Self-Care | Live Happy

Become Your Own Health Hero

Growing up in India, Partha Nandi was like any 6-year-old boy until he woke up one day and didn’t want to do anything. He had pain in his ankle and stopped playing his favorite game, cricket. Doctors were stumped. It wasn’t until his parents found a caring specialist that everything changed. Partha was diagnosed with rheumatic fever and hospitalized for 10 days. Partha’s parents had taken decisive action and his doctor saved him from a potentially life-threatening illness. These events helped Partha find his life’s purpose: He wanted to be a health hero for others like his parents and doctor were for him. Today Dr. Nandi is living that purpose. With a larger-than-life personality, Dr. Nandi is a practicing gastroenterologist and internal medicine physician with a television show, Ask Dr. Nandi, which airs internationally. We talked with Dr. Nandi about his first book, Ask Dr. Nandi, and his mission to inspire people to take charge of their health. Live Happy: How do you define a health hero? It means becoming a hero of your story. What if you made your health the most important part of your life? When you have your health, you have everything. Why do you think people take their health for granted? Often what is going on inside your body doesn’t give you symptoms. All of us know we feel terrible due to a head cold. But when things happen that don’t give us symptoms, like hypertension, we don’t see disaster coming until it is critical. Maybe you have a headache, maybe stress is causing cortisol levels to increase at a microscopic level so your cells are becoming damaged. The health hero learns the best route and pivots away from the extremely stressful life. In your book, you focus on finding your purpose. If you have purpose in your life, you can increase your life span by five years. Science shows us this is true. You have to work at finding your purpose, but everyone has the capacity. Finding your purpose has more efficacy than thousands of the medical procedures people have. Listen to our podcast with Dr.Nandi: Your tips combine Western and Eastern medicine. I was raised in India where people pray and practice yoga every day. We use acupuncture and meditation. In my opinion, why not combine all the technologies and advancements with what has worked for thousands of years? How is spirituality connected to health? Spirituality is a cultivation of the mind, having a sense of purpose and belonging. Today there is so much social isolation. A lack of spirituality in our culture is overtaking us. When you have spirituality, your need for pain medication or blood pressure medication goes down because stress hormones are in check. Spirituality is meditation, prayer, a walk in nature, the tranquility that comes from a beautiful view. Some forms of exercise give you peace, such as yoga and tai chi. Find something that works for you. You say people should identify their ‘Why?’ for exercise. It’s not magic. When you have a purpose or a goal—to be the best parent, the best gardener, the best rocket scientist—then your activities are purposeful. You don’t have to make yourself lift a thousand pounds or run a thousand miles. If you love gardening, then that activity becomes a purposeful movement and you don’t have to work at it. Mind and body are connected. You don’t seem to be a fan of diets. The word ‘diet’ should simply disappear and be replaced with the word ‘failure.’ I started a failure today. There isn’t a single diet in history that has ever worked. I call myself the un-diet doctor because it’s always lifestyle change that works. Plant-based eating can be delicious. Follow the 80/20 rule, where you make the healthy choice most of the time. You don’t have to act like it’s kryptonite to eat cake. Have the cake but don’t have it every day. Eat until you are two-thirds full. What do you say to people who think they are too busy to exercise? Give me five minutes and I will change your mind. Everyone has something they could give up for exercise. Here is one trick: Park far away from the gym and warm up by walking to the door. Don’t think to yourself, ‘Oh, I worked out so I’m done.’ Movement should be fluid—a part of your life. Is there any doubt why heart disease is the No. 1 killer today? People say, ‘What should we do?’ We should get up and move! What’s the one thing you want readers to take away from your book? Make simple changes that yield big results, transforming you and your family. Read more: 10 Must-Read Books for Happy, Healthy Eating Read more: Give Yourself a Mindfulness Makeover Sandra Bilbray is a contributing editor to Live Happyand Founder and CEO of themediaconcierge.net.

