Healthy Hibernation

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Sleep, Reframing, Reaching Out

Good morning. This is your day one video for Healthy Hibernation in Ontario.

I have three health hacks for you today. The first one is the biological hack.

1. The Biological Hack: Sleep

From a biological perspective, sleep is very important. And there’s this interesting thing called CBT or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia, which supports people to get their sleep and to cope with issues like insomnia. What’s interesting about that whole theory is that it’s not so much about helping you get to sleep, but managing when you’re awake to promote better sleep.

So the idea is that you would do three things. The first thing is stay up later than you normally would. So, if you’re trying to regulate the time that you go to bed, say it’s nine o’clock, yet you’re tossing and turning, stay up till 10 or 11, at least for the first few nights to get yourself good and tired.

Then if you wake up in the middle of the night and you tend to toss and turn, get up out of bed, go to another room and do something not super stimulating, but perhaps do some drawing or something creative or listen to some music. Something gentle, but outside of your room, and then make your way back and try to go back to sleep. It’s kind of dissociating at sleep time with tossing and turning and pairing awake time with being outside of your room.

And then, the third thing is to set your alarm for the same time every single day of the week.

So, it doesn’t matter what time that is, but make your wake up time consistent so you can control when you’re awake. But it’s more difficult to control when you’re asleep. So it’s really all about what’s within your control and what’s the outside of your control. So that’s the biological.

2. The Psychological Hack: Reframing

The psychological hack is about reframing. So, this state of emergency that we’re in right now. Just the word emergency can be stimulating and scary and can kind of trigger “fight or flight”.

If you reframe it as: “OK, I’m choosing to stay at home and to align with what the government is suggesting for us, because I want to contribute to my health and to the health of my community and my world.” So, this is a state of healthy hibernation. So that’s the refrain. At least that’s the slogan that I’m choosing to go with, but might be something different for you. Choose something that aligns with your values and kind of doesn’t send your nervous system into a tizzy.

So that’s the psychological and the social hack is just simply about reaching out.

3. The Social Hack: Reaching Out

So, reach out to someone else, send them a phone call, text a maybe even just do meditation. Such as a matter of loving kindness, meditation, where you’re sending positive energy to someone else and sort of step outside of that focus on yourself and reach out to people in your community to get that sense of social connection that helps us to be well and feel well.

So there you go. That’s the social which is reaching out. The psychological hack is reframing and the biological is CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) for promoting better sleep.

I hope that’s helpful for you. And have a great day. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Belly Breathing, Maladaptive or Distorted Thoughts, Judgment

Hello and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario.

Today is day 3, I have three health hacks for you, starting with biological and it’s all about belly breathing.

1. The Biological Hack: Belly Breathing (also known as Diaphragmatic Breathing)

So, when we are stressed, we tend to breathe in the chest. And it is sort of a function of that fight or flight response that we have in fearful or anxiety type situations. And when we’re in a situation where stress is chronic, we get into the habit of breathing in our chest all day long and never fully using the capacity of our breath and breathing down into the belly. And that is the kind of breathing that promotes the rest and digest kind of system. And that’s where the healing happens. That’s where the restoration happens. That’s where your body regulates again.

So, I encourage you to do the practice of breathing, consciously go beyond your chest down into your belly. And for me, it’s helpful to think of a baby. If you watch a baby breathe, you see their belly expand and contract and lightly float up and down. And if you can kind of picture that while you’re trying to breathe down into your belly, it may help you to create some ease and move into the belly breathing. So that’s the biological.

2. The Psychological Hack: Maladaptive or Distorted Thoughts

The psychological is all about maladaptive or distorted thoughts.

And this is a concept of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). But I think most people can relate to the idea of distorted thinking and it creeps up on us. We don’t necessarily know that we’re doing it, but if we start to pay attention to the language that we’re using, we might tend to use statements like “should” statements or “it’s always like this” or like “all or nothing” statements or catastrophizing.

So catastrophizing is understandable at a time when we’re in a state of emergency, we might be scared to go outside or to do certain things because everything is a disaster. We’re being told that it’s a disaster right now. But think about the way that you are talking and the way that you’re interacting and the things that you need to do in your day and consider whether you’re actually turning the state of emergency into a constant mindset so that you can’t necessarily make breakfast without thinking it’s going to end up disastrous.

