Walking: One Step at a Time

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A Smile, Perfect Advice on Methods, and I Was Happy Until this Moment

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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 😊

Reading Time: 2 min 1 sec

I hope the next 30ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.


4 THOUGHTS

1. Science of Breath: A Practical Guide

“There is no such thing as an involuntary system if the student learns to regulate the motion of the lungs. For by doing so, a vast portion of that system is brought under his voluntary control.”

– Swami Rama, Science of Breath

That is, in a nutshell, the science of breath. By controlling the breath, we gain control of involuntary processes (via our autonomic nervous system), giving us access to better physical, mental, and spiritual health 👏

***

P.S. Of course, there’s a lot more to the science of breathing. So, if you’re interested, I can’t recommend this book enough (I’m ashamed it’s taken me this long to read it). If you don’t have time to read all day, you can also sign up at BreathLearning.com to get my 6-page and 21-minute podcast summary of this one (and many others).

2. That’s a Smile of Enlightenment

“The moment you wake up, right away, you can smile. That’s a smile of enlightenment. You are aware that a new day is beginning, that life is offering you twenty-four brand-new hours to live, and that that’s the most precious of gifts.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Breath

I began doing this after reading the book, and it’s genuinely life-changing (even if it’s an awkward smile with my mouth tape, lol).

Try it tomorrow morning (or anytime, really) and see how you feel 🙏

3. Perfect Advice on Methods and Teachers

“While you practice a particular method, it can be helpful to believe that your technique—or your teacher or lineage or meditation center—is the best. You feel fortunate. This mobilizes energy and often inspires strong practice. But as you grow on the path, more ingenuity is called for. You have to become self-reliant and see what you need from moment to moment.”

- Larry Rosenberg, Three Steps to Awakening

This is so good. I love how Rosenberg acknowledges the power of believing your approach is the best…“This mobilizes energy and often inspires strong practice”…while simultaneously recognizing that it will eventually change 👏

I hope it helps you wherever you are on your path, too.

4. Our Intrinsic Wholeness is Still Here

“Wholeness and connectedness are what are most fundamental in our nature as living beings. No matter how many scars we carry from what we have gone through and suffered in the past, our intrinsic wholeness is still here…”

- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D, Full Catastrophe Living

That is all 🙏

1 Quote

“It’s a mistake to think too much about the goal and to ask too often about it. I was happy on those hikes with my parents. ... Happy until the moment when I started asking how much farther it was.””
— Erling Kagge

1 Answer

Category: Cellular Respiration

Answer: This is defined as the volume of CO2 produced divided by the volume of O2 absorbed during cellular respiration.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the respiratory quotient?

In good breath,

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


P.S. I will not be awkward today

Get Calm & Focused w/o Meditating

I take 1/2 a bottle of iCalm every morning, just before my first sip of coffee. It’s amazing.

In fact, although I don’t have much disposable income right now, I prioritize these each month because they’re so helpful.

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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Is this Amazing or Dangerous, Longevity, and How to Create More Time

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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. Yoga Breathing, Meditation, and Longevity

“By inducing stress resilience, breath work enables us to rapidly and compassionately relieve many forms of suffering.”

– Brown and Gerbarg (2009)

Here’s my take-home from this excellent narrative review 👏

Yogic breathing and meditation are complementary practices that may enhance longevity by improving nervous system health and stress resiliency, boosting emotional health, enhancing brain health, and reducing suffering associated with disasters.

***

P.S. Sign up at BreathLearning.com to get the PDF & podcast summaries for this one, and tons of other science articles & books.

2. Amazing or Dangerous? Mindful Breathing Preserves Focus After Multitasking

I’m not sure if this finding is (1) just amazing or (2) potentially dangerous, lol. But it’s too neat not to share 😊

“For instance, research at Stanford University found that if you are focused on an important project and then stop to answer a text or email, and end up browsing the web, when you finally return to your important project your focus has dimmed. It takes you some time to ramp up your concentration to the previous level. Unless you did ten minutes of mindfulness of your breath a couple of times that day—then you have little or no loss of concentration after ‘multitasking.’”

– Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., Why We Meditate

3. Affecting Deep Physical and Psychological Changes

“As the breath is the link between the body and mind, it can intervene in the activities of either level. With increased awareness and control of the subtle aspects of breathing, these interventions can affect deep physical and psychological changes.”

- John Clarke, MD, Science of Breath

Just a compelling reminder of how powerful breathing exercises and simple mindful breath awareness are. Because the breath literally and metaphorically links the body and mind, such interventions “can affect deep physical and psychological changes.” 👏

4. Don’t Have Time to Breathe or Meditate? (maybe this passage will be inspiring)

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that one saves time travelling only two hours from one point to another instead of spending eight hours on the same journey. While this holds up mathematically, my experience is the opposite: time passes more quickly when I increase the speed of travel. My speed and time accelerate in parallel. It is as if the duration of a single hour becomes less than a clock-hour. When I am in a rush, I hardly pay attention to anything at all.”

- Erling Kagge, Walking: One Step at a Time

Although this passage is about travel and walking, it applies perfectly to breathing or meditation.

By taking time out of your already busy morning to meditate or breathe, you actually create more time because you slow things down.

So, instead of thinking, “I don’t have time to do this,” think, “I create time by doing this.”

1 Quote

“Sometimes, you get lucky in life, when the most important thing you need to do turns out to also be the simplest. One example is breathing. Breathing is the most important thing we need to do in our lives, and for most of us, it is also the easiest thing we ever do. If you belong to the population of people who can breathe effortlessly, you are so lucky!””
— Chade-Meng Tan

1 Answer

Category: Nasal Drainage

Answer: These eventually go down the nasolacrimal duct, draining into your nose, often causing people to need a tissue.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are tears?

In good breath,

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


P.S. so true

I Take 1/2 Bottle Every Morning

I take 1/2 a bottle of iCalm every morning, just before my first sip of coffee. It’s amazing, and I absolutely love them.

In fact, although I don’t have much disposable income right now, I prioritize these each month because they’re so helpful.

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.