Extra: Dana Perino and Ross Rayburn on How To Reset Your Habits & Mindset After Summer

0:00This is the Fox News rundown Extra. I'm Dana Perino. For most people, January 1st is the time for fresh starts and new resolutions. But for many of us, the real reset comes now. As we approach Labor Day and summer comes to a close, the back-to-school season serves as a second new year. It gives us a chance to re-evaluate our health, habits and even careers. Recently, on the Fox News rundown, I spoke with performance strategist author and speaker Ross Rayburn. He spent years as one of the most recognizable instructors at Peloton before he made the decision to build his own platform on Substack. He had great insight and practical advice and our conversation was way too detailed for our regular podcast. So today, we're bringing you everything he had to say in full. As always, thanks for listening and if you haven't already, please follow the Daily Fox News rundown podcast throughout the week. Now, here's Ross Rayburn on the Fox News rundown extra.

1:01Ross, thanks for coming back. I love having you on the Fox News rundown. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. So one of the reasons I wanted to have you here, aside from just getting to see my friend, was this idea that I always get this feeling around this time of year that it's back to school. And for me, that's a little bit like New Year's, where you make a resolution. And the back to school time is I feel like a natural moment in the year where people can say, okay, how have I been doing? Maybe the summer was great. Maybe it wasn't. And the post-Laborate of Christmas, like I want to accomplish a certain thing, create a new habit, be healthier, or be more intentional about whatever the resolution is. And you have done something pretty incredible, I think you've had an amazing career. And then you had a major career pivot. And now you've done something very creative and you're out on your own. So tell us a little bit about what you are doing now from when we saw you when you came out with Turning Inward.

2:04Okay, first of all, let me say again, I'm so happy to see you. Thank you. And so happy to be here. You're one of your biggest fans. Thank you. And I'm actually going to take the first part first, because I agree with you. The whole idea of setting resolutions and even intention setting, I think is kind of one of the trickier things we do as humans. And there's certainly value in it because goals motivate. I think that's the essence of why we do it, because we want to, joke, I rarely meet someone who wants to get worse. Most everybody, like one of the things, and in fact, one of the things I loved about Purple State is like looking at things that are shared. And like one of the things we share as human beings is we all want to get better. So it makes sense why we set goals. And then it makes total sense why we would also be angry and even feel some shame sometimes when we don't meet those goals. Or disappointment. Or disappointment.

3:04Frustration, all those emotions. And then it can even become like a cycle of frustration and disappointment. So one of the first things I try to do at this time of year particularly, because it's, I think of this, this moment almost as another new year. It's, no matter what it's intense. Like because you're going from one season to another, you're going from one state of mind, say a summer state of mind to a new school year. New semester, like clean paper, new trapper keeper. You know, you don't know who you're going to be. And then away, that's actually good because you get to also write a new story. If you have, of course, the courage to do that. But because all these things are so high stakes, one of the first things I do myself is I try to lower the stakes. Okay. I try to say like, you know what, if the goal might be big, but I'm going to go for one moment. I'm going to go for one moment of doing that thing that I, the person that I want to be. If I can do it one time, I will consider that a success.

4:07Okay. And then the little kind of, you know, the secret in that is you do it one time and you enjoy it, then you want to do it again. And so you start to build those moments of success. And even if you, you know, fail a lot, you know, think of that as you're planting a seed, or you're like planting a step in this stairway of eventual success. So again, I like to take, in fact, and this is a good segue to what I'm doing. Instead of teaching traditional yoga classes now, I'm trying to teach, I'm teaching people just about posture, mind and breath in one moment. So like before you go on the five, or even when you're on and say you're not speaking, or you know, you're an athlete, you know, you're a quarterback about to go into third down or fourth down, or you know, you're a third grader about to do the harder way about to do the hardest subject.

5:08Or presenting class. Presenting class, like that moment, which is terrifying for most of us, can you in one take one breath, think one thing, and assume one posture of that person you want to be, of your intention, of your resolution. So all of it, like in one moment. Is there a lot of science behind breath work? Absolutely. In fact, one of my favorite stories recently was Roy McElroy. When he won, you know, he, he, at the, on the Saturday of the Masters, had the largest lead ever in history. And then he lost it. And he came back. And won. And he became, I think, one of four golfers in history to win back to back. So not only historic, but huge arc, or huge, great narrative. And there was a story in the New York Times that he said he used breath work. To not choke.

