How To Stop The Doomscrolling- Mindful Consumption of News and Negative Media

Have you found yourself droomscrolling a lot lately?

All of us have been stuck in that negative loop our fair share this year. Doomscrolling is the name that has been given to the compulsion to scroll through and consume negative news on social media.

When you keep refreshing and going through your feed to see what other bad news pops up, it becomes a behaviour that we reactively want to repeat even though it negatively impacts our feelings of well-being through leading to a greater risk of anxiety and depression.

So what can we do about it?

Here are some ways that we can stop the doomscrolling and work on consuming the news on social media in a way that won’t have such a negative impact on us.

Stopping the Doomscrolling

First off, it’s important to recognize the problem. When COVID-19 first hit back in the spring and as all the certainty in the world started to shift, I found myself constantly watching the news for updates and refreshing my Facebook feed. I didn’t realize it at first, you never do, but this was leading me to a heightened state of anxiety and generally not feeling very good.

When I finally came to the realization of what I had been doing, I decided to distance myself from the news and take steps to stay off of social media regularly throughout the day. I figured if there was some urgent information that I needed to know, someone would tell me about it, or I could gather all the info I needed in half an hour or so twice a day.

Almost instantly, I was able to focus better again and felt a lot less of that mental tension.

Recognizing that you’re doomscrolling is a great first step to getting it under control and reducing that stress and tension on yourself.

Now, let’s look at some of the ways we can more appropriately use our digital devices and have them work for us by reducing the temptation to doomscroll.

Time Blocking

The first step will work well if you like to stick to an agenda and have a calendar in place for your day. Time Blocking means deciding ahead of time what you will be doing at certain times throughout the day, usually in blocks of anywhere from 30-120 minutes. During these blocks of time, you focus on a single task that has been predetermined.

To avoid constant doomscrolling throughout the day you would set up time blocks where you allow yourself to check the news and get on social media. I like to do this for myself at 10:30 am and 4:30 pm for half an hour at most.

Time blocking requires a good amount of self-discipline to stick to on its own which is why it helps to combine it with additional restraints.

Set Up Your Time Limits

Just about every device out there now has an app that can notify you when you reach a time limit for access to certain social media apps or websites. With Screen Time on the iPhone for example, you can see exactly how much time is spent on entertainment apps or social media and then set up a Time Limit to block you out of the app at certain times throughout the day as well as after you’ve hit a certain time limit.

To avoid the negative effects of doomscrolling it’s a really good idea to take a few minutes to set this up for yourself. You can be liberal with your access at first and gradually reduce your time limit as you get more used to the constraints. You’ll be surprised how much more productive and happy you’ll feel by not constantly checking the news and social media.

Give Yourself Even More Freedom

You can still get through the barrier of the default time limit apps on phones and tablets with relative ease, so if that doesn’t hold back your desire to check social media, there’s more we can do. An additional step that takes it a bit further is to use software like Freedom, which completely blocks your internet access or locks you out of certain apps during set times that you easily program it for. If you know that you’re going to gloss over any reminder that your time limit is up with an app or website, the power of Freedom is well worth the small cost to buy this software.

I use Freedom to block me out of all email apps and social media sites in the morning so that I can focus on important tasks and projects without the distraction of inboxes. Since I know that there’s no way around Freedom’s block on my internet access, I have no choice but to focus on my work or sit there and twiddle my thumbs. It’s a great name for the software because it really does give you a greater sense of Freedom.

Newsfeed Eradicator

If the negativity of social media is really wearing you down these days, one of the best things you can do is avoid that doomscrolling altogether by eradicating it. With certain desktop browsers like Chrome, you can download extensions like the Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator which takes away your newsfeed and replaces it with an inspirational quote. You can still check your social media for messages and notifications directed towards you and look in on the groups and pages you like at your discretion but you won’t have a news feed compelling you to scroll through relentlessly.

Content Planning Apps

A lot of us use social media as a way to promote our businesses and other creative expressions and if this is important to you, using a content planner like Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, or Publer can help you to spend less time on social media while still sharing your message.

You can batch your content and schedule it to go out when you want so that you’re not needing to load up a social media app and possibly get caught in a doomscroll when you go to share something that you have created. This can save you tons of time and also make managing your social media usage much simpler.

Our brains are hardwired to doomscroll. It comes from a time where we had to be hyper-vigilant to threats in our environment and now that we partly exist in a virtual environment, that’s where our brains turn to seek out threats.

Recognize that this is a perfectly normal response to uncertainty and that there are steps you can take to mitigate the risk and the stress doomscrolling may be causing to your system. Use the apps and the strategies above to create some healthier boundaries with social media and news sites so that you can feel better.

You Need To Recover Up

Train hard. Recover hard. Recovery is the next hottest wave in fitness. It's what keeps professional athletes, professional athletes. It's a must-do for both extreme fitness types and sports enthusiasts of all varieties, from runners to yogis. Now, for those who strive toward the seven day, power-packed workout schedule, but instead spend a few days each week in reality-stricken guilt...recovery is the best trend to happen to exercise since smoothie counters.

Recovery: It's not what it sounds like, exactly. After a training session or intense workout, recovery is the process of your body restoring (healing) itself — muscles receive the nutrients they need to reenergize, hormones rebalance and the central nervous system gets a moment to repair. Active bodies need to focus just as much on recovery as they do training, not just for relaxation, but also for endurance and injury prevention. Side note: recovery does not mean mere downtime; it means efficient downtime.

For ages, athletes have been using the perks of infrared therapy as a secret recovery weapon. Not only is it an oh-so-soothing, mind/body experience, but it's also a great way to maximize downtime between workouts. Infrared light waves heat the body directly (unlike a traditional sauna that heats the air) and increase your body's core temperature (which increases circulation and blood flow, so it's like working out — without working out).

First off, there are two types of recovery: one that puts you at a standstill under doctor's orders, and one that restores your body. Even though sometimes, after a feisty-fitness session (like when you wake up the next morning with concrete legs and an appreciation for the elderly climbing stairs), you might feel like passive recovery is the best option...it's not. You move a little, you feel a lot better.

Passive Recovery.Is what helps repair certain types of injury. It's when the body is resting, which includes sleep, a healthy diet, and applying compression. It involves doing almost nothing.

Active Recovery. Helps the body flush out and release the nutrients it needs to repair itself, as it gently gets your circulation going, without loading your body with resistance or impact. So, walking, stretching, Frisbee, some light dancing, infrared-sauna-ing...

A DOSE of Recovery

.        Passive & Active Are Both Welcome. Infrared therapy both heals and prevents injury.

.        Just heat it (heat it)! Infrared saunas enhance blood flow, delivering nutrients to the body, without over-challenging the muscles that need a little rest.

.        Clean Up After Yourself. In a sauna, with blood moving and sweat excreting, your body is releasing toxins (that could be impeding your overall performance gusto).

.        Loosen up.FYI, muscles and joints love circulation. Give them circulation and a moment of rest, now that's a relax and repair win-win.

Let's take another tip from the pro athletes. Those who sport-a-living, literally, also favor infrared sauna use because it leads to an increase in HGH. What is HGH? It's the human growth hormone, naturally produced by the body in the pituitary gland, and, as its name suggests, it's responsible for cell growth and regeneration. An increase in HGH is beneficial for many reasons including repairing tissue, healthy organs, and skin — a.k.a. it's a look good, feel-good hormone everyone wants more of.   

While an injured athlete may be restrained from activity, infrared saunas boost HGH, which not only stimulates recovery, it releases endorphins — a way to avoid workout FOMO. In other words, say you're a runner and you can't run for injury reasons...infrared saunas give you that runner's high, while also burning calories, while also helping your body heal.

Good recovery, good recoup. Infrared provides hyperthermic conditioning, which is a fancy way of saying that infrared exposure helps you stand the heat, so you don't get stuck in the kitchen. By acclimating the body's core temperature to feelin' hot-hot-hot, you prep your physical endurance later on...for say, a sweaty summer marathon, or an outdoor, asphalt-grounded basketball game.

Book a HigherDOSE sauna after, before, or in-between workouts. Oh, and try these everyday recovery tips, too.

About Balance. Always plan recovery into your workout schedule, as a part of your workout schedule, to keep a healthy balance.

Break or Risk Breakage. Allow 24-72 hours between intense training sessions, focusing your workout on other areas of the body, and implementing proper downtime.

Zzz. Lack of sleep reduces tolerance, affects your mood, and increases both physical and mental fatigue.

Cheers! Hydrate. There's never a better-yourself list that doesn't include proper hydration.

On The Inside. Diet. During recovery, good nutrition is required to properly rebuild muscle tissue and rebalance enzymes and hormones.

You've Got Options. Ice baths, cold showers, cryotherapy... Don't let the wellness lexicon fool you, recovery doesn't have to be redundant.

Bodywork.Getting a massage helps optimize recovery and relieve pain where it's needed, and so does osteopath and acupuncture (yeah, it's a tough life).

Roll Out. You know when you pull a thread on a sweater, and then suddenly, half the sweater just bunches up into nothing? That same thing can happen to our bodies (thanks to factors like stress, dehydration, injury, and repetitive activity, etcetera, etcetera.), like when you feel pain in your knee but actually, your shoulder is injured. Myofascial release techniques target and smooth out those small-yet-unexpectedly-impactful tensions. Go for the foam form — using a foam roller is a great form of self-myofascial release.

Article Originally Published at HigherDose.com

Cover Photo by Dylan Sauerwein on Unsplash

The Power of Breath Work and The Wim Hof Method For Resilience and Growth

This past weekend we had our first Wim Hof Workshop take place at Flow Spa.

Most of us have lost touch with what it means to breathe well but there are certain people like Wim Hof who are influencing that reconnection to one of the roots of our health.

Hof has dedicated his life to serving as an inspiration and case study for scientists on the ways that our mind can overcome the perceived limitations of our body.

This is a man who has shown that mind over matter is a real thing, as he’s climbed past the kill zone of Mount Everest in just a pair of shorts. He’s also run a marathon in the desert while carrying no water with him, and if that doesn’t sound hard enough, he didn’t even training for the run.

While this charismatic man from Denmark may be eccentric and put off some cult leader vibes, his methods which have modernized millennia-old breathing traditions are helping people all over the world handle some of their biggest health issues and reach new levels of well-being.

