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Triangle Theory: Nutrition, Sleep, and Movement

all right. Welcome to day number nine. We're rocking it out. I hope you're dancing with us Nice and take seats So we start off Every day of the power of happiness is a little dancing warm up just to get those endorphins flowing And today we're talking about triangle theory or the triangle of wellness. Before I get into that, let's talk about where we've been and where we're going. So we are on day nine. We've talked about chart of happiness, mastery, areas we've played. We've sung. We've talked about your Sango, your community. We've talked about your G spots, gratitude and giving On Day six. Yesterday we talked about your lucky Jack, A little lever that you could hit to set yourself up for success and say We're talking more about physical wellness that I'm actually. So today is an interesting day for me. And I will tell you that this was not a week in the beta version of this course. When I launched the power of happiness a year ago, this was a bonus. I was just, like, a little extra.

Pdf. I didn't really do a long video on it, and I was like you know, I don't I don't know, Like I'm not a wellness experts, so I want to have a illness. But it's so integral to our happiness. And a lot of our Beida students asked me for more. They were like, you know, you had this little bonus section, but like you talked about sleep, I would love to know your sleep packs. You talked about eating? What are your eating hacks? Because, you know, I'm a hacker. So, like, I always I've hacks for every area of my life, not just interpersonal skills. And so I was like, OK, this version. I'm gonna make it a whole day, That is. That's what we did. So we're gonna be talking about balanced health, happy bodies. And this is really about funk prevention because so much of our physical well being has to do with our chemistry and are chemicals. But first, before we do that, since we're talking about the body, I want to do a little warm up. So at home, I want to pull out a blank piece of paper or your this. There's a section especially for you in your workbook on floor number nine. It says do your warm up exercise here. So we're gonna look at that little blank space and I want you, Teoh, take a deep breath or going Take a deep breath. I'm gonna give you 30 seconds. And since we're talking about the body, I would like you to draw a self portrait. So I would like you to draw your body little self portrait in this area. You're gonna have 30 seconds. You can't overthink it. I'm gonna do with you. Ready at home, you two, Let's go! Arrives Everyone put on your pens. Hold up your self portrait. I want to see everyone. Self portrait. I'm lounging mermaid style because I figured it was a long space. OK, so these are great. You're holding on her, and I love it. But your heart is the body like you. Hard your the metaphor in there. I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay, so this exercise one gets us a little bit tuned in to the body, right? It's kind of in a weird way. What did you emphasize? What did you de emphasize in your body? How do you picture your body in your own mind? Is an interesting exercise. I've done it with a lot of teenage girls. It's really interesting to see how they depict their body. The other aspect of this not just depicting our body is also the drawing aspect, right? What did it feel like to draw to be a little more creative? So one thing that we're going to talk about a lot of we have talked about is the indirect effects of happiness. People who start businesses and file patent applications are more likely than their peers toe have creative leisure time hobbies. Now this is actually counterintuitive. You would think that, Ah, crazy inventor and engineer, Let's say would be who has all these patents would focus 100% of their time working away in their workshop. But actually, that's not the case at all. The people who are the most prolific patent filers have crazy leader time hobbies. Yeah, sure, they might be an electrical engineer, but they also paint. Maybe they do, um, product prototyping, but they also do ceramics and hiking and acrobatics. So when we talk about our master areas, it's not just the professional skills that I like to emphasize. It's also some of those creative, leisurely hobbies. Galileo, for example, painted and drew when we think of Galileo for his science discoveries and what he looked at the moon, the planets. But actually, when he saw mountains on the moon, his telescope was not powerful enough to see those mountains. What he saw was, I think it's called Shura Score oscuro. It's like the lighting on mountains when you're drawing. And so he recognized the shadows of mountains from how he draws mountains. And that's how he knew there were mountains on the moon. So when we have all these really interesting talents and skills and we have a learning bucket list, sometimes those areas affect us in our professional endeavors, right? Nothing is separate. Everything contributes to the creativity that we have. Yes, one said he recognized the shadows of the mountains from drawing, and he would not have seen that otherwise, because his telescope was not powerful enough. Here's the problem is when we're talking about happiness. Whenever you're focusing on just the emotional or the psychological effects of happiness, it's like you're leaving half of the power on the table. We have to talk about physical wellness as well as happiness. And this is the metaphor that someone gave me when I was a teenager. I was in health class and we had all these speakers come into our help class and talk about different things. Fitness and nutrition and health class. I don't I don't know about you, but it was pretty boring in high school, you know, you kind of was like a snooze class. It was an easy a You'd go in and like bringing your math homework. Er, I would going to bring him home work and do my math homework on the side is one speaker came in and she said, If you were given Onley one car for your entire life, imagine you were given a one car. It's 17 years old and they said This is the only car that you're gonna have your entire life. You would treat that car so well, right? You would make sure it was clean. You would make sure No. 18 in your car. You would get it serviced and tuned up all the time. And she said, This is your body, right? Your body is the car that drives your mind. You're only given one for your entire life. Why do we treat it so badly? But if you're only given one, I would treat a car that I got once way better than I treat my own