So, compartmentalize that and say, “OK, we’re in a state of emergency, we’re doing what we can, in response to that. But not everything is a catastrophe in my life today.” So just kind of bring some awareness to the language that you’re using and the thoughts that you’re thinking and allow yourself some space to think slightly different thoughts or health your thoughts or choose alternative thoughts that may serve you better.

3. The Social Hack: Judgement

So that’s the psychological and the social is just about this idea of judgment. And certainly at a time when we’re being asked to stay home and there’s new rules and new legal or law enforcement around that, we can start to point the finger at people and say, you’re not doing this right. You’re putting me at risk. You should be behaving this way or you should be doing that.

But ultimately, we don’t know somebody else’s story and what they’re going through and why they’re doing what they’re doing. We can only control ourselves. So if we can kind of adopt the mindset that you do you, I do me. We’re all do our best. Just assume that the other person has good intentions and try not to lash out. That doesn’t help anybody. Just try to do the best that you can and model healthy behaviour for other people.

So, that’s the social non-judgment, the psychological being, investigating those maladaptive thoughts and maybe choosing alternative thoughts and the biological being that use that full capacity of breath, do the belly breathing.

So I hope those are helpful for you. And have a great day. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Water, Creativity and Media

Good morning. So today is day five of healthy hibernation in Ontario, and I have three health hacks for you this morning.

1. The Biological Hack: Drink Water

The first one is pretty simple and straightforward, but hopefully very helpful. And it’s just a reminder to drink water. It’s pretty simple thing to do in the Western world, but we often forget and it has such a huge impact on our health.

You know, it affects our skin, our brain function, our organ function, our digestion, our mood, circulation, immunity, all of these things.

So just remembering to drink water. Sometimes when I find that I’m getting dehydrated or getting behind in my water drinking, I’ll set an alarm on my phone, which I often have with me. And just to go off every hour and I have a small glass of water, you don’t need to drink a ton of water at a time, but just a reminder to drink every hour just to keep yourself hydrated and you’ll be less likely to reach for that cup of coffee or that caffeinated drink that can sometimes set you back in terms of hydration.

So, drink water.

2. The Psychological Hack: Creativity

The psychological is it’s about creativity.

At a time like this where we’re at home and we’re spending more time in solitude, it’s a great time to learn to tap into your creativity. And I say tap into because I think the concept of creativity is kind of maybe misunderstood.

Recently, I’ve been reading a book by Deepak Chopra. It’s called Metahuman, and in that he talks a lot about creativity. But the idea is that creativity is actually a force of the universe. It is outside of us and within us. And it is not something that we build or manifest. So, it’s something that we tap into. It’s like gravity. It’s there for all of us. And it’s just a creative force or something that creates so new things, whether it’s an idea or a tangible thing, it could be tangible or intangible, but we can all access this.

And so, the reason that it’s beneficial and particularly beneficial to our health is if we can take different ideas and put them together or different things and put them together and come up with something new, we can solve problems. And when we solve problems, it reduces our stress and we reduce our stress. We feel better. And when we feel better, we get healthy. So creativity is beneficial for your health. So, tap into that.

Just another little tidbit on that. I recently read another book called Range. And in that book, there’s a fellow who works for NASA who talks about being a searcher rather than a researcher. So, his job is to take the information that he learns from the very specialized people in his workplace and puts together those ideas in a way that solves problems. So, he needs to be that creative person that takes the learning in many different areas and a range of different areas and brings them together to create something new.

So psychological is creativity today.

3. The Social Hack: Media

So, the social aspect of health today is about media and kind of managing your media intake. I read a study for a course about how people are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And what I learned, interestingly, was that seniors are actually surviving this better from a mental health perspective in that they actually have less access to media, so they don’t have it on their phone and on their TV and on their computer.

And, you know, in all of these different mediums that infiltrate our lives, they don’t have as much access to that. On top of that, they’ve lived longer and they’ve lived through difficult times. And they have, you know, that evidence of having survived things that are a challenge, whereas people who are younger. So, millennials and middle age people are really struggling with this because they are so engaged with their media that they’re constantly being bombarded with news. And, you know, we’ve evolved as humans to only be able to handle the stress of maybe our own family or our own small community, maybe up to twenty-five or one hundred people tops.

