Learn about Heart Rate Variability (HRV) as a biomarker of resilience, as a higher HRV indicates greater control over your autonomic response to stress.
Engage in a 10-week protocol of resonant frequency breathing for 15 minutes, twice daily, to strengthen the baroreflex and create an automatic, moderating response to stress.
Identify your personal resonant frequency breathing rate (typically 5-6.5 breaths per minute) that maximizes heart rate oscillations, using tools like Elite HRV or CoreSense, or by finding the rate that feels most effortless.
Practice resonant frequency breathing for 15 minutes upon waking and 15 minutes before bedtime to enhance deep, restorative sleep and address sleep issues.
Begin by training your physiology, specifically heart rate variability and heart oscillations, as this is the foundational step to gaining control over your mind and self-talk.
Recognize that unhealed past traumas can shape your self-narrative and hinder personal growth; dedicate time and space to process and heal these experiences.
Understand that all life experiences, positive and traumatic, shape you; learn to sit with them, feel deeply, and let go when needed, integrating them as energy and fuel rather than compartmentalizing them.
Prioritize optimizing your physiological state before and during decision-making, as a parasympathetic state enhances cognitive dexterity, allowing you to see multiple options rather than being myopic.
Learn to shift into a parasympathetic state, which is characterized by being open, engaged, aware, and receptive to the moment, rather than just calm, allowing for optimal response to situations.
Use tracking devices like Oura Ring or Elite HRV to understand your personal HRV range, noting nocturnal HRV and the differences between your highest and lowest days to identify influencing factors.
Aim to decrease the disparity in HRV readings between nights, striving for more consistent, higher HRV levels to improve the body’s ability to process the world and perform at its peak.
Identify three personal experiences that evoke deep feelings of inspiration, gratitude, or love, and during your inhale, connect to that feeling, then on the exhale, release the rest of the world, training your heart to activate these states on demand.
During 15-minute breathing sessions, visualize and deeply feel your best moments with loved ones, embracing these emotions and then learning to let them go and bring them back, fostering emotional healing and openness.
Develop the ability to rapidly shift your physiological state from sympathetic (fight or flight) to parasympathetic (flow) in just a few breaths during stressful moments.
Implement 3-5 breaths of resonant frequency breathing immediately before critical decision-making moments (e.g., timeouts) to center yourself and make optimal choices.
Understand that peak performance isn’t about maintaining a single state, but rather about skillfully fluctuating your energy and manipulating the environment and momentum to create positive effects.
Recognize that high HRV correlates with better sleep, while low HRV is linked to sleep issues; prioritize restorative sleep to positively impact your HRV and overall resilience.
Eat at consistent, timed intervals (e.g., 7 AM, 1 PM, 6 PM) five days a week, as this predictability creates a sense of safety in the body, which is a precursor to a flow state and maximizes HRV.
Understand your body’s specific response to alcohol by observing its impact on your HRV; if two glasses significantly lower it, consider avoiding alcohol during the week, competition, or training decision-making periods.
Keep caffeine consumption to two cups or less, as five or more cups of coffee can negatively impact daily performance and heart rate variability.
Develop a personalized playlist of 5-8 songs that consistently keep you in a flow state and promote a parasympathetic state, using it an hour before high-stakes events to optimize your body and mind.
Acknowledge that stress is inevitable, which helps in managing its impact rather than being caught off guard.
Aim to control the duration of stress responses, returning to a physiological baseline as quickly as possible to maintain performance and well-being.
Develop a malleable body, mind, and heart to adapt to varying forms of stress, understanding that stress is inevitable but its manifestation differs, allowing you to handle opportunities effectively.
Train yourself to identify whether you are in a fight-or-flight (sympathetic) or flow (parasympathetic) state, as making important decisions or competing from a parasympathetic state is crucial for optimal outcomes.
Gain physiological control over your heart and brain responses to inhibit negative self-talk, noise, and fear, thereby gaining control over your internal narrative and fostering positive self-talk.
After intense events, follow a recovery routine including a hot shower, stretching, a 15-minute breathing session, and a diet of easily digestible foods like steamed vegetables to aid body recovery and sleep.
Utilize breath pacer apps like Breathe Plus, Awesome Breathing, or Easy Air to guide your breathing at different rates and identify your most effortless, resonant frequency.
Avoid obsessive daily HRV tracking; instead, monitor it periodically (e.g., once a week or every few weeks), or specifically during weeks 1, 4, 7, and 10 of a training program, to observe baseline changes.
Employ immediate actions like 20 jumping jacks, listening to specific music, or finding a quiet, safe space to quickly shift your physiology and return to baseline in stressful moments.
