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23 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas for 2023

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1. You don’t have to meditate; breathing meditates you.

P.S. This was inspired by this excellent quote in Blue Mind: “This is the huge advantage of water: you don’t need to meditate to take advantage of its healing effects because it meditates you.”

2. Physically, wherever you find your breath, you find yourself; spiritually, whenever you find your breath, you find your self.

3. The best and most therapeutic form of mouth breathing is laughter.

4. Most of the time: the nose is part of the respiratory system; the mouth is part of the digestive system.

5. Put your breath where your heart wants to be.

P.S. This was inspired by Steven Pressfield’s more explicit line: “Put your ass where your heart wants to be.” : )

6. Our greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one breath over another.

P.S. This is a play on a William James quote I saw on Insight Timer: “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”

7. Try it out, find what works for you, and enjoy the timeless (and timely) wisdom of the breath.

8. When we’re in a challenging life event, our breath is always there—not to make it go away, but to help us align with our highest self and make a one-second decision to stay in the fight.

9. Rather than study every aspect of life, we can study the breath, which can be applied in every aspect of life.

10. Equanimity is when the breather realizes they are the breath.

11. Adding a spiritual significance to the air—realizing it contains life itself—can only add value to your breath practice.

12. Our breath moves spirit around like our hearts move blood around.

13. Breath is to body what Brandy is to wine.

14. Our bodies respond to slow breathing practices by interpreting the external environment as safe.

15. Breathing exercises don’t change our situation, but they do change how we interpret it, which may be more powerful.

16. Breathing is life-force translated through you into action.

17. Breathing is the most direct way to practice science and philosophy in our lives.

18. Every breathing practice lies somewhere between an art and a science; the goal is to find the right sweet spot for you.

19. You can’t breathe two breaths at once—so focus on this one—and watch your mindfulness and spiritual awareness grow.

20. In breathing, self-expression is paramount: It’s less about words, and more about expressing concepts through you, in your unique way, to feel beyond the words.

21. Expanding your breath makes space for your problem.

22. Breathe hearter, not smarter.

23. Before the internet, before you could major in positive psychology, before life coaches and Harvard studies, there was the breath. Breathing is the ultimate self-improvement tool.

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Why 6 Breaths/Minute Improves Heart Health & Quality of Life in Diabetes

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Slow breathing is a highly effective yet overlooked therapy for diabetes.

 

It profoundly changed my life with diabetes, leading me to spend the past 5 years trying to understand it and share it with others.

 

I’ve found that it’s not going to fix everything (of course).  It may not even impact your blood sugars.  But, without question, two things it will do are improve your heart health and your quality of life.

 

And it’s available anytime, anywhere (no pre-authorization required). 

 

I think it’s a no-brainer for better health, and I hope this article inspires you to give it a try.

 

 

What is Slow Breathing? (and why was 6 breaths/minute in the title?)

 

Slow breathing is broadly defined as breathing at a rate of less than 10 breaths per minute.  More specifically, it usually refers to breathing at a rate of about 4.5 to 7 breaths per minute.

 

And even more specifically, almost every study on slow breathing and diabetes has used 6 breaths per minute.  And they’ve found some pretty remarkable things.

 

But before we get to that, let’s take a quick look at the breath-heart connection.

 

 

Understanding the Breath-Heart Connection: Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Heart Rate Variability

 

When we inhale, our heart rate increases.  When we exhale, it decreases (if you’d like more details, here’s a blog I wrote for ResBiotic that explains it fully).  This is known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA).

 

RSA is one of the underlying principles of heart rate variability (HRV).  Generally speaking, HRV is the beat-to-beat time variability of heart rate.  Research shows that higher HRV indicates a more balanced nervous system and better cardiovascular health.  For these reasons, higher HRV is associated with a better quality of life.

 

And it turns out that people with diabetes typically have worse HRV than non-diabetics.  (A negative side-effect of researching diabetes is that it reminds me of everything it adversely affects.  However, it’s also encouraging to find simple tools like breathing that can help (not fix) some of the problems).

 

 

HRV is Reduced in Diabetes

 

A 2018 meta-analysis found that patients with type-2 diabetes had significantly lower HRV than those without it.  Diabetics with chronic complications have even lower HRV. 

 

The lower HRV observed in people with diabetes is likely related to many negative aspects of the disease, such as chronic stress, inflammation, and increased oxidative stress. 

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, low HRV is associated with adverse outcomes in diabetes.  For example, people with diabetes and low HRV are at increased risk of coronary heart disease.  Moreover, low HRV is an early marker of cardiac autonomic neuropathy, which can lead to heart disease, the number one cause of mortality in people with diabetes.

 

Sounds depressing, right?

 

 

Enter the Heart-Boosting Power of Slow Breathing

“When we breathe slowly at around 6 breaths per minute, we synchronize signals coming from our cardiovascular, respiratory, and autonomic nervous systems.  ”

When we breathe slowly at around 6 breaths per minute, we synchronize signals coming from our cardiovascular, respiratory, and autonomic nervous systems. 

 

To get a little more technical, we have baroreceptors monitoring blood pressure. They sense the changes in heart rate that accompany each breath.  Then, they send their own signals to the heart. 

 

For example, as blood pressure rises, they tell the heart to slow down.  And as blood pressure falls, they tell the heart to speed up.

 

Here’s the issue: there’s about a 5-second lag for signals.  Thus, they end up getting mingled together with the signals from the breath.  One may be trying to increase heart rate while the other is trying to slow it down.

 

But when we breathe at about 6 breaths per minute, we synchronize these messages.  (To breathe at 6 breaths per minute, we need about a 5-second inhale and 5-second exhale (or 4/6 also works). This matches the time lag from the baroreceptors.)

 

When the signals get synchronized, great things happen.  Each breath amplifies heart rate oscillations, leading to greater HRV.  This also balances the nervous system, making us calm and relaxed.  If we do this regularly, it can significantly improve our quality of life.

 

Let’s break these down into a little more detail and look at 4 positive outcomes we get from slow breathing.

 

 

The 4 Key Benefits of Heart-Breath Synchronization for Diabetes

 

1. Improved Heart Rate Variability

 

This is the most potent effect.  As mentioned, when we breathe slowly, we amplify the heart rate oscillations occurring with each breath.  This increases HRV, a critical problem in diabetes.

 

One study published in Nature found that just 2 minutes of slow breathing at 6 breaths/min could bring the HRV of type-1 diabetics to levels of non-diabetic controls.  (Side note: this was the paper that convinced me to start sharing this information.  Nature is one of the most prestigious journals in the world.  If they’re talking about slow breathing and diabetes, I realized my results weren’t so crazy after all.)

