life is breath

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Learn Better, 4 Gifts, and How Breathing Can Actually Change the World

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Today is a special edition of The Breathing 411.

Because today is 4/11.

It’s also World Breathing Day.

And it also happens to be my 35th birthday (to celebrate, I did one breath per minute for 35 minutes this morning <— maybe I’ll make it a new tradition 🙏).

To honor the occasion, there are 4 Free Gifts in Thought #3 below.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading.

With love,

Nick

 

🎧 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 Breathing Can Actually Change the World, in 3 Super Practical Steps

  • Step 1: Tape your mouth at night.

  • Step 2: Breathe nasally 90-95% of the day.

  • Step 3: Forget about the rest, and use your newfound energy from Steps 1 & 2 to help you do whatever you were put on this planet to do.

2. ANB Significantly Enhances Learning and Retention of New Motor Skills

“Our results thus uncover for the first time the remarkable facilitatory effects of simple breathing practices on complex functions such as motor memory”

- Deep Breathing Practice Facilitates Retention of Newly Learned Motor Skills

This 2016 study on alternate nostril breathing (ANB), published in Nature Scientific Reports, genuinely blew my mind. (See full review in Thought #3.)

Here’s what they did:

  • Participants learned a new motor skill.

  • A control group rested for 30 minutes.

  • A breathing group did 30-min of ANB.

  • Then, both groups were tested on the skill they had learned.

  • Both groups were also tested again 24-hours later.

The results showed that the ANB group significantly (it was almost ridiculous) improved the learning and retention of that skill:

  • They were significantly better at the 30-min mark.

  • They were significantly better at the 24-hour mark.

One 30-minute breathing session. One day of improved learning and retention.

3. Science 411s, Book 411s, and The Breath is Life Learning Center (4 free gifts)

To celebrate World Breathing Day, here are four gifts.

Science 411s: 4 Fundamentals, 1 Big Takeaway, and 1 Practical Application

  • Free Science 411: Deep Breathing Practice Facilitates Retention of Newly Learned Motor Skills (the paper from Thought #2 above)

  • Free Science 411: Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Improves Emotional and Physical Health and Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis

Book 411s: 4 Thoughts, 1 Quote, and 1 Idea That Will Change Your Life

  • Free Book 411: The Happiness Track: How To Apply The Science Of Happiness To Accelerate Your Success

  • Free Book 411: The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer

You can read, listen, or download them as PDFs here.

I hope you enjoy them!

4. Why We Breathe: Chemically and Spiritually

“Our drive to breathe is regulated by the medulla oblongata … When pH decreases (becomes more acidic due to the increase in CO2), chemoreceptors in the medulla send out a signal for the body to breathe. This means that our carbon dioxide levels have to rise to a sufficiently high level for our brain and body to know that it is time to take the next breath.”

- Inna Khazan, Ph.D.

It’s the perfect day to review why we breathe. So there’s the technical reason.

But breathing is a lot more than just gases. As Michael J Stephen, MD, tells us,

“That oxygen, life, and lungs all came into our world in relatively close succession is no coincidence. Only with oxygen and some means of extracting it are all things possible—thinking, moving, eating, speaking, and loving. Life and the breath are synonymous.”

So beyond chemistry, we ultimately breathe to live—to think, to move, to love. Breathing is, after all, what makes “all things possible.”


 
 
 

1 QUOTE

“It was ecstasy, it was sweet, air soughing in and all my little alveoli singing away with joy and oxygen-energy coursing through every space and particle of me.”

- Keri Hulme

 
 
 
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Body Chemical Composition

Answer: This gas is the most abundant element in the human body by mass.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is oxygen?

In good breath,

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

P.S. I’m only 35, I have my whole life ahead of me

 
 
 

* 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.

 
 

22 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas for 2022

Let’s continue the tradition this year. Here are 22 one-sentence breathing ideas to kick off 2022. Enjoy!

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Related: 21 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas for 2021

1. Demonstrations of breathing are small compared with the great thing that is hidden behind them. 

(Inspired by a Khalil Gibran Quote)

 

2. Breathing doesn’t heal you; it gives your body the environment it needs to heal itself.

 

3. We can be lost in breath, without knowing we have been breathing.

(Inspired by The Things You See Only When You Slow Down)

 

4. If you know only one breathing method, then you really know none; if you understand one breathing method, then you really know them all.

 

5. Breathing is the most direct path to practicing philosophy in our lives.

 

6. If breath is life, then optimal breathing is optimal living.

 

7. Science is timely; personal experience is timeless.

 

8. Every method works when used correctly, but no method works for everybody.

 

9. What one teacher says is essential, another will say is useless.

 

10. Breathing is a pair of leather shoes for life.

(Idea from The Tibetan Yoga of Breath)

 

11. The most practical tip for breathing is this: make it quiet and subtle. 

 

12. To breathe in a “quiet and subtle way” takes deliberate practice—effort leads to effortlessness.

 

13. Breathing may be my 70% solution but only your 20% solution.

 

14. Breathe less, sometimes more; breathe slow, sometimes fast.

 

15. We breathe through each nostril separately so they function better together as a whole.

 

16. Read about breathing but, most importantly, embody that education through practice.

 

17. Start by starting; one minute is always better than none-minutes.

 

18. A simple rule for getting started: 40% of your breath should be inhaling, 60% should be exhaling.

 

19. Holding implies tension and effort; pausing is natural and effortless.

 

20. Breath and mind are inseparable: This means you can use your breath, to change your mind, to change your breath for the better.

(A play on this line from Neurodharma: “Neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that you can use your mind, to change your brain, to change your mind for the better.”)

