mental health

,

Finding Answers Within, Tree Tops, and How to Breathe for Joy

,

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 Breathe for Joy

“To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that the alteration of respiration is sufficient to induce emotion.”

- Respiratory Feedback in the Generation of Emotion

This groundbreaking study (21 years ago 😊) was the first to find that breathing in specific ways can induce the corresponding emotional state. Meaning we can change our breath to change how we feel.

For example, to elicit joy, they told participants to “Breathe and exhale slowly and deeply through the nose; your breathing is very regular and your ribcage relaxed.”

Try it for ~2 minutes and see how you feel 🙏

***

P.S. If you want to learn more about breathing & emotions, sign up for my upcoming 4-week course, Breathing for Better Mental & Emotional Health: Click Here to Learn More

2. Finding Answers to Life’s Most Pressing Questions

“An athlete gets herself into trouble when, instead of listening to her body and its intuitions, she begins to worry about what her competitors are doing and tries to “outwork” them. The answers to the most pressing questions that athletes face in their day-to-day quest for improvement (“Should I push? Should I back off?”) lie within them.”

– Matt Fitzgerald, How Bad Do You Want It?

I believe this idea applies to all of life, not just athletics: Nine times out of ten, the answers to the most pressing questions we face in our quest for continuous improvement lie within us.

3. How to Deal with Life’s Storms (according to Thich Nhat Hanh)

“When a storm comes up in you, get out of the treetop and go down to the trunk for safety. Your roots start down at your abdomen, slightly below the navel…Put all your attention on that part of your belly, and breathe deeply. Don’t think about anything, and you’ll be safe while the storm of emotions is blowing. Practice this every day for just five minutes, and after three weeks, you’ll be able to handle your emotions successfully whenever they rise up.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Breath

I love this analogy. The next time we’re dealing with an emotional storm, we’ll be wise to remember to “get out of the treetop and go down to the trunk for safety.” 👏👏👏

4. Your Breathing Style Determines Your Stability in All of Life

“The larger point is that someone’s breathing style gives us insight into their broader stability strategy, the set of patterns that they have evolved over the years to help them get by in the physical world. All of us have these strategies and 95% of the time…they work fine. But once you add different stressors…those strategies, those instinctive physical reactions, can create problems. And if our respiration is also taxed, those other problems will be magnified.”*

– Peter Attia, MD, Outlive

Although Dr. Attia is discussing the role of breathing for physical stability, isn’t it amazing that this idea is equally applicable to mental, emotional, and spiritual steadiness too?

Our breathing style determines our stability in all of life.

1 Quote

“By consciously slowing down the breath and making it rhythmic so that consciousness is not disturbed by it, we can achieve corresponding tranquility.””
— Hiroshi Motoyama

P.S. I found that great quote here.

1 Answer

Category: Breathing & Emotions

Answer: Nasal breathing stimulates this part of the brain, which communicates with emotional areas like the amygdala and hippocampus.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the olfactory bulb?

In good breath,

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


P.S. here’s my go to lazy meal

Get iCalm 20% Off

Try out the iCalm Relaxation Shot. It’s a perfect modern complement to our contemplative practices 🙏

Use the code NICK20 to get 20% off.

Get the iCalm Relaxation Shot

 
 

* 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.

 
,

Better Mental Health, Letting Go with Gratitude, and Is This Healing?

,

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. Breathing for Better Mental and Emotional Health


“The information presented is interesting and inspiring. The power of conscious breathing can't be overstated. I've benefited physically, mentally and spiritually from taking this course.”

– Tina Gilbertson (May 2023 Class)


A reminder that I’ll be running a 4-week Breathing for Better Mental & Emotional Health Course starting August 20th (session recordings available for those who can’t attend live).

In addition to the positive anecdotal feedback I received, the May 2023 class achieved a 35% reduction in stress:

 
 


The Three Skills You’ll Learn:

  1. Mindful Breath Awareness (Week 1)

  2. Mindful Slow Breathing (Weeks 2 & 3; Week 3 is my favorite)

  3. Remembered Wellness & Wholeness (Week 4)

You can sign up for just $195 before 11:59 p.m. EST on August 4th.

I hope you’ll consider joining 🙏

Click Here to Learn More and Enroll

(Use discount code EARLY100 if it’s not already applied.)

2. Mindfulness and The Everlasting Audience Effect

The Audience Effect: ‘The effect of passive onlookers or spectators on an individual's task performance.’

