December 11, 2023

Life, Humor, and a Great Truth You Should Know about Yourself

December 11, 2023

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Reading Time: 1 min 43 sec

I hope the next 26’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.

4 THOUGHTS

1. An Affirmation of Life

“Breath is life. It sustains us and it is an expression of the life force within us. The fact that we are breathing is an affirmation of life.”
- Yogani, Spinal Breathing Pranayama

This is just a beautiful reminder: “The fact that we are breathing is an affirmation of life.” 👏

2. Not You: A Great Truth You Should Know about Yourself

“The first thing to remember is that the truth about anxiety and worry, even about panic, is that they are not you. They are actually only conditions that flow in and out of the present moment. Confusion arises when the intensity of these conditions leads you to begin to identify with them and become lost in a reaction to them.”
- Jeffrey Brantley, MD, Calming Your Anxious Mind

This is a primary goal of living mindfully: To recognize that emotions aren’t us, only conditions flowing in & out of the present moment.

Of course, we’ll never be perfect, but even small steps in recognizing this truth will significantly improve our well-being.

3. Kryptonite & Why Slow Breathing Complements Mindfulness Perfectly

“Attention is fragile. It can be rapidly depleted under certain circumstances…When we experience stress, threat, or poor mood—the three main things I call ‘kryptonite’ for attention—this valuable resource is drained.”
- Amishi Jha, Ph.D., Peak Mind

This is why combining slow breathing with mindfulness, or doing it just before meditation, is so powerful.

It counteracts these “attention kryptonites:” It reduces stress, improves mood, and quiets the threat regions of the brain. These changes make mindfulness more accessible physiologically.

4. Humor is an Essential Part of Life

“Humor opens closed hearts.
Humor can free us from the grip of our thoughts.
When we smile, we feel we can accept things we previously could not.
We feel we can forgive those who have wronged us.
Humor is an essential part of life.”
- Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See Only…

Just a reminder to seek out humor this week, as laughing will always be the most therapeutic breathing exercise.

1 Quote

“The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one’s work seriously and taking one’s self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.””

— Margot Fonteyn

1 Answer

Category: Breathing Muscles

Answer: Although the diaphragm is thought to be primarily a breathing muscle, there is evidence that it plays a critical role in preventing this.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is acid reflux?

In good breath,

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

P.S. “flight sacramento receipt 2023”

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Amazon Associate Disclosure

I’ve been recommending books for almost 6 years. Yet somehow, I just discovered that I could be an Amazon affiliate [face-palm]. In any case better late than never. Now, any Amazon link you click is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. So, if you’d like to support my work, buying books through these links is helpful : )

* 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.

Nicholas Heath

August 21, 2023

weekly email, Batch 9

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

Nicholas Heath

August 21, 2023

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. 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:

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.””

— 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.

…

(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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Nicholas Heath

July 17, 2023

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A Helpful Breathing Tip, Two Ways, and How to Build a Stronger Mind

Nicholas Heath

July 17, 2023

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. The Most Helpful Breathing Tip I’ve Found (it’s embarrassingly cliché & simple)

Don’t take ten breaths. Take one breath, ten times.

Don’t do 5 minutes of breathing. Consciously take one breath, over and over, until your 5-minute timer goes off.

Sounds silly, but it works 👏

2. How to Build a Stronger Mind

In Peak Mind, Dr. Jha describes a “mindfulness push-up” as the following:

You shine your attention on your breath.
Your mind wanders, and you notice it.
You redirect your mind to your breath.

“This is what we might call the ‘push-up’ of a mindfulness breathing exercise.”

I love this analogy because it conveys the most crucial aspect of mindfulness: Just like repeated physical push-ups make our muscles stronger, repeated “mindfulness push-ups” make our minds stronger.

Meaning we need our minds to wander so we can notice it and come back to the breath. It’s how our minds get stronger.

3. Breathing Must Be Practiced Not Just in Solitude

“Spirituality must be practiced not just in solitude but also among people. Open up to people around you and feel connected. This is the true challenge of spiritual practice.”
- Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

The same is true for our breathing (or any contemplative) practice. It must be performed not only in solitude, but in real life:

How we do (or do not) reply to comments on social media is our practice.
How we do (or do not) reply to emails that provoke us is our practice.
How we do (or do not) interact with friends & family is our practice.
And on and on for every aspect of our lives…

So, this is the true challenge: To use our favorite contemplative practice to fundamentally change who we are and how we interact with the world for the better.

