Welcome to Connect! Unite! Act!
A daily series, Connect! Unite! Act! seeks to create face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups regularly socialize but also get out the vote, support candidates and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert influence on the powers-that-be. Visit us at Daily Kos every morning at 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time to see how you can get involved. The comment thread is fun and light-hearted, but we're serious about moving the progressive political agenda forward. |
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Most people don’t think about breathing. We do it by default and have no awareness of how we’re breathing most of the time. There are many different ways to breath, however, that can have some pretty interesting results. What made me think about writing about breathing comes from often telling people about it in my practice.
The things we do the most frequently actually have the most profound long-term effects while each time we do them have extremely negligible effects. It’s a paradox. Take eating for example. Most folks eat between 2 and 4 meals per day. Say you eat a Big Mac every day for lunch. Each Big Mac you eat has a negligible effect on your overall health. The cumulative effect over time has real consequences. You may have seen the movie Super Size Me about a man who lived off McDonald’s food every day for a month. He was healthy in the beginning and quite ill in the end.
The film documents this lifestyle's drastic effect on Morgan Spurlock's physical and psychological well-being. en.wikipedia.org/...
If you suddenly decided to eat salad for lunch every day instead of a Big Mac, you’d feel great in a couple weeks, but you wouldn’t have actually changed much at all concerning the long-term effects of eating all those Big Macs on your physiology. It would take months and months of eating salads instead of hamburgers to cause any true changes for your health.
We breathe 12 times a minute, on average, while resting. Of all mammals, humans possess a real super power. Only humans can choose how we breathe. We can take one breath per step. We can take one breath for every two steps or every three steps. Why is this a super power? Because humans have the ability to run down any other mammal to death. All other mammals can only take one breath per stride they make. For millennia humans used to hunt by running down animals until they exhausted those animals. Currently, the only known places humans still hunt this way is in a few parts of Africa and the Copper Canyon in northern Mexico. Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run goes into all this. It’s an amazing read. If anything it will certainly show you that humans are actually born to run and not sit on our asses all day. As I keep telling people, stagnation is what kills you.
There are several mindful breathing techniques. Many are involved with meditation. In Tai Chi, how you breathe is very important. It takes a while to get the form down (whatever style of Tai Chi you do), but once you know all the moves, you then really pay attention to how you breathe while you move. Every outward movement involves exhaling. Every inward movement involves inhaling. Combining purposeful breathing with the movements really gets the chi moving. Then you visualize it coursing through your meridians. After awhile, you can really feel it. You can make your hands hot simply by choosing to do so. It’s true.
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So many of us have stress which can lead to anxiety. Some people live in a perpetual state of anxiety. They aren’t actually anxious about anything specifically but rather have a free-floating anxiety that attaches itself to anything. This constant state of anxiety can ultimately lead to panic attacks. I teach folks a very simple technique. It’s sometimes called “rescue breathing,” or simply mindful breathing. What it does is literally change your physiology. It switches your body from fight-or-flight mode to calmness by causing the parasympathetic system to take over.
You can do it anywhere. Of course, if you are alone at home you can really do it best, but you can do it while waiting in line at the supermarket, if you feel stressed or anxious. Over time the effects are amazing, even life-changing for truly anxious folks. You breathe more frequently than any other thing you do. Each individual breath is negligible. The cumulative effect of choosing how you breath can be the most overall profound thing you do. And you can use this simple breathing technique to fall asleep (really).
How do you do it?
1. Before you begin, place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth just above your teeth and keep it there throughout the exercise.
2. Exhale completely through your mouth quite forcefully so you make a “whoosh” sound.
3. Close your mouth and inhale quietly and softly through your nose for a mental count of four.
4. Hold your breath and count to seven.
5. Next, exhale completely through your mouth, making another whoosh sound for eight seconds in one large breath.
6. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three times for a total of four breaths.
Remember: All inhaling breaths must be quiet and through your nose and all exhaling breaths must be loud and through your mouth.
As always, this is an Open Thread!
LET'S BUILD IN-REAL-LIFE COMMUNITIES!
