April 10, 2025 • 51 mins
What happens when your energy plummets to a mere 4 out of 10?
Rich Ellis, "The Energy Coach," faced this exact challenge during an 18-month energy crisis that disrupted his life and relationships.
In this latest episode, Rich opens up about the unexpected factors that led to his burnout and the pivotal moments that sparked his journey back to vitality. We delve into the science of energy management, uncovering simple yet powerful techniques that can transform your daily life.
Curious about the strategies that helped Rich reclaim his energy and passion? Tune into for an enlightening conversation that might just hold the keys to revitalizing your own life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
For me, energy was a real challenge.
A few years ago I actually wentthrough a self-induced energy
trough.
I've been pushing myself toohard too long and not giving my
body enough time to recover fromthe things that I was doing.
I didn't do the things that Inow tell everybody they need to
do Recovering the adrenal glands, the journey back from that.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello and welcome to the Super Soul Model Series.
This week's guest is Rich Ellis.
Rich is widely known as theenergy coach, who is a leading
expert in energy optimization,energy performance and, of
course, well-being.
With nearly two decades ofexperience, rich has helped
(00:42):
thousands of people and businessowners unlock their full
potential by making small,sustainable habits create big
results.
He's here to share his wisdomon avoiding burnout, building
high-energy cultures and howtiny daily habits can lead to
massive transformation.
Welcome to the super soul Model, rich Ellis.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Fantastic.
Thank you, James.
Very, very good to be here andgreat to connect.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's a joy to have you so Rich.
You built a reputation as theenergy coach and so what's
inspired you to focus on energywork and you know how's that
affected your personal journey,because you know this is massive
about your approach of howyou've been helping people.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
you know what's your background on that yeah, I think
I think the reason that thatsort of stuck and has remained
so is that for me, energy was areal challenge.
A few years ago, I actuallywent through a self-induced
energy trough and I justrealized that it was the things
(01:49):
I was doing that had put me inthat place, and I realized that
I needed to find a pathway outof that, and that pathway
involved a whole bunch ofself-discovery and research and
understanding how the bodyworked better, and so that took
me down that path of….
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What part of the body was not working for you?
Because you know audiencemembers are chilling and they're
thinking God, you know, I'vehad that.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, so specifically the HPA axis.
So that's a technical termwhich I don't like to use,
jargon.
But you know, when you startoff the explanation you need to,
I think, and then you cansimplify that into understanding
that our adrenal glands thatsit on our kidneys are
responsible for a lot of.
They do a lot of work and theirjob is to fire the right
(02:40):
hormone levels into our bodiesto create energy for us.
But the messages come from thebrain.
So the hypothalamus is the, isthe master clock.
It tells it sort of it's onduty, making sure it's aware of
what's going on.
It then communicates to thepituitary gland and the
pituitary gland then talks tothe adrenal gland.
So there's this chain of ofcommunication through from here
(03:03):
to to the adrenals andessentially I'd been pushing
myself too hard, too long andnot giving my, my body enough
time to recover from the thingsthat I was doing.
It was a combination of of ofwork and a combination of of
training for events.
Um, I've always been into, intoexercise, and that that, that
enthusiasm was, was too much.
(03:25):
I, I, I didn't realize where theoff button was and, um, so
you're an overachiever well, youcould say that, you could say
that, but um, it was, it was I,I just think and the way I
describe it.
I was my own worst coach.
Yeah, I, uh, I.
I didn't do the things that Inow tell everybody they need to
(03:47):
do and I suppose the journeyback from that recovering the
adrenal glands and and toexplain a little bit further
about how that works when ourcortisol levels are are higher
because of the stress we put ourbodies under, there's a
feedback loop in our, in oursystem that says oh, those those
like levels are sitting quite,we don't need to manufacture as
(04:08):
much.
So the brain thendown-regulates the manufacturer
of that cortisol, and so whatends up happening is, once
you've got to a point where yourcortisol is high, it then
starts to drop off, but themanufacturing facility has been
down-regulated.
So you then get to a point whereyou don't have any energy and
you sort of drag yourself out ofbed in the morning, you drag
(04:29):
yourself through your day, andthen you get to the end of the
day exhausted and start theprocess all over again.
And so I wanted to work out howon earth I'd got to this place,
but also how I could get myselfback out of this place, and so
I ended up doing things likeyoga, more restorative
activities that pushed me into aparasympathetic state rather
(04:50):
than a sympathetic state.
So that's the two sides of theautonomic nervous system and so
yeah, and so the energy coachjust stuck because I had um, I
had been in this place where Ihad none, got back to a place
where I had had a healthy, more,more balanced hormonal profile
can I just interject there?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
this is quite an important thing because I I
believe that lots of people findthemselves in in these types of
uh situations but aren't fullyuh conscious that that this is
how they're feeling.
Well, they, they know they'renot feeling great, but at the
same time they're like I don'tknow what, the symptoms of
what's going on.
And you've been able to quiteunderstand, like the science and
(05:29):
some of the symptoms here.
So, out of 10, if 10 is likehigh energy, where were you,
were you like at one or twoquestion?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
yeah, question uh, if 10 is bursting at the seams, I
was probably about a four right,so I could man, I could operate
, but I wasn't operating withenthusiasm and I wasn't
operating with the joie de vivrethat you know I should have in
a role where energy is is areally important component and
it's a.
It's a tool for enthusiasm andpassing on you know the, the
(06:01):
things that that people want,and it is a.
It is a currency, really.
It's a currency of health, andwhen that energy isn't there,
then you feel like your wallet'sempty and you haven't got.
You're not really sure where toturn.
So, yeah, you're right, peopledo experience it and people do
not necessarily know what it is,why it is how it is, and it can
(06:22):
affect their brain as well.
So it's not just a physicalthing, it can be a mental thing
as well.
So, yeah, so my mission is toempower people with this
knowledge so that they can tapinto all of that learning that I
had to go through and lookafter, protect their energy so
that they never gets to a four.
They're always sitting at aneight or a nine or a seven or an
(06:43):
eight or you know, it's alwaysgoing to fluctuate, but but
pushing yourself to a pointwhere you get down to a four.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Something's gone wrong so a question like I guess
one of the first things thatthat help us restore is sleep.
May I just ask you know some ofthese challenges that you were
having, because you know I'mfully aware the audience could
also be thinking oh yeah, how'sthis going for me, how was?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
your sleep during this period?
Yeah, yeah, really goodquestion.
My sleep was okay.
I certainly wouldn't say it waspoor, but I think what I didn't
realize, what I didn't know,what I didn't know, and so I
wasn't as aware of theimportance of sleep and the
components of getting good sleepas I am now.
(07:30):
And one of the things that Idid was I bought myself an aura
ring, and the aura ring gives mea whole bunch of data that I
never had previously.
It's a useful wearable andhaving got those insights
insights I realized that I justI just wasn't sleeping enough.
So I was going to bed half past10 11 o'clock, but I was
(07:51):
getting up at 5, 5, 30, andthat's just not a big enough
sleep window, so I wasn't givingmy body enough time to restore
itself and get back to 100 forthe next day, so I was always
starting on the back foot, andso, you know, it was about
understanding that and realizingthat I just needed to make a
(08:11):
few changes and, as a result ofthat, that did make an enormous
difference.
So, yeah, the sleep wasn't asgood as it could have been and I
was just, you know, just notregarding giving it the respect
it deserved.
I was just you know, just notregarding giving it the respect
it deserved.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah.
So the question really now sortof is is how long did this
period of you know operating atenergy levels of four and
perhaps below on some days?
How long were you living inthat period?
Because you know some peoplefind themselves in that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
How long was that for you?
I would say that was a goodyear or so, before it was
distinctly different, um, andthat four was sort of you know a
thing of the past.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
So yeah, a good 12 months, maybe even 18, before I
was in a place where I felt likeI could do whatever I wanted to
do without thinking twice aboutit yeah, and you know, these
are the kind of, again, some ofthe symptoms that people you
know like write in and and speakabout, because energy obviously
is a currency, and I love theway you brought that up.
(09:15):
But how are the other areas ofyour life flowing?
Or should I, yeah, or notflowing during that period of
time?
Because you know the, the redflags are up there and you're
thinking, oh, what's going on?
Yeah, so can you just give mejust a general?
How did the?
What was the rest of your life?
How was that, how?
(09:35):
How was how was that going atthat time?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
yeah, really good question it was.
It was quite challenging atthat time because there wasn't
enough energy there.
I'd burnt the candle at bothends.
I didn't have the reserves andthe calmness required to have
good conversations, to treat myfamily with respect, to not lose
(10:03):
my temper really quickly.
Those were things that Inoticed.
I was quite snappy.
I couldn't see the wood for thetrees sometimes in terms of,
let's say, walking into akitchen that needed all the
dishes doing, you know, likesomeone hasn't done the dish,
you know, and so I'd just loseit.
And you know, just simple thingslike that that when I look back
(10:25):
, it like, oh, my god, I washorrible to be around, that's
not a nice person, and and Ithink that's a sign and a
symptom of of the state that Iwas in and and at the time I
didn't really think about it toomuch.
But now I look back and, youknow, having had some time to
reflect, I realize really where,where my, my, my energy was at,
(10:45):
my personality was at mydemeanor, my day-to-day demeanor
just just wasn't balanced and Iwas just sort of scraping
through and losing my temper atthe most ridiculously small
things and, yeah, it's not anice place to be, and I think
you know when you start to seethose things happen, they're
good signs that something elseis going on, that you need to
(11:08):
step back and go hang on aminute.
This is not how I normallyoperate.
What what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I need to do something different yeah, thank
you so much for your honesty.
The audience can relate tounconscious behavior because you
don't even know that you'redoing it.
When, when I first startedmeditating over two decades ago,
I didn't recognize or realizethat I had an alcohol addiction.
I didn't know I was only 26 or27.
(11:34):
I didn't even know because itwas just something that we did
as a society and as a group offriends.
But when it just got way toomuch, I was like I'm doing the
same thing every week and I'mfeeling this low and then, just
as I'm coming around thatevening, I'll do it all again
(11:55):
and you're thinking.
This is a loop of lunacy and weas human beings find ourselves
often stuck in it withoutknowing what to do, until we
have some self introspection togo.
I don't want to feel like thisanymore.
I want more out of life, butI'm not feeling it right now and
I don't know what to do.
I guess one of the things thatcame to my mind, which is what I
(12:17):
want to ask you, is in my ownexperience, I found that energy
is closely tied to mindset whichis kind of what we've just been
talking about and awareness.
So how do you integrate mindsetshifts into your coaching and
how you've been helping people,and how can that sort of mental
awareness help improve someone'senergy?
(12:38):
That's listening.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I think it's about asking the right questions.
So, as a coach, it's aboutunderstanding where somebody is
at and then asking the rightquestions.
Because, as a coach, it's notyour job to tell them what they
need to do, but it's to identifywhere you think there may be
some opportunities, but thenlead them down the path of
self-discovery by the rightquestion.
(13:01):
And so, from a mindset shiftpoint of view, it will be
questions like well, where areyour energy levels at?
How does that feel for you?
Is that, does that feel optimal?
