Publisher’s Note: Thanks to Peak Flow, our health and wellness colleagues, for permission to cross post this new book review of Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art.
Science journalist James Nestor begins his brilliant best-selling new book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art with a simple evolutionary observation and two profound questions:
We Humans breathe between 20,000 and 25,000 times daily.
These two questions animate one of the most important books of our time.
Nestor’s Breath, which weaves together his own personal journey to better breathing with historical and contemporary insights re: respiration from around the world, demands a close read – whether you are an elite athlete, an organizational leader, or, like most of us in this strange Civilizational moment, simply interested in living a more fulfilled life, breath by breath.
“We are the worst breathers in the Animal Kingdom,” explains Nestor. “No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or strong you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.”
Bad breathing? Meaning?
90% of us, Nestor claims, are mistakenly habituated to chronic shallow mouth/chest breathing, which triggers a cascade of illnesses and disease – ranging from sleep apnea and snoring, to chronic anxiety, panic attacks, and a host of other mental and physical ailments, helping to explain, Nestor writes, “why our backs ache, our feet hurt, and our bones are becoming more brittle.” And did we mention ubiquitous dental work? Yes, even expensive braces on our teeth and costly mouth/jaw surgeries can be traced to poor breathing habits.
Moving seamlessly from present to past and back again, Nestor takes the reader around the world – from Himalayan monasteries (where monks still practice the ancient art of “tummo” – “inner fire” breathing from which the Wim Hof Method is derived), to France’s underground catacombs (full of anonymous skulls with respiratory secrets), to dentists’ offices, science labs and medical clinics – Nestor highlights the results of his research in breezily written and scientifically grounded chapters with one word titles – Nose, Exhale, Chew, Less.
His book’s conclusions are profound, beginning with the importance of individual LSD breathing (Light, and Slow, and Deep) and ending with a species-wide call to breathe better.
Fundamentally, here are ten takeaways from Breath, all of which inform our Peak Flow breathwork ecosystem protocols.
These ten important breathwork takeaways aside, Breath is a beautiful book – a tribute to #TeamHuman’s capacity to understand our evolutionary challenges, and how to “course correct” and “optimize Human experience, one breath at a time.” Highly recommended, and we commend @MrJamesNestor (follow him on his Instagram channel) for enlightening us with this critical book at this crucial time.
Grab and read a copy of Breath, and then – breathe!
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