The One Tool You’re Missing That Will Guarantee Success!

Hint, It Can’t Be Found in a $2000 Mastermind Class

You have big plans and you know how to put those plans into action. You are one smart cookie, so when it comes to running your small business you do all the research. But is that research holding you back?

It’s hard to avoid the trap of keeping up with the latest industry leaders telling you what your business needs to succeed. Hundreds of Instagram reels and TikTok videos are created daily that claim to hold the secret ingredient to your financial freedom.

If you’re anything like me you have all the information. You’ve read all the books. You’ve gone to dozens of online workshops and sat through a variety of masterminds. Your head is exploding with all the right marketing material.

Here’s the thing tho…

The one tool you’re missing that will guarantee success is not one class away. You are obsessed with consuming information and it’s blinding you to the most powerful tool you have.

YOU!

You are your niche.

People who buy from you want to buy from you!

It’s as simple as that.

If you are ready for guaranteed success then you must bring you to the table. Whatever formula you want to apply that to is great, but you must bring your unique story and vision with you. Resist the urge to become a bland model by listening to the voices outside your head fill you with ideas that blind you from the truth. The truth is that your way must come organically from you.

Don’t be a Copy

We see it all day long: a copy of a copy of a copy. It makes us feel like we must follow a certain path to success. Trying to emulate what others have done feels deflating. And after you’ve tried and failed it’s easy to lose steam. But when you finally have had enough, you will start to forge your own path.

You will start to realize that no one is your competition except you! Because no one can offer what you have to offer.

The Mind Game

When I started my breath business I had a false perception of why people came to me. I was looking outside myself for a roadmap but was unhappy with every map I saw. I tried and failed many things; reels, lives, daily posts, and working the yoga studio circuit. It was messy and didn’t feel real or right. I was trying to do what others had done. I had forgotten that it was me! People filled my classes because they liked me, my energy, my message, and the way I delivered the information.

It wasn’t because I had flashy ads, or because I’m so darn pretty. I’m not the smartest or the most qualified, but I make things accessible, and I help people feel seen and heard. I allow them to process and I make things fun. This is who I am. I don’t have a tragic upbringing that I had to overcome. I didn’t go to school to become a doctor in the study. I didn’t hit rock bottom before I made a change.

I simply started showing up as me.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could have more success just by being you?

Heck yes, it would!

Welp, go ahead and pat yourself on the back because the moment you decide to show up as your authentic self you will be more successful.

You Do You

Being authentic helps others to know if you are the right fit. I feel super fortunate to work at a very busy hot yoga studio. I love it! I teach yin yoga and breathwork – two classes you don’t normally associate with a hot yoga studio. I cool the room down for my classes, and I take the intensity that hot yogis love and tune it way down. What was I thinking?

When I first started, the Vinyasa class before me was so packed that it would have been easy for me to feel less than qualified when my classes were only bringing in half of the students. But I don’t teach Vinyasa. Heck, I don’t teach any form of hot yoga at all! I don’t even really like to sweat. I do however know that what I offer is a great compliment to the classes there and I know that the students who get it, get it.

I found my footing in the yoga world, and I found it because I listened to my authentic self. Not because I did what every training told me to do.

I encourage you to do the same.

Why Did You Start Your Business Anyway?

We all became entrepreneurs for one reason or another. It’s easy to lose sight of that when there are hundreds of details that take our attention off the prize. It’s important to go back to basics and ask yourself:

Why did I start this business?
What are my goals? Financial and otherwise
What makes me really great at this?
How am I different? What makes me stand out?
In what ways can I start showing up as my authentic self?
Would I buy from me?

Identifying your unique talents and showing up as your authentic self are the things that will guarantee your success. Even if the business doesn’t work or you go a different route, you will have succeeded because you did it authentically. This world is desperate for authenticity.

There will always be space for the I need it now crowd, for the what’s the cheapest crowd, but that’s a race to the bottom and you know it. When you show up authentically as YOU some will not like it and that’s a good thing! There’s a saying, “If you are marketing to everyone, you are marketing to no one.”

