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. Mindful Breath Awareness Improves Impulsivity and Brain Dynamics
“In sum, we show that a relatively short period of mindfulness practice…significantly changes brain dynamics related to the internal monitoring of response conflicts and related errors.”
Using cognitive tests and EEG, this study found that practicing mindful breath awareness for 17 minutes, five days a week, for three weeks improved impulse control and brain dynamics related to metacognition.
As the authors say, “These findings contribute to clarifying the mechanisms through which mindfulness meditation practice promotes positive outcomes.” 👏👏👏
2. That’s How Gratitude Works…
“That’s how gratitude works, transforming not reality itself but how reality is seen.”
– Matt Fitzgerald, The Comeback Quotient
If you’ve ever finished a mindful, slow breathing practice (or any contemplative practice) and noticed that everything around you seems more peaceful and beautiful, this is why.
These practices naturally cultivate gratitude, which doesn’t change reality, but how reality is seen.
3. Fast Walking as a Breathing Metaphor
Two questions for you:
Have you ever walked really fast to catch a flight?
Have you ever walked fast just as exercise?
The first creates stress and anxiety.
The second creates attainment and flow.
Same process, different outcome.
That’s what deliberate versus unconscious fast breathing is like.
If you’re doing it purposefully and safely as an exercise, it can be beneficial (and even life-changing for some).
But if you’re doing it unconsciously or to “get somewhere fast,” it’ll have the opposite effect.
4. The Only Thing that Works for Improving Attention
“You cannot simply decide to pay attention ‘better.’ No matter how much I tell you about how attention works and why, and no matter how motivated you are, the way your brain pays attention cannot be fundamentally altered by sheer force of will…Instead, we need to train our brains to work differently. And the exciting news is: at long last, we’ve actually figured out how.”
- Amishi Jha, Ph.D., Peak Mind
And what did they figure out works? Mindfulness of breathing. As she says, “mindfulness training was the only brain-training tool that consistently worked to strengthen attention across our studies.”
1 Quote
“Breath is your means of bringing yourself back home to your body in the most loving way, to tailor your connections to yourself so that you feel less fractured and fragmented and more solid and whole.””
P.S. This came from Jill’s new book, Body by Breath.
1 Answer
Category: Meta-Awareness
Answer: The ability to monitor your actions and progress toward a predefined goal is known as this metacognitive skill.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is response monitoring?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
P.S. Can’t sleep. Let’s see if this works
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* 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.