In the Spring of 2024, I was enthusiastically engaged in a virtual a men’s group that changed my life.

One of the pillars that supported this experience was the opportunity to learn from Visiting Masters, men who had achieved various levels of success with their life’s work. One such master was Mike Salemi, a veteran holistic health coach and breath-work specialist.

From the jump, Mike presented an emphatic principle for navigating the challenges of life: “Whoever breathes deepest has the advantage.”

He was speaking about the particular advantage of maintaining equanimity during an emotional storm, where it is easy to lose the sense of breath at all.

I have found that my ability to perform (a word that I will be defining and exploring in a future dispatch) has been intimately connected to my awareness and practice of breathing in rhythm with whatever I am doing.

This fundamental feeling was further crystalized for me upon reading Zen in the Art of Archery, a story of a German tourist who is accepted into the tutelage of a Japanese archery master teacher. His most pivotal lesson: Breathing is the spiritual undercurrent for any physical act.

The author wrote about not being able to draw the bowstring without extreme fatigue overwhelming his body… until his teacher encouraged he recruit the boundless resource of his breath to guide his motions. This simple and subtle recalibration unlocked his ability to perform in massive ways.

Today during a coaching lesson, I asked a nine-year-old girl, “Why do we breathe?”

Beaming, she replied, “TO LIVE!” I fully agreed.

Before any action takes place - any movement that is a product of Living - there is a breath that inspires the movement. In tennis, we practice the exhale on contact, in an effort to channel our force into the shot… and then relax, all in an instant. The exhalation in and of itsef

Much has been made in the wellness-world of breathwork, though much of it is intensely yang (meaning, more of a workout and exertion than anything rhythmic, nourishing and flowing). My personal experience with a breathwork practice - culminating in 100 consecutive days of a breathing gong - has been greatly bolstered by Mighty Breath, taught by friend and top-flight coach, Brooke McPoyle. This taught me the shape of my breath, its core function (literally) and the manifold power of a One-Second Breath during competition.

So, today and all-ways, I encourage you to find the rhythm of your breath, by observing the daily practice of Noticing:

Notice how you breathe when you drive. Notice how you breathe when you get up out of a chair. Notice how you breathe when you work out. Notice how you breathe when you are listening to someone criticize you or complain to you.

Just notice… and see if you can be the one who is breathing the deepest. Then, you reclaim your ability to respond, and not just react.

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Yours Truly,

Tom

P.S. Reach out to me if you’d like a discount code to purchase Brooke’s course. It has been a legitimate game-changer for me on and off the court.

It is a priority intention of mine to use this newsletter as a portal of influence to connect any open-minds with new perspectives, wisdom and stories.

This podcast conversation offers all three in one fell swoop!

My dear friend Jared Pickard - founder and farmer of BE HERE Farm + Nature - has inspired me not only by his tireless example of creation, but also by way of his origin story.

What on the surface would appear to be chaos and unmitigated catastrophe became for Jared his Hero’s Journey, replete with the themes of Answering the Call and Setting upon the Road… Rather than be deterred and disheartened by unfulfilled life and wildfires, this man was galvanized by it, deeply moved to adapt.

This is the spirit of resilience, a fundamental principle for health, performance and a Vital Life. I think often of the word referenced in the title of this newsletter, connoting the perspective-shift that comes from viewing our misfortune as part of a grand design.

Of all the podcasts that strike me at my Core, this was of course personal, and truly profound. It was a timely reminder that resistance is a signal; that intuition requires quiet and constant clarity; and that we will be compelled toward courageous decisions at many intervals throughout our lives… if we seek such adventurous avenues to walk.

Jared has landed in a place of simplicity - his garden - and community-building via the Being Human containers, which have quite literally been rated as a 10/10 “life-changing” experience by male and female participants. Need I say more … ?

LISTEN HERE: Here for the Truth Episode 306: Cultivating a Biodynamic Life

My encouragement for this week: realize and respect that you are indeed the Hero / Heroine of your own story. Empower every scene with import, detail, color, music, significance - even if it appears mundane!

As Andre Agassi so famously declared in Open, any point can be the turning point.

Be slow, reverant and aware, and you will see how each point leads to a game for Living.

Yours Truly,

Tom

P.S. Please lean into my FIRST Substack essay, dedicated to my time in the men’s group Jared co-created with friend and teacher, Edmund Knighton:

The lion’s share of my coaching philosophy is rooted in this philosophy, espoused by the memorable tennis coach Clarence Mabry:

“The hunger of an inquisitive mind is the most important quality of a championship (athlete).”

Legendary athletes have established their impact through an insatiable desire for improvement, evolving through questions such as, “What can I do today to be 1% better?” This invites a truly collaborative process with coaches, teammates, trainers, other competitors, because it acknowledges the reservoir of potential wisdom that is sourced from other wells of experience.

It was this ravenous reflex that led me to seek deeper knowledge of the body, mind, soul and beyond … I was lit up by the prospect of a boundless realm of opportunity to enhance my awareness in pursuit of my own highest and best level.

Beginning with an open mind, we attract the abundant portals that can reveal the keys within us to prosper in our endeavors that we choose. The filter of discernment then becomes - rather than declaring That can’t be true! - our asking, Is that true?

