Wednesday, September 13, 2017

The Rocket and Our Sleep

Do you snooze?  Stay with me here for a second.

I’m the world’s worst snoozer, for sure!  I have at least 5 or 6 alarms set on my phone to wake me up each morning.  BUT the more I learn about sleep and sleep cycles – the more I realize that good sleep habits are critical if I want to get the most benefit from sleep.

I just had to share this with you!

I’ve learned that there’s a problem with snoozing – it interrupts our sleep cycle.  

When we fall back asleep, we start a new sleep cycle, but then it’s interrupted shortly after is begins.  This causes us to feel groggy and more tired.

Here’s the thing with me – I have to know the reason why, especially when science is involved.  When I know why, it’s easier to change habits that aren’t serving me.
    
Now, on to the point.

The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins is one of my most favorite personal development books so far.  You HAVE to check this book out! 

She has a brilliant suggestion for stopping ourselves from using the snooze button. It’s her 5 second rule.  

Here’s how it works.  When our first alarm wakes us in the morning, think of ourselves as a rocket.  Begin to count backwards from 5.  

5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1…then LAUNCH out of bed like a rocket.  

This uses activation energy to help us start our day. 

Activation energy related to waking is the initial, huge push of energy that it takes for us to get out of bed.  But, once we’ve used our activation energy, the amount of energy that we need to exert to stay up and moving is much less than that initial activation.  

Once we make it through that initial launch, it’s smooth sailing for us to stay up and awake.

Back to the rocket, she suggests that when we launch out of bed using the countdown, it forces our brain and body to move.  Once our brain gets to “1” it will automatically want to move our body.

When you launch out of bed, it’s without the fanfare and smoke, but you know what I mean.  

You have to try this and let me know how it works for you!
Share your comments below once you've tested this on yourself!

Saturday, September 2, 2017

The 5 Cornerstones to Build a Foundation for YOUR BEST SELF



“You just have to stop this and get it together.”  
"You can choose to change anything that's not healthy for you."
"You have to stop allowing everything else to come before your health."

Being told these things a couple months ago made me realize that it was definitely time to work on creating healthier daily habits to thrive, feel full of energy and actually make my own health a top priority.  

When I began my own best self mission, I was definitely overwhelmed with where to begin.  I knew that I had the habits of exercise and healthy nutrition down, which meant that I had to figure out what else would help me feel my best.

I began to focus on 5 specific areas.  I paid close attention to my daily habits and behaviors around these 5 areas.  Then made a commitment to make the necessary changes needed to create better, healthier daily habits.

It's these 5 areas that I believe we all need to focus on.  These are the 5 cornerstones of our health that I believe will help us build a solid foundation to become our best self. 

Through all of this self-reflection and intentional work, I realized that there are so many of us who do not feel like our best selves.  THIS is exactly why I've created the YOUR BEST SELF 5 Day FREE Challenge

These are the exact areas that we’ll be talking about during the YOUR BEST SELF 5 Day Free Challenge beginning Monday, September 4th.  The challenge will happen inside my Empowered Intentionally Facebook Community.  

Sign up for the free 5 day challenge by clicking HERE


Cornerstone 1 – SLEEP
During Your Best Self Challenge you’ll learn smarter sleep strategies to help you get the most out of sleep.

Cornerstone 2 – NUTRITION
During Your Best Self Challenge you’ll learn how nutrition effects our energy, mood and thoughts each day. You’ll learn nutrition strategies to help you have more energy and feel more relaxed each day. 

Cornerstone 3 - WATER 
During Your Best Self Challenge you’ll learn how water is the simplest solution to help us immediately feel better.  You’ll learn the healthiest ways to effectively hydrate our body.  All water is not created equally.  

Cornerstone 4 - EXERCISE 
During Your Best Self Challenge you’ll learn why exercise should be a non-negotiable for all of us.  You’ll learn how to use certain types of exercise to your advantage to have so much more energy each day.

Cornerstone 5 – JOURNALING AND MEDITATION
During Your Best Self Challenge, you’ll learn why JOURNALING and MEDITATION need to be habits that you use each day to de-stress, relax and feel more at peace each day.  You’ll learn simple ways to begin journaling and meditating to simplify these overwhelming habits.

We begin YOUR BEST SELF 5 Day FREE Challenge on Monday September 4th.  All you need to do to join us is click HERE to sign up!