trees

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Breath-Body-Brain, Easily Plant Trees, and the Heroic Heart

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Reading Time: 2 min 11 sec

I hope the next 26’ish breaths are the most nourishing of your day.

4 THOUGHTS

1. Breathing 201: The Breath-Body-Brain Link

  1. The motions involved in breathing physically move your entire body. (Fun aside, this is why fMRI scans need to remove breathing “noise,” and part of why archers often shoot at the end of an exhale: to avoid movement.)

  2. Your brain is constantly monitoring these bodily movements, so brain activity naturally synchronizes with each breath.

  3. This breath-body-brain connection may help your brain coordinate movement and sensory perception (like seeing and touching) with your breathing rhythm. Thus, breathing may help your body and brain work together more smoothly.

P.S. If you want to learn how to use this knowledge for better cognitive health, check out the upcoming Breathing for Better Brain Health workshop 🧠

2. Plant Trees While You Breathe or Meditate

My good friend, Colleen Loehr, MD, recently introduced me to the Sattva meditation app. It has an awesome feature: For every 10-day streak you have, they will plant a tree.

It’s a perfect way to link our practice to something tangible (aside from the never-ending benefits we get personally).

Sattva for iPhone

Sattva for Android

P.S. I love Insight Timer (I have an 875-day streak my ego won’t let me let go of 😂), so I simply started running both apps during my morning practice. I’ve planted two trees so far 🌳🌳

3. Slow Breathing is to Meditation What…

“When you are already happy, there is no effort in trying to smile. But when things are slowly beginning to look a little blue, when morale is sagging at the edges and people around you are beginning to irritate you, that is the time to start smiling. In the very act of smiling there seems to be some secret switch that is turned on, and somewhere inside a little fountain of joy begins to play.”

– Eknath Easwaran, The Bhagavad Gita fro Daily Living

I’ve playfully said before that “Slow breathing is to meditation what smiling is to facial expressions.” They both work fast, but sometimes a smile is an easier place to start when irritated 😊

4. An Enjoyable Way to Reshape Your Brain This Week

“Every time you take in the good, you build a little bit of neural structure. Doing this a few times a day—for months and even years—will gradually change your brain, and how you feel and act, in far-reaching ways.”

- Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Buddha’s Brain

“Taking in the good” sounds like a perfect practice to try this week (and every week) 😊

1 Quote

“This self is not some fixed body, it’s constantly changing. Every time we take a breath we’re changing. Our consciousness is always changing, too. All the chemical and physical processes in our body are also constantly changing. And yet, everything temporarily takes a form.””
— Kosho Uchiyama

1 GOOD BOOK

The Heroic Heart by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

I got this book solely because it had the best title ever, lol, and I ended up absolutely loving it. This quote sums up its core message perfectly: “The important thing is not to worry about what is going to happen to us but to create inner strength to deal with whatever does happen.”

In good breath,

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

Enjoy these posts? Donate to say thanks!


P.S. mid-year reset: let’s see where this takes me



SKY Recovery Program

My dear friend Colleen Loehr, MD, is co-teaching an online course for the SKY Recovery Program from June 7th to 9th. The course is open to anyone—people in recovery and people who have a friend or loved one with an addiction problem. The fee is only $95, so it’s an inexpensive way to learn the SKY technique for recovery and addiction. Click here to learn more about it. 🙏


The Breathing App for Diabetes

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!

Learn more here.



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.

 
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Free OA App, 60 Seconds of Joy, and Breathing Improves Cognition

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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. Slow Breathing Improves Cognition: A 2022 Study

“Finally, at the applied level, these findings may have implications for individuals looking for a quick and easy method to alter their executive functions, for example, to better execute cognitively demanding tasks in their jobs.”

- J. Psychophysiology (2022)

This recent study found that 15-min of slow breathing:

  • Improved attention control

  • Improved working memory

  • Increased cognitive flexibility

Take-home: slow breathing helps you plan, monitor, and execute your goals.

***

P.S. If you’re interested, there’s a new Science 411 for this one that goes through all the details.

2. Meditation, Yoga, and the Healing Touch of Prayer

Here’s a memorable passage from Breath, where James Nestor offers an eloquent summary of the benefits of slow breathing:

“In many ways, this resonant breathing offered the same benefits as meditation for people who didn't want to meditate. Or yoga for people who didn't like to get off the couch. It offered the healing touch of prayer for people who weren't religious.”  

 

Sounds good to me 🙏

***

P.S. Note that the key words are “in many ways”; not “in all ways.”  Breathing isn’t a one-to-one replacement for these other powerful health practices.  But, it is a nice option that covers many bases.

