I've been enjoying my island time on Koh Phangan with a group of crypto and AI entrepreneurs. They have been showing me all sorts of new tools on the horizon, along with painting inspiring visions of the future they hope to create.
I have no doubt that I will be involved in these kinds of projects going forward, as it satisfies many of my interests and skills. Will share the ideas and creations that come from these meetups as they happen.
Anyways...I hope you enjoy this week's {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} Newsletter and have a beautiful Sunday, - Ethan ॐ
P.S. My next yoga training is now live. It's happening from January 5th → February 1st. Click here for more details
Ethan Hill Owner, Yoga with Ethan
Holding your inhale
To increase the amount of volume in your body (thereby increasing the amount of energy that can flow through your system), you must focus on your inhales.
This should make sense: when you breathe in, your lungs’ volume expands. When you breathe out, your lungs’ volume contracts.
To permanently alter the amount of volume in your body, then (thereby permanently increasing the amount of energy that can flow through your system), you must learn to hold your inhale.
Practice
Have you ever entered a hot tub or sauna, thought “holy sh*t, this is HOT!” and then gotten used to it just 2 minutes later?
This is because the nerves in your skin don’t necessarily react to temperature, they react to changes in temperature. After a while, they adapt to the new stimuli, reducing their response and effectively ‘blending’ the sensation into the background.
The same is true for all sensory modalities: the spontaneous, high-pitched screeching from plugging in speakers incorrectly, the blinding light of a room after being in pure darkness, the initial bite of a piece of chocolate cake, the first five seconds of a perfume smell.
The bigger the difference between what your body was experiencing and what it is now experiencing, the more shocking and apparent it seems.
That’s why, in this technique, you’ll do your best to sit with intense sensations for a few extra moments before exhaling. By doing this over and over, eventually the additional life-force you feel coming in will become your new normal.
The Technique:
Sit up as tall as you possibly can (tilt your pelvis as though you were poking your bum out).
Deeply inhale and try to fit the breath into all corners of your torso.
If you feel your lungs are going to pop, you went too far! Exhale a little bit, but maintain your improved posture.
Try to sneak the “breath” into your arms, legs and face by imagining that they, too, are inflating.
Hold for as long as you possibly can, remaining equanimous with whatever sensations that arise. (If you experience waves of difficult emotions, that’s fine. This is your chance to release them out of your energy body.)
Exhale and repeat.
If you want a more detailed explanation of the technique, check out the free Breathe Deeper tutorial on my website.
How to handle intrusive thoughts during meditation?
It’s normal for intrusive thoughts to arise during your meditation practice — random worries, unresolved feelings, daydreaming — this is the nature of the untrained mind.
Instead of resisting, try shifting how you relate to them…
1. Acknowledge Without Attachment
Notice the thought without attaching judgment or stories to it. It has no inherent power unless you give it one.
2. Return to Your Breath
Guide your attention back to your breath. It’s a constant, grounding anchor that can bring you back to the present.
3. Practice Compassion
Frustration is thinking masquerading as awareness. Remind yourself that you are human, and your mind is just doing its job — trying to protect you, solve problems, and make sense of the world.
4. Shift Your Perspective
See intrusive thoughts as a window into your psyche. What might the thoughts be signaling to you? What have you been ignoring? What can you learn from them?
5. Let Go of Perfection
Ironically and paradoxically, your meditation practice will never be perfect until you have completely released the idea of needing to perfect it. Rather than judging yourself based on your made-up standards of what enlightenment looks like, measure your success based on moment-to-moment awareness. Are you are being present right now? If so, you have won. If not, you are invited to begin again.
“If you are unable to find the Truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?” — Dōgen Zenji
We seek answers through belongings, relationships, future events, and other people’s wisdom, among others.
External answers of this kind will always leave you unsatisfied, though, for they are — by their very nature — incomplete.
No, you must personally know Truth or else suffer eternally from the existential feeling that you are missing something.
Luckily, you mustn’t look far for what you seek. Either Truth is right here or it is nowhere. Either it is right now or it is never. Either you are it or it does not exist at all.