Aug 29, 2017
“Breathe in! Breathe out! Breathe in! Breathe out! Breathe in! Breathe in! Breathe innnn!”
Machinehead
Bush (1994)
“Cause I can feel you breathe, it’s washing over me, and suddenly i’m melting into you.”
Breathe
Faith Hill (1999)
“Cuz I am barely breathing, and I can’t find the air, I don’t know who i’m kidding…”
Barely Breathing
Duncan Sheik (1996)
Besides being excellent songs, one can gather the common thread between all of these lovely melodies. Breathing.
From the second we all pop out of our mothers’ wombs to the moment we close our eyes for the last moment on this Earth we are all breathing. All day, everyday for as long as we live we are all gathering sweet free oxygen. We don’t even have to think about breathing, the autonomic nervous system takes care of that for us.
Because of this fact it so easy to simply not think about our breaths and how it is affecting the chemistry in our bodies, how it is affecting our mood and posture, and how practicing breathing and being mindful of our breath can be one of the easiest and most powerful ways to control our life and our health.
It may seem silly, and it may seem simple but Ann Arens was well prepared to dive into the deep end with Mart and the Fishbowl this week and give us all a little ‘breath of fresh air’.
Ann Arens started out her career in the fast-paced media industry for the better part of 12 years. TV, Print, you name it Ann worked there, and by the end of her time there she described herself as ‘crispy’. She was worn out and weathered from the 24/7 deadline demanding culture. After having her first child Ann decided to shift her focus towards her family. It was during this time that Ann found herself in a perpetual cycle of sickness. Doctors called her an anomaly, and western medicine wasn’t doing the trick. After every stone went unturned Ann decided to get to the root cause and in doing so realized that anti-biotics and other factors had effectively killed her gut.
The process of getting healthy again led Ann to the second chapter of her career and she went out and earned her Masters in Holistic Health from St. Catherine University. Ann has taken this passion and directed it toward fixing another growing problem she is seeing and that is anxiety in our youth. The power of Diaphragmatic Breathing, Posture, Meditation, and the Proper Mindset are all practices she is bringing more awareness to with our kids.
It’s been awhile since the proverbial jab has been taken on Ol Marty’s account but fear not, for this week we get a front row seat into some of the anxieties and worries that have plagued Harvey in the past months and the ways in which he has admitted, faced, and overcome these real-life scenarios. ‘There is courage in vulnerability’ as Harv likes to say and this week the walls are down.
So as Pink Floyd, one of the best bands of all time tells us, “Breathe, Breathe in the air, Don’t be afraid to care.”