4. Two Ways to Keep Your Practice Interesting

Switch up your routine or exercises every 15-30 days to continuously create novelty.
Cultivate mindfulness so the same old boring exercises continuously create novelty.

P.S. There’s no right or wrong, and you can use both approaches simultaneously 😊

1 Quote

“Practicing to walk and breathe mindfully helps you dwell more in the real world, so you can get in touch with the wonders of life in the present moment, and nourish and heal your body and mind.””

— Thich Nhat Hanh

1 Answer

Category: Breathing Basics

Answer: The way your breathing responds to high carbon dioxide or low oxygen is generally referred to as this.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is chemoreflex sensitivity?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Every single morning

Nicholas Heath

June 19, 2023

weekly email, Batch 9

Breath Learning, More Joy, and How to Change Our Reality

Nicholas Heath

June 19, 2023

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. Introducing…

www.breathlearning.com

Now open. Check it out.

2. Seeing More Joy

Doing a deliberate slow nasal breathing practice first thing every morning is like putting on joy contacts to start your day.

3. A Good Case for Doing Your Practice in the Morning

“We each have our unique starting baseline—the level of stress arousal that we usually hover around through any typical day … Regardless of where we start from, the lower we can get our baseline stress arousal, the better—it means we’ll be much more able to tolerate the peaks of stressful events.”
- Elissa Epel, Ph.D., The Stress Prescription

To me, this passage presents a good case for doing our slow breathing (or whichever practice you do) first thing in the morning. By starting at a lower baseline, we’ll tolerate the day’s stressors better 👏

***

P.S. And if you choose slow nasal breathing, you’ll get the added bonus of seeing more joy 😊 (see Thought #2).

4. The Power of Breath Awareness

Dr. Amishi Jha discussing breath awareness in Peak Mind:

“[W]e use the breath for a couple of important reasons: It anchors us in the body. It allows us to experience the body sensations that are unfolding in real time as we breathe, in the here and now. … And finally, our breath is always with us. It’s the most natural built-in target for our attention that we can always return to.”

Put simply: The breath is the best way to be present with what is happening now.

1 Quote

“The first step in changing reality is to recognize it as it is now.””

— David Reynolds

1 Answer

Category: A Funny Breathing Exercise

Answer: This breathing exercise causes the abdomen, chest, and diaphragm to tighten while also expanding alveoli, all of which may improve lung function.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is laughing?

In good breath,

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

P.S. I need to adopt this practice

Nicholas Heath

May 8, 2023

weekly email, Batch 9

The Best Morning Breathing Exercise, Air Candy, and Greater Calmness

Nicholas Heath

May 8, 2023

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. Air Candy

Gratitude turns an ordinary breath into air candy.

2. The Best Morning Breathing Exercise

The best morning breathing exercise is a good night’s sleep.

P.S. I had a few nights of poorer-than-normal sleep and noticed that my morning breathing was nowhere near as enjoyable or effective. Which inspired this purposefully playful sentence : )

3. Greater Calmness: How to Choose Effective Responses in Stressful Situations

“When we are mindful of our breathing, it automatically helps us to establish greater calmness in both the body and the mind. Then we are better able to be aware of our thoughts and feelings…And with this awareness comes a feeling of having more room to move, of having more options, of being free to choose effective and appropriate responses in stressful situations rather than losing our equilibrium and sense of self as a result of feeling overwhelmed, thrown off balance by our own knee-jerk reactions.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., Full Catastrophe Living

Beautifully said 👏👏👏

So the next time we need to choose an effective & appropriate response in a stressful situation, let’s first tune into our breath to “establish greater calmness in both the body and the mind,” allowing us to move forward with clarity.

4. This Will Help You in Anything You Set Out to Do

“Working memory is where you hold a goal in mind so you can move toward it. By goal…I mean the micro-intentions and deliberate aim of having a desired outcome for each and every task you engage in—all the decisions, planning, thinking, actions, and behaviors you do over the course of a day: anything you set out to do.”
– Amishi P. Jha, Ph.D., Peak Mind

Based on this description, having good working memory is pretty crucial since it plays a role in “anything you set out to do.”

