Breathing flower: Flower breathing | Kimetsu no Yaiba Wiki

Flower Petal Breathing: A Strategy for Student Self-Regulation

Flower Petal Breathing: A Strategy for Student Self-Regulation

Before we get started, go ahead and grab your free Flower Petal Breathing poster here!

Alright, let’s dive in.

Why Breathing Strategies?

Breathing strategies are so useful because they help us to “digest” our emotions.

Let us explain…

Emotions are messengers that communicate between our mind and our body. If we’re in a happy situation, our emotions tell our body to act happy. When we’re in a sad situation, our emotions tell our body to act sad. Emotions allow us to respond to our current situation in a way that makes sense to us based on our perspective and our past experiences.

An example

I see a dog walking towards me. When I was young, I had a bad experience with a dog that looked like this one. Seeing this dog reminds me of that past experience and I start imagining how scary it was. As I’m remembering that past experience, I start to feel scared. My heart starts pumping faster and I get the urge to run away.

My thoughts about my past experience create the emotion messenger of fear. That emotion messenger tells my heart to start pumping blood to my muscles so that I can run away from the perceived danger.

So, the emotion steps are: thought (dogs are scary) > emotion (fear) > reaction (fight or flight)

This is a really helpful process if there’s real danger because it protects me. But, sometimes our current situation is different than our past experiences and the emotions we feel don’t really match up with our reality. 

In this example:

Maybe I don’t have any reason to be afraid of this particular dog because I can see that it is kind, on a leash and can’t hurt me. I don’t like feeling scared when I know logically that there’s no reason to be scared. So, I can use breathing strategies to help “digest” those fear emotions that were pumping through my body so that I can get back to a calm state.

Breathe

As I use a mindful breathing technique, I’m focusing on my breathing and how it feels in my body. This helps my mind to notice that, in this moment, I’m safe. When my mind recognizes that I’m safe, it sends messages to my body that I’m safe and then my body goes back to a restful (rather than fearful) state.

So the mindful steps are: thought (focusing on the mindful breathing technique) > emotion (safe) > reaction (calm)  

Now, this is just one example but there is a wide spectrum of emotions we feel in the human body and each person’s emotions are triggered by their personal experiences. That means that we each feel different emotions in varying degrees of intensity even if we’re in the exact same situation.

Thoughts Create Emotions

We’re all truly unique and we only have power over our own emotions (no one can make us happy or sad, it’s our THOUGHTS about someone’s actions that create the emotion messengers in our own body).

Learning how emotions work in our bodies and practicing breathing techniques to process these emotions can help students to self-regulate, respond mindfully to challenging situations and advocate for their needs.

One of our favourite breathing strategies is Flower Petal Breathing. First, take the time to teach your students how to do Flower Petal Breathing (explanation below) in an explicit way and practice it often. Repetition is key here!

Then, print this poster and place it in your classroom calm corner, on the wall or in your students’ binders. Wherever works! This poster can serve as a visual tool to help guide students to breathe mindfully when they are experiencing a big emotion to help them return to a calm state.

Trace the flower petals with your finger. Inhale when you trace a petal that says inhale. Exhale when you trace a petal that says exhale. Continue until you feel calm.

Want to learn more about mindful breathing in the classroom?

If you would like to take a deep dive into daily mindful breathing to find calm and focus, sign up for the Educalme Classroom Free Trial!

Give your students the gift of learning mindful strategies for overcoming life’s ups and downs.

Wherever you are in your journey of sharing mindfulness with your students, we’re here to cheer you on and support you!

Email us at [email protected] if you have any questions. We’re here to help and we love hearing from you!

With calm and appreciation,

Kailey & Josianne

Teachers and co-founders of Educalme

P.s. Is it winter where you live? Try Snowflake Breathing!

Share this post on Pinterest so other educators can grab their free Flower Petal Breathing poster too!

Let us know in the comments, how do you plan to use Flower Petal Breathing in your classroom?

Breathing Life Into the Corpse Flower

The alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than 300,000 people viewed it online.

But despite the corpse flower’s fame, its future is uncertain. The roughly 500 specimens that were living in botanical gardens and some university and private collections as of 2019 are deeply related — a lack of genetic diversity that can make them more vulnerable to a host of problems, such as disease or a changing climate.

Corpse flowers aren’t doing much better in their native home of Sumatra, where they are dwindling because of deforestation for lumber and crops. In 2018, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed the plant as endangered. There are fewer than 1,000 individuals still in the wild.

