Breath & Heart: 14 Loving Quotes on the Heart-Breath Connection

1. “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

2. “You know that our breathing is the inhaling and exhaling of air. The organ which serves for this is the lungs which lie round the heart. Thus breathing is a natural way to the heart.”

- Nicephorus the Solitary

3. “If you would foster a calm spirit, first regulate your breathing; for when that is under control, the heart will be at peace; but when breathing is spasmodic, then it will be troubled.”

- Kariba Ekken

4. “Recitation of the rosary, and also of yoga mantras, slowed respiration to almost exactly 6/min, and enhanced heart rate variability”

- Bernardi et al. 2001*

5. “when you inhale, your heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute) naturally rises; when you exhale, it slows down again. This is true for everyone.”

- Leah Lagos

6. “Exhales slow the heart rate; the longer we spend on the outbreath, the more the nervous systems relaxes.”

- Emma Seppälä

7. “Your respiratory and cardiovascular systems are designed to work in synchrony. […] Your breathing acts as a stimulus for the heart. In physics, this kind of relationship between your breathing and your heart rate is called resonance, a property of a system where two oscillating components interplay with each other, producing increases in oscillation amplitude.”

- Inna Khazan

8. “These waves seem to oscillate around 0.1 Hertz. When we inhale and exhale at that rate, our respiration has the potential to optimize the rhythm of various mechanisms and align them with our heart rate. ‘When you breathe at that same rate, it’s like pushing the swing at the perfect moment,’ Noble says.”

- Timothy Meinch

9. “If you found that your heart beats faster when you breathe in than when you breathe out, you are correct.  You have discovered that every breath you take affects your heart rate.”

– Drs Patricia Gerbarg and Richard Brown

10. “These practices demonstrate that the mind and the heart follow the lungs, not the other way around.”

- Michael J. Stephenson

11. “The heart itself rests on the dome of the diaphragm […] Each time the diaphragm moves, it tugs on the heart.  Imagine a game of balloon toss, with the heart gently bounced on this elastic trampoline, rocked with each breath, approximately 20,000 times a day.”

- Robin Rothenberg

12. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart, which is, of course, my diaphragm.”

- Jill Miller

13. “Slowing the breath down activates the prefrontal cortex and increases heart rate variability, which helps shift the brain and body from a state of stress to self-control mode. A few minutes of this technique will make you feel calm, in control, and capable of handling cravings or challenges.”

- Kelly McGonigal

14. “There is one way of breathing that is shameful and constricted. Then there’s another way; a breath of love that takes you all the way to infinity.”

- Rumi

Footnote:

Reference for #4: Bernardi L, Sleight P, Bandinelli G, Cencetti S, Fattorini L, Wdowczyc-Szulc J, Lagi A. Effect of rosary prayer and yoga mantras on autonomic cardiovascular rhythms: comparative study. BMJ. 2001 Dec 22-29;323(7327):1446-9. doi: 10.1136/bmj.323.7327.1446. PMID: 11751348; PMCID: PMC61046.

18 "Inspiring" Quotes on Breath as Life & Spirit

Here are 18 interesting quotes referring to the breath as life or spirit. It’s by no means comprehensive—just some that have stuck out to me over the years.

Enjoy!

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1.  “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

2.  “Of course, the word spirit itself, despite all of its incorporeal and non-sensuous connotations, is directly related to the very bodily term respiration through their common root in the Latin word “spiritus”, which signified both breath and wind.”

– David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

3.  “My words come from an upright heart; my lips sincerely speak what I know. The spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

– Job 33:3-4 

4.  “The fact is that when we focus on the breath, we are focusing on the life force. 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

5.  “Among the Creek Indians of the southwest, for instance, the creator God, the only divinity equal to or exceeding the Earth and the sun in its power, is called the Master of Breath.”

–David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

6.  “Interestingly, the Greek word psyche, which we often use to indicate our mind or the emotional state of our mind, actually means soul or spirit, or most tellingly, the breath of life.”

– Eddie Stern, One Simple Thing

7.  “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.”

- Michael J. Stephen, MD, Breath Taking

8.  “Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.”

– Genesis 2:7

9.  “The air I inhale enters my body and becomes part of me. The air I exhale moves into someone else and becomes part of her. Just by looking at how the air moves, we realize we are all connected to one another, not just figuratively, but also literally.”

– Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

10.  “For breath is life, and if you breathe well you will live long on earth.”

- Sanskrit Proverb

11.  “Thus spirit = breath = life, the aliveness and power of your life, and to speak of your spirit (or soul) is to speak of the power of life that is in you.”

- Frederick Buechner

12.  “Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

13.  "Ancient Egyptian cultures also recognized the importance of the breath, the evidence of which we see today in the many ancient statues that had their noses broken off but otherwise were left untouched. This defacement was no accident, but a deliberate act by conquering groups to take the life, in this case the breath of life, away from these icons."

- Michael J. Stephen, MD, Breath Taking

14.  “Thus a great many terms that now refer to the air as a purely passive and insensate medium are clearly derived from words that once identified the air with life and awareness. And words that now seemed to designate a strictly immaterial mind or spirit are derived from terms that once named the breath as the very substance of that mystery.”

–David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

15.  “Zen Master Hogan said that the whole universe is in the breath. If you really pay attention to it, it takes you to its immaculate source.”

– Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath

16.  “Arise! the breath, the life, again hath reached us: darkness hath passed away and light approacheth.”