Just Breathe

It’s hard to believe that something we do 20,000 times per day is almost universally done incorrectly and it’s leading to weakened immune systems and chronic stress. Wim Hof has been one of the pioneers in the past several years to bring researchers and journalists alike into the scope of understanding the power of breath and how to breathe properly.

Most of us breathe too much - we actually get better oxygen flow in our body when we breathe slow and deep instead of short and shallow - with many people also mouth breathing which are two contributors as well as indicators that the body is in a stressed state.

The Wim Hof Method introduces us to a number of unique components of breathing that we don’t normally practice. In its most basic form it consists of hyperoxygenating the body through about 30 deep breaths while releasing on exhale without fully breathing out. This leads to a shift in oxygen to carbon dioxide ratio in the blood which is then followed by a full exhale and a breath hold with lungs empty of air.

The body activates the parasympathetic nervous system on this exhale which allows for a decrease in cortisol levels and deeply relaxed state during what is known at the retention time or breath hold. As the breath hold time, the body starts to crave oxygen again and while you gently resist that sensation, there is an activation of the sympathetic nervous system and release of epinephrine.

This combination of low cortisol and high epinephrine has been shown by researchers studying Hof and his students to be a way to control parts of the autonomic nervous system and immune system that were believed to be impossible by Western Medicine before Hof started showing the world what he could do.

They’ve even researched how this breathing method can suppress the immune response to an endotoxin being injected into the subjects all of whom showed little to no symptoms after training in this breathing style compared to the control group which exhibited cold and flu-like symptoms.

Train The Mind and the Body Will Follow

Other parts of the Wim Hof Method are used to train the mind to remain calm in the face of intense sympathetic activity, through power breathing and cold exposure.

By remaining calm and controlling the breath in the face of cold exposure that creates an intense spike in epinephrine and sympathetic activity, we learn how to better handle other stressors as well and create a mindset that we are able to accomplish anything.

This mindset of grit and resilience are at the forefront of the characteristics that most world-class performers foster for achieving greatness.

Not that anyone necessarily has to be driven to achieve greatness but we’ve all seen in 2020 the importance of maintaining an optimistic mindset and handling adversity with resilience. Having a reserve of self-confidence and grit means that we are ready for the obstacles in our way and also able to be there and lead our loved ones when they need us most.

Learn more about the Wim Hof Method online and if you’re ready to experience the full power of this method, check out the page on our website for upcoming Wim Hof Workshops at Flow Spa.

Giving Thanks and Gratitude Practices

I've been doing various gratitude practices for a number of years now and from personal experience combined with the research on high-performance psychology, I know the massive impact that it can have on states of optimism and quality of life.

Gratitude and giving thanks may be something that we tend to reserve for certain times of the year but it doesn't have to be that way.

So while you may be gathering with close family this upcoming weekend either in person or from afar virtually, here are a few ways I have found that you can give thanks and feel it deeply while also maybe making it more of a regular practice for yourself.

Feel It, Don't Just Say It

One of the things that I often don't do well enough is taking the time to embody the feelings of gratitude. There's a big difference in the experience when we take a moment and actually think and feel the thanks we are giving instead of just saying it and continuing along on our train of thought or going about our day.

Remembrance Day is a good example of this when we pause for a minute to remember.

When you work on feeling the gratitude even for a minute, it will have a greater impact on you.

So take that pause, close your eyes if you need to, and visualize the things that you are thankful for. When we operate more from a place of gratitude, we see the world through a more positive light and live in a state of resonance with our hearts.

Past, Present, Future

There are many things that we can focus on with gratitude but one of the best ways to train yourself to think more optimistically and not get stuck with your gratitude practice losing its effectiveness is by doing a three-part gratitude practice.

This takes into account having one minute to reflect on something in the past, something in the present moment you are grateful for, and then something down the road for you that you are looking forward to.

Usually, each of us favours one form of gratitude so this practice helps us to keep more balanced and all it takes is three minutes a day.

If you have a hard time sticking to it, stack it with other habits you already have ingrained, like doing it immediately after brushing your teeth in the morning.

Write It Down

Maybe you'll be giving a toast this weekend to your family members and this is another great way to have your gratitude become more salient and have a greater impact.

The other thing that you can consider doing more to continue this practice over the longer-term is to start to write down your gratitude list each day. By writing the things you are grateful for down you help your brain integrate both left and right hemispheres in the practice instead of just thinking about it. When you do this you'll feel it deeper and when you're looking forward to future things, it will also prime your subconscious to look for opportunities to make it happen.

The other advantage is that by writing it down, you’ll have this amazing bank of good memories to turn back to when you’re feeling stuck or lost in your ways.

It sounds a little woo-woo but the neuroscience behind writing down your gratitude lists is solid so hopefully, you'll give it a shot because we all need more positivity right now and to keep our heads up as we continue to move forward into uncertain territory.

So whether you’ll get to gather with loved ones from near or afar this Thanksgiving weekend, remember to feel that love and gratitude more deeply than just saying it. Because it actually makes a difference and we all need a little more of that in our lives right now.

Cheers.

RJ Kayser

The Link Between Exercise and Brain Health

As the weather starts to change this fall we may be more inclined to turn inside and exercise less. With restrictions tightening again as well as we weather the storms of another COVID-19 wave, many of our options for fitness may be limited again. But for certain we need exercise in our lives for the benefits that it provides.

Today let’s talk about some of the most important benefits of regular exercise and how you can keep going this fall and winter in spite of the circumstances

Most of us are familiar with the benefits of exercise when it comes to cardiovascular health. It’s good for our heart and our lungs to get our heart rate up and sweat.

What’s just as helpful and important to know about is that exercise improves many factors related to brain health as well. Right now as we combat the pandemic we need to stay as healthy as possible and keeping our brains sharp is part of that.

Feel Good Neurotransmitters

The first beneficial effect of exercise on the brain is one that we often associate with long-distance runners and the Runner’s High effect but the release neurotransmitters that boost our mood come from any type of exercise.

Movement and increasing circulation is something we’ve evolved to do and so our brains naturally light up during exercise to release neurotransmitters that make us feel good.

Pushing hard during a workout does provide additional results as the hormones released during harder exercise further stimulates the release of endorphins which will then give us the euphoric effects of the Runner’s High.

Our brain’s reward systems also feel a lot of satisfaction from these hard workouts and will also give us a boost of dopamine.

Get an accountability partner or set up regular sessions on your calendar to exercise. During this pandemic, we need to stay positive and keep our brains healthy.

Boosting Memory

In addition to making us feel good, research shows that we can improve our memory through regular exercise. The increase in blood flow to the brain is the first reason why exercise has been linked to improving memory. It is often recommended that students take regular breaks from school work to exercise and help with memory consolidation when studying or between different assignments. The same practice has also been used by many of the greatest writers and thinkers, including Darwin, Thoreau, Emerson, Einstein, Steve Jobs, and countless more.

If there’s something important for you to study and remember, after going through the practice of reading through it, get out for a walk or do some sort of exercise to give your brain some time to process it and let it set in.

Higher Performance

The vast majority of individuals who perform at a high level in their lives are regular exercisers. On average, the people we see making the biggest difference in our communities and around the world are incorporating exercise into their routine at least four times per week as a way to stay healthy and keep stress under control.

Maybe you don’t see yourself currently as a high-performance individual but whatever goals you have for yourself if you start to treat exercise as a more important part of your routine you are going to automatically see a rise in your productivity and quality of life.

Preventing Aging and Cognitive Decline

Well-exercised brains are healthy brains. As we age we start to see declines in memory and cognitive performance but research shows that regular exercise is one of the best things that we can do to slow down this process. Often exercise along with brain training activities can completely halt cognitive decline for several more decades than where we usually see it begin and in some cases, reverse certain conditions.

Stress can be one of the conditions that lead to more rapid cognitive decline, including drastically affecting memory and so now more than ever we want to use the power of exercise to help us in fighting off stress.

Sometimes We Just Need The Reminder

We all know that exercise is good for us and important to get regularly but sometimes we just need that reminder of all the benefits it is providing for us. So to keep your brain and your body this fall, get your workout routine set. It’s going to help to boost your mood and stay positive during these challenging times and help to fight off stress while keeping your brain functioning at a higher level.

If you want more ideas on how to make exercise routines easy to stick to, read this here:

Make Exercise Easy To Stick To

Introducing Flow CBD at Flow Spa

We are excited to announce the news that we have partnered with Flow CBD!

Flow CBD is a broad-spectrum hemp-based CBD company, providing high-quality CBD products. The advantage of broad-spectrum CBD oils over other types is that there are synergistic effects with the other cannabinoids found in broad-spectrum CBD, which research supports produces better relief from pain and anxiety without the ‘high’ caused by THC-containing oils.

Their new line of products are beneficial for a wide range of symptoms that CBD oil makes a particularly good natural solution for.

As it works on the systems in our body that produce natural anti-inflammatory and calming effects, CBD helps to reduce chronic and acute pain as well as anxiety. Many people are choosing to use CBD oil instead of relying on over-the-counter pain medication these days as the quality of the products and consistency of results has improved without the side effects caused by pharmaceuticals.

The calming effects of CBD oil also make it a useful supplement for aiding in better quality sleep and works well whether with the drops or using CBD bath bombs to promote deeper relaxation.

Flow CBD’s products are made with MCT oil as a carrier for their broad-spectrum CBD. It has a slightly nutty flavour to from the CBD oil and is very easy to take the desired dose by dropping it under the tongue and letting it sit for 30 seconds. This allows the oil time to be absorbed sublingually which will allow for better effects than through intestinal absorption.

You can learn more about Flow CBD and view their quality Certificate of Analysis at flowcbd.ca

How CBD works

CBD is a fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) antagonist. It increases anandamide in the body which then activates the CB1 and CB2 receptors throughout the brain and body. Anandamide is a neurotransmitter associated with euphoria - its name comes from the Sanskrit word meaning “joy, bliss, delight.” Sounds pretty good right? It also appears that higher than normal levels of anandamide in the brain and body can lead to reductions in anxiety, lack of fear, and enhancement of the immune system.

