Dynamic Breathing - check out the book on Amazon

Breathing is such an automatic process that we’re not usually aware of it unless there is a problem. It comes as a shock when you notice that you’re having difficulty breathing. And it’s easy for panic to set in.

I’ve been an occasional asthmatic for over 20 years.

Initially diagnosed after the birth of my daughter – for two or three years I had quite bad episodes but since that time I’ve been affected less often.

My airways tend to react in late spring / early summer, after a cold or virus and after any kind of exercise. Especially if moving from a cold environment into a heated one.

I guess I would classify myself as having mild symptoms. While I always have puffers with me I only use them when I need them.

The last time I needed to use them I had a virus – my asthma kicked in quite quickly and I started taking my puffers. But instead of relieving the symtoms I felt very shaky, anxious and had slight palpitations.

This was almost more frightening than the tightness, wheezing and breathing difficulty I was experiencing! Although I don’t use them regularly they were my security blanket.

So when I came across the book “Dynamic Breathing – how to manage your asthma” in my local library I borrowed it. I’ve renewed the book thrice now and have reread it as many times.

It appealed to me because it seemed to offer some practical help for asthmatic sufferers.

In all the 20 years that I’ve had asthma I’ve attended asthma clinics and been shown how to use inhalers but I’ve not been given any practical ideas for self help or management of symptoms. So I was hoping to find some helpful information but not really expecting too much.

What a pleasant surprise! Although it is only a slim volume it packs a great deal of information both scientific and practical into it’s 100 pages ( including appendixes and references).

Just to whet your appetite I’ve jotted down just a few of the topics covered in the book. I’ve selected items which I found interested me and which I would like to draw your attention to.

The list could easily have contained another half dozen topics from the book.

There are equally important chapters on the diaphragm and the surrounding muscles, exercises, posture and body mechanics, stretching and movement and of course information on medication and various other aspects.

The main reason I picked these topics from Dynamic Breathing is that I was amazed by what I read. That bad breathing habits could be contributing to the unpleasant symptoms of an asthmatic episode was a complete surprise to me. Also all three topics illustrate different aspects of the book, both the explanations of why your breathing is important and also the practical techniques which are found throughout the book.

Take the first item on my list Why Nose-Belly breathing is best.

• Over the years I’ve been aware that how we breathe is important – I’ve gone to Yoga classes, read books and such but I didn’t know that some of the unpleasant panicky feelings I was experiencing during asthmatic episodes could have been made worse by my breathing patterns.
• Dynamic Breathing explains in great detail just what happens in both good “nose-belly” and bad ‘mouth-chest” breathing patterns. The book explains how bad breathing patterns can disturb your body chemistry. One of the reasons for this is that during mouth-chest breathing carbon dioxide levels can drop too low causing a variety of symptoms which can aggravate the original asthma symptoms.

symptoms caused by a sudden drop in carbon dioxide levels – racing heart or feeling faint, for instance – understandably lead to tension, anxiety or panicky feelings. Page 10 – Dynamic Breathing

mouth breathing flushes out too much carbon dioxide….. mast cells in the tissues…give warning signals to the airways… activating higher histamine levels in the blood and triggering bronchoconstriction…..blood flow to the brain may be reduced….. leads to feelings of suffocation and panic. Page 11 – Dynamic Breathing

• Not only does the book explain why these effects happen it explains why good “nose-belly” breathing helps and how to exercise to make nose-belly breathing a habit.

Next on my list is  Why nasal and sinus health is important

• Think of your nasal passages and sinuses as the bouncers at the club doorway – they  are there to stop the harmful substances getting through to your delicate lungs. They’re protecting you 24 hrs a day if you’re a nose breather. Of course if you’re a mouth breather then you’ve no protection at all – the troublemakers just breeze straight in.

When the nose is affected by an allergen or congestion this can also trigger bronchoconstriction.

