Avishai Pearlson says it’s impossible to understand Breema bodywork without experiencing it.
“Pull on your earlobes with your hands, relax your shoulders and feel the weight of your shoulders force your hands to slip off your earlobes and into your lap,” he instructed. This particular Breema exercise is called “Sinking into the Lake.”
The licensed massage therapist and Breema practitioner is co-owner of Breema Northwest, a center in downtown Eugene devoted to Breema — exercises that incorporate massage and meditation. At the center, the curly-haired, soft-spoken instructor teaches Breema exercises, gives Breema bodywork sessions — similar to massage therapy — and teaches aspiring instructors.
Next term, he will bring Breema to the University in a class offered Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 12:50 p.m. The focus of his class is “short, playful and meditative” individual exercises to relieve stress, relax and concentrate on the body, he said. The movements range from lying down, sitting, standing and hopping, he said.
“They work on flexibility, release tension and revitalize us,” he said.
Breema is based on nine “principles of harmony,” including no judgment, no extra, body comfortable, firmness and gentleness, full participation, no hurry/no pause, mutual support, single moment/single activity and no force. The principles provide guidelines for Breema, but they also provide a life philosophy, Pearlson said.

He said all of the principles of Breema work together to help people find their presence, which he explains as having a direct connection with the body.
“Being present is having a direct experience about being alive, rather than interpreting life in the mind — rather than always thinking about the past and the future,” he said.
Junior Jessica Lurie took the Breema class offered spring term and plans to take it winter term as well. She liked the class because it gave her time to “escape and connect” with herself, she said.
Although she said she doesn’t use the exercises at home, she does incorporate the principles into her daily life.
For example, she said she tries to concentrate on just one activity at a time, which stems from the principles “no extra” and “single moment/single activity.”
“When my mind starts to wander, (the principles) help me focus and concentrate,” she said.
She said in class Pearlson described how people always walk through campus “head first,” and he encouraged his students to walk “from the center.”
“When I’m walking around campus, I try and remember I’m not just transporting my head to another class,” she said.
Yoga instructor Elayne Quirin also took Pearlson’s class spring term. The difference between Breema and yoga, she said, is that Breema focuses more on pressure points, massage and working with your hands. Yoga, on the other hand, involves different postures.

But she added that certain characteristics of Breema are very similar to yoga.
“They have a very similar philosophy in that they bring the presence into the body, into the moment,” she said.
Pearlson has been teaching Breema since 1991. He discovered the bodywork at an open house at The Breema Center in Oakland, Calif.
According to Dr. John Schreiber, director of The Breema Center, Breema originated in remote mountain villages in the Middle East, where it had been practiced for centuries. It was never written down, but was passed down by an unbroken lineage of teachers.
But Pearlson said the history isn’t as important as incorporating Breema into everyday life.
“It’s important to concentrate on what’s happening right now,” he said. “Life only happens moment by moment.”