Review
“The Healing Power of the Breath: Simple Techniques to Reduce Stress and Anxiety, Enhance Concentration, and Balance Your Emotions”
By Richard P. Brown; Shambhala, 168 pages
Breathe in, breathe out. This is what I tell myself whenever the stresses of daily life start to overwhelm me. This year especially has been a journey of physical and mental challenges I never expected to have to face, but that’s how life turns out sometimes, right?
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time maintaining a sustainable pace in such a fast-paced world. It’s definitely “life in the fast lane,” and somehow I keep missing the exit ramps for that place called Serenity. So, I’ve been looking for a road map, so to speak, on how to locate that intersection between life’s demands and inner peace — without having to completely rotate and rebalance my physical and spiritual “wheels.” And now that I’ve driven this metaphor about as far as I can, I want to share how this week’s title has steered me in a positive direction toward an inner equilibrium.
If you’re like me, you probably don’t spend much time thinking about what our amazing lungs do each and every day. However, if it becomes hard to breathe, that is pretty much the only thing I think about. So, my question is this: between the unconscious respiration that takes place daily, and, in my case, irregular yet annoying — even upsetting — episodes of labored breathing, is it possible to have more control over inhales and exhales? According to “The Healing Power of the Breath,” the answer is a resounding “yes.”
