This
letter is from Dr Sears and he reports something rather unusual. It
turns out that meditative breathing has a measurable physiological
effect on our cells and their telomerase activity. This was totally
unexpected and is certainly supported by ample anecdotal evidence
related to meditation practitioners that strongly suggest a much
longer life span generally. Much of that had been accredited to the
superior lifestyle and eating habits.
The
take home is to add the breathing discipline to your daily habits.
If not meditating, just sit straight and inhale by pushing your
abdomen outward thus dropping your diaphragm. Then consciously suck
it back in in order to clear your lungs. This is a good exercise.
Do it as often as you can, but consciously keep at it whenever you
need to breathe. It will not be as often because you will no longer
be depending on shallow breathes.
I
suspect if we actually did that all day that we would be much the
better for it. Yet someone has to teach us this.
July 18, 2012
I’ve always been
attracted to the healing practices of the ancients.
It’s why I went to
India to track down the original source of the 5,000 year-old
tradition of Ayurvedic medicine. My search took me to the southern
back-water province of Kerala where transportation was mostly by
boat.
At my first stop in
Mumbai, I met some traditional healers who led me to the oldest
hospital on the planet, the Ayurmana – which means “healing
house.”
Every morning, my
teacher took me to a quiet area to teach me something called Vedic
breathing – a form of meditation. I noticed a difference in how I
felt right away. I was more relaxed and my mind was crystal clear.
Most of the early
teachings of the ancients claimed breathing could improve a wide
variety of health-related conditions including increasing your
overall health, energy level, mental capacity, sex life, resistance
to disease – even your lifespan.
When I was in medical
school, these claims were looked at with more than a little
suspicion.
But I always had an instinct there was something really
fundamentally beneficial to these breathing techniques. Even if we
couldn’t explain it in the terms of western technology.
And today a new piece
of the puzzle fell into place. Today I found proof that the ancients
were right.
It turns out these
ancient breathing techniques alter the tiny “time clocks” that
are in every cell of your body.
You see, every cell in
your body has one of these time clocks. And every time a cell
divides, the internal counter in the clock ticks down. That’s how
it keeps track of how old you are.
You may have come
across what I’ve written about these time clocks before. We call
them telomeres.
Now we know from a
study I just learned about from the University of California-Davis,
people who practice breathing exercises have longer telomeres than
those who don’t.
Pretty simple
conclusion, don’t you think?
I’m always most
impressed by these kinds of studies. It’s not taking a cell and
squirting something from a hypodermic needle on the cell and seeing
what happens.
It’s actually
measuring real results in real people.
The researchers
looked at people who were at a wellness retreat and found that after
three months, people doing meditation training had 33 percent higher
telomerase activity in their white blood cells than those who weren’t
meditating.1
That’s why I’m
bringing this to you. Because these people had longer higher
telomerase activity means their cells were functioning at a younger
age. This is exactly the kind of thing I incorporate into our advice
at my anti-aging center.
Remember as the cell
counter clicks down it lessens your cell’s abilities to defend
itself against the forces of nature like methylation, glycosylation,
oxidation and inflammation. The things we used to think caused aging.
Now we know they’re
just natural forces. The real cause of aging is the ticking down of
your time clocks. If you can get the clocks to reset themselves
through meditation, you’re affecting all those other things.
Lo and behold, exactly
what the ancients said meditation can do for you.
Here’s a breathing
exercise you can do to help you meditate right now, wherever you are:
The first step is
to clear your mind. The goal is to get rid of all the excitatory
energy your environment is pummeling you with all the time.
The second step is
to focus your conscious attention on your breathing. Think about
the cadence of your breath, and exclude other thoughts. Constantly
re-focus your attention on the breath.
This is the way you
train your mind and increase telomerase activity – by constantly
clearing your thoughts and re-focusing on your breath. Distractions
are going to happen. But you don’t waste any energy over them. You
don’t form an opinion on whether it’s good, bad or indifferent.
Each time it happens, you gently redirect your focus back to your
breath.
And each time that
happens, you can take a little credit, because you’re gaining more
and more control over the process.
Step three is to
observe your breathing. Observe how long it takes you to inhale and
exhale. Observe the cadence. Where does inhaling stop? Where does
exhaling begin? Focus on the change and how it feels to go from
inhaling to exhaling.
The fourth step is
to elongate the exhalation. This is where you start to exert control
over your breathing to help you relax. Make sure you’ve inhaled
fully, using your abdomen and lungs. Then, push out all of your
breath slowly and fully. This is the part we usually forget, but it’s
the most crucial. As you exhale, you will feel yourself relax.
Take 10 or 15 minutes
out of your day to do this. You can even meditate as you lie in bed
at night. It will be time well spent.
1 comment:
What's behind the breath is what you need to meditate on. You will experience your breath but also the power the breathes you, the creation is happening with every breath. See wopg.org for more info on this incredible meditation.
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