But when we are constantly bombarded with news about tragedies happening in other countries and around the world, that we don’t have the capacity to necessarily do something about, then we start to feel the stress in our bodies because we can’t do something about it to process that stress. So oftentimes when we watch the news. They give us the bad news, but they don’t give us a way to be the change that we want to see in the world or how to take steps to help people in these situations or help ourselves. So, if you’re going to give yourself exposure to the news, maybe limit it and then also think in terms of what can I do to respond to this in a way that contributes to my health as opposed to just letting worry overwhelm you.

There you go. The social hack was media, the psychological is creativity and the biological is drink water. I hope that’s helpful. And have a great day. See you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Skin Hunger, Perfectionism, Advocacy

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario. Today is day &, and I have three health hacks for you, for your mental and physical health.

The first one is the biological. It’s about skin hunger.

1. The Biological Hack: Skin Hunger

So, skin hunger is this thing where we have a physical craving, our desire to touch other people or to be touched. And that might mean shaking hands or having a hug or putting your arm around someone. And during this time of Healthy Hibernation, we don’t have as much opportunity to connect with people. And human touch actually kind of raises our endorphins and boosts our oxytocin, which makes us feel connected and makes us feel good in terms of mental health and physical health.

So we need that. And if you are at home and you have a family in your bubble, then I encourage you to give them an extra hug today to meet that skin hunger need. But if you are alone and you are waiting out this time of Healthy Hibernation, then I encourage you to do something creative, like getting a weighted blanket. I have a weighted blanket. It’s about 20-25 pounds and you can wrap it around yourself and it gives you that kind of compressed sort of hug type of feeling and can, you know, in the meantime sort of serve you to feel better, to feel hugged. So, that’s the biological.

2. The Psychological Hack: Perfectionism

The psychological is about perfectionism. Perfectionism is this sort of anxiety or fear of making mistakes, maybe even a phobia, and it can affect people to the point where they analyze things so much or they plan so much or they’re so fearful of making a mistake that they actually don’t make progress in their life.

For example, making these videos, they’re not perfect. But, you know, I started and starting is something that we need to do. And then we adapt and we adjust along the way and we make ourselves vulnerable to making mistakes so that we can learn.

And to beat perfectionism, we prioritize learning over getting it right. And, you know, it’s a difficult thing, but with exposure to mistakes, we can get over it.

So I encourage you to start whatever it is that inspires you or whatever it is that you are thinking of doing to progress in your life get started.

3. The Social Hack: Advocacy

And the third hack is the social, which is about advocacy. So even though we’re at home, we can support causes, we can research what’s going on out there and get behind something.

You know, you don’t necessarily need to be a leader in a cause, but you can definitely be a supporter. Whether it’s making a donation doesn’t have to be big or whether it’s just getting educated and speaking up about something that matters.

Do your research, find out what’s important, get behind the stuff that you know that fires you up and be an advocate and that will connect you to your community and make you feel like you’re a part of something bigger, which you know is good for your health and is good for the health of this world.

Those are the three things, the biological is skin hunger, the psychological is perfectionism, and the social is advocacy.

So hopefully that’s helpful. And have a great day, guys. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Nose Breathing, REBT, Karma

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario.

Today is day 9 and I have three health hacks for you. The first is the biological and it’s all about nose breathing.

1. The Biological Hack: Nasal Breathing

So the nose is for breathing. The mouth is for eating and talking. If you can focus on that, it should be beneficial to your health. I recently read a book called Breath, and it’s all about the benefits that come with nose breathing. There are apparatus that you can buy that can encourage noise breathing at night, which cuts down on sleep apnea and hugely improves your health. But also breathing exercises such as single nostril breathing or any other number of exercises that encourage breathing through the nose.

There’s just limitless benefits to that practice. So think about that and try to bring it into your life. This morning I went for a walk and focused entirely on breathing through my nose the whole time. It was actually pretty difficult, but I feel energized as a result. So that’s the biological hack.

2. The Psychological Hack: Changing Perspective

The psychological is about perspective. There is a an intervention called REBT (Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy) that’s all about challenging belief systems and inviting people to consider alternative beliefs that may serve them better.

