This startup is banking on breathing exercises and focused psychological changes to promote wellness post pandemic

To reduce your heart rate in a stressful situation, try this breathing pattern: breathe in for 4 seconds, out for 6. Repeat. (Representational image: Motoki Tonn via Unsplash)

Having one parent who's an Olympian is remarkable, but can you imagine having two Olympians as your parents? Israeli Nimrod Mon Brokman claims the honour and the baggage that comes with growing up amid that level of sporting excellence at home.

Brokman competed in fencing at age 6, represented Israel internationally since he was 12 and, as he says, “pressure and stress became a part of my DNA”. There was a lack of professional support to deal with stress, and he found his own “creative” ways to manage - these methods came in handy again during his military service in the Israeli air force special forces. His stint involved leading teams which operated during emergencies.

“Unlike sports, there was no room for error,” Brokman recalls. “The ability to have clear communication, build action plans on the go, and take critical decisions allowed me to command those operations and save hundreds of lives.”

His learnings from facing high-pressure situations and serendipitously finding his business partner in India led to the start-up Behavioural Foresight (founded 2018) which focuses on mental wellbeing through focused psychological changes.

“In the military, I learnt the importance and the art of training. Being prepared for all scenarios and functioning in uncertain environments is a critical insight for anyone. These life skills, which I was lucky to develop, taught me the immense value of trusting myself. The more you trust yourself, the more resilient you become, which then leads to a better quality of life, irrespective of achieving external success.”

All these become relevant today, especially with the pandemic making most of us feel anxious, frazzled, overwhelmed and exhausted.

Here, Brokman talks of the pandemic, mental wellbeing, breathing, optimal functioning and more.

Dominant emotions in the pandemic

The pandemic has created panic and paranoia globally. Uncertainty about the future has made people feel threatened, which in turn, triggers a neurological reaction of fight, flight or freeze. These reactions activate related emotions like fear, emptiness, frustration, inadequacy, helplessness, and loneliness. This is further exacerbated by the emotional contagion effect; everyone is going through the same situation globally so these negative emotions have multiplied and further spread among people. Having said that, the pandemic also brought out the best in many people who showed both resilience and the ability to perceive and handle the situation with positive coping mechanisms.

Economy of behaviour

One of the concepts we are currently working with is an understanding of the economy of behaviour. How efficient, beneficial, and economical is the way we choose to perceive different life scenarios? How sustainable are the coping mechanisms we are using? In other words, is the RoI (return on investment) on our current behavioural patterns sound? And how much are we willing to pay with our mental currency? Especially in these times of uncertainty, we don’t want to waste our mental resources on things that are irrelevant or out of our control. In psychology, there is an under-utilised term, PTG (post traumatic growth) - the deliberate decision to grow after experiencing a traumatic event. As Viktor Frankl, while being held a prisoner in Auschwitz during World War II wrote in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, one’s personal growth can always be found even under the most challenging situations. Therefore, we need to constantly strive to function more efficiently, to achieve a calmer and more fulfilling life.

Breath control to respond rather than react

The art of breathing has been known to us for over 3,000 years. Our breath plays an integral role in healing, decision-making, and controlling different states of mind. Research has been done to demonstrate how correct breathing patterns can make a significant change in human physiology, in terms of controlling our heart rate, brain waves, nervous system, digestive system, and more. Once we learn how to regulate our physiology, we can actually enhance our ability to choose beneficial responses on a daily basis.

There are many types of breathing practices and protocols, as well as different apps that support the practice. The numerous options available today. Like with physical training, if someone is looking for a generic solution, there are many available apps and Youtube videos, which can be very efficient and helpful. A personalised programme, however, will require proper objective data driven tests with feedback to track progress.

Breathing exercises for wellbeing

The exercises that require training are called macro-interventions and those that can give an immediate effect with no training time are called micro-interventions.

A macro-intervention option is to use a rhythmic breathing pattern: 4 seconds inhale - 6 seconds exhale. This exercise activates calmness and reduces the heart rate. At the same time, doing this exercise allows us to be more mindful and calibrate for a better state of mind. This exercise can be done for 5-10 minutes a day, including in moments of mental discomfort.

A micro-intervention option that gives an immediate effect with no training is double inhalation and long exhalation. The first and second inhalations are happening through the nose and without an exhalation in between, the exhalation can be through the mouth and is slightly longer than the sum of both inhalations. This gives a relaxed feeling, reduces the heart rate, and provides a clearer mind in moments of high stress.

Nimrod Mon Brokman

Focused psychological changes for mental wellbeing

Focused psychological changes take place when you identify the relevant parameters, apply an accurate program with the tools to enable the change, and experience the results during the process. For instance, during the pandemic, we were approached by many clients suffering from lack of sleep and productivity decline. These behavioural changes can occur as a side effect for many reasons. At Behavioural Foresight, we are able to identify the reasons behind these changes, and use advanced Israeli technology to measure nervous system activity right from the client’s home with real-time data, analyse quality of respiration and build personalised interventions and protocols.

Optimal functioning by neutralizing stress

The main concept we are working on is finding the optimum zone- IZOF (individual zone of optimal functioning) in our clients, who include golfers Anirban Lahiri and Shubhankar Sharma. By training and mastering control over their physiology, especially the nervous system, they are able to perform in their best state of mind.

One of the trainings that we frequently use is an HRV training. HRV- heart rate variability - is a psychophysiological parameter that communicates the state of the nervous system, in terms of whether the person is experiencing stress or calmness. When we work on states of mind and performance attitudes, we are quantifying the ability to control physiology via stress profiling, and that allows us to train someone on how to be in the optimal performance zone. A critical learning is to be able to recognize through somatic experiences when one is out of their performance zone, and deliberately bringing oneself back to the zone. Somatic experiences are the bodily functions in the face of trauma, typically increase of heart rate, change in breathing and so on.