Triple Seven Breathing Protocol

This is the Momentum Podcast.

I want you to take stock really quick and ask yourself this question. Are you feeling anxious? Are you one of the calmest entrepreneurs in the room you're in right now? One of the things that Alex says all the time is that the calmest entrepreneur in the room is the one that people will turn to. The challenge is, is that when there's a crisis or a last minute fire that shows up, entrepreneurs have this bias toward rapid overwhelming reaction. Entrepreneurs are the first to drop everything and drive home a solution. We often say things like, how fast can I do something? Or what do I need to do? Is that like you or someone you know? So really take stock and ask yourself, have you been showing up reactive lately? Do you feel accelerated? Are you anxious? Do you feel like you need to unwind? It's essential for us as entrepreneurs that we remain aware of how we show up, because it affects the people around us. Right now, if you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious, it's going to be okay.

In this episode of the Momentum Podcast, Alex is going to share with you a very tactical exercise that we use as a team to shift our energy from overwhelm to calm. We call it the Triple Seven Breathing Protocol. And it's very simple. You breathe in for seven seconds, out for seven seconds, and you do that seven times in total. I'll let Alex take you through the science behind the entire exercise, but remember this. In a crisis, the calmest entrepreneurs are the ones people turn to, and this is one of the biggest shortcuts for getting there yourself. I hope you enjoy.

I'm Alex Charfen, and this is the Momentum Podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop. And we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future. And instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution. And we always will be. Hello, welcome. And I'm so excited to be here today. I'm actually really pumped about the topic that I get to share with you. I'm Alex Charfen. And I have a question for you. On a scale of one to five, how would you rate yourself on breathing, on breath work? Let me give you a little bit of a scale there. So one is you really think about your breathing, you don't really know much about your breathing, you just breathe. And then five is you have a breath work practice, 687 - Triple Seven Breathing Protocol Page 1 of 6 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jan 12, 2021 - view latest version here. you do empty lung holds, you use breath work as the tactical tool that it is for entrepreneurs, because I'm going to jump into this topic here that I think is so valuable for entrepreneurs. So, as a company, Charfen, our organization. What we do is we help entrepreneurs grow and scale businesses and we show, or we share the tools, the process, the structure, the routine that grows businesses fast. And when I say grows businesses fast, grows businesses at a rate that most organizations are not capable of growing. So we show entrepreneurs how to accelerate their growth, which also regardless of how you look at it, accelerates pressure and noise. One of the things that I share with entrepreneurs all the time is that success creates deficit and growth creates complexity. The more successful you are, the more you open up your responsibilities, what you need to do, how much you need to be present and aware. And so success creates deficit and then growth creates complexity just through the fact that you're getting bigger, that your company is getting bigger, there's more people, there's more to serve, there's more responsibilities, there's more expected from you. And so as an entrepreneur, getting in your body, getting present and aware is one of the most important things out there. In fact, the calmest entrepreneur in the room is the one that people will turn to. This is a quote that I share with people all the time. Let me give it to you again. The calmest entrepreneur in the room is the one that people will turn to. And in my opinion, breath work is the single most successful or not successful. It's the most effective tactical tool that we have as entrepreneurs to increase our presence and awareness, to get in our bodies, to be more effective and more able to take advantage of whatever is in front of us. So if you can't tell, I'm incredibly passionate about breath work. This is somebody that's something that I share with our members. This is something that I've shared with my kids, with my wife, with my family. And I'm excited to share it with you. So as we go through this Triple Seven Breathing Protocol, here's what this is. I'm going to introduce you to one of the breathing exercises that we use as a company. We call it the Triple Seven Breathing Protocol. It's actually pretty simple. It's seven breaths, seven seconds in and seven out. So that's the seven, seven, seven, and it is incredibly effective. So here's basically what it is. I'm just going to look down here at my notes. So the Seven Second Breathing Protocol is about a two minute exercise that if you are willing to do this exercise in the right tactical timeframe, you are going to see massive benefits. And here's what I mean by right tactical timeframe. Think to yourself as an entrepreneur, where do you want to be more present, more aware? Where do you want to be more in your body? This Seven Second Breeding Protocol will get you there. And this is essentially how it works is just seven breaths in, seven seconds on the way in, seven seconds on the way out. Now, let me share with you why this is such a valuable exercise and give you some examples. 