"The Plan"- Mental and Spiritual

A large aspect of this experience that I never really expected to matter at all has been my mental and spiritual well being.

Honestly, I went into Senior Project with the expectation that I would spend 5 weeks learning how to work out correctly, and walk away with a better body after getting out of shape with my injury. I expected to make a plan as to show to stay in shape and eat right in college. There was nothing very concrete. That, I believe, was a complete blessing because it allowed my project to really take on a life of its own and lead me down a path that I never foresaw. This new path focused in on listening to my body--not just the physical aspect, but the emotional as well. When I felt stressed or upset, instead of wallowing in it or falling deeper into a hole, I examined why I was experiencing those feelings. Most of the time it was because of the energy that I was putting out. I am the master of my own being. If I focus on being happy, I will be. Over the course of this project, I have developed the skill of confronting problems head on rather than letting them fester. This has really done wonders to improve my relationships with friends and family which is a great blessing in these last few months that I am around my house.

The idea of living holistically is especially appealing to me because it acknowledges how much being emotionally out of balance can affect other areas of my life. When I go to college, it will be an extremely high stress environment, and I will be surrounded by a lot of people making poor choices. It will be up to me to make sure that I stay true to myself and don't fall into that bad decision making.

In order to help me stay calm and centered, one major thing I plan to practice in college is Yogic breathing. To better explain this, I looked to http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/pranayama/. It said:

"Pranayama - The Art of Yoga Breathing

When the Breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the Breath is still, so is the mind still." - Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Breathing is life. It is one of our most vital functions. One of the Five Principles of Yoga is Pranayama or Breathing Exercise which promotes proper breathing. In a Yogic point of view, proper breathing is to bring more oxygen to the blood and to the brain, and to control Prana or the vital life energy. Pranayama Yoga also goes hand in hand with the Asanas. The union of these two Yogic Principles is considered as the highest form of purification and self-discipline, covering both mind and body.

High Breathing

The Complete Breath High Breathing refers to what takes place primarily in the upper part of the chest and lungs. This has been called "Clavicular Breathing" or "Collarbone Breathing" and involves raising the ribs, collarbone and shoulders. Persons with Asthma, a tight belt, a full stomach or who otherwise become short of breath tend to resort to high breathing. One may deliberately draw in his abdomen and force its contents upward against the diaphragm and into the chest cavity in order to cause High Breathing. High Breathing is naturally shallow and a larger percentage of it fails to reach the alveoli and enter into usable gaseous exchange.


This is the least desirable form of breathing since the upper lobes of the lungs are used and these have only a small air capacity. Also the upper rib cage is fairly rigid, so not much expansion of the ribs can take place. A great deal of Muscular energy is expended in pressing against the diaphragm and in keeping the ribs and shoulders raised abnormally high. This form of breathing is quite common, especially among Women, probably because they often wear tight clothes around the waist which prevents the far superior abdominal breathing. It's a common cause of digestive, stomach, constipation and gynecological problems.

Low Breathing

Low breathing refers to what takes place primarily in the lower part of the chest and lungs. It is far more effective than high or mid breathing. It consists mainly in moving the abdomen in and out and in changing the position of the diaphragm through such movements. Because of this, it is sometimes called "Abdominal Breathing" and "Diaphragmic Breathing." Sedentary persons who habitually bend forward while they read or write tend to slump into low breathing. Whenever one slouches or slackens his shoulder and chest muscles, he normally adopts low breathing. We often use low breathing when sleeping. But whenever we become physically active, as in walking, running or lifting, we are likely to find abdominal breathing inadequate for our needs. To do low breathing, when you inhale you push the stomach gently forwards with no strain. When exhaling you allow the stomach to return to its normal position.

