Vivation: The Science of Enjoying All of Your Life [Paperback]

I personally have found Vivation to be the single best and most useful breathwork technique and self-improvement technique out there (and I have tried several different ones). It's effective, useful in any life situation, and "to the point".

As the title of this book says, it has to do with learning to fully "see", experience, enjoy and embrace all of your life. As you do more and more of that, you will of course discover things in your life that you want to change (i.e., that you could enjoy/embrace even more if they were different). Vivation helps you to find the freedom, knowledge/awareness, motivation and confidence in yourself you need to actually change them.

You don't have to "believe" in Vivation; it is not a philosophy or anything to join. You may have noticed that many authors of self-help books (or inventors of self-help technologies) have certain viewpoints they want to push. Leonard and Laut do that a little bit, but it is all great fun (all about being more positive and enthusiastic in your life), and they are nice about it, and they organize the book so you can skip any extraneous stuff if you want to.

I grew up in a family where "victim consciousness" reigned supreme, and I can tell you that Vivation teaches you the exact opposite of victimhood. Everything in it is about helping you to develop joy and gratitude for your life - and then still changing your life if that's what you want.

I believe this book was originally published as "REBIRTHING: The Science of Enjoying All of Your Life" in 1983, so Vivation may be synonymous with Rebirthing. I understand this is the best book that Jim Leonard (and Phil Laut) has ever written on Vivation (and the nature and effects of the subconscious mind), even if you consider his newer books.

This is a very thorough, in-depth book; you could even say it is almost like a text book on Vivation/Rebirthing and why things happen in your life the way they do. It is very easy to read and understand (but you may have to read some sections more than once to truly comprehend them). It is printed on heavy, quality paper with an easy-on-the eye black font. You'll get a lot of information from this book and you'll get more out of it if you read it once from cover to cover, do a few Vivation sessions (on your own, if you are the adventurous type, or with a Vivation Professional), and then go back and read the book again. But be careful, doing Vivation/Rebirthing on your own at the very beginning can be a frightening experience, so a Vivation/Rebirthing Professional can provide the comforting mental/emotional support needed at those times.

Once you learn how to do Vivation and understand it better, you can always do it on your own (i.e., you may only need a Vivation Professional at the beginning).

I especially liked Chapter 3, "The Origin of All Negativity" (a chapter about the unconscious mind and the nature of suppression) and Chapter 4, "The Ecstasy Principle" (a chapter about the Experiencer, the real you, experiencing the mind and body in any moment). What an eye-opener! There are also detailed chapters on Affirmations. I mean very detailed and in-depth!

Vivation (like Rebirthing) is a special breathing exercise that you do to eliminate blockages in your physical and mental/psychic level of your being - negative emotions that may have been suppressed (i.e., stored in the body and/or subconscious mind) since as far back as birth, or even before (some other books claim going as far back as prior past lives). As a result, almost all areas of your life should improve. (Caution: Despite the claims of a few other writers, some physical health problems will not be eliminated or avoided just by doing Vivation/Rebirthing!)

From what I've found out from researching this subject, it is generally recommended that in the long term, you should do Vivation/Rebirthing sessions once a week for optimum well being (of course you could also do them daily). Each session should be about 1 hour or even longer. This book claims that you can also do "mini" Vivations at anytime and anywhere (called Vivation-in-action), that can be as short as a few minutes, and still obtain good results. (In my experience, this is not true.)

In summary, this is a really great book. While not perfect (not detailed enough teaching of Vivation/Rebirthing), it is still much better than other books about Rebirthing or books on ancient breathing practices, which use a lot of foreign (Sanskrit, etc.) and confusing words just to make it sound more mystical and mysterious.

I just threw this book in the garbage. I bought it because I thought it would focus on useful breathing techniques that would give my heart and lungs some healthy exercise. That is not what this book is about. It does spend a little bit of time discussing breathing, but not much, and not enough detail to be of any use to me.

It is mostly about a technique of "integrating" things into your life that you would otherwise "make wrong". For example, someone makes you feel bad, you would normally be upset about it and "make it wrong" but instead you shouldn't do that, you should accept it, surrender to it, allow it into you, don't fight it, and you will see that you will be much happier.

That seems useful to a point. But only to a point. It should make you less defensive and sensitive. It should make you less "reactive" and more laid back. That's a good thing, usually.

But this is not the panacea that it presents itself as. If you have just been shot in the eye by an arrow, and the arrow is sticking out of your eye as we speak, it really isn't all that helpful to refuse to "make it wrong" and accept the arrow in your eye, appreciate it, integrate it into your life. Some things, in other words, are just wrong.

And when a book starts spouting those annoying "affirmations" it always loses me. I hate affirmations. I am a good person. I am wonderful. I am perfect in every way. My life is wonderful. I am happy. Everyone loves me. I love everyone. Gee whiz, ain't I the bee's knees.

Oh I hate those affirmations. I think that anyone found guilty of saying affirmations to themself should be whipped with al dente spaghetti imported from Italy.