The Role of CB1 and CB2 Receptors

The CB1 and CB2 receptors are the main receptors of the endocannabinoid system. Early research into this system was shown to be the target of action for phytocannabinoids like THC and it wasn’t until later that scientists discovered anandamide’s activity on these receptors. CBD has a low affinity for the CB1 and CB2 receptors themselves but works indirectly on those pathways for pain and anxiety modulation through its action as a FAAH antagonist amongst other pharmacological mechanisms.

The CB1 receptor is located in the brain and central nervous system and is primarily associated with euphoria and mood regulation as it is targeted by cannabinoids like CBD, THC, and anandamide.

The CB2 receptor is located throughout the body as part of the pain signal pathway and modulates the inflammatory response in the body.

Research suggests that the other cannabinoids found in broad-spectrum CBD oil work is slightly different ways on the pathways in the endocannabinoid system, which leads to synergistic effects and better results compared to CBD isolate alone.

Because of the mechanisms of action, both CBD and THC can reduce pain and lead to improvements in mood, while CBD does so without the psychoactive effects of THC, meaning you won’t get high from CBD.

This makes CBD a very safe and effective way to improve mood, reduce anxiety, and mitigate pain and inflammation in the body without the harmful side effects that anxiolytics and over-the-counter pain medication has.

Globally, we’ve been seeing an increase in CBD use with both topical application and internal use for a wide range of conditions including:

• anxiety including social anxiety and PTSD

• depression

• pain, including arthritis and fibromyalgia

• stress symptoms

• dermatological conditions like psoriasis and dermatitis

• addiction and neurological conditions

• sports performance

The dosage depends on body weight and the severity of the symptoms that you are trying to remedy. Most people will start out with more modest dosages of around 10-20 mg per day and gradually increase daily or every few days until the desired effect is attained.

Looking on the Bright Side - How To Train Yourself To Become More Optimistic

The year 2020 has not been an easy one for the naturally optimistic and that much harder if you’re trying to become more optimistic but tend to see the world from a negative perspective.

The best of the best, those performers we call world-class, are universally a class that believes that things will work out in the end. And this holds true despite the doomsday prophesies, quarantines, and political outrages.

The good news is that the trait of optimism is trainable if this isn’t normally how your mindset operates.

Here are a few of the best ways that you can start to shift towards becoming more optimistic or further harness this characteristic if it’s already a part of your personality.

Begin With The Idea In Mind

Optimism happens naturally for some of us, you know them as the glass is half full folk. But to begin looking for the silver lining when it’s something that’s new to you starts with the idea in mind. For this entire process of shifting your mindset into a more optimistic state, I would strongly encourage you to keep a notebook or journal. The first practice is to set your intention to become more optimistic.

If this is a completely new concept or feels strange to you, it’s ok. Nobody has to ever see what you’ve written down.

Keep it secret, keep it safe.

The question that you are trying to answer for yourself with intention setting is:

• “Why do you want to become more optimistic?”

On this first page or in this first section that you are writing down your intention setting you also want to write an affirmation statement something like: “I am the type of person who is optimistic” or “I am optimistic” or “I am becoming more optimistic.” Or an even more descriptive statement if optimism doesn’t mean much to you yet is to state “I want to be the best version of myself.”

These statements always feel weird at first when you write them down but when we physically write down affirmations like this we are activating and priming regions in both hemispheres of our brain that will seek out opportunities in our environment to confirm this statement.

It’s the same as if I were to tell you not to think about a white bear. What are you thinking about now?

Or if you’re expecting an exciting delivery from FedEx, you’ll notice more FedEx trucks on the road.

The science of priming is a fascinating way to tap into the power of your subconscious mind to have it help you work away in the background even while you’re consciously engaged in other tasks. Don’t underestimate it if you’re looking to make positive changes in your life.

Training Optimism Every Day

Now that you’ve set the intention that you will become more optimistic, you need to train the brain to pick out the positive things each and every day.

Set aside about 5 minutes in the morning and/or at night for this practice. Put it in your calendar as a recurring appointment if it helps you stick to it because for a lot of us, what doesn’t get scheduled doesn’t get done.

Every day you want to write down three things that went well. We want to train optimism in the present moment but if you are having a particularly rough day, you can also draw on gratitude from past experiences that were highlights of your life or look forward to what’s coming up next in your life or future goals that you’re excited about.

If you’re doing this in the morning, reflect on the previous day and the three things that went well or if the end of the day works for you, look back on three things that went well during your day before going to sleep. You can simply think about these things but writing them down is an even more powerful practise and can have compounding effects when you start to look back on each day if you do have a difficult day. It becomes a little well of positive emotions that you can tap into whenever you need a pick-me-up.

Do this practice for at least 30 days. What you’ll start to find is that with consistency you’ll being to feel really good about your days quickly and you aren’t going to want to stop the practice once you build up momentum. As with any good habit, the goal isn’t to get to some arbitrary number of days and then just let it go cold turkey, it’s about learning to integrate it into your lifestyle for lasting changes.

Turning Tragedy Into Triumph

Everyone faces tragedy but what we know is that optimistic people seek out ways to turn that tragedy into triumph. It’s not about saying that everything is always going to work out perfectly as much as it’s about recognizing what’s in your control and what is not and working on staying focused on what you can control when bad things do happen to you.

We often get caught up in what’s going on around us and those external forces that we have no control over. It’s understandable because often the circumstances are overwhelming but when working from an optimistic mindset you want to direct most of your focus on the four forces that are under your control:

• Thoughts

• Attitudes

• Actions

• Efforts

Even when we have been physically restrained and lost that freedom as Victor Frankl experienced in the concentration camps, later described in his book Man’sSearch For Meaning, we still have the freedoms of our thoughts and attitudes. Those forces are always within us and even if your physical actions are withheld, you can still maintain your efforts despite restrictions.

It’s true that bad things happen to good people and it really do be like that sometimes.

But part of the optimistic way of looking at your life is that you don’t dwell on the past but instead learn and grow from the experience and find meaning.

It’s not about being naive in your optimism, as we saw from Frankl’s experience, those individuals in the camps that expected to be freed by an arbitrary date were the ones who ended up giving up hope and expiring when those days continued to pass by without any sign of freedom on the horizon.

And know that you don’t have to deal with things alone. When things do seem too hard to get through, reach out to the people you care about the most for support and turn to the mentors that can give you more perspective on the situation. There are also professionals that can help through hot-lines and even remote counselling services.

When COVID-19 locked everything down for us earlier this year, I re-read Man’s Search For Meaning to get some perspective on how much freedom we all still had despite many of us feeling cooped up.

Another great book to turn to during hard times is Ryan Holiday’s bestseller The Obstacle is the Way. This book can provide helpful insights into the Stoic way to see The opportunity in the obstacle and get a new perspective on your experiences through practicing objectivity.

Just like the coach on the sideline, taking a step back is often what we need to do in order to see the bigger picture when our lives become a whirlwind of emotion.

At first glance, optimism seems like it has to be something that was served on a silver platter to those most fortunate in the world but in reality, it is a trainable set of skills that do not discriminate on your circumstances. Start by setting your intention to become a more optimistic person or wanting the best from your life. Then reflect each day on three great things or experiences you had. When times seem too difficult to do this, turn back to the highlight reel from past times and look ahead to what’s next in your life. And remember that even good people face tragedy and it’s how we focus on what’s under our control and learn and grow from the experience that determines whether we’ll sink into despair or come out on top of it.

Here's How To Make It Simple To Connect To Your Breath More Regularly Throughout The Day

Your boss just adds another stack of paperwork to your desk. Your phone buzzes with a news release that piles even more stress and anxiety on your plate.

Much of the world we live in today is completely stressing us out.

One of the simplest ways that we can feel better is through checking in with our breath more regularly throughout the day.

The reality is that most of us do not breathe well or check in on the status of our bodies regularly enough and it leads to a whole range of issues from higher stress and anxiety levels to compromising our immune system.

Training yourself to breathe differently from what you’re used to can be a great challenge. Something that we do 25,000 times per day is deeply ingrained and requires a lot of conscious effort to adjust.

How To Breathe Properly

It sounds silly to have to go over this until you realize that the majority of people have terrible breathing patterns that lead to issues like higher stress levels and weakened immune systems.

When we properly breathe we engage our diaphragm which allows us to breathe more deeply and counteract the sympathetic nervous system that stresses our body and makes us sick when chronically activated.

When we are tense or in an anxious state we breathe just into our upper chest, often taking the air in through our mouths. This activates the sympathetic nervous system and can keep us in a chronic state of stress, eventually leading to illness and burnout. 

A proper breath for calming our nervous system is taken in through our nose with the exhale being longer than the inhale. This allows for a more proper exchange of carbon dioxide to oxygen in our bodies. With the frequent practice of calm breathing, we become more effective at managing our stress levels. 

Calm breathing induces the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system for greater relaxation.

4-7-8 Breathing For a Calm State

Dr. Andrew Weil has come up with the 4-7-8 technique as an easy way to extend that exhale and drop you into a calm state. To use the 4-7-8 technique, focus on the following breathing pattern: 

• Empty the lungs of air, breathe in quietly through the nose for 4 seconds. 

• Hold the breath for a count of 7 seconds.

• Exhale forcefully through the mouth or nose for 8 seconds. 

• Repeat the cycle up to 4 times to significantly reduce anxiety levels.

So let’s talk about how we can connect with our breath more regularly throughout the day to create stronger patterns for healthy and calm breathing.

These practices are built around the habits that we already have in our lives which will simplify the process and make it highly intuitive and automatic to complete with no added effort.

1. Set Up a Phone Alarm

The first strategy that you can use is to set up trigger alarms in your phone, or if you have a smartwatch, use an app like Breathe to remind you multiple times per day to check in on your breath. It’s a good idea to start with at least 3 or 4 times per day. So you could have your alarms set for first thing in the morning or just after breakfast time, late morning or early afternoon, after work, and before bed. Experiment with whatever times of the day are most realistic for you to practice catching your breath and calming it down for a minute.

2. Anchor It To Other Habits

Another way to make checking in with your breath more automatic is to anchor it to habits that you already have. This is known as habit stacking. As an example, you can spend a minute slowing your breathing through your nose each time you finish washing your hands after going to the washroom.

