On Breathing, Moving & Stillness, and Taking an Instant Vacation

1. On Breathing No Longer Being Just Breathing

“Once you start meditating, breathing is no longer just breathing. When we start paying attention to our breathing on a regular basis, our relationship to it changes dramatically. As we have already seen, tuning in to it helps us to gather our often unfocused energies and center ourselves. The breath reminds us to tune in to our body and to encounter the rest of our experience with mindfulness, in this very moment.”

– Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living

2. On How Being Around Water (or nature) Enhances Your Practice

“Water’s amazing influence does not mean that it displaces other concerted efforts to reach a mindful state; rather, it adds to, enhances, and expands.”

“This is the huge advantage of water: you don’t need to meditate to take advantage of its healing effects because it meditates you.”

– Wallace J Nichols, Blue Mind

3. On Moving to Find Stillness

1. “We need to move to be still, and only from that place of stillness can we move well.” – Caroline Williams

2. “Without a balance between physical activity and meditation, for instance, we may become irritable or restless. Exercise…can help to solve some of the problems that come as you descend in consciousness.” – Eknath Easwaran

3. “In order to understand the dance, one must be still. And in order to truly understand stillness, one must dance.” – Attributed to Rumi

4. On Vacation (and the best breathing exercise)

“Laughter is an instant vacation.”

– Milton Berle

"As the breath goes, so goes the body."

— — Larry Rosenberg

Category: Lung Adaptations in Marine Mammals

Answer: To prevent decompression sickness (the “bends”) during deep dives, some marine mammals have the ability to do this to their lungs.

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(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

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Question: What is collapse their lungs?

In good breath,

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

P.S. but there are downsides too

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