I know, I lured you into this post like this was something difficult to do. The truth is that your brain changes its structure, chemistry, and function every second of every day in response to your actions, thoughts, and environment. 

Changing your brain chemistry really comes down to changing your behaviors.

Recently a friend with a brand new business asked me “How did you learn to relax on your days off?”

Most business owners are wildly familiar with this sensation, of being exhausted but unable to relax, of knowing that you need a day off but being unable to pull your brain away from work.  This is a work in progress for me, as it is for many business owners and entrepreneurs.  As such, I called in my business coach to help me answer this question.  

Holidays are supposed to be a time to celebrate—to give thanks (AKA practice gratitude), and spend time with family. Instead, that often turns into high-stakes gift giving, overeating Jello salad (personally I think we’re playing fast and loose with the word “salad” here, but maybe that’s just me), and a mad dash to innumerable gatherings with family members we don’t connect with for the next 11 and a half months.

It’s not hard to see how any version of that can be a financial, emotional, and nutritional burden. So how can you avoid it? Let’s talk about a few reasonable solutions to reducing holiday stress.

Headaches have the unfortunate stigma of being a sign of weakness. But for those who don’t experience them regularly, it can be hard to explain how debilitating the pain can be. 

What’s more is that when we do have head pain, it can be tricky to pinpoint the cause, as there are many different types of headaches. Today, we’re going to dive deeper into the four most common types I see in my office—and what you can do at home to help treat and prevent them.

With kids back in school, cooler weather approaching, and more activities taking place indoors, the not-so-welcome cold and flu season is also upon us. This year in particular, with our extreme alertness to anything viral and/or respiratory, it’s more necessary that we keep ourselves aware of the possibility of getting sick—and be proactive about taking steps to keep ourselves healthy.

Our bodies are built to handle immediate and short-lived challenges. What tends to wear us down are the long-lasting challenges. And the most insidious ones are the long-lasting, low-grade challenges—their effects are almost never immediate, but build up over time. 

Dealing with the ongoing stressors of a global pandemic is a textbook illustration of this kind of long-term, ongoing challenge. It’s a near-perfect example of chronic stress, with daily tasks being just a little bit harder, and daily events being laced with fear and caution.

But what exactly is chronic stress—and why does it matter? Let’s define it, and help you figure out how to best deal with it, now and beyond COVID-19.  

Conscious control of breath allows you to utilize each inhale and exhale for a purpose. Every phase of the breathing cycle, and each type of breathing has advantages and disadvantages. Knowing what each phase does and consciously using each of them is one of the most foundational sets of life hacks you can have in your arsenal (and it’s easier than making Bulletproof coffee). Here are just a few.

Breathing is one of our body’s core functions.  It is both incredibly simple to do and infinitely complex in its variations. There are many, many breathing techniques that can serve a multitude of purposes—and in the current culture, breathwork is something we could all use a little more of. You can use it to calm your mind and body, diffuse panic attacks, increase your alertness, promote weight loss (it turns out that we actually lose weight as we exhale—more on that another time), achieve spiritual breakthroughs, and get hallucinogenic highs… all without the aid of drugs or supplements.

During sleep, you body stores long-term memories, repairs damaged tissues, flushes out toxins, and even repairs your DNA.

Just one night of sleep deprivation can impair motor function, decrease response time as if you’ve been drinking and cause a healthy person to respond to sugar like a type-2 diabetic – increased blood sugar level and decreased sensitivity to insulin.

It’s something we neglect in favor of finishing projects, going to baseball games, or to binge watch the latest season of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix.  (Been there, done that.)

People who are well rested have quicker reaction times, improved memory, faster healing, increased immunity, and lower body fat.  They also enjoy lower rates of everything from car accidents to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.