Hey!

I want to start this newsletter by providing some perspective..

🌎 Earth has been around for some 4 billion years.

We humans..

We get about 80 years (if we are lucky) to wander around this big spinning rock to find meaning and purpose while we’re here.

The reason I share this reminder is so we can zoom out from the minutia of everyday life and remember that the things we often stress about are not always worth the energy we give them.

What’s important is the present moment. Being conscious now.

👁️ Focusing your mind now on what you want.

👊 Making choices now that align with what you want.

Forget the rest and do the thing!

Question of the week 🤔

“If you died tomorrow, would you have any regrets?”

In my line of work as a mental performance coach, I often times help clients through this difficult area of resistance that is separating them from where they are and where they want to be.

Often times where they are is comfortable, but not fulfilling.

Where they want to be is terrifying, but deeply fulfilling.

Fear is a funny thing, because it doesn’t physically exist anywhere in the known universe, but somehow it still has the power to keep us stuck.

👉 It’s because our biology is wired for safety and not necessarily for fulfillment.

What you want most is going to require you to face the fears that lie within you, but guess what your reward is?

You get to die without any regrets. 🪦

I don’t know about you, but that’s totally worth it for me.

What have you been putting off that you want to take action on?

Hydration 💦

It’s crazy that when my Dad was playing high school basketball in the 1960s that they didn’t even give the players water to rehydrate! 🤯

The science of hydration continues to evolve and I think it’s worth talking about since we are all made up of 60-70% water. #waterpeople

At some point, people figured out that drinking water when you are sweating is a good idea and then sometime after that, they realized that we need to be replenishing other things besides just water (enter gatorade.)

Our bodies sweat out precious nutrients that, if not replenished, can lead us to experience symptoms like LOW ENERGY, HEADACHES and much more.

So what can we do about it?

1. Drink 1/2 your bodyweight in ounces of water daily

2. Drink a sugar free electrolyte drink (that includes sodium, magnesium and potassium.)

My favorite electrolyte drink I have found so far is LMNT (they offer free product for anyone who wants to try it.)

I drink it when I am doing intermittent fasting and also whenever I am doing intense exercise that makes me sweat a lot. It also doesn’t have all the sugar that Gatorade or Powerade has, so it’s much better for you overall.

My #1 Recovery Hack

So..I’m not so into hacking my health, but there is one thing I have stumbled upon that I have to share.

Last week I talked about how I was doing daily cold plunges and now I have some pretty significant personal data to back up the validity behind doing this. (Thanks to my whoop)

Outside of starting to do the cold baths I haven’t been changing much in my routine, but my recovery (HRV) is skyrocketing.

My HRV is higher than it’s literally ever been and the only thing I am doing differently is taking a 5 min cold bath (39 degrees F) after my workouts.

HRV stands for heart rate variability and it’s one of the best markers we have for showing how well our bodies are recovering.

Over the past few decades, research has shown a relationship between low HRV and depression or anxiety. A low HRV is even associated with an increased risk of death and cardiovascular disease.

So the moral of the story is that we want our HRV to be high.

Cold plunges have been increasing my HRV, so I’m going to keep them going.

Curious to hear if any of you have had a similar experience.

If not, try out the cold plunge for yourself for some recovery gains.

Time and Money

Do you believe you need more time to make more money?

This is the linear way of thinking about making money that most people live their lives by. This is also the main reason the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

If you want to start making more money, try to think beyond exchanging your time for money. There is nothing wrong with trading time for money if you love what you’re doing or just need to make a buck.

I just share this non-linear approach to making money to plant the seed of possibility for you.

I like to think of money as a product of the value that I bring into the world.

Speaking from personal experience; in my 1 on 1 coaching I am able to successfully do for my clients in 1-3 sessions what their therapists were unable to do for them 1-3 years.

That’s why I can charge 3-5x what a normal therapist charges.

This is a byproduct of investing in myself in the past, which now pays me exponential dividends in the present moment.

Another way I am able to break out of the linear way of making money is by creating digital programs that people can consume online.

If I make a program one time; I can then sell it online thousands of times.

The big takeaway here is that you get paid for the value you bring; not just the time you spend. 💰

Flow State 🌊

A flow state is the optimal state of being for anyone who wants to feel and perform their best.

It’s that feeling you get when you are so immersed in doing something that time and space disappear and you become one with the actions you are participating in.

If you are an athlete, artist or any type of performer, you know that getting into flow allows you to show up and perform your best.

A psychologist named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (RIP) made it his life’s work to share how we can all make flow a part of our lives.

Want to learn more about flow? Check out his book

Self Suppression

🔹 Are you fully expressing your true nature?

🔹 Are you showing up in a way that’s authentic to you?

🔹 Are you actively pursuing with you truly desire?

My life’s work is always to answer these questions for myself and then move through any resistance I may feel in the moment to embody the answers.

When you are not being authentic to yourself you are suppressing yourself.

When you suppress yourself, it’s like clogging an artery.

If enough time goes by where we are suppressing ourselves we struggle to feel the energy flow throughout our body.

This leads to a lack of connection to oneself and ultimately feelings of apathy, depression and loneliness.

The only way out of these feelings is by going in. 

Ask yourself those first 3 questions I posed and then explore where you may be suppressing your true nature.

Trust me. No one wants you to be who you think they want you to be.

Everyone wants to connect with the real authentic deep down you.

Go in. 🙏

Own your focus. Own your choices. Own your life.

All the best,

Brandon

#theowned