Richard Davidson

,

Health & Happiness, and How to Align with Your Life Force

,

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 😊

Reading Time: 1 min 33 sec

I hope the next 23’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.


4 THOUGHTS

1. You Will Receive All Benefits in Due Course

“If we commit to a twice-daily practice and give it some time to work, the benefits will be there. The beauty in this is that no matter which of the benefits we have come looking for, we will receive all of the benefits in due course – relaxation, good health and, eventually, enlightenment too.”

- Yogani, Spinal Breathing Pranayama

I love that. And although it’s referring to spinal breathing pranayama, I think it applies to any slow breathing practice: We start with the benefits we’re after and let the others come naturally with time and persistence.

2. Playing an Infinite Game

“More to the point, Richie’s lab finds that even among the meditation adepts—all of whom have put in at least 10,000 hours of practice—expertise continues to increase steadily with the number of lifetime hours.”

- Goleman and Davidson, Altered Traits

Translation: there’s no end to contemplative practice. The more you do, the more you grow.

3. Three One-Sentence Thoughts

  1. Meditation is about stopping thinking as much as breathwork is about stopping breathing.

  2. Breathing saves your life 20,000 times a day; mindfulness helps you appreciate this truth.

  3. The greatest skill in breathing (like in life) is knowing when to go with the flow, and when to deliberately change it.

4. How to Align with Your Life Force

“On a very basic level, when we’re consciously aware of the in-breath and the out-breath—or in other words, the act of inhaling and exhaling—we infuse ourselves with that life force and anchor ourselves in our own deep center space.”

- George Mumford, The Mindful Athlete

I have nothing useful to add, except for a few of these 👏👏👏

1 Quote

“Health and happiness are about being so connected to our own life force that we feel we fit into the world around us.””
— Gladys McGarey, MD

P.S. This came from The Well-Lived Life. I’m only about a third way through, but I must say it’s incredible—an absolute must-read.

1 Answer

Category: Breath and Focus

Answer: This state (often achieved through conscious breathing) involves being wholly immersed in an activity, cultivating intense focus and creativity, and losing awareness of time and self.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is flow?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Nice book. Too bad it was…

Upcoming Workshops

Saturday, December 23:

Saturday, December 30:

Coaching

Breathing & Mindfulness 1-on-1

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.

 
,

4 Thoughts, Reaching Blissful States, and Breathing and Brain Health

,

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. In my Brain: 4 Random One-Sentence Breathing Thoughts

  1. Slow breathing is air appreciation.

  2. Fast breathing is air intoxication.

  3. Breath holding is air imagination.

  4. And all breathing is air medicine.

P.S. Here are 10 more random thoughts people seemed to enjoy.

2. Reaching Blissful States

Discussing advanced yogis that reach elated states during meditation:

“Their remarkable meditation skills bespeak what’s technically known as a “state by trait interaction,” suggesting the brain changes that underlie the trait also give rise to special abilities that activate during meditative states.”

– Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. & Richard Davidson, Ph.D., Altered Traits

These findings mean: the longer you practice, the more your brain changes, and the more likely you are to be physiologically capable of having profound meditations. They’re a “state by trait” effect, and they’re available to all of us—we just have to keep practicing 🙏

3. Slow Yogic Breathing and Brain Health

“To our knowledge, our study is the first report demonstrating the impact of a mind–body approach such as yogic breathing to modulate CSF dynamics”

– Immediate impact of yogic breathing on pulsatile cerebrospinal fluid dynamics

This study found that slow, deep, yogic breathing increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow toward the brain by 16-28%.

CSF plays crucial roles in cushioning the brain & spine, delivering nutrients & hormones to the brain, and removing waste from the brain.

Thus, CSF dynamics may be one way slow breathing techniques improve brain health 👏

4. The Power of Belly Breathing

The power of belly breathing is not in making your belly move with each breath. It’s in relaxing the belly, so it naturally rises & falls with the movement of the diaphragm.

1 Quote

“That’s life: starting over, one breath at a time.””
— Sharon Salzberg

1 Answer

Category: Respiratory Pressure Changes

Answer: During inhalation, the diaphragm contracts down and increases this pressure, which may play a role in modulating CSF flow up the spine.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is intra-abdominal pressure?

