April 10, 2023

5 Favorite Breathing Products, 4 Favorite Newsletters, and the Here and Now

April 10, 2023

Listen Instead of Reading

If you enjoy listening, you can subscribe to the audio version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible so you don’t even have to look at the email 😊

4 THOUGHTS

1. The Power of Breath Awareness (a joyful abiding in the here & now)

“The breath accompanies you the full length of life’s road: you learn about the body, feelings, mental formations, the mind itself, and, finally, the lawfulness of impermanence and emptiness of a substantial self.”
- Larry Rosenberg, Three Steps to Awakening

This passage beautifully highlights the power of breath awareness.

And perhaps this power is why the Buddha formally practiced mindful breathing, even after attaining enlightenment:

“Even after full enlightenment, the Buddha himself set aside personal retreat time for the practice of mindfulness of breathing, calling it ‘a joyful abiding in the here and now.’”

Here’s to using our breath to joyfully abide in the here and now a little more this week 🙏

2. Change How You Feel (almost instantaneously)

“Our breathing pattern can have an enormous effect on our psycho-physical state. This means that changing the way we breathe can literally change the way we feel, almost instantaneously. Want to be relaxed? Breathe like you already are.”
– Charlie Morley, Wake Up to Sleep

I’ve shared passages like this probably a dozen times now. But it never gets old, because it’s the most powerful part of breathing: we can almost instantaneously change how we feel anytime, anywhere.

Make sure you use this amazing gift at least once today 🙏

3. My 4 Favorite Newsletters

If you’re looking to diversify your wisdom, here are four of my favorite newsletters. There are many I enjoy, but I always read these four:

1. Light’s Daily Dose: This is my favorite one. It’s just a small inspirational wisdom nugget each day. It’s amazing. (Sign Up)

2. James Clear’s 3-2-1: You probably know this one. And of course, I copied his format ~3 years ago to create the “411” 😊 (Sign Up)

3. Brain Food: Random life-changing wisdom. A must-read every Sunday. (Sign Up)

4. Josh Spector’s Daily Email: The shortest email you’ll get. Sometimes it’s an idea, but usually a link to a cool resource. (Sign Up)

4. Five Breathing Products I Love

Although it’s hard for me to believe, people occasionally send me free breathing stuff. Here are some cool products I’ve tried and loved, in no particular order:

ResBiotic: Daily probiotic that targets the gut-lung access for better lung health. (Learn More)

Airofit: A super sophisticated resistance breathing device. (The one I use) (Here’s a cheaper Version that does same thing, just no bluetooth)

AER Filters: Gives our nose filtering a little boost. (UK store.) (If you’re in the US, you can get them on Amazon here.)

Anicca: A mindful breathing device. Don’t think it’s for sale to the public yet, but if you’re therapist of any kind, check it out. (Learn More)

BeWell “Breathing is Cool” Sweatshirt: Do yourself a favor, and go buy one of these right now. It’ll support an amazing cause, and you’ll have one of the coolest sweaters out there 🙏 (Link to Buy)

Breath is Life Learning Center

Learn & integrate different methods, philosophies, and approaches to breathing for better mental and physical health.

Join Today.

$14.99/month or $149/year

1 Quote

“May your adventures be truly great for as long as you take another breath. And may you live long as you seek to discover the wonders and the benefits that each breath has to offer in this, the journey of life.””

— Rev. Duffy Peet

1 Answer

Category: Sneezing

Answer: This reflex is characterized by successive sneezing as the result of exposure to bright light.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the photic sneeze reflex?

In good breath,

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

P.S. why do you have that thing?

* 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.

Nicholas Heath

April 3, 2023

weekly email, Batch 9

Top 5 IG Accounts, “Embreathment”, and Breathing for Emotional Health

Nicholas Heath

April 3, 2023

weekly email, Batch 9

Listen Instead of Reading

If you enjoy listening, you can subscribe to the audio version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible so you don’t even have to look at the email 😊

4 THOUGHTS

1. The “Embreathment” Illusion

“This new way of inducing a respiratory bodily illusion, called “embreathment,” revealed that breathing is almost as important as visual appearance for inducing body ownership and more important than any other cue for body agency.”
- Monti et al. (2020)

This was such an awesome, fun-to-read study (and “embreathment” is possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen in a science paper).

They used virtual reality to assess how important breathing is for “corporeal awareness,” the feeling that we own a body, we have agency over that body, and that body occupies a location in space.

As the above quote illustrates, they found that, even without conscious awareness, breathing helps us feel more body ownership and, most significantly, a sense of body agency. Pretty crazy.

Those are the most important things, but this one had tons of other neat and practical results. If you’re interested, consider signing up for the Learning Center to get the full Science 411.

2. Endlessly Ending. Endlessly Renewed

“One of the most remarkable facts of existence is under our noses all of the time. This is the Now of the present moment: endlessly ending, and endlessly renewed. Radically transient, yet always enduring.”
– Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Neurodharma

“Endlessly ending, and endlessly renewed. Radically transient, yet always enduring.”…just like each breath.