This Type of Breathing is far superior to high or mid breathing for four reasons: (1) more air is taken in when inhaling, due to greater movement of the lungs and the fact that the lower lobes of the lungs have a larger capacity than the upper lobes; (2) the diaphragm acts like a second Heart. Its piston-like movements expand the base of the lungs, allowing them to suck in more venous blood- the increase in the venous circulation improves the general Circulation; (3) the abdominal organs are massaged by the up and down movements of the diaphragm; and (4) low breathing has a beneficial effect on the solar plexus, a very important nerve center.

Middle Breathing

Middle Breathing is a little harder to describe since the limits of variability are more indefinite. Yet, it is breathing in which mainly the middle parts of the lungs are filled with air. It exhibits some of the characteristics of both high breathing, since the ribs rise and the chest expands somewhat, and low breathing, since the diaphragm moves up and down and the abdomen in and out a little. It has been called Thoracic or Intercoastal or Rib Breathing. But too often it also remains a shallow type of breathing. With this form of breathing, the ribs and chest are expanded sideways. This is better than high breathing, but far inferior to low breathing and the Yoga Complete Breath Technique.

The Complete Breath

Most of us use three or four Kinds of Breathing. These may be called high, low and middle breathing and complete breathing. The complete breath is a combination of high breathing, mid breathing and low breathing.

The Complete Breath, as defined by Yoga, involves the entire Respiratory System and not only includes the portions of the lungs used in high, low and middle breathing, but expands the lungs so as to take in more air than the amounts inhaled by all of these Three Kinds of Breathing together when they are employed in shallow breathing. The complete breath is not just deep breathing; it is the deepest possible breathing. Not only does one raise his shoulders, collarbone and ribs, as in high breathing, and also extend his abdomen and lower his diaphragm, as in low breathing, but he does both as much as is needed to expand his lungs to their fullest capacity.

The Yoga Complete Breath is the basic technique of all the different types of Yoga Breathing, and therefore should be mastered before you learn the specific breathing exercises. It brings the whole lung capacity into play and is the basis of the three specific breathing exercises. Keep in mind that this Type of Breathing is only done when you do the breathing exercises. The rest of the time you should be doing low breathing by pushing the stomach out slightly when you inhale, and then just letting the stomach fall back to its original position when you exhale. Also, make sure you are breathing through your nose and not your mouth.

The Four Stages of Breathing in Yoga

1. Puraka (Inhalation)

A single inhalation is termed Puraka. It is a process of drawing in air and is expected to be smooth and continuous. If a person should pause one or more times during the process of a single inhaling, the process might be spoken of as a broken Puraka rather than as a series of Purakas.

2. Abhyantara Kumbhaka (Pause After Inhaling) Full Pause

Kumbhaka consists of deliberate stoppage of flow of air and retention of the air in the lungs, without any movement of lungs or muscles or any part of the body and without any incipient movements. A beginner may experiment by using some force to keep such pause motionless. Quite elaborate instructions and techniques have been worked out for this purpose.

3. Rechaka (Exhalation)

The third stage, Exhalation, is called Rechaka. Like inhalation, it too should be smooth and continuous, though often the speed of exhaling is different from that of inhaling. Normally, muscular energy is used for inhaling whereas exhaling consists merely of relaxing the tensed muscles. Such relaxing forces air from the lungs as they return to a relaxed condition. Muscular effort may also be used for both inhalation and exhalation. You can force air out with muscular effort like when you sit or stand erect with your abdominal muscles under constant control. When you deliberately smooths the course of your breathing and hold the cycle in regular or definitely irregular patterns, you are also likely to use muscular energy at each stage, including the pauses. However, in a condition of complete relaxation, you should expect to exert some effort for inhalation.

4. Bahya Kumbhaka (Pause After Exhaling) Empty Pause

The Fourth Stage of Breathing, the pause after exhaling, is also called kumbhaka, especially when the stoppage is deliberate or prolonged. This empty pause completes the cycle which terminates as the pause ends and a new inhalation begins.

