#641 - Breathing Expert James Nestor
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey everybody, it's Theo Vaughn here, and I got a question. When it comes to soda, are you really picking a zero sugar cola that you actually prefer, or are you just settling for what you've always had? That's the question. And I'll say this, when it comes to taste, I find that nothing beats Pepsi Zero Sugar. But you don't just have to take my word for it, that would be ridiculous. Pepsi has been doing blind taste tests for years. No labels, no brand names, just taste. And last year they brought back the Pepsi challenge and the results were clear. 66% of people agreed and said that Pepsi zero sugar tastes better than Coca-Cola zero sugar. In fact, Pepsi Zero Sugar won in every market they tested. So if you're grabbing a Zero Sugar soda, go with the one people keep choosing when taste is the only thing that matters.
Go out and try Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Let your taste decide. Just a reminder, guys, you can now watch video versions of our episodes on Spotify as well. Today's guest is a best-selling author and scientific journalist. He's known for his expertise on breathing and breath work. He just published a new edition of his book, Breath, The New Science of a Lost Art. I'm going to learn a lot and so are you. Today's guest is Mr. James Nestor. Shut up!
James Nestor, good to see you today, brother. Thanks for having me. You bet. You have a new, a revised edition of your New York Times bestseller, Breath, the new science of a lost art. That's it. And you believe that how we breathe can change every aspect of our lives.
I don't believe this. I know this. And not every aspect, but many aspects, many aspects that people would not suspect. So it can change our athletic performance, vastly improve it. It can allow us to sleep better. It can allow us to think better, have better sex, if you're into that kind of thing. A whole bunch of other measurable improvements to our lives, and nobody's really thinking about it.
yeah, I guess it's something that we just don't think about very often. It's odd because it's happening all the time, but it's not on the front of our brains.
We don't think about it because we've evolved not to think about it, which is great. I mean, if we had to think about every single breath we were taking all the time, how awful that would be. But it works in the background and the problem is we develop really bad habits and those habits start working on the background and we don't notice that those negative breathing habits are affecting how often we get headaches, how tired we are, the amount of cavities that we're getting, on and on and on. And so people just don't think about it because they don't need to. But if they would start to and start taking conscious control of this, we know it has vast improvements. Is that why you call it a lost art?
It's a lost art, yeah, because ancient cultures, you look back in ancient Hindu cultures, ancient Chinese cultures, even ancient Native American cultures, they all celebrated breathing as a medicine. This was something they really focused on. It was as essential as the food you were eating or the amount of exercise you were getting. Yeah, because it really is a diet for your lungs. It's a diet. We get most of our energy from air.
Wow.
Not from food and not from drink, from air. I can prove this. If you hold your breath for six minutes, you're going to go unconscious, right? Your body is going to start to shut down. But you can go without food for how long? 40 days or something? You can go without water for maybe a week and a half or so. But if you go without breathing for a few minutes, you're gone.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, you don't even think about that, how crucial it is, how crucial of a supplement it is to every moment of our lives. I know you have so many amazing practices that you've taught people and I want to learn some of those. Take me a little bit through the history of breathing. Like what were some of the first cultures that really focused on breath work?
So around 2,500 years ago, ancient Hindus were doing this and they believed that if you breathed in certain way, then you could get more prana, more life force into your body.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:53
2
What is the significance of breathing according to James Nestor?
4:53–7:44
3
How does mouth breathing relate to dental health and braces?
7:44–15:55
4
What historical cultures emphasized the importance of breathwork?
15:55–23:19
5
How can breathing techniques improve athletic performance?
23:19–24:19
6
What role does breathing play in managing ADHD symptoms?
24:19–29:36
7
How does sleep quality relate to breathing habits?
29:36–36:34
8
What are some common misconceptions about breathing techniques?
36:34–1:40:36