As you know if you’ve been following along, every morning I start my day with my AM meditation.
Fun stat for curious souls: I’ve only missed a single day of meditation over the last 17 years.
Now…
The first thing I do when I start my meditation is get my posture right.
To do that, I think of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s brilliant advice. As we discuss in Meditation 101, he tells us that we want to “sit with dignity.”
I have his wisdom in mind as I get myself comfortable in hero’s pose, relaxing my body and slowing my breathing down as I lengthen my spine and think “chest up, chin down.”
Then I relax my body as I reach for my pulse oximeter to measure my resting heart rate and see how low I can get it—using that as a rough measure for both how relaxed I am and how recovered I am.
If I ate late/poorly the night before and/or didn’t sleep particularly well because I blew through a digital sunset/shutdown complete and/or am fighting something (usually the result of the prior lapses), I might have a hard time getting my resting heart rate into the 40s.
Thankfully, that rarely happens.
I reflect on how blessed I am to be healthy as I bring my resting heart rate down with each deep breath I take. (In through my nose, down into my belly, back out through my nose, exhaling slightly longer than my inhale—as we discuss in Breathing 101.)
If I’m well recovered and executed my protocol the night before (note: having my last bite four hours before I go to bed is THE #1 driver here!), I’ll easily get my resting heart rate down to 45 and typically to 44/43/42.
If I’m REALLY well recovered, I might even get the ol’ resting heart rate down to 40 or break the 40 barrier and hit 39.
That rarely happens but it’s always fun when it does.
Now…
With my mind and body calm, I’m ready to practice my meditation. This always starts with a Patrick McKeown inspired breath training. Then it moves on to our virtue compass as I silently recite the declarations from the app and the back cover of Areté. Then I chat with my heroes before envisioning our 2051 mission and the steps I will take today to help fulfill it.
But none of that is the point of this +1.
This is…
Once I’ve snapped a picture of my lowest resting heart rate, I know that I will snap *another* picture of my TRAINING heart rate when it is at least 101 beats higher.
That’s how I hit my “+101 = Energized Tranquility” Target in the app every day. 🎯
That Heroic Target is tied for first as one of my favorite Targets.
It represents my commitment to being able to flip the switch in any given moment to embody either the super energized version of me OR the super tranquil version of me.
It’s also really hard to have a really bad day when I’ve deliberately found that stillness AND that peak energy.
And…
That’s Today’s +1.
If you feel so inspired, perhaps you can join me in hitting the “+101 = Energized Tranquility” Target in our Heroic app. 🎯
It’s a fun and powerful way to cultivate our Discipline as we forge antifragile confidence with every action we take.
It’s Day 1.
We’re ALL IN.
Let’s go, Hero.
+101 +101 +101.
P.S. I got this morning’s resting heart down to 43. ❤️ 🤓
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