Matt Fitzgerald

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HIIB?, a Trick for Being Present, and Becoming More Joyous

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Listen Instead of Reading

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4 THOUGHTS

1. High-Intensity Interval…Breathing?

Here’s why we should add intensity of intention to mindful breathing:

“[T]he more intensely you are attending to the present moment, the more temporary freedom you gain from regrets about the past and worries about the future. Furthermore, the more intensely you practice, the longer the benefits linger after the practice.”

- Chade-Meng Tan, Joy On Demand

So, the more intensely you focus on the breath, the greater joy you experience, and the longer the benefits linger. Sounds good to me.

Practically, one way of doing this is through what we might jokingly call High-Intensity Interval Breathing: Instead of a continuous 20-minute mindful breathing session, break it into four “intense” 4-minute sessions, with a 1-minute break between each.

Give it a try and see if you like it 🙏

2. Make a Good First Impression

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

– Will Rogers

Each morning, when we wake up, we meet a new day. We can make a good first impression by doing our breathing practice first thing.

The day will like you more (and treat you kinder).

***

P.S. Aim for consistency: Each day you meet is different, and today doesn’t remember yesterday’s introduction 😊

3. Picturing Trampolines: A Trick for Staying Present

Here’s a trick the staff psychologist for British Rowing offered in the 2003 World Championships to help the rowers focus on the process instead of the outcome:

“The rowers were instructed to picture a trampoline at the finish line, tipped onto its side so that any thought of theirs that jumped ahead to the outcome would bounce back to the present moment. They bought into it and it worked.”

– Matt Fitzgerald, The Comeback Quotient

That seems like it would be a helpful visualization in all of life 👏

4. Becoming More Present, Joyous, and Warm-Hearted

“The benefits of quieting the mind include becoming more calm and clear. But resting in pure awareness goes a step beyond this sense of quiet. Richard Davidson, who studied the brains of highly advanced yogis who had attained this level, tells me that he had never met any group of people so present, joyous, and warm-hearted.”

- Daniel Goleman, Why We Meditate

In my opinion, that last sentence answers the book title: We meditate (or do breathing, yoga, etc.) to become more present, joyous, and warm-hearted.

1 Quote

“I can only meditate when I am walking, when I stop I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.””
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1 Answer

Category: Stress Hormones

Answer: This “breathing exercise” has been shown to significantly reduce cortisol, one of the primary stress hormones.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is laughter?

Don’t forget to get your dose today : )

In good breath,

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


P.S. Meditation in a nutshell

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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.

 
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How Gratitude Works, Fast Breathing, and Coming Home in a Loving Way

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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.”

– Pozuelos et al. (2019)

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:

  1. Have you ever walked really fast to catch a flight?

  2. 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.””
— Jill Miller

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.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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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

Try iCalm 20% Off

iCalm is a relaxation shot with just 4 ingredients: Taurine, L-Theanine, Lemon Balm Extract, and GABA. I absolutely love them.

If you’d like to try them, use the code NICK20 to get 20% off 🙏

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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.

 
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Element of Choice, Less Effort, and Focus on Enjoyment for Better Results

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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. Focus On Enjoyment (but only if you want better results)

“Literally anything you can do to augment your enjoyment of training will facilitate a process focus and lead to better performance. If you will enjoy a given workout more in location A than in location B, you'll get more out of it in location A. If you will enjoy a workout more with training partner C than with training partner D, you'll get more out of it with training partner C. If you will enjoy a given workout more with music than without, you'll get more out of the workout with music. And so on.”

- Matt Fitzgerald, The Comeback Quotient

I think this applies to our breathing, mindfulness, or any contemplative training: focus on enjoyment, and you’ll get way more out of it.

2. Jimi Hendrix and Breath Awareness

I bet when Jimi Hendrix picked up his guitar, it changed his whole demeanor.  Just holding it likely put him in a different state.

That’s what breath awareness is like. 

Sure, we can breathe in specific ways to tune our minds for certain thoughts or our bodies for certain states.  But just noticing your breath immediately transforms you, like a musician holding their instrument.

So even if you don't change it, make sure you at least “pick up” your breathing several times today 🙏

3. Less Perceived Effort: Slow Breathing Helps with Both Layers

“Perceived effort actually has two layers. The first layer is how the athlete feels. The second layer is how the athlete feels about how she feels. The first layer is strictly physiological, whereas the second is emotional, or affective.”

- Matt Fitzgerald, How Bad Do You Want It?

This passage pertains to sports, but it applies perfectly to perceived effort in life in general. And slow breathing helps with both layers:

  • First Layer: Slow breathing improves how you feel by reducing physiological stress (cortisol, sympathetic activity, brain waves).

  • Second Layer: Slow breathing helps you feel better about how you feel by improving your emotional health.