– Rig Veda 1:113:16

17.  “The breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.”

– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

18. “Life and respiration are complementary. There is nothing living which does not breathe nor anything breathing which does not live.”

- William Harvey, 1653, Lectures on the Whole of Anatomy

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Breathing Graffiti on 28 Famous Quotes, Sayings, and Idioms

When I wake up low at night, I sometimes use breathing to help me fall back asleep (after eating glucose, of course). Other times, I accept that I won’t be sleeping for a while, and I just let my mind wander and laugh at my thoughts.

This thought came on one such night, Thursday, March 11th, to be specific. It seemed especially cheesy, so I decided to go with it : ) Some of them I actually found pretty funny, others I had to stretch a bit…

Email me (nick@thebreathingdiabetic.com) if you have any good ones I didn’t think of so I can add them in.

Anything below #28 are user additions.

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1.  To breathe, or not to breathe: that is the question.

2.  A breath in the nose is worth two in the mouth.

3.  Don’t put all your breaths in one basket.

4.  You have to breathe it to believe it.

5.  You’ve made your bed; now breathe in it.

6.  A breath is worth a thousand words.

7.  Breathe the change you want to see in the world.

8.  Be all you can breathe.

9.  There’s a method in the breathlessness.

10.  Familiarity breathes contempt.

11.  Don’t judge a breath by its cover.

12.  This option gives us the breath of both worlds.

13.  Your breath is as good as mine.

14.  Get your breath out of the clouds.

15.  Don’t throw your breath out with the bathwater.

16.  Just in the breath of time!

17.  Sometimes, we just don’t breathe eye to eye.

18.  Birds of a feather breathe together.

19.  Every breath has a silver lining.

20.  It kills two breaths with one stone.

21.  The breath is in your court.

22.  It sounds like you need to breathe off some steam.

23.  That outfit looks like a million breaths on you.

24.  It’s time to breathe home the bacon.

25.  That’s a hard breath to crack.

26.  You’re breathing up the wrong tree.

27.  Stop breathing around the bush.

28.  Breathe smarter, not harder.

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29. All breathing in moderation, including moderate breathing.

A Breakthrough in Respiratory Physiology

Happy End of the Year,

Thank you for sharing part of your Mondays with me during 2020. Here are 4 more thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer to reflect on as we wrap up the year.

Enjoy!

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4 THOUGHTS

1. A Breakthrough in Respiratory Physiology

"We noted that the inhalation of NO led to a significant increase in nitrite and SNO-Hb. Nitrite peaked at 5 minutes and SNO-Hb peaked beyond 15 minutes, of discontinuing the NO inhalation." - Tonelli et al. (2019), PLOS ONE

Two weeks ago, we learned that inhaled NO is transported throughout the entire body. I promised to follow-up with newer research, and here it is.

This 2019 study, led by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic, found that inhaled NO increases circulating levels of SNO-Hb and nitrite. This matters because SNO-Hb is crucial to whole-body oxygenation.

The levels of inhaled NO studied here were much higher than what is produced in the nose. However, it seems likely that the NO we inhale during nasal breathing acts through this same pathway, assisting with oxygen delivery throughout the entire body. We’ll have to see what future studies show…

In the meantime, if you geek out on breathing, this represents a paradigm shift in respiratory physiology. Learn more in the full summary.

Here’s to another year of nasal breathing and continuous learning.

2. How to Begin Something New this Year

"If there’s one concept from my book I hope you embrace, it’s this: People change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad." – BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits 

Let’s remember BJ’s advice as we embark on any change in 2021. Specifically for breathing, we should remember that our practice should be natural, not burdensome. It should make us feel good, not be another source of worry.

More broadly, let’s not feel "obligated" to change, but instead, do it because it makes us feel good and improves our health. This just seems like common sense, but sometimes it takes a really smart person like BJ Fogg to state the obvious.

P.S. Do you remember BJ’s number one tip for feeling good? Celebrate. A lot.

P.P.S. Things that are hard during but make you feel good after, like workouts and cold showers, still fit into this : )

3. The Breathing Essentials and "Nice-to-Haves"

"The first section contains the essential things you need to follow…The rest are nice-to-haves. If you have the time and energy to add these things, your program will be a lot better." - CLI Guidelines

I do a lot of computer programming in my "job job." As a true nerd, I also occasionally read articles like this one in my free time. However, when I read this passage, I immediately saw how this concept could be applied to breathing.

The breathing essentials would be:

• Nose breathing

• Slow breathing

• Diaphragmatic breathing

And the nice-to-haves:

• Breath holds

• Alternate nostril breathing

• Fast & slow oscillations

• And on & on

If you focus on the essentials, you’ll be on your way to better health. Throw in a few "nice-to-haves," and your breathing program will be that much better.

4. Some Breathing Quotes to Reflect On

"Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?" - Philip G. Hamerton

I love scrolling through quotes and reading ones that pop out. If you do too, here’s a page I hope you enjoy:

Page of Quotes

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1 QUOTE

"As long as we have breath, as long as we are still conscious, we are each responsible for answering life’s questions." - Viktor Frankl

Thanks goes to Brain Pickings for this one 🙏

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1 ANSWER

Answer: In the 2 h 15 min leading up to the New Year, the average person will take approximately this many breaths.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is 2021?

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In good breath,
Nick

P.S. Post-Christmas shopping deals