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Mind-Body Connection in Meditation: New Study Links the Breath to Free Will
According to a recent study by a group of Swiss researchers, breath means more than simple respiration – it is actually linked with the ability to make choices by exercising free will. This research is so groundbreaking because it is another proof-point that attention, when connected with the breath, activates the circuits of the mind-body connection.
by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN
According to a recent study by a group of Swiss researchers, breath means more than simple respiration – it is actually linked with the ability to make choices by exercising free will. This research is so groundbreaking because it is another proof-point that attention, when connected with the breath, activates the circuits of the mind-body connection.
In the study, these researchers correlated free will with a term called, “Readiness Potential.” According to the study’s results, “Voluntary action is a fundamental element of self-consciousness,” and “participants initiate voluntary actions more frequently during expiration… Our findings demonstrate that voluntary action is coupled with the respiratory system and further suggest that the RP is associated with fluctuations of ongoing neural activity that are driven by the involuntary and cyclic motor act of breathing.” In other words, participants were more likely to exercise free will in decision making when they were breathing out.
For thousands of years, breath has been the most widely used object of focus in meditation. Breathing in and out, we become present. Why? You can’t take a breath in the past. It’s impossible to take a future breath. So - all we can do is breathe in this very moment, right now. However, going deeper, the in-breath can also be differentiated from the out-breath as more than a respiratory direction.
What is less known is that breath stimulates different areas of the human Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), which is designed to prepare us for “fight-or-flight” during times of danger or threat, is linked to the in-breath. The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), which is the part of our nervous system dedicated to “rest-and-digest,” where we relax and repair, is linked to the out-breath. Both “fight-or-flight” and “rest-and-digest” serve a critical purpose in protecting us and keeping us well. Focusing on the breath as an object of meditation, we are able to gently stimulate both the SNS and PNS, back and forth, in a gently rhythm, to balance out “rest-and-digest,” with “fight-or-flight.”
Please make time for your own mindful wellbeing on a daily basis. It can be as simple as breathing in… and out… What’s good for you is also good for all those you love, all around you.
MediMindful Moment: Meet Lois Grasso-Barrett
In this episode of Cloud 9 Online’s MediMindful Moment Podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Lois Grasso-Barrett, Holistic Health Coach, Public Speaker, Founder, and Director at OxyGenesis Institute. Lois talks about the ability to focus on our breathing and becoming mindful of our breath. She also shares her knowledge and expertise in understanding the different types of breathing exercises.
In this episode of Cloud9 Online’s MediMindful Moments Podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Lois Grasso-Barrett, Holistic Health Coach, Public Speaker, Founder, and Director at OxyGenesis Institute. Lois talks about the ability to focus on our breathing and becoming mindful of our breath. She also shares her knowledge and expertise in understanding the different types of breathing exercises.
Listen HERE!
Episode Highlights:
● Judith introduces Lois Grasso-Barrett. (0:40)
● Lois shares her background. (1:08)
● Lois shares that she teaches people how to use their breathing, to become present, to own themselves, and we can use the breathing to own and take responsibility for our feelings. (3:58)
● Lois leads the mindful moment exercise. (5:47)
● Henry mentions that as the world's coming back together again a little bit, even with masks on, being compassionate is more vital. (10:21)
● Lois thinks that all our hearts want is more compassion. (10:35)
● Lois mentions that laughter is one of her favorite breathing exercises. (11:25)
● Lois shares that she’s done a lot of laughter yoga, bringing a group of people together and laughing for no reason, we come up with silly little games and silly little exercises to play. (11:35)
● Lois shares that when you're laughing, you're in the moment where you’re present and enjoying yourself. (13:08)
● Henry mentions that they have a meditation on MediMind called laughter meditation. (14:28)
● Lois mentions that yawning is also a breathing exercise and contagious, as well. (15:40)
● Lois mentions that crying is also a breathing exercise and contagious, as well. (16:28)
● How does Lois stay mindful, or coach people to be mindful when it’s not laughter? (17:06)
● Lois shares that when we do deep breathing, it leads us out of the fight or flight mode, where our nervous system is when we are angry, afraid, or anxious. (18:16)
● Lois explains the belly button breathing. (18:28)
● Lois mentions that she has a children’s book entitled, Maven and The Magic Buttons. (18:37)
● How do mindfulness programs in school work? (21:36)
● Lois shares that by tapping on acupuncture points, it calms down the amygdala, which is the fear center of the brain. (22:40)
● Lois shares her fantasy and goal (25:39)
