1. Wellness tip…
I talk regularly about intermittent fasting as a major health booster. Our much healthier ancestors fasted regularly, not for health reasons, but because they had to, as food was scarce at times. I regularly skip breakfast, allowing for 16-20 hours of fasting between my previous dinner and that day’s lunch. This week, coming off of a vacation, where I ate food that was not the healthiest, and a lot of it, I did a 24-hour, water only fast. This allows my body to detox, my metabolism and blood sugar to regulate, and jumpstarts my body back on track. I strongly recommend looking into intermittent fasting to optimize your health and function. You can read more about it in this blog post by Mark Sisson.
2. Technique I learned about this week…
I’m reading a book titled “Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals,” by Michael Hyatt. (Thanks Dr. Matt W. for sending me that book!) I’m only halfway through the book, but have already picked up several great nuggets. One of those nuggets… The George Bailey Technique. From the book… “In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey decides the world is better off without him. But the angel Clarence intervenes and shows him an alternate story line, and it turns out a world without him is worse off by far. So how does this work off the silver screen? ‘In our research we ask people to mentally subtract from their lives something they cherish,’ says Wilson (a psychologist). In one study, Wilson… compared people instructed to imagine never meeting, dating, or marrying their spouses with those instructed to simply retell how they met, dated, and married. ‘Those in the George Bailey condition… reported greater happiness in their relationships than did the people randomly assigned to tell the story of how they had met their spouses.’ The difference was the alternate story line. Imagining something good never happening ‘made it seem surprising and special again, and maybe a little mysterious,’ according to Wilson.” Basically, instead of replaying the same story about your significant other, the work you do, your children, or anything else you value highly, you re-write the story with ways in which you did NOT end up with these things. Studies show it creates MORE HAPPINESS by making those things “seem surprising and special again.” Give it a try. And get the link to the book on my Recommended Products page by clicking here.
3. Some recent t-shirts I’ve seen …
There are some great t-shirts out there! Some are funny… like two I saw recently with these lines on them… “WORLD’S OKAYIST UNCLE,” and “GENIUS BY BIRTH, SLACKER BY CHOICE.” Some have inspiring words/reminders… like “BE KIND,” and “HARMONY.” Others are thought-provoking. I loved one that I saw last week with an image of a glass that was half full of water. One arrow points to the top half and says “50% AIR.” Another arrow points to the bottom half and says “50% WATER.” Underneath it says “TECHNICALLY, THE GLASS IS COMPLETELY FULL.” That one made me laugh, but also made me pause for a moment and remember two things… that the glass is technically completely full… and that there is more than one way to look at the world. Thanks to my patients for allowing me to snap quick pics of their t-shirts!