With nose-breathing, air enters the body in a more controlled flow; making acute hyperventilation virtually impossible. Page 15 – Dynamic Breathing

• Because the nasal passages and sinuses filter the air they are often the first to be affected by any irritants. Dynamic Breathing explains why it’s so important to look after your nasal passages and sinuses. There are also recipes for a nasal wash and instruction traction for sinus congestion relief.

Last on my list is How to cough easily and without straining

• Although this sounds gross – Dynamic Breathing explains a technique which will enable you to clear your airways without straining or making your symptoms worse.
• The ACBT technique is explained in detail. It makes use of the nose-belly breathing learned in the earlier part of the book and alternates with mouth breathing to help clear the airways.
• There are also tips and hints to try to overcome the dry irritating cough which can be so exhausting.

This is a book which bears reading and re-reading.

The authors, Dinah Bradley and Tania Clifton-Smith have produced a book which I am certain will be a great help to asthma sufferers and their families.

Further reading: Asthma Statistics in UK

British Lung Foundation

Kick Asthma

August’s Book of the Month is “Dynamic Breathing – How to manage your asthma” by Dinah Bradley and Tania Clifton-Smith. It’s a slim volume, just 105 pages, in the Overcoming Common Problems Series by Sheldon Press.

The book is written by two practising respiratory physiotherapists with a wealth of experience in breathing pattern disorders.

In the introduction the authors say this:

We want to show those with asthma the value of physical coping skills – i.e. learning what’s happening on the outside of the chest wall and including this as a vital part of asthma self-management.

This book should definitely be on every asthma sufferers bookshelf.  It explains the importance of correct breathing. Gives exercises to help develop good breathing habits and explains the adverse effect bad breathing habits can have during an asthmatic episode.

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When I ordered James Wong’s book I must have been thinking of the days when we were kids and made our own scent from rose petals.

Well – that was the idea – but after the petals had soaked for a few days no-one was daft enough to try out the resulting gunge. I’m pretty sure we didn’t produce anything remotely resembling perfume.

But of course we were just making it up as we went along – we had no idea about making infusions, decoctions, infused oils, tinctures, salves, balms or creams. In the book James briefly explains all the different ways of preparing plants but the bulk of the book is taken up with the remedy recipes – there are over 100 recipes – so plenty to choose from.

James suggests that if you want to make a start and try out some of the remedies you should begin by working on your personal ailments first.

It is possible to buy all the ingredients – you don’t have to be green fingered. But if you want to try to grow your own he lists which plants you should grow and which ingredients you should buy from health food or herbal suppliers for each particular ailment.

In the recipes section the remedies are grouped by ailment which makes it easy to find just what you’re looking for. Many of the ingredients are exotic e.g eucalyptus leaves but there are loads of everyday plants there as well such as nettle, fennel and peppermint.

If you are looking for detailed growing tips then you won’t find them in this book but there are loads of recipes for all sorts of ailments and also cosmetic and beauty preparations.

There are over 100 remedies but here are a couple which caught my eye:-

• for  dermatitis or eczema sufferers  - he suggests trying an oat and chamomile bath bag made very simply from oats and chamomile flowers contained in a muslin bag. Run the bath, soak the bag in the bath for a few moments, use it as a gentle exfoliator on your skin and then leave in the bath while you soak for 10 minutes or so. Repeat twice a week.
• for digestive problems – there’s Angelica and Mint Cocktail for Indigestion and Fennel Sugar Mice for Flatulence

And there are some really lovely recipes for cosmetic potions such as

• Yoghurt, Lime and Strawberry Face Pack which exfoliates and nourishes the skin
• Oats and Almond Moisturizing Body Cream
• Roman Chamomile and Lavender Acne Steam

If like me you are pretty useless in the garden you’ll find the calendar useful with it’s pointers on which tasks to do in spring, summer, autumn and winter.  Things like little snippets on how to grow berries, how to plant up pots, how to dry leaves, when to pick. There are also features on how to Plant a chamomile seat which I really fancy trying and how to grow your own citrus fruit.

He’s also included a list of links to online plant suppliers for some of the more specialist items.