And and, and I think if they'reanswering those questions in a
sense of no, I'm not where Iwant to be, then at least
they're, they're identifying thegap themselves.
(13:23):
And then, when that gap'sidentified, then as a coach, you
can lead them down.
Well, what sort of things doyou think we need to do to help
restore that, to fill that gap,that energy gap, that that
mindset gap, and so that askingthem to think about it is
usually enough of a mindsetshift for them to be able to see
(13:44):
what's missing, find thebehaviors that need to occur to
to to plug the gap and for themto then understand that that's
the sort of person that theyneed to be, to have those
behaviors in place and in asense the mindset comes with
that, because they have to startbehaving like somebody
different, and so the mindsetshifts along with that process.
(14:07):
They become, as james jamesclear talks about, in atomic
habits.
You know it's about.
It's about identity, so it's avote for the person you want to
be, and so every time youpractice those habits, you're
voting for the person you wantto be and that mindset goes with
that and that personality orthat new behavior becomes part
(14:29):
of that person.
So that's usually the processthat I follow.
It's just about drawing it out,asking the right questions and
helping them realize that youusually know, as the coach,
they'll tell you why they'vecome to see you, but they don't
necessarily know the path to getto where they want to go to.
Of course not.
They come to see you.
(14:50):
So yeah, I think does thatanswer the question, james?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, it does.
I mean, I'm always thinkingwith the audience.
You know someone listeningright now, you know like they're
thinking well, I might be atabout five, you know, and it's
just like, well, what do I needto do?
I know I need to do somethingand I'm hoping that by listening
to this conversation I mighthave some practical tool.
You know, I've said thousandsof times across all my content
(15:16):
you know, the thing that jumpedme from being on an addictive,
unhealthy route was starting ameditation practice.
And I didn't even know whatmeditation was.
I just thought it was somethingsomeone might have done in a
cave.
I hadn't a clue and I justdidn't know what it was.
(15:38):
But I didn't recognize it.
It was just being able to sitstill for a segment of time
every day and I just thought itwas the most rebellious thing
for me to do, because I was likesitting still, I ain't gonna do
that.
I've never sat still.
Um, you know, probably in myyouth I could have been called
adhd, uh, but didn't know it.
(16:01):
I just had copious amounts ofenergy, but it was all over the
place and I found for me, when Isat down to learn how to
meditate, all this resistance inmy body just began to dissipate
and this mind just became openand receptive to really good
ideas and phenomenal amounts ofenergy, more so than I
(16:24):
remembered as a kid, and I wasable to focus for such longer
periods of time.
But at the beginning it was likea rocky road, like the airplane
taking off, you know, shaking,shaking, shaking, resisting the
change, of moving to thishealthy version of myself rather
than the unhealthy version.
(16:45):
But it was so quick because onehabit led to another and led to
another and led to another, andbefore too long still, two
decades plus later, I'm stilldoing all these lovely little
small habits and noticing myvitality and energy has been
phenomenal.
So I guess my next question toyou, rich, is you know, you've
(17:06):
just mentioned that changing oneidentity to the next is really
really powerful for someone whois starting their transformation
or wants to get out of thatperhaps four or five uh level of
energy, to, to get to at leastthe higher echelons of energy
and good feeling, right.
So what are some practicalsteps could they take if they're
(17:29):
at a five, and then maybethere's some different ones if
you're at a six or a seven,right, you know?
Or even higher?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
I think the important thing is to make it as easy as
possible.
So, you know, not looking forfive things to do, but looking
for that one thing to do, andit's going to be different for
everybody.
But you know, not looking forfive things to do, but looking
for that one thing to do, andit's going to be different for
everybody.
But you know, we've talkedabout sleep already and it is
the foundation of health andwell-being, right?
Everything else that we dobuilds on top of a solid night's
(17:57):
sleep, and Matthew Walker,who's kind of one of the world
experts, says that you know,it's the tide that raises all
health boats.
So that is the place that Iwould start with most people not
and not necessarily everybody,but at least I need to find out
about it, because there's nopoint in talking about nutrition
if sleep's poor.
Right, because that has a bigimpact on the results you get
with the right nutrition.
(18:17):
I love the way I love that.
That's so true yeah, yeah, canyou?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
just tell us why.
Just tell us why.
Yeah sure, it's reallyimportant, because I think
everyone needs to know this yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
So.
You know, when we're underslept, the impact that that has on
our next day or or days, uh, isphenomenal, and there have been
studies to show that people whoare underslept eat more food the
next day, and usually the wrongfood.
So not only will your brain besearching for energy in the
(18:51):
simple carbs, but your brainwill also be, you know,
preventing you from stoppingdoing that as well.
So you've got ghrelin andleptin.
So your two hunger hormone,your two sort of satiety and
hunger hormones that play areally important role in what we
eat and when we eat it and whenwe stop, those both go out of
whack.
So you get a double whammy.
(19:11):
The other reference that I hadin my mind, related from a
nutritional point of view, isthat when we're underslept, our
brain sacrifices muscle beforeit sacrifices fat.
So we want to lose fat if we'regetting healthy typically, but
our brains won't let us do thatif we're underslept, because
(19:32):
it's harder work to break downfat than it is to break down
muscle.
So, in the attempt to eathealthily, we are restricting
calories, but if we'reunderslept, we're actually
losing muscle mass, which meansthat our metabolism is slowing
down, which means that over overthe period of time we we aren't
going to be able to lose them,the the fat that we want to.
(19:54):
So it's it's a really criticalpiece to get the sleep part
right.
First, before you startlayering on what interventions
need to occur from a nutritionalpoint of view, and second to
that is the exercise side ofthings.
So we've always thoughtexercise and nutrition are, you
know, the most important leversto pull from a health and
(20:16):
well-being point of view.
But you've got to start withthe sleep first.
We're less likely to go out anddo the thing we should do to
move our bodies.
Uh, when we're under slept, wejust aren't going to have the
same amount of energy andtherefore, if we don't do it,
we're not going to have as muchtiredness physical tiredness at
the end of the day to have abetter night's sleep, because
(20:36):
that physical tiredness playsinto having a good night's sleep
.
So, um, it's a that becomes avicious cycle as well.
We don't get the energy, we'renot going to do the thing and
the thing isn't going to help usget the better sleep, and on it
goes.
So those are two, I guess,answers to that question.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Nice to explain, but if we're going to do it, so if
we really need sleep and that'sgoing to help the nutrition
which will also give us theenergy, hopefully, to move the
body, do you have any practicaltools that get a good night's
sleep, because it's more so thanjust getting in your bed.
There's got to be something.
What are Rich's practical tips.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
When I present on some of this stuff, I always put
this 8-8-8 up on the slide.
I've got 8-8-8, so we've got 24hours in the day, eight hours
of work, and and people sort ofstart scoffing.
They're like really eight hoursof work, but eight hours of
work, eight hours of me time andeight hours of sleep.
And I and I put that up and Isay which is the most important?
(21:40):
And 90% of the people go sleep,sleep, sleep.
Everyone realizes theimportance of sleep and I say,
no, that's not the mostimportant one.
The most important one is theme time, because the me time is
what helps set you up for thesleep.
So, to answer your question,one of the things that I do is I
make sure that I have a.
I like.
I like this analogy of how doesthe pilot get the plane on the
(22:03):
runway.
He throttles back.
So how do you throttle back?
And for me it's about turningall the devices off, getting
into bed and finding a book thatI enjoy.
That's not not a horror, it'snot nothing too stimulating, but
a book that's useful, that'sgoing to take me to another
place, it's analog.
There's no screens, there's.
(22:24):
You know, I've probably got myblue locking blue lock, blue
blocking glasses on, so I'mfiltering out all the all the
blue light and I'm just takingthat time to to wind the brain
and the nervous system down sothat I'm more likely to drop off
and stay asleep, as opposed towake up in the middle of the
(22:45):
night and the brain's tickingand you know, thoughts are going
through my head and and that'snormal.
That'll happen to everybody atdifferent stages.
But my answer to that questionis how do you throttle back?
So that's how I throttle back,but it's going to look different
for different people.
Somebody might go for a walk,someone might go for a hot bath,
because that helps bring coretemperature down and sets you up
(23:07):
for a better sleep.
So different courses fordifferent horses.
So, yeah, different horses,different courses for different
horses, but find the thing thatworks for you.
That is your throttle back,because that's the bit that sets
you up for the good sleep is,is that wind down.
You might journal, so obviously, meditation is the thing that
that works for you, james, andI've tried meditation, and it's
(23:28):
not something that I'm very, uh,practiced at and it's not
something that I'm verypracticed at and it's not
something I've sort of keptchipping away at.
But journaling is analternative way of having that
introspection, so you can getyour thoughts down onto paper,
you can empty your head a littlebit.
So that helps set you up for abetter night's sleep.
But it also helps you thinkabout yourself as that
metacognition, thinking aboutthinking and how your day went,
(23:52):
what went on, what things arecoming up.
All that sort of stuff isanother nice way of getting an
opportunity to throttle back sothat when the head hits the
pillow you're more likely todrop off and have a good sleep.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I love that.
It's a really nice analogy andeven though I have been
meditating, you know, lot longer, uh, than probably most people,
just because it's the theritual that really works for me,
I love that there are differentother rituals that people can
use, like the journaling and thereading, and it just settles
(24:26):
the mind down quite a lot.
I think that's really, reallypowerful.
Can I ask a quick questionbecause I just but sleep hill.
I think so important it'sunderrated.
Um, what, what abouttemperature of the room and
things like that?
You know, this is important, Ibelieve yeah, yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
The sweet spot is between 17 and 19 degrees
celsius.
Yeah, so it needs to be johnslightly on the cool side can
you just tell us why?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
because I know you're a man of like stats and stuff
and I love this, tell us, tellus why 17 to 19 is this sweet
spot?
Speaker 1 (25:05):
yeah, yeah so my understanding is that it relates
to, uh, body temperature andsleep.
So to drop off we need to beabout one degree cooler than we
normally are, and so that helpsus drop into the different
brainwaves and the whole alpha,all that stuff.
(25:27):
I can't rattle all of those off, but essentially it's about
getting that body temperaturedown a little bit, and that's
why a hot bath or a spa works sowell, because you bring the
blood to the outside of the body, which means your core
temperature is going to drop alittle bit, and that's a lovely
way of setting yourself up for agood night's sleep, so you feel
clean and you're getting intoyour crisp sheets and then your
(25:48):
body temperature drops.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
And hey presto, you're getting into your crisp
sheets and then your bodytemperature drops and, hey
presto, it sets you up for anice easy drop off.
So I think the room temperaturejust plays into that as well.
Yeah, I, I, I'm, I really Ibelieve that big time, because
two years ago I was.
I remember it was a very hotsummer in spain and I found it
very difficult to have airconditioning on all the time.
I just felt like it just didn'tfeel like flow of air through
(26:11):
breathing.
So I remember waking up in themiddle of the night, having a
cold shower and two minuteslater after I got out of that, I
was deep, right, deep sleep.
Obviously the air temperatureoutside was warm, um, at that
time of year in the summer, butI remember just going oh my
golly, I was couldn't fallasleep and and then wake up,
have a quick, cold, cool showerand then off.
