I believe that now more than ever, we need exponential leaders with performance skills who can spark innovation and craft a better and brighter future for our organizations, communities, and humanity. I also suggest that we cannot be exponential leaders who leverage our skills to make the world better if we are not each healthy and well.

Breathwork is a holistic practice that involves using conscious, controlled breathing as a means of promoting physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. It can be done alone or in a group setting and may involve a variety of techniques and approaches.

“People don’t think much about breathing. Of all the things we take for granted, breathing must be number one. It’s our main source of life and energy. When I started focusing on my breathing, I became a stronger athlete and was better able to control my levels of effort and pain.”
— LAIRD HAMILTON

“People don’t think much about breathing. Of all the things we take for granted, breathing must be number one. It’s our main source of life and energy. When I started focusing on my breathing, I became a stronger athlete and was better able to control my levels of effort and pain.”
— LAIRD HAMILTON

Last year we dedicated a week to answering our most frequently asked questions and we received a lot of great feedback afterward. We get a lot of questions through live events, coaching, and our online courses, and we’d like to share these questions and answers with our entire community. We plan on doing this every few months to make sure that we’re keeping up with the demand. If you have any follow up questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible and include them in our next FAQ newsletter. Enjoy!

In recent years, technology has advanced to the point where we can measure stress on the spot using a wearable device, such as the Apple watch, or through an app that uses the phone camera. By simply measuring your heart rate for a minute, you’ll get a stress score through something called Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

In order to reach our potential and experience life at the highest possible level, we need to spend time in each of these brainwave states. The question then is why do we spend so much time in beta brainwave mode?

If you think about how music affects us—from pumping us up, to filling us with pleasure, to bringing tears to our eyes—it’s not hard to imagine that music has a powerful effect on the brain and body.

Gamma brainwaves are the highest frequency brainwaves, measuring at a rate of 30-100 cycles per second (Hz). This is when various parts of the brain engage all at once to give us peak perception and function.

Theta brainwaves are one of the slowest brainwave states, measuring at 4 - 7 cycles per second (Hz). In this state our creativity is flowing. During theta wave activity, several regions of our brain activate at the same time and connect to each other. This is how we have leaps of insight, come up with new solutions to old problems, and discover links we didn’t see before. A classic example is being on autopilot in the shower, going through the motions without thought, and having a new, seemingly random, idea pop into your mind.

The five human brainwave states are Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta, and Gamma. By understanding the different properties of brainwaves and the situations in which they arise, we can learn to trigger these performance states to enter into them at the appropriate time. This week we’re going to dive into the first state: Beta brainwaves.

Conventional wisdom has always said that achieving more means pushing harder. That's not true. Our brains aren't built to be in constant go mode. Sure there are times when driving hard is key. But those moments can't happen without rest and relaxation. And knowing how and when to step back will enable you to achieve peak performance when a big moment comes along.

As we wrap up our Performance Optimized Series, we thought we’d dedicate this week to recapping all that we’ve learned over the past few months.

Last week we discussed flow, a state in which we are completely immersed in the task at hand. We become so engrossed in the activity we’re doing that the world seems to fade away. Athletes often refer to this state as being “in the zone”, however anyone can enter into this state - whether it be at work, while pursuing a passion, or having an engaging conversation with someone.

Flow is often described as a peak state of consciousness. It was first identified by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who described it as a highly focused state conducive to peak performance and productivity. During flow, people are completely immersed in the task at hand and are entirely in the present (no sense of past or future). People who experience flow say they feel a sense of timelessness, total body awareness, complete focus, and a sense of ease.