Power Breathing to Manage Stress, Day 3: "Beyond Motivation: The Science of Automatic Discipline" meditation series
Daily Meditation Podcast
Mary Meckley
4.1 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 14 October 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Breathing Technique (Box Breathing) is the fastest way to manually activate the Parasympathetic Nervous System (the 'rest and digest' state) using the Vagus Nerve, which runs from the brainstem to the abdomen.
WELCOME TO THIS WEEK'S SERIES: Beyond Motivation: The Science of Automatic Discipline
When you start meditating, your Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC)—the center of logic, planning, and willpower—is working hard. This is exhausting.
The goal of this 7-day series is to transfer the meditation practice from the energy-intensive PFC to the Basal Ganglia, the brain structure dedicated to automatic habits and procedural memory. This is the part of the brain that knows how to tie your shoes or drive a car without conscious thought.
The techniques used this week—the physical Mudra cue, the rhythmic Breathing, and the simple Affirmation—are all designed to speak the language of the Basal Ganglia: simple, repeatable, and cued by the environment.
This is day 3 of a 7-day meditation series, "Beyond Motivation: The Science of Automatic Discipline," episodes 3395-3401.
YOUR WEEKLY CHALLENGE: The Zero Willpower Quest
The goal is to prove that consistent, tiny actions are more powerful than occasional heroic efforts. you're not seeking a perfect 30-minute meditation; your goal is an unbreakable, 60-second consistency.
YOUR MEDITATION JOURNEY DURING THIS WEEK'S SERIES
SHARE YOUR MEDITATION JOURNEY WITH YOUR FELLOW MEDITATORS
Let's connect and inspire each other! Please share a little about how meditation has helped you by reaching out to me at [email protected] or better yet -- direct message me on https://www.instagram.com/sip.and.om. We'd love to hear about your meditation ritual!
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I'd be honored if you left me a podcast review. If you do, please email me at [email protected] and let me know a little about yourself and how meditation has helped you. I'd love to share your journey to inspire fellow meditators on the podcast!
All meditations are created by Mary Meckley and are her original content. Please request permission to use any of Mary's content by sending an email to [email protected].
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All meditations are created by Mary Meckley and are her original content. Please request permission to use any of Mary's content by sending an email to [email protected].Let go of repetitive negative thoughts.
The beach waves were composed by Mike Koenig.
Music composed by Christopher Lloyd Clark licensed by RoyaltyFreeMusic.com, and also by musician Greg Keller.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to episode 3,397 of the Daily Meditation Podcast. |
| 0:11.0 | I'm Mary Meckley and I am delighted to share with you day three of this week's series. |
| 0:20.9 | This week you are moving beyond motivation, and you are exploring the science of automatic discipline. |
| 0:34.1 | And this is a follow-up series to last week's journey where you explored |
| 0:43.4 | becoming fearless and in last week's series you may or may not have taken part in that |
| 0:51.3 | series you can always go back and listen to that you |
| 0:55.4 | discovered how being courageous is about taking action that it doesn't really |
| 1:05.0 | happen when you're thinking about it or wishing for it or wanting it it only |
| 1:09.8 | happens when you take action so I decided to create |
| 1:15.2 | this follow-up series to help you make this an automatic discipline so it's not something |
| 1:25.5 | you have to motivate yourself about it becomes an |
| 1:29.3 | ingrained part of who you are it becomes your new normal and I encourage you to share |
| 1:41.3 | this week's meditation series in particular with someone you know who has been |
| 1:47.5 | wanting to meditate or if you think it's high time you reach out and connect with someone who |
| 1:55.4 | could be a meditation partner for you someone you could reach out to as you meditate and create a meditation |
| 2:04.6 | ritual and go through the weekly series and try out all the daily techniques. |
| 2:10.6 | You're provided a different one in each week's series. |
| 2:15.6 | Well today you're going to accomplish your habit stacking. |
| 2:22.8 | That's what you're doing this week as well. |
| 2:25.3 | And we're following along with a book by James Cleary, |
| 2:30.3 | a best-selling author who wrote the highly acclaimed popular atomic habits. |
| 2:38.1 | This has to do with your breath, hacking your physiology with a breathing technique. |
... |
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