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Reading Time: 1 min 48 sec

I hope the next 27’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.

4 THOUGHTS

1. The Secret of an Unhurried Mind

Since achieving a calmer mind and living more in the moment are almost universal outcomes of breathing and meditation, here’s a beautiful passage to contemplate as more motivation to practice:

“But gradually I understood that living completely in the present is the secret of an unhurried mind. When the mind is not rushing about in a hurry, it is calm, alert, and ready for anything. And a calm mind sees deeply, which opens the door to tremendous discoveries: rich relationships, excellence in work, a quiet sense of joy. It was a revelation. There was a door to the discovery of peace and meaning in every moment! All I needed to open it was a quiet mind.”
– Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time

2. How Mindfulness Helps with Aging: An Alternative to Eternal Youth

“An alternative to seeking eternal youth was suggested by the famous baseball pitcher Satchel Paige: ‘Age isn’t a problem. It’s a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.’ Mindfulness practice helps us not mind so much.”
– Ronald Siegel, Psy.D., The Mindfulness Solution

Dr. Siegel says mindfulness helps us “not mind so much” by teaching us that everything changes, all we have is the present moment, our thoughts aren’t reality, and we’re all connected.

So, here’s to living more mindfully to (somewhat paradoxically) not mind the aging process 🙏

3. Bound to Have Wonderful Outcomes

“As I’m fond of saying, small tweaks lead to big changes, and a little attention goes a long way. A few minutes of slow breathing is a small tweak—perhaps just one percent of our day—and that little bit of attention to the very thing that sustains our life is bound to have wonderful outcomes.”
– Eddie Stern, Healing Through Breathing

Here’s an excellent reminder to occasionally slow down and pay attention to the very thing that sustains life—your breath. As Eddie says, it’s “bound to have wonderful outcomes.”

4. How to Infuse with Life Force

“On a very basic level, when we're consciously aware of the in-breath and the out-breath we infuse ourselves with that life force and anchor ourselves in our own deep center space.”
- George Mumford, The Mindful Athlete

So. Good.

Here’s to infusing with our life force a little more this week 👏

1 Quote

“The body is solid material wrapped around the breath.””

— Ida Rolf

P.S. Thanks to Nerissa for sharing. It’s one of my new favorite quotes.

1 Answer

Category: Lung Alveoli

Answer: Surfactant reduces this within lung alveoli, which prevents them (especially smaller alveoli) from collapsing during exhalation.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is surface tension?

In good breath,

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

P.S. They’re my new hero, too

Breath Learning Center

The goal of the breath learning center is to help you use breathing and mindfulness to become a better person. To experience more joy, love, laughter, and wholeness.

If that sounds good to you, you can learn more here.

The Breathing App for Diabetes

This is the first program specifically made for people with diabetes to help manage their stress through breathing and mindfulness practices. In addition to the amazing program inside the app, we have some really neat things coming up, so sign up now!

Learn more here.

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.

🎧 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 Age Successfully, in Just 5 Minutes

“As such, DSB [deep and slow breathing] represents a practical, low-cost exercise that can be performed anywhere in order to promote successful aging.” <—sounds good to me 😊
- Nature Scientific Reports 2021

This study found that just 5 minutes of slow breathing at 6 bpm (4 in/6 out) increased HRV and reduced anxiety in younger and older adults.

The conclusion: Breathe slower, age better.

2. Why Slowing Down Leads to Better Attention

“But when you practice moving at a speed that is compatible with human nature—and you build that into your daily life—you begin to train your attention and focus. ‘That’s why those disciplines make you smarter. It’s not about humming or wearing orange robes.’ Slowness, he explained, nurtures attention, and speed shatters it.”
- Johann Hari, (inset quote Guy Claxton), Stolen Focus

A broad range of studies shows that when we do any practice that slows us down—whether it’s breathing, yoga, or tai chi—our attention improves.

Here we learn why: we’re moving at a pace “compatible with human nature.”

Slowness nurtures attention. Speed shatters it.

3. The Confidence Cycle: How to Get Good at Breathing

In The Confidence Gap, Russ Harris provides 4 steps to “get good at doing anything” <— 🙏 Here they are, with my wording to apply them to breathing:

Practice the skills: Consistently practice the breathing techniques that interest you. You have to practice to get good—no way around it.
Apply them effectively: Test them out in real life. Apply them when you’re stressed at work, before a presentation, or before sleep.
Assess the results: Did they actually help? Did they make things worse? (I can’t tell you how many times breathing didn’t do anything for me, or how many times it was a life-saver. Find what works for you.)
Modify as needed: Make changes based on what worked well and what didn’t.

Then, of course, repeat the cycle—but only for the rest of your life : )

4. A Secret to Finding Lasting Joy with Your Breathwork Practice

One day, we’ll think we’ve found the answer to our problems with slow breathing. Then, we might become obsessed with Wim Hof. Until, of course, we discover that alternate nostril breathing is what we’ve been missing 😂

But here’s the secret: that’s actually the point. It’s the endless ways we can use our breath that make it so special.

So let’s celebrate how wonderful it is that there’s a breath for everything. That our practice can change as we change. And let’s use it in our lives in whatever way is right in this moment, happily knowing that it won’t last forever.

1 QUOTE

“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder and even ecstasy.”
- Abraham Maslow

1 ANSWER

Category: Heart Rate Variability

Answer: The discovery that pulse rate varies with the breathing cycle was first reported by Stephen Hales in this year.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is 1733?