My first chronic ailment was eczema, which would flare up on my face, above my eyes, corners of my mouth and at my ear lobes, itching like crazy. It started when I was around 12, and I was prescribed Cortisone creams on and off until I met my mentor, Dr. Theresa Dale, when I was 26. The situation could be quite painful at times, not to mention embarrassing as it was right there, on my face.

Dr. Dale immediately set me straight about skin care. She explained that there were basically no healthy regulations in the personal care industry in the U.S. and unless and an ingredient was banned, it could be used! She went on about the dyes, made with heavy metals and fragrances containing formaldehyde and explained how these would create excitotoxicity to the body, and could even help cause cancer. Theresa even coached us on sunscreens, (this was way back in the Eighties) and explained that zinc oxide was the safest, that the chemical ones likely would cause cancer later, over time

She had me change my deodorant to an all-natural deodorant, so I could start detoxifying all of the aluminum I had storing inside of me, thanks to antiperspirant use since age 14. She explained that even makeup companies like Clinique still used toxic ingredients and that every commercial company out there did! Sadly, there weren’t a lot of good options in the beauty industry back then.

Unfortunately, the amount of chemicals in personal care products has only geometrically increased since then. Now we are used to fragrances in everything from laundry detergent, and dishwashing soaps to shampoos, body washes, conditioners and styling products. The vast majority of these fragrances are still preserved with formaldehyde. Yes, that’s right; the stuff mothballs are made of. It is legal, so why not?

I recently found a company that matches my core values on every level when it comes to skincare and beauty products. I have to admit, I am hard on products. I want them clean, not "green-washed," with sneaky little things that are suspicious. They have already banned (in-house) 1800 ingredients that are simply NOT safe. How refreshing, and cutting-edge. They are literally leading the way in the industry. They also are huge on responsible sourcing and sustainability, so there is integrity everywhere you look.

I know anything they come out with I can use and it will be safe, not create a reaction but even better is that these products perform. I am not going to recommend less than that, across the boards.

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One of the most mind-blowing things I learned early on in my recovery from my mentor, Dr. Theresa Dale, PhD, was about how parasitic infections are rampant in this country. Not only that, but our medical model completely ignores this fact. In a few moments, it will make complete sense WHY they ignore this, but first, let’s take a look at the wide range of symptoms parasites cause in their human hosts. See if you can identify with any of these:

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• Allergies/chronic sinus/stuffy nose/runny nose (airborne, food, pets etc)
• Brain Fog
• Cancer and many other chronic diseases
• Chemical Sensitivities
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Food Cravings/Sugar and alcohol cravings
• Food Sensitivities
• Gut symptoms, IBS/Crones/gas/diarrhea/constipation
• Hot flashes
• Insomnia
• Joint pain and Arthritis of any kind/Fibromyalgia/wandering pain
• Migraines
• Nail biting/cuticle biting/teeth grinding/jaw clenching
• Nightmares
• Neurological disorders
• Skin rashes/eczema/dandruff/itchy/flaky/acne

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The list is endless, honestly. So let’s think about this for a minute: in modern medicine, you may have noticed, the goal is to stop the symptom from occurring, using approved medical methods: drugs, surgery or radiation. When you realize why the American Medical Association (A.M.A) was founded by Mr. Rockefeller, it is very easy to see why proper detection and treatment of parasites would be a very large threat to PROFITS. So, they keep the public in the dark, and continue to sell medications (made mostly from petrochemicals for your allergy/constipation/migraine/joint pain, etc.; Mr. Rockefeller’s mandate to his scientists was to come up with ways to use petrochemical by-products as medicines) and keep making profits. I MEAN, LOOK AT THIS LIST AGAIN. This is most of big pharma’s income, right there. So mystery solved, it is not in their best interest to behave with integrity about the parasite issue!

When you study how the AMA trains doctors to test for parasites, using a stool sample and then actually investigate the science of some of the life cycles of certain larger worms that love humans, quickly we see that a stool test will miss the vast majority of larger parasites, which gestate in the mammal’s lungs.

