The Art of Possibility

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Progress, Heart & Happiness, and How to Become a Breath Coach

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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. Another Excellent Quote on Breathing from Another Doctor

Last week, I shared a great quote from Andrew Weil, MD. Here’s another one, this time from Wayne Jonas, MD, in his outstanding book How Healing Works:

“Breathing techniques and mobile apps can teach you to use your breath to self-calm. The breath triggers changes in the body's nervous system that help you better manage stress. Deep breathing techniques help reduce feelings of anxiety and stress by blunting the expression of genes turned on during stress”

👏👏👏

2. A Different Perspective on How to Make Progress in Your Practice

Sometimes progress is just knowing when it’s time to switch things up.

Improvement can simply be trying new breathing exercises when it feels right.

3. Heart & Happiness: Strengthening Your Heart May Have Antidepressive Effects

“Additionally, recent neurocardiology studies have revealed that the heart is capable of secreting feel-good chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, and norepinephrine, all of which help to counteract feelings of depression. … This suggests that strengthening the heart through HRV-strengthening practices could possibly yield mild antidepressive effects.”

- Leah Lagos, Psy.D., Heart Breath Mind

That’s insane. And here’s Dr. Lagos’s starting practice for strengthening our hearts: “The standard rate that works for most individuals is to inhale for 4 seconds and exhale for 6 seconds with no pause in between.” Sounds good 🙏

4. The Breath of Art

“Art, after all, is about rearranging us, creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal.”

- Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility

Adding ‘breath’ to great quotes is what I do best (yes, blatant plagiarism is my calling 😂). So, here it is:

Breathing is about rearranging us, creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal.

Extra: Become a Breathwork Coach Starting August 8

Through holding my free 1-on-1s, I’ve gotten to meet some incredible people.

One of them is Campbell, a physical therapist, breathing coach, and all-around good person. In our chat, I learned he has a 12-week breathwork coach program. It looks awesome.

If I had any free time nowadays, I’d join. But since I can’t, I’m going to put it here for anyone who might be interested:

Learn more about the Breathwork for Practitioners Program

I hope you’ll check it out.


1 QUOTE

“Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.”
— Plotinus

P.S. Thanks to good friend (and 411 reader) E.S. for sending me this one 🙏

 

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing & Blood Pressure

Answer: When you inhale, your heart rate increases, which causes your blood pressure to rise about 5 seconds later; the opposite occurs during exhalation. This process is mediated by these specialized receptors.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What are the baroreceptors?

In good breath,

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

P.S. the honesty policy

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).

 
 

* 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.

 
 
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Nose versus Mouth, 800000 and 73 days, and Our Best Weapon for Stress

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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. A Simple Quip for Nose versus Mouth

Most of the time:

  • The nose is part of the respiratory system.

  • The mouth is part of the digestive system.

2. The True Power of the Breath: 800,000 and 73 Days

“With eight hundred thousand new medical articles being published every year, by 2020 medical knowledge is estimated to double every seventy-three days.”

Michael J Stephen, Breath Taking

Those numbers are insane. It’s basically impossible to keep up with science.

Fortunately, though, we know breathing (and sleep, exercise, meditation, etc.) has been used for millennia to improve mental and physical health.

Maybe we don’t know all the science, but that’s ok. We can just try it out, find what works for us, and enjoy the timeless (and timely) wisdom of the breath.

3. Two Steps to Get the Most of Your Breathwork

In The Art of Possibility, they have two steps for their practice of “giving way to passion.” I think they apply perfectly to breathing (or basketball, yoga, etc.):

“1. The first step is to notice where you are holding back, and let go. Release those barriers of self that keep you separate and in control, and let the vital energy of passion surge through you, connecting you to all beyond.

2. The second step is to participate wholly. Allow yourself to be a channel to shape the stream of passion into a new expression for the world.”

They sound a little idealistic and new-age, but that’s the point : )

4. Our Greatest Weapon Against Stress

Our greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one breath over another.

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P.S. This is a play on a William James quote I saw on Insight Timer: “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”



1 QUOTE

““Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.””
— Marie Forleo

1 ANSWER

Category: Stress and Health

Answer: Counterintuitively, this (also referred to as “nature’s fundamental survival mechanism”) can be therapeutically harnessed to boost immune function.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is short-term psychophysiological stress?

In good breath,

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

P.S. same girl

Now Available:

THE BREATHING FOR DIABETES SELF-PACED WORKSHOP

If you enjoy my work, or just like geeking out on breathing, I’m confident you’ll love the workshop (diabetes or not).

It’s packed with practical and helpful information, including:

  • 11 bite-sized key concepts on all things breathing

  • A 40-min Wim Hof and Diabetes Mini Masterclass (if you’re interested in WHM, I think you’ll find a lot of information in here you’ve probably never seen before, unrelated to diabetes)

  • A PDF of 100 inspiring breathing quotes

  • A Breath Matching worksheet to grow your practice

  • A simple plan for implementing what you learn (that actually works)

And if you don't like it, it’s 100% refundable, so you have nothing to lose.

P.S. If you purchased the live workshop back in March, you’ll see the updated presentations when you log in now.

 
 

* 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.