Body by Breath


Book Description

In the hierarchy of life, breath always wins. It persists 22,000 times daily, but you get to decide whether the way you breathe is to your benefit or detriment. Breath becomes compromised by stress, disease, and the environmental trappings of progress; you can still breathe under this pressure, but it leads to poor breathing habits that slowly whittle away at your health. In Body by Breath, bestselling author Jill Miller takes you on a journey through your breathing body and presents more than 100 step-by-step techniques and practices to help you master the body-breath connection and reset your physiology. This book explores four primary types of resilience-building exercises—breathwork, movement, rolling, and non-sleep deep rest—to help you achieve • Greater power, endurance, and recovery ability • Enhanced self-regulation skills • Supercharged executive function • Relief from pain, injuries, and chronic conditions • Freedom to feel, connect, and express stored emotions Jill shares her scientifically supported methods so you can Train and modulate your body and nervous system for reduced stress, improved mobility, and whole-body resilience Discover the latest findings in breath and fascia research and get the most out of breathwork practice by including more of your body’s parts in the mix Map the vast reach of the diaphragm and feel how it intermingles with everything in your body. You’ll travel the pathways of the vagus nerve and trace miles of fascial intersections beneath your skin to unlock your body’s regenerative reservoir. If you have struggled with traditional meditation practices because remaining still spikes your anxiety and leaves you feeling agitated and fidgety, Body by Breath presents innovative alternatives designed for your unique nervous system. This inclusive approach allows you to reap the benefits of relaxation, restoration, and regeneration. Take these practices into your life and renew the way you embody breath.




Breathing through the Whole Body


Book Description

Explores the Buddha’s own words on breathing meditation for healing, wholeness, and a deeper understanding of his teachings • Explains the complete series of steps in the Buddha’s Satipatthana Sutta for refining awareness of the breath, from posture and center of gravity to extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs, and abdomen to the entire body • Shows that stillness in meditation refers only to the mind, not to the body • Reveals breath to be a direct agent of healing for chronic tensions and an agitated mind Explaining how stillness in meditation refers not to a rigid and frozen body but to a quality of mind, Will Johnson examines the Buddha’s own words at the core of the Satipatthana Sutta: “As you breathe in, breathe in through the whole body; as you breathe out, breathe out through the whole body”--an instruction often overlooked in the majority of Buddhist schools. Exploring the Buddha’s complete series of steps for deepening awareness of the breath, he shows how to invite natural, responsive movement back into the posture of meditation by extending breath awareness beyond the nostrils, lungs, and abdomen to the entire body--a practice that unifies the breath, body, and mind into a single shared phenomenon. Showing how the flow of breath is directly affected by chronic tensions in the body and in the mind, Johnson explains that when breath starts flowing through more and more of the body, it becomes a direct agent of healing, massaging and melting any areas of tension it touches and moves through, whether physical or emotional. By breathing through the whole body in accordance with the Buddha’s instructions on breath, the body becomes much more comfortable, the mind starts resolving its addiction to thinking, and meditative practice deepens much more rapidly, allowing the teachings of the Buddha to be directly glimpsed and revealed.




Breath


Book Description

A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR “A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.




Anatomy of Breathing


Book Description

"Everyone breathes, yet few of us understand how to consciously control breathing to improve our well-being and the quality of many daily activities. 'Anatomy of Breathing' is a clear and helpful guide to both the theory and practice of breathing in its many variations. Hundreds of expert drawings along with easy-to-understand text help you explore just how breathing works. Once you're acquainted with the principal organs, structures, and forces that affect breathing, you will learn how to control them to enhance the quality and variety of breathing in your own life. Along the way, you will also correct many common misconceptions about breathing. 'Anatomy of Breathing' is filled with helpful practice pages. Here you will learn simple exercises to prepare your body for the benefits of different types of breathing. You will then be shown, step by step, how to practice some of the most common and useful breathing techniques on your own."--Publisher description.




