POWER BREATHING AND BODY COOLING
ENERGY GENERATION AND IMMUNE FUNCTIONING
We become rather early on actually very bad at breathing, training ourselves to live in emotional stress and to breathe as if we are in fight/flight mode. (See Breathe To Feel Good; Don't Breathe = Feel Bad.) At this point we need to relook, and ask ourselves a few questions.
High energy and feeling strong - how valuable is that?
Launching your day in full power for a higher energy day - how valuable is that?
Could we affect our immune system in this special way? If so, how valuable is that?
IMMERSION IN COLD WATER
Tony Robbins jumps into a small pool at 57 degrees every morning. My experience, so far, is noted at the bottom.
Is it too hard?
We probably do not want to go as far as Wim Hof lying in ice for more than 1 1/2 hours. Nor is it likely that we would want to take ice baths like world class experimenter Tim Ferriss.
Watch this in action, if you will: Wim Hof - The Iceman TedX (15:29 + other segments follow) - A scientist who has tested him talks, while he is enclosed in ice...
But my question after seeing all of this is:
Should we do the extremes?
I certainly do not think so, but you can choose as you wish - but beware of the risks. (And check with your doctor first, always, on anything that is a "stress" to the system!)
The principle involved here:
Stress the system, it adapts and grows...just as in muscle building, wherein we tear the muscle fibers, and in the repair process we become stronger.
Cold therapy causes more "brown fat cells", which are healthy and not harming like the regular fat cells can be. Obviously it wakes you up, going into a highly alert state. We want to launch you into your day so that you are elevated to a higher level at the beginning of the day and for most of the day.
Since this will work to "generate energy", I recommend that you do it to the extent you can, but I doubt if you want to do ice baths - I don't see enough evidence of the extra benefit, yet.
IT IS PART OF THE SECRET TO A GREAT LIFE
Note that the "secrets to a great life" are"
1. Elevate! (Raise your energy level and functional level.)
2. Orchestrate (Run your day, fully knowing what the music is to be and directing it for perfect harmony.)
The worth of either is great, but together it will greatly elevate your life (poetically speaking)!]
I recommend you consider doing them both. It is quite refreshing, to say the least!
BREATHING
Of course, you should learn this, not only for energizing at the first of the day and at breaks during the day, but for all day (perhaps only at the normal healthy breathing level, not the extreme).
You cannot operate at a highly functional level if you are not breathing properly.
That is why you must "stop, breathe, engage higher brain" if you are to do good thinking and to make good choices - and never to make a choice in a diminished state. (In a fear or stress state, your higher brain is impaired and turned off to some extent, so you can't think nor really enjoy life!)
WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THIS?
Of course, it is up to your judgment how far you will go.
An avid student could justify spending 50 - 100 hours studying this (in workshops, trainings, and in self-training). The benefit would be worth it. That would bring you to a "sufficient +" mastery point.
But, as a beginning, we can pick the "low hanging fruit" (what is easier and more productive per amount of time) with relative ease but with lots of benefit.
Do "circle breathing" for 30 breaths in the morning to wake up - as part of your routine. This is breathing without a pause or a holding of the breath, deeply in and "deeply" out.
For any of your breathing sessions, set a timer for 3 minutes (or no less than 2, for sure). (See the exact procedure in the box to the right and above.)
And then it would make sense to put the same breathing within at least one of your energizing (or resting) breaks. As I normally would recommend, you should set up reminders that have a unique sound from your other reminders to "Breathe 30 circulars" (or whatever breathing routine you choose).
The interesting thing is that you can be tired, lethargic, disinterested, wiped out and you can still start this, as it is incredibly easy, not jarring, not at all upsetting to the body. You can go from TV or "escape" mode (basically not hardly alive) to feeling fully alive and again having interest in really living (the opposite occurs when our primitive chimp brain's "interest" is focused on the body going into a "protect myself" mode, "preserve my energy so I can survive" mode).
