Feeling like your energy reserves are on empty and your mood is stuck in a rut? We've all been there, and in this episode, I'm excited to share some strategies that can help jump-start your day and recharge your batteries.
In this episode I explore some simple, yet powerful activities and practices that promise to lift you out of those tough spots. Plus, I'll let you in on some personal favorites, like meditation apps and creative hobbies that have made a real difference in my life.
But it's not all about the tried and true; sometimes, it's the unconventional paths that lead us to peak well-being. In this discussion, we'll venture into the less charted territories of mood enhancement and energy boosting.
I'll talk about the importance of tailoring your own toolkit of techniques, chock-full of science-backed methods that fit your unique personality and lifestyle.
Hopefully this episode will as a personalized pick-me-up plan, ready to deploy when the blues hit.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Feeling like your energy reserves are on empty and your mood is stuck in a rut? We've all been there, and in this episode, I'm excited to share some strategies that can help jump-start your day and recharge your batteries.
In this episode I explore some simple, yet powerful activities and practices that promise to lift you out of those tough spots. Plus, I'll let you in on some personal favorites, like meditation apps and creative hobbies that have made a real difference in my life.
But it's not all about the tried and true; sometimes, it's the unconventional paths that lead us to peak well-being. In this discussion, we'll venture into the less charted territories of mood enhancement and energy boosting.
I'll talk about the importance of tailoring your own toolkit of techniques, chock-full of science-backed methods that fit your unique personality and lifestyle.
Hopefully this episode will as a personalized pick-me-up plan, ready to deploy when the blues hit.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Hello and welcome to the Diary of the Health Show. I get something a little off topic today called what to do and you feel like crap. And the reason I'm doing this is because sometimes I feel like crap and I don't think I'm the only one and occasionally it's debilitating for me. Not that often, but I would say two to three times a year. I have I don't want to call it an attack, but at least a day, maybe an entire day, where I just can't perform, where I just feel so overwhelmed, so down, where life is so hard that I can't get myself to perform, to do stuff. And I don't know if you have those days, and maybe I'm sure some people have worse and more than I do. I don't know what it's like to be anybody else. All I know is that between those days that are almost completely debilitating for me and other days that are just probably the normal type of being down or just not having great energy, we all go through these types of experiences and I thought you know how to dig into this and spend a little time on it for myself and for you. You, those of you listening who read the title and thought, yeah, I'd like to know what he found out. So I did a little research and there are several science backed strategies for boosting mood, and I'm glad I dove into this and I hope you enjoy what I found.
Dave Sherwin:Feeling down low or just downright miserable is an inevitable part of the human experience, of course. Whether it's due to a bad day at work, rough patch in a relationship or just a general sense of malaise, we all encounter these moments. Now here is the number one thing that I think. That think is the ultimate thing to do when you feel like crap, and that is to get moving. Dead simple, but numerous studies have highlighted the mood boosting benefits of exercise, and here's a quote from the Arnold. I love this. This is recent. This is a quote from his newsletter, I believe in 2023. He said I'm like all of you. Sometimes I wake up and I just don't feel like getting out of bed, whether I slept poorly or my brain chemicals are just out of whack that day, I couldn't tell you. All I know is I have less energy and the world feels like a black and white movie. I just don't have the fire in my belly that defines my life. This is where I might not be like all of you. On those days I drag myself out of bed, feed Lulu whiskey, shnelly dutch dutch schnitzel and cherry his animals, and get on my bike to go to the gym. I do that because I've been around for 76 years and I've learned that the surest way to turn the world to color is to get physically active. And sure enough, almost always when I'm riding back from the gym my life feels like a movie in color and the fire in my belly is back. I couldn't say it any better than that. Thank you, arnold, for the quote. It's fantastic.
Dave Sherwin:Number two from science connect with nature. Spending time outdoors has been shown to have a positive impact on mental well-being, whether you take a leisurely stroll in the park, hike through the woods, simply sit in your backyard just getting outside. I happen to live near a wetlands area and almost every morning, midday and evening I take my dog out for a walk. We get our 10,000 steps a day doing this and it's an incredible way to rejuvenate, so that works really well for me. But whether you're walking or just even sitting outside, it can actually raise those endorphins, make you feel better.
Dave Sherwin:Next, of course, is practicing mindfulness and meditation. These are not just techniques anymore. These are things that have been proven through multiple studies to help people to feel better and have more peace, better energy, more meaning in their lives. Just taking a few minutes every day, whether it's focusing on your breath, engaging in guided meditation or simply being in the present, can help calm your mind and elevate your mood. I have two apps that I wouldn't be without. One of them is called Insight Timer. It's the largest meditation app on the planet. It has a variety of things I use, from meditative music that I sometimes simply listen to while I have a nap or lie down, two courses and the other one is Waking Up by Sam Harris. He has a daily meditation that I really enjoy, as well as a library with excellent teachers and a variety of different types of meditation, from vipassana to zhouchen and natural awareness meditation, etc.
