Creating Work-Life Balance
You have probably heard of the term “work-life balance” at least once in your life and that is because it is both a hot and important topic currently, especially with the rise in technology in our days which makes it easier to blur the line between our personal/family and work related activities.
If we can manage to establish a work life balance which works for our lifestyle, there are many benefits associated with that, which is why I was inspired to write this post today.
I hope you get something valuable out of this one :)
WHAT IS WORK-LIFE BALANCE?
When talking about work life balance, we are talking about the level of prioritization between professional (work, school) and personal activities in our life. Everyones work life balance is different because we have different preferences and priorities in terms of how we like to spend our time.
I would also like to clarify that work life balance is not always “balanced” in the sense that we spend our time equally among a variety of activities. There are times in our life where we are busier with work or school related work, and other times where we have more leisure and family time.
The idea with work life balance is not to create a “perfect” balance of how we live our life, because perfection does not exist and our work life balance in this sense has to be adaptive and able to shift according to our time priorities in a certain phase of our life.
The point is to create a work life balance - a distribution between personal and work related activities - which feels right to you and fore mostly works for you and makes you feel fulfilled and balanced in some way.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
What do the benefits of having a functional work life-balance look like?
Increased productivity and motivation to work
Decreased illness and absenteeism
Increased physical health
Improved personal relationships
Lowered levels of stress
Improved sleep and less insomnia difficulties
Improved mental health (lower incidence of depression and anxiety)
Greater reduction in chance of encountering burnout while working
Greater clarity of mind and focus (Being able to unplug from work)
Re-establishing a sense of what matters to you and creating personal priorities
Not feeling guilty for taking time off or time for yourself when you need it
15 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR OWN WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Come to terms with the fact that everyones work life balance looks different and there is no perfect formula
Take time to pause and rethink your current routines, priorities and values: How do they match with how you ideally want to be spending your time?
Make health and family time one of your priorities and balance all other work around that
Reduce unnecessary tasks which do not add any meaning to your daily life. Try to delegate tasks which are taking up too much of your time or energy
Pay attention to which activities drain you of energy and which ones energize you
Pay more attention to your body and emotional wellbeing (one of the first signs of a unhealthy work life balance is feeling over stretched and unsatisfied)
Try to negotiate changes to your schedule or work at your work place
Set time boundaries at home and decide on a time each day at which you stop working
Plan ahead and schedule in important activities into your calendar
Set times to digitally unplug and switch off from “work mode”
Take a break or vacation if you really need it
Make use of weekends and days off
Consider wether you enjoy what you do as an occupation
Make your working more efficient by blocking off time in your calendar for certain tasks and setting a time limit on the tasks you do
Be motivated to implement changes in your daily routine: Identify what makes you motivated to work more effectively as in that way you can finish your work faster and have more time left over for other personal activities
CONCLUDING WORDS
Within todays post, I wanted to focus on the idea of work-life balance and what it represents as well as what are some practical ways in which you can currently improve your own. Remember, there is no “perfect” balance at any point in time, our priorities and what we value shifts through time so accordingly we have to be flexible with our schedule and lifestyle.
I hope you were able to learn something new or useful from this and that you make it part of your weekly practice to try and realign your current actions with your true priorities.
Thanks for reading.
Maintaining A Healthy Relationship With Social Media
Based on the statistics resource Statista, so far in 2022, 4.59 billion people are currently labeled as social media users, which represents a very large percentage of the global population.
Additionally based on data from 2021, people in the age category of 0-19 years and 10-24 years spend an average of 49 minutes per day on social media while the largest amount of time spent on social media (60minutes) is actually by people in the age category of 40-45 years old.
This data represents two main conclusions:
The number of internet and social media users is increasing daily
Different age categories are likely to spend substantial time on social media, a trend likely to increase
With this I wanted to highlight, that it is very likely that social media is going anywhere anytime soon meaning that it is becoming easier for us to fall prey to this alluring (and wasteful) use of our time. Luckily, we have the ability to control how much social media we allow to enter into our lives and which kinds of information we intake.
For this reason, I have written this post to discuss why social media is such a common time waster, what are the negatives of it and how we can ultimately have a more manageable relationship with social media.
WHY DO WE FIND OURSELVES CHECKING SOCIAL MEDIA?
Infinite scrolling:
The reason why we often find ourselves endlessly scrolling or browsing through social media and why it is so addictive in the first place, has to do firstly with the way the information is laid out.
Most online platforms including many social media apps today, such as Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Reddit, Tik Tok etc, make use of what is called infinite scrolling technique in which media continually reloads as you scroll down a page. This makes it easy for time to pass, as it makes the experience of viewing images, texts or videos very easy and effortless. When combined with the fact that social media websites personalize our feed to our preferences, it can make us more prone to becoming addicted to continuous scrolling.
Additionally, human beings are prone to the Unit bias, which states that we are naturally motivated to complete a full unit of something, in order to find a satisfying experience. When this is combined with the infinite scrolling algorithm found in social media apps, it results in continuous scrolling as we try to get to the end of something, but because new content is continually generated, we never actually get to the end of that content.
Role of dopamine:
Another biological aspect we have to consider is the role of dopamine. Dopamine is a naturally produced chemical and neurotransmitter in our bodies, whose main functions revolve around motivation and seeking of rewards; in other words, dopamine enables us to learn which behaviors do good for us which encourages us to do more of those types of activities.
The way in which dopamine works in terms of social media goes like this: When we browse through social media and for example get a bunch of comments or likes on a photo we just posted, our brains reward center becomes activated which releases dopamine into our system. This chemical brings pleasurable sensations to us - sort of like a neurological “high”, which essentially reinforces the notion that we should continue doing more of that activity that allowed for the release of dopamine (opening social media to see how many likes we have received). Keep in mind that dopamine is released both in anticipation of doing something as well as when we do something itself.
This same process can occur when browsing through content which makes us laugh, relieves us temporarily of uncomfortable feelings or relaxes us, all of which make use of the natural reward system in our brains which releases dopamine to reinforce that behavior.
The catch is that once the dopamine levels in our body start to decline due to the natural regulation of homeostasis, our brains will once again try to seek for activities which will release dopamine and start the feel good process all over again. In this way, scrolling through social media, provides little constant bursts of dopamine which over time can lead into a serious and time wasting habit of compulsively checking your phone and mindlessly scrolling.
Involved brain regions:
This idea of mindlessly scrolling through never ending infinity pools of media and information essentially means that we are constantly using our limbic portion of the brain, which is responsible for processing emotions and reactively responding to our environment. Instead, we should be predominantly using our prefrontal cortex in order to make decisions, as it specialized in planning and problem solving - processes which add rationale behind our behaviors.
DRAWBACKS OF EXCESSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA USE
Body Image Issues & Insecurities
By posting photos of ourselves, social media enables us to earn the approval of others for our appearance and ability to compare ourselves with others. In this way, constantly comparing our physical attributes to other often very curated and “perfect” bodies or people can make us feel worse about ourselves and encourages the development of eating disorders and low self esteem. Posters on social media have the tendency to only post their highlight or best looking moments, which creates an unfair source of comparison for us.
The Question Of Trust
One advantage of social media is that it allows us to have access to large platforms of people with which we can share media and connect with. This is great for expanding our social circle but on one hand, you have to be careful of this increased exposure to other people, as not everyone who presents themselves as a “friend” is actually your friend in real life. Furthermore, even though we are more digitally connected than ever, people are report higher feelings of isolation and loneliness, which can arise from excessive use of social media and lack of in person interactions.
Sleep Difficulties
As humans we are biologically wired to get tired and fall asleep when it gets dark outside, however in our technological age that is becoming increasingly harder with our bright phone or laptop screens glaring into our face much after sun down. Social media use is not making this issue any better. The issue with common electronics is that they emit blue light from their screen which in the evenings, suppresses our bodies natural release of melatonin - a chemical crucial for initiating sleep - essentially making us less tired and ready for sleep. Additionally, with social media we might be consuming alarming, distressing, disturbing or even funny media which stimulates our brains and makes it even harder for us to get a good nights sleep without waking up in between.
Social Media Is Addicting
When we gain approval of others through social media, which can be in the form of likes, comments, shares, followers or views, our brain registers this positive increase with a release of dopamine which essentially encourages our brain to do more of the same behavior which lead to this positive experience. This effectively means that checking social media and spending more time on it can become a very addicting habit, which can lead to further issues such as procrastination, FOMO (fear of missing out) and a shorter attention span.
Higher Incidence of Depression and Anxiety
FOMO, or the fear or missing out is a very real issue when it comes to social media usage, as it has been associated with greater rates of anxiety and depression when we are concerned we will miss out on something. Additionally, when we see that we are not part of something online or are excluded form it, depression and anxiety also increase. A study from 2022 showed that people who took even just a one week break from social media, experienced significant improvements in their perceived levels of depression, anxiety, and general well being.
MANAGING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA RELATIONSHIP
Getting caught up in the mindless scrolling of social media can sometimes happen more often then we would like, so when you notice that checking social media starts to take too much of your time or mental clarity, here are some ways of managing your social media use:
Try identifying why you use so much social media in the first place (What is the real need here … are you bored, tired, precasting?)
Track your screen time on your devices (How much time do you spend on social media?)
Become aware every time you feel the urge to go onto social media or scroll through something (ask yourself why you have that need)
Keep social media apps out of sight on your home screen
Try spending an hour each week doing at least one screen free activity/ hobby
Finding new activities to do which do not involve being online or in front of a screen
Put away your electronics during dinner, including watching Netflix and Youtube
When going to sleep, leave your phone outside of the bedroom
Try setting a time boundary for apps (can be done through settings)
Try different browser extensions which can temporarily block your access to social media sites on your laptop or desktop
Be mindful of the people you follow and the type of content you consume (be intentional with how you use social media)
Resist the urge to share your whole life
Turn off notifications from social media, especially when you are trying to focus on something
Completely turn of your phone during times of focus or put it onto mute/ focus mode
As a more extreme measure, opt for deleting certain social media apps every once in a while and re-downloading them when a week or so has passed (digital detox)
CONCLUDING WORDS
Within this article we discussed the common issue of increased social media usage across the world, which has unfortunately also lead to many unwanted issues that our current generations face, such as lack of focus, shorter attention spans, increased rates of loneliness as well as depression and anxiety. We continued with explaining what about social media makes social media use so effortless and addicting to our brains, and finally finishing with some practical advice of how to take handle and manage your own social media consumption in a healthy way.
Thank you so much for reading this 💛
Why Laughing Is More Beneficial Than You Think
Today we will be talking about a rather humorous topic which is the importance of laughter in our everyday and how it can positively impact both our physical and mental health as well as benefit our social relationships.
The act of laughing is also noticeable among other ape species, where laughter is said to have developed some 10 - 16 million years ago. Laughter is said to first emerge in the first few months of life even among children who are deaf or blind.
In terms of its evolutionary roots, scientists argue that laughter played a critical role in creating and deepening social bonds which we formed with others, which ultimately helped with our survival as a species which predominantly lived in groups. Some people also say that laughter developed as a form of vocal control with which we showed to others that we are content and feel safe, while fostering more trust in relationships. Over time as our brain size increased, so did our ability to form and communicate in various verbal languages, with which laughter also helped to facilitate and once again increased our survival chances.
While scientists are still discovering the history and benefits of laughter, there is enough evidence currently to confirm that laughing is healthy for us.
I hope that you enjoy this post and learn something new from it like I did.
THE CHEMISTRY BEHIND LAUGHTER
When we laugh, there are two main types of chemicals which are released by our brain; Endorphins and Dopamine
Endorphins chemically speaking are a type of peptide (protein) hormones which are produced by our central nervous system and the pituitary gland in our brain. They function both as a neurotransmitter and a feel good happy chemical which helps with the management of pain. Endorphins are mostly released during the process of physically activating our muscles, such as when we contract our core muscles while laughing and not merely just social conversations.
Dopamine is also produced by our brain during laughter and like endorphins, it also functions as a neurotransmitter and hormone which works in the central nervous system. Its main functions include facilitating movement, helping with our memory and creating a sense of pleasurable reward and motivation.
10 BENEFITS OF LAUGHING MORE
Helps Boost Our Immune System
Laughing more has been shown to over time improve the strength and abilities of our immune system in the following ways: First, laughter is known to genuinely help decrease levels of stress hormones predominantly cortisol circulating around our body which it does so by releasing specialized chemicals called neuropeptides which help to lower stress levels. Secondly, laughter is also responsible for stimulating our body to create more antibodies with which we are able to fight off viruses and infections more easily.
Decreases Perceived Pain And Tension
The endorphins which are released when we laugh have been shown to act as natural temporary pain killers which increase our tolerance and management of pain, helping us to endure for longer periods of time when faced with a painful situation.
Furthermore, laughings also helps with decreasing levels of physical tension and discomfort in our bodies, which is due to the relaxation of muscles when we laugh and the improved resulting blood circulation.
Increases Relaxation And Minimizes Stress
Based on several studies, laughing has been shown to decrease stress levels and generally increase relaxation throughout our body.
There are a few possible explanations behind this, one of which is that when we laugh, we intake more oxygen with which we stimulate more blood circulation and in turn decrease the levels of cortisol (stress hormone) in our blood.
Secondly, laughter can physically relax our muscles and boost our circulation which can leave our muscles feeling relaxed after laughing for as long as 45 minutes. Furthermore, a good laugh has been shown to decrease our heart rate and blood pressure after laughing which then leads to a relaxed feeling afterwards.
Helps To Prevent Heart Disease
More and more research is starting to indicate that laughter can do a lot of good for us, including lowering our chances of developing heart disease. This is because laughter has been found to improve the function of our blood vessels and simultaneously increase blood flow which stimulates our organs and muscles so that they remain healthy and functional.
Improves Our Mood And Energy
The previously discussed endorphins are known as happy chemicals which naturally put our body in a feel good state and create a sense of wellbeing that can at least temporarily, shift our mood and energy levels for the better.
Additionally, by decreasing stress levels along side secreting endorphins, laughter has been shown to help people who are dealing with depression or anxiety as they can also help in boosting self esteem and make it slightly easier to cope with such challenging situations.
Strengthens Social Relationships
Evolutionary speaking, laughter has been shown to act as a social glue in our history of living in groups, where it is suggested that shared laughter communicates to other individuals that we have something in common or that we share a similar view on something, which helps to strengthen our relation with that person.
Laughter is crucial for maintaining social and non verbal communication patterns, where some scientists argue that laughter not only improves social bonding but also protects us from physical and psychological pain by helping to create a sense of belonging among others.
Helps Attract New People To Us
When we laugh we are more likely to be perceived as approachable and friendly by others, especially because with laughter, we becomes less resentful, judgmental and doubtful. This in turn increases the amount of people we attract because we are seen as more open, with which we can form positive new social bonds, and in this way increase both our mental and emotional health.
Seeing Issues From A New Perspective
Laughter has this amazing ability which allows us to create more distance between us and our issues which means we can form a new perspective of our problems which essentially makes them easier to deal with. In this way, you can see problematic situations in a more realistic and less threatening way which helps to diffuse potential conflict and makes a issue more manageable.
Increased Personal Satisfaction And Happiness
Laughter can do a lot for our personal feelings of satisfaction and general happiness with our selves, because when we laugh, we are able to express our true feelings about a topic as well as release our inhibitions which hold us back from doing things we fear.
Create More Positive Memories
Often times, the times we were happy with others and laughed a lot are also the times we remember as our best and most memorable memories. Laughter can help us make more of those happy memories which when we look back on, make us smile and remember the good times.
I hope that with this article I have been able to instill a new sense of appreciation for a simple act such as laughing with someone, because as we have seen, laughter can bring us a lot of benefits, both physical, psychological and emotional.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this 💛
Problems Of Sitting Down Too Much
You might have heard the expression that sitting down is the new smoking or something along those lines. Well, it turns out that, sitting down in the last 50 - 70 years has increased significantly, thanks to a rise in more office orientated work which promotes a sedentary lifestyle. As it turns out, excessive sitting down is actually harmful to our health in many ways.
To make you aware of how much of an issue this actually is, here are some statistics which definitely shocked me when I read them:
An average person sits down for 12 hours of the day
Since the 1950’s, sitting down and inactive office jobs have increased by 83%
A study in 2010 which included 184,190 people found that for people who spent more than 6 hours per day sitting down with low levels of physical activity, had a 71% increase in mortality.
The scary thing is that a different study showed that people who were also physically active for 5-6 hours per week and were sitting down for 5-6 hours a day, still had a 50% increase in mortality
I hope this paints a better picture of the issue at hand here, and with this I hope to inspire you to keep moving throughout your day with the best of your ability- After all we have legs for moving around and not for sitting down whole days.
Hope you find this one interesting 💛
5 HEALTH RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH EXCESSIVE SITTING DOWN
Poor posture and muscles stiffness
When we sit for prolonged periods of time, we put more stress on our spine and other joints which can over time lead to back pain as well as a poor posture, since the more we sit, the more likely we are to start slouching. With this in mind, sitting down also makes our shoulder and neck muscles feel stiff and inflexible, often because our head is slightly tilted down in order to look at our computer screens.