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by BreathLearning.com

If you like this newsletter, you’ll love BreathLearning.com.

Click Here to Learn More

In good breath,

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


P.S. I need to adopt this practice

* 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.

 
,

My Top 5 Breath Books, Unconditional Love, and a Life Changing Outro

,

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. My 5 Favorite Breathing Books & the Order I’d Read Them if I Started Over

  1. Full Catastrophe Living: Teaches the power of mindful breathing, which is the starting point of all breathing practices.

  2. Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing (audio only): One of the most accessible and practical intros to breathing.

  3. The Healing Power of the Breath: One of the best for learning how slow breathing techniques help all aspects of life.

  4. Breath: This is a must-read for anyone interested in breathing.

  5. The Oxygen Advantage: Now that you’re a true breath nerd, you’re ready to dive into all Patrick’a life-changing wisdom.

Major Caveat: This changes based on where I am in life and the new books I read 😊

2. Moving Toward Our Better Nature

“As we see it, the most compelling impacts of meditation are not better health or sharper business performance but, rather, a further reach toward our better nature.”

– Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. & Richard Davidson, Ph.D., Altered Traits

I think this is true of any contemplative practice: meditation, breathing, yoga, or even just reading.

So here’s to choosing our favorite one and inching closer toward our better nature, today 🙏

3. Life-Changing: How to End a Breathing, Meditation, or Really Any Contemplative Practice

Say this to yourself silently:

“even if I have been distracted, … is there something that has moved me, and that I would like to keep? Is there something that I would like to take with me and use to nourish myself?”

– Dr. Cathy Blanc, The Healing Power of Meditation

Then, silently wish that you can put whatever moved you into practice to bring more peace, humanity, and love to the world 🙏

P.S. If you feel so inspired, try it at the end of this email : )

4. Unconditional Love

The other day, I worked on breathing research all day. Yet come afternoon, I realized I’d barely actually checked in with my own breath (the irony, I know, lol).

But like a puppy waiting on its human to get home from work, the second I remembered, the breath was right there, holding no grudges or hard feelings, just simply grateful for my attention.

1 Quote

“If we can simply realize the fullness of this moment, of this breath, we can find stillness and peace right here.””
— Jon Kabat-Zinn

1 Answer

Category: Breathing 101

Answer: Like winds in the atmosphere, air flowing into and out of our lungs is driven by these.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are pressure gradients?

In good breath,

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


P.S. I show affection for my pets by…

* 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.

 
,

Big Tech vs. Gandhi, Breathing is Self-Love, and Syncing w/ the Heart

,

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 Breath-Love Connection: Safety, Self-Love, and Upward Spirals

Here is a summary of my recent dive into the breath-love connection:

Breathing is self-love: It increases vagal tone and helps us feel safe, allowing us to experience more love-love. Experiencing more love, then, will reshape our lives for the better, triggering an upward spiral that lifts us to become the best versions of ourselves we can become.

2. The Breath-Heart Connection: Entrainment

“‘Entrainment’ is the term for when two oscillations become synchronized—like when two tuning forks come to vibrate at the same frequency or two pendulums begin to synchronize and swing at the same tempo.”

- Lisa Miller, Ph.D., The Awakened Brain

Although this passage wasn’t about breathing, I thought “entrainment” was the perfect word to describe the breath-heart connection.

When we breathe at about 4-7 breaths/min, our breathing rate entrains our heart rate. They “synchronize and swing at the same tempo.”

This makes everything run more efficiently. As Tree Meinch says, “our respiration has the potential to optimize the rhythm of various mechanisms and align them with our heart rate.” 👏

3. Big Tech vs. Gandhi

“‘[O]ne of the ironies is there are these incredibly popular workshops at Facebook and Google about mindfulness—about creating the mental space to make decisions nonreactively—and they are also the biggest perpetrators of non-mindfulness in the world.’”

- Aza Raskin, from Stolen Focus by Johann Hari

I’ve often thought it was cool to hear that big tech companies have meditation pods and mindfulness events. How neat, right?

Well, maybe not. As this passage points out, these companies are also the “biggest perpetrators of non-mindfulness in the world.” (🤯 never thought of it like that).

Of course, no one person or company is perfect—we’re all just trying to do the best we can.

