Book Review: "Restoring Prana: A Therapeutic Guide to Pranayama and Healing Through the Breath..."
Author: Robin Rothenberg
A book all about the connections between our breath and our health.
This is a tour-de-force of a book, with over 400 hundred pages on the science and art of breathing, detailed yet easy to understand and highly pragmatic, with a plethora of exercises and breathing practices. A must-read, containing a host of need-to-know material for therapists, coaches, medical and healthcare workers of all and any kind. It also holds large potential for restorative health for anyone who habitually mouth breaths, is breathing from the chest or neck, or is just unaware or disconnected from their breathing patterns.
It has major applications to symptom management and progressive symptom reduction in chronic illnesses and trauma, in which disordered breathing is a very common feature, an may actually have causative roles. Indeed, the narrative arc of the book follows Robin's own journey of healing from chronic problems through the breath work.
The book is highly accessible for a lay person, yet very comprehensive and thorough, with the best descriptions of the biochemistry and biomechanics of breathing I've read so far. In particular, Robin explains the whole CO2 intolerance piece really well - why more breath moved in and out of the system per minute does not mean better oxygenation of the body and brain (quite the reverse, in fact). The book also covers mouth vs nose breathing, providing a myriad of literally vital reasons why everyone would want to change to nose breathing today, as well as proper diaphragmatic breathing as opposed to chest breathing.
The book is highly practical, with detailed explanations and supporting photos of the breathing exercises, including "Subtle Breathing" and "Core Breathing" techniques, but which also include practices that combine the breathe with movement (such as "Halo Breathing") and with mantras. Robin also covers how and why gently taping the mouth closed at night can have significant restorative health benefits.
The book contextualises the whole piece by comparing and contrasting with the ancient breathing arts of the east. Indeed, by returning to the original sanskrit texts, rather than following modern (mis)interpretations of yogic philosophies, the author finds that the true teachings of the yogis actually fully aligns with the modern biochemistry based techniques, such as the Buteyko method: breath mastery was and is all about breathing as lightly and slowly as possible. The book is steeped in the language of yoga, but not so much that this prevents access to the science or the benefits of the exercises/practices for those not interested in this aspects.
In my own strongly held view, we should be teaching the next generation of kids these techniques, giving them this knowledge, and educating them on how their own bodies really work, consistently and from early on. Just think what a different, calmer, more thoughtful and more healthy society we would create if everyone was in touch with their own breath!
On this topic, I have also created a pragmatic online course, covering everything I learned about the role of breathing regulation and dysregulation in chronic illnesses:
Breath is life.
Thank you Gary. Sounds like a wonderful book. I'll check it out as a potential addition to my sacred toolkit
Years ago, I trained in Transformational Breathwork. I still practice and tone and stopped short of becoming a facilitator as I was, at the time, not convinced of the support and the ethics. It is powerfully transformative inner work. For me personally, I experienced a sequence of wild kundalini awakenings for which there was scant support or understanding. My body wasn't prepared for the depth of the work. That said, my own facilitator was excellent at holding a safe space for me in our one to ones, and she is an incredibly wise soul. What I experienced, however, activated by the breathwork, was way, way beyond what she herself knew about or had any kind of inklings about. I remember at one vital session, starting to melt the freeze of dissociation, and thinking I would never, ever stop crying. It was a profound moment of meeting the Infinite source of all life and breath and death. It still moves me to tears of deep gratitude.
Recently, I have been weaving telomeric breathing into my practice, which is a whole other level I wasn't aware of and once again, beyond our 3rd dimensional measures and into the realms of universal source. Perhaps that is what Robin refers to as subtle breathing as it relates to the light emission exchange between our telomeres and the subtle energies of consciousness.
I make a point to evaluate respiration in everyone I consult with regardless of diagnosis. I ask, 'what's the first thing you did in your life?' So, if you mess than up what's going to happen to everything that comes next? I'll check out the book and would be happy to add my $.02 to your seminar.
Marvin