Self-Care

5 Reasons to Stop Hating Your Body

From the moment we’re born, others judge us and comment on our appearance. “What a beautiful baby!” “Who does he look like, mom or dad?” Our height and weight are among the first official facts sent to our family and friends on baby announcements. For most of us, how we feel about our appearance is a barometer of how we feel we fit into the world. When we feel good about how we look, we feel better about ourselves. Societal norms, our upbringing and the baggage we have picked up along the way all impact how we feel about our bodies. Our body image can affect how we think, feel and behave. If we feel positively about our bodies, it impacts us in a positive way. If we feel negative about our physical self, it can impact our mood, emotional well-being and may even build the foundation for an eating or psychological disorder. Glamorizing anorexia? Netflix is tackling some of these body-image issues in its new controversial film, To the Bone. The story features a 20-year-old woman dealing with anorexia nervosa. Some critics claim the movie glamorizes anorexia, possibly laying the groundwork for its vulnerable teenage audience to develop eating disorders. To its defenders, To the Bone creates awareness and stirs much-needed conversation about the topic. When someone develops an eating disorder, there are typically multiple risk factors such as age, family history, psychological disorders, stress, depression and more. A common thread among individuals with the disease is a negative image of their own body. One movie will not precipitate an eating disorder. Instead, there is hope that To the Bone will start conversations about the importance of having a positive body image. Many of us deal with issues related to a negative body image. Here are five ways to improve how you feel about your body. 1. Look at the whole you Take what I call a "whole me" point of view. Don't just focus on what you perceive as your flaws. Instead, look at your long lashes, your capable fingers that type so many words per minute, your strong back that enables you to carry a kid in each arm. 2. Turn off the chatter Be aware of negative familial and societal voices that may be impacting your self-image—including the self-talk coming from your own mind. Does your mother always comment about your weight? Does your best friend consistently talk about diet and exercise, making you wonder if she is dropping a hint? Do attractive models in magazines push your buttons? Work toward emotionally detaching yourself from these situations; let your family or friends know that you don't want to engage in these types of conversations. 3. Heal your history Do you carry emotional baggage about your body image from your past? If we are overweight and teased as children, even if we lose all the fat, we may never completely lose the emotional weight. Our bodies bear their own emotional memories—from trauma, shame, criticism. If you are carrying this kind of burden, read books, search the internet and seek specialized counseling to move beyond past negative experiences. This will not only help your body image, but it will also help your overall health and well-being. 4. Create a list of positives List all of the "things I like about my body." Get specific. Talk about everything from your freckles to your toenails to your hair. Come up with as many as you possibly can, and read the list over when needed. 5. Rewrite your internal script Turn a negative thought into a positive one. If you think something like “I do not like my body,” follow that up with “I like many parts of myself, and I will work on liking my body better.” For more information on eating disorders, visit: nationaleatingdisorders.org Read more: Quiz: Do You Love Your Body? and Quiz: Are You Sabotaging Your Self-Esteem? Stacy Kaiser is a licensed psychotherapist, author, relationship expert and media personality. She is also the author of the best-selling book, How to Be a Grown Up: The Ten Secret Skills Everyone Needs to Know, and an editor-at-large for Live Happy. Stacy is a frequent guest on television programs such as Today and Good Morning America.

Self-Care

Goat Yoga Draws a Crowd

In many ways, it’s like any other yoga class: the thoughtful reminder to silence cell phones and get in the moment; a quick, quiet meditation designed to let students set their intention; some Ujjayi breathing and a sun salutation before slipping into more challenging poses. But as we stretch out our legs, I look around and can’t help but notice that some participants have four legs. And hooves! In the past year, goat yoga has become a national phenomenon, with its roots tracing back to an Oregon entrepreneur named Lainey Morse, who began offering outdoor yoga sessions at her farm while goats roamed about. The naturally curious animals interacted with the yogis, and as word spread, the farm’s waiting list filled up for what became known as “goat yoga.” It didn’t take long for videos of the adorable baby goats frolicking around (and on) class participants to go viral. Peace, love and goats Today, goat yoga classes have sprung up across the country. They invariably sell out almost as quickly as they are announced. “This all happened very organically for us,” says Jamie Codispoti, who, along with partner Max Knudsen, started Shenanigoats Landscaping earlier this year. Their lawn-care service, based in the eclectic, artsy neighborhood of East Nashville, uses grazing goats instead of gas-powered tools. “Someone on our Facebook page asked if we could do goat yoga, and it immediately went viral,” Jamie explains. “Before we knew it, we had people volunteering their yards; yoga instructors were emailing us offering to teach classes—it seemed like the whole community wanted to make it happen.” And so Shenanigoats Yoga was born. The first class, held in May, sold out in three hours and each subsequent class has sold out, too. More class times—and baby goats—have been added to accommodate demand. No goats, no glory “The goats are making this happen—it’s nothing we’ve created,” says Jamie, adding that one family drove more than two hours on a Saturday morning just to take the class. Some visitors to Nashville have even rearranged their itineraries to experience goat yoga. The classes are taught by certified, experienced yoga instructors, and participants are encouraged to arrive at least 30 minutes early to spend time with the baby goats. Participants may feed the animals from a bottle, offer them hay and pellets of food, or simply cuddle. And while phones are silenced during the class, selfies and photos are absolutely encouraged. As the class quickly learns, baby goats love to jump on surfaces (such as a flat back in a tabletop pose). They wander among—and sometimes under—people in their poses, sometimes laying down and napping on the yoga mat or perhaps hopping on top of someone holding a pose. “This is about more than yoga, it creates a connection that you don’t usually see happen so quickly,” Jamie says. With backgrounds in social work, both she and Max were quick to recognize that goat yoga is good for the soul as well as the body. “I know from the work I do that animals can help calm people down, and we see that in every class,” she says. “You become focused on the goats instead of whatever it was that happened that day. It really brings people together with this awesome sense of community. They’re laughing and talking like old buddies. It’s amazing to watch.” The bleat goes on A 2005 study published in the British Medical Journal confirms that playing with an animal releases dopamine and serotonin in the brain, while at the same time lowers levels of stress-driven cortisol. Other studies have linked playing with animals to helping ADHD and even increasing longevity. These benefits are evident during a recent Shenanigoats class. Watching the baby goats hop and play draws universal smiles and adds a sense of childlike wonder to the class, which is one reason yoga instructor Andi Halbert encourages everyone to “seek joy and happiness” as part of their practice that day. It seems they need look only as far as the nearest baby goat to discover it. Listen to our podcast, Yoga: Not Just For Grown-Ups Anymore, With Susan Verde Read more: 4 Yoga Poses to Try Right Now Paula Felps is the Science Editor for Live Happy magazine.

