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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.”
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.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
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.
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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.