Nothing matters unless you are breathing properly; it is the pinnacle of health and wellbeing. Yet, very few of us know how to optimise our breathing and may even undervalue its importance, writes Simon North.
This is why there is an explosion of interest in breathwork classes around the globe as just a few adjustments can have a significant positive benefit to a person’s emotional and physical state. It is a medicine known to help people increase their ability to fight illness and disease by boosting the immune system.
It has made James Nestor’s book ‘Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art’ an international best seller and a huge influence on holistic practitioners and followers worldwide.
Healing Health Joy Collective is dedicated to spreading the word about the importance of working on improving our breathing. Currently, there are two dedicated breathwork teachers offering regular classes, Tara and Ariane, both with their own methods and beliefs.
Developing lung capacity and having a healthy respiratory system is just as important as good nutrition or fitness levels for a person’s wellness. This is why it’s a vital part of yoga, qigong and tai chi but even if you regularly take part in these practices you will still benefit from stand-alone breathwork sessions.
The simple beauty of breathwork classes is that anyone who is reasonably healthy and does not suffer from heart or lung issues can take part. They are recommended by conventional medical doctors and pain clinics but perhaps the best way to approach breathwork classes is for preventative rather than prescriptive purposes.
“Breathwork is one of the most efficient ways to reduce stress, anxiety and address symptoms linked to depression”, says HHJC Breathwork teacher Tara Crist. “Working with your breathing helps improve poor sleeping, lowers blood pressure and better regulates your hormones.”
Tara recommends people attending her 30-minute classes on Tuesday and Thursdays develop their own daily 10-minute practice. “Coming to classes helps people bring breathwork techniques into their own daily practice and helps them develop a better sense of their own body and how it breathes.”
There is also a deeper more spiritual aspect to breathwork where it is used for trauma release. Ariane Lugan teaches Conscious Connected Breathwork which uses an intense breathing technique to dissolve emotional charge.
“Connecting fully to breathing helps us to look within ourselves and enables reflection without distraction”, she says. “The technique allows people to go into a different state of consciousness where we can work on letting go of all the things that no longer serve us. This enables us to rebuild self-esteem, become empowered but also find inner peace.”
Breathwork energises millions of the body’s cells enabling deep release of emotional conflicts and gives followers a strong sense of embodiment. “Through paying attention to breathing we can listen to the messages from our subconscious mind and let go of painful patterns. Increasing oxygen intake also helps regeneration in the body and is wonderfully de-stressing.”
It’s not just about letting go of things that have become stuck according to Ariane. “Practicing Conscious Connected Breathwork brings clarity and helps people manifest the life they want to live.”
Her 90+minute class is scheduled for 17:00 on Sundays.
To find out more please watch these helpful videos from the experts, doctors and researchers to helped provide the information used by James Nestor when he wrote ‘Breath’:
https://www.mrjamesnestor.com/breath-vids
https://healinghealthjoycollective.co.uk/weekly-online-classes
Waking in nature is being prescribed by a whole host of diverse people from doctors to yoga teachers, to help us counterbalance fear generated by the pandemic. Yet, simply walking outside does not necessarily work as way to calm down as it requires a certain awareness of the natural world.
Healing Health Joy Collective has created a new practice to help open doors into the natural world and guide people to find a deeper connection with our countryside. It combines elements of meditation with mindfully using your senses in a natural setting.
We find the right location that allows a small group to walk along quiet, less trodden forest paths and gather in a glade. We walk and chat until the predestined woodland place is reached.
Tree Energy Walk guide Simon then explains the practice and techniques participants can use to feel closer to the natural environment. This involves deepening breath to drop into a meditative state of mind and an invitation to use senses to listen to the forest soundtrack and take in its beautiful scent.
Once people open their eyes they see the woodland in a new way, as colours and awareness of textures flood into their consciousness. Using this heightened sensitivity the path is opened to feel the energy of the trees.
By relaxing your body, opening your heart and senses a new energetic realm begins to reveal itself. Stand close to your chosen tree and start to feel its aura and energy respond to you. It’s a magical experience with a profound de-stressing quality. Time seems to stop or pause whilst you quieten your mind in the presence of your tree.
Dialogue with trees is on an emotional level. You can feel it’s energy, perhaps even its spirit, whilst it can feel the intention behind your thoughts and thinking mind. This is the place where nature heals us.
People who have joined our Tree Energy Walks have shared experiences of calmness, reduction of mental noise and general feeling of rejuvenation. And the benefits continue after the practice as our participants usually have a really good, deep sleep that night.
This is a new practice and we are learning each time we go out how best to deliver it but we invite you to join us, experience Tree Energy Walks for yourself and give us feedback.
Please follow Healing Health Joy Collective social media for more dates -
Contact Simon for more info - newsimonnorth@gmail.com
We hear a lot about grounding and its importance to our busy, hectic lives. In simple terms, it is having an awareness of the ground we stand, sit or lie upon. It is often described as earthing the body’s electrical charge and there is a known benefit to dropping your awareness into the ground.
