The 4 Elements of my Morning and Evening Routine | Jim Kwik

What are the 4 elements to my morning and evening routine to become more limitless? I'm your brain coach, Jim Kwik. I want to welcome you to the 300th episode of the Kwik Brain Podcast. I know whether you've been with us for just 1 month or a number of years, your goal is, as ours, is to be on this journey to reveal and realize our fullest mental potential. I believe there's a version of you that, uh, That is patiently waiting. And the goal is we show up every single day until we are introduced to that person. And so part of that process is getting mentors, is getting a coach and learning insights and inspiration, practical instruction. And that's really the joy for our team. And that's why we produce this podcast for you. So I wanna talk about the 4 elements to my morning and evening routine. And one of the best things about this is it doesn't take a lot of time. And for the most part, it's absolutely free. There's no cost for you to implement this with yourself, with a significant other, with your family, and with your team. So please share this episode. Okay, so I want to talk about the 4 elements. And if you're watching this on YouTube or on social media, you might see it on my shirt. I'm going to talk about the 4 elements of nature. Thousands of years ago, a couple thousand years ago, the Greeks believed that these 4 elements, everything in the world were made up of these 4 elements. Even Hippocrates thought that it was part of our temperament as human beings. And these elements in no specific order, of course, you know that there's air, there's fire, there's earth, and there is water. So the idea back then was that these 4 elements had a place in all aspects Of, of nature and everything from philosophy to science to medicine. Hippocrates called these the 4 humors or the 4 temperaments, if you will. For example, it was believed that air represented inspiration, intelligence, and intention. Earth represented being grounded, roots. It means connected to your resources or resourcefulness. Fire represented energy, transformation. It represented passion, a connection to your own personal power and inner strength. They represented expansion. And water represented flow. It represented flexibility, a sense of surrender, emotional release, intuition, and inner reflection. So my question for you as you're listening to this episode is, How can you interject and install, if you will, more of these elements from nature into your morning and evening routines to help you become a limitless learner and also to uplevel your limitless life? Well, let's take an example. Part of my morning routine, I'm thinking about, I want to connect with nature. So many times we have to disconnect from our devices to be able to reconnect with ourselves. And so what do I do? And this is all science-based. The first thing I'll do is I'll have, when I wake up, is I'll have a glass of water, right? So that's, that's the water part, because what happens at night is you can lose water and your hydration, if you will, and you wanna stay hydrated cuz just a little bit of dehydration and you can lose water at night through respiration and perspiration could actually impact Your reaction time, your thinking speed. And so how do you hydrate yourself? So I'll have some water, maybe add a little salt or a little bit of lemon, electrolytes, if you will, but I'll get that water inside of me. The next thing I'll do is within the first 10, 15 minutes of when I wake up, I wanna get that fire. What does that mean? I wanna get that sunlight. We know that when you go outside to be able to reset your circadian rhythms, that your eyes are the only part of your brain that's outside of your skull. And so one of the best ways to get better sleep that night is to be able to reset your clock. And what do I do? I go outside and I get direct sunlight. Even if the sun is not shining out bright, maybe it's a little foggy or a little misty. I want to go outside. You don't want to do that inside because if possible, because the windows could actually, the glass could actually not let all of the full spectrum of light make it available for yourself. So go outside. And what do I do when I go outside? What am I doing? I'm gonna go and get the sunlight, and I'm getting sun on my body, uh, which is great for your hormones, great for vitamin D. And then after that, once I have the hydration, which is the water, and I get the fire of the sun, I also get grounded. What does that mean? I find a patch of grass or a patch of, uh, like maybe a stone or rock to sit on. Maybe it's sand on a beach, wherever you happen to be. And I sit there and I get grounded and I take my shoes off 'cause I wanna be grounded to the earth, right? So that's the earth element. And from there, I bring in and invite oxygen and air. What does that mean? Of course, my breathing exercises. And whatever breathing exercises you happen to do to help you to be able to clear mental fog, to help with mental brain fatigue, For me, I maybe will do some Wim Hof breathing. So maybe I'll do 30 reps and do a few sets of that. We've talked about in previous episodes box breathing, alpha breathing, fire breathing, whatever methodology you subscribe to. But I want to clear the cobwebs. I want to be able to get fresh air and oxygen because your brain is only 2% of your body mass, but it requires 20% of the nutrients and also the oxygen as well. Many times people feel like they're tired and it's not because they need calories, Because you could go weeks without food, you could go a few days without water, but you can only go a few minutes without air, right? So I do my deep breathing and I stack these things. So at the time I have my glass of water there, so I have my hydration and I'm getting this, the sunlight, which is the, the fire. I'm getting the fresh air and I'm getting grounded all at the same time. And for me, this is something that only takes about 15 minutes. And yet it is a huge delta in terms of the return I get on that investment of time, of attention, the amount of energy and productivity I invite back into my life. So my question for you is, how can you add some of the elements of life into your life first thing in the morning? Now, even as you're thinking about this, I want to ask you a question. How can you also integrate some of these elements into your day or into your evening routine? Think about that. This is like a little masterclass, so it doesn't have to be a passive podcast. For me, like right after that, I will jump into some water, you know, whether it happens to be a lake by my home, whether it's a cold shower. We've talked a lot about cold therapy. I use a cold plunge. We'll put links to these resources in the show notes at jimkwik.com/notes. But I'm a big believer in cold therapy. For me, it's not only does it lower inflammation, but when you're in that water, it's like a nervous system reset. For me, it's even better than coffee. You're