DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH
A Guide to Good Breathing
Jenny Beeken
A UNIQUE NEW CONTRIBUTION TO SELF-HELP LITERATURE
To breathe is to live, and yet we all take breathing for granted. In this unique book, Jenny Beeken helps us to understand how we breathe, and why most of us don't breathe effectively, so depriving ourselves of energy and vitality. Effective breathing is also the key to profound relaxation and deep meditation. It is the key to how we cope with the stresses and strains of everyday life.
In this illustrated guide, Jenny describes exercises and techniques that lead to better breathing. With a little daily practice, we can all feel more energetic and alert, relaxed and de-stressed, fit and healthy. The practices described require no other knowledge than is given in the book, and they can be used alongside other therapies to enhance their effect.
DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH offers to transform our bodies, lives and consciousness.
Jenny Beeken is the founder and principal of Heart Yoga, which trains yoga students in the awareness they need to be able to teach. It is based in Petersfield, Hampshire, UK, where Jenny lives with her daughter, Beth. She has trained with Shri B. K. S. Iyengar in India, with Angela Farmer and Victor van Kooten, and in the White Eagle Lodge. She is the author of YOGA OF THE HEART and YOUR YOGA BODYMAP FOR VITALITY, which is also available from Polair Publishing.
Janita Stenhouse's drawings and articles appear in magazines in Britain, France and Australia.
November 9 2004
64pp, 178 x 144 mm landscape
Photographs, line drawings
ISBN 978-0-9545389-9-6
£6.99
$12.95
REVIEWS OF THIS BOOK
I recommend this book on the White Eagle Contact Healers' Training Course III. Although written for the general reader as much as the yoga student, it draws on insights gained through thirty years of dedicated, sensitive practice as a yoga student and a teacher by one who now has her own school, 'Heart Yoga'. Chapter 2, Using all the Lungs (with guided practices 'To Feel the Back of the Body and 'To Encourage Use of the Whole Lungs') and Chapter 3, 'The Diaphragms of the Body', I believe will be helpful to absolutely anyone following a spiritual practice, indeed to anyone wanting to live healthily and fully. Later chapters illustrate in detail how the subtle mechanism and physiology of the breath is affected by our habitual thoughts and emotional states. They offer guided practices for how these disturbances to natural free breathing can be released and healed.
White Eagle says, 'There is much to learn about the art of breathing, for the way you perform this simple act can affect your whole life-your spiritual unfoldment and your physical, mental and spiritual health'. (Readers may also like to make use of the chapter 'Breath, Mindfulness and Aspiration' in White Eagle's book PRAYER, MINDFULNESS AND INNER CHANGE. White Eagle's words could well form a motto on the title page of Jenny's warmly-recommended book!)
J.H., in 'Stella Polaris' (White Eagle magazine)
Out of Breath
Want to improve your pranayama techniques? Then get hold of a copy of Don?t Hold your Breath, a guide to good breathing.
Yoga magazine, February 2005
Jenny Beeken's third book is small and budget-priced. It offers detailed exercises and techniques that lead to better breathing. Jenny maintains that many of us hold our breath much of the time ? and she explores what makes us do that, and encourages us to become aware of how we breathe all the time. this excellent book will be equally useful to experienced practitioners and novices.
Yoga Scotland
Breathing Lessons
So, you thought breathing was one bodily function you didn?t have to worry about? Well, you may be doing it all wrong, according to Jenny Beeken. Beeken is a yoga expert who believes that we all, erm, take breathing for granted. Learn some breathing skills, she says, and you can feel more energetic, relaxed and healthy. Her wisdom is now available in book form: Don?t Hold your Breath, Polair Publishing, price £6.99.
The Independent, November 2004
Written by yoga teacher and founder of Heart Yoga Jenny beeken, the book is aimed at the beginner, offering descriptions of simple pranayama exercises with physiological explanation, as well as how to use hand mudras and mantra. The book explains the relationship between the breath and the mind and how simple breathing exercises can bring great psychological benefits.
Yoga and Health, March 2005
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