Breath (Feat. Kaina's Brother: Flower Dude, Genius, & Icon)

Breathing—it’s something we do every second of every day, but are we doing it wrong? According to James Nestor’s book Breath, the answer is a resounding yes. This week, we’re joined by my brother, who recommended this life-changing book to me years ago and swears by its techniques. Not only is he my oldest sibling and one of my closest friends, but he also made quite the impression at my wedding as the flower dude—strutting down the aisle with a sparkly fanny pack, tossing petals, and dancing to Britney Spears. You could say he’s pretty iconic. We're diving into Breath to explore how 90% of us are actively harming our own health by breathing incorrectly, the fascinating history of breathing and why our ancestors had it figured out, a wild experiment where Nestor plugged his nose for several days (spoiler: it didn't go well), and my brother's personal insights on utilizing these breathing methods. We’ll also discuss the book’s most shocking takeaways, practical tips you can start using today, and how something as simple as nasal breathing can transform your well-being.

• Join the conversation: Have you tried any breathing techniques from this book? How did your weekly challenge go? Share your reflections in the comments or via our social media.
• What She Said: "Expression is the opposite of depression. Go for it!" - James Nestor
• Mouth Tape: Nexcare Durapore Durable Cloth Tape
• Chewing Gum: https://www.amazon.com/Falim-100-Chewing-Gum-Damla-Sakizli/dp/B005GR1WO0
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• Microphone flags by Impact PBS
• Intro music by Cymatix
• Logo by @makariann 
• Business email: generationalteapod@gmail.com

Transcript

0:11

Oh gosh. I'm so, I'm gonna be so self-conscious about that. That's all I'm gonna be thinking about this whole time. I already am, because a lot of times my resting session in my mouth will be like partially open. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, mm-hmm. Was I just breathing through my mouth? Oh my god. I know. It's crazy. well let's get to it'cause we sure got a lot to talk about today. So welcome, welcome everybody to the Generational Tea Podcast. I'm your host Cana. And I'm Ronnie. And we actually have a little surprise guest for you guys, and it is my brother, also known as the most iconic, free spirited, and amazing genius of all time. Yes. I'm Britney Spears impersonator. Yes, that's true. That's true. I'm a, I'm a man of many talents. Yes. You are me on this. Yes you are. Can I share on our social media, the flower dude video? Oh, please do. Absolutely. Yes. I actually, I was thinking about that last night and I was like, I feel like this is the thing that would make us go viral on TikTok or something. I'm serious. It would probably do pretty well. Yes, I think it would. Yes. Let's do it. Okay. Well, yes. So my brother, instead of having a flower girl, my brother was a flower dude and he went down the aisle to Britney Spears and you know, just go check out our social media. By the time this episode airs, I'll have it posted. It's a very scandalous outfit. Scandalous, I think definitely pg. He definitely. Scandalized Rhonda's very old southern, conservative family member. Yeah, they're, they're still not over it. Okay. Well we wanted to have my brother on this podcast today because he is actually the one that recommended this book that we're gonna talk about today. And I think he recommended it to me a few years ago and I bought it and it sat on my shelf for probably two years, but finally, finally got into it and Wow. Yes. That's all I have to say. I feel like the insights in it are quite literally life changing and I have a way better understanding of how important our breathing is. So that's the book we're gonna cover today is Breath by James Nestor. So Ronnie, do you wanna share like why he ended up getting into this journey of exploring breath and what issues he had Yeah. I'm gonna read a little excerpt. those of you that are listening, you may be thinking. I don't need this book. I can skip over this. This is, does not apply. Well, let's listen to his story and, I'm just gonna read it. It, it won't take long. It says The patient arrived pale and orpi at 9:32 AM Male middle aged 175 pounds. Talkative and friendly, but visibly anxious pain, none. Fatigue. A little leveling of anxiety, moderate fears about progression in future symptoms high. Patient reported that he was raised on a modern suburban environment, bottle fed at six months and weaned on jarred commercial foods. The lack of chewing associated with this soft diet. Stunted bone development in his dental arches and sinus cavities leading to chronic nasal congestion by age 15. Patient was subsetting on even softer, highly processed foods consisting mostly of white bread, sweet fruit juice. Canned vegetables, steak, gums, yuck, ve beta sandwiches, et cetera. He talks about, his mouth had become so underdeveloped it could not accommodate his 32 permanent teeth. I'm sure some of you out here are saying, Hmm, now this is making more sense. Incisors and canines grew in crooked. Hmm. Requiring extractions, braces, retainers, head gear to straighten. Three years of orthodontics, made his small mouth even smaller so his tongue no longer fit properly between his teeth. That is my next excuse if I get caught sticking my tongue out. Just let that go. Uh, when he stuck it out, which he often did, visible imprints laced his, the sides of it. Uh, which is a precursor to snoring. At 17, four impacted wisdom teeth were removed, which further decreased the size of his mouth while increasing his chances of developing chronic nocturnal choking, known as sleep apnea. He continued to age. His breathing became more labor dysfunctional and his airways continued to become more obstructed. His face would continue a vertical growth pattern that led to sagging eyes, doy cheeks, and a sloping forehead in a protruding nose. This atrophy, underdeveloped mouth, throat, skull belongs to me. That was what he said. So this is the story of the author, and that will just springboard us further into, now we, now that we all can probably relate to this person in some way. