flow

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Health & Happiness, and How to Align with Your Life Force

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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 😊

Reading Time: 1 min 33 sec

I hope the next 23’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.


4 THOUGHTS

1. You Will Receive All Benefits in Due Course

“If we commit to a twice-daily practice and give it some time to work, the benefits will be there. The beauty in this is that no matter which of the benefits we have come looking for, we will receive all of the benefits in due course – relaxation, good health and, eventually, enlightenment too.”

- Yogani, Spinal Breathing Pranayama

I love that. And although it’s referring to spinal breathing pranayama, I think it applies to any slow breathing practice: We start with the benefits we’re after and let the others come naturally with time and persistence.

2. Playing an Infinite Game

“More to the point, Richie’s lab finds that even among the meditation adepts—all of whom have put in at least 10,000 hours of practice—expertise continues to increase steadily with the number of lifetime hours.”

- Goleman and Davidson, Altered Traits

Translation: there’s no end to contemplative practice. The more you do, the more you grow.

3. Three One-Sentence Thoughts

  1. Meditation is about stopping thinking as much as breathwork is about stopping breathing.

  2. Breathing saves your life 20,000 times a day; mindfulness helps you appreciate this truth.

  3. The greatest skill in breathing (like in life) is knowing when to go with the flow, and when to deliberately change it.

4. How to Align with Your Life Force

“On a very basic level, when we’re consciously aware of the in-breath and the out-breath—or in other words, the act of inhaling and exhaling—we infuse ourselves with that life force and anchor ourselves in our own deep center space.”

- George Mumford, The Mindful Athlete

I have nothing useful to add, except for a few of these 👏👏👏

1 Quote

“Health and happiness are about being so connected to our own life force that we feel we fit into the world around us.””
— Gladys McGarey, MD

P.S. This came from The Well-Lived Life. I’m only about a third way through, but I must say it’s incredible—an absolute must-read.

1 Answer

Category: Breath and Focus

Answer: This state (often achieved through conscious breathing) involves being wholly immersed in an activity, cultivating intense focus and creativity, and losing awareness of time and self.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is flow?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Nice book. Too bad it was…

Upcoming Workshops

Saturday, December 23:

Saturday, December 30:

Coaching

Breathing & Mindfulness 1-on-1

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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Easy & Natural Resistance Breathing, Flow, and How to Fall Back Asleep

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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. How to Deal with Distraction (a method that actually works)

“I realized then that to recover from our loss of attention, it is not enough to strip out our distractions. That will just create a void. We need to strip out our distractions and to replace them with sources of flow.”

- Johann Hari, Stolen Focus

When we talk about focus, we hear a lot of the same advice. Put away your phone. Delete apps. It’s your own fault; you just need discipline.

However, Hari provides a better approach: “Seeking out flow, I learned, is far more effective than self-punishing shame.”

There are lots of ways we can do this, but my favorite is to use a focusing breathing technique to put us in a flow-like state. Then, we get to work.

Remember: Don’t shame yourself for lack of discipline. Instead, create flow.

2. Natural Resistance Breathing: Aquatic Exercise Strengthens Breathing Muscles

“The lungs are receiving a greater volume of blood as well, which, combined with the pressure that water exerts on the chest wall, makes them work harder to breathe—approximately 60% harder than on land. This means that aquatic exercise can strengthen the respiratory muscles and improve their efficiency.”

- Wallace J Nichols, Blue Mind
(I can’t recommend this book enough.)

If you don’t have a device for resistance breathing, here’s a free alternative: aquatic exercise. You get the calming effects of the water while also strengthening your breathing muscles. A natural and soothing win-win 🙏

3. Breath Counting, Worry, and Falling Back to Sleep

“Counting is handled by the same area of the brain that’s responsible for worrying. It’s difficult to do both at the same time, so counting is exceptionally effective at crowding out stress, calming a busy brain, and enhancing focus.”

- Leah Lagos, Psy.D., Heart Breath Mind

It’s hard to count and worry at the same time. So, when we wake up, and our minds start worrying about things, breath counting is particularly helpful.

Here’s how to use it: simply count in your head each time you exhale. Count up to 10, and then restart at one until you fall asleep. Simple & highly effective.

4. Great-Great-Grandchildren & the Ultimate Goal

“When we’re shooting hoops, my grandson—John Wooden’s great-great grandson—will use the backboard on a shot and say, ‘That’s what Paw-Paw wanted me to do.’”

- Jim Wooden, Foreword to Organize Tomorrow Today

After reading this, my new life goal is to have my great-great-grandchildren breathing through their noses, saying, “that’s what paw-paw wanted me to do.”

Maybe it’s not breathing for you, but it’s fun to ask yourself this question: What do you want your great-great-grandchildren doing because of the life you lived?


1 QUOTE

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
— Maya Angelou
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing Reflexes

Answer: This reflex, bearing two people’s names, is generally what prevents the lungs from over-inflating.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is the Herring-Breuer reflex?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Tom Reasonable

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.