Nate Klemp's Blog

 

Lately, we've been experimenting with a new twist on the classical martini in our house.

It's not an dirty martini.

It's not an apple-tini. 

And it doesn't have an orange wedge on the rim.

In fact, it's not even something you drink at the end of the day. It's something you do.

Martini pose.

We got the name from Annie Carpenter, one of our favorite modern yoga teachers. 

What is martini pose?

It's a way to instantly downshift the state of your nervous system -- without the next-day hangover.

If you've ever done yoga, you know martini pose. It's that blissful moment of savasana at the end of practice, where you lie down on your back, let go, and do absolutely nothing.

But here's the difference. In yoga, you have to get through the entree of challenging poses before you get to enjoy this period of rest. With martini pose, you skip straight to the dessert.  

At this point, you're probably thinking, "Why on earth would I carve out time at the end of a crazy day to lie down and do nothing?"

The reason? Momentum.

Every day, work, traffic, social media, logistics, emails, the news, and a thousand other things spin our sympathetic nervous system into overdrive, generating a momentum of stress and agitation. This is the momentum behind the tension in your body, your irritable mind, your shrinking attention span, and the whirling thoughts that leave you scattered and overwhelmed. 

This out-of-control momentum is the real reason it's so hard to slow down at the end of a crazy day and be present with your partner, kids, and friends. 

On some level, we all know this. And we even have a bunch of less-than-skillful ways for interrupting this momentum -- Instagram, Netflix, doom scrolling, or real martinis (the double-shot-of-gin kind - but we're not judging). 

These strategies mostly create an illusion of relaxation. They don't stop the momentum. They just numb us out so it doesn't feel so intense. 

Martini pose, on the other hand, cuts to the core of the problem. It applies a much needed break to the momentum spinning our minds into over-drive.

Research on this practice (also known as yoga nidra or Non-Sleep Deep Relaxation, NSDR) points to a whole host of scientifically validated benefits:

Decreased Stress and Anxiety (Kamakyha, 2008)
Optimal blood glucose management (Amita et al., 2007)
Enhanced cognitive processing and sleep (Datta et al., 2023)

But how can you weave martini pose into the midst of your busy life? That's the real question.

Here are three tools.

 

Tools
 
1. Make time for martini pose.

Of all the practices we've recommended in The Klemp Insights Newsletter, this one is the easiest to do. It's time-efficient. It requires no effort. And it feels amazing. 

So what's the catch? You have to carve out space to do it.

And when we're rushing through the day, dropping into martini pose is about the last thing we want to do. From the productivity-is-everything value system of our culture, after all, a practice like this feels frivolous, irrational even.

But feeling less stressed, anxious, and amped isn't irrational. It's actually far more sane than the alternative, not to mention far more enjoyable.

So here are a few ideas for weaving martini pose into your daily life:

Do it after a hard workout. The emerging science in exercise physiology tells us that these brief moments of deep rest can supercharge workout recovery.
Do it after challenging work tasks. Build nervous system flexibility by shifting from intense cognitive tasks to short bouts of deep rest throughout the day.
Do it as your end-of-the-day transition. For many of us, the shift from work to family time is a critical moment of transition. So try ending your workday 5 to 10 minutes early and drop into martini pose. Or, if you're like us, try out family martini pose, where you all lie down on the floor at the end of the day and reset your nervous systems together.

 

2. Try the extended-exhale martini.

What's the technique for getting the most out of martini pose?

Here's one powerful approach: lie down on your back, let your arms flop to your sides (palms facing up), and extend the length of each exhale.

For instance, inhale four counts, exhale eight counts. You can even experiment with gently holding your breath at the end of the exhale to deepen the state of relaxation.

Doing this for just 5 to 10 minutes allows you to leverage what scientists call "respiratory sinus arrhythmia," the natural decrease of heart rate and nervous system activation that occurs when we lengthen the exhale.

 

3. Try the do-absolutely-nothing martini pose.

Sometimes, the ultimate form of relaxation isn't adding another technique or breathing practice. It's giving your self permission to do absolutely nothing.

Here's how you do it. Lie down on your back. Arms out to the side. Palms face the sky.

