Listen Instead of Reading
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4 THOUGHTS
1. How We Breathe is Who We Are
“Breathing is about much more than simple gas exchange or even cardiorespiratory fitness. We exhale and inhale more than twenty thousand times per day, and the way in which we do so has tremendous influence on how we move our body, and even our mental state. How we breathe, as Beth puts it, is who we are.”
- Peter Attia, MD, Outlive
I have nothing useful to add here, except a few of these 👏👏👏
P.S. The Beth mentioned was one of his colleagues, Beth Lewis.
2. Science or Prayer, Medicine or Meditation
A profound aspect of breathing is that, depending on our disposition, we can treat it like science or prayer, like diet or exercise, like medicine or meditation.
And the best part: No approach is right or wrong.
3. Alternate Nostril Breathing Improves Learning & Retention
“Our findings indicated that a single 30-minute session of deep alternate-nostril breathing significantly facilitated the retention of a newly acquired motor skill. Better retention was evident immediately, as well as 24 hours after breathing practice, suggesting that such simple practices can be exploited as an effective tool to enhance both short term and somewhat longer term retention of skilled movements.”
– Deep Breathing Practice Facilitates Retention of Newly Learned Motor Skills
I’ve shared this one before. However, I revisited it recently and thought I’d share it again.
The take-home is that we can use slow alternate nostril breathing immediately after learning a motor skill to improve that skill’s short and long-term retention.
Check out these 9 slides that describe the study with images.
4. It’s Made Simple by Simplified Controls
This is a genuinely mind-blowing analogy for all breathing practices:
“For example, consider a car. We hardly give it a second thought when we climb into a car and drive off to an appointment. … All we have to do is press on the gas pedal and hold the steering wheel, and away we go. Simple, yes? No, not simple at all, but it has been made simple by virtue of the simplified controls that enable us to effortlessly transform a volatile substance, gasoline, into a speedy and safe ride to our appointment.
Pranayama is like that. In fact, all effective spiritual practice is like that. We can take complex principles of transformation found in the human nervous system and, with a series of simple procedures, apply these for great spiritual benefit.”
- Yogani, Spinal Breathing Pranayama
1 Quote
“By developing the simple profound practice of mindful breathing, you have a lifeline that ties you to every dimension of your life.””
1 Answer
Category: Breathing 101
Answer: The amount of air left after a maximum exhalation, known as this, helps to ensure the alveoli do not collapse.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is residual volume?
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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.