mind

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10 Fun Thoughts, Meditation in a Bottle, and Whole-Life Slow Breathing

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4 THOUGHTS


1. The Greatest Skill in Breathing (plus 9 more random thoughts)

The greatest skill in breathing (like in life) is knowing when to go with the flow, and when to deliberately change it.

Click here for 9 more random breathing thoughts and quotes.

2. “Meditation in a Bottle” (random product recommendation)

That’s a tagline of this relaxation shot by iCalm.

I stumbled upon it online, decided to buy some, and really loved them. I take one almost every afternoon now.

I have no affiliation with them…just thought it was a cool product and that maybe some of you would like it too 🙏

***

P.S. When I bought it, they sent an email questionnaire…I filled it out (it took less than a minute), and they sent me a few additional bottles for free. It might be random, but be on the lookout, just in case.

3. Whole-Life Slow Breathing

Regularly engaging in any kind of contemplative practice that slows down our breathing increases our vagal tone.

The best description I’ve read of why that’s important comes from Barbara Fredrickson, Ph.D., describing people with higher vagal tone:

“Physically, they regulate their internal bodily processes more efficiently, like their glucose levels and inflammation. Mentally, they’re better able to regulate their attention and emotions, even their behavior. Socially, they’re especially skillful in navigating interpersonal interactions and in forging positive connections with others.”

Sounds good to me. Perhaps we should call slow breathing “whole-life breathing” instead 😊

4. Nasal Breathing, Brain Oscillations, and Better Cognition

“A key implication of our data is that the nasal route of respiration offers an entry point to limbic brain areas for modulating cognitive function.”

- Zelano et al. (2016)

This study found that nasal breathing synchronizes oscillations in the piriform cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus (those last two regions are critical to emotions, memory, and behavior). This coherence leads to improved cognitive function compared to mouth breathing.

The take-home: Breathe through your nose as much as possible, especially when learning or in emotional situations, to improve brain coherence and cognitive functioning.

***

P.S. This is one of many studies I’m drawing from for the Breathing for Better Brain Health Workshop I’m hosting this Saturday for just $50.

1 Quote

“There is no single more powerful – or more simple – daily practice to further your health and wellbeing than breathwork.””
— Andrew Weil, MD

1 Answer

Category: Brain Blood Flow

Answer: Every minute, this many liters of blood flow through the brain, which is about how much a standard wine bottle holds.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is 750 ml?

P.S. I found this one in Breath by James Nestor.

In good breath,

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


P.S. ignorance is bliss

* 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.

 
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Better Learning, Life's Lifeline, and How We Breathe is Who We Are

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4 THOUGHTS


1. How We Breathe is Who We Are

“Breathing is about much more than simple gas exchange or even cardiorespiratory fitness. We exhale and inhale more than twenty thousand times per day, and the way in which we do so has tremendous influence on how we move our body, and even our mental state. How we breathe, as Beth puts it, is who we are.”

- Peter Attia, MD, Outlive

I have nothing useful to add here, except a few of these 👏👏👏

P.S. The Beth mentioned was one of his colleagues, Beth Lewis.

2. Science or Prayer, Medicine or Meditation

A profound aspect of breathing is that, depending on our disposition, we can treat it like science or prayer, like diet or exercise, like medicine or meditation.

And the best part: No approach is right or wrong.

3. Alternate Nostril Breathing Improves Learning & Retention

“Our findings indicated that a single 30-minute session of deep alternate-nostril breathing significantly facilitated the retention of a newly acquired motor skill. Better retention was evident immediately, as well as 24 hours after breathing practice, suggesting that such simple practices can be exploited as an effective tool to enhance both short term and somewhat longer term retention of skilled movements.”

– Deep Breathing Practice Facilitates Retention of Newly Learned Motor Skills

I’ve shared this one before. However, I revisited it recently and thought I’d share it again.

The take-home is that we can use slow alternate nostril breathing immediately after learning a motor skill to improve that skill’s short and long-term retention.

Check out these 9 slides that describe the study with images.

