Stuart Sandeman - Breathe In, Breathe Out: Restore Your Health, Reset Your Mind and Find Happiness Through Breathwork

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First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2022

Copyright Stuart Sandeman 2022

Stuart Sandeman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Ebook Edition July 2022 ISBN: 9780008475383

Version 2022-06-30

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• Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008475376

To Tiff. Thanks for guiding me.

And to you, the reader. Thanks for being here.

How are you breathing right now?

Dont change it in any way.

Just observe and think about it for a minute.

Are you breathing through your nose?

Are you taking shallow breaths?

Does your chest expand more than your belly?

Is there any tension in your body as you breathe?

These may seem like trivial questions, but the answers can tell you a lot. How much energy you have. How much stress youre under. What your overall emotional state is. They even hold the key to healing trauma.

And thats just your breathing over the last sixty seconds.

This is a book about breathing. Its about how the power of breathing can help you take control of your day, let go of your past and make you the best version of yourself. Its about the lessons Ive learned from personal experience, ancient wisdom and hard science. And its about how people from all walks of life have found that something they do all day, every day, can rewire their brains and change the way they think and feel.

In this book youll find exercises to charge you up, chill you out and improve your performance in any field. Youll learn how to develop better focus, boost your creativity and find your flow. Youll be given tools to help you lessen stress and anxiety, reduce pain and overcome loss. And youll see how you can use your breathing to release you from the habits, patterns and beliefs that are holding you back.

Youll also find stories: of people whove come from the brink of despair to rediscover happiness, of people who needed something more in their lives to conquer fears, fulfil visions or meet goals. And youll hear my story, because I didnt come to this with an open mind. I came as a sceptic. I was doubtful that something seemingly as ordinary as breathing would have the impact it did. Many of the things Ive learned in the years since have challenged my preconceptions, forcing me to think a bit harder about how I live. About how we all live.

Through this process Ive seen some incredible transformations and been exposed to some fascinating ideas. Some of them are well researched, some anecdotal, some explored but only as yet hypothesised. And although Ive come to realise that many cultures have understood the healing power of breathing for thousands of years, my interest is in what can be proven. Ive grounded the bulk of my understanding of what has become my lifes work in science and practice. This book is designed to reflect that. Its practical and scientific, accessible and fun. Throughout, I will introduce you to a number of breathing exercises that will change the way you think and feel. Some will be quick fixes; others will be daily practices for longer-lasting results.

Whoever you are, this book will help you to thrive in your life physically, mentally and emotionally. It will help you join the dots between how you breathe and how you feel, think, act and perform. It will show you how to reset dysfunctional breathing patterns and give you ways to use breathing to control your emotions, rather than let them control you. It will explore how your breathing changes in response to pain, stress, fatigue, fear, grief, trauma and sadness.

So heres my promise to you: whatever your experience, you can learn how to breathe your way to better health, better performance and a better life. You can learn to develop a closer relationship with yourself, with others and with the world. You can leave behind the things that havent been working for you, and flourish. So lets get started.

BREATHE IN.

BREATHE OUT.

You can learn to breathe your way

to better health, better performance and a better life.

Every author has a hope for how their book might change their readers lives. Often its rooted in their own experience some event that transformed them in some way. That was the case with me. I went through something that changed my life and made me look for answers.

I squeezed her hand three times. It was our code. Im here. I care. I love you. I had to be strong for her. But as I stared across the desk at the doctor reading his notes, I was barely breathing. My knee bounced restlessly.

It was only a couple of months earlier that my girlfriend, Tiff, had found a pea-sized lump on her chest. Until that day wed been having the time of our lives. She was 30, and a fun-loving fashion buyer. I was 31, a DJ without a care in the world. But then cancer joined our party and dragged the needle violently across the record of our lives. Now we were here, sitting in silence in the oncology unit of the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, waiting for the specialist to give us the news.

It may only have been a couple of seconds before the doctor spoke, but it felt like hours. He took a deep breath, preparing us for what he was about to say.

The scans confirm your cancer has metastasised. Weve found tumours in your liver, spleen and brain.

Western culture does not encourage us to face death when were still very much alive. So its a hard thing to process when you become aware that someone you love might die. I did what Id always done: hid signs of weakness, buried my emotions, coped the only way I knew how. Be strong. Be tough. I turned to Tiff. There were tears standing in her eyes.

Well beat it, I said.

Being strong came naturally to me. Id grown up in Scotland with a teddy bear called Tough Ted. I had Rocky posters on my wall. Id trained in judo since I was four and was a black belt by sixteen; I was Scottish champion for years. I lived my life this way. Cancer was just another opponent.