Product Description

A complete course of eight breathing exercises that Dr. Andrew Weil uses in his own life, and has prescribed to hundreds of patients over the past two decades. In plain language, Dr. Weil explains the secret of breathwork’s power over our health, and its remarkable ability to influence – and even reprogram – the nervous system. A practical introduction to this crucial aspect of self healing, presented by this bestselling author and influential physician.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24859 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-01
• Released on: 2000-02-08
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Audiobook, Student Edition, Import
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Audio CD

Features

• ISBN13: 9781564557261
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Dr. Andrew Weil, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, has worked for the National Institute of Mental Health and for 15 years was a research associate in enthnopharmacology at the Harvard Botanical Museum. As a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, he traveled extensively throughout the world collecting information about the medicinal properties of plants, altered states of consciousness, and healing. He is Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he practices natural and preventive medicine.

From AudioFile
In Dr. Andrew Weil's self-healing series, proper breathing is considered the most important practice for healthy living. In this two-CD guide, Dr. Weil not only teaches eight fundamental breathing exercises, but also keeps listeners entertained with anecdotes from his own medical practice. There is an even stronger sense of informality in Dr. Weil's performance than in previous audio presentations. The entire production has the warm quality of listening to an interview--only no one is asking the doctor questions. This serves the higher purpose of engaging listeners, helping them to be more receptive to the methods he shares. R.A.P. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

good intro to something I never thought much about
I never really thought much about my breathing but finding out what Andrew Weil says, in conjunction with going to a yoga class where they really emphasize proper breathing, has woken me up to how much this affects my life. The book "Science of Breath" by Swami Rama is also an excellent resource - very highly recommend it. In the short time I've been working with simple breathing exercises I've noticed dramatic effects - stress seems not to affect me as much!

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 knowledge to healers of all modalities (be they "conventional" or "alternative"), that stress can profoundly weaken one's immune system and lead to ill health. Breath work can reduce stress and not only make you feel better physically, but improve the overall quality of your life. Let's face it, life is not of a high quality if you're stressed out and exhausted.

So, here is a wonderful tool that is practical and easy to use, all you need to do is make a choice whether to use this tool or just continue on your frantic, stressed out merry way.

One more thing, this sort of breath work is an excellent bridge to developing a meditation practice.

It's O.K.
I would have preferred this CD to be in a book format instead of a soundtrack. It would have been less expensive to buy and easier to use that way. The first CD, which is one hour long talks about breathing & health but I really didn't find it interesting or informative. I was rather bored. I thought everything he said was common sense and there was no fresh information. Basically this first CD is a one-time listening thing, so not really worth the purchase. My problem with the second CD, which has the 7 breathing exercises, is that it's one hour long and there is no way to "jump" between exercises 1 to 7. It is all one track. In the accompanying 6-page CD booklet all the exercises are very clearly explained and detailed in text... so you don't really need the CD at all! On the up side, I'm glad there are exercises out there on this subject that Dr.Weil made available to me. I have not been doing the exercises long enough to notice any changes yet.