Weekly Way of Breath | 007 | Nov. 4th, 2022

A quote to ponder: “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” -Marcus Aurelius

This is one of those quotes all about controlling that which you can control and forgetting about the rest. The strength you have is in controlling how you respond, act, and live your life. A long time ago I was introduced to Stoicism by my mum, she had gotten me The Daily Stoic book and journal, I loved it. I would read the short topic for each day and then journal about it. This became my first daily habit of journaling. It's a practice that has been so transformative for me. It allows me to flush out the thoughts in my mind whether positive or negative. This is a practice that even Marcus Aurelius himself did every day. He would journal and  these journal entries would become known as his book Meditations. If you're looking for a book to read, I highly recommend it. The reason I picked this quote is because it describes having power of your mind not the outside world, and the same thing with your breath. You have the ability to lock in and control your breathing in each moment even if the outside situations are stressful or create a fight or flight reaction from you. Being able to control your breath, your mindset, and your performance are the ultimate skills. This is what sets the A players aside from everyone else. If you want to achieve greatness in your personal and professional life, then you will need to master those skills. I'm also not stating that I'm there yet, but it's the repetition and the practice that makes those skills habitual. Similar to how Marcus Aurelius journaled every day, if you don't want to journal, at least practice controlling your breathing, strengthen your mindset, and simulate high performance in every area of your life.

A topic that needs more air time:

Using moments in your athletic performance to simulate stressful situations that you can use in your personal and professional life. What I mean is that by creating a stress response during an athletic event to teach resilience, and to show where the threshold is. I do this while I workout during cardio, I tape my mouth and force myself to only use nasal breathing. This creates a stress response because as my heart rate elevates, my body requires more oxygen to the tissues and thus a build up of carbon dioxide occurs. This is the stress response within my body. You can also simulate this same situation using breathwork alone, while practicing Hypoxia (Altitude Training). Low oxygen saturation breathing protocols will create the same resiliency. When you feel comfortable on the mat in a static environment, you can then slowly move to increase the resistance through dynamic positions and movements. So back to my point, you can use these simulated stress responses to create the resilience to stay calm and collected in real-world stressful situations. Whether these are situations at work, in your many relationships, or anything else life throws your way.

Bio-hacking Tool:

This is one I use every morning, I fast until 12pm usually or later, you don't need to do the fasting. Only play around with what works best for your body. There is a drink I have on an empty stomach each morning and it helps kickstart my metabolism for the day and target that visceral fat. (I know I don't need to worry about that, but it has become a habit now). The drink is:

• 1 Cup of Water
• 1/2 Lemon Juiced
• 1-2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 5mg Creatine Monohydrate
• 1000mg Pink Himalayan Sea Salt (high quality and low in microplastics)

Mix it up and drink it and see if it starts to burn that visceral fat in a 14 day period.

Breathing protocol:

This is a great protocol for helping you de-stress and lower anxiety. This is a breath I use when down-regulation of the nervous system is the goal. The protocol is:

• Inhale for 4 Seconds
• Hold for 7 Seconds
• Exhale for 8 Seconds
• Repeat

I like doing this all through the nose, especially as nasal breathing releases nitric oxide into the body and aids in relaxation of your stress response. A neurotransmitter called Acetylcholine is released in the brain which helps to calm the body. We all want calm sometimes. Try this one out.

Future focus:

This week concludes our 2 week focus of Hypoxia (Altitude Training) and as such there is a new 2 week focus. That being said Hypoxia is something we will continue to come back to during the AM sessions as it helps in deepening your performance through resilience. 

Our new focus will be on boosting your memory, focus and concentration and energy. It will utilize many different protocols, cadences, and mechanics. There will be a focus on static vs dynamic breathing. I look forward to seeing those of you that enjoy the AM sessions in there. 

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend and week. We will see you all next week!

Pura vida!

Shea