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. Reading Can Produce Healing (my new favorite word & therapy)
“Bibliotherapy is based on the assumption that the simple act of reading can produce healing of various health conditions, including depression. The definition of bibliotherapy has broadened over the years to include using any type of reading material that is uplifting or emotionally sustaining.”
- Herbert Benson, MD, Relaxation Revolution
As someone obsessed with reading, bibliotherapy might be my new favorite word and therapy : ) However, I’ve always thought that reading alone is not enough; we must also act.
Maybe I’m wrong…
As Dr. Benson says, one study found “Therapeutic reading ranked toward the top of the interventions, along with CBT and supportive-expressive groups, as a highly effective method of decreasing depressive symptoms.” <— 🤯
I hope these 411s serve as bibliotherapy for you 🙏
2. The Relaxation Response for Stress-Related Diseases
“Taken together, the RR has been shown to be an appropriate and relevant therapeutic tool to counteract several stress-related disease processes and certain health restrictions, particularly in immunological, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases/mental disorders.”
This study found that regularly eliciting the relaxation response can counter the adverse effects of stress and serve as a free therapeutic tool in many chronic diseases, especially immunological, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative/mental disorders.
Want to use it in your life? Here’s a short video showing you how.
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P.S. If you want to use the relaxation response to conquer stress, check out the latest Science 411 on this paper or the new Book 411 on Relaxation Revolution, released this past Friday.
3. Breathing as Spiritual Headphones
Breathing exercises are like spiritual headphones: You can tune in, not bother anyone, and no one will ever know what you’re “listening” to.
4. Breathing is Self-Love, a Pre-Requisite for Loving Others
Last week, we learned that high vagal tone = high loving potential; thus, slow breathing increases our loving potential.
But the key word there is “potential:”
“While these activities do not directly create positivity resonance, they can set the table for an eventual feast of love. … They condition your mind, heart, eyes, and ears to be more prepared for positivity resonance when true connections become possible.”
- Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., Love 2.0
So, we might say that a daily breathing practice is self-love, which prepares your heart and mind to love others.
1 Quote
“We must meet hate with love. We must meet physical force with soul force.””
1 Answer
Category: Stress
Answer: When free radical production exceeds antioxidant defenses, it creates this kind of stress.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is oxidative stress?
P.S. The relaxation response helps counter this stress, too.
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
* 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.