Green Smoothie Challenge - Day 7!

Today is the last day of the Green Smoothie Challenge! I hope you all have benefited in one way or another from this week of green smoothies. It's been a good week for me and I'm ready to have another week of green smoothies! To end this week of the Green Smoothie Challenge, I wanted to share something I found in "12 Steps to Raw Foods" by Victoria Boutenko. It is about Breathing properly. This is a very interesting and easy way to increase our health.

"Proper Breathing. Oxygen plays a vital role in the circulatory and respiratory systems. As we breathe, oxygen that is inhaled nourishes the body and purifies the blood by removing poisonous waste products circulating throughout our blood system. According to Michael White, founder of The Optimal Breathing Development System, "the respiratory system is responsible for eliminating 70% of our metabolic waste." Irregular breathing may hinder this purification process and cause waste products to remain in circulation, which may contribute to many serious illnesses.

Based on years of research, White states: "Most people have unhealthy breathing habits. They hold their breath or breathe high in the chest or in a shallow, irregular manner. These patterns have been unconsciously adopted, accidentally formed, or emotionally impressed. Certain 'typical' breathing patterns may trigger physiological and psychological stress and anxiety reactions."

To check your own pattern of breathing, sit in a quiet place and relax for a minute or two. Put your hand, horizontally, about one inch above your navel. Close your eyes. Breathe normally without trying to influence your breathing one way or the other. Observe how your abdomen moves every time you breathe in and out. If you are breathing correctly, you should find that the hand over the stomach moves as you breathe in and out.

Abdominal breathing is the correct way of breathing. If your chest is moving as you breathe, and you do not have a medical reason to do so, that means that you are breathing shallowly and incorrectly.

Begin paying steady attention to your breathing. Any time you find yourself holding your breath, breathing irregularly or too rapidly, go back to your abdominal breathing."

I don't know about you - but I hold my breath a lot! It's interesting when we become aware of our breathing how incorrectly most of us our breathing. I've been really trying to work on my breathing. The fact that 70% of our metabolic waste is eliminated through our breathing, amazes me! So, that's my 2 cents!

Have a good weekend!

I'll be sending an email out later today for the next week of the Green Smoothie Challenge!