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
Snoring Destroys This One Sense You Need

Snoring Destroys This One Sense You Need

Snoring is not only upsetting for a person sharing a bedroom with you; it can also be dangerous for your health. A number of studies, including one published in the Turkish journal KBB-Forum: Elektronik Kulak Burun Boaz ve Ba Boyun Cerrahisi Dergisi, have found that...
Trendy Exercise Lowers High Blood Pressure

Trendy Exercise Lowers High Blood Pressure

What is one of the first things a good doctor recommends when you are diagnosed with high blood pressure? Diet and exercises, right? But which exercises? A new study published in the American Journal of Hypertension reveals a new type of exercise, which is quite...
This Anxiety Disorder Connects to Pets

This Anxiety Disorder Connects to Pets

One of the reasons it has been so difficult to treat anxiety disorders is because there are so many types of it. But a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders has connected one type to pets. And no, it’s not about being afraid of dogs. It’s kind of the opposite....
The Invisible Cause of Vertigo

The Invisible Cause of Vertigo

Vertigo is the number one health complaint amongst the elderly. It’s becoming more and more common. And doctors have no explanation as to why this is the case. But now a new study on a common medical procedure, published in the journal Radiologic Technology may hold...
This One Ingredient Causes Alzheimer’s (new study)

This One Ingredient Causes Alzheimer’s (new study)

Every time we read “new” Alzheimer’s research, it’s just the same old thing. It focuses on the genetic factors and doesn’t tell us anything new. Little if any attention has been paid to the connection between Alzheimer’s and the lifestyle choices we make, especially...