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I hope the next 21-ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.
4 THOUGHTS
1. The Invisible Benefits of Meditation
“Often meditation works this way: we measure its value in terms of the suffering that would have happened but didn’t—thanks to the fact that we have a practice.”
- Shinzen Young, The Science of Enlightenment
A nice reminder that many of the benefits of meditation (and breath practices) are invisible because we can never know how much suffering our practice has quietly prevented.
2. A Universal Skill for Achieving Your Goals
“If you have trained your mind to give complete attention to one thing at a time, you can achieve your goal in any walk of life. Whether it is science or the arts or sports or a profession, concentration is a basic requirement in every field. And complete concentration is genius.”
- Eknath Easwaran, Take Your Time
An excellent reminder that contemplative practices help us in all domains because they train our attention, which is the prerequisite for all learning.
3. ANB to Support Learning & Retention of Motor Skills
“Our results thus uncover for the first time the remarkable facilitatory effects of simple breathing practices on complex functions such as motor memory, and have important implications for sports training and neuromotor rehabilitation in which better retention of learned motor skills is highly desirable.”
- Yadav & Mutha (2016), Nat. Sci. Rep.
I’ve shared this one a few times, but it came up in a recent conversation, so I had to share it again. Check out the IG post for a simple rundown of how alternate nostril breathing (ANB) significantly enhanced motor skill learning and retention.
4. How to Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills
“You can increase your brain power three to fivefold simply by laughing and having fun before working on a problem.”
- Doug Hall
Just an excellent reminder to laugh this week, especially when working on challenging problems 😊
1 Quote
“To know that the mind is the root of everything is to realize that we are ultimately responsible for both our own happiness and our own suffering. It is in our hands.””
1 GOOD BOOK
The Healing Power of Mediation
This excellent book explores the scientific and practical benefits of meditation. Each chapter is written by a different expert, making it fun to read. Topics include telomerase, gray matter, adaptive functioning, and emotional health. An interesting and highly recommended read.
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
“Breathing is the compound interest of health & wellness.”
P.S. all good here
Treat Yourself to Less Stress & Better Breathing
The Breathing App for Diabetes is FREE Until Jan. 1
This is the first program specifically made for people with diabetes to help manage their stress through breathing and mindfulness practices. In addition to the amazing program inside the app, we have some really neat things coming up, so sign up now!
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.