Category: Breathwork

I’m delighted to have found this interview with breath master Robert Litman. With his long time Rolfing colleague and friend Gael Rosewood he talks in depth about his own journey to becoming a breath teacher and how his embodiment trainings in Rolfing, Buteyko and Continuum have shaped his breathing practice. In the interview he also addresses the fundamental role of CO2 in the breath process, how our breathing influences our relationships and what he calls ‘the triple helix of breathing’. And he offers some exercises to try out. An educational, engaging and truly inspiring interview.

In Leo Kofler’s book The Art of Breathing as the Basis of Tone-Production, he tells an anecdote from one of his lectures when a physician in the audience rose and asked him if he believed that a woman could „accustom herself to this full diaphragmatic breath-taking.” This took place around the second half of the 19th century, probably in New York. Leo Kofler replied in the affirmative, and a fascinating dialogue ensued in which he enlightened the physician that “no student of anatomy could come to such a conclusion except one whose observations had been made only upon a living female wearing very tightly-laced corsets.”

I receive Dan Brulé‘s newsletter every month and can only say that it’s well worth subscribing to. He always comes up with new insights about the breath and shares his vast knowledge of the art and science of breathing. I’d like to share with you one of his newsletters from last year in which he touches on the tricky question of whether it is possible to breathe naturally while observing the breath:

“I love it when people tell me that their breath changes whenever they put their attention on it.”

For most people, when they put their attention on the breath, in that moment their breath behaves differently. This is normal, and it proves that you are human!

I spent a week in June this year at the International Sufi Summer School 2023 with heart opening prayers, chants and dances led by Neil Douglas-Klotz.

One of the lecture-meditations of Neil Douglas-Klotz was entirely about the breath.  “What does my breath really mean?” he asked and went on to talk about how breathing always takes us to the question of where we begin and end; where breathing is happening within us and where breathing is happening beyond ourselves and how the two connect. These two breaths come together in what Neil Douglas-Klotz calls “the sacred breath”.

At an international Sufi retreat in September last year at Haus Ananda, I was delighted to experience the Sufi Elemental Healing Breath.

The Sufi Elemental Healing Breaths consist of a sequence of five types of breaths, each pertaining to the elements earth, water, fire, air, and ether. They were brought to the West by Professor Hazrat Inayat-Khan in the early 1900s. These elemental healing breaths cover all the different ways in which air can travel in and out of the body: breathing through the nose, breathing through the mouth, and a combination of both. Combined with paying attention to the sensation, the sound of the breath, and imagining the different elements, the elemental healing breaths connect human beings with nature within and without themselves.

I’ve just finished my first Soulbreath teacher training with Erno van Doesselaar. Soulbreath originally began with Norma Delaney whom Erno studied with for many years. I’d love to point you to a website of Norma Delaney, but I’ve found almost nothing on the internet about her, even though she died only recently, in 2020. She was an embodiment of the original masters who simply attract students with their practice and by word of mouth. Norma Delaney called her teaching Compassionate Breath or New Breath, and Erno developed this teaching further by combining it with his own meditation and Yoga Nidra experience to create Soulbreath.

Revisit your favourite Breath Tokens from 2022

Now that we‘re coming to the end of the year, rather than add a new Breath Token, I invite you to revisit a Breath Token that resonated with you, that inspired you or made you discover something new. “Transition as Invitation” from October or “Transition as anticipation” from April are favourites of mine, for example.

How would you explore these themes of transition now? And if you do explore them, what’s changed and what’s stayed the same?

I wish you all the best for the ending of this year and the new beginning.
Let’s stay in touch. Let’s be breathed.

I’ve just watched a phenomenal video named Breathing, Balance and Posture by body work guru par excellence Mary Bond.

In this video, she shares her own movement routine, based on developmental movements, lying on the floor and in a sitting position. She also shares her insights on these movements and how they help to motivate her to do her workout practice. 

Mary Bond particularly addresses people who suffer from Parkinson’s Disease in this video but anything she teaches promotes an understanding of healthy movement and thus breathing.

The highlight for me was her tip to imitate the „gah and goo“ sounds babies make. As the back of the tongue closes off the opening of the windpipe, one can only breathe through the nose. The breath flow is markedly smoother and deeper than without this closing off. I was amazed. Try it out yourselves.

Transition as emptiness

In 2022 the breath tokens are about transitions. Transition literally means to “cross over, go over, pass over, hasten over, pass away,” from transire – trans “across, beyond” + ire “to go“.

In breathing, transition naturally occurs after the inhale and the exhale and vice versa. I’ve noticed that I tend to go over transitions, in breathing as well as in the every day, going from one thing to the next without paying attention to the space in between. Despite being aware that these transitions are happening, in breathing or in other behaviours, I find it really challenging to be present in them.

Together with you I’d like to explore the subject of transitions. I’ll post quotes, collect ideas or questions from people I know and from you.
If you’d like to share something about transitions, contact me at hallo@nicolacaroli.com. 

At the 2022 breathwork summit, one of the most interesting presenters to me was Martin Jones with Holographic Breathing. 

Martin Jones, a craniosacral therapist and Tai Chi teacher, discovered and developed his own spiritual cranio-facial breathing practice when he suffered from lyme disease. I’d been aware of the connection of the jaw and mouth from various body and breath healing methods but not in the fine detail that Martin Jones presented. After the summit, I went to his website and found his excellent article on Holographic Breathing in Positive Health Online which I’m sharing with you here. You can also find many videos with guided practices on the site.