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
15 Points off your blood pressure score – easy!

15 Points off your blood pressure score – easy!

High blood pressure needn’t be hard work. You may think you need to follow a restrictive diet that leaves you miserable and hungry, or work yourself on a treadmill until you collapse in a pool of sweat. But a new study shows that you can leave all of that stuff to the...
This Ancient Practice Beats Blood Pressure Meds

This Ancient Practice Beats Blood Pressure Meds

They can’t compete. Modern meds can often achieve good results in some areas, but when it comes to blood pressure reduction, there’s an ancient practice that’s fun, safe, and it leaves you feeling great, so without tablets, and without side effects, unless you count...
Common Meds That Harm Your Brain

Common Meds That Harm Your Brain

A new study from the Indiana University School of Medicine, published in the journal JAMA Neurology has revealed some disturbing truths about drug side effects. Certain types of drugs destroy brain tissue and negatively impact various cognitive functions. Worse still,...
See What High Blood Pressure Makes You Crave…

See What High Blood Pressure Makes You Crave…

If you’re like most people with high blood pressure, you’ll find yourself being a lot more conscious about what you put in your mouth, but what if your mind tries to talk you into doing something that’s bad for you? Some heavier people blame their weight gain on a...