I think we could argue that mindfulness creates an everlasting audience effect of one. And it always changes your behavior for the best, because the one onlooker is the most important of all: you.

3. Your Seatbelt for Everyday Life

“It’s like when you’re flying in an airplane. Whenever severe turbulence comes along, the seatbelt keeps you from getting thrown around the cabin. Mindful breathing is your seatbelt in everyday life—it keeps you safe here in the present moment.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Breath

Experiencing any turbulence in your life?

(Of course you are, you’re human 😊)

Just remember: “Mindful breathing is your seatbelt in everyday life—it keeps you safe here in the present moment.” < — 👏👏👏

4. Something That Helped Me Tremendously This Week

What Helped: Letting go while cultivating gratitude.

This was inspired by How Bad Do You Want It?, which I read and immediately re-read because it was so good.

A lesson I took from it was that the greatest athletes learn to let go of winning and instead experience gratitude for being able to compete in their chosen sport. (Paradoxically, this is how they end up winning.)

Of course, we’re all endurance athletes in the sport of life, so we can use this approach as well. I’ve consciously adopted it in two practices:

  1. While doing my morning walks

  2. While doing my morning breathing

If you feel so inspired, try it out in any activity you do:

  1. Let go of winning or any desired outcome you have.

  2. Cultivate gratitude that you’re able to perform the action.

1 Quote

“What if learning how to inhabit silence and stillness and awareness—especially when you do so with kindness, with patience, and with self-compassion—is itself healing?””
— Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D.

1 Answer

Category: Stress Hormones

Answer: Consistent practice of diaphragmatic breathing has been shown to reduce levels of this primary stress hormone.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is cortisol?

In good breath,

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


P.S. Since I didn’t win the Mega Millions…

Get iCalm 20% Off

Try out the iCalm Relaxation Shot. It’s a perfect modern complement to our contemplative practices 🙏

Use the code NICK20 to get 20% off.

Get the iCalm Relaxation Shot

 
 

* 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.

 
,

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

,

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).

  1. HHPF: Best account for breathing studies.

  2. abc.breathworkforkids: One of the coolest accounts out there if you have kids or work with them.

  3. jaozolins: Brings life-changing wisdom to life with elegant yet simple designs (I could look at these posts all day).

  4. op_e__n: Beautiful designs, lots of breathing posts, and inspiring quotes.

  5. 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

* 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.

 
,

Emotional Balance, Why Mindfulness, and Moving Beyond a Calm Mind

,

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. Improve Emotional Balance with the Breath-Wind-Mind Connection

“Each time a gust of wind blows over the ocean, ripples and waves cause movement and agitation on the water’s surface. However, when the air is calm, so is the water. It is just so with the mind. The more often we breathe, the more agitated the energy of body and mind becomes. By breathing less frequently, we begin to achieve elemental harmony.”

- Anyen Rinpoche & Allison Choying Zangmo, The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

This beautiful analogy reminds us that the calmer we breathe, the more peaceful our minds. For this reason, the authors also say:

“As the [breath] is brought into balance and becomes more stable, neurotic tendencies lessen and even begin to disappear.”

Balance our breath, and we balance our emotional states.

***

P.S. Ironically, I find not balancing my breath the most balancing. For example, I often use slightly longer exhales and left-nostril breathing to elicit emotional equanimity. So play with it and find what works for you 🙏

2. The Liberating Power of Breath Awareness

“Breathing awareness is not just about calming the mind—a common assumption among meditators not familiar with this method. Rather, the breath helps you maintain full attention, enabling you to see with greater clarity and accuracy the true nature of all forms: everything that arises passes away. The implications of such insightful seeing can be profound and liberating.”

- Larry Rosenberg, Three Steps to Awakening

Here’s an excellent reminder that breath awareness—the most foundational of all mindfulness techniques—can be used to go beyond just “calming the mind.” It can help us “to see with greater clarity and accuracy the true nature of all forms.”

That sounds like a worthy goal to me 🙏

3. Why Mindfulness is a Part of All Breathing Practices

Almost all breathing practices start with breath awareness (this usually annoys me because I just want to get to the “good stuff,” lol).

But here’s why it’s so important: Without mindfulness, the benefits of the breathing practice will be minimal at best.

  • We need mindfulness to notice when we actually need breathing.

  • We need it to observe how our breathing reflects our emotions.

