“Ugh another overhyped health fad. Unfollow plz!"

If that's your first thought when you hear the word 'breathwork'...

Read this thread.

You might be misunderstanding what breathwork is about.

And you might not fully appreciate how much you can do and control with your breath. As humans, we breathe more than we perform any other biological function... yet we rarely consciously think about it.

That’s where breathwork comes in.

It’s about making the unconscious breath conscious, and treating it as a powerful tool.

As simple as that.

I used to struggle with sticking with new habits (and be pretty hard on myself about it.)

Then I learned about the "Myelination" process: We've all heard it before:

Consistency and repetition are important.

But WHY is that?

Just knowing something's good for us is rarely enough to stay motivated.

For me, it's only once I understood this underlying neurological process that it became easier to build new habits.

"Just staying indoors, only artificial lights, and looking at things up close is like visual obesity." - @hubermanlab

Here's a simple strategy to take care of your visual system (plus it'll get you moving): Let’s start with a fun fact:

Did you know your eyes are two pieces of your brain, pushed out of the skull during development?

They’re not just connected to the brain.

They ARE brain.

So... all the more reason to take very good care of them.

Did you know there's a massive difference between breathing through your nose and breathing through your mouth?

I thought it was an either or kinda thing.

Turns out, the only reason we've evolved to be able to breathe through 2 channels is to increase our chances of survival. Should the nose get obstructed, the mouth becomes a backup ventilation system.

But that’s all the mouth was ever meant to be:

Backup.

Yet, for many people, it's the main breathing channel.

And that's a problem, as mouth breathing has 0 functions or advantages.

The advice @hubermanlab said he would give to his younger self:

"I wish I had understood the biology of adrenaline and the way the stress response works. At 25, I didn't have great tools to deal with stress. I wish I had told and taught myself about the physiological sigh." The physiological sigh was discovered back in the 1930s and then went unnoticed for a number of years.

Even today, most of us don't realize we can leverage the very real relationship between our brain, lungs, and heart - simply by using our breath. Especially when stressed.

Fun fact:

The eyes are two pieces of brain, pushed out of the skull during development.

They're not just connected to the brain. They are brain.

Plus, they do much more than just "see things."

The fundamental purpose of the eyes is to guide & inform the rest of the brain. Our eyes are fundamentally the most powerful driver of what we think, feel, and do, because they set the basic level of alertness and focus.

So you want to keep your visual system healthy & use it regularly for what is what designed for.

2 ways to do this:

The Ultimate Guide to Reinventing Yourself by @jaltucher - so good. A few of my favorite lines: • You can outsource 90% of mentorship to books and other materials. 200-500 books equals one good mentor.

• Time it takes to reinvent: five years. Not more, not less. There are no shortcuts.

Reading the book Deep Work by Cal Newport changed everything for me. I could no longer ignore the nagging feeling of how much of my previous job had become about shallow, low-cognitive work. Mostly sending emails, sitting in meetings & chasing people for stuff. Very little deep thinking, creating, or long-term planning.

The book planted the seed of wanting more for myself. It motivated me to start writing online and create my own “deep work”. My brain lit up.

This is why I love @wakingup by Sam Harris. They approach meditation in such a different way, completely transforming your sense of who you are.

"A new operating system for your mind—not just another meditation app."

Here's part of a session I couldn't help but write down: "Keep our eyes open for this session.

Become aware of the feeling of sitting. Just let your body resolve itself into a cloud of sensation.

Take a few deep breaths.

Then pay attention to your visual field. Let your gaze be very wide.

@hubermanlab often talks about how he uses ultradian cycles of 90 minutes to structure his days and best capture neuroplasticity.

He calls these his 'focused learning bouts'.

Here's a breakdown of how they work and why they matter: Ultradian rhythms are natural cycles of approx. 90 minutes that exist in all of us.

We go through these all day and all night, and biologically we are optimized to work and focus in these 90-minute blocks.

Now, we don’t get peak performance for the entire cycle.

This year will be about re-reading books and re-taking courses I've loved over the past 2 years.

Instead of superficially rushing through ideas, I want to
• understand them in depth
• write about how I apply them
• have them at my fingertips to navigate my mind & life It’ll be damn hard but the intention is to not get distracted by any other books/courses.

