Why Prana?

What is Prana?

Prana is vital energy. Vital means necessary to life.

I learned about Prana at university and it has dramatically improved my life. I no longer have chronic asthma that had me dependent on pharmaceutical drugs and afraid of farms, animals and feather pillows. I now realize I was using a small fraction of my lungs to breath. No one had ever taught me how to breath properly.

From the inside out it involves the control or flow of ones breath which eventually leads to the control or flow of ones life. If I can control or regulate the flow of my breath, I can control or regulate my ability to respond in this world. This responsibility allows me to remain calm when I would otherwise find myself anxious or tense. This anxiety or tension once led to asthma attacks, me reaching for my inhaler, or me heading to emergency for an adrenaline shot.

This path of healing myself has grown like the proverbial onion. I first began with my self. Like Achilles heal my lungs are my weakness and they were the first to benefit from my increased breath and increased oxygen to my blood. Then I started to realize the fuel i was feeding myself and started buying more organically and locally grown fresh produce. Now I grow a lot of my own. Then I started looking at my clothes and where they were coming from. This led me to supporting local craftspeople for my socks, hats, sweaters and the local thrifts store to reuse what others didn't want anymore. I didn't want to enslave women and children for my cheap but stylish fashion anymore. And this finally (is it?) led me to what I now feel to be the outer reaches of my self, my home; how I create and manage my household.

Economics simply means management of the household (economos). How I manage my household or my home involves my self and my relationship with my family, my food, my clothing, my shelter and my village. As I learn to understand these relationships with my self I have chosen the path of timber framer as my connection to my village.

The idea of using large timbers for the frame of a home has led me to many new realizations about why and how we enclose these spaces we live in. Our homes need to be healthy for us to heal and recharge. They are our sanctuaries where we conduct our daily rituals that allow us to reach out further and remain a positive influence to all our relations. A home needs to breath correctly as do we.