body. That was the thinking at this time. So this is how I think about my body. Now, it's sort of like my only car, so I try to get it serviced a lot. I try to give it the best quality gasoline. I make sure, toe, you know, rub my headlights. What do you do when you take care of a car? You know, wax it? Yeah. Yeah, that's accurate. That's a good metaphor. So I try to take care of my body. Who with that metaphor was rough. You don't have to edit that out. You can keep it in. Okay, Like that joke. See, I don't mind it those day in. So let me explain something about downward spirals. No, I mentioned a couple times throughout the course, the idea of triggering something up in sugaring, something down. And I actually got this theory from the amazing book called The Upward Spiral. It's in your happy reading list in your bonuses by Alex Korb, and I want to dig a little bit deeper today into that chemistry that he talks about. So I mentioned a couple parts, the brain, but very specifically to simplify it. This is how it works. The PFC or the prefrontal cortex is sort of like our CEO. It's kind of the command center of the brain. It's dictates a lot of our behavior. The limbic system is the feeling part of the brain. They're very, very closely tied when they communicate. That's how they keep our body regulated. For example, the PFC might say who? We have a stressful day. We better pump adrenaline rightto limbic system. An Olympic system begins to trump pump adrenaline or testosterone to get us to run faster, so they work to keep us regulated. They work to keep us efficient. What happens is there's all these chemicals, a place the way that the limbic system of the PFC again this is very simplified. For all my neurobiologists at home, the way they communicate is through chemicals. And so there's all these chemicals that happen, and I showed this side of the very beginning. For example, we know that nor norepinephrine enhances our thinking and helps us deal with stress. We know that melatonin is what affects the quality of our sleep. So all these chemicals are going back and forth in our body and keep us regulated. What can happen in a special we're talking about happiness or depression are what Alex Dr Alex Corp calls downward spirals. So what he has found in his research that a single difficult event can actually change your chemistry. That change in health or changing chemicals could create a repeat of a cycle. And that's actually the cause of some of our permanent funks. So specifically, here's an example. So yes, so the example he gives in the book is a really good one and actually going to be a personal example in my own life. So when I first got to college freshman year, I felt homesick, right? I went. I lived in Los Angeles. I went to Emory Grade School in Atlanta, but it was a big culture shock, going from Los Angeles, Southern California to the south, very, very different. So immediately I felt a little bit homesick. I was also eating really differently, right? All of a sudden I went from home cooked food to Mac and Cheese and Rahman and dorm foods. That was a really big difference. I couldn't sleep well because I had a roommate and people were really loud in the hall. I had a coed hall. Don't ever do that. Don't ever do that right. So it was really loud at nights. Had a really hard time sleeping. I'm also having a really hard time making friends, which is not surprising. I was really uncomfortable in college. I didn't wanna rush, so I spent a lot more time actually alone. I had people who were around me a lot, right. I had very little alone time, but I felt very alone. All of my friends at one point were like a part of Greek life, So I went from having a lot. He'll around to everyone having semi formals and gatherings together. And so I was being left out. Even though I made the choice, not join Greek life, I felt very left out. I felt really rejected by it. That made me stay in even more often, which maybe try to sleep more, especially during odd times the day, because everyone would leave at seven PM, so I'd be like, Perfect timeprint hap. So I take a nap from 79 p. M. And then my whole sleep cycle was messed up, made less friends. I stopped working out, felt even more left out and then felt even more home. Second depressed, right? So this cycle happens to a lot of college freshmen. That happens to a lot of people who move across the country. There was also things happening. I did not realize this until I read Dr Alex Corp's book that there was all these chemical things happening to me very, very slowly. I was slowly triggering this downward spiral that was making it worse and worse. So, yes, all these things were happening. But when I was sleeping less slowly, my melatonin was getting out of whack, right, which makes it even harder to sleep. Then I got left out, which made me feel have less oxytocin, which is that feeling of belonging which made me feel less calm, made me feel like I was out of place. Even worse when I was rejected. That increased my cortisol levels or my stress levels also makes you gain weight. Then I stayed in I had last open means or had even less pleasure. And so all these chemicals and less working out I had my endorphins out of whack. So there was all these chemical things happening in my body that didn't feel big, you know, a miss work out here a bad night's sleep there. But actually, I was engaging in this downward cycle. And Dr Core likens this to a traffic jam. We have these really stressful parts of our life that are sometimes temporary, right? Like maybe a really busy week at work. That one really busy week at work can throw something out of whack. And then all of a sudden there is your melatonin gets, it'll accident over here and then your endorphins getting a little accident over here. And there's an accident over here with your, um, dopamine. And all of a sudden you have this giant traffic jam, and it's really hard to get after that. Bad week is over. You're like, OK, back to normal. You do not feel back to normal like you just have a really hard time hitting that normal stride again. You're like, Why? Why do I feel so out of whack when I just had one bad week and it's over. So let me just specifically talk about some of the chemicals before behind each thing. So when serotonin dysfunctions when serotonin gets into a car accident, typically that makes you have less willpower. Motivation? There's times when you get back in there like I just don't feel like doing anything that actually might be chemical. That might be Sarah tournaments out of whack. They found that when norepinephrine dysfunctions or gets in a