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4 Thoughts
1. Less Relaxation, More Self-Regulation
“Many people believe that biofeedback is a way to learn to relax. While it is true that you can learn to relax using biofeedback, relaxation is not the main goal. The main goal is self-regulation, which means being able to activate your nervous system most optimally for action and being able to relax and recover after the action is complete.”
- Inna Khazan, Ph.D.
The same is true for breathing without biofeedback. Of course, there are methods for relaxing (those are some of my favorites).
But, we’re ultimately learning to regulate our nervous systems so they work optimally for action, for real life. Then, we relax and recover afterward : )
2. “Rule 1: The actions of confidence come first; the feelings of confidence come later.”
“This is a key point. If we want to do anything with confidence—speak, paint, make love, play tennis, or socialize—then we have to do the work. We have to practice the necessary skills over and over, until they come naturally. If we don’t have adequate skills to do the things we want to do, we can’t expect to feel confident.”
- Dr. Russ Harris, The Confidence Gap
And if we want to feel confident we can breathe to self-regulate in any situation, we have to practice these skills over and over. Until they come naturally.
We could say: The action of breathing comes first; the good feelings and self-regulation come later.
***
P.S. We can also apply this concept to being consistent. There are plenty of days when I don’t feel like doing my breathing practice (yes, even The Breathing Diabetic has days where he doesn’t want to breathe 😂). But, I always just start. The action comes first; the motivation comes later.
3. Diverse Tactics Part 2: Breathing Hammers and Nails
“The integration of a wide variety of perspectives is necessary for a more complete understanding of the full depths of human potential, as too much focus on a single perspective runs the risk of giving a distorted view of human nature. As Maslow said, ‘I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.’”
- Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., Transcend
Building off last week, here’s another excellent reminder that we need a wide range of methods, in breathing and life, to become the best version of ourselves.
But specifically for the breath, if we only have one breathing hammer, we’ll assume every problem is a nail. Let’s be mixed-breathing artists instead : )
4. Our Lungs and the Possibilities of the World
“Our lungs developed to utilize oxygen and efficiently drive our metabolic reactions. We are aerobic creatures, and if the lungs are our most important organ, then oxygen is the most important gas in the atmosphere. […] With oxygen, the possibilities of the world opened up.”
- Michael J Stephen, MD, Breath Taking
Just an elegant reminder of how vital our lungs and oxygen are—they literally open the possibilities of the world to us 🙏
1 QUOTE
“The lung changes the breath…into food for the vital spirit.”
- Alessandro Benedetti (1497)
1 ANSWER
Category: Energy Production
Answer: Oxygen is vital because of its ability to generate ~18x more of these “energy molecules” than anaerobic fermentation.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
* 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.