● What’s Lois’ vision for her mindfulness programs? (26:17)
● Judith shares that we have to learn how to accept uncertainty and the techniques to help children come into a sense of peace, within themselves at the moment. (28:488)
● Judith mentions that we're learning scientifically that by focusing on our breath, we change our whole biochemistry, and people don't realize that those three to six breaths, could help our immune system to stay strong. (29:18)
● Lois shares a brain hack. (29:45)
● Lois shares that there are different purposes for different breathing exercises, and everybody needs to become aware of and focused on our breathing. (32:23)
● Lois mentions that all we need is to master our breathing. (34:35)
Key Quotes:
● “The number one way to claim ourselves on all these levels is to claim our breathing and learn how to breathe fully, which is not just a conscious learning thing, it's a process whereby we have to reclaim our feelings, or our willingness and our ability to cry.” - Lois Grasso-Barrett
● “Laughter is ultimately a breathing exercise and gets us breathing big. It has all the benefits of breathing, and it's a beautiful thing not to mention, it kicks into gear all those happy hormones in our brain and makes us feel blessed.” - Lois Grasso-Barrett
● “I want to make sure people who are listening to this understand that when they're feeling anger, or fear or anxiety or any of the unpleasant emotions, what it usually means is that they have been breathing shallowly, and those emotions can exacerbate shallow breathing.” - Lois Grasso-Barrett
Resources Mentioned:
MediMindful Moment: Meet Javier Colon - Winner of The Voice (Season One)
Music touches us, moves us, soothes us, stimulates us in so many ways. How does music move you?
In this episode of Cloud 9 Online’s MediMindful Moment podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Javier Colon, an American singer-songwriter and musician and winner of Season 1 of The Voice. Javier talks about his creation experience, meditation, and songwriting process. Javier also discusses how different styles of music help people express their emotions.
Music touches us, moves us, soothes us, stimulates us in so many ways. How does music move you?
In this episode of Cloud9 Online’s MediMindful Moments podcast, co-hosts Judith Dreyer, Jeff Nelder, and Henry Edinger interview Javier Colon, an American singer-songwriter and musician and winner of Season 1 of The Voice. Javier talks about his creation experience, meditation, and songwriting process. Javier also discusses how different styles of music help people express their emotions.
Listen HERE!
Episode Highlights:
Henry introduces the guest, Javier Colon. (0:40)
Javier shares his background story. (0:58)
Javier mentions that he was a bit shy as he came up, but ended up winning the first season of The Voice. (1:39)
Judith says that every person has the ability to become mindful in the current moment, and all it takes is the ability to focus on our breath. (2:50)
Jeff shares that this show is dedicated to helping not only the audience but each of them recording this podcast to share more mindful moments together. (3:29)
How does Javier feel when singing out his mantra? (7:00)
Aside from winning, what was Javier’s unforgettable moment about being on The Voice? (9:36)
Javier shares that he sang Time After Time at the audition, and got all four coaches turned around. (10:11)
Javier shares that he was able to sing with Stevie Nicks on the final day of The Voice. (11:54)
Javier talks about his kids who meditate. (12:30)
What is Javier’s favorite song that he has written? (15:39)
Javier shares that he meditates every time he jumps into a song. (19:31)
Jeff says that meditation is all about becoming present and increasing your awareness. (21:24)
Javier talks about the experience of creating, and how it brings him into the moment. (22:22)
Javier shares that he loves the writing process. (26:21)
Javier mentions that he was a vegetarian for 18 years. (30:00)
What advice would Javier give to the listeners? (33:06)
Does Javier sing in the shower? (39:21)
Judith says that Javier is a great example of embracing the creative moment. (40:05)
Judith mentions that the MediMind Guided Meditation App is available on all devices, and it is free for 90 days. (41:30)
Key Quotes:
“Honestly, singing mantras…just brings me to this place of calm that I don’t feel in any other thing that I sing. It brings me just a sense of peace, a sense of fluidity if that makes sense. I don’t feel any restrictions on my body, on my voice. I just feel very free.” – Javier Colon
“I love the writing process. One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to go in and create something out of nothing, something that did not exist before.” – Javier Colon
“When I’m not having the greatest day, sometimes I put on a certain kind of music that will either make me feel happy…that is kind of putting yourself in a mindful place.” – Javier Colon
Patience: Slow and Steady
Being patient with oneself is often easier said than done. For example, the thoughts generated by our minds may seem to be repetitious and endless. We experience thoughts that cycle over the same thing again and again. It feels like we are facing off against a daunting opponent. However, if we recognize these thoughts through mindful awareness and assume a posture of presence in the moment, we can shift, decrease our attachment to those thoughts, as well as our endless the cycling and recycling of them. Through mindful awareness practices, our “noble” opponent becomes an opportunity.