The shocking cover-up is really vast. At first, I was really upset at how our population is literally setup for disease, including Cancer. In fact, the ammonia by-products of parasites will, over time, cause Cancer. This is not just my opinion and experience, but also that of global experts in parasitology.

This is why Ivermectin has been used around the world for decades and was the drug of choice for helping populations exposed to flood, famine, etc. rid themselves of chronic parasites. This is well-known by our CDC, and yet they continue to insist that this isn’t an American problem. Well there is, and parasites are now everywhere. In fact, the eggs from larger parasites (hookworms/tapeworms) can live outside a mammal host for up to 6 months, waiting to get inhaled into our dog or cat or our own lung system, where it will hatch, move down to the gut, start feeding and laying eggs, which then move up into the lungs and hatch out during a new moon or full moon. At these times of the month, symptoms tend to flare up and become more pronounced. Further, parasites CARRY VIRUSES.

Once parasites hatch, they immediately start releasing a chemical which makes us crave carbs or sugars. They even have a "favorite" sugar, lactose or milk sugars, which would have been how they evolved: feeding off of mammal’s milk for eons. At the same time, indigenous cultures had their herbal remedies, and all of the real healers knew sufficient herbal medicines to use when parasites were taking over a body.

Aside from creating artificial food cravings within us, they also excrete ammonia by-products as their waste material. Now, humans are designed to experience a small amount of ammonia as a result of food digestion, but too much over a longer period of time is a death sentence to well being. The ammonia even penetrates our blood/brain barrier, causing our Serotonin to plummet, which makes us crave sugars! This is part of how they cause cancer, as ammonia is a known carcinogen. Science knows that sugars feed cancer, and here is a big reason why: mood swings, solved by the “reward” of sugar is practically the American way. So is cancer, sadly.

When we integrate this information with a cursory glance at the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.), full of processed carbs and sugars, daily dairy servings, it all starts to make sense. Another giant and greed-driven con: Americans are destined to be slaves to the medical model, and their toxic prescriptions.

So we need to wake up. Fortunately, there are really easy treatments to rid the body harmlessly of these beasts and start to function more outside of the Matrix. I always coach for a twice per month purge, using gentle but effective ingredients that have been proven over time. We start the formula 2 nights ahead of the New or Full Moon, take it for 5 consecutive nights, and then pause it until 2 nights before the next full or new moon. If you have never done a full parasites cleanse, you might want to go for a longer duration on the product, say 10 nights on, 5 nights off, and repeat. Then start syncing up with the New and full moons after that.

The product that you can easily take is available at my portal for Professional Formulas, and is called Botanifuge. It is made for ages 12 AND up, typical dose is 2 pills at bedtime. (Remember, parasites are nocturnal and feed at night!)For children, or for those of you that prefer a vibrational remedy, the same company makes a great one for parasites appropriately called PURGE formula. It is liquid, so shake it well before using. Typical dose for adults is 15 drops before bed, and for children, from 2 drops to 10 drops depending on age/size/weight. As with all liquid homeopathic remedies, place under the tongue; do not touch the glass dropper to lips. For toddlers, it can go in a little water in their sippy cup.

And in my experience, to attempt to educate my own internist was a waste of time, energy and I just leave that part out when interacting with normal MDs. There is a small pocket of Functional MDs in the country that love my talks on this matter, however. I suggest you follow a “less is more” approach with your own doctor unless they are super holistic. No good comes from them thinking you are wacky, weird, etc. and your MD is amazing for emergencies, so you want to be in rapport more than not.

Everyone is truly shocked to learn this information, yet we have to quickly get into the habit of tracking the moon cycle, taking our remedies for parasites and avoiding the sugars and dairy products that feed them so well. For nearly 40 years, in my private practice, this was the most common source of people’s ailments that I saw!

