Inhale...Exhale...(Sing along, You know the words.)

Are you feeling well? Congested? Sickly?

We have already established that clean air is essential to a healthy environment for breathing. You can get more info by following the links provided. There are several options available to provide you with clean air in your home and office or any other livable space. It would seem also that the ever popular air purifying machines are not the best option. It helps to have an understanding of types of pollutants that can be removed by those machines.

But what is the next step? Take a look at your breathing pattern. Are you maximizing the use of your lungs? Some of the problems of breathing are extensive and according to the experts include: Shortness of breath, Wheezing, Apnea, Respiratory arrest, Hyperventilation, Coughing, Cardiac asthma, and many other ailments.

While breathing properly may not cure any or all of these problems, many of them are caused by the lack of proper breathing to begin with. Please check with you physician to verify the facts as they are presented.

I do hope these thoughts will take you well into the new year with thoughts about living better. Please follow the posts as we progress along the path to a successful life.

Obviously being healthy doesn't mean there wont be occasional setbacks. Catching a cold or flu is never fun but In an optimistic viewpoint, this is our bodies way of telling us to take a break because there is a weak point in our body.

This is where the concept of balance enters. Perhaps you are keeping to a fitness routine that involves vigorous workouts. Times of rest needs to be incorporated so as not to over stress the body. Without this balance injury is assured.

"Air" we go again

If you have read the first few posts to this blog, friends you MUST have some interest in living better. No doubt you have some concept pop into your mind when you think about the simple (yea right!) idea of living better. Everyone has his or her own idea and situation in life that would accomplish the task for them. For one person the idea of weight loss would dramatically change their quality of life. The path to success within a weight loss regiment might include a diet or diets, of healthy food, vitamins, and may or may not include an exercise regiment. For another person making TONS of money quickly and easily would seemingly make life more bearable. Health and wealth is what life is all about right? So you read everything you can get your hands on regarding "how to make money fast" or the current popular diet. By-the-way, Garfield the cat once remarked that "diet" is just die with a "t" on the end. (That's ok, I didn't laugh either). Clean air and Clean water can help the dieting process.

While the ideal life might be different for everyone, there is ONE consistent and persistent factor that ties it all together. (Ok, maybe there's more than one but that would take me off topic wouldn't it.) What would that factor be you might ask?

Go ahead and ask...

I'm waiting...

"What would that factor be?" Good job, Jim!

A. Balance.

I'm not talking about your average everyday tightrope walking over Niagara Falls while whistling the theme song to Rocky and rocking the cradle with a yo-yo. The idea is more like keeping a bike on two wheels without getting your pant leg caught in the chain kind of day.

The average person can keep up with about three major themes at a time. ie. Work ties, family ties, and social(insert one other tie)tie. Sure the factors and/or priorities may change and there may be other projects that happen from time to time but a primary schedule happens to daily life. What happens if eighteen hours a day are dedicated to work? Right, other aspects of your life become out of balance and your family life and social (religious, hobby, internet, etc.) life suffers. The same basic situation happens if you spent eighteen hours a day with the family and neglect work. And so the cycle of life is thrown out of whack.

BALANCE is one of the keys to a quality life. Ask anyone who has ever over-indulged in something delightful to the palate! After a while sweets want to return to a former life form. (ahem!)

The purpose here is to help you recognize the balance to all things considered. That is - as we consider more terms of life, perhaps we can find the balance that most effects our personal life and thus allowing US to affect a change for the better.

In the Air Tonight

Ah, memories of driving down a long highway on a cool, clear evening with a luminous moon overhead. The radio turned up loud to amplify the percussion of drums and the infamous tune...

Oh wait, right topic - wrong thought. But do you have the thought of that cool, clear evening when you step outside and take a deep clean breath that fills your lungs with refreshing air that makes your skin feel alive again? Perhaps your memory is of sucking in a thick heavy carbonized soot from the vehicle you are following along the road. This wakes you up rather quickly from the fit of persistent coughing causing you to switch the intake vents to inside air and hope the stale air inside will hurry to replace the lingering assault on your lungs!

Air quality makes all the difference in what you breathe as much how you breathe. It is obvious that with every breath your body takes, unless you are not currently breathing, you ingest the contents if the surrounding air.

So what solutions are there? The answer is simple - breathe better!

Two factors exist regarding the issue of better breathing. The first factor is improving your air quality. It helps to know what's in your air, whether it be ozone or (ahem!) kitchen smoke. Take for instance the EPA Standards for Clean Air Act. In their own words, "The research program has made significant contributions to understanding two common air pollutants regulated by the EPA -- particulate matter (PM) and ozone." You can find info on the Clean Air Research Program as a testament to itself. The good news is that society has come a long way since the industrial revolution in monitoring breathable space. While the EPA and other such organizations work for us on the outside air there has been plenty of research conducted on the quality of inside air and impact of various forms of air purifiers. The results are staggering. Stay tuned for more of that to come.

After you improve air quality you must use the God given resources of your body to breathe properly.

Reasons to live a healthy life.

Face it, do you really need a reason? If you have kept even one foot out of the pine box and are half way able to reach and read this posting you are at least part of the way to living healthy. There are so many avenues to living a rich and rewarding life that possibly no one blog is able to cover every concept.

I intend to discuss a variety of issues over the course of time from air to x-rays as I view the issues. Naturally, there are those that disagree with my opinion (Insert here the axiom about peoples opinions.) Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about what we breathe and the water we drink, about global warming (or not) to what the best type of music should be listened to. So, with that I hope you are able to objectively view this side of the story and at least bear with my rantings about such things. Perhaps you will learn as much about these things as I hope to.

The world is too full of "experts" for me to lay claim to the title. Years ago someone described an expert in this way. An "ex" is a has been and "spurt" is a drip under pressure. Instead, perhaps I can impart some of the lessons learned and lessons unlearned from years of trial and error, at least in some cases. Then there are the plain and simple truths we sometimes forget or overlook. What ever your situation is, the lesson here is - enjoy.

Every person has a basic desire to live, but a vast number of individuals have countless reasons for taking control of actually living. Perhaps you have health issues. Maybe your current job is draining the strength and/or desire to grow beyond what that job has to offer; family, friends, the environment, the tilt of the earths rotational axis. We all have some reason that is beyond ourselves that hold us down and keep a foot pressed against the jugular.

Sound depressing? Sure! The good news is that there is something you CAN do about your own situation. Begin with the image you have of yourself, right here, right now. The best part is - there is NO FEE! Perhaps you will eventually see an ad or a link to something that relates to the topic on hand but feel free to ignore or explore to your hearts content.