Overview

I'm using these apps to track my stats: Oak Meditation, Down Dog Yoga, Sadhguru and Wim Hof Method. To export this data I'm using HealthExportCSV on iPhone.

Asanas

Asanas are the postures that you may recognize as yoga. I practice Ashtanga Yoga a few days every week and I find that it significantly helps my proprioception: balance, coordination and motor skills. Most days I do 15+ minute sessions as part of my morning routine.

You can find the full list of poses online, but here's a 30 minute intro session on YouTube by Leslie Fightmaster.

Breathing Exercises

Through yoga I dabbled in the Wim Hof world as well. Now I've settled on three rounds of breathing exercises each morning when I wake up, followed by meditation and yoga. I feel that the breathing exercises wake my body up and get me prepared for meditation.

Meditation

There are many techniques - do your research. Here's my typical approach:

While sitting on a meditation cushion I focus on breathing in a relaxed steady rhythm. Sometimes my eyes are closed, sometimes I'm focused on an object in front of me. Thoughts, ideas and noise come and go but I refocus the mental laser on the present moment through breathing. Over lots of practice sessions and applied focus, thoughts don't come as easily and the rest of the world falls away.

Overview

Yeah, I know.

Whenever I hear people talk about hippy dippy stuff I get weirded out too. But here's the point - this is just another system of ethics and discipline. A lot of these concepts exist in other places like Buddhism, Gnosticism, Stoicism, Sufism, Taoism and so on. Add your -ism here.

There's insane stuff in any book that doesn't make sense or wouldn't be appropriate in our modern era. And keep in mind that all of these systems have been heavily edited with context relevant to the people of that time and place.

But the more you study across these ideas the root appears to be the same. Be a nice person, manage yourself and work hard on the responsibilities you have. It's just another way of living.

Check out the Research post for more.