Dave Sherwin:And sometimes when I'm walking, I repeat the Tik-Nut Han mantra. I don't know if you've ever heard this. It's a simple little poem. I have arrived, I am home. In the here, in the now, I am solid, I am free. In the ultimate I dwell. And in this simple poem I repeat it sometimes as I walk to my footsteps. Tik-nut Han used to talk about kissing the earth with your feet, which is a really nice kind of a thought and a centering thought, and I find that when I'm walking, if I sometimes repeat that little poem, it just has an incredible centering and calming effect.
Dave Sherwin:Number four engage in creative activities. Expressing yourself creatively can be a powerful way to lift your spirits and take your mind off of whatever is ailing you mentally. Whether it's painting, writing, playing, music or crafting Engages your creative. These creative activities engage your emotions and your mind in a very positive and productive way For me. I play guitar. I try to play every single day and I'm also what's called an A-Full. This is a new habit I picked up about a year ago.
Dave Sherwin:Adult fan of Lego. I have grandkids and they grow. All kids are into Lego and as I was buying Lego for one of my grandkids, I discovered Lego kits for people 18 and up and I got to tell you because I'm not that great of an artist at all. Other people can paint, they can draw. Those aren't my talents. But I found that you give me this set with 2,000 pieces of Lego in it and I'll go through that methodical process of just building something kind of intense and it really works for me. I enjoy it and the satisfaction of completing that is terrific, and so, whether it's Lego or painting or music, whatever it is, these are things that help lift our spirits and get us out of a funk.
Dave Sherwin:Number five revisit your diet. Too many sugary carbs, too much caffeine or not enough sleep can be the cause of irritability and anxiousness. Make sure you're following the principles in our diet. It will be undiated, which is absolutely free to ensure that you are getting the nutritional and exercise lifestyle that helps you stay positive. So obviously we want to block any source of negativity in our life. There's no use having reactionary methods to overcome anxiousness and depression if we are doing ourselves some level of self-harm that's causing these things.
Dave Sherwin:Number six is practicing gratitude. This is something I need to do much better at, and I don't know about you, dear listener, and what your experience is with gratitude, but cultivating a sense of gratitude shifts our focus from negativity to positivity. Taking a few minutes every day to do a gratitude journal, or whether it's just getting up in the morning and reminding yourself of everything great going on in your life this is a habit I know many people have. I have never done a great job of cultivating it in my own life, so this has been a good reminder for me to be more grateful, express my gratitude more to other people and to remind myself how blessed I really am. So good reminder here for me and hopefully for you as well.
Dave Sherwin:Number seven explore out-of-the-box solutions. There could be something out there that could really help your life in a positive way. That might be a little bit different For me. I don't drink and I'm opposed to recreational drugs. However, I came across the value of mushrooms years ago, both nutritionally and psychedelic, and I've been watching the studies on people with PTSD and depression and I've been watching the Netflix documentaries like how to Change your Mind and for a long, long time, for many years, and I've been very, very careful about these things, especially when it comes to psychedelics.
Dave Sherwin:But after seeing all the research and doing my own kind of self-evaluation, I decided I wanted to try psilocybin and so I started to dose 100 to 200 milligrams a day, three to five days a week, and then once every 90 days or so I will do a larger dose in a kind of controlled setting where it's kind of a combination of meditation and journaling and whatnot, and I got to tell you that has worked wonders for me. Now I know it doesn't work wonders for everybody and there are other similar drugs or you know, foods, plants that can have this effect. For other people. I like that psilocybin is simply a dried mushroom. It's not a chemically treated drug, a chemically created drug, and I'm not giving medical advice here to anybody. I'm just telling you my process.
Dave Sherwin:I just was intrigued how these natural compounds I mean there are herbs and there's things that grow in nature that have powerful psychological effects, and for me psilocybin is something that really helps me in a very positive way. And we're talking tiny doses here. I'm not talking about getting high, I'm talking about a very, very small amount that just seems to really work with a sort of underlying anxiety that I sometimes have, and psilocybin seems to be just a sort of natural cure for that. Not perfect, but I think, generally speaking, my life is much better when I am micro dosing psilocybin. So again, I'm not selling anyone on doing exactly the same thing as me.
Dave Sherwin:All I'm saying is there may be some out of the box solution for you that you haven't tried yet, that you ought to do some exploration and a little bit of grown up experimentation After getting really good advice and really doing your own homework and research, and that you might find something, whether psilocybin or something else, that makes a huge difference to your general well being. So, in conclusion, feeling like crap is a common experience. None of us is going to avoid it, but it doesn't have to define our entire day or week, and hopefully some of these science backed ideas will make a difference for you and we'll help you to come out of a funk or feel better or just generally have some kind of plan so that next time you feel somewhat overtaken by negativity, you can try one or two or three of these things, get out of the funk, back to your old self, feeling terrific, and I hope that you get something like that out of this podcast. Until next time, this is Dave Sherwin, wishing you health and success.