Way To Breathe, No Breath!

10. September 2019
Breath in Literature & Art, Featured
by Nicola Caroli

In “Bart sells his soul”, episode 4, season 7 of  The Simpsons, Bart has played a prank on the minister of the church by exchanging the hymn sheet with a Rock’n’roll sheet. The minister threatens all the boys in the choir with damnation etc. if no one comes forward with the person responsible for the prank. Bart’s friend Milhouse outs him. An argument follows about whether or not there is such a thing as the soul and therefore damnation. Bart states that the soul doesn’t exist and agrees to sell his soul to Milhouse – or rather whatever Milhouse believes to be Bart’s soul – for five bucks. The boys run to the ice-cream parlour where Bart’s ideas about the soul are unexpectedly challenged:

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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)

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How breathing affects thinking, feeling and brain health

15. August 2019
Breathing Science
by Nicola Caroli

On the website of integrative breathing therapist and osteopathic doctor Rosalba Courtney I found this state of the art article: “Breathing and the Brain – Rhythm, oscillation and circulation breakthroughs in cognitive neuroscience“.

Breathing and the Brain – Rhythm, oscillation and circulation breakthroughs in cognitive neuroscience
“There is a long history of the application of breathing practices to psychological therapy, self-regulation and spiritual practice. Breathing modulation is the most common technique used by people all over the world to manage difficult emotions, stress and even pain. Focused attention on the breath is the bedrock of many meditation and mindfulness practices. Yogis propose that breathing practices that direct attention to the breath or alter its volume, timing and rhythms “purifies” and “stabilises” the nervous system, and “improves concentration and mental vigor”.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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Still breathing?

14. July 2019
Breath in Literature & Art
by Nicola Caroli

I just watched Collateral again, an action thriller produced and directed by Michael Mann. In the brilliant screenplay by Stuart Beattie, I discovered a breathing scene…. Here‘s what‘s happened so far (relevant to the breathing scene):

Max, played by Jamie Fox, a cab driver in Los Angeles has picked up Vincent, an assassin played by Tom Cruise. Vincent has hired Max for the whole night, telling him he has several stops to make. At Vincent‘s first kill stop, his target accidentally fell out of the open window after being shot and onto Max‘s cab. Max was tucking into a homemade sandwich when the body hit the roof and windshield and Max‘s food splattered all over the passenger seat and floor. (This is significant because the movie starts with Max meticulously cleaning his car.) Vincent returns, threatens Max with a gun and orders him to help him stuff the dead body into the trunk. Vincent then orders Max to drive on.

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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.   

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