Sunday Supplement #123 (September 17th, 2023)
Below is another Sunday Supplement with a quote worth sharing, a book worth reading, a movie worth watching, brainfood worth consuming, and a spiritual passage worth pondering.
Please take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!
Quote of the Week:
“A healthy outside starts from the inside.”
– Robert Urich
Book of the Week:
Breath – James Nestor
Science journalist James Nestor’s Breath is a historical, scientific, and personal examination of breathing, particularly the differences between nasal and mouth breathing.
Nestor investigated how humans shifted from nasal breathing to mouth breathing and how that shift impacted human health.
One of the explanations argues that the shift to mouth breathing was due to the increased consumption of processed foods, which had led to a rise in snoring, sleep apnea, and allergies.
Nestor wrote Breath after ten years of intense research. The book became an international bestseller, selling over two million copies worldwide.
Breath has surprisingly been one of the most helpful books I’ve read in regard to improving my health. I highly recommend it.
Movie of the Week:
Tom McCarthy’s Win Win is about a financially struggling small-town lawyer’s chicanery that comes back to haunt him.
Paul Giamatti plays the struggling lawyer, and his haunting comes in the form of a double-crossed client’s grandson.
The film is surprisingly lighthearted in tone, but it is able to craft a narrative that takes a deeper look into facing the question of what’s important in your life.
For those who don’t know Tom McCarthy by name, he is the writer/director of Spotlight, The Station Agent, The Visitor, and Up.
Win Win is probably a movie that most people haven’t heard about, but it has a special slice-of-life feel that is worth the watch.
Brainfood of the Week:
Healthy Habits: 10 Daily Habits That Changed My Life | Little List Project
The Little List Project YouTube channel is dedicated to providing simple and practical tips for a daily lifestyle.
In this video are ten tips for leading a healthier lifestyle. Ria, whose background is in nutrition and food engineering, explains how these tips help physical, emotional, and mental health.
Ria explains how she implemented these habits gradually over the years. There’s no pressure to do them all every day, and she highlights doing what you can when you’re stressed.
The video goes over habits like meditation, exercise, and healthy eating, but each tip is explained thoroughly, with research offered as supporting evidence.
Many of these types of videos can be over-simplified or obvious, but I thoroughly enjoyed the breakdown from Ria and highly recommend checking the full video.
Closing Spiritual Passage:
“For him who is moderate in food and diversion, whose actions are disciplined, who is moderate in sleep and waking, Yoga destroys all sorrow.”
– Bhagavad Gita 6:17
Yoga is often assumed in the West only to be the practice of physical exercise through various poses. While this is an aspect of Yoga, it isn’t the complete picture.
This Bhagavad Gita passage speaks to the larger mental, spiritual, and physical practices or disciplines to control and still the mind.
The breakdown of different practices in this passage is an excellent guide to living a healthy life, both physically and mentally (and spiritually for those interested).
Maintaining a healthy balance in our lives is essential to being able to combat the sorrows we encounter.
Take productive steps in your mental and physical health, and have a blessed week ahead!