car accident, that's when you have difficulty concentrating. So you sit down at work and have so much to do, and you're like, God cannot get through this to do list and you're like, Why? And you get really angry yourself? That actually might be something that's totally chemical when you have less dopamine. This is when you have less enjoyment and you have trouble breaking bad habits. So they think that dopamine is a huge part of addiction food addiction, coffee addiction, smoking addiction, drug addiction, alcohol addiction. So when we feel less enjoyment that can actually effect breaking bad habits or creating bad habits later when you have less gabba, that's anxiety. That's very very tight hearings that that feeling of generalized anxiousness never had that where you wake up and you're just like, I am so anxious. But I cannot figure out why that could be a chemical melatonin. When it dysfunctions, you have trouble sleeping, and then when you have less endorphins, this is when you have a harder time dealing with pains. You tend to get more headaches for backaches. More migraines, right? So we recognize these things is a bad week, but sometimes they make us feel completely out of control. So my goal today is to tell you that it's not just you, right there is way more happening. It's not always logic. We like to be really logical. You know, I'm in a bad mood. Why, right? And then we don't have a reason. It makes us feel frustrated. There's a lot happening chemically that's going on. So an example of this is let's say that you get a bad email, which means you have to work extra hours to clients really angry or you have ah, project that's late. You have to work extra hours. That means you miss your workout that day. That's a little bit off. Then you order take out because you like. I don't have time to cook. I'm just gonna order take out. They have a big, big heavy meal of food. You're not used to eating, and you kind of sleep badly because, like, the food feels a little bit weird in your stomach. Takes away your energy, then you become delayed on even more deadlines. Come next morning. You're like comatose. You know, you're like a lots of coffee. I can't function. I can't concentrate. I have a headache. My back hurts, Which makes you snapped your partner, which makes you drive the day. Right? That's how some of these cycles start. What I want to talk about today is how can we stop that cycle from happening? So maybe you get right here and then we don't let the rest happen. We don't let that downward spiral continue. This sound familiar to anyone? Because when I read this book, it felt like he was speaking right to me. Okay, I'm glad I am the only one because when I read this, I was just like I was like highlighting. I was like painting, you know, like I was like painting every single chapter so healthy, unhealthy, equals unhappy equals unsuccessful. This is not just about happiness is also about our success. We know that unhappy workers take 15 extra sick days per year. Interestingly, cores gruelling When they put $1 every $1 spent in the corporate fitness came back in $6. and profits. So we know that investing both time, energy and money into our health comes out in other ways. Yes, emotionally, but also with our success. Full disclaimer. I am not a nutritionist. I am not a trainer. I am not a health coach. I am just a busy person who tries to give healthy. So the hacks and I'm gonna present to you today. They're not from the perspective of nutrition coach. It's just the hacks that I do to try to stop those downward spirals from happening. By the way, I am in full support of getting yourself. One of those today is just meant to get you thinking. That's it. I'm gonna give you some tricks on they give you some ideas and hopefully maybe there's something in there we could be like, You know what? I really want to focus on this. So if you can get yourself a nutritionist, a trainer, health coach, do it. I love it, but standing to give you some tricks just to get you started on it. So I my theory on wellness and I've never taught this before is what I call the triangle theory. This is that I believe wellness comes from a balance between three things. Nutrition, sleep and movement. So because I am very busy, I work to 15 hour days. Typically, I try to work only five days a week, But it's hard. I have to come up with hacks, ways to stay in shape where I don't diet. I don't diet ways that I can feel good in my body and sleep really well and still have really high quality work. This is exactly what I do. This is my plan. Well, I think about my health is sort of like a triangle. So triangles is really cool shape that balances from all sides. Right. When you drop a triangle, it can fall on any side. I feel like your health is the same way you have these three things that support you and as long as one of them is really solid. Usually you're OK. So when I'm going through stressful times, I try to make sure that I have no more than two out of whack. Ideally, I have all three in harmony, but it's OK if I don't really. I'm always making sure that at least one is really solid, because I know that if I have one, I have something to balance on. So when you drop a triangle right, sometimes that means that you are really focused on nutrition and on the top sleeping movement. Maybe have some things you're working on. But my nutrition is solid. Another week, maybe it falls down, and that week my sleep is really good. Maybe I move a little bit last time, but I don't eat perfectly. My sleep is good. I'm getting eight or nine hours. One week later, Triangle falls On that week, it's all about movements. I have really good workouts. I get to exercise my body a lot. Maybe it'll asleep. Maybe get a little nutrition. That's how I balance. Here's what I do for each area. Here's how it stops the triangle. So I have a bad email, and I have to work extra hours that happens. I miss my work out. I know that I have one side of my triangle that's like a little unbalanced. So I make sure that I have a bunch of really healthy freezer meals. So instead of ordering take out, I go into my freezer to get those meals. So I know that one side of my triangles out that will typically make it so that I don't sleep is badly. I don't get is delayed. I don't snap right, so it's kind of a shifting. I don't know, never taught this before. That kind of makes sense. I'm always trying to focus on one. So another one would be like, OK, I have a bad email. I have to work extra hours. I still get my work at him, but I decided to take out right. Okay, I can't get a workout in Italy. Second order out, and