To be breathed is to allow breath instead of to inhale. It is effort verses relaxation. Try it and see the subtle difference. Take a deep breath. Then instead of “taking” a deep breath, “allow” a deep breath to enter you. Imagine the air pushing into your body instead of you using your body to draw it in. To allow the air in you must let go and relax your stomach, rib cage, diagpharam, throat and sinus passages. I have noticed that allowing a deep breath during The Five Rites feels SO much better and makes the movements feel almost effortless. When I am done I feel relaxed instead of tired.

What works best for me is to follow the same pattern of a complete deep breath. Fill your stomach first on up to your lungs and then empty your stomach first and your lungs last as you exhale. To “be breathed” allow the air into your stomach first and lungs last and allow it to leave your body in the same way. This is a subtle difference to be sure, but has made a huge difference for me.

As you get older, and are trying to figure out how to stay healthy, enjoy life and still fit into your jeans, it can become overwhelming to think of all of the options. Things you should do, things you shouldn’t. What a drag. I say pick what feels right to you and do that. I don’t think it’s realistic to imagine you’re never going to eat things you love again just because it’s not healthy. And who wants to live like that anyway? Life is short, and it we should have fun when we can and that involves food.

One thing I have noticed about food and those cravings that we all get is that if you have taken the time to really get the nutrition you need the cravings are not nearly as compelling. When I still worked in the hospitality industry, the hours would be long and the work very physically and mentally draining. Let me tell you’re if your in your sixth or seventh hour of serving food and you have not had anything to eat in as many hours…well there comes a time when you will knock back a plate of fries faster than you can say fried potato! I really learned the value of food fueling then. I noticed that before work, I really needed to eat high density food to get through the day. Eggs, nuts, butter and cheese. But the real difference came when I dreamed up my “fruit and vegetable drink”.

At one time I would juice things, but I tired of the mess with all the pulp left behind and one day a light bulb went on in my head and I thought, “Why am I throwing away all that fiber that I work so hard to get?” Duh. So I started blending up fruits and vegetables with just enough liquid to make it like a nice smoothie. I found that freezing some of the ingredients made it even better. Well once I added the vegetable drink to my morning routine, I found I could work those long hours not get hungry, stay mentally sharp, full of energy and away from the fries.

If you’re dealing with uncontrollable cravings, fueling your body with great nutrition is worth trying. Your body needs food. Good food, high in nutrients. It’s hard to find that in highly processed foods because it’s too many calories for the nutrition punch that you need. My theory is feed yourself what you need, then eat the fries, cookies, ice cream or whatever. I’ll bet you will notice that it will be much easier to not gobble the whole plate, or box, or carton. A small amount will be enough, and you’ll enjoy it even more.

One of the most important and valuable things that can be done for your body is to a deep breath, over and over! Stress and inactivity causes us to breathe in a shallow way. This leads to fatigue, fuzzy thinking and a low metabolism. So when practicing any type of yoga poses or other exercise routine your breathing technique is vital! This is where the complete breath comes in.

Because the proper deep breath is so important, here’s a quick run down of just how to do it. Take a few minutes here because it really is the foundation of any yoga practice, and that includes The Tibetan Five Rites.

It is easiest to practice and perfect a complete deep breath by lying on your back so you can relax all of your muscles and concentrate on the breathing technique. While laying on your back place your hands on your stomach and empty your body of air as much as you can. As you begin a new breath draw the air through your nose into your stomach first then continue breathing in filling your diaphragm area and lastly your lungs. Briefly hold and then begin to exhale through your mouth,  following the same pattern. Push the air out of your stomach, out of your diaphragm and lastly your lungs. Because this is so different from the way we normally breathe as we go about out days, it is best to start slowly. I push the air completely out of my lungs as much as I can, however this can cause you to cough as the pressure releases mucus from your lungs if you have any congestion.  Please follow what your body is telling you and don’t over do it! This breathing technique is very powerful, feels wonderful and will come to feel very natural with continued practice. Just take it slow.

Combining the complete deep breath with yoga poses, whether it’s The Tibetan Five Rites, another yoga practice or an exercise routine that you can incorporate the deep breath into, will feed your cells with oxygen, boost your metabolism, and give you lasting energy.  Once you reach your goal of 21 repetitions of each rite in daily five rite practice, you will be taking about 90 complete deep breaths during your 20 minute session. Only about 90 because you won’t do a complete breath with every repetition of the 1st rite. It involves spinning and you move too fast to do a breath with each spin.

It would be very difficult to be able to take this many deep breaths if you just sat down and tried to breath. You would get dizzy and probably bored, that’s why combining this  breathing technique with the yoga poses is so powerful.

The bottom line is every cell in your body needs oxygen, just like it needs water.  Breathe!

Twenty minutes a day… Who doesn’t want to look better, feel better and experience longevity? Of course our time on planet Earth is finite, that is a given, but if there are ways we can make our time here better by living in a healthier body, especially for a small investment of time and effort, then I say, sign me up!

For me that small investment of time is a daily routine that I have done for years called “The Five Rites”, also known as “The Tibetan Five Rites” and “The Five Tibetans.” There may be many other names for this series of simple exercises, but they are universally very much the same.

I first came upon The Five Rites in a small book,”The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth” written by a mysterious Mr. Peter Kelder. A worthy read that sparked my interest and led me to making this practice a part of my daily life. I am very thankful of that, for the rewards have been many.

The claim made for the rites is that these exercises activate and stimulate the seven key chakras of the body. The chakras are energy vortexes of the body. Stimulating the chakras then stimulates all the glands of the endocrine system, which is responsible for the body’s overall functioning and aging process. This means that The Five Rites will affect the functioning of all your organs and systems, physical and energetic and that includes the aging process. The man who brought The Five Rights out of Tibet stated that “performing the Five Rites stimulates the circulation of essential life energy throughout the body”. Deep breathing as you are doing the exercises is a crucial part of the process. The value of just doing deep breathing exercises cannot be overstated! Combining the two feels like magic.

Well if all this sounds too “new age” or far fetched, I guess it kind of is! The way I look at it is that there are many things we don’t understand about this life, and we don’t know everything about everything. I can say that I have done these simple exercises, that also incorporate deep breathing, for years. What has been the result? Well, I’m currently 55. I have no medical issues, I take no medication, I have a pain free body, no middle age spread, plenty of energy, sound sleep, and a sharp mind. The 20 minutes a day has been time more than well spent.