The publisher also provides an online resource for the book with additional audio and video information at http://www.harperplus.com/jameswong/ – I checked out a couple of the videos which were brief at only 2 minutes or so  - but I haven’t checked them all out.

I’m not sure that I have the green fingers to grow my own – but the chamomile seat appealed to me as did growing my own citrus tree.

Wasn’t there a children’s nursery rhyme about growing your own citrus trees? or was it a nut tree?

Pity there wasn’t a section for Memory problems!

Strike that – just checked the index and there are 5 listings for Mental Performance.

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Hippocrates often labelled the father of modern medicine was a herbalist and is widely quoted as saying “Let food be thy medicine, thy medicine shall be thy food”.

There’s scarcely a culture worldwide which doesn’t have a tradition of using herbal medicine. So it’s important to make sure that the knowledge of the power of plants isn’t just forgotten or dismissed as folk medicine. Unfortunately the current financial climate means it is harder for institutions especially in complementary or non-mainstream medicine or therapies to stay afloat. The latest casualty is The Scottish School of Herbal Medicine which has had to close down it’s degree programme and now only offers a Correspondence course. Hopefully it will be able to restart operations when the financial climate improves.
So I’m looking forward to learning something new with James Wong’s book. Who knows I might even get out into the garden and try my hand.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I knew nothing about the ideas in The Holographic Universe. It’s almost 20 years since this book was published in 1991. How did I manage to miss this!!
In his book Michael Talbot looks at the possibility that all of reality is holographic in nature. He starts from the work of David Bohm, physicist and Karl Pribram, neurophysiologist who both considered the holographic model might be relevant in their very different areas of study.
Both scientists were working on very different fields: Bohm was trying to understand the phenomena of quantum physics while Pribram was trying to explain various neurophysiological effects using the standard theories of how the brain worked at the time. Both of them came to consider that a holographic model would provide a framework to understand many of the effects they were seeing in their work.
One of the strengths of the book by Michael Talbot is that he takes the proposed theory and looks at the wood not the trees. Where the scientists were shining a laser through the holograph to see how the theory could explain the fine detail of their particular speciality Talbot takes a panoramic look at life and creation through the lens of the holographic model and this book is the result.
Looking at mind and body, quantum physics and the cosmos Talbot takes you on a journey through such topics as remote viewing, paranormal phenomena, energy healing, ESP, the potential of the mind/body connection. The book is full of fascinating stories to illustrate ideas and is a thought provoking read. One idea which particularly interests me and which may also have been an important topic to Michael Talbot is that the holographic framework provides an explanation of how the mind-body connection may work and the potential for this to improve our health. So topics which may have been ignored in the past might now be legitimate targets for scientific study.

According to the holographic model, the mind/body ultimately cannot distinguish the difference between the neural holograms the brain uses to experience reality and the ones it conjures up while imagining reality. … each of us possesses the ability, at least at some level, to influence our health… Quote from The Holographic Universe

Some of these ideas already have mainstream acceptance – look at sports science and the importance of techniques such as visualisation in elite sports.

I’ve enjoyed reading the book and I’m sure I’ll go back and reread it. But more importantly I’d like to find out what’s happened in the intervening 19 years with this theory? Who’s working on it now??

The book of the month for June 2010 is The Holographic Universe
by Michael Talbot.
Michael Talbot was born in Michigan in 1953 and died in 1993. The Holographic Universe was published in 1991. In the book Michael Talbot explores the possibilities that reality could be holographic in form.

Based on the work of physicist David Bohm and neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, the author attempts to explain in everyday terms the scientific basis for the theory. He also looks at the bigger picture relating to spirituality, consciousness, mind-body-spirit connection and the implications for our understanding of the universe and our place in it if this model is correct.

Link to the book on Amazon

Dr Wood’s book “don’t wait … swim out to meet it” is delightful but don’t expect a lightweight read – this is designed around your taking action and believe me – some of it is hard work! Each new chapter entices you in with it’s watery metaphors and liquid quotes from famous thinkers ranging from Heraclitus (b. 535 B.C.E) through to the present day.

