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Reading Time: 1 min 38 sec
I hope the next 24’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day. (P.S. This time doesn’t include the longer bonus thought at the end.)
4 THOUGHTS
1. As We Breathe, So We Live
“As we delve into specific breathing patterns, we can begin to discern that our breath has the power to influence how we experience life and even transform the course of our existence and our experience of everything that life is made of. Because, indeed, breath is life. As we breathe, so we live.”
- Eddie Stern, Healing Through Breathing
That excellent passage basically sums up my an entire life philosophy. Thanks for saving me the effort of figuring it out for myself, Eddie 😂
Eddie’s new audiobook is a must-listen. Go get it and enjoy!
2. Becoming Students of Life and Breath
“Life is always trying to show us something. It’s communicating with us through the events, people, and ideas that show up in our lives.”
– Gladys McGarey, MD, The Well-Lived Life
It’s also communicating with us through our breath. When we tune into our breath, we tune into the signals life is sharing, giving us the opportunity to cultivate awareness and make changes if necessary.
So here’s to frequently aligning with our breath so we can be better students of life, today 🙏
3. How Slow Breathing May Help Inflammation and Metabolic Disease
“Our findings suggest that stress can contribute to a state of chronic, low-grade inflammation that leads to metabolic dysregulation. … Stress-reduction techniques may serve as cost-effective interventions for preventing and treating metabolic disease.”
- Inflammatory Biomarkers Link Perceived Stress with Metabolic Dysregulation
If anything is (almost) certain about controlled slow breathing, it’s that it helps reduce stress. That’s why this study is so important.
It showed that stress is associated with metabolic dysregulation through inflammation. Association doesn’t mean causation, but this provides a pathway for slow breathing to help these conditions.
Namely, by reducing stress, slow breathing may lower inflammation and thus reduce our risks of metabolic dysregulation 👏
4. Spiraling Into Control
When life feels chaotic, slow nasal breathing helps you and your nervous system spiral into control, for a change.
***
P.S. This was inspired by this post, which made me laugh and think, “well, slow breathing does kind of do that, lol.”
1 Quote
“Always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.””
1 Answer
Category: Medical Breathing Terms
Answer: This is the medical term referring to the sudden and involuntary contraction of the diaphragm and intercostal muscles.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is singultus (hiccups)?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
P.S. When I say “no worries” I mean…
BONUS THOUGHT
I try to keep these short and sweet, so this couldn’t make it as a thought. But it’s SO GOOD, so I wanted to share it somehow.
A Powerful and Genuinely Life-Changing Thought Experiment
“Some of my clients have a hard time envisioning themselves with this much confidence. If they’re golfers, I sometimes suggest to them that they imagine that God appeared to them and said, ‘You’re going to have a great career. You’re going to win dozens of tournaments. You’re going to win several major championships. Don’t worry about it. You just keep working hard on your game. I’ve taken care of the results.’ And then imagine that the vision ended before the golfer could ask God which tournaments he would win and when he would win them.
He’d play from that time on with tremendous confidence. He wouldn’t know exactly when his wins would come, or where. But he’d know that if he just kept doing the things he was supposed to do, the results were guaranteed. He’d step onto the first tee every Thursday thinking, ‘Oh, boy! I can't wait to find out if this is going to be one of my weeks.’”
– Dr. Bob Rotella, How Champions Think
Now, imagine if we did this with life in general. What if we imagined God telling us everything would be okay and work out? That we’d find our calling, relief for our illness, a solution to our probelm, and be exactly who we’re supposed to be. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve taken care of the results.”
Then, we might wake up every morning thinking, “Oh, boy! I can’t wait to find out if this will be one of my days.”
Coaching
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Amazon Associate Disclosure
I’ve been recommending books for almost 6 years. Yet somehow, I just discovered that I could be an Amazon affiliate [face-palm]. In any case better late than never. Now, any Amazon link you click is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. So, if you’d like to support my work, buying books through these links is helpful : )
* An asterisk by a quote indicates that I listened to this book on Audible. Therefore, the quotation might not be correct, but is my best attempt at reproducing the punctuation based on the narrator’s pace, tone, and pauses.