Another habit to stack to is anytime you refill your water throughout the day.

We all have unique habits but think about what habits you have every day that can serve as a starting point for checking in on your breath.

3. Certain Times of Day

Just like creating a trigger alarm for your breathing, the other strategy around the time of day is to simply create a hard set rule for yourself that you will check in on your breath at certain times of the day so that it becomes ingrained as automatically when you will practice. This could include times like during your morning commute, at your lunch break, or before you get out of your car and head back into the house after work.

4. Phone Wallpaper

The closest thing to getting the word “breathe” tattooed on your wrist without having to go that far is to create a wallpaper for your phone that has the word on there as a reminder. This little trick can help in addition to the other strategies above but is not as salient so I would suggest that you add this in addition to the other ones instead of depending fully on it.

It can serve as a nice little trick reminder for you though and once you’ve already started working on the habit, every time you see the note on your phone it may help you to also question what purpose you are checking your phone for so that you’re also approaching your devices with more mindfulness.

It Takes Time To Make The Change

Just as you’ve been breathing in your current pattern for a very long time, you won’t automatically start breathing like a meditation guru overnight so be patient with yourself and work on this consistently for a couple of months. You’ll slowly start to see changes in how calm you are and your overall stress levels.

How To Ease Back-To-School Stress

The start of a new school year is always a challenging time for kids, parents, and teachers alike and this year is even more of a challenge.

With a little preparation and the right attitude though, shifting from the extended summer break due to COVID-19 this year back into school mode can be made stress-free and healthy.

Helping Yourself or Your Child Cope with Back-to-School Stress

Here are four things families can do to deal with back-to-school stress.

Fall 2020 is a completely unprecedented back-to-school time for students, teachers, and their families.

Whatever choice is made with schooling, there is a higher level of back-to-school stress and uncertainty going into this coming school year than there ever has been before.

How do we cope with such back-to-school stress? What can we do to make this a time for our children that feels less scary, even if we ourselves are unsure during this difficult time?

Practice Self-Care and Encourage the Same From Your Kids

We've got to put on our own oxygen mask first in order to stay healthy for the needs of our families this year. We are less effective in caring for our loved ones if we are not caring for ourselves too.

Self-care looks a bit differently for everyone but before you or your kids start to get too stressed out, create a list of your favourite hobbies so that you have something to turn to when you start to feel frazzled.

• List out any fun hobbies that you can do on your own or with your family on a regular basis.

Take Time To Talk To Your Children

In addition to family self-care time, communication is extra important as we venture into these uncharted territories. With all the uncertainty in the air, your children need to know what the start of this school year will look like for them.

Stress and anxiety doesn’t always show on the surface, so work together to be open about what’s going on.

Allow your kids to ask questions and be honest with them. If there is something you do not know the answer to, let them know you will do your best to find out.

• Whether you’re a teacher or the parent of a student, set aside time now to talk to your kids about this new normal of the school year this fall.

Get Outside

As we start to bundle back up into long sleeves and stay indoors more, it's important to still take the time to get outside regularly.

Whether as a family or for some self-care time alone, getting into nature is a powerful way to relieve stress and improve your immune system. The natural fragrances released by trees and other plants have been shown to reduce blood pressure and stress as well as help to boost the immune system.

It doesn't take much time to benefit your well-being, 30-minutes a week can make a difference, although the more time outdoors, the better!

• Go for a bike ride or visit a park or hiking trail to reclaim your calm and balance.

Get Your Schedules Set

Our sleep cycles are crucial to staying healthy and reducing stress. For many parents and kids alike, the summer is a time when longer days and more free time shifts our schedules and the quarantine has only accentuated that this year.

Now is the time to get a schedule set back in place, prioritizing sleep and self-care time to stay well throughout the school year.

Help your kids make informed decisions about their digital devices and the impact that screens can have on sleep quality and stress levels.

You can set up Screen Time apps together or include coordinated Do Not Disturb periods for the family activities that you want to do.

A great example of how to do more of this comes from the book 24/6 by Tiffany Shlain on how to create a Digital Sabbath for yourself and your family.

We all have our part to play in staying healthy and safe as schools start back up. This includes being conscientious to not exhaust yourself and burn out through taking the time to stay connected as a family, talk through the uncertainty, spend quality time together, and unplug from technology to reduce stress and sleep better.

Self-Care for the Selfless Supporter: 4 Tips for Preventing Burnout

The overwhelming sense of indulgence in doing things for your own sake may feel like a waste of time but it makes you so much better in the other areas of your life that you owe it to everyone you perform your best for to do it.

We have been witnessing an extreme amount of caring for others and self-less ness over the last half of the year that could warm any heart. It's wonderful to know our loved ones have our back and are doing everything possible to stay positive and support us during the odd and difficult times.

But something that is for certain is that the selfless supporters can't go on indefinitely without checking in to how they are also doing. While some may have a good routine for this, more often than not, it is the most selfless of us that need the practices of self-care the most.

We have been seeing incidences of burn out increase over the last several years and the burden of COVID-19 is only like to exacerbate that problem.

When our bodies are in sympathetic overdrive for too long without giving the proper chances to rest, we start to shut down and crash. This can lead to compromised immune systems and illness or even the need for hospitalization when things get too far out of hand.

So let's talk about some of the ways that you or your selfless loved ones can practice self-care and give some of that love back into the system to keep on going much longer term.

Take Regular Pauses Throughout the Day

Most of us just jump from one task to the next without giving ourselves the chance to pause and re-engage.

There’s a big difference in how you will feel when you allow yourself even a minute or two to close your eyes or even just let your gaze soften between tasks or at the top of every hour.

We get stressed when we keep pushing hard without resetting and often it is eye fatigue from constantly staring at our work that drives this limiting factor in our bodies. Allowing the eyes the chance to rest can dramatically change how you feel throughout the whole day and into the evening as you transition from work to home life.

Fuel Good. Don't Just Feel Good.

We often reach for the most tantalizing of foods when we are feeling stressed or worn out because we get a lovely hit of dopamine in anticipation of and from the act of eating these foods. But think about how you feel after the fact. Probably not very good, and often you feel even worse because these junk foods are not refuelling your body the right way.

It’s undoubtedly a challenge to change our eating habits but knowing that it can make a huge difference for how good we feel and how well we can care for our loved ones when we are caring for ourselves first.

Move Your Body

Our bodies are meant to move. And often a lot more than we allow ourselves to. It’s important when caring for yourself and for others to stay physically active and healthy.

This doesn’t look like hard work, it looks like consistent work. A 30-minute walk each day or two fifteen-minute walks is enough to make a difference.

Give Yourself More Time To Fully Escape

As selfless caregivers, we have others on our minds at all times. It’s what we do but to continue going on in that way long-term requires that we keep our selves in mind as well.

The way that we best take care of ourselves will vary from one person to the next but it’s important that in addition to the micro-breaks that you take throughout the day you give yourself a deeper chance to reset on whatever frequency you feel you need.

For some individuals, this may mean an hour alone twice a week to do something you love like read a book quietly or go for a treatment at the spa.

It doesn’t really matter what activities you take part in as long as it resonates with you like something you get a lot of joy from.

Do what you need to if it requires you to plan in advance because it’s crucial to your long-term well-being and ability to care for others.

Once you start to implement this time into your schedule regularly, it will become a natural part of how you approach things and you will see the dramatic differences in how much more of yourself you have to give to those who need you most.

One Simple Tip For Eliminating Distractions and Gaining More Freedom In Your Schedule

We are bombarded by notifications when working on our digital devices - so much so that it’s no wonder we vent frustration at how distracting it can be to get our work done on these gadgets that are supposed to help increase our productivity.

While this is a just cause for the rationalization of using the perfect technology that is a notebook and pen, many things can be only done with proficiency on our computers.

Whether it’s coding, or editing videos, or typing out the manuscript to your bestseller, our computers are undoubtedly better at getting the work done for us for many of the tasks that we do today.

So how do we handle all the incoming swaddle to stay focused and flow with our work?

By giving ourselves more freedom.

First, Why Is This Important?

In Cal Newport’s excellent book Deep Work, he argues that as more and more jobs become automated with robotics, it’s going to be the knowledge work that only humans can do that becomes essential and even more valuable. To really excel with this work though requires sustained focus to both get the work done and also find the creativity that is uniquely human and needed to be masterful at deep work.

Apart from this, we know that becoming more mindful benefits us for a whole host of reasons and that our digital devices are an enticing distraction from practicing more presence and calm.

And if all of that is not enough, being in better control of our work allows us to accomplish more in less time which will allow us the freedom to do what we please with the extra time on our hands.

Discipline Equals Freedom

There are several apps and devices settings that we can use these days to create a more disciplined and controlled environment on our devices.

Instead of having a Swiss Army knife at your disposal, we can control our devices to be more like the simple pocket knife and in doing so have the right tool at the right time.

The best app that I have found for creating more structure from the free-for-all is Freedom. This app works across all devices and platforms to synchronize block times to restrict access to certain apps and websites (or all of it at once).

Freedom works well for developing the habit of staying off of certain apps during work hours or keeping yourself off of the internet at a set time during the day.

The way I use Freedom is to block access to all websites and email for myself from 8 AM to 10:30 AM every morning. Now, I don’t have a problem checking email or going on social media before this time, so I didn’t set up the restriction for any earlier, but if you struggle with that urge yourself, then a morning Deep Work session with no internet access going all the way to your wake up time is the better way to go.

If I’m struggling to stay off of sites in the early afternoon, I will also set up a Freedom session at that time to restrict things like email and social media pages with a little more access to internet searches if I’m looking things up. As a note though, it’s always better to automate this process so that you’re not trying to process the thought of turning off social media at the time you’re already the most distracted.

The Freedom app does cost a little bit - there’s an annual fee or a lifetime purchase option for Freedom but the amount of extra focus and work you get done means you’ll have paid for the app within just a few hours of your deep work time.

I would also point out that taking the cognitive load off of yourself for the first couple of months of using Freedom will ingrain the habit to the point that you’ll no longer feel the urge to jump on the internet during your Freedom time when you’re supposed to be getting into Deep Work. So you could just purchase it for a few months and then stop using Freedom but use your discretion at whether this will work for you or not. On devices that I don’t have freedom set up on I still abide by my no internet rule automatically now when I’m in offline mode after having formed that habit.