Select a guiding word for a specific period (e.g., a year or six months) and intentionally apply its meaning to every area of your life to drive continuous improvement.
Be aware of the tendency to hold your breath during stressful moments, as this tenses the body and hinders proper decision-making; instead, maintain proper breathing.
Plan and execute predetermined actions, even if they feel uncomfortable initially, to intentionally shift momentum and energy in critical situations, allowing others to feed off your controlled oscillation.
After an intense, momentum-shifting action, consciously bring your heart rate down and oscillate back to baseline to maintain a technical, clear approach for subsequent decisions.
By maintaining a physiological baseline and building body-mind awareness through breathing, you can anticipate stressful moments and prepare yourself to operate effectively.
Through physiological control, develop a more precise and multi-strategic approach to risk assessment, allowing for calculated and intentional risk-taking without the typical sympathetic over-activation.
Understand that a lack of self-compassion may stem from unhealed past traumas; actively engage in processing these emotions to cultivate greater self-compassion.
To access deeper emotional connections, practice taking emotional risks in life, fostering greater self-expression and authenticity.
Focus on consistent self-improvement, aiming to be a better person each year by constantly finding small areas in your life to reinvent and grow.
Define success by your daily consistency in pursuing personal and professional goals, striving to be a consistently improving person in all areas of life.
Participate in endurance sports (e.g., running) to increase and maximize your HRV, especially if you naturally have a large HRV.
If using excessive caffeine (e.g., 12+ cups) to self-medicate for ADHD, explore alternative methods with an MD’s recommendation to avoid sacrificing HRV and autonomic flexibility.
Be aware that chronic alcohol consumption can lead to a sustained reduction in HRV, indicating distress on the body and reduced autonomic flexibility.
Observe how eating within three hours before bedtime affects your sleep quality and adjust your eating schedule accordingly to improve rest.
Pay attention to daily activities or interactions that naturally elevate your HRV, and incorporate more of these heart-moving experiences into your routine.
If you experience multiple wake-ups due to a racing mind, employ specific breathing techniques to help you return to sleep.
Develop the ability to quiet your mind before sleep, as a busy brain prevents deep recovery and negatively impacts REM and deep sleep cycles.
Through self-awareness and emotional work, develop increased empathy and the ability to connect with others by meeting them where they are.
Use breathing and self-awareness to actively influence the energy and momentum of your environment, such as in a game or meeting.
Utilize natural pauses or stoppages (like timeouts) to re-center, return to baseline, enhance cognitive dexterity and focus, review past transitions, and anticipate future ones for positive impact.
Focus on positioning your physiology in the best possible state before encountering different kinds of stress, rather than rigidly planning for specific scenarios, to enhance your adaptive capacity.
Build awareness of how past traumas are affecting you, discerning whether their impact is positive or negative, and then develop strategies to navigate these effects.
Develop a deep awareness of how your body, mind, and heart react to stress, enabling you to lead effectively and provide what your team needs in high-pressure situations.
Understand that significant cognitive benefits like increased focus, creativity, authenticity, and dexterity typically manifest around week seven of consistent resonant frequency breathing practice.
Focus on consistent, regular resonant frequency breathing for the first four weeks to strengthen the baroreflex, leading to a faster ability to let go of stress and increased control over irritations.
Utilize HRV tracking to objectively assess your body’s recovery from sleep, observing how different sleep durations (e.g., 5 vs. 8 hours) impact your resilience metric.
Maximize your sleep by tracking and identifying the specific amount of sleep (e.g., 7 or 9 hours) that best supports your body’s recovery and HRV.
Ensure your breathing practice includes abdominal breathing, as this is a key component of the consistent, regular practice.
If physiological feedback tools are unavailable, choose the breathing rate (from 5, 5.5, or 6 breaths per minute) that feels most effortless and natural, as this is often your resonant frequency.
Embrace the ability to navigate and express a full range of emotions without restriction, empowering you to be deeply connected and responsive in every moment.
Gain physiological control to pause automatic reactions and consciously decide whether to engage with intensity or disengage, rather than instinctively responding.
Become attuned to your internal state and recognize when physiological oscillations are occurring, allowing for earlier intervention through breathing or other tools.
Adopt resonant frequency breathing (e.g., 4-second inhale, 6-second exhale) as a personal ritual to re-center yourself in the present moment, letting go of past events and focusing on the task at hand.
Practice resonant frequency breathing (e.g., 4-second inhale, 6-second exhale) so consistently that you can deploy it on-demand whenever you feel yourself entering a suboptimal state.