The Healing Power of the Breath


Book Description

A drug-free, side effect-free solution to common stress and mood problems—developed by two physicians The audio exercises included with this book can be accessed online at www.shambhala.com/healingpowerofthebreath. Access instructions are also provided within the book. Millions of Americans suffer from mood problems and stress-related issues like anxiety, depression, insomnia, and PTSD. Far too many of them are taking medications that have troublesome side effects, withdrawal symptoms, and disappointing success rates. In The Healing Power of the Breath, Dr. Richard P. Brown and Dr. Patricia L. Gerbarg provide a different way to treat stress: breathing. Drawn from yoga, Buddhist meditation, the Chinese practice of qigong, and other sources, their science-backed methods activate communication pathways between the mind and body to positively impact the brain and calm the stress response. Their anecdotes and easy-to-follow exercises will show you how to apply breathing techniques to help relieve: · Anxiety and depression · Trauma-related emotions and behaviors · Post-traumatic stress disorder · Insomnia · Addiction-related behaviors Complete with an audio download, this book gives you the coping tools you need to lead a calmer, more stress-free life.




Alive


Book Description

This book quite literally comes to life off the page. It is the most imaginative, inspiring, and dramatic human body book on the market. Forget heavy reference books, forget linear narratives, open your eyes and be amazed by the creativity of this human body book. Travel through the body's systems using a host of novelty features - pop-ups, flaps, sound chips, acetate, pull-tabs, fibre optics and much more - to illustrate, inform, stimulate, and entertain. Every special feature works to demystify the miracle of creation that is your body. See the skeleton jump off the page, peel away your organs layer by layer, listen to the heart beat and watch it move within an awe-inspiring 3D ribcage. There's something for all the family in this graphic portrayal of the human body. But not only is it fun, it is also authoritative and well researched. The author, Richard Walker is an award-winning science writer and his text is fresh, revealing and accessible for everyone.




Anatomy and Physiology


Book Description




Body, Breath, and Consciousness


Book Description

The forces that develop the self—somatic, emotional, mental, interpersonal, social, and spiritual—must all be considered by therapists in treating any patient. Each article in this important anthology deals in some way with these various elements. The writing is focused on the body-mind connection, exploring the practices and theories of this popular branch of psychology. Topics include the significance of family systems; dealing with trauma and shock in therapy; and the importance of breathing, offering valuable insights for the student and practitioner alike. Contributors include Marianne Bentzen, a trainer in Somatic Developmental Psychology; Peter Bernhardt, a professor of psychology; and Peter A. Levine, author of Waking the Tiger.




Atmospheres of Breathing


Book Description

As a physiological or biological matter, breath is mostly considered to be mechanical and thoughtless. By expanding on the insights of many religions and therapeutic practices, which emphasize the cultivation of breath, the contributors argue that breath should be understood as fundamentally and comprehensively intertwined with human life and experience. Various dimensions of the respiratory world are referred to as "atmospheres" that encircle and connect human existence, coexistence, and the world. Drawing from a number of traditions of breathing, including from Indian and East Asian religion and philosophy, the book considers breath in relation to ontological, hermeneutical, phenomenological, ethical, and aesthetic concerns in philosophy. The wide-ranging topics include poetry, theater, environmental issues and health, feminism, and media studies.




The Art of Breathing


Book Description

Publisher’s Note: This title is now available under a new edition, The Art of Breathing ISBN 9781642970425. This edition will include a new afterword by Mark Williams, author of Mindfulness. International bestselling author Dr. Danny Penman provides a concise guide to letting go, finding peace, and practicing mindfulness in a messy world, simply by taking the time to breathe. With these simple exercises he teaches you how to dissolve anxiety, stress, and unhappiness, enhance your mind, and unleash your creativity. You will start to smile more, worry less, and with each little moment of mindfulness, discover a happier, calmer you. It really is as easy as breathing. All you need is a chair, a body, some air, and your mind. That's it!