Mindset

We're approaching the end of the year. Time for a little check in - give these couple of questions a bit of thought over a cuppa. How's the year been for you? Have you achieved what you hoped you'd achieve this year? If so - what has worked so well for you? What's next? If not - why not? What hasn't been working? What do you need to do differently? Try not to get bogged down in the detail; instead, keep your thinking "big picture". Cold plunges, vagal nerve stimulators, mushrooms, creatine, collagen, weight loss injections, might all be useful, but nothing compares to getting the big things in place. There are no shortcuts; in fact, short cuts usually have the opposite effect in the long run! Once you know what you want to work towards next, think about what needs to change in your diet, your exercise routine, your stress management and your sleep quality in order to reach your goal. You can bring in the small things once you've got the big things well and truly in place. Hit reply to this email and let me know your goals, and your plans for heading towards them - I'd love to hear!

As the clocks change this weekend, apparently along with the weather, I thought it would be a good time to write about daylight and circadian rhythm. While it is much easier to not bother going outside when the days are shorter and the weather is less than inviting, it is still well worth making the effort, because even when the weather is miserable, it is significantly brighter outside than it is inside - so you're still getting that all important serotonin hit. They say that a good night's sleep starts the minute you get out of bed in the morning, and that's because when you get a hit of serotonin from the daylight in the morning, you're 'pre-loading' a hit of melatonin at bedtime too. The minimum shown effective is 30 minutes of daylight before noon. This can be cumulative if necessary. But, light isn't the only way we maintain our circadian rhythm. Whenever I talk about this, I'm reminded of one particular client. She didn't have a set daily routine with her work hours, and worked in a super brightly lit environment. So, her sleep quality wasn't great, and she was exhausted all the time despite the large number of hours she spent sleeping. This was making reaching her other, perhaps 'main', goals difficult. So, we worked on improving her circadian rhythm by getting her light and dark cycles as regular as we were able to, and also used other ways to send her body signals too. We got her sleep into as much of a routine as we could, and she went to bed and got up in as regular of a routine as we could manage. Meal timing was another important thing to put into place. We brought her meals into the same 60 minute time slot every day. Do…

For most of us, there are certain things which we find easy and other things which we find difficult. Life gets in the way, and those changes we're trying to put into place gradually fall away until we remember them again! I'm no exception. There are always lessons I'm re-learning and which I try to make a point of remembering. Right now, I seem to continually forget how much better I feel the next day when I get to sleep by 10pm, and also, I'll drink tea until it comes out my ears, but I rarely drink enough water during the day. And so, I'm working on improving these things. How do I remember them? I read once about the power of simple accountability, I can't remember where now. The author explained that he had a friend call him at a set time each evening to ask whether he had completed whatever action it was that day. This 10 second phone call was enough to make him want to avoid embarrassment, and kept the action in the front of the authors mind. Perhaps you don't want to trouble a friend with this task, but I've always found it effective to make a note of whatever it is I'm trying to make routine. I'll write it at the top of my diary for each day of the week, and I'll pop a tick or cross next to it at the end of every day. That's it. You could put a note on the fridge or by your bed, or even on your phone - wherever you already look at the end of the day. I find it takes just a week or two to become really consistent with the new action. I'd love to hear whether you find this little trick useful?