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Now we're gonna talk about it. Yeah, definitely. Well, I can definitely relate. Yes. I'm a, I constantly snore and Weston will say like, I'm breathing from my mouth at night and then I, in the middle of the night, I'll be smacking my lips'cause my mouth is so dry and I think it actually wakes him up. So probably, it's probably good. I read this book, Hey, if you're waking him up, smacking your lips, that's a talent, honey. That is a gift. Actually. Gift. No one could train themselves to do that. Okay. Yeah, for sure. I know I can't go to bed without a bottle of water beside my bed, and I just really, yeah, and a lot of times it's psychosomatic, but it's there just in case I need it for some reason. So, oh yeah. I'm the same way. that was one part that I really jumped out at me was like, I, it's hard to sleep through the night without, I feel like every night I need a drink of water and I also have to get up and go to the bathroom. Like there's, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've noticed since I started doing the mouth tape in this last week that I rarely wake up during the night. Like a lot of times I'll wake up because the pets will disturb me, or Weston will be snoring, or I'll have to go to the bathroom and now I just like wake up the next day and I'm like, oh wow. Feel rested. That's awesome. It's glorious. It is glorious. But yeah, now that we have a background on where James Nestor was coming from when he was getting into the science of breathing, you can kind of see why he was so interested in it. So this book was released in 2020 and throughout he provides a lot of historical, scientific and personal examination of the science of breathing. Mm-hmm. And especially with the interest of the contrast between breathing through your mouth and breathing through your nose, which is really, really incredibly important. And I didn't know how important it was until I read this book. Yes. first of all, lemme preface this by saying we only covered the first two parts of this book, that really focus on the importance of nasal breathing and just how to correct some things. And then the next parts of the book focus on more advanced breathing techniques that you can use for other things as well. But we just wanted to kind of get into the simpleness and of what we feel like is the most important part of it. Immediately this book grabbed my attention. So Nestor opens recanting, how he was investigating free diving instructors and the things that they would tell him that they have mastered their breathing and they're able to actually go hundreds of feet beneath the ocean surface and just on one breath. they would tell him how they actually breathe in ways that could expand their size of their lungs by over 30%. And they would tell him other stories about like an Indian doctor that actually lost weight simply by changing his breathing. A man who was infected with e coli on purpose and then breathe in a rhythmic pattern to stimulate his immune system and destroy the toxins in minutes, which he did. And also women who put cancers into it, emission and monks who could actually melt circles in the snow around their bare bodies over the course of hours. And at first reading this, initially in the first one or two chapters, I was like, that's crazy. Like there's no way. But as you get further and further into the book, you start to realize like, okay, that that's actually very real. And he will dig more into these stories as you're reading the book. So it's incredibly interesting and it sounds incredibly crazy, but yeah, our bodies are crazy. Our bodies are amazing. So it's totally possible. Absolutely. So it turns out that 90% of us are breathing incorrectly. I'm included in that which in this incorrect breathing is actually causing an aggravating a laundry list of chronic diseases. So why should we correct our breathing to influence our health for the better? Increase the size and function of our lungs, hack our nervous system to control our immune response and gain endurance and live longer. I did not mention this initially, but James Nestor went and wrote this book and studied this because in his forties he had some serious lung issues and conditions. Mm-hmm. So he, he did it outta desperation and so I'm so glad he did. We don't have to go there. Yeah. So, so in this book we're gonna learn, a few things about how to fix it. Yeah, for sure. I was very interested by just how much, like common everyday things that I think Americans, I guess. Uh, probably mostly Americans'cause you know mm-hmm. We don't have the best healthcare and everything is poisoning us. But I think people all over the world too, just like chronic, everyday things that a lot of people seem to struggle with, like asthma, A DHD, sleep apnea, insomnia. Like a lot of this stuff is tied to our breathing and there's a lot of stories in there are people that were able to correct their breathing or do certain breathing exercises or change their breathing over time and saw those things disappear. Yeah. So your mother's out there. If you have a child that's still wetting the bed and you're not quite sure how to fix it, you've had the alarms, you've done, you know, the extra sheets and all that. Listen up because this could be the cure for your child's bedwetting as well, just learning a different way of breathing. Yeah, definitely. I think, and Nestor talks about this a lot in the book that we've kind of lost the art and the medicine and the. The human way of breathing over history. And he frequently references a lot of people that did studies on ancient human beings. And even, even he does that, I think he goes somewhere in Europe to look at ancient skulls. Mm-hmm. And sees how different they are. But anyways, he looks at and presents a lot of information on ancient human beings and also indigenous tribes. And it reveals that our bone structure and our face has changed dramatically. So our ancestors had enormous forward facing jaws, expansive sinus cavities, really huge broad mouse and weirdly bizarrely perfect straight teeth, which is interesting. Yeah. They never need no braces. No braces needed. Yeah. And it's kind of funny to to think about that.'cause when you, when you look at, you know, pictures of old skulls or mockups of like, oh, here's what, you know, pre, you know, ancient humans look like. We associate that with a look of ugliness of like, you know, the broad face, broad nose, like really big jaw structure. We, we look at that and think like, oh, like that's so, you know, ugly and primitive, but they were probably a lot healthier than us, at least as far as just their, you know, their, their breathing, their ability to sleep, not having cavities. Uh, yeah, yeah. Modern beauty standards don't exactly line up with this, but we have so many more medical issues, so. Well, I bet he, I bet they looked better like with skin and stuff on, because they would be, I would assume that they would be very symmetrical in their bone structure and stuff. And, you know, now the fashion and such is like sharp jawlines and, and you know, that contrast, so. I would think they probably looked better than us'cause they were like symmetrical and obviously they felt better'cause they breathed, right? Mm-hmm. There you go. But yeah, it is true. They weren't dealing with A DHD and sleep apnea and bedwetting asthma and all that must be nice. Exactly. So with these differences in the bone structure, in their face and all those other things, these ancient humans and indigenous tribes have wider airways than us. So they never snore, they never had sleep apnea enos us or other chronic respiratory illnesses that are so common today. He kind of breaks this down as a number of changes over time due to our brains increasing in size as we became smarter and our food becoming more industrialized and soft. So a lot of ancient people and tribes would chew a lot more than we did today. And also losing our breathing, like I said, and all the benefits that it provides over time has caused that these, these changes in our bone structures and in our health. and a lot of these ancestors and indigenous peoples that breathe correctly had a totally different view on medicine and life than us. Mm-hmm. So in one study, he references in the book that someone else did. One indigenous tribe from 