January 30, 2023

4 Lessons in 4 Years, Behind the Scenes, and Establishing Inner Calm

January 30, 2023

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 😊

A Special Week + Behind the Scenes

Today marks 4 years of sending this newsletter every week. That blows my mind. To mark the occasion, I have a “behind the scenes” look at the newsletter at the bottom of this edition.

Thank you for reading 🙏

4 Thoughts

1. Four Lessons from 4 Years of Writing this Newsletter

I think these can be applied in all aspects of life.

Let Go of Expectations: I get so excited about these thoughts, so I just have to remind myself it's just a newsletter, and I have no clue what will resonate with you, the reader.
Deadlines are Diamonds: Having a deadline (preferably self-imposed—I hate when people tell me what to do 😂) is the driving force behind completing anything.
The Process Brings the Most Joy: Cliché but true. Putting together the newsletter is what brings me joy.
Less is Always More.

2. When’s the Big Performance?

“[A]n observed quipped, ‘Practice, practice, practice! All you ever do is practice! When's the performance?’ After a muted wave of chuckles rolled through the meditation hall, our teacher went on to say that there is indeed a performance scheduled; it's called ‘Your Daily Life.’”
- Barbara Fredrickson, PhD, Love 2.0

That’s what all our breathing, meditation, exercise, yoga, etc., practice is all about. It’s training for the biggest performance we’ll ever be a part of: Our daily lives.

3. Flip Your Perspective to Understand Long-Term Benefits

“[J]ust as repeated activation of the fight-or-flight response can lead to sustained problems in the body and its mechanics, so too can repeated activation of the relaxation response reverse those trends and mend the internal wear and tear brought on by stress.”
- Herbert Benson, MD, Timeless Healing

It’s easy to see how chronic stress can add up to all sorts of health problems.

But let’s not forget that the opposite is also true: repeated elicitation of positive states can reverse those negative trends.

4. Growing Grass or Pulling Weeds?

“When I was working for the St. Louis Rams, I asked the head groundskeeper, Scott Parker, how I could get rid of the weeds in my yard at home. With great confidence, he replied, ‘Grow more grass.’ Growing more grass chokes out the weeds.”
- Drs Jason Selk & Ellen Reed, Relentless Solution Focus

This is a profound mindset shift. When trying to resolve a challenging problem or life situation, let’s ask: “Am I growing grass or pulling weeds?”

Become More You

“Paradoxically, it takes time to become what we already are.” – Rick Hanson, PhD

I think it takes ~30 minutes a week.

Here’s exactly how.

1 Quote

“Once you establish an inner calm, you will transmit it naturally to others.””

— Richard Brown and Patricia Gerbarg

1 Answer

Category: Nose

Answer: When the thin wall between your nostrils is displaced to one side, it’s called this.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is a deviated septum?

In good breath,

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

P.S. That’s not how averages work

Behind the Scenes of The Breathing 411

I’ve never posted about the newsletter itself, so for the 4th anniversary, here are some random things about it:

First Edition: January 27, 2019

(3 recipients: me, my other email address, and my wife, 😂 😂)

Subscribers as of Today: 1,372

(That’s probably awful for how long I’ve been doing it, lol. But, it makes me proud as hell because (1) you all are awesome, (2) I write about breathing, and (3) it’s all been word of mouth and w/o lead magnets, advertising, etc.).

Open Rates: 50-60+%

(I’m awful and don’t track things like I should, but this seems to be my average.)

Time I Spend on It: ~8 hours/week

(This doesn’t include all the background reading and research that goes into it. Eight hours is just writing and all the nonsense logistics.)

Hardest Part: Finding ideas for the “1 Answer” each week.

Best Part: When people reply and say what resonated with them.

(Sometimes I jump up and run around, and sometimes it brings tears to my eyes.)

Joy: I absolutely love writing this newsletter. Putting it together is one of my biggest sources of joy.

Support: If you enjoy these emails and would like to support them, share them with a friend.

If you’d like to help even more to keep the newsletter around, join the Learning Center or purchase the Breathing for Diabetes Course 🙏

* 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.

Nicholas Heath

November 21, 2022

weekly email, Batch 9

One Minute Stress Relief, Taste the Soup, and Positive Feelings

Nicholas Heath

November 21, 2022

weekly email, Batch 9

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. Wim Hof’s 1-Minute Stress Relief (no hyperventilation needed)

“What I do for stress is one minute of humming and breathing. This always works for me. It taps into your parasympathetic nervous system—where the peace is inside—and calms down your hectic sympathetic nervous system.”
- Wim Hof, The Wim Hof Method

It’s not all big breathing for Wim. He says to deal with stress, we can simply set a timer for one minute, breathe in deeply, and hum in any way we’d like during the exhalation. Repeat until the timer goes off. Easy and highly effective 👏

2. Moving from Self-Explanation to Self-Expression

In learning, self-explanation is a powerful tool. Explaining a topic in your own words makes you think deeply and discover what you really understand about it.