And a story that I often refer to when I’m talking about REBT is the story of the blindman and the elephant. So look it up, Google it. But basically it’s about these blind men that stand around the outside of an elephant and are tasked with describing what it is to be an elephant. So the one at the back describes the tail and says it’s long and stringy. And they’re describing it because they’re using their sense of touch and their senses beyond sight. And the ones at the side say that it’s flat and smooth. The ones at the front that might be feeling the task say it’s smooth and pointy at the end. So they all describe the elephant differently. Each blind man is right in their perception and it’s their truth. But each person has a completely different perspective.

So, you know, you can be right about something, but it may not serve you well. Say you’re the guy at the back of the elephant who thinks that it really kind of stinks to be an elephant.

What I’m suggesting is if you are opening yourself up to alternative perspectives, maybe making your way over to the other side of the elephant and learning about that perspective, you can change your life. You can find a perspective or an alternative belief system that serves you better. So REBT intervention is about changing your perspective. And I encourage you to look into that as well.

3. The Social Hack: Karma

And then the final hack is about the social, and it’s about karma and this idea of paying it forward.

I think a lot of us maybe misunderstand what karma is about. It’s not about revenge. It’s about action or work. And it’s what we do to contribute to the unfolding of our destiny. So rather than just returning a good deed, maybe consider the things that people do to make you feel good or that have affected you in a certain way or a positive way in your life and pay that forward, take a positive experience and then share it with someone else.

And that kind of paying forward or that action that you take connects you to other people in your community and kind of sets the stage for the unfolding of a positive experience in life going forward. So pay it forward today in some way. Surely you have a way that you know that you’re inspired because somebody has supported you in the past or helped you in the past. Or maybe you’ll need to get creative and make one up and be the the instigator of it all. So that’s it for today.

The social hack is karma and paying it forward. The psychological hack is REBT and changing your perspective. And the biological is nose breathing. So, I hope that’s helpful. Have a great day and we’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Gut Health, Radical Acceptance, Collective Resilience

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario.

Today is day 11, and I have three health hacks for you. The first one is the biological and it’s about gut health.

1. The Biological Hack: Gut Health

In our gut, the same as in our hearts and in our mind, we have neurotransmitters like serotonin, for example.

And to boost our gut health, we would take something like a probiotic. Before you do something like that, check in with your doctor to make sure it’s OK for you. But probiotics can really help you to improve the condition of your gut. As well, you can do things like take a probiotic drink or drink apple cider vinegar. These are things that help to cut down on inflammation and just promote wellbeing from the gut to your whole body into your mind. Something to look into.

2. The Psychological Hack: Radical Acceptance

And the second is the psychological hack, which is the concept of radical acceptance. Two books I would recommend on this concept: Michael A. Singer wrote a book called The Surrender Experiment, which is all about radical acceptance. And Tara Brach wrote a book called Radical Acceptance. And it’s also a fantastic read. So I encourage you to look into those books if you’re interested in learning more about radical acceptance.

Radical acceptance is really just about this idea of accepting what is and accepting that it’s painful when something like a pandemic happens. It’s a trauma that affects us all and deserves our grief. Things have changed. But on the other hand, we don’t have to choose to continue to suffer as a result. So pain is inevitable without our control, but suffering is an option.

So once we accept, we can begin the healing process. So this idea of grieving what once was and accepting that the world is changing and it’s time for us to adapt and adjust. And maybe have some opportunity to participate in post-traumatic growth as opposed to post-traumatic stress. So, it’s a choice. The suffering is a choice.

That’s the idea: radical acceptance. I encourage you to look into it.

3. The Social Hack: Collective Resilience

It also is related to the social hack today, which is this idea of collective resilience. And resilience is your ability to bounce back from adverse or difficult or traumatic situations. And we often talk about resilience from an individual perspective. But resilience can also be a collective thing. So, when trauma happens to an entire community or society or to the globe, we have the opportunity to accept it, to get real about it, to understand that it is what it is, and then start to adapt and adjust.

And start to recognize what our strengths are and what our capacity is to contribute to change and to be a part of the evolution of society. So, while we’re radically accepting, we can offer at the same time choose to be resilient and contribute to the greater good, which is the problem solving and the ideas and the change movement that’s happening in response to this traumatic event.

The social is a collective resilience. The psychological is radical acceptance, and the biological is gut health. So those are the three health hacks for you today. I hope they are helpful to you and you have a great day. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Vitamins, the STOP technique and Reducing Carbon Footprint

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario. Today is day 13 and I have three health hacks for you from the biological, psychological and social perspective.