19 hundreds America attributed their vigorous health and straight teeth to the great secret of life breathing. So getting into the experiment, he did this experiment along with an another guy around his same age. so the actual experiment itself, phase one consisted of, these, two fellas plugging their nose and only breathing through their mouth. So, that. Mouth breathing, was a, an issue with them, even though, you know, clearly Nestor had some other issues as far as respiratory and such, the mouth breathing certainly did not help him at all with that. In fact, it, it caused him more, issues. mouth breathing in itself cannot filter moisten or heat air that enters your airway. It makes our lungs royally mad and it causes us to lose 40% more body water and disturb the oxygen flow to our pre forward. Prefrontal cortex. I am the medical person in this place. Mm-hmm. And I am having hard time. We got you. I know when he was talking about how mouth breathing disturbs the oxygen flow to our prefrontal cortex, that's the maring region that is associated with a DHD. Mm-hmm. That's, yeah. The impulse, impulsivity, all, all of that. mm-hmm. Yeah. So halfway through the phase, they did some physiological data. this was, definitely a controlled study. and they did a lot of, measurements and so they had specific, numbers that they were changing. And then also. Talking with these folks and seeing how they feel. So it was a, a two-pronged type of, of, experiment where it's not just about how somebody thinks or how they feel. It was more, objective. They had true objective, things that they were looking at. Mm-hmm. So, but wanting to know how these guys felt having this time with their noses plugged and, spoiler alert, they both felt terrible. mouth breathing can cause physical changes in the body and transform our, our airways, Beginning more mouth breathing. So basically what it is, is once you begin in that way, there's a physiological change that happens within your airway, within your sinuses that further perpetuates you to continue to mouth breathe, makes it harder to breathe through your nose. Mm-hmm. And so I, did you see that? I'm trying, I'm trying my best to do this. I know. After learning and just reading through the experiment. Well, even like, just thinking about how like you physically can't filter moisten or heat the air that goes into your lungs. I was just like, ugh. Right, right. And we all know that we live dehydrated. Most of us are severely dehydrated, chronically dehydrated, chronically dehydrated. So we could drink as much water as we wanted to. If we are snoring or having sleep apnea all night, we're not retaining that. Yeah.'cause we're not, we're not continuing to feel it while we're asleep. Yeah, it was interesting to me like in phase one specifically, like how fast into that phase they were just like immediately feeling just awful, awful, awful. And their physiological data was reflecting that as well. Just happened so fast. So they were just like, completely blah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you think about how bad you feel when you're sick, I think that that plays a big role in it. If you're, if you have some kind of a sinus thing going on and you're congested, so you mm-hmm. Have to breathe through your mouth and you always feel so terrible when you're sick. I think that that is part of why we feel terrible is that Oh yeah, we are mouth breathing the whole time. And so on the one hand you got the sickness and then on the other hand, you're making yourself more sick by not breathing through your nose. Yeah. Yeah. Hoo. That's true. I need to. Next time I'm sick, I'm gonna try my best to not breathe through my mouth as much. But it's tough when you're congested. It is. But as you, I mean, you were, Rhonda you were just talking about how the, you know, we, we breathe through our mouth and then that begets more mouth breathing'cause our, our sinus airways start to collapse and so then it's harder to breathe through our nose. But the inverse is true if you Yeah. You know, if you force yourself to breathe through your nose, your sinus airways will expand. It starts to get easier. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, and I've, you know, since reading the book and putting more things into practice, I've found even if I'm sick with some kind of a, you know, sinus congestion, head cold, I'll still be able to breathe through my nose. Like I'll get congested. So it's more difficult, but it's very rare where I'm actually sick enough that I'm like, I actually have to breathe through my nose. Hmm. Okay. Well, that gives me hope. I feel like I definitely need to work on my breathing and try to expand the airways.'cause it feels almost impossible to me to breathe through my, my nose when I'm like very congested. So. Mm-hmm. I think that's a reflection on how much mouth breathing I've been doing in the past, unfortunately. All right. So phase two of the experiment is where it gets even more interesting. So it's basically the inverse of phase one. So they tap their mouths and strictly breathe nasally for the same duration, with the same test, the same schedules, all of that, and really interesting results. So James Nestor actually had his snoring and his sleep apnea disappeared just within three nights of only breathing through his nose. Mm-hmm. And the other effects as far as like how they felt in their physiological data. That was utterly transformed within just five days of this phase two. And they both focused on how they breathe as well. Inhaling and exhaling slowly to balance oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the body, which he reveals is later in the book, is actually the best way to prevent chronic health issues and improve athletic performance and extend your life. Another thing to get into towards the end of this experiment is the perfect breath. So it's considered a five and a half second inhale, followed by a five and a half second exhale, which works out to five and a half breaths a minute, which is the most efficient breathing rhythm. And I found this extremely interesting. So this follows the pace of Hindu. Teo, Teo something. Taoist and Native American. TAUs. Taoist. Okay. