It sounds so simple: breathe in, breathe out. Yet, breath coach Sandeman (founder, BreathPod) believes that breath also serves as a powerful tool that can help readers do much more, such as taking control of their day, letting go of the past, and making people the best versions of themselves. The author opens by sharing a deeply personal story that demonstrates that breath marks endings as well as beginnings. Sandeman moves through exercises that range from the basic to what he labels "transformative" and "optimizing." He also incorporates a deliberate mixture of accessibility and information that keeps the book feeling practical rather than too mystical for skeptics. VERDICT This is a powerful resource and workbook designed for readers to practice with each breath.—Emily Bowles

Breath coach Sandeman extols the benefits of breathwork in his straightforward debut. "The power of breathing can help you take control of your day, let go of your past and make you the best version of yourself," he suggests, providing exercises and stories of people who have benefited from the practice. He recounts skeptically attending his first breathing workshop several weeks after his girlfriend's death from cancer, telling how he broke down crying while in class and felt the "weight of grief being pulled off me." Touting the power of breathwork to "release trauma," he shares the story of an octogenarian client who found reprieve from the anxiety she suffered after surviving a car crash by practicing "infinity breathing," which involves inhaling and exhaling without pausing in between. Other exercises aspire to help readers improve focus by breathing in through one nostril and out through the other and manage pain by imagining a "nurturing light" carrying away discomfort. Some of the author's attempts to get technical will leave readers scratching their heads ("The practice can help create a high vibrational frequency to boost entrainment, enabling trapped emotion to complete its natural integration cycle"), but the 40 breathing exercises offer a variety of ways to try breathwork. Coming up short of breathtaking, this nonetheless gets the job done. (Dec.)