Recently I had the pleasure of spending a day
with Richard Brown, MD. He is an Associate Clinical Professor of
Psychiatry at Columbia University, and practices a body-mind-breath
approach to health and healing. How can you not love him!
Dr. Brown and his wife Dr. Patricia Gerbarg (also a psychiatrist) have co-authored a book called “The Healing Power of the Breath.” They have been taking breathwork to veterans and military families, to disaster victims, doing wonderful in the areas of PTSD and TBI.
I found Richard to be a very bright, clear, and conservative teacher. His introduction to conscious breathing and breathwork was easy, basic, gentle, and not scary at all!
I love that in addition to preaching the benefits of conscious breathing, yoga, chi kung, martial arts, and meditation, he also practices these things in his own life for his own personal well-being.
He teaches a very simple, safe, breathing method that triggers the body’s natural healing mechanisms and re-sets the nervous system. He combines breathing with movement, breathing with sound, breathing with visualization/imagery.
He teaches people to use breathwork to deal with stress, to manage emotions,to lower blood pressure, to “treat” fear, pain, anxiety, depression, and much more.
His uses as a core breathing exercise called the “Coherent Breath,” which is basically a slow gentle breathing rhythm at a steady rate of about 5 breaths per minute.
He teaches the 4-4-6-2 exercise: inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 6, hold 2. He also teaches the “Ujjayi Breath,” and the “Ha Breath” together with simple tai chi movements.
He incorporates the “Open Focus” method and a simple Chi Kung series called the “4 Golden Wheels.”
He teaches a simple integrated practice, involving:
1. Movement
2. Breathing
3. Meditation
The movement is to awaken and raise energy, breathing to circulate and distribute energy, and meditation to gather and store energy.
He uses an analogy/metaphor of washing clothes. Movement is the prewash, breathing is wash and rinse, meditation: dry and fold. I love it!
I love that he uses a body, mind, spirit—holistic—approach. And he sites many medical/scientific studies that support the healing effects of breathwork.
He talks a lot about energy—Prana, Chi, Ki—about awakening it, circulating it, and storing it. And he encourages people to “move” energy through their hands, and to move it up and down in the body between the base of the spine and the top of the head.
I love that he advocates 20 minutes of breathing practice every day, and that he continuously reiterates the importance of a daily practice.
He encourages people to accept and allow, and to relax into whatever feelings, sensations, thoughts, images, or emotions that come up. That is so important in Breathwork! And he wisely considers these symptoms to be natural signs of healing and stress release.
I am so happy to see more and more mainstream medical doctors moving toward integrative medicine, using alternative remedies, and prescribing things like breathwork.
The world has come a long way since the early 1970’s, when most medical doctors denounced and disparaged those of us who chose breathwork and other holistic modalities over the mainstream drug and surgery approach!
I celebrate you Dr. Brown! And I thank you for the work that you do!
Dr. Brown’s website is www.haveahealthymind.com
He endorses www.robertpeng.com, www.openfocus.com, www.STWS.org
Dr. Brown and his wife Dr. Patricia Gerbarg (also a psychiatrist) have co-authored a book called “The Healing Power of the Breath.” They have been taking breathwork to veterans and military families, to disaster victims, doing wonderful in the areas of PTSD and TBI.
I found Richard to be a very bright, clear, and conservative teacher. His introduction to conscious breathing and breathwork was easy, basic, gentle, and not scary at all!
I love that in addition to preaching the benefits of conscious breathing, yoga, chi kung, martial arts, and meditation, he also practices these things in his own life for his own personal well-being.
He teaches a very simple, safe, breathing method that triggers the body’s natural healing mechanisms and re-sets the nervous system. He combines breathing with movement, breathing with sound, breathing with visualization/imagery.
He teaches people to use breathwork to deal with stress, to manage emotions,to lower blood pressure, to “treat” fear, pain, anxiety, depression, and much more.
His uses as a core breathing exercise called the “Coherent Breath,” which is basically a slow gentle breathing rhythm at a steady rate of about 5 breaths per minute.
He teaches the 4-4-6-2 exercise: inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 6, hold 2. He also teaches the “Ujjayi Breath,” and the “Ha Breath” together with simple tai chi movements.
He incorporates the “Open Focus” method and a simple Chi Kung series called the “4 Golden Wheels.”
He teaches a simple integrated practice, involving:
1. Movement
2. Breathing
3. Meditation
The movement is to awaken and raise energy, breathing to circulate and distribute energy, and meditation to gather and store energy.
He uses an analogy/metaphor of washing clothes. Movement is the prewash, breathing is wash and rinse, meditation: dry and fold. I love it!
I love that he uses a body, mind, spirit—holistic—approach. And he sites many medical/scientific studies that support the healing effects of breathwork.
He talks a lot about energy—Prana, Chi, Ki—about awakening it, circulating it, and storing it. And he encourages people to “move” energy through their hands, and to move it up and down in the body between the base of the spine and the top of the head.
I love that he advocates 20 minutes of breathing practice every day, and that he continuously reiterates the importance of a daily practice.
He encourages people to accept and allow, and to relax into whatever feelings, sensations, thoughts, images, or emotions that come up. That is so important in Breathwork! And he wisely considers these symptoms to be natural signs of healing and stress release.
I am so happy to see more and more mainstream medical doctors moving toward integrative medicine, using alternative remedies, and prescribing things like breathwork.
The world has come a long way since the early 1970’s, when most medical doctors denounced and disparaged those of us who chose breathwork and other holistic modalities over the mainstream drug and surgery approach!
I celebrate you Dr. Brown! And I thank you for the work that you do!
Dr. Brown’s website is www.haveahealthymind.com
He endorses www.robertpeng.com, www.openfocus.com, www.STWS.org
For more information about Breathwork, please go to www.breathmastery.com.
Download your free copy of my book, "Shut Up And Breathe!" http://www.breathmastery.com/shutupandbreathe
PS: If you are ready to get onto the Path of Breath Mastery right now, you can enroll in the 60-Day Online Course: "21 Lessons in the Art and Science of Breathwork." Visit: http://breathmastery.com/onlinecourse
Or, join my Breath Mastery Inner Circle, and freely access almost 40 years of breath and breathing research, articles, essays, audio/video files, seminar transcripts, workshop handouts, and even complete training manuals!
Visit:http://www.breathmastery.com/breathmastery-inner-circle-membership
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