Once you have done a couple of months in a row of the parasite cleansing, please tell us your results, on X ( x.com/DrJessieKeener ) and share this knowledge with the people you care about. Let’s all become more intelligent!

The Pandemic in Our Guts!

Over the past 40 years of practicing natural medicine, I have seen some epidemics come and go. When I first started out, as the patient, I was diagnosed with something called “Colon Dybiosis,” or “Intestinal Permeability,” by my mentor Theresa Dale, Ph.D. This phraseology has morphed into what today we call “Leaky Gut Syndrome.” At that time, Theresa assured me that this was a silent epidemic, and that the medical model didn’t believe it was a real condition!

Fast forward to now, where it is the most dangerous and most silent PANDEMIC of them all! And, 40 years later, the medical model still refuses to acknowledge its existence, never mind the pandemic. Yet it has been written about in medical text books for a hundred years. In fact, the "Father" of medicine, Hippocrates said, "All disease begins in the gut." More than two thousand years later, scientific research has now proven he was on to something all those years ago.

So, what is Leaky gut syndrome? It is an imbalance between the "healthy" bacteria that inhabit a normal gut lining, and “unhealthy” bacteria and germs, producing a great deal of symptoms throughout the body, not just in the intestines. In fact, it has been directly linked to autoimmune disease and in my practice, is the core to all well being.

When the lining of the cell walls becomes disrupted (man-made drugs, especially antibiotics and birth control pills, NOT being breast-fed, high levels of stress, alcohol, GMO foods, etc.) the cells start to swell in the lining of the gut. As this occurs, the protective membrane that separates US from our environment (food) becomes "leaky" as it separates from the swelling. This allows for the passage of all kinds of things from the intestines out into the blood. Think: parasites, yeast-fungus, and even healthy foods that are in a larger chain molecule and are simply too big for the blood.

Now the body has to go into an immune response, activate white bloods cells, and form an attack against theses "enemies." But since the leaks aren’t repaired, this continues for usually decades before real symptoms kick in from exhausting our immune response. Below is a list of some of the most common symptoms, many of which I had:

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• Celiac disease/gluten intolerance
• Gastric ulcers
• Joint pain
• Infectious diarrhea
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis)
• Small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
• Esophageal and colorectal cancer
• Allergies and Food Sensitivities
• Respiratory infections
• Acute inflammation conditions (sepsis, SIRS, multiple organ failure)
• Chronic inflammatory conditions (such as arthritis)
• Thyroid disorders
• Obesity-related metabolic diseases (fatty liver, type II diabetes, heart disease)
• Autoimmune diseases (such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, Hashimoto’s and more)
• Parkinson’s disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Weight gain or obesity

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1. Food Sensitivities

Some research suggests that Leaky gut can cause the immune system to overproduce various antibodies, which may make some more susceptible to antigens in certain foods (especially gluten and dairy). In studies involving rats and human children, leaky gut and food allergies have been linked. Allergies are believed to be one of the most common symptoms. All of my patients had to get off dairy (except grass-fed butter) and gluten, bar none!

2. Inflammation/Dis-Ease/Disease

By now, science has proven that ALL disease starts with inflammation, the silent killer. My experience with this was my chronic Eczema that I had battled for at least 10 years when I met Dr. Dale. She explained that this was a very common disorder from my gut, as well as any psoriasis, dandruff, rashes, and acne. We do not always SEE the inflammation in our body; it can be very silent and slowly building up over time, even in the brain, causing BRAIN FOG and mood disorders. Lots of doctors and their patients simply chalk this up to stress and getting older, but it is a real condition that can be healed, as I learned.

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So let’s take a look at how to start the healing process. First of all, we need excellent probiotics (the healthy bacteria) to populate the gut. These typically are taken upon arising on an empty stomach, and/or at bedtime, again on an empty stomach.

Secondly we need a therapeutic process to start fixing the "leaks," and we have found that l-Glutamine, a simple amino acid, along with some other herbs is fantastic for this job.

