ISO Superhuman - Mind Control (Part 2)

What we are going to do is “hack” into that data chain and input what we want.

What effect would it have on your life if you were able to truly control your own mind? What if you were able to take yourself from angry and irrational to calm, cool, controlled, and productive on command?

Do you think that would make a difference in your business? Would it make a difference in your home life? What about in your personal relationships?

Today, I want to give you a simple and practical way to do just that.

Let’s jump in…

OK, so writing this article could not have come at a better time. Why? Because I just had to use the exact same techniques that I’m going to tell you about.

I’m always fond of saying, “never underestimate government incompetence.” That saying held true today as I went to go get my car tag renewed.

I’m sure you understand the pure pleasure of walking into a crowded government building full of hundreds of people who also don’t want to be there and being led around like cattle by someone who has absolutely no idea what they’re doing.

I not only got the pleasure of doing this once today, but twice! Of course, each year they have some obscure document that they need that has no relation to my car tag whatsoever… and yet they still need it. To keep a very long frustrating story short, I spent most of today trying to get my tag renewed only to end up extremely frustrated…. And still without a tag.

Needless to say, I was pissed. In fact, I was so frustrated that I had no ability to think clearly in order to do the work that I needed to get done today. Fortunately for me, I had a trick up my sleeve.

Before I dive into the “how,” we should first establish what is actually happening when we get frustrated, stressed, or emotional.

By controlling our mind, we ultimately want to control our feelings and behavior, correct?

But what dictates our behavior? Our thoughts. What we focus on and what we think about bubbles up into our behavior.

…. But what controls our thoughts? Our feelings dictate our thoughts!

Now, what dictates our feelings? Our emotions.

Finally, what dictates our emotions? It’s our physiology.

You see, everything starts with our physiology. That’s why you can do something as simple as standing in a proud posture to improve your mood. Your body sends signals (data) to your brain, your brain interprets those signals, and then creates a response to them.

Let’s think of this data chain as a circle. First, there is sensory input in the form of some kind of outside stimulus. That sensory input is then sent to the brain, the brain interprets the input and sends back a reaction, we act out that reaction in the world, and then we receive the feedback from that reaction in the form of new sensory input.

What we are going to do is “hack” into that data chain and input what we want.

The way to hack into a system that is largely automated (central nervous system) is to leverage the one automated system that we actually have conscious control over… our breathing.

By controlling our breathing, we can control our heart rate, specifically what is called our heart rate variability (HRV). The key here is that our heart rate variability is one of the primary signals that our brains interpret to send out a proper response. If we control our HRV, we can control our brain.

Here’s how you do it:

We begin by taking controlled deep breaths. Then, we focus on the rhythm of our breathing.

What’s interesting is that the specific rhythm we use does not matter as much as it being rhythmic.

One of my favorite breathing rhythms that I use to calm myself before bed is called 4-7-8 breathing. This means a four-second inhale, a seven-second hold, and an eight-second exhale. This particular rhythm is fantastic for relaxing. Keep in mind it is a rhythm and it is controlled.

Once we have our rhythmic, deep breaths, then we focus on making them smooth and not choppy. A nice, smooth inhale, followed by a nice, smooth exhale is usually the best way to go.

Finally, where we focus our attention can also have an impact. Simply focusing on the rising and falling of the chest during these breathing exercises focuses the mind and helps to calm us down.

If you’re into the science of this as much as I am, I’d recommend doing a little research and looking into studies where they have watched the heart rate as people go through both stress and breathwork, and watch how simply controlling the breathing changes the heart rate variability.

By the way, the Wim Hof Method (that we talked about in Part 1) is a great place to start looking for rhythmic breathing routines.

Once we calm our heart rate, our ability to think clearly is drastically improved. The brain is no longer focused on the stress and we can focus on the solution. Another of the huge positives that come from controlled breathing is that we improve our access to Flow State.

Flow, simply put, is the optimal state of consciousness for peak performance. We will dive more into flow in part three of the series.

Have A Wonderful Day!

-Caleb