So practice some mindful, slow breathing and watch your perceived effort in everyday tasks go down, allowing you to live a better life.

***

P.S. If you want to learn more about breathing for better emotional health, consider signing up for my 4-week course starting Aug 20th.

4. Element of Choice: Meditation’s Benefits for Your Whole Life

“If I had to say in one or two sentences what the benefits of meditation were for your whole life—for your emotional life in particular—it is that meditative practice helps introduce the element of choice. … We cannot necessarily control what the outside world offers us, but we can control how we respond to it. That is the element of choice, and choice creates freedom.”

- Erika Rosenberg, Ph.D., The Healing Power of Meditation

I have nothing to add but a few of these 👏👏👏

1 Quote

“It takes only two seconds, three seconds, to breathe in, to bring mind home to your body. And there, mind and body together, we are established in the here and the now, and you get in touch with the wonders of life, the Kingdom of God.””
— Thich Nhat Hanh

P.S. This was transcribed from this wonderful 58-sec clip.

1 Answer

Category: Meditation Retreat

Answer: Participating in a meditation retreat has been shown to positively impact this metric, representing an increase in well-being, mindfulness, empathy, and ego resiliency and a decrease in depression, anxiety, neuroticism, and difficulties in emotion regulation.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is adaptive functioning?

P.S. I found this in The Healing Power of Meditation.

In good breath,

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


P.S. POV: you’re a certified people pleaser

Try iCalm 20% Off

iCalm is a relaxation shot with just 4 ingredients: Taurine, L-Theanine, Lemon Balm Extract, and GABA. I absolutely love them.

If you’d like to try them, use the code NICK20 to get 20% off 🙏

Get the iCalm Relaxation Shot

 
 

* 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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Finding Answers Within, Tree Tops, and How to Breathe for Joy

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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. How to Breathe for Joy

“To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that the alteration of respiration is sufficient to induce emotion.”

- Respiratory Feedback in the Generation of Emotion

This groundbreaking study (21 years ago 😊) was the first to find that breathing in specific ways can induce the corresponding emotional state. Meaning we can change our breath to change how we feel.

For example, to elicit joy, they told participants to “Breathe and exhale slowly and deeply through the nose; your breathing is very regular and your ribcage relaxed.”

Try it for ~2 minutes and see how you feel 🙏

***

P.S. If you want to learn more about breathing & emotions, sign up for my upcoming 4-week course, Breathing for Better Mental & Emotional Health: Click Here to Learn More

2. Finding Answers to Life’s Most Pressing Questions

“An athlete gets herself into trouble when, instead of listening to her body and its intuitions, she begins to worry about what her competitors are doing and tries to “outwork” them. The answers to the most pressing questions that athletes face in their day-to-day quest for improvement (“Should I push? Should I back off?”) lie within them.”

– Matt Fitzgerald, How Bad Do You Want It?

I believe this idea applies to all of life, not just athletics: Nine times out of ten, the answers to the most pressing questions we face in our quest for continuous improvement lie within us.

3. How to Deal with Life’s Storms (according to Thich Nhat Hanh)

“When a storm comes up in you, get out of the treetop and go down to the trunk for safety. Your roots start down at your abdomen, slightly below the navel…Put all your attention on that part of your belly, and breathe deeply. Don’t think about anything, and you’ll be safe while the storm of emotions is blowing. Practice this every day for just five minutes, and after three weeks, you’ll be able to handle your emotions successfully whenever they rise up.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Breath

I love this analogy. The next time we’re dealing with an emotional storm, we’ll be wise to remember to “get out of the treetop and go down to the trunk for safety.” 👏👏👏

4. Your Breathing Style Determines Your Stability in All of Life

“The larger point is that someone’s breathing style gives us insight into their broader stability strategy, the set of patterns that they have evolved over the years to help them get by in the physical world. All of us have these strategies and 95% of the time…they work fine. But once you add different stressors…those strategies, those instinctive physical reactions, can create problems. And if our respiration is also taxed, those other problems will be magnified.”*

– Peter Attia, MD, Outlive

Although Dr. Attia is discussing the role of breathing for physical stability, isn’t it amazing that this idea is equally applicable to mental, emotional, and spiritual steadiness too?

Our breathing style determines our stability in all of life.

1 Quote

“By consciously slowing down the breath and making it rhythmic so that consciousness is not disturbed by it, we can achieve corresponding tranquility.””
— Hiroshi Motoyama

P.S. I found that great quote here.

1 Answer

Category: Breathing & Emotions

Answer: Nasal breathing stimulates this part of the brain, which communicates with emotional areas like the amygdala and hippocampus.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is the olfactory bulb?

In good breath,

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


P.S. here’s my go to lazy meal

Get iCalm 20% Off

Try out the iCalm Relaxation Shot. It’s a perfect modern complement to our contemplative practices 🙏

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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.