Hey everyone!
Here’s the latest Digestable, the short, weekly email where we ramble down Curiosity Street. This edition was emailed to subscribers on March 20, 2022.
Ramble on!
Adventure Club Trip Report: I’ve posted my trip report of the most recent Adventure Club outing: 3 days of ski touring in Banff and Yoho National Parks guided by Galena Mountain Guides and Girth Hitch Guiding. Videos, Strava links, and lush photos by Little Wolf Picture Co. await you on my website. What is Adventure Club? Click the link and find out!
Improve Your Breath Hold by 1 Minute in 30 Days: Join me in this quick & simple challenge from the founder of MovNat, Erwan Le Corre. The goal is to add 2 seconds to your breath hold every day for a month. From Erwan:
- You can hold your breath sitting, or laying down, whichever you like. Try to do it in the same conditions: position, relaxation time before the hold, time of day, time since your last meal, etc.. The idea is to replicate the same conditions each day. My plan is to do it right before bed.
- Start day 1 this way: take a large inhale and hold your breath until before you feel uncomfortable. Keep it easy in order to be able to recover breathing through the nose instead of gasping through the open mouth when you end your hold. There’s no warmup, it’s a « cold start » event. So take your time, relax, and commit to the time that has to be held that day.
- The next day, add 2 seconds. That is only 2 extra seconds and your hold time on day one was easy enough that you could resume breathing through the nose. Agree with yourself to do the same, just 2 seconds longer.
- If you were to miss one day, don’t add 4 seconds the next time, only 2 seconds extra from one hold time to the next. If you cannot complete a hold, you can try again only once. If you fail the second time, wait the next day and do it again without adding 2 seconds, focus on achieving the time you weren’t yet able to hold. It is possible to overdo breath hold training and cause lung damage so only try this up to two times daily.
- This challenge will take literally under 5 minutes of your time to be completed daily for a month. At the end of the 30 days, if you commit, you’ll have improved your breath hold time a whole minute.
Let me know how you make out! My starting point was 70 seconds and I’ll report my results at the end of the month. Send me a note and let me know what yours is.
Song I’m Practicing Guitar to: Valley X Scott Helman covering Lennon Stella’s killer love song, “Golf on TV.”
Thinking of Homeschooling? I’d like to help you. If you’ve entertained the idea of homeschooling (and these days, who hasn’t) you likely felt an overwhelming wave crash over you and it may have washed away your interest. The weight of your child’s education resting solely on you is rightfully daunting, and it’s not for everyone. But choosing to homeschool our kids was one of the best (and biggest) decisions we ever made as a family, and my wife and I would love to chat with anyone who wants to know more.
We started homeschooling our four kids when our oldest was about to enter Grade 6, and our youngest about to enter Grade 1. That was 8 years ago now, our oldest was accepted into two Universities (read about that homeschool story here) and now our second son is graduating this spring. If you or anyone you know is thinking about it, why not learn from our mistakes? Send me a note and my wife and I will set up a time to talk you through the pros & cons.
The “Ask, Seek, Knock Razor” Here’s another razor from Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
There is a psychological and spiritual component to Jesus’ observation. First, the psychological. Asking, seeking, and knocking are all positive actions that require knowing what you want and taking the initiative to pursue it. The person who clearly identifies what they want, asks for it, seeks it, and knocks on doors is more likely to receive what they desire than the passive person who either does not know what they truly want or is too passive to take steps to pursue it. Life is best lived in active mode, not passive mode.
For those open to it, Jesus goes on to describe the spiritual underpinnings: a benevolent spiritual Father desires you to obtain the good that you desire and actively works with you to bring it about. Two sentences later, he claims, “If you … know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Quote I’m Pondering:
“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls– family, health, friends, integrity– are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”
– Gary Keller in “The 1 Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results“
Where did your curiosity lead you this week? I’d love to hear from you!
Thanks again for following along. I’m having a riot putting these together, so if you are enjoying this newsletter I’d love it if you shared it with a friend or two and we can keep the great conversations growing.
Yours truly,
Jeff
Jeff Sutherland 