Self-Care

How to Buy Happiness for Less Than $25

The debate over whether money can buy happiness probably began around 9000 B.C. when our ancestors were swapping cattle as the first form of currency. Today’s experts offer a more nuanced answer to that question (see Daniel Kahneman and the $75,000 plateau); money can be one tool in finding happiness. This is especially true when we spend our cash on experiences and on things that align with our values. I’m here to share my own unscientific findings: Sometimes small, incidental purchases can be life-changing—when they banish chaos and anxiety and replace them with serenity and joy. Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent less than $50 solving problems that were leaving me feeling rushed, disorganized and sometimes even at risk. Here are my providential purchases: 1. Bright cellphone case Simply changing the color of my cellphone case from basic black to red has made my cellphone a lot easier to spot among the papers on my desk or in the depths of my oversized purse. This has spared me hours if you add up the frustrating moments I used to spend searching for my phone. And as a positive side effect, because I’m not running late all the time after looking for my phone, I’m in a better mood overall. Cost: $20 or less. 2. Cellphone car mount Having a mount means I’m no longer gripping my phone in one hand and the steering wheel in the other as I check Google Maps for the exit I should take on the highway (my car does not have a built-in GPS). Inserted into the unused CD slot, the TechMatte MagGrip is easy to install, holds the phone securely with a magnet, and, as blogger The WireCutter notes, it provides an ideal position for the screen without obstructing your view of the road. The fact that I feel safer and more confident while driving is almost priceless. Cost: $10.99. 3. Half-dozen pairs of reading glasses It’s frustrating to reach for a pair of glasses only to find you’ve misplaced them—again. I’ve bought inexpensive readers at my local 99 Cents store and scattered them around my house like breadcrumbs, plus I keep one in my purse and another in my glove compartment. Now, when I need to check a recipe to know how much salt to add to the risotto, a pair of glasses is always handy. Cost: around $17. I also asked some friends what low-cost happiness hacks they’ve discovered. Here’s what they had to say: 4. Single-cup coffee filter Clarissa: After drinking terrible office coffee for three years—or going out for expensive Starbucks—I finally bought a plastic single-cup cone filter and some paper filters. Now I bring in my own ground coffee and I’m happy as a clam. Cost: $14. 5. Good travel mug Joshua: My Contigo travel mug has been a game changer. I used to use up three plastic cups per day at coffee bars. Now I just have baristas fill my screw-top mug. There is no waste. Plus, it keeps hot coffee steaming for hours and cold brew stays ice cold. Cost: $11.99. 6. Subscription to Audible Bonnie: My subscription to Audible, which is like Netflix for books on tape, has been life-changing. It makes my one-hour commute to my new job far less painful. Recently I’ve been listening to Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but they have thousands of titles to choose from. Cost: $14.95 a month. 7. An S bar Michelle: I work out a lot and my body is always sore. I can’t afford to get massages all the time, so I bought the Body Back Buddy and I love it. It looks weird—like a curved baton with knobs—but it reaches everywhere and works out all my knots and stiffness. It costs a little more than $25, but it’s worth it! Cost: $29.95. 8. Guided meditation app Brian: The meditation app has really helped me develop a mindfulness practice and it’s always there when you need to take a de-stress break, whether you have three minutes or 30. While meditation itself is free, I don’t think I would do it regularly without the app. Try Calm, Headspace, or Meditation Studio. Cost varies. 9. Subscription to Live Happy! Whether you subscribe to the print magazine, download the podcast, listen to our weekly radio show or check in regularly with the always-fresh content on our website, Live Happy will lift your spirits, spark your intellect and inspire your soul. Want more? See what's new in the Live Happy store! Read more by Shelley Levitt: 3 Habits to Boost Resilience and 8 Steps to a Happier Home Shelley Levitt is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles and editor at large for Live Happy. Her work has appeared in Real Simple, People, SUCCESS and more.

