How to Breathe: 25 Simple Practices for Calm, Joy, and Resilience

168 Pages·2016·15.9 MB·English

by  Ashley Neese

To my younger self, who fought so hard and for so long to
inhabit her body.
To anyone who has struggled to be with themselves.
To all those who cultivate the space to exhale.
To the ever-expanding desire for presence.
To the life force that pulses through each and every breath.
To resilience.

Copyright © 2019 Ashley Neese Photographs copyright © 2019 by Anaïs &
Dax All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the
Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New
York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com
Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered
trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Neese, Ashley,
1980-author.
Title: How to breathe : 25 simple practices for calm, joy, and resilience /
by Ashley Neese ; photography by Anaïs & Dax.
Description: California : Ten Speed Press, [2018] | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018038936 (print) | LCCN 2018039738 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Breathing exercises—Health aspects. | BISAC: SELF-
HELP / Meditations. | SELF-HELP Spiritual. | SELF-HELP Personal
Growth /General.
Classification: LCC RA782 (ebook) | LCC RA782 .N42 2018 (print) | DDC
613/.192—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038936
Hardcover ISBN 9780399582714
Ebook ISBN 9780399582721
v5.3.2
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CONTENTS
Introduction to Breathwork
Breath: The Foundational Tool
How to Create a Practice
25
Let’s Begin: Breathwork Practices
Acknowledgments
Anger
Boundaries
Cleanse
Connection
Dreaming
Energy
Focus
Forgiveness
Gratitude
Grief
Grounding
Intimacy
Intuition
Joy
Letting Go
Negative Thinking
Open Heart
Pain Relief
Parent and Baby
Parent and Child Relaxation
Resilience
Sadness
Self-Healing
Sleep
Unwind

INTRODUCTION
to Breathwork
What do yoga, meditation, and forest bathing have in common? The
breath.
The breath is the foundation of every mindfulness practice. It is the tool
that’s always with us, accessible at any time for calm, balance, and presence
of mind. The amazing thing is that anybody—regardless of age, ability,
location, or beliefs—can utilize breathwork to better navigate life. It just
requires practice and attention. In essence, breathwork is breathing
practiced with mindfulness. It’s that simple.
Because of its accessibility and effectiveness, breathwork is quickly on the
rise in the wellness field. Over the last decade, it has become an
increasingly popular method of natural healing for anxiety, depression,
PTSD, trauma, and chronic physical pain. It is also a practical tool for
amplifying creativity, tapping into inner wisdom, and expanding
consciousness. With science-backed breath labs set up at Stanford
University and apps like Spire that detect your respiration rate throughout
the day, it’s clear that breathwork is reaching far beyond yoga and
meditation, carving out its own space in the world.
Breathing is easy to take for granted because it’s automatic. It’s also easy to
write off breathwork and think, “That’s too simple—it won’t work for me.”
Simple as it is, adopting a breath practice helps you cultivate greater
health in all aspects of your life, from relationships to work to stress to
grief.
I came to the breath the way many of us do, through meditation and yoga.