On Tree Energy Walks having a sense of the earth supporting us is a vital ingredient and a pathway towards healing. This is why we start our practice with breathing and grounding exercises as the forest is one of the best places to cleanse our system of stress and nervous energy.
We start by walking into the forest and crossing a sacred threshold, leaving the modern world behind us and entering a beautiful natural space. Already, a calming atmosphere surrounds us but we can take this feeling deeper with a simple grounding practice.
Gathering under a canopy of branches we feel protected and enter a safe meeting place. It is the feeling of coming home and the group ready to start its journey into the heart of nature.
First, you need to prepare the body, by sending awareness into the feet. They need to relax and spread out and not claw the ground. Even doing this inside shoes brings about a subtle change in posture. We are engaging the sense of touch, the first of the senses that will take us into close contact with the natural world around us.
By relaxing the feet the rest of the body can follow as joints open, connective tissue unsticks and your structure returns to its true default state.
The next stage is to use this new space in the body to deepen the breath. We start to drop into a meditative state, by lengthening the out breath and allowing a natural pause between breaths. Sending awareness to the area around the navel is a way to centre your own energy field and some ‘belly breaths’ help this process.
Imagination is another powerful tool for us to use and we visualise exhaling down into the earth beneath our feet and pausing before allowing the in breath. In this moment we can imagine the next inhale is coming up from under the ground as if we are being breathed by Mother Earth.
It only takes five minutes or so of ‘Earth breathing’ into a relaxed body for a deep connection with the planet to start taking hold.
During this moment we engage another of our senses, as the sound track of the forest takes over our hearing. We listen to the sound of birdsongs, the wind in the trees and sometimes the flow of water nearby.
When we open our eyes and allow the colours and textures of the forest to mix with sounds and smells of the woodland we know we have established contact with nature.
Now we are ready to approach a chosen tree and start a conversation and exchange of energy.
Next tree energy walk is on the 7th November at 11am
Please follow Healing Health Joy Collective social media for more dates
Contact Simon for more info - newsimonnorth@gmail.com
Connecting to tree energy is showing us all a way to become truly conscious and present in the here and now.
Meeting a tree and opening your heart to receive its ancient wisdom is a quietly powerful way to deal with stress and anxiety generated by the modern world. Trees and plants teach us to be patient and move us into the present moment.
This wonderful, gentle practice makes people realise they often have a blindness to nature. They look but do not really see what’s there.
Experiencing tree energy walking reveals a hidden place behind the ‘green wall’ of nature that is all around us.
Luckily, as people shed their outermost layers of consciousness and pay close attention to tree energy the ‘green wall’ becomes thinner and nature lifts her veil.
The key to unlocking the door to nature’s secret is love. When you hold loving kindness in your heart and open it to a tree a wonderful experience awaits.
By loving a tree for what it is, a wise and wonderful, deeply soulful being, it will respond in kind.
Your love will come back to you as compassion and emotional healing and you will enter a different realm. Now, you can go on an amazing journey full of magic, mystery and discovery.
Then you will know what it is to be truly awake and alive on Earth.
Simon North
Please follow Healing Health Joy Collective social media for more dates
Contact Simon for more info - newsimonnorth@gmail.com
Join us for this ancient festival of rebirth and celebrate the return of the Sun. We will gather in a circle underneath the mighty Oak for our opening affirmations, then we will walk deep into the forest to connect to both Pine and Holly: sacred trees of winter solstice.
Winter Solstice is a moment to stop and reflect but also to look forwards as the Sun’s great power returns bringing an increase in daylight every day until the end of summer. We know with absolute certainty the Sun starts to bring its light and warmth back to us.
Many sacred sites of these lands are aligned to the sun at winter solstice such as Stonehenge. Winter Solstice was the most important festival of the year for ancient people, as the old year died away enabling them to embrace rebirth and the start of the New Year.
They believed wholeheartedly that something old must die before something new can be reborn. This is why today we decorate our homes with evergreens such as holly, mistletoe and pine all of which represent the cycle of everlasting life.
This year, Winter Solstice 2020 is hugely significant as the vast cosmic wheel finally turns away from the Age of Pisces into the new age of Aquarius, creating a unique chance to heal the wounds of domination, separation and fear.
Now is the time to gather together. So, we will meet in the woods to connect to the tree energy of Pine and Holly evergreens that represent Nature’s everlasting life.
Holly is a sacred native tree that symbolises recovery, goodwill and potent life energy. Connecting to Holly is known to restore direction in your life, helping your heart to be open to unconditional love. Her red holly berries represent the red female blood of life whilst white mistletoe berries represent masculine energy. Holly and mistletoe traditionally should be displayed together in your home as as they are both halves of a sacred whole.
On our tree energy walk we will be meeting magnificent Pine trees but not to cut them down and drag them into our house!. The Pine tree has a strong energy, is a sign of good health, vigour and an elevated state of mind. Pine is a tree of great wisdom and healing, also representing strength from past experiences. Connecting to the pine will give you great insight into the year ahead.
We will meet at 10:30am on Saturday, 19th December near Chalfont St Giles. The cost of joining the walk is £20 paid at the event. Places are limited so please book by sending an email to simon@anamcaraenergyhealing.com
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