My Magic Breath: Finding Calm Through Mindful Breathing – An Interactive Meditation Picture Book About Managing Big Feelings for Kids

by Nick Ortner, Alison Taylor, Michelle Polizzi (Illustrator)

From New York Times bestselling author Nick Ortner comes a beautiful picture book that will help children discover calm through the magic of mindful Do YOU have the magic breath? Let’s see…Take a deeeeeep breath in…and BLOW it out… …and like magic, you can feel better just by breathing! Sometimes it’s hard to feel happy. But with this interactive picture book, children breathe along as they learn how to make angry or sad thoughts disappear. In a world that is sometimes too busy, with too many things going on, My Magic Breath will help steer children into a serene space of mindfulness, self-awareness, and balance. A wonderful classroom and naptime story, this book is perfect for fans of Susan Verde’s I Am Yoga and I Am Peace , Mariam Gates’s Good Night Yoga , and Deborah Underwood’s The Quiet Book .

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Meditation, Emotion, Self Help, Fiction, Health

32 pages, Hardcover

Published May 15, 2018

About the author

NICOLAS ORTNER is the CEO of The Tapping Solution, a company with a mission to bring simple, effective, natural healing into the mainstream with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or “tapping.” Tapping is a healing modality based on ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.

Nick’s goal is to empower people to create healthy, financially abundant and stress-free lives through his books, films, CDs, online events and speaking engagements attended by participants from all over the world.

His bestselling book, “The Tapping Solution: A Revolutionary System for Stress-Free Living,” was published by Hay House in 2013. Prior to that, Nick created and produced
the breakthrough documentary film, "The Tapping Solution,” which follows ten people who used tapping to overcome tremendous challenges, such as 30 years of chronic back pain, fibromyalgia, insomnia, devastating grief and more. Both Nick’s book and film document real and extraordinary results that have inspired tens of thousands to follow suit by successfully applying tapping to their lives.

Nick has also produced first-of-their kind online programs that teach easy, effective ways to apply tapping to anything limiting a person’s life or health. Some noteworthy examples are: The “Tapping World Summit,” a free, worldwide online event that just celebrated its fifth successful season and has been attended by over 500,000 people (www.tappingworldsummit.com); the “Tapping Insiders Club,” a monthly membership program filled with articles, interviews, and videos with experts from the tapping field (www.tappinginsidersclub.com); and Nick’s popular seven-week EFT coaching programs, which cover common issues such as finances, weight loss and more.

A dynamic speaker, Nick has presented breakthrough live tapping sessions and
has shared the stage with speakers such as Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, Lynne McTaggart, Dr. Joseph Mercola, and others.

Nick and the Tapping Solution team are committed to spreading tapping
throughout the world, and particularly to supporting its revolutionary and world-changing
usage. They’ve raised over $250,000 for tapping-related charities such
as ProjectLight: Rwanda, which aids genocide victims in that country (http://projectlightrwanda.com/), The Veterans Stress Project, for veterans with PTSD
(http://www.stressproject.org/), and You Can Thrive! for women with cancer
(http://youcanthrive.org/). In 2013, Nick created The Tapping Solution Foundation, which has already raised over $100,000 for charitable work in Newtown, CT to support the community after the tragic shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Nick lives in Newtown, CT with his wife, Brenna and is already working on his next book.

Reviews

[Tanya]

We had a tragedy at our school this week with the death of a student. This was the perfect book to read with my 1st graders, while it does not go into the topic of death, it gives great strategies to help calm your mind when you are having trouble shutting your brain down in the evening for bed or struggling with a hard feeling. All students were engaged in interactive parts of this story and seemed to be able to connect with it really well.

[Ashley Adams]

A self-help book for children that teaches visualization and breathing techniques to find a sense of calm.

[Kellee Moye]

Deep breathing is a tool that I have taught my son to use to deal with frustration, anger, or sadness. This lesson was even more supported when Daniel Tiger taught him to, “When you feel so mad you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four.” We use this mantra often to help him refocus when his brain is getting fogged by an emotion. Additionally, some of Trent’s favorite books are interactive picture books like Press Here! or Don’t Touch This Book. My Magic Breath combines these connections in Trent’s life into one! It not only promotes meaningful breathing in a fun way, it turns it interactive through the illustrations and second person narrative. This is going to be a book that is easily going to jump into our picture book regulars, and I cannot wait to be able to be able to tell Trent to “Think about what happened. Now keep it in your mind! Close your eyes and take a deep breath in. Now blow out your breath…”

Full review with teaching tools: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=1...

[Laurie]

Interest Level: K-3; Reading Level: 1.9

@kidlitexchange #partner Thanks to the @kidlitexchange network for the review copy of this book - all opinions are my own.

Do you have magic breath? I bet you do! Try it - take a deep breath and blow it out? Yep, you sure do! As a matter of fact, everyone does. Have you ever been worried, nervous, sad, or mad? Just take a deep breath and blow all the worry away. Try it - it's magic! Actually, your magic breath can turn a bad day right around. Read this book so that you can find your magic too!