Self-Care

Keep Stress in Check With WellBe

When life’s challenges pile up, it’s nice to get a friendly reminder to relax and stay calm. The WellBe, a new wearable stress monitor developed by former Microsoft executive and Mentors Channel founder Doron Libshtein and digital executive Zach Sivan, notifies you through your smartphone when your stress levels get out of whack. The WellBe fits like a bracelet with a comfortable, eco-friendly cork wristband and a small monitor that checks your heart rate for three minutes every hour. Using Bluetooth technology, the data is sent to your smartphone where it is tracked and analyzed, letting you know exactly when and where you get stressed out the most. Alerts can also be programmed to notify you when your levels get too high, making you fully aware of your present state of mind. The app recommends guided meditations, wellness programs and offers helpful tips to get you back to easy street. Te WellBe bracelet comes in natural, black or brown, and sells for $149. The app is compatible with iOS and Android phones. For more information, visit thewellbe.com. Chris Libby is the Section Editor for Live Happy magazine.

Self-Care

Use Lifelogging to Maximize Your Potential

For many of us, the intrusion of “Big Data” into our lives is truly frightening. It means someone (some company) is out there tracking information about us and using it for their own purposes. They know our likes and dislikes, our temptations and our strengths, and our decision-making behaviors. While debates about the pros and cons of Big Data rage on, the truth is, it’s not going away anytime soon. I think a more interesting question is: If companies are willing to spend millions of dollars to understand our behavior, why aren’t we using this personal data to understand ourselves better? In an online movement dubbed the Quantified Self, individuals from over 30 countries have joined together to “lifelog” (track) and share personal data in attempts to better understand human nature. Lifelogging is the process of digitally tracking your personal data. While it may seem like an odd endeavor, it’s likely you’ve done it without even realizing it. If you’ve used a fitness tracker, pedometer, sports watch or even an iPhone (which automatically tracks your steps), you’ve lifelogged. Nearly 69 percent of Americans are already tracking at least one health metric, whether it’s in the form of calories burned, quality of sleep or heart rate. Aside from a desire to lose weight or improve fitness, you may be wondering why individuals involved in the Quantified Self would bother to track and share their personal data. The answer simply comes down to curiosity and a desire to improve oneself. It’s the ultimate expression of growth mindset in the Digital Age. Lifeloggers have been able to identify illnesses, control levels of anxiety or depression, increase productivity, and improve their overall lifestyles. In one case, lifelogging has even helped to save a life. Steven Keating discovered a life-threatening tumor that would have remained hidden were it not for a combination of lifelogging and the fact that he had volunteered to participate in a university research study. The study included an MRI scan, which revealed Steven had a slight abnormality. Three years after the initial scan, he underwent another MRI, which showed the abnormality had remained the same (good news). Four years later, however, Steven noticed that he smelled vinegar for about 30 seconds every day. For most, smelling vinegar for less than a minute a day would go unnoticed. But Steven’s lifelogging had focused his awareness, which prompted him to get a third MRI. That MRI revealed that his abnormality had grown into a baseball-size tumor. Fortunately, he had the mass surgically removed and has been able to carry on with his life. The process of lifelogging via wearables or apps taps into our innate curiosity and desire to problem-solve. While not all of us are savvy enough to read an MRI, we do have numerous tools at our fingertips that give us greater insight into our own minds and bodies. From fitness trackers to time trackers, productivity measures to sleep measures, a plethora of options capture and analyze data easily using our smartphones. Here are a few of my favorites: Addapp can pull data from multiple apps on your phone to make suggestions for diet and exercise based on past behavior. The app might recognize that your sleep quality has declined along with activity level. However, if you were able to take just 2,000 more steps each day, you could significantly increase your chances of getting better sleep in the coming week. RealizD tracks how you spend your time on your phone. By capturing data about how many times you unlock your phone, how long you spend on it, and what you are doing when online, RealizD provides insight into your behavior, and accountability for decreasing your digital addictions. LifeCycle works in the background of your phone to track time spent at work, home, shopping, enjoying entertainment and more. The goal is to help you raise your awareness of how you spend your time so you can align your goals and intentions with your actions. Journalyfor the Mac and iPhone helps you privately journal about your life. You can manually operate it or auto-journal, by allowing your phone to track destinations, weather, fitness, travel and sleep. Instant tracks your entire life automatically and puts it on your dashboard. Lifelog your phone usage time, places you go, fitness, sleep and travel. In many ways, these apps simply provide a starting place for gathering information and insight into your behaviors. With the exception of Addapp, all require you to draw your own conclusions; however, it’s not hard to imagine that in the near future these apps will become increasingly smart and more predictive. Imagine if you could ask your phone to distract you when you approach a temptation while trying to kick a bad habit. What gets me excited about lifelogging is the prospect of being able to create a renaissance in my own life, using the small insights to create positive change. As you begin to experiment with behavior and mindset changes over the next few weeks, here are five guiding questions that can help you develop a practice of continual learning. How does the data that you gather compare/contrast to the past? How does this data compare/contrast to that of the people around me? What information looks false or might be missing? What factors shaped these outliers or unusual data points? And most important, given this information, how do I need to tweak my behavior for the future? As you embark on this new adventure, I would love to hear how your lifelogging is going. Share your story or ideas with me at amyblankson.com/story and together we will continue to pursue a future of happiness. Listen to our podcast with Amy: The Future of Happiness Read more from Amy: The Internet of Things Brings the Future Home Amy Blankson, aka the ‘Happy Tech Girl,’ is on a quest to help individuals balance productivity and well-being in the digital era. Amy, with her brother Shawn Achor, co-founded GoodThink, which brings the principles of positive psychology to lifeand works with organizations such as Google, NASA and the U.S. Army. Her new book is called The Future of Happiness: 5 Modern Strategies for Balancing Productivity and Well-being in the Digital Era.

