skip to main content

Republished with permission from Emma’s blog, The Moving Brain.

How many candles can you blow out?

Moshe talked and wrote a lot around breathing and the breath. Let me share one thing to notice around the breath, if you’re teaching, but also if you’re talking to someone with a different point of view.

If someone is not breathing freely, they’re not organised for input. They’re not listening, and they’re not ready for learning. To integrate new information requires a sense of safety. Often on an unconscious or physiological level.

Where to start?

As usual, with ourselves. When do you hold your breath, or with whom? Even noticing when we stop breathing, and consciously starting up again is an important step in easing communication.

Using a Candle Breath to calm ourselves

Pretending to blow out a candle, is one easy way of slowing the out-breath, which is a simple way into calming your nervous system. Slowing the out-breath usually helps to slow down the breath in both parts of the breath. This can slow the heart rate, which in turn, can calm you.

A mistake many of us make around breath-control

Don’t interfere with your in-breath. Our nervous system will mainly see conscious involvement in the inhalation as a stressor. If you’re already nervous, it will only make it worse, even if you've been told to do it. Quite often, I find that our human physiology isn’t taken into account when offering solutions.

When we slow the out-breath it activates the vagus nerve, and turns on your para-sympathetic system, sometimes called the Rest and Digest part of the autonomic (unconscious/automatic) nervous system.

You’ll know that’s on if you hear or feel gurgling in your belly / digestive tubes. Anxiety and poor digestion are linked, after all. We have to feel safe to digest.

Try it yourself

Start by counting your in and out-breath. Just to measure your current baseline, not to judge or correct.

As you exhale, imagine you’re blowing out a tiny candle, gently and slowly. The resistance you add slows down your out-breath. Gradually, take away resistance.

Optimal breathing is the ability to breathe adaptably

We need to be able to breathe in a wealth of different ways. The physiology of laughing is very different to that of coughing. When you’re lying down, resting, you need a different breathing style to if you’re running.

The breathing pattern when we feel pleasure is very different to that of fear. It should be, our emotions use different patterns of breath. If you’re limiting the way you breathe to one "correct" way, it can lead to a lack of colours in your emotional palette.

Ideal breathing doesn’t have artifical pauses, but changes according to your situation. It allows you choice to breathe through the nose and mouth. In my classes, the focus is always on creating more options, rather than having only one way. This is the best way to do it. It’s anatomical. It creates choice for your unconscious to choose autonomically in the moment. It doesn’t fix you into only one “correct” way.

Join the sessions

Every Friday the regular MU Feldenkrais session will be looking at solutions for common areas of discomfort, and finding greater ease. The last Friday of the month is a three-hour workshop. See our upcoming wellbeing events for more information and to book your place.

Photo ofEmma Alter
Thanks to

Emma Alter

Emma Alter is both professional classical musician and Feldenkrais teacher. She brings a wealth of experience with her, understanding the pressures of standing in front of an audience and performing at the highest level, whatever the situation, complexities of playing an instrument, and how the body can get in the way of performing to our optimum. She has helped musicians with postural issues, restricted movement, chronic tension (including back pain and RSI ), or simply to find more efficient ways to play more easily.

Get advice and support on mental health and physical wellbeing

Discover a wealth of advice and resources to help musicians to look after their mental health and physical wellbeing.

MU member services

Explore wellbeing for musicians

Get advice and support on mental health and physical wellbeing

Continue reading

Close up of legs running on a treadmill.

Discounted Gym Membership Now Part of MU Benefits

Following the success of our discounted hotel room benefit, we’re now offering MU members exclusive access to reduced-rate gym memberships with The Gym Group — one of the UK’s leading fitness providers.

Published: 01 August 2025

Read more about Discounted Gym Membership Now Part of MU Benefits
Naomi Pohl on stage addressing Delegates at Conference.

“Collective Action Works”: MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl Addresses Delegate Conference 2025

Last week marked the Union’s 41st biennial Delegate Conference, and the largest attended in our history. We’ll be sharing videos and highlights soon, but in the meantime, you can catch up on MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl’s opening speech, outlining the Union’s work over the past two years.

Published: 31 July 2025

Read more about “Collective Action Works”: MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl Addresses Delegate Conference 2025
Two pieces of paper, one orange and one green, cut into the shape of a head. They are facing each other, one with a question mark and squiggles, and the other with a smooth spiral and exclamation mark

Mentoring 4 Creatives: Shaping Freelance Futures in Wales

Discover how two MU members used CULT Cymru’s Mentoring 4 Creatives scheme to explore new directions and develop their creative careers. The programme supports freelancers and casual workers across Wales' creative industries – and applications for this year’s cohort are open until September.

Published: 28 July 2025

Read more about Mentoring 4 Creatives: Shaping Freelance Futures in Wales