3. Patrick McKeown & the New Free OA App

Patrick McKeown and the Oxygen Advantage® team released a new app. It’s got a TON of guided breathing exercises and educational videos—and it’s all free!

It’s an incredible gift from someone who, after 20+ years, still loves sharing breathing with as many people as possible 🙏

Go check out the app and enjoy all of the free OA exercises.

4. Sixty Seconds of Joy

For every minute you practice conscious breathing you gain sixty seconds of joy.

***

P.S. This is a play on an Emerson quote I saw on Insight Timer: “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

1 Quote

“It is quite a striking example of evolutionary balance and beauty that the trees around us that give off oxygen and the trees in our lungs that absorb it share a similar structure.””
— Patrick McKeown

1 Answer

Category: Oxygen Carrying Capacity

Answer: Our kidneys produce this hormone to help us maintain a healthy level of red blood cells (breath holds can amplify this process to boost oxygen carrying capacity).

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What is erythropoietin?

In good breath,

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


P.S. I’ve done this writing blogs, emails, etc.

* 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.

 

Phil Jackson on Focused Breathing, Nature’s CO2 Trick, and Wisdom of Yoga

 
 

Listen Instead of Reading

 

Hey,

Here are four thoughts, one quote, and one answer for this week. Enjoy!

 
 
 
 

4 Thoughts


1. Don’t Let Your Breathing Get Featured to Death

“The answer starts with the noble intentions of engineers. Most technology and product design projects must combat feature creep, the tendency for things to become incrementally more complex until they no longer perform their original functions very well.”

- Chip and Dan Heath, Made To Stick

Breathing practices are simple. But, as humans, we tend to make things more complex. We let “feature creep” take over (guilty here). As Chip and Dan tell us, it’s an innocent process, but sooner or later, things get “featured to death.”

Feature creep can be seen in breathing in many ways—the infinite number of methods available, the untold number of bio-monitors you can wear, the countless places you can focus each breath.

These are all awesome things, and we should always be trying to improve our breathing. But, if your practice has lost its original function (relaxation, focus, etc.), then maybe it’s creeping too far.

Here’s to keeping our breathing fun and adding things that bring it more to life, not feature it to death.

***

Related Quote: “The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life because everything is pulling you to be more and more complex.” - Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia Founder

P.S. I find this to be more of an art than science with my practice. What’s “too much” for me might seem like “not enough” for you, so it’s very personalized.

2. How Nature Tricked Us into Thinking Carbon Dioxide is So Important

When you get interested in breathing, you eventually get fascinated by carbon dioxide (CO2). The more you learn, the more you feel like you’ve been duped the whole time: “Breathing is really about CO2, not oxygen.”

Everywhere you look, this makes sense:

It just seems like CO2, not oxygen, is the star of breathing.

But just when you think you have it figured out, Nassim Taleb reminds you of the brilliance of Nature:

“It is all about redundancy. Nature likes to overinsure itself. Layers of redundancy are the central risk management property of natural systems.”

- Nassim Taleb, Antifragile

Ah-ha, reading this passage through the lens of breathing, we see it is really about oxygen. Nature is just smarter than us.

Nature built in layers of redundancy to ensure we always have enough—from our perspective, it seems wasteful. But paradoxically, that wasteful appearance is precisely due to how vital oxygen is.

As Taleb says, “Redundancy is ambiguous because it seems like a waste if nothing unusual happens. Except that something unusual happens—usually.”

There’s no real practical wisdom here, just fun to consider the genius of Nature and evolution. Here’s to never-ending learning and never-ending 🤯

***

Related Quote: "And if the traveler is fortunate…the destination is two miles farther away for every mile he or she travels." - George Leonard

3. Breathe through Your Nose! Modern Research Confirms the Wisdom of the Yoga Tradition

“Quite rightly, it revealed that breathing through the nose led to a 10 – 15% higher oxidation of the blood.”

- Eddie Weitzberg, M.D. Ph.D.,

Breathe Through The Nose! Modern research confirms…

Of course, if I see an article that starts with “Breathe through the nose!” I’m going to read it and share it : )

And even better, this one was written by one of the pioneers in nasal nitric oxide research, Dr. Weitzberg. He was part of the (now somewhat famous) study showing nose breathing increases oxygen by 10-20%.

It’s a quick read and a good reminder of how powerful nasal nitric oxide is.

Enjoy!

***

P.S. Check out the 3rd paragraph in the grey box titled “Nadi Shodana – to counter asthma.” It’s the best explanation I’ve heard for pinching your nose closed on a breath hold.

