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
The Thorn That Sticks it to High Blood Pressure

The Thorn That Sticks it to High Blood Pressure

Thorns are usually associated with hurting rather than healing, but a near neighbour to the common Tea Rose looks set to have its hidden health properties gain wider attention. It’s a potent herbal remedy that you might have growing in your own garden, and it’s great...
Your Phone Is Like a TV Remote for High Blood Pressure

Your Phone Is Like a TV Remote for High Blood Pressure

When we say “Your phone is like a TV remote for high blood pressure” we don’t mean there’s an app for that. And we don’t mean you can point your phone at people and make their blood pressure soar either, but we do mean it does do something nearly as bad to...
A New Way to Diagnose Vertigo at Home

A New Way to Diagnose Vertigo at Home

30 percent of people suffer from vertigo at some point in their lives but getting it diagnosed can be a real hassle. The problem is that it’s such a specialized field, so when you arrive at the ER they might not have a practitioner and the diagnostic instruments...
7 Deadly Sins of Food for High Blood Pressure

7 Deadly Sins of Food for High Blood Pressure

You don’t need us to tell you that high blood pressure is bad news. It’s common knowledge, but do you know what you should be doing about it? There’s a ton of research out there which tells us what to eat and what to avoid to keep our blood pressure healthy, but it...