Breathing system

Published on Breathing system.

The breathing, or respiratory system is made up of the upper respiratory airways (nose, nasal cavities, and pharynx) and the lower respiratory airways (trachea, bronchi, and lungs).

Respiration exemplifies the highest profile of duality. If we only inhale, we die. If we only exhale, we die. We need both. The act of inhaling is a contraction and the act of exhaling is an expansion. The act of breathing holds the polarity of welcoming (receiving) or the refusal to receive (I will not take in what is not good for me); as well as the polarity of giving or not giving.

In Latin spirare (root of the word respiratory) means to ‘breathe’. In Latin spiritus means ‘spirit’. The Latin roots of ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ are close. The word ‘inhale’ also comes from the same root. In Greek psyke means ‘soul’ as well as ‘puff” or ‘blow’. In Hindustani the word atman is very close to the German word for ‘breathe’, atmen. The same root is found in the word that describes the one who reached perfection, mahatma. Hindus use the word prana to describe the act of breathing as the carrier of vital force. In the Bible, God blows on a clay figure and brings it to life.

Also in Greek, pneum means wind, spirit.

The act of breathing, through its duality, connects us with the supernatural, the universe, the fountain of creation, and the metaphysical. Breathing allows us the union with life. Breathing keeps human beings from isolation.

Consequently, breathing represents contact and relationship. This contact with the outside is carried out through the alveoli.

The contact we have with another person through the skin is voluntary. Either I want to touch or not. The contact through breathing, however, is not. It just happens, period!

Asthma and skin flare-ups are related since they are both associated with contact and relationships. The first occurs in the respiratory system and the latter on the skin.

The first blow gives life, the last releases it.

The first blow detaches us from the Mother. We become individual entities.

Here we use two keywords to describe the breathing system’s own duality: freedom and grasp.

In the breathing system, there is right side, yang, and left side, yin, and polarity in organs which are paired such as tonsils, lungs, bronchi and bronchioles. They are communication issues associated with cerebral hemispheres. The polarity does not apply to the pleura.

So, for all humans, right-handed and left-handed, the right side is yang (masculine) and the left side is yin (feminine).

Problems on the yang side show that the person felt victimized by a man and on the yin side, victimized by a woman.

© Copyright by Luís Martins Simões, developed by RUPEAL