Put on some blissed out music if you want or even an eye mask. And now, for the magical part.

Do absolutely nothing.

Allow your mind and body to have a rare moment of rest.

 

If you're looking for some audio tracks to guide you, check out Nate's free yoga nidra and extended exhale practices that accompany his new book OPEN. 

You may not see it. You may not be aware of it. You may not even have a name for it.

But chances are, you have experienced the upper limits problem numerous times.

It’s a term coined by psychologist Gay Hendricks in The Big Leap. The upper limits problem is a paradoxical pattern: when we start to feel good inside, we unconsciously sabotage ourselves so we can go back to feeling bad again.

Upper limits can be difficult to see in action because they run counter to our ordinary logic about life. We think that feeling bad – pain, tension, anxiety, and conflict – is uncomfortable. We think that feeling joy and deep connection is comfortable.

But the opposite is often true. Our nervous system is used to hanging out in an ordinary state of feeling bad. It’s not used to feeling amazing, open, and totally in sync with our partner.  

This is why after feeling great for a while, we may feel a subconscious urge to go back to feeling bad. We’re not doing this because we’re crazy. We’re mostly not even aware that it’s happening. We’re just allowing the gravitational pull of our ordinary habits to run the show. 

Last year, Will Smith demonstrated the problem of upper limits in epic fashion. He walked into the 2022 Oscars heavily favored to win the Best Actor Award. This night was going to be the greatest night of his life.

What happened? He upper limited. Just minutes before his big moment, he lost it, walking up on stage in the middle of the show and slapping comedian Chris Rock. This unconscious act of sabotage ensured that no one watching that evening would remember his crowning achievement as an actor. All they would remember was the slap. 

Upper limits can also arise in relationships. Just when things get good, just when you feel connected, upper limits may start to emerge. You may unconsciously withdraw or pick a fight with your partner over something trivial, all so you can go back to that default state of feeling frustration and resentment.

How can you overcome upper limits?

 

Tools
 
1. Awareness.

When these forces arise in the shadows of awareness, they run the show. When we can see them, however, we now have the freedom to interrupt this momentum of self-sabotage. 

In our experience, it’s often not enough just to notice the upper limit. We find it useful to call them out, saying, "I feel like I am upper limiting right now." Or, ideally catching it right before it happens with, “This feels great… I worry I’m about to upper limit.”

But how do you know when you’ve encountered an upper limit? Here are some key indicators to watch out for:

You start thinking, "This feels too good to be true."
Your mind begins running worst case scenarios of how it's all going to go away.
You start experiencing body problems (back aches, migraines, digestive issues, etc.)
You feel the urge to start an argument with your partner
You start experiencing compulsions (to screens, substances, food, etc.) 

 

2. Give yourself space to settle.

The key to solving the upper limits problem is learning how to get used to these states. The method for doing this is similar to the method you might use for high elevation mountain climbing.

You can't just race to the top of the mountain and expect to feel great. Your mind, body, and nervous system need time to acclimatize to each new elevated state along the way.

In your relationships, this might look like taking a moment to relax together when you notice you are experiencing new and deeper levels of connection. In your career, this might look like taking a moment to pause and get re-grounded when you have a big win.

Go for a walk. Lie in the grass. Take a nap. Give your nervous system the opportunity to acclimatize to this new and unfamiliar state.

Or, do something mundane. Check your email. Chop vegetables for dinner. Pull some weeds in the garden.

 

3. Remind yourself, "It can be this good."

Many of us have experienced so much trauma and emotional upheaval in life that we’re wired to distrust the experience of happiness, ease, connection, and contentment. 

So it can be helpful in these moments, when you feel an upper limit approaching, to offer yourself (and your partner) a quick reminder: “It can be this good.”

This simple phrase can help you integrate feeling good into your experience of “normal” and keep you from unconsciously taking the habitual, self-sabotaging, path of the upper limit.

 

Have you ever noticed that everyone seems busy all the time?

As couples, we're often too busy to talk about what's really going on, too busy to make time for date night, or, sometimes, even too busy to have a meaningful conversation.

As individuals, we're too busy to stay in touch with friends, too busy for hobbies (remember those?), or too busy to relax.

