I have had multiple conversations in the office over the last couple of weeks about what has been going on in the world these days. With the constant stream of information at our fingertips, I have heard time and time again how many people are overly stressed right now. Think about it. The internet and the information we have at our fingertips is relatively new. I was maybe the last generation to not have the internet in our home. We went from only seeing the news in the morning paper or at a very specific time like the 6:00 News, to having it at any time we want. We don’t even have to get out of our bed to get information. So, what is this doing to our brain? Unfortunately, I don’t think we know quite yet what it is actually doing to our mental capacity. There have been some studies showing how addictive our phones and social media has been but that is just scratching the surface. What do we do about it then?
Read More
If a good diet and nutrition are the foundation for a healthy individual, then ideally a society's food system should be set up to support that foundation for each individual. So, how is our food system set up then? Does it have our best interests at heart?
Read More
About six months ago, my sweet husband came to me and told me he had been thinking and wanted to talk about something he wanted to do with his life. This quiet man does nothing without thinking long and hard about it first, so I knew this had to be a big deal. That night, we sat down at the dinner table together and he told me that he wanted to farm our 5 acres . I am not sure what my face looked like, but I’m sure my eyes were as wide as my face and was quiet (which is not something that I am often!) I was only quiet because I was thinking through what he just said to me. My first thought was ‘Yeah! Let’s do it!” Then, I start thinking about logistics and that is where my brain needs time to process. As I was sitting there quiet, he asked me what I was thinking. I told him that I am always going to support him in his endeavors and will be there right along the way. Then, I asked him why he wanted to do this. His answer is what we are going to be discussing this month (and will teach a lot about along our journey) and has me on board even more.
Read More
Stress! It seems to be the source of all of our problems.
If I just had a little bit less stress in my life. If I could just get a break from all the stress happening right now. I’m too stressed to do that thing I know I should do.
In today’s world, where a pandemic has altered all of our daily lives, we have a 24/7 source of stress. It is induced by news and information that is mainlined into our brains, combined with a year that seems to be one headline away from total human annihilation. It can certainly all be overwhelming.
Read More
I have asked every patient that has walked into my office how they are feeling right now with everything going on. A typical response is that ‘I am fine’ or ‘It's not really affecting me anymore.’ Then I proceed to hear about headaches or gut issues or flared up chronic pain that has crept back up over the last several weeks without much (known) cause. What if the chaos of the world is bringing up something for us that we have pushed away or thought we have dealt with? The brain and emotions are a complicated thing and we sometimes don’t give that enough credit on how much it can affect our physical body.
Read More
This certainly is a strange time. On one hand it is springtime. The weather is beautiful, gardens are coming alive, and the sounds of birds are plentiful. On the other hand, we are still right in the middle of this whole Covid-19 saga. One hand offers abundant life, joy and sunshine while the other is still throwing stress, fear and uncertainty into the mix. With such two conflicting influences on us, it is important that we be mindful of what habits we consciously or inadvertently are developing.
Read More
Are you feeling it? With everything going on in the world, most of us have hit a point where we have felt it. Sadness, anger, fear. Going headfirst into the unknown and everything feels out of control. We have been there right along with you. The accumulation of the last few weeks has caught up with us and we have felt it too. In one episode on her new podcast, Brene Brown talked about the 80/20 percent rule that she and her husband practice. When one person in the relationship is at 20% capacity they see if the other person can pick up the other 80%. If the combination of the two doesn’t equal 100%, they try to see where they can make changes in their week or month to make up for what they are lacking in energy.
Read More
“Winners and losers have the same goals…” – James Clear
We all have goals throughout life. It’s almost human nature for us to set goals. Think New Year’s Resolutions, business goals, financial goal, weight loss goals, or goals for a sporting season. However, if setting appropriate goals was all that was needed, all of our bank accounts would be full, our weight on the scale would be just right, our team would win every championship and our jobs would leave us feeling fulfilled and happy. The problem with a goals-based approach is we only focus on the successes and seem to forget (or worse not learn from) the failures. Setting goals doesn’t help us accomplish anything, it is our habits and behaviors we do every day that will determine our future. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do, therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit.” There is nothing more powerful than a good habit, and nothing more detrimental than a bad one. We are what we do, and what we do determines who we can be. In these crazy times, forming good habits may have never been more important; but how do we set ourselves up to create good habits that last.
Read More
New Year’s resolutions… most of us made them. How many of us are still on track with them? We are a few months into 2020 now and this is the time that we hear that we have started to slack with our goals we had for the year. We hear all the time that we have gone off track and just haven’t jumped back on the train. And, with everything that has been going on in the world right now, this might be the last thing on everyone’s mind. Guys, we know it is tough out there right now. There is so much uncertainty in the air - when will it go back to normal? When can we see each other again?
Read More
Growing up in Florida, cold was not my friend. In fact, I was a little baby with the cold; more like a big baby. Anything below 70 and I was putting on layers and if it was below 60 my jaw was shivering. Moving to Tennessee was going to be a change for me. I knew when I started hearing about this crazy sounding dutch man named Wim Hof, going around saying “the cold is my warm friend” and holding several world records around cold water immersion, prolonged full body contact with ice, and barefoot half marathons in ice and snow, I had to take a deeper dive into it.
Read More