Find your people by presenting yourself authentically and you will be guaranteed success.

February 21, 2023February 21, 2023

3 Breathing Drills for Swimmers to Drop Time Fast

Manage Your Breathing For Better Results

Swimming is a full-body workout that relies heavily on breath control. Whether you are a competitive swimmer or just looking for a way to stay active and in shape, the inhalation of oxygen plays an important role in providing the body with energy. Managing your breath is essential for improving your time and sustaining you through a workout.

As someone who grew up in the water and swam competitively for the first 22 years of my life, I have experienced firsthand the importance of using my daily conditioning to incorporate proper technique with breath management.

Managing the Breath

There’s a lot to think about as you travel back and forth in the pool. As in almost all activities, there is a lot of focus on technique to help improve your strength and mobility, but not a huge focus on the breath.

Because we can’t survive more than a couple of minutes without breathing, it becomes vital for a swimmer to learn proper breathing techniques–something many coaches and trainers spend very little time talking about.

Swimmers learn very early on the importance of timing their breath. They have to work the breathing into the pattern of the technique and develop their own rhythm so they don’t become hungry for breath during a turn or just before finishing a race. These are the most common areas you can learn to use your breath to drop time.

Anyone who’s ever raced has been there. You’re neck and neck with the swimmer in the lane next to you, your heart is racing and you’re hungry for breath. Your focus becomes scattered and your need for oxygen outbids your need for speed. You take that last breath and you lose. Why? Because you haven’t learned to use your breath as a weapon.

It’s the same at the end of a grueling workout when your lack of breath control has you breathing every other stroke. The good news is that you can learn to develop breath control to help improve your time and sustain your energy through a full workout.

Below are 3 breathing drills to improve your swimming experience.

Abdominal Hollowing

Abdominal hollowing is an excellent dryland breathing exercise. Not only does it improve your breathing, but it’s a deep-core stabilizer too.

Having a strong core in swimming is really important, and deep core stabilizers are muscles that don’t conventionally get trained. By performing this exercise you are essentially getting the best of both worlds AND the best part is that you only have to do a couple of reps before your workout.

Here’s how it’s done…

Sit, or lay on your back
Contract and pull in the abdominal muscles without moving the spine or pelvis
- Visualize yourself sucking your belly button all the way back to your spine or the floor.
hold this for a 5-second count and slowly inhale.
Do 10 rounds

This exercise trains the core muscles to better stabilize the spine and pelvis. Allowing you to have complete exhalations while competing so when you inhale again you are able to take in as much air as possible. Super handy for hard training sets and during races when you want to breathe as little as possible.

Use Breathing Patterns

Your workout is a perfect time to practice breathing patterns. The struggle for oxygen can be tested by playing with the pattern in which you breathe. You can do drills in your workout to strengthen your breath by starting slow and building.

Using breathing patterns is great since it’ll help you not only to be ready to swim on low oxygen at the end of your race but also to learn to control and maximize your breathing efficiency.

Here’s how…

Start slow and progress from there.
Pick a set and start breathing every 9th stroke.
Gradually increase the stroke-breath ratio.

Here’s an example of a ladder swim I love that helps me. All Freestyle with a 30-second rest in between each.

50 breathing every 9th stroke
100 breathing every 7th stroke
150 breathing every 5th stroke
200 breathing every 3rd stroke
200 breathing every 3rd stroke
150 breathing every 5th stroke
100 breathing every 7th stroke
50 breathing every 9th stroke

This is effective and engaging. It also gives you a solid 1000-yard workout. This can be done in reverse breathing to yards swam as well.

Breathing patterns are a terrific way to train, but they can and should feel challenging.

It’s important to remember that sometimes saving your oxygen for longer swims might be more beneficial than practicing retention. Incorporate here and there, but don’t feel the need to practice it during every workout. However, it is a good idea to find a stroke-to-breath ratio that works for you and train consistently using that pattern so it becomes second nature as you develop your breath control.