This harried state marks a strange inversion from previous generations. Leisure time used to be a marker of status. Now it means you have no goals, no ambition or drive.

Just imagine what would go down if you responded to someone at a random social gathering by saying, "You know what? My life feels totally spacious. I have more time than I know what to do with."

They would look at you funny. They would judge you. They might even ridicule you behind your back, telling their partner and friends that you're a sad person with no purpose, a lost soul with nothing to do.

Couples even get caught in this masochistic competition. When your partner complains of having a busy day, the norms of modern couplehood compel you to respond in kind. To boast about feeling relaxed or enjoying wide-open time in these moments would be to incite a downward spiral of tension and resentment.

There's just one problem with our modern busyness mindset: it creates a reality where we're always rushed, never relaxed, and caught in the grip of time scarcity, a reality where it's increasingly difficult to feel connected to our partner, our kids, our friends, our family, and even ourselves.

Living in this reality is like skiing through the trees of life in a state where we're blind to the wide open spaces, fixated instead on all the trees we might run into.

This isn't a good way to ski and it's not a great way to live either.

So how can you overcome your busyness mindset? Try out these tools.

 

Tools
 
1. Create intentional space.

To help unwind the momentum of busyness, start by setting aside intentional space in your day. This could be a space for exercise, meditation, yoga, or lying in the grass for a short nap. (Pro Tip: take a moment to savor these breaks and resist the temptation to turn them into yet one more to-do.)

Even just 10 or 15 minutes of this kind of intentional space holds the power to break the momentum of busyness.

These moments give you a reference point for seeing life through a lens that's different from our ordinary mindset of busyness. 

 

2. See the spaces.

The more advanced practice is to begin paying closer attention to the spaces that are already there, littered throughout each day: waiting in line at the grocery store, sitting on a 15-minute hold with a customer service rep, or the 15-minute Uber ride.

We typically see these idle moments either as annoying inconveniences or as opportunities to indulge our addiction to screens. 

The invitation here is to turn these throwaway moments into intentional spaces, gaps in the hectic flow of busyness.

Take a breath. Look around. Smell a flower or two.  

 

3. Be the space.

Now for the most advanced tool. Instead of just creating or seeing the space, be the space.

What does that mean?

It means shifting out of the busyness mindset in the midst of the calls, meetings, tasks, and events that make up your day.

When we're in this mindset of constant busyness, after all, everything gets small. Our mind tunnels in on the stress, the irritation, the false urgency, and the anxiety. Space disappears. 

To be the space in these moments is to see them from a bigger view. And while this may sound like some New Age post on Instagram, an emerging body of research shows that by expanding our vision -- by seeing these moments in panoramic awareness -- we can radically enhance our experience of life and maybe even stop feeling so busy all the time.

 
4. Be spacious together.

Take a moment with your partner to transition from the busyness of your day to an evening or night where you have a mindset of spaciousness (even if there is still a lot to do).

Take a few minutes to just hang out. Open the space for a moment of connection where you aren’t rushed or busy. Just hold hands. Or sit on the couch (without your phones).

Take a collective deep breath. Enjoy this moment of simply being together with nothing else to do.  

 

 

Have you ever noticed that everyone seems busy, all the time?

As couples, we're too busy to connect about our day, too busy to make time for date night, or, sometimes, even too busy to have a meaningful conversation.

As individuals, we're too busy to stay in touch with friends, too busy for hobbies (remember those?), or too busy to relax.

This harried state marks a strange inversion from previous generations. Leisure time used to be a marker of status. Now it means you have no purpose, no goals, no ambition or drive.

Just imagine what would go down if you responded to someone at a random social gathering by saying, "You know what? My life feels wide-open, totally spacious. I have more time than I know what to do with."

They would look at you funny. They would judge you. They might even ridicule you behind your back, telling their partner and friends that you're a sad person with no purpose, a lost soul with nothing to do.

Couples even get caught in this masochistic competition. When your partner complains of having a busy day, the norms of modern couplehood compel you to respond in kind. To boast about feeling relaxed or enjoying wide-open time in these moments would be to incite a downward spiral of tension and resentment.  