 

A long-term study of people with type 2 diabetes and ischemic heart disease found that one year of slow diaphragmatic breathing significantly increased HRV, and this wasn’t even at precisely 6 breaths per minute. Just slowing down the breath was enough to boost HRV.

 

And better HRV means better cardiovascular health and a longer life.

 

It also means more resiliency to diabetic stressors, but I’ll save that for another blog post.

“And better HRV means better cardiovascular health and a longer life.”

 

2. Efficiency and Blood Flow

 

When bodily messages come into harmony, it creates efficiency.  Efficiency means your body doesn’t have to work as hard to complete its normal processes.

 

This efficiency also improves blood flow, a fundamental problem in diabetes.  For example, the same 2-minute study mentioned above found that slow breathing also improved arterial function.  Better arteries, more blood flow, and less chance of complications.

 

 

3. Reduced Blood Pressure

 

Slow breathing has consistently been shown to lower blood pressure.  A 2019 meta-analysis found an average systolic blood pressure reduction of about 5 points from slow breathing for about 20 minutes daily.

 

The blood pressure-reducing effects of slow breathing have also been shown in diabetes.  In a study of 65 type-2 diabetics with hypertension, slow breathing significantly reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

 

These results are significant because Johns Hopkins Medical Center reports that people with diabetes are twice as likely to develop hypertension.  It’s also estimated that anywhere from 40 to 80% of diabetics have hypertension.  Moreover, a person with diabetes and hypertension is four times more likely to develop heart disease.  For these reasons, preventing and treating hypertension is a chief concern in people with diabetes.

 

Slow breathing provides one complementary therapy for doing just that.

 

 

4. Less Stress & Anxiety

 

And lastly, we can’t discuss heart problems without discussing stress.  We know when we’re stressed, we have chronic activation of the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system.  This raises heart rate and blood pressure, adding extra strain on our hearts.

 

Fortunately, slow breathing is one of the fastest and most effective ways to alleviate stress. You’ve probably been told at some point in your life to “just take a deep breath.”  It turns out there’s some solid science for this statement.

 

Slowing down the breath, especially with a longer exhalation, increases activity in the parasympathetic nervous system (rest-and-digest), reducing stress and increasing relaxation. Slow breathing also reduces activity in the amygdala (often referred to as the “fear center”), which also helps reduce stress.

 

 

Slow Breathing is a Superpower for Your Heart

 

To recap, slow breathing at about 6 breaths per minute is excellent for our hearts, especially if you have diabetes.

 

It harmonizes messages being sent from the cardiovascular and autonomic nervous systems.  This leads to a ton of benefits, but here are 4 critical ones for diabetic heart health:

 

  • Improved heart rate variability

  • Increased efficiency and blood flow

  • Lower blood pressure

  • Less stress and anxiety

 

For these reasons, the paper published in Nature concluded:

“Slow breathing could be a simple beneficial intervention in diabetes.”
— Nature Scientific Reports

 

Simple and beneficial, indeed.

 

 

Start Improving Your Heart Health Today

 

I hope this article motivates you to start a slow breathing practice.

But, if you’d like some more help, you can check out the Breathing for Diabetes Online Course, which covers everything you need to get started.

I hope you’ll check it out, and if you have any questions about slow breathing in general, please email me at nick@thebreathingdiabetic.  I always respond within 5 days (but usually ~2).

Breathing for Diabetes Online workshop

This may be your key to a healthy, more fulfilling life with diabetes.

 
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Wim Hof & Diabetes: A Complete Guide to the Benefits and 5 Real Dangers

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The Wim Hof Breathing Method (WHM) is used by millions of people worldwide.  And if you search around, you’ll find some hefty claims, along with some inspiring success stories.  It seems to help with just about everything.

But what about diabetes? 

As a type-1 diabetic, a researcher, and an intermittent WHM practitioner (see my full story here), I recently decided to dig into the science and feasibility of the WHM for diabetes.  I found some fascinating things about inflammation and quality of life that make it appealing. 

But, at the same time, some real dangers might be overlooked by non-diabetics who practice and teach Wim’s method.  And there might be better approach for people with diabetes. 

However, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s start off with the basics.

 

 What is the Wim Hof Breathing Method?

 The WHM generally consists of controlled hyperventilation and breath holds.  Most people use the following steps:

  •  30 big breaths (nose or mouth) at a comfortable pace.

  • After the last breath, hold with your lungs empty (after exhaling).

  • Hold as long as it is comfortable for you.

  • When you hit your limit, inhale fully and hold for another 10-15 seconds.

  • Repeat

 That is considered “one round.”  Wim generally suggests 3-4 rounds every day, first thing in the morning (this turns out to be critical).

In addition to the breathing, the full WHM consists of cold exposure and meditation.  But for our purposes, we’ll focus on the breathing because that’s what gets a lot of attention (and the most common starting point before getting into the cold).

 

 

Validated by Science: Direct Control of the Autonomic and Immune Systems

 The WHM is one of just a few breathing methods with scientific studies published directly on it. 

The most famous is the 2014 PNAS study.  PNAS is a top-notch journal, so this one put Wim on the map scientifically.

In the study, participants learned the WHM from Wim himself over a few days.  Then, they were brought into a lab and injected with an endotoxin.  Lots of people have been injected with this toxin, so scientists have a pretty good idea of what happens afterward: fever, chills, nausea, headache, and so on.

Thirty minutes before injection, the participants started doing the WHM breathing.  Then, they were injected and continued doing the breathing (they modified it slightly after 1 h) for another 2.5 h.  That’s a total of 3 hours of WHM breathing (!).  But the results were incredible.




All the WHM-trained participants reduced basically every symptom associated with the endotoxin injection. 

Moreover, they significantly increased anti-inflammatory cytokines while suppressing pro-inflammatory ones. 

This was the first time (basically ever) that a person could take direct control of their autonomic and immune systems.  I call this study the “4-minute mile” of breathing.

“The PNAS Wim Hof study is the “4-minute mile” of breathing, showing that the impossible was possible.”



What about Chronic Inflammation?

Those results are pretty intriguing since a huge problem with diabetes is immune and autonomic dysfunction.  But most of us diabetics probably don’t want to hyperventilate for 3 hours a day to reduce our inflammation.

Fortunately, another study decided to investigate the more long-term effects of the WHM on inflammation in people with spondyloarthritis.

Participants practiced the WHM for 8 weeks. (Note that this was the full WHM, which includes cold.  However, recent research still in pre-prints has shown that the breathing alone is really helpful for inflammation.)  It looks like they spent about 45- 60 min a day doing these exercises (still a lot, but much better than hyperventilating for 3 hours).