A corpse flower in bloom is a beautiful — but pungent — experience. The strong smell attracts pollinators to a flower that may be produced only once every few years.

Visual: United States Botanic Garden

To combat the lack of genetic diversity in the corpse flower and six other species with shallow gene pools, the Chicago Botanic Garden spearheaded the Tools and Resources for Endangered and Exceptional Plant Species (TREES) program in 2019. The program will see widespread genetic testing across partnering botanic gardens, as The New York Times reported in December. This allows participants to create a database of the plants’ family trees, so to speak, to make more informed breeding choices and increase genetic diversity.

TREES could pave the way for future plant reintroductions into the wild, should any of the seven species continue to dwindle or come too close to extinction, says Jeremie Fant, a conservation scientist with the Chicago Botanic Garden, which leads the efforts for the corpse flower. However, some experts express concern about bringing genetics from foreign-grown plants into their native habitats.

The corpse flower is a tricky plant to preserve outside its native habitat. It blooms rarely and it has specific heat and humidity requirements to mimic its native habitat. Like many of the plants in the TREES program, the finicky flower also produces recalcitrant seeds, which can’t be easily stored because drying and freezing — the main way seeds are preserved — will kill them. Other plants in the program simply produce too few seeds to make seed banking a viable option.

While the Chicago Botanic Garden is taking charge of the corpse flower, the National Tropical Botanic Garden in Hawaii is heading the collecting and testing of two species: Hibiscus waimeae and the critically endangered Phyllostegia electra. There are two other botanic gardens heading up other species to tackle this widespread issue.

“We at botanic gardens have to work together to save some species,” Fant says. “Because we can’t do it on our own.”

Currently, most plant conservation happens in seed banks, such as the International Potato Center in Peru and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria. These banks of genetic information regularly freeze seeds for long-term research and use. In Arctic Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds a backup collection of seeds from around the world in case local stores are compromised. But this doesn’t work for plants with recalcitrant seeds.

Usually, it is warm-climate plants — including the corpse flower — that produce these seeds, but there are exceptions, including oak. According to research out of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom, 36 percent of critically endangered plants have recalcitrant seeds. Many well-known crops also produce recalcitrant seeds, such as coconuts.

If a plant is socioeconomically important and produces recalcitrant seeds — like coconuts — conservationists will often create what are called “field gene banks,” according to Nigel Maxted, a professor of plant genetic conservation at the University of Birmingham, who isn’t part of the TREES program. These field gene banks have many of the same plants growing in the same area. They take up a lot of space, and the proximity of the plants to each other opens them up to other threats as well. “Disease could very easily go through the whole lot,” Maxted says.

As such, preserving plant species by spreading individual plants across many botanic gardens, or other collections, can be a useful bulwark against extinction, because it greatly decreases the likelihood that every single plant will die at once, says Susan Pell, deputy executive director of the United States Botanic Garden, a TREES participant.

“We at botanic gardens have to work together to save some species,” Fant says. “Because we can’t do it on our own.”

But fostering genetic diversity in the botanic gardens can be difficult, especially with finicky and rare plants. Like many plants, corpse flowers can reproduce in different ways. Sometimes, they reproduce asexually: a tuber-like bulge at the base of their stem, called a corm, grows large and eventually splits, producing multiple genetically identical plants. While this has effectively grown the raw number of corpse flowers in botanic gardens, it has done little for the population’s genetic diversity.

Corpse flowers can also reproduce sexually, which requires pollination by insects — or, in botanic gardens, by humans wielding paint brushes. There’s no set schedule for a corpse flower to bloom; each plant takes a variable number of years and blooms unpredictably based on conditions such as heat, light, humidity, and other factors.

To help breed on this unpredictable schedule, the Chicago Botanic Garden is creating a store of corpse flower pollen, which can be sent across the country when another specimen that isn’t closely related blooms. These targeted cross-pollination efforts could lead to more genetically robust offspring. While TREES has yet to lead to a crossing of corpse flowers, the Chicago Botanic Garden has used the methodology to strategically cross another plant called Brighamia insignis, also known as a cabbage-on-a-stick plant, which is critically endangered.

Arborist Stephen Jones uses a paint brush to pollinate a corpse flower bloom at the U.S. Botanic Garden last September.
Visual: United States Botanic Garden

Targeted cross-pollination efforts could widen the genetic diversity of the species and lead to more robust offspring.
Visual: United States Botanic Garden

The TREES program is starting from a place of low genetic diversity for the corpse flower and its peers. Over the last 100 years, there have only been 20 documented collections of the plants from the wild for botanic gardens.