(26:34):
I went really, really quicklyand I know that that played into
the part of a successful nextday, especially when you need to
perform, you know.
So I really really think thisAre there any other practical
tools aside from sleep with youand your clients and the people
that you've been helping youthinking, hey, we can turn this
around if you're strugglingright now.
(26:57):
I was talking to a guy yesterday, actually on a call, and he's
going through some challengeswith work and energy and one of
the things that I suggested wasthat he get outside barefoot and
walk around the garden just toconnect with the earth.
So it's that groundingcomponent where you're balancing
(27:20):
the ions in the body.
So you've got negative andpositive ions in the body and so
by grounding yourself, you areable to pick up the negative
ions in the soil if you like,and the positive in the body
rebalances.
So you can do that in your backgarden.
You could walk to the ocean,walk along the beach in the
ocean.
So you've got the blue gym andthe green gym and those are
(27:43):
really nice ways of helpingbalance the nervous system out.
And the other thing that Isuggested to him was that he,
while he was doing the grounding, that he took the opportunity
to observe nature around him.
So we know that the Japanesesort of came up with this term,
forest bathing and essentiallyit's about just being outside in
nature but observing thingsthrough all five senses.
(28:07):
So what can I see, what can Ihear, what can I smell, taste
and feel, and so that might meanbrushing up against a leaf, but
at least immersing yourself innature for just a few minutes.
It doesn't have to be a longperiod of time, but just enough
time that that will help resetthe cortisol.
That will bring the cortisoldown.
So if you're having a stressfulday, get outside at lunchtime.
You don't necessarily have totake your shoes off, but if it's
(28:28):
convenient and you can takeyour shoes off, even better,
because that's just a realsimple, easy one that you can
add into your day and helpbalance things out a little bit.
I love this.
The negative ions really helpalso reduce inflammation in the
body, and inflammation is one ofthe number one killers and
stress-related diseases that wehave.
(28:50):
I had a little challenge thisafternoon.
I was feeling a little stressedfor a period of time and I
couldn't even drive home becausethey're resurfacing the road
where I live.
I've just moved, moved out.
It's not a big deal, right, andI don't really see things as a
big deal, but when they said itwas going to take some time
before you can actually drive,you know, another 100 meters
before you you can get home.
I was like, oh, do you knowwhat?
(29:11):
There's something better I cando with my time.
So I decided to just drive tothe beach, because the beach is
like five minutes from my house.
So instead of waitingpotentially for half an hour for
them to resurface the roadwhich I'm grateful for I could
have just turned the car engineoff and just sat there and just
waited.
But my, my body was saying Ithink I need to just deeply
(29:35):
relax rather than just sit hereand think come on, hurry up, how
long is it going to take?
How many of us all been in somesort of situation?
That's fairly similar.
Anyway, I went to the beach.
I was there for 20 minutes.
I even jumped in the waterbecause it was a lovely day
today and within 20 minutes I'djust gone.
Okay, now I reckon I can goback and obviously the road had
(29:57):
been paved on my way back.
Happy days, less stress, lesscortisol in the body.
Is it that easy, rich, to beable to reset?
That's my question to you,because I know you come across a
lot of people with alldifferent types of challenges.
But is, is it that easy toreset?
Is what I'm asking.
Well, does it take?
You know, a lot of consistency.
(30:19):
That was my experience, right,and that's you know, yeah, yeah,
I've got a phone call.
I've got business call.
I've got emails to send.
You know I've got people I haveto speak to.
I need to be on form.
Usually I'm gonna just push,push, push through.
And how many of us do that?
That was me once upon a time,you know hands up, but I don't
do that anymore.
I think the answer is yes toboth.
(30:43):
You can reset very, veryquickly in the moment and I
think breath is probably thequickest and easiest way of
doing that.
Let's say you're in a trafficjam and you can't jump out to
the beach.
Using your breath obviously,meditation is a great way of
doing that because you focus onyour breath, but you can do it
anytime, anywhere.
I've got an anecdote, actually.
(31:03):
I was working with a guy thismorning and he said Rich, that
breathing technique, I tell youwhy it stops me punching people
in meetings.
Rich, that breathing technique,I tell you why it stops me
punching people in meetings.
He said, when you hold thatbreath before you breathe out
again, honestly it's making sucha difference.
And I was like I had a littlechuckle to myself, as I'm glad
you're not punching people, butyeah, it's that powerful that
you can shift from thatparasympathetic, from the
sympathetic, into theparasympathetic extremely
(31:25):
quickly.
So momentarily it will make abig difference, like it did for
you, James, and everybody can.
But that's that's sort of on acontinuum of where you're at in
the bigger picture From my pointof view.
historically, I was high with mycortisol, but I was there for
so long.
I then crashed and it was lowand that's not going to bounce
back quickly.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
But if you're feeling like you're in a stress state,
if you're feeling like thingsare slightly slipping out of
control, doing something likewhat you did you know, getting
yourself to the beach or justhaving some moments to take a
breath is a nice quick reset.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
May.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I ask what that breath technique that you shared
with your client or your otherperson you were speaking with.
Yeah, I've been doing it for along time and it's with it.
There's a guy called Dr AndrewWeil.
Yeah, w-i-l.
(32:20):
W-e.
I've been doing it for a longtime and it's with it.
There's a guy called Dr AndrewWhale yeah, and he's a.
He's a kooky guy.
He's a really interesting guy.
He's based off the north shorein Oahu, not in Oahu in um, in
Hawaii.
I've been, I've been, I've beenup there Princeville, yeah, but
I've been Kauai.
He's a good guy.
Um, he, he's even older than helooks.
Yeah, he looks like he's about,he looks like he's about 18,
he's nearly 100, but um.
So he came up with this breathtechnique, which you probably
know.
What I'm going to say is uh,four, seven.
(32:40):
So you breathe in for a countof four, you hold that for a
count of seven and then youbreathe out for a count of eight
, and the particular messagewith that is that the out breath
is twice as long as the inbreath.
So we are signaling back to theparasympathetic nervous system
that we're safe, we're fine,we're calm, we're in a good
place, and that seven in betweenjust delays that process.
(33:01):
So it's giving time forpressure on the diaphragm.
The diaphragm is linked to thevagus nerve.
Vagus nerve obviously helpspush that parasympathetic state.
So yeah, four, seven, eight,it's a winner this is it yeah a
lot.
I love that.
Could you just tell us why theit's like eight on the exhale
and why that's important?
You know, because people think,okay, I can breathe in for four
, hold for seven and exhale foreight.
(33:23):
Why double on the exhale?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
why is that?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
important.
So when we breathe in, wesignal our sympathetic nervous
system.
So imagine if you had a scare.
You're watching a horror movie.
That elevates your nervoussystem, so you go into that
sympathetic state.
When we breathe out, we signalto our parasympathetic nervous
system.
So what we're doing is we'rebiasing the breath technique so
(33:47):
that we are pushing into thatparasympathetic state more than
the sympathetic state you can'tbreathe without breathing in.
So what we are doing is we areusing the out breath as the
signal to our nervous system tosay calm down, everything's fine
, chill, um.
And so yeah, it's a winner.
And I often will have clientslying on a shakti mat and
they're they're, you know,they're all nice and relaxed.
(34:09):
And I go right breathe in,breathe in four, seven, eight,
do it for three or four roundsand that will settle their
nervous system and happy daysaway they go.
The other trick is dropping offto sleep.
So if you're rolling around inbed and you know that's not a
great thing because you'retraining your brain to this is
the place you roll around in bedrather than fall asleep is the
(34:29):
four, seven, eight technique inbed.
So if you can't drop offbecause you've got a busy mind
and you may not have throttledback quite as much as you could
have done four, seven, eight forabout two, three, four rounds
and 99 of the time I've droppedoff.
So okay, I'm gonna try thattonight actually.
So just doing it before youwant to fall asleep will get you
into perhaps a lower brainwavefrequency yeah, yeah, and, and I
(34:53):
think pulse is a component ofit as well.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So if you've had a heavy meal or of any alcohol, of
course your pulse is going tobe slightly elevated and your
brain's not going to let youdrop off if you've got a racing
pulse.
So exercising too close tobedtime may not be great, but
also food and drink can have aplat can play into that, but a
busy mind can too.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So, yeah, um, if those things are eliminated,
this is actually a really goodquestion, right, but you know
you, having studied energy inthe, in the, the science behind
it.
Um, a busy mind.
Is that because you've eaten atall, exercised or had
stimulants before bed?
(35:32):
Is that the reason why theminds busy before bed?
If it is.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Not necessarily.
No, no, I think the busy mindis more about your thinking
patterns, as opposed to theeating and the drinking.
Yeah, so how you processinformation, what meaning you
give to your day, yourinteractions, the meaning that
you make of everything really is.
(35:58):
What then means whether you'vegot a busy mind or a less busy
mind?
And I find my mind is busierwhen I've got a lot on my plate,
when I've got a lot of workcoming up, multiple things to to
to be working on at the sametime.
If I've got a new challenge ora new project starting, then
I've got a busy mind because mymind's going solution, solution,
(36:19):
solution, solution, rather thanone step at a time.
You know, take it, take itgradually.
No, no, no, no, no, we're justgoing to fix this all up in one
go.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
So, yeah, it's, it's, that's, that's how it works for
me I just want to say thank you, because that's a really uh, a
great answer.
I'm thinking about the, theburnout that people have been
challenged with.
That seems a bit more sociallyacceptable, but it's not really
something that we really havenoticed in the last 20 or 30
(36:48):
years.
It's just been a lot morerecent people having this
burnout.
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (36:55):
generationally, people who people who sort of
grew up in the 70s and the 80sand whose parents were, you know
, at work and working reallyhard, picked up this work ethic
that you know you work yourselfinto the ground because that's
what gets results and gives youthe lifestyle that you want.
And I think the next generationso my children and their
(37:16):
friends and colleagues are ournext generation on going.
Why are you killing yourself?
You know they actually see itlike that and I think that
that's the generationaldifference.
And, to answer your question,it's already been the way in
which we operate as a generationGeneration X of which I am but
(37:38):
rolling over the top of that, apandemic, lockdowns, the lack of
certainty, the unpredictability, which the brain doesn't like.
Right, that pushes us into thatsympathetic state again.
Then you've got the fallout ofthe economic conditions that
have been the result of COVID.
So we've got businesses thatwere struggling through COVID.
(37:59):
We've got businesses that arestruggling because of COVID and
the fallout of it now and theeconomic corrections that have
occurred, and so there hasn'treally been a time in the last
five years for people to stop.
And I think that, on top of thementality of push anyway, is a
large contributor to why peopleare at where they're at, and I
(38:22):
think you know it's been a badgeof honour, you know?
Oh yeah, I'll sleep when I'mdead.
Well, that might be sooner thanyou'd like it to be, so I think
it's a whole combination offactors, but I think those are
the big ones.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yeah, I think that's a great point, and I'm just, you
know, a massive advocate ofwell-being as a youth rich, and
I'm, you know, fascinated to seewhat other little small things
we could be adding to ourselvesto improve the quality of our
life, our family's life, just tobe those examples of someone
(38:57):
who's always got energy.
