How can the US Military Mindfulness Practices Improve Your Financial Advisor Practice?

A recent survey found 71% of financial advisors said they experience moderate or high negative stress.

There is a strong connection between negative stress and failure to achieve goals

Neuroscientist Amishi Jha and Lieutenant General Walter Piatt of the US Army are testing mindfulness to train the brain so warriors can “zero the mind” for increased attention, focus, and calm under extreme stress. – Mindful Magazine-August 2019

Zeroing the mind will create more balance, space, time and income versus going from combat to collapse.

Here are a few mindful deep breathing exercises that I share with my clients.

1. Sitting upright, with a view to having a belt to tie around your rib cage, inhale expanding your rib cage out as far as you can and then tighten the belt. This will give you more conscious understanding of expanding and contracting your rib cage as you inhale and exhale repeating 10 times.

• Lay flat on the floor and place your hands on your belly and as you are inhaling push your belly out and up and as you exhale contract your belly inwards and repeat 10 times. This process will help you to be more conscious of what’s happening with your body on the inhale and the exhale.

• Start off by breathing in through your nostrils filling your chest cavity to the count of five seconds. Hold your breath for 20 seconds. Control your exhale of your breath for 10 seconds. And repeat this 10 times. Note that this ratio is 5/20/10 and that you can modify this depending upon your level of comfort.

In my view, the point of these mindful breathing exercises is to give your mind are rest, to be mindless so to speak, in this ever and overstimulated world in which we live in.