Wholistic Fitness

TRANSPERSONAL FITNESS AWARENESS: COUGHING

(excerpt from an actual Online Training exchange)

Dear Coach –

Recently, my cough is persistent and (sometimes very) uncomfortable. it wakes me up in the night and disturbs my husband and baby. my coworkers have begun commenting on it during the day. the methods i have used so far have not helped it, and i want to do something that will. i talked to my doctor on the phone and he advised me to order some homeopathic products. i could do this, or visit the allopathic doctor here�at work�today, or go to a chiropractor who has helped me in the past. he does muscle testing, then adjustments, and prescribes whole-food nutritional supplements. your thoughts?

Online Student LB

Noble Student LB

This cough is an Attention Gaining device from your Higher Self (Atman). we must learn from it, rather than merely ‘treating’ it. i will leave the choice of your ‘treatment’ to you, since i am not a doctor. i can suggest however, that getting a couple of bottles of SUNRIDER’s VITASPRAY

http://store.sunrider.com//Shop/Product_51.asp?dept_id=3&pf_id=34

is absolutely terrific for instantly (via the mucousa linea) delivering immune bolstering (you will feel the b12 hit) chi!

and the application of applying SUNBREEZE BALM to the back of the throat may also help address the chakral/physical imbalance and regulate the energy therein.

http://store.sunrider.com//Shop/Product_51.asp?dept_id=10&pf_id=44

and now, buckle up for the deeper and more fun stuff:

Transpersonal Fitness Aspect; Coughing

by Coach Ilg

“What we put in thought will always come back and land in the same area where we tightened at that moment.”

-Reshad Feild, Sufi Master

from HERE TO HEAL

Coughing, in my professional and personal experience seems often times to be a manifestation of not consistently practicing WF Lifestyle Principle #3; Appropriate Action. At the Highest Level, a persistent cough is an effect of speaking, thinking, and acting by a conditioned, impulsive, afflicted mind (‘manas’ in yoga), instead of a balanced, expansive mind (‘cit’ in yoga).

Second Level of Coughing may be related to what yogis know as “nishvasha” or faulty, shallow, unconscious breathing throughout the day. Shallow breathing is a classic way of avoiding magnificent and noble participation in life. By deep (conscious) breathing throughout our day, we say YES to life. Passively sucking in barely enough air to survive is FEAR of LIVING…this is one reason why so many people “Hate to do do Cardio,” and precisely why i made Cardio one of my Five Fitness Disciplines that must be practiced everyday or nearly everyday. I need my Students to confront those Fear Issues instead of developing chronic cough, bronchitis, asthma, etc.

Also very interesting is that chronic coughing is often an expression of negative thought patterns and particularly a repression of anger. A very passive/aggressive energy, coughing is a way to draw attention to ourselves…one reason why so many spectators tend to cough at symphonies, public lectures, ballets, etc., is because they themselves are not PARTICIPATING FULLY IN THEIR OWN LIVES so, they project their astral self out onto the stage to be one of the highly trained performers who ARE willing to take the risk of living their Bliss.

Too much spectating of our lives leads to chronic coughing and other dis-eases of the throat chakra (communication/expression). Working out, particularly within the WF Disciplines and Lifestyle Principles, can effectively destroy the root essence of coughing and other respiratory afflictions. Essentially, and i’ve said it a million times; just do your Practice.

Persistent coughing implies we are not releasing an irritant in our lives…this could be a family member, a partner, a pet, a living situation, a lack of Practice, or an inner aspect of our selves (addiction to some sort of sense pleasure; eating, sex (masturbation), entertainment (TV,news, etc)). As Shapiro states, coughing indicates that, “…we are choking on life, are not at ease with our reality. A cough can arise when what we are taking in is causing us to want to cough it back out again.”

as a yogin, you are to go INTO whatever arises in your life; it is your Spiritual Workshop. I learned the above stuff by researching my own coughing spasms that rocked my childhood. I was willing to travel beyond ‘treating” my coughs, moving beyond just “getting it fixed” or “getting over it” and accepting my Coughing as a guru.

Now, using the above material for a spiritual launchpad, attend to your WF Practice, including meditation and pranayam and see if YOUR HIGHER SELF can arise to conquer the ISSUE of the cough…not the external manifestation that appears as the act of coughing.

in Service of Higher Sweat and Spirit,

coach ilg

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