Notifications Off and Screen Time Limiting

There are very few notifications that we “need” to have come into our devices and so I would strongly suggest you turn off all notifications other than phone calls and maybe messages (although arguably you don’t need these on either).

A few other notifications you may want to keep on:

• Calendar

• Reminders

• Health and Wellness Pings

Other than those, notifications will pull you out of flow too often to be considered valuable to have on your devices.

The other thing to set up is a screen time limit or a bedtime set up on your device. IOS offers these now and you can set it up similar on Android. When you hit certain limits during the day, like when you’re supposed to wind down before bed, your phone will go into a screen time limit mode where it will ask you to verify that you want to open an app before unlocking it. This can help to give you the pause to think about whether you really need to be on your device anymore or if you should be asleep or getting ready for bed.

Extending this screen time limit is the morning can be a game-changer to not checking your phone right away upon waking if you find that’s something you do a lot. Give yourself at least an hour in the morning with your limit in place to wake up with a more deliberate morning routine.

Giving yourself more freedom on your digital devices comes from deliberate action to restrict the rapid swiping and incoming notifications.

Technology can be incredible for productivity and you can spend most of your day in flow even with these powerfully distracting tools if you just start with a little more discipline and a little more freedom.

Getting Started With Meditation: A Beginner's Guide to Finding Peace and Relieving Stress

Mindfulness is one of those words of wellness that means so much but mystifies so many.

At the essence of it though mindfulness simply means being where your feet are at. You are here in the present moment and fully engaged in what is happening within you or around you.

Sounds simple right?

For some of us, it is and for others, it takes some time to get to a state of being more mindful.

Our minds are awash with ancient instincts that were developed for simpler times. We didn’t have four thousand advertising messages exposed to our nervous systems each day along with ongoing triggers of our stress and rewards systems with the blips and pings of notifications.

Mindfulness has been practiced for thousands of years so if it did the people well in simpler times where stress was activated by life-threatening situations, might it also do us good today when our stress systems are on high alert most of the time due to stress we’ve imposed upon ourselves?

So let’s talk now about how we can get started with a mindfulness practice. Whether you’re looking to get started for the very first time or reboot a past practice, this article will guide you through the process.

It Starts With Change

Before we get into specific recommendations, it’s important to recognize that any new behaviour starts with the desire to change. In the realm of coaching and psychology, this field is known as Change Psychology.

Readiness to change is the biggest predictor of success in any goal that you set for yourself so take this part of the process seriously.

If you’re reading this article and you’ve made it this far, the good news is you’re likely ready to make a change and start a new mindfulness meditation practice!

Now let’s make it easier for you to get started.

There are only two things that drive us towards making a lasting change in our lives:

• Getting away from pain

• Moving towards pleasure

Pain is two times more salient than pleasure so as we’re talking about change, we’re also talking about what specific goal you are setting for yourself. You want to gain something of pleasure in making the change but you also want to acknowledge what you’re looking to get rid of that is hurting you in some way.

Take some time to think about this and even write it down for yourself. Be as specific as you can for why you are making this change.

“I am committing over the next 30 days to a daily practice of meditating for at least 10 minutes as a way to help with my anxiety and bring me calmer in my life.”

The Many Benefits of Mindfulness

You get to mix and match the myriad benefits of mindfulness in whatever way you like to come up with your purposeful goal. As a refresher here are some of the benefits that mindfulness and meditation can bring to you or negative things that it helps to take away:

• Increased focus and attention

• Greater empathy

• Reduced blood pressure

• Reduced stress

• Lowers anxiety

• May have a positive effect on depression

• Improved sports performance

• More resilient against adversity

• Increased discipline and mental toughness

• A greater sense of calm and peace

• Aiding in overcoming trauma

Forming the Habit

Now that you’ve got your specific meditation or mindfulness goal set, it’s time to form it into a lasting change in your life. We do that through habits. Despite your best intentions, if something is not ingrained as an automatic response in the form of a habit, it’s not likely going to get done when things blow up in your life and get difficult. The key to forming habits is enough consistency over time that it becomes an automatic response.

What doesn’t get scheduled doesn’t get done, so make sure that you’ve got your meditation planned out each day in your calendar.

I recently completed a challenge of exercising for 60 days straight and reflected upon the experience in this video here: 7 Lessons Learned from Exercising for 60 Days Straight.

I talk about habits a lot in that video because it was clear that after a certain point, the task of exercise became a habit to my brain as a day no longer felt complete without that exercise routine. There are many factors that affect how long it takes to form a habit which is why somewhere between thirty and sixty days is smart to start with when it comes to the mindfulness goal you set for yourself.

We most often approach these positive changes in our lives with a short-term goal to get started but deep down at its core we are making the change because we recognize that it’s going to positively impact our lives if we continue it long-term and indefinitely.

So now, let’s talk about making the choice of meditation that works best for you because if it doesn’t resonate with you, discipline will only take you so far in terms of keeping you going.

The Many Options To Choose From

There is no one-size-fits-all to meditation and while I do recommend that everyone try to start with some form of seated mindfulness-based meditation practice, it might not be the right practice for everyone long-term.

Meditation Apps For Getting Started

Sitting meditations are a great place to start though for learning the basic skills in a controlled setting.

There are countless apps that help you to learn meditation. Some of my favourites include the Waking Up app by Sam Harris, Headspace, Oak, and Insight Timer.

Waking Up and Headspace have free trials to get started with and you can learn much of the basics of meditation just with the trial, and then they offer subscriptions to continue on with. This can sometimes give you just enough of an investment to want to take your practice more seriously.

Oak and Insight Timer offers free options for guided meditations or calming music to help keep you relaxed while practicing unguided.

The Basic Practice of Mindfulness

(You can download a free meditation track here)

1. Get into a comfortable position in a quiet and calm place where you won’t be distracted. There’s no right way to position yourself, you can cross your legs if it’ll be comfortable, keep them bent in a chair, or even lie down on the floor or your bed.

2. We usually start out practicing meditation with eyes closed but you can also leave your eyes open and soften your gaze.

3. It starts by bringing more attention to your breath and where you are directing it. It can help to place a hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen to feel where the air is going. Work on letting the belly expand and fall with each breath and keeping the chest relatively still.

4. We want to place most of our attention on our breathing. It can help to focus on the sensation of air passing the tip of your nose or that feeling of the belly rising and falling.

5. Thoughts will come into your head. A common misconception of mindfulness is that you are failing or not good at it because you cannot clear the thoughts from your head. This isn’t true though. We use meditation to detach ourselves from the thoughts by letting them pass by as if they were floating past us down a stream or like clouds passing by. The strengthening practice of mindfulness is in letting the thoughts go by while acknowledging them without holding on to them.

6. The work of meditation is in noticing when thoughts come to mind. You simply want to return to the breath each time you are distracted.

7. It can help to count your breaths or count the cadence of each breath as a way to occupy your mind a little more.

That’s all there is to the basic meditation practice! You can set a timer for keeping you to your goal time or just continue meditating as long as it feels good and gradually increase your time.

What Time of Day Should You Meditate?

It’s important to mention that timing during the day can make a big difference. We generally see it beneficial to practice meditation first thing in the morning to start your day off right but I’ve often found that I fall asleep or can’t focus well enough if I’m not fully awake, so for me mid-day or the evenings is when I meditate.

Right before bed may not be the best time either because if you’re getting sleepy, it’s once again hard to maintain the adequate focus needed for strengthening the mindfulness practice.

If you start this seated meditation practice for a few days and it doesn’t jive with you, consider a more active form of meditation like walking meditation, forest bathing, or qigong and Tai Chi. These practices can be equally mindful but helpful for those who spend a lot of their time sitting at work and need to expend some physical energy to restore balance.

Now you’ve got all that you need to get started with a mindfulness practice. Write down the intention for why you want to make this change, schedule your meditation for each day, and start practicing with whatever app or method you find easiest to follow.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or specific concerns with your meditation practice.

The Top Three Reasons Float Therapy Can Help To Reduce Your Pain Naturally So That You Can Live The Life You Want Again

It shouldn’t be so hard to find the right treatments when your body needs relief. Swollen and achy joints, stiff muscles, these things drag us down and impact our ability to feel our best.

Float Therapy can have a major impact on the pain you are experiencing. This modern innovation on a natural phenomenon has incredible benefits backed by science. When it comes to treating chronic pain, there are few therapies as gentle, yet effective as floating.

Here are the three main reasons why float therapy is so great at relieving pain:

Experience Weightlessness in the Float Tank

Floating is one of those miracles of human ingenuity that needs to be experienced to fully comprehend. It’s like harnessing the power of the Dead Sea in a giant bathtub.

Briefly, the float tank solution is saturated with 1,000 lb. of Epsom Salt, making the water denser than our bodies.

When you lay back and relax in the float tank, your joints and muscles decompress in a way unlike anything else.

You float effortlessly on the surface of the water.

Your body doesn’t even get this relaxed laying in bed or while deep asleep.

This decompression effect is the first potent pain-relieving effect of float therapy. Many people with joint pain and sciatica leave their float session doing a jig they feel so good.

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Magnesium for muscle relaxation

Laying in 1,000 lb. of Epsom salt, which is a magnesium sulphate salt, is a muscle relaxant. Often when we experience any type of pain, whether it’s in our muscles or our joints, we struggle with muscles locking up as a way to prevent further injury. But this in itself is very painful.

The super-saturated solution of Epsom salt in the float tank has been associated with increased cellular hydration and blood magnesium levels which suggests that float tanks are an excellent way to get more of this important electrolyte into our system. This also helps to explain why people experience less restless-leg syndrome and have some of the best nights of sleep after floating. As a muscle relaxant, magnesium is often used as a supplement to help with restless leg syndrome and as a sleep aid.

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Stress also Turns To Tension

Who doesn’t have stress in their life? We’re adapted to handle stress but the problem is that stress has become pervasive in most people’s lives and it is causing more sickness than we can imagine.

Stress often expresses itself in the body as tension being held in areas like our shoulders and neck. Different people hold onto stress in different ways. But when we physically lock up due to stress, it becomes very painful physically as well as limiting in many other ways.

