increase your activity level as much as you can every day. Exercise is
essential to becoming healthy.
HABIT #4
DEEP BREATHING
The air we breathe is the life force for our physical body. Without it we
would die. God created a natural cycle whereby we breathe in oxygen,
carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen from plants, and we exhale carbon dioxide,
which is the essential breath or physical life force for plant life. Oxygen, of
course, is vital to your life. It is a great energizer, alkalizer and oxidizer. The
air we breathe (which is created by plants and trees) is alkaline, while the
carbon dioxide by-products we exhale are acidic. Being a predominately
alkaline species, it is vital that we learn to breathe properly and spend some
time deep breathing. This charges the system with negative ions creating a
cationic condition in the body, whereas shallow breathing creates over-acidity
and an anionic situation in the body. Oxygen and simple sugars are the main
fuels for our cells, as carbon dioxide is one of the main fuels for plants.
Most humans were never taught to breathe properly, so we have become
what are called “shallow breathers.” If our breath becomes shallow, so does
our life. Human beings and nature are not separate, but work together as one.
It is when the human’s ego separates him or her from nature that disease sets
in.
Deep breathing energizes the system, increasing circulation and lymph
flow. Deep breathing also clears the mind and settles the emotions, allowing
us to feel more at peace with ourselves and with nature.
The breath, in spiritual traditions, has been called the prana, chi, ki, life
force, spirit, mana, the ECK, and many other names. There are a few
individuals who consume mainly air as their food. I read about a Catholic nun
who supposedly lived only on snow, high in the Himalayan mountains. I was
personally moving in the direction of trying to live solely on air back in the
early seventies. I lived as a hermit in the national forests and state parks
around Florida. I lived on oranges only, for six months, hoping to eventually
eliminate those. However, my energy was so high that I kept having out-of-