Hello, and Happy Monday! Welcome to another edition of The Breathing 4.1.1.
Thank you for reading this. Putting together the 411 emails each week is one of my favorite things to do, so I appreciate that you’re here reading it.
Now, on to the email. Below you’ll find 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (think "Jeopardy"). Enjoy!
4 THOUGHTS
1. Breath Practice versus Breath Training
Breath Practice: Time you spend every day performing breathing exercises that are comfortable and beneficial to you. Think of it as self-care. For me, this would include my 15 minutes of slow breathing first thing in the morning.
Breath Training: Time you spend deliberately pushing yourself to improve your breathing. For example, if you can comfortably box breathe with a 4-4-4-4 rate, you might spend some time at 5-5-5-5 rate as training.
Breath Training is always Breath Practice, but Breath Practice is not always Breath Training.
(This thought was inspired by pages 51-53 of Breathe to Perform.)
2. The Best Way to Make Your Breathing Practice Stick: Celebrate!
"Celebration will one day be ranked alongside mindfulness and gratitude as daily practices that contribute most to our overall happiness and well-being." BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits
Are you trying to make your breathing practice a habit? BJ Fogg, creator of the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, says that if he taught you his "Tiny Habits" approach, the first thing he would do is help you celebrate better.
If you spend 1 minute focused on your breath, celebrate it. If you already have a solid practice, try adding some celebration to the end.
I started doing this and love it. After my slow breathing session, I reward myself with a small celebration. After my breath holds, the same thing.
Is it cheesy? Kind of. Is it rooted in science from the leader in habit development at Stanford? Yes. Will anyone know? Nope. Give it a shot.
(See the P.S. below for a great example of celebrating the small stuff.)
3. The Best Breathing Class You Probably Haven’t Heard Of
That celebration idea came from Brian Johnson’s Optimize program (I adapted it for breathing, but it can be used in any aspect of life). If you’ve been following my work for a while, you probably know that Brian Johnson is one of my favorite teachers on the planet. Actually, he is my absolute favorite.
He has an "Optimal Breathing 101" course that is phenomenal. He combines research from all of the best books on breathing into a succinct and practical course. It’s awesome.
He also recently reviewed Breath: The New Science of A Lost Art. Again, phenomenal.
4. Why Are You "Breathing"?
"Don’t mistake the finger pointing to the moon for the moon itself." - Buddhist Saying
Let us not forget that "breathing" is only the finger.
1 QUOTE
The first "tiny habit" to build:
“Replace the habit of taking short shallow breaths into the top of the lungs with the practice of taking a full deep breath. Nearly all of the benefits begin with this one simple change.”
- Al Lee, Don Campbell, Perfect Breathing
1 ANSWER
Answer: This is the world record for the longest case of the hiccups.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy music.)
…
Question: What is 68 years?*
In good breath,
Nick
P.S. How To Celebrate.
* I found this on dozens of websites. However, I could not find an official record anywhere on Guinness (I even tried some "dorking"). So, I can’t be sure it’s 100% legitimate. But, it’s a fascinating story nonetheless!