Tag: breathing

Are you a breath bully?

15. July 2019

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.

Better Chemistry Through Breathing

8. February 2018

Breathing Science

by Nicola Caroli

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

Breath Token August 2017

15. August 2017

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

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

Let’s take the idea of stretching and redefine it as a „leaning into a space“. We can lean from anywhere inside the torso towards the inner walls of the torso. This could be to the side, upwards or downwards, forwards or backwards, or diagonally. Where I meet with a resistance I explore it rather than go up against it. Leaning into the resistance, gently as into a sofa cushion or more directly as against a wall, waiting for the space to expand, to open so that the breath can flow in.

The benefits I experienced were:
A strong sense of the breath movement
Mobility in the chest
Deep, gentle and regular breathing
A sense of space in the entire torso
Becoming aware of tension and pain patterns in the torso

There are surely other benefits for you to discover. If you have any questions or feedback please contact me.

Coherence BreatheHeart

7. August 2017

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

Coherence BreatheHeart

In this video, Stephen Elliot, the founder of coherence, demonstrates the biofeedback instrument COHERENCE BreatheHeart. Coherence breathing focusses on the circulatory aspect of breathing and how, through our ability to influence our breathing, we can influence our blood flow and heart rate. With COHERENCE BreatheHeart we can measure and see how breathing, blood flow and heart rate are synchronised. By breathing coherently we can train ourselves to synchronise breathing, blood flow and heart rate optimally for physical and mental health. Stephen Elliot says: „As we breathe coherently, the blood wave returns to and issues from the lungs with each cycle of inhalation and exhalation. This results in a blood wave that rises and falls, measured throughout the body, and the autonomic nervous system responds to this blood wave by changing the heart rate, so as blood wave rises the heart wave falls and as the blood wave falls the heart wave rises.“

Source: http://coherence.com

It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing

14. June 2017

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

I just came across this video of Ella Fitzgerald singing „It don‘t mean a thing if it ain‘t got that swing“. That kind of sums it up for breathing, the force behind the singing voice. In natural breathing, no matter how subtle or strong the swinging motion is, it is the essence of the breath movement. When I’m in my own rhythm, from moment to moment, when I‘m in tune with myself in different situations, the right mix of looseness and good tone, I‘ve got that swing… Read More

Doing breathing exercises is not enough

27. April 2017

Breathwork

by Nicola Caroli

In his Audio CD „Natural Breathing“, Dennis Lewis talks about his personal discovery of natural breathwork. He gives a succinct, measured and accessible explanations about how breathing works and includes introductory breath explorations. I’ve been listening to his CD for a couple of years now and never get tired of his measured and thoughtful language and tone of voice. He makes several statements about doing breathing exercises that are key and I‘d like to share one of them with you:

„To reclaim the natural, authentic breathing that is our birthright, simply doing breathing exercises is not enough. Let me repeat that: doing breathing exercises, however wonderful they are, is not enough. We also need to begin a process of re-education of our perception. Read More