After the 8 weeks, measurements showed that they reduced overall levels of several inflammatory markers.  Moreover, the participants’ quality of life scores all went up.

Sounds great so far, right?

Well, yes.  But we next need to learn how it works, which will shed more light on how it might impact diabetes specifically.

 

 

How Does the WHM Work?  Stress, Stress, and More Stress

As mentioned, the WHM consists of hyperventilating and holding your breath.  Both of these are stressors.  In fact, they are really, really stressful.  The PNAS study we mentioned earlier found that when the participants did the breathing, their adrenaline rose higher than people bungee jumping for the first time.  That’s a lot of stress.

Counterintuitively, it turns out that intense short-term stress is actually good for you.  I won’t go into the details here (and honestly, I don’t understand it enough to speak intelligently on it), but separate fields of science called “psychoneuroendocrinology” and “neuroimmunology” have shown that short-term stress boosts our immune system and lowers inflammation.

It appears that the WHM might trigger this effect perfectly.

“Short-term stress boosts our immune system and lowers inflammation.”

 

 

Intermittent Hypoxia

Moreover, during the breath-hold portion, people drop their blood oxygen saturation significantly (sometimes to half of where they started).  This is yet another short-term stressor that can also be therapeutic. 

It turns out that intermittent bouts of low oxygen, followed quickly by normal oxygen levels, can improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood sugar, boost immune function, and increase blood flow to the brain.

Together, we see that the WHM combines two intense stressors over a short period: hyperventilation and breath holds.  These trigger some positive adaptations that at least partially explain the benefits of the WHM (although there’s a lot of brain stuff happening, too—see the WHM & Diabetes Masterclass below for more).

All of this brings us back to diabetes and this question: Isn't stress bad for people with diabetes?

 

 

The 5 Dangers of WHM and Diabetes

Here’s where things get interesting for diabetics.

 

1. Blood Sugar

Because the WHM is an intense stressor, it will almost certainly raise your blood sugar in the short term (of course, everyone is different, but this has been my experience).

Thus, if your blood sugar is already high, practicing the WHM might not be a good idea.

(Paradoxically, there is also a chance it could improve insulin sensitivity over time due to the intermittent hypoxia.  This has never been proven with Wim’s method, just my logical deduction.)

 

2. Anxiety and Panic Disorder

Here’s another thing to consider.  The WHM involves hyperventilation, which is a common symptom associated with anxiety and panic attacks.

People with diabetes have a much higher prevalence of anxiety and panic disorder.  Thus, we run a much higher risk of experiencing adverse effects from this aspect of the WHM. 

Putting our body through that intense stress and the associated blood sugar increase might leave us feeling worse than when we started.

 

3. Autonomic Dysfunction

Additionally, people with diabetes generally have worse autonomic nervous system functioning than their non-diabetic counterparts.  This shows up consistently as lower heart rate variability (HRV) levels and lower baroreflex sensitivity, even in seemingly healthy diabetics.

Thus, putting our nervous system into fight-or-flight overload might exacerbate underlying nervous system issues rather than alleviate them.

 

4. Cardiovascular Complications and Hypoxia

People with diabetes suffer from higher rates of cardiovascular disease than non-diabetics (and it’s the #1 cause of death in people with diabetes).  Thus, dropping our blood oxygen saturation to the extremely low levels experienced during the WHM might put too much stress on our hearts.  (Again, my speculation, but there isn’t any research on WHM and diabetes to know for sure.)

 

5. Poor Everyday Breathing

Lastly, because WHM encourages hyperventilation, there is a chance this would carry over into your everyday breathing. Of course, this is not what Wim suggests, it’s just a side-effect many people experience—myself included—if you’re not taught proper breathing in addition to the WHM.

If you’re constantly taking bigger breaths, especially through the mouth, it will put you in a chronic state of low-grade stress, intensifying the above-mentioned dangers.  This could cause more cardiovascular stress, more nervous system dysregulation, more anxiety, and worse blood sugar control.

 

 

So, What Should We Do as Diabetics?

 Let’s recap.

The potential benefits:

  1. Improved quality of life

  2. Lower inflammation

  3. Better immune function

  4. Better insulin sensitivity (my speculation)

  5. More energy (we didn’t talk about this, but it’s something most practitioners say)

 

The potential dangers:

  1. Short-term increase in blood sugar

  2. Increase in symptoms of anxiety and panic

  3. Dysfunctional nervous system

  4. Added stress on your heart

  5. Poorer everyday breathing 

With this information, I hope you can decide whether the WHM is suitable for you (or for your clients if you work with people with diabetes).  And if you are going to practice the WHM, I suggest finding a certified coach to start out safely. There are tons of them listed here.

If You Want More Information

If you want more information, I put together a 40-min Wim Hof and Diabetes Mini Masterclass ($99 value) as a free bonus to my Breathing for Diabetes Online Workshop. This class goes into more detail than is possible here.

And, by getting the workshop, you’ll learn where I suggest you start before diving into the WHM: slow breathing.

If you’re interested, you can learn more below.

The Breathing for Diabetes Online Workshop

Created for diabetics, by a diabetic.

From Wim Hof to slow breathing, this workshop covers everything you need to know to use breathing to reduce your stress, improve your sleep, better manage the inevitable ups & downs, and live an overall healthier life with diabetes.

Breath & Heart: 14 Loving Quotes on the Heart-Breath Connection

 

1. “Happiness lies in your own heart. You only need to practice mindful breathing for a few seconds, and you'll be happy right away.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh

 

2. “You know that our breathing is the inhaling and exhaling of air. The organ which serves for this is the lungs which lie round the heart. Thus breathing is a natural way to the heart.”

- Nicephorus the Solitary

 

3. “If you would foster a calm spirit, first regulate your breathing; for when that is under control, the heart will be at peace; but when breathing is spasmodic, then it will be troubled.”

- Kariba Ekken

 

4. “Recitation of the rosary, and also of yoga mantras, slowed respiration to almost exactly 6/min, and enhanced heart rate variability”

- Bernardi et al. 2001*

 

5. “when you inhale, your heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute) naturally rises; when you exhale, it slows down again. This is true for everyone.”

- Leah Lagos

 

6. “Exhales slow the heart rate; the longer we spend on the outbreath, the more the nervous systems relaxes.”

- Emma Seppälä

 

7. “Your respiratory and cardiovascular systems are designed to work in synchrony. […] Your breathing acts as a stimulus for the heart. In physics, this kind of relationship between your breathing and your heart rate is called resonance, a property of a system where two oscillating components interplay with each other, producing increases in oscillation amplitude.”

