When books find you. I have a very strange habit of being presented with a book that, at that moment, is exactly what I need. It happens almost every time I go to the my local book shop. This recent time was very bizarre. I recently re-read my thoughts on how yoga had made me a better runner and that very afternoon I visited a book shop and the universe presented James Nestor’s book Breath. Within the first few pages, I was second-guessing everything I thought I had experienced with my yoga, breath-work and using it to improve my running. As with all ideas they’ll develop over time as more focus, education or facts come to light. I couldn’t put this book down. This book was different; I immediately started to extrapolate the ideas to my own experience. I was talking about it with colleagues as deeply understood facts before I was even at chapter 4. It aroused new curiosities in me about how the body worked, in its seemingly simplest way, breathing. I read it, lightning fast. I finished it this morning and I am seriously considering reading it all over again, tomorrow.
I rarely feel this way about books, especially non-fiction or research-based books. I take what I need and maybe re-read them again years later should I wish to have a clearer understanding of something I found the first time round. Nestor’s story seemed to fill in so many gaps in my understanding, while opening up a gateway to something I have wondered about. For me, breathing is something I have always struggled with, sounds silly but it's true. Apparently, I have exercise-induced asthma and, for some reason, struggle to walk up hills but can walk miles on the flat with no issue. This doesn't seem that strange, until Nestor talks about the posture, the position of the body when breathing and the difference between mouth and nasal breathing. It all seems so simple once it's been read and tied to research but for me it was a lightbulb moment. I was a mouth-breather!
Yoga has been in my life for about 8 years, and I've been seriously habitual for at least 4-5 years. I thought, as with many exercise routines, it was the yoga that was changing my body, I was stronger, calmer and slimmer (not in that order and not all at once, it was over the course of many months.) I was in the midst of a 100 day movement challenge that I had set myself, which to the best of my knowledge at the time was the reason for the weight loss and the calmer outlook. I associated this more balanced life with what everyone tells us, exercise is good for the mind and the body. However, after the 100 days was complete, I dropped back, way back to mainly just yoga and for the first time in my extremely weight fluctuating life, my energy levels and weight remained unchanged. At the time none of these activities were about weight, they were about balance. The whole purpose of this 100 day challenge was to find a healthy outlet to manage stress, and I did. However, I cannot be sure if my metabolism has altered, my body has adapted, or if it is something else, but the only thing that remained once the cardio exercise stopped was my calmer, more considered breath. My body is happier and works better in nearly every way. I cannot scientifically put this down to breath or yoga but the two combined have had a long lasting positive effect on my body like no other before it.
First came the movement, which loosened up the stiffness I felt in my body, then came the breathing, with the movement and the breath together I grew stronger and healthier than ever before.
Nestor’s book takes you on a journey through science, experiments, self exploration, breathing techniques, lost civilisations and traditional methods that have been buried or in most cases underestimated. What I love about this book is that it isn’t just his theories, he seeks out the experience from every other curious party, dentist, scientists, doctors, historians and anthropologist. He examines the way in which the skull has altered over 100’s of years to compensate for our mouth breathing. His research is long and was at times probably very arduous, however the resulting book is clear, open minded and fascinating. Thank you James for enduring this research.
Nestor’s connection early on between crooked teeth and mouth breathing really sucked me in, especially in a world where braces seem to surround all of us as children. The taping of the mouth and how it can cure snoring, I look forward to trying this on my snoring husband. The additional endurance that athletes found in nasal breathing and all the other unlikely connections discovered that upon reflection seem obvious and cannot be unseen, but only once carefully investigated and delicately pointed out. The links to anxiety, allergies and autoimmune disorders and how it is all interconnected with the breath, just strengthens the basic fundamental that we present day humans breathe wrong.
I wonder if my own experience of stress, and finding calm within yoga is about the breath not the movement. Regardless of my experience it is a book that I would highly recommend, if not for better health but for better understanding. Since opening that first page I have been happily and calmly breathing through my nose and when possible for a count of 5.5. It's a simple change but my body's response to stress has decreased further, my energy is up, my mood is elevated and I have been sleeping a solid 9 hours a night. Whether it's a belief of an actual physiological change (in such a short period of time) it's enough for me to want to change my habits and to give the body this simple adjustment in the hope of long term improvements. Next week it's mouth taping time then running with nasal breathing. Stay tuned.
Book - James Nestor’s Breath