But this reminded me of a Gandhi quote: “One…cannot do right in one department of life whilst…doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.”

So here’s to doing our best (accepting we’ll never be perfect) to lead with our hearts and live up to our values in all areas of our lives 🙏

4. Science Offers Only Glimpses

“This highlights a weakness in what otherwise might seem quite impressive findings on the yogis: these data points are but glimpses of the altered traits that intensive, prolonged meditation produces. We do not want to reduce this quality of being to what we happen to be able to measure.”

- Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson, Altered Traits

 

I think the idea applies perfectly to breathing, too. It’s a nice reminder that, while we should value scientific findings, we must also remember they’re only a glimpse of the benefits based on “what we happen to be able to measure.”

Free 5-Day Email Course on Becoming a Breathing Generalist

I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback on the ideas presented in this email series, so I thought I should share it again. I hope you’ll sign up!

Sign Up for Free Here.

Day 1: The Four Paths of a Generalist

Day 2: How to Read Books Efficiently

Day 3: How to Find Science Papers Worth Reading

Day 4: How to Decide Which Books and Papers to Read

Day 5: Become More You, Become Irreplaceable

1 Quote

“Love—like taking a deep breath…—not only feels great but is also life-giving, an indispensable source of energy, sustenance, and health.””
— Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D.

1 Answer

Category: Breath Speed

Answer: A nasal exhale travels at a maximum of about this many miles per hour.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is 3 mph?

In good breath,

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


P.S. this one’s gonna be huge for me

* 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.

 
,

Free 5-day Course, an Inspiring Study, and the Heart of Life

,

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. Yoga Breathing Helps Cancer Chemotherapy Symptoms (+ free science 411)

“Pranayama may be helpful for improving sleep disturbance, anxiety, and mental QOL [quality of life] among patients undergoing chemotherapy.”

- Dhruva et al. (2012)

This is an inspiring pilot RCT that found that a simple breathing practice can help reduce the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.

The study wasn’t perfect and pranayama didn’t magically solve all their problems. But it helped. That’s all we can hope for.

I’ve also made the Science 411 on this paper free for everyone 🙏

***

P.S. Some of you may know that I lost my sister to cancer. I remember how hard chemo was for her. So—even as someone obsessed with breathing—it’s difficult to review a study suggesting that patients should “just breathe,” and it will help. But this study was done over 1 year, and the classes had almost 100% attendance, making me believe the patients found it valuable, which matters the most.

2. Breathing is the Heart of All Life

“In addition, the mental component of breath is a sense of rhythmic expansion and contraction, and I think that connects us to every other living thing because all living organisms breathe. So that same rhythm is at the center of the heart of all life.”

- Andrew Weil, MD, Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing

Just an elegant reminder that breathing connects us to all living things. It’s the heart of all life 🌎

3. Optimal Mouth Posture at Rest

“The correct oral posture, the one that appears most conducive to jaw development, is (when not speaking or eating) holding the mouth closed with teeth in light contact and the tongue resting on the roof of the mouth.”

- Sandra Kahn and Paul Erhlich, Jaws

I struggle following these guidelines all day, but here is the most succinct description I’ve found on optimal mouth posture at rest.

Maybe it will inspire you to notice your mouth posture more today 🙏

4. It’s Not the Highs; It’s Who You Become

“It's not the highs along the way that matter. It's who you become.”

- Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson, Altered Traits

 

That’s a perfect rule of thumb for any contemplative practice (like breathing).  Experiencing highs & improving biomarkers of health and wellness is meaningful, but it’s who you become that matters most.

Free 5-Day Email Course on Becoming a Breathing Generalist

Sign Up for Free Here.

Day 1: The Four Paths of a Generalist

Day 2: How to Read Books Efficiently

Day 3: How to Find Science Papers Worth Reading

Day 4: How to Decide Which Books and Papers to Read

Day 5: Become More You, Become Irreplaceable

1 Quote

“If you would foster a calm spirit, first regulate your breathing; for when that is under control, the heart will be at peace; but when breathing is spasmodic, then it will be troubled.””
— Kariba Ekken

1 Answer

Category: Breathing and Brain

Answer: This neural network is critical to generating breathing rhythm.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the Pre-Bötzinger complex?

In good breath,

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


P.S. Google Maps every time

* 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.