Work Toward Growth, Slower Breathing, and Consistency
Hi Folks! Connor and Nick here from Healthy Living With Nick and Connor. Thanks again for being on our email list, it means a lot, and we are excited to share our weekly email with you. We hope you enjoy it! Here is what we hope you take away from this one:
Stop telling yourself you cannot do something. Start believing in yourself, and work toward growth.
In our busy lives, we often find ourselves breathing out of rhythm. Start focusing on slowing down your breathing and you may just live as long as a Giant Tortoise.
Don’t skip days. If you do, don’t skip two in a row.
Starter Mindset Tip: Stop Creating Negative Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Do you ever find yourself saying that you cannot do something? Perhaps you tell yourself that you are just a person who lacks motivation, or that you can’t focus, or you can’t eat well, or you can’t exercise. There are innumerable examples of this, and we all have this unfortunate mental habit about one thing or another. When you tell yourself you can’t do something, do you think this will ever be something that you will be able to accomplish? Probably not. If you continually tell yourself that you are just a person who lacks motivation, it is very unlikely that you will improve your motivation. Stop creating these negative self-fulfilling prophecies and start working toward growth. Everything can be worked on—within reason. If you lack motivation, guess what, with practice, you will improve your motivation. If you lack focus, with practice, you will improve your focus. If you start improving the way you eat one small step at a time, you will improve how you eat. If you start moving your body a little bit at a time, you will improve your exercise. Work toward growth. Have a positive mindset centered around growth and you will be amazed at the positive changes that you will start accomplishing. Get after it.
Health Recipe: Harness Your Inner Giant Tortoise
Timing: Just 2–5 minutes of focus
Level of Difficulty: Easy to try, hard to maintain focus
Serving Size: Start with a few breaths a day
Spice Level: Mild, maybe even a little sweet
INGREDIENTS
Just you and your breath
REASONING AND BENEFITS
Breathe through your nose. Breathe slower with less volume of air. Breathe lower into your stomach. The recipe is the merging of the trifecta! This is a calming practice that will create an environment where the systems in your body are working at peak efficiency. Populations, cultures, and groups that are separated by time and space all developed similar practices and exercises requiring similar breathing patterns. The pattern is 5.5 breaths/minute, using a 5.5 second inhale and 5.5 second exhale (Nestor, 2020, p. 82). Humans discovered the benefits of breathing slowly, but other mammals also show us that low resting heart rate and slow breathing rate increase life expectancy. Giant tortoises breathe about 4 breaths/minute, and can live well over one hundred years! So, harness your inner giant tortoise, breathe a little slower, and live longer! We have all heard about the benefits of meditation. If you don't want to try meditation, slow breathing can offer the same benefits! All that is required to try this recipe is a small effort to think about your breath.
INSTRUCTIONS
Don’t feel like you have to find time to sit down and perform this recipe. Try this technique at any time throughout your day to become more aware of your breath.
Sit up straight.
Relax your shoulders and belly as you exhale.
Inhale lightly through your nose for 5.5 seconds, bringing the air down into your stomach filling the bottom of your lungs.
Without pausing, exhale softly through your nose or mouth for 5.5 seconds, bringing the belly in as the lungs empty.
Repeat at least ten times, more if you can.
PRO TIP: Try doing this while you are working, especially at your computer. It is easy to unconsciously stop breathing while you are working, which will add to your stress.
*Japanese, African, Hawaiian, Indigenous, Buddhist, Taoist, and Christian groups all developed similar prayer patterns, requiring a 5.5 second inhale and 5.5 second exhale (Nestor, 2020, p. 82).
**The more you include this practice in your everyday life, the more likely this breathing pattern will become an unconscious habit.
***Use this recipe to get your body operating at peak efficiency!
Dessert Quote:
“It’s not that hard on any given day, but the trick is you can’t skip days. Your workouts can be reasonable and still deliver results—if you don’t skip days. Your writing sessions can be short and the work will still accumulate—if you don’t skip days. As long as you’re working, you’ll get there.” — James Clear
Now we want to hear from YOU! Please let us know what you think of today’s newsletter, and send us an example of how you applied the health recipe to your life! We would love to share how you introduced this week’s recipe into your life’s unique menu. Thanks and have a great Sunday!
Sources:
Learn more about how to breathe:
Nestor, J. (2020). Breath: The new science of a lost art. Penguin.
Learn more about habit formation:
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. National Geographic Books.
