Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
by James Nestor
Recent events had brought the subject of breathing to the forefront of many people’s minds and made them suddenly aware of this natural process that usually takes place underneath our conscious awareness. It made them acutely aware how essential breathing is to their very survival and to their health and well-being.
For the next three months we will be reading Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. In this book, “Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.”
I found this book to be very engaging and thought-provoking. It tells stories of people, both modern and ancient, who figured out how to solve all sorts of health problems by altering the pattern of breathing for themselves and their patients/students. The book takes you from Stanford lab to Paris Catacombs, from secret Soviet facilities to streets of São Paulo, Brazil in an effort to discover how to breathe correctly. The author writes: “No matter what we eat, how much we exercise, how resilient our genes are, how skinny or young or wise we are–none of it will matter unless we’re breathing correctly. That’s what these researchers discovered. The missing pillar in health is breath. It all starts here.”
Over the next three months I will be writing a series of blog posts comparing the findings from this book to traditional yogic approach to breath. You will find that many, many discoveries of the modern science regarding breath have been described and utilized in the yoga tradition long ago. I invite you to join me on this journey by reading this book and subscribing to my blog. Let the journey begin!
I’ve looked this book up and it is to be published in UK on July 30th as a hardback, so quite expensive if like me you prefer physical books but don’t support the great online bookshop. Like any other teacher I’ve been studying and practising, and now teaching, pranayama for two decades. Tempted to leave it to you to persuade me to buy it, with your wonderful handouts, Olga.
I bet the book will make its way to one of your libraries soon enough. I will be writing quite a few articles using inspirations from the book, so maybe you’ll be able to go without 🙂
That seems a bit cheeky, taking advantage of you without buying the book. I’m a little ashamed to admit another factor – I already have no space on my overcrowded shelves (16 books on pranayama alone, not counting traditional texts). Just a thought – do you agree with James Nestor’s subtitle that there is a “lost art” to breathing optimally?
I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a lot to consider in how we use the breath, and when we are. guiding our nervous system through our breath control and when we are over controlling and affecting our nervous system in a negative way. As in all of life, there is a balance.
This was a great book. Completely changed the way I look at breathing. I’m experimenting with a little piece of tape on my mouth at night to encourage nose breathing. That one little thing has so improved my sleep.