There's just one problem with our modern busyness mindset: it creates a reality where we're always rushed, never relaxed, and caught in the grip of time scarcity, a reality where it's increasingly difficult to feel connected to our partner, our kids, our friends, our family, and even ourselves.

Living in this reality is like skiing through the trees of life in a state where we're blind to the wide open spaces, fixated instead on all the trees we might run into.

This isn't a good way to ski and it's not a great way to live either.

So how can you overcome your busyness mindset? Try out these tools. 

 

Tools
 
1. Create intentional space.

To help unwind the momentum of busyness, start by setting aside intentional space in your day. This could be a space for exercise, meditation, yoga, or lying in the grass for a short nap (Pro Tip: take a moment to savor these breaks and resist the temptation to turn them into yet one more to-do).

Even just 10 or 15 minutes of this kind of intentional space holds the power to break the momentum of busyness.

These moments give you a reference point for seeing life through a lens that's different from our ordinary mindset of busyness. 

 

2. See the spaces.

The more advanced practice is to begin paying closer attention to the spaces that are already there, littered throughout each day: waiting in line at the grocery store, sitting on a 15-minute hold with a customer service rep, or the 15-minute Uber ride.

We typically see these idle moments either as annoying inconveniences or as opportunities to indulge our addiction to screens. 

The invitation here is to turn these throwaway moments into intentional spaces, gaps in the hectic flow of busyness.

Take a breath. Look around. Smell a flower or two.  

 

3. Be the space.

Now for the most advanced tool. Instead of just creating or seeing the space, be the space.

What does that mean?

It means shifting out of the busyness mindset in the midst of the calls, meetings, tasks, and events that make up your day.

When we're in this mindset of constant busyness, after all, everything gets small. Our mind tunnels in on the stress, the irritation, the false urgency, and the anxiety. Space disappears. 

To be the space in these moments is to see them from a bigger view. And while this may sound like some New Age post on Instagram, an emerging body of research shows that by expanding our vision -- by seeing these moments in panoramic awareness -- we can radically enhance our experience of life and maybe even stop feeling so busy all the time.

Until just recently, psychedelic drugs like psilocybin (magic mushrooms), LSD, MDMA, and ketamine were shrouded in clouds of suspicion and stigma.

They were illicit and illegal, the drugs often associated with hippies, 1970s rock musicians, and rave junkies.

But as you may have noticed, the cultural status of these compounds is changing, and it's changing fast.

In just the few months, numerous states have legalized the use of psilocybin.

In just the last few weeks, psychedelic assisted therapy was featured on John Oliver's Last Night, the New York Times' podcast The Daily, and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) released new results from their trials on MDMA as a treatment for PTSD. These findings show that after just three MDMA-assisted sessions, two thirds of patients no longer met the criteria for PTSD, a result that will likely lead to full FDA approval of MDMA by this time next year.

Nate has spent the last year exploring this emerging field of psychedelic assisted therapy for his new book Open, both by digging through the research and experiencing this novel approach to therapy first-hand.

What has he found? The potential rewards are astonishing. But, if you're not careful, so are the risks. 

So it's worth also considering a different way to think about psychedelics: Non-Drug Psychedelic Experience.

Here's the idea. At base, psychedelic drugs are what Stanislav Grof called  "non-specific amplifiers." They turn up the volume on certain areas of the mind and thus allow us to open to radical new dimensions of experience.

But this is where things get interesting because psychedelic drugs aren't the only non-specific amplifiers. Music, breathing, and other powerful stimuli can have a similar, albeit milder, amplifying influence on the mind.

This means that we can cultivate a version of psychedelic experience without the psychedelic drugs. We can instead use mindset, setting, and carefully curated music to experience shorter, more regular, micro-psychedelic experiences in everyday life.

In this way, non-drug psychedelic experience is similar to the increasingly popular practice of microdosing, with one essential difference: in this approach, we're not microdosing the compound, we're microdosing the experience.

How can you explore this practice of non-drug psychedelic experience?