 

21. The goal of a breathing practice is better mindless breathing.

 

22. The joy of breathwork is breathing.

Breath as Spirit, Body and Mind, and 2 Opposing Views on Overbreathing

 
 

🎧 Listen Instead of Reading 🎧

If you enjoy listening, you can now 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. 18 “Inspiring” Quotes on Breath as Spirit and Life

“Man was created of the Earth, and lives by virtue of the air; for there is in the air a secret food of life…whose invisible congealed spirit is better than the whole earth.”

- Michael Sendivogius, 17th Century

In this post, I share 18 excellent quotes referring to the breath as life or spirit. It’s by no means comprehensive—just a few that have stuck out to me.

Enjoy!

2. Overbreathing Causes Electrolyte Imbalance

“In addition, overbreathing and the resulting pH dysregulation also lead to electrolyte imbalances … When your pH becomes too alkaline, electrolytes migrate into muscle and brain cells instead of staying in the fluid outside of those cells. As a result, you may experience muscle spasms, weakness, and fatigue.”

- Inna Khazan, Ph.D., Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life (this book is 🤯good)

I knew that overbreathing could dehydrate us, but this one was news to me. And since it’s hard to tell if you’re overbreathing without a capnometer, I think the most practical safeguard here is to simply breathe nasally, even during exercise.

3. A Different Take on Overbreathing

“Sometimes students get confused about using the breath throughout the day. They give it an inordinate amount of attention … That isn't the idea at all. The breath is a gateway into the present moment, making our attention to it greater, not less.”

- Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath

I’m an overbreather in a different way: I focus on my breathing too much. So, here’s a friendly reminder to all of us that breathing is just a tool. Let’s not give it “an inordinate amount of attention.” Just enough to make our lives richer and fuller. For most people, that’s as little as 10-20 min/day.

4. Breathing Translations—Go to the Source Yourself

You can read my thoughts on breathing (thank you 🙏). You can read what Wim Hof, Patrick McKeown, and others say. But these are just a few translations. The best thing to do is go to the original source for yourself.

And luckily, you don’t need training in any ancient languages to do your own translations. You just need the universal language of living: the breath of life.

 
 
 
 

1 QUOTE

“The good news is that through working with the breath, we actually hold the key to helping ourselves bring body and mind into balance.”

- The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

 
 
 
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing 101

Answer: This is the amount of air that moves into and out of the lungs with each breath.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is tidal volume?

In good breath,

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

P.S. try for a new high score

 
 
 

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.

 
 

Yogic Wisdom, Start with the Breath, and Will Smith’s 60/40 Rule

 
 

Listen Instead of Reading

 
 
 

4 Thoughts


1. Start with the Breath (scientists agree)

“They [breathing patterns] thereby constitute an easy but potent avenue to manipulate the whole physiological state of the organism.”

- Respiratory Feedback in the Generation of Emotion

Want to potently “manipulate the whole physiological state of the organism”? Scientists start with the breath. And that’s why, for overall health, we do too: It’s the quickest and most efficient way to positively impact every aspect of your life. It’s actually quite absurd not to start there, in my humble opinion 😊

2. The Montessori Breathing Method

“The Montessori method emphasizes both intrinsic motivation and learning through doing. In fact, for this latter reason, it’s often called “embodied education.” Don’t just read about organic farming—go out and plant a garden.”

- Steven Kotler, The Art of Impossible

Let’s apply the same principles of Montessori education (aka embodied education<—absolutely love that) to our breathwork.

Read about the methods you’re interested in. Read about how breathing affects the whole physiological state of the organism. But then, most importantly, embody that education and learn through doing. As Confucius says, “What greater joy can there be than putting into practice what you have learned?”

3. Ancient Yogic Wisdom Wins (again)

“One of the things that the yogis really seemed to understand was that this circuitry didn’t just happen in the brain, it happened globally, with messages going in both directions: TOP DOWN (brain to body) and BOTTOM UP (body to brain).  The intrinsic link between prāna and citta accounts for why the yogis insisted on breathing practices as the primary means to pacify the mind. …Breathing can effectively modulate the reactive loop, and restore us to a more coherent frame of mind.”

- Robin Rothenberg, Restoring Prāna

I have nothing to add, except for one of these 🤯 Oh, and to re-read Thought #1 on how modern science agrees with this global perspective on breathing…

4. How Breathing Makes You Prosper, Part II

“If man’s breath is prosperous, then the body prospers.”

- The Primordial Breath, Volume I

Pop quiz from last week: Do you remember what prosper literally means?

To go forward with hope.

So, if the breath is prosperous, then the body prospers (and I’ll add that the mind and spirit prosper, too). Thus, we could argue that “the whole physiological state of the organism” goes forward with hope. Sounds good to me : )

Bonus Thought: Will Smith’s 60/40 Rule with His Mom

“When I say silly stuff, it makes the world lighter for her. But she needs me to say smart stuff too. That makes her feel safe. She thinks that the only way I'll be able to survive is if I'm intelligent. She likes about a 60/40 ratio of smart to silly.”

- Will Smith, Will

This has nothing to do with breathing, but since I shared a 60/40 breathing rule last week, this passage jumped out at me. It’s an excellent approach to life : )

 
 
 
 

1 QUOTE

“Life begins with our first breath and will end after our last. To contemplate breathing is to contemplate life itself.”

- Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath

 
 
 
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing 101

Answer: The matching of air and blood flow in the lungs is known as this.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is ventilation-perfusion?

In good breath,

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

P.S. You think you can hurt my feelings?

 
 
 

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.