Don’t Hold Your Breath

A majority of your time spent swimming is done with your head underwater. Learning to not hold your breath but develop a slow exhale out the nose while swimming is going to help you take full inhales when your head is turned.

The reality is that your body tells your brain when you need to breathe, but it’s typically not from a need for oxygen but more because you’ve built up too much carbon dioxide (CO2). By slowly exhaling out the nose while swimming you are offsetting the CO2 allowing you to stay streamlined longer.

Here’s how…

Start swimming and begin as you take your first inhale
Once your head is back in the water slowly begin releasing air out the nose.
Count the strokes in between breaths to stay consistent
Inhale more fully on your next breath because you’ve expelled more CO2 from your lungs

The idea is to maximize the airflow when you inhale while resisting the urge to hold your breath as you swim. More experienced swimmers do this very naturally. If you are new to swimming, learning to exhale out the nose underwater takes some time.

You can think of this type of breathing much in the same way you exhale while moving into a flip-turn. Flip-Turns require a more aggressive exhale, but it holds the same principle. Just be careful to not inhale through the nose underwater. It’s not a fun experience and one that sticks with you all day.

With enough practice, you will no longer find yourself gasping for air in the water. The drills might even become a fun experience and a way to challenge your breathing muscles.

Notice Your Breathing

As you learn to breathe more effectively in the water you may begin to start noticing your breath out of water too.

My obsession with breath began because of swimming. I have always found swimming to be meditative; an hour a day I can move my body, focus on my breathing and process my thoughts.

It wasn’t until many years later that I realized the value of what was happening in the water. Now I use my breathing on dryland to induce the same effects.

Once you learn to control your breathing in the water it becomes easier to manage your breath in other situations as well.

Situations that were once hard to breathe through become manageable. You will find that you can keep control over your breath and emotional state when life gets challenging.

Your breath is your greatest asset in the water and in life. Learn to control and manage it and you can accomplish almost anything with more ease.

My History and Training

If you are interested in learning more about breathing drills for swimmers or for managing stress, reach out. I am in the Seattle area and have worked with local high school swim teams, both on land and in the water.

I was blessed as a young swimmer to have an excellent swim coach, Bryce Jensen, who still coaches today, and manages the Lindbergh Swimming Pool. He takes his swimmers training beyond the pool with dryland drills and visualizations. He helped move me from a swimmer who had plateaued during my sophomore year of high school to a swimmer who was breaking all her personal records in both my junior and senior years.

February 14, 2023February 14, 2023

3 Breathing Practices You Can Start Today to Build a Better Connection to a Healthy Happy Heart

Discover the Intimate Relationship Between Your Breath and Your Heart

Your body needs oxygen-rich blood to function properly. Your heart and lungs work together to create something called the Pulmonary Loop. This is a system that helps circulate blood cells through the body.

When you are breathing short and shallow your blood isn’t getting enough oxygen to allow your body to function properly. Resulting in a build-up of carbon dioxide that makes our blood become acidic. And an acidic environment is a breeding pool for disease.

By developing breathing practices that focus your breath deeply through the body, you are creating a foundation for good mental and physical health.

Learning to control the breath both cleanses and strengthens the respiratory system.

Stress and the Heart

Stress has become a normal part of our daily life and we often hear people using their stress as a badge of honor. It’s not something to be praised. It doesn’t mean you’re doing more. It’s actually a health hazard. Stress creates irregular breathing patterns that can result in heart conditions, like heart disease.

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States

High blood pressure is the leading cause of heart disease. Closely followed by cholesterol levels, alcohol dependency, smoking, and physical inactivity. These are all related to chronic stress that causes inflammation in the body.

The good news is you can start to manage your stress levels and improve your heart health by adopting a few simple breath practices into your daily routine. You will be amazed what as little as 3-5 rounds of conscious deep breathing can do.

Now, I’m not suggesting that lifestyle doesn’t play a significant role here. Things, like not smoking or limiting your intake of alcohol and caffeine, and adding more fruits and vegetables, are essential too. As you steer yourself in that direction you can add in breathing practices to start feeling immediate relief.