 

Tools
 
1. Set and setting.

One of the most powerful contributions of history's most notorious psychonauts, people like Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, is the idea that the set (mindset) and setting have a huge influence on the trajectory of psychedelic experience. A reckless set and setting is often the best way to produce a bad trip into the hell realms of the mind. A carefully curated one is one of the best ways to cultivate a more positive and healing outcome. 

A well designed set and setting is so powerful that even without the drugs, it can open up new possibilities in the mind.

In non-drug psychedelic experience, we leverage that power as the primary source of mind amplification. 

So to begin the practice, find a comfortable and quiet place. Lie down on your back. Place a pillow behind your head. Put on an eye mask to experience total darkness, and use noise canceling headphones or earbuds if you have them.

 

2. Your mind on music.

Music may not be a drug in the traditional sense, but it holds tremendous power to amplify the atmosphere of your mind. So once you get comfortable, put on your favorite blissed-out playlist.

Or, if you're looking for inspiration, Nate has put together three carefully curated non-drug psychedelic playlists on his Spotify account (click here). Press play and see what happens next.

 

3. Open.

Non-drug psychedelic experience isn't the same as meditation. It's not about building the muscle of focused attention by following the sensations of breath.

The critical faculty in this practice isn't attention. Its intention. It's becoming comfortable with letting go.

Allow this rare experience of having absolutely nothing to do, the music, and the setting to take you on a journey. See if you can say "yes" to whatever arises and notice how everything -- the music, the thoughts, the emotions, the images -- is constantly changing.

 

How long should you do it? Because we are microdosing psychedelic experience, there's no need to stay here for hours and hours. Even just five or ten or thirty minutes has the power to radically transform the atmosphere of your mind.   

 

Busyness, time scarcity, and stress have all led to the shrinking of the modern mind.

We realize that's a strange thing to say. Most of us don't think of our mind is something with space in it, as a thing that can either be big or small, expensive or claustrophobic.

But just think about the last time you felt overwhelmed, stressed, or out of control. Chances are, you might not even have to think that hard. You might be experiencing that state right now as you read these words.

What happens in these moments?

First, our mind wanders. It spins through all sorts of random thoughts about the past and the future. As a result, we lose touch with the direct experience of present time.

Second, we lose perspective. We can't see the big picture anymore. Instead, it's like we're viewing life through a long and narrow tunnel. We become blind to possibility, fixated on problems.

Put these two together and you've got the perfect recipe for eradicating space in the mind.

The landscape of the mind begins to feel like a calendar jammed with so many meetings, events, and obligations that these neon colored boxes cover-up even the smallest slivers of white space. 

So it could be nice for our partner, for our kids, and, mostly, for our ourselves to consider: how can we create more space in the mind?

 

Tools
 
1. Meditation.

You've no doubt heard about all of the scientifically validated benefits of this practice. It reduces stress. It boosts productivity. It enhances focus.

That is all true. But here is the real benefit of meditation: it creates more space in the mind.

To get started, try it out for just a few minutes a day. Use an app or guided practice to help you. You can also follow Nate's Instagram page (@Nate-Klemp) for daily tips and reminders.

 

2. Movement.

So maybe you're not the meditating type. That's fine. You can still create space in the mind by setting aside time for undistracted movement.

The key word here is "undistracted." For many of us, exercise and movement have become yet another time where our headspace gets covered over by texts, podcasts, or our favorite Netflix series.

There's nothing wrong with this. But it can be powerful to leave the earbuds behind every once in a while and allow the mind to rest while you walk, stretch, run, bike, swim, or practice yoga.

 

3. Do nothing.

Now for the most advanced practice. It's the advanced practice because it cuts against everything our culture believes in. In a world where everyone is trying desperately to get more done, one of the most radical acts is to not do -- to do nothing.

Even just a few minutes of this paradoxical practice can help you experience an expansion of space in the mind.

Lie on the floor or outside on the grass. Close your eyes. Put on your favorite music if you want. Set an alarm for a few minutes so you don't freak out too much.

Then, stop. Drop the technique. Drop the effort. Just allow yourself to savor this rare experience of doing absolutely nothing.

Originally Published in Inc. Magazine.

Do you ever have trouble keeping track of all the things racing through your mind? Do you ever feel like your life would fall apart without to-do lists, calendars, and constant reminders?

