It’s 5:00 PM and you’re just coming out of another long meeting. Your chest feels tight. You take a deep breath. One of those big, reaching breaths that feels like you need to push past some invisible ceiling just to get relief. Sound familiar? That big, gulping breath you need is called a sigh—a breath 2-3x bigger than your normal breath size. Now while occasional sighing is normal (your body actually does it automatically every 5 minutes to sustain lung function), when you're doing it every few minutes… it means something’s off. Chances are, you’ve trained your body to over-breathe. (Well, not you exactly. The world we live in, the jobs we have, the foods we eat,…)     Here’s what’s happening: Every time you take one of those big, relieving sighs, you dump excess carbon dioxide (CO₂) from your system. Wait! Don’t write this off as biochemistry nonsense that’s only relevant in the laboratory. This absolutely matters for your daily experience: CO₂ isn't just waste you exhale. It's the key that unlocks oxygen from your red blood cells. When CO₂ drops too low, oxygen gets stuck in your bloodstream instead of reaching your brain and muscles. That's why you feel air-hungry, foggy, and like nothing you breathe is quite...

You know that moment when you're three slides into a presentation and suddenly realize your shoulders are practically touching your ears, your jaw is clenched, and you have no idea when that started happening? Or when you walk out of a meeting feeling completely drained, but you can't pinpoint exactly when or why your energy shifted? If you're nodding along, you're experiencing something most people deal with daily, but are unaware of: Living disconnected from an incredible sensory system that could change how you handle stress, emotions, and decision-making entirely. The 6th sense you never learned about We all know our five senses, right? Vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste. But there's a 6th sense that's just as important for your day-to-day experience: It's called interoception—your ability to accurately detect and interpret what's happening inside your body. Heart rate, breathing patterns, muscle tension, that flutter of adrenaline before a difficult conversation, the subtle shift in energy when you're about to hit a wall. These are just a few examples of the countless signals your body sends you every day. One study found that people who could accurately detect their heartbeats (a measure of interoceptive awareness) performed significantly better on tasks requiring emotional intelligence and decision-making under pressure. (So quite literally:...

Our visual system is perhaps the strongest lever by which we can shift our state of mind and body. (Andrew Huberman) Soften your gaze for a moment. Without moving your head, guide your eyes in a slow, deliberate circle – as if you're tracing the edge of a clock on the wall. Feel the smoothness of this movement, the subtle stretch as your eyes reach each corner. Let your eyes slowly close halfway, then three-quarters, then open them wide like you've just seen something surprising. You can direct them up toward your eyebrows, down toward your cheeks, or dart them quickly from side to side. Play with these micro-movements. Now focus on one single word on the screen. One single letter. And now expand your visual field, taking in as much of the space around you as possible without moving your head. Notice how you can easily switch between these modes. This conscious play with your eyes is more than just an exercise—it's a rediscovery of a powerful tool you've always had but perhaps never fully explored. These delicate organs that move automatically throughout your day are completely under your conscious control. Each movement sends ripples of information through your nervous system, influencing your entire state of being. How come the eyes...

Box breathing is one of the most popular breathing techniques, because it’s famously used in Navy Seals training to get their nervous system under control, and stay focused and precise during critical operations. It’s a simple technique: It involves taking an inhale, holding your breath at the top, exhaling, and holding your breath again at the bottom. But, there’s one big caveat. Well, there are a few but I’ll start with this one: There is a wrong and a right way to do it. The wrong way is to blindly follow the instructions online. Most guides tell you to do inhale for 4 - hold for 4- exhale for 4 - hold for 4, or 5-5-5-5. The problem is: the duration heavily depends on your individual nervous system. People who are highly stressed or anxious, or who are completely new to breathwork and have dysfunctional breathing patterns (without being aware of this), will really struggle with those durations and push themselves too hard too quickly. It’s like going into the gym for the first time and picking the heaviest weight. The right way to do it… is to first measure your CO2 discard rate, and use that to determine the duration for your box breathing. Here are the instructions...

Out of all the chemicals and hormones, learning about cortisol has probably changed me the most. It helped me realize something I have never been taught: I’m made of rhythms. And so are you. We cycle through energy highs and lows roughly every 90 minutes. Our breath moves in waves. Body temperature rises and falls. Even immune and repair functions follow daily patterns, peaking while we sleep. Cortisol plays a central role in all of this. It shapes your sleep-wake cycle, your focus, your motivation, your recovery. It helps you rise to meet challenges, and rest when the challenge is over. What’s made the biggest difference for me is learning to work with those rhythms instead of trying to override them. When I feel a dip in energy, I don’t force or push anymore. I run. I nap. I breathe. Then I return clearer, sharper, and more motivated. I now finally understand and appreciate that this isn’t indulgent, selfish or weak. It’s not about “self-care.” It’s about working with your body. And the irony is: you end up getting much more done, and you have more fun doing it 🙂 Cortisol: the rhythm & resilience hormone Here's something I really dislike about social media: oversimplification. Labeling cortisol as purely a "stress hormone" and implying...

