What Happens When You
Exhale Twice as Long?
Dive into a street-tested, science-backed journey to profound
presence and emotional freedom.
“Heartwarming, deep, and hilarious. A practical
guide to understanding your mind.”
Michael Fischman
Author of Stumbling into Infinity.
Have You Ever Worked Really Hard to Achieve a
Worthy Goal and then… Meh?
From the Author's Desk
White Rock Lake,
Dallas, TX
It was like the
background music of my life had shifted from “kickin’ ass and takin names” to… “something bad is going to happen.”
Hello, My Friend:
I want to tell you a quick story, so that unfortunate phenomenon never happens to you.
Let’s harken back to the days of baggy suits and flip phones. A Senior Vice President promotion had been my sole obsession for half a decade.
When it arrived, I tripled my income overnight, and went from having six employees to 125.
The eyes of the world were on me. All I had to do now was execute.
But I was not my old self. Something was seriously….off.
It was as if my mind had contracted a virus.
As I adapted to my new role, I found myself buried beneath a mountain of emails, and missed calls.
I’d read a page of text and come back blank. Meet someone new and instantly forget his name.
Maybe you can you relate?
Unable to sustain focus and make sound decisions
Fragmented, forgetful, depleted, and restless
Filled with a constant sense of dread
Then, by the glorious grace of the Good Man Upstairs I received a random phone call from my dear old friend Arun Patel.
With his gentle urging, I enrolled in a weekend course centered around the ancient Yogic science of breathing.
That weekend, three gold-key-understandings opened a doorway that altered the trajectory of my entire life.
An Infant Baby Smiles
400 Times a Day;
the Average Adult: 40
Begging the question, what the heck went wrong on the way to adulthood?
As a society, we are anxious, overstimulated, and easily triggered. Consider the precious hours we all waste worrying, regretting, and ruminating.
It’s like we’ve been gifted the most powerful super-computer in the universe….and misplaced the owner’s manual.
Gold Key
Understanding
I Was Sympathetic Dominant: Stuck in Fight Or Flight
Yup. Lil Ole Me. Like a wounded animal tethered to a lap-top computer:
Jacked up on cortisol and adrenaline cocktail
Heart banging like a tennis shoe in a clothes dryer
Breathing rapid, ragged, high and shallow
Cognitive reasoning and IQ cut virtually in half
Turns out, our meat suits are designed to be in a stress response for about three minutes a day. I was camped out there like a weekend Netflix binge.
Gold Key
Understanding
I Learned How to Switch on the Parasympathetic
“Anytime you emphasize your exhalations — make them longer than your inhalations — you slow your heart rate, calm your system, and switch on the parasympathetic.”
Dr. Andrew Huberman
Oh, What a Beautiful Buzz!
It was as if someone reached into my chest and turned down a big red dial. Waves of calm and ripples of inner peace. A get-out-of-jail-free card to my prison made of thoughts. You gotta’ be kidding me: white-knuckling it through life, and the solution was resting beneath my nose the entire time? Alas, my very own inner sanctuary.
“The parasympathetic nervous system is where we need to live.”
Dr. James Doty
When I Mastered the 4 8 8 Breathing I was Able to…
Snap myself out of a tenacious funk at will
Prepare for stressful situations
Influence the way I feel on a daily basis
Completely recondition my central nervous system to a persistent state of calm
In the years ahead, I would refine the 4-8-8 to be exponentially more powerful.
Today I teach people how to access positive emotions at will. And feel good all the time, independent of the external conditions of their life.
Gold Key
Understanding
The JOY I Had Been Chasing via Social Status, Moolah, and Material Possessions
Had been with me all the time. Concealed by an overstimulated nervous system and destructive thought patterns.
There is nothing missing. It’s addition by subtraction!
Gratitude, contentment, and confidence are as close to you as your very next deliberate breath.
I want it so badly for you.
Please, keep reading.
Colorful Characters Who Leap off the Page
The narrative unveils the Lucid Breathing protocol through the eyes of the individuals who helped develop it. Their extraordinary transformations will open your eyes and touch your heart.
Arun Patel
Then I felt a single tear exit my eyelid and roll all the way down my cheek. I didn’t bother to wipe it away. I left it there like war paint.
You leave here now, please,” he said softly.
“Understood,” I said, nodding to let him know I meant it. “But can I ask you a serious question before I show myself out? It is my job, after all.”
Shafts of sunlight splintered through the blinds, painting the shopkeeper in white stripes. He squinted his eyes and woggled his head again.
Peter Penrod
“I like the places Bob Dylan takes me” he announced, leaning back on the heels of his boots as if suspended by imaginary strings. He closed his eyes and took a long pull from a skinny cigarette.
“Yeah, me too,” I lied. “But...this one kind of goes on forever.”
“Name’s Peter,” he said, holding out a porcelain hand. “Peter Penrod.” His eyes flashed a quick twinkle at me, and I thought maybe he was kidding about his name. But it fit: he was a character, a throwback to the beatniks of the late ‘50s, oddly larger than life, donning a sparkling green fabric shirt and tight trousers tucked into knee-high boots.
Delightful Donna
Toward the end of the 45 minutes, in a voice so soft she had to lean in to hear me, I asked her: “Donna, what has your unique life experience taught you about life, and how can you use that to benefit others?”