Furthermore, excessive sitting down decreases lower body strength as well as a general decline in endurance. This is due to the fact that when we sit, we place more strain on our spine which over time reduces our spine flexibility. This indirectly deactivates and weakness our gluteal muscles contributing to even more back pain and a general loss in lower body strength.
Increased weight gain
Some studies have shown a link between prolonged periods of sitting and weight gain, where some of the proposed reasons for this are that nowadays when we eat we sit down, while also being distracted with our phones, a show we are watching or someone we are talking to, causing us to often eat too much too often leading to weight gain.
Furthermore, going back as little as 100 years, humans were much more active on average than we are today, simply because work was much more physically manual instead of now when much of our work is done through sitting down based work which mostly requires our mental capacities.
Greater cancer risk
There have been some emerging studies which have suggested that prolonged sitting down can actually increase our risk of developing certain cancers such as lung, uterine and colon. However the biological reasons behind this are not clear yet and need more research, but it is interesting to see that sitting down does not only have physical impacts on our body such as muscle stiffness, but may actually affect our internal biology much more than we first believed.
More prone to heart disease
Based on science, it has now become quite clear that there is a definite link between people who spend more time sitting down and people who develop heart disease in their lifetime. Sitting down has been shown to increase our blood pressure while also altering the functioning of our blood vessels which along side the increased risk of diabetes, can actually make you much more prone to developing heart disease.
A study found that for men who spent more than 23 hours a week watching television and sitting down while doing so, had a 64% greater chance of dying from cardiovascular disease than those men who only watch 11 hours of television per week.
Higher risk of diabetes
Additionally, some studies have uncovered a rather underestimated impact of prolonged sitting which is the increase in likelihood of developing diabetes in your lifetime. A different another study found that five days of inactive bed rest was associated with increased insulin resistance which is often a precursor to developing diabetes.
HOW TO SIT DOWN LESS
Below you can find some pieces of advice which you can try incorporating into your everyday, to keep you more mobile and active even with a busy schedule:
Stand up every 30 minutes or so (setting a reminder might be helpful)
When using public transport for commuting, choose stand instead of sit
Try standing up more while talking on the phone or watching the television
If your job requires a desk, try out a standing desk which can switch between a sitting and standing position
Make use of the stairs and walk up escalator stairs
Take a short walking break every time you have a break for a coffee or lunch
Drinking more water will encourage you to move to the bathroom more often
Try some discrete sitting down strength training exercises during the hours you spend sitting down (example: sitting down leg raises)
I think it is important to raise awareness about this topic since more and more work is requiring us to spend longer hours behind computer screens and sit down more. Without realizing it, we could seriously be damaging our health here.
I hope that you take the information presented here and use it to make more informed choices about your sitting down habits, wether it be at home, work, school or anywhere else.
Thank you for taking your time to read this and I hope that you learn something new 🌟
The Importance Of A Good Posture
I got the idea for wanting to write a post on how to have good posture a while back, but only now did I realize that this is again one of those neglected yet super important topics especially now where we spend so much of our day sitting down; Working, eating, commuting etc.
I like to focus on things that we have control over in our lives, which also includes our posture. I took a look into why does good posture actually matter in the end and what are some simple ways we can start improving it, and the information I found was surprising.
I hope you enjoy this one and see for yourself what kinds of benefits having good posture can bring to you.
WHAT IS A GOOD POSTURE?
→ When talking about good posture, I am talking about the proper alignment of your body when we are standing or sitting down . Good posture is about holding your body against gravity in such a way that it puts minimal strain on your supportive structures like muscles and ligaments. This keeps our joints and bones in their optimal alignment and over time prevents excessive wear and tear.
Standing up:
Our chin is parallel to the floor
Our shoulders are even (To achieve this roll the up, back and then down)
Having a neutral spine (No flexing or arching)
Our arms hang naturally at our sides with elbows straight
Our abdominal muscles are active
Hips are even and not tilted
Knees point straight ahead
Our whole body weight is evenly distributed on both feet
Sitting down:
Both of our feet are placed flat on the ground in front of the chair
Our ankles are in front of our knees
Try to avoid sitting with legs crossed
Keep your knees below or at hip level
Your abdominal muscles are active
Relax your shoulders
Ensure that you chair supports your middle and lower back
10 REASONS WHY GOOD POSTURE MATTERS
Less headaches
Through better posture, we are able to keep the muscles around our neck area more relaxed and prevent them from getting tense which otherwise can lead to frequent headaches.
Less tension in shoulder and neck area
When our head is tilted forward too much or when we look down at our screens extensively, we can start experiencing uncomfortable tension in our shoulders which further encourages poor posture.
Improves spine health and eases lower back pain
Sitting for extensive periods of time especially with poor posture, results in more pressure and tension being put onto our lower back which can over time cause back pain and discomfort. Try to stand up and walk around a bit every 30 minutes.
Better and deeper breathing
When we are slouching over or in a bent over position, we are essentially compressing our lungs and our airways, so when we open up our chest and roll back our shoulders it becomes easier to breathe and inhale more fresh air.
More energy and better mood
With better posture we can experience and elevation in mood and energy levels due to deeper breathing and also the fact that our body and muscles can move with more ease when everything is properly aligned and we have proper posture.
Boosts circulation and digestion
With good posture we prevent any of our organs and internal systems from getting compressed, ensuring good blood flow, proper working of digestive organs as well as the delivery of nutrients and oxygen around our body.
Keeps your core strong
In order to keep good posture, some level of muscular effort is required, especially from our core and upper back muscles, which keeps them active and engaged.
Makes you appear taller
Although this is more of a side note, people who have good posture seem more attractive to us by looking taller and generally healthier.
Improves your form during exercise
With better posture your muscles and bones are properly aligned which allows you to execute certain movements more correctly. This over time means we become more mobile, flexible and also prevent any unwanted injuries.
Makes you feel more confident
Interestingly enough, some research has pointed out a link between people who practice good posture and a higher level of confidence, which might be due to the perceived image that people get of themselves when they have better posture which as we have seen improves their mood and appearance
5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR POSTURE
Move and stretch your body: Over time when we are regularly active, our muscle and bone mass increase, which helps to stabilize our posture and stability.
Ergonomic Workspace: Ergonomics is the study of how to improve peoples performance in a work environment. An example can be investing in a ergonomic desk chair which effectively supports your back and optimizes your typing or writing position. Also it is encouraged to have your screen directly in front of your head, instead of looking down.
Backpack: If you often carry heavy things, opt for carrying them in a backpack on your back that will distribute the weight more evenly than compared to a shoulder or cross body alternative.
Increasing awareness: When sitting down or walking around we often simply forget about our posture and before we know it we are slouched over our desk or computer screens. Take a moment every so often during your day to check on your posture and adjust it accordingly. Become more aware of your posture and when you need to realign it.
Less bending down: Try to limit the amount of time you spend bending down or crouching and if you do find yourself being often in those positions, being aware of your posture is even more important.
I have to admit that I learnt a lot of new things about our posture and what are some practical ways of improving it. I hope that you learnt something new as well and that you found this topic interesting.
Even-though it is quite a small and often neglected topic, I think that if we begin to practice proper posture and become more aware of when we need to realign our body, we can set ourselves up for better health and physical condition when we are older.
Thank you so much for reading.
Making Healthy Eating Convenient & Affordable
With the new school year soon approaching and many university students including myself, entering a new stage of their lives full of independence and new choices to make about their future, which also includes choices about their health such as what food choose to buy and eat.
In this post I wanted to focus on how young people and students in general can find more joy in eating and cooking healthier which is not only better in the long run for their health, but is also done in a way that does not hurt their wallets or time in any drastic way.
I hope that you find this article useful regardless of your age, because I think we could all appreciate if we could find more ways of eating better for ourselves while still keeping our food spendings in check.
Enjoy :)
WHAT IS HEALTHY EATING?
Include a variety of different whole foods in your diet
Avoid consuming too much salt, processed sugar, saturated fats and trans fats
Stay within your caloric need range
Drink enough water
Finding the right balance for you in terms of nutritious foods and less nutritious foods that are eaten in moderation
Trying to include a serving of oil fish into your diet each week
Eating high quality protein sources and nutritious oils and fats
Emphasis on getting enough fibre from wholegrain foods
MAKING HEALTHY EATING EASY AND AFFORDABLE
Go to farmers markets or other local food markets
Buy food in bulk
Check out the discounted section of your supermarket
Buy fruits and vegetables that have been put aside due to their due date (most are still perfectly fine)
Avoid expensive supplement stores and high priced health food shops
Focus on buying whole foods - Specialized and highly processed foods that may be labeled as “healthy” can actually end up costing a lot
Buy foods that are in season and preferably locally produced
Make a list of ingredients to buy before entering a store
Try not to go to the grocery store hungry
Plan your meals ahead of time and buy ingredients accordingly
Try preparing most of your food at home
Buying frozen fruits and vegetables
Making larger batches of certain meals so you can have left overs
Bringing your own lunch or snacks to work
I hope that you found this post interesting and in some degree also useful for incorporating more healthy habits onto your plate.
I hope to inspire people with the idea that to eat well for your body and mind does not mean having to spend excessive amounts of money on groceries or going to expensive supplement stores. Healthy eating does not have to be time consuming or restrictive. The point is to make it enjoyable for yourself by mostly including delicious foods that are good for you but also foods that bring you joy and a sense of balance with your diet. Its all about longterm consistency.
Thanks for reading.
Your Healthy Hair Handbook
The relationship between what we eat and the health of our hair is commonly miss-understood or underestimated, yet more and more research is coming out showing that we can greatly impact the wellbeing of our hair through our own dietary choices.
Issues such as thinning hair, hair loss or brittle and fragile hair are quite common conditions yet with the proper nutrition and maintenance of our hair, it is a miracle how well we can recover damaged hair and turn it into strong healthy strands again.
I hope you enjoy this post on a slightly different topic.
STRUCTURE OF OUR HAIR
Each hair strand has a hair shaft and a hair root. The hair shaft is the visible part of the hair which grows out of our scalp. The hair root lies in the scalp and is surrounded by a hair follicle (a sheath of skin and connective tissue) which is also connected to a sebaceous gland that secrets an oily substance called sebum that keeps our hair moisturized.
The hair shaft is made of keratin - a hard strong protein based material which is formed from inside cells from the germinal layer.
WHAT DOES HEALTHY HAIR NEED?
Protein
Each strand of our hair is made up of a protein based compound called keratin. This raw material that makes up our hair is made from proteins we get from food. If our protein intake is too low, the body will make less keratin and in turn our hair will grow less fast and will be more brittle.
It is generally advised to eat 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day to meet sufficient needs. If you are more active, increase that figure to about 1.2g.
Sources: Meat, fish, seafood, eggs, dairy, legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils, soy), grains, meat substitutes and nuts
B Vitamins
The fore mostly important B vitamin which helps promote hair growth is called biotin or vitamin B7. It is a nutrients which has been shown to stimulate the production of keratin by interacting with special cellular enzymes that turn amino acids into long chain proteins like keratin.
Other beneficial B vitamins include B12 and B9, where B12 is essential for the production of red blood cells and cellular DNA while B9 works closely together with B12 ensuring proper DNA production during periods of fast cell growth. Together these vitamins are able to transport oxygen around our body by it binding to iron in our red blood cells, which allows more oxygen to be delivered to our scalp and enhance hair growth and vitality.
B12 sources: Fish, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products (Animal products only).
B9 sources: Dark green leafy vegetables (turnip greens, spinach, romaine lettuce, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, broccoli), beans, peanuts and sunflower seeds.
Biotin sources: Organ meats, egg yolks, fish, meat, seeds, nuts, sweet potatoes, bananas, broccoli and lentils.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is needed for cellar growth which includes the growth of fast growing hair tissue while also helping the skin glands make enough sebum which prevents our scalp from becoming too dry. Diets with little vitamin A could be linked with hair loss.
Sources: Spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, red peppers, mango, papaya and apricots.
Iron
Iron is needed for hemoglobin production - the red pigment in our red blood cells - which allows these cells to carry oxygen all around our body, including our hair and scalp cells which ensures proper hair growth. Each molecule of hemoglobin contains 4 iron atoms each of which is able to bind with one molecule of oxygen.
Sources: Shellfish, spinach, liver and other organ meats, legumes, red meats, pumpkin seeds and quinoa
Zinc
A deficiency in zinc is theorized to change the protein structure of our hair follicles which makes them weaker and more brittle. In this way, zinc is also needed for DNA and RNA production which is required for proper division of follicular hair cells allowing new healthy hair strands to be formed.
Sources: Red meat, shellfish, chickpeas, lentils, beans, hemp seeds, pine nuts, peanuts, cashews and almonds
Essential fatty acids
Essential fatty acids such as omega 3 provide essential nutrients to hair follicles, helps prevent hair loss by preventing hair follicle inflammation as well as promoting better blood circulation in the scalp that makes healthier hair.
Sources: Oily fish (Mackerel, salmon, herring, sardines), oysters, walnuts, seeds (flax, chia)
WHAT TO AVOID FOR HEALTHY HAIR?
Bleaching
Frequent heat treatments
Lots of sun exposure
Wearing tight ponytails for long periods of time
Washing hair with hot water
Shampooing too often
Low protein consumption
Eating a lot of the following foods:
Swordfish (High in mercury)
Processed sugar
Alcohol
High glycemic foods (Chips, sodas, sport drinks, fast food, doughnuts, white bread, sugary cereals, mashed potatoes)
HOW TO TAK THE BEST CARE OF YOUR HAIR
Eat a varied and balanced diet
Wash Your Hair Regularly
Use Chemical Free Shampoos
Condition often
Dry Your Hair Naturally
Oil Your Hair Properly
Use A Wide-toothed Comb
Style Your Hair Naturally
Trim Your Hair Regularly
Try hair masks once a week
Avoid excessive sun exposure
Lower shower temperature
Give yourself scalp massages for blood circulation
I learnt a lot of new information while writing on the topic of hair and I hope that you also found some interesting new information here. Thank you for reading and as always let me know what you want to hear about next and wether you would be interested in more beauty related topics.
10 Amazing Benefits Of Regular Exercise
Regular exercise can have profound impacts on our health and well being. I wanted to take a look into the topic of exercise as I have always heard that exercise is beneficial for us, but why exactly is it so important? How exactly does it impact our health?
I found out that the benefits range everywhere from from helping to protect against common chronic conditions, aiding with our sleep quality as well as our strengthening our immune system, and the benefits don't stop there.
Lets take a look at some of these powerful benefits a little further and also find out how we can actually incorporate more movement into our life as an enjoyable habit.
Hope you find this one interesting.
MAIN GUIDELINES
When starting to do exercise of any type, it is important to keep the following in mind for your own health and well being:
Minimum 30min of exercise per day: This is the generally accepted minimum that allows you to stay in shape and take care of your physical wellbeing.
Warm up before: This warms up your body, increases your range of motion as well as prevents possible injuries.
Stretch afterwards: This increases your flexibility as well as prevents excessive muscle soreness which helps with muscle growth.
Fuel your body before and after: This is fore mostly important for you to have enough energy for movement and proper execution of exercises, as well as promoting effective muscle growth and recovery after exercise.
Drink enough water: Water is needed for practically all bodily functions and biochemical reactions going on within us. Keeping properly hydrated enhances your physical performance and later recovery.
Move because it feels good: This is the most underestimated part of exercise, because movement should after-all be a celebration of our body and everything it is capable of doing for us. Don't treat exercise as a chore or something “you have to do”. Choose to do it because you are fortunate enough to be able to move and it makes you feel great. Focus on moving because it makes you feel good, not because it only yields you good looking physical results.
10 MAIN BENEFITS OF REGULAR EXERCISE
Prevents a myriad of chronic diseases
Type 2 diabetes: Exercise helps with regulating blood pressure, improving our insulin resistance as well as our glycemic control, all of which work to combat diabetes.
Heart disease. Regular exercise has been clearly shown to help protect against cardiovascular conditions, since it strengthens your heart muscle and improves your blood circulation.
Different types of cancer. Some of the cancers which can be prevented through exercise are: Breast, colorectal, gallbladder, kidney, lung, liver, ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
High cholesterol. Doing regular moderate physical activity has been show to increase HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) in our blood and lower the other bad LDL cholesterol that can otherwise block our arteries.
High blood pressure: Those who regularly move their bodies have lower blood pressures, since with exercise your heart becomes stronger meaning that is becomes easier for it to pump blood around your body and which in turn decreases the force exerted on your arteries.
Improves Mood & Mental Wellbeing
For a while now, sleep has been shown to release chemicals such as serotonin and endorphins which have been shown to improve our mood, emotional well being as well as decreasing the chance of developing a mental illness.
Regular exercise is known to decrease feelings of anxiety, depression and stress.
Better & Deeper Sleep
Moderate to vigorous exercise done during the day has been shown, according to the sleep foundation, to reduce the amount of time we need to fall asleep, improve our sleep quality and increase general feelings of relaxation. Additionally, being active means that we have elevated energy levels through the day, which means that we feel less of a craving for sugary energy drinks and caffeinated drinks which could further upset our sleeping patterns.
