Short reads

The why behind the practice.

One idea each, a few minutes long, in plain English. None of it is required in order to do your plan. It is here for the days you want to understand what is actually happening.

3 minutes

Why over-breathing keeps you wired

Breathing more air than your body needs is one of the most common and least noticed drivers of anxiety, poor sleep and afternoon fatigue. Here is what it does, and how to tell if you are doing it.

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3 minutes

What heart coherence actually is

Coherence is not a good heart rate or a relaxed mood. It is an ordered rhythm between your breath and your heartbeat, and you can see it change in minutes.

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3 minutes

What your BOLT score tells you

The Body Oxygen Level Test is a simple measure of how sensitive your body is to carbon dioxide. It is not a test of lung capacity, willpower or fitness.

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2 minutes

Why the out-breath is the brake

The fastest way to slow a nervous system down is to lengthen the out-breath. Here is the mechanism, and how to use it without turning it into a technique you have to remember.

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3 minutes

How Yoga Nidra rests the nervous system

Guided deep rest, lying down, following a voice. It is not meditation, there is nothing to get right, and falling asleep during it is fine.

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4 minutes

The ABC of coming back to calm

Awareness, Breath, Compassion. A three-step reset for the moments when your nervous system reacts faster than you can think, and why fighting the reaction makes it louder.

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3 minutes

How your day sets up your night

Sleep is not something that starts at bedtime. It is the result of what your nervous system did for the previous sixteen hours.

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2 minutes

Why the first hour matters

Water, light, and delaying caffeine. Three unglamorous changes that cost nothing and set the slope of the rest of the day.

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3 minutes

The Wellbeing Roadmap: where this work leads

Five stages, from noticing what your body is doing to living with a system that recovers on its own. You move through them, and you return to them.

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If you have a Calm Plan

Nothing here is required reading.

Your plan works on its own. These pages are for the days when you want to know why it works, not what to do next. If something in yours is not landing, or your numbers have stopped moving, that is worth a conversation rather than more reading.

Book a session with Rich

Or reply to the email your plan arrived in. It comes straight to me.