Stuart Sandeman Recap: The Life-Changing Habit

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It's that time when I take a moment to reflect back on the last guest we had and look. Before I jump in and share some of the incredible takeaways from Stuart Sandeman, I just want to urge you and encourage you to take the time daily to make time for reflection. It's those moments of introspection that we get to self evaluate to really think deeply about what we did, who we are, where we're headed, those who seem to have a real sense of purpose about where they're headed, those individuals tend to take time to reflect. So I'd like to encourage you to.

Do that today or this week.

Put some time in the calendar and take some time to just self reflect. So our last guest was Stuart Sandeman. He has helped thousands of people transform their lives simply by changing the way they breathe. Stuart went through a tragic loss of his girlfriend which led him to a breathwork class with his mum. During that session he had a magical experience that got him hooked on breath work. Now it's his absolute life's mission. He's the author of the book Breathe In, Breathe out and it was actually a friend of mine, Alastair, who had.

Said, you gotta read this book.

And Alistair and Stuart are good friends and so I got it and it was just incredibly powerful but so simple. And there was a lot of things around my breathing that I didn't realize could potentially be holding me back, could be making me more fatigued, could be impacting my creativity and my relationships. So it was a really great book. And in there he talks about how to sleep more soundly, how to manage stress and pain through breath work, how to identify and let go of beliefs that are maybe holding you back, how to improve your focus and boost your performance, and that's in any field and also to deepen the connection with yourself, others and the world around you. So let me share just a few of the incredible takeaways from Stuart. So if in doubt, breathe out. How simple is that? If in doubt, breathe out. Why? Why did he say that? Well, look, he talked about when we breathe out, it turns our body's nervous system into a parasympathetic state. So a relaxed state. We are safe is what we're telling ourselves. The longer we breathe out, the more we encourage that parasympathetic nervous system and it switches off the sympathetic nervous system. So elongate that out breath to really help yourself, let go of that carbon dioxide. It really helps reduce the cortisol as well. So if in doubt, breathe out. Another thing was box breathing. This is something I'm really familiar with, really enjoy it. But I just. We did a session during the podcast on box breathing, and I really enjoyed doing it with Stuart. And it's about getting into this very simple routine of breathing in for four counts, holding for four, out for four, hold for four, do this for four minutes for a week, do it once a day for a week, then the following week do five counts and then six. The whole idea is to try and get your breath to the point where you're breathing at five and a half, roughly five and a half breaths per minute. And a lot of the ancient rituals and spiritual practices and the chants and the rosary, when you start to look at them, they all sit around that. Five to five and a half breaths per minute. There's something about that. The pace at which we breathe really impacts us at a biochemical level. So Stuart talked about being able to use your breath to work through stress, and then you can use your breath to go deep and heal some of those unresolved traumas. And we've all got some level of trauma, whether it's a tiny T or a big T, we've all got some trauma in our life.

And, you know, the conversation, you know, went really quite deep in terms of how breath can take us on a journey of self discovery. What was interesting was this, and this kind of reminded me of some of the work that I've done with Dr. Joe Dispenza. Stuart said we've only got 5% of pure creative thought each day. The other 95% of our thoughts are repeated every day. Same thing, just like a hamster wheel. So you've only got that 5% of pure creative thought. Using your breath allows you to tap into more of that creative thought. And I'm sure you would love more creative thought. Right. Who wouldn't?

Something else. Matching someone's breath is a form of empathy. Right. I'd never thought of that. That was like, way outside my realm of thinking. When you match someone's breath in terms of the pace at which they breathe and how they breathe, whether it's from their lungs or their belly, it's a form of empathy. You're matching their pattern to let them know you're there with them and that you'll slow down with them. So let's say, you know, someone is running late to a meeting with you and they literally run there. They get there and they're out of breath. Take a little look at your breath in that moment, I'm pretty confident you will see that your breath will increase to meet theirs and will gradually come back down as theirs does.

It's interesting when you look at some of the intimacy techniques when couples are struggling to be physically intimate. Often one of the techniques is to sit cross legged in front of each other and for five minutes look at each other and breathe at exactly the same pace using exactly the same part of your anatomy, usually the diaphragm, to help each other get more coherent, more in tune with each other. So I definitely think there's a lot to be said about our connection with ourselves and with others through the power of breath. So I'm going to encourage you take a moment right now and go and buy the book Breathe In, Breathe out by Stuart Sandeman. Go check him out on Instagram. He is a BBC Radio 1 DJ with an amazing channel called the Decompression Session and he does breath work along with music. It's fantastic. I often do some of that kind of stuff at my leadership events, my live events, but Stuart's just world class, really incredible. So look, I hope you've enjoyed the recap. Please share one of these strategies with a friend, a loved one or someone that works with you and I want to just encourage you to get out there and lead your life on purpose.