Category: Breathwork

Breathing “elastically”

15. September 2019

In the German lifestyle magazine Carpe Diem,breath teacher Norbert Faller spoke with Nicole Kolisch about breathing „elastically“ in a given situation.

“Are you breathing „elastically“ in a given situation?
A few questions to something that should be a matter of course, but isn‘t.

Carpe Diem: Mr Faller, you are a breath teacher. Of course, the obvious question is, why should I learn to breathe? Can‘t I do that already?

Norbert Faller: We wouldn‘t live – none of us – if we couldn‘t. Most people who are born healthy, breathe reasonably well. But there are conditions in life that can lead to the loss of something actually quite intuitive that is self-regulated by the body. This can have many causes: monotonous movements or lack of exercise, poor posture, tension, stress, mental problems, sometimes it is also due to certain thoughts that „take our breath away“. There are also environmental influences (allergies) or smoking.

Breath Token August 2019

15. August 2019

Allgemein, Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.

Holding the shoulder to calm down
I read more and more about breathing techniques and how they‘re supposed to help with regulating ourselves, usually calming down or being alert.

We don‘t need a breathing technique for either. I‘d like to propose a simple touch that has a calming effect without unneccessarily interfering with the self-regulatory breathing mechanism. (This is just one example, there are countless other possibilities)

Blowing bubbles

15. August 2019

Breathwork, Featured

by Nicola Caroli

How to make breathing explorations great fun! Watch this demonstration by a pig in a puddle, strengthening the diaphragm through extending the exhale against resistance. A puddle will do perfectly.

If you’re on facebook, here is a close-up of the same exploration by another pig.

He is alive in my breath

12. August 2019

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

This is a beautiful interview with Brother Phap Dung, one of Thich Nhat Hanh‘s disciples about his master’s return to Vietnam after his stroke and his wishes for the time after his death. After linving for almost four decades in his retreat centre Plum Village in France, Thich That Hanh wanted to spend his last days at the temple in Hue, where he became a monk in 1942 at age 16.
The interview was conducted by Eliza Barclay for Vox. I’ve highlighted the parts that are relevant to breathing.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s final mindfulness lesson: how to die peacefully

Eliza Barclay
Tell me about your teacher’s decision to go to Vietnam and how you interpret the meaning of it.

Phap Dung
He’s definitely coming back to his roots.

He has come back to the place where he grew up as a monk. The message is to remember we don’t come from nowhere. We have roots. We have ancestors. We are part of a lineage or stream.

It’s a beautiful message, to see ourselves as a stream, as a lineage, and it is the deepest teaching in Buddhism: non-self. We are empty of a separate self, and yet at the same time, we are full of our ancestors.

Breath Token July 2019

15. July 2019

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.

Slo-Mo ball in the back

I have a Slo-Mo ball in my car and when I drive I put it between my back and the seat, at the height of the middle back. This is where the thoracic spine meets the lumbar spine, approximately opposite the tip of the sternum. And it‘s also where the lumbar part of the diaphragm connects to the lumbar vertebrae via the right and left crura. Crura means „leg“ or „pillar“ and these tendinous pillars, one either side of the spine, literally help to hold us up. It‘s easy to imagine how tense they can get, through breathing restrictions and postural compensations which, of course, go hand in hand.

Are you a breath bully?

15. July 2019

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

I just discovered a blog post by master breath teacher Dennis Lewis from 2012 called “Don’t bully your breath”. What a great way of naming what we do when we unnecessarily employ the breath with breathing techniques. In attitude, it really is no different from domineering and messing someone around in the playground. Except, we’re doing it to ourselves.

Breathing techniques were developed by people who led exceptionally disciplined lives and practiced mental, emotional and physical strength, flexibility and hygiene on a moment-to-moment basis.

Breath Token June 2019

15. June 2019

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.

I‘m travelling this weekend and as I lay in the hotel bed in the evening, I started to open out my arms and then fold them over my chest. The movement was very fluid and, the longer I did it, it felt like the movement of breathing itself: opening and closing, expanding and narrowing. It was very satisfying and so I‘d like to offer it here as a breath token.

You never have to “take” another breath in your life

15. June 2019

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

Last month I was at a workshop with master teacher Jessica Wolf in Lucerne. In her „Art of Breathing“, Jessica Wolf combines the Alexander Technique with Carl Stough‘s Breathing Coordination. We explored breath through movement and touch and experienced the different shape shiftings of breathing, depending on thought and body position.

Breath Token May 2019

18. May 2019

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.

The Body as Vessel

The more we can experience and understand the body as a vessel for breathing, the more the breath can expand and move within it. One of the most direct ways to experience the body as a vessel is by sensing the body walls through touching, stroking and tapping. A playful way of experiencing the body walls is to experiment with objects like blankets, for example. So, let‘s try that now, rolling up a blanket and placing it around the body.

Breath Token April 2019

15. April 2019

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.

Making space in the loins

The loins are a key area as they are the transition between the pelvis and the legs. This area relates to breathing through the poses muscle which runs diagonally from the top of the dorsal part of the diaphragm to the top of the thigh bone. The diaphragm and the psoas muscle are thus connected. We can sense the psoas muscle clearly when we stand on a step or a Yoga block and let one leg hang, pull it up and let it hang again. Or we can try out walking with two different focuses: 1. the pelvis and the legs as a unit and 2. the pelvis and the legs as two separate units. What happens in the body and in breathing during and after walking in one way and then the other?
Usually when the focus is on the pelvis and the legs as a unit, the movement of the legs becomes narrower and the body more compact. The breathing is restricted. When the focus is on the pelvis and the legs as separate units, the torso lengthens, the loins become more open, expanded even, the psoas releases and the legs can move more freely. The freedom of the legs transfers itself on the breath movement. Any position or movement that releases the psoas and makes space in the loins, also helps the breath movement.