Because the quality of our lifeis determined by our health
really, and we can't enjoy lifeif you ain't got your health.
The difference between someonewho's got incredible prosperity
is looking at the same sunset assomeone who has nothing.
And, ultimately, if you'redoing that from a hospital bed,
(39:21):
it's not quite the same thing.
And so I'm really conscious toshare as much of this energy
information, which is prettyfree, you know, and simple.
It just requires you showing upfor you.
And so, you know, I'mfascinated by your work and what
you've been doing.
And is there any other types of,like practical tools?
(39:45):
You think that would reallyhelp people if they're at six,
for instance, or a seven, andyou're thinking, oh, I could do
with a little bit more energy.
You know I'm not bad, but youknow I could do.
I could do.
Everybody wants more energy,because I believe on the other
side of a lot of energy is allthe things that you want.
It takes a lot of energy to doreally, really well and have all
the things you want show up.
(40:05):
You have to be an energeticmatch.
So what are Rich's tools, asidefrom the ones you've mentioned
today that you think, hey guys,you really want to be thinking
about doing this?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I think the simple things, hydrating well, you know
, again, it's something we takefor granted because you can just
turn a tap on, but I'll get tothree o'clock and go, oh, I
haven't had any water, you know,and I'll be downing two pints
of water just to play catcher,which is the wrong thing to do.
Um, but you know, hydrationplays a massive part in in our
energy, in terms of how, howwell our brains are working.
(40:42):
You know, cognition even just Ithink the stats are something
like a two percent drop in inhydration is like an 11 drop in
performance, something like that.
Um, so, you know, looking afterthe compounded is big, by the
way yeah, yeah, exactly that, soon one of your videos, rich.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I really like this.
Just share with some of yourlittle hacks that you have for
people to be able to be remindedof certain things.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Okay, so my water one .
Yeah, that's one of the ones Isee.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
You know what I like?
These little hacks, it's allthese little things that make us
have to go.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Because youknow like I have a certain alarm
that I have, which is a birdtweet that wakes me up.
I choose not to have an alarmthat scares me because I don't
want cortisol running when Iwake up.
I actually sleep with an eyemask, on a silk one, but I leave
(41:37):
the curtains open or not sowide, but so I wake up with the
sunrise.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And so that gives me this beautiful entrance into the
new day, and it's just oh, andI can just feel the sun coming
up, the birds tweeting, and it'sa lovely entrance into the new
day, but you've got your hacksand I like it when I want you to
share your hacks, yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
So normally if I'm sitting at this chair, I've got
a pint glass sitting next to meon this mat, and it's not there
today.
I love that it's not there todaySee you know, there's always
opportunities to improve, right,Anyway.
So my pint glass is almoststitched to my hand most of the
(42:22):
time.
I have to, uh, admit.
I've got about five or six ofthem in the cupboard just
waiting to be filled up, but Ikeep one of them in the fridge.
And the reason I keep one ofthem in the fridge is is more
than one reason.
A we're in a reasonably warmclimate, like you are, so it's
nice to have a cold glass ratherthan a warm glass but, the
other thing is, every time Iopen the fridge for breakfast or
(42:44):
to grab some blueberries orwhatever it might be, there's
that glass staring me in theface, going time for some water.
So I'll take the glass out, I'llfill it up with water and I'll
carry on with my day.
And I take the pint glassbecause it's a big vessel, it's
not going to run out and I don'thave to go back every five
minutes, and so that's my hackthe glass stays in the fridge,
(43:05):
and so it's always therereminding me every time I open
the fridge door.
And if it's not in the fridge,I've already got it and I'm
already on my my my day withwith my water.
So so the point being is thatreduce the friction.
How can you reduce the frictionto do the thing you want to do,
so that you stumble over itevery day?
And the other classic exampleis if you want to become a
(43:27):
runner, put your running shoesout the night before.
It's the same sort of principle, so you can apply that to
everything it's basicallyintention, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
it's massive intention, yeah, and I think
that you know I've got littlenotes that I leave around my
house about what my goals are.
I've that.
You know.
I've got little notes that Ileave around my house about what
my goals are.
I've got, you know, I've got Ihave my, my environment set up
so it's neat and tidy, so mymind is neat and tidy, um, but I
like these little hacks of likethe water and stuff.
You know, like I have a.
(43:57):
I I watched your little hackthe other day.
I was like I quite like that.
You know, like I'm alwayslooking for.
I'm always looking for newreminders, right, always looking
for new reminders.
And I think that we constantlyneeded to be reminded as a human
species, because we don't haveit all sussed the whole time.
You know, every day is a newday, have you shown?
(44:18):
Are you showing up as that bestversion of yourself again
tomorrow?
You know, and excellence is isa series of habits and a series
of choices made over and overagain.
Um, you know, and I can tellthat because I was very
dysfunctional years and yearsago, uh, with being having zero
good habits.
I was absolutely scattered, andnow it's just that's it, and I
(44:43):
just find myself with so muchfreedom.
So, operating at those higherlevels of a seven plus is, I
think, a really, reallybeautiful way to have greater
success, a great happiness andgreater fulfillment.
And I, and I love, and I love,like your, your technical and
scientific approach as tounderstanding a bit more of the
(45:04):
adrenals, because we don'trecognize what's actually going
on with us sometimes.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, and the way I got that
tested was through a saliva test.
So the trick with um,understanding where your your
cortisol is is to to see thepattern.
Understanding where yourcortisol is is to see the
pattern, not to see oneparticular number in isolation.
So often the doctor might getit tested, but that might have
been at 11 o'clock in themorning.
Well, that's great, at 11o'clock in the morning, it
(45:31):
should be about here.
But how does that correspond towhat it's like in the morning,
in the afternoon and the evening?
So there are ways and means ofidentifying these things without
it being too invasive.
That was a real shock.
Horror to me and that'sactually one of my slides in one
of my presentations on energyis this is where I was at and
there's a black line across thebottom of the graph and I should
be up in this green bit here,yeah, and it's a real wake-up
(45:55):
call for people to say, oh,crikey, yeah, well, if I was a,
if I was down there, I'd be afour as well.
So, um, you know it's.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
It's not too difficult to find these things
out and once you get thatinformation, it really is
powerful yeah, I think that onceyou see that, you go hey, I can
, I can something I can do whenthere's something I need to do
because you're being told now,biologically as well.
yeah, so if there's one key bitof advice that you'd like to
share, but just in closing, what?
What would it be to peoplegoing yeah, I love what Rich has
(46:25):
said.
It makes so much sense.
Of course it makes sense.
Energy is, you know, our mostgreatest asset that we can have.
What's one key bit of advicethat they could have in thinking
I could improve the amount ofenergy that I'm allowing with
your work and what you share,rich?
Speaker 1 (46:45):
It's one that we haven't talked about, but I
think it's one that has so manyother benefits and you hinted at
it with your curtains the factthat you allow the light to do
its job and to set yourcircadian rhythm for the day,
and that is just to get outsideinto natural light in the
morning once the sun has come up, because it plays such an
(47:08):
important role in what happensat the end of the day, it
bookmarks your day.
So you get outside, you get thenatural light into your eyes.
That makes you less sleepy initself, because it washes away
the melatonin from the nightbefore, because sometimes, if
you don't you melatonin from thenight before, because sometimes
, if you don't, you know, you gofrom the car to the office,
office, car, home, particularlyin the morning, you could be
(47:29):
quite sleepy and groggy and begrabbing for that first cup of
coffee because you haven't gotthat natural light into your
eyes, so that natural lightcould be where you have your
first cup of tea, or you mighteat your breakfast outside or
even go for a walk, and thatbookends your day.
So your brain says, ah right,beginning of the day is now 16
hours later.
It goes okay, it's probablyabout time for bed now, and so I
(47:52):
think that really helpsreinforce the circadian rhythm
so that you've got a reallystrong reference between when
you've woken up and when you'regoing to bed, and and that will
help design that sort of thatwind down the throttle back at
the end of the day, because yourbrain will be communicating to
you.
It will be telling you it'stime to sleep, it'll be telling
(48:12):
you that you're tired becauseit's 16 hours since you saw
light.
So I think that would be my, mygo-to would be to get that
light.
In how long?
Speaker 2 (48:20):
how long?
How much light do you actuallyneed?
Rich, real morning slot yeah,not long.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
I think the, the science says somewhere between
seven and ten minutes, so you'renot talking significant amounts
of time.
And also it has to be outside.
You can't do it through a carwindow, you can't do it through
an office window.
You have got to be out therebecause the lux, the measure of
light between inside and outsideis significantly different, so
between, let's say, a hundredinside and 95,000 outside.
(48:50):
So you've got to be out thereand um and let your brain, you
know, let the, the, the naturetake its course, because the
blue light that comes with thenatural light from the sun, even
an overcast day, is sufficient.
It makes a big difference to,to how things go from what's
actually happening to the brainthen during that time?
(49:11):
so light is always on a spectrum, and so blue light is the most
stimulating to our brain, and sowhat it's doing is it's
signaling to our brain that theday has started and the night
has finished, and so part ofthat process is that melatonin
is.
Then the blue light signals tothe brain oh, we don't need any
more melatonin, because that's asleep thing and it's not sleep
time.
So melatonin then gets reduced,which immediately increases
(49:34):
your alertness, becausemelatonin's job is to help you
sleep.
So it's not um, it's not uh,something that you can take for
granted, because at night time,if we've got all the lights on
and the TV on and the screens on, melatonin is less likely to
build up to the level that'sgoing to help you set yourself
off for a good night's sleep.
(49:54):
But blocking that light atnight time will help set you up
for a better night's sleep.
So in the morning your brain'sgetting that blue light from the
sun and the atmosphere andsaying right, it's daytime, and
so the clock starts ticking, andwhat happens then is adenosine,
which is another signaler inthe body, starts building up,
(50:14):
which helps create sleeppressure.
So you're getting rid ofmelatonin and you're starting
the clock on this adenosine, andthe adenosine builds up over
the course of the day and itcreates what's known as sleep
pressure.
Now we can block adenosine withcaffeine, so it's got the same.
Imagine a piece of legoslotting into your brain.
It does the same thing asadenosine.
(50:36):
So if you drink lots ofcaffeine, that will slow that
process down.
So if you've got some work onand you need to really focus,
then caffeine can be useful.
But if not, it's going to, it'sgoing to prevent you having a
better night's sleep.
So there's a couple of thingsgoing on there.
The, the, the, thesuprachiasmatic nucleus, which
is the master clock in our brain, then sends signals to other
(50:58):
parts of the brain, other partsof the body, because all of our
cells have their own sort ofcircadian rhythm.
But that bright light signalsthat master clock and then the
master clock controls everythingelse that goes on in the brain
and the body.
So it's a really powerful oneand it's one that we kind of
take for granted.
We don't really think, oh yeah,I'll go outside, or if we don't
(51:19):
, then we're missing anopportunity side, or yeah, if we
don't, then we're missing anopportunity.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
Amazing rich.
It's been an absolute joyspeaking with you.