Here are 3 Breathing Practices that you can start today to build a better connection to a healthy happy heart.

Heart Coherent Breathing

One of my favorite breathing practices is Heart Coherent Breathing. It is so simple that it is often overlooked. But as we know sometimes the simplest things are the most challenging to do.

Sit in a comfortable cross-legged position, or if on a chair move away from any back support so you can have a straight spine. Plant your feet on the floor, a hip-width distance apart.
Round your shoulders back and down and let your chest be open.
Tuck your chin slightly to allow the back of your neck to draw long.
Soften or close your eyes.
Bring your attention to your breath. Make no effort to change your breath pattern, simply notice it.
Begin to slow the breath by inhaling to the count of 5, and exhaling to the count of 5.
Bring your attention to the inhale. Feel the breath flow in through your heart center.
Exhale and notice the breath leaving your heart center.
Do 10 rounds of breathing like this, focused on your heart. If it feels good you can place your hands over your heart to help keep your focus and attention there.
After 10 rounds or so let the 5×5 pattern go and continue to breathe with ease keeping your attention inside.

This simple and effective practice can be done anytime day or night for clarity. I recommend starting by just practicing the steps above. After you feel more comfortable keeping your attention internal and your breath and heart you can add a question for clarity or intention. You will be amazed at the things your heart and breath begin to open up to you in these subtle moments when you truly belong to yourself.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

This is a practice that takes some getting used to, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Alternate nostril breathing is exactly as the name describes. It’s a great practice for improving heart health because it helps lower blood pressure.

You will forcefully direct air in one nostril and out the other using your right hand – using just your thumb and pointer fingers.

Sit in a comfortable position.
Place your left hand on your left knee or in your lap.
Exhale completely.
Use the right thumb to close the right nostril.
Inhale through the left nostril.
Pinch the left nostril with your pointer finger.
Open the right nostril and exhale through this side.
Stay here.
Inhale through the right nostril.
Pinch closed this nostril.
Open the left nostril and exhale through the left side.
This is one cycle.
Continue for 5 to 10 rounds.
Always complete the practice by finishing with an exhale on the left side.

Not only does alternate nostril breathing balance your autonomic nervous system, it also supports the circulatory and respiratory systems. Helping you to feel more centered and relaxed.

4-7-8 Breathing

This is a popular technique made popular by Dr. Andrew Weil. It is a calming breath practice often used at night to help fall asleep. This pattern involves a breath hold that reoxygenates the body.

Sit or lie down allowing your spine to be straight.
Inhale through the nose, allowing the tip of your tongue to rest behind your top front teeth, and count to 4.
Hold your breath at the top as you count to 7.
Purse your lips, tongue still resting against the roof of your mouth, and exhale making a whooshing sound as you count to 8.
Repeat 5-7 rounds.

You can start with a lower count if this is too challenging or you become light-headed or dizzy. Once you get the pattern down you can gradually build your count. Just be mindful to allow the exhales to be twice as long as the inhale. This allows you to take in more fresh oxygen-rich air.

So many of us are up late at night, wired but tired. This breathing practice relaxed the mind, allowing stress to melt and you to more quickly fall asleep.

These are just 3 of the many breathing techniques that are beneficial for your heart and overall well-being. Try them all and find the one that creates the most ease in your body. As stress creeps in throughout the day these techniques can quickly calm your heart and mind.

Cardiovascular health is vital and so is your breath. Together they work in perfect harmony to guide you into a more mindful way of living.

If you are interested in deepening your relationship with breath, check me out on Instagram, breath_mindset, and start developing that relationship today.

February 7, 2023February 7, 2023

Staying Consistent When You Are Forced to Pivot

Routine and Consistency are Key

As an entrepreneur you find yourself balancing between staying on course and knowing when it’s time to pivot. When things are not going great and you cannot see your progress it may be time to evaluate what the next best move for you would be.

You may have a set of consistent routines and habits that keep you chugging along, but what happens when those practices are no longer effective?

The balance struggle in the mind begins.