that doesn't affect my sleep as much. At least I got a workout in. So here are the three different areas, my hacks for each area. So let's start with movement. A couple things that I do to keep that exercise in shape. One is I do exercise pairing. So I briefly mention this in the Now How day is. I make sure that all of my favorite shows I only watch when I'm either on an elliptical on a rowing machine or on a treadmill. The way this works, why it works so well is because a I look forward to my workout because I know that I have one more episode of orange is the new black toe watch, right? And I stay on way longer, by the way, like instead of his doing 30 minutes, I got to get to the end of this 45 minute episode because I really want to watch. Orange is the new black, so help me look forward to more. It helps me do it a little bit longer, and it cuts out my TV time, right? Cause I'm not. Otherwise, I'm just laying in bed watching TV. Second, I actually tried to incorporate my sang activities with movement, so I mentioned hiking. It's kind of a celebration that I do or rock climbing, so I have friends that I go rock climbing with my friends. I do tango class with my friends. I do Zumba class with my friends that I do hiking with and like they know that I'm always trying to exercise pair with them. So I have this beautiful feeling of belonging with my hiking partners. Rock climbing partners, tango partners. What I'm what I'm seeing. Friends were often moving. Very rarely do I see a friend and just go to coffee or just go to dinner. Typically, we will walk or work out together before after we get together. And that's great, cause they're usually just into it as I am pales to do walking lunches and walking breakfasts as well. Last one is so one of my master areas is high open, so I sign up for as many new workout classes as I possibly can. There's a really cool thing called Class Pass, which allows you to pay sort of, ah, one set fee, and you can go to his many classes you want. I try to do this as much as possible, so I feel like I'm exercising one of my skills by trying different kinds of exercises. Three other thing that I wanted to add here, which I think really helped my back and my neck since I work at a computer for so many days as I invested in a really, really good standing desk who totally, totally changed my life like totally got rid of my back pains. Now I'm standing for usually four or five hours a day, and I sit and stand sitting stand. It's one of those ones that has settings. So I invested like the nice one had to say about for it, because then I just press a button. It goes to my seated, press a button and goes to my standing That really helped. I also use balance boards. Sometimes my mom calls where I'm listening to Webinars. I'm doing balance boards if you ever hear that in the background when you're on a call with me. But I also have, ah, tumble ball in my office that I'll sit on two. So even in my work, I've incorporated movement in small ways. That has really helped so question for you guys a little kind of litmus test. Do you think you move enough right? Like it is moving enough? Kind of mixed. Interesting. Okay, so I'm gonna ask you, by the way, at the end of day to pick one side to focus on. So if you if you raised a green card, that movement would not be yours. Maybe it's a different one. So let's talk about sleep for a second. So sleep. The 1st 1 is a number five we talked about. Wow. And I have created what I call a sleep palace, which is my bed. So I highly, highly recommend the best investment I think you can make is making sure that your bed is incredible and not only your bed, your entire sleep routine. So my bed just so you can see I was like, I'm gonna show all that everything that I do for this bed. So one is I have a Casper mattress, which I love their amazing um, you have the softest sheets known to man like officially, they're like the softer sheets known to man. Um, I used temper pedic pillows. It's like a royal kind of bed. Like just the look of the bed makes me feel kind of excited to get into it. I have aromatherapy next to my bed that I use before I go to sleep on. I have, like, lots of soothing pictures. I picture of my family. I have candles all around my bed. It is truly a palace. I think that when we love that process, that ritual getting into bed, I think it helps us feel that sense of wow every night and every morning when you were like, Oh, I love this feeling right. Make sure you don't have lumpy pillows. You're like I had a friend who was like, Oh, I had this pillow. I hate it. I'm like, why don't you get a new one, right? Like that's a pebble. If there's any pebbles that you're putting up with, like, don't be Princess and the pea don't have, like, a little pee in your bed, right? That sounds weird, but like under your mattress, make sure that you don't have it in your just tolerating second and third. So, um, you know how when you're little, you have a whole bedtime routine, right? When you're a little it's like, Okay, it's time to brush your teeth. All right, time to get in your jam jams. I think we should do the same thing for us. I have a bedtime routine, so I want you to think about. What are the things you do in the 15 minutes to an hour before bed? Do you have really comfy jammies? You should do You have toothpaste that you love, right? Do you have things that relax you and unwind your but your brain and mind before bed? I want you to think about that routine just like you would for a child. That we are. Our inner child loves to have that routine right before bed. Lastly, of course, my saying is I sleep with someone I love. And if you are lucky and obviously with him in your love, make sure you take a moment to savor that and even include them in your routine a little bit like what do you say? Right before bed, right. What is the last thing you say before you go to sleep? Make that something that also gives that moment of wow as well. Do you get enough sleep? Do you love your sleep? Do you have a sleep palace? Little more reds on this one. Okay, so I'm giving you this as your to do list that you have toe. Have your sleep palace in your routine last one is nutrition, so I love talking about nutrition. Actually, anyone who knows me knows I talk about cooking nutrition a lot, but I never talked about it on my social media websites. So here's how I don't diet and I don't diet. One is I have a rule that I only eat real food so I can anything that I want as long as it's riel. So by that I mean, I try to make it all. The food that I eat is no more than one or two steps away from the source. So I