Sometimes a change in your life sends out ripples in unexpected directions. I do hope that this will be your experience with Breathe: that it will pique your curiosity about other types of exercises and topics related to breathing. You might be moved to explore different patterns of breathing from such experts as Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Richard Brown, and Dr. Patricia Gerbarg. You might even try Water Breathing with Dr. Jim Morningstar; deepen your understanding of yoga breathing 75 with Leslie Kaminoff; take a meditation class with Gabby Bernstein; refine your knowledge of anatomy by studying Blandine Calais-Germain’s beautiful illustrations in Anatomy of Breathing; do a workshop with David Elliott; learn Kriya Breathing at The Art of Living; or pore over Patrick McKeown, or Al Lee and Don Campbell’s Perfect Breathing.
I hope you’ll be moved to read the works of visionaries and researchers whose passion has been to teach and study breathing: psychiatrist and researcher “Stan” (Stanislav) Grof, Dr. Leon Chaitow, Dr. Gay Hendricks, and Donna Farhi, to name just a few. You might listen with new interest to Joe Rogan’s podcasts in which he talks about breathing, or read up on the adventures of free divers Stig Severinsen and Natalia Avseenko. Maybe you’ll feel so impassioned you’ll take a specialized Kundalini yoga class or join the virtual breathing space Do As One (Doasone.com ).
Maybe, just maybe, you’ll assimilate this information and be inspired to help your loved ones and talk to them about their breath, their lungs, their breathing muscles. I’ll finish this book the same way I bring to a close Recovery Breath/Meditation: by asking you to “bring a small smile to your face and let it flow through your entire body. This is a smile of gratitude, giving thanks for everything that you are and everything that you have, for all the love that is around you and all the love that is within you. But most of all, giving thanks to yourself for having made the time to take care of your body, your mind, and your soul.”
75 For a beautiful summary of how breath is considered the cornerstone of health, see Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka, Appendix 2 .