- Inna Khazan

 

8. “These waves seem to oscillate around 0.1 Hertz. When we inhale and exhale at that rate, our respiration has the potential to optimize the rhythm of various mechanisms and align them with our heart rate. ‘When you breathe at that same rate, it’s like pushing the swing at the perfect moment,’ Noble says.”

- Timothy Meinch

 

9. “If you found that your heart beats faster when you breathe in than when you breathe out, you are correct.  You have discovered that every breath you take affects your heart rate.”

– Drs Patricia Gerbarg and Richard Brown

 

10. “These practices demonstrate that the mind and the heart follow the lungs, not the other way around.”

- Michael J. Stephenson

 

11. “The heart itself rests on the dome of the diaphragm […] Each time the diaphragm moves, it tugs on the heart.  Imagine a game of balloon toss, with the heart gently bounced on this elastic trampoline, rocked with each breath, approximately 20,000 times a day.”

- Robin Rothenberg

 

12. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, which is, of course, my diaphragm.”

- Jill Miller

 

13. “Slowing the breath down activates the prefrontal cortex and increases heart rate variability, which helps shift the brain and body from a state of stress to self-control mode. A few minutes of this technique will make you feel calm, in control, and capable of handling cravings or challenges.”

- Kelly McGonigal

 

14. “There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there’s another way; a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.”

- Rumi

Footnote:

Reference for #4: Bernardi L, Sleight P, Bandinelli G, Cencetti S, Fattorini L, Wdowczyc-Szulc J, Lagi A. Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms: comparative study. BMJ. 2001 Dec 22-29;323(7327):1446-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1446. PMID: 11751348; PMCID: PMC61046.

Breath is Mind: 25 Thoughtful Quotes on the Breath-Mind Connection

 

1. “When you practice mindfulness of breathing, then the breathing is mind.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

2.  “I am as confident as I am of anything that, in myself, the stream of thinking…is only a careless name for what, when scrutinized, reveals itself to consist chiefly of the stream of my breathing.” - William James

3. “As we discover, when we pay attention to its natural rhythm, the breath becomes calm. Simultaneously, the mind quiets down. It all happens naturally. … Any force is counterproductive.” - Bhante Henepola Gunarantana

 

4. “When the mind is agitated, change the pattern of the breath.” - Patanjali

 

5. “Breath is the king of mind.” - B.K.S. Iyengar

 

6. “When the Breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the Breath is still, so is the mind still.” - Hatha Yoga Pradipika

 

7. “However, when the air is calm, so is the water. It is just so with the mind. The more often we breathe, the more agitated the energy of body and mind becomes. By breathing less frequently, we begin to achieve elemental harmony.” - The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

 

8. “By controlling your breathing, you can use a voluntary mechanical behavior to make a profound change on your state of mind.” - Emma Seppälä

 

9. “So get out of your mind and into your breath because the breath is the life-force.  Not your mind, the breath.  Follow your breath, and it will lead you anywhere in your brain—and thus the mind—that you want to go.” - Wim Hof

10. “Thanks to the regulation of breathing patterns, patterns in our thinking are not just affected, but revealed, together with their entanglement with respiration.” - Marco Bernini 

11. "Messages from the respiratory system have rapid, powerful effects on major brain centers involved in thought, emotion, and behavior." - Dr. Patricia Gerbarg and Dr. Richard Brown

12. “In other words, by changing the breath pattern one can induce a chosen state of mind.” - Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati (found in Restoring Prana)

 

13. “The breath is free from greed, hatred, delusion, and fear. When the mind joins with the breath, the mind temporarily becomes free from greed, hatred, delusion, and fear.” - Bhante Henepola Gunarantana

 

14. "The breath is the intersection of the body and mind." - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

15. “Interestingly, the Greek word psyche, which we often use to indicate our mind or the emotional state of our mind, actually means soul or spirit, or most tellingly, the breath of life.” - Eddie Stern

 

16. “These practices demonstrate that the mind and the heart follow the lungs, not the other way around.” - Michael J Stephen

 

17. “The intrinsic link between prana and citta accounts for why the yogis insisted on breathing practices as the primary means to pacify the mind.  Through the breath, the ANS is directly impacted.  Breathing can effectively modulate the reactive loop, and restore us to a more coherent frame of mind.” - Robin Rothenberg

 

18. “I will breathe in, releasing the mind. … I will breathe out, releasing the mind.” - Mindfulness of Breathing Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 118)

 

19. “Just as your mind influences the breath, you can influence the state of your mind through the breath as well.” - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

20. “When we focus on the breath, our breathing naturally becomes calm. When the breath becomes calm, the mind and body also become calm.” - Bhante Henepola Gunarantana

 

21. “If our breathing is light and calm—a natural result of conscious breathing—our mind and body will slowly become light, calm, and clear, and our feelings also.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

22. “The Tibetan language describes this relationship between the wind and the mind as the wind-mind (Tib. rlung sems). This compound word describes the wind energy and the conceptual mind as always, intertwined and moving together—a singular motion.” - The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

 

23. “‘[A]ccording to the Navajo conception, then, Winds exist all around and within the individual, entering and departing through respiratory organs and whirls on the body’s surface. That which is within and that which surrounds one is all the same and it is holy.’ Finally, and most profoundly, this invisible medium in which we are bodily immersed, is what provides us with the capacity for conscious thought.” – David Abram, with inset quote from James McNeley

 

24. “When the incoming breath is offered into the outgoing breath, the outgoing breath is offered into the incoming breath, or when both are offered into the retention, the mind is purified of self-interest.” - Baba Hari Dass (found in Restoring Prana)

25. “The ‘I think’ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‘I breathe’ which actually does accompany them. Breath is the essence out of which philosophers have constructed the entity known to them as consciousness” - William James

22 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas for 2022

Let’s continue the tradition this year. Here are 22 one-sentence breathing ideas to kick off 2022. Enjoy!

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Related: 21 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas for 2021

1. Demonstrations of breathing are small compared with the great thing that is hidden behind them. 

(Inspired by a Khalil Gibran Quote)

 

2. Breathing doesn’t heal you; it gives your body the environment it needs to heal itself.

 

3. We can be lost in breath, without knowing we have been breathing.

(Inspired by The Things You See Only When You Slow Down)

 

4. If you know only one breathing method, then you really know none; if you understand one breathing method, then you really know them all.