Read more about how to improve your sleep here
Weight Control / Weight Loss
Exercise is beneficial for helping us with our weight loss goals or just generally keeping our weight levels within our healthy range. It does this, by speeding up our metabolism, which means that we burn more calories during the day just for staying alive. Furthermore, exercise can increase our muscle mass, which furthermore means we burn more calories as we have more tissues to feed.
Increases Energy Levels
While exercising, you increase your pulse and circulation which means that more oxygen is able to enter your body. This allows the cells of your body to have access to more oxygen rich blood which enables them to make more energy, causing you to feel more energized.
Beneficial For Muscles and Bones
When you are physically active, you regularly apply pressure and tension onto your muscles and bones. With the adequate nutrition, your muscle mass starts increasing due to more muscle repair happening. Additionally, putting more pressure onto your bones, causes more cells in your bones to be synthesized which strengthens your bone tissue, helping to prevent further unwanted injuries.
Healthier Skin
Exercise increases blood flow to our cells, meaning that more oxygen and nutrients are deliver to our cells for optimal growth, as well as that any produced waste products and unwanted free radicals are removed by it. This benefits our skin, by improving its elasticity and youthful look.
Increased Cognition and Memory Retention
The direct effect of exercise improving our mood, mental state and lowering our levels of stress, has been indirectly shown to improve mental cognition, thinking abilities as well as memory retention.
The process of physical activity is associated with a greater synthesis of neurons in our brains, which allows us to think faster and have sharper memory. It has also been shown that people who are regularly active have a much lower chance of developing Alzheimers disease in their lifetime.
Here you can find out how diet can impact your brain health.
Boosts Your Immunity
Some studies have shown a link between people who are regularly active and a stronger healthier immune system. The believed reason behind this is that exercise stimulates the circulation of immune cells around our body, which helps our body detect any infections earlier on.
Furthermore, the rise in core body temperature during exercise is believed to prevent the growth from harmful bacteria that could make you feel sick. Lastly, moving our body reduces levels of inflammation and allows us to sleep better, which is again better for out immune system.
You can read more about strengthening your immune system here
Increases Flexibility
By being more active, you warm up your muscles and allow them to become stronger and be able to endure tension for longer periods of time. In this way, your muscles are able to become more flexible (stretch further), by increasing your range of motion with them and in turn being able to execute certain movements more correctly.
Click here to find out more about the benefits of frequent stretching
HOW TO MAKE EXERCISING A HABIT
Make it enjoyable:
Try some of the following ideas to make your workouts more enjoyable:
Use music
Try it with friends
Track your progress
Eat enough and balanced
Do an activity you love (This makes it sustainable in the long run)
Keep it varied (Exercise does not only mean going to gym)
Try doing it outside
Be specific:
When planning your workout, ask yourself the following questions:
When will you do it? (Set yourself a reminder)
How long will you do it for?
Where will you be doing it?
What will you do?
With who will you do it?
Keeping motivated:
In order to continue enjoying your workouts in the long run, try some of the following:
Set realistic personal goals
Start with small steps
Measure your progress over time
Prepare your clothes/ equipment in advance
Don't get discouraged about missing out sometimes
Surround yourself with positive media and people
The topic of this post wasn't particularly new or unique, however it was fundamentally important for our health. It is important for us to understand how exercise affects us, why we should bother to do it in the first place and also how to integrate it as a enjoyable activity into our life.
What ever physical activity or activities you choose to spend your time doing, I am sure your health will be thankful, both your physical and mental well being will profit.
Don't neglect these basic components of our health and also make sure to not take it to extremes (exercising too much all the time).
Enjoy your movement and celebrate your amazing body; It does so much for you already.
Sauna - Benefits Behind The Heat
Saunas have been around for a long time, in-fact the first discovered remains of saunas were found 2000 years ago, built underground and lined with rocks. Saunas are still in use today, where nowadays we have more modern technologies and structures, but the main idea of them still persists - Heat and steam.
I have become increasingly interested in what ways saunas can help with our health and wellbeing. Below you will find details on the different types of saunas you can commonly find today, their respected health benefits and also the potential risks you have to be aware about.
I hope to inspire you to try out saunas some time if you have not yet and experience the acclaimed advantages yourself.
Enjoy the heat :)
TYPES OF SAUNAS
Finish sauna (80-100 ºC)
These have originated in Finland, and are both an integral part of finish and Estonian culture. These saunas can either be warmed through burning real wood or though means of electricity.
The heat produced from burning or electricity is used to heat up special rocks inside the sauna, onto which you pour some water to create hot stream.
These saunas are very hot, but low humidity, designed for you to spend no longer than 20 minutes otherwise you could risk becoming dehydrated or dizzy.
Infrared sauna (45 - 55 ºC)
Infrared saunas work differently to finish saunas in the sense that they are warmed through infrared panels that radiate electromagnetic radiation. which in turn warm your body.
These saunas operate at a lower temperature, but it is estimated that about 80% of the emitted radiation goes directly into your body which means that you actually experience more heat and sweating at a lower temperature. This also enables you to last longer in this type of sauna and tolerate the heat more.
Turkish steam sauna (30 to 55 ºC)
A Turkish saunas also traditionally known as a hamman is a steam based sauna that has its roots in the islamic world and was actually developed from roman bath houses.
These saunas are decorated with tiles, unlike dry heat saunas that use wooden components. Turkish saunas may have added oils and smells into the air which are designed to deepen your breathing and open up your airways.
BENEFITS OF SAUNAS
Relieving Muscle and Joint Pain
When being in such a hot environment as a sauna, your heart rate rises due to blood capillaries at the surface of your skin dilating to help with controlling your core body temperature by heat loss. This increase in circulation means that your muscles are able to get a greater blood supply and the lactic acid that makes muscle sore is able to be broken down faster.
In this way, better circulation helps with smoother joint movement and may also ease arthritis while simultaneously relaxing your muscle tissue.
Relaxation and Stress Reduction
Sitting in a sauna is commonly done as a way to relax your body and mind. The way this works is that saunas decrease the levels of the hormone cortisol in our blood which is responsible for making us feel stressed and rising our heart rate. Instead saunas promote the production of serotonin, which uplifts our mood. Feel free to read more about stress management here.
On another note, by reducing stress, saunas can also potentially strengthen our immune system, as being chronically stressed weakens our immure system. You can find out more about how to take care of your immune system here.
Improvement of Cardiovascular Health
Regular and consistent use of saunas has been shown by studies to over time lower your resting heart rate which is beneficial for your heart as this way the heart muscle is not over worked.
In this way, sauna use has been shown to lower cases of fatal cardiac incidents, strokes and lowering blood pressure, which are some of the most common health problems the world is currently facing.
Promotes Good Healthy Skin
Frequent use of saunas, depending on your skin type, could help with improving the appearance and health of your skin. The heat in saunas improves blood circulation which in turn causes you to sweat which makes it easier to remove and replace the top layer of dead skin cells while simultaneously boosting collagen production in you skin which gives it a more elastic and plump feeling.
Additionally, sweating in saunas cleanses your skin by rinsing bacteria out of the epidermal (top) layer of your skin as well as your sweat ducts, which keeps your skin in good working condition.
Helps with Muscle Recovery and Soreness
Some studies have indicated a link between using saunas and preserving muscle mass and athletic performance. Regular sauna use helps with muscle relaxation and in turn helps with muscle soreness, which can be very beneficial for people who are very athletic.
Additionally the increased circulation from saunas allows for better blood circulation around your lower back area which can help alleviate lower back pain while simultaneously making your muscles less tense.
Useful Treatment for Asthma
Saunas in particular high steam Turkish saunas may be helpful for people who suffer from asthma as the heat and humidity helps open your airways and in this way improve your breathing, removal of phlegm and easing coughing.
Better and Deeper Sleep
Interestingly, saunas have also been shown to improve your sleep quality after using them, as after using a sauna our body temperature and level of endorphins falls, especially around bed time, which helps our body fall asleep.
Find out more about how to depend and improve your sleeping here.
Detoxification
Although our liver is the primary detoxification organ in our body, through extensive sweating we are able to remove small quantities of toxins in our body such as any traces of heavy metals that we come into contact in our daily environment (copper, lead, zinc, mercury and nickel).
POTENTIAL RISKS
Going into a sauna and spending too much time in there can definitely lead to some negative side effects. It is also recommended that if you are a beginner with going to saunas, start with 5 -10 minutes and gradually increase your time spent in there as you feel comfortable.
If yo spend too long in a saunas you can risk the following:
Dehydration
Dizziness
Temporarily lower fertility for men
PRECAUTIONS
There is however a couple of things to keep in mind when going into saunas:
Amount of time spent in a saunas
Drinking plenty of water before and after a sauna
No drinking alcohol before entering
It is not suitable to enter a saunas if you:
Have elevated blood pressure
Have experienced serious heart issues in the past
Are pregnant
Are ill (although saunas can help with blocked sinuses)
I hope you found this guide on saunas and their respected health benefits useful and will potentially look into trying saunas for yourself to see the acclaimed benefits.
As stated above, start with lower time spans and lower temperature saunas and over time build up your heat tolerance.
Thank you for reading, I appreciate it a lot.
How To Bring More Calm Into Your Life
With our everyday lives becoming more and more busy and full of demands and obligations, it is likely that we are experiencing more distress and generally less calm in our own lives.
I am sure that all of us would appreciate a bit more peace so that we can approach each of our daily activities with a calm and collected mind but with the distractions that we face everyday, that is getting to be more of a challenging task.
This is why I thought it would be useful to write a little piece on how we can introduce more calm into our lives, which will improve everything from our stress levels to our sleeping quality.
Hope you enjoy, and wishing you a great day.
❗️ What causes distress?
All of us experience feelings of distress sometimes, where a little bit of stress to our body is actually not bad, but even beneficial. The problem comes when that feeling of stress becomes chronic and constantly present in the background.
Bellow are some of the common causes of why we feel tense and stressed, some of which you may identify with yourself:
Feeling overwhelmed/ a lack of control
Feeling inadequately prepared for something
Holding past grudges and negative beliefs
Interpersonal relationship issues
Moving somewhere new
Academic/ work struggles
😰 Dangers of being chronically over stressed
Mental health problems: Depression, anxiety, and personality disorders
Cardiovascular disease: Heart disease, high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, and strokes
Sleeping issues: Insomnia and disrupted sleep
Diet related disorders: Obesity and other eating disorders
Sexual problems: Impotence in men, loss of sexual desire in both men and women. Menstrual problems in women.
Skin and hair issues: Acne, psoriasis, and eczema, and permanent hair loss
Gastrointestinal problems: Such as GERD and gastritis
Burn out: Feeling chronically tired, loss of motivation and feeling like a failure (Sense of defeat)
Loss of immunity: Falling ill more often, poorer wound healing
💙 Benefits of being a more calm individual
Better sleep
More creativity
Higher energy levels
Reduction in medical heart conditions
Slowing down aging
Better focus in the moment
Making more rational decisions
🧘🏼♀️ Practical methods of calming down
Breathing practices
Meditation: Meditation can be a useful way of calming down as it encourages us to slow down, focus on our breath and in that way turn our attention to the present moment.
Breath work: There are plenty of different methods of breath work, all of which work on the basis of breathing in different styles and pattens in order to calm our mind. A popular breath work technique is called the box technique, where for 4 seconds each you: Inhale, hold your breath in, exhale and hold your breath again, after which you repeat.
Diet and nutrition:
Avoid large amounts of processed sugar: While foods containing lots of processed sugar may taste good, in the long run they are not beneficial to us, as too much sugar intake can make us go through sugar highs and crashes along with unstable energy levels, that will disrupt our daily patterns of calm.
Regulating your caffeine intake: Caffeine is a powerful stimulant, which if taken in the wrong times of quantities, can negatively affect our brain and nervous system.
Relaxing teas: These come in many different flavors, but experiment with what you like and what makes you feel good. Often herbal teas such as chamomile or fennel are quite nice to calm you down, especially before sleep.
Movement and slowing down:
Physical activity and movement: We often find that after having done some movement, we feel a great sense fo achievement and calm as movement encourages our mind to focus either on our movement or the surroundings around us - all of which make us more peaceful.
Slow stretching: Just like exercise, doing some slow stretched can have the same effect as our movements are slow and precise.
Spending time in nature: Time spent in nature is healing and good for connecting us back to reality while temporarily disconnecting us out of the daly worries and stressors
Personal approaches:
Writing down whats on your mind: This can either be by using a notebook or a online note taking platform, where we can write down all of the worries and tasks which ware running across our mind and in that way try to rationalize wether it is worth being stressed about all of those things
Using routines: Routines can be calming as they allow our body to temporarily go into autopilot mode and not have to think through everything we do, because we are already used to the pattern.
Light reading: Reading before bed or during the day can be a great way of slowing down and temporarily getting lost in a good narrative.
Relaxing sounds: Listening to calming ambient music, or simply some nature sounds can be a simple method of relaxing in order to calm your mind and thoughts
Unplugging and reconnecting
Be aware of your device/ media usage: By using softwares that track how much time you spend on your devices and on which sites/ apps a lot of time is spent, you can get a rough idea of how you use your electronics and wether that time usage is doing you more harm than good.
Take time to disconnect: On the same note, take the necessary time to spend some time without your devices and avoid being constantly online.
Talk to someone about your distress: Lastly take time to talk through any issues that may be causing you stress either to a close friend or trusted family member, to which you can open up and alleviate some of your internal pressures.
Losing Motivation? Here Is How To Get Back On Track
Have you ever thought to yourself "I wish I just had more motivation to get this done" or "I would be so much more productive if I was more motivated during the day? " These are usually all things most of us experience, some more frequently than others, but it's no secret that our level of motivation experiences ups and downs, especially during this quarantine, where a lack of motivation is becoming a commonly observed phenomenon.
With this post, I hope to shed some light on what are some of the reasons for why we lose motivation in the first place, a common misconception that we hold for motivation, and what are some practical methods of becoming more motivated.
Without too much ranting, I hope you find the following information valuable and that you can put it to good use because I the tips that I have included here are from my personal experience.
WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
To begin with, motivation can be explained as being any reason for us to act a certain way or produce any wanted outcome.
Example of motivation: If we are thirsty, we will want to drink a glass of water therefore we will be motivated to get ourselves a glass of water because that is our desired outcome at the moment.
The process of motivation is one that requires the combined effort of emotional, biological, cognitive, and social input in order to execute an action.
Simply speaking, if we never had any motivation, nothing would get done and most human activity would be completely stationary because there would be no reason for us to do anything in the first place.
Therefore we need motivation. So why do we lose motivation in the first place?
WHY DO WE LOSE MOTIVATION?
Here are some common reasons for why we lose motivation, see if you can identify any for yourself:
We do not care enough about the action we are doing, or it does not interest us enough.
The end goal not being aligned with our true wants, passions, and purpose in life, causing us to essentially chase a false dream.
The action could be too hard or seem too time-consuming to even bother starting.
Following the same daily routine all the time, making it feel like every day is the same.
Feeling powerless and that our work, in the end, does not matter as much, and it would not make a difference in the world.
Not seeing enough progress or the progress you thought you would have been seeing by that time.
THE MYTH BEHIND MOTIVATION
While motivation is essential to getting anything done and I think all of us would not mind getting an extra boost of motivation, there is one common misconception about the motivation that we have to clear up.
Motivation is commonly thought of as needing to be in place before we start doing something, since how else are we meant to start something if we are not motivated, but in reality, it is actually the opposite way. When we start doing something and start progressing towards an end goal, that is when we will pick up the motivation steam. Action leads to motivation.
Therefore we have to replace the thought of needing motivation for initiating action, instead, we should just start with the work and motivation will arise as a result of it.
This idea has been cohesively summarized inside the book, The Motivation Myth, which I am yet to read, where the author Jeff Haden describes motivation in this way: "Most people are confused about the source of motivation. They think motivation is the spark that automatically produces lasting eagerness to do hard work; the greater the motivation, the more effort you’re willing to put in. Actually, motivation is a result. Motivation is the pride you take in work you have already done—which fuels your willingness to do even more."
10 WAYS TO GET BACK ON TRACK
Keeping a to-do list and checking things off as you get them done.
Switching up your routine when you feel that it gets repetitive.
Establish a clear reason for why you do the things you do and evaluate whether they are really something that is important for you and would like to spend your time doing.
Setting deadlines and using timers (Known as Parkinson's law).
When feeling unmotivated, take a 15-minute break to do something unrelated to work and then get back to the task at hand.
Listening to the right music for what you want to do (If working with music is something you do).
Setting goals and achieving them (Daily/ weekly/ monthly/ annual goals)
Having a designated workspace where you feel productive, creative, etc. This means that this space is only used for working which allows your brain to make associations with what you usually do when you enter that place.
Reflecting on your past and acknowledging your improvements, growth, and achievements you have had (This allows you to see progress).
Looking at your past mistakes, disappointments, and failures as opportunities for growth.