Do I stick with it?
Do I shift it into something better?
Do I drop it?

It’s important when making these decisions to not drop a plan to chase a trend. Getting wrapped up in what everyone else is doing is a trap. Staying consistent is the best course of action.

Consistent Routine

Routine is so important! It helps us build healthy habits that lead to long-term success. The art of the pivot comes into play when you take time to analyze which routines are working and which are not. There is always room for improvement and success leaves clues that can help direct you to make a change or carry on.

As entrepreneurs, we are constantly watching other successful people. Seeing what moves they make and what is working and what kinds of habits they live by. From the 5am club to cold exposure, everyone has an antidote that they swear by.

The best habits will always be the ones that you can commit to and do consistently.

Habits and routines are about showing up consistently and performing something whether or not you are in the mood. It’s about discipline.

Creating a solid morning routine is a great way of starting your day off in a productive manner before all the demands of the day divide your attention.

If you are looking to move forward in any area of your life you need a consistent routine.

Routines that help you…

Build discipline
Have meaning to you
Move you closer to your goals
Live more fully
Provide some control over your life

It doesn’t matter how successful certain habits and routines have been for other people if that habit or routine doesn’t work for you. You must find the ones that work for you and stick to it.

Persist or Pivot?

At some point in any consistent routine, there will come a time when it’s hard to commit – when you just don’t feel like moving forward and you no longer see the point. After the excitement is gone it’s a good opportunity to feel the energy you have built around it.

What does that feel like? And does it make sense to persist through the plateau or pivot in a new direction?

If you find yourself at a crossroads here are some great questions to ask…

Is this working?
Is this the best use of my time?
Am I enjoying this process?
Is this routine moving me closer to my goals?

When a routine becomes stagnant it’s time to re-evaluate. Time to reflect on your why. Why did you implement this routine in the first place and is it still of value?

Take a look back on where you are now from when the routine began and decide if it’s been of value, is still of value, or time to pivot to provide more value.

Take the Empowered Approach

What is the point of setting aside time for certain routines if it’s not providing value?

By constantly asking yourself this question you are holding yourself accountable. You are ahead of the curve in knowing when it’s time to pivot. If the answer to this question is uncertain you can follow up with… What is a better way? Helping direct our minds to make a fair assessment of when to pivot and when to stay the course.

Shiny Object Syndrome

Trends are changing all the time. It seems whenever I get used to one social media platform everyone has jumped on to the next. I totally get it. New is exciting and we all suffer from a little bit of FOMO.

When you are faced with staying the course or pivoting you might want to check your shiny object syndrome radar. The idea that switching from Instagram to TikTok will create a sudden abundance in your career sounds tempting. But at what cost? Essentially you would be starting over again. Building from scratch. Jumping ship to catch another. Moving from one platform to another. And then what happens when TikTok becomes passe and the kids are onto something new? Do you keep moving with the fads? Or do you stay consistent with your current platform and work it out?

The eagerness you feel about implementing something new can be fueled into your consistent routine. Where can you place these ideas on the platform you already use?

Pivoting is Growth

Pivoting and starting from scratch is challenging. Pivoting a decent routine into a solid routine is better. Pivoting in this way helps ignite some of that excitement you originally had.

Asking yourself the questions that determine if you pivot or march on is essential for growth. Pivoting a routine shows that you are paying attention and not stuck to old habits and ideas, but are willing to adapt and grow.

Pivoting from good to great routines will help you stay committed. Give yourself time to play with the new idea and work out the kinks. You can always resort back to the original routine with new insights and motivation.

Staying excited helps us stay committed. Routines do become just that, routine, and it’s often hard to find the will to show up consistently, but if you understand why you are showing up by asking the questions above you will be better armed with the correct information to keep you excited and moving forward. Pivoting when necessary and shifting gears to better pursue your goals.

The most important thing is to not give up or give in. This is the point of habits, routines, and committing to showing up. Whether or not a pivot is necessary is small compared to the larger goal at hand. Keep showing up. Keep believing. Keep committed to your outcome and the rest will fall into place.