For years, Tony Robbins has been starting his mornings with a 10-minute ritual that gives him a boost of energy and prepares him for the day. On a recent trip to Robbins' Fiji resort Namale, where he was hosting the winners of Shopify's Build a Bigger Business competition, he showed Business Insider how to perform what he calls "priming."
Robbins, 57, is the world's most famous life and business coach and is as busy as ever, averaging 60 events each year. He developed priming as a way to maintain his energy and focus.
The routine, which involves a forceful breathing exercise and visualization of light pouring through your head, can seem pretty wild, but it's a slightly adapted version of a yoga technique called Kapalabhati Pranayama breathing and Buddhist mindfulness meditation.
Following is a transcript of the video.
Tony Robbins: My very first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is — I want to get my head right. I do this thing called "priming." Now, some people get up in the morning and they meditate, and I think meditation is wonderful. But I haven't met many people that can not think thoughts. This is a different outcome. This is about priming yourself. It's about putting yourself in a state where your mind and body will respond accordingly.
We'll do three steps. It's really simple — over 10 minutes. So why don't you sit down and I'll guide you through it. So, just get really comfortable. You want to be sitting up. Is that back enough for you to be able to relax?
Richard Feloni: Yeah.
Robbins: OK, cool. And then the first thing you're gonna do is your hands are gonna come up as you take the breath in and then you're gonna explode out the nose down.
Good. Now, relax. Keep your eyes closed. Have your hands open, if you would, on your lap face-up like that. Just feel whatever you feel. Just take it in. And you don't even have to respond to me anymore. You just enjoy it and take it in. And now just let your body relax deeply. And I'd like you to begin to think of a moment in your life that you could feel really grateful for if you wanted to. It could be something little, Rich, or it could be something big. It doesn't matter. It could be from your childhood or this week. It doesn't matter.
Do your best to remember it and then step into it as if you were there, kind of like stepping into your body and seeing what you saw then through your own eyes. Hearing what you heard then. Feeling what you felt then. Savor it. Maximize that sense of appreciation or enjoyment or gratitude. Enjoy it. Feel it. Fill up with it.
And now we're gonna shift to the last piece. Really simple. All you're gonna do is focus on three things, one at a time, that you want to accomplish. Three things you want to achieve. Live it and feel it and experience it.
How was that?
Feloni: It was good!
Robbins: Yeah? What'd you feel?
Feloni: It feels calming. Refreshing. It was good to like, escape inside myself.
Robbins: There's two worlds to master – the external world and the internal world. They both have to be mastered, but if you master the external world, you know, a la, you know, Robin Williams, but you don't master the internal world, there's a big price. This is the one to master first. And so I start my day by making that – so I have this base to deal with. I'm gonna live from gratitude today. I'm gonna live from blessing – you know, I'm gonna be a blessing in people's lives today. I'm gonna get stronger today. And I'm gonna achieve what I'm here and committed to do.
And then the whole thing, you know, we did that one in a little less than 10 minutes.
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