A Helpful Breathing Tip, Two Ways, and How to Build a Stronger Mind

1. The Most Helpful Breathing Tip I’ve Found (it’s embarrassingly cliché & simple)

Don’t take ten breaths. Take one breath, ten times.

Don’t do 5 minutes of breathing. Consciously take one breath, over and over, until your 5-minute timer goes off.

Sounds silly, but it works 👏

2. How to Build a Stronger Mind

In Peak Mind, Dr. Jha describes a “mindfulness push-up” as the following:

1. You shine your attention on your breath.

2. Your mind wanders, and you notice it.

3. You redirect your mind to your breath.

“This is what we might call the ‘push-up’ of a mindfulness breathing exercise.”

I love this analogy because it conveys the most crucial aspect of mindfulness: Just like repeated physical push-ups make our muscles stronger, repeated “mindfulness push-ups” make our minds stronger.

Meaning we need our minds to wander so we can notice it and come back to the breath. It’s how our minds get stronger.

3. Breathing Must Be Practiced Not Just in Solitude

“Spirituality must be practiced not just in solitude but also among people. Open up to people around you and feel connected. This is the true challenge of spiritual practice.”

- Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

The same is true for our breathing (or any contemplative) practice. It must be performed not only in solitude, but in real life:

• How we do (or do not) reply to comments on social media is our practice.

• How we do (or do not) reply to emails that provoke us is our practice.

• How we do (or do not) interact with friends & family is our practice.

• And on and on for every aspect of our lives…

So, this is the true challenge: To use our favorite contemplative practice to fundamentally change who we are and how we interact with the world for the better.

4. Two Ways to Keep Your Practice Interesting

1. Switch up your routine or exercises every 15-30 days to continuously create novelty.

2. Cultivate mindfulness so the same old boring exercises continuously create novelty.

P.S. There’s no right or wrong, and you can use both approaches simultaneously 😊

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