Listen Instead of Reading
4 Thoughts
1. How to Get Started with Breathwork
“But this doesn’t have to be all at once. Start by starting. Add in what you can right now, and as these practices begin to improve your performance, they’ll end up saving you time.”
- Steven Kotler, The Art of Impossible
Kotler is discussing practices for peak performance, but the exact same goes for breathwork. Start by starting. One minute is always better than none-minutes.
So go easy and have fun with it : ) Your practice will grow naturally with time.
2. The 60/40 Rule of Slow Breathing
Speaking of getting started, here’s a simple rule you can begin with for slow breathing (and it’s one I use every day), inspired by Heart Breath Mind:
40% of your breath should be inhaling
60% of your breath should be exhaling
Here’s what it looks like:
6.0 breaths/min: 4 sec inhale, 6 sec exhale
5.5 breaths/min: 4.4 sec inhale, 6.6 sec exhale
5.0 breaths/min: 4.8 sec inhale, 7.2 sec exhale
and so on…
Note that it’s hard to be this precise with most breathing apps, so just do what you can. For example, I simply use 5 in/7 out to breathe at 5 breaths/min.
3. Breathing and the Brain’s Default Mode Network
“The resting brain turns out not to be resting at all. Left to its own devices, the human mind holds imaginary conversations, replays past experiences, and reflects on the future.”
- Kelly McGonigal, PhD, The Joy of Movement
If you’ve ever tried to rest your brain, this passage probably isn’t surprising : ) It’s called the brain’s “default mode,” and it has a negative bias: Our natural tendency is to ruminate, criticize, and worry. Not so good.
Luckily, McGonigal says there’s an easy way to quiet it down. “In brain-imaging studies, focused breathing, mindfulness, and repeating a mantra have all been shown to deactivate hubs of the default mode network.”
Sounds good to me. So here’s to practicing some 60/40 slow breathing to deactivate our default mode, and activate more joy, today.
***
P.S. Don’t have time for mindfulness or breathing? Kelly has an even easier hack, which is to exercise in nature: “Green exercise appears to do something similar to the brain, but without the need for such dedicated mind-training.”
4. How Breathing (literally) Makes You Prosper
“Did you know the word ‘prosperity’ literally means ‘to go forward with hope’?”
- Brian Johnson, +1 on Spiritual Economics
I did not know that. But now that I do, I can confidently say that breathing makes us prosperous. When you walk away from a slow breathing session (or yoga, meditation, exercise, etc.), you always “go forward with hope.”
I wonder if it’s because we quiet our amygdalae and deactivate that pesky default network…🤔
1 QUOTE
“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 Hahn
1 ANSWER
Category: Breathing 101
Answer: The portion of each breath that does not participate in gas exchange is called this.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is dead space air?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
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Each Monday, I curate and synthesize information from scientific journals, books, articles, and podcasts to share 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (like "Jeopardy!") related to breathing. It’s a fun way to learn something new each week.