder to breathe - in many different forms.

Dr. Christina

 

[GinnyW]

Yes, Christina! I'd say that just about any conscious effort to control breathing can be fruitful. I can lie on the floor and count through my inhalation, holding, and exhalation. I can stand and do a martial arts exercise involving moving Chi around with my arms. If I forget to do SOMEthing, I can lie in bed and just notice my breathing. I can put "words" to any of these, practice smiling, feeling ribs and spine, etc. I can even breathe along with my sleeping dog

All good, and they don't have to be "work"; it doesn't take much.

ginny

 

[jenbridwell]

Hi @everyone-

Amy (my wife of 28 years in 1 week!) and I were discussing quality of life and symptoms while watching Bird TV this am.

The discussion was about another potentially concerning symptom of mine last night (a tender and swollen lymph node in my neck) and what's going on with it this am (it's gone).

We realized that all of the strategies I use to relieve my own symptoms (of which there are many, every day) and how they are the same ones that we teach y'all at HA!

They all come down to working with nature.

It's super simple to describe specific actions that follow that course.

They all come down to BEAMing and Breathing.

BEAMing as in smiling from ear to ear (smiling so broadly that the skin around your eyes crinkles up).



BEAMing for 3-5 minutes while doing breathing exercises has helped me to "go with the flow"and optimize my own physiology to reduce and resolve symptoms.

These breathing exercise are either 4 breaths in-6 breaths out (what Dr. Leah Lagos calls "resonance breathing") or rapid forceful belly breathing such as Bhastrika breathing and the Khlabati breaths of yoga.

Amazon.com: Heart Breath Mind: Train Your Heart to Conquer Stress and Achieve Success: 9781328604408: Lagos, Leah: Books

Amazon.com: Heart Breath Mind: Train Your Heart to Conquer Stress and Achieve Success: 9781328604408: Lagos, Leah: Books

www.amazon.com

A few minutes of breathing and breathing before bed last night helped my body resolve the symptom by this am.

Here's a short video of Tiggy (our kitty) and I doing resonance breathing yesterday am. She purred while I breathed (and BEAMed). Purring cats are "resonance machines!

Anyway, I thought I'd share this strategy that has worked so well for me and is at the foundation of HA!

This is great, and I so enjoyed our conversation today, including (especially) the part about "going with the flow". We stagnate, or worse, misdirect SO MUCH productive energy fighting against the natural flow. Adapting to the natural ebb and flow isn't always easy in our desire to try to exert control over what isn't in our power. We can't control the wind, but we can adjust our sails to meet it! How are we going to work WITH the forces at hand, whether we're talking about weather or our animal friends' care, rather than against them? Techniques like this, homeopathy and so many of the "working with" modalities we use here at HA! are a like gentle but powerful nudge, which makes me think of "water on a stone". We can create our own Grand Canyons of change in our own lives and those of our pets, with small, consistent and persistent action to work with the natural forces.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Thanks for sharing your post Jen!

Yes, it is super important for us to help our pets "flow" to harness the healing power of nature.

BEAMing and breathing are wonderful, research proven, ways to do this. They're so easy to implement for our pets with therapeutic sniff walks, snuffle mats, playing, purring, etc.

Unlike them we need to work harder at getting out of our own way.

Seems that our brains both help and hinder us. Fortunately the BEAMing smile helps "trick" them into thinking that "Everything's Gonna Be Alright".

Here's a section from a recent article about positive psychology:

Facial Expressions Are Hardwired In The Brain

It seems that our brains are hardwired to use the facial muscles in specific ways to show our emotions.