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Now, in this era that is characterized by so much information-overwhelm, the sentiment of genuine intellectual curiosity can be diluted by the constant influx of content. This is especially apparent on social media, where the workout-you're-not-doing and the supplement-you-didn’t-know-you-needed and the bio-hack-you-need-to-buy all serve as distraction from one of the most fruitful skills ever practiced: focus.

I implore my students to embrace a practice of Open Focus (which I will write about in weeks to come…) because of its potent utility for blending a flowing awareness with perception. In Open Focus, we allow items into our field of vision without becoming obsessed with them; this nurtures our ability to easily let go and move on: from inefficient habits, hurtful behaviors, negative conditioning and more…

Your Challenge - should you choose to accept it - for this change of ends, is this:

Open your mind by unburdening it. Let go of one thing you truly feel is a false belief or bad mental habit. This gains 1% more freedom, a substantial stride and profoundly liberating.

This could be a negative-talk-phrase you repeat often; or an inability to receive praise well; or a feeling of guilt for not-working-hard-enough; to name a few…

The invitation is now yours. Use this time to reset, regroup and refocus before you walk toward the baseline to resume your play.

Yours Truly,

Tom

P.S. Write back with anything you’re inspired to share about how you gained by letting go. I’m all ears!

Four Coaches sit at the top of every program I build.

Not random inspirations. Not 50 habits you’ll forget by Thursday. And definitely not complex supplement stacks and snacks.

Just four pillars — in a dedicated order — that hold up everything else.

I’ve been exploring and coaching a holistic lifestyle for years, and I can trace almost every breakthrough back to one of these pillars finally getting the attention it deserves. And I can trace almost every plateau to one of them being out of sequence…

In this installment, I’m laying out the whole thing in a tidy, succinct fashion, to be expounded upon over the course of this season.

Most programs hand you a meal plan and a workout schedule on day one. They start at pillar four. Then they wonder why you’re motivated for two weeks and burned out by the third. The sequence isn’t arbitrary. Each pillar builds on the one before it. Skip one, and the rest wobbles.

In the spirit of Wimbledon, this newsletter will take on a tint of Tennis to best convey the art and science of this holistic paradigm.

Pillar One: Diet

Not a diet. Diet — as in, the way you habitually eat, the direction you invest your attention in what you consume. This is the foundation, because the engine of You must be propelled by clean, appropriate fuel for it to take you where you want go!

But here’s what most programs get wrong: they treat diet as punishment, as restriction, as the thing you grind your way blandly through. That’s not been my experience… I teach clients to see food as intuition. Every meal is a message to your body about how good - or how poorly - it feels. The optimal choices will carry you a long way.

On the court, this is the difference between a player who’s sharp in the first set and fading by the second — and one who gets stronger as the match goes on, because the body is not wasting valuable energy on balancing sub-optimal choices (e.g. the very high-fiber protein bar moments before rushing on court).

Pillar Two: Quiet

This is the pillar nobody talks about - and not only because it’s so quiet.

There’s no supplement for quiet. No app can truly give it you. Quiet is the practice of consistently communicating with your nervous system — giving your body the signal that it’s safe to recover, adapt, and grow.

Without it, everything else works at about 60% effectiveness, at best. You can eat perfectly and train hard and still feel like you’re spinning your wheels. The key to that is knowing how it feels to operate at cruise control, feet off the brakes for awhile.

For tennis players: quiet is what separates a player who executes under pressure from one who falls apart when it matters. It’s what you’re actually training when you learn to slow your breath between points, when you take advantage of a changeover to recalibrate.

Pillar Three: Happiness

I added this after watching too many clients achieve their physical goals and still feel empty. Happiness here isn’t a mood — it’s a state of alignment with how you’re living, what you’re doing, and who you’re spending your time with. Without clarity here, it can be hard to appreciate the veritable victories.

Research is clear: people who report higher life satisfaction sleep better, recover faster, have lower inflammation, and maintain habits longer. Happiness isn’t the reward for getting healthy, isn’t something we earn by getting gold stars on a health report card. Joy is our own to create, experience and appreciate to guide our inner-feeling of Aliveness.

In tennis terms: the players who genuinely love the game improve faster. Motivation from joy outlasts motivation from fear every single time. As Andre Agassi encouraged, playing tennis should be the focus over winning at tennis.

Pillar Four: Movement

Here’s the kicker: movement is last. Not because it’s least important — because it only works at full capacity when the first three pillars are in place. Movement on top of a non-coherent nervous system, a sub-optimal diet, and low life satisfaction is stress bearing down on an overwhelmed, vulnerable support system.

When all four pillars are working together, movement becomes medicine. Your body recovers faster. You adapt more readily to surprises and challenges. You show up to every session — on the court, in the gym, in your work, in your home — with a reliable, resilient vehicle.

This is why some clients see more results in their first month working with me than in the previous year of “hard work.” Working hard is so rarely the problem in this day and age; it requires even greater strength to slow down, and perform as smoothly as possible, without hurrying.

Over the next several weeks, I’ll go deep on each pillar — what it means, why it matters, and exactly how to start building it, with ample recommendations along the way.

Reply and tell me which one you’re most curious about, or where you’ve been most bemused by mainstream media guidance (e.g. Are peptides really the answer?!). I’ll address your questions directly in subsequent essays.

In the meantime, keep playing the long game of consistency.

Yours Truly,

Tom Foolery

P.S. Which pillar are you strongest in right now — and which one needs the most work?

Reply or comment… I read every response, and your answer can impact how I share this guidance going forward.