Breathe: The Simple, Revolutionary 14-Day Program to Improve Your Mental and Physical Health

The basic premise of this book is how to breathe properly. You are probably breathing wrong. According to the information in this book, I definitely was. It doesn't take long to understand the "correct" way to inhale and exhale. Doing the exercises reinforces the concept of opening your diaphragm like a balloon upon inhaling, and squeezing air out on the exhale. I've always tried to hold my gut in, trying to keep my stomach flatter. After reading the book, I found that instead of continuously holding my stomach in, opening up my middle to allow more oxygen into my lungs has actually made my whole core tighter and flatter. I was intrigued by this book after watching an elderly person with an oxygen machine and seeing that person just gasp and gasp and never seem to be able to get any air. All their concentration was on breathing, and their breathing didn't seem to be working. Proper breathing is great for the whole body, with many health benefits such as less stress, better sleep, better digestion, detoxification, better posture, and more oxygen to the brain.

Dr. Vranich says toward the beginning of her book that incorrect breathing can result from childhood trauma. I had more than one of those. Even before the age of 5, I experienced panic attacks over the absolute surety that I would die one day. I was traumatized when my father got furious at me and chased me to my room, where I'd hang onto the inner knob of the door to keep him from getting in, while my mother yelled at him to leave me alone. At around the age of 7, I began to have periods of a day or two when my chest tightened so that I couldn't comfortably take a deep breath of air. Those periods gradually became longer and more frequent. During the last couple of years, I've had the opposite of what was happening when I was young. I only had a very few days out of the month when I was able to breathe comfortably. I went to doctors for the problem, but they were clueless. I finally found someone who did biofeedback sessions on me. That person did know that the breathing problem was from being traumatized. But the biofeedback only worked temporarily, and the relief I felt might even just been a placebo effect. Why do I say that? I say it because no matter how many sessions of biofeedback I might have paid for, i WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SHOWN HOW TO BREATHE CORRECTLY. As Dr. Vranich states, nothing is more precious to the body's survival than air. Also, little else is more distracting and anxiety-producing than not being able to get enough air. That's why I never stopped praying and searching for an answer to the problem. Finally, while doing yet another internet search for something to relieve my problem, I found Dr. Vranich's web page. I read a little of what was on the page, it sounded right to me, and I ordered the book. When I received the book, it looked overwhelming to me. (I am impatient, so I am easily overwhelmed.) I picked the book up several times before I finally measured my waist, and did the math to see what my breathing capacity was. Then I closed the book and didn't look at it for a few days. Then I opened the book again, and read about how chest breathing causes the diaphragm to become weak, and how, as I understood it, the diaphragm is supposed to act like a bellows, expanding on the inbreath, and contracting on the outbreath, and how the chest is not supposed to move (at least, not until the lower lungs are filled with air.) I also read how important the OUTbreath is. It's easy to suppose that what matters most is to get air IN, right? Wrong. If anything, it's the other way around. I took all those into consideration, and began exercising my diaphragm, taking hard, short breaths in and out of my nose, contracting my diaphragm on the outbreath, and visa versa. Then I got down on my hands and knees and did the same thing. I also practiced long outbreaths, breathing out till I could no longer breathe out anymore, then taking in a large volume of air and slowly and fully breathing it out again. I did those diaphragmatic exercises till my diaphragm became tired. I did several such sessions daily, and after only 3 days, the tightness in my chest, and my inability to get enough air was gone. HOWEVER, even though it was an amazingly quick fix, it was, and likely will not be, a permanent fix. I know, because I let a couple of days go by without doing the exercises, and breathing difficulty began to come back. So I will continue the exercises indefinitely, and will add "intercostals," an exercise designed to open my chest even more. BUY the BOOK!

I've struggled with fatigue and depression for years. I devoured all the material about Chronic Fatigue syndrome at the Optimum Health Clinic in London (great stuff, by the way), and it was very helpful. But when I read this book something clicked - I realized I have not been exhaling (and therefore inhaling) enough. Dr. Belisa calls these poor breathing pattern of being a "No-Haler" or a "Breath Holder". Sitting at a desk all day, often unconsciously experiencing "email apnea" - I would hold my breath, or not fully exhale, resulting in lower oxygen, and lower energy. But when I started doing some of the exercises like the Rock & Roll breath - with FULL exhale and full inhale - greatly increasing the volume of each breath - I immediately started feeling more energy. This is not nothing. I've read many books and programs on breathing and this is the best I've come across - it's comprehensive and easy to read. While I still have issues with anxiety that I expect will be resolved with improving my breathing even more completely (I'm hoping that smoothing out my inhale and exhale, making them longer, improving my posture and activating my diaphragm), and getting some psychological help to gain clarity on any unconscious patterns, I am very grateful for Dr. Belisa for writing this book because it has changed my life. It's reminded me to fully exhale - pushing out stale air and CO2 so that I can breathe in new air and oxygen - my diaphragm massaging my organs and muscles in the process - and bringing in energy. Like anything of value, diligence is required - actually doing the exercises and making the changes. But as health information junkie, a few simple ideas in this book will be with me for life. I believe that breathing is one of the most important variables in our health. If you want to improve yours, this book would be a very wise investment in my opinion.

It could have been even more precise but very useful though! Gave me encourage for search more information about breathing.

Dr Vranich's explanation of our breathing process and the muscles involved and why was a life changer for me. Her second book, Breathing for Warriors, is also great because it goes into more detail than this introductory book.

Her exercises help regulate & rebalance my breathing back to my normal relaxed breathe and that will help lessen my light acid reflux as well as calming my nervous system which has been challenged with social isolation. I have recommended Dr. Besla's books to everyone I know in the healing professions.

I am a pulmonary physician (lung doctor) by trade. Admittedly I spend most of my time dealing with respiratory *disease* rather than respiratory *health*. I read this book with interest because there is clearly a lot of work being done in the “breathing industry.” There are a lot of interesting things in this book and books like it. I actually found the exercises quite helpful. I have also been dabbling in Win Hof breathing. Clearly something is going on, but I’m not sure if the physiologic explanations in this book are accurate. The author puts a lot of stock in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. Obviously, this is important from a physiological standpoint. But I doubt the exercises and habits advocated here make a huge difference in the actual levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the blood bloodstream. The oxygen is much more dependent on the hemoglobin levels than the oxygen saturation (which gets a lot of attention in this book). Carbon dioxide would probably be even harder to make sustained changes of with habit breathing. Carbon dioxide will go down if you hyperventilate and go up if you hypoventilate. Both are very difficult to do in a deliberate, sustained manner. I suspect the reason that some breath work causes sensations of lightheadedness is from a rise in pH associated with a decrease in carbon dioxide. This is not sustainable. But clearly there are beneficial effects. I don’t think these practices would have so many adherents if that were not the case. I feel like I’ve benefited from some of these practices myself. I suspect it’s happening through changes in intrathoracic pressure affecting cardiac output and strain. There is probably some sort of feedback loop that affects cortisol as well. I think there’s a lot of room for work in these areas and I look forward to more of it coming out. 

Very easy to follow, lots of helpful information and exercises and a never ending list of sources to go deeper, if you want. She obviously knows what she's talking about, and we all need to breathe, you can't not gain something from this book, a very good read! Highly recommended!