Book Recommendation No. 66 (2023): JAMES NESTOR: BREATH – BREATH. NEW KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE FORGOTTEN ART OF BREATHING.
2023.
By Hans-Christian Riekhof
Does it make sense to write a book about breathing? Does the book find its readership? Isn’t breathing an innate ability and function of the autonomic nervous system that we don’t have to worry about?
James Nestor takes us on a, as he calls it, “scientific adventure journey”. He reports on the latest scientific findings, but also on the results of his self-experiments, which he conducted under the supervision of international breathing experts.
We learn that we know far too little about this fundamental process of human life. And we breathe wrong: too often, too fast, too “unconscious”, too often through the mouth. We can use breathing techniques for therapeutic purposes, we can increase our performance through better breathing or reduce our sensitivity to cold to a minimum. It is indeed a “scientific adventure journey” to a basic function of the human organism that deserves our full attention. Perhaps in the future we should replace the “live well” with a cheerful “breathe well”.
Perhaps as a conclusion only so much: the reading is worthwhile in any case, if one wants to deal with one’s own habits and their examination and further development. To skim some of the case studies from the author’s coaching practice a bit faster helps a lot.