Stress Management: The Why And The How
We all experience stress and it is a regular and unavoidable part of our life. Everybody experiences stress in different amounts and reacts to it in different ways, however, what each of us can do about stress, is earn to control and manage it.
With more stress building up in our daily lives, this is becoming more and more of a necessity, as you will see below, long term chronic stress or chronic stress, can have seriously detrimental effects on our health and well being.
Stress is all something we are familiar with, however not many of us place enough importance on its proper management.
Below I have included all of the relevant information about stress and its effects on our whole body and mind, as well as practical ways with which we can learn to properly manage and control it.
But before all that, let’s start with the basics of stress - What even is stress?
WHAT IS STRESS?
In simple terms, stress is how our body and brain respond to any external demand or challenge that we face, which requires our attention to deal with.
With this, I want to point out that while many of us commonly only associate stress with being loaded with work and having to juggle too many things at school/ work at once, stress is present more often than we may be aware of. Any task or "challenge" as said above, no matter how small or large will pose stress on our body and mind. Although it may not be a big stressor in our life, it is still counted as stress.
Here I want to say that stress to some degree is important in our lives, after all, if there was absolutely no stress in our lives, not even in small amounts, nothing would get done and nothing would change. Stress for our body is yes, stressful, and our body wants to get rid of the feeling of being stressed as quickly as it can, which ultimately causes us to change something in our environment to stop the stressor. Our body and mind can react to stress in many different ways, such as physically, emotionally, or mentally, depending on the individual.
In this way, a certain amount of stress is actually healthy for our well-being, as it keeps us alert and more proactive beings, however, the issue is when we experience persistent stress that almost never subsides. This is where all of the negative effects of long-term stress come in, and believe me, reoccurring or chronic stress has more effects on your health than you may initially think.
TYPES OF STRESS
ACUTE STRES:
This is the stress that is felt for a short period of time and is more infrequent. When we do experience acute stress, our body will respond as it usually does, to try and combat the stress where the effects of the stress may ware-off in a matter of hours, a day, or a couple of days, depending on the severity of the stressor.
An example of acute stress would be getting into an argument with someone and our body responding in a negative and arrogant way. Our anger will usually subside as time passes, however, the stress is generally only present for a short period of time.
CHRONIC STRESS:
This is the more problematic type of stress, which also impacts our whole body and mind, while it being constantly present in our life. Those who experience this type of stress, may not even be aware of it, as could have just accepted it as a part of our being and life - forgetting how it feels to be free of chronic stress.
MAIN STRESS HORMONES
When it comes to regulating and controlling stress in our body, everything comes down to our biochemistry, where hormones and various other chemicals are responsible for initiating our response to stress. The two most common regulating hormones of stress are adrenaline and cortisol, which work hand in hand to handle stress inside our body, every single day.
CORTISOL:
It is the primary stress hormone
Increases availability of glucose in the bloodstream for energy
Enhances your brain's use of glucose (quicker processing)
Increases availability of chemicals that repair tissues
ADRENALINE:
Increases your heart and breathing rate (Delivers more oxygenated blood to muscles)
Elevates your blood pressure
Boosts utilization of our energy supplies (glucose)
Makes us more alert to our surroundings (Our senses become more activated)
HOW DOES STRESS WORK?
The process of dealing with stress in our body goes something like this:
When a stressor or potential threat is registered by our brain, a vitally important region of our brain called the hypothalamus, signals to the adrenal gland, that adrenaline and cortisol have to be released into our bloodstream, which would cause the effects described above.
Our hypothalamus is not only involved in hormone regulation but also plays a vital role with our bodies homeostasis, ensuring that it happens correctly and when needed.
In the case of experiencing acute stress, when the perceived fear is no longer there, our hypothalamus signals to our body that it is time to return to a normal state of functioning.
However, in the case that we are not good at managing stress in our lives, chronic stress results, where the effects of stress do not return back to normal, and we continue to experience the effects described above (elevated heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, blood glucose levels, etc).
In other words, we are never able to fully calm down and return our body to a state of normal functioning.
This, as you will see below, is the state that puts our whole well being into an even greater health risk.
SYMPTOMS OF EXCESSIVE STRESS
Emotional:
Being easily irritated
Feeling overwhelmed
Low self-esteem
Finding it hard to calm down or relax
Physical:
Low energy
Headaches
Digestive issues
Insomnia
Decline in libido
More frequent illness and infections
Cognitive:
Inability to focus
Worrying or thinking about things all the time
Forgetfulness and disorganization
Pessimistic tendencies
Impaired decision making
Behavioral
Changes in appetite
Procrastination
Showing signs of nervous behaviors (pacing, fidgeting, nail-biting)
Greater use of alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs as coping mechanisms
HOW CHRONIC STRESS AFFECTS OUR HEALTH
Chronic stress has many negative effects on our health, which occur both in men and women, regardless of age. It is really important to not take the topic of stress lightly, as the sooner we can learn to control and manage it, the better off we will be physically, mentally, and emotionally. Here are some direct ways in which chronic stress interferes with your health.
EXPERIENCING INSOMNIA MORE FREQUENTLY
Those who are often under stressful conditions are much more likely to suffer from insomnia, as stress prevents our body from calming down and getting into a restful state, as stress raises our heart rate, body temperature, and fires up our brain with activity - all things which we do not want when we are trying to fall asleep. The resulting inability to fall asleep can make us even more stressed out, leading only to an unhealthy cycle. You can read more about the importance of getting good sleep in this article: Hidden Power Of Your Sleep.
WORSE HEART HEALTH
Stress is able to negatively impact our heart health, because stress, due to adrenaline, increases our heart rate and consequently our blood pressure. When over an extended period of time we experience an increase in blood pressure, it damages our blood vessels, leading to not only more cardiac issues down the line but also shortness of breath as our breathing muscles tense up more.
EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY
Chronic stress has been linked with more frequent occurrences of anxiety, depression, moodiness, irritability, and feelings of helplessness (being overwhelmed). These are often indicators of experiencing too much stress, which makes it even harder to manage our stress.
WEAKER IMMUNE SYSTEM
Although many other factors influence our immune system, stress comes out high on top. This is because when we are heavily stressed, our body responds by producing fewer lymphocytes (White blood cells), which declines the effectiveness of our immune system and makes us much more prone to infections and illness. If you would like to know more about how to additionally take care of your immune system, check out this blog post here: How To Naturally Boost Your Immune System.
INCREASES CHANCES OF DEVELOPING EATING DISORDERS
Stress is known to have effects on our appetite, by messing with our hormones, including our hormones responsible for our appetite. In the long term, this can either go two ways: We can either become more prone to overeating, causing us more likely to be overweight or leading to a decrease in our appetite that can make us underweight - either way, an unhealthy scenario.
ABNORMAL HAIR LOSS
Excessive stress has also been correlated with an unhealthy amount of hair loss, where too much stress has been shown to negatively affect the life cycle of our hair follicles on our scalp, which causes them to prematurely turn to a rest phase, during which the hair is shed.
DIGESTIVE ISSUES
Experiencing excessive stress has also been linked with more abdominal issues, such as more frequent stomach aches, along with more constipation. Furthermore, we may be more prone to feeling nauseous during the day, which of course negatively impacts our performance during the day
RAISED BLOOD SUGAR
As was said before, stress initiates our flight or fight response, which reflexively releases glucose into our bloodstream and makes it more available, which leads to a build-up of excessive glucose in our bloodstream and over time makes our body more resistant to insulin - the hormone that is responsible for allowing cells to uptake glucose from our blood. Overall this increases our chances of developing type II diabetes.
FERTILITY ISSUES
Stress has also been shown to have a negative impact on both the fertility and sexual health of men and women, where when exposed to high levels of stress, women may experience harder conception as well as an interruption in their menstrual cycle, leading to missed or irregular periods, due to hormone fluctuations. In men, this is seen in a greater prevalence for having erectile dysfunction, as well as a lower sex drive, which hurt their reproductive health.
STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
Doing relaxing activities you enjoy
Performing moderate exercise
Trying out meditation or breathing exercises
Prioritizing your work
Managing your time better
Surrounding yourself with positive people
Talking it out with someone
Spending time in nature
Taking a warm bath or shower
Accepting the fact that some things are out of your control
Try to keep a positive attitude
Prioritizing your health
How To Naturally Boost Your Immune System
With the cold winter months coming before us, it is now a good time to start thinking about how best to protect and reinforce our immune system for this winter, and to prevent any unnecessary sicknesses in the times of this pandemic.
As you will see, our immunity largely depends on external factors such as food, exercise, and lifestyle habits, meaning that it is well within our control to promote and maintain a healthy and strong immune system.
If you are interested in finding out how to take care of your immune system and how to prepare it for the colder months ahead of us, then read on.
Hope you enjoy : )
ESSENTIAL MICRONUTRIENTS FOR IMMUNITY
VITAMIN A:
This vitamin has been linked with lower levels of inflammation in our body, which is directly linked with a healthier and stronger immune system. Not only that, but scientists believe that it has a role in the way our immune system responds to pathogens and how our white blood cells
Sources: Eggs, cod liver oil, orange and yellow colored vegetables and fruits, broccoli, spinach
VITAMIN C
It enhances white blood cell functioning and is needed for initializing cell death of old and unuseful cells. Apart from that it also protects against oxidative stress as it functions as an antioxidant, where lower levels of oxidative stress have been linked to lower incidences of chronic diseases.
Sources: Red bell pepper, citrus fruits, kiwis, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, spinach, green peas
VITAMIN D
Enhance the ability of white blood cells in our blood to fight pathogens and prevent our immune system from becoming too sensitive to the environment around us.
Sources: Salmon, sardines, egg yolks, mushrooms, sunshine (outside)
VITAMIN E:
Vitamin E is also an antioxidant and a crucial substance that plays a part in almost 200 biochemical reactions inside your body. It is well recognized as a contributing factor in the development and healthiness of your immune cells.
Sources: Sunflower seeds, almonds, sunflower oil, hazelnuts, olive oil, pine nuts, avocado, brazil nuts
ZINC:
Zinc is required for the development of white blood cells as well as the communication between your immune cells in combating inflammation inside your body.
Sources: Oysters, beef, seafood, legumes, pumpkin seeds, natural yogurt
SELENIUM:
A rather understated mineral, but selenium has more recently been shown to have a role in regulating inflammation and overall immunity in our body, where sufficient levels of this mineral have been linked with resulting in a less over-reactive immune systems and being able to treat chronic inflammation
Sources: Brazil nuts, seafood, and organ meats
5 PILLARS OF A STRONG & HEALTHY IMMUNE SYSTEM
NUTRITION
ADEQUATE SLEEP
MODERATE EXERCISE
HEALTHY LIFESTYLE HABITS
STRESS MANAGEMENT
1. NUTRITION
EATING WELL
Perhaps food is not the first factor you expected to see on how to maintain a healthy immune system, but it is a crucial and often an understated factor. Food has been used for millennia as not only a source of energy and time for socializing but as a way to treat, regress, and prevent diseases and sicknesses. Back then, medicine as we know it today was not available, so they had to take care of illnesses with what they had around, which was most of the time food in some shape or form.
The food we eat plays a crucial role in our health and consequently also our immune system, as whatever we input into our bodies, we absorb and use, so we have to be mindful of what we eat.
In terms of food that has been scientifically shown to have a positive effect on our immune system, you will see foods in their whole food (unprocessed) form, many of which are rich in micronutrients such as vitamin C and zinc, as well as foods naturally rich in antioxidants and probiotics. Here are some of the best foods you can eat to maintain a healthy immune system:
Red bell peppers
Spinach
Citrus fruits
Ginger
Natural yogurt
Almonds
Turmeric
Broccoli
Seafood and shellfish
Kiwi
Green tea
DRINKING ENOUGH WATER
Unsurprisingly, drinking water also affects our immune system just like at large it affects our overall health. Water plays many vital roles in our body, which is why it is so important to keep hydrated throughout the day. You can read more about the importance of water and why it is relevant to our health in this blog post: Why Drink Water
In short, water plays a few key roles in terms of our immunity. Firstly, keeping hydrated makes us less susceptible to germs and harmful bacteria as when our body is well hydrated it functions better all together, meaning that our immune system can fight off pathogens and viruses much more effectively.
Secondly, water is needed to allow our body to naturally detoxify itself and remove any unneeded metabolic waste products out of our system.
Thirdly, drinking enough water also makes sure to keep our blood healthy as our blood is predominantly made out of water so that our blood can effectively transport the needed nutrients and micronutrients to our body’s cells whenever they are needed. Linking with the previous point on food, if we want to be consuming foods with a high vitamin C content, it is additionally advised to drink water during your meal or your day, as vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, meaning that without water, our body will not be able to absorb it and thus make use of it.
CONSIDER SUPPLEMENTATION
Although I am a strong advocate for getting your nutrients straight from their raw source - food - as that brings along with it the most health benefits, it may also be worth considering supplementation in the case that you fall short of the recommended daily dosage of any of the important micronutrients for your immune system.
Supplements can come in the form of tablets that you take with a glass of water or tablets which you dissolve in water, but do your own research in terms of which nutrient you may be lacking and what dosage do you have to take, to cover your needs.
Regardless of whether it is our diet, our lifestyle our the weather outside (Vitamin D), we have to make sure that we are doing our best job of getting sufficient amounts of these micronutrients every day. Always try to first source your nutrients from food and then resort to supplements in the case that you may be deficient in any nutrient, especially if that nutrient is important for your immunity.
2. ADEQUATE SLEEP
More and more research is coming out reporting a strong link between poor sleep quality and a weaker immune system. The main reason behind this is that during sleep our body both produces and releases special immune proteins called cytokines, which are heavily responsible for controlling and fighting both inflation and infection in our body.
If we sleep less than what we should be or if our sleep is of poor quality, our body produces less of these cytokines, leading to a weaker immune system. Furthermore, sleep plays an important role in regulating our internal environment, where it also affects the efficacy of other immune cells.
In addition to this, sleep in general is very important for our health, as it performs a variety of different functions in our body. Inadequate sleep has also been correlated to a greater incidence of developing chronic diseases as well as greatly impacting our mental well being. You can read more about sleep and its importance here: The Hidden Power Of Sleep
3. MODERATE EXERCISE
It has been found that doing moderate exercise every day not only improves our cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, and reduces our chances of developing chronic diseases, but it also positively contributes to the well being of our immune system. The reason behind this is still being researched since there are a lot of factors to take into consideration here.
One idea may be that doing exercise improves our blood circulation, which may help in expelling unwanted toxins and inflammatory molecules from our bodies. Better circulation also delivers more oxygen to our cells, which can directly impact their functioning as our cells need oxygen for respiration and for staying alive.
Since our breathing rate is faster during exercise, exercise may actually help clear up our lungs and airways, by flushing out harmful bacteria through having to breathe faster.
Lastly, since exercise has been effectively shown to decrease levels of stress in our body, that has also been linked with better immunity, as you will see below, stress has a direct impact on our immune system
4. HEALTHY LIFESTYLE HABITS
QUIT SMOKING
Smoking has been for a long time now labeled as a hazard for our health, including our immune system. Smoking and inhaling smoke has been linked with our body being less effective at fighting disease and inflammation, making us more susceptible to falling ill.
Furthermore, smoking distorts the balance of our immune system where it increases the chances of us developing autoimmune diseases (Diseases where our body will attack its own healthy tissues and cells). Overall smoking is not a healthy practice as it impacts a myriad of other aspects of our health and acts as a major carcinogen for our body. Abstaining from this practice is one of the best things you can do for your health.
KEEP ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION MODERATE
Excessive alcohol consumption has more recently been linked with a poorer immune system, whereby immunologists have observed that drinking too much alcohol, destroys different types of cells throughout our body, such as those in our respiratory pathways that are responsible for clearing up our airways of trapped dust particles and bacteria.
Furthermore, alcohol has also been shown to kill healthy normal gut bacteria, that otherwise have a positive impact on our health, but due to excessive alcohol consumption, their functioning is inhibited.
Apart from that, alcohol also interferes with our sleep where it has been shown that it impacts the REM part of our sleep cycle, and as we have seen previously, whatever impacts our sleep also impacts our immune system.
HYGIENIC PRACTICES
Keeping a good level of hygiene is important for general well being and preventing seriously harmful pathogens from entering our body.
This however does not mean that our environment should be excessively sterilized and sanitized, as our body needs to be exposed to a certain degree of uncleanliness for our immune system to stay active and also for it to not become over-reactive.
Generally, try and keep yourself clean and avoid having your hands in contact with your face, as our hands usually carry the most bacteria, but however do not go overboard with your sanitation practices, as that can also have an adverse effect.
5. STRESS MANAGEMENT
You might be surprised to hear this, but high levels of stress have been associated with a weaker immune system, which might be making you more susceptible to infections and illness.
A reason for why this may be happening is that when we are stressed, our body produces different stress hormones such as cortisol and corticosteroids, which have been shown to suppress the effectiveness of our immune system.