Self-Care

Cut the Complaint Habit

Everyone complains. Whether it’s about being stuck in traffic, baking in the sun at a sporting event, or rising prices and bills piling up, we all do it. While complaining is inherently negative, it does have some value—it is a social unifier. People can, and often do, bond over shared complaints. When the lines at the grocery store are long and slow-moving, you might complain to the person in front of you and develop a connection. That happened to me recently, and the woman and I ended up chatting so much that we found each other on Facebook while walking out of the store! This type of complaining experience is positive: We vented, connected and made a friend. The trouble begins when complaining becomes part of your personality and starts a cycle of negativity. I have one friend who opens every conversation with a gripe. Even, “How are you?” elicits a list of complaints about everything from her kids and her husband to not having enough coupons for Bed Bath & Beyond. Being around her becomes tiring, and even she admits that so much complaining leaves her drained. So, when is complaining helpful and when it is hurtful? To find the answer, I have created two categories: positive complaining and negative complaining. Here are some examples of how complaining can be used in a positive way: Complaining can act as an emotional release. There are times when holding in our feelings can create stress and anxiety. If you are struggling at work with a difficult colleague or client, venting or complaining to a trusted co-worker can help you manage, and sometimes even problem-solve, the situation. If you are worn out because your kids are waking you up early or won’t get ready for school, complaining to them will probably not help the situation, but often sharing with a friend who can relate and sympathize will at least make you feel better. Complaining can help you rally community, social or emotional support. Speaking out about problems at home, at your job or, on a wider scale, at your local school or in your city can bring support from and connect you with like-minded people. You may even find that you can band together to effect change. Websites such as change.org have become large platforms for people with similar “complaints” to work together to take action and create social change. Complaining can build rapport and make connections. As I mentioned in the grocery store example above, complaining can be a way to bond with others. In my work with businesses and organizations, one technique we use often is a focus group. Employees sit in a room with me, without upper management, and are given an opportunity to vent about issues and brainstorm suggestions to improve the workplace environment. These meetings are not only effective for the company, but I have found that the employees also feel a sense of unity with one another afterward. Complaining can lead to problem-solving. When we take time to focus on what we are upset about, it inspires us to improve the situation. I often tell couples to make a list of their gripes about each other so they can begin to problem-solve in order to improve their relationship. Here are examples of negative complaining: Getting caught in the cycle of complaint. When we complain, we often hope for two things: that someone will listen and that someone will fix the situation. When you get caught up in the cycle of complaining and miss out on the action step of actually trying to solve your problem, you may feel frustrated or even helpless. Unless you are just venting and you know it, when you launch into a litany of complaints, think to yourself, do I have a solution in mind or am I just ruminating and focusing on the negative? If there is something you are unhappy about, how might you change it? Complaining so much that it impacts your mood. Negative thoughts can cause negative feelings. If you spend too much time in a dark state of mind, constantly focusing on what is wrong in your life, it can impact your overall feelings of well-being. If you find yourself in a complaining cycle or are faced with situations that make you want to lament often, make an effort to infuse more positive thoughts into your life. Complaining about issues we cannot control. While complaining sometimes helps with problem-solving, this is not true when we have no control over the troublesome situation. This kind of complaining can put us into a loop of negativity in which we feel stuck and helpless. I once had a client who regularly focused on the fact that she had poor vision and needed to wear glasses or contacts. She focused on it so often that she would get upset every morning when she would get ready to go out. Her husband began leaving the house before she woke up to avoid her complaining. Mornings were so bad, she confessed, that she did not want to be around herself either! If you find yourself in this type of dilemma, work on ways to accept things you cannot change and put your energy into things that you can change. Read more by Stacy Kaiser: How to Give Advice and 10 Ways to Turn Around an Argument So Both Sides Win Stacy Kaiser is a licensed psychotherapist, author, relationship expert and media personality. She is also the author of the best-selling bookHow to Be a Grown Up: The Ten Secret Skills Everyone Needs to Knowand an editor at large for Live Happy. Stacy is a frequent guest on television programs such as Today and Good Morning America.