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Hindu, Taoist and Native American prayers. It's a little bit slower than a Buddhist mantra, the original Latin version of the rosary, the Catholic prayer cycle of Ab Maria. So, very interesting that this perfect breath coincides rhythmic wise with so many of these prayers and he says this in the book too. Prayer heals, especially when it's practiced at five and a half breaths a minute. So crazy. And that's alarming as a nurse because they expect a, you know, respiratory rate, eight, anywhere from like eight to 20. if I went into a room and I'm doing the vital signs, and this person's breathing five to six times a minute. That could be alarming and it, and it, I would've definitely had to report that. So it's just That's a thing. Yeah. Yeah. I, my, my Apple Watch will constantly ping me saying like, your heart rate's too low. And, uh, and it's like, it's when I'm sleeping, typically, like if my, I think it's, if my resting heart rate drops, it's either below 45 or 40, then it'll ping me with like a, a low heart rate notification. But yeah, I, you know, I don't, I think it's actually good. Like, it's not like it's a sharp drop, it's just that like mm-hmm. My baseline is right around, its, its threshold and will, you know, be like a little bit before it, a lot. Like, I think that's actually a good sign and not something to worry about very much. Yes. Very much that resting heart rate. I think it definitely gives you a better picture of what's going on as far as your athletic capacity. Again, breathing capacity and muscle strength. So yeah. That's that's great. Yeah. That is great. It also goes to show how this, science of breathing and all this stuff that we've learned and wanted to share, it's not necessarily correlating with modern Western medicine. Yeah. And it just shows how many people don't know about this stuff and don't recognize the importance of it. So we're happy to share it with you on our podcast. That is right. Okay. So next we wanted to get into, this is our last section before we really break it into. Tyson's insights and just the wider discussion. So we wanted to talk about the nose because I found out a lot of information about my dogging that impressed me. So you might just think it's your nose. You may love it, you may hate it, whatever. But it is also known as the silent warrior, the gatekeeper of our bodies, the pharmacist to our minds, and the weather vein to our emotions. And I sure did not know it did all that stuff before I read this book. Yeah, he wears all the hats. Yeah. I have a greater appreciation for my nose now. So not only does it connect us to our oldest scent smell, which is really our most intimate connection to our surroundings, but it also. Clears air heats it, moistens it for easier absorption into our lungs like we've been saying. It can also trigger a cavalcade of hormones and chemicals that lower blood pressure and ease digestion. Mm-hmm. And it also can respond to the stages of our menstrual cycle, regulate our heart rate, open the vessels in our toes, and store memories. Wow it has a lot of different functions. And something I found interesting as well is that your nostrils and every other person's nostrils actually pulse to their own rhythm. They kind of open and close like a flower in response to our moods, our mental states, and also possibly the sun and moon. And these are known as nasal cycles. Now you have a better understanding of your noses capabilities. And it goes far beyond anything that I thought, and probably you thought as well. So if our body was designed with this small but mighty body part, shouldn't we use it more? Yes, for sure. Yes. The other thing I thought that was very interesting about this was, the alternations of breathing through your nose, like mm-hmm. the right side is, is more the fight or flight, part. And you can, okay. Y'all remind me. I, I thought it was very interesting, and I think, I don't wanna look back through my book, but he was talking about like the, the left side nostril can actually help you calm down mm-hmm. And all that. So I thought that was very interesting. But which side did he talk about? I think it was the right after you eat, he talked about. I believe so. I think so. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. We'll just skip all that. No, keep it in there. But I, I just thought it was very interesting that. You could. And so what I tried to do because of hormones and such, have a good bit of anxiety. And so what I've been trying to do is be conscientious of breathing and even stopping up the right side and trying to breathe really good through the left side to mm-hmm. Just kind of calm that down so it, it, it's an instrument as well. Mm-hmm. It's like a gatekeeper, but then also it's flexible. I figured that every time we breathe through our nose, it was just breathing through our nose, you know, at the same time. Mm-hmm. But the fact, that that open and closure happens was very interesting. Yeah. And I think it's a, it's a tangible way that we can take some of our health into our own hands. It's like a tool mm-hmm. That we can use. Yeah. The more you know about how your body functions and the grand design of it all, you can kind of hack your body and hack your life, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was very, I was, I remember being astounded to learn about just the, all the extra, I mean, you know, you can tell somebody that, you know, oh, your nose, it heats up the air and it moistens it and it filters it. It's like, okay, yeah, well, that's kind of a no brainer. But then you learn about all these other body rhythms that, it's like they synchronize to the breath that's going through our nose just from all the, you know, nervous endings and everything that's in our sinuses that all of these bio rhythms synchronize to. there's so much stuff that starts to break down if those sensors aren't getting triggered regularly for the, I, I think what, like what clicked for me about it was if you think of the human body, like a biocomputer, like a living machine mm-hmm. In a, a regular computer, like we use an electronic computer. There's what's called a system clock, and everything that's running in the computer is synchronized to that. The system clock keeps the rhythm and then everything else the computer does, it's, you know, hooking into that to all work together. And so breathing kind of fills that function for us and the human body. But all of the sensors to keep that going are all in the nose. Like if we, if we don't breathe through that, then it's just, it's total breakdown. Yeah. It's game over. Yeah. I thought it was very interesting about the skin inside our nose, being that, of the skin of the penis and the vulgar and, and the nipples. Oh, do you have Ed start breathing through your nose, buddy. Mm-hmm. You know, or low libido, start breathing through your nose. Mm-hmm. I just thought it was just so fascinating. Yeah, I was definitely fascinated. Yes. Well, by that and then. I think what really just like sat with me after this book was in learning all this stuff about like our nose and just how our breathing is so connected to our body and our health. I'm just amazed at how inly connected our body is, and we seem also to be connected to nature in the world as well. And it's just like such a grand design that it, it almost makes your brain hurt trying to like think about how it all connects together. But it's fascinating for sure. Well, it's just like if you cut your field with a sickle or something by hand, a push mower even, and you don't even know that there's a riding mower option, so you've been trudging away this task without the correct tool, which is what we've been doing. sidebar but I was telling Jim about this realization of. You know, our skin and such. One morning we were just laying there and I'm like, uh, did you know this? So my hu you know, he, he does not say a lot. You gotta really catch him. Well, he sits there for a few minutes and he goes, I think it's working. And he is, you know, that is just not him. He goes, that's right. I think it's working. Oh my God. Put it right to the test. He's so funny. He just, the quiet ones you have to worry about because their minds never stop. It's true. It's very true. Oh my gosh. Okay. Well, since you have read this book, two or