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I hope the next 24’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.
4 THOUGHTS
1. The Most Empirically Supported Way
“The most empirically supported way that contemplative practices confer their psychological and physiological benefits is by lowering threat arousal through shifting the autonomic nervous system to parasympathetic dominance via slowed and/or regulated breathing.”
- Crosswell et al. (2024), Psychological Review
Of course, contemplative practices go beyond breathing, drawing upon mind and body to uniquely benefit each person who practices.
But, this is a powerful scientific statement. It reminds us that because breath is both our spirit—the essence of our being—and our direct connection to the nervous system, it plays a key role (intentionally or unintentionally) in all contemplative practice 🙏
2. Give Your Heart and Lungs a Vacation by Practicing This
“In other words, patience is not only a mental virtue; it is an asset even for physical health. I’m sure you are aware of the way your heart races when you get impatient. Perhaps you have noticed, too, that your breathing becomes faster and more shallow. Doesn’t it seem reasonable that if you can strengthen your patience to such a degree that other people’s behavior never upsets you, your heart, lungs, and nervous system will be on vacation?”
– Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness
That does seem reasonable : ) Here’s to cultivating a little more patience so that we may give our hearts, lungs, and nervous systems a vacation every day 🙏
3. Movement
Physical activity moves your body.
A breath practice moves your spirit.
And reading timeless wisdom moves your soul.
They all need movement to stay energized and robust.
4. My Teacher is the Best
“One Zen student said, ‘My teacher is the best. He can go days without eating.’
The second said, ‘My teacher has so much self-control, he can go days without sleeping.’
The third said, ‘My teacher is so wise that he eats when he’s hungry and sleeps when he’s tired.’”
1 Quote
“When we begin to take up breathing practices, we temporarily make an involuntary, life-sustaining function voluntary, and in that can make dramatic shifts to our state of mind and the state of our nervous system.””
1 Answer
Category: The Diaphragm
Answer: To facilitate communication of vital information, the diaphragm has three major ones of these.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What are three major openings?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
P.S. worrying works!
Nurture Your True Self
“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.”
– Miles Davis
Learn to think, speak, and act in alignment with the person you want to be. Start Today.
P.S. Along with the pay-what-you-can option, I also just added a 2-day pass to make it more accessible 🙏
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!
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.