Tony Robbins describes a daily 10-minute "priming" morning routine he practices to change his emotional state and "wire" himself for happiness. The routine begins with an explosive breathing pattern (three sets of 10), then three minutes of focused gratitude (three things/people/situations), three minutes of a blessing/visualized healing energy directed inward and outward, and three minutes visualizing three specific outcomes as already accomplished. Robbins emphasizes feeling the emotions fully (see/feel/experience) and often extends the practice to 15–20 minutes; Joe Polish thanks the speakers/audience at the end.
Questions this video answers
10 minutes (Robbins notes it often extends to 15–20 minutes).
Three minutes gratitude, three minutes blessing/visualized healing and sending energy, three minutes visualizing three specific outcomes; preceded by explosive breathing (three sets of 10) and framed as a 10-minute commitment.
An explosive breathing pattern learned in India: breathing in and explosively out from the gut through the nose, done as three sets of 10 with pauses.
Chapters
So what I do each morning is I do a breathing pattern. It's an explosive breathing pattern I learned in India. Breathing your breath in and exploding it out, you know, from the gut, out the nose. And I do that three sets of 10, pause. Three sets of 10, pause. Three Sets of 10. So it alters my state and I just do three things for 10 minutes because I have this deal with myself. If you don't have 10 minutes for yourself, you don't have a life. Who's with me on this? So I said, you know what, I don't need to have 20 minute, 30 minute, 40 minute meditations. I want 10 minutes and I don't know, I need to meditate. I don't know if I'm going to meditate, to not think. I don't know too many people can do that. And I don't even know that I want to not frickin think. So I thought what I want to do is I want to focus on the emotions that will cause me to be the better me. And the two emotions that most people are messed up by are anger and fear. And when you're grateful, you can't be angry. Try to be grateful and angry simultaneously, it'll never work. And you can't be fearful when you're grateful. So when I look at people, almost always they're reacting out of fear or they're reacting out of anger. It's some version of those two. So gratitude to me is the antidote. So I spend three minutes, just three minutes, and I think of three things I'm grateful for. Three people, three situations. But I think, step into it. I don't remember the roller coaster over there, riding it. I put myself in the front seat going over the edge. So I feel the moment and I make sure one of the three things I'm grateful for is something really simple like the wind on my face or something beautiful like my child's smile. And the reason I do that is because I remember interviewing some of the astronauts, Buzz Aldrin and these guys, and most of you probably know, you can imagine to be an astronaut. This man knows. I mean to aspire to do that and then go through the thousands of people and be picked and then to actually go to the moon and stand on the moon and look back and see that picture we've all seen that blue, green Earth. I mean, you imagine and then you come home and what happens? There's a ticker tape parade and you shake the President's hand and now what the hell do you do? You're 32, what the hell do you do for the rest of your life? And you know what? If you know the story of many of these astronauts, most of them had some major emotional challenges, right? Some abused alcohol, some drugs, and they had a real rough time because they forgot to find adventure in a smile. They thought the only way to do is go to the moon. So I trained myself to make sure not just the big beautiful things that are part of my life, but the little things. And so I feel that for three minutes. Then I do three minutes of a blessing. Horny as it may sound, I imagine life, God, energy coming into my body, healing every muscle, every nerve in my body, strengthening everything, strengthen, strengthening the best of me, my passion, my love, my generosity, my creativity, my humor, my love. And then I see any problem that needs to be solved just being solved, because otherwise I tend to think I got to do it all. And then once I feel that fully and that energy comes through me and back through me multiple times, then I do a circle of my intimate family, my kids, my wife, my friends. This little character over here is one of my lists. And I just circle out all the way out to my clients and I send that same energy to them. And I imagine, as corny as it sounds, they're being healed, they're getting what they need, energy wise, they're having the life that they deserve and seeing it multiply. So I do that for three minutes, and the last three minutes are my three to thrive. I think of three specific outcomes that matter to me and I don't think about achieving them. I see, feel and experience them as done, and I see the impact that it has. I see people's lives touched, I see the joy. I feel it as done, and I feel grateful. And it's 10 minutes, but honestly, it usually goes 15 or 20 because I'm having a damn good time. But by having a 10 minute walk, there's no excuse not to do it. And I do it every day and I don't hope I'm gonna feel good. And then what happens is you're primed. You literally, you see things through a different set of filters. You make decisions with the filters and also think of it. Most people are wired for stress. They're wired for frustration, they're wired for feeling lonely, and they got a highway to pissed off, and they've got dirt roads to happiness. So I decided I'm gonna wire myself for happiness. I wasn't born that way. My view is I have to change the whole earth to be happy today. That's different for me. Now I can just wake up and be happy because I've wired myself in a different way neurologically. And then I show other people how to do this as well.
You guys are awesome. I really, really appreciate you both coming to this and taking it. Thank you so much.
