For both self-healing and for personal transformation, nothing delivers better results than a breath practice, one that combines ageless knowledge with modern day scientific validation. What is commonly known as “meditation” is any practice that slows down our habitual daily breathing patterns to one that emphasizes a long inhale, pushing the belly out and down.
The exhale also breaks free of habit by striving to release the chest slightly, striving for a more complete release from the lungs. When done in a consistant way, conscious breathing both energizes the entire body with additional oxygen supplies, but most importantly it stimulates the limbic part of the human brain.
The limbic network of the brain – amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus – provide the structures for the feeling and expression of emotion. Memories and feelings then make their way into the basal ganglia, and then to the cerebral cortex. There is also another pathway forward, into the prefrontal cortex. In other words, the limbic network is a “brain beneath the brain”, feeding emotions, drives, and memories into the conscious part of our mind.
When we meditate (slowed, conscious breathing, without any outer distraction or activity), we also generate theta brain waves, which activate deeper parts of the subconscious mind to move closer to the conscious experience.
In addition to being a good daily practice, conscious breathing (meditation) helps release stress from the past, as the breathing practice increases stimulation in the neurons of the olfactory, cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. In effect, it acts as an “emotional autophagy”: clearing out held emotions from the past, and preparing the mind for fresh, new experiences.
In Asia, we also find that the addition of incense, commonly found in temple settings, further stimulates theta brain wave production as it awakens the olfactory mechanism, kicking our limbic system activation up several notches. For those sensitive to incense, essential oils such as Lavender, Sage, or Cedar are good substitutes.
In my online class The Psychic Attack: Strategies and Defenses, I will be encouraging students to take up a daily fifteen minute conscious breathing practice, as a support for the release of fear and stress caused by many forms of psychic attack: energy body reactions to the hostile or exploitative projections of others towards them. By having some basic conscious breathing practice in place, whenever fear or anxiety from any psychic source impacts us, we can choose to support and energize our limbic system network, as a precursor to engaging the life challenges we face.
If we are unable to calm and center ourselves while impacted by the psycho-energetic projections of the other, we will naturally default into a defensive, or a reactive, posture. As we will see in the Psychic Attack online class, fighting back against most forms of astral invasion deepens the problem, rather than leading towards a solution. Centering within yourself, using your conscious breathing, allows you to respond powerfully and effectively to the aggression or malignant energies heading towards you.
© 2019 by Dean Ramsden. All rights reserved.
