BY: ANDREW WEIL, MD
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Additional Note:
This is an audio tape, not a book. So, all the quotes are punctuated using my best guess based on Dr. Weil’s dictation. Moreover, this tape (released more than 20 years ago!) will now be my #1 recommendation for anyone beginning with breathing.
It’s not “perfect,” but it’s less than 2 hrs and has basically everything we need to start a breath practice. It was one of my favorite listens in a really long time.
4 THOUGHTS
1. Why Breathwork Works for Everyone
“I recommend breathwork to almost all patients that I see because, in my experience, stress is a primary cause (or an aggravating cause) of most cases of illness. And even if people have diseases that clearly have organic physical causes, relaxation can nonetheless benefit them and help their body's healing system work better.”
This is a perfect description of why breathwork works for basically anyone. Regardless of what condition you suffer from (even if none), relaxation is still valuable in our modern stress-filled world.
And physiologically, breathwork works for everyone because the “breath is the only function through which you can influence the involuntary nervous system. That is, you can establish rhythms of breathing with your voluntary nerves and muscles that will affect the involuntary nervous system.”
Thus, we can use our breath to influence the involuntary (autonomic) nervous system and, subsequently, all the body’s major systems.
Which is why Dr. Weil says, “If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly.”
2. How Long Should We Practice Breathwork Each Day?
“I think the amount of time that you spend on this work is not that important. The basic exercise that I'll be teaching you, you can do in a few minutes, and if you do this twice a day, that's more than adequate. But again, I'd like to remind you that what is important here is the regularity of doing this work. You want to do this every day without fail because you are attempting to change rhythms in your nervous system, and it's the constancy of the input, it's the regularity of the input, that is going to produce these changes over time.”
Of course, we can use scientific findings to find a reasonable dose for our practice (which is about 10 min/day for slow breathing).
But an even better approach is what Dr. Weil says here: Simply focus on consistency.
We’re trying to rewire our nervous systems, and “it’s the regularity of the input that is going to produce these changes over time.” <— Amen to that 🙏
3. How to Make Spiritual Progress using the Breath
“[B]reath is the animated, nonphysical aspect of your being. So that when you look in the direction of breath, when you focus your attention on your breath, you are really looking at your spiritual self.”
This is why Dr. Weil also says that “if you do nothing other than pay attention to your breath today, for a few seconds more than you did yesterday, you have increased your spiritual awareness. You have made spiritual progress.”
Sounds good (and easy enough) to me 🙏
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P.S. Dr. Weil also has a great discussion on why liquor is referred to as “spirits.” Then somehow, he relates that back to the breath [*standing applause*, lol]. It’s too long to include, but here’s a quote that captures the essence of it: “That's a very interesting clue as to the meaning of spirit, and I think that it's possible to look at breath in relation to body in the same way that we could look at Brandy in relation to wine. That breath represents the concentrated, distilled essence of being. And that it is nonphysical, it is invisible, it does not have substance, but it’s where the power is.” (my emphasis)
4. Two Core Breathing Exercises + Dr. Weil’s Routine
“Let me give you one suggestion that I do myself that I find very useful, and that's to experiment with combining the stimulating and the relaxing breath. So that you will do the stimulating breath, the bellows breath, for a minute if you can, and immediately go into the relaxing breath. I find this a very powerful combination, and I do this as a prelude to meditation. So I'll do the stimulating breath for a minute; I do 8 cycles of the relaxing breath; and then I immediately go into my sitting meditation. And I find that that's an excellent preparation for the experience of meditation.”
The two core exercises Dr. Weil teaches in this audio tape are a relaxing breath (4-7-8 breathing) and a stimulating breath (bellow’s breath):
The 4-7-8 Breath: Inhale quietly through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 7, and exhale audibly through pursed lips for 8 seconds. Here’s a video demonstrating it.
The Bellows Breath: Inhale and exhale quickly and forcibly through your nose. Your pace should be 60+ breaths per minute (Dr. Weil suggests upwards of 180 breaths/min). Here’s a video demonstration.
At the very least, Dr. Weil recommends performing the 4-7-8 breath for four repetitions twice daily (that’s less than 5 minutes a day).
But this combination of the stimulating breath followed by the relaxing breath is particularly enjoyable. Start with 10-30 seconds of bellows breath followed by 4 reps of the 4-7-8 breath. After a few weeks, build it up to Dr. Weil’s routine (one minute of bellows breath followed by 8 repetitions of the 4-7-8 breath).
***
P.S. If neither of those techniques sound appealing, you can also try Dr. Weil’s simplest form of breathwork: “The very simplest form of breathwork is doing nothing other than paying attention to your breath. That is, not trying to influence it, not trying to speed it up or slow it down, not trying to change the rhythm—simply looking at it, observing the breath.”
1 LIFE-CHANGING IDEA
The Four Qualities of Breath We Want to Develop to Feel Better
“One of the essential techniques that I distill from this body of knowledge about pranayama is that the qualities of breath that you want to develop are to make it deeper, slower, quieter, and more regular.”
This has become my new mantra.
Waiting in line: deeper, slower, quieter, & more regular.
At the park with my daughter: deeper, slower, quieter, & more regular.
Anywhere we find ourselves: deeper, slower, quieter, & more regular.
I love these qualities because they’re concrete. Instead of just “coming back to our breath,” we can come back to deeper, slower, quieter, and more regular.
And what makes this so powerful?
“When your breathing is deeper, slower, quieter, and more regular, you are feeling better, in both mind and body. Your nervous system is functioning more smoothly, and all your organs are operating more harmoniously as a result.”
It has certainly been life-changing for me. I hope it is for you, too 🙏
1 STACK OF MEMORABLE QUOTES
“Of all the techniques that I have investigated for reducing stress and increasing relaxation, it is breathwork that I have found to be the most time-efficient, the most cost-efficient, and the one that most promotes increased wellness and optimal health.”
“In the four years I spent at Harvard Medical School and a year of internship in San Francisco, I learned nothing about the healing power of breath.”
“Over the years, I would say that of all the techniques that I recommended to people for improving health, the single technique that I get most feedback about in a positive way is the breath work that I'm going to teach you in this program.”
“I feel very strongly, as a result of these experiences, that proper breathing is a master key to good health.”
“In addition, the mental component of breath is a sense of rhythmic expansion and contraction. And I think that connects us to every other living thing because all living organisms breathe. So that same rhythm is at the center of the heart of all life.”
“Somehow in ancient India, people discovered the power of breath as a technique for affecting the nervous system, for changing consciousness, and for changing physiology. And I think it's fair to say that that knowledge that came to ancient India has diffused all over the world and taken many different forms.”
“I think it is also fair to say that when you turn your attention in the direction of breath, you are really looking at the spiritual pole of your existence.”
“I'm also very impressed with the fact that breathwork is free, it requires no equipment, it's simple, and it's working with something that literally you have right under your nose and many of us never think to make use of.”
“In a nutshell, I think it's fair to say that when you have your attention on your breath, it's in a safe place. It's like putting your consciousness in neutral.”