We also need to clear our diets of the most common offenders: Anything GMO (or Commercial Grains since they are sprayed with Roundup here in the US!), Dairy (except grass fed butter) and Gluten (wheat, barley and rye). This issue with our grains being sprayed with Roundup is huge, and is creating the next pandemic of Liver disease. (More on this later) For example, commercial corn, once cut, is usually sprayed with Roundup as it speeds up the drying time, and cuts down on molding. However, Roundup should be banned here in the US, as it is in many other nations, it is a deadly poison.

If you think you have leaky gut, try these formulas from Systemic Formulas: ABC, their probiotic formulas and LGUT, their comprehensive formula to heal leaky gut syndrome. Typical doses are 1 ABC once to twice daily and 2 LGUT also once to twice daily. These formulas are best taken together, on an empty stomach, with a glass of pure (not tap!) water. I suggest staying on them for at least 3-4 months, and include the parasites detox at the Full Moon and New Moon for best results.

Since science has proven the "Gut/Brain" connection, you can watch your moods and brain chemistry improve, as well as your mental/cognitive function as the brain swelling starts to diminish. I would love to hear from you, through my X, ( x.com/DrJessieKeener ). Remember, when you share your results, it encourages someone out there!

There are many way to accelerate brain health, and one of them is essential for everyone, managing the hormone Cortisol, aka. “The stress hormone.”

Produced by the adrenal glands, Cortisol is essential for the “flight or fight” response and is critical to our survival. The physical effects of Cortisol are designed to give us that adrenaline rush, push the energy into our extremities, and prepare us literally for the fight of our life or the sprint away from the enemy as fast as we can. Obviously this has really worked well or we wouldn’t be here.

However, modern science has discovered that there are some problems with Cortisol that gets too high, or that doesn’t regulate back down after the danger is resolved. The most important distinction as it relates to brain health is that elevated Cortisol causes massive inflammation in the body and in the brain. In fact, high Cortisol causes dementia and even is part of Alzheimer’s disease.

Let’s take a look at how this happens. First of all, remember that the purpose of Cortisol is to prepare the body for and carry it through the fight or flight response. What that looks like inside the body is that all of our energy (except for the very vital functions of lungs and heart) moves into our arms and legs, while our brain power shifts to the more reptilian parts of our brain that are hard-wired for survival. This means our thought s are more about calculating distances to that cave, or tree branch to outsmart the enemy. This is strictly “kill, or be killed” thinking.

So far so good, right? But let’s look more closely at how humans evolved. All the scientific experts on human evolution agree that the average hunting/gathering human had a very distinct lifestyle. The average man enjoyed a 23-hour work week, the average woman 24 hours per week. Wait, what?! That means all work, from hunting, to building a safe home, to rendering meat, making food, clothing, etc. added up to 23-24 hours per week. The rest of that time was leisure!

Furthermore, it is also scientifically agreed that the size of the adrenal glands (the size of the last joint of our thumbs) has not gotten any bigger since those times. So when you look at our cultural norm of a 40-hour work week, and the existing culture of fear that dominates our populations, it is quite easy to see that there is a real problem in paradise: we are all over-working and under resting our adrenal glands.

The built-in safety for the body with Cortisol has always been the RESULT of the spiked adrenaline: Running flat-out or fighting all-out. The result: either out of the gene pool or victory, and well deserved rest, which allows the body to down-regulate Cortisol and resume normal body functions such as moving back into the frontal and POT lobes of the brain, strong digestion, normal reproductive hormone flows, and proper immune response. Let’s face it, when you are fighting for your life, do you need to be digesting breakfast?