It’s unbelievable how relaxing the float tank experience is. Many people are blown away by where they hold stress they didn’t even know about. This awareness while deeply comfortable is very effective for releasing tension and letting the clutch off of holding on to that tension physically and mentally.

People come out of the float tank feeling like brand new humans. Making it a part of your regular routine for treating your pain can be a radical shift in your well-being.

Book at Float a Flow Spa today.

You’re just one float away from a new outlook on life.

Feel your best by Booking an Appointment today or call today to schedule a free consultation to see if float therapy is right for you.

Floating Away Anxiety

Float Therapy for Anxiety Relief

It is so hard to stay grounded and focus on anything other than the thoughts swirling around in your head when you are feeling overwhelmed.

That chest pounding, hard to breathe anxiety feels like the worst thing ever.

And it’s so hard to get away from.

Often when we feel like this, our bodies hold on to that tension in ways we don’t even realize in the moment.

Bringing our bodies back into awareness when our mind is on overdrive is one of the most effective ways for coming back to the present and recognizing that everything is going to be ok.

It is for this reason that research into float therapy has been very promising in terms of helping to relieve anxiety.

Floating can significantly reduce anxiety and lower levels of stress hormones in the body.

The feeling of weightlessness in the float tank lets your tension disappear like a clenched fist opening up.

It doesn’t even take being a meditation guru to experience this beneficial effect of floating. The unique environment, designed to reduce all external stimuli tricks your brain into letting go into blissful nothingness and calm. (It is for this reason that researchers have termed float tanks as R.E.S.T for Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy).

And research like this that has led to more funding for studies on floating in the last five years.

Labs in the States are now looking at the long-term benefits of floating for chronic anxiety and pain disorders and as a way to help veterans with PTSD.

This video from the Flow Spa Experience course goes into further details on the best practices for using float therapy for anxiety relief.

If you want to learn more, you can get access to the full Flow Spa Experience course for free at www.flowacademy.ca/fsx

Salty Summer Float Giveaway

The perfect summer oasis is something that we dream of.

Escaping from the hustle and bustle to be at ease and enjoy some R&R.

COVID-19 changed our plans for vacations and cottage getaways though, and this summer has been full of stress for a lot of us.

We’re doing something special as a way to help out with your relaxation this summer. The Salty Summer Giveaway is on now and you can enter to win the grand prize of 3 float sessions, for yourself or to share with your friends and family.

Getting a chance to tune out from all the noise and busyness around you for an hour is as blissful as it comes. 3 times makes it all the better.

Don’t wait because the contest closes soon and by sharing it with your friends you’ll get even more chances to win.

You can enter the contest through this link:

P.S. Everyone wins something! Your first prize starts with just one referral entry into the contest.

Use These Strategies to Properly Return to the Gym While Recovering Your Best Post-COVID-19

For many of us, our training has been off of peak for months now. What’s going to happen when the gyms reopen?

I have a thought that we may see an increase in sports-related injuries and rhabdomyolysis as people get back to their routines and feel the urge to push as hard as they were used to before COVID-19 and gyms closing. Rhabdomyolysis (rhabdo) is the breakdown of damaged muscle that can occur in athletes who overtrain by doing too much work without adequate recovery. It’s a dangerous condition because it can lead to kidney damage in addition to the effects of overtraining syndrome.

As gym goers return to their fitness centres, we need to remember the importance of adequate recovery and training programs that are designed for making progress over time.

Here are some ways to approach getting your grind on responsibly once back in the gym.

Listen in to this discussion on the FlowCast

Ramp up your volume now.

Knowing that gyms in Ontario are gearing up for re-opening soon, the first thing that I encourage anyone who is camping outside the gym with their Zubaz pants and fanny pack to do is start to increase the volume and intensity of your home workouts now. Do more bodyweight workouts and incorporate the exercises that you don’t like because they hit your weak points. If you’ve been sticking to a program consistently throughout the last several months, try to do whatever you can to increase the intensity by adding weight to the movements. Throw on a backpack loaded with books if you need to.

If you’re stuck on what you can do to ramp up the intensity right now, it’s the perfect time to support a local personal trainer and get a sensible training program for returning the gym designed for you.

Start slow - you’re not going to be at your best immediately

So your local gym has announced that they’ve reopened and day one looks like the onslaught of people who’ve made resolutions at New Years to get in shape.

Everyone is training like it’s the zombie apocalypse and the only suitable soundtrack to fuel such intensity is an 80’s Training Montage a la Eye of The Tiger.

This is where we will see the risk of overtraining and potential injury run at a fever pitch in the oncoming months.

In the training world, we talk about having true one-rep maxes and training maxes. And this is the time to be extra conservative with the percentage of your one-rep max that you use. A typical training max is set at 95% of your true one-rep max so that you can continue to make progress without getting stuck at a plateau and also for reducing the risk of injury, which is especially important for training athletes.

It would be wise to consider working off of 90% of your true max or even 85% when programming your volume and intensity at least for one training macrocycle of 4-6 weeks as you get back into the gym.

After your muscles and nervous system have re-adapted you can start to resume a little more of your normal training, provided that you keep in mind the need for recovery and balancing the stress that isn’t going away anytime soon.

Implement proper recovery now

Many of us use the gym as a way to “de-stress” so we often forget that it is imposing additional stress on our bodies.

Training too hard - non-functional overtraining - is one of the most common sources of stress alongside things like poor diet and breathing patterns as well as relationship and work stress. In normal times we don’t have this additional burden of the anxiety surrounding the global health situation and recessions which only further stoke our stress levels.

Before you get back into the gym and start training hard again, identify the ways that you like to recover and restore your body so that you can plan it into your schedule. This is just as important for peak performers as the training itself and is one of the strategies that separate the world-class from everyone else.

If you are training hard and working hard, there should be recovery time included in your daily schedule with longer sessions in which you treat yourself with doing the things that help you relax and enjoy at least once or twice per week. This could be spending half an hour in the sauna after one of your workouts or going for a float to unwind and decompress.

If you spend a lot of time at a desk, your recharge time may look like getting out to golf or going for a lunchtime walk through the local trails.

The more that you see this as part of your job in staying healthy and well, the better you will be able to perform and fully engage in the other areas of your life.

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This month’s peak performance training was on functional overtraining and HRV tracking for peak performance. Visit the Flow Academy if you want more advanced training on recovery for training and performing your best.

Getting Back On Track After COVID-19

It has been over 100 days since Canada was struck down by COVID-19 and the world changed forever. Things are different now, the new normal, as it has been known means a lot of different things to a lot of people but the one consistent thing is that we have to adapt to survive and thrive.

Admit it, there were times over the last several months that were not very productive for you. Tiger King ate up a weekend here, TikTok an hour at a time there, and throughout it all, there was an impending sense of doom weighing on your chest.

As dramatic as this all sounds, it has been the reality for most people that I've talked to and coached through this time.

But the past doesn't have to dictate the present, nor the future, and if you are looking to accomplish your Dream Goals, you will more often than not have to face things in just this way.

So how do we return to performing our best and being productive again? Or if you recognize that you aren't the best as productivity, then how can you use the past several months are fuel for living a more meaningful life?

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Reflect on what you've learned in the past several months

The first thing that we must do is set aside some time to reflect on what we've learned during the past several months. Make this tangible for yourself. I use an hour or so Sunday morning every week to reflect and review each week and then on a monthly and quarterly basis, I do an even deeper reflection that often lasts several hours. Right now I want to you schedule an hour for reflection into your calendar this Sunday morning - or another time if it works better for you but do it now. Don't leave it unscheduled and expect it to get done.

The power of reflection is not to be underestimated when it comes to holding yourself accountable, learning to overcome obstacles, and making progress.

We've all been through incredibly difficult times in the last hundred days. Businesses are hanging on by a thread and a prayer, our friends and loved ones have become sick and died, we've been disconnected from the social bonds that keep us sane, and our financial turmoil has stressed us.

This is not meant to be a doom and gloom message to you though. Yes, it has been hard, but what have you learned from this? If you're reading this, it means that you're still breathing and you've still got access to one of the most powerful technological advances humans have ever created with the internet.

During your reflection, you can write about what you've learned from the negative but also look at the positive things you have learned or experienced.

• Who have you been able to connect or reconnect with?

• What interests or actives have sparked creativity and passion in you?

• What have you created or what did you hope to create during this time?

Instead of getting down on yourself, look at what you want to accomplish next in your life.

As I mentioned in the introduction, most people have not used the extra time on their hands to accomplish anything very meaningful during the COVid-19 quarantine. But don't get down on yourself about it. The stress and anxiety of the times were physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually draining and did not make it easy for anyone to have the desire to pump out ideas or create the next great tech platform.

Let's look at what you can do to move forward from here and accomplish next in your life.

Did something spark your interest and passion? Of course, one of the most common plans of all is that maybe you want to exercise more and get in better shape. It could be that you wanted to create a side hustle that you're more passionate about than the work you currently earn a living from, or you want to connect better with your loved ones and friends.

Whatever ideas came to mind that you've reflected upon are great and meaningful to what you want to work on accomplishing next in your life.

Now the trick is to create simple steps to build momentum.

Don't try to pile too much on your plate.

Maybe work is also picking back up now or deferred bills are coming due. You've got to look at your Whole Life to know how much more you can handle.

Building momentum from zero to one hundred takes time. If you overdo it you'll run the risk of burning yourself out and I think that's going to be a particularly prevalent concern in the coming months as we enter this New Normal.

Start with a modest amount of change in your schedule. If you're looking to include more exercise, build up and start slow. It's going to depend on your current fitness and capabilities but even starting with three 1-hour sessions per week is great. Then build up your capacity from there. The same thing goes with starting a business on the side. Focus on the steps that are going to get you to making money from it and validating the idea. Start lean and don't waste time on things like designing logos or upgrading to fancy software if you haven't validated the idea first.

You want quality output from the time you put into it. Believe it or not, something that we do as peak performers is generating more quality work in a single 90-minute block of time than most people can complete in a full workday. If you structure your time and intention in the work that you do for your side hustle in the same way, in no time, those last three months that felt like a waste will become a valuable time where you let your ideas percolate.

Respect the need for recovery.