1. The Biological Hack: Vitamins

The first is the biological, and it’s about taking your vitamins. So, of course, check with your doctor and make sure that taking vitamins is right for you and your health and your situation. Maybe also check with your pharmacist about which vitamins are better quality and are better match for you. But the reason to take vitamins would be to give yourself that boost of essential nutrients and minerals that you may not be getting from your food in the way that we did one hundred years ago. The soil is depleted and our food is therefore depleted. So, our fruits and vegetables aren’t absorbing the same level of minerals and nutrients that they used to. So, vitamin can help you to supplement that. That’s the biological.

2. The Psychological Hack: STOP

The psychological is this technique called STOP. It’s a grounding and mindfulness technique. And it’s pretty simple and straightforward, but very helpful in situations where you are stressed. It’s a reactive technique in a really kind of intense moment you might find stressful. S stands for stop so visualize a stop sign and stop whatever it is that you’re doing immediately, T is to take a breath. So, take a full, deep breath. Use your belly. Really focus on that breath that will help to pop you into the present moment, but also regulate your heart rate and those things that go out of whack when you’re dysregulated.

And then O is observe. So, observe what’s going on outside of you. Look around, identify that tree, that road, that person, that colour, and then also observe what’s going on inside of you. So, identify that emotion, identify that thought and separate yourself from your thoughts, from your emotions to help bring you back into the present moment and also tame those emotions and thoughts that may be running wild.

And then P is proceed with your day. So S: stop T: take a breath O: observe and P: proceed. So that should help you to get grounded in the moment reactively to whatever it is that’s stressing you and help you to get mindful and present.

3. The Social Hack: Carbon Footprint

And the social is about contributing to reducing the carbon footprint. So one good thing about COVID is that there has apparently been a reduction in the hole in the ozone and that the the world is healing itself from some of the damage that’s been done from all of these carbon emissions. So you can build on that and contribute to that by doing things that are within your control. So certainly less driving, but also maybe going around in your neighbourhood and picking up garbage as you go for your walk. You just pay attention to how little ways that you can contribute to the momentum that’s already started by coming down on all these emissions.

So that’s the social perhaps picking up the garbage. The psychological is stop and the biological is taking vitamins. I hope those are helpful tips for you or Hack’s and have a great day. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Energy, Bell Let’s Talk Day, Spirituality

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario. Today is day 15, and I have three health hacks for you, the first one being the biological, and it’s about energy and healing yourself from the bottom up.

1. The Biological Hack: Energy

The idea is that you are treating the physical body to have an impact on your mind, whereas in therapy or other kinds of treatment for mental health, it’s about treating the mental activity and not having an impact on your physical body.

I encourage you to look into body work like chiropractic or massage, but also to consider the yoga approach, which is about energy centres, and consider how certain areas of the body, when they experience pain or ailments, are typically related to specific kinds of stress. If your belly or your lower back is experiencing pain or illness, it might have to do with emotions around security or safety or family. So something interesting to look into there.

2. The Psychological Hack: Bell Let’s Talk Day

The psychological is about Bell, Let’s Talk Day. Today is #BellLets TalkDay. So I encourage you to share the videos and to use the hashtag and help to raise awareness around mental health and mental illness. But specifically, I would like to invite you to consider this idea of self-stigma and what that looks like for you.

If by any chance you have any struggles with mental illness, are you hard on yourself about it? Are there barriers to you getting support and help around what you think other people might think of you or any self-judgment and get some information, go to the Bell Let’s Talk Page and learn more about it, so that you may be in a better place to help yourself.

3. The Social Hack: Spirituality

And the social is about spirituality, so I’m not a religious person, but I am starting to consider myself to be a spiritual person. And what I mean by that is that I have a kind of sense of security around this idea that I’m a part of something that is bigger than me. So the way that I understand that is that the same kind of energy or electrons and particles that make up me, make up you and make up the space between us and all the objects and living things around us, and that I’m the same as everything in this world. I have a reason to be here and destiny to live out.

It makes me feel a little bit more like I belong. And apparently, according to studies, when people have a faith or a sense of spirituality, it contributes to a greater resilience, which is your ability to bounce back in other situations. I encourage you to kind of look into different concepts around this idea of spirituality and see if there’s anything that fits for you that you might learn about or engage in or start to develop some faith around those concepts or those ideas. So something to think about. Greater spirituality equals greater resilience and greater health.