three years ago, is that right? Mm-hmm. Something like that. And you've actually implemented the practices and seen the benefits. We really want to get some insights from you. So after reading breath and in the years since, what was your biggest takeaway? my biggest takeaway I would say was how simple it is and how simple this book makes it. Um, mm-hmm. I mean, I'm, I'm someone that's, you know, I've been very physically active and I've read a lot of books from all kinds of different disciplines and point of views that talk about the importance of breathing and how it's crucial and you need to pay more attention to it. But none of it really stuck, or, you know, really clicked for me why it was important, or, you know, it's like, oh, you need to pay attention to your breathing, but what am I paying attention for? You know, what, right. Why does it matter? And James Nestor did such an amazing job of breaking down the science of why it's important in, you know, everyday terms. They're easy to understand and also he really emphasized the message of, breathe through your nose and breathe slower. You know, there's, there's a lot of really in-depth stuff in this book and some of the more like body hacking things you can do with like the holotropic breathing and Wim Hof techniques, but for just the everyday person breathe through your nose, breathe slower and instant benefit to your life and it really is that simple. That was what, that was what shook me more than anything was that it, it's not some big complicated thing. Right. Yeah. You don't have to purchase anything to make it work. Mm-hmm. You know, it's not like you're getting another exercise equipment that's never gonna get used in my case. Yeah. I feel like I've read a decent amount of self-help books and a lot of them don't really stick with me afterwards probably because like, one, it's not simple, like it's overwhelming to, to think about or to implement in your life. Mm-hmm. So I definitely appreciated that too. It was like you can just immediately focus on like one or two things and see benefits to your life and yeah. It is so simple. He did a great job of explaining it. okay. Which one, was there any part about breath or breathe? Do y'all call it breath or breathe? the book, is it called? I call it breath. I think Breathe has the E on the end, doesn't it? Mm-hmm. I call it breath. Okay, Brandon. But either one would work. I'm sure James would understand. Yes. I don't think he'll be triggered. Tyson, was there any part about this book that was truly shocking or hard to believe for you? yeah, and I still kind of struggle to wrap my head around this, but he talks about the how important carbon dioxide is for our body. Mm mm. it's so ingrained in us that oxygen is good, carbon dioxide is bad, but the, presence of carbon dioxide in our system actually, regulates and helps to support so many things that our body does, especially during exercise. If the carbon dioxide levels in your blood are higher when you're exercising, it's like, you know, opens up capillaries. It, there's, there's triggers, a lot of things to help oxygen flow better, but that carbon dioxide level has to be maintained high to do that. And so, and that's why, that's why it's important to breathe slow, to breathe less. but our bodies to, to run, I guess like peak efficiency, we need a good amount of carbon dioxide in our system. And if you, if you breathe too much, you're getting rid of too much of it and you don't perform nearly as well. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, I also had trouble wrapping my head around that'cause. Yeah, like, I think just like even learning in science class, you're just like, okay, carbon dioxide, like that's bad. Get out. Mm-hmm. But I think in the book he said it was maybe like, the most important hormone in your body or something like that. So yeah, definitely. That was interesting for me as someone that likes to work out a lot, is just thinking about that and my breathing in reference to like me working out and always feeling like I'm dying. I think this is in part three of the book. he does an experiment where you, you basically take a hit of like pure carbon dioxide and mm-hmm. The, I don't remember if it's pure or just a really high concentration, but it triggers a very powerful. Reflex in the body of just sheer panic and terror and like, you know, you know how it is when you hold your breath for too long and you start to, like, your body starts to freak out. Mm-hmm. You know, it's like that dialed up to a hundred.'cause our, like, if we get too much of it, it really is bad for us. Like it's, it's a balance. where if we, if we, um, breathe too slowly and deprive ourselves too much so the carbon dioxide passes a certain threshold, then it does really start to get bad. And so we, we have this sort of like a biological resistance to it, which is what we start to feel when we're out of breath. And so mm-hmm. It, I think it is, that's why it, it's hard for me to wrap my head around and it feels very counterintuitive to, you know, learn to embrace that more, to, to help your body perform better. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I read that in the book two days ago, what you were talking about, and it's in reference to, I. This patient that, I can't remember if she was born with it or something happened, but she didn't have an amygdala, so she didn't have anything that would basically, she had no fears. Mm-hmm. her brain just physically couldn't tell her, like when she was in danger, when to be afraid, like she could do anything and she would never feel like a fear response. But when they did administer the dose of carbon dioxide for the first time in her life, she was panicked and afraid it was mm-hmm. Really crazy anecdote. But yeah, all the, all the stories and the studies and the evidence uses in the book are just so, so fascinating. So hope you guys will read it. I mean, we, we covered probably the most important bits, but I don't think anything compare to actually reading it for yourself. Oh yeah. I mean, it's, there's something for everybody in it. I mean, it's, mm-hmm. unless you were taught how to breathe properly and slowly through your nose, at some point in your life, you probably. Need to learn how, like that's mm-hmm. Yeah. I think they talk about that in a lot in the first section of the book of how that used to be a common thing. Like they talked about a lot of Native American tribes that would mm-hmm. Teach their children how to breathe and when they're, you know, when their little newborn babies are sleeping, they'd go in there and hold their mouth shut to force'em to breathe through their nose. That was crazy. Nobody does that now. I, you know, I didn't, I didn't get any nose breathing training when I was a kid. Me neither. Especially not me. I was the youngest of five. They had other problems. It was Tyson's job to teach you. They got your parents, I'm getting to it a little bit late. Is all vision failed? Well, yeah, that was, that part was interesting for me.'cause I plan on having kids in the future and I'm like, I honestly want to make that a, a focus or learn how to help them, like learn to do that from an early age. Mm-hmm. So we'll see when, when it actually happens, if I can manage