687 - Triple Seven Breathing Protocol Page 2 of 6 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jan 12, 2021 - view latest version here. 2020 was an incredibly unique year. It was challenging in so many different ways. There was massive opportunities in so many different ways. We're now 7 days into 2021, and it looks like we're going to have a lot of challenges and opportunities again. And at the beginning of April, when we were in quarantine, when there was a lot of changes going on, I started realizing, recognizing that what I got on my morning huddle, my team was accelerated. My team was sometimes not very present. Sometimes it didn't look like they were able to pay attention and not because they didn't want to. Just because there was so much going on in the world. I wanted to bring in something to help us collectively as a team, get more present, get more aware there and actually connect more at a conscious and subconscious level. And I know that might sound a little out there. I'm a very spiritual person. And I believe breathing is the universal language we all speak. We say words, but the way we're breathing is the way that people will accept and hear them. Think about that. The tonality, the way we say things is every bit as important as what we say. And in some cases far more important than what we say. And so when we improve our breathing and we improve our tone and tonality and our speaking, it's easier for people to hear us. And I have this belief that when as a group, we breathe together, we connect, we connect at a spiritual level. We connect at a conscious level. We connect at a energetic and subconscious level. And so we brought this practice in for our team at the beginning of our huddles, Eddie jumps on and he introduces the Seven Second Breathing Protocol. And then we all take our hands away from the keyboards and go through seven seconds in, seven seconds out, in order to all get in our bodies, to be ready, to be present and aware. And I want you to know this feels like such an incredibly valuable exercise because from before we did it to after here's what I saw. I saw my team regulate and calm down, I saw my team collectively become more connected in those moments. Our daily huddle got more intense. It actually got to where people were sharing more about what was going on for them and more about how they were feeling. We were able to support each other more. This breathing protocol made it so our huddles were way, way more effective. That's just one way that you can use this protocol. The practice of breathing in a tactical situation is something that I want you to understand is massively benefit too. If you're going into a challenging meeting, if you have an interaction that you know, might be longer or you might have trouble paying attention during the interaction, if there's a time where you're triggered as entrepreneurs, I know we're all trying to reduce our trigger ability. We're trying to reduce how often we get triggered, but let's get real. We're human. It's going to happen. It happens to me all the time. And whether it's calming down pre trigger so that I'm into a meeting, I have more reserves or whether I'm triggered and I need to calm down afterwards, this breathing protocol will get me there. Now, if I'm triggered, sometimes I have to go far longer than seven seconds or seven breaths. I just keep going until I feel better and I regulate. 687 - Triple Seven Breathing Protocol Page 3 of 6 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jan 12, 2021 - view latest version here. Now, there's a reason why this works. So this science behind breath work is incredible, but the science behind the Seven Second Breathing Protocol is interesting and it's something I want you to understand. For me, when I understand a tactic and someone tells me it works, then I'll probably use it. But when I understand why it works, and I understand the details behind it, I'm much more likely to get excited about it, to use it and to put it into practice. So I want you to have that. So when I look at the science behind this here, here's what I want you to understand. There is so much behind breath work and breathing that calms the body, but this exercise specifically has massive benefits. Let me just share some of what happens. The science behind breathing, or the seven seconds in, seven seconds out is that for us to be present and aware, it's not necessarily regulating just the oxygen in our body, but it's regulating the CO2 or the carbon dioxide. When those two are regulated, when they're in the proper levels, that's when we calm down, that's when muscle tension leaves the body. That's when we feel a lot more present and aware. And so the science behind this is by breathing seven seconds in and seven seconds out, we regulate the oxygen and the CO2 in the body. We become more present, we become more aware. In fact, as you breathe in and out for most of us to get to seven seconds in and seven seconds out, we're going to have to breathe very deeply. In breathing deeply, we expand the interstitial muscles in our lungs and in our rib cage, there's actually sensors that as they are expanded in slow breathing, they will knock us out of fight or flight. So we will go from being in fight or flight, to being completely out of fight or flight. We will be more present, more regulated, more aware, more in our bodies and ready to take on whatever's coming towards us because you can't be in a panic situation and taking deep breaths. So here's how the world works. It's very interesting. There's a trigger that gets us into a panic feeling. How do we walk ourselves out of that panic feeling? Well, our body feels panicked. It's when our body feels panicked, our heartbeats want faster. Our breaths are shorter. They're up in the clavicle, they're not as deep. And so one way to walk our body out of the panic feeling from a trigger is to breathe deeply. That deep breath lets our body know that we are not in a true fight or flight situation. It let's our body know that there is no wooly mammoth attacking us and that we just had something go on that was environmental that triggered us and it starts helping us calm down. Starts helping us regulate, starts helping us process the chemicals we release when we are triggered like adrenaline and thyroid. And when we get kind of like all animated or reactive, breathing is one of the fastest ways to bring us back into our bodies and calm us down. And the benefits of breathing are ... It's hard to list all of them. I'll list a few for you of the benefits I felt from breathing. When I do my breath work, when I do the seven second protocol or any of the other breath work exercises, the tactical breath work exercises that I do, I know 687 - Triple Seven Breathing