Now here is the billion dollar insight: once a body has experienced enough “Cortisol Spikes,” or adrenaline bursts without the proper high-level physical activity, the very mechanism for bringing down the high Cortisol breaks. Gone and forgotten by the body, which is now in a level of dissociative compensation. Here is where real problems begin in the body, chronic inflammation being the most recognized by science. But that is actually just the beginning, as digestion slows down, causing fermentation of our foods in the gut tract which over-loads the liver with toxins. Now the liver has over 100,000 functions that we know of so far, from purifying the blood, to conjugating and recycling hormones, to helping blood sugar and even mental cognitive functions. Stressing this powerhouse out is a big No-No for brain power.

Lots of people start having sleep problems, which makes sense as the body is in that heightened flight or fight response with no mechanism for correction.

The thyroid gland has to go “hypo” or underactive with high Cortisol, a fairly recent discovery, which can be devastating to the body. Things like weight gain, premature balding and hair loss, cold extremities, reproductive hormone imbalances, more mental/cognitive dysfunction like poor concentration and depression (to name a few of the symptoms of low thyroid) start to show up.

It does not take long for the blood sugar mechanism of the pancreas to start to go hay-wire, initially causing low blood sugar, eventually causing diabetes. Low blood sugar also creates enormous brain and nervous system symptoms, the most common ones being short-term memory loss, anxiety/ panic attacks, irritability, forgetfulness, shakiness, depression, weakness and even fainting spells.

As a Naturopathic doctor with over 3 decades of clinical experience I can attest that the vast majority of “Brain symptoms” that my patients present when they walk in my door are not originating in the brain, they are originating from things like high Cortisol. *Think of this culprit like the Darth Vader to all of our positive hormones including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, thyroxin (thyroid hormone) and insulin. Think of it as on a seek and destroy mission to your brain as it overrides your neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) Serotonin, Dopamine, Gaba and Norepinephrine and causes real changes in how you think and process memories. Hint: High Cortisol suppresses DMT, and keeps us in duality.

So the common strategies that work are regular aerobic exercise (start slowly if you have been sedentary) everyday such as walking, rebounding, running (if you are in shape) for 20 minutes per day, or more. Eating 3 meals per day, focusing on proteins, healthy fats and low-starch vegetables can make a huge difference as it stabilizes blood sugar. Cutting back on or reducing caffeine can make big changes to the body as well.

Because of the “hit” to digestion from excess Cortisol, taking digestive enzymes before meals and even some Hydrochloric Acid (Hcl) after meals ensures that things aren’t fermenting and that you are actually getting the nutrients broken down. There is an old saying that you are what you eat, I think the new Intelligent saying is “You are what you can absorb.”

Breath work is amazing to get your body to relax and balance plus the brain is very helpful, as some of the applications there which specifically address bio-chemistry more powerfully than any other breathing sequences designed to relax the body. There is a direct link from the adrenal glands to the diaphragm, so when Cortisol is too high, opening up the belly with the inhale makes a huge difference.

It’s also essential to process memories formed during strong fight-or-flight responses using Dr. Jessie’s breathwork pattern, allowing the free technology to do what it’s designed to do. Times where you went into shock, nearly died, or had a major trauma occur are the best ones to get big results from. Although you may not want to, there are bigger rewards from processing the most epic Cortisol times. You can always start with smaller ones like a relationship break up, a minor car accident, being fired, etc. and get your confidence built up to take on the big ones. That is a great way to go.

You will also want to process positive times where you felt cool, calm and collected, such as after a fulfilling work-out, or perhaps after making love to your sweetie, being on vacation, etc. These steps are more appealing, so you can start here if you wish, and then progress to some negatives.

Any change you make will likely show up quickly in the function of your brain, as you get smarter, sharper and retain more of the important information you are processing throughout your day. Remember, your brain wants to function at its optimum; it is up to each of us to support that!

There are many excellent stress Adaptogens to help the adrenal glands learn to regulate Cortisol better. Professional Formulas, one of my above vendors, makes a great combination in their Stress Adaptogen Complex and their Phyto-Calm supplements. I like taking them together and multiple times per day if I am highly challenged.

There may be other reasons such as yeast-fungus overgrowth, food sensitivities, and side effects from medications, etc. but those are for another article.