by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN
Being patient with oneself is often easier said than done. For example, the thoughts generated by our minds may seem to be repetitious and endless. We experience thoughts that cycle over the same thing again and again. It feels like we are facing off against a daunting opponent. However, if we recognize these thoughts through mindful awareness and assume a posture of presence in the moment, we can shift, decrease our attachment to those thoughts, as well as our endless cycling and recycling of them. Through mindful awareness practices, our “noble” opponent becomes an opportunity.
How do we turn our noble opponent described above into an opportunity? What do we need to do to create a favorable outcome? By quieting the mind, which helps decrease resistance (and consequently increasing acceptance) through mindfulness practices, we generate a sense of calm that slowly, with consistent practice, increases our awareness and somehow gets us off auto-pilot.
Patience is key. Cultivating patience contains the potential for releasing expectations, allowing us to be in the flow of any situation. Patience viewed this way is dynamic because we are acknowledging that life is impermanent.
Why is impermanence crucial to an understanding of the nature of human life and mindful practices?? Look at nature. Seeds become plants, create flowers and fruits, then wither and die and leave seeds to be born again. Some seeds blossom and thrive - but some seeds remain hidden for years before the light reaches them. Nature operates on a system of life and death, birth and aging, growth and decline, embodying impermanence. Look at the land after a hurricane or a tornado. Our suffering comes from placing an expectation for our life to remain unchanged. We cling to an expectation of being safe from tragedy, free of illness. Yet no matter how much we plan and hope, life continues to bring in the unexpected.
Today we face unprecedented demands on our patience, time, and energy reserves that a few short months ago, we would have dismissed as folly. A global pandemic seemed impossible, yet here we are.
Businesses are closing, and those that are open are shifting perspectives, creating different formats, whether folks like it or not.
Families work, school, and play together in a constrained personal space while being separated from extended family.
Consider the persistent social and economic crises. It may seem like the world is turning upside down, over, and over again. All of this affects how we feel, what we think, and how we treat each other and ourselves. At times the influx of information to digest today is overwhelming.
Patience and mindfulness practice help us deal with that uncertainty and the knowing that nothing is permanent. Our intent is not to conquer our thoughts but rather to be aware of them.
David Nichtern, in Awakening from the Daydream, suggests: “ a much more potent approach is to take the attitude that whatever arises in our minds is manageable and we do not have to try to conquer it with an aggressive and goal-oriented approach.”
Our society trains us to be very goal oriented. We can use this to our benefit by adding in a mindful moment, which is an easy way to incorporate balance into our daily patterns. Simply pausing and focusing on our breath really makes a difference, defusing the refrain of “I gotta do, gotta be.”
Adding in a more contemplative exercise such as meditation or prayer allows the unknowable to peek in, adding a dimension of peace to the numerous possibilities we face daily. Maybe we don’t feel the peace immediately, maybe even not the first time or two, but with practice, we become more sensitive to our thoughts. Slowly, we develop the ability to live without getting carried away by our thoughts. Adding in patience and kindness towards ourselves yields positive, foundational change.
Here at Cloud9 Online: www:c9ohealth.com, we suggest that yes, we can create more inner calm as we live with and live through these changes. We offer a meditation app, MediMind, for free for a limited time that includes music. This App is easy to find and use on all devices, allows you to have mindful practice in your daily life.
