Books

When I started my journey into breathwork (and still the case now) I didn’t really know where to look, what to read and how useful it was. Where could I learn about respiratory physiology? Ancient breath practices (Tummo is not an easy subject to find books written on it)?

In light of that I’ve decided to create an ever evolving page, as a reference for the books that I have read, a brief outline and an area that they sit in. Hopefully this will help provide guidance for other people on their breathwork path.

I’ve divided the books up into the sections below and listed each book in the section:

Respiratory Physiology

The Respiratory system – Andrew Davies & Carl Moores.

Recognizing and treating breathing disorders, A multi discplinary approach – Leon Chaitow, Dinah Bradley, Christopher Gilbert.

Accessing the healing power of the Vagus Nerve – Stanley Rosenberg

Science of Breath A practical Guide – Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine, Alan Hymes

The New Science of Breath, Coherent breathing for Automatic Nervous System Balance, Health and Well Being – Stephen Elliot with Dee Edmonson

Breathing techniques

The Oxygen Advantage – Patrick McKeown

The Breathing Cure – Patrick McKeown

The Wim Hof Method – Wim Hof

The Bliss of Inner Fire – Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Holotropic Breathwork – Grof & Grof

Coherent Breathing, Aligning Breath and the heart – Wilfried Ehrmann

Conscious Breathing – Anders Olsson

Breathe Well – Aimee Hartley

The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath – William Atkinson as Yogi Ramacharaka

Sport and Performance

Instructor Training manual – Oxygen Advantage

Breathe Strong Perform Better – Alison McConnell

Breathing for Warriors – Belisa Vranich

Let Every Breath – Secrets of the Russian Breath Masters

Everest the first ascent – Harriet Tuckey

Dr Breath – Carl Stough & Reece Stough

Exercise without Movement, Manual One – Sri Swami Rama

Breathwork, breath and it’s development

Just Breathe – Dan Brule

Unravelling Letting Go, Getting Well – Philip Greenfield

Breath – James Nestor

Jaws, The story of a hidden epidemic – Sandra Khan and Paul Ehrlich.

Breath Taking – Michael Stephen

Respiratory Physiology

The Respiratory system – Andrew Davies & Carl Moores. The book I went to to teach myself about how conventional science currently believes our respiratory system works. This invaluable in understanding the mechanics behind how we breathe and helping marry breathwork practices with practical scientific application.

Recognizing and treating breathing disorders, A multi discplinary approach – Leon Chaitow, Dinah Bradley, Christopher Gilbert. An excellent book that covers how we breathe and then looks at a multitude of breathing pattern disorders and the varied clinical and non clinical treatment modalities. Absolutely brilliant.

Accessing the healing power of the Vagus Nerve – Stanley Rosenberg – whilst there is some contention around Stephen Porges Poly Vagal theory (which is clear when you look at his Wikipedia page) there is definitely some benefit in having an understanding of the relationship between the vagus nerve and the breath. This has elements that draw on these threads.

Science of Breath A practical Guide – Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine, Alan Hymes A really well thought out and nicely put together book from 1979 that excellently bridges the worlds of the West and East. The book is divided into 4 chapters. The first looks at the difference in approach to breath in the West / East, the second describes in helpful basic detail exactly how Western science believes the respiratory system to work (and in such a way is something I had to hand years ago in really getting a handle on how breathing works). The third chapter lays in in clear detail the impact nasal breathing has on the body by explaining the different processes at work and the last written by Swami Rama takes a more Yogic approach with a focus on what Prana is and how to use breathwork and meditation to harness this for an improved life. There are clear guidelines on what and how to practice, from positions to exercises. What is abundantly clear here is the central importance of breath awareness and the breath to all of this.

The New Science of Breath, Coherent breathing for Automatic Nervous System Balance, Health and Well Being – Stephen Elliot with Dee Edmonson

An excellent book that outlines the study & theory behind the ideal resonance or coherence to breathe at for autonomic balance. The authors discuss how this relates to HRV and how the body responds to changes in depth & frequency of breathing. It can get a little dry in parts, but is a very helpful text in explaining the relationship between the breath and blood pressure.

Breathing Techniques:

The Oxygen Advantage – Patrick McKeown – Patrick’s first book I read, that outlines in clear in concise detail his breathing methodology, how it works, science supporting it, what to use it for and a brief background on how he came to write the book. Focusing on bio-mechanics, bio-chemistry & cadence this book outlines reduced breathing & the importance of nasal breathing for good health.

The Breathing Cure – Patrick McKeown – Patrick’s more recent, updated and expanded book that covers areas he hadn’t explored in the Oxygen Advantage, that are coupled with breathing techniques to use that help resolve many different challenges for individuals. Greater detail on the science that supports his ideas and a more comprehensive guide than the Oxygen Advantage.

The Bliss of Inner Fire – Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In this buddhist text Rinpoche explains how Tummo – or inner fire meditation – how to prepare, what it means and the various stages that are key to moving through as you perform the Inner Fire mediations. A fascinating esoteric journey into what underlies the basis of Wim Hof’s breathing technique, fleshing out a far broader methodology behind how Tummo works and how to approach it.

Holotropic Breathwork – Grof & Grof. A fascinating read about how 2 practioners have taken hyperventilation to a whole new level, combining with guided sessions as therapy to help unlock trauma and allow people to find peace in their problematic lives. The methodology is explained, alongside how this was developed and how it can be of use to people.