4. Phil Jackson on Focused Breathing Before a Big Game

“When we made it to our banquet room, five minutes ahead of schedule, every player was already in his spot ready to sit and breathe together.”

- Phil Jackson, Foreword in The Mindful Athlete

This was the morning of Game 7 in the 2002 Western Conference Finals. The Lakers won in overtime. Phil Jackson said the players kept the same cool on the court in overtime as they had in the banquet room breathing together.

Did they win because of breathing? Of course not. But did it help? Probably.

As Phil goes on to say:

“A lot of athletes think the trick to getting better is to just work harder, but there is a great power in non-action and non-thinking. The hardest thing after all the work and all the time spent on training and technique is just being fully present in the moment.”

Focused breathing helped the Lakers achieve just that.

 
 
 
 

1 Quote

“Breathing is the only system in the body that is both automatic and also under our control. That's not an accident of nature, not a coincidence. It's an invitation, an opportunity to take part in our own nature and evolution.”

– Dr. Belisa Vranich and Brian Sabin, Breathing for Warriors

 
 
 
 

1 Answer

Category: Nature and Oxygen

Answer: Although still up for debate, it is recognized that these trees generally give off the most oxygen.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are Douglas-fir, spruce, true fir, beech, and maple?

In good breath,

Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
Diabetes is Tiny. You are Mighty.

P.S. Liked them and adopted them

 
 
 

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.

 
 

On Recovering Better and Setting A Breathing Budget

 

Welcome back to another issue of The Breathing 411. Here are 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer to end November with.

 
 
 
 

4 THOUGHTS

1. You Already Work Hard Enough—Recover Harder

"The problem in today’s corporate world, as well as in many other realms, is not hard work; the problem is insufficient recovery."

- Tal Ben-Shahar

We all work hard enough. That’s likely not the problem. In fact, it’s probably the opposite: We need to be focusing on recovery so we can continue to work hard.

One excellent way to do this is with diaphragmatic breathing.

For example, imagine taking a group of 16 endurance cyclists and having them see how far they can go in 8 hours. Then, you split them into two groups. One group performs 1 hour of diaphragmatic breathing post-event. The other group reads quietly. That’s what a study published back in 2011 did.

The outcome: The diaphragmatic breathing group showed reduced oxidative stress, reduced cortisol, increased antioxidant potential, and increased melatonin.

That is, they recovered better.

If diaphragmatic breathing reduces these stress markers in this extreme case, it seems like it would be even more useful for recovering from chronic, everyday work stress. Recover better, work better.

2. How Do You Budget Your Breathing?

"Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are."

- James W. Frick

The same can be said for your breathing. Where you spend your breath, and thus your energy, shows what your physiological priorities are. But, like money, you can set your own priorities by setting a breathing budget.

For example, suppose you would like to try out a new method that involves mouth breathing, but you also recognize the hazards of chronic mouth breathing. In that case, you might budget a small portion of breaths for that activity. Then, save the rest (especially sleep) for nasal breathing.

You can apply this idea to any technique. Make light nasal breathing the foundation of your budget (like paying your rent or mortgage) and spend your leftover "disposable breathing income" on new methods that interest you.

3. How Deep Breathing Opens Up the ADHD Brain

"So Ethan’s mother, who had used coherent breathing to calm her own anxiety, taught him how to do it. His overall behavior improved in four or five weeks, and he fell asleep without difficulty." - ADDitude Magazine

This topic is way outside my jurisdiction. But, reading this article was both inspiring and humbling as I reflected on how important this "breathing" stuff is.

I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to great friend, and new 411 reader, S.S. for sending me this article.

4. Intermittent Hypoxia Improves Immune System Function

"These responses…may serve to augment the body’s immune defenses without exacerbating inflammation."

Serebrovskaya et al. 2011, High Altitude Medicine and Biology

This paper published in 2011 found that intermittent hypoxia (IH) enhances the body’s innate immune system, increases its ability to fight infection, and had a net anti-inflammatory effect.

Although IH and breath holds are not technically the same, we can experience IH using breath holds. Thus, research like this suggests, but doesn’t prove, that breath holds might help us fight illnesses (when done safely, of course).

 
 
 
 

1 QUOTE

"It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers."

- James Thurber

 
 
 
 

1 ANSWER

Answer: The Earth has ~3.1 trillion of these organisms (or ~400 per person) that help us breathe.

…

(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)

…

Question: What are trees?

That link has a neat video of the Earth "breathing," if you’re interested.

In good breath,
Nick

P.S. "omg GO ON"