1 Hack for Finding Calm While Boosting Energy & Focus While Running a Startup
We have a hack of the mind and the body, our physiological systems, that some researchers are saying is doing something really interesting that they can’t quite explain.
The tool we’ll be discussing is called Squat Breath - available in the Founders First app. This is an elevated breath work practice where we’re breathing really quickly while at the same time moving the biggest muscles in our body - our legs - as we move our entire bodies up and down timed with that accelerated breath rate.
What’s really interesting about this practice is that people who use it - entrepreneurs that have shared this tool with us and people in other really extreme situations, like Navy Seals, that use this type of breath work and movement process - say that it does a couple of things for them:
It allows them to be really calm afterwards.
It allows them to be really focused afterwards.
It gives them a burst of energy that they can take into the moment to feel more refreshed.
Some even end up feeling emotionally euphoric in the moments following this practice, maybe 5 to 10 to 15 minutes following doing the Squat Breath practice.
What’s also interesting about this is that we know that the stress response, the activation that we get in our bodies around adrenaline in this type of rapid movement and rapid breath, drives a lot of those behaviors. But some of the other pieces around calm are a little bit weird…
What we’re actually finding and what some researchers have found in studying people that use this exact type of rapid, escalated breath work practice is that in a lot of these subjects - in fact it’s the majority of them in the most recent study that we found was 9 out of 10 people that they studied - had no cortisol response from this.
You get an adrenaline response but you don’t get the stress hormone cortisol that we know does other things, like slowing down digestion and changing the way our brain works in the moment and even disabling our immune system to probably pull energy from it for the other activities that we need in that fight or flight response in our stress response.
That’s what cortisol does, and some of the early research around this escalated breath work says that we’re getting adrenaline for energy and focus and sometimes those emotions - that feeling of euphoria and focus that come out of it. But we might not also be getting the cortisol response, or at least certainly not to the same levels that we would get from something that startled us otherwise.
So, this is a potential hack (we don’t know if it’s a hack but we call it a hack) - a potential way to activate our systems inside of our mind and our body in a way to get something out of them that we want.
Here’s the right time to use the Squat Breath practice, based on what people have told us this does for them:
In the afternoon. In that slump after lunch when you have low energy, or really any time you have low energy, and you want to try and get your energy back up and get your focus on board again.
In a moment of anxiety. When anxiety pops up and we feel tension in our body and we just need a full reset. The movement and the breath, getting our heart rate elevated a little bit, and then allowing it to end and come back down again, can be a very calming experience for a lot of people.
To recap: When you need an energy pick up or when you need a little extra calm in the moment. Maybe it’s right on the edge of freaking out about something or feeling really fearful about it and you’re feeling really activated, or it’s just a moment during the day where you feel like you’re holding a lot of tension in your body and you’re just taking into your body a lot of these things that you’re concerned about and you’re feeling that build up.
This is the reset - it’s a big reset - it’s movement of the entire body and it’s an incredible practice called Squat Breath - available in the Founders First app.
Give it a try this week - do it as rapidly as you can and as is comfortable for you. Everybody’s body is different, so don’t push yourself too hard, certainly don’t pass out, but use the movement practice up and down at the speed and the pace that you’re comfortable doing and then just sit still afterwards, and do a bit of analysis of how the mind and the body feel and how that state has changed for you.
The Squat Breath tool is one of many tools available in the Founders First mindstate tracking app for entrepreneurs. See all the tools and get personalized recommendations on how to best invest your time each day based on your current mindstate by trying the app free for 7 days.
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