Donna stared me down in silence for a full minute, her eyes brimming with tears. Intensity and conviction bubbling up inside of her. Then something shifted: I fully received the transfer of emotion, a silent download. My own eyes filled with tears.
Beyond Breathwork: Practical Tools to
Elevate Your Entire Life Experience
A wealth of documented science and useful frameworks for managing your mind
and mastering your emotions
Emotional Freedom
Master the ability to neutralize negative emotions like anxiety, agitation, and anger instantly and every time.
How to Stop Your Thoughts
Learn how to silence compulsive thinking and stick a sock in the mouth of the inner critic.
Respiratory Science
Gain insight into the four traits of functional breathing, for ideal oxygen assimilation and fundamental wellbeing.
Heart Coherence
Forgive, empathize, and see others through the lens of compassion by bringing your heart and brain into synergistic alignment.
Wise Advocate
Access your higher intelligence to receive insights, guidance and inspiration for making good decisions.
Expanded Awareness
Rise up, shift out, and turn stressful beta waves into alpha by using your peripheral vision.
Recommended by Top Wellness Experts
What doctors and authors are saying about Exhale Twice As Long
Emma Seppala, Ph.D.
Author of Sovereign
“I love this book! Exhale Twice as Long is the perfect blend of spiritual memoir and how-to non-fiction, with just enough science to satisfy the intellect and a healthy dose of humanity to inspire the heart.”
Michael Fischman
Author of Stumbling into Infinity
“If you have been looking for a practical guide to becoming present and understanding your own mind, Thomas Bell offers us an absolute treasure.”
Judith Rich, Ph.D.
Author of Beyond the Box
“Riveting. I couldn’t put this book down! With wisdom, vulnerability, and a deep understanding of both the ancient and the modern, Thomas unlocks the door to Presence.”
Richard Nongard, Ph.D.
Author of Viral Leadership
“Thomas Bell’s book is an insightful and deeply personal guide to living a more fulfilling life.”
Mike Mandell
Founder of MMHA
“With vivid stories and gentle humor, Thomas gives us a glimpse into the mind of a big-city Hypnotist doing outstanding change-work.”
Marina Kostina, Ph.D.
Author of 52 Pieces
“…..a witty, profound and masterfully-written book that reads in a single breath. Thomas Bell is the real deal. The descriptions are so vivid they will give you chills.”
Lives Changed by Lucid Breathing
“Lucid Breathing is my go-to. I use it daily during my commute in rush hour traffic on the PCH. I used to get constantly irritated and angry.”
JP Ponce
Hollywood, CA
“I used the 4-8-8 today while performing a dental extraction. No one was the wiser. I also use the expanded awareness technique when I entre my office every morning. It has been enormously helpful.”
Kevin
Dallas, TX
“Honestly, I haven’t gotten around to reading your book just yet. But the title alone has been a game changer for me. Exhaling twice as long in the gondola has improved my performance on black diamond runs.”
Tim Denver
CEO
Order your copy of exhale Twice as Long today to unlock the power of Lucid Breathing and elevate your overall life satisfaction.
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Meet
Thomas Bell
• Author • Speaker • Executive Coach • OA Advanced Breath Instructor
Thomas Bell taught communication courses at the University of Arizona, where he earned his Master’s
degree and received the Borders Fine Arts Fellowship for his first book, Headwaters and Other Stories.
A nationally recognized speaker, he has presented on the neuroscience of success at New York University in Albany, spoken at HypnoThoughts Live in Las Vegas, and consulted for the Art of Living Foundation. He holds 13 certifications in transformational change modalities, is a board-certified hypnotist through the ICBCH, and formerly served as a Senior Vice President for Heartland Payment Systems, leading a team of 1,500.
Thomas attributes his rise from struggling door-to-door salesman to the executive suite to the practical application of communication science to achieve real-world results. At the height of his career, he gave away his belongings and set out on a round the world sabbatical — including six weeks in silent meditation and two years volunteering full-time at an Indian ashram, immersed in breathwork and Vedic study.
He is the creator of Lucid Breathing™, a system that combines ancient spiritual practices with cutting-edge neuroscience, and the founder of Fill the Space, a communication training for front-of-the-room leaders. He is also certified as an Oxygen Advantage™ Advanced Instructor and trained in SOMA Breathwork facilitation.
Today, Thomas runs Lucid Mynd, a Dallas-based consultancy offering breath-led experiences for mission-driven organizations. He believes profound presence is the solution to your problems — and the answer to your prayers.
When he’s not deliberately breathing by the window of his 90-year-old log cabin on White Rock Lake, he’s chasing Dead & Company across the country…or squirrels in the backyard with his Border Collie, Shanti.
All of Nature Longs to be in Balance
The tree’s exhalation of oxygen allows for our inhalation. Our exhalation of carbon dioxide allows the tree to inhale. You buy a book and deposit a little jingle-jangle into my front pocket. I help you to remember some things you may have forgotten.
No one comes into our life by accident. My silent prayer is that in the days ahead, something in these pages will speak to you so directly, so purely, that for a moment, you’ll think I composed it just for you.
Because I did.
Until then.
Any time you’re stressed, restless, or worried; any time you need to reset, recharge, or call a time out, all you have to do is exhale twice as long.
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