I refuse to be defined by my age or by asthma!

Yes, it’s true that I am now 64 years old and that I have been experiencing the condition of asthma for most of my life.

Yes, it’s true that there are defined ways that I should act and behave because of both of those conditions, and I probably would act and behave in those prescribed ways if I didn’t have inklings long ago that just kept telling me that something about that was just not right.

I may not have ever been driven to find out more about our innate human nature and ability to recreate our bodies, minds, and circumstances, to move past our conditioning, and come full circle to the potential that exists within each of us had I not had my worst year for breathing in 2020.

I’m not going to lie. I didn’t come easily to this, and my conditioned responses still sometimes try to throw me off track and back to my comfortable discomfort. But I am inspired now – literally because I have come to truly understand the power of the breath. How we are created by it in the beginning and continually throughout our entirety. Not only that. How we can recreate and renew ourselves, and yes, redefine ourselves, simply by breathing.

The fact that our breathing is both autonomic and conscious is both a blessing and a curse to many of us who have been forcefully willed to believe that we must accept the hand we’ve been dealt. That we can’t change the expression of our genes, and the conditions of aging. “I know how to breathe, I do it all the time”. I hear this more often than I’d like, because people are no longer aware of the conscious aspect of our breathing and that if we can control our breathing, we can take command of our lives.

That is exactly what I have done, and it began when I came across a book called BREATHE…and I realized that I can move past my conditions. That I can rid myself of the definitions of age and asthma. That I can increase my lung capacity, which I was told was static. That I can become younger (biologically), stronger, fitter, happier. This is exactly what I did.

In the 10 months since I got a hold of that book, I have become a Certified BREATHE Teacher, Certified Functional Breathing and Movement Teacher teacher and now training to be a Chi Walking/Running Instructor.

I have learned more about breathing than I could have imagined before then. Most notably, how we can change everything about ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, right down to the cellular level by conscious practicing the command of our breathing. I have proven all that and more to myself by become younger with a biological age of 41, and fitter, able to run for miles when 10 months ago walking was becoming strenuous.

Who’d have thought that a 64 year old asthmatic would have discovered her purpose, of teaching others to access their potential through breathing and movement so late in life? I guess that’s what gives it the impact. Knowing that if I can do it, so can you.

All you need is willingness and determination, because even though it’s simple, it’s not easy. There will be times when your conditioned fear will get the better of you when practicing the exercises. You must be willing to accept that you are safe in the moment, and that you have complete control. Only then will your body’s autonomic responses allow you to relax into the process. That’s when the real magic begins to happen. When your body remembers how it is meant to breathe. You will begin to transform immediately at that point, and the more you understand and practice, the greater the transformation.