Title

Lead; One sentence pitch

In the time it takes to take one conscious breath, ...
Beat stress by simply breathing consciously.
Breathing for better performance (health, work, sleep, relationships, sex)
Breathe your way to health and happiness.
Better breathing for better living!
Transform your life, one breath at a time!
Breath: Key to vitality and transformation
Life, liberty, and happiness–one breath at a time.
“From ancient times until today, Breathwork has been one of the most powerful, effective, and natural methods for centering ourselves, reducing stress, focusing, enhancing health, gaining clarity, resolving emotional blocks, opening to expanded awareness and states of consciousness, and experiencing the present moment.”

This book hinges on a precarious teeter-totter between two mutually-exclusive activities: controlling breath and observing breath.

Yoga usually focuses on the former, while meditation focuses on the latter.
Mastering either one is hard enough. Mastering both and then switching between the two is an added level of difficulty.
Why torture oneself with such an arcane, self-centered, seemingly pointless discipline, you ask?
The answer lies in that old chestnut, the Serenity Prayer:
GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
But is not enough to merely “know the difference.” Accepting things and changing things are two disparate activities. Each must be mastered and applied appropriately in each situation.
Observing breathing without interfering is one skill. Controlling breathing–making it slower or faster, deeper or shallower, rhythmic or chaotic–is the opposite skill. Mastering these skills separately, and then applying each when appropriate, is the next level.
Beyond the direct benefits of health and vitality, energy and mood, concentration and self-mastery, these skills transfer to other arenas of life, such as relationships and work.
Only in this way can one become Zorba the Buddha, Osho’s evolutionary ideal of the new man.

Why is breath ignored in our culture compared to Indian culture?
“Take a deep breath” (common references in our culture to breathing)
Biofeedback: Technology that returns attention to the body instead of always directing it away
Biohacking
Quantified Self
Transformative Learning
Freedom from media and marketing manipulation via meditation

Coherent Breath- immune system benefits
Conscious vs unconscious control pathways
Is the rate of breathing accelerating as an average? Why slow breathing is key.
is there any data on patient breath rates to prove or disprove?
different localities have different benchmarks for normal rate
Damasio- brain is captive audience to the body; self comes to mind
Eat, Sleep, Dream- rhythms of the day, rhythms of the breath; why rhythm of breath is ‘governor’
HeartMath
Mathieu Ricard- MRI shows left prefrontal cortex lights up in meditators