ayomeansjoy1's Blog

The tragedy of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford's potential assassination, the deaths of 6 on-lookers and wounding of 13 others, has affected all of America, but for someone who has "been there" in a hospital anxiously waiting for a relative to breathe, the tragedy has particularly "hit home". Tuesdays' news that Gifford was breathing on her own 3 days after the incident was very hopeful news to Ayo Handy-Kendi, who as a Certified Transformational Breath Facilitator (CTBF), Stress Manager (CSM) and Breathologist (CB), has been following the story intently with true compassion due to her work and her own similar, personal tragedy. She is a mother who lost her son, Rashid Handy in 1994 just 3 weeks after his 16th birthday, hit over the head by a blunt instrument by an assailant who did not "breathe on his own" and died. Handy-Kendi explained, "The Doctors working on Rep. Gifford spoke on her taking her own breaths as a hopeful sign. Because my work has led me to observe that many take breathing for granted, I'm sure people are asking, what's so important about this?" Well, the central controlling area for breathing, called the respiratory centre, is in the lower part of the brain stem, in the medulla oblongata which deals with autonomic functions, such as breathing and blood pressure. While breathing is an involuntary function of the body-- we breathe 24/7 without even thinking about it-- it is a function that we can consciously control with the brain as the relay switch that starts and stops breathing. When trauma occurs to the brain, it can shut down from the critical task of inspiration of air, converting air into oxygen, circulating this life-sustaining element to nourish the blood, cells and the organs, then exhaling the waste gathered in this process. With the brain not signaling the body to breathe, on average after 4- 7 minutes, we are dead. "Rep Gifford's was profoundly blessed that the bullet missed vital parts of her brain traveling only on the left side. She was also blessed by those who cared for her shortly after the shot." Handy-Kendi's son was not so blessed. Left on his high school playground after a murderous attack, the way he fell restricted his breathing. After 5 days in a coma with a swollen brain, connected to a breath ventilator, his parents watched with anticipation that he would "breathe on his own". When he didn't, he was claimed to be medically dead, although he could have been sustained on the ventilator in a vegetated state indefinitely. This awareness of the importance of the brains' ability to govern the breathing and this relationship as the determent of full life, prompted Handy-Kendi's passionate work as a CTBF, then later as a Breathologist, a term she coined in 2004 after working with millions on radio, t.v., in print, in private practice and in presentations. Currently certifying other Breathologists, contact info for the national "Power of the Breath Tour 2" can be viewed on www.breathepositive.com