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

Hair Loss Caused by Medications

A few months ago, a reader had written in asking about hair loss creams.  The list of side effects for the topical solutions was concerning to him. He and his wife wanted to have a baby, and there were firm warnings on the label about not handling the stuff if...

Supplement Cocktail Can Help Ease Insomnia

Hope for the 60-million adults in the US that suffer with insomnia comes in the form of natural remedies – including a group of stress-reducing supplements—a review paper published in the newest issue of the “Holistic Nursing Practice” reports. The study author states...

Hanging Out With Friends Boosts Weight Loss

Spending time with others spurns more body fat and weight loss than dieting alone, a study by Ohio State University researchers found. In a study of overweight mice, scientists found that mice that socialized with other mice boosted levels of so-called “brown fat”—a...

What can i do about high blood pressure?

Sitting, breathing and chanting does more for blood pressure than most commonly prescribed medications, a research team from the Medical College of Wisconsin found. The research reveals the importance of monitoring and limiting stress for those with high blood...

Simple, Free Blood Pressure Cures

Getting enough of the “sunshine vitamin” vitamin D is a must for those with high blood pressure, a new study published in the American Journal of Hypertension recently found. In this study of more than 7,000 adults, a clear link was uncovered between low vitamin D...