Thank you for sharing yourknowledge and your wisdom, and
I'd also like to say I reallyappreciate all the science
behind it and I find it reallyfascinating.
So thank you for sharing.
This week's super soul model isrich Ellis.
Thanks Rich.
Thank you, james.
For me, energy was a real challenge.
A few years ago I actually wentthrough a self-induced energy
trough.
I've been pushing myself toohard too long and not giving my
body enough time to recover fromthe things that I was doing.
I didn't do the things that Inow tell everybody they need to
do Recovering the adrenal glands, the journey back from that.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello and welcome to the Super Soul Model Series.
This week's guest is Rich Ellis.
Rich is widely known as theenergy coach, who is a leading
expert in energy optimization,energy performance and, of
course, well-being.
With nearly two decades ofexperience, rich has helped
(00:42):
thousands of people and businessowners unlock their full
potential by making small,sustainable habits create big
results.
He's here to share his wisdomon avoiding burnout, building
high-energy cultures and howtiny daily habits can lead to
massive transformation.
Welcome to the super soul Model, rich Ellis.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Fantastic.
Thank you, James.
Very, very good to be here andgreat to connect.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It's a joy to have you so Rich.
You built a reputation as theenergy coach and so what's
inspired you to focus on energywork and you know how's that
affected your personal journey,because you know this is massive
about your approach of howyou've been helping people.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
you know what's your background on that yeah, I think
I think the reason that thatsort of stuck and has remained
so is that for me, energy was areal challenge.
A few years ago, I actuallywent through a self-induced
energy trough and I justrealized that it was the things
(01:49):
I was doing that had put me inthat place, and I realized that
I needed to find a pathway outof that, and that pathway
involved a whole bunch ofself-discovery and research and
understanding how the bodyworked better, and so that took
me down that path of….
Speaker 2 (02:10):
What part of the body was not working for you?
Because you know audiencemembers are chilling and they're
thinking God, you know, I'vehad that.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, so specifically the HPA axis.
So that's a technical termwhich I don't like to use,
jargon.
But you know, when you startoff the explanation you need to,
I think, and then you cansimplify that into understanding
that our adrenal glands thatsit on our kidneys are
responsible for a lot of.
They do a lot of work and theirjob is to fire the right
(02:40):
hormone levels into our bodiesto create energy for us.
But the messages come from thebrain.
So the hypothalamus is the, isthe master clock.
It tells it sort of it's onduty, making sure it's aware of
what's going on.
It then communicates to thepituitary gland and the
pituitary gland then talks tothe adrenal gland.
So there's this chain of ofcommunication through from here
(03:03):
to to the adrenals andessentially I'd been pushing
myself too hard, too long andnot giving my, my body enough
time to recover from the thingsthat I was doing.
It was a combination of of ofwork and a combination of of
training for events.
Um, I've always been into, intoexercise, and that that, that
enthusiasm was, was too much.
(03:25):
I, I, I didn't realize where theoff button was and, um, so
you're an overachiever well, youcould say that, you could say
that, but um, it was, it was I,I just think and the way I
describe it.
I was my own worst coach.
Yeah, I, uh, I.
I didn't do the things that Inow tell everybody they need to
(03:47):
do and I suppose the journeyback from that recovering the
adrenal glands and and toexplain a little bit further
about how that works when ourcortisol levels are are higher
because of the stress we put ourbodies under, there's a
feedback loop in our, in oursystem that says oh, those those
like levels are sitting quite,we don't need to manufacture as
(04:08):
much.
So the brain thendown-regulates the manufacturer
of that cortisol, and so whatends up happening is, once
you've got to a point where yourcortisol is high, it then
starts to drop off, but themanufacturing facility has been
down-regulated.
So you then get to a point whereyou don't have any energy and
you sort of drag yourself out ofbed in the morning, you drag
(04:29):
yourself through your day, andthen you get to the end of the
day exhausted and start theprocess all over again.
And so I wanted to work out howon earth I'd got to this place,
but also how I could get myselfback out of this place, and so
I ended up doing things likeyoga, more restorative
activities that pushed me into aparasympathetic state rather
(04:50):
than a sympathetic state.
So that's the two sides of theautonomic nervous system and so
yeah, and so the energy coachjust stuck because I had um, I
had been in this place where Ihad none, got back to a place
where I had had a healthy, more,more balanced hormonal profile
can I just interject there?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
this is quite an important thing because I I
believe that lots of people findthemselves in in these types of
uh situations but aren't fullyuh conscious that that this is
how they're feeling.
Well, they, they know they'renot feeling great, but at the
same time they're like I don'tknow what, the symptoms of
what's going on.
And you've been able to quiteunderstand, like the science and
(05:29):
some of the symptoms here.
So, out of 10, if 10 is likehigh energy, where were you,
were you like at one or twoquestion?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
yeah, question uh, if 10 is bursting at the seams, I
was probably about a four right,so I could man, I could operate
, but I wasn't operating withenthusiasm and I wasn't
operating with the joie de vivrethat you know I should have in
a role where energy is is areally important component and
it's a.
It's a tool for enthusiasm andpassing on you know the, the
(06:01):
things that that people want,and it is a.
It is a currency, really.
It's a currency of health, andwhen that energy isn't there,
then you feel like your wallet'sempty and you haven't got.
You're not really sure where toturn.
So, yeah, you're right, peopledo experience it and people do
not necessarily know what it is,why it is how it is, and it can
(06:22):
affect their brain as well.
So it's not just a physicalthing, it can be a mental thing
as well.
So, yeah, so my mission is toempower people with this
knowledge so that they can tapinto all of that learning that I
had to go through and lookafter, protect their energy so
that they never gets to a four.
They're always sitting at aneight or a nine or a seven or an
(06:43):
eight or you know, it's alwaysgoing to fluctuate, but but
pushing yourself to a pointwhere you get down to a four.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Something's gone wrong so a question like I guess
one of the first things thatthat help us restore is sleep.
May I just ask you know some ofthese challenges that you were
having, because you know I'mfully aware the audience could
also be thinking oh yeah, how'sthis going for me, how was?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
your sleep during this period?
Yeah, yeah, really goodquestion.
My sleep was okay.
I certainly wouldn't say it waspoor, but I think what I didn't
realize, what I didn't know,what I didn't know, and so I
wasn't as aware of theimportance of sleep and the
components of getting good sleepas I am now.
(07:30):
And one of the things that Idid was I bought myself an aura
ring, and the aura ring gives mea whole bunch of data that I
never had previously.
It's a useful wearable andhaving got those insights
insights I realized that I justI just wasn't sleeping enough.
So I was going to bed half past10 11 o'clock, but I was
(07:51):
getting up at 5, 5, 30, andthat's just not a big enough
sleep window, so I wasn't givingmy body enough time to restore
itself and get back to 100 forthe next day, so I was always
starting on the back foot, andso, you know, it was about
understanding that and realizingthat I just needed to make a
(08:11):
few changes and, as a result ofthat, that did make an enormous
difference.
So, yeah, the sleep wasn't asgood as it could have been and I
was just, you know, just notregarding giving it the respect
it deserved.
I was just you know, just notregarding giving it the respect
it deserved.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah.
So the question really now sortof is is how long did this
period of you know operating atenergy levels of four and
perhaps below on some days?
How long were you living inthat period?
Because you know some peoplefind themselves in that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
How long was that for you?
I would say that was a goodyear or so, before it was
distinctly different, um, andthat four was sort of you know a
thing of the past.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
So yeah, a good 12 months, maybe even 18, before I
was in a place where I felt likeI could do whatever I wanted to
do without thinking twice aboutit yeah, and you know, these
are the kind of, again, some ofthe symptoms that people you
know like write in and and speakabout, because energy obviously
is a currency, and I love theway you brought that up.
(09:15):
But how are the other areas ofyour life flowing?
Or should I, yeah, or notflowing during that period of
time?
Because you know the, the redflags are up there and you're
thinking, oh, what's going on?
Yeah, so can you just give mejust a general?
How did the?
What was the rest of your life?
How was that, how?
(09:35):
How was how was that going atthat time?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
yeah, really good question it was.
It was quite challenging atthat time because there wasn't
enough energy there.
I'd burnt the candle at bothends.
I didn't have the reserves andthe calmness required to have
good conversations, to treat myfamily with respect, to not lose
(10:03):
my temper really quickly.
Those were things that Inoticed.
I was quite snappy.
I couldn't see the wood for thetrees sometimes in terms of,
let's say, walking into akitchen that needed all the
dishes doing, you know, likesomeone hasn't done the dish,
you know, and so I'd just loseit.
And you know, just simple thingslike that that when I look back
(10:25):
, it like, oh, my god, I washorrible to be around, that's
not a nice person, and and Ithink that's a sign and a
symptom of of the state that Iwas in and and at the time I
didn't really think about it toomuch.
But now I look back and, youknow, having had some time to
reflect, I realize really where,where my, my, my energy was at,
(10:45):
my personality was at mydemeanor, my day-to-day demeanor
just just wasn't balanced and Iwas just sort of scraping
through and losing my temper atthe most ridiculously small
things and, yeah, it's not anice place to be, and I think
you know when you start to seethose things happen, they're
good signs that something elseis going on, that you need to
(11:08):
step back and go hang on aminute.
This is not how I normallyoperate.
What what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I need to do something different yeah, thank
you so much for your honesty.
The audience can relate tounconscious behavior because you
don't even know that you'redoing it.
When, when I first startedmeditating over two decades ago,
I didn't recognize or realizethat I had an alcohol addiction.
I didn't know I was only 26 or27.
(11:34):
I didn't even know because itwas just something that we did
as a society and as a group offriends.
But when it just got way toomuch, I was like I'm doing the
same thing every week and I'mfeeling this low and then, just
as I'm coming around thatevening, I'll do it all again
(11:55):
and you're thinking.
This is a loop of lunacy and weas human beings find ourselves
often stuck in it withoutknowing what to do, until we
have some self introspection togo.
I don't want to feel like thisanymore.
I want more out of life, butI'm not feeling it right now and
I don't know what to do.
I guess one of the things thatcame to my mind, which is what I
(12:17):
want to ask you, is in my ownexperience, I found that energy
is closely tied to mindset whichis kind of what we've just been
talking about and awareness.
So how do you integrate mindsetshifts into your coaching and
how you've been helping people,and how can that sort of mental
awareness help improve someone'senergy?
(12:38):
That's listening.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I think it's about asking the right questions.
So, as a coach, it's aboutunderstanding where somebody is
at and then asking the rightquestions.
Because, as a coach, it's notyour job to tell them what they
need to do, but it's to identifywhere you think there may be
some opportunities, but thenlead them down the path of
self-discovery by the rightquestion.
(13:01):
And so, from a mindset shiftpoint of view, it will be
questions like well, where areyour energy levels at?
How does that feel for you?
Is that, does that feel optimal?
And and, and I think if they'reanswering those questions in a
sense of no, I'm not where Iwant to be, then at least
they're, they're identifying thegap themselves.
(13:23):
And then, when that gap'sidentified, then as a coach, you
can lead them down.