Stress impacts our body in more ways than you may initially think, ranging from slower digestion, headaches, higher blood pressure, raised heart rate, and raise blood cholesterol levels. All of these individual factors do not only contribute to a higher incidence of developing chronic disease, but also resulting in a weaker immune system.
Apart from this, people also use different coping methods to handling stress, such as excessive alcohol drinking, poor diet choices, sleeping less, or not taking time to exercise, all of which additionally add on top of the stress and worsen our immune system even more.
PROCRASTINATION: Why We Do It & How To Stop It
WHAT IS PROCRASTINATION?
I am sure that if you are reading this right now, you are familiar with procrastination and might be finding that it is creeping into your life a little too often than you would like. Don’t worry, we have all been there, including me. Procrastination is becoming more and more of a common waste of our time, alongside the rising levels of distractions that are found within our environment and our own minds. I am convinced that most of us would like to be procrastinating less - since procrastination leads to basically no productive output- so how can we take control of our procrastination and not let it control our lives instead?
Before we start out, lets just briefly go through what procrastination is actually formally defined as being.
Here is the definition for it:
⇒ Procrastination is the deliberate practice of postponing events, tasks, and activities for some later time, while occupation our present time with unnecessary work that keeps us busy.
Therefore we can see that procrastination by nature does nothing good for us, so why do so many people struggle with it today and how do we fix that?
WHY WE PROCRASTINATE?
The reasons why we procrastinate can firstly be explained from a biological/ psychological perspective, where we can see that procrastination is an issue that arises from incorrectly regulating our emotions, instead of it being the commonly though problem of time management. Secondly, we can try and explain procrastination through a more in-depth perspective, that deals with linking our emotions to our actions.
BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS:
Our brains are wired for short term gratification
This means that biologically we are more likely to make a decision that will bring an immediate positive reward to us, instead of working on something more long term for a great reward down the line. Short term gratification means that we want results and rewards immediately after an action, but that is often not the case with doing any type of work.
Work usually follows the pattern of starting the work, completing it, and only after some time, seeing results that are due to our input of effort. Because of this delay in reward and results, it makes starting work that much harder.
Easy work → Shorter completion time: Reward is smaller but immediate
Hard work → Longer completion time: Reward is greater, but not immediate
You would naturally prefer to scroll through social media to get immediate hits of dopamine, instead of starting a difficult piece of work and getting the same hit of dopamine much later.
Short term gratification is not only one of the main reason to blame for procrastination, but it also negatively impacts our decision-making abilities in all other aspects of life, where we risk losing much more valuable opportunities and larger rewards in the future, for doing easier works that immediately satisfies us.
Our brains like to save energy whenever possible
It is also a fact that even though our brains are of not great size, they can take up to 20% of our daily energy expenditure, which is exactly why they want to be the most energy-efficient they can. Because they need a lot of energy to be powered, they want to make sure that energy is used the best it can be, so that the least amount is wasted. In other words, they are wired for efficiency.
This exactly explains why it is much more daunting and harder for us to get started on a task that requires more energy, focus, and though; because it requires more energy from our brain.
The trick as to how to combat this issue has to do with how to trick our brain into not being afraid or daunted by initiating hard work but instead wiring it to start liking to perform difficult tasks.
Our own personal qualities and external factors
Whether we procrastinate is also linked to our own personal qualities and in what amounts we have them, as well as external factors in our environment that will cause or influence those qualities.
Some of these qualities and external factors include:
Our self-control
Our motivation
Demotivating and hindering factors
Examples: Rewards being far way int he future, feeling overwhelmed, anxiety, perfectionism, fear of failure, perceived lack of control, depression, lethargy
With these three factors, we can sum up procrastination in the following equation:
If Demotivating + Hindering factors > Self control + Motivation ⇒ Procrastination will result
REASONS FOR RESISTANCE
Other than biological reasons we can also try and explain procrastination from the perspective of resistance, where anytime that we try and start or complete an extensive and difficult task, we have four main sources of resistance that determine how likely we are to procrastinate on something:
Difficulty: Task is too hard OR too easy
Interest: Task is very interesting OR boring
Ambiguity: Task is specific and clear OR undefined and ambiguous
Motivation: Task is meaningful (motivating) OR un-motivating
If we can correctly manage these four levels that determine the likeliness of us procrastinating, it will be much easier for us to get started on the task and as a result, get it done. However, if we do not manage these factors, we will be much more prone to succumbing to procrastination and falling into the trap hole of it that may of us find too familiar.
QUITTING PROCRASTINATION
PRACTICAL STEPS:
Become aware of when you are procrastinating
Identify why you procrastinate (Rationalization of actions)
Identify your sources of procrastination
Implement anti-procrastination strategies (Mentioned below)
ANTI PROCRASTINAITON STRATEGIES:
Get into a flow state:
As I mentioned before, flow is a state that is the optimal balance between a task not being too boring and not being too difficult, allowing us to function at peak performance. We can ease ourselves into a flow state by adopting the two-minute rule that says that if a task will take us less than two minutes to complete we should do it right away and get it off our minds. The second way we can enter flow is by splitting up larger tasks into smaller time chunks such as 5 or 15 minutes, which will make the overall task seem less daunting and will encourage us to keep doing the task even after the time mark we set for ourselves.
Task management
Specifying a task and splitting it into smaller manageable subtasks: This creates less resistance towards starting the task and makes us more likely to fully finish the task because we know exactly what has to be done.
Determining "next steps": Get into the habit of immediately after completing a task, to determine "next steps" or follow up tasks that are not necessarily supposed to be done immediately, but prevent us from procrastinating in the future whenever we are working on the same task.
Categorizing your tasks: This allows you to micromanage your tasks by grouping them into 3-5 generalized categories, such as "work", "school", "leisure" etc, which allows you to have a more simplified overview of your work and what categories take up the majority of your time.
Task Prioritization:
Urgency/ importance
Difficulty
Our focus/ energy levels
Our current situation (Resources and people on hand)
Environment design
Your environment plays a large role in terms of your work habits and works ethic, which is why it is really important to keep your environment clean and free from any unwanted distractions such as technology, irrelevant work, or loud notifications. By keeping our environment as much distraction-free as we can, we will be less tempted to procrastinate and it will tell our brains that this specific space is associated with work and not with scrolling on your phone, allowing you to get a task done sooner.
Energy management
You want to first ensure that you are recharging your energy levels well and frequently by getting adequate sleep every night, eating energizing foods, and staying active to keep your brain alert. Whenever you feel a burst of energy/ inspiration/ motivation to work, use it on your most difficult and time-consuming tasks as those require most mental/ physical energy, allowing you to finish that task with optimal performance and obtain great results from it.
Setting deadlines
Setting time limits for our projects and tasks is crucial because it creates a sense of urgency for the task to be done, which makes it more likely for us to put our mental capacity to use at that time and get the work done. This idea is based on "Parkinson’s law", which states that work fills the time allocated to it. This means that if you set aside one hour to do a certain piece of work, psychologically you are going to try your best to complete the task in the given time frame, while if you were to only say "I want to complete this task sometime today", it means you could spend an unnecessary amount of time on a single piece of work, leaving your schedule even busier and less time for leisure and relaxation.
Setting end rewards
Not only does setting rewards for completing work stimulate the development of a habit loop, as it rewards to encourage our brain to repeat an action, but it also gives us something to loop word to and as a result work faster, with more motivation and more efficiency - all ultimately allowing us to avoid procrastination in the future.
CONCLUSIVE ADVICE
While procrastination is a common practice today, due to both biological/ physiological factors as well as external factors in our environment, it is crucial that we take procrastination under our control and replace it with higher quality tasks that fill our life with meaning.
While at the moment, doing nothing and just mindlessly scrolling through never-ending content sources may be amusing, in the long terms it is getting us nowhere and is likely also negatively impacting both our mental and physical health as well. All in all, procrastination is never a long term solution, since with it we only miss valuable opportunities and unique life lessons that we would learn along with them.
I hope that with the above tips and advice on how to reduce/ stop your procrastination, you are able to find more balance between your work and your personal endeavors while maintaining a clear and focused state of mind.
Minimalism Movement
WHAT IS IT?
If you have been anywhere near the internet recently, you would have noticed a steady rise in the minimalist culture. Although the concept of "Minimalism" initially started out in music where it referred to music that was composed of simple music theory and used minimal instruments, I am not talking about that kind. When I say minimalism, I am thinking of minimalism as a lifestyle, which influences our everyday habits, decision-making skills, and our relationship with materialistic goods.
As previously said, minimalism works as a lifestyle and mindset, which at its core, prioritizes things that we truly value instead of just buying things either because we can or because we are tempted to buy it. In essence, minimalism is the opposite of the commonly found consumerism, which encourages more spending as it is seen to positively contribute to the growth of the economy.
More is often not better, and minimalism does just that; It puts greater focus on the quality of things we own, instead of the quantity that it comes in
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Even though minimalism does put so much emphasis on not owning a lot, that does not mean that it is inherently wrong with owning many material possessions. The issues come when we assign meaning or self-worth to our material possessions, where as a result our own health, relationships, personal growth, and hobbies suffer.
Minimalism encourages buying goods that genuinely provide value to us, meaning that we focus on quality over quality. Because with minimalism we are much more intentional with the things we buy and we put much more thought, into our purchasing process, it is often also referred to as internationalism.
The idea of minimalism is becoming increasingly popular, because through minimalism we are not only positively contributing to ourselves, but also having a positive impact on our social relationships and the environment - that is becoming increasingly important to other people.
Below I have highlighted the 5 main benefits, all of which have come from personal experiences from implementing more minimalistic approaches in my life. That is not to say that you need to be considered a perfect "minimalist" to get these benefits, because neither am I one, and I still found it brought me a lot of good. I think that no matter to what degree you decide to implement minimalism, you will gain something positive from it.
5 MAIN BENEFITS
INCREASED FOCUS AND CLARITY
By purchasing and owning fewer things, you are able to have better focus and more mental clarity, as there are fewer external distractions in your environment as well as internal disruptors from worrying thoughts.
This can be an incredible feeling, as you can fully put your mind to work and turn on all focus towards what you are doing which allows you to get your work done faster and at a much higher level fo quality.
FASTER AND EASIER DECISION MAKING
This is a big one, whereby incorporating minimalism into your life, you end up with owning fewer things - and more important things that you value - which makes it that much easier to make decisions.
Studies have often shown that the more choices you give a person, the slower and poorer their decision-making abilities will be. This is often demonstrated in stores and supermarkets where you have on offer at all times a mass amount of products, which leaves your brain tired and unable to make good decisions, a phenomenon known as decision fatigue. Minimalism greatly eliminates or at least lessens this.
INCREASED HAPPINESS
Many people have experienced higher levels of happiness and general satisfaction from incorporating more minimalist approaches into their life. One reason for this is because you simply own more of things that you truly value and get real use out of. As we have touched upon before, more is often not the answer to digging us out of a hole, but it will often just dig the hole deeper.
Secondly, though minimalism you are able to be more appreciative and be grateful for what you have, as you put more attention into your purchasing habits and generally make fewer impulse buys. By being more considerate of what you have it shifts your perspective into being thankful for what you have and that may be the answer doesn't lie in getting more of something.
SAVES RESOURCES
Minimalism can greatly cut down on your need and reliance on resources, whether that be material resources such as money, water, electricity, or natural materials or it can also help save you more time in the long run and space around your home.
Through avoiding impulse buys and really considering in what ways we use our money, we are able to tremendously cut down our spendings, as we are not just spending money here and there, which on a monthly basis can add up to a decent amount.
The counterpart to materialism; consumerism, is also heavily blamed for depleting or using up the world's natural resources as well as contributing to more environmental damage in the forms of deforestation, water/ air pollution, incorrect waste disposal, and loss of biodiversity. Through conserving materials, these impacts can be reduced.
Furthermore, with minimalism you can save your most valuable resource; time, as you spend less time shopping, making decisions, and worrying about our materialistic possessions.
Lastly, through owning less but owning more of what makes us happy, we free up a to of room in our home that was previously taken up by random space fillers, which allows us to bring even more intention and purpose into our living or working space.
MORE FREEDOM
The last benefit to minimalism that I have come across is just that you are freer and have less attachment to things, which makes you more flexible with your time and that much less likely to worry about forgetting something or not taking care of another thing. It frees your mind from so many of the worries that arise from heavy consumerism and your possessions no longer hold you back from truly living.
Through all of these combined, by having fewer concerns clouding your mind and being more intentional with the way you choose to spend your time and money, you start living and being more present at the moment. You are able to make every living moment intentional and purposeful to you in whatever way that may be.
With minimalism, you clear up so many of the unnecessary distractions of everyday life, and it can radically make a positive impact on your life by bringing back mental clarity and a reason for why you do things; your larger intention.
5 MINIMALISM MISCONCEPTIONS
YOU HAVE TO OWN A MINIMAL NUMBER OF THINGS
If you have ever encountered minimalism before, you have probably heard of people who own less than 100 things and are perfectly content with what they have. As someone who likely owns more than 100 things, you immediately went "Oh I could never do that, that simply would just not work with me", and here it is important to realize that it is okay because maybe owning less than 100 things is really not compatible with your lifestyle and maybe it wouldn't even make you happier in the end. We are all different.
The point I am trying to make here is that if you would like to become a minimalist, you can still own more than 100 things, but let them be meaningful to you. Let them provide you with some sort of value and not just take up space. There is no point in just hoarding things or even depriving yourself of things if that simply just doesn't work for you.
Everyone has got a different lifestyle with different preferences, which is why there is no perfect idea of minimalism that would suit everyone.
IT IS TOO EXTREME AND HARD TO IMPLEMENT
Also, many people have the idea in their head that they have to turn full minimalist overnight and immediately get rid of the majority of their belongings and simply their life to the fullest all of a sudden. That is simply just not true. Because of these thinking patterns, people get scared of minimalism and see it as too extreme and difficult to achieve, but the truth is that minimalism is a longterm learning journey of improving your relationship with materialistic possessions.
YOU HAVE TO SAVE MONEY AT ALL TIMES
Minimalism also does not only limit you to buying things that you need basic necessities), because everyone has things that they want, but not necessarily need. It is important to also take care of our wants as they can bring a lot of happiness into our lives, but that doesn't mean that we should buy every single thing that we want, because that just leads to more consumerism.
Its perfectly fine to treat ourselves to a gift or a purchase every so often, but buy something because you will get use and happiness out of it, not because you feel the need to just buy something.
Apart from that, minimalism is also commonly mistaken for us having to be very frugal with our money at all times, by once again it just comes down to spending money on the things we care about. Often when focusing on higher quality of goods, the price is automatically higher, meaning that you are either choosing between purchasing fewer products of higher price and quality or buying more products that are cheaper and have poorer quality, meaning they last you less time.
EVERYONE IN YOUR SOCIAL CICRCL NEEDS OT BE A MINIMALIST
Upon adopting a minimalist lifestyle, it is common to think that from now on you have to only surround yourself with other minimalists and in all ways, keep away from heavy consumers. With that approach, you will see that at the end of the day you will not end up with many friends at all, because not everyone in the world will be inclined to try or adopt minimalism.
It is important to respect the choices that others have made for their lifestyle and to not force them into something they are not interested in. it is best to try and explain and educate them about the topic and your reasons for doing it, but by no means do you now have to force them into becoming a minimalist.
Learn to live with each other’s lifestyle choices and support each other in making responsible choices.
MINIMALISM AS AN ACTION
Minimalism is a type of lifestyle and mindset, instead of a single action that defines us as a minimalist. It is not the shorthand action of purging your closet that will make you an immediate minimalist, but it is more of a longterm change in mindset, habits, and other lifestyle factors, such as choosing to intentionally buy less clothing. As a lifestyle, it encompasses more than just your purchasing habits, but also your thinking and relationship with the world around you.
Anything worth changing for does not happen overnight, because rewiring your thinking habits is hard and takes time, therefore expect that this is a long term journey and positive lifestyle change that you are taking on.
MINDFUL IMPLEMENTATION PRACTICES
It is not about becoming a minimalist overnight, but a gradual transition process into becoming more mindful with our purchases and possessions. Here are some tips and advice on how to try to start implementing some minimalistic practices into your life, so that you too can experience some of the benefits it carries.
When going through your current possessions, ask yourself:
Does this bring any form of value to me?
How often do I use this?
Could someone else appreciate or need this more than me?
Have a declutter day or spend 5-10 minutes decluttering something each day
Find ways in which you can simply aspects of you rife (cooking, cleaning working)
Give away things you down want/ need anymore to people in need
If you don’t like or use something anymore, try to reuse or fix up so that you will give the item a second chance for use
Invest in quality pieces instead of quantity of pieces that will save you more money in the long run
Have a limited number of clothes hangers available in your wardrobe
Organic Food: What's The Buzz All About?
In today’s modern society, just stepping into the supermarket can leave your mind boggled and confused with several labels, descriptions, and special words used to identify products: Organic, non-GMO, free-range, eco friendly and the list goes on, but what do all of these mean?