In breathing, self-expression is paramount. It’s less about words, and more about expressing concepts through you, in your unique way, to feel beyond the words.

So here’s to less explanation, and more expression, this week 🙏

3. Taste the Soup: Breathing as a Can-Opener for the Life Force

“So how do you access the Life Force? You need tools. Imagine a can of soup. If you want to know what the soup tastes like, reading the side of the can won't help; you need to actually taste it. Unless you have the hand strength of a superhero, this is impossible without a can opener.”
- Barry Michels and Phil Stutz, Coming Alive

Breathing exercises are like can openers for the life force all around us.

It’s fun to read the ingredients, but tasting the soup is even better 😊 🍲

4. The Most Valuable Resource to Our Species (plus a gratitude breathing meditation)

“Oxygen, in fact, is the most valuable resource to our species. … Consider the last time you thought to yourself while taking a breath, ‘This is great! I have an abundance of the most valuable resource known to our species, and I don't even have to work that hard to get it.’”*
- Drs Jason Selk and Ellen Reed, Relentless Solution Focus

Try using that phrase next time you start a breathing practice, or anytime you need a break from all the negative mental chatter: “I have an abundance of the most valuable resource known to our species, and I don’t even have to work that hard to get it.” <— 👏👏👏

1 Quote

“The breath is also our life force. No organ in the body can function without the supply of oxygen we get from the cycle of breathing in and breathing out.”

— Bhante Henepola Gunarantana

1 Answer

Category: Positive Feelings

Answer: Positive feelings (such as awe & gratitude) occur more frequently and easily when this is higher, providing a physiological reason why slow breathing helps us have more positive emotions.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is respiratory sinus arrhythmia?

In good breath,

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

P.S. I have a headache

Breathing for Diabetes Online Course ($99):

If you love learning about breathing, want to live a healthier life, or just want to support my work, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

LEARN MORE AND VIEW THE COURSE CURRICULUM

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

October 17, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Four Qualities to Develop, and Why Breathing Might Be a Panacea

Nicholas Heath

October 17, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

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. Why Breathing Seems Like a Panacea

“Your body has numerous major systems, including the endocrine (hormone), cardiovascular, immune, gastrointestinal, and nervous systems. If you want to use the mind-body connection to lower your stress, cool the fires, and improve your long-term health, what’s the optimal point of entry into all these systems? It's the autonomic nervous system (ANS).” (my emphasis)
- Rick Hanson, PhD, Buddha’s Brain

And what’s the optimal point of entry into the ANS? The breath.

As Deb Dana says, “Breath is a direct, easily accessible, and rapid way to shape the state of the nervous system.”

When we change the breath, we change all the major systems of the body.

2. The Four Qualities of Breath We Want to Develop to Feel Better

“One of the essential techniques that I distill from this body of knowledge about pranayama is that the qualities of breath that you want to develop are to make it deeper, slower, quieter, and more regular.”
- Andrew Weil, MD, Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing

This has become my new mantra.

Waiting in line at the grocery store: deeper, slower, quieter, & more regular.

At the park with my daughter: deeper, slower, quieter, & more regular.

Anywhere we find ourselves: deeper, slower, quieter, & more regular.

Why are these four qualities so powerful?

“When your breathing is deeper, slower, quieter, and more regular, you are feeling better, in both mind and body. Your nervous system is functioning more smoothly, and all your organs are operating more harmoniously as a result.”

Sounds good to me 🙏

3. It Only Makes Sense that the Breath is So Profound

“The act of breathing begins our life as we come out of the womb; in our last moment, when we cease breathing, our life is over. It only makes sense that the breath should also have a profound influence on all the moments in between.”
- Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath

Whenever all this breathing stuff just seems too good to be true, remember: It’s not (talking to myself here 😅). In fact, “it only makes sense” that breathing should have a “profound influence” on all aspects of our lives. 👏

4. Knowing Doesn’t Change Your Life; Doing Does

“But knowing something doesn't change your life. Doing something does. … [T]here's a huge difference between acquiring information and understanding it. And there's an even wider gap between understanding it and implementing it, or actually doing it.”
- Dr. Jason Selk & Tom Bartow, Organize Tomorrow Today

This is a perfect reminder that, although learning is incredible, practice is what changes our lives.

As Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “Try it for a few years and see what happens.”

Count me in. I hope you’ll join me 🙏

1 QUOTE

“By breathing less frequently, we begin to achieve elemental harmony.”