6:09So it's, so what I love about that is breath work is kind of moving away from the, you know, I try not to use this word too much because it's a little bit pejorative, but woo-woo. Yes. And to move it into the pedestrian, the accessible, like how everybody can actually, everybody breathes. It is interesting because, so, um, do you remember, like, free universities? Yeah. Did you ever have that where you lived? So Denver had, like, the free university. And you could go take classes. It might have been like $40 or something like that. And I love to learn. And I remember in the summertime in the middle of college summers, I waited tables. So I had certain chunks of the day where I could take one of these free classes. And one of them was about breathing and meditation. And I was interested in it, but I also was like, this feels so hippie. Right. And I don't know why I thought that. I'm obviously, it's not, but then my- What probably was? Well, maybe, well, back then. And then my dental hygienist here, she started, she was, she was going through a lot of depression, issues, and anxiety.

7:11And someone recommended doing this breath work. She started actually working with the breath work coach. And now she is, like, leading an instructor for breath work. And she just swears by. She's like, you won't believe what it can do for you. No matter what you're going through it, a lot of us are not going to play at the masters. But even just like getting through day-to-day life, grief, anxiety, depression, or getting yourself prepared to perform, whatever it might be in front of the boss, or even if, maybe it is, even also like before I go on the five, maybe I should take a deep breath, so I don't want to scream at somebody. I know it's great, actually. No, listen, yes. That's me because I breathe. Well, it is, actually. And then, you know, there's a reason why take a deep breath is part of our AlexaCon. I mean, that's not nothing. And in fact, so, you know, it's been two years since I left Peloton. I was on camera every day. Yeah. So I was used to this. And come, you know, I, on my way here,

8:14I started to get a little nervous. And, you know, even though I've had this great career, like I still get nervous. Sure. And it's excitement. But you can change, like, you have to think of nervousness as energy that you can channel into making you more successful. Absolutely. The problem is, like, that's sometimes the thinking doesn't translate into the being. Like, you know, you may think it, but then you don't do it. However, I have imprinted a breath, what the way I actually feel, the way I breathe, when I'm helping someone. And I have a memory of that. So on my way over here, I started to breathe as if I was helping. And so, like, the service breath, as opposed to the validation breath, changed, literally changed the way I felt. And I actually got this from an acting teacher, because I was a really bad actor. Did I say that? I was a really, really bad actor. But I had a really great acting coach that was trying to help me be a better actor.

9:14And he said, in a scene, breathe the way the person would be breathing. If you're scared, breathe faster. If you're calm, breathe slower. Oh, interesting. Because our breath is the quickest way to actually regulate our state. So it's this, again, inside out, my yoga studio, which was 20 years ago, believe it or not, in LA, it was called Yoga Inside Out. And I'm coming back to that and thinking, okay, what is something that everybody owns that no one can take away from you, unless it's obviously taking away your life. But you can't take away your breath or your ability to regulate your breath. Therefore, you own it. So it's the most inside out thing that you can do. And you can do it in one moment. And maybe it doesn't fix everything, but you never know. You never know if it's going to fix it just enough to make a difference. So you decided to start a new substack. Tell everybody about that where they can find it. And if they wanted to practice with you, how do they do that?

10:14Well, I didn't even know about, I mean, I knew about substack for journalists, but I didn't realize that substack has become this multimedia. It's kind of, it feels like YouTube and TikTok and Pinterest and Instagram all in one. Yes. And you can put a note up just about what you're doing or you can do a podcast. So I didn't even know about that. It was that. So once I found that, I'm like, oh, this is a fantastic way for me to put content out there. And really instead, what was so great about Peloton was I just presented. Like the audience was there. I mean, that's how we met. I didn't come to you and sell me to you. And so I loved just being a service and presenting. And substack is such a fantastic way. I can put it out there. And then people are finding me that my stuff resonates with. So it's all on there. So it's Ross Rayburn. Ross Rayburn Yoga is both my website and the substack. And right now I'm mostly just doing meditations because that's people, you know, my sleep meditation voice was the...

