Skip to content

Life

I am home

I've flown to the east-coast, to the place that I call my first home. Where I was born and raised, where I got my education, where I got my first job, where my parents resides, where most of my friends & family are and where I spent and experienced most of my formative life (25+ years).

The last time I was here was about 8-months ago (September 2023).

I will be only here for about a week and will be flying out to Milan, Italy to celebrate friends' partnership & love, and as one would call it, the ceremonial wedding.

While I am here in my old stomping grounds, I have a few administrative-chores to handle prior to flying out: haircut, figure the outfit/fitting, and international driving permit (IDP). I've already gotten the IDP, which you can only get via American Automobile Association (AAA) for a $20.00 fee. Fairly simple and straight-forward, you complete the 1-page application, bring your US Driver's License and are required to bring in two 2" by 2" photos printed (this can not be your license nor Passport which I found baffling tbh). If you don't have the two photos, they can take it there but at a ridiculous surcharge of $8.00 per photo, so $16.00 total. A whole monopoly and a scam in itself, but we digress.

Other than that with my limited time here, I will be enjoying my walks throughout the city - parks, downtown, neighborhood - to see for myself what has changed since my last visitation, what new businesses have opened, the continuous changes and developments, and prioritize visiting and spending time with parents & selective friends.

This place I call my first home, I love it genuinely and wholeheartedly. These were my roots, it created me and shaped who I am - but I am not tied down nor defined by it. Grateful and appreciate to have been here for the first half of my life and I am ready to begin my second half of this journey.

The Lost Art of Breathing

Book Source: Breath by James Nestor

Notes

  • Complex & not binary
  • Unconsciously = survival
  • Consciously = durability, strength, extension, mindful, longevity, rejuvenate
  • The ability to breathe correctly can heal and prevent a lot of life ailments (asthma, snoring, autoimmune disease, scoliosis, etc.)
  • Avoid chronic mouthbreathing: Shut your mouth, breathe through your nose: the body is not designed to process raw air for hours at a time, day or night

Highlights

  1. Consciously controlling breathing can significantly influence our nervous system function, sleep quality, heartbeat, and blood flow. [pg. 44]

  2. In a single breath, more molecules of air will pass through your nose than all the grains of sand of all the world's beaches-- trillions and trillions of them. [pg. 44]

  3. Breathing is a power switch to a vast network called the autonomic nervous system - two sections of this system:

    (1) Parasympathetic: stimulates relaxation and restoration

    (2) Sympathetic: stimulates signals to organs, telling them to get ready for action. heart rate increases, adrenaline kicks in, blood vessels constrict, pupils dilate, palms sweat, mind sharpens. it helps eases pain.

    counterintuitive to be in extended state of extreme sympathetic stress

  4. Some of us may be genetically predisposed toward one disease or another, that doesn't mean we're predestined to get these conditions. Genes can be turned off just as they can be turned on. What switches them are inputs in the environment. Improving diet and exercise and removing toxins and stressors from the home and workplace have a profound and lasting effect on the prevention and treatment of the majority of modern chronic diseases. [pg. 205]

  5. The human body has evolved to be able to breathe through two channels for a reason. It increases our chances of survival. Should the nose get obstructed, the mouth becomes a backup ventilation system. The few grasping breaths Stephen Curry takes before dunking a basketball, or a sick kid huffs when he has a fever, or you take in when you're laughing with your friends--this temporary mouthbreathing will have no long-term effects on health.

Actionable

  • Breathe through the nose -> inhale 5.5 seconds, exhale 5.5 seconds == 5.5 breaths a minute for 5.5 liters of air

Feels

"All living organisms are but leaves on the same tree of life - The various functions of plants and animals and their specialized organs are manifestations of the same living matter" -Albert Szent-Gyorgyi