— Anyen Rinpoche & Allison Choying Zangmo

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing Mechanics

Answer: The contraction of the diaphragm is controlled by this nerve.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the phrenic nerve?

Extra: Ways to Decide if Breathwork Is Right for You

I wrote another guest blog post for ResBiotic titled Ways to Decide if Breathwork is Right for You.

It’s a 5-min read to help you pick which type of breathwork is right for you.

Enjoy!

In good breath,

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

P.S. welcome to the team

P.P.S. Slower, deeper, quieter, and more regular

Breathing for Diabetes Online Course ($99):

If you love learning about breathing, want to live a healthier life, or just want to support my work, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

LEARN MORE AND VIEW THE COURSE CURRICULUM

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

September 12, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Eloquent Exhales, 3 Books, and Adding Sound for More Benefit

Nicholas Heath

September 12, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

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. A More Eloquent Way to Say “Extend Your Exhale”

Here’s a more eloquent way to say, “extend your exhale,” which applies to all aspects of life: Give more than you receive.

***

P.S. This was inspired by two of my favorite teachers, Eddie Stern & Emily Hightower. See the audio version above at the 38-sec mark for the full story.

2. Get More Benefits Out of Your Practice with No Added Effort

“Petr Janata…is a cognitive neuroscientist and expert on music in the brain. He theorizes that the low frequency of the sound of water, coupled with its rhythmic nature, is similar to the frequency and rhythm of human breath. Sound, Janata contends, ‘affects our brain and influences our emotions. If I ask you to close your eyes and turn on a recording of the ocean, I can change your mood immediately.’”
- Wallace J Nichols, Blue Mind

Here’s a simple way to increase the benefits of your breathing or meditation practice: add the sound of water. You can use headphones or sit outside near a body of moving water if you’re lucky enough to have one nearby.

Here’s a playlist I have been using and enjoying. I hope you do too 🏝

3. Slow Breathing is My Favorite, but Here’s Why Most Methods Work

“Differences in the effects of various stress management approaches are minor compared to the general goal of inducing a relaxation response. For more than fifty years, Harvard’s Professor Herbert Benson, author of The Relaxation Response, demonstrated that almost any type of relaxation inducer—prayer, meditation, rhythmic breathing, visualization, or biofeedback—can rapidly reverse the more than five hundred genes that are turned on by stress. In addition, those who regularly practice a relaxation method have better long-term health, recover faster from health challenges, and use fewer medical services.”
- Wayne Jonas, MD, How Healing Works

Sounds good to me 🤯

4. One Overarching Goal for Our Breathing

“Learn to do less, but more often.”
- Dr. Jason Selk & Tom Bartow, Organize Tomorrow Today

A perfect overarching goal for our breathing is:

Learn to breathe less, but more often.

P.S. to Thoughts 2, 3, and 4

These three books, Blue Mind, How Healing Works, and Organize Tomorrow Today, have significantly changed my life over the past few months. If you’re looking for something to read, I can’t recommend them enough.

1 QUOTE

“Western science is now finally catching up to the fact that controlled breathing practices can at least ‘enhance immunity, improve cardiovascular fitness, modulate chronic disease and increase longevity’, and at most lead to almost superhuman feats.”

— Charlie Morley

1 ANSWER

Category: Deep Breathing & the Lungs

Answer: Deep breathing stretches the alveoli and increases their surface area, which reduces this and leads to better gas exchange in the lungs.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is dead space ventilation?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Your call is very important to us.

P.P.S. Happy Birthday LP!

Breathing for Diabetes:

If you love learning about breathing, or just want to live an overall healthier life, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

LEARN MORE AND VIEW THE COURSE CURRICULUM

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

August 15, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

5 Breaths for Focus, Better Sleep, and Your Own Finely Crafted Program

Nicholas Heath

August 15, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

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. Thirty Days to Better Sleep and Higher Vagal Tone

“Taken together, our results suggest that slow-paced breathing performed before sleeping may enhance restorative processes at the cardiovascular level during sleep.”
- Laborde et al. (2019), Journal of Clinical Medicine

Here’s another excellent study from Laborde & colleagues, with lots we could cover. But the take-home messages were that 15 min of slow breathing (6 breaths/min) before sleep for 30 days led to:

Significantly better subjective sleep quality
Significantly higher nighttime vagal tone (via HF-HRV)
Higher (but not significant) morning vagal tone

Not bad for just 15 minutes a night 👏

2. The Centering Breath (and 5 Breaths for Better Focus)

“[B]reathe in for six seconds, hold that breath for two seconds, and then breathe out for seven seconds. When you modulate your breathing this way, you're controlling your state of arousal and corralling your body's natural response to stress.”
- Dr. Jason Selk & Tom Bartow, Organize Tomorrow Today

Here’s a nice breath to try whenever you need to re-center. In for 6, hold for 2, exhale for 7. Even just one of those is enough to reset your focus.

