New book on breathing retraining
Breathe: The 4-week breathing retraining plan to relieve stress, anxiety and panic.
Many years ago, I trained as a nurse at a London hospital. I then had a very interesting career which took me from the UK to Zambia in Central Africa and later to Australia, where I taught nursing for around a decade.
I have always enjoyed writing and even had a stint as a journalist during a break from nursing.
When I became a Buteyko practitioner and established my breathing retraining practice in Melbourne in 1999, I never dreamt that one day I would publish a book on breathing retraining!
It all started several years ago when a few of my clients urged me to write a book on anxiety and panic. They wished they had known about breathing retraining earlier and were keen to spread the word and help others who were experiencing the same issues.
As a result Breathe began in 2014, took three years (part time) to write and one year to publish.
Part 1 of the book examines why we over-breathe and analyses the key role over-breathing plays in sustaining and perpetuating stress, anxiety and panic symptoms. Case studies provide the human dimension on over-breathing and describes how people had tried to cope with debilitating symptoms before they found my practice.
Part 2 contains a step-by-step four-week guide to help improve the breathing pattern, starting with a breathing questionnaire to assess breathing. This is followed by breathing retraining strategies and guidelines, diet and lifestyle recommendations, as well as diary sheets and weekly checklists to help people keep track of their progress.
Although targeted at the average person and explained in layperson’s terms, Breathe also contains numerous references for people who would like to delve deeper into the history and science of this interesting topic.
Breathe is published by Hachette Australia in Australia and New Zealand and by its sister company, Little, Brown Book Group in the UK and Ireland.
Mary Birch RN
BIBH Practitioner
Melbourne
January 2019