I am someone who feels pretty darn good about my healthy skin, my lasting youthful appearance yet up close, it was clear I was aging. Not rapidly, yet and I wondered if there was a good company out there in the US making high performance, non-toxic youthing topical products. (I am not a fan of invasive techniques like Botox) It turns out there is, Named NEORA, and they have some WOW products that are safe and effective.

The first product I was curious about was their new FIRM topical body cream. I am still fit, but there were a few spots (upper arms, upper thighs and lower belly) that betrayed my age, with wrinkles and sagginess.

After 3 days of using the FRIM, I actually could see a difference in the mirror! For me that is a home run. I found out that testimonies were pouring in, and people were excited. Turkey necks, jowls, and all sorts of body parts were firming up, and results were visible.

What I was seeing in a few days came close to what I would see when I was practicing in Fort Lauderdale and received high tech Lymphatic drainage from my associates. Only after those sessions would I see so many results, and their fees were around $150 per hour. Obviously the average person cannot do that every few days to maintain their physique.

But apply a cream and rub it in? You bet. Here is the link and the product is FIRM.

The second product that made me jump up and say this is a “must have” was their Night Cream. Typically I see nothing from my natural night creams, but this one is like a Botox in a bottle. The more I use it, the better my face looks. I cannot wait to see in 6 months what my face looks like.

In May of 2025 the company launched their newest WOW product, the NEO-Filler. Made in an easy to dispense syringe, this little topical product trains the skin to plump and visibly fill itself in 30 seconds twice per day. If you ever have gone to a facial specialist for advanced skin treatments, injections, laser, infra-red, etc. you know it is super pricey. One must repeat the sessions regularly so it isn’t cost effective for most of us. Easily one would spend thousands per session.

Now we can have every month, for less than the cost of a facial, a full supply of our NEO filler, and start to sport that more youthful appearance. It is effective, clean and affordable! I am so grateful to be alive at this time, where science and nature truly work together.

Link: https://drjessie.neora.com/us/en/neoraconnect

Dimensions of Wellness

One thing that used to standout for me when I initially met with a new client was how they really didn’t have a relationship with well-being. They didn’t actually know what health was. Their relationship with sickness, being overweight, feeling constantly drained was very well developed, but when I asked them about the flip side, they usually only got as far as "relief," or "freedom from __________."

Of course, I was the same way, long ago at the age of around 25, when I learned that health was not "the absence of disease," rather it was "a state of complete physical, mental and spiritual freedom," or years later, as the WHO stated, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being."

So, in order to have a relationship with our well-being, it is helpful to break wellness down into different dimensions in order to better define it first. Dr. Peggy Swarbrick (Northwestern.edu/wellness/8-dimensions) developed a framework titled, "The Eight Dimensions of Wellness," and I find that this interconnected model helps create the proper perspective:

• Emotional
• Spiritual
• Intellectual
• Physical
• Environmental
• Financial
• Occupational
• Social

I think you will agree that this is a comprehensive bird’s eye view, and one that has a great deal of potential power to it. One of the keys to developing that power is respecting the inter-relatedness of each dimension, as they cannot be separate. Yes, we can work on them separately, yet ultimately we must integrate them fully into our being. That is when we are optimally well, or fully Actualized as a human being.

The fuel for this process, what keeps us going, is self-love. That is the cornerstone of how we stay in the game, and without it we only achieve low levels of wellness in the categories. I always told my clients, "It is a game of self-love. It looks like taking supplements, changing our diets, creating different habits but underneath it all, it’s a game of self-love."

I personally find that conscious breath work, is the magic formula to keep me winning in the self-love game. As long as I am stable and in my flow state, I am operating out of love. The moment I realize I have "fallen” from that graceful state", I implement a tool to quickly re-center myself and get back into that exquisite state of well-being.

