For procrastinators, last-minute shoppers, and victims of unexpected holiday guests December is in full swing, and it seems like you can barely unlock your phone without seeing app notifications and emails dedicated to gift-guides. These were excellent about three weeks ago, but now Christmas is upon us, and the time of leisurely shipping windows has…
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Here at the Intake Office, we like to eat. An entire season dedicated to pie, mashed potatoes, and excuses to skip the gym and stuff our faces with those we hold near and dear is right up our alley. But inevitably, the new year rolls around and we have to sober up to the fact…
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Our go-to’s in the west coast’s weirdest city Portland may not be as weird as it once was (thanks to a rapid influx of out-of-state expats over the past few years) but there’s still no place quite like this rainy northwestern city. Portland is home to one of the country’s largest municipal parks, as well…
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At the Intake Office, we’ve been trying to practice our zen a little more. There are so many ways to do this–taking a walk on the beach, hitting up your Mindfulness app, Kondo-ing your living space–but our favorite (of course) is breathwork. If you practice yoga, you’ve probably dabbled in Pranayama, the formal practice of…
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A Love Letter to Our Hometown of Vineyards, Coastlines, and Endless Sun When you live in the same place for a long time, it’s easy to lose sight of the reasons you love it. In the past few years, we’ve seen our home weather devastating fires, flooding, and mudslides, and it’s been a wake up…
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Many studies, such as this one, that compare nasal to oral breathing deduce that, during exercise, oral breathing tends to be favorable because not enough air can be inhaled through the nose. Even for those of us with physiologically “perfect” noses, nasal breathing during exercise (especially without a nasal dilator) has to be practiced in…
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Our noses evolved to be our body’s air conditioners: our nasal passages humidify air and filter out particulates so that the air we inhale into our lungs is as non-irritating as possible. The internal nose alone provides 90% of the respiratory system’s air-conditioning requirement. This means that your lungs and throat have to nearly double…
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Our moods are affected by our brain and our nervous system. Studies have shown that our nose is linked to the function of our amygdala, which contributes to our ability to feel emotions and perceive them in others, and our parasympathetic nervous system, which is associated with feelings of centeredness and relaxation. When we breathe…
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Researchers believe the link between nasal breathing and cognitive function has something to do with our sense of smell, which evolved as a survival sense. In a 2018 study* published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers had participants smell several different scents, and then spend a period of time either breathing through their nose or…
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A study in the US National Library of Medicine found that cyclical nasal breathing influences cognitive function, specifically tasks performed by the hippocampus (which is responsible for processing and storing short-term memory) and the amygdala (which regulates emotions and moods). While nasal breathing is linked to better memory recall and lower levels of depression and…
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