Breathing exercises are a saving grace in these times when smoke fills our air.
Melissa Verton Rinvold of Blue Eagle Yoga has been presenting these classes for more than a decade (at the Schubert Centre Mondays from 1 to 2 p.m. and Fridays from 10 to 11 a.m.) Thousands have attended and found that yoga provides a powerful approach to training the lungs to be the organs they are meant to be.
Breath is life and when our air quality is greatly compromised as it is these days, those with COPD, asthma and environmental allergies suffer, as the quality of their lives is greatly compromised.
The breathing exercises are combined with yogic movements that encourage both inhalations and exhalations. At the onset of every class, a series of breathing exercises are practised to cleanse and condition the lungs as well as open the airways. Over the hour-long class, a progressive approach boosts circulation as well as metabolism (the use and function of oxygen for every function in the body) by up to 500 per cent.
Rinvold has been a practitioner of yoga for more than 46 years and teaching for several decades and at one time suffered from chronic environmental asthma and had to have on hand three different types of inhalers at any given time to arrest an asthma attack.
“I haven’t had to use a puffer in more than eight years…not once, as I practise these breathing exercises regularly and they allow me to live free of asthma,” said Rinvold.
Asthma can be a very frightening experience and one that can be very traumatic. Long-term exposure to environmental toxins, as we are all experiencing here in the Okanagan, can result in causing asthma.
If you are having trouble breathing and wish to explore the natural approach to learning proper breathing exercises that will increase circulation, cleanse your airways and lungs and result in increasing quality of life and boosting your energy, feel free to drop into these classes, which are offered by donation only.
There are also supportive manuals available for these classes. Self-published, these books are written by Rinvold on the therapeutic benefits of yoga: Smart Movement I with Notes for Teachers &Therapists written in 2008 for a program that has been in the schools since 2008; Yoga in Chair with Notes for Teachers &Therapists in 2015; Yoga for Pregnancy and Post Partum with Notes for Teachers &Therapists in 2008; Yoga for Balancing Female Energy with Notes for Teachers &Therapists in 2012; and the most recent publication, The Art of Breathing with Notes for Teachers &Therapists in 2012 (all available in e-book form and hardcopy).
The Art of Breathing contains a comprehensive approach to understanding the basic principles of full diaphragmatic breathing as well as an introduction to all of the basic breathing exercises. Complete with all of the do’s and don’ts as well as the traditional spiritual approach, yoga purports to understand each breath as the gift of life and meditation.
All information on teacher trainings, workshops and classes is at blueeagleyoga.com, as well as at wholistichive.com, a locally sponsored registry for holistic healers.