ate a lot of vegetables, a lot of fruit. I lean protein. I eat very little dairy, a very little bread, a lot of grains and beans and lentils again. If it's in its whole form, I eat it almost anything. So if it's processed by more than two steps, I don't. That's the only sort of litmus test I have, however, by the way, and this is sort of that now how that I love finding and eating real food. If I want something processed, I have to process it myself. It's the rule I have for myself. Is it? If I want bread, I can have bread. I could have as much board as I want, but I have to make it from scratch. Um, this is a trick that I play on myself because cooking is one of my mastery areas. I love to cook. I love to bake, So if I really want that food, I have to then use one of my skills and also the process of going through. It makes me appreciate that bread so much more. When you're actually kneading bread with your hands and you smell it in your house, you enjoy that piece of toast for days more than any toast you would ever buy. So I also make my own cheese. I make my own pesto. It's actually relatively easy to make those things, and I love it. So eating real food or processing it myself. And then, lastly, I try really hard to savor everything I eat. I try not toe work during my meals. As I mentioned before, I always watch a Ted talk during lunch. During breakfast, I typically lead on my patio, even if it's raining. All typically like bundle up and either sit in front of my fireplace or sit under the awning on my patio. So I try to always have savoring experiences of routines with my food. I also love this. The five foods you should never eat by Negar for Nooni Fitness coach One food you don't enjoy. I totally agree, right? Just because someone says that cilantro is really good for you does not mean that it tastes good in my mouth like I have that gene that makes it taste like soap. So I never eat that food that makes you feel sick. I when I first started my health and I actually was about £75 heavier when I was growing up. So when I lost a lot of weight the way that I did that was actually sat down with a food catalogue and paid attention to what every food made me feel like that made me break out to make me feel bad in my stomach to make me feel tired. When I cut out all those foods, I lost a lot of weight. Eso I was eating food that didn't make me feel been a demon realize it. So if you think that's you, I highly recommend doing a food log and tracking how it makes you feel three food that you feel guilty about. So this was the big one for me when I thought about bread doesn't make me feel the greatest. And so that's why I was like, Oh, look, I don't know if I can eat this or not, but I didn't want Teoh take it away because I really enjoy it. So saying that I'm going to make my own bread from scratch, I'm gonna use the best quality ingredients, something to get a guy who grinds whole wheat flour for me to do it made it so that I don't feel guilty about anymore and also makes me feel better because I know exactly what went in it for food that you just can't stop eating. So I think there's a difference from eating for hungry, eating out of habit or eating out of addiction. So anything that pop you just can't stop anything that is that I usually don't don't even put my mouth cause I know that it's ah, it's an addiction not actually that I enjoy. And loss of this is the one that I followed the most food that isn't really food food that I don't know exactly. The steps more than two steps removed is your nutrition and balance. Is this something that you think that you have kind of imbalance? More greens on this one? Interesting. Okay, so on the 21 day challenge actually wrote a post on the science of eating all with all a couple of my hacks, and that was one of our most viral posts. I couldn't believe it. I was like, Of course, I write 500 posts about human behavior and, like the one on the science of eating gets like 40,000 shares. So we have a post in the science of eating where I've explained some of the science behind why we eat, how we eat in our cravings. So if you want to read that, you can. It's in our virtual toolbox as well as the science of sleep. Some of the chemicals that go into sleep. The last one I want to add here, and I don't have this is a side of my triangle. But I do think that's something that I keep in mind. And that's the idea of mindfulness and we know the science of mindfulness. So a couple things that I do a little hacks that I use. If I am having trouble sleeping, I typically will do the 478 breathing exercise. If you want, we can all try this together. So this is the best way to fall asleep at night without any help. So typically, what you do explain it for a similar together. So this is when you taken in breath for four seconds, hold it for seven seconds and then out for eight seconds. You that 3345 times usually almost get always gets you to sleep. You're ready. Let's do infer I'm gonna count for you. So I'm not gonna do it while you do it. So in for four, Ready? 123 four and hold it for 7654321 And then slow out for 876 five for three to one. So that exercise what I do most nights, especially having trouble sleeping. That exercise is also great. If I am having a really anxiety provoking day, it's a really easy thing. You can also do it quietly. It's kind of nice right. So if you're sitting in, like, a board room or a waiting room or your office, you just, like, need a moment to chill out. It's the faster version. I think of meditating where you need, like total science silence. You can do that anywhere, so I use that all the time. I also a huge fan of the headspace app. For those of you who are trying to learn how to meditate, Headspace does help me. Um, I always like to joke that I'm like a terrible meditator. If you could be terrible, it's something. At least I do try. So if you want to start learning meditation in that head, space is a great way to learn to try. And I also much better at walking meditations. I'm not really good at sitting still. I'm not very good at not doing anything, so I find that if I do walking meditations that really helped. At least I feel like I'm moving and I'm pairing mindfulness with it. Couples Scientific studies on mindfulness meditation So Massachusetts Gen researchers looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in a mindfulness meditation course. I love this after the course, parts of the participants brains associated with compassion and self awareness grew literally had mawr density and parts associated with stress. Frank. In other words, meditation literally changes the