Heraclitus is famous for his doctrine of change being central to the universe, as stated in his famous saying, “You cannot step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.”
check out Wikipedia

Each chapter is focused on a specific topic with exercises and techniques to illustrate the topics. Chapter 4 is Entitled SOS! – not the nautical Save our Souls but Support our Strengths – SOS looks at playing to our strengths, understanding our individual learning styles and how to use these to help us get where we want to go.
It’s packed full of exercises to help us identify our strengths and learning styles. The one I particularly enjoyed was the Sense Preference quiz which helps to identify if you have a preference for taking in information in a visual, auditory or kinaesthetic style. Much to my surprise I found my answers were almost 100% visual – which is strange as I’ve never considered myself a visual person. I don’t have vivid dreams and have no visual imagination so things like guided meditation where you imagine walking through a landscape are difficult for me. Strange!

Life is fast changing – everyday there seems to be change all around – it’s in our own interest to develop a learning style which will benefit us. Following the theme of Insight – Ownership and Action – Dr Woods reminds you that your perception governs how you approach learning and whether you take setbacks as failures or whether you view them as just feedback and adjust accordingly. This simple shift in perception can make a massive difference – how many times have you been afraid to do something because you couldn’t face the possibilty of failure. But put in the context of a personal experiment where there’s only feedback. Lightbulb moment!
When looking at the three basic learning modes- association,consequence and modelling I must admit I was beginning to lose interest. But then I came across a section on negative reinforcement which rang a bell with me and made me think. This type of introspection must be so much easier if you’ve got someone to go through it with – probably why Life Coaches are so popular now. It’s so easy to gloss over the difficult bits and probably this is where the insight would be found.
I’ve got a funny feeling this will be May Book of the Month too!!
Funnily the very last paragraph of Chapter 2 is “The Virtue of Persistence” – very apt.

I’ve begun the Gratitude and Anticipation exercise again. The pen and paper are sitting next to my bed so no excuses!
When I read the exercise it brought back memories of my dad. I remember being told by my dad to count my blessings when I was in my teens. Probably I was moaning or complaining about something or other at the time. Now I’m paying to buy a book for the advice which he gave me for free all those years ago! Also I’m treating the advice more seriously now than I did when my dad told me to count my blessings – maybe I’m a bit more open to thinking about things than I was then. Certainly Dad didn’t explain in detail why I’d to count my blessings. He just wanted me to realise how lucky I was.
The initial chapter of “don’t wait….” explains the approach of the book which looks at insight-ownership and action. In order to have insight you have to be aware that habitual mindset could be affecting your perception of events. The point of the Gratitude and Anticipation exercise in the book is to see if focussing your attention on the positive good things in your life actually has a positive knock – on effect in general. So

Link to the book on Amazon

This month I’m reading “don’t wait for your ship to come in ….. swim out to meet it tools and techniques for positive lasting change by Dr Gary Wood, a social psychologist, life coach, author and broadcaster.

Don’t know about you but I’ve often found self help type books can be slightly disappointing. It’s so difficult to decide from the blurb just what the contents will be like.

I initially picked up the book because the title appealed to me. It struck a chord because the book title seemed to promise some practical techniques which might inspire me to DO something about the direction my life was going in.  Never mind cosmic ordering – let’s not leave it to chance – let’s take ACTION.

The watery metaphor continues delightfully throughout the book – so here goes – I’ve dipped my toe in the water and started reading.

“If the doors of perception were to be cleansed everything would appear to [humankind] as it is, infinite.” William Blake

The book is peppered with pertinent quotes which highlight the main themes of insight, ownership and action.

My aim will be to carry out each of the exercises to the best of my ability and to see if at the end of the book I feel I have moved along “the journey from abstract wishful thinking to concrete action…..”

This is no small feat as I’m very easily bored and my attention wanders. So here goes! I’ve got a month to change the habits of a lifetime. Wish me luck!