A simple technique to manage stress better. EP #117 - Shorty

G', day, guys. It's Dan Lenny here with another episode of the How To Scale a Video Business podcast.

Here on Tuesday 22nd September. My sister's birthday today and I've forgotten to send her a card. So I need to sort that out pretty quickly.

It is week 39 of 2020, and today I want to talk about something I think is really important that is not directly filmmak, but I think will really benefit you. If you've been finding the last few months tricky or tough, I know a lot of people down in Melbourne just now are really doing it tough.

They've been locked down for another four, six weeks.

What I wanted to talk about today was the importance of looking after yourself during tough times. And what I'm going to talk about today is the power of meditation. So if you're not interested in meditation, then you can swipe or whatever it is you do on a podcast app. But if you are wondering how you might be able to cope better with how things have been in the last six, seven months, the meditation is something that I think will really, really help you. I've been meditating for about three or four years now, and it is something that I lost practice with and regained practice with. And I think the first thing about meditation or mindfulness is it is called a practice for a reason. And part of that practice is to, you know, build some new habits around it. Now, in its simplest terms, meditation is simply stopping and breathing and giving yourself a chance to gather your thoughts and to recharge. An analogy I like to use is that you wouldn't race a Formula One car around a circuit 24 hours a day without letting the engine cool down, without putting it into the pits and letting everything cool down. And that is really what we often expect our brain to do. We expect our brain to just kind of fire running all these complex systems in our body, plus all the thinking we're doing. Add to that the stress and anxiety of changing market conditions and things that are out with our control, and you've got a pretty good recipe for stress, anxiety and, you know, challenges around, you know, mental health and just coping with everything that's going on.

And so what I've found to be very powerful is the idea of cooling down that engine. And the way you can do that very easily is, is with meditation. And simply put, everyone and anyone can meditate. Now, I'm not saying it's going to be easy, because learning to switch off the mind and all those thoughts and switching off your ego is something that Takes practice. And there's a number of ways you can meditate, and I'll get into them in a minute. But what I wanted to kind of share with you first and foremost is that.

If you can't find 10 minutes a day to stop and breathe and just gather your thoughts in a way that involves just pausing, then there's something wrong. And really, the simple technique for meditation is to just sit down somewhere, close your eyes.

Take three or four deep breaths, and if you do this in through the nose.

And out through the mouth, something is happening to you. Physiologically, you're actually regulating your nervous system just by breathing. And so that in itself will calm you down. A really great tip when you're in any stressful situation is to take three to five deep breaths before you make a decision to respond. If you don't, you're more likely to react and do something stupid. So, you know, when you, when you get stressed, your IQ drops by 50% because cortisol is running through your veins to kind of protect you, to get you into fight or flight mode. So make sure whenever you're faced with a stressful situation.

Just take.

Three.

Deep breaths and you will change how your, your state works. Now this is about taking full control of your nervous system, and it's something that you can absolutely do. Now that stage one, stage two, is to use a guided meditation app. There's plenty of them around. There's calm, there's headspace. I've used headspace. That's how I really got into meditation three or four years ago. And headspace is a guided meditation. You can start with 5 minute meditations, then 10 minutes, then 15 and 20, then 30 minutes. And with practice, you'll be able to meditate without any guidance.

I'm currently meditating with Dr. Joe Dispenza. I meditate for an hour a day. I do 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening. And it's been transformational. And I've spoken about this before in the podcast and I'm going to speak about it again because a lot of my clients are now really embracing meditation. And it's. And it's just so, so wonderful that, that they're doing that because it has a really powerful impact on virtually everyone who tries it. And, you know, don't give up too quickly. It can be challenging to quiet in the mind, but guided meditations like Headspace, they really help you to kind of acknowledge that there's going to be a lot of noise when you first start doing this. And it's okay, and just let the noise come and let it go and acknowledge it and you let it pass. But really, the big benefits of meditation are in the regulation that it gives you the ability to spend less time in your head thinking about problems and a little more time dropping into your heart and feeling your way through a problem. And that's quite a distinct difference. And it's something that, if you're new to this may be a little tricky to wrap your head around, but it's backed by science. If you need the science backing, go and read Joe Dispensers. Dispenza is becoming supernatural. Joe is a medical doctor who is also a very, very big proponent of meditation and the fifth dimension and the third eye and the idea of quantum physics. And so if you're interested in learning more about. If you're someone who needs that kind of validation, then Joe Dispenza is an absolute expert in the field and medically trained. And as of quantified and measured the effect of meditation on health. I believe that if you meditate every day, you can pretty much avoid almost any disease and maintain a very healthy life. Because it's my belief that stress causes disease. And so on a cellular level, if you are giving your body a chance to heal every day with meditation, I also combine that with. With intermittent fasting. It's up to you how you. You choose to live your life. I'm not here to try to sort of push any particular lifestyle down anyone's throats, but. But I've found that intermittent fasting and meditation, it just. It just makes me feel good. I make better decisions. I am more balanced. I'm more measured. I'm able to handle difficult decisions more easily. I am not attached to anyone or anything. And if something perceivably bad happens in, I kind of just shrug it off. It's like, okay, well, that's. That's interesting. And so I no longer have emotional responses to situations. And so it really benefits me and my life with my wife. It benefits my business.

And. And it benefits everyone around me. So if. If you're someone who, who struggles with regulation and regulating how you feel when the negative things happen in your life, then I encourage you to try meditation. It's mindfulness. It's just breathing with your eyes shut, but being conscious, being conscious of your breathing. And then it can get more. More in depth the deeper you go into it. And, you know, meditation night, for me, it can be a real. Be a real ride. You know, you can. You see colors and you get into deep meditations. It's really powerful. So I really encourage you to give it a go. Slow the mind down. Slow everything down. Take a bit of time, patience, and practice. I think you'll find yourself having huge, huge benefits. Yeah, I just wanted to share that with you today because we've had a big, big discussion on the call this morning and it really impacted everyone. And I was so thrilled that so many people are embracing it because it just makes your life and your day and your week easier. So, guys, that's it for now. I will see you on Thursday.

You've been listening to the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host, Dan Lenny. If you're a video business owner who's hit a ceiling and we benefit from mentorship, support and coaching, then check out how you can work with me over@denleny.com don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes. And we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review. And don't forget to share. If you feel you've gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers you know, then please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in case groups that you might be in. See you next week.