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4 Thoughts
1. On & Off: The Stress-Reducing Effects of Fast Breathing
“Breathing really fast and heavy on purpose flips the vagal response the other way, shoving us into a stressed state. It teaches us to consciously access the autonomic nervous system and control it, to turn on heavy stress specifically so that we can turn it off and spend the rest of our days and nights relaxing and restoring, feeding and breeding.”
- James Nestor, Breath
Although I talk about slow breathing 99.9% of the time, this is an excellent description of the benefits of occasionally practicing fast breathing: We consciously turn on stress so we can then turn it off. 👏
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P.S. If you’re interested, I just released a Book 411 on Breath. Sign up for the Breath is Life Learning Center to get immediate access 🙏
2. Breathing for Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
Thought #1 reminded me of this amazing quote from Rick Hanson, Ph.D., in Buddha’s Brain:
“Happiness, love, and wisdom aren’t furthered by shutting down the SNS [sympathetic nervous system], but rather by keeping the autonomic nervous system as a whole in an optimal state of balance.”
So here’s to using our breath—our remote control to our nervous system—to achieve an optimal state of balance and find a little more happiness, love, and wisdom this week 🙏
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P.S. We also have a Book 411 on this one in the Learning Center : )
3. The Breath of Life Influences Everything
“Chronic overbreathing leads to loss of health, poor fitness, and compromised performance and also contributes to many ailments including anxiety, asthma, fatigue, insomnia, heart problems, and even obesity. It may seem strange that such a disparate range of complaints can be caused by or worsened by overbreathing, but the breath of life influences literally every aspect of our health.”
– Patrick McKeown, The Oxygen Advantage
And fortunately, this is also why improving our breathing can help with so many issues—because “the breath of life influences literally every aspect of our health.” 👏
4. The Best Definition of a Breathing Practice is…
Self-love. It covers all benefits for the body, mind, and spirit.
So don’t forget to show yourself some, this week.
1 Quote
“Remember that every time you bring yourself back to full presence, you reap major rewards: you become more impactful, more memorable, and come across as more grounded. You’re laying the foundation for a charismatic presence.””
1 Answer
Category: Blood Reservoir
Answer: At rest, these organs contain approximately 10% of the total circulating blood volume.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What are the lungs?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
* 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.
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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.