Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing

by Andrew Weil

Book Overview

The health you enjoy today, and for the rest of your life, begins with your next breath. In fact, breathing is so crucial to your body's ability to heal and sustain itself that Dr. Andrew 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."

On Breathing: The Master Key to Self-Healing, listeners will learn a complete course of eight breathing exercises...

• Format: Audio CD
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156455726X
• ISBN13: 9781564557261
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Sounds True
• Length: 2 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 5.6"

Customer Reviews

A great health benefit for any age

I've listened to a number of breathing audio's and most leave you wanting more understanding regarding technique or health benefits. Andrew Weil's CD is clear and concise regarding the health benefits of deep breath. The second disc contains several different - 7 in all - breathing exercises. Each with clear instructions on the how to and each demonstrated by the author himself before he guides you through the actual exercise for yourself. Personally, I began noticing the benefit of deep breathing a few day after I started doing the exercises.

Has helped me tremendously

For what it's worth, I have found that regular practice of just the "Relaxing Breath" that Dr. Weil teaches has had a profound effect on my ability to handle and neutralize stressful situations. While my wife was undergoing treatments for breast cancer my stress level was obviously very high, and I found the breathwork to be an immediate ally to help me cope. I can't begin to thank him enough.

Excellent Guide Breathing Techniques and Stress Reduction!

Some may think that it's ridiculous to have a program about breathing. We all do it right? For those of us who take breathing for granted, there is a Zen tale about a young monk who complains to his master that "meditating on the breath is boring". So the master grabs the student, holds him under water plenty long enough to make his point and then looks at the student and asks "Do you still think the breath is boring? ".... Let's just say that this fellow had a change of heart (and took a nice deep breath) :) While this program isn't specifically a meditation program the point still remains. While it's obvious that all of us who are alive are already breathing and have been doing so our whole lives, our breathing can be either unconscious or conscious. Likewise we can either choose to live unconsciously or consciously as well. It is to the conscious control of the breath this program deals with and if practiced regularly it can likely affect your ability to live each moment of your life more consciously as well (a nice side benefit and perhaps the most important one at that). There is a definite connection between rate of breathing and either stress or relaxation. It is very hard to be in a complete state of stress if your breathing is slow and deep. It doesn't mean you won't encounter stressful events, but you can certainly let them take less of a physical toll on you even when you are dealing with unavoidable stressful situations by not letting your breathing put you into overload. Becoming relaxed doesn't mean you have to be isolated from the world or zoning out, rather you can be active and functioning but still be relaxed internally by learning to work with your breath. You can also become energized by learning breathwork as well, it depends on the technique(s) you apply. Dr. Weil does an excellent job first of explaining about the connection of breath to physical (and emotional/mental)well being as well as giving examples of case studies. This is done on the first cassette. The second cassette has guided breathing exercises that are very easy to follow and are quite useful. I personally find that Dr. Weil is very good at putting things in a way that are very down to earth as well as user friendly. He doesn't claim to be some enlightened master or Guru, just a Doctor who has seen this stuff work in real life with real patients. I've been working with these tapes for several weeks now and they are tremendous tools that you can work with anytime you need to reconnect with your life force. Whether you want to think of the breath as strictly a physical entity or get into the more metaphysical ideas of thinking of it as prana, there is no doubt that breathing is THE master key to being present and feeling alive. This program, if used as intended, can definitely help give you control over your ability to regulate your stress levels by using breath work, this can certainly only bring positive health benefits. It is common

Great for individuals with ADHD

On this 2 CD set Dr. Andrew Weil introduces listeners to the practice of breath work based on Pranayama yoga. This CD set is definitely not your typical new age fair and is applicable to just about everyone. The first CD focuses on the theory in history behind this type of breath work, and includes several interesting case studies. The second CD essentially is an audio workshop, which will guide you step-by-step through the series of eight individual techniques. In my opinion, this type of breath work is excellent for individuals with ADHD. The techniques contained within this CD set cover a wide range of applications. Some breath exercises will help listeners learn how to calm hyperactivity and redirect a scattered mind, while other exercises can generate energy and mental alertness. What's nice about the techniques taught in this series is that they are extremely simple and can be done anywhere by anyone. Whether a student or in the workplace the techniques taught in this series can really help manage those troublesome and unpredictable ADHD energy shifts.

So basic, so useful, you wonder why you didn't think of it..

Weil explains breathing. Exciting? Depends on you. Discovering breathing is like having had a PC for years and suddenly discovering "right click." There it is; you've never thought about it; discovering it makes your use of the machine so much more efficient. Weil's breathing exercises are easy and basic. They are like meditation: you have to decide to stick with the program. Results? That will depend on you and your needs. For people with normal breathing capacity, it must be equivalent to developing your quads and pecs after working for years at a desk. For those of us who have asthma and other breathing disorders, it feels like regaining "normal." Weil's gentle, intelligent guidance inspires confidence.