Why Is Air So Important? : Healing Yourself With Each Breath

For thousands of years, civilizations have benefited from the restorative properties of fresh, unspoiled oxygen. Societies thrived while breathing in the air that cycled through their lungs after being stirred from the depths of forests, hills and valleys, and serene mountaintops.

Today, we don’t get to spend as much time in nature as our ancestors. Living in highly developed cities, each breath we take is tainted with toxins, smog, smoke, and other pollutants.

If we take a page from the ancient practices our forefathers once enjoyed, we’d learn about the magical properties of the invisible healer better known as air.

Healing that Goes By Many Names

Every culture honors the practice differently, but the preface remains the same. Nature contains the elements we need to bring balance to the mind, body and spirit. The more we build up our cities and towns, the less these terpenes become available. A deadly domino effect takes over from there.

It’s time to retrain your body to remember the elemental therapy it’s designed to depend on. Make time to detach from the concrete jungle and find your way to the Great Outdoors. You can go walking, hiking, biking – or spend time exploring however you see fit. The goal is to use the same therapeutic principles revered in eastern civilizations, so you can avoid the costly effects of city living.

Tracing the History of Oxygen Therapy

One of its first official names was “Forest Bathing”, earned in Japan during the 1980s. Tomohide Akiyama, the chief of the forestry ministry, went on record to state that the further from nature one lived, the more likely they were to develop illness. The variance in people’s health and wellness was divided by the difference in the quality of their AIR.

Government officials encouraged citizens to make their way to thousands of wooded territories dotted along the Japanese countryside. As the premiere documented experiment, Japan reported a successful shift in their citizens’ wellbeing. Since then, the message has spread like wildfire.

Identifying the Power of AIR in America

American scientists have invested decades into expanding on Japan’s primary thesis. Upon the conclusion of the first few tests, once again, researchers were baffled by the way nature presented such positive effects on human beings. By 1984, Edward O. Wilson, an evolutionary biologist, published a piece in Biophilia offering a few possible explanations for the way air presented such therapeutic qualities.

From an evolutionary stance, Wilson believed humans have grown into beings that hold a deep love for all life forms as well as the various environments that support them. He believed that people marveled at the way the natural world mirrored our human experience and witnessing nature in action delivered a tiered level of satisfaction.

Roger Ulrich, a medical researcher who also published his opinions in 1984, believed that having the ability to look out of a window could directly influence the way a patient recovered from surgery. His work proved that all we needed was to think about breathing in fresh air and it’d be enough to pose a significant impact on the body. Ulrich took 10 years’ worth of records from a Philadelphia hospital and compared the patients’ results. To his surprise, those with views of nature generally showed faster rates of recovery.

Understanding the Impact of Secondary Metabolites and Terpenes

Surveying nature, you’ll find an assortment of plant life and trees. Each setting has different density levels with a myriad of flora and fauna supporting that ecosystem. Despite the limitless way nature shifts and changes, offering unique wonders in every environment, the healing qualities of fresh air remain the same, no matter where you are.

The secret elixir is so potent because of one main ingredient: terpenes. Silently floating through the air, terpenes spread throughout the environment determine the health benefits you’ll receive when you inhale. The aromatic compounds carry coded messages from all the plants and trees in nature. Considered secondary metabolites, these compounds aren’t crucial for the plant’s development. Instead, they’re essential for the long-term health of the rest of the environment.

Secondary metabolites are designed to benefit the ecosystem as a whole – that includes the animals and people like you, your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. Some examples include “alpha-pinene”, known for contributing to the development of rain clouds and causing rainfall in the forest. Adding to its importance is the anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial effects it has on humans.

When inhaled, alpha pinene improves air flow to the lungs and helps reduce memory loss. These types of benefits are even more potent when captured in concentrated essential oils. This is what makes AIR by ZENSE such a miraculous blend.

Experience AIR For Yourself

What is the first thing you do when trying to calm yourself from stress or regain your focus? You breathe.

Think about it, when someone’s upset, the first advice they get is, “Stop and take a deep breath.” Have you ever wondered why that is?

Inherently, our bodies know exactly what we need. Although the research began in the last few decades, we’re still witnessing the results of oxygen therapy today. Breathing exercises  have been credited for decreasing the reported number of depression, anxiety, and suicide cases each year. Now that nature has caught the interest of science and medicine, we can’t deny the evidence.

As the research continues, so does the proof that oxygen is one of the simplest, yet extremely effective solutions to all-natural healing we’ll ever find. To start benefiting from the healing powers of our terpene-rich essential oil blends, give AIR by ZENSE a try.