Self-Care

Keep Your Creativity Fresh

Creativity is energy, and creative energy is at the heart of all life. In fact, it’s an everyday staple. It helps us grow our talents and keeps us happy and healthy. Even as infants we learn to sing before we talk and dance before we ever walk. As parents, we can purchase a high-end toy for children one day and the very next day watch them turn a cardboard box into a plaything that will pique their interests for hours. Creative energy is part of our nature, and we love being creative. It is the energy that makes your mind flow and helps you find new ways to be happy and radiate good vibes. You are a creativity engineer Our minds are flooded with 11 million bits of information per second (no typo, 11 million), but some scientists say we can only focus on 40 bits. To give you an idea (measuring two bits per typed character), by the time you read the words “August, September, October,” you have already used up your 40-bit allotment. That fast. This means that an awful lot of what’s happening around us and to us goes undetected. Yet, our allotted maximum attention of 40 bits of data, which may not sound like much, accumulates throughout an average life span. It is from these 40 bits of data that we “choose” who we want to be and how we want to live. What differentiates humans from every other animal on the planet is that we can imagine a fictional scenario and put ourselves into it. We can visualize how we want things to turn out. We can imagine how we want to build our lives. And then we can creatively engineer our plan from the river of information streaming at us moment by moment. In my opinion, this uniquely human capability has much to do with achieving our purpose in life. Positive, creative thinking is nothing less than sacred. What causes creative burnout Concentration (especially on the same thing) for long periods of time will burn you out. You know you are almost running out of steam when you begin to feel tense or become fatigued. You also might experience a wandering mind or body pain. You start to crave caffeine drinks, high fructose drinks or even harmful substances. These are signals that you need to re-balance. One thing I recommend is shifting between your analytical, physical and creative energy pipelines. For example, if you are learning a new melody on the piano or painting a landscape, or doing anything artistic, get out of your “creative” mind for a while and do something physical. Sports like jogging or swimming or even sweeping a floor, gardening or rearranging a room work very well. I love cleaning house as much as I love practicing martial arts, yoga and jogging, as these activities send my mind into organizational mode quickly. Physical action gives your creative mind a rest while activating your organizational side. Next, I recommend shifting to something analytical. Try something new: start a book you’ve been wanting to read or research a fascinating topic on the internet; the higher the interest or personal significance, the better. Make it something positive. This way, the energy you feel and glean is high quality. When you toggle back to your creative activity, each of the other energies you have been dabbling in will merge. This is key. This is what gives you the biggest surge of energy. You will feel better organized, more analytically creative and have more pizzazz. As you shift back and forth to keep a balanced mindset, you are not turning off parts of your mind in preference to others. You are, in effect, putting one up front while the other is still running like a file (on a lower energy consumption mode) “underneath.” So, although you shift from playing your melody on the piano, writing a poem or creatively assembling a future goal to jogging or housekeeping, your creative mind is still working solutions for you. This switch is essential to keep you charged and to protect you from burnout. May the energy be with you! Energy tips to keep creativity fresh • Look for a connection between your activities and a personal life priority. Look for a poem in the walk you take through the park or when you observe sunlight touching a flower, jot down the details right away and assemble them later. Connect the poem to something that can improve your life, like finding a peaceful solution to a conflict that is gnawing at you. •Make yourself aware of physical activities that refuel your creative mind. These are not a one-size-fits all. Mine are jogging, hiking and playing the violin. Einstein had the habit of taking a break from his research every now and then to play the piano before going back to work. Enjoy finding yours and use them often. •To stay balanced, shift to another activity at or before hitting your 80 percent energy reserve mark. When you shift, push the pedal to the metal to get those juices flowing. • Stay fresh and creative by discovering what balancing activities work best at different times of your day. Some people find that reading inspires their creativity, but they need to read, say, first thing in morning, before they get to their own work. Timing really can be everything. Listen to our podcast with Joseph Cardillo: How to Master Body Intelligence Read more by Joseph Cardillo: 3 Quick and Natural Energy Boosts You Can Use Anytime and 5 Ways to Recharge Your Energy Anytime You Need It JOSEPH CARDILLO, PH.D., is an inspirational speaker and sought-after expert on energy teaching. He is the author of Body Intelligence: Harness Your Body’s Energies for Your Best Life and the body-energy classic Be Like Water. He has taught his methods to more than 20,000 students. Visit josephcardillo.com or follow him on Facebook or Twitter @DrMindFitness.

