Cover image from: Breathe and Flow - Powerful Ancient Tummo Breathwork
Hustling
In the modern hustle culture it’s easy to dismiss any kind of mindfulness or spirituality as time-consuming distractions for hippie nomads. Ten minutes of meditation in the morning, or checking the inbox right after waking up to show your team you are “on top” of things? For many, the latter option is the default. I’m convinced that, at least for me, the meditation option wins out in the long run, especially when it comes to being (and staying) on top of things.
Combine with meditation
I’ve previously written about the Waking Up app by Sam Harris. I still use the daily meditations on there, but mix it up with a breathwork exercise some days. The breathwork has a more physical aspect to it, and the variation is nice. I recommend having an accountability partner to make sure the habit sticks. For me, it’s my partner that I live with, which makes things easier. We both make sure that we don’t miss the daily habits (to be honest, she’s probably more reliable than me when it comes to making sure). If you live alone, it can also be a friend that wants to establish the same habit, and you can just text “DONE” to each other after completing the habit.
Which one?
For the kind of breathwork to do, there’s no shortage of guided variants out there. Choose one you like, and stick to it. Most are similar in that they consist of cycles of breathing and holding your breath. It gives you an oxygen boost which many times produces a pleasant altered state. I’ve noticed there’s a compound effect at play here, similar to meditation, where the more you do it the better you will feel.
We like to follow the instructions in this video: Breathe and Flow - Powerful Ancient Tummo Breathwork
It also has a short meditation practice at the end.
Happy breathing!