4. It’s Made Simple by Simplified Controls

This is a genuinely mind-blowing analogy for all breathing practices:

“For example, consider a car. We hardly give it a second thought when we climb into a car and drive off to an appointment. … All we have to do is press on the gas pedal and hold the steering wheel, and away we go. Simple, yes? No, not simple at all, but it has been made simple by virtue of the simplified controls that enable us to effortlessly transform a volatile substance, gasoline, into a speedy and safe ride to our appointment.

Pranayama is like that. In fact, all effective spiritual practice is like that. We can take complex principles of transformation found in the human nervous system and, with a series of simple procedures, apply these for great spiritual benefit.”

- Yogani, Spinal Breathing Pranayama

1 Quote

“By developing the simple profound practice of mindful breathing, you have a lifeline that ties you to every dimension of your life.””
— Al Lee and Don Campbell

1 Answer

Category: Breathing 101

Answer: The amount of air left after a maximum exhalation, known as this, helps to ensure the alveoli do not collapse.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is residual volume?

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In good breath,

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


P.S. This is everything I hoped for

* 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.

 
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4 Thoughts, Reaching Blissful States, and Breathing and Brain Health

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4 THOUGHTS


1. In my Brain: 4 Random One-Sentence Breathing Thoughts

  1. Slow breathing is air appreciation.

  2. Fast breathing is air intoxication.

  3. Breath holding is air imagination.

  4. And all breathing is air medicine.

P.S. Here are 10 more random thoughts people seemed to enjoy.

2. Reaching Blissful States

Discussing advanced yogis that reach elated states during meditation:

“Their remarkable meditation skills bespeak what’s technically known as a “state by trait interaction,” suggesting the brain changes that underlie the trait also give rise to special abilities that activate during meditative states.”

– Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. & Richard Davidson, Ph.D., Altered Traits

These findings mean: the longer you practice, the more your brain changes, and the more likely you are to be physiologically capable of having profound meditations. They’re a “state by trait” effect, and they’re available to all of us—we just have to keep practicing 🙏

3. Slow Yogic Breathing and Brain Health

“To our knowledge, our study is the first report demonstrating the impact of a mind–body approach such as yogic breathing to modulate CSF dynamics”

– Immediate impact of yogic breathing on pulsatile cerebrospinal fluid dynamics

This study found that slow, deep, yogic breathing increased cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow toward the brain by 16-28%.

CSF plays crucial roles in cushioning the brain & spine, delivering nutrients & hormones to the brain, and removing waste from the brain.

Thus, CSF dynamics may be one way slow breathing techniques improve brain health 👏

4. The Power of Belly Breathing

The power of belly breathing is not in making your belly move with each breath. It’s in relaxing the belly, so it naturally rises & falls with the movement of the diaphragm.

1 Quote

“That’s life: starting over, one breath at a time.””
— Sharon Salzberg

1 Answer

Category: Respiratory Pressure Changes

Answer: During inhalation, the diaphragm contracts down and increases this pressure, which may play a role in modulating CSF flow up the spine.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is intra-abdominal pressure?

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by BreathLearning.com

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In good breath,

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


P.S. I need to adopt this practice

* 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.

 
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Heart & Breath Harmony, Hidden Life, and Two Places to Put Your Breath

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4 Thoughts



1. Two Places to Put Your Breath

For thinking:

Put your breath where your mind wants to be.

For acting:

Put your breath where your heart wants to be.

***

P.S. This was inspired by Steven Pressfield’s more explicit saying : )

2. How do Slow Breathing Practices Reduce Pain? Focus & Safety

“It’s all about attention, says anesthesiologist Sam Sharar ... If we focus on a painful sensation, it will increase our experience of that pain. But if we think about something else—something safe, pleasant, far away—the pain we feel is dimmed.”

- Jo Marchant

Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind over Body

Slow breathing practices have consistently been found to reduce pain. This passage helps explain how: They give us something to focus on. And more than that, they also make us feel safe, which could be even more helpful.