  • We need it to notice if the practice is actually helping in our lives.

Embrace mindfulness, and watch the power of any breathing method you use grow exponentially.

4. Abraham Maslow’s Teaching Philosophy (how can you use it?)

“Maslow viewed the role of the teacher, therapist, and parent as horticulturists, whose task is to ‘enable people to become healthy and effective in their own style.’ To Maslow, this meant that ‘we try to make a rose into a good rose, rather than seek to change roses into lilies. . .It necessitates a pleasure in the self-actualization of a person who may be quite different from yourself. It even implies an ultimate respect and acknowledgement of the sacredness and uniqueness of each kind of person.’”

- Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D., Transcend

 

I absolutely love this, especially: “We try to make a rose into a good rose, rather than seek to change roses into lilies.” 👏👏👏

How might you apply this philosophy in your life, or in your role as a teacher or parent?

Breath is Life Learning Center

Timeless Wisdom + Modern Science Made Simple to Help You Live a Better Life

Join Today.

$14.99/month or $149/year

1 Quote

“And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.””
— Rainer Maria Rilke

1 Answer

Category: Breath Awareness

Answer: Bringing awareness to your breathing uses this sense, which means something like “sensing internal signals from your body.”

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is interoception?

In good breath,

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


P.S. That is such a great deal

* 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.

 
,

How to Let Go, Breathing for Better Emotions, and Loving Life

,

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. Breathing to Reduce Negative Emotions

“In view of the close association between respiration, ANS activity, and emotions presented, it is apparent that individuals possess the ability to alter emotional states using the voluntary control of breathing and mindset.”

- Self-Regulation of Breathing as a Primary Treatment for Anxiety

 

Over the years, the most rewarding benefit of my breath practice has been better mental health. This paper helps explain why.

They propose that slow breathing alters cell excitability by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, making you physiologically less susceptible to negative emotions. That’s pretty neat.

If you’re interested, you can get all the details in the Learning Center.

***

P.S. To apply these findings in your life, consistently use virtually any slow breathing practice to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and increase overall vagal tone 🙏

2. How to Let Go: Brush Your Teeth and Heal

“Try to think of the practice as you would the daily ritual of brushing your teeth … Let your body heal itself without the interference of mind-generated doubts, criticism, and appraisals. … You wouldn’t critique your toothbrushing so don’t analyze this exercise either.”

- Herbert Benson, MD, Timeless Healing

Whether it’s breathing, meditation, or another wellness practice, a reoccurring theme I hear is that we need to let go of expectations. We need to simply perform the exercises without judgment. Judgment and self-appraisals will only take away from their healing potential.

That’s really easy to say, but harder to actually do. That’s why I love this analogy. Each time we find ourselves judging our practice, we can think: “You wouldn’t critique your toothbrushing so don’t analyze this exercise either.” Then, just get back to the practice.

Simple yet powerful 🙏

3. The Power of Breathing in Everyday Life

“[Breath] training not only results in extraordinary wisdom and realization…but it also results in ordinary worldly wisdom. When we have the qualities of calm and relaxation in body, speech, and mind, we are able to accomplish more, and with better-designed plans. We make clear and thoughtful decisions and have more harmonious relationships. We avoid doing things that are at odds with our personal goals and integrity, and do not sabotage our own growth. We avoid making impulsive decisions, or speaking impulsive words, ones we may regret later. When we lack chaos on the inside, the world outside reflects our sense of inner harmony.”

- Anyen Rinpoche & Allison Choying Zangmo, The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

This is a perfect description of how a consistent breathing practice can help our everyday lives in meaningful (yet often immeasurable) ways 👏

4. Loving Life

To genuinely fall in love with life, fall in love with breathing.

***

P.S. I know that sounds cheesy (it even feels cliche writing it), but it’s absolutely true.

Breath is Life Learning Center

“Thank you for all that you share. As a newly qualified Breath Instructor this information is vital for my learning so that I can pass this knowledge to my students.”

- Nicola

Join Today.

$14.99/month or $149/year

1 Quote

“Waking up is becoming more alive. The aliveness that’s available to all of you is already here in this moment. It’s life in the form of breathing.””
— Larry Rosenberg

1 Answer

Category: Breathing and Emotions

Answer: Contemplative practices like breathing, meditation, and yoga may influence emotions by increasing this neurotransmitter.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)?

In good breath,

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


P.S. Meditation in real life

* 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.