MM#49--the Breath of Life

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.


Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. Today we're going to focus on breathing. And before we jump in, want to cheat you join me in one big inhale, here we go. And exhale isn't that simple act of breathing, just extraordinary. To me it is. So let us ponder this. When God breathed life into Adams nostrils, human beings were created. In fact, here is the actual scriptural verse from the Holy Bible, Genesis two seven, quote, then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, unquote. Contemplate that verse for a minute. What jumps out to you? What jumps out to me was that life was created by the breath of God. And I've been pondering and praying about that verse for the last 15 years. It's so profound. How about you? 

Do you stop yourself to ponder the wonders of human life, the human body and our world? Maybe stopping to ponder our breathing. Now, breathing didn't happen in the Big Bang. There was no big bang theory to describe breathing, or the human body. Though, the Big Bang Theory, TV show is quite good. It's extremely funny, probably some of the best writing of a TV show since Seinfeld, I would argue. But back to this breathing thing. The Hebrew word used here and Genesis two seven is Rula. And I apologize to my Hebrew speakers. And, and Jewish scholars, if I'm pronouncing that word wrong. Rua though, means both breath and spirit, breath, and spirit. How very cool. And you know, when I was suffering when you suffer a sickness, and if that sickness is quite dangerous, your mind begins to race in all kinds of different directions with all kinds of different outcomes. 

And my mind was certainly racing when I had COVID. And the funny thing is, I became entirely dependent on my pulse oximeter. As a side note, if you don't have a pulse oximeter, I would recommend you go out and get one now 20 bucks on Amazon. If you don't know what a pulse oximeter is, it is goes on, it's a portable device goes on the tip of your finger and measures your blood oxygen level, by by saturation level. So it's extremely important to have during COVID If you have it. And until we get out of this, it's, it would be good to have on hand. So but I would I became entirely dependent on mind. And I would check it every two to three hours. And I'd be thinking, how's my breath doing? 

As if subconsciously I was asking myself How is my life doing? Am I slipping away? And then I'd ask and pray to the Lord God, please allow me to keep breathing. You who created breath and breathe that life into our ancestors and breathed that into every living human being today, around the world. And for all time, please allow me to continue to breathe. Please give me that grace to continue to breathe. And breath is crucial to our lives. In fact, if you stop breathing, I don't recommend it. But if you stop breathing, you'll die. That's a morbid thought. Isn't it? So don't stop Breathing you out there, do not take my advice Do not stop breathing. But those were crucial prayers back in those days. And in fact, I just checked my pulse oximeter before this recording. I hadn't checked it in a couple of days. And thanks be to God, I'm still between 97-98 which is a good reading. But what about you? Do you check your breath?

Are you aware of your breath? Do you say a Thanksgiving prayer for your breath? Perhaps? Do you say a Thanksgiving prayer for your life. That's all kinds of stuff we take for granted isn't it when it just happens when the human body just automatically breathes inhales and exhales we just breathe not knowing where that gift of breath comes from. Now someone who has studied breath and the importance of it is former Navy SEAL Mark Divine. And in his must read book, unbeatable mind. The subtitle how to forge resiliency in mental toughness to succeed in an elite level, Mark helps us to understand how the Navy SEALs. 

And as a side note, do I might add 1/4 of them, I just read in a newspaper account that's extremely reliable. Unlike 99% of the other journalism that's out there, this one is extremely reliable. One quarter of the Navy SEALs right now are possibly being forced forced, mandated to receive one of the vaccine shots, which is just ludicrous. We're forcing our military to take the shots. No matter how you feel about the shots, and the vaccine, to force the military, to take them is just ludicrous. A quarter of them 600. I think we only have like 2400 Active Duty seals at any one time. I'm shaking my head. As I say this, you know, if this keeps up, we won't have anyone in the military to defend us, let alone our very best people, our special operations guys. This is clearly it's very clear now the adults are not running the military. 

Nevertheless, I will stay on topic. Back to the book and Mark Divine Mark teaches us something about the importance of our breath and our breathing. Let's go to the book quote. In a crunch situation, I recommend you collapse your concentration to your breathing while maintaining relaxed awareness of the surroundings. Breathing deeply will greatly reduce the stress, slow the heart rate and bring your nervous system back into balance. The mind will remain focused as your body becomes back into balance, then you can make better decisions in the midst of the chaos, danger, or the debilitating effect of fear. This is why breath awareness control. And control is the number one tool for unbeatable mind students who challenge themselves and push the envelope. And here's the important part for us. But it is equally effective to enhance your performance in the boardroom. The level of control over your physiology and psychology I'm talking about must be practiced and habituated until it becomes a routine skill. UNQUOTE, how powerful

there you have it, how powerful the importance of breathing whether you're contemplating the cosmos or contemplating your next action in the boardroom. It's extremely important. So in today's Mojo minute, let us do both. Let us contemplate the miracle that is breathing and let us be thankful for it and its blessing. And let us also put theory into action by gaining awareness of our breathing to enhance our performance in our everyday lives. And finally, let us breathe. Let's breathe that breath of life together. Inhale exhale

thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our Yo Paige AT T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on