Most of us believe the subtle shifts in memory we experience are the result of aging. The older we get, we think, the harder we have to work to encode new memories. 

Researchers at the Stanford Memory Lab, however, found that aging isn't the only factor that diminishes what psychologists call "working memory": our ability to process and store information. Another key factor is the amount of time we spend multitasking.

In the modern attention economy, we're all guilty of this habit. We all have moments where we're on a conference call while texting, emailing, and sneaking an occasional peek at the news or social media. When this becomes a way of life, however, multitasking can begin to diminish cognitive performance and memory.

After examining over a decade of data, these Stanford researchers found that "heavy" multitaskers significantly underperformed "light" multitaskers on tasks that required working memory and sustained attention. Multitasking, in other words, went hand-in-hand with a diminished ability to process memories and sustain a single point of focus.

Why does the amount of time we spend multitasking have such a negative impact on memory?

Stanford psychologist Anthony Wagner theorizes that "reduced working memory occurs in heavy media multitaskers because they have a higher probability of experiencing lapses of attention."  The more time you spend watching TV while emailing and surfing social media, in other words, the more difficult it becomes to sustain your attention. Instead of building concentration, multitasking reinforces the mindset that psychologist Linda Stone famously calls "continuous partial attention." It turns this scattered state of attention into a habit.

So how can we reverse the damaging impact of multitasking on memory? Here are a few strategies:

Build 'no multitasking zones' into your day.

The most basic way to counter the momentum of multitasking is to block your calendar for periods of full engagement on the task at hand. Close all the windows on your computer.  
Put your phone on airplane mode if you have to. Do whatever you need to do to silence the continuous distractions of the attention economy, so you can focus on a single task at a time.

Notice when you crave mental stimulation.

It's no accident that so many of us struggle to kick this habit of multitasking. As Adam Alter notes in Irresistible, many of the technologies we use have been designed to create a kind of "behavioral addiction" to continuous digital stimulation. We're drawn to that dopamine-induced hit of pleasure that results from pulling out our phone, reading the news, or scanning our Facebook newsfeed.  

As a result, multitasking through over-consuming digital media is easy. Blocking out these distractions to focus is hard. That's where awareness becomes crucial. Notice each time you feel drawn to this base form of informational pleasure. Then see what happens when you resist, when you look at the sky for a minute rather than looking at your phone.

Train the muscle of sustained attention.

Multitasking is to the brain as junk food is to the body. It's the thing we crave that's keeping us from feeling our best. Mindfulness is to the brain as physical exercise is to the body. It's the daily practice that helps us build greater mental strength and endurance. So if you haven't started some sort of practice already, try meditating for five or more minuteseach day. And if you can't do that, try using your walk from your car or from the train station to work as a time to bring your full attention to the sights and sounds around you.

Donald Hebb, an early neuroscientist, noted the core problem and opportunity at the heart of this modern predicament: "neurons that fire together, wire together." When we multitask, we're firing the neural pathways of distraction and diminished memory over and over again. Eventually, these neurons that fire together, wire together.

When we break this habit, however, we're firing new, more productive neural pathways. We're wiring together mental habits that allow us to achieve deeper levels of focus and heightened levels of memory processing and recall. In short, we're smarter when we just do one thing at a time.

Originally Published in Inc. Magazine.

In spite of all the studies showing the amazing benefits of meditation, most people fail to turn this practice into a habit for one simple reason. I call it the myth of "monk-style meditation."

It's the myth that, if you want to become a "real meditator," you need to seal yourself off from the world for long periods.  This myth tells you that you can't just meditate for five or ten minutes a day. You have to do it for at least 30 minutes or an hour each day.

This myth arises from the early neuroscience research on meditation highlighting the superhuman brains of "experienced" meditators. In one such study, the average participant had around 19,000 hours (that's about six and half years of meditating for eight hours a day).

A 2018 study conducted by researchers at Mass General and Yale University, however, shows that you don't need to quit your job and move to a monastery in Bali to experience the benefits of meditation. Even short bursts of meditation can deliver powerful benefits.

These researchers wanted to understand whether people micro-dosing meditation (doing it for just ten minutes a day) would still experience its benefits. After running two separate studies, they found that these small doses of meditation enhance cognitive performance.

