November 6, 2023

How to Actually Increase Well-Being, Waves, and the Power of Breathwalk

November 6, 2023

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Reading Time: 1 min 23 sec

I hope the next 21ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.

4 THOUGHTS

1. Without Wind, There Would Be No Waves

Imagine if we tried to understand ocean waves by studying the internal makeup of the water (without first examining the winds).

Yet we often try to understand the body by looking at all its intricate details (without first examining the breath).

Without winds, there would be no waves to study. Without breath, there would be no body to marvel.

2. The Well-Being Equation

In this eloquent equation (created by philosopher Arne Næss), “glow” refers to passion or fervor. It’s squared. This means a slight increase in glow will drown out increases in physical and mental pain.

It’s a nice reminder that, instead of always focusing on what’s bad, sometimes it’s better to simply create more good 🙏

3. There’s Something about Breathwalking

“There's something about walking to the rhythm of one's own breath, as if we can walk on and on, into the horizon and beyond.”
- Annabel Streets, 52 Ways to Walk

This book had an excellent chapter on the power of breathwalking (called “Afghan walking”). The above quote summarizes it nicely: By synchronizing our breath and steps, we feel we can walk forever.

Give it a try next time you walk around the office or to and from your car: Inhale 4 steps, exhale 4 steps (or whatever pace is comfortable for you). Simple yet extremely powerful.

4. One Could Spend a Lifetime

“Hence it is that one can spend decades, or even a lifetime, delving into the subtleties and implications of the process of breathing.”
– Science of Breath

Thank you for joining me on this seemingly endless journey 🙏

1 Quote

“So the problem is not so much to see what nobody has yet seen, as to think what nobody has yet thought concerning that which everybody sees.” ”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

1 Answer

Category: The Nose

Answer: This represents the natural congestion of one nostril and reciprocal decongestion of the other occurring throughout the day.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the nasal cycle?

In good breath,

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

P.S. a quick hack for reading

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Not trying to sound salesy, but if you haven’t tried iCalm yet, you should. It’s amazing. I take 1/2 shot with my coffee and absolutely love it. So much so that it’s the first time I’ve ever become an affiliate. We have the same mission, but different approach (and they are honestly some of the nicest people on the planet running it).

Use discount code NICK20 for 20% off.

Amazon Associate Disclosure

I’ve been recommending books for almost 6 years. Yet somehow, I just discovered that I could be an Amazon affiliate [face-palm]. In any case better late than never. Now, any Amazon link you click is an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. So, if you’d like to support my work, buying books through these links is helpful : )

* 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.

Nicholas Heath

April 18, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

Better Under Stress, Wim Hof’s Joy, and a Protocol based on 29 Studies

Nicholas Heath

April 18, 2022

weekly email, Batch 8

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4 Thoughts

1. Micro Breathing Moments—Cliché but True

“Try stopping, sitting down, and becoming aware of your breathing once in a while throughout the day. It can be for five minutes or even 5 seconds…Then, when you're ready to move, moving in the direction your heart tells you to go mindfully and with resolution.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are

It’s that simple. Five seconds, 5 minutes, or anywhere in between. It’s always available if you need a quick reset and recovery.

2. Perform Better Under Stress: Another Reason to Practice Slow Breathing

“HRV is also strongly associated with our ability to perform at our best during times of increased stress or challenge. In fact, HRV is one of the best metrics of psychophysiological health and ability to perform we currently have.”
- Inna Khazan, Ph.D.
Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Research tells us that higher HRV is associated with better performance during stressful and challenging times <—sounds good to me 💪

And fortunately, training our HRV is as simple as doing some slow breathing for about 10-20 minutes a day (see next thought).

So let’s grab an app, set the pace to 4-6 breaths/min, and get started enhancing our “ability to perform at our best during times of increased stress,” today.

3. A Slow Breathing Protocol based on 29 Studies

Based on 29 studies, this systematic review gave the following guidelines for slow breathing and HRV biofeedback. You can apply these straightforward guidelines for slow breathing without biofeedback.

Best results: 4-12 supervised sessions plus daily home practice for ~20 min/day.
Minimum effective dose: One supervised practice followed by home practice for 10 min/day for 4 weeks.
During supervised practice, trainees should learn to breathe slowly without it causing stress.
Supervised practice should also include instructions to help people avoid overbreathing to compensate for the slower rate.
Use abdominal breathing with nasal inhales and pursed-lips exhales.
The breathing ratio should have a slightly longer exhale (I like the 40/60 approach: 40% inhaling, 60% exhaling).

Use them for yourself, your clients, or your loved ones 🙏

4. Two Paradoxical (but equally true) Breathing Statements

Greater lung capacity is associated with a longer life.
Taking big breaths is detrimental to your health.

Reminds me of this gem: “Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.” - George Santayana

1 QUOTE

“Life is absurd. But you can fill it with ideas. With enthusiasm. You can fill your life with joy.”
- Reinhold Messner

Speaking of Joy…

I wrote another guest blog for Resbiotic titled The Joy of Breathwork and 3 Super Easy Ways to Be Consistent. Enjoy the 3-minute read!

