Mind Over Meds

,

Therapeutic Mouth Breathing, Focus, and My Favorite Breathing Parable

,
 

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. How Breathing Gets You Focused: The Noradrenaline Sweet Spot

“Noradrenaline is also released, though in different amounts, during times of intense focus, curiosity, or passion, promoting the growth of new connections in the brain. Researchers…found that slow, controlled, deep breathing helps the brain nail the noradrenaline “sweet spot,” heightening attention and getting people laser focused.”

- Leah Lagos, Psy.D., Heart Breath Mind

Next time we need to get laser focused, let’s breathe slowly and deeply to hit our “noradrenaline sweet spot.” Simple and highly effective 🙏

***

Related: Why Breathing Gets You Focused (and 5 ways to do it)

2. The Best (and most therapeutic) Form of Mouth Breathing Is…

Laughter.

Lately, I’ve been spending 10-20 min/day listening to comedy. It’s my new favorite “breathing exercise” 😊

Give it a try, and enjoy a little more laughter therapy this week.

3. Why Slow Breathing Helps Reduce Blood Pressure

“The connection between stress and blood pressure is the autonomic nervous system, which regulates the tone of the smooth (involuntary) muscle that lines the walls of arteries. The sympathetic branch of that system constricts arteries, increasing blood pressure, while the parasympathetic branch relaxes them, lowering pressure.”

- Andrew Weil, MD, Mind Over Meds

Slow breathing activates the parasympathetic branch of our nervous system. As we learn here, this relaxes our arteries and lowers blood pressure.

And with regular practice, we increase the tone of the parasympathetic nervous system, leading to long-term reductions in blood pressure.

4. My Favorite Breathing Parable

From Larry Rosenberg in Breath by Breath:

“An ancient teaching from India points to this truth. There was a conference of all the human faculties, all the senses, which in the Indian tradition are six. The five senses plus the mind. As at many meetings, they first had to decide who would be in charge. Sight popped up and put in its bid, creating beautiful images that had everyone enraptured. Smell arose and created powerful and haunting aromas that left everyone tingling with anticipation. But taste could top that with astounding and delectable flavors from all the world's cuisines. Hearing created exquisite harmonies that brought everyone to tears, and the body brought on physical sensation that had everyone in ecstasy. And the mind spun out intellectual theories that took on beauty by the depths of the truth they expressed. Along came the breath, not even one of the senses, and said it wanted to be in charge. All it could present was the simple in and out breath. Not terribly impressive in the face of everything else. No one even noticed it. The other senses got into a tremendous argument about which one of them would be chosen. The breath, in its disappointment, began walking away. And the images began to fade. The tastes lost their savor. The sounds diminished. “Wait!” the senses called out. “Come back! You can lead, we need you.” And the breath came back and took its proper place.”*


1 QUOTE

“The soul is the child of the breath, and breath is the mother of the soul. Soul and breath follow each other just as form and shadow do.”
— The Primordial Breath
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Breath & Biology

Answer: Breathing is part of a larger biological idea called this, which broadly represents our ability to adapt for optimal functioning within a defined biological system.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is symmorphosis?

Extra: How to Easily & Effectively Build Breathing Exercises Into Your Daily Routine

Here’s another guest blog I wrote for ResBiotic. If you’re looking for some simple ways to include breathing into your day, I think you’ll find it helpful. Enjoy!

How to Easily & Effectively Build Breathing Exercises Into Your Daily Routine

In good breath,

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

P.S. Me neither…

Breathing for Diabetes:

If you love learning about breathing, or just want to live an overall healthier life, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

 
 

* 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.

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

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.

 
 
,

Learned Hope, Suffering vs. Peace, and a Perfect Quote on Breathwork

,
 

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. A Perfect Quote on Breathing from Dr. Andrew Weil

“Breath work—learning how to change breathing habits and practicing specific breathing techniques—has remarkable effects on physiology. It cannot cause harm, requires no equipment, and costs nothing. It can correct some cardiac arrhythmias and gastrointestinal problems, for example, and is the most effective treatment I know for anxiety, as well as the simplest method of stress reduction.”

- Andrew Weil, MD, Mind Over Meds

That is all 🤯

2. One Key Reason Breathing is So Powerful Actually Has Nothing to do with Breathing

Have you heard of learned helplessness? When we’re subjected to adversity we can’t control, we give up. Then later on, we give up in situations we can control.