​This book needs to be in every classroom, every counselor's room, and every bedroom. Every child has a range of emotions and this book is fantastic to show kids how to deal with them. Do not miss this magical book!!

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[Nena]

Έχεις σκεφτεί ποτέ πόσο σημαντικό είναι να επιστρατεύεις την μαγική σου αναπνοή πριν κοιμηθείς; Να αποσυμπιέζεσαι από την μέρα σου και να αδειάζει το μυαλό σου από τις αρνητικές του σκέψεις, για να υποδεχτεί νέες και αισιόδοξες; Η εναλλαγή αυτή μεταξύ αρνητικού και θετικότητας μόνο καλό μπορεί να κάνει στην ψυχική και πνευματική υγεία.
Breath in - breath out 😊
Το μυστικό της καλοζωια, η υπερδύναμη που ακόμη δεν έχεις ανακαλύψει ώστε να μην συσσωρεύεις τα τοξικά απόβλητα κάθε μέρας μέσα σου και να δημιουργείς πρόσφορο έδαφος να τρυπώσουν φωτεινές εμπειρίες και σκέψεις στην ζωή σου....
Δείτε σαν πρόκληση αντί για πρόταση, να εξασκήσετε την μαγική σας ανάσα ή ακόμη καλύτερα να τελειοποιήσετε το λεγόμενο "mindful breathing".
Καλή ανάγνωση 📖❤️📖

[Scarlett Graglia]

Summary:
This story is about a "magic breath." Magic breath can make you feel better simply by breathing. It teaches the reader that sometimes it is hard to feel happy. Throughout the story, the readers can breathe in and out as they learn how to make angry or sad thoughts disappear. With the world being so hectic sometimes, we somehow get caught up in it and forget about the happy times we may have. This story helps the reader recognize self-awareness and what to do during the hard times in life that we may face.

Evaluation:
I really liked this book. It was actually a perfect book for me, a 21 year old, to read at this point in my life. With everything going on between student teaching, 15 hours of classes, edTPA, and the GACE, it is so important to stop and think for a second. Taking a deep breathe is beneficial for people of all ages. This story remind you the importance of thinking of good times and the bad times, while inhaling and exhaling. This book is such a positive, happy book that people can find "the good" in. It is a reminder that everything in life is worth it; sometimes we just need to stop, reflect, and take in deep breaths. This story us great because it teaches you the importance of inhaling and exhaling.

Teaching idea:
I think a wonderful teaching idea for this story is to read right before a big test such as a standardized test. A lot of students suffer from testing anxiety and become so nervous before tests. I think this is a great story to read before standardized testing comes it. It can teach students how to calm their selves and take deep breaths to help themselves relax when testing. In general, it is a great story for any child to read or listen to because it teaches such an important concept of taking deep breaths in and exhaling them out to find calm within.

[Rachel]

My Magic Breath invites you to join in on a breathing exercise that is meant to help calm the mind. Between the steady voice of the text, with its easy-to-follow steps, and the watercolour illustrations, with their colourful, flowing strokes, it does have the potential to achieve this. Ortner and Taylor tackle two causes for a busy mind; the times you have too many thoughts after your day, and the times where unpleasant things have happened. There solution is to breathe in and blow out a magic breath that is full of happy calming thoughts. The book itself acts as a guide for a child and their guardian to use right before bedtime, so it has readers repeat this act multiple times. There is no story, however as a picture book with a purpose, it may prove just as useful at the end of the day.

[Heather]

My Magic Breath takes the idea of clearing your negative thoughts through deep breathing and puts a colorful spin on the idea. The pattern is to think of a positive thought and release it into the world through a deep breath. Next, take a not so positive emotion or memory and release it the same way. Last, take that positive thought and blow the not so positive thought away.
I am a believer in deep breathing; I have seen it work for myself and I have used it to keep students from emotionally escalating and having a tantrum.
The beautiful colors used in the artwork help reinforce the pattern of dispelling negative emotion.
One would have to practice to make this an automatic reaction when troubled thoughts come.

[Cheryl]

I really like this book. It has really wonderful fun illustrations for kids to enjoy! It's a breath visualized! I can see reading this to preschool to a very young elementary kid. I can see using it in my storytimes - if not reading the whole book, just showing a few pages and breathing with them. Love that! My only small critique as someone who meditates, mindfully breathes, and practices mindfulness, there are some lines that don't sit exactly right for me. I can see blowing away thoughts like sadness and worry, but it's important for kids to also realize those emotions are not necessarily bad or negative. Those emotions are good to also sit with if that makes sense. I do like the focus on happy and calm though.

[Ira]

I enjoyed reading this book with my daughter, deep breathing exercises are so good to practice, I really love that someone made a book about this. I think everybody can benefit from beathing exercises. I had a child in my class that was having challenges with managing their emotions and an older lady that was volunteering came over to assist me and with help of a bubble wand she had that child calm and relaxed in minutes. It’s a practice I use to this day, to help calm someone enough to regulate their mood in a positive way. This book walks you through a couple of breathing and mindfulness exercises that are very kid friendly, and fun to do. I think this is a great book to have at home or in the classroom.

