Our work in Week 1 is to reflect, rediscover and reawaken long held dreams (our thoughts). Learn to revitalize your energy (breath work), and to unlock dormant overlooked skills (age is just a number). Using the E in EMPOWER, we will find and infuse energy into every day. Energy is the fuel which moves us towards reawakening our latent limitless possibilities: 

We start our training with this Napoleon Hill phrase: “Thoughts are things.” Our thoughts are incredibly powerful when combined with purpose, perseverance and a burning desire. In the process of revitalizing our energy we will work slowly to change our thoughts/outlook.

Taking one long held belief, write it down, then be open to playing devil’s advocate, questioning its validity from as many perspectives as possible, writing them all down. This simple exercise has the potential to open us up to the experience, knowledge and abilities we possess to change our lives.

Recommended reading: Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

Our energy or lack thereof can all be traced back to our breathing and the way we breathe. Continually breathing in and out through our mouth is constantly keeping our sympathetic nervous system engaged. This form of breathing keeps the fight, flight or freeze part of our brain on high alert continually flooding our bodies with cortisol. Breathing in through our nose activates our parasympathetic nervous system which is our rest and digest system. This form of breathing communicates to our brain we are safe. 

We can start slowly by downloading one of any number of free breathing apps from the app store. Begin by spending five minutes three times a day on focused breathing.

My routines are: 

• morning 10:2:2: 
• mid day 5:5:5:5
• evening 4:7:8

All of these are in seconds, i.e. 10 sec inhale, 2 sec hold, 2 exhale.

These different breathing modalities are all done through the nose and in fact the greater majority of our breathing daily should be done through our nose keeping our parasympathetic system engaged.

Recommended reading: Just Breathe – Dan Brule 

As we learn to combine our new sources of energy, the power found in “thoughts are things,” the reflection/writing exercise along with our daily breathing practice, doing these three things with an open mind and the right attitude can open us up to the understanding that wherever stage or age we find ourselves, we’re NEVER out of the game or too old, as age is simply a number.

Consistently taking positive action steps every day can give us new vistas of possibilities.