Those are the facts for today. I hope they are helpful to you and hope you have a great day and we’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: The Benefits of Drinking Tea

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario. Today is day 17 and today is all about tea.

1. The Biological Hack: Drink Tea

And the first hack, the biological, is literally about drinking tea. So, I recommend that you drink tea. It doesn’t matter what kind. Some kinds are caffeinated, so you may want to look into that. If you have anxiety or heart issues, you may want to choose a tea that is not caffeinated.

But there are tons of different herbal teas that have either antioxidant benefits like green tea or detoxing benefits or even just the benefit of holding a warm cup of a drink in your hand and that soothing effect, that comforting effect that comes with drinking something warm. So that’s the biological.

2. The Psychological Hack: Buddha Invites Mara to Tea

The psychological hack is the story of the Buddha inviting Mara to tea. And this is a story I learned about from Tara Brock, who’s a. A psychologist and a yogi, and she tells the story of when the Buddha was on his way to enlightenment, he was visited by this demon God called Mara, represents doubts and fears, anxieties and addictions.

And so instead of trying to deny Mara or push Mara away or fight against Mara, the Buddha simply welcomed Mara to tea and said, I see you, Mara, and acknowledged Mara’s presence, acknowledged that Mara is a part of his experience and allowed Mara to sit with him until the power of Mara dissolved and Mara strolled away.

I encourage you to think of that story when it comes to your own psychological health. And rather than try to deny your fears or your anger or your doubts or the things that you might consider negative about your psychology, embrace them as a part of yourself and try to understand them and welcome them as part of your experience and part of your evolution. So that’s the inviting Mara to tea story.

3. The Social Hack: Invite Someone to Tea

And then the social is about literally inviting someone else to tea. So just as with the story of Mara, you are being compassionate to yourself by accepting all the ugly parts of yourself that may not be ideal. Also, invite your friends to tea and accept everything about them that may not be fun, happy, positive or supportive of your needs.

Instead, hold space for that person and allow them to vent, to unload, to be sad if they’re sad and of course, to be happy if they’re happy, but maybe not qualify that you’re only a fair-weather friend. And when things are OK, you’re there for them. So, a friend in need is a friend, indeed.

There you go. Those are the hacks for today. The biological, psychological, social. I hope they’re helpful and I hope you have a great day, and we’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Binaural Beats, Locus of Control and Being an Extrovert or an Introvert

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario. I have three health hacks for you. The first one is the biological and it’s about binaural beats.

1. The Biological Hack: Binaural Beats

If you listen to a frequency in your right ear and a different frequency in your left, your mind works to find some middle ground or to harmonize in some way. And whatever happens there with the vibrations between your right and left ear can be therapeutic and can help you with issues like anxiety or depression or have simply a calming effect. So, I encourage you to check it out.

If you go to the app I’ve mentioned before, which is Insight Timer, there are several binaural beats options there for you to choose from. The trick is, though, you need to use earphones that have a right and left indicator so that you can get the proper experience. So that’s the biological hack.

2. The Psychological Hack: Locus of Control

The psychological hack is about internal versus external locus of control. And a lot of us feel like our stress levels go up because we have a sense that the external, such as workplace, spouses, family members, friends have more control over the direction our life is going in than we do. And when we shift towards a more internal locus of control, when we start to take action based on what’s within our control and what we choose and what we feel is the best direction for ourselves, we may become sort of the one steering the ship or the CEO of our own life.

And so, I encourage you to kind of examine your situation and your feelings about who is in control of your life and consider how you might make some changes and bring about some more of a sense of internal locus of control.

3. The Social Hack: Being an Introvert or an Extrovert

And then the social is about just being an introvert or an extrovert. I think a lot of us think of ourselves as one or the other when in most cases we are a little bit of both. And at a time when some of our social opportunities have been limited, why not embrace your internal introvert and learn about all of the benefits involved in embracing solitude and how much recovery and recalibration and rejuvenation happens when you are able to rest and appreciate time alone?

There will be time again when we are in some cases forced to be more social, but also we’ll have the opportunity to be more social again. But at this time, why not learn to really be able to embrace both?