This is why I will first go through what these words mean so that we can keep on track with the topic and understand all of the content thoroughly. I don't want to be confusing commonly misunderstood words such as "Organic" and "Non-GMO" for each other since they mean different things, which is why we have to first define them to avoid any confusion.
In this article specifically, I will be focusing on "organic" food, and more specifically whether it actually carries the promised benefits or it is all just a marketing fad used to promote more customer spending.
WHAT EVEN IS ORGANIC?
Although each country has its own regulations and standards for what can be classed as "organic", we can generally define organic food as:
Food that is produced in the absence of man-made fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, growth enhancers, and chemically additives. It excludes Genetically modified Organisms (GMO) and promotes food production that is more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable in the long term.
In terms of animals, livestock is not fed antibiotics or growth hormones, as well as needing to have access to the outdoors for grazing.
While all of these things sound great for both environmental and health concerns, research and opinions are mixed about whether these "magical" foods carry as many benefits as they get praise for. This is what we will be discussing in more detail, below.
DO NOT CONFUSE ORGANIC WITH…
NON-GMO:
A Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), is an organism, either plant, animal, or microorganism, whose genetic makeup has been altered through laboratory practices and experiments, in order to produce an organism with more desirable characteristics. these characteristics can mean a better appearance, a more appealing taste, being more nutritious, or becoming more resistant to disease.
Even-though foods advertised as being "healthy", often have both labels such as "Organic" and "Non-GMO", they are not the same things, since Non-GMO does not follow the same farming and raising practices.
While GMO's have their list fo benefits, people have also expressed concerns towards them, such as:
Increased rate of allergic reactions
They could possibly promote the development of cancers
Their ability to be more resistant to herbicides, which leads to more herbicide being sprayed, which ultimately means we consume more herbicides
ECO FRIENDLY:
While this one most commonly refers to non-food products, it can nevertheless still be found on food labels. Eco friendly simply means that it is good for the environment, in terms of encouraging practices that conserve energy, limits resources, tries to decrease waste production, as well as not contributing to water, air, and land pollution.
FREE RANGE:
The term "free-range" refers to a style of raising livestock and animals that assures that animals have access to outdoor space either for movement or for grazing.
Although the regulation for "free-range" food differs for every country, food labels like "free-range" do not always guarantee that animals are actually "free-range", so you have to double-check the practices of the producer or farmer to be certain.
ORGANIC IN NUMBERS
Since the 1900s, organic food consumption has been increasing for about 20% each year, with also more land becoming dedicated to growing organic food.
In 2018, the total sales of organic food have amounted up to 95 billion USD.
So far in the year 2020, more than 60 billion USD has been spent on organic foods.
The largest markets for organic food are found in the US; Germany and France, with the biggest consumers of organic products being Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland.
CURRENT NUTRITIONAL BELIEFS
Since organic food has been and is on the rise of consumption, what makes people want to buy it more? What are these convincing factors, which may or may not be true at all?
Some of the currently believe and potentially promised benefits of organic food include:
Better nutritional profile
The lower presence of pesticides in food, that makes it safer to eat
Better taste compared to conventional food
Perhaps an improved nutritional profile with a higher nutrient content
Better animal welfare
WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
ACTUAL BENEFITS OF BUYING ORGANIC
FEWER PESTICIDES:
The majority of research studies have concluded that organic food indeed does contain and is sprayed with fewer pesticides, as is part of the organic food guidelines, but that does not mean that organic food contains no pesticides. Pesticides are still in organic food, there is just less of them and they come in different natural varieties that are not chemically or synthetically based.
For example, researchers in a study from a couple of years ago looked and analyzed over 94,000 food samples and found that on average, organic food contains one third as many pesticides as conventional food.
On the topic of pesticides, it is true that conventional foods contain a higher level of them, but many still do not cross the line of being "unhealthy" or bad for our health. The question that follows however is if long terms consumption of standard levels of pesticides is unsafe or harmful to our health, as a result of a build-up of pesticides in our body through time.
Many scientists do think that long term pesticide exposure and consumption can be harmful to us, as literally pesticides are designed to kill (small) organisms. However, we also have to consider the accumulation of pesticides in our environment such as our soil and water, which further goes into the growth of new plants that are further sprayed with pesticides, and the cycle repeats.
Therefore we have to view the issue in terms of how it impacts our health and what kind of consequence it will have on our environment, as we critically depend on both for our survival.
For your convenience, below I have made a list of the produce that has been shown to have the greatest concentration of pesticides. Whether organic or not, it is most recommended that you thoroughly wash these fruits and vegetables, and still consume them as apart of a healthy and balanced diet:
Leafy greens
Strawberries
Peaches
Berries
Grapes
Pears
Apples
Celery
Green peas
BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:
It is by no doubt that true that organic food that by default contains fewer pesticides which in turn leads to less pesticide buildup in our soils and eventually means that we ingest fewer pesticides - meaning its also better for our health.
Organic farming is said to contribute to soil of higher and healthier quality, reducing erosion - a critical issue in today’s farming, improving water pollution in rivers by preventing eutrophication, and generally encouraging greater biodiversity among plants and animals.
The reason why these environmental benefits of organic farming sound so promising, is because it has been shown that farming of conventionally grown food contributes to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and increasingly more water pollution due to the leaking of fertilizers and pesticides.
On the other hand, a safety concern about organic food has arisen, debating whether using manure as a fertilizer is safe to use for humans, since it may increase the spread of harmful bacteria such as E. coli. Many studies however have shown that through comparisons of organic and non-organic foods, organic foods tend to have fewer numbers of bacteria on them, especially harmful bacteria.
Even though all of this sounds great in a perfect world we would all be practicing organic farming and consuming more organic foods but that is just not the reality. While promoting organic for the longterm is more sustainable for our planet, organic farming is harder to achieve or to make it a standard of farming, simply because of its lower yields, greater usage of water, and the need for more land for growing.
BETER ANIMAL WELAFERE:
Organic farming has indeed been shown to contribute to animal welfare and ensure that through organic standards, animals are given suitable movement space, organic and Non-GMO feed, fresh air, and are generally "raised in conditions that suit their natural behavior", as was stated by the Soil Association.
Meat and animal products that fall under the organic regulation also contain minimal to no antibiotics and growth hormones, since in theory organically raised livestock is not allowed to be routinely fed antibiotics; only in the case that the animal is sick.
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ORGANIC FOOD
BETTER NUTRITION PROFILE:
In terms of the nutritional profile of organic food, there have been studies that have found that organic produce does not necessarily contain more micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals, but is predominantly richer in polyphenols and antioxidants.
The reason for this is that because the plants are not sprayed with synthetic pesticides, they have no external protection against pests from pesticides, meaning that the plants have to produce their own chemicals for warding off pests. And these chemicals happen to be antioxidants - molecular substances that have been shown to be good for our health, cells, and preventing skin aging, by reducing oxidative stress. This way, researchers found that in comparison to conventional food, organic produce can contain up to as much as 40% more antioxidants, meaning that it is better for our health.
Either way, whether organic or conventional, it is best to eat our produce when it is fresh, as otherwise certain nutrients such as vitamin C can start oxidizing and lose their health benefits as well as their fresh taste over time
"If you want to get the most from your food, eat it while it's fresh."
BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT:
Even though I have previously mentioned, organic farming does offer some environmental benefits such as reduced water pollution and less soil erosion, the strict regulation for organic food also brings about many disadvantages to the environment.
Primarily, organic farming has been shown to contribute more to greenhouse gas emissions which we all know contribute to global warming. For example, organic milk and dairy products have been shown to not be very environmentally conscious, as based on the Study of Life Cycle Assessments in the United Kingdom, found that "A liter of organic milk requires 80 percent more land than conventional milk to produce, has 20 percent greater global warming potential, releases 60 percent more nutrients to water sources, and contributes 70 percent more to acid rain".
On the topic of greenhouse gases, animals are also to blame here, where organically raise livestock produces twice as much methane as conventional farmed cows and chickens are close to that number as well. Raising organic cattle comes at a slightly lower greenhouse emission value, where they produce about 12% more of these gases in comparison to conventional cattle.
Here it is also important to consider the contribution that fossil fuels have to greenhouse gas emissions, where it has been found several times that farming equipment used for organic produce most commonly runs on fossil fuels, which just like any other fossil fuel, contributes to air pollution.
It is generally observed that organic production uses up more energy, more water, produces lower harvest yields, and requires more land space. For example, in terms of yields, a hectare of conventionally farmed land produces 2.5 times more potatoes than its conventional competitor. In the United Kingdom where tomatoes are most commonly grown in greenhouses, the organic yields are up to 75% less than conventionally grown tomatoes, while needing twice as much energy to be grown.
All in all, while organic produce does have a positive impact on the environment, we have to also be aware that organic food can act as a double-edged sword, where it also has environmental downsides.
SUPERIOR TASTE:
Based on a 2016 study done by the Pew Research center, it was discovered that upon asking supermarket shoppers the question "Why do you buy organic", about 30% said that they buy it for the better taste but interestingly about 60% said that in their opinion organic and conventional food taste about the same.
So is it true that organic tastes better? Let’s take a look.
In terms of the taste, if organic food is said to taste better it is most likely because the food is usually more fresh at the store, meaning there is less time between harvest and selling. This by no doubt makes a difference in taste since everyone can tell apart when a piece of fruit or vegetable is fresh or not.
However just because a food is grown and labeled as organic, it does not mean that it automatically tastes better; Taste is predominantly determined by the organism’s genetic makeup. Meaning that if you take a bland tasting species of tomatoes and grow them in organic conditions, at the end of the day they will still taste like bland tomatoes.
CONCLUSIVE ADVICE
Buying organic may not be a priority for everyone, so it will depend on your personal preferences and choices; precisely, what you value most. For example, if you are concerned with consuming pesticides, then eating organic may be your best choice, however, if animal welfare is not the first on your list of priorities, then you may have to look for a different option.
Besides personal choice, there is also the factor of price, where based on research done by the USDA, organic food can cost 10-30% more than conventional food, which can make it an expensive investment in the long run, especially for a large family. If you would still like to buy more organic food, that does not mean that all of your products have to be bought organic, but simply choosing to buy some products as organic may be a smart move for you and your wallet.
Generally speaking, if you choose not to purchase as much organic food, it is always good advice to wash your produce before eating it and also choosing to buy in-season products that are both good for your wallet and the planet, due to smaller transporting distances.
Either way, at the end of the day it comes down to personal choice. Both conventional and organic have advantages and disadvantages, so it all really is based on personal choice and your lifestyle.
10 Things To Not Take For Granted
IMPORTANCE OF GRATITUDE
Gratitude is by definition, the quality of being thankful and sincerely appreciative of receiving a benefit from someone or something. It is a non-selfish act of appreciation, where you are focusing on what you have in life, instead of diverting your attention to what you don't have. You focus on abundance instead of scarcity.
Many studies have found a link between people who regularly express gratitude and living a happier and more satisfactory life. Gratitude can be such a small and simple act, however when we choose to intentionally practise expressing gratitude for the things we have, it can have drastic changes on our life, ranging from our personal and work life to our relationships, health and our general attitude towards living. Gratitude shifts your perspective on life, which as a result, can completely change around your life.
"Gratitude turns what we have into enough"
BENEFITS OF GRATITUDE
Research is continually proving that those who express gratitude, gain a lot of benefits from doing so. Some of these benefits include:
An improved mood and being generally more happy and satisfied with life
Having a more optimistic outlook on life
Having more deeper and meaningful relationships
Being able to deal better with negativity and setbacks
Remembering events more vividly
Better athletic performance
WHAT NOT TO TAKE FOR GRANTED
YOUR HEALTH
When I say to not take your health for granted, I mean to not take for granted both your mental and physical health. If you are in good mental shape, meaning that you can think clearly, speak well, have a bold imagination and you can make decisions on your own through your own judgements, that is amazing already on its own. While we all are born with a brain, not all of us are fortunate enough to have a good working brain, so if you have one, use it; Don't take it for granted. Do something with that amazing brain you have; it is the best asset you have, so grow and develop it.
As for your physical health, If you are in good physical condition, where you can walk, run, jump, move on your own and have control over your muscle movements, that is also something that many of us take for granted on a daily basis. Don't, because as you get older many of your previously effortless and agile movements and muscle coordination will begin to falter and not be as smooth as before. So use your body and take care of it while you are young, to keep it in the best shape for when you are older.
You only get one brain and one body, so take care of them.
FAMILY AND GOOD FRIENDS
If you get along well with your family and have strong bonds with them, make sure you keep strengthening them. Poor family relationships are becoming more and more frequent, with many families experiencing a lack of love, cooperation and the necessary "family" bond, which results in more divorces and breakups.
The same can be said for your friends; If you want good friendships that bring value and benefit to your life, you have to input time and effort into them; nothing will just happen by itself. This is why you have to make sure you appreciate your friends and tell them that frequently. The more often you do, the stronger that bond will get and the more satisfaction you will get out of that relationship; more trust, honesty and integrity - All things which we want.
YOUR NATIVE SKILLS AND TALENTS
Everybody is naturally good at something. We all are, and some of us identify our strengths sooner in life, which gives those people more time to work on them and become even better at doing them. You can not to be a professional at all things in life and excel in every single aspect all the time, but finding what you are good at is the first step to take towards reaching your full potential.
What sets apart a regular individual from a "Superman" individual full of success, is their ability to recognize their strengths and then intentionally choose to work and grow them.
Use your strengths to your advantage, because while we may not all be good at the same things, all skills and talents are in some way useful in life. So be grateful for your natural competencies, work on them and don take them for granted because there is always at last someone out there in the world who would love to know how to do the skill or have the talent that you have.
YOUR TIME
Even though we all know this, not many of us like to admit it. Our time on earth is finite and limited, which is why it is so important how we choose to spend our time. When you are younger, time seems to stretch on forever and you would rather skip ahead in time than live in the moment. However, as adults usually say, time really does fly as you get older, so you have to be really intentional as to how you chose to spend your time because while you can get more money, resources and friends, you can never get more time back.
TECHNOLOGY THAT WORKS
Having at least one piece of working technology is taken as a complete no brainer in today’s developed world where you are seen as “underprivileged” if you only have a phone and no computer, or other electronic devices to go with it. This idea and perspective is completely false, as having access to at least one piece of functioning technology - no matter its brand, age or reputation - is already a huge advantage. Many people in today’s world dream of having the luxury of owning technology, but they can’t afford it or have to share a device with a large number of other family members.
Technology is amazing when used correctly and with good intent, and it can bring so many benefits to those who have access to it. However just because we are living in the digital age where it is a norm to change your perfectly good phone every year for a new one and keep updating your gadgets whenever a new one comes out, that is not an excuse to forget the devices we currently have and take them for granted.
Only when your devices stop working and you don't have any working ones, is the time when you realize how much convenience and value technology brings to you.
MONEY
While you can always make or earn more money in life, it does not mean that having money should become something you take for granted. The ability to pay for yourself and spend money on others, such as your family and friends, is a luxury. Money can be made quicker than ever today, but it can also be lost or wasted just as quickly. There are plenty of useless incentives out here that pressure and bribe us to purchase useless junk, but many of us still buy it. To earn money takes effort and work, so if you have money right now - no matter what amount - treat it fairly and take care of it, because money is always useful at some point when it’s needed.
THE OPPORTUNITY OF CHOICE AND DECISIONS
This is another complete no brainer in today’s developed society, but having the freedom of choice and the freedom to live life the way you want to, are such grand ideas that they are far too big and important to take them for granted.
Having the option to choose what you want to wear, eat, live, do and think is the largest form of freedom. No one likes the idea of living their life by someone else's design and standards because we are all so different and individual as individuals.
Use this idea to your advantage, by choosing and building piece by piece the life you want; you are the creator of it. It is up to you how you choose to live it, so make sure you design it so that you find enjoyment and pleasure in living it, otherwise, what’s the point? While you may not start with ideal choices and complete freedom if you are under the care of your parents, as time passes, you gain more freedom of choice and more independence that allows you to design the life you want.
BASIC RESOURCES
Having resources such as water for drinking and washing, a roof above your head, money, social company and good food supply, are all often taken for granted in the modern world, but in reality, they are luxuries that many can only dream of having.
It is estimated that worldwide up to 150 million people are homeless and then about 690 million people are undernourished, based on the Action Against Hunger organization. These are luxuries that form the foundations of our living and we greatly rely on a daily basis, which is why if they would all of a sudden go missing, we would be the first to notice.
Be thankful for these little opportunities that make your life a great deal easier and enable you to live it to your best abilities.
GOING OUTSIDE INTO NATURE
People living in countries and cities with extremely bad air pollution have significantly elevated risks of dying, especially in developing countries where good medical care is limited. In 2017 alone, 5 million people worldwide died to air pollution. Besides that, regular exposure to air pollutants encourages the development of several medical conditions and diseases such as heart disease, stroke, various respiratory conditions and certain respiratory cancers.
If you are fortunate enough to live in a country or town with clean air and a clean outdoor environment, take advantage of that. Go spend time outside in the sunshine or simply just spend time in fresh air. It does you more good than you might at first believe.