that, but. Alright, well, next question, um, I just wanna know like the specific breathing habits and tips that have made the biggest impact for you over time, and have you also been able to maintain them over time? Um, I mean, the biggest one, I, I, I feel I'm just always so aware of my breathing now and mm-hmm. And mostly it's just, am I breathing through my nose or not? Um, yeah. And I, I think that I, you know, before reading this book, I breathe through my nose more often than not just as everyday life goes, but not, not all the time and especially not, like when exercising, or just, yeah, you know, I don't know, but when like stressed out or worried about something, um mm-hmm. The, the exercising I think was the biggest one. I played a lot of sports, but mostly soccer and every soccer coach, fitness coach, whatever. Running coach over the years always told me, breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. That's the best way to do it when you're an athlete. Mm-hmm. And, you know, come, then come to read this book and find out that's totally backwards. That's actually like, terrible for you.'cause it like, it creates even more of this imbalance from switching back and forth between them and only getting inhales and not exhales through your nose. Mm-hmm. Um, and so that's the biggest one for me is like I had for a long time, I had to force myself to breathe through my nose, when I was exercising, you know, out dancing or hiking or something like that. Um, and especially out in the cold, I think was the hardest one. You know, when you're out in the cold and breathing through your nose, it really can kind of hurt your nose if you're not used to it. And I, that took me a while'cause I like it just, it was kind of miserable at first, but after not that long, like, you know. I, I read this book in like the late fall, the first time I read it. And so I got to practice this a lot right away. And by halfway through the winter I was like, oh, I can, you know, I can go out and hike in the cold and breathe through my nose the whole time. And it's like, well, my nose doesn't hurt anymore. I'm like, oh, this is actually easier. And now I can go out dancing and breathe through my nose and not feel like I am out of breath. Mm-hmm. So I think some of it's my body adapting to breathing a little slower, but I think more of it is just like my sinus cavities have really expanded in a big way. and so I, like, it's just, it's getting, it's gotten easier and easier. And so now, even though I, I still think about it a lot and will occasionally catch myself breathing through my mouth, um, it's like, I don't know. It's, it's become so much, I guess, like a part of my everyday life now. Yeah. That's awesome not to always come back to medicine, but as you're saying that reminded me, the, the in through your nose and out through your mouth is a, is a technique that we use for people who are having panic attacks. Mm-hmm. And we would call it smell a rose, blow out a candle. Hmm. Interesting. Yes. So that is exactly the way we would try to help people who were in a panic. So, so interesting. Yeah. I think he, I think he referenced panic attacks in the book and it was like focusing on the perfect breath would help people come out of it. I don't remember if that was exactly the solution, but I do remember him referencing panic attacks, I'm not sure. Mm-hmm. But anyways, when you're talking about sports, that, caught my attention.'cause I also never had anyone teach me how to breathe correctly as an athlete. I think maybe I. One time I can remember I was like fresh off of conditioning. I had like my hands on my knees. I was like, that's dying, obviously. And my coach was like, try and breathe to your nose. And I just looked at him like he was crazy because I was like, there's no, I just can't. And come to think of it, you can, you just have to maybe work on expanding your airways and breath through your mouth less to get to a point where it's more comfortable for you to do that. Mm-hmm. Because I have been doing like low intensity workouts the past couple days, and I've made it a focus to breathe through my nose and it's not easy, even though it's not even that intensive of a workout. Yeah. But I'm hoping I'll be able to see the benefits of it over time. Yes. One other thing that's, I guess become like a part of my daily or everyday life, if you will, from the book, is how important it is to, to chew more. Like I, I. Hmm. You know, since reading the book, I like, I avoid things like smoothies, um, or like really soft foods. and try to, you know, if I have an option, get something that is harder to chew that, you know, takes more effort. Um, and I get the, you talked about this at some point in the book, um, I'm not sure you pronounce it, but the F gum, it's like a Turkish gum that's mm-hmm. Um, the chewing gum, that's very, like, very tough, very, uh, and it maintains its tough consistency for chewing on, for, you know, you can chew on it all day. Um, and it's unflavored. Um, which at first I was like, I don't know how I feel that bad about that. But eventually I became to like it. Um, for one thing, it doesn't, like, it doesn't interfere with tastes of anything you're eating or drinking mother before, right after it. and you, you kind of just forget that it's in your mouth and you can just kind of, you know, especially if you're working on a computer or something, you can just chew on it throughout the day and it's awesome for your jaw. Um, and like I've, wow, I've always had very crooked teeth. and I like, you know, never got braces. my teeth have been expanding, like it's pretty slow process. yeah. But like, I can see it most in my, like on the bottom of my jaw, yes. I have this crooked tooth down here. And it used to be so far inside that the two teeth to the other side of it were like actually touching each other. And since I've like been doing this over the last couple years, the, there's like an actual gap now where you can see it, like it's actually moving back out. Um, nice. And that's, that's all that I've changed is, I mean, the breathing through my nose obviously, but also just trying to chew on tough foods whenever I get the chance to. Nice. Where do you get the gum? I just order on Amazon. Okay. I. Gotcha. Yeah, I feel like that would actually help me a lot.'cause I love to like, keep my mouth busy during the day. Mm-hmm. It like helps me focus, I guess. Oh, totally. Yeah. it kind of replaced, you know, I, I used to always just have to have something I can be drinking and sipping on. Mm-hmm. And if I, if I have the gum, I don't feel that compulsion to reach for, you know, some kind of beverage nearly as much. Okay. Mm. Okay. That's helpful.'cause I, I do that a lot where like I always have to have my little drinky while I'm doing stuff or a snack. Yeah. Wow. I know. That's awesome. That's crazy. Okay, we got one more question. Ronnie, you wanna take it? Yeah. Have you noticed any differences in your physical, we just talked about your teeth. physical or mental wellbeing or any other unexpected benefits since reading and having the time to utilize this breath? Um, my, my physical fitness has improved significantly, and what I think has been really interesting is, I, I notice that most when I am, you know, quote unquote