Those with no prior meditation experience who meditated for just ten minutes each day showed faster response times, greater accuracy, less distraction, and an enhanced ability to sustain attention.  As they concluded, "we tested the boundary conditions of brief mindfulness meditation, and showed that even a very small 'dose' can have beneficial effects in individuals with very little or no practice."

How to micro-dose meditation

If you don't have an hour each day to sit alone in a quiet room, then it's worth trying this scientifically-validated micro-dosing approach.  Here's how to do it.

1. Find a comfortable seat, anywhere

You don't have to sit on a fancy meditation cushion, sealed away from car horns, sirens, and other distractions. You can do this practice anytime, anywhere. Do it on a park bench, on an airplane, or in the waiting room at your doctor's office. Lifting the constraint of having to be in a quiet, undistracted, undisturbed place makes it much easier to fit this practice into your day. 

2. Start by building the muscle of attention

Here's my method for meditation micro-dosing. I start with training focused attention. For the first ten breaths, I count each inhale and exhale. For example, I think "one" on my first inhale, then "one" on my first exhale, then "two" on my second inhale, and so on until I get to ten without losing focus.  If I can't make it to ten, I go back and start all over. 

3. Cultivate the skill of meta awareness

Once I make it to ten (which might not happen if I'm really distracted), I shift to training a slightly different quality of the mind, what psychologists call "meta awareness." This is your ability to stand back from the thoughts and emotions racing through your mind. To do this, I shift from counting breaths to focusing on the sounds, sensations, and sights (if my eyes are open). It's a lot like watching a movie called "Life." You just relax into a state of watching the movements of the mind, noticing sensations, thoughts, and sounds come and go.

4. Close with an altruistic intention or wish 

Here's a great way to wrap up your meditation micro-dosing practice. In the classical traditions, it's called "giving the merits." End with an intention that extends beyond yourself. "I want to be kind." "I want to be of service." "I want to listen and act from this bigger, less reactive, perspective."

The best thing about this practice is that it's portable and ultra-efficient. You really can do this anywhere. And, as we now know, the science shows that you aren't wasting your time by only meditating for five to ten minutes. These short burst of meditation can help you sharpen your mind throughout the day, increasing your focus, productivity, and overall wellbeing.

Originally published in Inc. Magazine.

Like most successful entrepreneurs, working at a high level of intensity came naturally to Brad Feld, co-founder of Techstars and the Foundry Group. But over the last 30 years, he noticed a damaging pattern shared by many entrepreneurs: His words didn't match his actions.

He said he wanted to invest more in his personal relationships. He said he wanted to invest in his mental fitness. He said he wanted to work on himself. And yet work at the office always seemed to come first. Somehow, he was committed to never getting enough sleep, not taking enough space for himself, traveling too much, and repeating this cycle again and again.

So how did Feld break this classic entrepreneurial pattern? How can you break out of this pattern in your own work? For Feld, it all comes down to one big idea: Real success comes from blending the work in your company with a deeper kind of work, work on yourself.

In a culture that values external metrics of success (revenue, capital raised, number of employees, or profit) over inner success (contentment, happiness, and meaning), this view sounds radical. But Feld points out the obvious flaw in the ordinary mindset of most entrepreneurs: "If you're not healthy physically and mentally, how can you do any of this? And what's the point? Why bother?"

Here are the practices Feld uses to turn this aspiration of working on himself into a daily habit:

1. Meditate each morning.

Every morning, Feld spends 30 minutes meditating. "I literally wake up, go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and then go sit for 30 minutes," he says. His practice is what is often described as "open awareness" meditation. There's no goal. It's more about allowing the mind to relax and be with things as they are.

2. Invest in coaching and therapy.

Feld describes working with an outside coach or therapist as an essential practice for all entrepreneurs. As he puts it, "every entrepreneur should work with a coach or therapist or possibly both. Because you need that time to work on yourself."

3. Use sleep to restore your mind and body.

Decades of research show that sleep plays an essential role in reducing stress, consolidating memories, and enhancing cognitive performance. For Feld, getting enough sleep is now a top priority. "I try to get at least eight hours of sleep a night, and I let myself wake up whenever I wake up," he says. "I no longer sleep with an alarm clock."