And although this is referring to physical pain, I think these same mechanisms help explain why it’s so beneficial for emotional distress, too.

3. Our Somewhat Unusual Breathing Patterns During Sleep

In 1984, an editorial review on breathing during sleep had conclusions that were somewhat surprising (and opposite of what I expected):

  • Our breathing rate is variable, especially during REM sleep (I anticipated it would be slow and steady)

  • Our breathing volume is reduced significantly (by as much as 16%)

  • We frequently experience hypoxia (low O2) and hypercapnia (high CO2)

I guess we could say: The more we sleep, the less we breathe, the more we heal, and the longer we live : )

4. Taste the Hidden Life of Breathing

“There is a great difference between comprehending the knowledge of things and tasting the hidden life of them.”

- Isaac Penington

The breath itself is hidden life.

The more we practice, the more we taste it.



1 QUOTE

“We have to learn the art of breathing in and out, stopping our activities, and calming our emotions.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
 

Extra: How the Heart & Breath Work in Harmony to Improve Health & Life Span

Here’s another guest blog I wrote for ResBiotic. This one is all about the heart-breath connection. I hope you enjoy the 4-minute read!

1 ANSWER

Category: Breath & Heart

Answer: The inward curve in the left lung that makes room for the heart is also called this.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is the cardiac notch?

In good breath,

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

P.S. a button you can secretly press

Available Now:

THE BREATHING FOR DIABETES SELF-PACED WORKSHOP

If you like geeking out on breathing, or just want to live an overall healthier life, I think you’ll really enjoy this class (diabetes or not).

It’s packed with easy-to-understand science and super practical breathing advice that you can immediately start using. I hope you’ll check it out.

 
 

* 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.

 
 

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

 
 

🎧 Listen Instead of Reading 🎧

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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

 
 
 

* 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 Mind: 25 Thoughtful Quotes on the Breath-Mind Connection

 

1. “When you practice mindfulness of breathing, then the breathing is mind.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

2.  “I am as confident as I am of anything that, in myself, the stream of thinking…is only a careless name for what, when scrutinized, reveals itself to consist chiefly of the stream of my breathing.” - William James

3. “As we discover, when we pay attention to its natural rhythm, the breath becomes calm. Simultaneously, the mind quiets down. It all happens naturally. … Any force is counterproductive.” - Bhante Henepola Gunarantana

 

4. “When the mind is agitated, change the pattern of the breath.” - Patanjali

 

5. “Breath is the king of mind.” - B.K.S. Iyengar

 

6. “When the Breath wanders, the mind is unsteady, but when the Breath is still, so is the mind still.” - Hatha Yoga Pradipika

 

7. “However, when the air is calm, so is the water. It is just so with the mind. The more often we breathe, the more agitated the energy of body and mind becomes. By breathing less frequently, we begin to achieve elemental harmony.” - The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

 

8. “By controlling your breathing, you can use a voluntary mechanical behavior to make a profound change on your state of mind.” - Emma Seppälä

 

9. “So get out of your mind and into your breath because the breath is the life-force.  Not your mind, the breath.  Follow your breath, and it will lead you anywhere in your brain—and thus the mind—that you want to go.” - Wim Hof

10. “Thanks to the regulation of breathing patterns, patterns in our thinking are not just affected, but revealed, together with their entanglement with respiration.” - Marco Bernini 

11. "Messages from the respiratory system have rapid, powerful effects on major brain centers involved in thought, emotion, and behavior." - Dr. Patricia Gerbarg and Dr. Richard Brown

12. “In other words, by changing the breath pattern one can induce a chosen state of mind.” - Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati (found in Restoring Prana)

 

13. “The breath is free from greed, hatred, delusion, and fear. When the mind joins with the breath, the mind temporarily becomes free from greed, hatred, delusion, and fear.” - Bhante Henepola Gunarantana

 

14. "The breath is the intersection of the body and mind." - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

15. “Interestingly, the Greek word psyche, which we often use to indicate our mind or the emotional state of our mind, actually means soul or spirit, or most tellingly, the breath of life.” - Eddie Stern