If you happen to be an extrovert, if you’re an introvert, then perhaps you’re really enjoying this time where it’s normalized to spend more time in solitude.

So those are the facts for today. I hope they’re helpful. And have a great day. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Yoga

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario, today is day 21, and I have three health hacks for you. They’re all related to yoga.

Yoga means to yoke or union, which is very much in alignment with the biopsychosocial approach to health that we’re taking over these 28 days. But the union in yoga is about the body, mind and spirit. And if you were to pick out the biopsychosocial there, you might pull some of the limbs of yoga that go beyond the asanas, just the poses to help us understand our meaning or purpose and to help us kind of develop our personal health.

So the Yamas are ways of living in relation to other people. And that’s the first limb of yoga. An example of one of the yamas would be ahimsa. Ahimsa is about nonviolence or being kind to yourself and others and all living things.

The Niyamas are about ways or right ways of living within your own mind or within yourself. An example of a niyama might be the self study or the principle of self study, which is called svadhyaya. And if you were to move on to the body, the Ossana, which I mentioned before, are the poses. So if you take mountain pose, for example, it’s about grounding yourself and feeling connected to the Earth, but at the same time aligning your spine and improving the function of your circulatory system and improving your confidence so the biological pose can be related to the psychological and even the social, as are all the limbs of yoga.

And so as you start to progress to the different limbs, you get into Pratyahara, which is the drawing of the senses inwards, the pranayama, which is about the right use of energy or breathing techniques. You can also get into the other limbs, which are about concentration and extended concentration, which is meditation, and then even into samadhi, which is the ultimate state of bliss or union with the universe.

So much to study. There’s so much to learn. And it’s very much about the biopsychosocial, about personal development, about improving your health and understanding why we’re here, what our purposes and our meaning in life. So I encourage you during this time of healthy hibernation, when we have a little more time at home to do some learning and do some research, why not investigate the various limbs of yoga and how you can apply it to your own health and and come out of these twenty eight days feeling better than you were going in?

That’s it for today. I hope it’s helpful. And we’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Epigenetics, Neuroplasticity and Being A Late Bloomer.

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario, today is day 23 and I have three health hacks for you related to getting unstuck.

1. The Biological Hack: Epigenetics

So biologically, I wanted to talk about epigenetics. And epigenetics is a field of study that says our environment can influence the expression of our genes. So even though our DNA is passed on from generation to generation and we might be vulnerable to particular diseases, our epigenetics says that what we eat and how we interact with people and the exercise that we get, our levels of stress can all impact the expression of our genes and whether we will play out certain disease patterns or not.

It is important, therefore, to take good care of yourself biologically, to try to change the fate of your expression of disease. Not only that, but change your epigenetics for the next generation. So that’s the biological.

2. The Psychological Hack: Neuroplasticity

The psychological is about neuroplasticity and how neuroscience has shown us through evidence-based studies that we can change our brains and rewire our brains to learn new things and to heal the damage that’s been done to the brain and to the body. And it will continue throughout life. So our brain doesn’t stop working when we get older. In fact, it continues to generate even new brain cells in the area of the hippocampus, which is the area for memory and learning. So that’s promising for issues like Alzheimer’s or dementia.

3. The Social Hack: Becoming a Late Bloomer

That’s the psychological and the social is just how those ways of getting unstuck can actually influence the way that you live your life in the social world. There’s no reason to think that you can’t be a late bloomer and that you can reinvent yourself.

At any stage in life, you can learn something new. You can become someone new, you can change your perspective, you can change your mind. I encourage you, if you are later in life, to start considering how you might become a late bloomer.

All right, so those are the hacks today, I hope they’re helpful and have a great day. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: Less is More

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario. Today is day 25, and I have three health hacks for you around this idea of less is more.

1. The Biological Hack: Time to Rest

From a biological perspective, we’ve been talking a lot about how to get motivated and how to incorporate new habits and to do more and be more. And maybe that’s not what you need. Maybe you need to listen to your body. Perhaps you’ve been a front-line worker during this difficult time and been working double time, or the circumstances of COVID have made your life really complicated. And it’s time for you to take some rest so only you can know that.

But if you are deciding to rest, maybe try to mimic the animals that hibernate in the winter and rest more, sleep more, breathe slower, eat less, just slow things down and allow yourself to recoup and recover.

