[Book Summary] Breath—James Nestor

Rating: ★★★★★

Do you know someone in your life suffering from high blood pressure, breath allergies, or snoring?

I bet you do.

The author James Nestor started his journey from an experiment he participated in at Stanford University. He breathed only with his mouth for ten days and this experience triggered his excursion to find out the secret of breath.

Along with the excursion, he went into underground tombs with "Cataphile" in France to see how skulls have evolved since Neanderthal to Homo Sapiens. Unfortunately, evolution doesn't always mean for the better. It waters down our breath.

Another noteworthy point is that our diet involves in evolution, too. Food presented on a dining table changed significantly. It becomes finer and softer. It not only weaken our teeth and jaws but also sabotages our breathing pathway.

In the section below, I quote two breathing methods from the book.

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Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana)

This standard pranayama technique improves lung function and lowers heart rate, blood pressure, and sympathetic stress. It’s an effective technique to employ before a meeting, an event, or sleep.

• (Optional) Hand Positioning: Place the thumb of your right hand gently over your right nostril and the ring finger of that same hand on the left nostril. The forefinger and middle finger should rest between the eyebrows.
• Close the right nostril with the thumb and inhale through the left nostril very slowly.
• At the top of the breath, pause briefly, holding both nostrils closed, then lift just the thumb to exhale through the right nostril.
• At the natural conclusion of the exhale, hold both nostrils closed for a moment, then inhale through the right nostril.
• Continue alternating breaths through the nostrils for five to ten cycles.

Decongest the Nose

• Sit up straight and exhale a soft breath, then pinch both nostrils shut.
• Try to keep your mind off the breath-holding; shake your head up and down or side to side; go for a quick walk, or jump and run.
• Once you feel a very potent sense of air hunger, take a very slow and controlled breath in through the nose. (If the nose is still congested, breathe softly through the mouth with pursed lips.) 
• Continue this calm, controlled breathing for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute.
• Repeat all these steps six times.

Box Breathing 

Navy SEALs use this technique to stay calm and focused in tense situations. It’s simple. Inhale to a count of 4; hold 4; exhale 4; hold 4. Repeat.