 

16. “These practices demonstrate that the mind and the heart follow the lungs, not the other way around.” - Michael J Stephen

 

17. “The intrinsic link between prana and citta accounts for why the yogis insisted on breathing practices as the primary means to pacify the mind.  Through the breath, the ANS is directly impacted.  Breathing can effectively modulate the reactive loop, and restore us to a more coherent frame of mind.” - Robin Rothenberg

 

18. “I will breathe in, releasing the mind. … I will breathe out, releasing the mind.” - Mindfulness of Breathing Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 118)

 

19. “Just as your mind influences the breath, you can influence the state of your mind through the breath as well.” - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

 

20. “When we focus on the breath, our breathing naturally becomes calm. When the breath becomes calm, the mind and body also become calm.” - Bhante Henepola Gunarantana

 

21. “If our breathing is light and calm—a natural result of conscious breathing—our mind and body will slowly become light, calm, and clear, and our feelings also.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

 

22. “The Tibetan language describes this relationship between the wind and the mind as the wind-mind (Tib. rlung sems). This compound word describes the wind energy and the conceptual mind as always, intertwined and moving together—a singular motion.” - The Tibetan Yoga of Breath

 

23. “‘[A]ccording to the Navajo conception, then, Winds exist all around and within the individual, entering and departing through respiratory organs and whirls on the body’s surface. That which is within and that which surrounds one is all the same and it is holy.’ Finally, and most profoundly, this invisible medium in which we are bodily immersed, is what provides us with the capacity for conscious thought.” – David Abram, with inset quote from James McNeley

 

24. “When the incoming breath is offered into the outgoing breath, the outgoing breath is offered into the incoming breath, or when both are offered into the retention, the mind is purified of self-interest.” - Baba Hari Dass (found in Restoring Prana)

25. “The ‘I think’ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‘I breathe’ which actually does accompany them. Breath is the essence out of which philosophers have constructed the entity known to them as consciousness” - William James

22 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas for 2022

Let’s continue the tradition this year. Here are 22 one-sentence breathing ideas to kick off 2022. Enjoy!

***

Related: 21 One-Sentence Breathing Ideas for 2021

1. Demonstrations of breathing are small compared with the great thing that is hidden behind them. 

(Inspired by a Khalil Gibran Quote)

 

2. Breathing doesn’t heal you; it gives your body the environment it needs to heal itself.

 

3. We can be lost in breath, without knowing we have been breathing.

(Inspired by The Things You See Only When You Slow Down)

 

4. If you know only one breathing method, then you really know none; if you understand one breathing method, then you really know them all.

 

5. Breathing is the most direct path to practicing philosophy in our lives.

 

6. If breath is life, then optimal breathing is optimal living.

 

7. Science is timely; personal experience is timeless.

 

8. Every method works when used correctly, but no method works for everybody.

 

9. What one teacher says is essential, another will say is useless.

 

10. Breathing is a pair of leather shoes for life.

(Idea from The Tibetan Yoga of Breath)

 

11. The most practical tip for breathing is this: make it quiet and subtle. 

 

12. To breathe in a “quiet and subtle way” takes deliberate practice—effort leads to effortlessness.

 

13. Breathing may be my 70% solution but only your 20% solution.

 

14. Breathe less, sometimes more; breathe slow, sometimes fast.

 

15. We breathe through each nostril separately so they function better together as a whole.

 

16. Read about breathing but, most importantly, embody that education through practice.

 

17. Start by starting; one minute is always better than none-minutes.

 

18. A simple rule for getting started: 40% of your breath should be inhaling, 60% should be exhaling.

 

19. Holding implies tension and effort; pausing is natural and effortless.

 

20. Breath and mind are inseparable: This means you can use your breath, to change your mind, to change your breath for the better.

(A play on this line from Neurodharma: “Neurons that fire together, wire together. This means that you can use your mind, to change your brain, to change your mind for the better.”)

 

21. The goal of a breathing practice is better mindless breathing.

 

22. The joy of breathwork is breathing.