wiring of your brain so small moments really help again. It's not my on the big side of my triangle, but some people would add it to make a square right. Maybe they have a square and they add mindful, It's on there. Also, we talked about rituals and a number five. I think that having rituals around food to savor it, make it a little wow is great. I have some really funny mugs. Actually, my colleague Danielle gave me this mug on my team members. I don't know what she was saying there, but she gave me the smug for my coffee every morning. Eso how can you create some mindfulness rituals before bed while eating to clear your head? You should have a go to ritual for every single one of those moments. When I tell you, how do you calm yourself down? You should be able to say to me, Oh, I do X, y and z right? So what is your calm me down ritual when I say OK or time to get ready for bed. What are the X Y Z things you do before bed and eating is the optional one, but I think that I like to watch also Ellen videos. Sometimes when I wanna laugh while I'm eating, I actually think that laughing helps digestion. There's no science on that, but I do believe that laughing helps you digest food. So I try to watch as many funny videos as I can while I'm eating Last thing here, I want to mention this is another opportunity to take that Kate 10 test. So in your bonus materials is the free materials that you just get when you cook the RCP button. I have a K 10 distress test. You feel like there's a little something more going on here. Swing more with your chemicals out of whack. I really, really encourage you to take that test and see if maybe you want to get some more help because we're talking about chemicals. We're talking about some serious stuff, right? It's not Yes, we can hopefully change it with sleep and food, but sometimes you need a little bit more help. What I'm asking myself constantly on a day to day basis is typically how am I doing? How's my movement? Has my sleep? Health, Nutrition When I asked you to raise your questions, am I getting enough sleep? Is my nutrition imbalance? Am I moving enough? I ask myself those three questions a couple of times during the day. That is what dictates where I'm gonna put my energy that day. It's more into cooking something we're working out, or any work a little literally so I can get an extra hour of sleep. That's how I typically keep everything in check. Let's play, Start, stop, continue with our health. So what I want to do is depending on the area that you picked or if you haven't picked one yet. Let's play each of these categories and at home, I want you to write down where you want to start stopping. Continue. So starting all those things that I just mentioned, I mentioned a couple different ideas. What do you want to start with? Something new that you might want to try after I just mentioned those three different areas of your triangle, I guess for me it's asleep. Yeah. What? What What thing do you want to try? Specifically? So I think that like a Roman things that aromatherapy so a really fun thing to do. Especially if openness was on your list. It's actually go and try a bunch of different aromatherapy scents and, like, stand there and be like, what makes me feel the most? Relax and take each sent, then slowly smell and be like, Ooh, like sandalwood makes you feel most relaxed and, like, get like a beautiful little diffuser, right? Like that's a ritual that you can set up for yourself. Someone else. What else would start something? Yeah, I need a bed time. Yeah, because I have a lot of different hack a lot of different sleep packs, but it's not helpful if I wait till 12. 30 at night to dio you. And if you are not sure when that's gonna happen Exactly. So how many will have a bad time? I have a bad time. Okay. Okay. So I do highly encourage of bedtime. Um, usually, I'm in bed by 10 o'clock reading. That's part of my ritual. And usually I'm asleep by 10. in between 10 30 11. It's on a hard time, but 10 or 11 then I usually wake up at seven. That's my bedtime and wake up time. Um, other starts. Who wants to start things? I think you raise meditation. Made it totally. Gonna try the AB. Yeah. Headspace app. I love it. How about stop? So what are you going to stop? Yes. Having screens in front of me before bed so hard? It's so hard. So one way that you can do this is have a charging station like a real good charging stations set up that's not in your room. So most people will say, Well, I charge my phone or my computer before bed or it's near your head. Um, so if you can set up like a really great like strip, all of the records already plugged in, your much more likely to put them all in there before you actually walk into your room again. That makes you want to use that. Yeah. Part of the reason I struggle with it is because I use a sleep cycle app because I don't like alarm clocks that jolt you out. Yeah, I agree. That will ruin my day right off the bat. Yeah. So I have a gentle one. Yeah. So it stays next to me to charge on my bed, and then it notices how much I'm moving and will wake me up gently within 15 minutes of whatever time I have said it. Tea party. People love those. I love it. But it also means that it's so close to me every night. I don't know. This is true or not, but I wonder if you could research if there's, ah, device that does that without your phone and or if it would be worth buying, like a really old IPod or IPhone without a data plan just for that app. Okay. Like, I wonder if that would be worth it or not. There are some entrepreneur somewhere. I have heard that problem before. Create this device, please. That's the reason I don't do it. Don't want to stay with my phone in my bed. Um, other stops, Other stop. Yes. I need to stop watching stressful things before, but oh, yes. So, um, do you mean stressful? In terms of like, they're depressing or things that rile you up? Um, a little bit of both. Probably with a rile. Like, for example, were we've been watching the Americans. Uh, and there are episodes that I'm just so like stressed out that is not It's something that I do want to continue to do, but that is not a good before, but so mealtime exercise pairing Morning. Yeah. If I like that a lot, one more stop who can give you one herself? Yes, actually. Waas eating things that were not in whole food for a long time. And I slightly drifted off and it becomes more and more. And so, getting back on that no sugar, no white, you know, And going back toe only eating the whole foods that are usually in a refrigerator, not in a covered. My covered will be empty against at least go do a big clean