Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

A year and a half ago, I started practicing breathing reduction, based on the teachings of Konstantine Buteyko. His program included this exercise that you were supposed to do every day. So, for about three weeks, I did it every day. But I soon gave it up because I was struggling to hold a control pause any higher than 8 seconds, and the teachings say that a “healthy person” should be able to easily hold a control pause of at least 20 seconds. Any less than that, they say, is a sign of poor health and an imbalance in your body. I was told that if it weren’t for the fact that I exercised so much, I would have much more disease in my body because of my poor breathing habits. Buteyko taught that an extremely fit and healthy person could easily hold up to forty second control pauses. My ego was riled. I considered myself a healthy person, at least. (and I’d even go so far as to say in excellent health and fitness) but I couldn’t even imagine holding a twenty second control pause, much l...

OK.  So, I got off track. This whole past week I was... well I... I sort of blew it.  I guess I was off in another world or something, but I didn’t do my exercises or my shopping trips, my morning routine or my nine cups a day of vegetables. In a word, I failed. But, the important thing is to be resilient and not let this become all about me failing. I can sit here and blame the snow, the power outage, the injury I had in my hand or anything, but the reality is, in the end, I didn’t do what I set out to do.  Excuses don’t change that, they only maybe help us feel better about it. So instead of excuses, I’m going to reboot and do it right this time. “You can’t fail if you haven’t given up yet.” So I'm not going to give up, I’m going to take this opportunity to go over what was and wasn’t working with my program and move forward. First and foremost, it’s crucial to re-assess my goals. Since I’m always working towards them, my goals will be changing and my ...

People who are concerned with their health and longevity would do well for themselves to examine and be aware of how often their mouths are open.  It is more healthy to breathe through our nose.  The nose is a filter that prepares air for the body’s consumption.  The nasal hairs and the mucus therein serve as a trap for many of the impurities in the air before it reaches our lung tissues.  When this mucus accumulates enough soot, it will harden and flake off, creating boogers. If you’d ever examined how disgusting a booger is, you’d be grateful for them; they’ve prevented all of that filth from entering your lungs. Taking a breath through your mouth delivers completely unfiltered air directly into your lungs, leaving all of that impure and toxic soot for your sensitive lung tissue to deal with.  The nasal passage also serves to warm the air. The inside of our body is just under 99 degrees Fahrenheit.  Even a slight deviation from that precise temperature ca...