***

P.S. Here’s a guest blog I recently wrote for ResBiotic all about breathing & focus: Why Breathing Gets You Focused (and 5 ways to do it)

3. Perfect Advice for Applying the Power of Breathing in Your Life

“It’s not difficult to experience the psychological and social benefits of movement. … There’s no training formula you have to follow. There is no one path or prescription except to follow your own joy. If you’re looking for a guideline, it’s this: Move. Any kind, any amount, and any way that makes you happy. Move whatever parts of your body still move, with gratitude.” (my emphasis)
- Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., The Joy of Movement

Although Dr. McGonigal is talking about movement, this is also the absolute perfect advice for breathing:

Breathe. Any kind, any amount, and in any way that makes you happy. And breathe with gratitude for this beautiful life we have, thanks to the breath.

4. Your Own Finely Crafted Breathing Program

“The Craftsman Approach to Tool Selection: Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Adopt a tool only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts.”
- Cal Newport, Deep Work

And to piggyback on Thought #3, here is the perfect way to choose which breathing practices (or any self-improvement practices) we perform.

Here’s to finely crafting our own unique breathing programs, this week 🙏

1 QUOTE

“[W]e must seek awareness, and that can begin with the awareness of your breath, the foundation of your totality as a human being.”

— Al Lee and Don Campbell

1 ANSWER

Category: Nasal Breathing

Answer: Nasal breathing not only synchronizes electrical activity in the olfactory bulb, but also in these two areas, helping explain why it influences our emotional state.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are the amygdala and hippocampus?

In good breath,

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

P.S. any other thing I can help with today?

Breathing for Diabetes:

If you love learning about breathing, or just want to live an overall healthier life, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

LEARN MORE AND VIEW THE COURSE CURRICULUM

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

August 8, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Vagal Tone, Perfect Advice, and How to Experience More Joy

Nicholas Heath

August 8, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

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. Breathing, and the Key to High-Level Success

“The key to high-level success is to pick one thing to change—yes, just one—and master it.”
- Dr. Jason Selk & Tom Bartow, Organize Tomorrow Today

Since breath is life, I can’t think of any better “one thing” to master.

2. Extend Your Exhalation to Increase Vagal Tone

“findings showed that CVA [cardiac vagal activity] is higher when the exhalation phase lasts longer than the inhalation phase”
- Laborde et al. (2019)

There is a lot we could cover from this study, but the take-home message is super practical: By slightly extending our exhale, we increase vagal activity.

Here’s a simple formula for doing it: 40% of your breath should be inhaling, and 60% should be exhaling. Simple, easy, and effective.

***

P.S. Thanks for 411 reader B.W. for sending me this paper 🙏

3. How to Experience More Awe, Gratitude, & Joy

“University of North Carolina psychologists Barbara Frederickson, PhD, and Bethany Kok, PhD, demonstrated this beautifully when they asked 52 adults to track their positive emotions—awe, gratitude, joy—for 9 weeks. They found that the higher a subject’s HRV was at the beginning, the easier and more quickly he or she could experience positive feelings over the next 9 weeks.”
- Leah Lagos, Psy.D., Heart Breath Mind

Do you want to experience more awe, gratitude, and joy? (who doesn’t?! 😂) Research suggests that having higher baseline HRV will let you.

And the best way to increase your baseline HRV? See #2 above…

***

Related: Perrin White and I recently discussed breathing and joy on her Breath to Breath podcast. You can jump right to it here. My explanation was different from this one…but it’s all interrelated : )

4. Perfect Advice for the Rest of the Week (and the rest of our lives)

“So look for those little ways in the flow of life to feel a bit more relaxed, protected, strong, and at ease…and a little more grateful, glad, and successful…and a little more cared about and caring, and a little more loved and loving. One breath at a time, one synapse at a time, you can gradually develop an increasingly unshakable core inside yourself. The more often and deeply you do this, the greater the results.”
- Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Neurodharma

Sounds good to me 🙏

1 QUOTE

“We might say (every pun intended) that the richness lies right beneath our noses in any and every moment.”

— Jon Kabat-Zinn (foreword to Breath by Breath)

1 ANSWER

Category: Etymology

Answer: This word is derived from a Greek word generally meaning “something that divides” or “a barrier.”

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is diaphragm?

In good breath,

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

P.S. By the time you’re 30 you should have…

Breathing for Diabetes:

If you love learning about breathing, or just want to live an overall healthier life, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

LEARN MORE AND VIEW THE COURSE CURRICULUM