Sometimes, botanic gardens will get rare plant genetics from nurseries and private collections. For example, three of the U.S. Botanic Garden’s corpse flowers were acquired as seeds from a plant grower in Hawaii. But, as collecting plants from the wild can be difficult and expensive, the botanic gardens will usually propagate the specimens and share the offspring with other collections. In the case of plants with low genetic diversity, this means an increase in raw numbers, but does little for genetic health.

“In terms of genetic diversity, it’s hopeless,” Maxted says.

TREES may help, he adds. The program’s approach has been successfully deployed in the animal kingdom for a long time. For example, many zoos and conservation efforts create studbooks, or documents used to track the family trees of specific species. This tactic has been used to follow the lineages of myriad threatened species around the world, including the red panda.

“In general, all you’re looking for is to maximize variation,” Maxted says.

While TREES could increase genetic diversity for domestic corpse flowers, some researchers aren’t sure the flower — and plants more generally — should necessarily be reintroduced into the wild. This is particularly true for plants in botanic gardens that are located far away from their native range.

There are two competing trains of thought, Pell says. The first is that only nearby plants should be reintroduced into an area. For the corpse flower, this could mean pulling from the Bogor Botanical Garden in Indonesia, which has a few specimens. The other supports the idea of putting foreign-grown plants back into nature and letting natural selection play out, even if it means that the foreign plants may thrive or outcompete their wild counterparts. (While TREES aims to make it possible to reintroduce the corpse flower into the wild, should conservationists decide it is necessary, so far there have not been any efforts to do so. )

Reintroduction can also take a lot of time, money, and effort, says Joyce Maschinski, director of plant conservation at San Diego Zoo Global and president and CEO of the Center for Plant Conservation. So can the long-term monitoring and care that the plants would need to thrive in the wild. Similarly, moving plants across borders can be difficult, and the laws surrounding it vary from country to country, although, she adds, moving pollen or seeds from botanic garden plants is likely easier.

Despite the challenges, conservation organizations and botanic gardens have gotten good at reintroducing plants, Maschinski says. The groups provide more monitoring, record-keeping, and caring for the plants after they are placed in the wild, including fencing off newly-planted areas and watering them.

For some plants, the approach may be the only hope. While there are concerns about reintroducing foreign-grown plants back into the wild, Maschinski adds, particularly rare species may otherwise go extinct.

If a future comes when reintroduction becomes a necessity, efforts like TREES could ensure a healthy and diverse population of corpse flowers and other endangered plants, Fant says. The researchers involved in TREES also say they hope that the methods could be rolled out to other species that could benefit, as the need arises. The program is already growing, and asking for samples from botanic gardens — including groups outside of the U.S. like the Bogor Botanic Garden.

According to Maschinski, plants are primary producers in their natural habitats, and, as such, preserving some plant species can have a “cascade effect” on the environment — they feed bugs, which feed birds which feed animals, for instance. But according to Pell, the corpse flower’s role in its native habitat is relatively unknown. Whether or not it’s a keystone species, the corpse flower could still be a valuable ambassador, one that raises awareness of the plight faced by many other species, she says.

“I sort of think of the corpse flower as the panda of the plant world in a lot of ways,” she says. “It is just so fascinating and people are so taken in by it that it can be the kind of spokesperson for the importance of conserving all of our biodiversity, and certainly in the plant world.”

Even if the TREES program doesn’t lead to reintroduction in the wild, there’s value in protecting the corpse flower in botanic gardens, says Cyrille Claudel, a biologist at the University of Hamburg. It also might be easier to simply leave the plants alone in the wild, he says, rather than attempting to bring them back. Safeguarding captive corpse flowers would allow the curious to continue their research on the plants — or allow people to simply marvel at them.

The plant is also worth saving just for its own sake, Claudel adds: “It’s probably just the coolest species on Earth, so I would very much like it to be preserved in nature, and cultivation.”

Craniosacral Therapy / Consumer

There are things that are difficult to explain, they are not visible to the eye, you need to have a special sensitivity to notice and understand them. So, for example, no matter how long you peer into the mirror throughout your life, you will not notice that your skull is breathing. However, this is so.

Breathing flower – this is how you can visualize the movements of the bones of the skull. The cranial vault consists of 29 bones. Many believe that the seams between these bones ossify in early childhood and the skull is a single rigid structure. In fact, at the joints between the bones there are fibers of the structural proteins of the connective tissue – collagen and elastin, which, as many women know from cosmetology, have extensibility and elasticity, which allows the skull to expand and contract in a “craniosacral rhythm”.

