The Positives And Negatives Of Living In Buddha Mode (Parasympathetic System) – Calm, Grounded, BUT De-Motivated!

This post is a continuation from Switching Between Warrior & Buddha Mode For Highly Productive Days (Sympathetic And Parasympathetic Systems)

Buddha Mode is what we want to aim for all the time (within reason) outside of our workouts.

We want to spend 90% of our day (100% if it’s a rest day) in Buddha Mode.

Calm, grounded and able to do deep focused work for high productivity whilst giving our body the best chance to repair and re-build as a better performance machine.

How Buddha mode can positively affect transforming our body and mind

When we sleep we are in ultimate Buddha Mode.

When we sleep we are at our most anabolic, which means we are at our peak optimal mode for repair and GROWTH.

By correlating buddha mode with sleep and how sleep can positively affect our bodies transformation.

You can begin to understand why we seek to spend a lot of time in Buddha Mode outside of our workouts.

We know sleep is important…

But, for the sake of our focus, it’s super important for us to fully repair the muscles we have worked.

Along with build new pathways to those muscles so we can control them effectively within our workout (the squeeze) and bring down inflammation within the body caused by working out, stress, nutrition, lifestyle and our environment.

Not addressing inflammation, means not addressing toxins within our body.

Not addressing them can lead to a whole host of metabolic conditions from disease. Hence the word ‘antitoxin’ found in a variety of healthy foods, mainly vegetables.

We can’t sleep all the time and be in ultimate Buddha Mode. So, we try to get as close to ultimate Buddha Mode outside of our workouts as we can.

This gives the body more opportunity to repair and grow.

Our brain also works better in Buddha mode, it is more focused and creative.

In Buddha Mode, the body uses fat-burning pathways (in a person who has optimised their body).

When fats are broken down, they form fatty acids and fatty acids can be further broken down into ketones.

The brain absolutely loves ketones. It’s like rocket fuel for the brain.

This is where the ‘Keto Diet’ came from. And why when people who go on the Keto Diet, say they feel more energised and more alert. This is down to ketones fuelling the brain.

But, it is actually mainly down to restoring overall good insulin sensitivity, which the Keto Diet is very good for because it limits carbs a lot and thus limits insulin spiking a lot.

However, the same can be achieved without Keto by improved your insulin sensitivity. You may be thinking:

“If Keto is so good for restoring insulin sensitivity and great for the brain. Why do we not just go on that diet all the time?”

1. It’s very hard to build lean muscle.

Which makes transforming our physique and turning the body into a performance machine a lot harder.

Why?

Because carbs are the building blocks of muscle cells. Protein is the cement. It also means there is very little fast-acting energy reserve in the muscle cells themselves for explosive energy.

People tend to look quite ‘flat’ on a keto diet.

That’s because a muscle cell is 2/3 water. That water can only enter the cell and be stored with glucose (stored as glycogen), which we get from carbs.

So the muscles don’t appear full which is what gives aesthetic shape to a body. I’m not saying you can’t build muscle on a keto diet, you certainly can with the right targeted carb intake.

It’s just harder and takes longer.

2. It’s very limiting food-wise.

Carbs can be our best friend, it’s the lack of understanding for how to use them correctly which makes people believe they are our worst enemy.

As mentioned Keto does have a very effective place when it comes to resetting our body and burning fat effectively to diet/cut to reveal the lean, quality muscle we have developed.

Fats as an energy pathway in Buddha Mode

Buddha Mode uses the fat-burning energy pathways. So, when we are in Buddha Mode, we are burning fat.

That’s absolutely awesome! Who doesn’t want to burn fat when they can. We all do.

I must stress again, this only happens effectively in a person whose body is running optimally.

How Buddha Mode can hinder our transformation in workouts

We don’t want to begin the main part of our workout in Buddha mode. We’ll feel lethargic, unmotivated and lacking in willpower.

That’s why we have natural ways to simulate Warrior Mode and workout warm-ups to help get the blood flowing and get our nervous system excited.

Switching us from Buddha to Warrior Mode to workout with energy and mental focus.

It’s very helpful to identify the type of person you are when it comes to approaching your workouts.

I know I’m a little more Buddha Mode orientated. That’s why I take the natural supplements and try to ramp myself up mindfully beforehand.

If you know you need a little extra motivation because you’re a Buddha Mode type of human by nature.

Then you can rationalise with yourself as to why you may not be feeling up for the workout and use some tools to help you get into Warrior Mode.

Tools like the ones previously discussed or things like:

• music
• looking at social accounts of motivational people who inspire you (blue light)
• psyching yourself up
• posing in front of the mirror with power poses and flexing your muscles.

Experiment and see what works.

On the other side of the spectrum, if you’re quite a multitasker and constantly on the go.

You can acknowledge you lean more towards Warrior Mode as a human.

You know to be aware of channelling your Warrior Mode feelings and emotions into excitable energy for your workout rather than trying to calm yourself down. Both come back to our mantra phrase:

“using your body to master your mind within workouts“

Tools that can switch us into Buddha Mode and keep us there

Nasal breathing

Throughout the day, try to constantly breathe through your nose. Keep your mouth shut and tongue to the roof of it.

This applies when sleeping too. When we breathe through our nose:

• We filter the air
• We warm the air
• We breathe deeper into our diaphragm (into our lunge) which means we activate more alveoli nodules (the areas that funnel oxygen and carbon dioxide) meaning we regulate oxygen better
• We also regulate nitric oxide in our blood better. This relaxes the inner muscles of our blood vessels, causing the vessels to widen. In this way, nitric oxide increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure

If you sleep with your mouth open, you’ll probably find you wake up a tad groggy.

The body is not regulating oxygen and nitric oxide and releasing carbon dioxide efficiently.

Train yourself to sleep with your mouth shut breathing through your nose and you’ll find you wake up feeling more refreshed.

Put a tape over your mouth as you sleep to practice this.

It took me two weeks of taping my mouth shut before I did it automatically. I can tell you there is a noticeable difference with waking up more refreshed and sleeping deeper.

During the day nasal breathing helps us stay in regenerative Buddha Mode. Mouth breathing is associated with Warrior Mode.

If we’re feeling a little overwhelmed or stressed and entering into warrior mode outside of our workout.

We can pause, close our eyes and do 3 deep breaths in and out the nose for a count of:

1. In for 6 seconds
2. hold for 3 seconds
3. out for 6 seconds

Try it right now, three times. I bet you feel the difference.

Meditation

There are two ways we can harness the benefits of mediation to transform our body and mind:

1. In workouts: For mental focus
2. Outside of workouts: For switching from a high arousal state (Warrior Mode) to a calming state (Buddha Mode)

I’m sure you’re aware of the benefits of meditation and this course isn’t about teaching you how to meditate or the reasons why.

I’m a total beginner at it. But I practice it, and what it preaches, daily.

Because I know there is a huge correlation between the connection of the mind and body and how much embracing and advancing that connection helps us transform our body and mind as one.

I am very well practised with it in the realms of mindful muscle-connection through fitness application.

And that’s why we’re here. So you can learn how to harness that power.