The overarching topics: nervous system mastery, mental & physical health, mindfulness, online creativity.

1 year of obssion to see how that impacts my thinking & writing.

Here's the list:

Over 1 million people watched Episode 6 of @hubermanlab: How To Focus to Change Your Brain on YouTube.

Clearly a popular question.

It's 90 minutes jam-packed with valuable information.

I distilled it into a practical 4-step protocol: Before we jump in - there's good news, some bad news, and more good news.

Let's start with the good news:

You can learn new skills and knowledge - no matter how old you are.

Your brain is not fixed.

That is the essence of neuroplasticity.

https://twitter.com/chargrysolle/status/1554873029502455808?s=20&t=Meu4rfamZi0u6PZHI5IHbA

3 ways learning about my nervous system has changed my life...

(Big statement, I know - so I don't make it lightly 😉) #1 We're all living on our own little planets.

You don't passively experience "what's out there" in the world. Your brain actively constructs your version of reality.

Every brain has 80-100 billion neurons. A typical neuron makes about 10,000 connections to neighboring neurons.

I'm going to pick up 'positives' journaling again.

I started doing it 2 years ago after reading The Happiness Advantage by @shawnachor and noticed a strong effect on my mindset.

Taking the time to look out for the good in your day physically rewires your brain. As Shawn writes: “When you write down a list of '3 good things' that happened that day, your brain will be forced to scan the last 24 hours for potential positives—things that brought small or large laughs, feelings of accomplishment at work, a strengthened connection with family, and so on."

My 2 favorite parts from a conversation between @AliAbdaal and @TaraSwart on The Power Of Neuroplasticity and Brain Care:

• The brain benefits of nature
• Why journaling is legit from a neuroscience perspective 1) The brain benefits of nature

From an evolutionary perspective, there's a reason why our brains are wired a certain way.

We were dependent on nature but it was also a huge threat to us.

It’s a symbiotic relationship.

After 18 months of writing online, I have assembled a robust note-taking system, with a few simple techniques & tools:

• Readwise (notes syncing tool)
• Reader (read-later app)
• Roam (note-taking & connecting)
• Otter (voice transcription)
• MyMind (visuals & screenshots) My system is based on 3 principles:

• Low friction: easy to add notes, without worrying about structure

• Connection: methods like The Queue, #BigIdea, #Problem + #Takeaway to play and link new + old ideas

• Discovery: ways to surface forgotten and random highlights

10 simple productivity tips that work well for my brain - in no particular order: 1. Write down the 'cost of procrastination' (can be emotional, financial, or relationship-wise)

https://twitter.com/chargrysolle/status/1521600504651935744

Without fail, I am more alert and energetic during the day if I've gone for a walk in the morning.

Yet I have to push myself to go out every - single - time.

Having a basic biological understanding of why a morning walk is so good for me has helped: We all have an internal master clock called the circadian rhythm.

This clock manages our sleep-wakefulness cycle, determining when we feel alert, and when we feel drowsy.

For this, the clock relies on direct input from our eyes - based on our light-viewing behavior.

An exciting and vitally important feature of your visual system:

Your visual focus drives your mental focus.

In other words, you can use your eyes to increase or decrease focus.

It's a skill worth learning.

And you can start experimenting with this immediately: 1/To feel more focused:

When your eyes move inward toward a visual target, your visual word shrinks.

This activates a set of neurons in your brainstem, triggering the release of neurochemicals:

• Epinephrine-> increased alertness, agitation
• Acetylcholine-> increased focus

Why is the idea of neuroplasticity not drilled into us as kids?

It’s arguably the most important thing to understand about ourselves:

We can rewire our brains to think differently, learn new skills, get over painful experiences & adapt to pretty much anything life throws at us. Here are 4 ideas to keep in mind if you want to better understand how to use this innate ability of your nervous system to your advantage:

Most of us don't like the feeling of being clumsy or not knowing how to do something.

We're quick to write things off as too difficult or "just not for me".

But it turns out those feelings of frustration are exactly what we need for proper learning and long-term brain change. It all starts with neuroplasticity, this fantastic feature of our nervous system that allows it to change in response to our experiences.

To enter an optimal state of plasticity - where your brain & nervous system are primed for change - you need to create mismatches or errors.