Well, what sort of things doyou think we need to do to help
restore that, to fill that gap,that energy gap, that that
mindset gap, and so that askingthem to think about it is
usually enough of a mindsetshift for them to be able to see
(13:44):
what's missing, find thebehaviors that need to occur to
to to plug the gap and for themto then understand that that's
the sort of person that theyneed to be, to have those
behaviors in place and in asense the mindset comes with
that, because they have to startbehaving like somebody
different, and so the mindsetshifts along with that process.
(14:07):
They become, as james jamesclear talks about, in atomic
habits.
You know it's about.
It's about identity, so it's avote for the person you want to
be, and so every time youpractice those habits, you're
voting for the person you wantto be and that mindset goes with
that and that personality orthat new behavior becomes part
(14:29):
of that person.
So that's usually the processthat I follow.
It's just about drawing it out,asking the right questions and
helping them realize that youusually know, as the coach,
they'll tell you why they'vecome to see you, but they don't
necessarily know the path to getto where they want to go to.
Of course not.
They come to see you.
(14:50):
So yeah, I think does thatanswer the question, james?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, it does.
I mean, I'm always thinkingwith the audience.
You know someone listeningright now, you know like they're
thinking well, I might be atabout five, you know, and it's
just like, well, what do I needto do?
I know I need to do somethingand I'm hoping that by listening
to this conversation I mighthave some practical tool.
You know, I've said thousandsof times across all my content
(15:16):
you know, the thing that jumpedme from being on an addictive,
unhealthy route was starting ameditation practice.
And I didn't even know whatmeditation was.
I just thought it was somethingsomeone might have done in a
cave.
I hadn't a clue and I justdidn't know what it was.
(15:38):
But I didn't recognize it.
It was just being able to sitstill for a segment of time
every day and I just thought itwas the most rebellious thing
for me to do, because I was likesitting still, I ain't gonna do
that.
I've never sat still.
Um, you know, probably in myyouth I could have been called
adhd, uh, but didn't know it.
(16:01):
I just had copious amounts ofenergy, but it was all over the
place and I found for me, when Isat down to learn how to
meditate, all this resistance inmy body just began to dissipate
and this mind just became openand receptive to really good
ideas and phenomenal amounts ofenergy, more so than I
(16:24):
remembered as a kid, and I wasable to focus for such longer
periods of time.
But at the beginning it was likea rocky road, like the airplane
taking off, you know, shaking,shaking, shaking, resisting the
change, of moving to thishealthy version of myself rather
than the unhealthy version.
(16:45):
But it was so quick because onehabit led to another and led to
another and led to another, andbefore too long still, two
decades plus later, I'm stilldoing all these lovely little
small habits and noticing myvitality and energy has been
phenomenal.
So I guess my next question toyou, rich, is you know, you've
(17:06):
just mentioned that changing oneidentity to the next is really
really powerful for someone whois starting their transformation
or wants to get out of thatperhaps four or five uh level of
energy, to, to get to at leastthe higher echelons of energy
and good feeling, right.
So what are some practicalsteps could they take if they're
(17:29):
at a five, and then maybethere's some different ones if
you're at a six or a seven,right, you know?
Or even higher?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
I think the important thing is to make it as easy as
possible.
So, you know, not looking forfive things to do, but looking
for that one thing to do, andit's going to be different for
everybody.
But you know, not looking forfive things to do, but looking
for that one thing to do, andit's going to be different for
everybody.
But you know, we've talkedabout sleep already and it is
the foundation of health andwell-being, right?
Everything else that we dobuilds on top of a solid night's
(17:57):
sleep, and Matthew Walker,who's kind of one of the world
experts, says that you know,it's the tide that raises all
health boats.
So that is the place that Iwould start with most people not
and not necessarily everybody,but at least I need to find out
about it, because there's nopoint in talking about nutrition
if sleep's poor.
Right, because that has a bigimpact on the results you get
with the right nutrition.
(18:17):
I love the way I love that.
That's so true yeah, yeah, canyou?
Speaker 2 (18:23):
just tell us why.
Just tell us why.
Yeah sure, it's reallyimportant, because I think
everyone needs to know this yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
So.
You know, when we're underslept, the impact that that has on
our next day or or days, uh, isphenomenal, and there have been
studies to show that people whoare underslept eat more food the
next day, and usually the wrongfood.
So not only will your brain besearching for energy in the
(18:51):
simple carbs, but your brainwill also be, you know,
preventing you from stoppingdoing that as well.
So you've got ghrelin andleptin.
So your two hunger hormone,your two sort of satiety and
hunger hormones that play areally important role in what we
eat and when we eat it and whenwe stop, those both go out of
whack.
So you get a double whammy.
(19:11):
The other reference that I hadin my mind, related from a
nutritional point of view, isthat when we're underslept, our
brain sacrifices muscle beforeit sacrifices fat.
So we want to lose fat if we'regetting healthy typically, but
our brains won't let us do thatif we're underslept, because
(19:32):
it's harder work to break downfat than it is to break down
muscle.
So, in the attempt to eathealthily, we are restricting
calories, but if we'reunderslept, we're actually
losing muscle mass, which meansthat our metabolism is slowing
down, which means that over overthe period of time we we aren't
going to be able to lose them,the the fat that we want to.
(19:54):
So it's it's a really criticalpiece to get the sleep part
right.
First, before you startlayering on what interventions
need to occur from a nutritionalpoint of view, and second to
that is the exercise side ofthings.
So we've always thoughtexercise and nutrition are, you
know, the most important leversto pull from a health and
(20:16):
well-being point of view.
But you've got to start withthe sleep first.
We're less likely to go out anddo the thing we should do to
move our bodies.
Uh, when we're under slept, wejust aren't going to have the
same amount of energy andtherefore, if we don't do it,
we're not going to have as muchtiredness physical tiredness at
the end of the day to have abetter night's sleep, because
(20:36):
that physical tiredness playsinto having a good night's sleep
.
So, um, it's a that becomes avicious cycle as well.
We don't get the energy, we'renot going to do the thing and
the thing isn't going to help usget the better sleep, and on it
goes.
So those are two, I guess,answers to that question.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Nice to explain, but if we're going to do it, so if
we really need sleep and that'sgoing to help the nutrition
which will also give us theenergy, hopefully, to move the
body, do you have any practicaltools that get a good night's
sleep, because it's more so thanjust getting in your bed.
There's got to be something.
What are Rich's practical tips.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
When I present on some of this stuff, I always put
this 8-8-8 up on the slide.
I've got 8-8-8, so we've got 24hours in the day, eight hours
of work, and and people sort ofstart scoffing.
They're like really eight hoursof work, but eight hours of
work, eight hours of me time andeight hours of sleep.
And I and I put that up and Isay which is the most important?
(21:40):
And 90% of the people go sleep,sleep, sleep.
Everyone realizes theimportance of sleep and I say,
no, that's not the mostimportant one.
The most important one is theme time, because the me time is
what helps set you up for thesleep.
So, to answer your question,one of the things that I do is I
make sure that I have a.
I like.
I like this analogy of how doesthe pilot get the plane on the
(22:03):
runway.
He throttles back.
So how do you throttle back?
And for me it's about turningall the devices off, getting
into bed and finding a book thatI enjoy.
That's not not a horror, it'snot nothing too stimulating, but
a book that's useful, that'sgoing to take me to another
place, it's analog.
There's no screens, there's.
(22:24):
You know, I've probably got myblue locking blue lock, blue
blocking glasses on, so I'mfiltering out all the all the
blue light and I'm just takingthat time to to wind the brain
and the nervous system down sothat I'm more likely to drop off
and stay asleep, as opposed towake up in the middle of the
(22:45):
night and the brain's tickingand you know, thoughts are going
through my head and and that'snormal.
That'll happen to everybody atdifferent stages.
But my answer to that questionis how do you throttle back?
So that's how I throttle back,but it's going to look different
for different people.
Somebody might go for a walk,someone might go for a hot bath,
because that helps bring coretemperature down and sets you up
(23:07):
for a better sleep.
So different courses fordifferent horses.
So, yeah, different horses,different courses for different
horses, but find the thing thatworks for you.
That is your throttle back,because that's the bit that sets
you up for the good sleep is,is that wind down.
You might journal, so obviously, meditation is the thing that
that works for you, james, andI've tried meditation, and it's
(23:28):
not something that I'm very, uh,practiced at and it's not
something that I'm verypracticed at and it's not
something I've sort of keptchipping away at.
But journaling is analternative way of having that
introspection, so you can getyour thoughts down onto paper,
you can empty your head a littlebit.
So that helps set you up for abetter night's sleep.
But it also helps you thinkabout yourself as that
metacognition, thinking aboutthinking and how your day went,
(23:52):
what went on, what things arecoming up.
All that sort of stuff isanother nice way of getting an
opportunity to throttle back sothat when the head hits the
pillow you're more likely todrop off and have a good sleep.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
I love that.
It's a really nice analogy andeven though I have been
meditating, you know, lot longer, uh, than probably most people,
just because it's the theritual that really works for me,
I love that there are differentother rituals that people can
use, like the journaling and thereading, and it just settles
(24:26):
the mind down quite a lot.
I think that's really, reallypowerful.
Can I ask a quick questionbecause I just but sleep hill.
I think so important it'sunderrated.
Um, what, what abouttemperature of the room and
things like that?
You know, this is important, Ibelieve yeah, yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
The sweet spot is between 17 and 19 degrees
celsius.
Yeah, so it needs to be johnslightly on the cool side can
you just tell us why?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
because I know you're a man of like stats and stuff
and I love this, tell us, tellus why 17 to 19 is this sweet
spot?
Speaker 1 (25:05):
yeah, yeah so my understanding is that it relates
to, uh, body temperature andsleep.
So to drop off we need to beabout one degree cooler than we
normally are, and so that helpsus drop into the different
brainwaves and the whole alpha,all that stuff.
(25:27):
I can't rattle all of those off, but essentially it's about
getting that body temperaturedown a little bit, and that's
why a hot bath or a spa works sowell, because you bring the
blood to the outside of the body, which means your core
temperature is going to drop alittle bit, and that's a lovely
way of setting yourself up for agood night's sleep, so you feel
clean and you're getting intoyour crisp sheets and then your
(25:48):
body temperature drops.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
And hey presto, you're getting into your crisp
sheets and then your bodytemperature drops and, hey
presto, it sets you up for anice easy drop off.
So I think the room temperaturejust plays into that as well.
Yeah, I, I, I'm, I really Ibelieve that big time, because
two years ago I was.
I remember it was a very hotsummer in spain and I found it
very difficult to have airconditioning on all the time.
I just felt like it just didn'tfeel like flow of air through
(26:11):
breathing.
So I remember waking up in themiddle of the night, having a
cold shower and two minuteslater after I got out of that, I
was deep, right, deep sleep.
Obviously the air temperatureoutside was warm, um, at that
time of year in the summer, butI remember just going oh my
golly, I was couldn't fallasleep and and then wake up,
have a quick, cold, cool showerand then off.
(26:34):
I went really, really quicklyand I know that that played into
the part of a successful nextday, especially when you need to
perform, you know.
So I really really think thisAre there any other practical
tools aside from sleep with youand your clients and the people
that you've been helping youthinking, hey, we can turn this
around if you're strugglingright now.
