Moment 60 - Jay Shetty: You’re Breathing Wrong, Here’s Why

In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. This is a favourite moment of mine because its so obviously clear that we should all be taking time for ourselves when we never do. This is a moment from my episode with Jay Shetty, the best-selling author of Think Like a Monk, host of the No. 1 podcast On Purpose and one of the most wise people I have ever met. Very few people can reach into depths of insight on such a wide array of topics like he does. I learnt so many things I didn't even realise I needed to know from this conversation, and I know you will too - this being one of them. Meditation. A difficult one to get on board with. We always hear that we must meditate more, but we never really practice it. Why? Because it's too woo-woo, or time wasting. Well here, Jay explains how much meditation can add value to our lives. All we have to do is put a time in our schedule that is time for us. Even if it’s 5 minutes a day, when we get that notification, we have to do something with it. The second step of meditation and taking time for ourselves is focusing on our breath. It's wildly underestimated yet it's one of the most important aspects of the human body. Our breath is connected to every single emotion, physicality and mentality. Meditation and breath are the practical tools we all need in our daily lives. Listen to the full episode here - https://g2ul0.app.link/bATwFLLBwqb Jay - https://twitter.com/jayshetty?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.instagram.com/jayshetty/?hl=en Watch the Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Steven Bartlett?

  So if I was to be someone who's listening to this now, driving in my van on my way to work this morning, and I see a lot of people in their vans, driving, listening to the podcast, what would you say is a really good, just a first step to investigate for themselves, subjectively, if meditation can add value to their life? Where would they start?

• 0:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say that the first thing you want to do is put something in your schedule, in your calendar, which is time for you. If you look at your schedule, you would never cancel an important meeting with someone else, but we don't even schedule one with ourself. There is nothing in the calendar that's time with myself, time for me, time for you, time for just this, this whole thing that's going on right now. Literally put it in for five minutes a day. If you can't do five minutes, do it for two minutes a day. Just put it in there. Because if you start putting that in there, you might then tomorrow go, okay, well, what am I going to do with this time? I've got five minutes. Wow, okay. What am I going to do with it? So start putting it in there. That's the first step. The second step, I would say, is definitely focus on your breath. I think the breath is just something we can all relate to.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  It's tangible. By the way, athletes have to learn how to control their breath. Musicians have to learn how to control their breath. Whether you're a Dell, or whether you're a football player, you have to learn how to breathe in order to perform. Me, you and everyone, we're all athletes in different ways. We all use our bodies. We all use our minds. Whether you're a business person, or whether you're an actual athlete playing on a court or a pitch.

• 1:29Steven Bartlett?

  But are you saying that I don't know how to breathe?

• 1:31Speaker 01

  I am saying you don't know how to breathe. Yeah, and not you specifically. I'm saying that most people don't know how to breathe. And I didn't know how to breathe until I was taught how to breathe. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but how many times a day do you get out of breath? I know there's times of days that I get out of breath. How many times of the day do you feel that when you're experiencing an emotion, your breath changes? Like when you're crying, or you're sad, or you're upset, your breath changes. When you're happy and elated, your breath changes. So our breath is connected to every single emotion. So if we want to navigate our emotions and our life, we have to train our breath. So I would just say to everyone, take out two to three minutes and just take a moment to breathe in and out and breathe in for four and out for four. Just try it as simply as that.

• 2:16Speaker 01

  Now, if you're someone who struggles to get to sleep, which can often be something that I think everyone struggles with, that's when you want to breathe out for longer than you breathe in. So if you're breathing in for four, breathe out for more than four to relax and rest your body. And if you're one of these people that goes, Jay, I've got, you know, I've got, like you said, I've got to do a delivery today. I've got to run to this meeting. I've got to get to this. And you need more energy, breathe out for less time than you breathe in. So you may breathe in for a second and breathe out for a millisecond. It's a really sharp breath out. And if you do that, you'll feel this pumping energy in your body. And so to me, it's, these are really practical tools that I think we all need to sleep. So everyone knows their meditation for sleep. We all need to get energized. So that's a simple meditation for energized. And we all need to just feel like we're not rushing.

• 2:59Speaker 01

  So I think those are hopefully quick things that feel practical to anyone and everyone.

• 3:03Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, I mean, I'm, I, I think my natural position on, on things is to be a little bit of a skeptic. And I, when I was in Indonesia, the last time I, my girlfriend brought me to see a breathwork coach. And before we did the breathwork, he explained it to me. And so this is, this is as a logical guy like I am, the explanation matters a lot. And he was talking to me about how we pretty much live most of our lives these days because of the overstimulation, because of the stress, because of the screens, in this kind of like permanent state of fight or flight. And when you look at what happens in fight or flight, and I studied biology, I know what happens to the body anatomically and physically, you're, what happens to your digestive tract. And I mean, this is what a lot of people say when they say I'm nervous and they've lost their appetite. That's your body preparing and keeping

• 3:48Steven Bartlett?

  the minerals and nutrients it needs to expend energy to help you in a situation on the Serengeti when a lion is running at you. That's a very prehistoric innate part of our conditioning. And we do live on edge. Our notifications run our lives and all of these things. So when we think about why people might be getting a little bit more anxious day to day, it's probably because we're living in like a heightened state of fight or flight. And one of the things that happens in fight or flight as well is your breathing changes. So yeah, and then I think about the moments where I'm feeling a little bit stressed. And one thing I've done, my, it's funny, it's so funny, my head went straight to New York City as I'll go, I'll stop and I'll just go.

• 4:25Steven Bartlett?

  And whenever I do that, someone turns to me and goes, are you okay?

• 4:29Steven Bartlett?

  Okay, I'm fine.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  You look at him now.

• 4:31Steven Bartlett?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I completely agree. And I think it's one of those things that I think everybody listening, regardless of who you are or how much of a tough guy you are, you should definitely consider yourself.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  You're a tough guy, Stephen, so you know.

• 4:42Steven Bartlett?

  Well, not really.

• 4:44Speaker 01

  No, not really, no.

• 4:44Steven Bartlett?

  I'm a bit soft, you know, around the edges.