With more of our days being spent inside workspaces and commuting, we have to make it a priority to spend time outside. To make the experience even better, invite along some friends or involve some exercise that will do good for both your mental and physical health.
YOUR LIFE
As much of a cliche as this may sound, but the opportunity to be able to be alive and live a life is absolutely incredible. In my view, life is like a giant opportunity to live to our fullest potential, learn things, meet people, travel to new places, see sights that inspire us, challenge ourselves, and experience things that are simply only available to those who are alive. All the opportunities you get in life - no matter how small or coincidental - happened to us for a reason and let us take advantage of them.
Treat life as an opportunity and a challenge with which you exceed the expectations of others and yourself, and you will see yourself grow. Life is meant to be an opportunity to discover yourself, others, and the world in which you live in. Living in fear and doubt gets you nowhere and just ends up being a lost opportunity for what could have been an amazing experience.
It is up to you how you spend your life.
Our Plastic Planet
Plastic is by no doubt a material that has exploded in popularity in the last two decades, from its useful properties and versatile applications in industry, it has become both the result and encouragement for the spread of globalization.
However, only in the last couple of years, we have started realizing just how dependent we are on plastic and what kind of effect this has been having on the well being of our planet.
One issue is the sheer amount of plastic that we are producing each year, while another issue is how we choose to manage and dispose of that plastic. In fact, quite recently National Geographic has said that up to 91% of plastic is not recycled, meaning that much of the plastic we produce - the billions of tones of it - ends up as litter and eventually in our oceans. With plastic's tendency to take a long time to biodegrade, plastic has started to seriously damage ecosystems and the species living there.
Soon if it has not already, plastic will be seriously affecting our lives too.
PLASTIC IN NUMBERS
On average, 500 billion single-use plastic bags are used per year
It is estimated that each day, 13,000-15,000 pieces of plastic are deliberately dumped into the ocean
Every year, more than 8 million tones of plastic are dumped into the ocean
The bioaccumulation of plastic microfibers is a real issue, where marine scientists have stated that up to two-thirds of the worlds fish stocks suffer from plastic ingestion
It is estimated that in each square kilometre of the ocean, there are four billion pieces of plastic microfibers
Half of the plastics in the world have been manufactured in the last 15 years
WHAT EVEN IS PLASTIC?
Even though plastic is such a big part of our daily lives, how many of us actually know what plastic even is? How do we define what counts as a plastic?
Well, generally speaking, plastics are materials that have the ability to be malleable and be moulded into a different shape. They are made up of synthetic or half synthetic organic compounds, that act as polymers and can be linked up to form different types of plastics.
Plastics are mostly derived from a group of substances known as petrochemicals, which are chemical substances that are made in the process of refining petroleum; Another major driving force in our world. There are also some plastics that are manufactured from renewable materials that are made from plant sources, however, those are greatly outnumbered by petrol derived plastics.
The number of years it takes plastic to naturally degrade and break down depends on what type of plastic it is and in what sort of environment it is degrading in (Whether it is exposed to external factors such as sun, wind, rain, the cold etc.), but the breakdown of plastic can take anywhere from 50 to 600 years.
PLASTIC POPULARITY
Plastic being a very versatile and highly useful material in our industries today has dominated our world to the extent that for many things we can’t imagine a world without it. The rise in its popularity can be illustrated by the rise in its global production and usage. For example, in the year 1950, the world had produced a negligible 2 million tones of plastic however by the year 2015, the worlds produced up to 7.82 billion tonnes of plastic - a number which is still rising.
There are several reasons why plastic has had such a dramatic increase in usage throughout history:
Useful properties: Plastics are known to be lightweight, have a high strength to weight ratio, can be mass-produced with no significant cost, they are water-resistant and are good as thermal and electrical insulators. These are all properties that make them very applicable to industrial uses today.
Various uses: Because of the widespread number of properties that plastic has, it has many uses in today’s industrial world. For example, in developed countries, roughly 30% of the plastic produced is used in packaging, however, plastic is also used in our clothing, such as various polyesters and nylon-based pieces of clothing. Apart from that, plastic is used in plenty of packaging, plumbing systems, wire insulation, carpets, stationery, working equipment, toys, machinery and various car parts.
Globalization: While globalization has brought plenty of benefits to our society and the functioning of our world, such as improved access to information, better transport links and generally a wider availability of products, it also comes with a downside. By having more products being available and the rise of the internet, more packaged products are able to be bought and sold all over the world, which increases the overall number of plastics used in both the making of goods and packaging of them. Furthermore, globalization has enabled countries to grow and develop which has fostered industries, many of which either rely on plastics to operate or are responsible for producing plastic in the first place. By having plenty of useful properties and being inexpensive to mass-produce, it has become the perfect commodity to produce since it can be moulded into almost anything and can serve plenty of functions that are a daily part of our lives.
Growing population: We have to also take into consideration the growing global population, which encourages the use of even more resources that promotes the rise of industries, while alongside it producing a mass amount of waste that is degrading the natural environment. To put things into perspective, in the year 1960, the world population was just about 3 billion, and just 60 years later today, the global population has surpassed 7.6 billion. With the global population is expected to increase, we can only imagine what that will do to the number of waste produced.
THE PLASTIC PROBLEM
DAMAGED MARINE ECOSTYEMS
As previously said, it is estimated that each year up to 8 million tones of plastic ends up floating around in our oceans - the largest waste sink in the world. Generally speaking, human waste mainly comes from land-based regions such as urban and storm runoffs, tourism, inefficient waste management, industrial activities and illegal dumping of waste. Most plastic found in oceans is due to fishing boats, nautical activities and aquaculture - the farming of fish and seafood.
These plastics are hurting and often even killing many of the marine species living in aquatic environments. Choking, ingesting or getting tangled up in plastic, are all things that much of the sea world is experiencing. The United Nations have at that at least 800 species around the world are currently affected by marine waste and that 60% of all sea bird species have eaten at least one piece of plastic in their lives.
With plastic being exposed to the sun and harsh weather conditions, it breaks down quicker, however, it does not disappear fully and instead turns into microplastics which are tiny pieces of plastic that are smaller than 5mm in diameter. These pieces are easily ingested by various marine species - small and large - which means that over time the species at the top of the food chain end up with the largest concentration of plastic in their body from having consumed plenty of smaller consumers below them. This is the process of bioaccumulation, which puts species that are at the top of the food chain, at a higher risk of dying.
Additionally, because the production of plastic is an activity that promotes global warming due to the release or production of greenhouse gases, oceans are up-taking more CO2 gas, making them more acidic, which severely damages sea corals that provide an essential ecosystem for other aquatic beings.
POORER WATER QUALITY
Microplastics are found in almost all water sources today including our drinking water. So far, research done by the World Health organization is inconclusive about how microplastics in our drinking water affect the human body, but we can most definitely say that they do not provide any positive effect since plastic in the water is not natural. United Nations suggest that more research and studies are needed in the field of microplastics and human health to establish a clear connection between them.
WORSENED AIR QUALITY
One of the primary ways in which plastic worsens air quality is during the process of oil extraction - the substances from which plastic is made. During the process of oil drilling, a spectrum of harmful and often toxic waste gases are released into the atmosphere that have been stored underground for millions of years. Some examples of these gases include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, ozone and sulfur dioxide.
Because plastic takes so long to break down, one method of how we currently dispose of plastic is by incinerating or burning it which is extremely harmful to the atmosphere as it releases fumes of heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants and various toxic chemicals, that harm both our lungs and the lungs of animals. People living in environments where plastic is burned have significantly higher risks for asthma, cancer and plenty of other respiratory conditions.
Plastics take up a lot of energy and resources to be made, where they leave behind a large carbon footprint that is further contributing to climate change and doing no good for ourselves and our environment.
DECREASED FOOD QUALITY
Although more research needs to be gathered, there are two primary chemicals of concern; Phthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA), in relation to how plastic impacts the food we eat. Phthalates are chemicals that are responsible for making plastics soft and flexible and are most commonly used in children's toys, food processing equipment and medical instruments. This chemical has been found to be toxic to the reproductive health of both males and females.
BPA or bisphenol A, on the other hand, has raised a lot of attention recently, because it is widely used in both hard type plastics and inside of food cans and it as been observed that it can leech into the food that is in contact with it, especially if it is heated up like in microwaves.
Even though the doses of exposure for these two chemicals are small, more and more pieces of microplastic are being found in our food sources and could in the long term after having accumulated, have a negative impact on our developmental, endocrine, reproductive and neurological health.
WHY CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE?
We as humans have the tendency to only care about an issue if it directly has an impact on our lives, which is why some of us would be raising our eyebrows to the concern of plastic since, for many of us in the developed world, plastic does not seem to directly be harming us, in fact, it has made our lives so much easier and more comfortable. Therefore, why should we care about this issue?
While plastic may not yet be affecting you or the planet to its maximum extent, it may very well start doing so in the upcoming decade. With the plastic production and consumption increasing each consecutive year, the potential negative impacts of plastic do not seem to be dissolving any time soon. In fact, plastic is already having current impacts such as contributing to global warming, endangering species, worsening the quality of our air and water as well as being a potential hazard to our own health. This is why you should care; because you are part of the issue and we are all to some degree responsible for it.
WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR PLASTIC CONSUMPTION
I don't want to come across as a person who has never in their life contributed to the making and wasting of plastic, but I do try and make a daily effort to reduce my plastic footprint. In this case, as with many, it is not about being perfect and trying to force yourself to not use any plastics whats so ever and live as though you were a caveman. No, that’s not the point and nor is it the right approach. The point is for all of us to give our best effort in minimizing our reliance and usage of plastic, as small amounts can stack up and in the end result in a positive global change.
If we want to encourage a change in our behaviour and attitude towards plastic, we have to make it easy and applicable to the lifestyle of an ordinary person. To become less reliant on plastic, we have to positively encourage this change and make sure that we are making our best effort to reduce our waste when we can.
Here are a couple of examples of how you can begin to reduce your plastic waste today:
Reusing your current plastic products
Buying food in bulk stores with your own bags
Replacing your plastic bottles and cups with materials like glass, metal or porcelain
Investing in reusable cloth-based bags for long term use
Not using plastic straws
Reducing your consumption of chewing gum
Buying eating utensils that are made of metal or wood
Investing in glass or metal food containers for lunch boxes
Not using plastic bags in stores, when you don't need them
Returning back plastic food containers
Bringing your own container for meat and prepared foods to the store
Refilling your shampoo and detergent bottles in specialized stores that limit plastic waste
Reducing your consumption of processed and heavily packaged food
Visiting your local farmers market with your own shopping bags
Having at least one reusable bag in each of your most commonly used bags
Always bringing along a reusable bottle that you can refill where ever you go
Mindful things to consider:
Do I want this or do I need it?
What impacts will my choices make?
Am I making an effort to try my best here?
Why Drink Water?
WHY WATER?
Many of us realize and acknowledge that water is important for us and life in general, however, most of us still do not drink enough of it. You may have heard before that the human body is largely made up of water, with us being made up roughly 60% water, which goes to show just how important water is as a factor for creating and supporting life. Even hard tissues and structures in our body, such as bones and connective tissues are made up of water, with our organs being made of roughly 70% water.
Water is found in every one of our cells, mainly in the cytoplasm and it plays many roles as we will see below. However, the human body can not store water for long and it continually loses it during the day, which means that it is our job to make sure we continually rehydrate and replace the water that we lose through daily activities, as otherwise we become dehydrated and the functioning of our body is slowed down and impaired.
No matter how many times you have heard this advice, but really make sure you are drinking enough water for your needs; It really does make a difference to your well being and health in the long run.
HOW MUCH WATER?
How much water you require on a daily basis, depends on several factors, however, it is generally recommended that a moderately active person with no special medical conditions requires about 2-3 litres of water per day.
You will, however, need to drink more water if:
You are very physically active and sweat a lot
You are pregnant or breastfeeding
You are ill and experiencing vomiting or diarrhoea
At the end of the day, there is really no perfect measurement for how much water you should consume, however, it is best to drink when you are thirsty and stop when you are no longer thirsty, as too much water in a short time span is also not good, just like too much of anything is not good for us.
FUNCTIONS OF WATER
MAKES UP THE BUILDING BLOCKS
As was previously mentioned, water is found within every cell in our body, meaning that water is largely the building block that makes up our body. In our body, water is an essential medium for the transport of soluble substances, acting as an ideal solvent for biochemical reactions that occur within us. Apart from that, it has been shown that up to 90% of our blood is made up of water, most of which is plasma and goes to show that water is a transport medium.
Apart from that, water also forms saliva and mucus, both of which are water-based substances that are heavily needed in digestion and preventing our internal environment from drying out.
REGULATION OF BODY TEMPERATURE AND BLOOD PRESSURE
When we are involved in strenuous exercise, we start to sweat because sweat is our bodies way of cooling us off, as it allows excess that to evaporate out and for us to get a "cooling" effect when exposed to wind. Since sweat is mostly just water and salts, we have to make sure to drink plenty of extra water if we are often physically active, as that is the only way water can get replaced.
Other than that, as we become dehydrated, our blood becomes thicker, which raises our blood pressure - another factor that has to be maintained at healthy levels by our body and is impacted by our intake of water.
REMOVAL OF WASTE
Waste is primarily removed from our body in three main ways. Firstly, drinking enough water ensures that we remove waste through our urinary system and it keeps our kidneys healthy as well as preventing the formation of kidney stones.
Secondly, we remove excess water and salts through sweating, as well as keeping our body temperature cool.
Lastly, adequate water levels ensure healthy bowel movements and prevent constipation, which is more common than you may initially think.
JOINT LUBRICANT AND SHOCK ABSORBER
Another neglected function of water is that it is an important lubricant for our joints, that makes movements in our joints easier and effortless. Scientists have found that roughly 80% of our cartilage is made up of water, which makes movements that much easier.
Apart from that, water also acts as a shock absorber, protecting many sensitive tissues and organs, such as our brain. This is also seen in unborn babies, that are surrounded by a water-based liquid, that protects them from exterior shocks and bumps that could otherwise damage them.
ABSORPTION OF WATER SOLUBLE NUTRIENTS
Apart from vitamins, it is also important to consume water-soluble fibre, that is able to uptake water into our intestines and thus prevents constipation. The best sources of water-soluble fibre are legumes such as beans and lentils, vegetables like brussel sprouts and green leafy vegetables as well as fruits such as avocado.
COGNITIVE FUNCTION
Apart from our physiological health, water is also crucial for our cognitive functioning and thinking skills, where it has been scientifically shown that if we consume enough water, our focus, alertness and short term memory are improved, which is because water is largely needed for the synthesis of chemical neurotransmitters that are a critical component to proper cognition.
DIGESTION
Apart from the fact that water keeps our bowel movements healthy, it is also a requirement in digestion, specifically for hydrolysis reactions that break down nutrients by the use of water, which allows you to make use of the nutrients we consume and it keeps the insides of our intestines smooth and flexible.
SKIN HEALTH
The benefits of drinking water for skin health have been widely linked. Drinking enough water prevents our skin from becoming dry, thus looking less wrinkly and having a younger and fresher appearance.
Furthermore, drinking more water has been shown to have a "brightening" effect on our skin and reducing the amount of acne, which overall gives a healthier skin complexion.
EXERCISE PERFORMANCE
Water is especially necessary for athletes and heavily active people who perspire a lot, since being dehydrated lowers our endurance levels, meaning that it is harder to maintain our levels of activity and water is needed for proper muscle contraction that allows for easier movements and faster and more responsive reflexes. With enough water, our brain can make faster decisions, so our muscles are able to exert more motion in a shorter span of time.
CONSEQUENCES OF DEHYDRATION
Dehydration is the direct consequence of not drinking enough water.
Even though you may not realize it, but you are very likely dehydrated if you:
Feel very thirsty all the time
Do not go to the bathroom often
Have urine of darker colour
Feel tired or dizzy
Have generally dry skin and a dry mouth
Find it hard to think clearly, stay focused and have slow reflexes
In the case that you are severely dehydrated, you may experience a feeling of fainting, rapid breathing or a fast heartbeat, so its crucial to rehydrate multiple times during the day; not just once per day.
Generally speaking, if we lose about 3-4% of our body water, we experience no major health setbacks. However, loosing 5-8% can cause us to become tired and lethargy and a loss of more than 10% can cause serious mental and functioning impairment. A loss of water of more than 15-25% is fatal.
HOW TO DRINK MORE WATER
Bring a water bottle with you where ever you go. If you use a bottle that you like, you are more likely to drink from it
Drinking more teas and water-based beverages (Preferably ones that are low in added sugar)
Drinking homemade flavoured water with herbs and refreshing fruits and vegetables
Always have water on the table during meal times
Using an app for water tracking and setting water drinking reminders
Opt for natural sparkling water over-processed sodas
Eating water-rich foods like fruits and vegetables. Buy them when in season, and buy them by the bulk. Vegetables and fruits with the highest water content are: lettuce, celery, zucchini, melons, cabbage and cucumber
Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning when you wake up
Investing in a water filter that can help you improve the taste of your water (In the case that you do not enjoy the taste of your tap water)
The Hidden Power Of Your Sleep
A year ago I was a person like many others today, who thought nothing in particular about sleep apart from the fact that I knew we needed it. I did not prioritize my sleep nor did I take care of it, because I simply thought that sleep only had one function - to “recharge our batteries”, whatever that meant. Until about three months ago, I did not put much attention towards my sleep quality or quantity but that all changed when I read the book “Why we sleep” by Mathew Walker.
