The Quickest Path to Rest, Quickest Path to Peace, and Neurodharma

1. The Quickest Path to Deep Rest

“When we create conditions that are ideal for deep rest…our breathing will often change naturally as the body adjusts. Today, we flip that. We start with the breath. When we practice the kind of breathing our body wants to do in a deep rest state, we signal to the body that it’s okay to rest. It’s okay to let go. … Breathing, it turns out, can be the quickest, most direct path to deep rest. When you can’t go to a retreat, you can bring the retreat to you. And all you need is your breath.”

— Elissa Epel, Ph.D., The Stress Prescription

Your weekly reminder to “bring the retreat to you” using the power of slow breathing.

2. The Quickest Path to Peace

“Most things in life are out of our control. This is not to say that we should give up because we can’t control our lives; it’s quite the opposite. The path to peace is not to pursue certainty but to relax into uncertainty. To surrender to the ebbs and flows of life and accept things as they are instead of how you think they should be. It’s not about trying to force things to happen a certain way but about trusting that you will be okay no matter what happens.”

— Joseph Nguyen, Don’t Believe Everything You Think

Nothing to add 👏

3. Can You Have an Experience You Don’t Experience?

“To have any meaningful experience, you must be able to focus on it, at least a bit. Otherwise, are you really having it at all? Can you have an experience you don’t experience? The finest meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant might as well be a plate of instant noodles if your mind is elsewhere.”

— Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

As ridiculously obvious as that quote is, it’s a good reminder of why contemplative practices work: They help us actually experience the things we’re experiencing.

4. Real Life Is the Training Ground

“No type of mental training or therapy that is conducted in street clothes can match the power of lived experience to spur the development of effective coping skills.”

— Matt Fitzgerald, How Bad Do You Want It?

Just a reminder that the things we practice in “street clothes”—in calm, controlled environments—are just the start. Real life is where those skills get refined and made into our own.

“In truth we are always present. We only imagine ourselves to be in one place or another.”

— Attributed to Howard Cohn

In good breath,

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

P.S. a quick reset

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