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Breathe How You Want to Feel: Your Breathing Tool Kit for Better Health, Restorative Sleep, and Deeper Connection
Breathwork guide and meditation teacher Matteo Pistono offers a how-to book for upgrading your nervous system to live your optimal life physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Do you want to calm your racing thoughts before lying down for a restful night of sleep? Or raise your energy levels before your morning exercise or spin class, and have laser focus before an important meeting? Are you overwhelmed from the flood of information from your social media and news feed? Any time your emotional state is out of balance, there are time-tested, practical methods to breathe your way back into the state of being you want.
You have the capacity to change how you feel, in any moment, when you partner with your breath. It’s a matter of paying attention and then consciously altering your breathing pattern.
Too often books on breathing and breathwork coaches do not teach the actual mechanics of breathing. Instead, they guide one-off sessions, teach protocols, or direct you to an app. The consequence of just following a protocol without understanding breathing mechanics leaves the student disempowered and dependent on the teacher. Instead, in Breathe How You Want to Feel, learning functional breathing becomes the basis upon which you gain control of your well-being—it’s the secret tool behind resiliency.
Breathe How You Want to Feel offers you a psychophysical tool kit that
· awareness building,
· understanding the dials of your nervous system,
· the importance of nasal breathing,
· how breath holds (even when very short) are a superpower, and
· how to integrate optimal breathing throughout your everyday life, especially when you're sleeping.
You’ll use these tools to optimize your breathing to overcome being tired, wired, and uninspired. You’ll learn how to breathe optimally during your workday, while exercising, when entering meditative and flow states, and for deep rest. And you’ll partner with your breath to discover deeper meaning in life. This book meets you, the breather, where you are with step-by-step actionable tools to improve your health, sleep, and well-being.
This audio product contains a PDF with supporting material, and the PDF is available to download.
Do you want to calm your racing thoughts before lying down for a restful night of sleep? Or raise your energy levels before your morning exercise or spin class, and have laser focus before an important meeting? Are you overwhelmed from the flood of information from your social media and news feed? Any time your emotional state is out of balance, there are time-tested, practical methods to breathe your way back into the state of being you want.
You have the capacity to change how you feel, in any moment, when you partner with your breath. It’s a matter of paying attention and then consciously altering your breathing pattern.
Too often books on breathing and breathwork coaches do not teach the actual mechanics of breathing. Instead, they guide one-off sessions, teach protocols, or direct you to an app. The consequence of just following a protocol without understanding breathing mechanics leaves the student disempowered and dependent on the teacher. Instead, in Breathe How You Want to Feel, learning functional breathing becomes the basis upon which you gain control of your well-being—it’s the secret tool behind resiliency.
Breathe How You Want to Feel offers you a psychophysical tool kit that
· awareness building,
· understanding the dials of your nervous system,
· the importance of nasal breathing,
· how breath holds (even when very short) are a superpower, and
· how to integrate optimal breathing throughout your everyday life, especially when you're sleeping.
You’ll use these tools to optimize your breathing to overcome being tired, wired, and uninspired. You’ll learn how to breathe optimally during your workday, while exercising, when entering meditative and flow states, and for deep rest. And you’ll partner with your breath to discover deeper meaning in life. This book meets you, the breather, where you are with step-by-step actionable tools to improve your health, sleep, and well-being.
This audio product contains a PDF with supporting material, and the PDF is available to download.
Audible Audio
Published May 28, 2024
51 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Matteo Pistono
14 books23 followersMatteo Pistono is a writer and meditation teacher. His books include Breathe How You Want to Feel: Your Breathing Tool Kit for Better Health, Restorative Sleep, and Deeper Connection, Meditation: Coming To Know Your Mind (Hay House, 2017), Fearless in Tibet: The Life of the Mystic Tertön Sogyal (Hay House 2014), and In The Shadow of the Buddha: One Man’s Journey of Discovery in Tibet (Dutton Penguin 2011).
Matteo began studying Buddhism and yoga in Nepal in the early 1990s, and later lived and worked in Tibet for a decade. Pistono's writings about meditation, Buddhism, yoga, Himalayan and Southeast Asian cultural, political, and spiritual landscapes have appeared in The Washington Post, BBC, Buddhadharma, Tricycle, Men's Journal, Kyoto Journal, and HIMAL South Asia. Matteo earned a Masters in Indian Philosophy from the University of London. He has engaged regularly in extensive meditation retreats over the last twenty-five years, and he maintains a daily yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation practice.