But it’s relevant here because a 2022 study found that slow breathing significantly improves working memory.

Putting it together: By improving working memory, slow breathing may potentially help you with anything you set out to do 👏

1 Quote

“At this very moment, whether you know it or not, each breath happens right here and right now. Little by little the question becomes, Are you intimate with this breath just as it is?””

— Larry Rosenberg

1 Answer

Category: Breath-Heart Connections

Answer: The heart is connected to this muscle via the pericardium, which is a fluid-filled sac surrounding the heart.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the diaphragm?

In good breath,

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

P.S. It’s a common problem.

The Garlic Breath of the Week

Here is the most-liked post this past week.

Nicholas Heath

April 24, 2023

weekly email, Batch 9

5 Great Apps, Less Work, and a Simple Way to Laugh More

Nicholas Heath

April 24, 2023

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 😊

A New Breath-Based Stress-Reduction Protocol

A reminder that I’m leading a 4-week course starting May 7th called Breathing for Better Mental and Emotional Health.

Learn more about the course and enroll here.

The course is centered around a super simple yet extremely powerful protocol combining breathing, mindfulness, and remembered wellness.

4 THOUGHTS

1. Leading Mindfulness Researcher: Less Work, More Breathing

“[I]f you come away from this book with anything, I want it to be a clear sense of how important this is. We’re busy. We’re time-pressured. We are always under the gun. But twelve more minutes of work is simply not going to catch you up as much as sitting quietly, and on purpose, with your breath.”
– Amishi P. Jha, Ph.D., Peak Mind

I’ll repeat: “But twelve more minutes of work is simply not going to catch you up as much as sitting quietly, and on purpose, with your breath.” 👏👏👏

2. A Simple Way to Laugh More

“Laughing is the most therapeutic breathing exercise.”

I’ve been telling my wife I should make a self-deprecating breathing humor account on Instagram for like a year.

Well, I finally did it. Introducing: The Garlic Breath.

My wife thought of the name and made me a silly icon in like 30 seconds on Canva.

Go follow and share so we can make laughing a part of everyone’s day : )

3. Five Great Breathing Apps

Breathe: This is my current favorite because it lets you set breaths down to the 1/10th of a second. I’m weird and enjoy that kind of control. I use it to do 6-sec inhale and 8.6-sec exhale, which gets me to 4.11 breaths a minute. I’m kind of obsessed : ) (Apple) (Android)

Insight Timer: I use this one for background noise (I use the “Nature’s Melody” track based on what I learned about the power of water sounds in Blue Mind). I also use this app to insert bells periodically throughout my session so I know when to switch exercises without opening my eyes. (Apple) (Android)

The Breathing App: This one has my favorite sound on the planet. It’s so good. And it’s the easiest app to get started with. No emails, no nothing. Just download and start breathing. (Apple) (Android)

The Oxygen Advantage: Tons and tons of exercises and wisdom, all as a gift to the breathing community from Patrick 🙏 (Apple) (Android)

The Breath Source: This is a new one I haven’t used too often because I don’t like guided sessions that much. But if you do, it looks like one of the best ones out there. (Apple) (Android)

4. The Metaphorical Benefits of Belly Breathing for Emotional Stability

“Similarly, when we focus on our breathing down in the belly, we are tuning in to a region of the body that is far from the head and thus far below the agitations of our thinking mind. It is intrinsically calmer. So tuning in to the breath at the belly is a valuable way of reestablishing inner calmness and balance in the face of emotional upset or when you have a lot on your mind.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., Full Catastrophe Living

Although this analogy certainly isn’t true for everyone, I think it’s a neat way of framing the psychological benefits of belly breathing. We focus on the abdomen area because it’s “far from the head and thus far below the agitations of our thinking mind.”

1 Quote

“The next step is crucial: you give relaxed, careful attention to respiration and to the obvious, often neglected fact that each one of us is breathing. In other words, you are alive! Did you know that?””

— Larry Rosenberg

1 Answer

Category: Breathing Reflex

Answer: This breathing reflex typically has a deep inhale, a wide open jaw, and a shorter, more rapid exhale.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is a yawn?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Fellow introverts, try this

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