Deb Dana

A Shared Theme, Heal the Body, and Tony Robbins's 3 Breathing Practices

 
 

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4 Thoughts


1. A Shared Theme: Breathing is the Most Accessible Tool We Have

“Breath is a direct, easy, accessible, and rapid way to shape the state of the nervous system. … The way we breathe says a lot about the state of our body and the story we are living.”

- Deb Dana, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

This echoes so many of the thoughts shared here; that’s why I love it so much.

It’s incredibly inspiring to find common themes in books on happiness, health, strength, mindfulness, therapy, philosophy, and on & on. And one they all come back to is this: breathing is the most accessible tool we have for optimal living.

2. A New Definition of Shallow Breathing

“Shallow Work: Noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend to not create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.”

- Cal Newport, Deep Work

We used Cal’s Deep Work Hypothesis to generate the Deep Breath Hypothesis. Let’s use this one to create a new definition of Shallow Breathing:

Shallow Breathing: Noncognitively demanding, rapid-style breaths, often performed through the mouth. These breaths tend to not create much value in our bodies and are easy to habituate.

3. The 3 Breathing Exercises Tony Robbins Uses

I just finished up Tony Robbins’s (literally) massive new book, Life Force. The audiobook is 22 hrs 50 mins! For a book called “Life Force,” I didn’t expect it to take ~10 hours to get to anything about breathing…but I digress 😊

In any case, it was worth the wait. Here’s how Tony uses breathing:

Breathwalking: “For example, one breathing pattern entails inhaling for four seconds, holding your breath for four seconds, exhaling for four seconds, and holding your breath for four seconds. A segmented 4:4 pattern that you can continue for several minutes while you walk in order to boost your energy and mental clarity.”* (He said this breathwalking method was one of his first intros to breathing, but I’m not 100% sure this is exactly the pattern he uses now.)

Really (really) Slow Breathing: He uses a 1:4:2 ratio breath with an 8-sec inhale, 32-sec hold, and 16-sec exhale, 1-3x a day. “I utilize this strategy to train the body to fully oxygenate by holding the breath longer and exhaling twice as long as you inhale, in order to eliminate toxins and stimulate the lymph system. I found it an invaluable tool to enhance my energy, my state of mind, and my sense of well-being.”*

Energizing Breathwork: “I also use a more explosive breath when I'm tired and need to snap myself into a peak state right before getting on stage. I drink my water, do my breathing, and I'm ready to rock and roll.”* Not sure what method he uses, but it might be Bhastrika (or Wim Hof breathing).

4. All Life Sciences are Breath Sciences

If breath is life, then all life sciences are, in some way, breath sciences.

  • Heart science is in some way breath science.

  • Brain science is in some way breath science.

  • Physiology is in some way breath science.

  • Psychology is in some way breath science.

  • & on and on

If you study life, you study breath : )

 
 
 
 

1 QUOTE

“Science is beginning to investigate in a serious manner something humanity has known for centuries—that the breath can be used to heal the body.”

- Michael J Stephen, MD, Breath Taking

 
 
 
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Respiratory System

Answer: The hollow organ that allows you to make sounds with your breath is called this.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the larynx (or voice box)?

In good breath,

Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”

P.S. Deep deep work

 
 
 

* 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.

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

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.

 
 

Heart and Breath, plus the Best Breathing (and life) Advice I’ve Read

 
 

🎧 Listen Instead of Reading 🎧

If you enjoy listening, you can subscribe to the audio version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible so you don’t even have to look at the email 😊

 
 
 

4 Thoughts


1. The Best Breathing (and life) Advice I’ve Ever Read

After reviewing tons of scientific papers, reading books, taking classes, and on & on, here’s the best breathing advice I’ve ever read:

“All this is literary, over-simplified, but we breathe as best we can.” - Samuel Beckett

We’ll never fully understand it. They’ll be inconsistent results. New discoveries. Revised approaches. But it’s all “literary, over-simplified.”

So, we just “breathe as best we can” with what we know.

***

P.S. Want the best life advice? Replace “breathe” with “live.” 🙂

2. Happy Valentine’s Day: 14 Loving Quotes on the Breath-Heart 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

Keep going…

3. Story Follows State: Change Your Breath to Change the Messages Sent to the Brain

“We live a story that originates in our on autonomic state, is sent through autonomic pathways from the body to the brain, and is then translated by the brain into the beliefs that guide our daily living. The mind narrates what the nervous system knows. Story follows state.”*

- Deb Dana, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

“The mind narrates what the nervous system knows.” <— 🤯

And the fastest way to access the nervous system? The breath.

Change your breath, change your state, change your mind, change your story.

4. What Does All of this Mean in Real Life?

“So what does this mean for us? We can use our breath whenever we experience a stressful event. […] It's the most accessible tool you have, and it's invisible. You can practice breathing for well-being no matter where you are without anyone noticing.”*

- Emma Seppälä, The Happiness Track

That’s a perfect description of what all this breathing education means in real life. Of course, it won’t fix everything, but it’s the most accessible tool we have.

Let’s make it our ally.

 
 
 
 

1 QUOTE

“The greatest thing, then, in all of education, is to make our nervous system our ally as opposed to our enemy.”

- William James

 
 
 
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing and the Heart

Answer: This is the fundamental link between heart and breath, signifying the increase in heart rate during inhalation and decrease during exhalation.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)?

In good breath,

Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”

P.S. Really incredible what the human body is capable of

 
 
 

* 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.

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

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.