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Where Did The Bubble Door Rule Come From?

How To Increase self-awareness of your thoughts — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

From the brain of a 7-year-old boy. The term bubble door was formed. It all started when I wanted my son to practice stillness and self-awareness of his thoughts. As you know with most children getting them to sit down and focus without getting distracted can be a major challenge.

So I re-activated my Headspace account and we started our first meditation session of 5 minutes. For me personally, it helps calm me and feel present again. I never gave it too much thought but enjoyed the benefits of meditation.

Once the 5 minutes was up. You could see clearly a change in my son’s aurora and he felt it too. When I asked him to describe his experience. He explained it in a wonderful way which formed the bubble door rule.

What He Learned

He explained in his mind he had loads of differing thoughts and it was like having two doors. One door the thoughts come in from and another door they come out from. He enjoyed just letting his thoughts in the meditation practice. To pass through the door without having to explain them or feel them.

I thought this was extraordinary how he explained it and was literally what books such as The Willpower Instinct would explain about how to build willpower.

From his first meditation session. It taught him that thoughts of wanting extra treats or self-deprecating thoughts don’t have to be brought to life. They can just pass through the door.

Now we have the doors. Now for the bubbles.

In the second meditation session, he evolved his understanding of his thoughts and understood some negative thoughts can find it harder to fit or go through the door quickly. This can be when you feel anger or sadness. He then went on to explain when he sees these kinds of thoughts they are in bubbles. Then the thoughts he doesn’t like he just pops them.

I was amazed at the creativity and detail of his understanding. Understanding your mind in such a way gives you great benefits of controlling your mind’s thoughts. We all know this can be difficult and it’s more a lucky dip than an actual strategy.

So after two sessions of meditation the bubble door rule was formed.

How To Increase Self-Awareness Of Thoughts

Self-awareness has long been seen by practitioners and researchers as both a primary means of alleviating psychological distress and the path of self-development for psychologically healthy individuals.

When it comes to the Bubble Door rule. Essentially what this rule teaches a child about the mind. Is that their thoughts are in their control if they want it to be. A lot of the time our brain is wondrously working on autopilot. Unless the habits are formed in a positive way your thoughts can get you into trouble.

So by teaching children and adults that self-awareness is crucial to their success and happiness. It can go a long way making great changes with mental health.

The best way to increase your own self-awareness of your thoughts is through meditation. As it allows you to become present. The very centre of your life where you can decide what thoughts will pass on or be brought to life.

Measure Your Self-Awareness Progress

When it comes to measuring your progress with self-awareness. It can be tricky to have a black and white answer of how well your progressing. But you can measure it on your own through insight, reflection, rumination and mindfulness.

Keeping a journal where you can write daily about your progress. It will show if your well-being is increasing and how you speak to yourself has changed. You will see progress with your mindfulness and how you think on a day to day.

By meditating more you will see the level of control change when it comes to your thoughts. If you used to blurt out everything that came to your mind. This will start to reduce. If you always think the worse. This will start depleting too. By being mindful you can see your progress at hand if your practice strategies such as the Bubble Door Rule.

Two Steps to Motivation

1. Meditation with Headspace

Sometimes meditation can be difficult and you won’t always see the benefits straight away. But long term meditation can offer great benefits to your life. By using apps such as headspace. It takes away or the thinking of what to do and you can just sit comfortably to listen to the suggestions.

2. Use The Bubble Door Rule

By using this theory you will take back control of your thoughts. Being self-aware is an amazing skill to have. it not only boost wellbeing and mental health. But studies have shown it boost performance, day to day functioning and interpersonal difficulties

A Final Word From The Future Mindset

I hope you enjoyed today’s article, The bubble door rule: How To Increase self-awareness of thoughts. Any thoughts about what you read are welcomed in the comments section below. If you could share this article on your social media platforms it would help tremendously to get the message out to improve self-awareness. Thank you for reading and have a great day!

If you’re struggling with dealing with mastering your own mindset. Don’t worry you’re not alone. Millions of people go through the same experience every day. I hope the article has helped in some way. If you need extra help or any questions answered. Don’t hesitate to contact me at adam@thefuturemindset.com

By Adam Smith

The 5 breathing techniques you have to do — Photo by Ale Romo Photography on Unsplash

Why Breathing Is A Powerful Tool

The typical adult can take between 14,000 to 20,000 breaths a day. How many do we notice? I can say with confidence probably not an awful lot. The system works perfectly so we don’t even have to take much notice of it. I would even say we take it for granted that it works so well, especially as it’s the process that’s keeping us alive. Depending on our mood or physical state our breath can be smooth when we are calm and very intense when we are fearful. That’s why it’s important to take control of our breath when our body is in demanding situations.

A Great Form Of Meditation

Breath-work for me has become a great way of meditating by taking control of my breath I can therefore take control of my thoughts and emotions. Doing any of these 5 exercises below has helped me feel at peace with my self. Where now I feel more calm, focussed and happy within my life. I hope 1 of these techniques below can help you feel the same.

The 5 Breathing Techniques

4 7 8 Breathing

This technique is great when you’re on the move. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 7. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of 8. This is helpful when you’re surrounded by people in a stressful situation or you feel anxiety while walking or in daily life. This has helped me tremendously is taking control of my stress and anxiety and reverting it to my normal state.

Wim Hof

This is probably the most famous breathing technique around with millions of views on YouTube currently. Wim has been pushing his bodies boundaries for over a decade breaking world records along the way. Now he teaches his methods and the breathing technique he uses. It’s intense breathing through the nose and out the mouth for 1 minute then taking 1 last deep breath in and on the exhale hold for either 1min or 2min then breathe in then hold again for 15 secs before repeating the exercise 3 more times. Wim claims that people do a lot of slim breathing and deep intense breathing can have positive impacts on endurance and strength conditioning.

Box Breathing

The reason its call box breathing is because it focuses on all 4 corners of the breath. The inhale, breath-hold, the exhale, and breath-hold. The preferred use of this is by following the pattern of inhaling for 4 seconds, followed by a four-second hold, then exhaling for 4 seconds and then followed by a 4-second hold. This should all be done breathing through your nose for a minimum of 5 rounds. This is preferred to be done early in the morning or of course when your feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed.

Nadi Shodhana

I first came across this with Breathe and Flow. They tend to do this after a Yoga session. This is alternate nostril breathing so first with your right hand get your thumb and wedding ring finger and place it on your nostrils. Then with your pointer and middle finger place those between your eyebrows. Followed by closing your left nostril with your thumb and breath in then out and back in one more time and then close the right nostril to breath out through the left nostril the breath in through the same nostril. Then repeat for 5 to 10 cycles allowing your mind to follow the cycles like a wave in the sea. I feel amazing after doing this and my mind and nostrils defiantly feel clear.

Kapalabhati

This is an intense breath-work which consists of alternating short, explosive exhales and slightly longer, passive inhales. Exhales are generated by powerful contractions of the lower belly which push air out of the lungs. Again this is used after my Yoga practice.

Final Thoughts

These are the 5 techniques that I have practised. My personal favourite is the Nadi Shodhana but all have their positives. I tend to go through them all each month to keep me on my toes and not to get too comfortable doing just 1 technique. I recommend if you haven’t already just to give it a go for 1 month and evaluate your experience and whether you have gained anything from it. For me and a lot of people, I’ve read or come across it has helped them a lot. So let’s get back to basics and get in touch with breathing. It’s what’s keeping us alive.

I hope enjoyed this post on breathing techniques, I hope to see you in the next post!