out, right? That could be the start. Go clean all that. All that stuff out. I love it. How about continues? So, what's working for you? What have you been doing that you think? Yeah. This is really serving me. I'm really glad I've been doing that. And he continues, Yes, I've been part of my exercises taking the dogs out, so I know the dogs need to walk, and so I get out there and and they guilt me into it and their adorable. And you get oxytocin by being around your dogs and opening by. How cute. There. Yes, I love it. Movement with a pair I ever continues. Yes. Take it public transport to work. So I work Fuel station Before I take the public transport unit, I build some mocking in into my routine every day. Wonderful. Yeah. And you might even get there wearing a tracker, right? To see how many steps. Perfect. So I usually went to I'm not wearing one during creativelive because I don't take enough steps during creative life. So it's really sad. I'm, like, standing all day, but it's like you've walked 300 steps and I'm like What, Like I'm exhausted? How could that happen? So usually I will wear fitness tracker as well. So I want you to play, start, stop, continue with health as well, right? This is something that I will do. I don't actually do it as regularly as I do my professional start accepting you, but if I'm feeling out of whack, if I'm feeling like kind of drains low energy and a funk. I will go and I'll be like, OK, like, time to reset Time to clean out all my cupboards, Right, cause sometimes you accumulate gifts, he will bring things over. Maybe you bought something, So having that reset of knowing is this working for me as a really good way to do it? The other good thing is you can use your entire workbook to fill in your happy and healthy review. For example, every different activity that we've done in some way is tied to your health or can be tied your health, for example. And I have ah, bunch of prompts for you in your workbook for this now how How can I enjoy my health right now? That's the Tetris block, right? If you're searching for good things in your health, your already and that on mindset examples with your chart of happiness, more cooking or gardening or walking the dogs, more yoga or any of those in your chart of happiness with mastery, what is the skill I have that improves my health? So do you have a skill that could somehow be tied toe one of those three triangle areas. Example. Do you want to follow athletes? Instagram's right. Is that something that inspires you? Can you trying new activities? Do you want to get out in the sun? If you're an outdoorsy person, right, What are things you can add to that mastery area? Three. Play playing with healthy ideas. What could I do to be healthier? Maybe one of your happy experiments could be with a health idea. Right? Going and trying aromatherapy would be the perfect kind of happy happiness experiment. So examples. New classes, new recipes, game defying your health, right? I know someone who one of our previous students uses this zombie running up. You know, it's like an app like it has, like, zombie noises in your ear while you're running, you play your music, and then it puts on me always over your music to get you to run faster. Eso like that was the one that she liked loves, so she was talking about that for control. What could I do to maximize for my health? So what are things in my life that create meteo eat better work out more and sleep better? And what are the downward spirals. So sometimes I've noticed that when I'm with certain friends, I really bad. I don't know what it is about. It's on a downward spiral, but it can trigger a downward spiral, right? You eat something bad and you don't feel great. You sleep in. You miss your bedtime, all those things. So I have found ways to make sure that we're doing nonfood activities together. Right? Well, typically, go to tea will typically go out walking. We go to the dog park those kinds of things. So removing obstacles and inserting obstacles, putting steps in front of your bad habits. Wow, Biggest question here is how can I save her more, right? How can I savor the feeling of that, my sleep palace or this amazing meal that I'm having this cake I baked from scratch? Ever try to make response from scratch? You will appreciate them much more than a Christian. You buy it a bakery examples the slow eating movement. I know people who swear by it. I have not particularly read that book, but I've heard it's really good drinking, dining with friends, laughing, lunch, learning lunch, right, so I usually do a learning lunch with Ted talks. But on some days I try laughing lunches because they digestion number six G spots. So how is your health? A gift in itself, right? We have to be so grateful for the health. But we do have a right. That is one thing that in your gratitude, totem, Hopefully, health is one always one of the things that you mentioned to yourself. You're grateful for using your cause champion as health. Like maybe it's something we're outside or you're using movement, maybe something where you're you're helping people with their nutrition, right? How can you integrate the two with your single? Who are your health partners, who in your life helps you eat better and work out more? And when your life doesn't no bad or good, just good to know who those people are. How can you get some more support? Workout partners? A food group. Health Pledge. I run a Spanish vegetarian cooking club. Um, Spanish Vegetarian Cooking Club. It's long where there's seven people that in my life, who like to cook budgetary, who like to eat vegetarian, who likes cooking, who speak Spanish So we get together and the rules you can only speak Spanish, and we spend four or five hours practicing our Spanish and cooking vegetarian food. It doesn't have to be Spanish vegetarian food. It could just be any kind of a turn food. Amazing that I found seven people who were willing to do that with me. You'd be surprised when you ask. The world gives lucky Jack, What are your health expectations? So I want you to think, Do you expect yourself to run a four minute mile? Or do you expect yourself to have health problems like, What are your expectations around that? Almost always. If I say to myself, I'm probably gonna sleep terrible tonight. I'm almost always gonna sleep terrible tonight. So thinking about how you're setting yourself up for good and bad sleep, good and bad, nutrition or good and bad movement tracking progress really helps with this. If you feel like sometimes you get in your own way or there's any self sabotage going on, I really recommend food logs