Joy Manné

We are breathing beings. From our birth to our death, our life is defined by our breathing. When our breath stops, so does our life. And yet, how many of us know anything about our breath? Our breath does much more than keep us alive. How we breathe and what we feel are related. How we breathe and how we live are related. Our breathing affects our state of consciousness. Our health too, both mental and physical, is influenced by and influences our breathing. Breathing is not only a passive, automatic, physical function like digestion or metabolism. We can control our breathing with our mind. With very little training, we can do Conscious Breathing. With training and discipline, we can use our Conscious Breathing for our personal and spiritual development.

Bert Hellinger, in his method of Family Constellations taught us how to constellate our birth family. This book takes the constellation method and applies it to archetypes and stories. These include the archetype of the ideal family, as well as fairy stories and myths. Mann also offers constructive criticism of the practice of family constellations and shares her experiences of the constellated Field as guide and teacher.

The Buddha didn't only teach ideas, he taught a method through which we may attain Enlightenment and invited people to come and try his method. The Pali Canon, the literature of Theravada Buddhism which is practised in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma, contains many exercises that go back to the Buddha himself. This book is an introduction to the teaching of the Buddha in these early texts and the practise they recommend. In it, exercise that go back to the Buddha himself become accessible to everyone.

"Once upon a time..." Magical words that herald the promise of a story - a fairytale, a myth, a legend, or a family story. We make sense of our existence from the stories we've listened to, watched on film, or chosen to read, but no story has greater impact on the soul than our family's 'story'. In this jewel of a book, you are in the hands of a masterful storyteller. Joy Mann reminds us that we tell stories because we live in stories. -Philippa Lubbock

Conscious Breathing presents contemporary Breathwork methods in a comprehensive, structured way for modern readers. Emphasizing the practice as a way to access the most elevated states of consciousness and the deepest states of meditation, author Joy Manne shows how Breathwork can be applied to transpersonal, existential, past life, chakra, Kundalini, shamanic, and other experiences. Using detailed examples, case histories, and exercises, Conscious Breathing covers basic grounding and awareness, advanced breath and body-centered explorations, and explorations of biblical and religious teachings.