However, I recently learned in Transcend that helplessness isn’t actually “learned” per se; it’s actually our default reaction to prolonged adversity.

To overcome that default, we need what Kaufman calls “learned hope:”

“the perception that [we] can control and harness the unpredictability in [our] environment.”

In my opinion, this is why breathing is so powerful. It’s not that there’s some magical breathing method out there. It’s that once we see our ability to control our body and emotions through the breath, we develop learned hope.

We believe we can retake control again. And then we do.

3. Who’s Breath Are You Focusing On? Suffering vs. Peace

When you first learn about breathing, it’s natural to notice how poorly everyone else does it. And it’s natural to want to fix them.

But let’s remember that trying to change others will lead to suffering.

Focusing on what you can control—your breath—will lead to peace.

***

P.S. This was inspired by this excellent Optimize +1.

4. What to Do If You Don’t have a Teacher

“In absence of a teacher, one is to rely on a thorough, repeated study of as many texts as available and on constant self-observation and introspection.”

- Michael Wurmbrand, The Primordial Breath, Volume II

Although there’s no substitute for a teacher, I hope this newsletter helps you in one of these three areas with your breath 🙏


1 QUOTE

“[B]reath understood as metonym for life itself, rather than as a discrete physiological process, has often acted as a philosophical first principle.”
— Arthur Rose
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Diaphragm

Answer: According to one review, the diaphragm is completely made out of this type of tissue.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is fascia?

In good breath,

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

P.S. alone time in the mornings

Breathing for Diabetes:

If you love learning about breathing, or just want to live an overall healthier life, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

 
 

* 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.

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

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.

 
 
,

Breath is Medicine, Slow Breathing in 223 Studies, and "Yes, This Is It"

,
 

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. Voluntary Slow Breathing Improves Cardio-autonomic Function in 223 Studies

“By considering the importance of the PNS for health-related issues, … these results encourage the implementation of voluntary slow breathing exercises in health-related contexts, given the low-tech and low-cost techniques they require.” (my emphasis)

-Laborde et al. (2022), Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

That was a concluding remark of a recent 2022 meta-analysis looking at 223 studies on voluntary slow breathing and cardio-autonomic function.

The improvements across all 223 studies were by no means Earth-shattering. But they were significant, with virtually no side effects. Sounds good to me 👏

2. Breath is Medicine

“Medicine and medication both derive from an ancient Indo-Iranian root meaning something like ‘thoughtful action to establish order’; the same root gives us the words measure and meditate.”

- Andrew Weil, MD, Mind Over Meds

If “medicine” means “thoughtful action,” then mindful breathing is medicine.

Let’s not forget to take our dose, today : )

3. Maybe We Should Stop Worrying About Our Feelings?

“Feelings are natural phenomena, like clouds in the sky. Or rain. There are some feelings we like, and some feelings we don’t like. Just like we talk about good and bad weather. But there's nothing we can do about them. And there's nothing that needs to be done about them. Of course, you don't ignore the weather. You don't pretend that it's not raining when it's raining. You take it into consideration, but you don't try to fix it.”*

- David Reynolds, Constructive Living

That passage blew my mind and actually changed how I live.

We often hear about letting our thoughts float by: just watch them, then come back to the breath.

Perhaps sometimes we should do the same with our feelings, too?

4. “Yes, This Is It”

“A few years ago, I was leading a meditation retreat. … At one point, a woman raised her hand and asked: “Is this it? This being with the breath thing? Isn't there something more we can do?”

[Lodro’s response was:] “Yes, this is it.”*

- Lodro Rinzler, Walk Like a Buddha

I have a problem where I’m always searching for “the next thing.” Maybe you do too? But it really just comes down to this “being with the breath thing.”

“Yes, this is it.”


1 QUOTE

“The body’s function of breathing has been regarded by most ancient esoteric religious teachings as the very handle to be used to get hold of, or obtain the control of one’s mind and body.”
— Michael Wurmbrand
 

1 ANSWER

Category: Autonomic Nervous System

Answer: Because this branch of the nervous system innervates almost every organ, any action that reduces its activity will have widespread calming benefits throughout the body.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system?

In good breath,

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

P.S. “the worst they can say is no”

Breathing for Diabetes:

If you love learning about breathing, or just want to live an overall healthier life, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

 
 

* 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.

Sign Up For The Breathing 411

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.