(26:57):
I was talking to a guy yesterday, actually on a call, and he's
going through some challengeswith work and energy and one of
the things that I suggested wasthat he get outside barefoot and
walk around the garden just toconnect with the earth.
So it's that groundingcomponent where you're balancing
(27:20):
the ions in the body.
So you've got negative andpositive ions in the body and so
by grounding yourself, you areable to pick up the negative
ions in the soil if you like,and the positive in the body
rebalances.
So you can do that in your backgarden.
You could walk to the ocean,walk along the beach in the
ocean.
So you've got the blue gym andthe green gym and those are
(27:43):
really nice ways of helpingbalance the nervous system out.
And the other thing that Isuggested to him was that he,
while he was doing the grounding, that he took the opportunity
to observe nature around him.
So we know that the Japanesesort of came up with this term,
forest bathing and essentiallyit's about just being outside in
nature but observing thingsthrough all five senses.
(28:07):
So what can I see, what can Ihear, what can I smell, taste
and feel, and so that might meanbrushing up against a leaf, but
at least immersing yourself innature for just a few minutes.
It doesn't have to be a longperiod of time, but just enough
time that that will help resetthe cortisol.
That will bring the cortisoldown.
So if you're having a stressfulday, get outside at lunchtime.
You don't necessarily have totake your shoes off, but if it's
(28:28):
convenient and you can takeyour shoes off, even better,
because that's just a realsimple, easy one that you can
add into your day and helpbalance things out a little bit.
I love this.
The negative ions really helpalso reduce inflammation in the
body, and inflammation is one ofthe number one killers and
stress-related diseases that wehave.
(28:50):
I had a little challenge thisafternoon.
I was feeling a little stressedfor a period of time and I
couldn't even drive home becausethey're resurfacing the road
where I live.
I've just moved, moved out.
It's not a big deal, right, andI don't really see things as a
big deal, but when they said itwas going to take some time
before you can actually drive,you know, another 100 meters
before you you can get home.
I was like, oh, do you knowwhat?
(29:11):
There's something better I cando with my time.
So I decided to just drive tothe beach, because the beach is
like five minutes from my house.
So instead of waitingpotentially for half an hour for
them to resurface the roadwhich I'm grateful for I could
have just turned the car engineoff and just sat there and just
waited.
But my, my body was saying Ithink I need to just deeply
(29:35):
relax rather than just sit hereand think come on, hurry up, how
long is it going to take?
How many of us all been in somesort of situation?
That's fairly similar.
Anyway, I went to the beach.
I was there for 20 minutes.
I even jumped in the waterbecause it was a lovely day
today and within 20 minutes I'djust gone.
Okay, now I reckon I can goback and obviously the road had
(29:57):
been paved on my way back.
Happy days, less stress, lesscortisol in the body.
Is it that easy, rich, to beable to reset?
That's my question to you,because I know you come across a
lot of people with alldifferent types of challenges.
But is, is it that easy toreset?
Is what I'm asking.
Well, does it take?
You know, a lot of consistency.
(30:19):
That was my experience, right,and that's you know, yeah, yeah,
I've got a phone call.
I've got business call.
I've got emails to send.
You know I've got people I haveto speak to.
I need to be on form.
Usually I'm gonna just push,push, push through.
And how many of us do that?
That was me once upon a time,you know hands up, but I don't
do that anymore.
I think the answer is yes toboth.
(30:43):
You can reset very, veryquickly in the moment and I
think breath is probably thequickest and easiest way of
doing that.
Let's say you're in a trafficjam and you can't jump out to
the beach.
Using your breath obviously,meditation is a great way of
doing that because you focus onyour breath, but you can do it
anytime, anywhere.
I've got an anecdote, actually.
(31:03):
I was working with a guy thismorning and he said Rich, that
breathing technique, I tell youwhy it stops me punching people
in meetings.
Rich, that breathing technique,I tell you why it stops me
punching people in meetings.
He said, when you hold thatbreath before you breathe out
again, honestly it's making sucha difference.
And I was like I had a littlechuckle to myself, as I'm glad
you're not punching people, butyeah, it's that powerful that
you can shift from thatparasympathetic, from the
sympathetic, into theparasympathetic extremely
(31:25):
quickly.
So momentarily it will make abig difference, like it did for
you, James, and everybody can.
But that's that's sort of on acontinuum of where you're at in
the bigger picture From my pointof view.
historically, I was high with mycortisol, but I was there for
so long.
I then crashed and it was lowand that's not going to bounce
back quickly.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
But if you're feeling like you're in a stress state,
if you're feeling like thingsare slightly slipping out of
control, doing something likewhat you did you know, getting
yourself to the beach or justhaving some moments to take a
breath is a nice quick reset.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
May.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
I ask what that breath technique that you shared
with your client or your otherperson you were speaking with.
Yeah, I've been doing it for along time and it's with it.
There's a guy called Dr AndrewWeil.
Yeah, w-i-l.
(32:20):
W-e.
I've been doing it for a longtime and it's with it.
There's a guy called Dr AndrewWhale yeah, and he's a.
He's a kooky guy.
He's a really interesting guy.
He's based off the north shorein Oahu, not in Oahu in um, in
Hawaii.
I've been, I've been, I've beenup there Princeville, yeah, but
I've been Kauai.
He's a good guy.
Um, he, he's even older than helooks.
Yeah, he looks like he's about,he looks like he's about 18,
he's nearly 100, but um.
So he came up with this breathtechnique, which you probably
know.
What I'm going to say is uh,four, seven.
(32:40):
So you breathe in for a countof four, you hold that for a
count of seven and then youbreathe out for a count of eight
, and the particular messagewith that is that the out breath
is twice as long as the inbreath.
So we are signaling back to theparasympathetic nervous system
that we're safe, we're fine,we're calm, we're in a good
place, and that seven in betweenjust delays that process.
(33:01):
So it's giving time forpressure on the diaphragm.
The diaphragm is linked to thevagus nerve.
Vagus nerve obviously helpspush that parasympathetic state.
So yeah, four, seven, eight,it's a winner this is it yeah a
lot.
I love that.
Could you just tell us why theit's like eight on the exhale
and why that's important?
You know, because people think,okay, I can breathe in for four
, hold for seven and exhale foreight.
(33:23):
Why double on the exhale?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
why is that?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
important.
So when we breathe in, wesignal our sympathetic nervous
system.
So imagine if you had a scare.
You're watching a horror movie.
That elevates your nervoussystem, so you go into that
sympathetic state.
When we breathe out, we signalto our parasympathetic nervous
system.
So what we're doing is we'rebiasing the breath technique so
(33:47):
that we are pushing into thatparasympathetic state more than
the sympathetic state you can'tbreathe without breathing in.
So what we are doing is we areusing the out breath as the
signal to our nervous system tosay calm down, everything's fine
, chill, um.
And so yeah, it's a winner.
And I often will have clientslying on a shakti mat and
they're they're, you know,they're all nice and relaxed.
(34:09):
And I go right breathe in,breathe in four, seven, eight,
do it for three or four roundsand that will settle their
nervous system and happy daysaway they go.
The other trick is dropping offto sleep.
So if you're rolling around inbed and you know that's not a
great thing because you'retraining your brain to this is
the place you roll around in bedrather than fall asleep is the
(34:29):
four, seven, eight technique inbed.
So if you can't drop offbecause you've got a busy mind
and you may not have throttledback quite as much as you could
have done four, seven, eight forabout two, three, four rounds
and 99 of the time I've droppedoff.
So okay, I'm gonna try thattonight actually.
So just doing it before youwant to fall asleep will get you
into perhaps a lower brainwavefrequency yeah, yeah, and, and I
(34:53):
think pulse is a component ofit as well.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
So if you've had a heavy meal or of any alcohol, of
course your pulse is going tobe slightly elevated and your
brain's not going to let youdrop off if you've got a racing
pulse.
So exercising too close tobedtime may not be great, but
also food and drink can have aplat can play into that, but a
busy mind can too.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So, yeah, um, if those things are eliminated,
this is actually a really goodquestion, right, but you know
you, having studied energy inthe, in the, the science behind
it.
Um, a busy mind.
Is that because you've eaten atall, exercised or had
stimulants before bed?
(35:32):
Is that the reason why theminds busy before bed?
If it is.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Not necessarily.
No, no, I think the busy mindis more about your thinking
patterns, as opposed to theeating and the drinking.
Yeah, so how you processinformation, what meaning you
give to your day, yourinteractions, the meaning that
you make of everything really is.
(35:58):
What then means whether you'vegot a busy mind or a less busy
mind?
And I find my mind is busierwhen I've got a lot on my plate,
when I've got a lot of workcoming up, multiple things to to
to be working on at the sametime.
If I've got a new challenge ora new project starting, then
I've got a busy mind because mymind's going solution, solution,
(36:19):
solution, solution, rather thanone step at a time.
You know, take it, take itgradually.
No, no, no, no, no, we're justgoing to fix this all up in one
go.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
So, yeah, it's, it's, that's, that's how it works for
me I just want to say thank you, because that's a really uh, a
great answer.
I'm thinking about the, theburnout that people have been
challenged with.
That seems a bit more sociallyacceptable, but it's not really
something that we really havenoticed in the last 20 or 30
(36:48):
years.
It's just been a lot morerecent people having this
burnout.
Why is that?
Speaker 1 (36:55):
generationally, people who people who sort of
grew up in the 70s and the 80sand whose parents were, you know
, at work and working reallyhard, picked up this work ethic
that you know you work yourselfinto the ground because that's
what gets results and gives youthe lifestyle that you want.
And I think the next generationso my children and their
(37:16):
friends and colleagues are ournext generation on going.
Why are you killing yourself?
You know they actually see itlike that and I think that
that's the generationaldifference.
And, to answer your question,it's already been the way in
which we operate as a generationGeneration X of which I am but
(37:38):
rolling over the top of that, apandemic, lockdowns, the lack of
certainty, the unpredictability, which the brain doesn't like.
Right, that pushes us into thatsympathetic state again.
Then you've got the fallout ofthe economic conditions that
have been the result of COVID.
So we've got businesses thatwere struggling through COVID.
(37:59):
We've got businesses that arestruggling because of COVID and
the fallout of it now and theeconomic corrections that have
occurred, and so there hasn'treally been a time in the last
five years for people to stop.
And I think that, on top of thementality of push anyway, is a
large contributor to why peopleare at where they're at, and I
(38:22):
think you know it's been a badgeof honour, you know?
Oh yeah, I'll sleep when I'mdead.
Well, that might be sooner thanyou'd like it to be, so I think
it's a whole combination offactors, but I think those are
the big ones.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yeah, I think that's a great point, and I'm just, you
know, a massive advocate ofwell-being as a youth rich, and
I'm, you know, fascinated to seewhat other little small things
we could be adding to ourselvesto improve the quality of our
life, our family's life, just tobe those examples of someone
(38:57):
who's always got energy.
Because the quality of our lifeis determined by our health
really, and we can't enjoy lifeif you ain't got your health.
The difference between someonewho's got incredible prosperity
is looking at the same sunset assomeone who has nothing.
