Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, I'm going

to share a self-control strategy

called 'take 3 plus 10,'

Regardless of what you do in

life, you can always benefit

from a little more self-control.

We don't want to constantly be

confining ourselves and never being

spontaneous, but a bit of self-control

helps us do what we do well.

And also prevents us from following

sometimes that negative impulses

that inevitably arise in our

mind and body as human beings.

A lot of times with self-control,

our tendency is to grit our teeth and

that's not always the best strategy

and often causes more tension.

But relaxing into the discomfort of

wanting to respond a certain way and

creating a short pause can be really

effective for letting the energy

of that impulse start to soften.

And that's where take 3 plus 10 comes in.

It's pretty simple.

It involves taking three

breaths and then counting to 10.

As you can imagine, this

can't work in every context.

So if you're in a difficult

conversation and you notice you're

yourself wanting to say something

you shouldn't, it's probably going to

be hard to say, Hey, wait a second.

I need to take 3 plus 10.

But this can be really good if you

know, you want to reach for the

cookies, which is my negative impulse.

I can take three breaths, wait 10 seconds.

And usually during that period

of time, it's enough for the

energy of that impulse to soften.

So let's try it together.

We'll take three breaths, in through

the nose, out through the mouth.

One more.

Out.

One more.

Out.

Now we'll wait for ten, nine, eight,

seven, six ,five, four, three, two, one.

Cool.

That's it.

Now this works better when you

do have an impulse at play.

So try this out in real life.

I think you'll, you'll find

some value to it as always.

Thank you for your practice.

I'll talk to you more in the

meditation and take care.