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4 Thoughts
1. How to Align Your Mental Posture to be More Cognitively Powerful
“There is always a mental posture, an alignment for your mind, as well as for your physical body.”
- Gurucharan Khalsa, PhD, and Yogi Bhajan, PhD, Breathwalk
“Mental posture” <— I love that.
We know that when we consciously sit or stand up straight, we feel more confident and alert. But we can also align our mental posture (say, by meditating) to help us feel more cognitively powerful, too.
So let’s pick a focal point and spend a few minutes coming back to it over & over to align and strengthen our mental posture a little more, this week. 🙏
***
P.S. I took “mental posture” somewhat out of context from how the authors were using it because I just love the wording so much : )
2. Use Less: Hypometabolism, the Relaxation Response, and “Mental Posture”
“A hallmark feature of the relaxation response is a significant decrease in the body’s oxygen consumption, or hypometabolism. … The body responds to techniques that elicit the relaxation response by downshifting your metabolism. By allowing your internal perpetual energy machine to ease off working so hard, much less fuel is needed to sustain the body in the hypo metabolic state characteristic of the relaxation response.”*
- Herbert Benson, MD, Timeless Healing
And when we practice mental posture for about 10 minutes, here’s one of the outcomes: we elicit the relaxation response. Our bodies use less energy, we feel at ease, and we set ourselves up for restoration and recovery.
As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I’ve been combining this with my slow breathing practice. I inhale, and during the exhale come back to an internal mantra (mental posture 101). It’s simple and genuinely powerful.
Give it a shot and see how it feels to shift into a hypometabolic state 🧘♂️
3. Success is Recovery: “Accomplish More than You Ever Thought Possible”
“Athletes put their bodies under stress at each training session and competition, but they are only as successful as the speed at which they recover physiologically. Your daily stresses may be different from those of an athlete, but the concept is the same. Your success is determined by the speed of your recovery. By tapping into your natural resilience through breathing and other calming exercises that activate the rest and digest part of your nervous system, you can learn to reduce stress and accomplish more than you ever thought possible.”* (my emphasis)
- Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., The Happiness Track
When you apply Thoughts #1 & 2 consistently, especially combined with slow breathing, you learn to “reduce stress and accomplish more than you ever thought possible.” Sounds good to me 😊
4. Breath is Life, Spirit, and a Divine Gift Bestowed Upon Us
“If you look up the word “spirit” in the dictionary, you will find that it comes from the Latin, spirare, meaning “to breathe.” The inbreath is inspiration; the outbreath expiration. From these come all the associations of spirit with the breath of life, vital energy, consciousness, the soul, often framed as divine gifts bestowed upon us, and therefore as aspect of the holy, the numinous, the ineffable. In the deepest sense, the breath itself is the ultimate gift of spirit.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., Wherever You Go There You Are
Just another (quite eloquent) reminder that breath is life & spirit.
Let’s use this divine gift that’s been bestowed upon us wisely. 🙏
Extra Thought: Breath is Mind: How to Be Calm, Alert, and Make Better Decisions
I wrote another guest blog for ResBiotic (which is a probiotic that targets the gut-lung axis).
It’s titled: Breath is Mind: How to Be Calm, Alert, and Make Better Decisions
It’s all about the science of the breath-mind connection. I hope you enjoy the quick 5-min read.
1 QUOTE
“When you feel your life out of focus, always return to basic of life. Breathing. No breathe, no life.”
- Mr. Miyagi (YouTube Clip)
1 ANSWER
Category: Mental Posture and Breathing
Answer: Breathing impacts this region of the brainstem, which is tied closely to our attention.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is the locus coeruleus?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
P.S. 4 new pages appear
* 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.