I am writing this letter with a great deal of gratitude for the Buteyko Breathing Center, and for Thomas Drakon Fredricksen, my Buteyko practitioner.
The evening I first discovered the Breathing Center, I was looking for answers not only about my own breathing, but also for the many students that I teach. As I am a yoga teacher, I felt I had a great deal of awareness about breathing; however, there is so much misinformation out there and there are poor breathing habits. I had recently trained for and run my first-ever Half Marathon, and that was when I realized just how much my less-than-perfect breathing habits affected my energy, my stress levels, and of muscular tension. I quickly realized I had discovered the answers for which I had been searching! Even though it was on the weekend, I performed the online breathing self-test, asked some questions, and Thomas wrote back to me right away. After our first online meeting, Thomas promptly accepted me as his personal student and made it very convenient for me to meet with him, even with my hectic teaching schedule.
Prior to working with Thomas, I felt I was in good health. While I had realized that my breathing was off, I was quite surprised at first to realize I was chronically hyperventilating! I had not really considered the affect chronic hyperventilation was having not only on my energy levels, but my overall health and even my relationships.
Thomas was a very patient, dedicated teacher, right from the very beginning. While I felt encouraged by the obvious improvements in my health, it was nice to have my questions answered and to have all the support and information I needed to make these changes in my breathing. I noticed dramatic improvements, even in my very first week of doing my breathing exercises and changing my breathing at night. I began to feel much calmer than I ever had before, and to my surprise much of my muscular tightness began to vanish, simply by reducing my breathing. As the weeks passed I have noticed that I have been able to also improve my relationships, that it takes far less effort to stay calm in stressful situations. I am also noticing this work is having an extremely positive impact on my teaching as a yoga teacher, and also as an art teacher – something I hadn’t anticipated. I began to hear comments about how much patience I had with the children in my classes. I noticed that my voice was more calm and that I spoke more slowly when giving yoga instruction, which is of great benefit to my students. I have so much more patience and clarity with my own three children. Health concerns that I had gotten used to such as a stuffy nose, headaches, and irritability, have all gone away. A lifetime coffee drinker, I have given up coffee without even trying. I no longer am looking for the next rush of adrenalin or caffeine to get my through my busy days and nights. Here I had signed up for a Buteyko Breathing Normalization course, and I ended up changing my life.
I especially appreciated the wonderful educational package I received in the mail when I signed up for the course. It contained these five amazing DVD’s created by Sasha Yakovleva, Advanced Buteyko Specialist. What a great tool they have been in my learning process! I was pleasantly surprised with the large amount of extremely helpful, detailed instruction and information contained on these DVD’s.
I am currently looking forward to my graduate level course with Sasha, and then beginning my practitioner training. This is only just the beginning for me, but it has made such a huge difference already. The improvements in health that I have experienced, are the kind that I don’t want to keep all to myself. I know that as a Buteyko practitioner I can have a positive impact on the lives of others, just as Thomas has done for me.
I am pleased to recommend this program, and I am greatly looking forward to helping improve the lives of my own students some day!
Lisa Marie Calice
