Christian Goodman

Author at Blue Heron Health News

Hi, I'm Christian Goodman.

I was born in Iceland in 1973 and trained as a therapist. Early in my career I learned something I've never been able to unlearn: most of what shows up in the body starts in the mind, the breath, and the tension we carry without realizing it.

I learned it on myself the hard way.

A few years into my practice, my own blood pressure climbed to 185/129. I was the alternative health expert who couldn't fix his own health. I was eating well. I was exercising. I was taking every supplement on the shelf. And I was terrified — not of dying exactly, but of leaving my wife and children without me. I felt like the carpenter who couldn't build his own house.

What finally pointed me toward an answer wasn't another supplement or another specialist. It was a quiet line of research out of Harvard Medical School — Dr. Herbert Benson's work on how a handful of simple mind/body exercises can reset the brain's blood pressure control center.

The first time I sat down and did them, something in my chest unclenched that I hadn't realized was clenched. I'd been bracing against my own body for years. I refined what I learned over the following months into a daily practice I could teach other people.

Snoring was the other one.

I snored my whole life. As a married man, my wife and I ended up in separate bedrooms — and the resentment that grew in that silence nearly ended our marriage. The breakthrough came one morning over breakfast. My wife — a classical singer turned voice teacher — was listening to me describe my latest dead end when she stopped and said, "That's what I teach my students every day." The very exercises she used to open up her singers' breathing passages were the ones I'd been searching for.

That's how most of my work has been born — in a kitchen, in a marriage, in a quiet moment with someone I love.

Today I've written 13 programs covering everything from blood pressure to vertigo to insomnia to migraines. At the heart of most of them is the same conviction that started me on this path: that the body, given simple tools and a little attention each day, has a remarkable capacity to restore its own balance.

If any of this sounds familiar — the frustration, the shame, the feeling that you've tried everything the normal way and are quietly running out of options — then I wrote these programs for you. I'll take you by the hand and walk you, gently, toward something that feels a little easier.

Warm regards,
Christian


Articles by Christian Goodman
High Blood Pressure Cured by This Vampire

High Blood Pressure Cured by This Vampire

Wouldn’t it be great if a vampire could cure your high blood pressure? Dracula would probably tell you that he could do it in the blink of an eye, and we believe him. One bite and your blood pressure would be history! (Although, to be honest, so would you…) But...
Want to Lower Blood Pressure by 40%? Try kindness!

Want to Lower Blood Pressure by 40%? Try kindness!

We’ve all heard the usual advice about lowering blood pressure. Get plenty of sleep, try not to stress, eat right and get some exercise. But now there’s another way to combat high blood pressure that doesn’t involve any of those things. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon...
Five reasons why you feel dizzy and lightheaded

Five reasons why you feel dizzy and lightheaded

Everyone feels a bit dizzy or lightheaded every once in a while, but it’s usually something that passes quickly. Maybe it’s just that you didn’t eat enough, drink enough or it’s too hot, so a little food, drink, and a moment in the shade and you’re...
High Blood Pressure and the ‘S’ Word

High Blood Pressure and the ‘S’ Word

When it comes to high blood pressure, researchers from England and Finland think they can now point to the main culprit. They cast their nets wide, with their study looking at 7000 people for clues about the main drivers of this damaging condition. Thanks to...
The Effects of Snoring on Your Age

The Effects of Snoring on Your Age

It sounds odd, but your body might be quite a lot older or younger than your birthday is telling you. That’s because your biological age is not the same as your chronological age. Your biological age is the measurement of how healthy your cells are. You probably know...