 

5. Breathing is the most direct path to practicing philosophy in our lives.

 

6. If breath is life, then optimal breathing is optimal living.

 

7. Science is timely; personal experience is timeless.

 

8. Every method works when used correctly, but no method works for everybody.

 

9. What one teacher says is essential, another will say is useless.

 

10. Breathing is a pair of leather shoes for life.

(Idea from The Tibetan Yoga of Breath)

 

11. The most practical tip for breathing is this: make it quiet and subtle. 

 

12. To breathe in a “quiet and subtle way” takes deliberate practice—effort leads to effortlessness.

 

13. Breathing may be my 70% solution but only your 20% solution.

 

14. Breathe less, sometimes more; breathe slow, sometimes fast.

 

15. We breathe through each nostril separately so they function better together as a whole.

 

16. Read about breathing but, most importantly, embody that education through practice.

 

17. Start by starting; one minute is always better than none-minutes.

 

18. A simple rule for getting started: 40% of your breath should be inhaling, 60% should be exhaling.

 

19. Holding implies tension and effort; pausing is natural and effortless.

 

20. Breath and mind are inseparable: This means you can use your breath, to change your mind, to change your breath for the better.

(A play on this line from Neurodharma: “Neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that you can use your mind, to change your brain, to change your mind for the better.”)

 

21. The goal of a breathing practice is better mindless breathing.

 

22. The joy of breathwork is breathing.

18 "Inspiring" Quotes on Breath as Life & Spirit

Here are 18 interesting quotes referring to the breath as life or spirit. It’s by no means comprehensive—just some that have stuck out to me over the years.

Enjoy!

1.  “Man was created of the Earth, and lives by virtue of the air; for there is in the air a secret food of life…whose invisible congealed spirit is better than the whole earth.”

- Michael Sendivogius

 

2.  “Of course, the word spirit itself, despite all of its incorporeal and non-sensuous connotations, is directly related to the very bodily term respiration through their common root in the Latin word “spiritus”, which signified both breath and wind.”

– David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

 

3.  “My words come from an upright heart; my lips sincerely speak what I know. The spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

– Job 33:3-4 

4.  “The fact is that when we focus on the breath, we are focusing on the life force. Life begins with our first breath and will end after our last. To contemplate breathing is to contemplate life itself.”

– Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath

 

5.  “Among the Creek Indians of the southwest, for instance, the creator God, the only divinity equal to or exceeding the Earth and the sun in its power, is called the Master of Breath.”

–David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

 

6.  “Interestingly, the Greek word psyche, which we often use to indicate our mind or the emotional state of our mind, actually means soul or spirit, or most tellingly, the breath of life.”

– Eddie Stern, One Simple Thing

 

7.  “That oxygen, life, and lungs all came into our world in relatively close succession is no coincidence.  Only with oxygen and some means of extracting it are all things possible—thinking, moving, eating, speaking, and loving.  Life and the breath are synonymous.”

- Michael J. Stephen, MD, Breath Taking

 

8.  “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.”

– Genesis 2:7

 

9.  “The air I inhale enters my body and becomes part of me. The air I exhale moves into someone else and becomes part of her. Just by looking at how the air moves, we realize we are all connected to one another, not just figuratively, but also literally.”

– Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

 

10.  “For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth.”

- Sanskrit Proverb

 

11.  “Thus spirit = breath = life, the aliveness and power of your life, and to speak of your spirit (or soul) is to speak of the power of life that is in you.”

- Frederick Buechner

 

12.  “Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

 

13.  "Ancient Egyptian cultures also recognized the importance of the breath, the evidence of which we see today in the many ancient statues that had their noses broken off but otherwise were left untouched. This defacement was no accident, but a deliberate act by conquering groups to take the life, in this case the breath of life, away from these icons."

- Michael J. Stephen, MD, Breath Taking

 

14.  “Thus a great many terms that now refer to the air as a purely passive and insensate medium are clearly derived from words that once identified the air with life and awareness. And words that now seemed to designate a strictly immaterial mind or spirit are derived from terms that once named the breath as the very substance of that mystery.”

–David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

 

15.  “Zen Master Hogan said that the whole universe is in the breath. If you really pay attention to it, it takes you to its immaculate source.”

– Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath

 

16.  “Arise! the breath, the life, again hath reached us: darkness hath passed away and light approacheth.”

– Rig Veda 1:113:16

 

17.  “The breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.”

– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

 

18. “Life and respiration are complementary. There is nothing living which does not breathe nor anything breathing which does not live.”

- William Harvey, 1653, Lectures on the Whole of Anatomy

How I Trained for Altitude (it's not what you might think)

View of Mount Audubon from Mitchell Lake

View of Mount Audubon from Mitchell Lake

“Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.”

- Mike Tyson

I live in Florida, basically below sea level : ) So when my best friend invited me to hike up to 13,200 ft, I put a ton of pressure on myself to do it. I thought, “I’m The Breathing Diabetic. I better be able to handle some altitude.”

But I didn’t train how you might think. Of course, I initially started with more breath holds. But I realized that the issue at altitude is lower air pressure. To breathe, our lungs expand, the pressure decreases in our lungs, and air flows in from the atmosphere due to the pressure difference. However, at altitude, the lower air pressure will make that process harder.

If each breath is harder, your diaphragm and other breathing muscles will fatigue quicker, and you’ll feel out of breath. Maybe I’m wrong, but that seemed like the biggest issue when I considered everything I’ve learned.

So I decided to focus on lung capacity. With greater lung capacity, the lungs can expand more, pressure can decrease more, and breathing can be easier at altitude. Is this proven? I don’t know. But it made sense to me.

So I did a lot of Wim Hof breathing, a lot of work with the Oxygen Advantage Sports Mask, and a lot of extended exhalations. I also used ocean breathing during my morning breathing practice for added resistance.

Did it work? I’m not sure since I don’t have a control to compare against. But I made it. It was extremely challenging, and all of my plans went out the window once we hit about 11,000 ft. The winds were insane, my hands were freezing, and the continuous uphill was way more brutal than I expected.

To cope, I did some periodic breathwalking, and every few minutes, I took 10 massive Wim Hof style breaths. Going up, I was probably around 40% nasal, 60% mouth breathing (I went into it not caring which hole I used, as long as I made it). Going down was about 90% nasal and 10% mouth.

When I got to the summit, my oxygen saturation was steadily 81-85%. Crazily, my blood sugar was 404 mg/dL (!), which wasn’t helping the situation. But I made it. Mission accomplished.

If you have any thoughts about altitude or my training approach, please send me an email at nick@thebreathingdiabetic.com with the subject “High Altitude.” It was my first time, so I have no clue if what I’m saying makes sense : )

More Pictures

SpO2 was hovering around 81-85% right when we reached the summit. This was with normal nasal breathing.

SpO2 was hovering around 81-85% right when we reached the summit. This was with normal nasal breathing.