4. Exercise and move each day.

Feld also relies on a regular exercise program to maintain optimal levels of mental and emotional fitness. And yet he notes that there's a risk in overdoing it. At one point, for example, he ended up competing in an ultra-marathon, which pushed him far beyond his limits and led to a prolonged state of depression and exhaustion.

If there is a common thread running through Feld's advice for entrepreneurs, it is this: "In your own way, invest in you on a continuous basis." 

It's easy to overlook the ROI of working on yourself. It's easy to follow the path of least resistance that leads us to prioritize work above all else. And yet, Feld's story illustrates both the risks of ignoring this inner work and the powerful benefits of making it a top priority. 

Originally published in Inc. Magazine.

You just got off the phone with one of your most important clients. The game-changing deal you were trying to close is off. They're not interested.

You've just pitched 10 potential investors. They all say they're "interested" but it's been two weeks. You refresh your inbox hourly, and yet still no word.

How do you react in these situations?

If you're like most people, your mind floods with negativity. "Maybe our product sucks," "Why can't I just get a break?" or "Maybe there's something wrong with me."

Neuroscientists have a name for this automatic habit of the brain: "negativity bias." It's an adaptive trait of human psychology that served us well when we were hunting with spears on the savanna 120,000 years ago.

In modern times, however, this habit of the brain leaves us reacting to a harsh email or difficult conversation as if our life were in danger. It activates a cascade of stress hormones and leaves us fixated on potential threats, unable to see the bigger picture.

Neuroscientist Rick Hanson has a great analogy for this strange quality of the mind. "Your brain," he writes in his book Buddha's Brain, "is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones." When you lose a client, when the investors don't come calling, or when you face the hundreds of other daily disappointments of life, you're wired to forget all the good things and to instead obsess over the negative.

The ultra-efficient transformation of Notice-Shift-Rewire

How can we reverse this hard-wired habit of the mind?

Three words: Notice-Shift-Rewire. This simple strategy puts into into practice the core insight coming out of the neuroscience revolution of the past 30 years--the insight that, in the words of early neuroscientist Donald Hebb, "neurons that fire together, wire together." It's the insight that reminds us the brain isn't fixed. Its habits aren't like plaster. They're more like plastic, strong enough to resist the occasional push but pliable enough to change in response to repeated effort.

That's the magic of Notice-Shift-Rewire. By taking a moment each day to bring our attention to this practice, we build the habit of shifting out of negativity bias to more useful mind states: remembering our past wins, celebrating our strengths, and seeing life as a series of opportunities rather than a relentless slog through setbacks and heartbreak.

How do you integrate the practice of Notice-Shift-Rewire into the midst of everyday life?

1. Notice your negativity bias.

The first step is to bring awareness to this ordinary habit of the mind. Catch yourself when you slip into self-doubt, rumination, anxiety, and fear. Notice when your mind starts spinning out worst-case scenarios about how it's all going to come crashing apart.

2. Shift to a moment of gratitude.

Noticing opens the space for carving new neural pathways. Shifting allows you to flood this space with a more productive focus of attention. A few seconds of gratitude is the most efficient way to do this. Think of one thing you're grateful for right now. Your home. Your job. Your health. Your family. Your talents and strengths. Your drive.

3. Rewire your brain.

Here's where the real work of begins. Hanson calls this the simple act of savoring. It's taking 15 seconds to stay with this new mindset -- to encode it deep into the fabric of your mind.

This last step is where we transform our ordinary habit of overlooking the positive. It's where we shift the brain's response to all the good in life from Teflon to Velcro. We're flipping our evolved wiring on its head -- taking just a few seconds to build stronger memories around all the good things happening in life.

The best thing about this practice is that it's time efficient, portable, and powerful. It takes less than 30 seconds, you can do it anytime and anywhere, and you will begin to experience an immediate shift in your mindset.

The moment you make this shift, everything changes. You remember your purpose, look forward to new challenges, and face life with renewed optimism.

Try it once a day, every day for a week, and see what happens.