Atomic Focus: Harness the True Power of Your Brain, Develop Resilience Against Stress, and Get Focused with Simple Breathing Exercises to Change Your Mental and Physical State

by Patrick McKeown

Focus X Concentration X Attention Span = SuccessWhat if you your mental state on command?Find a place of deep focused flow, any time you need to?See your options clearly and know, in your gut, which is the right path for you?Begin to enjoy life on your own terms, with confidence and assurance?It has never been harder to focus than it is now. We live in a noisy, crowded, stressful world that changes so fast, we’re always running to catch up. Traditional education doesn’t give us the skills to manage. And if you live largely in your own head, techniques like mindfulness fall short. In extremes, we turn to external solutions like social media, alcohol, and recreational drugs, just to get some space from our own thoughts.To harness your full potential, in business, sport, performance and relationships, you need a solid physiological foundation. Without it, you will never achieve the control of the mind, resilience, and energy necessary to succeed. Or, you’ll achieve some level of success, only to burn out trying.Atomic Focus offers a simple, practical, scientific way to bypass the self-sabotage happening in your own brain, to achieve the best concentration and mental clarity of your life.

Discover techniques used by special forces, elite military, corporate CEOs, MMA fighters and other high-performance professionals. And learn to address the key habits that are keeping your nervous system in a stress state and holding you back.

If you’re ambitious. If you know there must be more to life. If you’re stuck, stressed, or want to build long-term success… Get yourself on track with Atomic Focus.

Genres: Self Help, Productivity, Personal Development

294 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2021

About the author

International best-selling author of The Oxygen Advantage and creator and master instructor of the Oxygen Advantage® technique, Patrick McKeown is widely regarded as one of the world's leading breathing re-education experts.

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solid content - breath less, slower and deeper with some good exercises. But 20 pages would have been enough.

[Mohammed Abdelmaksoud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Breathing exercises are very useful...but basically it is a book about mindfulness

[Jami Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent information and fun read

Science backed information with practical tips and exercises. I loved the illustrations, too. I’ve been sharing these ideas with all of my patients.

[Brendon.goodmurphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise behind McKeown's work and all his books is very powerful stuff. Many people don't breathe properly (through the mouth, not using the diaphragm, etc.), which leads to a state of permanent hyperventilation (taking in too much oxygen). Contrary to popular belief, too much oxygen is not a good thing. It causes all kinds of health problems: anxiety, poor digestion, sleep apnea, insomnia, the list goes on.

In Atomic Focus, McKeown is emphasizing the relationship between poor breathing and poor concentration, in particular an overly busy and cluttered mind. Unfortunately, it doesn't hit the mark. It really would have benefited from a good editor. Frankly, it is poorly written and poorly structured. It feels like a grab bag of loosely tied together ideas. There are so many books out there about time management and focus that deal with these topics much better. McKeown should have stuck with what makes his approach unique - breathing.

Also, if you're looking for the science to back up this theory (hyperventilation = poor health), I would look elsewhere. Possibly one of McKeown's other books goes deeper into that territory. Or check out the writing of Buteyko, whose work provides the basis for McKeown's. Still, the breathing exercises are good, and I imagine the same across all his books. And if you're serious about improving your breathing in order to experience all kinds of health benefits, then the exercises are what matter.

[Jan Peregrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Patrick McKeown has written an inspiring self-help book called Atomic Focus for younger readers. It's similar to his books The Oxygen Advantage and The Breathing Cure, but without the science to make it a easy, fast read. It was boring for the most part for me. If you haven't read his other books about the importance of breathing nasally as well as slowly, deeply, and lightly, you won't learn more or not much more from this book.

For two years every day I've done my BOLT score, which McKeown explains will help your lungs tolerate some air hunger or carbon dioxide. In our bodies carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a waste product that we want to get rid of immediately.

Having enough CO2 will allow oxygen to leave our blood and get into our muscles. It helps us to breathe more easily, feel more rested and energetic, move more easily, and have clarity of mind.

Besides the illustrations and directions for many breathing exercises, some of which are only for the young, healthy, and fit, he explains how learning to breathe correctly in his early twenties completely changed his life for the better. He lost his asthma, for example.

The majority of the book is meant to inspire you to do the same.

I know how valuable proper breathing has been all my adult life and wish I'd read the book then. I was never sickly, but I struggled with side stitches while running because I mouth-breathed, which caused lactic acid buildup.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been making a big effort to breathe only through my nose since reading this book. I'm definitely breathing more consciously.
At night I've got lip glue and nasal strips.

Finding it quite hard to exercise while only nose breathing due to getting a runny nose but I'm going to stick with it. In a way it makes exercise more pleasant as it is at a more comfortable pace less likely to impact the central nervous system and cause illness from overtraining.

The test will be in the coming days at work and how when I'm busy and feel overwhelmed whether I can stop, focus on my breathing and come back to work with a clearer mind.

[Mr G M Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Everything in this book is a ‘must’ for anyone who overthinks or suffers from distraction and poor concentration. Valuable insights and exercises. I have so much faith in all this that I personally trained under Patrick McKeown as an Oxygen Advantage instructor and he really knows his stuff.

[Reevrb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A factual book about nose breathing and it’s incredible benefits. A must read for anyone who is anxious or depressed. Literally felt a huge weight off my shoulders the very next day of practicing nose breathing and CP. It’s that powerful!
Thank you so much Patrick.

[Winnie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super book.

Another great book from Patrick. I find his guidance on how to implement the breathing techniques to once daily activities incredibly useful and how to approach difficult situations. I love it.