To take that a step further, I began looking into meditation techniques at www.freemeditations.com. I was extremely pleased to find that the introduction to the site exactly reflected everything that I have learned and come to believe:

"The aim of free meditations is to bring inner peace within our self and the world in a positive and spiritual way. The world is not a peaceful place and within every soul there is some form of tension and stress. It is therefore essential to create positive and peaceful thoughts to bring peace to our mind. Meditation is one of the best methods to bring about transformation and nurture the natural qualities within.

The best way that we can create that change is to change our thoughts from being negative to positive. The positive discovery about meditation is that we are focusing within our self and becoming free of negativity. Meditation techniques simply involve a process of transforming yourself, your thoughts, and recognizing the negative thoughts, and changing them into positive and peaceful thoughts.

The best attitude towards meditation is to be very patient as the mind does not always want to focus. Having a sense of expectation towards positive results can create uncomfortable pressure and thus take away the enjoyment of the experience. By practicing meditation regularly, the person whom meditates gains a wonderful sense of the self.

Meditation is a self healing process, any form of stress is a sign of our negative thinking and Dis ease within our mind. If we don't attend to disease in the mind we may find that chronic stress can lead to disease of the body."

This site completely agreed with everything that I have been preaching about changing thoughts to reach happiness and calm. As I read on, the site offers links, instructions, and guides to dozens of meditation styles. After reading about several, I decided that Mindfulness Meditation was the style that was right for me. A lot of the others had extreme religious ties (which I am not yet looking for because truly, I don't know what I am. I like some aspects of Buddhism, but not all. I believe in finding spirituality through nature. Part of me thinks I'm agnostic, but part of me thinks that is a cop-out. Bottom line is, I am not ready for a meditation connected with a specific religion. Part of this journey is finding out what religion means to me.), or asked you to think about certain things while you meditated. Mindfulness meditation asks you to focus on breathing, and consciously freeing your body of stress. Here is the complete guide:

"Mindfulness Meditation

Equipping individuals to deal with stressful situations by accepting them and being aware of them, Mindfulness Meditation is an effective and miraculous technique of meditation against life’s problems and situations.

True, stress, anger, disappointments, frustrations, and other negative emotions adversely affect our minds and even bodies. Such negative emotions and actions should be dealt effectively and set-backs should be accepted without injuring our health. Mindfulness Meditation is that medicine which helps to deal with negative emotions and situations in the most effective manner.

Mindfulness Meditation, also referred to as Insightful Meditation, requires or allows individuals to be aware of their surroundings, to develop a sense of sensitivity in perceiving every moment, and enabling them to accept stressful situations, instead of avoiding them. By being aware of the inner state of our minds during Mindfulness Meditation, we can accept difficult situations in our lives without much resistance.

Through the practice of Meditation, we can train our minds to achieve a state of tranquility, without being disturbed by outside forces. Mindfulness Meditation helps in training and developing the strengths of the mind to achieve this peacefulness.

One can practice Mindfulness Meditation by sitting in an appropriate upright position, cross-legged, and focusing on our breath or anything else, such as mental and physical processes which help us in becoming aware of our present thought patterns and inner state.

The practice of Mindfulness Meditation focuses our attention on our thoughts, actions, and present moments non-judgmentally. It does not encourage evaluating or thinking on our past actions and neither does it take our thoughts to the uncertain future. Mindfulness Meditation helps and trains our mind from getting distracted by outside disturbances and enables us to focus our thoughts and relax the mind.

Mindfulness Meditation can be conducted or practiced through informal and formal techniques. While formal Mindfulness Meditation involves Yoga, in which there is a control and awareness of breathing patterns with appropriate body movements, informal Mindfulness Meditation includes taking into account each experience in life with relish and enjoyment.

Mindfulness Meditation is a technique of introspection or insight through which we can obtain a clear picture of our thoughts and inner states, focus our thoughts, and even train our mind to perceive things and situations more effectively."

I plan to practice ten minutes of mindful meditation per day, isolating myself in a quiet, dark space, and clearing my mind. I will focus on low breathing and consciously changing my thoughts and energy to positivity. Hopefully this will help me find optimal success and make the best choices in college.