breath-heart

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Flourishing, Four (more) Reminders, and Get More Brain Power

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Listen Instead of Reading

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Reading Time: 1 min 47 sec

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


4 THOUGHTS

1. Breathing for a Generous and Purposeful Life

“Life is movement, and our breath keeps us going every minute of the day…To bring awareness to that, and to begin to harness that power of movement towards understanding who we are, why we are here, and what we should be doing to live a purposeful, generous, grateful life, is all part of the practice of pranayama.”

– Eddie Stern, Healing Through Breathing

How good is that? Here’s to bringing awareness to the life-giving gift of breathing so we can direct it toward “understanding who we are, why we are here, and what we should be doing to live a purposeful, generous, grateful life.” 🙏

2. Flourishing Under Stress

“But as stress researchers realize, full health is more than just the absence of disease. It means a dynamic harmony of body and mind which allows us to live at our full physical, emotional, and spiritual potential. ... Instead of trying simply to survive stress, we should aim at flourishing under it, making use of anything life brings.”

– Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness

And happily, this is precisely what breathing and meditation do: help build our resilience so we can flourish under stress and make use of anything life brings 🙏

3. Four Reminders of the Breath’s Power for the Heart

1. “You know that our breathing is the inhaling and exhaling of air. The organ which serves for this is the lungs which lie round the heart. Thus breathing is a natural way to the heart.” - Nicephorus the Solitary

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

3. “Happiness lies in your own heart. You only need to practice mindful breathing for a few seconds, and you'll be happy right away.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

4. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, which is, of course, my diaphragm.” - Jill Miller

4. Increase Brain Power with this “Breathing Exercise”

“You can increase your brain power three to fivefold simply by laughing and having fun before working on a problem.”

– Doug Hall

👏👏👏

1 Quote

“Breath is the beginning, the end, and the tether between us all…It’s the wiring between all living organisms that proves we’re not separated or disconnected, but rather that we are being routed through the same network.””
— Finnian Kelly

1 Answer

Category: Ancient Breathing

Answer: This, a combination of two words, refers to the lengthening, expanding, or directing of the vital life force via controlled respiration.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is pranayama?

In good breath,

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

P.S. imagine all the people 🎵

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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.

 
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The Best Morning Breathing Exercise, Air Candy, and Greater Calmness

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4 THOUGHTS


1. Air Candy

Gratitude turns an ordinary breath into air candy.

2. The Best Morning Breathing Exercise

The best morning breathing exercise is a good night’s sleep.

P.S. I had a few nights of poorer-than-normal sleep and noticed that my morning breathing was nowhere near as enjoyable or effective. Which inspired this purposefully playful sentence : )

3. Greater Calmness: How to Choose Effective Responses in Stressful Situations

“When we are mindful of our breathing, it automatically helps us to establish greater calmness in both the body and the mind. Then we are better able to be aware of our thoughts and feelings…And with this awareness comes a feeling of having more room to move, of having more options, of being free to choose effective and appropriate responses in stressful situations rather than losing our equilibrium and sense of self as a result of feeling overwhelmed, thrown off balance by our own knee-jerk reactions.”

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

Beautifully said 👏👏👏

So the next time we need to choose an effective & appropriate response in a stressful situation, let’s first tune into our breath to “establish greater calmness in both the body and the mind,” allowing us to move forward with clarity.

4. This Will Help You in Anything You Set Out to Do

“Working memory is where you hold a goal in mind so you can move toward it. By goal…I mean the micro-intentions and deliberate aim of having a desired outcome for each and every task you engage in—all the decisions, planning, thinking, actions, and behaviors you do over the course of a day: anything you set out to do.”

– Amishi P. Jha, Ph.D., Peak Mind

Based on this description, having good working memory is pretty crucial since it plays a role in “anything you set out to do.”

But it’s relevant here because a 2022 study found that slow breathing significantly improves working memory.

Putting it together: By improving working memory, slow breathing may potentially help you with anything you set out to do 👏

1 Quote

“At this very moment, whether you know it or not, each breath happens right here and right now. Little by little the question becomes, Are you intimate with this breath just as it is?””
— Larry Rosenberg

1 Answer

Category: Breath-Heart Connections

Answer: The heart is connected to this muscle via the pericardium, which is a fluid-filled sac surrounding the heart.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is the diaphragm?

In good breath,

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


P.S. It’s a common problem.

The Garlic Breath of the Week

Here is the most-liked post this past week.

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

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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!

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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.)

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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.

 

Breath & Heart: 14 Loving Quotes on the Heart-Breath Connection

 

1. “Happiness lies in your own heart. You only need to practice mindful breathing for a few seconds, and you'll be happy right away.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh

 

2. “You know that our breathing is the inhaling and exhaling of air. The organ which serves for this is the lungs which lie round the heart. Thus breathing is a natural way to the heart.”

- Nicephorus the Solitary

 

3. “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

 

4. “Recitation of the rosary, and also of yoga mantras, slowed respiration to almost exactly 6/min, and enhanced heart rate variability”

- Bernardi et al. 2001*

 

5. “when you inhale, your heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute) naturally rises; when you exhale, it slows down again. This is true for everyone.”

- Leah Lagos

 

6. “Exhales slow the heart rate; the longer we spend on the outbreath, the more the nervous systems relaxes.”

- Emma Seppälä

 

7. “Your respiratory and cardiovascular systems are designed to work in synchrony. […] Your breathing acts as a stimulus for the heart. In physics, this kind of relationship between your breathing and your heart rate is called resonance, a property of a system where two oscillating components interplay with each other, producing increases in oscillation amplitude.”

- Inna Khazan

 

8. “These waves seem to oscillate around 0.1 Hertz. When we inhale and exhale at that rate, our respiration has the potential to optimize the rhythm of various mechanisms and align them with our heart rate. ‘When you breathe at that same rate, it’s like pushing the swing at the perfect moment,’ Noble says.”

- Timothy Meinch

 

9. “If you found that your heart beats faster when you breathe in than when you breathe out, you are correct.  You have discovered that every breath you take affects your heart rate.”

– Drs Patricia Gerbarg and Richard Brown

 

10. “These practices demonstrate that the mind and the heart follow the lungs, not the other way around.”

- Michael J. Stephenson

 

11. “The heart itself rests on the dome of the diaphragm […] Each time the diaphragm moves, it tugs on the heart.  Imagine a game of balloon toss, with the heart gently bounced on this elastic trampoline, rocked with each breath, approximately 20,000 times a day.”

- Robin Rothenberg

 

12. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, which is, of course, my diaphragm.”

- Jill Miller

 

13. “Slowing the breath down activates the prefrontal cortex and increases heart rate variability, which helps shift the brain and body from a state of stress to self-control mode. A few minutes of this technique will make you feel calm, in control, and capable of handling cravings or challenges.”

- Kelly McGonigal

 

14. “There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there’s another way; a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.”

- Rumi

Footnote:

Reference for #4: Bernardi L, Sleight P, Bandinelli G, Cencetti S, Fattorini L, Wdowczyc-Szulc J, Lagi A. Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms: comparative study. BMJ. 2001 Dec 22-29;323(7327):1446-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1446. PMID: 11751348; PMCID: PMC61046.