outta shape where I, let's, I just haven't been exercising as much lately. And then if I, let's say, can't go up to the mountains to go for a hike, it's a lot easier than I expect it to be. You know, it used to be if I hadn't been working out a lot recently, and then I try to go and do something like that and I'm just gonna be huffing and puffing and, you know, dying and it's like, oh, that's just, that's how it is if you don't do it every day. But if I breathe slow, breathe through my nose, then they talk about this in their, in the experiment. They did the first part of the book where when they would do their workouts on their exercise bikes, if they were breathing properly through their nose, you know, the first few minutes, first five to 10 minutes. Those kind of always suck in a, like cardio based workout.'cause your body needs to, you know, get, get into rhythm, get going, but then mm-hmm. After that it's very easy to hit the, you know, the so-called runner's high and just fall into a rhythm and be like, oh, hey, this is, like, this is not nearly as hard as I expected it to be. So that's like, that's been really nice.'cause like I used to, I used to kinda stress me out of feeling like I have to be working out hard all the time and stay in this really high level of shape if I wanna be able to, you know, enjoy the things like hiking, when I do them, instead of it being just total suffering. So that, that's been a nice, um, physical benefit. and I think the other big one for me has been, my circulation. and I noticed this more in. I guess the extreme cold weather, but also in hot weather, your, your circulation's really important for your body maintaining its temperature and mm-hmm. he kind of references this in sort of, in passing in a few parts in the book, but there's, there's another book that I've read that talks about in more depth, which is, if you are breathing properly, you start to feel this tingling in your, in your extremities, in your fingers, and in your toes. And that's from your circulation actually firing the way that it's supposed to. And you will notice this if you are out on a cold day, or even if you're out on a really hot day, that your body's going be able to withstand the temperature better and you're not going to feel as much suffering as a result, especially in cold. Mm-hmm. I mean, he, there, there's a technique that he talks about. I think it's in part three and I believe it's one of, uh, Wim Hofs breathing techniques, but it's something for. Warming your body up. it's a variation of what the, the monks they talk about that would, you know, melt the snow around their bodies. Mm-hmm. but it's, it's a pretty simple one where you essentially sort of hyperventilate very big breaths for 30 breaths, and then you breathe out and hold your breath with no air in your lungs as long as you can, and then breathe in, hold it again as long as you can, and then return to breathing. Normally it's very simple exercise, but it heats your body up like a furnace. And I use this, I do a lot of motorcycle trips, and so if I'm on my motorcycle and it's cold and I'm, you know, everything's starting to go numb, I'll do a couple cycles of this and then I'm toasty warm, and so I'll, you know, do that every 30 minutes or so. And then. You know, I'm not worrying about frostbite anymore. That's great. That was fascinating for me to read as someone that hates the cold and like just, I can't even fathom being in the cold longer than I have to. But just reading about the retreats, people would go on to learn this breathing technique and they would go outside in their britches and like roll in the snow, go on a mountain hike again, still in like their britches and then jump into like an ice cold lake. Mm-hmm. And just through utilizing this technique, they were totally fine. Like, didn't get sick, didn't get prospect, nothing. So, yeah. Yeah. It's pretty, it's pretty amazing. It's, it's, it's counterintuitive for cold'cause like, our reflex when it's cold is to like, to hunch up and like, we, we clench our hands together like this. Mm-hmm. But that makes your hands more cold'cause you're like, you're, you're shutting out the circulation. Like you, you need your hands to be like loose and moving so the blood can get to them and that's gonna warm you up so much more. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, maybe I can live in a cold state and survive with breathing technique. I've learned. It'll be a little bit, you're down there in humidity city. Yeah. I have one where I can make myself as cold as possible. Yeah. 15 degrees here. Maybe we just breathing already. Just breathing slow will help. Like it, uh, that it helps your body cool itself down too. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll be sure to practice my breathing this summer. When? Mm-hmm. One thing I wanted to add, and I didn't put it on the outline mm-hmm. But I thought this might resonate with folks as well, is nester noted that he had read a report from the Mayo Clinic, uh, which found that chronic insomnia, which is, you know, has long been as assumed as a psychological disorder, chronic insomnia, not being able to sleep. They've treated it psychological psychologically, but now it's often a breathing problem. It's not a psychological problem. And I feel like there are some people out there right now that are really struggling to sleep. Mm-hmm. For whatever reason that is. we are not, attempting to be medical advisors, but I would hate to for folks to think I can't sleep at night because there's something wrong with me rather than. I can't sleep at night because there's an aspect of my life that I'm not using properly, like mm-hmm. Or of my body. So I just wanted to encourage people that if you're listening to this and you have issues with insomnia, it definitely is directly related as well. You could have insomnia and not have sleep apnea. and so I just wanted to make sure that folks knew that as well, if you're struggling to go to, to be able to sleep. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's, the way that I think of it is whatever the cause of your insomnia, it might be something, but other than your breathing, but if you're breathing poorly, that's making it worse. Yes. It's muddying the waters. It's going to make it difficult to actually diagnose any real issues that you have, right? Mm-hmm. So, you know, save yourself a lot of headache and mm-hmm. Get rid of all the extra symptoms so you can get right to the core of the issue, right? Mm-hmm. Right. And, and if it's, if it is. If it's not a psychological problem, you can keep pumping meds, chemicals, and all that, that might make you sleep, but you're, you're not getting rest. Mm-hmm. And who knows what all those medications are doing to your body over time. Exactly. So, yeah. Well, I think you made a good point. We're obviously not medical professionals. Well, you were in the past, but anything we bring to this podcast, we're not responsible if something goes wrong. Yes, yes. That's all I have to say. I know James Nester makes a lot of big statements with a lot of chronic illnesses that are common today. And for me, I really believe that there's a science to it and that breathing can help those. Mm-hmm. and he backs it up with a lot of historical