The fibers, like the petals of a wonderful flower, either open or close according to natural laws established by nature. The bones of the skull make respiratory movements. These movements are inextricably linked with the production of CSF (cerebrospinal fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord from the skull to the sacrum).

The process of production of CSF in the ventricles of the brain and its distribution leads to the fact that the head begins to increase in volume, then decrease. Similar fluctuations occur in the region of the sacrum. That is why they were called the craniosacral rhythm (from “cranium” – skull, “sacrum” – sacrum). And the science that studies these changes is called craniosacral therapy.

Craniosacral therapy owes its birth to an English doctor who lived at the beginning of the 20th century. William Garner Sutherland was the name of the man who first suggested that the bones of the skull move in accordance with the rate of production of cerebrospinal fluid by the body. He described his observations in detail in his book The Cranial Vessel. However, they began to use its discovery for medicinal purposes only half a century later.

CranioSacral Therapy is one of the most effective treatments for headaches. All the big and small head injuries that we receive during our life, starting from the moment of birth, can lead to a slight displacement of the bones of the skull, as a result of which the mobility of the bones is limited and the normal rhythm of movements is disrupted.

Careful manipulations of the specialist’s sensitive hands on the sutures (connections that fasten the bones of the skull) allow you to change the positions of the bones of the skull relative to each other and restore the damaged synchronism of their movement. The well-established rhythm of the movement of the skull, in turn, is a favorable condition for the circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which surrounds the membranes of the brain and spinal cord.

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

In a healthy person, craniosacral “oscillations” of the skull occur six to ten times per minute. Even before the doctor touches your head with his hands, he will know a lot about your problem areas. Violation of posture, different lengths of the legs, weakness of mimic muscles, asymmetry of the face, protruding ears – this and much more may indicate a violation of the craniosacral rhythm.

From the outside, it may seem that the treatment comes down to a simple laying of the hands of a specialist on the head. However, the very sensitive hands of a professional are able not only to feel the craniosacral rhythm, but also to determine the condition of the sutures, limitation of mobility, and asymmetry of movements. The doctor makes subtle and very precise movements with his hands, restoring the disturbed balance of oscillations.

Some of the techniques of CranioSacral Therapy may bring a smile to the uninitiated, such as stretching the ears, but in each technique, in the sequence of their implementation, there is a deep meaning. Craniosacral therapy is not designed for external effects, the treatment process does not end at a session with a doctor, but continues for a long time later.

And, of course, we can say with confidence that this procedure is the most pleasant of all possible “manual corrections”. You just put your head in the hands of a specialist and … experience real pleasure. The tension that you constantly felt releases you, delightful waves go from your head all over your body, the doctor’s sensitive fingers gently glide over your head, giving rise to a blissful feeling of transparency, lightness, almost weightlessness . .. How nice it is to experience a feeling of vivacity, renewal after the procedure as if you had just woken up on an early sunny summer morning from the singing of birds with a young, clear and full of energy head.

WHO NEEDS IT?

Not everything is subject to this type of treatment, but very much. First of all, craniosacral therapy is indicated for people who have suffered a head injury. In such patients, even in the first session, amazing success can be achieved. This technique is indicated for women suffering from premenstrual syndrome, migraines. Often the cause of sea or air sickness, motion sickness in transport, and even some types of allergies is a disturbed craniosacral rhythm, and after its restoration, a person almost forever forgets about these diseases.

Craniosacral therapy is especially indicated for people with the so-called “programmer’s syndrome”, who spend most of the day sitting almost motionless at the computer. It is these people who suffer from visual impairment, severe pain in the neck, migraines. Many can be helped to get rid of these symptoms in 1-2 sessions.

This procedure is a direct indication for those who have undergone treatment for diseases of the spine. Very often, after the well-known manual therapy, serious headaches occur only because the treatment was not completed, that is, the correct flow of cerebrospinal fluid from the sacrum to the head was not restored, which is possible only with the help of craniosacral therapy.

A few sessions of CranioSacral Therapy can help correct “side effects” after intensive orthodontic treatment, such as braces or braces. A change in the position of the teeth always leads to a violation of the craniosacral system.

What is a textile breathable grow bag?

Textile Breathable Grow Bag

Many of our customers ask the following question: What is textile pot ?