11:18Your sleep meditation voice is great. In fact, my father passed away late May of this year. And one of the things my sister was having trouble with sleeping. And I sent her the link to your substack. And I said, I said, just try this. And it worked. And I used to also like the ones that you did on Peloton. Whereas like if you woke up in the middle of the night and you can't get back to sleep. That's me. Like if I wake up at two in the morning, I'm like, I am white awake. I'm thinking of 100 things. And I can try all of those things. Like I don't like that thing. Like breathing in a box, four, four, four, four. The Navy seals do that. I'm like, wow guys, I couldn't do that. Then I tried this thing of counting backwards by three. And like that's too easy for me. And then I tried by seven. And it's too used to it. And I'm like, I need to go back to that because the only thing that really helped me go return to a state of sleep was where those meditations. Yeah, cool. Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, let's be honest. Like that's sleep's hard for me too.

12:18I mean, I usually can fall back asleep. But it's a thing for a lot of people. I mean, so I love that I have a friend that jokes. I've been falling asleep to your stories for years. It's no surprise that that works for people. But I love that again, Sub-Fac is now providing me a way. Because even though a lot of my meditations are still on Peloton, and I do want to shout that out because I Peloton changed my life in so many positive ways. So I'm glad that I'm still a part of the community. But the new ones to have a way to put out new ones is kind of great. And then I'll eventually start to do other things, like postulated, mind-related on screen. Could you talk a little bit about career pivoting in terms of people who might be thinking, okay, new semester or new chance for me to think about wanting to change? I mean, there's so many things happening right now in terms of technology. Opportunities, lots of opportunities out there, but also a lot of fear that people have. And you've successfully made a pivot. What were some of the lessons you learned from that?

13:19Wow, well, that's a fantastic question. I think one of the biggest lessons, I guess lessons, because I'll be really honest, like it took me a while. I mean, I was two years in between, and I had some family stuff that also took my attention. And there was a period of time where I was like, what, I don't know what I want to do. And I did get in this executive coach, which that's, you know, something that is not for everybody. But one of the lessons that came up was actually to say, I don't know. And again, I found this was a purple state connection. I don't want to get it wrong in paraphrasing correctly, but you really emphasize curiosity. And one of the, and like curiosity, I think is one of the greatest, like, it's youth. It's a way to maintain a childlike mentality. And one of the hardest phrases, I think, for us to say in this day and age,

14:19when everything is about answers and everybody wants their identity and all that stuff, the courage to say, I don't know, especially when you're not in power, like when you're, say, being interviewed for a job, or you're having to say something difficult, like, you're having to raise your hand and be courageous, or you're about to pivot job-wise. I mean, that is, that is such courage. Like, I don't care how, how, I mean, one little caveat on this is being safe is important. Like, I was financially safe, and there's a privilege in that that allowed me to be courageous. And I think that should be said, if you don't think you're safe, or say your safety is in your own ability, you trust in your own ability. That can be a safety, because I, you know, that's a kind of safe privilege in a way. But if you're safe, be willing to say, I don't really know what I'm doing. A lot of things aren't rocket science.

15:20I trust in my ability to figure it out in the moment. And that, all of a sudden, like that, formulates that, alchemically turns into courage. And so you kind of let the courage rise by just saying, I don't know, and but I'm going to do my best. And I'll, and I'll be okay. Yeah. I'm better than done, but that's kind of where I look at it, sort of, again, from the inside out. I love that. Just a couple of more questions. One of the things I think is difficult for a lot of people, and I'm like this. I don't, obviously, I have a busy schedule, do a morning show, an evening show, and like, starting for the news, everything busy life. It's finding the time to do things like the meditation or the dogs. Although my husband does most of the dog work as well. So how much time does a person need to dedicate to a breathwork practice or a meditation practice in order for it to be meaningful and impactful? Like, if somebody wanted to start tomorrow, how long do they need to dedicate?