Self-Care

How to Eat Like a Human

Hi, my name is Michelle and I eat three meals a day. With carbs. And a snack. While that might not sound shocking to you, it’s absolutely mind-blowing to me. Let me back up a bit. During my teenage years, I was intent on eating as little as possible. Portobello mushrooms and diet pills washed down with a Diet Snapple (and a nap during lunch). Restriction eventually led to binging, followed by years of eating disorders. My weight fluctuated by the week, even by the day. One year I might lose 40 pounds, and the next year gain it back. It was the era of disordered eating. I spent my early 20s in New York City and my eating habits changed. I learned how to stabilize my weight. I would start with egg whites in the morning, then eat anything I wanted in the evening and starve myself in-between. I truly thought I had found a solution. But I’m sure you can guess where that solution led me: Those “anything I wanted” dinners became compulsive, and soon I was back in an unhealthy cycle of binging and restricting. And then, in my mid-20s, I discovered the world of wellness—yoga, meditation, mindfulness, edible hemp. Like Oz, it was shiny, glowing and full of antioxidants. Here were people living healthy lives and loving their bodies. I became friends with women who were going after their dreams and becoming entrepreneurs. The community was rife with confidence coaches, vegan restaurant owners and people making documentaries on the politics of food. I was hooked and wanted to follow their lead. Searching for healthy options My journey to unhealthy eating of ostensibly healthy food began innocently enough in the aisles of Whole Foods. There, with my wellness friends, I learned about gluten-free eating, the paleo diet and the intricacies of living a vegan life. I discovered a thousand different ways to not eat carbohydrates (my favorite: chickpea pasta). I learned what “raw” meant. I jumped in headfirst and stopped eating animal products for a solid year. It was the era of veganism. My best friend would offer me a bite of her turkey sandwich and I would have to gently remind her that I was now a vegan. She would say, with so much love, “Michelle, I don't think you really are,” and I would be aghast. I had convinced myself that my body was thriving, but in fact, my body was depleted and exhausted. I was craving animal protein. As I dove deeper into the wellness community, starting my own wellness-branding company and founding a mind/body/spirit camp for adults, the word “cleanse” began to infiltrate my vocabulary. I discovered that people could drink nothing but juice for days at a time, get all the nutrients their bodies needed, and did not have to worry about food at all! It seemed too good to be true. I jumped in headfirst and stopped eating solid food. It was the era of juicing. I decided to cleanse for 25 days straight in order to truly “clean out” my body. To detox. To thrive. I was drinking six juices a day, and getting colonic two to three times a week. My skin was glowing, I was losing weight. Once again, I thought I had found the solution: Juicing, colonics and infrared saunas became my way of life. I truly was shocked when, at the end of that 25 days, my body went right back into the same cycle. Binge, restrict, binge, restrict. And so for the year that followed, I would continue to dance in and out of “cleansing,” which for me (and, I imagine, for many others) was actually more about restricting. Back to square one It had been a few years since The Juicing Era, and I was still trying to find stable, lasting health and vitality. Smoothies became my go-to. I would drink smoothies all day long, and then eat carb-free in the evenings. But, inevitably, those carb-free evenings turned into a binge of multiple cans of beans and box upon box of lentil pasta. (Yes, I found a way to abuse lentils.) And then, finally, I woke up. I decided to ask someone else—someone not necessarily in the mind/body/spirit/wellness world—what I should be eating. I found a licensed nutritionist, and this is what she told me: Eat three meals a day plus one snack. You should have carbs, fats and protein in every meal. When my nutritionist first explained this, I literally thought she was talking about an outdated food plan from the 1950s. Fats and carbs in every meal? It sounded like a weight-gain plan. Don’t carbs make you fat and sluggish? She might as well have told me to start drinking Ensure three times a day. But I decided to try itbecause my various attempts at vitality had led me into the same cycle over and over again. And I was ready for a new way. By the time this article is published, I will have been eating this way for more than 90 days, and I am forever changed. This is the way people eat! It’s so simple, and yet I never understood it. But now, as I wake up before my alarm clock, with a bounce in my step—and my body feeling strong, alive, and truly thriving—now I get it. I finally get it. All of the unhealthy eras are in the past. Now the healthy Era of Michelle has begun. Read more: 7 Steps to Loving Your Body and 3 Steps to Better Eating Michelle Goldblum is the Co-founder and Director of Soul Camp, an adult sleep-away camp with a mind/body/soul theme.

