116 The Complete Home Guide to Herbs, Natural Healing, and Nutrition
Breath, Tranquillity, Laughter, Sounds, and Immunity
Like a contented baby who breathes with sublime bliss from its belly, we
too can learn to breathe deeply again. Breath is the basis of any silent or
moving meditation, just as it is the basis of dancing, singing, or laughing.
Breathing from the belly is something we do in deep sleep. Most of us,
during our waking hours, return to the more shallow breathing area of
the rib cage, which utilizes only one-third of our lung capacity. Oxygen is
so strongly connected to good health that it is helpful if we can learn to
discipline ourselves to return to the more contented and balanced method
of breathing, using the diaphragm and our entire lung capacity. Fear and
anger are emotions that create controlled, frozen, or spurted breathing
patterns high up in the chest. Outrage generally comes from the area of
the gut, the belly. Laughter also comes from the belly and is always a
strong, spontaneous medicine. At the age of three or so, a child’s
breathing moves from the belly more into the chest. This is a good age at
which to remind children about belly breathing, teaching them to use it
on occasion to calm grief, anger, fear, and other strong emotions. Adults,
set in patterns developed and acquired during the course of life, often
need more consistent practice. Breathing is a form of meditation on its
own, and many old cultures still practice it. It is also the basis of all life:
real, full life.
Perhaps the most attractive thing we are all capable of doing is
laughing — whether at jokes, clowning about, funny movies, or slapstick
humor. I make it my business to have these around me because I have
always been attracted to laughter-making entertainment and fi nd it vital for
my own well-being in the work I do. Very often, after a day spent treating
the pain and distress of others, laughter provides almost instantaneous
medicine. I’m a great fan
of comedy and have a growing collection of humorous videos so that I can
get a quick laughter fi x to balance all the other more serious things in life.
In the United States, where many progressive theories come from,
music is being used directly for pain relief, relaxation, alleviation of
psychiatric problems, and blood pressure reduction. In Britain’s National
Health Service, a hospital in Oxford is at present offering treatment using
music for stroke patients, together with massage at mealtimes to help
digestion and at nighttime to aid sleep.
Using Herbs for Our Immunity
Please refer to the section on “Immunity through Fermented Food” in
chapter 4, which will give you further insight and a more comprehensive
understanding of this subject.
Herbs that help the immune system can be used on a vibrational or a
immunity 116