New podcast coming soon: Mind Body Breath
James Cathcart
June 17, 2021
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James introduces our new podcast series starting Saturday 26 June.
My new podcast series Mind Body Breath starts next week. Over the course of three episodes I’ll be chatting to some informed, funny and wise experts about how our minds, bodies and breath interact in that pattern of tissue and synapses and bits of bone and soul that happen to make you — you.
We all breathe, think and move and while these systems work together amazingly to keep us alive… they can also pull against each other. Sometimes our breath is too shallow, or our bodies let us down at the last hurdle just when our minds need them (like in front of, say, an actual hurdle). Or maybe our minds play unhelpful tricks on us that throw our breath totally haywire. Our minds might know there isn’t a literal bear chasing down the hill towards us, but our lungs don’t know that (metaphorical or real, bears have big teeth and the safest bet is to get ready to run, right?).
But then of course there are those blissful moments of ‘flow state’ where something simple like a deep easy breath, or a slight tilt of the head, or a surprising flight of the imagination can tune us in to ourselves and our world in a whole new way. We become more than the sum of our parts as we flourish in the moment, fully alive.
There’s clearly a tension here between the three systems: sometimes pulling apart and sometimes pulling together. Over the series I’ll be exploring how understanding this dynamic tension gives us clues both on how to live and the mystery of human consciousness.
The episodes will be released fortnightly over the summer and feature in depth conversations with a physiotherapist, a minster, and a yoga teacher. As well as digging into the theory I’ll be asking them to share concrete advice on how to move, think and breathe more fully and more clearly.
You will hear fantastic original music by Mark Russell (himself a guest on the series) and thanks to Jack Steel from our team for the stunning cover art (see the picture above).
Over the series we’ll find out:
- what on earth fascia is and how it works
- how we can tune into our breath using just the fingers of one hand
- what porridge has to do with yoga
- how a hurricane played an important role in a call to ministry
- and just how obsessed I am with toast
I look forward to this journey as we reflect on what it means to be a moving, breathing, thinking entity; a collage of systems, a network of hopes and limitations, promise and heartaches, spirit and tendons; a vibrant community of life bundled up in one frame. Or in other words: a human being.
Episode one, ‘The Body’, comes out Saturday 26 June and can be listened to on our site or on your podcasting platform of choice under the usual feed for Sanctuary First.
Breathe well, move well, think well!
James Cathcart
Listen to episode one now!
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