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“Strategically” giving my diaphragm a rest before we started one of the last pushes. I wasn’t tired, just meditating 😂😂😂

“Strategically” giving my diaphragm a rest before we started one of the last pushes. I wasn’t tired, just meditating 😂😂😂

Me (left) and James (right) at the peak hiding from the insane winds. Gusts felt like they were over 60 mph.

Me (left) and James (right) at the peak hiding from the insane winds. Gusts felt like they were over 60 mph.

James taking in the view.

James taking in the view.

Breathing Graffiti on 28 Famous Quotes, Sayings, and Idioms

When I wake up low at night, I sometimes use breathing to help me fall back asleep (after eating glucose, of course). Other times, I accept that I won’t be sleeping for a while, and I just let my mind wander and laugh at my thoughts.

This thought came on one such night, Thursday, March 11th, to be specific. It seemed especially cheesy, so I decided to go with it : ) Some of them I actually found pretty funny, others I had to stretch a bit…

Email me (nick@thebreathingdiabetic.com) if you have any good ones I didn’t think of so I can add them in.

Anything below #28 are user additions.

 

1.  To breathe, or not to breathe: that is the question.

 

2.  A breath in the nose is worth two in the mouth.

 

3.  Don’t put all your breaths in one basket.

 

4.  You have to breathe it to believe it.

 

5.  You’ve made your bed; now breathe in it.

 

6.  A breath is worth a thousand words.

 

7.  Breathe the change you want to see in the world.

 

8.  Be all you can breathe.

 

9.  There’s a method in the breathlessness.

 

10.  Familiarity breathes contempt.

 

11.  Don’t judge a breath by its cover.

 

12.  This option gives us the breath of both worlds.

 

13.  Your breath is as good as mine.

 

14.  Get your breath out of the clouds.

 

15.  Don’t throw your breath out with the bathwater.

 

16.  Just in the breath of time!

 

17.  Sometimes, we just don’t breathe eye to eye.

 

18.  Birds of a feather breathe together.

 

19.  Every breath has a silver lining.

 

20.  It kills two breaths with one stone.

 

21.  The breath is in your court.

 

22.  It sounds like you need to breathe off some steam.

23.  That outfit looks like a million breaths on you.

 

24.  It’s time to breathe home the bacon.

 

25.  That’s a hard breath to crack.

 

26.  You’re breathing up the wrong tree.

 

27.  Stop breathing around the bush.

 

28.  Breathe smarter, not harder.

***

29. All breathing in moderation, including moderate breathing.

The Lesser-Known Benefits of Nasal Breathing, Designed for Diabetes

 

As a person with type 1 diabetes, my experience with nasal breathing has been nothing short of miraculous.  It's been such a simple change, yet its impacts on my energy and blood sugars have been profound. I feel it would be irresponsible not to share it with other people with diabetes.

Luckily, people much brighter than me have become fascinated by the nose too.  Whole books have now been written on the topic.  It has been featured in popular sources such as Outside Magazine and the Cleveland Clinic.  An article published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience even concluded that “nasal stimulation represents the fundamental link between slow breathing techniques, brain and autonomic activities and psychological/behavioral outputs.”

But after several years of research, I have come to realize that the reasons nose breathing is so helpful for diabetes go far beyond the “obvious ones.” 

Of course, the usual suspects are essential, such as the warming and humidifying of the incoming air and the natural slowing of the breath.  But to fully understand the benefits for diabetes requires a synthesis of research from different fields, such as diabetic complications, the metabolites of nitric oxide, chronic stress, and sleep.

Let’s start with diabetic complications.

Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Reduce Blood Flow

Over time, the oxidative stress and chronic inflammation associated with diabetes can damage blood vessels, resulting in poor circulation. 

Less blood flow means that less oxygen reaches the cells, tissues, and organs. 

As a result of this poor circulation (and other complications), people with diabetes have an increased incidence of retinopathy, kidney disease, and foot problems.

Nose breathing—specifically inhaling through the nose—immediately helps with this.  For example, one small study showed that just five minutes of inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth increased tissue oxygenation by 10%.  This increase was due to nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide is continuously produced in the paranasal sinuses.  When you breathe in through your nose, nitric oxide is carried into the lungs, where it opens up the blood vessels and improves blood flow in the lungs.  This results in better gas exchange and better blood oxygenation.

But that’s only the beginning of NO’s benefits.

How Nitric Oxide Helps with Blood Flow and Oxygenation

Typically, the nitric oxide produced in your nose is treated separately from the nitric oxide produced throughout the rest of your body.  Although it is known that that inhaling nitric oxide has effects outside of the lungs, scientists have not known how. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have recently shed light on the issue.

In a 2019 study, they did something simple yet meaningful.  The researchers had participants inhale extra nitric oxide, and they measured what happened in the blood afterward.  If nitric oxide’s journey ended in the lungs, they wouldn’t see any signs of it in distant blood samples.

The results showed the opposite. 

They found that inhaling nitric oxide significantly increased circulating levels of a specific form of the molecule, SNO-Hb.  These findings matter because, in a separate study published in PNAS in 2015, a different group of researchers found that SNO-Hb played an essential role in whole-body oxygenation.  Without it, mice received less blood flow to the heart and even had smaller litter sizes.

Why This is Important to Diabetes

The complications of diabetes also impact nitric oxide.  Sustained high blood sugars alter how hemoglobin stores nitric oxide. 

The end result is that people with diabetes generally have less SNO-Hb. 

And, as we just learned, SNO-Hb is critical to blood flow and tissue oxygenation. 

So, putting it all together:

  • People with diabetes suffer from poor circulation and insufficient oxygen.

  • Our noses are a source of nitric oxide—breathing through our nose utilizes it.

  • Inhaling nitric oxide increases an essential form of NO called SNO-Hb.

  • SNO-Hb is critical to improving blood flow and increasing whole-body oxygenation.

Therefore, nose breathing could be especially helpful in diabetes by maintaining normal SNO-Hb levels and hence helping improve blood flow and oxygenation throughout the body.*  Mouth breathing would not provide these benefits.

How High Blood Sugars Reduce Oxygen Delivery

In addition to altering how nitric oxide is stored, high blood sugar also modifies the relationship between oxygen and hemoglobin.  Specifically, it tightens the bond between them.

As a result, less oxygen can be delivered to the places it is needed.  (For the breathing nerds out there, it causes a left shift in the oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve.)  This problem might be further exacerbated by stress.

Chronic Stress and Carbon Dioxide Alter Oxygen Availability

Diabetes also causes chronic stress—a less intense but sustained fight or flight stress response.  This stress causes people with diabetes to have anywhere from 14% to 20% more cases of anxiety than those without it.  Moreover, it has been reported that up to 40% of the diabetic population show symptoms of anxiety.  A 2013 meta-analysis, including over 12,000 people with diabetes, also found significant associations between diabetes and an increased probability of anxiety disorder or anxiety symptoms.