By reading the book I was shocked to find out how much research was emerging in the field of sleep and showing not only the importance and the myriad of biological and psychological functions that sleep plays in or bodies, but also daily actions and activities that on a long term basis, seriously hinder our sleeping patterns, leading to irreversible damage. It is estimated that in the United States alone, roughly 35% of adults report sleeping less than 7 hours per night and studies across the United States have concluded that 50-70 million US citizens have a sleep disorder, Insomnia being the main one.
Taking care of your sleep might just single-handedly be the mos timprotant thing you can do for your long term health. From improving your energy levels, mood and concentration to keeping your immunity and brain healthy, sleep is the last thing you want to be neglecting.
PHASES OF SLEEP
The science behind how we sleep is actually quite complex and more detailed than you might think, however here I have split it up into four basic sections of “sleep cycles”, in order to illustrate the phases we go through in our sleep and the individual roles that each of them plays for our health.
NREM SLEEP
The first stage of sleep we encounter is NREM sleep which is Non-Rapid Eye Movement sleep. This stage is split into three sub-stages, as described below:
STAGE 1: RIght after we fall asleep, we fall into stage one of NREM sleep, which is where our brain experiences alpha waves that have a frequency of 8-12 Hz. This initial stage os very short, often being less than 10minutes long and during this stage, you can still easily be wakened up.
STAGE 2: The second stage of NREM sleep is longer than the first one, ranging from 20-60 minutes and is predominantly the time where our brains go through theta waves that have a frequency range of 3.5-7.5 Hz. In this stage, your body begins entering a deeper stage of sleep where your muscles start relaxing, your body temperature decreases and your brains starts producing “sleep spindles”, which are in simple terms, short periods of quick but rhythmic brain wave activity that happens between frequencies of 12-15 Hz. Sleep spindles have been shown to be a critical component of memory consolidation, a topic which will be discussed more later.
STAGE 3: The last stage of NREM sleep, also known as “deep sleep”, is a stage that lasts between 20-40 minutes and in this stage, there is a large increase in brain delta activity where we may experience some unconscious movements of our muscles. on the other hand, this stage is where our muscles are fully relaxed, we have a drop in body temperature, blood pressure and breathing rate, all of which makes it very hard to wake someone up in this stage of sleep. lastly, the stage of deep sleep is responsible for restoring our energy levels, repairing our cells and regenerating our muscle tissue which is needed for growth and repair.
REM SLEEP (STAGE 4)
The stage of REM sleep is known as the Rapid Eye Movement stage, where a couple of critical changes take place; First, our eyes and eyelids begin to move and flutter and neural activity in our brain increases.. Secondly our breathing patterns change and become more irregular. lastly, this is the stage where we may experience dreams and our muscles have become so relaxedly that they become immobilised and in other words, our body is temporarily paralyzed.
ABOUT OUR SLEEP CYCLES
During a single night, we will first enter all stage of NREM sleep and then transfer into REM sleep. It takes us about 1-2 hours to first enter REM sleep and after that, the whole cycle starts again so that we repeat the same cycle 3-4 times in a single night. The differences between the cycles are that our first REM sleep stage will be very short and will gradually get longer as we progress through our sleep cycles.
This highlights an important point: In order to experience the benefits of sleep, most of which come from a adequate time spent in REM stage sleep, we have to spend a decent portion of our night in good quality sleep to allow us to progress through all the sleep stages and obtain enough NREM and REM sleep for a single night.
Just relying on NREM sleep is not enough, we need both sleep phases for optimal performance.
COMMON SLEEP DISRUPTORS
BRIGHT LIGHT EXPOSURE
Numerous studies, again and again, have shown that exposure to bright lights or to LED screens from our devices, considerably delays the release of the main sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin. This is because, in the retinas of our eyes, we have specialised photosensitive cells that are able to tell our body whether it is day time or night time and set our sleeping patterns accordingly.
Therefore it is advised to keep digital screens limited or restricted before one hour of your bedtime, to ensure a well-rested night. concerning other lights, it is preferred to dim down bright lights and switch to warmer tones instead of blue-toned lights.
STRESS, ANXIETY AND PAIN
If we are stressed or anxious, our body is in a state of hyperarousal where we experience the inability to calm down with an increased pulse and body temperature - both of which prevent us from sleeping. Furthermore, if we start to worry and think about the fact that we are stressed and can’t sleep, that generates more stress for us, making it additionally harder for us to sleep properly.
Before you head to bed, it is advised to destress and get rid of any worrying or sleep-disrupting thoughts that would otherwise persist through the night.
LOUD NOISES
It is no doubt that loud noises can be disrupting to our sleeping patterns, and researchers have proven that loud sounds are much more likely to wake us up from the first two stages of our sleep compared to the last stages, where we are in a state of deep sleep. Interestingly enough, we are also much more likely to respond or get woken up by a sound if we have a specific emotional attachment to it, such as if we hear someone crying or getting hurt.
If you can hear the sounds of outdoor traffic or city life, try sleeping with ear plugs or better sound-insulating windows. In the case that the sound still persists, try some of the other sleep-inducing methods that are mentioned at the end of this article, to ease you into a sleep state.
IMPROPER TEMPERATURE
In order for us to enter into a sleep state, one of the factors that has to change in our body is our core body temperature has to lower. In fact, a temperature of about 18 degrees Celcius (65 degrees Fahrenheit), has been shown to be the best temperature to sleep in since it is neither too warm nor too cold.
To help cool down our body, as counter-intuitive as it may sound, we can try wearing warm clothing such as socks which will dilate our surface blood vessels, so that more heat is able to escape out and cool down our body.
MEDICATION
Often, drugs that are used to treat cardiovascular issues and high blood pressure can impact our sleep by causing sleeplessness and being more prone to experiencing nightmares. Furthermore, the same consequences have also been attributed to using antidepressant and thyroid medications.
On the other hand, we also have a class of drugs called stimulants, that include ADHD medication, asthma medication and certain pain killers most of which contain caffeine compounds, that keep us awake and alert.
EATING AND DRINKING TOO LATE
If we regularly eat too late, it can result in us having stomach acid reflux, also know as heartburn, or we either can experience stomach pains that cause us to not be able to fall asleep. Also, we ave to be mindful of how much water we consume right before sleep as otherwise, we can take frequent bathroom trips during the night, that undoubtedly disrupt our sleep.
Apart from eating and water, we have to also be very wary of our caffeine intake. Caffeine, as mentioned before, is a stimulant that has been shown to decrease both our sleep quality and quantity. Furthermore, caffeine has a half-life of 3-5 hours, which is the time taken for our body to eliminate hold of the drug in our system, which as a result means that in order to get rid of all of the caffeine in our body, it can take up to 6-10 hours.
lastly, alcohol consumption before bed has also been extensively researched and has been shown to have profound impacts on our sleep. While drinking alcohol right before bed has been shown to create more delta brain activity that is usually associated with deep sleep, it also promotes the simultaneous production of alpha brain wave activity that happens in the first stage of entering sleep. These two different wave frequencies undoubtedly conflict each other and create sleep disturbances.
Furthermore, alcohol consumption has been linked with releasing a chemical called adenosine that has sleep-inducing properties and then leading to a quick decline in adenosine levels throughout the night, which explains why we initially find it easy to fall asleep but then can experience multiple awakenings during the night.
Alcohol has also been shown to block the stage of REM sleep, which is a crucially important phase of our sleep that is responsible for cellular regeneration and memory consolidation.
EXERCISING LATE
While exercise is definitely a positive factor for our health, vigorous exercise done between 1-2 hours of our bedtime has been shown to disrupt our sleep and make it harder to fall asleep because during exercise our core body temperature and pulse are raised as well as our nervous system being more stimulated, which makes it much harder for us to initiate sleep.
SLEEP CONDITIONS
INSOMNIA
This is the most common sleep disorder, where the person either can not fall asleep or has trouble staying asleep for longe periods of time. Insomnia comes in two different forms: acute or chronic, where acute insomnia is experiencing insomnia on an occasional basis, but chronic insomnia is where you repeatedly find it hard to sleep, causing great long term health setbacks.
Some of the main causes of insomnia include stress, travel (which disrupts our natural circadian rhythm), having poor sleep habits, taking sleep affecting medications and the consumption of alcohol before bed.
The magnitude of the consequences depends on how extensive the insomnia is and how much it impacts our sleep, but long term chronic insomnia can seriously hinder our performance, focus and productivity during the day, where we experience less creativity and have been shown to have slower reaction times. Furthermore, insomnia and inadequate sleep both in quality and quantity have been linked with a greater risk for mental conditions such as depression and chronic health conditions like elevated blood pressure and heart disease.
SLEEP APNEA
Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder that comes in three different forms and causes you to briefly stop breathing during the night, before starting to breathe again. Often these disruption in breathing are minor and we don't even notice them but they do cause sleep interruptions.
Types of sleep apnea:
Obstructive sleep apnea: This is the most common form of sleep apnea and it is where our through muscles relax during our sleep, causing a brief inability to breathe that can lead to us waking up or snoring.
Central sleep apnea: This type occurs when your brain does not send proper brain signals to the muscles that control breathing mechanisms in our body.
Complex sleep apnea syndrome: This is a more rare case, but it is where we experience both obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.
The consequences of long term sleep apnea include fatigue during the day, a higher blood pressure, type II diabetes and having more liver functioning abnormalities.
NARCOLEPSY
This is a chronic sleeping disorder where we constantly feel tired and exhausted during our days, which causes us to experience sudden attacks of sleep or naps, making it hard to stay awake for long periods of time, independent of the circumstances we are in.
The causes of narcolepsy are so far unclear, however, the consequences are severe where a person suffering from narcolepsy will experience more mental fogginess, and impaired memory, hallucinations during the day and finding it harder to learn. Furthermore, the person's social life can seriously be impacted, as sleep can disrupt social events and plans unintentionally.
FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP
The functions of sleep for our well being are many and they explain just why sleep is so important for us.
Firstly, several studies have linked adequate sleep levels with improved mental cognition, in the form of improved memory, better concentration, a faster learning rate and more neuroplasticity, which is defined as the ability of our brain to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. Furthermore, if we sleep enough and have good quality sleep, we have better decision making, problems solving, controlling our emotions and enhance our ability to cope with change. lastly, being chronically sleep deprived increases our chances for developing depression, suicide risk and risk-taking behaviour that encourages more accidents.
The reason why so many studies link sleep with better memory is that sleep has been shown to be responsible for memory consolidation, where our short term memories are transformed into our long term memory, and as a result, we are able to learn and eventually retrieve more information when we need it.
Another function of sleep is to get rid of all of toxins and waste products that accumulate in our brains during the day, which would otherwise pile up and could over time causes serious cognitive decline and inability to concentrate. In infants, sleep plays an especially critical role where it is responsible for the growth and maturation of their brain.
For our body, sleep has functions such as repairing and restoring our cells and tissues in our body, which is largely connected with our cardiovascular and respiratory health. Undoubtedly, sleep also has a big role in promoting growth and development of our organs, cells and tissues, because during sleep our body secretes growth hormone that is responsible for initiating cell growth.
Apart from regulating the growth hormone, sleep also regulates plenty of other hormones such as the hunger and satiety hormones; ghrelin and leptin, as well as the blood sugar controlling hormone insulin and the working of our sex hormones.
CONSEQUENCES OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Because sleep plays so many functions for our body and is so vitally important for our functioning if we skip on our sleep or experience regular poor quality sleep, we have the risk of developing a plethora of health issues. Of course, one night of bad sleep is only a short term issue, but the issue arises when we experience repeated sleep loss that then over time accumulates to form larger health issues.
BRAIN HEALTH
Foremostly, continual poor sleep quality has to no surprise been linked with a decline in our general cognition, where we find it harder to focus, concentrate and just generally be productive with our time. Furthermore, we find we have more impaired memory, lower levels of creativity and experience more mood shifts during the day that can lead to poor decision making and irrationality. Because we have poorer focus and worse decision making, we have a slower reaction rate that greatly increases our risk of accidents, which can often result in an unnecessary loss of life, such as in car accidents.
CHANGES IN HORMONE LEVELS
Since our brain is weakened, we experience changes in hormone secretions that are ultimately responsible for influencing or initiating almost any biochemical reaction within our body. For example, the production of sex hormones drops, which leads to a lower sex drive and we experience a decline in our growth hormone levels that are is otherwise responsible for the repair and growth of cells and muscles, so our tissues heal and repair themselves slower.
WEIGHT REGULATION
Sleep has also been shown to have an impact on our weight, as it is responsible for controlling the hormone ghrelin and leptin that provide our body with hunger and satiety cues. With inadequate sleep, it has been shown that we have higher levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin and lower levels of the satiety hormone leptin, which is why we are more prone to snack during the night and thus overeat, which can over time result in unwanted weight gain. Apart from that, if we get less sleep than necessary, it has been shown that we suffer from lower insulin levels, where insulin is the hormone responsible for lowering the concentration of blood sugar in your blood, therefore with less insulin, you become more insulin resistant as you always have more blood sugar in your bloodstream, which ultimately raises your chances of developing type II diabetes.
CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONS
In terms of other chronic health conditions, sleep deprivation has been linked with a greater risk of having cardiovascular issues for a couple of compelling reasons. Foremost, sleep deprivation has been linked with impaired healing and regeneration of cells, blood vessels and heart tissues as well as being involved in processes that regulate sugar, blood pressure and inflammation levels, all of which raises our chances of heart disease.
RESPIRATORY ISSUES
In terms of our respiratory health, poor sleep has been correlated with more instances of the sleeping disorder Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which undeniably can have a negative impact on our sleeping patterns.
WEAKENED IMMUNE SYSTEM
inadequate sleep mainly impacts your immune system in two primary ways: The first one being that your bodies production of specialized proteins that fight infections of inflammations in our body, called cytokines, is reduced, meaning that we have a harder time healing and have more instances of long term infections. Secondly, if you are sleep deprived, it has been shown to lower the amount of infection-fighting antibodies and cells in your system, which leaves you more prone to becoming sick.
POORER SKIN HEALTH
There is a reason why a good nights rest is related to “beauty sleep”, and specifically the outlook of our skin. A decrease in quality of our sleep causes an increase in cortisol levels, which is our main stress hormone, that has been shown to break down collagen, that is the main protein found within our body that makes up our skin, bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons. The quality of our skin is further worsened by the fact that when we lack sleep, we produce even less growth hormone which is responsible for cellular regeneration and growth, to keep our skin young.
IMPROVING YOUR SLEEP QUALITY
Avoiding exposure to bright lights before bed: Bright lights before bed suppress the release of melatonin, which as a result makes us tired much later in the night. Avoid the use of bright cool lights and looking at LED screens right before bed.
Limiting alcohol and avoiding caffeine before bed: If you do decide to consume either, drink them well before your bedtime during the day instead of later at night, as otherwise, they can disrupt your sleep or even cause you to not be able to fall asleep.
Doing something that relaxes you: This is crucial because, as in order to initiate sleep, we have to be in a calm state; a state that does not raise our core body temperature, pulse or blood pressure. Some ideas for calming evening activities include: Reading, taking a walk outside, taking a bath, drawing, meditating, journaling or relaxing with some music.
Exercising during the day: If we choose to intentionally do exercise during the day instead of before sleep, we are able to stay awake and alert during the day which allows us to focus and concentrate on our work, but will lead us to becoming more tired and in need of rest towards the evening, which is perfect for getting us ready for bed. Avoid activities that raise your pulse and body temperature right before bed such as vigorous exercise, and instead choose more calming exercises like as walking, yoga or stretching.
Eating a lighter dinner: We often have the tendency to overeat and especially towards the evening during the time of dinner. However eating too much too late can not only lead to overeating and eventually weight gain, but can also negatively impact our sleep as we may find it hard to fall asleep. Opt for finishing dinner no later than 8 pm to get a good nights rest. It has also been shown that the consumption of dairy before bed can make us fall asleep faster because dairy products contain both melatonin and tryptophan, where tryptophan is an amino acid that plays a large role in the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin that then aids in the further production of melatonin, the reason why we usually start to feel tired after a glass of milk.
Having a set morning and evening routine: This is a good tip because it creates regularity in our schedule and allows our body to get used to waking up and going to bed at the same time, so we start to naturally feel more tired towards the evening and more alert in the mornings, ready to start off a brand new day.
Avoiding having longer naps in the afternoon: Even though naps are generally recommended by sleep scientists and there has been a decent amount of research showing the many benefits of taking short naps during the day, however, it is important to consider when we nap. It is advised not to take a nap in the later afternoon as otherwise, that makes us unable to fall asleep during the night, so take your naps in the early afternoon or at noon for maximum sleep later on at night.