I suppose this is why humanity has always regarded breathing as our gateway to presence…because it is presence : )

3. A Thought & Action on Breathing for Better Emotional Health

Thought

We cannot control our emotions with our thoughts (at least, I’ve never been able to). We can, however, regulate them with our actions. And breathing is the most accessible action we can perform anytime to help manage our emotions.

(Related Quote: “The finding that we can change how we feel by using our breath is revolutionary.” - Emma Seppälä, Ph.D.)

Action

Stop and notice where you feel breath sensations in your body, in whatever position you are currently occupying. Note how observing the breath naturally slows it down. Do this for 1-3 breaths, and notice how much better your mind and body feel after.

This is always available to you.

4. Five Instagram Accounts I Love

Here are 5 IG accounts I genuinely enjoy, in no particular order (there are many more, but these were the first to come to mind).

HHPF: Best account for breathing studies.
abc.breathworkforkids: One of the coolest accounts out there if you have kids or work with them.
jaozolins: Brings life-changing wisdom to life with elegant yet simple designs (I could look at these posts all day).
op_e__n: Beautiful designs, lots of breathing posts, and inspiring quotes.
still.life: Awesome designs and inspirational content.

Become the Bruce Lee of Breathing

Learn & integrate different methods, philosophies, and approaches to breathing for better mental and physical health.

Join Today.

$14.99/month or $149/year

1 Quote

“Wherever you go, the breath is with you, providing an anchor. At moments that are right for you, you can turn to it just as you might turn to a good friend, to help you stay alert and cut down on the mind’s habitual, unnecessary thinking that often squanders so much energy.””

— Larry Rosenberg

1 Answer

Category: Aquatic Mammal Breathing

Answer: Dolphins can exhale air up to this fast.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is 100 mph?

In good breath,

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

P.S. I’m too witty for this class

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

Nicholas Heath

January 24, 2022

weekly email

Wim Hof vs. Slow Breathing, Part 2: The Famous Endotoxin Challenge

Nicholas Heath

January 24, 2022

weekly email

🎧 Listen Instead of Reading 🎧

If you enjoy listening, you can subscribe to the audio version on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible so you don’t even have to look at the email 😊

4 Thoughts

1. Slow Breathing = Deep Meditation?

“When researchers at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scanned the brains of experienced meditators, they discovered increased thickness in regions of the brain's cortex, or grey matter, related to focus and attention…But what's intriguing about this study is that breathing rate was used to determine how deep in meditation the subjects were able to get. The slower the breathing rate, the deeper in meditation participants became. And, the more pronounced their increase in grey matter.” *
- Leah Lagos, Heart Breath Mind

That deserves a 🤯

If slower breathing rates are a byproduct (and measure) of deeper meditation, I wonder if we can reverse engineer it…

2. The Deep Breath Hypothesis

“The Deep Work Hypothesis: The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.”
- Cal Newport, Deep Work

And similarly, this couldn’t be any truer:

The Deep Breath Hypothesis: The ability to perform deep breathing is becoming increasingly rare at precisely the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable to our physiology. Consequently, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their waking life, will thrive.

3. Wim Hof vs. Slow Breathing, Part 2: The Famous Endotoxin Challenge

I’ve called Wim Hof’s endotoxin study the “4-minute mile” of breathing.

So, you can only imagine my excitement when I found a study basically doing the exact same thing, but with slow breathing (it was perhaps the most excited I’ve ever been reading a paper, lol).

I produced an in-depth comparison of the studies here.

But, here are some of the take-home messages:

The WHM reduced fever and all other flu-like symptoms.
Slow breathing reduced headaches and eye sensitivity to light, but did not reduce fever or other flu-like symptoms (e.g., nausea and chills).
Slow breathing improved autonomic functioning as measured by HRV, suggesting participants had greater resiliency. HRV was not measured during the WHM experiment.
The WHM significantly reduced inflammatory cytokines. Slow breathing did not.
The WHM significantly increased anti-inflammatory cytokines (by up to 194%). Slow breathing did not.

There are many (many) caveats and differences between the studies, so if you’re interested, see the full write-up for more details and additional thoughts.

But based on these results, the WHM was decidedly more effective than slow breathing at reducing acute inflammation and fighting off flu-like symptoms.

4. How to Change Our Species (hint: breathe)

“And I would argue that we humans are most human when we’re improving ourselves. We, unlike any other animal, can consciously change ourselves, to improve ourselves in ways we choose. This distinguishes us from every other species alive today and, as far as we know, from every other species that has ever lived.” *
- Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool, Peak

We are the only species that can consciously change ourselves to improve in ways we choose. We’re also the only ones that can consciously change our breathing in ways we choose.

Maybe that’s a coincidence. But then again, maybe it’s not…

1 QUOTE

“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

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing Rates

Answer: These aquatic mammals breathe around 1.5 - 2.5 breaths per minute at rest.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are bottlenose dolphins?

In good breath,

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

P.S. haha anyways what’s up