Choose Your Health Teachers, Relax with Box Breathing, and Be Open to New Ideas
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:
Health information is available to you everywhere. Stop getting overwhelmed by contradictory advice. Find 2-3 people and/or books that align with your interests, and stick with their advice.
We all need to find ways to relax. This is a great breathing strategy to add to your arsenal.
Be open to new ideas, new ways of thinking, new paths.
Starter Mindset Tip: Reduce the Noise
One thing we can all agree on is there is an abundance of health information available to us. This can either be seen as a good thing, or a bad thing. If you are unsure of what you want to do when it comes to your health, or how you want to do it, too much information creates a lot of noise in your mind and it turns into a bad thing. There are countless books, podcasts, articles, and websites available to you. How do you choose what to read? How do you choose who to follow? How do you decide what advice to follow? What we recommend is to find a few people and/or books to get your information from. Find reputable sources, sources that you align with, sources that talk about strategies that you are actually interested in. If you choose to listen to somebody who talks about things that do not interest you, it is time to move on to someone else. Time is a precious commodity, do not waste your time listening to someone or learning something that you do not actually see yourself doing. Stop bouncing between different sources, stop bouncing between different plans, find sources that interest you, stick to their advice, and re-evaluate in 6-12 months. Here are three podcasts and three books that we enjoy:
Podcasts Books
“Huberman Lab” by Andrew Huberman “The Comfort Crisis” by Michael Easter
“The Drive” by Peter Attia “Outlive” by Peter Attia
“The Tim Ferriss Show” by Tim Ferriss “Four Thousand Weeks” by Oliver Burkeman
Health Recipe: Relax with Box Breathing or Four, Seven, Eight Breathing
Timing: 1–10 minutes
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Serving Size: Save this for when you need to relax
Spice Level: The sweetest pepper out there
INGREDIENTS
You and your breath
REASONING AND BENEFITS
This one goes by many different names, but all versions involve slowing down your breathing and refocusing your awareness. By focusing on slowing down each component of your breath, you distract your body out of a stress response and into a calmer state. This technique can also optimize oxygen delivery by increasing efficiency of the heart and lungs. Like many others we have discussed, this is a calming breathing technique. We have intentionally included numerous calming recipes in this book. Try them all out, find the ones that you enjoy the most, and add those to your regular routine. We are here to give you options, not tell you exactly what to do.
INSTRUCTIONS
Choose either option A (box breathing) or B (four, seven, eight breathing).
A: Inhale for 4 seconds. B: Inhale for 4 seconds.
A: Hold your breath for 4 seconds. B: Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
A: Exhale for 4 seconds. B: Exhale for 8 seconds.
A: Hold your breath for 4 seconds. B: Hold your breath for 4 seconds.
A: Repeat. B: Repeat.
PRO TIP: This is another great one to have at the ready if those stress levels are creeping up. Take a couple minutes, do some box or four, seven, eight breathing and see where it takes you. Hopefully to relaxation land!
*Longer exhalations will lead to higher levels of calmness. Push the exhale to 6 or 8 seconds in the box breathing once you are comfortable with 4 seconds.
**Breath work does not have to be hard or time consuming; even a couple minutes will go a long way.
***Have this at the ready to get out of stressful situations or before sleep to help you get those Zs.
Dessert Quote:
“Seeking means to have a goal. But finding means to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal.” — “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse p. 149
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 being open to new discoveries and new ways of life:
Hesse, H. (2024). Siddhartha. ببلومانيا للنشر والتوزيع.