You can also stick cold energizing/therapy into your day at the beginning and also once or twice during the day. All I have been doing, so far, is ending my warm showers with cold water, turning around in the shower to get it on all my skin, for as long as is workable for me at the moment. A good 30 seconds is very energizing for most people, but, it appears to me, that we could benefit more if we ramp it up to beyond that - talk to or study an expert.
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PERSONALLY...
Personally... I found it so easy to "drift" into a sort of low energy state in the afternoon and also in the evening. So I'd "lose" being alive, in a sense, during those times, where I just went with what was the easiest (from TV, which I have since dropped my subscription to, to eating without awareness and with some "numbing").
Finally, it came down to "do I go with the primitive mind's tendency to do what worked for evolution (go into a very low energy state) or do I choose to have my higher brain, and greater knowledge, in charge?"
The answer is obvious. The execution is not so obvious.
Although I "knew" and had "decided" that it was essential to keep ourselves in The Zone of power and functionality (and return to it as directly and as fast as possible), my Chimp Brain (lower primitive mind) pretty much took over, as if it were still preserving energy to assure that I could survive the inevitable famines of the time. (In evolution, certain behaviors, including that one, allowed people to survive more often than others, so it "evolved" into us - but that inborn tendency is no longer applicable to the present world. It is no longer useful and in fact it is counterproductive to our creating a "full aliveness" and fully experiencing life in the now limited, but longer, life that we are "gifted" with, by "luck".)
Tony Robbins states strongly (as he is prone to do) that it is vital that we assure that we stay in a state of high resourcefulness in order to live our best lives. Amen!
I no longer heed "impulses" and primitive, unexamined "instincts". Instead, I look, see, think (engaging my higher brain), and then decide what is best. "I see you, impulse, and I choose instead to stop, breathe, think and decide what is best based on a higher level of knowledge!" (Or I think "I will not let impulses run my life. I am in charge. I choose!"
Along the way, I decided that I will reenergize, whatever it takes, never allowing myself to go into lower functioning or to live at a lower level of life (as that is not truly living). If it takes a nap to recover, I do the nap, no longer resorting to dawdling around and distracting myself in a glazed over state of lethargy, I do it right away, without delay. (I do body-scan deep relaxing, using "Sleep Cycle" on my iphone to monitor and time the nap.)
However, I also "know" from my studies of how things work that I can reenergize even if feeling slightly fatigued, so if I don't choose the nap I do at least the 30 breaths (or equivalent) and/or the other energizing moves, with the absolute criteria of not falling short of returning to a good energy revitalized level. At times, my "old" thinking (including early evolution instinctive, reactive "thinking") offers a bit of an easy alternative, contrary to what I "know" I should be doing.
I've had to imprint that "knowing" in my brain, initially doing the reminder system on my computers (it goes off on all of the devices, no matter where I am) and the posting of the reminders ("I choose aliveness in each moment. I accept nothing less, as I choose to not give away any of my life to non-aliveness. I am in charge. I choose. I am the master of my life" and "I know it will seem inconvenient or 'too much effort' to get up and reenergize, but it is worth it. I accept nothing less in my life!"). This could seem silly to some, but we must "follow the rules of how things work" - and the primitive mind is only taught through repetition, not through "understanding", as it is largely not capable of truly understanding.
[Note that those statements are "too long" to post or remember. So one can do a short version of it ("I choose nothing less than being in the Power Zone." or "I live power!" or whatever.) But, at least initially, I prefer reading the whole statement. To do that I type it in a text box and then print it out, cut it and staple it to a "stickie" to put in several places, with a header that is larger ("I ABSOLUTELY LIVE POWER!"). See the example at the end of this section, below.]
Assuring that you are living in high energy and power is worth the world to our lives!
Please do it!
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In a sense, we went "off the subject", but the broader subject here is actually about power, personal power. Maintaining oneself at a higher level and living in the Power Zone is the only good choice on how to live, thriving instead of just surviving - and feeling fully alive all the time!!
EXAMPLES OF "STICKIES"
[I actually copy each into a box in a table, where the cell is right sized and then print the page. I then cut it out and staple it to a "stickie". Examples are at My Power Energy Statements For Stickies, where I've added a few more than these two below.]
