“You won’t find many quick fixes in this book, but there is one way to immediately boost willpower: Slow your breathing down to four to six breaths per minute [...] Slowing the breath down activates the prefrontal cortex and increases heart rate variability, which helps shift the brain and body from a state of stress to self-control mode. … And because it only takes one to two minutes of breathing at this pace to boost your willpower reserve, it’s something you can do whenever you face a willpower challenge.”
- Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., The Willpower Instinct
If we need more willpower, it doesn’t get any simpler than this. However, there’s a paradox here: we need willpower to remember to slow down our breathing.
That’s why we return to our mantra repeatedly (especially when we don’t need it) until it’s our default reaction in any situation: deeper, slower, quieter, and more regular = more willpower.
So make sure you return to it a little more today. And enjoy building more willpower, breath by breath.