Medicine
January 2005
Respiration
Anatomie - geste respiratoire
by Blandine Calais-Germa
There are at least a hundred ways to breathe... and even more... Why are some ways of breathing active while others are passive? How can apnea be at the same time a period of rest and one of intense activity? Breathing is an extremely diversified action. Most of the time, we are not aware of our breathing, because we are so intimate with it, and because it becomes a part of something we are doing – a body movement that entails more than breathing alone. All forms of breathing rely, in the beginning, on two fundamental mechanisms and their variants, which can differ in degree, and combine in any number of ways. This book proposes to explore breathing gestures: by describing the process, explaining the anatomic systems, and identifying the forces at play through the practice of numerous exercises. The reader will learn that there are no bad ways of breathing, that each, in its own way, is important: each will accompany our movement in certain situations, and be appropriate for achieving specific goals. Throughout the book, the reader is called upon to go against the flow and against generally accepted ideas that have been going around about breathing in body-work circles. This manual is written for all professionals who use breathing in their work. - physical therapists, midwives, psychomotor specialists, etc. - P.E. teachers, water-gym instructors, sport techniques, yoga, body consciousness, etc. - professionals in the living arts: music, singing, theatre, dance, mime, circus, etc. - teachers, journalists, lawyers, etc. - phoniatricians, speech therapists, etc. - relaxologists, sophrologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychoanalysts, etc.
