A) There is a right way to take care of our bodies. There is a right way to care for our children, a right way to eat, to exercise, to bathe. We need to acknowledge that none of it is random. There are lifestyles that increase longevity and lifestyles that decrease it.
B) Once we accept that, we can focus on economy of motion, using less energy to achieve the best results.
C) Diet plays a huge role in our emotions, anxiety, hormones, sleep, weight, energy, inflammation, disorders of the body, and disease.
D) Exercise does exactly the same thing. We need to look at it as movement, the system that supports our structure and enables us to act in the world.
E) Anxiety is a reality for all creatures with brains and nervous systems.
F) Humans carry the greater burden of regulating that nervous system, because we are intelligent thinkers and less instinctual. We do as the unconscious mind dictates, until we learn how to become present. You are present now, if you are hearing these words.
G) Anxiety is at the root of our suffering. It is physically painful, and the obsessive, negative looping mind is a torture chamber. But the end of anxiety is a closer path than you think. It's easier said than done, like most things.
H) A large part of why anxiety persists is our family of origin stuff. The intensity of our anxiety, and its persistence, also has a lot to do with our daily habits, our addictions, and our genetics.
I) We can work on our family of origin stuff, hoping that in time our place on the anxiety spectrum shifts, or we can work directly on regulating the chemical part of the equation. The truth is, we must work on both, the early developmental stuff and the present day self help, self accountability, survival stuff as well.
J) As part of that regulation practice, breath control, focus, and redirecting the mind are the primary drivers of growth, followed by character development.
K) Character development comes with knowledge, with dissecting our existing character flaws and then making the effort to fix those details. Part of that development is to stop the addiction, to become aware and willing to change, and to end the cycle of despair that runs through generations. Practice is repetition, and repetition is how humans learn.
L) Meditation, both in stillness and in movement, gives us focus, activates better breathing patterns, and creates relaxation through neurotransmitters and hormones that feel good to the mind. Therapy, writing, reading, and service work are critical companions to healing.
M) Service is returning the knowledge to those who seek it.
N) The objective is not immortality. It is compassion and a connection to the self. It is the end of chronic anxiety and the dawn of new reactions. This is how we become what we were meant to be, stewards of life and protectors of the weak.
O) The first exercise in this work is committing to daily breathing exercises, designed to build a habit and to become increasingly more potent over time.
P) The best pattern of breathing is nasal breathing. But the first rule is to notice when you are holding your breath or breathing shallowly.
Q) Practice over time, and don't fall away from it. Do short breathing exercises of 3 to 10 minutes daily, or 3 minutes twice a day, or as long as you can handle. Expect boredom, lack of focus, agitation, and anxiety to show up when you work on this. Expect to forget, to lose interest, and to keep doubting that any of it works. That's the mind itself playing tricks on you, trying to avoid quieting down.
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