Our team is here to provide support and guidance to new and existing volunteer leaders of each regional and state group, helping them with recruiting, organizing and executing social and action events. We invite you to join in this effort to build our community. There are many ways to pitch in. If there isn't a group to join near you, please start one.
The orange pinpoints are the location of each organized group of Daily Kos readers. If you'd like to join a group, click on a point and a box will pop up showing contact links. If you'd like to start a group, contact navajo for instructions.
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY
Colorado: Sunday Mornings
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern
Washington: Sundays, 3:30 PM Pacific
Missouri: Wednesday Evenings
Kansas: Monday Evenings
We appreciate everyone’s work on the ground locally while the general is ramping up. Please let us know in the comments what you’re working on. For example, GOTV, down-ballot campaign volunteering, blogging about our races, etc.
All hands on deck.
Let us know if you’ve got any events that would be of interest to other readers of Daily Kos IN-YOUR-REAL-LIFE space.
ATTN: New England Readers of Daily Kos!
It's that time of year again- the crispness of fall is in the air and we are due for a meet-up. The date is October 22nd and we will be meeting in Kittery, ME at the Farm Bar And Grill (the same site where we did our Midwinter Meetup in January). farmbargrille.com/...
The site was chosen to give our southern NE friends a venue that was a little closer to home. We will start at noon and probably go until about 2-3PM.
What: A Daily Kos meet up for DK members and interested parties before the Moral Mountain Monday rally in downtown Asheville.
When: Monday, October 24th — 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Where: Asheville
Why: Connecting face to face, sharing information, getting inspired and adding to the crowd that is there to support Reverend Barber the week early voting starts.
Food: White Duck Taco
The Downtown Duck is adjacent to Pack Square and easily walkable from any hotel or parking garage. The Biltmore Ave Parking garage is next door. There is a pet friendly courtyard seating 50 in the back of the restaurant.
12 Biltmore Avenue
Asheville, NC 28801 (828) 232-9191
Fun: Yes Family: Yes
Attendees:
randallt, Joieau, davehouck, Lamont Cranston, SteelerGrrl, SteelerGuy, Gordon20024, Otteray Scribe, Burns Lass
Maybees: TexDem
Click here to add your name
Read more details here.
SFKossacks Holiday Party!
Saturday, November 19th, 1:00 PM, Wine Country in the town Windsor. Private residence address will be given to the folk who RSVP.
Please send navajo a kosmail to RSVP and state your potluck item. We need non-alcoholic beverages, appetizers, side dishes, (plus vegetarian versions) salads, and bread. Ice and large ice chests, too!
Also tell navajo if you need to carpool. AND! Dogs okay. FTW! No livestock, though.
RSVP & POTLUCK LIST:
1. Andrew McQuire—Host
2. navajo—Whole salmon for bbq for whole crowd
3. MrNavajo—8 six-packs of beer
4. side pocket—
5. Mrs. side pocket
6. smileycreek—Mini jalapeno polenta cups
7. paradise50—
8. Glen The Plumber—
9. remembrance—
10. TLO
11. jotter—One case of wine
12. aha aha
13. dsb—Ice in an ice chest, baguettes & cheese
14. marge—Curried potatoes and roasted vegetables
15. kimoconnor—
16. maggiejean—Salad
17. elfling—
18. Hunter
19. elfling/Hunter offspring, not livestock
20. Lorikeet—side dish
21. norm
22. jck—side dish
23. Lusty—Vegetable side dish
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Maybees: Silky and Dixie
citisven
Deb
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NEW GROUPS FORMING:
Peregrine Kate organized canvassing for her local candidate, Paul Clements. Details about the event are here: Canvassing for Clements in MI-06! WE Are Making a Difference. YOU Can Help! Great job, Kate!
Seattle & Puget Sound Kos got together Sunday, August 14th to catch up. Even though some were hard-core Berners, they’re all voting for Clinton. Unity. Thanks to bleeding blue for organizing this meet-up!
navajo maintains the above event list. Kosmail her if you have any diaries about your event or if you have changes or additions.