And, ultimately, if you'redoing that from a hospital bed,
(39:21):
it's not quite the same thing.
And so I'm really conscious toshare as much of this energy
information, which is prettyfree, you know, and simple.
It just requires you showing upfor you.
And so, you know, I'mfascinated by your work and what
you've been doing.
And is there any other types of,like practical tools?
(39:45):
You think that would reallyhelp people if they're at six,
for instance, or a seven, andyou're thinking, oh, I could do
with a little bit more energy.
You know I'm not bad, but youknow I could do.
I could do.
Everybody wants more energy,because I believe on the other
side of a lot of energy is allthe things that you want.
It takes a lot of energy to doreally, really well and have all
the things you want show up.
(40:05):
You have to be an energeticmatch.
So what are Rich's tools, asidefrom the ones you've mentioned
today that you think, hey guys,you really want to be thinking
about doing this?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I think the simple things, hydrating well, you know
, again, it's something we takefor granted because you can just
turn a tap on, but I'll get tothree o'clock and go, oh, I
haven't had any water, you know,and I'll be downing two pints
of water just to play catcher,which is the wrong thing to do.
Um, but you know, hydrationplays a massive part in in our
energy, in terms of how, howwell our brains are working.
(40:42):
You know, cognition even just Ithink the stats are something
like a two percent drop in inhydration is like an 11 drop in
performance, something like that.
Um, so, you know, looking afterthe compounded is big, by the
way yeah, yeah, exactly that, soon one of your videos, rich.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I really like this.
Just share with some of yourlittle hacks that you have for
people to be able to be remindedof certain things.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Okay, so my water one .
Yeah, that's one of the ones Isee.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
You know what I like?
These little hacks, it's allthese little things that make us
have to go.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Because youknow like I have a certain alarm
that I have, which is a birdtweet that wakes me up.
I choose not to have an alarmthat scares me because I don't
want cortisol running when Iwake up.
I actually sleep with an eyemask, on a silk one, but I leave
(41:37):
the curtains open or not sowide, but so I wake up with the
sunrise.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
And so that gives me this beautiful entrance into the
new day, and it's just oh, andI can just feel the sun coming
up, the birds tweeting, and it'sa lovely entrance into the new
day, but you've got your hacksand I like it when I want you to
share your hacks, yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
So normally if I'm sitting at this chair, I've got
a pint glass sitting next to meon this mat, and it's not there
today.
I love that it's not there todaySee you know, there's always
opportunities to improve, right,Anyway.
So my pint glass is almoststitched to my hand most of the
(42:22):
time.
I have to, uh, admit.
I've got about five or six ofthem in the cupboard just
waiting to be filled up, but Ikeep one of them in the fridge.
And the reason I keep one ofthem in the fridge is is more
than one reason.
A we're in a reasonably warmclimate, like you are, so it's
nice to have a cold glass ratherthan a warm glass but, the
other thing is, every time Iopen the fridge for breakfast or
(42:44):
to grab some blueberries orwhatever it might be, there's
that glass staring me in theface, going time for some water.
So I'll take the glass out, I'llfill it up with water and I'll
carry on with my day.
And I take the pint glassbecause it's a big vessel, it's
not going to run out and I don'thave to go back every five
minutes, and so that's my hackthe glass stays in the fridge,
(43:05):
and so it's always therereminding me every time I open
the fridge door.
And if it's not in the fridge,I've already got it and I'm
already on my my my day withwith my water.
So so the point being is thatreduce the friction.
How can you reduce the frictionto do the thing you want to do,
so that you stumble over itevery day?
And the other classic exampleis if you want to become a
(43:27):
runner, put your running shoesout the night before.
It's the same sort of principle, so you can apply that to
everything it's basicallyintention, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
it's massive intention, yeah, and I think
that you know I've got littlenotes that I leave around my
house about what my goals are.
I've that.
You know.
I've got little notes that Ileave around my house about what
my goals are.
I've got, you know, I've got Ihave my, my environment set up
so it's neat and tidy, so mymind is neat and tidy, um, but I
like these little hacks of likethe water and stuff.
You know, like I have a.
(43:57):
I I watched your little hackthe other day.
I was like I quite like that.
You know, like I'm alwayslooking for.
I'm always looking for newreminders, right, always looking
for new reminders.
And I think that we constantlyneeded to be reminded as a human
species, because we don't haveit all sussed the whole time.
You know, every day is a newday, have you shown?
(44:18):
Are you showing up as that bestversion of yourself again
tomorrow?
You know, and excellence is isa series of habits and a series
of choices made over and overagain.
Um, you know, and I can tellthat because I was very
dysfunctional years and yearsago, uh, with being having zero
good habits.
I was absolutely scattered, andnow it's just that's it, and I
(44:43):
just find myself with so muchfreedom.
So, operating at those higherlevels of a seven plus is, I
think, a really, reallybeautiful way to have greater
success, a great happiness andgreater fulfillment.
And I, and I love, and I love,like your, your technical and
scientific approach as tounderstanding a bit more of the
(45:04):
adrenals, because we don'trecognize what's actually going
on with us sometimes.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, and the way I got that
tested was through a saliva test.
So the trick with um,understanding where your your
cortisol is is to to see thepattern.
Understanding where yourcortisol is is to see the
pattern, not to see oneparticular number in isolation.
So often the doctor might getit tested, but that might have
been at 11 o'clock in themorning.
Well, that's great, at 11o'clock in the morning, it
(45:31):
should be about here.
But how does that correspond towhat it's like in the morning,
in the afternoon and the evening?
So there are ways and means ofidentifying these things without
it being too invasive.
That was a real shock.
Horror to me and that'sactually one of my slides in one
of my presentations on energyis this is where I was at and
there's a black line across thebottom of the graph and I should
be up in this green bit here,yeah, and it's a real wake-up
(45:55):
call for people to say, oh,crikey, yeah, well, if I was a,
if I was down there, I'd be afour as well.
So, um, you know it's.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
It's not too difficult to find these things
out and once you get thatinformation, it really is
powerful yeah, I think that onceyou see that, you go hey, I can
, I can something I can do whenthere's something I need to do
because you're being told now,biologically as well.
yeah, so if there's one key bitof advice that you'd like to
share, but just in closing, what?
What would it be to peoplegoing yeah, I love what Rich has
(46:25):
said.
It makes so much sense.
Of course it makes sense.
Energy is, you know, our mostgreatest asset that we can have.
What's one key bit of advicethat they could have in thinking
I could improve the amount ofenergy that I'm allowing with
your work and what you share,rich?
Speaker 1 (46:45):
It's one that we haven't talked about, but I
think it's one that has so manyother benefits and you hinted at
it with your curtains the factthat you allow the light to do
its job and to set yourcircadian rhythm for the day,
and that is just to get outsideinto natural light in the
morning once the sun has come up, because it plays such an
(47:08):
important role in what happensat the end of the day, it
bookmarks your day.
So you get outside, you get thenatural light into your eyes.
That makes you less sleepy initself, because it washes away
the melatonin from the nightbefore, because sometimes, if
you don't you melatonin from thenight before, because sometimes
, if you don't, you know, you gofrom the car to the office,
office, car, home, particularlyin the morning, you could be
(47:29):
quite sleepy and groggy and begrabbing for that first cup of
coffee because you haven't gotthat natural light into your
eyes, so that natural lightcould be where you have your
first cup of tea, or you mighteat your breakfast outside or
even go for a walk, and thatbookends your day.
So your brain says, ah right,beginning of the day is now 16
hours later.
It goes okay, it's probablyabout time for bed now, and so I
(47:52):
think that really helpsreinforce the circadian rhythm
so that you've got a reallystrong reference between when
you've woken up and when you'regoing to bed, and and that will
help design that sort of thatwind down the throttle back at
the end of the day, because yourbrain will be communicating to
you.
It will be telling you it'stime to sleep, it'll be telling
(48:12):
you that you're tired becauseit's 16 hours since you saw
light.
So I think that would be my, mygo-to would be to get that
light.
In how long?
Speaker 2 (48:20):
how long?
How much light do you actuallyneed?
Rich, real morning slot yeah,not long.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
I think the, the science says somewhere between
seven and ten minutes, so you'renot talking significant amounts
of time.
And also it has to be outside.
You can't do it through a carwindow, you can't do it through
an office window.
You have got to be out therebecause the lux, the measure of
light between inside and outsideis significantly different, so
between, let's say, a hundredinside and 95,000 outside.
(48:50):
So you've got to be out thereand um and let your brain, you
know, let the, the, the naturetake its course, because the
blue light that comes with thenatural light from the sun, even
an overcast day, is sufficient.
It makes a big difference to,to how things go from what's
actually happening to the brainthen during that time?
(49:11):
so light is always on a spectrum, and so blue light is the most
stimulating to our brain, and sowhat it's doing is it's
signaling to our brain that theday has started and the night
has finished, and so part ofthat process is that melatonin
is.
Then the blue light signals tothe brain oh, we don't need any
more melatonin, because that's asleep thing and it's not sleep
time.
So melatonin then gets reduced,which immediately increases
(49:34):
your alertness, becausemelatonin's job is to help you
sleep.
So it's not um, it's not uh,something that you can take for
granted, because at night time,if we've got all the lights on
and the TV on and the screens on, melatonin is less likely to
build up to the level that'sgoing to help you set yourself
off for a good night's sleep.
(49:54):
But blocking that light atnight time will help set you up
for a better night's sleep.
So in the morning your brain'sgetting that blue light from the
sun and the atmosphere andsaying right, it's daytime, and
so the clock starts ticking, andwhat happens then is adenosine,
which is another signaler inthe body, starts building up,
(50:14):
which helps create sleeppressure.
So you're getting rid ofmelatonin and you're starting
the clock on this adenosine, andthe adenosine builds up over
the course of the day and itcreates what's known as sleep
pressure.
Now we can block adenosine withcaffeine, so it's got the same.
Imagine a piece of legoslotting into your brain.
It does the same thing asadenosine.
(50:36):
So if you drink lots ofcaffeine, that will slow that
process down.
So if you've got some work onand you need to really focus,
then caffeine can be useful.
But if not, it's going to, it'sgoing to prevent you having a
better night's sleep.
So there's a couple of thingsgoing on there.
The, the, the, thesuprachiasmatic nucleus, which
is the master clock in our brain, then sends signals to other
(50:58):
parts of the brain, other partsof the body, because all of our
cells have their own sort ofcircadian rhythm.
But that bright light signalsthat master clock and then the
master clock controls everythingelse that goes on in the brain
and the body.
So it's a really powerful oneand it's one that we kind of
take for granted.
We don't really think, oh yeah,I'll go outside, or if we don't
(51:19):
, then we're missing anopportunity side, or yeah, if we
don't, then we're missing anopportunity.
Speaker 2 (51:26):
Amazing rich.
It's been an absolute joyspeaking with you.
Thank you for sharing yourknowledge and your wisdom, and
I'd also like to say I reallyappreciate all the science
behind it and I find it reallyfascinating.
So thank you for sharing.
This week's super soul model isrich Ellis.
Thanks Rich.
Thank you, james.
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