Brian Johnson explains why most of your daily thoughts drain energy without helping you. A USC study found most thinking is unproductive. His fix: nasal diaphragmatic breathing, focusing on your body, and staying present.
70,000 thoughts per day.
80 to 90% of thoughts (experts' estimate).
Breathe through the nose, deeply but lightly into the diaphragm.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize plus one. Patrick McGowan is one of the world's leading experts on optimal breathing. When I interviewed him recently, he made a very interesting point. He said that we spent all of our lives in school learning how to think, but that we're never taught how to stop thinking. Fact is, most of our thinking isn't thinking at all. We're simply looping the same unproductive thought over and over again. Get this. According to a study done at USC, the average person has 70,000 thoughts per day. And according to some experts, 80 to 90% of those thoughts are useless. That's crazy. Literally. It's also really enervating. We waste a ton of energy spinning our mental wheels, creating more stress and anxiety and fatigue while diminishing our performance and well being, which is not a winning combination. So learning how to stop thinking is a very important skill. Patrick's number one tip on how to master the art of not thinking. Breathe. Specifically, breathe through your nose, deeply but lightly into your diaphragm. One of Patrick's big ideas we'll talk about more in another plus one is the fact that we all breathe way too much, which paradoxically decreases the amount of oxygen released into our cells. For now, breathe through your nose, deeply but lightly. And ah. Our mind has slowed down. All that wasted energy is recouped. And by the way, two other ways to stop the mental chatter. Put your attention on your body equals number two. And the final tip from Patrick, immerse yourself in the present moment. Let's think productively when it's appropriate to do so, and then get really good at turning that brain off. Hey, this is Brian with a quick question for you. Do you know what the word optimize literally means? It's from the Latin optimus, which means the best. In our case, we're talking about helping you create the best version of you. So another quick question. What's the best version of you look like? How does that version of you show up in the world? Well, helping you be that version of yourself all day, every day is what our optimized membership program is all about. Now, we obviously give away a ton of content for free and we give our 10,000 plus premium members a ton more. Members get hundreds of Philosopher's notes, which are 20 minute book summaries that help you apply the best big ideas from the best Optimal living books to your life today. Plus members get dozens of hour long optimal living 101 masterclasses, more wisdom in less time for your busy life on everything from the science of setting and achieving goals, how to optimize your energy via the fundamentals of nutrition, movement, sleep and meditation, and how to be super productive day in and day out. While of course, enjoying the whole process. Every facet of your life optimized equals you at your absolute best.
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