I’d like to share this series of charmingly illustrated videos about respiratory evolution by biology professor Walter Jahn. The first video, which serves as an introduction to the subject of respiratory evolution, is followed by a series of further videos ranging from cutaneous respiration to pharyngeal respiration to the development of gills and lungs.
Source: Dr Walter Jahn, Suny Orange College, New York
In her art work Different Kinds of Air, A Plant’s Diary (2004), Emily Parsons-Lord re-creates air from distinct moments in Earth’s history — from the clean, fresh-tasting air of the Carboniferous period to the soda-water air of the Great Dying to the heavy, toxic air of the future we’re creating. On her website she writes about her project: “300-350 million years ago oxygen levels were nearly double what they are today, supporting mega flora and fauna. 252.5 million years ago, the Earth experienced the greatest extinction event with 93-97% of species on land dying out and a simultaneous spike in carbon dioxide levels. The history of the atmosphere on Earth is inexorably linked to the history of life.” Read More
In his book, The Voice of the Body, the doctor, psychotherapist and founder of bioenergetics Alexander Lowen, writes the following passage about the motion of the breath wave. It serves as a vital reminder of how the experience of the breath wave is “one of the basic pleasures of being alive.”
„…it is the quality of the respiratory movements that determines whether breathing is pleasurable or not. With each breath a wave can be seen to ascend and descend through the body. The inspiratory wave begins deep in the abdomen with a backward movement of the pelvis. This allows the belly to expand outward. The wave then moves upward as the rest of the body expands. Read More
Last month I participated in the Connection Project at Mirabellenhof in Biesenthal, Barnim. The theme of the workshop was “Imbolc”, the celtic spring festival. At Imbolc people celebrate the phase in nature where everything is preparing for the coming spring in the earth, even if it’s hardly visible above the earth, except, for example, in a snowdrop or a winter rose.
A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.
Sphinx
There‘s a simple and powerful fascia exercise where one lies on the floor with the palms of the hands facing downwards. One can imagine the fingers extending, like roots growing along the floor. On the train today I thought, why not do the same thing whilst sitting down? So let‘s try it out. Either leaning back or sitting upright in our seat, our hands settle on the upper thighs. Read More
When I was in Tel Aviv last year; I went to Steimatzky’s bookstore at the port where, in a random assortment of English language books, I came across Come on in, a volume of poetry by Charles Bukowski. Already the title made me titter and on reading the poems I just laughed and laughed. How does Charles Bukowski manage to be so timeless refreshing, I wonder. Irreverence? Anyway, in the book I came across a poem that features breathing:
have we come to this
Lord, boys,
it‘s been a long time since we
sang a happy tune from
deep in the lungs.
somehow we‘ve allowed them
to shut off our air, our water, our
electricity, our joy. Read More
In his article „Better Chemistry Through Breathing: The Story of Carbon Dioxide and How It Can Go Wrong“, breathing expert Christopher Gilbert, PhD, explains the often misunderstood dynamics between O2 and CO2 in breathing and the causes and effects of hyper- and hypoventilation in physical and cognitive performance and emotional states. He includes hyper- and hypoventilation self-tests and comprehensively sums up the key points about CO2 in relation to breathing.
Source: http://www.resourcenter.net
This graffitti in New York is a find of Gio McClusky. I gave it the title “breathing to go”.
Source:https://www.facebook.com/Gio.Mccluskey
A breath token is a breathing exploration that I develop for friends & clients and send out as a gift.
Stability and Elasticity
Lying down with knees bent and feet on the floor, let‘s place one hand on one part of the torso and the other on another part of the torso. We can sense the body walls but also the breath movement beneath them. In natural breathing, the expansion and contraction of the breath movement can be felt and sensed mostly through the resistance and relaxation of the tissue that forms the vessel of our body. The vessel itself doesn‘t change but the spaces within it shift with the breath movement, depending on the elasticity of the tissue. And this, we can, in part, sense. Read More
In his book “I am not I”, the philosopher Jacob Needleman writes: „Among the great questions of the human heart, none is more central than the question, “Who am I?” And among the great answers of the human spirit, none is more central than the experience of “I Am.” In fact, in the course of an intensely lived human life — a normal human life filled with the search for Truth — this question and this answer eventually run parallel to each other, coming closer and closer together until the question becomes the answer and the answer becomes the question.“ Read More
