Lam Italia starts to distribute the Guide "Meditation through Breathing"
On 1st June, to mark Worldwide LAM Awareness Day, LAM Italia will start to distribute the booklet "Meditation through Breathing", a guide on breathing, a project of the non profit LAM Italia Onlus in collaboration with Dr. Vijai Sharma. The booklet is suitable for everyone, and especially for patients with respiratory diseases.
Dr. Vijai Sharma is a certified yoga therapist and psychologist well known in America.
In this guide, Dr. Sharma helps us discover through meditation good breathing, by leading us through an exercise program of gentle and simple asanas (physical postures) associated with simple breathing exercises and meditation, through which everyone can gain benefits such as increased control of stress, greater focus and self-awareness and better control of our breathing.
Meditation has been used in the Far East since ancient times to calm the mind.
There are many meditation techniques, including a simple way to begin to meditate which focuses on your breathing and observes the respiratory rhythm of inhalation and exhalation. Through this practice of observation of respiratory movements, we feel a relief and a regularization of the breathing rhythm that calms the mind.
After a while of practice the tensions of everyday get weaker and we improve the quality of life within and without. All the exercises are illustrated in the guide with images, drawings and detailed descriptions by V.Sharma. They are not targeted specifically for chronic diseases such as LAM or COPD, but they can help everyone live better physically, psychologically and emotionally.
Several scientific studies have indeed shown that through meditation combined with simple breathing techniques, several positive effects can be seen, such as relaxation, concentration, greater self-observation.
In the guide Vijai Sharma, himself suffering from COPD, also tells of his personal experience with the disease and how he learned to deal with it.
He explains "when, the breath is rough, the body shakes, and when the body is shaken, the breath is rough. Similarly, the thoughts, feelings and emotions are closely connected with the breath. When breathing is troubled, thoughts, emotions and feelings are out of control. Through slowing down your breath and eliminating the deficiencies of the breath (pauses, hyperventilation, excessive sighing, etc.), the body's thoughts, feelings and emotions can become calmer and more positive.”
Meditation through breathing leads the practitioner to become more sensitive to errors in breathing, and also to learn how to remove those negative emotional conditions such as fear or stress that cause discomfort and affect the quality of the breath. The president of LAM Italia, Iris Bassi, who has been practicing yoga for many years, hopes that this guide can help everyone to enjoy and appreciate the benefits of practicing yoga, meditation and breathing, and that it may also become a means of fundraising for the association, as well as raising awareness of LAM. Iris Bassi invites everyone to support the distribution of the book. All funds raised will go directly to the association, LAM Italia, and will be spent, it hopes, on a research project on LAM.
LAM Italia Onlus is a non profit organization that promotes the search for an effective treatment of Lymphangioleiomyomatosis(LAM), a rare disease that affects almost exclusively women, involving various tissues and organs: lungs, lymph and blood vessels, in many cases, even kidneys.
There are currently no treatments to slow or arrest the disease, although several drugs are being tested. LAM Italia, continues Iris Bassi, also aims to distribute the guide to the largest possible number of centers of pulmonary disease and rare diseases in Italy and
abroad - that's why the guide has been published in both Italian and English. Vijai Sharma has published several articles and books focusing on breathing, as well as two DVDs of breathing practices for patients with respiratory diseases. To learn more the work of Dr. Sharma, please visit the site www.mindpub.com. To find out more about LAM Italia please visit www.lam-italia.org. To participate in the fundraising campaign and get copies of the guides write to info@lam-italia.org or contact the association at 0039 335 5380863.