Almost any situation we face in life triggers reaction in our brains, which then impacts our bodies (so named “stimulus – response” scheme). “Conditioning” is the term scientists use to describe the process whereby a life situation creates a program in our minds that replays itself when triggered by a sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. Our minds, as giant jukeboxes, filled with thousands of records, and the experiences we face cause specific records to play.

For example, you are running through an airport trying to make a plane that’s departing in two minutes. A natural, correct response of your nervous system would be to increase your muscle tension and heart and respiratory rate. Your body systems are made to adapt you to the world and help you to learn as quickly as possible, so the reactions generated by this experience may imprint a program in your nervous system.

Now, let’s say it’s a year after your jog through the airport. You’re walking to a plane scheduled to depart in an hour. Something about the situations triggers the program created a year ago. An unconscious(”pre-recorded”) reaction takes place, and the same signal from a year ago get sent from your brain into your body. Out of blue, your body experiences the same muscle tension, pounding heart, and so on as before, even though you have plenty of time to catch the flight. Unconscious conditioning has created nervous system overload.

The good news is that calm thoughts create conditioned responses, too. If you close your eyes, let body relax, and think back about your best vacation time, let’s say in Miami beach, remembering how the sun felt, the smell of the salt air, and the sound of the rolling waves, your brain will send signals into your body that produce pleasant feelings again.

Thus, our thoughts (minds) can be the single most powerful tool in creating or eliminating nervous system overload from our lives. I do not think our minds were meant to keep us in a state of nervous system overload. The key is to remember is that it’s rarely the situations we meet in life that cause stress reactions. Most of the time it’s our perception of the situations we find ourselves in, causes the brain to go into the overload. That is why a small annoyance can trigger an emotional overreaction that’s completely out of proportion to the situation.

By using some simple mental techniques, we can change the way we perceive “stressful” situations. Instead of coming up with the new ways to deal with every stress in our lives, we can train our nervous system to handle all stress in a better way. Following techniques will help you learn how to calm your mind and affect the unconscious patterns ingrained in your memories. With practice you’ll be able to prevent automatic shift into overload caused by stress.

These techniques based on simple statement: you thoughts are not you! It’s possible to step back from your thoughts and let them pass by you as if you were watching a parade and they were giant Mickey Mouse baloons. If you constantly feel connected to tense thoughts, your nervous system becomes like a rope being twisted tighter and tighter. If you consistently separate yourself from your thoughts, you drain tension from your body systems. This works for both unconscious thoughts and body reactions. The Quite Mind technique described below is a simplified version of meditation, the practice of which reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension, as well as decrease anxiety and depression. By focusing your attention on breathing, you give your mind a break.

Decreased Stress + Increased Energy = More Life

A simple equation (see above) sums up why energy is so important. We have seen how an overload of physical, emotional, mental, or chemical stress prevents us from functioning at top efficiency. By fleeing energy trapped within you and increasing the energy you get from food, you increase your ability to build better life. It’s like setting free bottled lightning. Thus, by learning how to boost your energy supply by proper eating habits and how to decrease your stresses with calming breathing exercises we will have energy enough to work as effectively in the afternoon, as in the morning. May be our love life will improve! Just as important, we will increase our ability to withstand life’s stresses. We will just handle it with relative ease, no anxiety, no breakups anymore.

BREATHING ENERGY ROUTINE

One reason many people experience a continual energy crisis isn’t for lack of good food, but the absence of crucial ingredient your body uses to turn food into fuel: air. More specifically, the oxygen in air, which is used to “burn” the chemicals obtained from food breakdown. You can eat all you want, but without oxygen your energy will dry up.

Most of us breathe halfway into our chests, but Following Breathe for Energy exercises we can use at any spare time to energize ourselves we need to pack air into the lungs – incorporate in your morning wake-up routine, do them before you eat, or on your commute to work. Combined with Eating for Energy, the next three exercises will catapult your core energy to new heights!

Belly Breathing

(This may be the most powerful high-energy technique known to man. It fills the lungs with air and increases the oxygen available to your bloodstream)

• To belly-breathe: Sit or stand in a comfortable position. Place a hand on your belly, just under the navel. as you inhale through your nose, imagine your belly is a big balloon you’re filling with air. Fill the balloon with your breath, feeling your hand getting pushed forward. Keep breathing in. Fill the middle of your chest, imagining the balloon getting bigger. Imagine it starting to expand into the space in front of you, touching the walls and rising toward the ceiling. Keep inhaling, and feel the top of your chest expand.
• When you have filled your entire chest, hold the breath for a slow count of four, and then begin exhaling through your nose.
• As you breathe out, gently push in your belly with you hand, exhaling the air at the bottom of your lungs first, and then pushing the air out of the middle and top of your chest. Repeat slowly four times.

The 1-4-2 Breath

• Start by slowly breathing in to the count of four (‘one-thousand one, one-thousand two” and so on). Next, hold the breath four times as long, to a count of sixteen. Afterward, breathe out, expelling all the air, to a count of eight.
• Repeat four times.
• You can increase the times for inhaling, holding, and exhaling the breath, but keep the 1-4-2 ratio. For example, inhale to a count of eight, hold for a count of thirty-two, and exhale for a count of sixteen.

The Sixty-Second Exhaler

(When we inhale, we energize our bodies; when we exhale, we naturally relax. This accounts for the good feeling we get after a long sigh. By exaggerating the exhalation part of our breath, we relax and “reset” our normal breath pattern for deeper breathing).

• Using Belly Breathing, fill your chest with air. Now clamp your teeth together and press your tongue against your upper teeth, exhaling so that you produce a hissing sound.
• On your first attempts, you may only be able to hiss for fifteen to twenty seconds, but with practice you’ll be able to increase that time. Your goal is to push the air out of your lungs in a long, extended hiss, lasting sixty seconds.