My next 7 day lifestyle experiment was to give 7 days of meditation a go. I’ve always found meditation hard. My mind wanders so much and it was a real effort to try and quiet my mind. But I want some of its purported benefits such as improved concentration and focus, increased creativity, and overall mental happiness. I got a week-long free trial to use Calm Premium, a meditation app and found a 30 day course called How To Meditate by Jeff Warren. Day 1 The course is guided and narrated by Jeff. I sat in a chair and relaxed my face and different parts of my body with each exhale and tried to view my thoughts as things that just happened and not to get frustrated when they came and when I got distracted by them. By distracted, I mean that I got carried away by them. If I …[Read More]
Mind
I took cold showers for 7 days. Here’s what I found
I’ve heard about a lot of benefits to taking regular cold showers and ice bath therapy. Sportspeople swear by ice baths to speed up recovery after intense workouts. Wim Hof has popularised cold therapy with incredible feats of swimming in ice and climbing mountains like Kilimanjaro without a top on. Purported benefits of cold showers include: Improved discipline and mental toughness Boost to immune system Boost to mental state and positivity Invigorating wakeup and start to the day It’s amazing that something so simple has the power to give immense benefits like these. So let’s give it a go! Day 1 I always take a shower first thing and this morning, I hopped in and had a nice hot shower. It wasn’t until about a minute in that I realised that I was supposed to start the cold showers today! Doh. So I decided to do what programmes recommend which …[Read More]
No alcohol for a month – here’s what I found
I wrote the below in August 2019 but it’s been in draft until now. I thought about it again now I’m basically dry until the baby arrives. I’ve never done a period off booze. Not that I’m a heavy drinker or ever have been. I’ve enjoyed social drinking and good binge session for more than 2 decades now and never felt the need to do a dry January. In recent years, I’ve enjoyed boozing less and less. I still love the taste of craft beer and good wine, but my hangovers are getting longer and longer. Sometimes they last until the third day. It isn’t always throbbing headaches. It’s also a feeling of not being too sharp and slightly foggy-headed. I’ve toyed with the idea of would my life improve greatly if I just gave it up. At the end of July, I went to a craft beer place with …[Read More]
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker – key takeaways
Why We Sleep is a ridiculously valuable book for anyone who doesn’t sleep much on a consistent basis. Whether that’s due to insomnia or to being a total badass who thinks that sleep is for the weak and lazy. Matthew is someone we should listen to. He’s professor of of neuroscience and psychology at UCLA and before that he was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He also works as a sleep scientist at Google Life Sciences (Verily) The main takeaways from Why We Sleep Consistent sleep deprivation is really, really bad for you. By sleep deprivation, he means anything less than a solid 8 hours of sleep. Walker links consistent sleep deprivation to cancer, dementia, obesity depression, and anxiety. Also, the shorter you sleep, the shorter you live. All in all, really, really bad. We have a chemical called adenosine that is continually produced from the moment …[Read More]
Definitely feeling the benefits of implementing some of Aubrey Marcus’s book “Own The Day, Own Your Life”
I love airport bookshops. It’s like the best of books distilled into a few shelves. I can never resist even though it will double my carry on luggage. The domestic terminal at Melbourne Tullamarine had some enticing books: 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson (which I’ve read but only on Kindle, so I bought a paperback there and then), First Man In by Ant Middleton, who I’ve only recently discovered on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, and Own The Day, Own Your Life by Aubrey Marcus. I snapped it up alongside Peterson’s. (Will get Middleton’s book soon.) The premise of Aubrey’s book is that by making the right small decisions throughout our day, we optimise our health, mindset, productivity and overall well-being. This helps us to win our day, and if we do this day after day, we win our life. The section I really like is …[Read More]