2. The Psychological Hack: Organize Your Home

So less is more on the biological front and on the psychological side, I encourage you to look into organizing your home. If you’re at home anyway, why not get really organized about the space around you? And when you’re feeling organized in the space around yourself, it tends to help you feel more organized in your own mind. It reduces the stress anyway that you might encounter just trying to find something within your own home or trying to sort through all the clutter just to get something accomplished.

It feels really good to go through your home and prioritize organized and clean things up. I recommend looking at Marie Kondo’s approach to organizing your home in the path I used to try to organize one room at a time and that system never worked for me. I never completed the organizing of my home where she suggested that you go by systems, so organize all of your clothes or organize all of your drawers or one system at a time and do the whole home at once.

So an interesting approach and I encourage you to look into her methods.

3. The Social Hack: Improve Your Financial Health

The social is related to getting organized and, it kind of helps you or sets the stage for improving your financial health. I think a lot of us, when we’re stressed, tend to be a part of this consumer culture that we live in and start buying things to help ourselves feel better or socially feel like we’re keeping up with the person next door or we need more cards, we need more clothes, we need more food, we need more things.

And I encourage you to look into this minimalist culture that says less is more. Consider what you actually need, consider what you can, donate what you can, what you can live without and and start to investigate where the real value in life is. Does it come from material things? Are you shopping on Amazon to help you feel better emotionally? Maybe just do some investigation there?

I have never heard of the term financial health until just recently, but your financial health contributes to your overall health in a significant way. And if you’re spending in a way that causes you stress, you’re going to feel that physically, emotionally, and it’s going to cut into your capacity to provide for yourself and your family down the road.

So consider what you can do to consolidate and to organize your debt and to cut down on spending and get better about your financial health. A good book that I enjoyed, and I’m not particularly savvy when it comes to financial health, but You’re A Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero was a good book, so I recommend that.

Those are the hacks for today. I hope they’re helpful and have a good one. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Transcription of Healthy Hibernation: The Power of Belief, Defence Mechanisms and Laughing.

Good morning and welcome to Healthy Hibernation in Ontario. Today’s day 27 and I have three health hacks for you. The first is the biological and it’s about the power of belief.

1. The Biological Hack: The Power of Belief

So evidence-based studies say that the placebo and the nocebo effect are real, so participants in studies will take a placebo or a pill that has no active ingredients and a pill that has ingredients that are meant to create a certain outcome. So, cure a certain ailment or have a positive effect. And people who take the pill that expect that they might be taking the pill that has the active ingredient will show signs of improvement and will respond just based on the power of belief and create that physiological response in their body.

The same effect, the same effect is true for the nocebo. Clients or participants who believe that certain side effects will result from taking a pill will manifest that in their body, even though there’s no active ingredient in the pill. The point of this is that the power of belief is really significant. And so, for example, if you’re staying at home over these 28 days and believe that the outcome will be positive or negative, that will really have an impact on which is true for you. So consider that.

2. The Psychological Hack: Defence Mechanisms

And the psychological is about defence mechanisms. So again, staying at home, you might be apt to lean on certain defence mechanisms that may or may not be good for you. So a defence mechanism is something that you do to try to avoid unwanted feelings or unwanted experiences or solving problems that might be overwhelming.

And some of these defence mechanisms are more mature than others. And some can be damaging. For example, if you have workplace stress and you tend to bring it home and take it out on more vulnerable people, if you’re already at home working, the tendency just due to proximity might be to take it out on someone in your home.

For your health and for the health and culture within your home, just raise some awareness around some of the defence mechanisms that you might be employing to deal with the added stress that comes with the COVID scenario right now.

3. The Social Hack: Laughing

So that’s the psychological and the social is about laughing. I encourage you to look into different ways that you can evoke laughter. Maybe it’s watching a comedy show, maybe it’s learning a joke and sharing it with a friend or maybe even taking laughter yoga. So there’s a yoga class or a style of yoga class where they consciously promote laughing. And it’s really an effort to start.

But then the laughter is contagious, and everybody starts to chuckle. And then as a result, positive endorphins start to flow, pain starts to be reduced, and tension and stress between people starts to diminish. Whatever it takes to find your laughter, I encourage you from a social perspective to get into laughing a little bit.

That’s it for today. I hope the tips are or the hacks are helpful. And we’ll see you tomorrow.