🙏🏽 The Science of Being Well, ch 14 Wallace D. Wattles Preface Audiobook #rifevibes #taletellertherapy

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter fourteen of the Science of Being Well by Wallace D. Waddles.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
Daniel Sanchez. Breathing. The function of breathing is a vital one,
and it immediately concerns the continuance of life. We can
live many hours without sleeping, and many days without eating

(00:23):
or drinking, but only a few minutes without breathing. The
act of breathing is involuntary, but the manner of it,
and the provision of the proper conditions for its healthy performance,
falls within the scope of volition. Man will continue to
breathe involuntarily, but he can voluntarily determine what he shall

(00:44):
breathe and how deeply and thoroughly he shall breathe, And
he can, of his own volition keep the physical mechanism
in condition for the perfect performance of the function. It
is essential, if you wish to breathe in a perfectly
healthy way, that the physical machinery used in the act
should be kept in good condition. You must keep your

(01:06):
spine moderately straight, and the muscles of your chest must
be flexible and free in action. You cannot breathe in
the right way if your shoulders are greatly stooped forward,
and your chest hollow and rigid. Sitting or standing at
work in a slightly stooping position tends to produce hollow chest.
So does lifting heavy weights or lightweights. The tendency of

(01:30):
work of almost all kinds is to pull the shoulders forward,
curve the spine, and flatten the chest. And if the
chest is greatly flattened, full and deep breathing becomes impossible,
and perfect health is out of the question. Various gymnastic
exercises have been devised to counteract the effect of stooping

(01:51):
while at work, such as hanging by the hands from
a swing or trapeze bar, or sitting on a chair
with the feet under some heavy article of furniture and
bending back until the head touches the floor, and so on.
All these are good enough in their own way, but
very few people will follow them long enough and regularly
enough to accomplish any real gain in physique. The taking

(02:14):
of health exercises of any kind is burdensome and unnecessary.
There is a more natural, simpler, and much better way.
This better way is to keep yourself straight and to
breathe deeply, let your mental conception of yourself. Be that
you are a perfectly straight person, and whenever the matter

(02:34):
comes to your mind, be sure that you instantly expand
your chest, throw back your shoulders, and straighten up. Whenever
you do this, slowly draw in your breath until you
fill your lungs to their utmost capacity. Crowd in all
the air you possibly can, and while holding it for
an instant in the lungs, throw your shoulders still further

(02:56):
back and stretch your chest. At the same time time
try to pull your spine forward between the shoulders. Then
let the air go easily. This is the one great
exercise for keeping the chest full, flexible, and in good condition.
Straighten up, fill your lungs full, stretch your chest, and

(03:18):
straighten your spine, and exhale easily. And this exercise you
must repeat in season and out of season, at all
times and in all places, until you form a habit
of doing it. You can easily do so whenever you
step out of doors into the fresh, pure air. Breathe

(03:39):
when you are at work and think of yourself in
your position. Breathe when you are in company and are
reminded of the matter. Breathe when you are awake in
the night. Breathe no matter where you are or what
you are doing. Whenever the idea comes to your mind,
Straighten up and breathe. If you walk to and from

(04:01):
your work, take the exercise all the way. It will
soon become a delight to you. You will keep it
up not for the sake of health, but as a
matter of pleasure. Do not consider this a health exercise.
Never take health exercises or do gymnastics to make you well.
To do so is to recognize sickness as a present

(04:23):
fact or as a possibility, which is precisely what you
must not do. The people who are always taking exercises
for their health are always thinking about being sick. It
ought to be a matter of pride with you to
keep your spine straight and strong, as much so as
it is to keep your face clean, keep your spine straight,

(04:45):
and your chest full and flexible, for the same reason
that you keep your hands clean and your nails manicured.
Because it is slovenly to do otherwise, do it without
a thought of sickness present or possible. You must either
be crooked and unsightly, or you must be straight. And
if you are straight, your breathing will take care of itself.

(05:09):
You will find the matter of health exercises referred to
again in a future chapter. It is essential, however, that
you should breathe air. It appears to be the intention
of nature that the lungs should receive air containing its
regular percentage of oxygen, and not greatly contaminated by other
gases or by filth of any kind. Do not allow

(05:32):
yourself to think that you are compelled to live or
work where the air is not fit to breathe. If
your house cannot be properly ventilated, move And if you
are employed where the air is bad, get another job.
You can by practicing the methods given in the preceding
volumes of this series, The Science of Getting Rich. If

(05:54):
no one would consent to work in bad air, employers
would speedily see to it that all work rooms were
properly ventilated. The worst air is that from which the
oxygen has been exhausted by breathing, as that of churches
and theaters, where crowds of people congregate and the outlet
and supply of air are poor. Next to this is

(06:17):
air containing other gases than oxygen and hydrogen, sewer gas
and the effluvium from decaying things. Air that is heavily
charged with dust or particles of organic matter may be
endured better than any of these. Small particles of organic
matter other than food are generally thrown off from the lungs,

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but gases go into the blood. I speak advisedly when
I say other than food, air is largely a food.
It is the most thoroughly alive thing we take into
the body. Every breath carries in millions of microbes, many
of which are assimilated. The odours from earth, grass, tree, flour, plant,

(07:02):
and from cooking foods are foods in themselves. They are
minute particles of the substances from which they come, and
are often so attenuated that they pass directly from the
lungs into the blood and are assimilated without digestion, and
the atmosphere is permeated with the one original substance, which

(07:23):
is life itself. Consciously recognize this. Whenever you think of
your breathing and think that you are breathing in life,
you really are. And conscious recognition helps the process. See
to it that you do not breathe air containing poisonous gases,
and that you do not rebreathe the air which has

(07:44):
been used by yourself or others. That is all there
is to the matter of breathing correctly, keep your spine
straight and your chest flexible, and breathe pure air, recognizing
with thankfulness the fact that you breathe in the eternal life,
life that is not difficult. And beyond these things, give

(08:04):
little thought to your breathing, except to thank God that
you have learned how to do it properly. End of
Chapter fourteen.