Everything has to be rebuilt slowly as we are all still facing stress and uncertainty. So be patient with yourself and remember the journey.

If you didn't take care of your recovery as well before COVID-19, now is an excellent time to consider how you can do better with your self-care and recharging regularly. Grinding through every day and week is not the path to peak performance. Much like how REM sleep fluctuates on a 90-minute cycle through the night, our energy oscillates throughout the day in 90-minute segments as well. We can use willpower and discipline to push ourselves from 8 am to 10 pm every day but this drastically affects performance throughout the day and the stress that builds up from the schedule leads to burnout, much like how an athlete that tries to perform in the same fashion without recovery will overtrain.

Each individual requires different needs for recovery, but just like how you're going to add in modest amounts of the Dream Goal projects that you're working on into your schedule, add in your self-care and recovery routines.

Hopefully, you spent some of the quarantine time getting a restful holiday but if you didn't, it's important to note that quality recovery includes things that you enjoy, getting into nature, sleeping more or doing other restorative mindfulness practices like meditating but does not include watching the blue light screens of TVs, tablets, or other tech devices.

Often your most ideal recovery activities will be the opposite of the style of work you mostly do. If you're at a desk job most of the time, recovering with something physical can be very beneficial and if you've got an active job, de-stressing with more creative and calm activities might be best for you.

Most importantly, do the things you enjoy.

Schedule your work into 60-to-90-minute blocks of time throughout the day, include time for refuelling and re-energizing, and block off at least 2-3 blocks each week to do your deeper recovery activities. Also make sure that you're getting the right amount of sleep that you need, typically 7-8 hours every night. This is what maintaining a balanced and productive schedule as a peak performer looks like.

We all go through adversity on the journey of life, but if you're going to be the hero of your story you've got to reflect on what this last chapter taught you and what's coming in the next chapter of your life. Start the process slowly and build up momentum. And remember that we all need to prioritize recovery even more than ever to keep our immune systems healthy and balance the stressors in our lives.

To learn more about how you can perform your best in this next phase, check out the free webinar on peak performance and the new normal.

7 Effective, Natural Ways To Relieve Pain and Feel Your Best

Pain is one of the most pervasive and pernicious conditions that we face. We've all experienced pain in our lives and about 20 percent of the population lives with a chronic pain condition. From our joints to our muscles, to our nerves and beyond, all systems of our body are affected by pain. Fibromyalgia, arthritis, and sciatica have become commonplace words as we face these conditions ourselves or know someone we deeply care about who is suffering daily from them.

Billions of dollars are spent each year treating pain and researchers are equally invested in seeking out effective ways to relieve pain.

Today, let's go through some of the most effective pain treatments that you may not be familiar with and how they may help you to relieve your pain and find more ease in your life safely and naturally.

First, we must preface by saying this is for informational purposes only and always consult your physician before making any changes in your prescription or routine.

How We Normally Treat Pain

Billions of dollars are spent each year on over the counter and prescription pain medications to treat the slew of symptoms that affect us. While many people are dependent on the medications they are taking for pain management, most of us are aware that medications and even operations that we go through for treating our pain are not without their downsides. Over the counter drugs, like NSAIDs are known to cause gastrointestinal issues, prescription drugs like opiates carry addiction and dependency risks with them, and going under the knife always poses a risk as well.

When it comes to joint replacements and spinal fusions, we may be opting for limited mobility and strength while on borrowed time with nuts and bolts that don't stand the test of time in the same way as our organic parts do.

Research and technology are making miraculous changes in the field of medicine though and we will continuously see improvements across the board with safety in regards to medications and pain treatment procedures but it still comes down to the decision of the individual on what route they wish to go. Cost also becomes a limiting factor in many instances with medical interventions.

So whether it's because of the financial costs, or you're someone who prefers natural options wherever possible, let's now look at natural pain relief options that you may not be familiar with and how they may help in your case.

Why Natural Pain Relief?

Natural pain relief need not be ineffective pain relief.

Our bodies have innate systems in place to deal with blunting pain signals and healing injuries to our bodies.

The inflammatory response is an inherent defense system against attacks. When we are physically injured, inflammation signals the defenders to heal or kill and regenerate any cells in our bodies that were affected. This system is again activated by internal threats like pathogens when we get sick or contract a foodborne illness. Pain signals are produced as a way to protect ourselves from further damage during these attacks but also get produced by the inflammatory system as well. As most of us have experienced, short-lived pain is manageable but starts to take its more serious toll on us when it becomes a chronic and ongoing problem. Inflammation isn't supposed to linger in our body and it appears that a dysfunctional state of inflammation is linked to many chronic pain disorders. Pain researchers have shown that many of the common types of pain that we experience have a disorder with inflammation at the root of the issue.

By learning how to treat the root cause and taking proactive steps to keep up the treatments, many people can reduce their need for harmful medications or prevent the need for surgery through a holistic approach to pain relief.

Once again, always check with your doctor, but we'll go through these exciting and promising pain relief treatments and what types of conditions they may benefit you for.

Remedies You Can Use Right Now to Relieve Pain

Rule number one with making any changes is never pushing it and always check with your doctor.

Stretching or Foam Rolling

Stretching and foam rolling can often be beneficial for muscle or tendon pain. We've heard of people saying they've got a knot in their muscle or we've experienced it ourselves and there seems to be some truth to the statement. Often due to repetitive strain or injury, our muscles can form trigger points which are adhesions in the muscles. Other issues can include restrictions in the fascia that holds muscles together or scar tissue in muscles and tendons. These conditions are painful and often chronically so unless they are worked on, either on your own or with the help of a therapist. While you may not think that a simple knot in your muscle or repetitive strain could cause a debilitating issue, our body is so highly interconnected that this can often create a weak link effect where your most noticeable issue is further down the chain from where the problem originated.

Doing light stretching daily and including foam rolling in your routine are simple ways to create some more mobility in your system. Foam rolling involves putting your body weight into a soft foam tube on affected areas and rolling gently back and forth as a form of self-massage. Using props like a tennis ball, or Thera-cane can also help to access small or hard to reach areas. One area that we often neglect but can see dramatic results from is rolling out the soles of our feet. Because we are on our feet for so much of our lives and many people do not have perfect posture or wear improper shoes, researchers have shown that this can almost immediately improve the range of motion in our entire posterior chain. It's a testament to how interconnected our entire body is.

CBD Oil

CBD oil is a very promising natural remedy for many people suffering from inflammatory conditions. CBD is the non-psychoactive component of the Cannabis plant and is also often extracted from hemp. It is a powerful natural anti-inflammatory remedy that works to block pain signals through our endogenous cannabinoid system.

Both pets and people find incredible relief by including topical or ingestible CBD products. With the Cannabis industry becoming prominent, CBD research is starting to show effectiveness for a wide range of pain conditions, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer-related pain, nerve pain, chronic back pain, and joint and muscle pain from sports. It also has been very beneficial for relaxing people and helping with anxiety and insomnia or sleep-related disorders.

Because of the anti-inflammatory effects with CBD, it's best to check with your doctor if you are on any other anti-inflammatory medications before trying CBD.

We sell CBD products at Flow Spa and have seen many customers able to avoid the need for medications or reduce medications by adding CBD to their routine.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the most exciting fields of research from the past decade. This buzz-word worthy term includes things like meditation and enlightenment or transcendence but there's nothing mystical about the science of mindfulness; it is simply a way to think of present state awareness or non-judgemental thinking. Not only is mindfulness effective for reducing stress and anxiety, but research has also shown that a regular practice of mindfulness can help us to become more resilient to pain and suffering in our life. People who are trained in mindfulness are better able to block and ignore pain signals in their body, which can lead to higher levels of happiness and perceiving life more positively.

There are many free or inexpensive courses and apps for practicing mindfulness. Some that we recommend include the Waking Up app, Oak, Headspace, and Insight Timer. At Flow Spa, we also have a Muse Meditation headband which is a biofeedback device that guides your brain into a calm state using cues from nature sounds. It's free for anyone to use at the spa.

Learning how to become more mindful is a challenge for many of us, which is why several of the other safe and natural treatments for the pain we're going to suggest may help to ease you into regular mindfulness practice if it doesn't come naturally to you.

Nature Exposure

One of the ways to make mindfulness more accessible to you if you struggle with it is through getting into nature, which has also been called forest bathing. When we breathe in the fresh air of natural surroundings like in the woods or a park, the fragrances that are released from the plants and trees around us have been shown to reduce blood pressure and stress. Stress is a pro-inflammatory condition in our body, so by reducing stress in our body, we are also able to reduce a major source of chronic inflammation.

To get the greatest benefit from nature exposure, leave your phone and other devices behind, breathe deeply, and enjoy your presence in nature. If you need a phone with you for emergencies, you can put it on airplane mode.

Nature exposure can work well to help you into a mindful state because of the calming effect but also due to being a more active form of walking meditation. Try counting your paces or breathing on pace with your steps as you walk through the woods.

Treatments Worth Trying for Deeper Pain Management

Infrared Sauna

Chronic stress is pro-inflammatory and a pervasive problem in our bodies but a complete absence of stress is also not ideal for our well-being. Short, intense bouts of stress like with a hard workout, heat, or cold exposure, make our bodies adaptable and more resilient. Infrared saunas and other sauna use have been shown to help with joint and muscle pain like arthritis, as well as create a beneficial response for coping with and reducing stress. When we get exposed to intense heat like with sauna for a short period, our body responds with the same defense system that is activated during injuries, which helps us to heal and regenerate. Furthermore, the sweating that is caused by the heat helps to rid our bodies of other stressors that build up in our system, like the toxic byproducts of chronic inflammation or heavy metals and other environmental toxins.

Sauna use seems to help a lot of people who struggle with joint paint like arthritis and some circulatory conditions that lead to pain and discomfort. To get the most out of a sauna treatment protocol, it needs to be done ideally 2-3 times per week and at least once per week.

Acupuncture

As we talked about with foam rolling and stretching, adhesions throughout our bodies can lead to pain and dysfunction. Acupuncture can help to stimulate blood flow and relax adhesions to allow our bodies to move better again and reduce inflammation. While this treatment modality may not appeal to everyone, it has a wide range of benefits that may be worthwhile for you to consider looking further into. Treatments will usually start with a more frequent schedule until the pain and tension have diminished at which point less frequent maintenance sessions may be performed to prevent pain or injury from recurring.

