Particle & Pollution Protection

Are you concerned about, or affected by, particles or toxins entering your body that shouldn't be?

We have an amazing layer of defense that is our mucous membranes.

If we learn how our mucous moves, and how we can nourish this natural response, we can soothe our way through the slow (sick) times.

Mucous is released/grows/is nourished by the walls of the area in which you find it. It naturally flows toward the nearest opening.

Mucous probably has some very special names for each part of the body, but that information is not necessary to understand how you function.

The mouth and nose is an exit point for the stomach, lungs, throat, nasal cavities, ears and the brain.

The vagina is for our womb.

From our stomach and digestive tract, intestines to our anus.

The internal organs and glands through to our bladder which moves through the urethra... what is the common name for where wees come from?

Sweat glands from our lymphatic system.

Regardless of the action of the organ or gland, there will be a mucous that is part of the lining of the space.

What does the mucous layer do?

Absorbs and filters.

Just like the kitchen sponge when you are cleaning it under running water. Check out the quick video on kidneys.

A healthy body has a juicy, fresh mucous layer that is excreted from the walls of the organ, and since I am inspired by recent stories of a really bad cough, lets get practical about the lungs.

When our lungs empty, we don't want the walls of the little sacks to stick together, but we do want all the air to leave the lungs.

When our lungs fill, we don't want the outside walls of our lungs to stick to the inside of our ribcage.

We want air to enter and leave our lungs and move freely, thoughtlessly all the way to the furthest little sacks (alveoli for a little authority - wink, after I googled I was spelling it correctly).

What damages the mucous layer?

A constant lack of movement in our ribs and diaphragm which is directly linked to our nervous system being stuck in the sympathetic energy, because we have subconscious muscle tension pulling us out of balance. Which came first? What do we release first?

There is no root cause, there is just what is right now.

A rib cage held out of alignment, causes the diaphragm to stop moving fully, and the furthest alveoli are no longer being used.

I am describing the fight/flight/freeze posture that is activated with sympathetic nervous system energy flow, and if we are in flow, once the situation has passed, our nervous system flows back into rest/digest/heal, our rib cage drops back into alignment, our diaphragm begins to move fully again, and air returns to the furthest little sacks.

However, we are all so rigid, held out of alignment that our nervous system will not release us for fear of falling over, and so our breath never moves back to the furthest alveoli, which causes the fluids to thicken and build up, dry up, and the sacks to stick together.

If our breath is not moving fully, freely, thoughtlessly, then all of our organs are in this situation.

How do I help my mucous health?

What we need is an easy understanding to inspire us toward making internal changes to ensure these juicy layers are strong and fresh.

Soothe yourself.

Our breath should be massaging our tissues, all of the tissues that are between the outside of our lungs and the inside of our skin.

The squeeze and release created by the lungs filling and displacing the fluids around them, is responsible for the circulation of fresh nutrients into the area and waste removal from same.

The breath keeps the juices flowing, and the tissues soft, circulation full and internal body clean.

Specifically for the lungs mucous health.

Let your breath move at the speed and depth that your nervous system says.

Due to the thickening of mucous and the sticking together of tissues and the not wanting to tear them, we do not want to force our breath into these areas, we do not want to be ripping tissues apart.

Feel the breathlessness by observing it without judgement.

You want the breath to expand at a speed that is safe for you.

Dumping any buildup of stagnant fluids into your circulation can overwhelm your system, if your breath is not fully working, your kidneys aren't either, and they need to be functioning well to work with the processing of these toxins.

Masking the symptoms will allow you to move in a way that will aggravate the situation.

Stimulating the situation will push your lungs too far outside what they are currently capable of doing safely.

Rest in the Supported Rest Position as much as possible, sleep that way, read a book that way, watch tv that way.

Supported Rest position encourages your lower ribs to drop and allows the diaphragm to move with more freedom, more fully.

Remedies to encourage healthy lung function.

Steam for your lungs.

Boil clean filtered water (no chlorine) and pour into bowl.

It may be popular and backed by scientific evidence, but I have guinea pigged myself with essential oils and they are too strong, so I say, do not add essential oils to the steaming bowl, they are too strong and can burn/damage your nasal mucous.

Add fresh cut aromatic plants to the water, and hang your head over the bowl, sealing yourself into the steam environment with a towel covering your head. Use rosemary, lavender, basil, geranium, eucalyptus leaves, lemon myrtle leaves.

Breath through your nose or mouth and let both run freely into the bowl, do this for as long as you like, until it gets too much or until you start to feel better.

Gentle blowing to help the nasal passages clear, making way for more mucous to rise.

Do multiple times per day if you are feeling blocked up, gargle before... see below.

Gargle! every hour or so, every niggle, every time you wake at night.

Warm salty water, 1/2 tsp salt (iodine free) in a half mug of water, every hour, will encourage the mucous to come toward your mouth, where it can be hocked up and spat out... better out than in.

Apple cider vinegar, is a little more intense, so dilute it a lot. start with 1/2 tsp in a mug of warm water.

Hock it up... Spit it out.

Do this before the steam mentioned above.

Most important, get to a place where the remedies are not so necessary.

Here is where what you learn in Maia Movement comes in.

Maia Movement is how you learn to work with the support of the earth and the weight of the cosmos to release muscle tension, which lets the bones realign, and ensures the breath is squeezing and releasing all your soft tissues to keep your mucous membranes healthy.

If one thing is not working, everything in you is not working. You may be coping, and you may have been given a root cause, but what you feel today, is what you can expand on to feel something different tomorrow.

If you are not working well, your defenses are down, which will affect how you move through a 'sickness'.

You have options for getting through sickness, either slow down yourself, or be slowed down. When you choose to slow down and take better care of yourself you are able to lean into the situation just like you do in Maia Movement guided observations, so sickness becomes expansive.

Being forced to slow down is different, it comes with the exhaustion from the fight to get better, which puts a lot of pressure on our energy, creates more tension and affects the alignment of our bones.

The bones of our rib cage and the bones in our face are affected by muscle tension, and this pulls the bones out of alignment and impacts the flow of mucous and how freely air flows in and out of these areas.

These misalignments are linked to the state of our nervous system, and the circulation in our body. There is no separation, so we start with what we can feel, and we peel off the external layers, exposing each tension like we are peeling an onion.

Peeling an onion gives us experience that helps us move through exposing the deeper, older tensions with less trauma when we get to them.

If you are wanting to explore more of yourself sign up for the Maia Movement Email Sequence and get the Supported Rest Position delivered to your inbox, this will take you through setting yourself up to release your back line and take the pressure off your kidneys & adrenals, as well as get the juices flowing back to your digestive organs.

The weekly email will guide you through remembering how you function, and makes it a bit easier by focusing in on one area of the body, or...

check out the Maia Movement Online Courses