Pistono was born and raised in Wyoming, completed his undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Wyoming, and in 1997 he obtained his Masters of Arts degree in Indian Philosophy from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. After working with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. on Tibetan cultural programs, Pistono lived and traveled throughout the Himalayas for a decade, bringing to the West graphic accounts and photos of China’s human rights abuses in Tibet, which he wrote about in In the Shadow of the Buddha. He sits on the Executive Council of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. Matteo and his wife Monica reside in Southern California.
Matteo began studying Buddhism and yoga in Nepal in the early 1990s, and later lived and worked in Tibet for a decade. Pistono's writings about meditation, Buddhism, yoga, Himalayan and Southeast Asian cultural, political, and spiritual landscapes have appeared in The Washington Post, BBC, Buddhadharma, Tricycle, Men's Journal, Kyoto Journal, and HIMAL South Asia. Matteo earned a Masters in Indian Philosophy from the University of London. He has engaged regularly in extensive meditation retreats over the last twenty-five years, and he maintains a daily yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation practice.
Pistono was born and raised in Wyoming, completed his undergraduate degree in Anthropology from the University of Wyoming, and in 1997 he obtained his Masters of Arts degree in Indian Philosophy from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. After working with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. on Tibetan cultural programs, Pistono lived and traveled throughout the Himalayas for a decade, bringing to the West graphic accounts and photos of China’s human rights abuses in Tibet, which he wrote about in In the Shadow of the Buddha. He sits on the Executive Council of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. Matteo and his wife Monica reside in Southern California.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 26, 2025
I’ve learned a decent amount about the breath through my yoga practice, but really enjoyed learning more about the physiology (is that the word I’m looking for?) of the breath and its impacts on different bodily systems. Also, when the author was talking about mouth breathing, my first reaction was “ew good thing I’m not a mouth breather” and then OMG reader I have caught myself mouth breathing. Beware.
October 30, 2024
Absolutely brilliant book, a must read for everyone.
My breathing has always been very poor with me often unconsciously holding my breath as a child which greatly impacted my anxiety and nervous system.
We are told that breathing is an automatic process but I have learnt from this book that the way we breath is often not correct and is also harmful to our sense of peace and inner tranquillity.
Since reading this book I have felt more aware of my breath, and how it impacts my well being.
Highly recommend this to everyone.
It is very well written and greatly enjoyable to read, and a book that every single person could get something out of.
Written really well so is very enjoyable read, so far have found it extremely worthwhile and have mentioned it to others.
Highly recommend
My breathing has always been very poor with me often unconsciously holding my breath as a child which greatly impacted my anxiety and nervous system.
We are told that breathing is an automatic process but I have learnt from this book that the way we breath is often not correct and is also harmful to our sense of peace and inner tranquillity.
Since reading this book I have felt more aware of my breath, and how it impacts my well being.
Highly recommend this to everyone.
It is very well written and greatly enjoyable to read, and a book that every single person could get something out of.
Written really well so is very enjoyable read, so far have found it extremely worthwhile and have mentioned it to others.
Highly recommend
March 31, 2025
I highly recommend this book as a practical guide to getting started on different breathing exercises for different purposes, and I picked up a number of new tips to try when placing my focus on my breath. A very good blend of practical advice, with just the right amount of ancient wisdom.
But I didn't give it a fifth star because I don't believe it is a stand-alone book, and must be read in conjunction with other books that either give a more detailed explanation of how breathing evolved (like the recent work by James Nestor), or a more detailed explanation of how the eastern traditions came to pay so much attention to breathing.
But I didn't give it a fifth star because I don't believe it is a stand-alone book, and must be read in conjunction with other books that either give a more detailed explanation of how breathing evolved (like the recent work by James Nestor), or a more detailed explanation of how the eastern traditions came to pay so much attention to breathing.
June 14, 2025
A game changer
I've read a number of books on breathing techniques, but none were as clear in their instruction as this one. I also do a pranayama practice without fully understanding what I am doing, this book filled in the gaps in my knowledge, and I am already engaging in some of the practices, "when are ready, your guru appears".
I've read a number of books on breathing techniques, but none were as clear in their instruction as this one. I also do a pranayama practice without fully understanding what I am doing, this book filled in the gaps in my knowledge, and I am already engaging in some of the practices, "when are ready, your guru appears".
May 26, 2025
À must read for everyone! I would give it 10 stars
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews