One habit a time

Not so long ago I have attended an online event where many information was shared on the topic of life mastery and aside, we got very active with some exercise routines helping us to open up our bodies and feel great. Apart from online you could also attend the event live in Dubai. I followed the whole event on Zoom, for 3 days straight. Many things discussed were kind of a reminder, things I already knew but was not yet successfully applying to my own life, some things were explained on a much deeper level and I got a lot of new information to digest.

In this blog I would like to share about some subjects that were touched during the event, so hopefully it can help more people to take the next step to improving their lifestyle and achieving their goals in life.

Sleep
Ok. Where do we start…
Let’s start with ‘’Sleep’’ zzzzz…
During one of the talks at the event they mentioned that if the sun would ever be like nahhhh today I’m going to stay in and not rise up and shine. Just like the moon the sun has a schedule and is always on time. We adults especially tent to sleep late effecting the next day not to be as productive as it could have been, because when we lack sleep our mind is not as clear and our bodies haven’t had the change to fully recover.

Most successful people are early risers and go to bed on time too. Why is something so simple as going to bed earlier yet so difficult to accomplish? In order for the change to be successful we need to acquire new habits. Going to bed early needs to become something like brushing your teeth every day. Then to help your body sleep better and recover you can also make sure you go to bed on an empty stomach. If you eat before sleeping your body will be busy working to digest your food instead of repairing other cells of your body which need attention whilst asleep. In my case I try not to eat anything after 8 PM.

Story time
The main host of the event Mike Chan, told us a story about the fact that he looked very muscular and strong but actually felt really weak when sitting or lying down his body started to hurt if he wasn’t supported with some soft surface. One day he decided to sleep on the floor and train his body to become strong. The first couple of months were not a walk in the park, however after a certain period his body was getting used to the hard surface and becoming stronger. He also joked that (maybe he was serious) because he sleeps on the floor, he gets a free massage every night because his body is receiving constant pressure. I lived in Asia for sometime and had to sleep on hard surfaces, my body would really hurt the day after. I wonder how most Asian people can sleep like that, can sleep on any surface really even while squatting down. For now, I will try to go to bed earlier and not eat after 8 PM and maybe in the future give a go and try sleeping on the floor hehe.. Anyhow, if we improve our sleep, we will have more energy throughout the day.

Nutrition

Another thing what we can look at is our nutrition. Mike said because it's such a broad subject where you can really go deep in and spend hours discussing, all the different diets etc. he will try to keep it simple for everyone. Eat small portions, don’t overeat and give yourself a food coma (when you eat this much your mind shuts down and you just can’t function normally). Also don’t drink water when you are eating. He said have you ever seen food laying in some water for some time? This is why you don’t want to drink and eat at the same time. You could wait 20 minutes or more before drinking water after your meal. When choosing what you’re going to eat you can always keep in mind and ask yourself how easy it will be for your body to digest the food you’re planning to eat. The more easily digestible the better for your body (the less energy it will need to digest).

So, in brief when looking at nutrition, eat small portions if you know the food will be hard to digest for your body or when eating unhealthy foods and try to eat foods that are easy to digest for your body. To add to this segment, I would like to share my eating experience yesterday, a not so good one. So, throughout the day I had eaten beans and rice, a good amount of it. And later I decided to make a papaya milkshake. After I drunk it, my stomach got really upset. I think the mixture of different foods such as rice, bean, milk and papaya became an explosion inside of my stomach. Well, I learned not to eat to many different things together… So easy to digest, small amounts if harder to digest and no crazy mixing of different kinds of foods. There is so much more to discuss when talking about nutrition but let’s keep it simple for now.

Movement
Movement is another very important subject to talk about when focusing on selfcare. Maybe it’s harsh to say but if we don’t move, we rot away. We need to move; our bodies are made to move. During the session we got introduced to an exercise routine which include 4 parts.

The first part of the routine consists out of tapping exercises inspired by the ancient qi kung practices. For first timers these types of exercises will feel and look funny. You are basically shaking up your body by tapping, swinging and shaking up and down. This helps to move any clutter that might be stuck inside, which eventually helps to remove blockages and get the energy moving through the body more smoothly. Then, the second part includes strength exercises. We did for example, burpees, squads, planks, basically a full body workout. The purpose for this part is to create heat and burn any toxins inside the body (like fat). After the full body work out, we did some stretching (part 3). By bending and being in different positions your body becomes more open and energy can flow through it more easily. To finalize the workout out we did some breath work and a meditation. By focusing on breath, we naturally expand our awareness to be able to feel connected.

After I completed the full 60 minutes routine, my head felt really clear, I was aware of noises outside and inside the house (my senses got better). It was an incredibly pleasant experience and feeling.

Some tips
Sleep, nutrition and movement were just one small part of topics touched during the event. But to wrap up this blog I just wanted to add a few more tips which were shared.

1. When acquiring a new habit, try focusing on one habit first instead of trying to acquire many at once.
2. Effort 70%. If we do 70% we are more likely not to give up and will stay more consistent. Sometimes when needed we can give 100%.
3. When wanting to change something think about why? you want to create that new habit or acquire a certain goal. When you know your why you will be more likely to stay motivated.
4. Where there is discomfort there is space for growth.

Thank you all for reading this blog 😊.

(all photos in this blog are taken by me)