Chronic stress and anxiety, such as that experienced in diabetes, are often associated with overbreathing.  Overbreathing, or hyperventilation, simply refers to breathing more than your metabolic demands at any given moment, and is often associated with mouth breathing. Consequently, the body gets rid of too much carbon dioxide, which alters the pH of the blood.

This has a similar effect on oxygen and hemoglobin as high blood sugar. 

That is, it tightens the bond between them, reducing the amount of oxygen that can be delivered to the cells and tissues (this is known as the Bohr effect).

Together, we see that the high blood sugar and chronic stress associated with diabetes combine to reduce oxygen availability to the cells and tissues.

When we switch to nose breathing, the volume of each breath is naturally reduced.  This helps normalize carbon dioxide levels and restore blood pH to normal levels, which will improve oxygen delivery.** 

Combining this with the earlier discussion on nitric oxide, we see how this one simple change (nose breathing) helps offset some diabetic complications.

Nose Breathing, Sleep, and Diabetes: The Missing Link to Better Blood Sugar Control

If we breathe nasally during sleep, all of the benefits of nose breathing continue throughout the night. Of all the things nose breathing helps with, this might be the most critical for diabetes.

We have already discussed that diabetes causes chronic stress, which can lead to more rapid breathing.  Nose breathing helps naturally slow down the breath.  This will help you shift from a stressful sympathetic state to a calming parasympathetic state.  This shift is significant for people with diabetes who exhibit less parasympathetic tone at night than non-diabetics.  Thus, nasal breathing at night helps us increase parasympathetic tone and enjoy better sleep.

Receptors in your nose also act to maintain rhythmic breathing during sleep.  This might help explain why nose breathing reduces the risk of obstructive sleep apnea when compared to mouth breathing.  Diabetes is associated with a significantly increased risk of obstructive sleep apnea. So, if nasal breathing at night can help reduce this risk, it could be especially beneficial.

Lastly, we know that inadequate sleep causes insulin resistance.  By getting deeper, more restorative sleep, insulin sensitivity can be improved.  This could potentially lead to better morning blood sugars (that was my experience), setting you up for a better day of glucose control.

The More Subjective but Most Important Benefit of Nasal Breathing for Diabetes

Altogether, nasal breathing increases blood flow, improves tissue oxygenation, and appears to increase an essential form of bioactive nitric oxide that people with diabetes have less of.  It also improves sleep quality by helping us flip to a more calming state and by reducing the incidence of sleep apnea.  This can help improve insulin sensitivity.

When we combine all of these together, nasal breathing's net benefit can be simply stated as:

It gives you more energy. 

And it’s harder to objectively measure, but perhaps the best aspect of increased energy levels is more motivation to take care of your blood sugars. 

Diabetes is an exhausting full-time job that can lead to physical and emotional burnout.  Having more energy and enthusiasm to manage the disease could be the most valuable aspect of something as simple as breathing through your nose.

Footnotes:

*The levels of NO inhaled in the 2019 Cleveland Clinic study were greater than those produced in the nose.  But, the study validated that there is a mechanism by which NO that is introduced into the lungs can be transported throughout the body as SNO-Hb.  Thus, nasal breathing would only act to bring SNO-Hb up to normal physiological levels, whereas mouth breathing would rob the body of this important physiological process.

**This discussion is centered around the regular blood sugar fluctuations associated with diabetes and not diabetic ketoacidosis.

 
 

18 Excellent Statements from Scientific Articles

 

Over the past few years, I have accumulated over 500 pages of notes on over 100 scientific articles on breathing. I’ve recently been going back through them as part of a project I’m working on. In this post, I share some of the best "one-liners" I’ve come across. Enjoy!

 
 
 
 

1. Integrating Breathing Techniques Into Psychotherapy to Improve HRV: Which Approach Is Best?

Frontiers in Psychology (2021)

“For those interested in addressing physiological regulation in psychotherapy, the main implication of this study is that both 6 breath per minute breathing and soothing rhythm breathing increase HRV and therefore be beneficial to use in psychotherapy.”



2. Effect of nasal or oral breathing route on upper airway resistance during sleep

European Respiratory Journal (2003)

“In summary, upper airway resistance during sleep is significantly lower during nasal breathing than during oral breathing. 



3. How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (2018)

“Taken together, these results confirm that nasal stimulation represents the fundamental link between slow breathing techniques, brain and autonomic activities and psychological/behavioral outputs.” 



4. Oxygen-induced impairment in arterial function is corrected by slow breathing in patients with type 1 diabetes

Nature (2017)

“Slow breathing could be a simple beneficial intervention in diabetes.”



5. Effect of diaphragmatic breathing on heart rate variability in ischemic heart disease with diabetes

Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia (2009)

“Our study supports the view that the intervention in the form of deep diaphragmatic breathing practice would improve the glycemic control and also decrease the cardiac autonomic impairment in IHD patients with diabetes mellitus.”


 

6. On aprosexia, being the inability to fix the attention and other allied troubles in the cerebral functions caused by nasal disorders 

The British Medical Journal (1889)

“Shut your mouth and save your brain.’”


 

7. Nasal obstructions, sleep, and mental function

Sleep (1983)

“While asleep, shut your mouth and save your brain.”


 

8. Breathing control center neurons that promote arousal in mice

Science (2017)

“This respiratory corollary signal would thus serve to coordinate the animal’s state of arousal with the breathing pattern, leaving the animal calm and relaxed when breathing is slow and regular, but promoting (or maintaining) arousal when breathing is rapid or disturbed.”


 

9. Review: Can yoga breathing exercises improve glycemic response and insulin sensitivity?

Journal of Yoga & Physical Therapy (2017)

“Thus, decreases in respiratory rates can lead to a decrease in stress and sympathetic outflow, ultimately causing a lower rate of gluconeogenesis and glucose release into the blood stream.”


 

10. Spontaneous respiratory modulation improves cardiovascular control in essential hypertension

Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia (2007)

“Slow breathing is a straightforward method with no contraindications that offers a rather valid cost-benefit, improving autonomic balance and respiratory control and lowering blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension.”


 

11. Slow breathing improves arterial baroreflex sensitivity and decreases blood pressure in essential hypertension

Hypertension (2005)

“Therefore, one can expect that a modification in the respiratory control would affect also the control of the cardiovascular system.  Because the breathing is also under voluntary control, it is theoretically possible to induce such changes by voluntary modification of breathing.”


