Inspiration, Recharging Our Batteries, and How to Float Through Life

1. Inspiration from the Environment

“Studies of brainwaves during breathing suggested that the strongest effect of synching up with breathing rate comes on an in-breath. It sounds a bit cheesy, but it’s also true: when we breathe, we are literally taking inspiration from the environment and the subtle clues that it contains.”

– Caroline Williams, Move

How cool is that? Inhaling synchronizes our brainwaves because it’s literally our way of receiving subtle clues from the environment. This means that information coming from breathing gets special attention in the brain…which is why deliberately changing how we breathe can profoundly impact our mental and emotional states 👏

2. Recharging Our Batteries

“A lot of people also run out of energy because they forget to recharge. We need to recharge our batteries by doing retreats or other things that help us to relax, that give us pleasure and make us laugh, because we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously. We all want to lighten up, don’t we?”

– Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, The Heroic Heart

This applies not only in big ways like retreats, but perhaps even more importantly, in tiny ways—like when we have a few extra minutes to laugh, to breathe, to walk, or read. When we recharge our batteries this way, we’re better able to serve others 🙏.

3. Retreats, Frames, and How to Float Through Life

1. When life is your practice, you’re always on a retreat.

2. Any frame we put around the power of breathing won’t fit.

3. To float through life, treat laughter as your ocean.

4. Don’t Should on Yourself

“How many of us should on ourselves all the time?”

– Don Campbell, Healing Yourself with Your Own Voice

Guilty here. Let’s do our best not to “should on ourselves” this week 😊

"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."

— — Larry Rosenberg

Category: Lung Forces

Answer: When upright, blood flow is greatest in the lower portions the lungs (up to 5-fold greater) due at least partially to the effect of this ever-present force.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is gravity?

In good breath,

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

P.S. okay let’s not jump to conclusions

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