Elevated Mood, Tremendous Breath Energy, and How to Move a Ship

1. State vs. Trait Breathing

• State Breathing: How your breathing changes during and immediately after an experience (e.g., breathwork, yoga, a stressful event, etc.).

• Trait Breathing: Your everyday breathing. How you breathe when you’re not thinking about it.

The goal is to purposefully use our state breathing to improve our trait breathing.

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P.S. This thought was inspired by this Optimize +1 on states vs. traits.

2. Applying Ancient Greek Philosophy to Our Breathing

“And that was what ancient Greek philosophy did. It involved a two-fold process: first make the habitual conscious, then make the conscious habitual. … Philosophy is a training, a set of daily mental and physical exercises that become easier with practice. … After enough training, we naturally feel the right emotion in the right situation, and do the right thing.”

- Jules Evans, Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations

Speaking of states vs. traits, here’s how the ancient Greeks applied that concept to practicing philosophy. We’re essentially using their process for our breathing:

• When we become aware of our breathing, we’re “making the habitual conscious.”

• When we use breathing exercises regularly, we’re “making the conscious habitual.”

With enough training, hopefully we’ll breathe optimally in every situation.

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P.S. If you’re like me, this process won’t happen quickly…it might even take the rest of our lives <— you can obviously count me in 😂. I hope you’ll join me 🙏

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