Floatation Therapy

Floating or float therapy goes by many names, like sensory deprivation or R.E.S.T for Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy. It's the Dead Sea experience harnessed in a comfortable and private room with a pod or a float tank that's designed like a bathtub big enough for you to lie down flat on your back in without touching any sides. Within the float tank, there are only 10 or 11 inches of water with 1,000 lb. of Epsom Salt dissolved into it, allowing our bodies to float like a cork on the surface. The float rooms are dark and quiet, with optional music and lights, and the experience of laying in the super-saturated saltwater decompresses the entire body and lets the mind relax and quiet to reduce stress and anxiety. Experiences usually range from 60-to-90 minutes in length as the body needs time to decompress and reduce tension once the pressure is taken off your body.

Float therapy is one of the safest and most effective treatments for a wide variety of conditions which is why much research has been going into this amazing and relaxing experience in recent years. Clinical evidence for float therapy includes treating chronic neck and back pain, pain related to depression, reductions in stress, anxiety, and blood pressure, and ongoing research is further validating the benefits for arthritis, fibromyalgia, concussion therapy, and PTSD.

This bucket list experience for many people becomes a regular part of their routine once they realize how much it helps with reducing pain not only right after the treatment but for days and weeks at a time. Many doctors regularly rank float therapy at the top of their list of recommended treatments because of its safety and efficacy with little to no side effects. Typical frequency of treatments ranges from one to four times per month depending on the severity of pain and the need for relief.

At Flow Spa, we specialize in float therapy and have seen countless customers come in again and again for relief from pain. If you're interested in learning more about how float therapy can help you, book your first appointment today or give us a call for more information.

How To Make Your Exercise Routine Easy To Stick To

Throughout this quarantine, I've been talking about the importance of exercise and staying active and getting outside.

For me, this was a big shift as a strongman competitor my training has been way off but I dove right into looking forward to a different style of training with bodyweight movements and higher repetition work which is quite out of the ordinary for me and a good challenge.

In addition to going on walks, my fitness routine hasn't dropped off and, in a lot of ways, it's increased because I can work out as well as get out for a walk each day and I'm doing this at least six days a week.

But when my friend Tony invited me on a bike ride just the other day something clicked in me that I haven’t experienced in quite a while and it reminded me of the most important lesson there is when it comes to exercise and consistency.

That's when I clued in and remembered that not everybody loves to do the gym rats scenario.

Maybe for you, the thought of Burpee's and squats and push-ups at home in your living room is as bad as pulling teeth. I remembered that moment the joy that I used to experience when I first discovered basketball because as an overweight teenager I was not physically active at all.

I had played soccer and baseball growing up as a child but I never really liked those sports. But everything shifted at that moment when I found a type of activity and a sport that I enjoyed.

You see, I set out a goal to start running when the quarantine hit just as a way to burn off some energy and get exercise and guess what? I haven't run a single time in the past two months that we've been stuck at home. And so it's all coming full circle almost 20 years later as I'm finding the joy in biking. My sport of strong man beats me up enough and I don't want to feel the wear and tear of pounding the pavement while running which is why cycling has become so great for me since I never really feel like my evening walks do much to get my heart rate up or feel like exertion. And that’s ok too. Exercise doesn’t always have to be hard to be beneficial.

So today I want to take you through how you can find that activity that you love.

And this isn’t to say there's no value in pushing yourself and the discipline of doing hard things. Training that grit is essential for peak performance but as I've been talking about as well lately right now we're not in a state where a lot of us can get to peak performance but rather we need to think about what is optimal for us in this time and so one way to optimize your situation is to make some lighthearted decisions and get more joy out of your daily routine and the activities that you do.

So the more fun you can have with your exercise right now the more willpower that you can exert over staying focussed on doing the deep work you need and avoiding those distractions in your workplace at home and treating yourself with exercise that you like.

The only step to finding enjoyment and exercise is to try a bunch of things.

Now, at first, you may not get peak joy out of something just because the challenge maybe a little bit greater than what you can handle so I would say stick with things for at least 1 to 2 weeks and see how you feel don't make a big investment into it but just get started and if things don't feel right keep moving on to something else.

I think the most important thing is you've got to try a lot of different activities.

Maybe you're thinking to yourself that you don't like to do anything physical but at least in my mind, I have yet to meet somebody that doesn't find at least one type of physical activity to just get more exercise enjoyable.

Do your research and figure out what types of activities you may enjoy. The unfortunate thing is I feel like some of us will struggle in this realm right now just because there are sports that require multiple participants that are out of the question right now and so in those cases you'll just have to do your best to at least make some lighthearted choices with your exercise to stay active.

What Can We Learn and Apply from Silent Meditation Retreats to Our Everyday Life?

I recently had my friend Tony Francis on the FlowCast where we went in-depth on the story of a virtual silent meditation retreat that he attended during the COVID-19 quarantine. Not only was this a unique style of a meditation retreat, but it also got me thinking about how we all could apply those lessons to our everyday lives. Instead of endlessly flicking through social media what if we paused to listen to the birds chirping and just watch the clouds drifting by us?

Instead of seeing meditation as a bandaid solution to a tightening in our chest what if we made it a part of our daily routine just because?

What would our life be like then?

Today, let's look at what we can learn from the experience of others who have attended silent meditation retreats and see how we can live a little more mindfully by following their lead.

We're Always Chasing The Next Mountain

We face an immense issue in our modern world that is driven by our primitive brains in this hyperstimulated setting. We are so driven and focused by the next milestone or next objective that we never stop to appreciate what's in front of us. You've probably experienced this yourself before. You go on a beautiful hike, seeking out the highest point in the area. You are so focused on reaching that zenith too far away to even see in the distance that you don't take in the forest around you. Or maybe you're on vacation on the Mediterranean coast, and instead of appreciating the breathtaking scenery, you're only thinking about what you're going to have for dinner and where you're going to eat.

Our agendas are meant to guide us towards living more purposefully, not to own us and our every thought.

Silent Retreats Give Us Access To Experiences No Other Humans Have

Sam Harris is a neuroscientist who has found his purpose in teaching meditation, primarily through his Waking Up app where he teaches daily meditations, brings on guest instructors, and has deep discussions with long time practitioners. In his book of the same name, *Waking Up*, Sam talks about his first silent meditation retreat experience which happened when he was only sixteen. Sam talked about the misery of the experience, as part of the retreat included a multi-day fast in the woods alone. Chasing his metaphorical mountain, Sam spent the first few days journaling about all the foods he would eat when he was back home. Despite the challenge of the initial phase of the retreat, over the years Sam has reflected that he believes silent retreats give us access to experiences that no other humans have. There's a transcendence of the primal chase when we exact our willpower to retreat into silence for days at a time. It strips away all the distractions from what is known as "the wound of existence." We recognize that life is entirely made up of NOW. Unlike a prophecy, whatever comes next has not come into existence yet and whatever has already passed may have left a scar but is equally nonexistent in the present moment.

While I have not attended a silent meditation retreat, I am deeply curious about what this exclusive experience Sam Harris talks about might be...

Unlocking Peak Experiences and Flow

Perhaps one part of the silent retreat experience that Sam Harris talked about is what Abraham Maslow called peak experiences and we more intimately know as the flow state. Flow is technically defined as an optimal state of consciousness, one where performance goes through the roof, and we are forced into the present moment.

The conditions of flow are most commonly met in activities with clearly defined goals and a degree of challenge that is ever-so-slightly above your skill level (4% above to be exact). But what happens when we find flow in situations without a definite outcome?

There is no goal of meditation and that's what most people new to the practice get tripped up over.

Am I meditating correctly?

Am I doing it right?

I'm sure that you've had these thoughts before.

To paraphrase what Tony said so eloquently in the podcast, "we often meditate when we are already anxious as a way to try to relieve that anxiety." One thing that he took away from the experience of the silent retreat when meditating for upwards of three hours every day was the feeling of meditation solely the sake of meditating without needing to do so because one is anxious is a profoundly different experience.

When you let yourself meditate for the sake of meditation, you learn to derive joy from the experience itself rather than some expected outcome of your actions, in other words, it becomes autotelic, another keystone of flow. Then there is the action of mindfulness which is like doing bicep curls for your brain, as each fleeting thought gets flexed away to bring yourself back to open awareness. You experience progress in real-time which when you do for the pure pleasure of the act, keeps you perfectly aligned in that flow channel where challenge meets skill.

All of this culminates in one of the most intoxicating effects of flow; we experience time differently as it becomes distorted. This is very common in the float tank where the dials on all sensory inputs are turned way down. It feels like forever and then it's over. When meditating for prolonged periods and stripping away all temptations of distraction, we come to experience it in a very similar way in finding flow.

Can a Digital Detox Be an Entry Point to a Silent Retreat?

Maybe like me, you are left a little more curious about what experiences are invited into your being when you set out on a silent meditation retreat so I want to leave you with an idea of how we can incorporate some of this mindfulness into our lives.

Within 24 hours we are hit with over 4,000 advertising messages in our environment. Because a silent retreat is all about stripping away all those distractions, I have a hypothesis that a digital detox could be a great entry point to the experience if you're hesitant to dive in or not at liberty to do so at this point in your life.

A digital detox allows you to get some clarity through turning off all of your devices for a period of freedom. While you can do a 30-day social media fast, as Cal Newport suggests in his book Digital Minimalism, a more realistic starting point for you may be starting with a digital Shabbath as Tiffany Shlain describes in 24/6. Having a "screen off Saturday" makes it very easy to unplug without an overwhelming amount of stress and anxiety around feeling like your work life may be falling apart while you step away.

By turning off your devices for 24 hours on the weekend, you can take a step back and look at your life a little more clearly from a vantage point that is away from the frontline of battle.

So what are you waiting for? I encourage you to figure out a way to make this happen right away because you just don't know the depth of experience that is waiting on the other side for you.

Whether you want to venture out into the wilderness on a silent meditation retreat to explore the nature of your reality deeply or take an afternoon to hike through the local woods without tech pinging and binging around you, you are bound to discover the wonder that waits for you when you learn to take a pause and breathe.