[Raven Black]

I am always a little skeptical of these kinds of books. Mostly because they can get "preachy" and "have an agenda" to them. And it does hit on a few of my "sore spots" (such as: instead of saying, "Did you have a sad moment?" they say, "You probably had a sad moment." Which reinforces something is "wrong with me" if I didn't because an "authority figure" is telling me I should have had a "sad" moment). However, the illustrations are lovely. They help an otherwise 3 book move into 4 territory. And the other part that does make this a 4 is that if you do have a child that needs a little help with "finding calm" this is not a horrible way of introducing the child to it.

[Amanda]

This book is a great way to incorporate self care in the classroom as well as onamonapias. Written by Alison Taylor, the words tell of different emotions that people may be feeling and also shows them through the use of colors and images created by Michelle Polizzi. This combination helps describe the different moods that one can face in life or even just in one day. This book works very well as a read aloud since it allows for pauses when students can follow the directive from the book. This book is comforting for students and kids of all ages, but will work particularly well when read aloud to students in first and second grade.

[Gwen]

I found myself breathing along with the story. I didn't mean to, but I did. And you know what? It felt great! This would be a great one for a teacher to use at the end of the day (or at any time if it's been particularly stressful/hectic) or even a perfect one for bedtime. Getting rid of all those sad feelings or when you have too many thoughts running through your mind.

I want to remember this one if I ever do my "yoga with kids" program. It would be a nice one to read just to get the yoga practice started.

[Chanda Scobee]

A children’s book about guided breathwork, positive thinking, and mindful breathing. It’s great for emotional regulation, calming, learning coping skills, and how to prioritize and control thoughts and even some rumination, through switching out bad thoughts for good ones. It’s empowering and provides children with the ability to learn how to control their thoughts, connect to their body, and feel fully present. A wonderful, engaging, and beautiful book. I loved the color choices and illustrations in this one too!

[Kris Dersch]

I really like the illustrations and I like the idea, but I think it may miss its mark with kids. The way the material is presented my kid at least interpreted it less as "focus on the breath" and more as "blow as hard and much as humanly possible to make the bad feelings go away." Not exactly mindfulness.

[Karen Brinker]

The illustrations are beautiful, and I thought about using this book for an art lesson. However, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the messaging. Yes, mindful breath is great. But I want to get away from pushing away (or blowing away) our sadness or anger. It's okay to feel sad or mad and sit with that emotion. So I have mixed feelings about this book.

[Melissa]

This is an adorable book that taught my daughters how to take deep breaths when they are upset or mad about something. We use this technique any time she has a fit, and I really think it helps her. The images are colorful and throughout the book, you actually “blow” the bad feelings away. Super cute if you want to teach your kiddos that coping mechanism.

[Theresa]

My magic breath: finding calm through mindful breathing
By nick ornery, Alison Taylor

A book that shows how to cope with stress, anger, and frustration. This is a good book for social emotional learning for 1st grade. Helps explain that having emotions is good bit that we need to be calm before we act.

[Jo Oehrlein]

Focuses on deep breaths in and out. Practices first, then think of something happy and blow out happiness on the page. Think of something sad/bad and blow that out on the page. Then chase the sad/bad with happiness.

Would make a good transition to breath prayer or meditation.

[Kim]

A nice introduction to mindfulness and using breathing to find calmness. Happy breaths are represented by yellows and oranges and sad/mad/worried breaths are dark. Also help show how to use happy thoughts to push out the bad thoughts.

[Julie]

It was really hard to keep the kids engaged, as it felt a bit long and some sentences were tough to get around.

Trying to read some “breathing technique” books for my asd son so he can work on breathing to calm down.

[Shobana]

A great read at the end of the day to relieve all the stress and anxiety of the day. This book reminds kids of the basic principle of letting go of bad things. Highly recommend for elementary and middle school kids as they learn to deal with school/friends/family.

[Alivia DiTullio]

This book would be an amazing tool to have in the classroom. It teaches about mindful breathing in a unique way students can easily understand. I would love to keep this in the classroom library and use it as a tool to help students find a sense of calm when they are feeling negative emotions.

[Zoraida Rivera Morales]

Sparse text and beautiful illustrations help kids see the magic in breathing as a way to deal with feelings and too many thoughts. Ortner and Taylor made a difficult topic accessible for kids and Polizzi, the illustrator added to the magic. Loved the ending, too.

[Elizabeth]

A good introduction to mindful breathing for kids. Cute illustrations and concepts explained in an easy to understand way.

[Renee]

Appropriate children's picture book about mindfulness and using breathing to help calm down when emotions get too high.

[Maude P. Ragsdale Hiram Library]

a must read for little ones!

[createitlibrarian (Amanda)]

This book encourages kids to push away their unhappy thoughts. I think that unpleasant thoughts need to be dealt with more mindfully.

[Sarah Threlkeld]

Powerful strategy to teach kids. I wish the narrative could be used at any point in the day; it’s written as a bedtime book.

[Ana Gutierrez]

Beautifully illustrated and deceptively simple; parents might find their day stress slipping away as they read this out loud. =D