You read the books, you listen to the podcasts, you gather advice, to-do lists, strategies, frameworks. And yet, you stay stuck. Why? Not because you’re missing something out there. But because you lack access to what’s already in here—the tools and resources hardwired into you. So if you’ve been circling a specific problem or decision, try the below formula for one week. I guarantee you’ll make progress. If not, get your money back. Every morning or evening, right after or right before going to bed, block 15-20 minutes and do this: Step 1 — Kidlin’s Law: write it out Write out in detail what the problem is. What do you know? What assumptions are you making? You’re not necessarily solving it right away. You’re simply describing it in as much detail as possible. Bringing some order to the chaos in your head. Very important: pen and paper only. Then every day, add any new thoughts, ideas, and insights. No editing. No judging. Just write down exactly what comes up. Step 1b - Keep your phone far away from you A study testing the “brain drain” hypothesis showed that “the mere presence of your smartphone occupies limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks.” In simple terms: when you try...

It’s funny how often people are skeptical about breathwork. Then as soon as I tell them a few facts about how breathing actually works, their whole attitude changes. They’re surprised. Intrigued. Because even though we breathe all day, every day, most of us know shockingly little about it. Here’s one of my favorite “well… did you know…” When we think of breathing, we typically think of the lungs. And while the lungs are a critical organ, they’re just the site where the gas exchange happens. Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. But… they’re not what drives your breath. The real engine of your breath is in your brain. Deep in the brainstem, there’s a tiny cluster of neurons called the preBötzinger complex. It’s this group of neurons that generates the rhythm of your breath automatically, moment by moment. Here’s why this is so cool: The brain-breath loop is bi-directional. Your brain influences your breath. Your breath influences your brain. Meaning: Change your breathing pattern, and you change your brain activity. One of the most powerful ways to do that? Slow, nasal breathing. A few things happen when you breathe slowly, in and out through the nose: For one, you’re dialling up your prefrontal cortex. That’s the part of your brain that helps you focus, regulate emotions, and...

If you’re someone who feels guilty about taking breaks throughout your work day… this brain scan finding might change everything: Your brain is actively working for you while you “do nothing”, and the best thing you can do is to get out of its way. Here’s what I learned from the book Rest by Alex Pang: When you’re resting, your brain is almost as active as when you’re focused. One particular study, back in the 1990s, showed that there’s as much going on in the brain while reading text (a cognitively complicated activity) as while staring at a blank wall. It’s just a different kind of activity, driven by different brain regions. As soon as we stop concentrating on an external task, our brain automatically switches on the Default Mode Network (DMN) - a series of interconnected sections that are involved in mind-wandering, daydreaming about the past and future, and introspection. This kind of brain activity is hugely important and valuable. The DMN is busy processing, connecting, and consolidating ideas - completely outside of our conscious awareness. “It is clear that the brain’s creative work is never done, that even in its resting state the brain is plugging away at problems, examining and tossing out possible answers, looking...

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You resolve to make a change for the better in your life. Maybe to walk more. Or to stop drinking. Or to pick up that breathwork habit again. You tell your partner about it. You put your resolution in writing. You actually make the change. It works. It feels good! You’re happy about it. Your partner is thrilled. Then you backslide. Why? Are you some kind of slob who has no willpower? Biology tells us: not necessarily. Backsliding is a universal experience. Every one of us resists significant change, no matter whether it’s for the worse or for the better. Our body, brain, and behavior have a built-in tendency to stay the same within rather narrow limits, and to snap back when changed—and it’s a very good thing they do! Ultimately, your nervous system doesn’t care about your good intentions. It cares about keeping you alive. Just think about it: if your body temperature moved up or down by 10 percent, you’d be in big trouble. The same thing applies to your blood-sugar level and to any number of other functions of your body. So your system is constantly keeping track of what’s changing and adjusting as necessary. This condition of equilibrium, this resistance...

  "I carefully plan my focus time, but the moment a new idea strikes, my planned work and good intentions… out the window." I was talking to a potential client about this, and I knew exactly what he meant. I’ve spent years battling distractions—not just the obvious ones like social media or emails, but the ones that live inside my own head. The sudden urge to look up a random fact The need to rethink a decision I already made The impulse to start something new because it suddenly feels urgent Every time I try to focus, something else fights for my attention. And it’s not just a bad habit. It’s how my brain is wired. The good news? I’ve largely trained my brain out of this through breathwork. Every single breathwork session is like a mini practice round before the real work. When you can stay focused on your breath, you can stay focused on your task. First you need to understand the basic role of dopamine Your brain’s dopamine system is not about pleasure. It’s about wanting. Dopamine is what makes you crave and chase things—ideas, distractions, novelty. It’s what gives you the urge to check your phone, even when you just put it down. It’s what...

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