 

12. Inclusion of a rest period in diaphragmatic breathing increases high frequency heart rate variability: Implications for behavioral therapy

Psychophysiology (2017)

“With breathing interventions being relatively rapid interventions to implement and also demonstrating a wide range of positive clinical outcomes, breathing interventions warrant closer consideration from healthcare professionals.”


 

13. Slow breathing reduces sympathoexcitation in COPD

European Respiration Journal (2008)

“In summary, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease showed sympathetic excitation and depression of the baroreflex.  Slow breathing counteracted these changes.” 


  

14. Nasal respiration entrains human limbic oscillations and modulates cognitive function

The Journal of Neuroscience (2016)

“Our findings provide a unique framework for understanding the pivotal role of nasal breathing in coordinating neuronal oscillations to support stimulus processing and behavior.”


 

15. Nasal respiration entrains human limbic oscillations and modulates cognitive function

The Journal of Neuroscience (2016)

“We also found that the route of breathing was critical to these effects, such that cognitive performance significantly declined during oral breathing”

  


16. Nasal nitric oxide and regulation of human pulmonary blood flow in the upright position

Journal of Applied Physiology (2010)

“Therefore, upper airway NO could have emerged in bipedal mammals not only to improve gas exchange but also to provide some protection against infection.”


 

17. Effects of inhaled nitric oxide on regional blood flow are consistent with intravascular nitric oxide delivery

The Journal of Clinical Investigation (2001)

“The most fundamental and important observation of this study is that NO gas introduced to the lungs can be stabilized and transported in blood and peripherally modulate blood flow.”



18. The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human

Breathe (2017)

“Perhaps it is time to refine a breathing technique that optimizes ventilation, gas exchange and arterial oxygenation, maximizes vagal tone, maintains parasympathetic-sympathetic balance and optimizes the amount of cardiorespiratory reserve that could be called upon in times of intense physical or mental stress or activity.” 


 

The Breathing 411

If you enjoyed this, consider signing up for my 411 newsletter. Each Monday, I combine information from scientific journals, books, articles, and podcasts to share 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (like "Jeopardy!") related to breathing.

 

20 One-Sentence Thoughts on the Wim Hof Method

 

The Wim Hof Method. For some, it’s easy to point out its flaws. For others, it’s hard to deny its power. But one thing is certain: it’s confusing as hell for just about everyone.

Below, I share 20 one-sentence thoughts about the WHM. You might still be confused, but at least we can be confused together : )

1. The Wim Hof PNAS paper is breathing’s equivalent of a "4-minute mile," proving scientifically that the impossible is possible.

2. You feel supercharged after three rounds, but you are not super-oxygenated.

3. By offloading carbon dioxide, you discover that you can hold your breath much longer than you ever imagined.

4. The most powerful aspect of the WHM is the mindset it gives you for the rest of your life.

5. Counterintuitively, the heavy breathing reduces oxygen delivery to the brain.

6. If Wim does yoga, then I do yoga too.

7. It’s embarrassing, yet empowering, to hold horse stance for 10 minutes in your room while swinging your arms around like an inflatable air dancer at a used car dealership.

8. The intense physiological stress of the method leads to an equally powerful relaxation response afterward.

9. The showers aren’t even that cold here.

10. The lights you see on the third round aren’t mystical, they’re electrical.

11. Three rounds of the WHM comes out to an average of about 8 breaths/min; thus, from a statistical perspective, the WHM is actually slow breathing.

12. Wait, how does it work again?

13. The hole doesn’t matter, unless you become a chronic mouth breather.

14. Your belief that Wim Hof breathing helps with the cold is what helps most with the cold.

15. You can control your cytokines, immune response, and autonomic nervous system, all with the breath

16. After years of doing it, you realize the WHM has little to do with the breath, and everything to do with the mind.

17. Immersion in cold water is the ultimate test of breath control.

18. Wim insists he’s not a guru, but the world insists on treating him otherwise.

19. Wim’s charisma is an unaccounted-for placebo effect.

20. The Wim Hof Method is a gateway drug into the Oxygen Advantage.

 
 

Please do not try the WHM without supervision from a WHM instructor who can assess contraindications, pre-existing conditions, and so on. It can be dangerous, so be smart.

The Breathing 411

If you enjoyed this, consider signing up for my 411 newsletter. Each Monday, I combine information from scientific journals, books, articles, and podcasts to share 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (like "Jeopardy!") related to breathing.

 
 
 
 

P.S. This “one-sentence” idea was inspired by Josh Spector’s excellent post on communication. I highly recommend his For The Interested newsletter.

 
 

21 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas

 

Breathing ideas are often long-winded, but they don't have to be. Here, are 21 one-sentence breathing ideas to kick off 2021.

1. Breathing is the compound interest of health and wellness.

2. Correct breathing is a keystone habit that forms the foundation of good health.

3. Breathing is not a panacea—you cannot breathe your way out of a Big Mac.

4. We don’t need more complicated breathing techniques; we need to apply simple breathing methods to harder challenges. (Credit to David Bidler)

5. Whether it’s slow breathing, sleep, or exercise, simply using your nose is the 1% that allows the other 99 to occur.

6. Slow, nasal breathing is like driving a Tesla; fast, mouth breathing is like driving a Hummer.

7. Making your breathing inaudible might be the easiest, most practical thing you can do anytime, anywhere, to improve your breathing.

8. It seems counterintuitive, but the point of a breathing practice is to no longer need a breathing practice.

9. The skill of breath is universal, applicable in every domain, available every second of every day.

10. Rather than breathing slowly all the time, we evolved something even more powerful: the ability to control our breathing.

11. Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his breath; strong is he who forces his breath to control his thoughts. (A play on Og Mandino’s quote)

12. You can eat better, workout harder, and take more supplements, but until you optimize your breathing, you’ll never see the true potential of your energy and performance.

13. Taping your mouth at night is the passive income of health.

14. If you spend even 1 minute focused on your breath, celebrate it.

15. Breathing is the most primitive form of taking action, giving you something you can always do that actually does something.

16. Optimal breathing is health and mastery actualized in our body’s most important function.

17. We’re all different, so if you notice a specific breathing method standing out, it’s probably confirming something you already know to be right for you.

18. Mouth breathing is like drinking sugar: it’s easy, and it feels good, but it is detrimental to your health.

19. Breathe the change you want to see (in your body).

20. Where you spend your breath, and thus your energy, shows what your physiological priorities are.

21. The best time to start a breathing practice was 12 months ago; the second-best time is now.

 
 

If you enjoyed this, consider signing up for my 411 newsletter. Each Monday, I share 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (like Jeopardy!) related to breathing.

 
 
 

P.S. This was inspired by Josh Spector’s excellent post on communication. I highly recommend his For The Interested newsletter.