How Do You Oxygenate Your Heart?
- And Grant Yourself the Gift of Good Health
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Highlight: Of the three elements necessary for us to survive – air, water and food, why is air the last you think of imbibing?
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How many times has a friend asked us “Come let’s have some fresh air.”? Certainly not as many times as you have been asked, “Come let’s have a drink”, or “C’mon let’s have a bite”! The catch here is that when you are asked the questions like “Come let’s have a drink”, or “C’mon let’s have a bite”, you invariably answer in the affirmative, even if you are not thirsty or hungry at that point in time!
Don’t you remember that when a friend offered to pour us a glass of her/his latest wine, you were in fact never thirsty at that time, but you drank the wine and that too ironically after raising a toast to somebody’s health! But how conscious were you of our own physical health when you drank the nth glass of wine? We certainly were not. Ironical isn’t it? So the fact is that you normally drink beverages, other than plain water, even you are not actually thirsty. Same holds true for having food.
We do eat (that last piece of pie) when you are not really hungry as you drink (another dry Martini) when you are not at all thirsty. Yes you do eat when you are hungry, but then how many times have you eaten when you were not hungry at all and were being plied upon with another piece of that crispy, crunchy delicious pie, after you had had our fill? Umpteen times, and especially so when you were amongst friends at a party. And of course you have rarely said “No thank you”, when you were offered one more glass of the best Smirnoff Vodka. At such times, the thought of whether you were at all thirsty is nowhere on our minds. Isn’t it true? Well you may answer that yourself!
But the point is how many times have you ever thought of having fresh air? Yes sometime you do. But then these are the rarest of rare moments, when you feel stuffy and breathless in crowded smoky room during a boisterous party, and feel our lungs cry out for a walk in the garden for cool fresh air. But then here it is our body that is crying out for fresh air, you are rarely invited by our family and friends to have fresh air, as compared to the times when you are invited for a drink “on the house” and for one more bite “for the road”. Right?
We do take in fresh air when you sprint across and are breathless, but then here to you do so not as a result of an invitation to take in fresh air but because our body is panting and puffing “like a grampus” and our lungs cry out for fresh air!
And now ask yourself what is the most important of the three things you imbibe, food, drink or air? Yes all three are necessary for us to live. But the question is, what is the order of their importance? Obviously you can survive for weeks together without food, perhaps after losing all stamina, but you can still pull along if you have water instead of food. Now how long can you survive without both water and food? Oh in this scenario you can survive for not more than a few days at the most. And now to the million dollar question, how long can you live without air? A few minutes at the most perhaps! Remarkable exceptions of stuntmen and magicians apart!
So folks, the message is loud and clear that you need fresh air all the time to survive and rejuvenate. Of the three elements necessary for us to survive – air, water and food, the first is the last you think of imbibing, as nature has created us in a way that breathing happens instinctively and virtually effortlessly. While you have to get up and walk across to the fridge to pick up a bottle of water, or a can of coke, or a glass of wine, or a sandwich; no such effort is called upon for us to breathe!
Now think about it, if you make an effort to take in the most universally available life-sustaining resource – air, what effect could it have on our health?
If this catches your interest, read the answer in the next article entitled:
“Breath Therapy” of Yoga and Pranayam
- Sudheer Birodkar