“Trust the process, respect the process, be patient whilst in it.”
In short: Tony Riddle is a natural-movement and rewilding advocate who sat down with Brian Rose in 2019 for this London Real Success Secrets clip. Asked what single piece of advice he would give a 20-year-old, he talks about trusting the process, then lays out a month-by-month way to reintroduce natural movement, sleep, food, air, community and breathing into modern life.
Rather than asking people to change everything at once, Tony suggests picking one area each month, such as sleep, sitting, food or breathing, and experimenting with it. He argues that most of what makes people healthier is a set of small habits copied from how humans lived in nature.
The clip moves from sleep studies of hunter-gatherer tribes to practical swaps for the tube and the office, then to hugging, nasal breathing and the way children absorb the behaviour of the adults around them.
Key takeaways
- Trust the process. Tony’s answer to a 20-year-old is to be patient inside whatever process they are in, and to find or become one if they do not have one.
- Pick one thing a month. He says it can feel overwhelming to fix sleep, movement, food and environment at once, so he suggests a 30-day challenge in a single area.
- Rewild your sleep. He argues that people in nature do not sleep a solid eight hours, and that light, temperature and firelight shape sleep more than a target number does.
- Sit less. Refuse the chair on the tube, squat and hang while you wait, set a timer at your desk and take the stairs.
- Breathe through your nose. He calls breathwork the most important modality and suggests nasal breathing before meals and before bed.
- Connection matters. Quoting Virginia Satir, he suggests aiming for a dozen hugs a day and making real connections with people.
- Children copy what they see. He says the first seven years of life lay down templates, so adults should be mindful of the behaviour they model.
Trust the process and start with one change
Brian asks for one piece of advice for a 20-year-old watching. Tony goes back to where the conversation began: trust the process, respect it and be patient whilst in it. If you do not have a process yet, he says, you will find one and become it.
He accepts that a list of physical needs, from sunlight and food to sleep, can be overwhelming, so he suggests taking one per month and treating it as an experiment.
Rewilding your sleep
Tony says rewilding sleep does not mean becoming obsessed with sleep studies or eight hours. He points to studies of tribes, including the Hadza, who are awake and asleep in shorter cycles because they have no light bulbs, cooler temperatures and a fire to tend and children to watch.
In his account, what people call sleep debt is the build-up of chronic problems, and he links light and melatonin to digestion through the hormones ghrelin and leptin, with temperature also playing a role.
Movement, food and the home
For a 30-day challenge Tony suggests sitting less: refuse the seat on the tube, squat when the doors open, stand and hang from the bar, use the stairs, and at the office set a 20 to 25 minute timer, then push the chair back and squat with the heels allowed to lift.
He adds simple swaps for food and water: unprocessed food your grandmother would recognise, and spring or filtered water. At home he suggests sitting on the floor instead of the sofa and trying different rest positions, and using plants or an air purifier in the bedroom.
Community, breath and the first seven years
Tony calls community and connection the big Cs, citing Virginia Satir’s idea of four hugs for survival, eight for maintenance and twelve for growth. He then returns to breath, saying the nose is for breathing and the mouth is for eating, and that three minutes of nasal breathing before a meal helps the body shift into rest and digest.
He ends on children. In his view the first seven years of life record the templates people play out for the rest of their lives, so adults should be mindful of what they model even if they have no children of their own.
Who is Tony Riddle?
Tony Riddle is a natural-movement and rewilding advocate who appeared on London Real in 2019. In this Success Secrets clip he draws on studies of hunter-gatherer tribes and on his own habits, including nasal breathing and sitting less, and mentions his daughter Lola, who was ten at the time.
Frequently asked questions
Tony Riddle told Brian Rose to trust the process, respect it and be patient while in it, and to find a process if they do not have one.
He means not obsessing over eight hours or sleep debt, and looking instead at light, temperature and rhythm, as seen in tribes such as the Hadza who sleep in shorter cycles.
He suggests squatting and hanging on the tube, taking the stairs, setting a desk timer every 20 to 25 minutes to squat, and sitting on the floor at home.
He says the nose is for breathing and calls breathwork the most important modality, suggesting three minutes of nasal breathing before meals and before bed.
You can watch the full clip free on this page, with the transcript below the video.
