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86 of 87 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great technique but could be better organized, July 31, 2001
This review is from: Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body, Mind and Spirit (Paperback)
Breathwalk is a simple and powerful idea but this book makes it needlessly complicated which is why I can only give it four stars. However, the book IS well researched and well written, and so I do recommend it as long as you know in advance that you'll have to do some work to dig all the bits of information from many different chapters. With this type of book the reader will often want to get started quickly and can usually expect to find one chapter that helps them do that by presenting the basics. That's what this book lacks. Basically, the Breathwalk technique consists of coordinating breathing with the movement of walking. But there's more to it than that and each part of the technique is presented in a different chapter, with no clear explanation of how to put it all together. For example, there are different Breathwalk patterns to use, depending on what effect you would like to see in your body and mood. These have names like Eagle and Tiger and are basically different ratios of inhalation to exhalation, which are documented with nice graphs. Then there are awakener exercises, sort of like warmups, which are done before the walk. These too are chosen based on the effect you are looking for. Each walk ends with an integration, or innerwalk, step and here again there are different types to choose from. Then there are optional primal sound scales that you can add once you're comfortable with the basics. After getting through all this information I was overwhelmed and would have liked to see a chapter that presented the complete walks with all their components all in one place. There is a Program Guide at the end of the book but this just adds to the confusion. It lists the individual programs based on the effect achieved, such as "Rejuvenate your energy reserves" or to go from "Simple anxiety to inner calm". But to get the details of each program you need to jump around to several chapters. Many of the programs use more than one breathing pattern, and to find those patterns you go to one chapter; for the awakener exercises, you go to another chapter; and for the innerwalk yet another chapter. If you want to find a basic breathwalk and get outside for a sample walk in short order, then I must say good luck. But if you're willing to hang in there, read the entire book, and figure out where all the pieces of the technique are explained, then I think you'll find that the book does ultimately deliver and Breathwalk does work. If only it had a more user-friendly structure this would be a five-star book.
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59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A life changing walk, August 14, 2000
This review is from: Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body, Mind and Spirit (Paperback)
I bought the book because it incorporated elements from two of my favorite exercises, yoga and walking. After reading the book front to back, I took a walk. I was amazed. It opens your senses, quiets your mind and changes your mood in a quick 15-30 minutes. It's something you can do anywhere(your neighborhood, parks, malls, airports, work and even on a treadmill), no special clothes or equipment required, and it's soooo easy! Read the book, get your friends to get one and read it too, then go for a walk together.
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great results immediately, but a lifetime to enhance them, May 18, 2003
This review is from: Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body, Mind and Spirit (Paperback)
What a terrific book! Despite the fact that it's an exercise book, it is extremely engaging, and the concepts easy to follow. The challenge is to have the patience to read the book through completely so that you understand fully what Breathwalk is all about, before trying it out haphazardly. One reviewer felt the book was disorganized, and there should have been a brief overview chapter so the reader could quickly dive into Breathwalking. My good judgment tells me that the presentation of the material was quite deliberately thought through so that the reader would have a firm foundation of what to do before striking out. A Breathwalk - though its basic components are as simple as breathing and walking - requires a certain level of precision and, as importantly, consciousness of what you're doing at any given moment, so just getting a vague idea of it wouldn't be useful at all. I see a close similarity, in that respect, to yoga. Carefully learn and consciously practice a few yoga basics and you'll immediately feel some rewards (just like learning one Breathwalk program). But you can very satisfactorily spend a whole lifetime enhancing your practice of yoga (or Breathwalk) and, in turn, continuously reap more and more benefits. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an exercise program that addresses physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, is easy to do but provides you with lots of opportunity for real mastery.
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