Breath Of My Ancestors

Breath of My Ancestors is a book of essay observations, poetry and narrative story-telling that reflect the conscience and consciousness of the African in America. It describes the tragedy and triumphs of a people who have risen from the dregs of chattel slavery to the leaders of the free world. It is indeed a testimony to the indomitable strength and character of the veritable backbone of the United States, which is the African-American.

Breath of My Ancestors is the voice of our ancient forefathers screaming to the masses that freedom is the right of every human being, and death is but a modest price to pay.

At the dawn of time there were... ...the Gitxsan who uttered the first words, told the first stories and sang the first songs. They gave description and order to the culture and handed it down through the ages. It was woven down from my ancestors to my grandfathers and my teachers. I have learned that if you want to write you need a master with words that connect with you. With their teachings my Gitxsan Elders have touched my soul. I thank God for the opportunity that I had to walk with them, I thank them for their great knowledge and for the privilege of allowing me to glimpse that knowledge. I thank them for their great inspiration that allowed me to create the 'Breath of our Ancestors.'

A New York Times Bestseller A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2020 Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR “A fascinating scientific, cultural, spiritual and evolutionary history of the way humans breathe—and how we’ve all been doing it wrong for a long, long time.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic and Eat Pray Love No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences. Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe. Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is. Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.

Open yourself to help and guidance from the other side with easy exercises in two minutes (or less!) to meet and communicate with your ancestral guides. Discover how easy it is to ignite your intuition and connect with the other side! Answers from the Ancestral Realms will reveal the command words, visual images, and symbols that make ancestral communication fast and effortless. You'll realize that your ancestors are here with you, and you’ll open to their help and guidance every day. Meet ancestors far beyond your family and the "landcestors" from the cultures and geographical regions of your earliest roots. The word ancestor means "those who have gone before," so you can connect with spirits from the groups, organizations, activities, and projects in which you are engaged, such as authors, musicians, Freemasons, nurses, and so many more. You'll learn how to perceive their presence and receive their messages so clearly that their assistance will be available to you anytime, anywhere, and in every endeavor of your life—your work, relationships, ancestral healing, creative projects, and even psychic development. So, get ready to meet all your different ancestors. . . . They're already right next to you, and they're waiting for your call!

Facilitation and mediation are important skills in our highly organized world. Holding Change is a guide for attending to both in ways that align with nature, with pleasure, with our best imaginings of our future. It provides lessons for generating the ease necessary to move through life’s inevitable struggles and for practicing the art of holding others without losing ourselves. Black feminists have evolved this wisdom, but it can serve anyone working to create change, individually, interpersonally, and within our organizations. The majority of the book is sourced from brown’s twenty-plus years of facilitation and mediation work, with additional wisdom from a selection of living Black feminist facilitators and mediators.