There are five pillars of health and well-being: 1. A healthy nerve system 2. Positive Mental Attitude 3. Nutrition 4. Exercise 5. Rest. The past several weeks we have focused on on #2 a positive mental attitude. Last week we provided a mantra to be repeated to help us keep in a state of well-being. This week we are going to add to that with a breathing exercise I learned from Dr. Sid E. Williams of Life University.
Dr. Sid learn Chiropractic from Dr. BJ palmer. They were neighbors in Sarasota, Fl until the time of BJ’s death in 1961. As the founder of Life University in Atlanta, GA he produced more Chiropractors than any other individual. He had 17 practices around Atlanta. Dr. Sid is credited with bring Chiropractic to Medicare and the Olympics. For over fifty years he also ran the largest Chiropractic seminar.gathering, Dynamic Essentials. I had the pleasure of siting at Dr. Sid’s feet nearer the end of his physical life.
Dr. Sid was successful with people also. He had a deep, commanding, southern drawl that demanded respect and also was gentle enough to touch your heart. He had a way to see into your soul when you shook his hand. I remember the first time I did, He had a strong firm grip and a gaze that not only drew you into his world, but changed the way you saw your own. He was a man whom you could see all of eternity in his eyes. He had a firm grip that pulled you near him but a soft touch. You had no choice but to pull yourself upright in his presence.
Then there was the way he commanded a room. When he walked in, not only did everything stop, but all attention was on him. Much in the same way a bride receives attention when the chapel doors open. All conversation ceased, each person turned, and then, the eruption of cheers. He shook more hands than a politician at the polls and each person will tell you the statements I noted above. His entrance easily took fifteen to twenty minutes. Maybe it was an hour that only felt like fifteen or twenty minutes.
He would deliver his speech from the heart, not from notes or anything pre-written. On stage he knew if you were listening or not. He would repeat lines of his speech over and over when it was important until he knew he had everyone’s attention and that you wrote it down. His only agenda was convey Chiropractic’s principles of success to the point that every Chiropractor in the room understood the principle of innate intelligence. Even if he had to repeat himself multiple times. Only once he was certain everyone in the room heard and wrote down the point he was making, only then would he move on.
He would end his speeches with a meditation called the Forty-nine breaths. Just like his speaking, he would do sets of forty-nine breaths until everyone in the room was resonating at the same frequency. Forty-nine sets of forty-nine breaths was not uncommon. But the light airy sensation you had would last the duration of a weekend even though it was only Thursday. Yes, people would pass out, dedication to a proper cause will test your limits.Once an entire room, often approximating or surpassing two-thousand chiropractors, assistants, spouses, and children were at the same frequency would he conclude.
It is that forty-nine breath sequence that i will now teach you… I suggest you read and then watch the video below.
We will do four sets of seven – fourteen- fourteen- fourteen repetitions. Sit upright, in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your knees and hips at ninety degrees each. Your head is to be upright and extended toward the sky so that your chest puff out. As we breathe, our hands are place on our thighs, palms up and open to the sky. In between sets, we will maintain the same posture, place our palms down on our thighs and recite affirmations that are placed on our heart. You may, to get started, recite the “I can, I will, I must” from last week.
Each breath begins with your chin on your chest and as you inhale raise you head to the sky. keep your eyes closed. Inhale forcibly and quickly through your nose and forcibly out through your mouth. Maintain your posture as this is a discipline. You will feel warm and lightheaded. (I do not suggest you pass out as you may fall and injure yourself.) Be mindful of your lightheadedness and fight to maintain composure.
This week I encourage you to exercise your state of being by performing the forty-nine breaths and repeating to yourself, aloud, the phrase, “I can, I will, I must” as well as any other affirmation that comes upon your heart. Next week, we’ll complete the process with cleansing breaths.
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