Of course, this question is most often asked by people who are just starting out in this hobby. Experienced growers, after they started using bags – pots, do not want to return to using plastic buckets and pots – this is an indicator that the growbag is a good alternative to the usual pots.

Since we are often visited by people who do not know about these magnificent breathable pots , we decided to tell you in this article.

Choosing the right pot for your home plant is one of the first and most important tasks in home floristry. Therefore, our store recommends that you approach this issue carefully and choose a pot not because of its appearance, but because of its practicality and benefits for plants. It would seem that a black and unremarkable pot can serve you a long and useful service.

Text

What is a growbag? This is a textile pot for growing plants made of a special dense fabric. The roots of plants in such pots breathe, due to which they develop more actively. Overflows in such pots are almost impossible – the roots will not rot and deteriorate.

Benefits of using bags – pots:

• Low price. She always pleases.
• Reusable. One, two, three seasons and he is still fresh and full of energy!
• Use anywhere. Grow anywhere – in a grow box or outdoors.
• The Grow Bag will not break. Yes, this is a common problem. Of course, the plant will not be delighted with the fall, but still, it is safer to make such flights in a textile pot. Your wallet won’t get hurt by buying a new pot – just put everything back together.
• Aeration. The roots breathe and grow more actively!
• Air root cutting. Automatic picking of roots.
• No overflow! Does not retain excess water.
• The substrate and root system do not rot.
• Expanded clay may be omitted.
• Many sizes. Choose any size that suits your plant. If you are not satisfied with the height or volume of the pot, then buy a larger pot and tuck it.
• Easy to carry. There are pots with handles and it will not be difficult for you to carry or move. For a pot of 15 liters or more, such handles are a very useful addition.
• Eco friendly. Eco materials are very fashionable nowadays. And plastic buckets and pots are the last century, and also dangerous.

text written by an employee of the GROWMIR.R store

Cons:

• Obsolescence. Of course, plastic or other familiar materials are more durable than fabric, but still, a grow bag will last you several seasons. It is also worth considering the very low cost of textile pots.
• Frequent watering. This is essentially this drawback – the price that the roots can breathe and will not rot. Given these factors, the minus is not so terrible, especially since our store offers you a wide selection of equipment for automatic irrigation (irrigation systems).
• Water is flowing out. Wait, water, where are you? Ahh, in the pallet I bought? Amazing!

written by an employee of the GROWMIR. RU store

How to choose a pot?

1 Size. Choose a pot based on the size of your plant. The height and diameter of the pot is selected based on the size of the plant itself.

2 Purpose. Will this pot be for seedlings or for a large plant?

3 Transplant. If you are transplanting old plants, then add another 2 to 5 cm in diameter and height to the size of the old pot.

4 Mind the details. How much space will drainage (expanded clay) take up? Approximately 2 cm, depending on the size of the pot and the size of expanded clay stones.

5 Science. There is a universal formula – the height of the pot should be a third or a quarter of the height of the plant.

6 The more the better! Yes, in most cases it is. But there are plant species that do not need a large pot (Spathiphyllum, Anthurium, Aglaonema).

7 The main thing is not the form, but the content! The content is of course more important, but the shape of the pot also plays a role, and not only decorative. When choosing a pot, you need to consider what kind of root system your plant will have. For the proper development of the plant, it is important to pay special attention to the root system, not only buy good root stimulator, but also a suitable pot! For a plant with a long root, you can pick up tall and narrow containers. If the plant has a fibrous root, then a low and wide pot will do. If it is impossible to buy a suitable pot, you can also choose universal ones – the height and diameter of such pots are the same. Textile pots are unique and the good thing is that you can always adjust their height. How? Simply fold the top of the potty up like a sleeve or leg.

In paragraph 8 you will find more information about the root system of some plants.

8 The root system of each plant is different.

For example, everyone’s favorite cacti have long deep roots. Other types of plants also have such roots – palm trees, some types of citrus fruits.

There are roots fibrous , they have the form of a bundle that is located near the surface of the earth. Wheat, corn, oats have such roots.

Rod roots have beans, carrots, peas, sunflowers, dandelions and even trees – pear, beech, birch. Such plants have one large root, from which lateral roots grow, which in turn branch and form many small roots. Remember what a carrot looks like, which has just been pulled out of the ground, and you will immediately understand everything – it is this root system that is called taproots.

Branched roots have plants: begonia, chrysanthemum, geranium.

Growmer Encyclopedia:

Root is the axial underground organ of the plant.