and sleep logs, testing your assumptions and learning about your health. This is where I really recommend getting a coach or getting a helper, right, because sometimes you need someone else to give you that honest truth. By the way, with my lucky Jack. One of my assumptions was I don't lift weights right? I only do cardio. That was an assumption that I have for myself, and one of my good friends was like, Why I I love lifting. Big guy does cross fit and I was like, I was like, I get injured across it. He was like, Really? Do you? He's like, Well, if you think about that, you will get injured a CrossFit. And so he actually encouraged me to get a weightlifting coach and I do weight lift with Sage. He's amazing once a week, and now I feel that I can wait lift. So I have added weight lifting into my schedule with his help, and he's taught me a weight lift safely. CrossFit Little too much for me, right? Little too intense. But I can do it one on one with someone, so I highly encourage if there's someone you can reach out to to do it. He'd be very proud if I did squats for you right now. But I won't eso tomorrow. Last day you can believe it. We're on the last day we're learning assertive ism, which is a culmination of every day that we've learned. So fall far in a beautiful gift wrapped package. That's what we're gonna do tomorrow. We're gonna open that gift tomorrow. Challenge one, pick one health experiment for each side of the triangle. So I know you probably have one idea that you want, but I would encourage you just to play the what if game. If you could make your sleep better, what would you do? You could have more balanced eating. What would you do if you could have better movement? What would you do just in the what if game and see if that feels like that Could be a happiness experiment for you. Please set a monthly alert to add one more. So this is one of the few lessons that if you just do it once, it doesn't last forever. Right? Learning about your lucky Jack. That's a mindset that you can keep forever. Once you know what, you know it. Health can sometimes fade away, and then you go through phases. So please set a monthly alert for 30 days from today to re examine your triangle and maybe pick one more healthy experience experiment trying to meet one mindfulness ritual. Even it's just trying. The 478 exercise once encouraged to try that one time in the next 24 hours and see how it makes you feel. So let's talk about what the most important thing you learned today, very briefly before you finish. Before we finish up eso in your notebook I have in your workbook. I have, ah, huge chart. But I want you to fill out with some ideas. So I have every single pillar that we've done so far. Plus a bunch of questions for you, for each one for sleep, eating and exercise. You can actually go through here and kind of just play the what if game. You know, if you had to improved that, that chart is for you to fill out, which is kind of a fun one to fill out. So now what is the most important thing you learned today? Any Ah ha? Yes. Your hand went right up. I loved it. You're like here. I love your idea. Was triangle theory. Yeah. Um, because I've never thought about it so you can be off on two things, But you can choose one that you are Yeah, good at today and it's cool. So I want to bring up the idea of guilt here for just second. I didn't bring this up earlier, but since that was your happy ah ha moment. So I think that is as women were actually hold women in this room for women watching. We feel like we have to have everything perfect all the time, right? We have to, like, eat the perfect breakfast, have the best snack pack, have a really, really good workout, and we have to have the perfect night's sleep. But if we don't have all those things are health is out of whack, right? I had a lot of that pressure, especially when I was trying to lose weight. And then I had lost weight. I was like Huh, The moment I have a bad meal, I'll gain all £70 back, right? So I realized that is not sustainable because I was never happy. Nothing was ever good enough for ever perfection up. So I think the triangle theory, it kind of lets you have a little bit of relief. Maybe you have some bad sleep. Maybe you didn't eat so great. That's right. Like, have a great weight lifting workout. Right. So I hope it takes some of the pressure off for focusing on one. So thanks for bringing that up. Yes. I think I've realized these things are gonna happen themselves that you're giving us realistic tools and I can't sit around ago. Oh, I'm gonna Maybe I'll take a walk around the block and that will be like, I have to plan it. I have to do it. I have to utilised the apse. Yeah. I have to get my butt up and go. Yeah, that's a really good point. So that's waiting or looking, right? We asked that question yesterday. Are you waiting? Are you looking? So maybe in your career, you're always looking. You're hustling, right? But for health, it's the same question. Are you waiting or you looking right? Are you downloading APS? You try new things. You trying your recipes? Are you trying a new class? I think it's the same kind of questioning there, Your honor, your off someone else that someone learned. Yes. I'm really gonna look to bring my single into my wellness try and go? Yes, that's gonna be I. I like to build a community within that. Not just be on my one track. Absolutely. I love it. I love time. And also you're giving them a gift by bringing them in as well. One more for me. Yes, I like that. You spoke truly about the, um, chemical imbalances in your body because I didn't realize that one triggers another and another and another. And then it all becomes that downward spiral. So being able to catch it like you mentioned catching one at the beginning, you can make a quick change in the traffic jam. There's up. So I have a favorite. Ask you at home. So first, I would love to hear your happy. Ah ha. If you like. When I talk about this stuff, I'm happy to write about it more. I never know if it has a place in the science of people. So if you like it, if you want me to share more half packs or instagram things, I'm happy to do So I'm happy to talk about weightlifting like that was something that really I love. I never thought I would love it, so he like me to write about it. Please tweet me your happy Ah ha And let me know so I can give you actually what you want. And of course, people who tweet every day will win a copy of my book. Captivate. We will announce the winners at the end and let's do a little dancing out. Trolls get some movement in absolute steps to our to our movement for the day.