in the water, after a handful of seconds, you get that noradrenaline. It's like you get that dopamine flood. And for me, it drives my alertness and I'm ready to take on that day. Even before that, maybe I'll listen to a podcast or do a little reading. And then having that alertness and that adrenaline in my body afterwards actually helps me with my recall. So as an example, I'm thinking about how can I add more of that into my day? So fast forward throughout the day, and maybe I'm winding down and it's my evening routine. And simple question to ask yourself, how can I introduce some of the 4 elements into my evening routine to get the best sleep ever? Well, let's just go through it, right? For me, it's part getting grounded, right? I get off my screens, I go for a walk. I like to bare— be barefoot. Or you can look into the science of grounding. Some people use devices when they go to bed. They have maybe one of those grounding pads, either like as a mattress topper. I can put resources, I'm not affiliated with them, if you wanna look into that. Some people use those grounding pads when they are working on the computer. I get off my devices and I get grounded. And that's my roots. That's my family, right? You think about the grounding connecting to your resourcefulness when we talked about nature. Yeah. And, and then the elemental force. And that's really powerful. I mean, just think about just being grounded in your life. How does that feel to be stable, having a foundation? Uh, one of the things I do as I'm winding down is I want to, uh, I wanna introduce some fire into it. And what does fire do? What I'll do is I'll take a, a warm bath, which also incorporates more water, right? When you remember the triggers for melatonin, the triggers through, through nature as a hunter-gatherer, What did, how do we know it was time to sleep? It's because there was a drop in what? There's a drop in lighting. There's a drop in what? In, in temperature. Right. And so what I'll do is I'll take a nice warm bath, maybe put some Epsom salt in there cuz the magnesium is, is wonderful for, for relaxation to help me transition, having these routines and rituals to tell my nervous system, hey, it's time to go in that parasympathetic rest and digest. So maybe I'll do a sauna. I use a— I have a Sunlighten sauna. We'll put, again, put some of these resources in the show notes, but it gets my core body temperature warmer. And then when I step out of that bath or step out of that sauna, then what? Then my core body, it cools down. And that's another trigger to say, hey, it's time to rest, to wind down. And my core body temperature starts to cool off. and I'll go in and I'll be ready for bed. So that's a way of using fire. Some people, what they'll use is knowing that the power of light actually affects our circadian rhythms, as we talked about earlier. Then they'll have maybe certain light bulbs, like maybe a red light bulb, or we've had— we've talked about in the past different devices like Joovv. So as a red light panel to help you to transition, or some people use the blue blocking, blue light Blocking glasses as well. That's using fire, right? So you're tapping into fire, you're tapping into water, and you're also getting grounded. I will hydrate before going to bed, but not too close to bedtime, as you don't want to make— interrupt your sleep with trips to the bathroom, right? But water is another very powerful way. We use a, you know, a mattress pad that pumps water into the mattress pad that cools it as well, because that cold temperature helps me get better, deep, restorative sleep. But how can you use these elements into your morning, into your afternoon, going into your evening? And for the most part, they're free and they're freely available. And that's really amazing because think about the word like elemental, elemental, mental. Like the word mental is in the word elemental. And so mental is like intelligence, you know, the intelligence in that, in those elements. But also taking those elemental forces and using it to help with your, your mental powers. So my question for you is not to— I don't want you to just listen passively. I want you to take action, right? Because knowledge alone is not power. And you know this, it's potential power. It becomes power when we what? When we apply it. That's the point of the Kwik Brain Podcast. You are inspired, you get some ideas, you get some insights. And it's up to you to implement them. How's that for alliteration with the letter I? And so how can you add one little thing? How can you add a little bit of these elements into your morning, into your day to be more productive, into your evening to be able to wind down and have the best night ever? I'm Jim Kwik, your brain coach. I want to thank you so much for being with us. I want to thank you. If you got value out of this episode, Please share it and please leave a review. You know, we're looking forward to the next few hundred episodes with you because this is a journey, as we talked about. This is kind of like an online academy, if you will. Make sure if you haven't listened to the earlier episodes and listen to them in order, if you will. We are one of the most binge-listened-to shows because we don't have any sponsors. Yeah, we don't. We— every episode, you know, is like about 20 minutes or less. That's our commitment to you because your time is incredibly valuable. Your attention is the treasure you have of your life. And I wanna thank you for giving us some of your time, some of your attention, and we are committed to helping you to be able to change your brain so you could change your life, so you could change your brain so you could change the world. Take a screenshot of this episode, please. And what I want you to do, small, simple step, post it online in social media, because when you teach it, you get to learn it twice. And I wanted you to share with me, how do you incorporate 1, 2, 3, or 4 of these elements for learning and life, the mental and the elemental into your day. How do you do it? And, uh, and that's why when we share these ideas collectively, we're creating this movement, right? I believe we're in the millennium of the mind and now it's so important. And I respect you and I congratulate you for investing your time and your talent into your most valuable wealth-building asset, which is the human brain. So thank you again for being on this journey. I will actually repost some of my favorites. So make sure you tag me in it. Every single week we give out, uh, signed copies of my book Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life, just to keep this community growing. These are this army, if you will, of brainiacs, and we're gonna do amazing things. So thank you so much again for supporting the show, for listening to the show, for sharing it with others, and most importantly, using it for yourself, using it for your team, using it for your family, because that's really what it's all about. We'll talk to you soon.