In the meantime: Slow and steady cultivates more kindness towards self and a sense of peacefulness. When we feel patient and calm, we offer that to the world around us. Patience grows the capacity to endure what is complicated or disagreeable without complaining, or at the very least, with more tolerance.
Remember: Breathe in. . .breathe out… It’s that easy.
Citations: David Nichtern, in Awakening from the Daydream
Mindfulness and Our Cells
Technology moves in nanoseconds. Innovations in the medical field alone astound us. Technology allows us to venture into micro spaces unheard of a few short years ago. We can verify, quantify, and qualify biological processes reducing harm to our physical body while mending, healing in proactive ways.
The mind, too, is a part of this process. I would say that the days of seeing the mental function separate from our body and seeing our body as just a machine may be over. As we integrate within ourselves and integrate our knowledge that the mind and body, emotions, our spiritual senses, make up who we are, we see our self, our body as an inclusive operating system with many components that interact holistically. Maybe we can start asking the question: If I need to fix or heal an aspect of my heart, what impact will it have on my liver, kidney, sleep, or even my mood?
by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN
Technology moves in nanoseconds. Innovations in the medical field alone astound us. Technology allows us to venture into micro spaces unheard of a few short years ago. We can verify, quantify, and qualify biological processes reducing harm to our physical body while mending, healing in proactive ways.
The mind, too, is a part of this process. I would say that the days of seeing the mental function separate from our body and seeing our body as just a machine may be over. As we integrate within ourselves and integrate our knowledge that the mind and body, emotions, our spiritual senses, make up who we are, we see our self, our body as an inclusive operating system with many components that interact holistically. Maybe we can start asking the question: If I need to fix or heal an aspect of my heart, what impact will it have on my liver, kidney, sleep, or even my mood?
Today we are living in a time of considerable uncertainty, filled with tensions and stresses some healthy, some detrimental. Yet it is through these very tensions that something stirs us to create, to be something more.
Bruce Lipton, the author of Biology of Belief, is a cellular biologist who began to see the world of a cell from a different perspective. He studied one cell, which led him to discover how cells work together in community. Remember, we are composed of trillions of cells, and somehow, they do work in harmony with each other. Liver cells get to function as liver cells though they connected to bile cells, and kidneys happen to be nearby. His research validates that we are one, and what we do affects the whole. We are a remarkable operating system.
Dr. Lipton discovered that as cells evolved from a single cell into units, a community formed, which changed the rules. What one does, does affect the whole. Dr. Lipton goes on to describe how a cell wall functions as the doorkeeper. The cell wall membrane receives signals from the environment, and they make internal decisions accordingly.
"...a cell's life is controlled by the physical and energetic environment and not by its genes. Genes are simply molecular blueprints used in the construction of cells, tissues, and organs. The environment serves as a "contractor" who reads and engages those genetic blueprints and is ultimately responsible for the character of a cell's life." (Biology of Belief, p 15.)
He stresses that the environment plays an enormous role in determining who gets through the cell membrane's doors. Dr. Lipton discovered and observed that the mind, through its various complex signals, can override the cell's decision making. So, what we think, what we feel directly influences a cell's function. What does this have to do with mindfulness practices? When we sit and focus on our breath, we change our biochemistry.
"When you take a deep breath in, your heart rate quickens slightly. As you exhale, your heart rate slows. Repeated deep breaths will naturally bring your heart rate more in sync with your breath. This leads your brain to release endorphins, which are chemicals that have a natural calming effect. But if you're stuck in shallow breathing, that endorphin release doesn't happen. "(Does Deep Breathing Really Do Anything? Updated April 23, 2019, from NeuroCore)
Now we can penetrate the halls of medicine, bridging ancient wisdom with a science framework that will open the doors to understanding the value of alternative practices such as mindfulness, including various forms of meditation.
Here at MediMind, we seek to offer solutions to everyday living by providing meditations that reach into our holistic nature, that moves us toward health, well-being and strengthens our ability to cope with whatever the outside world brings to our doorstep. Not only that, but meditations can offer ways to create bridges between each other and consider we are one. Remember, take a moment today to breathe in …and breathe… out with mindfulness.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180423135048.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106190050.htm