Welcome back to another issue of The Breathing 411. Here are 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer to end November with.
4 THOUGHTS
1. You Already Work Hard Enough—Recover Harder
"The problem in today’s corporate world, as well as in many other realms, is not hard work; the problem is insufficient recovery."
- Tal Ben-Shahar
We all work hard enough. That’s likely not the problem. In fact, it’s probably the opposite: We need to be focusing on recovery so we can continue to work hard.
One excellent way to do this is with diaphragmatic breathing.
For example, imagine taking a group of 16 endurance cyclists and having them see how far they can go in 8 hours. Then, you split them into two groups. One group performs 1 hour of diaphragmatic breathing post-event. The other group reads quietly. That’s what a study published back in 2011 did.
The outcome: The diaphragmatic breathing group showed reduced oxidative stress, reduced cortisol, increased antioxidant potential, and increased melatonin.
That is, they recovered better.
If diaphragmatic breathing reduces these stress markers in this extreme case, it seems like it would be even more useful for recovering from chronic, everyday work stress. Recover better, work better.
2. How Do You Budget Your Breathing?
"Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are."
- James W. Frick
The same can be said for your breathing. Where you spend your breath, and thus your energy, shows what your physiological priorities are. But, like money, you can set your own priorities by setting a breathing budget.
For example, suppose you would like to try out a new method that involves mouth breathing, but you also recognize the hazards of chronic mouth breathing. In that case, you might budget a small portion of breaths for that activity. Then, save the rest (especially sleep) for nasal breathing.
You can apply this idea to any technique. Make light nasal breathing the foundation of your budget (like paying your rent or mortgage) and spend your leftover "disposable breathing income" on new methods that interest you.
3. How Deep Breathing Opens Up the ADHD Brain
"So Ethan’s mother, who had used coherent breathing to calm her own anxiety, taught him how to do it. His overall behavior improved in four or five weeks, and he fell asleep without difficulty." - ADDitude Magazine
This topic is way outside my jurisdiction. But, reading this article was both inspiring and humbling as I reflected on how important this "breathing" stuff is.
I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks to great friend, and new 411 reader, S.S. for sending me this article.
4. Intermittent Hypoxia Improves Immune System Function
"These responses…may serve to augment the body’s immune defenses without exacerbating inflammation."
Serebrovskaya et al. 2011, High Altitude Medicine and Biology
This paper published in 2011 found that intermittent hypoxia (IH) enhances the body’s innate immune system, increases its ability to fight infection, and had a net anti-inflammatory effect.
Although IH and breath holds are not technically the same, we can experience IH using breath holds. Thus, research like this suggests, but doesn’t prove, that breath holds might help us fight illnesses (when done safely, of course).
1 QUOTE
"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers."
- James Thurber
1 ANSWER
Answer: The Earth has ~3.1 trillion of these organisms (or ~400 per person) that help us breathe.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What are trees?
That link has a neat video of the Earth "breathing," if you’re interested.
In good breath,
Nick
P.S. "omg GO ON"