Breathing in Isolation: support with anxiety & breathlessness during lockdown
Life of Breath researcher and mindful yoga teacher Kate Binnie offers recorded breathing support during the COVID-19 lockdown… “If I…
The COPD support group
Senior Research Associate on the Life of Breath project, clinical music therapist and mindful yoga teacher Kate Binnie visited a…
Responsibility without blame
Breathlessness is far broader than a physical symptom. It affects people’s mood, self-esteem and social links and often involves feelings…
Curious about breath at the Oxford Curiosity Carnival
Music therapist and writer Kate Binnie writes: Friday 29th September saw Oxford’s City Centre transformed by the Curiosity Carnival. This University-organised event…
To Breathe Ourselves into Some Other Lungs
A cappella singing, a lone rower in the Pacific Ocean, fungal spores, clairvoyance and a baby’s cries…what could possibly…
It Felt Like Drowning
‘It Felt Like Drowning’ is the winner of our recent Inspired musical composition competition. Entrants were invited to attend…
The Restricto-Box: Research without Borders
Life of Breath PhD student Tina Williams writes: The 2017 Research Without Borders Festival showcase exhibition ran at Bristol’s Colston…
Breathless in Bristol (3)
Please note that audio files of all the talks given at this conference will be available shortly. Life of Breath…
It Felt Like Drowning
The header image shows ‘In the same breath’, a 2008 artwork by artist and glass-blower Kate Williams (borosilicate glass /…
A phenomenology of illness, part 2
Following on from part 1, Life of Breath PI Havi Carel writes: What is breathlessness? This is a seemingly simple…
A Painful Silence: bringing domestic violence into conversation
The header image shows a representation of the three wise monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil and speak no…
Restoring Breath: Questions, medical advancements and the importance of bystander participation
Tina Williams, PhD student on the Life of Breath project, writes a post prompted by the inaugural lecture of Prof….
Breath: the conductor of the body-mind orchestra
Kate Binnie, yoga teacher and music therapist, writes: We’ve all experienced the shortness of breath associated with fear, nerves, anger…
The First and Last Breath: reflections from palliative & neonatal care
Kate Binnie, yoga teacher and music therapist, writes: In his brilliant book Being Mortal (2015) Atul Gawande calls for all…
Every Last Breath (2)
In an essay that first appeared in Atrium: The Report of the Northwestern Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program (Spring 2011, p….
The philosophical role of illness – and how it can teach us to live reflectively
Principle Investigator on the Life of Breath and professor of philosophy Havi Carel will be giving her inaugural lecture on ‘The…
Singing for Breathing
Vocal coach, community choir and workshop leader and music therapist Phoene Cave writes: In 2008 I answered an advertisement for…
With bated breath: diagnosis of respiratory illness
In this essay, senior investigator Havi Carel recounts her experience of being diagnosed with a rare respiratory condition as a…
‘I need security to survive’
Kate Binnie, yoga teacher and music therapist, shares a memory of a hospice patient: Paula wakes early every day and…
Making the invisible visible (1)
Sarah McLusky, Project Manager (Durham) writes: What is breath? We all know what it feels like. We can perceive the…
Portrait Therapy for Life Support?
Susan M D Carr, art therapist at the Prospect Hospice and PhD Student at Loughborough University, writes: I was in…
Signal failure? Thinking outside the lung
Physiotherapist and Bradcliff practitioner Pip Windsor writes: How can a symptom of chronic over-breathing be a feeling of lack of air? How…
‘To breathe is all that is required’
Knowledge Exchange Facilitator (Humanities) Cleo Hanaway-Oakley at the University of Oxford writes: Cry, inspire, expire, and cry. This single short sentence provides…
‘An ongoing presence’
Newly-appointed PhD student on the Life of Breath project Tina Williams writes: The patient experiences her illness from within, as…