Once I started to achieve a certain state of freedom, particularly in the emotional and physical categories, I wanted more and more of it, and wanted to protect what I had earned. A more balanced Jessie then became more capable of doing things like extended breathing sessions, fasting, and other things that enhanced my consciousness, and progressed me spiritually. I started to seek out other people, who wanted to do the same types of breath work, and yoga, etc., which enhanced my social health. And so on from there, I am still developing my dimensions, which are likely infinite in possibility.

The Art Of Breathing And Why It Matters

Believe it or not, one of the most fundamental requirements for increasing our intelligence is restoring our natural breathing ability. Between modern birth practices and current high chronic stressors, most of us barely breathe enough to foster more aliveness, a marker of intelligence.

Let’s start with our modern birth practice: Childbirth is a medical emergency. Once the baby is out of the mother, they are held upside down and whacked on the butt to elicit that first breath. Well, given the harshness of this physical abuse, the infant’s first breath is one of terror and intense pain as it over breathes in reaction to the stress. As the room temperature air enters the airways, into the lungs, it sears as it goes in! This immediately registers in the brain as a terrible idea, and a visceral decision gets made: "I will NEVER breathe that fully again!" coupled with a few more clear decisions about how unsafe other humans are, how they cannot be trusted, etc. This begins a tragic series of belief systems about how life works. Life, it turns out, is NOT safe. We call this birthing trauma in the field of conscious breath work.

No one considers this, however, and if all else is normal, the infant appears to simply cry and then settle down. As they inhale, their precious little bellies swell with air, and as they exhale their bellies go back down. But they will never breathe fully again.

Contrast that with an indigenous childbirth, or natural child birth. There are no bright lights, no harsh treatments; the infant is with the mother, the umbilical cord attached immediately after birth.

As the cord starts to wane, it sends signals to the infant and they gradually begin the breathing process.

When my infant daughter, Karina took her first breath, she was still in the warm water (We did a water birth) and it actually was an exhale, blowing a slight bubble out of her mouth. This was a very different picture than the one before, with that real birthing trauma. She was calm, and relaxed, and never developed that hatred for a full breath.

Now the child with birthing trauma (read any kid in modern culture) is going off to kindergarten, first grade and starting to socialize and getting taught a ton of rules. They are disciplined and punished for bad behavior. By the time they are 8 or 9, all of their breathing has moved up into their chests, with little to no abdominal movement. In other words, they have LOST their belly breathing!

I witnessed this over and over in my practices, small children with almost no diaphragmatic breathing left. I saw way too many adults who couldn’t take a proper breath. I knew to pay attention to this because my personal mentor in Holistic Health, Theresa Dale had actually taught me how to properly breathe, pushing my belly out on the inhale, and contracting it back in on the exhale. I had been doing it exactly backwards!

When I began to practice conscious breath work, which is, essentially proper breathing on steroids, I was truly inspired by how much conscious connection came from that practice.

We would breathe in and out of the mouth, filling our lungs and bellies, forming a circle with the inhale and exhale. It was called Rebirthing, and also Integrative Breathing. The idea was to lie down, and breathe on a particular topic/belief system that was limiting and potentially self-destructive. Notions like "My Body is Not Safe," are exactly what we wanted to undo, and neutralize. Staying with how our body reacted to this belief while continuously breathing allowed for healing, and the dissolution of these energies in our neural networks.

I had to do a ton of work here. I found the circular breathing difficult to maintain, and had to develop a very specific discipline to keep going as the sessions lasted usually 1.5 to 2 hours and no real breaks. My relationship with my body started to transform as my breath kept opening up. I started getting high, tingly all over, and found myself in altered states in most of the sessions. I also used my hot tub and snorkel, and even ice cubes in the bathtub to train myself to regulate my metabolism through the breath.

I fell in love with my breath. I learned to regulate my moods and mind with my breath, which I am still learning about. My consciousness has increased dramatically. I am still in love with my breath, and will be sharing tons about how you, too can practice the Art of Breathing.