Protocol Page 4 of 6 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jan 12, 2021 - view latest version here. it increases my focus and it increases my awareness. I could make the argument that focus and awareness equal your level of entrepreneurial success. Let me just say that again. Focus and awareness, your ability to focus and your ability to be aware of what's going on around you and identify and see the opportunities equals your level of entrepreneurial success. It'd be pretty hard to argue the converse of that. So the question for me is how do I create more focus and more awareness on a daily basis, on an hour to hour basis, going into important meetings, going into important exchanges? How do I make sure that I am the calmest entrepreneur in the room, but I'm also focused and aware and I see the opportunities around me and I know what's going on? Well, for me, it's all about breath work, just doing the seven seconds in and seven seconds out before a meeting will help me gain that focus and awareness. And what I know over time is when I do this, I have extraordinarily good meetings. Sometimes when I don't I'll think back. And I wish that I had, because it's such an effective tool to get things going and to get you into a place of focus. So let's talk about how you do this. And people often ask me, how does it work? Do I just sit there and breathe? Well, every breath work exercise should begin with an exhale. I learned this from my breath work coach, Shane Saunders. I've been doing breath work since I was 16 years old. I'm 48 now. So I have 32 years of breath work under my belt. I feel like I just aged myself way more than I had to. But I've been working for about a year and a half with Shane Saunders. And one of the things he taught me that I didn't know before is that every time you start a breath work exercise, it should start with an exhale. And then you start the exercise. So let me just show you what one of these breaths look like. It would start something like this. Now I think that was pretty close to seven in and seven out. Now, if you are a smaller person, size actually does matter when it comes to breathing. If you have smaller lungs, you might only get the six seconds, but even people who are smaller, even my daughters with some work, have all gotten to be able to do seven seconds in and seven seconds out. So some of the tips around doing this and how to get there. So first, think about breathing slower. As you breathe in, breathe slowly, that slow breath is going to show your body. You're not in fight or flight and kick you into awareness, gets you out of all the reactivity. As you breathe out, same thing, breathe slowly, this is a slow exercise in and out. And it's going to help you get to the seven seconds in and seven seconds out. When you start, if you find that you can't get to seven seconds breathing in, that's normally where we discover we can't get there. Don't worry about it. Just keep going and breathe in and out as far as you can, as you count. And what will happen eventually is you will start to calm down, your body will regulate, you will cast off any feelings of fight or flight or any reactivity you have, and you'll start getting to those longer breaths. And you will feel the incredible result of increasing your presence and awareness through just breathing, through just connecting with your breath. This is one of the most powerful tools out there. If you want any more information on this, we would love to be able to share it 687 - Triple Seven Breathing Protocol Page 5 of 6 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Jan 12, 2021 - view latest version here. with you. In fact, you can go to our website and listen to podcast 665. It's called When You Feel Like You Are Drowning and it's all about breath work and understanding yourself better and being able to not feel as reactive and not feel like the entire world is taken over on you. And then also I want you to know, my team is incredibly excited about this group and we are excited about growing it and getting amazing entrepreneurs in here and making this a true community. And so we have actually added a unit section for self-care because for the next several weeks, I'm going to be discussing the most important tactics and strategies and tools. We teach our highest level members to improve their self-care, to improve their presence and awareness. Remember, you are the most important person in your business. If you're the entrepreneur in the business or the operator of the business, you are the most important person or one of the two or three most important people in the business. And so when we take care of you, we are taking care of the business. Our organization, our company shows entrepreneurs, the hard core process, structure and routine it takes to scale a business in a predictable way, grow a team and communicate with them around a clear strategic plan that tells everyone where you're going. Those things that we teach, grow businesses quickly. So we also show entrepreneurs how to take care of themselves. We have a holistic program that shows how to stay present and aware, regardless of how fast your company has grown and how much is going on. So check out the units section. I want you to make sure that you see it and you understand it. And then also my team has created a seven or a triple seven breathing protocol resource for you. It's right here in this post, just follow the link and you can check it out. And so I'm excited for you to start trying this. And what I would love for you to do, please is give this a shot, come back to this post and give me any comments or reactions or tell me how this felt for you. What did you get out of doing the Seven Second Breathing Protocol? Was it exciting for you? I want to make sure that you check this out, and when you go to the unit section and you see the seven second breathing video, it's a video that's going to help you actually visualize seven seconds and do the timing around seven seconds. Make sure you save it so you can come back and use it any time you want. I'm excited to see you next time. And thanks for being here today. 687 - Triple Seven Breathing Protocol Page 6 of 6 Transcript by Rev.com