16:23I have a couple of snarky answers this. Okay. One is 33 minutes. And that leads into, it is a question that is above my pay grade. Okay. Because I think it's case by case. It's even person to person. It's going to be different day to day. I don't know whether to attribute this to great teachers or the amount of practice I've done leading up to this, you know, the seeds that I've planted. But I can pretty much change my state in, I mean, I was just traveling, you know, travel for me is what used to make me the most angry. And I can actually reframe the context that I'm in, usually in one breath now. Wow. But I didn't used to be able to do that. And I'm also ready for that not to work next, you know, in the future. It may take years. You know, it may take years and you notice incremental changes in your behavior.

17:25And you might notice improvements and then, you know, one step forward, two steps back. I guess the best answer is it actually doesn't matter. Because if you're trying, if you're focusing on just taking your breath, whenever you're remember to do it, like, I'm kind of okay with that. Do you know what is, I'm going to reveal something here. I was in a period where I was, it was like lots of stress. Realize that I just was not taking many deep breaths. Do you know that I scheduled it in my phone? And it would come up and it would say make sure you're breathing or like, like, take a deep breath or something like that. That's brilliant. It's kind of embarrassing, but it worked. I think that's, I think that's the opposite of embarrassing. I think that's, I had to take some sort of responsibility for it. And I think what you're doing in terms of taking all of the great audience that you had at Peloton, expanding it beyond, going out on your own and teaching people to find a way to find some control in this time

18:29that feels very out of control, either politically, financially, with technology. The one thing that you can have some control over is how you regulate your breath. And your posture and your mind. I mean, again, you talk about this a lot. It's, we all have the ability to shift our perspective. Yeah, it's life is a, yes, and life is a decision making experience. And you have made some great decisions. We keep referring to this. I'm just going to pull it up. In case you're watching, this is a photograph of Ross and his mother and cousin. And they came to the woodlands in Houston to see me during the purple state book signing. And that was such a thrill. So thank you. See it there. So cute. His mom's a big fan. Five. Yeah, she's an, you know, and it's again, one of the ways I love my mom so much, but you know, she knows how to push my buttons. Mm-hmm. And when, when things like that happen, when you get, because let's be honest, this whole thing of reframing or re-recontextualizing or changing your perspective

19:29is so much easier said than done. Because when the S hits the fan, that's when it most likely doesn't happen. So A, let's admit that. B, what I try to do is I actually, like I was just on an airplane. And when one of the ways that I call, I call it imprint breathing. So I looked out the window before we were landing. And that perspective of, you know, like when you can see things, but it's still so small. So I imprinted that moment in my memory. So when I'm having a frustrating moment, say when my mom pushes my buttons, I literally think of that different perspective. And it has this kind of magical way of, again, not making me told you, not making me totally calm, but just enough that I'm better. Do you know how I think I also deal with it as humor? I think that's one of the things that makes the five so successful, is that we take our job seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously. And we're willing to be silly and to tease each other.

20:30And it has kept me feeling younger, even though we've been doing that show for 15 years. And if you're laughing, you're breathing. That's amazing. I love to let eyes surround myself with is if you're, if you make me laugh, like we're going to be friends, I will find a way to, I will invest. Like most of, I'm not funny. Like I am like, you've got, you've got jokes. There's a difference between having material and making people laugh. But I'm okay with it. In fact, when I used to teach, because I knew I liked the power of laughter to make people, to bring levity to the room like yoga doesn't have to be so serious. So I learned that I would tell a joke and then I would make fun of the fact that I wasn't funny and the self-deprecation got the laugh. Right. That's how we met, because I said you a note. I'm like, actually, I actually thought that was funny. I might have been the only one. It's, I think it's so, it's so true. And again, you know, one of the things I, again, this is a little bit, this is the thing that easier said than easier said than done idea or silo.

21:32But ultimately, life is meant to be playful. Yes. And if you can, like you just said, if you can make, if you can find some play or make your work playful, like what, what greater blessing is it than that? Is there than that? Indeed. Well, we wish everyone a great new semester where they're just going back to school or just having a moment to reframe your life for the rest of the year. Ross Rayburn at Ross Rayburn Yoga. Thank you so much. Thank you.