Minimize Stress by Breathing with MONQ

If you are lucky enough to live in a park-like setting where there are meadows and
trees and grasses and flowers, and you don't experience any stress, good for you!
That's a wonderful situation. Unfortunately, many of us in-fact live in
cities and have daily stresses such as the commute to and from work, going to
school, financial problems, or relationship problems. There's any number
of things that can be causing you stress in your daily life.

With all of those stresses, it's important to minimize the physiological stress that your body  experiences. Everybody knows you should eat right. Everybody knows you should
sleep well. However, not everybody knows that you should be breathing properly. In the
city, there's a tendency to be breathing polluted air and we all understand that is not good for health.

However, something that is not as well understood  is what I call terpene deficiency. When you breathe in a city, even if it's not a particularly polluted city, you are probably not breathing air with a host of secondary metabolites that has all of the terpenes that you find in the woods. So if you compound all of these psychological stresses that occur just from normal everyday living in the city with the physiological stress of not breathing in the air that you need to breathe, it makes things even worse.

Just a couple gentle breaths on MONQ's Zen blend a couple times a day can help!

Here's how: you breathe it in your mouth, hold it a moment, exhale through your nose, and you're done! That allows your olfactory bulb to experience the  terpenes that your ancestors' olfactory bulbs have experienced for millions of years and it brings you back to a more homeostatic relationship with your environment.

Why the Retronasal Method Works

The breathing technique described in this article, mouth in, hold, exhale through the nose, is not arbitrary. It is designed around a specific piece of anatomy: the olfactory epithelium. This is the sensory tissue lining the upper nasal passages that captures aromatic molecules and converts them into signals the brain can read. When you breathe in through the mouth and exhale through the nose, the aromatic vapor travels retrograde through the nasal cavity on the way out, maximizing contact with this tissue.

What happens next is what makes it effective for stress. The olfactory bulb connects directly to the amygdala and hippocampus, the brain structures most centrally involved in the stress response and emotional memory. This is not a relay through the thinking cortex. The signal arrives in the limbic system within milliseconds. At the same time, the slow, deliberate exhale activates the vagus nerve, the primary pathway of the parasympathetic nervous system. That activation creates the physical sense of release: reduced heart rate, eased muscle tension, slower breathing. The retronasal method delivers these two calming signals simultaneously through independent channels. That is why even a single two-breath session can produce a noticeable shift in baseline state.

Disclaimer: The above information is provided for general wellness and educational purposes only. Please note that while individual essential oil ingredients may have been shown to exhibit certain independent effects when used alone, the specific blends of ingredients contained in MONQ diffusers have not been tested. No specific claims are being made that use of any MONQ diffusers will lead to any of the effects discussed above. Additionally, please note that MONQ diffusers have not been reviewed or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. MONQ diffusers are not intended to be used in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, prevention, or treatment of any disease or medical condition. If you have a health condition or concern, please consult a physician or your alternative health care provider prior to using MONQ diffusers. MONQ blends should not be inhaled into the lungs. Why? It works better that way. No Nicotine Ever in MONQ Pens. Inhale through the mouth, exhale through the nose. MONQ Diffusers are not intended for individuals under 18, or women who are pregnant or nursing.