Imagine a whole book about breathing! But there was a necessity, I think. Nestor is a journalist; he goes into everything you need to know about breathing. We learn that no matter what you eat, no matter how you exercise, how wise you are—none of it really matters if you’re not breathing properly. It’s all about breathing through your nose, basically. Historically, the Buddhists knew this. People knew how to breathe properly through practices like meditation. One fact that really got me was that the way that Catholics pray the rosary tuns out to be a perfect form of breathing. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter He talks about how, if you breathe incorrectly, you have a higher risk of autoimmune disease or asthma. He talks about athletes and how they can use breathing to enhance their performance. It’s just another really good example of a topic you wouldn’t think of as promising, but he’s able to cover it in great detail over the course of the book. And there’s a self-help aspect towards the end—a useful guide on how to breathe. Yes. The ancients knew what they were doing. Just empirically, I suppose. They observed that this was the correct way to breathe for health, and the scientists came along later.
"Imagine a whole book about breathing! But there was a necessity, I think. Nestor is a journalist; he goes into everything you need to know about breathing. We learn that no matter what you eat, no matter how you exercise, how wise you are—none of it really matters if you’re not breathing properly. It’s all about breathing through your nose, basically. Historically, the Buddhists knew this. People knew how to breathe properly through practices like meditation. One fact that really got me was that the way that Catholics pray the rosary tuns out to be a perfect form of breathing. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter He talks about how, if you breathe incorrectly, you have a higher risk of autoimmune disease or asthma. He talks about athletes and how they can use breathing to enhance their performance. It’s just another really good example of a topic you wouldn’t think of as promising, but he’s able to cover it in great detail over the course of the book. And there’s a self-help aspect towards the end—a useful guide on how to breathe. Yes. The ancients knew what they were doing. Just empirically, I suppose. They observed that this was the correct way to breathe for health, and the scientists came along later."
The Best Popular Science Books of 2021: The Royal Society Book Prize ·
fivebooks.com
"Between COVID-19 and wildfire smoke exposure, the health of my lungs has been top of mind this year. James Nestor’s perfectly timed book looks at what is known through research and what is known by experience – often his own painful experience – as he submits to experiments and breathwork techniques to learn more about something we typically take for granted. Reading this book, I gained both a greater appreciation for my respiratory system and a personal-best long-distance run (breathing through the nose = greater endurance)!"