Self-Care

Learning to Thrive With Post-Traumatic Growth

I remember the day well. I was a teenager. Everyone was asleep in our house, and I thought, “Growing up like this has damaged me. I don’t know all the ways yet, but I need help so it will not impact me for the rest of my life.” In that moment, I made a promise to myself to live differently from the way my parents raised my sister and me. The cycle of verbal and psychological abuse that my parents put us through—because of their own painful childhoods—would end with me. I didn’t know at the time that I was strong. I felt bottomless and lost. I didn’t have a positive foundation to start my life. And I used other people’s perceptions of me to determine how I felt about myself. A Chaotic Childhood Always a person who likes to understand things, I couldn’t grasp why my parents were abusive when they went to all the trouble to adopt my sister and me at six weeks old, only to treat us like they did. Our childhood was unpredictable and scary. My mom’s alcohol abuse changed her into someone who despised me and she let me know it. She regularly told me I was “stupid.” She’d rant and rave to my sister and me—slurring her words and stumbling. When my dad got home from work, she’d put on makeup and pretend to my dad that she was fine. Soon, they would be fighting. Worse, my dad pretended none of it was happening, and he never helped us. My sister and I never knew what to expect when we got off the bus and walked to our front door. Sometimes, mom would lock us out. Life-Changing Insight I must have been a pretty self-aware teenager because at some point I told my parents I needed to see a psychologist. They blamed bad genetics for my problemsbut agreed to let me go to therapy. My first psychologist helped me see that I wasn't the problem in this situation. When I finally left home for college, I felt liberated and safe, though still emotionally fractured. I focused on getting attention from men as a way to feel powerful and to escape my pain. I was impulsive and wild—unwittingly re-creating the adrenaline rush of my tumultuous childhood. I was 24 and living in Ohio when I found psychologist Gary Sarver, Ph.D., who changed my life. Of course, he would say, “You changed your life.” With talk therapy, he helped me understand and process everything I had experienced. Going through talk therapy with Dr. Sarver once a week on Wednesday evenings re-parented me. I attribute the process with turning my traumatic childhood into rocket fuel for inner strength, a strong sense of self and a resolve that would propel me forward to create a fulfilling and happy life. His wisdom stays with me today, at age 47, now that I am a happily married mother to two beautiful twin girls. Post-Traumatic Growth Recently, I learned there is a name for what I experienced at age 24: Post-traumatic growth, or PTG. In the wake of suffering or trauma, researchers have found that many people bounce back with even more determination to create a meaningful life. The term post-traumatic growth was first coined by Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D., and Lawrence Calhoun, Ph.D., psychologists at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, while they were working with a group of bereaved parents. They found that people who had suffered tremendous loss seemed to bounce back with a renewed sense of “activism, insight and altruism.” “Out of loss there is often gain, and in ways that can be deeply profound.” Lawrence Calhoun explains in the article "The Science of Post-Traumatic Growth" inLive Happy.“A staggering crisis can often change people for the better.” My belief is that talk therapy can facilitate post-traumatic growth. Whether you’ve experienced an abusive childhood or a tragedy, talk therapy, when done well, can take pain and transform it into strength to thrive. Here are six of the most important lessons I learned in therapy that have fostered my own post-traumatic growth. 1. Try anything. This sounds simple, but at the time, I was stuck. I had a college degree and wanted to be a writer or journalist, but I worked as an administrative assistant and a waitress. I worried I really was stupid and would fail. My self-image was in the dumpster. Trying things or taking risks is necessary to get to the good life. All the good stuff is on the other side of that thing you dread doing. You have to take the risks to get there. 2. You are your own harshest critic. I took over for my critical parents and verbally assaulted myself in my head. It wasn’t a healthy, “Oh, I failed at that.” It was an unhealthy “I’m a total failure.” Dr. Sarver introduced me to self-compassion, something I had never heard of. When you start to treat yourself like a best friend, life transforms. 3. Stop trying to make everyone like you. I was such a people pleaser that I became fake—pretending I was okay when I wasn’t, and not authentically expressing my emotions. Growing up attempting to keep the peace was a coping strategy, but as an adult, it resulted in my being a doormat. I sat on my emotions and my anger. I had to learn how to authentically express myself and, as he said, “be okay being uncomfortable with people angry at you.” 4. You have as many answers as anyone else. I had a tendency to see everyone around me as a successful adult and myself as a fumbling child. I’d idealize others and think they had all the answers. I’d date men who replicated my childhood instead of dealing with being alone. Talk therapy taught me to believe in myself and value my own company. 5. Good and bad things will happen to you; these are the normal waves of life. Fear of the next bad thing around the corner—that you are living under a “black cloud”—can immobilize you, but no one can live a meaningful life in hiding. Understand that you are not cursed, and choose the scary step over inaction. 6. In the end, you have to rescue yourself. This was my hardest lesson to learn. Somehow I thought my parents would see the light, apologize to me and we could all live happily ever after as a family. Dr. Sarver said, “It’s not going to happen.” Sometimes people aren’t capable of being who we need them to be. Acceptance and forgiveness were the hardest parts of talk therapy, but the most empowering. I realized we can give ourselves everything we need emotionally. We can let go of seeking it from people who hurt us. This realization was emotionally liberating. I feel a daily sense of peace and happiness knowing my childhood is in the distant past. Living through a painful childhood has made me appreciate every minute of my life as an adult. I love knowing I get to create my environment and choose the people in it. I derive an incredible sense of joy from finally believing I am strong. What makes me the happiest is knowing I did the work to end the cycle of abuse and create a happy home for my family. Read more by Sandra Bilbray: 7 Steps Back from Depression and Healthy From the Inside Out: 5 Tips to Get Fit For more resources about post-traumatic growth, go to UNC Charlotte's Posttraumatic Growth Research Center website. Sandra Bilbray is a contributing editor for Live Happy, and the CEO and owner of themediaconcierge.net.

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