1 ANSWER

Category: Wim Hof’s Joy

Answer: Scientists hypothesize that Wim’s method activates regions of the brain that release these, partially explaining why it promotes a sense of euphoria and well-being.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are endogenous opiates/cannabinoids?

In good breath,

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

P.S. the secret to a long marriage

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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.

Nicholas Heath

February 14, 2022

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Heart and Breath, plus the Best Breathing (and life) Advice I’ve Read

Nicholas Heath

February 14, 2022

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4 Thoughts

1. The Best Breathing (and life) Advice I’ve Ever Read

After reviewing tons of scientific papers, reading books, taking classes, and on & on, here’s the best breathing advice I’ve ever read:

“All this is literary, over-simpliﬁed, but we breathe as best we can.” - Samuel Beckett

We’ll never fully understand it. They’ll be inconsistent results. New discoveries. Revised approaches. But it’s all “literary, over-simplified.”

So, we just “breathe as best we can” with what we know.

***

P.S. Want the best life advice? Replace “breathe” with “live.” 🙂

2. Happy Valentine’s Day: 14 Loving Quotes on the Breath-Heart 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

Keep going…

3. Story Follows State: Change Your Breath to Change the Messages Sent to the Brain

“We live a story that originates in our on autonomic state, is sent through autonomic pathways from the body to the brain, and is then translated by the brain into the beliefs that guide our daily living. The mind narrates what the nervous system knows. Story follows state.”*
- Deb Dana, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

“The mind narrates what the nervous system knows.” <— 🤯

And the fastest way to access the nervous system? The breath.

Change your breath, change your state, change your mind, change your story.

4. What Does All of this Mean in Real Life?

“So what does this mean for us? We can use our breath whenever we experience a stressful event. […] It's the most accessible tool you have, and it's invisible. You can practice breathing for well-being no matter where you are without anyone noticing.”*
- Emma Seppälä, The Happiness Track

That’s a perfect description of what all this breathing education means in real life. Of course, it won’t fix everything, but it’s the most accessible tool we have.

Let’s make it our ally.

1 QUOTE

“The greatest thing, then, in all of education, is to make our nervous system our ally as opposed to our enemy.”
- William James

1 ANSWER

Category: Breathing and the Heart

Answer: This is the fundamental link between heart and breath, signifying the increase in heart rate during inhalation and decrease during exhalation.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)?

In good breath,

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

P.S. Really incredible what the human body is capable of

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Nicholas Heath

January 10, 2022

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Inner Resources, Better Blood Flow, and How to Focus on a Fuller Life

Nicholas Heath

January 10, 2022

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4 Thoughts

1. Here is the Fastest Way to Achieve Well-Being

“So what is the fastest way to achieve well-being? It is so close to you that it can easily be overlooked. Your breath. A rapid and reliable pathway into your nervous system, dedicated to helping you regain your optimal state.”
- Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., The Happiness Track

This is beautifully and perfectly said. Nothing to add here 🙏

2. On Sailboats, HRV, and Developing Your Inner Resources

“Developing inner resources is like deepening the keel of a sailboat so that you're more able to deal with the worldly winds—gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and slander—without getting tipped over into the reactive mode. Or at least you can recover more quickly.”
- Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Neurodharma

Although Dr. Hanson is talking about inner resources in general, this is an excellent analogy for why improving HRV via slow deep breathing is so helpful: it’s like deepening the keel of your physiological sailboat.

You will still be hit by life’s storms, but with higher HRV, you’ll remain steadier and recover quicker. We could say, then, that deep breathing = deep keel.

3. Slow Breathing for Better Blood Flow

“When [the small] blood vessels are relaxed, more blood can flow freely through them. When they become constricted, the same amount of blood flows through a narrower space, increasing your blood pressure.”
- Inna Khazan, Ph.D., Biofeedback and Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Slow breathing activates the calming parasympathetic nervous system, which relaxes the small blood vessels, lowers blood pressure, and improves blood flow.

This is a vital benefit of slow breathing because better blood flow is necessary for, well, just about everything (especially if you have diabetes).

So if you feel so inspired, give it a shot. Sit and breathe at 5-6 breaths/min for 2 min. Feel for yourself the rapid boost in blood flow to your hands and/or feet.

***

P.S. I’ve had cold hands & feet for as long as I can remember (thanks, diabetes). Although it’s improved considerably, one of my favorite things about slow breathing is the warmth I feel in them during and after my practice.

4. Control, and How to Focus on a Fuller Life

“Even if you don't have control over the outcome of the stressful situation, you may be able to exert some control over its impact…You can't always control what you feel or think, but you can control what you do. Focus on living a full life even though you don’t have [fill in your issue]…”
- Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D., The Stress-Proof Brain

When nothing seems to work, my blood sugars still go crazy, my insulin sensitivity is off, or I don’t sleep well, I always have the breath. I have something I can control, that gives me control.