and scientific and personal evidence. But I will say just. Take that with a grain of salt. I encourage you to actually read the book and see how you feel about it. Yeah. I am definitely gonna be taking the insights from this book and applying it to my life and we will update you guys and let it know how it goes first. But yeah, definitely encourage you to read this book'cause I guarantee you'll take at least one thing from it. Mm-hmm. That'll make your life better for sure. All right, well we're doing the what she said, or in this case, he said James Nestor himself. Ronnie, do you wanna read the quote? Yes. He said that expression is the opposite of depression. Go for it. So expressing yourself will be the opposite of depressing yourself. So go for it. Express what you need to get it out. Don't hold it in. It's just poison. yeah, I really like that quote just for life, I think. Mm-hmm. Someone that's struggled with depression in the past. I think that this is very true. Like I think I've. Healed my depression or be able to pull myself out of slumps when I'm focusing on like my creativity or doing some form of expression. But in the context of this book, this quote is kind of talking about like active conscious breathing as an expression can help combat feelings of negativity or stagnation. So engage with your breathing and express yourself in other ways.'cause it can lead to mindfulness and peace and presence within your body, which I think at the end of the day is something that we all need and are looking for. Right? Ain't know the truth. It seems unattainable, but wait, try. Cool. Well, do you wanna read our challenge for the week, Ronnie? Yes. So, you'll take around 670 million breaths in your life, no matter how far you are into that breath journey. Maybe you'd like to take a few million more. so our challenge this week is we want you to try to breathe as nasally as much as you can. you know, he said, try taping your mouth. Well, our son, Weston Kaya's husband has suffered from sleep apnea from a young preteen age. And so I remember he was, didn't like the dental thing, the dental apparatus. We had tried everything, couldn't keep the CPAP on, you know, throw it across the room in the middle of the night and he somehow came up and started taping his mouth shut. Do you remember when he started that? Mm-hmm. That was, yeah, he did it like a year or two ago. Yes. He didn't over time. Interesting. Yes, He didn't do it long enough to actually see the benefits, I don't think, but I haven't encouraged him to do it again. But he's like, oh, my mustache, whatever, dude, shit. But, but that tap in your mouth shut. And so, but just to let you know, as a mother, Jim and Father Jim and I were like, oh my God, that is horrendous. You know, we're thinking, this is terrible. Our kid is taking his mouth shut. Call the doctor. Call nine one one. He's torturing himself. He's torturing himself. I don't know if this is from Cana or where it's coming from. Well, now it is gonna be, yes, a hundred percent he's gonna get it from always. But, um, in saying that, there were different tape techniques that he talks about, but he ended up figuring out that really all you needed was about a postage stamp size of tape, and just right in the front. Mm-hmm. So that way, if you needed to talk, you could still talk out the side. Mm-hmm.'cause Lord knows you can take my, my mouth shut. I ain't gonna stop talking. Mm-hmm. That is the dang truth. My husband is so looking forward to this. He said, well, maybe it should be, a small envelope size. Maybe if it's, if a postage stamp is good, how about like just a whole three inch painter's tape situation? But he mentioned it and he actually mentioned what he came with. So again, uh, no one's paying us for this. We're doing this completely free. our, our husbands and our families pay one way or the other, but you do not. 3M makes a next Care dur dpo. Mm-hmm. It's like a durable cloth tape. And again, he said just right in the middle. So if you wanted to try that, it just, different things left a heavier adhesive, you know, rip. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You don't wanna rip the top layer of your lips off. Uh, but, anyways, That's one thing. And, and just as a little side, I know what some of you moms are thinking, you know, well, we've been to the dentist and the orthodontist, and now we've gotta buy braces. Okay? It's probably not gonna work for your kid. But what you could say is, no, we're not getting braces. I'm gonna tape your mouth shut. For the next three years. Let's see which one works. And then one, one week later, CPS is showing up. Yes, yes. Yeah. One week later, kid goes, he's got all this gunked up stuff on his mouth. Oh, well my mom's been taping my mouth shut. So it's only at night. Yes. So you know, it, it sounds crazy, but it sounds like also because, Mr. Nester also talked about that as well, his facial structure changing after doing this for so long. And so anyways, yeah, there you go. Well, yeah, we're definitely gonna try it. I'm gonna continue to do the mouth tape and breathe through my nose. So we'll keep you posted on how our breath journey's going. Yes. And then if you wanna do the same, feel free to do that. You can leave a comment on one of our episodes, or you can reach out to us on social media at generational teapot. But yeah, let us know how your challenges are going and how your breath journey's going. Really interested to hear from lots of people on how it. Changing their lives. Yes. And thank you Tyson for getting up. we are representing three time zones right now, y'all. We are. Mm-hmm. So we are definitely diverse and inclusion right here. All across the country. All across the country. We are covered all the bases, so thank you. Well, yeah, thank you, Tyson. It's so fun to actually have a family member and one that I'm so close with on the podcast. It is. And you were able to share so much good information on this book. So thank you so much. Absolutely. Yeah. Thanks for having me. This was really a, a ton of fun. And you know, I'm, such a nerd about this book. I mean, I I'm glad that you're, you're understanding now.'cause when I first read it, I was like, I'm telling everybody about this. If you believe this. Yes. And, and until you read it, it's hard to appreciate the power of the information it has. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It sounds like a very boring book. Mm-hmm. But it is a, it is a great read. It's a fast read. Mm-hmm. Oh, absolutely. it's not bogging you down with, you know, information that's totally useless. He, he mentions things in the studies, but goes straight to the practical application. So for that, it's a good, a good read. Yeah, definitely. Well, I'll link the mouth tape on Amazon as well as the book on Amazon. So you can go and, and the gum check it out. The gum and the gum. Oh yeah. I'll send you the gum. Yeah. Yes. The gum too life. Yeah. So we'll all embark on this breathing journey together and hopefully have our lives changed. Yes. Alright. So Ty, this is what we do to close out our episodes. Are you ready? Yep, I'm ready. And that's, that's the tea. Tea. So it's like a, that's the tea teas what it Great job. A big yes. Yes. Thank you guys. We'll see you next time. Happy breathing.