It helps me focus on living a fuller life, and I hope it does for you too 🙏

1 QUOTE

“When you own your breath, nobody can steal your peace.”
- Unknown

P.S. Like a lot of what I share, this one is a reminder to myself : ) And it’s advice I haven’t been following that well lately (facepalm).

1 ANSWER

Category: Blood Flow

Answer: Although hemoglobin is best-known for releasing oxygen, it also releases this gas, which enhances blood flow and helps the oxygen actually get where it is needed most.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is nitric oxide?

In good breath,

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

P.S. hoppity hop, hop hop hop

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Nicholas Heath

September 20, 2021

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Ujjayi isn’t Ocean, Well-Being, and Why You Should Teach “Brooklyn” Yoga

Nicholas Heath

September 20, 2021

weekly email

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This week, you’re going to learn:

That Ujjayi and Ocean breathing are different,
How to breathe for inflammation, and
A story I listened and laughed at more times than I’m proud to admit…

I hope you enjoy it!

4 Thoughts

1. Ujjayi vs. Ocean Breathing (turns out they’re different)

“Ujjayi pranayama, which is performed by lightly tightening the glottis and breathing with a whispering sound and then exhaling out of either the left or right nostril, stimulates the vagus through massaging the larynx and downregulating the sympathetic nervous system. … Ocean breath is sometimes used synonymously with ujjayi, but the two are separate practices.”
- Eddie Stern, One Simple Thing

I thought Ujjayi and Ocean breathing were the same thing. So, I found this passage fascinating (especially that Ujjayi uses an exhale through one nostril). I messaged Eddie about it, and he kindly responded with even more value.

He added that, for Ocean breathing, “the sound is made not so much by the tightening of the glottis, but by creating a continuum of pressure from the high nasal cavity, through the throat, into the thorax.”

That means there are two key differences between Ujjayi and Ocean breathing:

Ujjayi: sound comes from the glottis, and the exhale is through only one nostril.
Ocean: sound comes from the nose to thorax, and the exhale is through both nostrils.

My favorite part about breathing is continuously learning that I have so much more to learn : ) Thanks, Eddie!

***

Related: Hatha Yoga Pradipika (#51-53)

Related Quote: “The surest way to prevent yourself from learning a topic is to believe you already know it.” - James Clear

2. Slow Breathing for Oxidative Stress and Inflammation

Diabetes and its associated blood sugar fluctuations lead to chronic oxidative stress and inflammation. What can slow deep breathing do?

JACM (2011): “Diaphragmatic breathing, likely through the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system…reduces reactive oxygen species production.”
Nature (2017): “…our results lead to the hypothesis that slow breathing may exert some antioxidant effect, possibly via parasympathetic stimulation.”
PLOS One (2013): “RR [relaxation response] practice…reduced expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress-related pathways.”

Taken together, these results suggest that slow breathing could be a simple and effective way to reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in diabetes.

But you don’t need diabetes to benefit. These two complications are present in many acute and chronic conditions, so the above results will help everyone.

3. “Why Your Breath is Connected to Your Well-Being”

“As deep breaths slow your heart rate, for example, your vagus nerve recognizes the cues of safety and sends that information to parts of the body so they can turn off their defenses, such as those that arise from a sense of anxiety or threat.”
- Why Your Breath is Connected to Your Well-Being

This is an awesome little article on breathing and well-being, focusing mainly on the vagus nerve.

You will learn how vagal tone is connected with social situations, how compassion can increase respiratory sinus arrhythmia (a marker of vagal activity), and 4 simple ways to calm your whole body.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

4. Why You Should Start Teaching “Brooklyn” Yoga

“One new meditator kept coming to interviews with a chronic lament: ‘The breath is so boring!’
Finally, I asked him if he'd ever heard of Brooklyn yoga? He said no. I told him to close his mouth tight and close off both nostrils with his fingers. We sat that way for some time until finally he let go of his nose and gasped for air.
‘Was that breath boring?’, I said.”
- Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath

I must have listened to this story about 10 times in a row and laughed more with each one. It brilliantly captures the importance of breathing—no science or technical jargon needed.

So if anyone tells you breathing is boring, doesn’t work, or is pseudo-science, teach them a little “Brooklyn” yoga—you might just change their mind : )

***

P.S. When I ran in and told my wife the story (yes, I was excited, lol), she didn’t get the “Brooklyn” part. Neither do I, but I think that’s the point : )

1 Quote

“If one wants longevity, one should let the spirit and the breath pour into each other.”
–Tao Tsang
Translation from The Primordial Breath

1 Answer

Category: Vagus Nerve Function

Answer: Activation of the vagus nerve releases this chemical, which stimulates muscle contractions in the parasympathetic nervous system and slows the heart rate.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is acetylcholine?

In good breath,

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

P.S. No I don’t “meditate”