In this episode, I talk about my experience with meditating for 50 days in a row, including increased focus and calm, I talk about the reasons I finally started meditating and discuss the book Peak Mind by Dr. Amishi Jha, which explains that 12 minutes 5 days a week of meditating seems to be the key to increased focus. Action item: try to meditate! You can use the free version of the Calm App, Headspace, a You Tube video, or just put on a timer! Start with 3 or 5 or even 1 minute, and remember that you will lose focus and get distracted constantly, and that is OK!

In this episode, I talk about how we need both comfort and discomfort to get us to a better place when it comes to anxiety. I wrote this episode while I was reading 2 books at the same time- The Comfort Book, By Matt Haig, and Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents, by Reid Wilson & Lynn Lyons, and both were giving what seemed like opposite advice. The first was telling me to get over anxiety (and depression) through comfort- enjoying a PB&J, nature, hugs from family/pets etc. The second was telling me that if you don't get out and DO the things you are anxious about (ride in airplanes, go on chairlifts, get on the bus, whatever), you will never become less anxious about it. And, I decided, we need both. We need both the secure base of home AND the challenge/bravery etc. that comes from going out and doing the things we are anxious about. At the same time. Action item: see in what ways you can both make your home more comfortable and encourage yourself to get outside of your comfort zone at the same time!

In this episode, I talk about Flow (from "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience", by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly), define what Flow is and is not, and give some examples of activities that can induce flow in our lives. I explain that more flow = more happiness, according to positive psychologist Csikszentmihaly. The action item for this week is to find and incorporate more activities that induce flow in your life and/or take activities that you already do to make them more flow-like (get into the sweet spot of being "in the zone") to bring more happiness to your life!

In this episode, I talk about the tools in my own wellness toolbox, I talk about what exactly a wellness toolbox is and about how it can help boost our brain power. Action item: start building/editing your own wellness toolbox and be sure to practice when you "don't need it" so that you know how to use the tools when you really need them! It will sneak up on you!

In this episode, I talk about some science-backed ways (and tested by me ways) to read better, for academic or work purposes (anything you want to read to learn from, rather than "fun" reading). Action item: try one (or more) of these 6 ways to read better and see if you can retain more information and work smarter, not harder!

In this episode, I talk about how we can bring the beauty of a snow day into our lives (even if/when we don't "get" a snow day) to appreciate our lives a little bit more and to mix things up. Action item: think of one thing you can do today/this week, no matter how tiny, to just mix up your routine a bit and do something a little bit out of the ordinary.

In this episode, I talk about what you can do to study/review material when you have 5 minutes, 30 minutes and 1 hour. I talk about all my favorite things here, including brainstorming (5 minutes), doing practice problems/quizzing yourself (30 minutes) and creating mind maps and outlines (1 hour), all ideally trying to use recall first (aka not looking at your notes!). I also talk about spaced (better!) versus massed (not as good) practice (it's better to spread out your study time than to study all at one time- cramming, not so great). Action item: see what tips you can use to help yourself study this week!

I am trying something new that I learned from the Happiness Lab and creating a mini-season based on what I know about learning, the brain and (meta)cognition. In this first episode, I define learning, using the book Distracted: Why Students Can't Focus and What You Can Do About It, by James Lang. The 3 steps of learning are 1) attention, 2) processing/encoding (starting with holding information in short-term memory) and 3) "learning," which is defined as either incorporating the information into our existing frameworks of knowledge or rewriting our existing frameworks to account for the new information. I give examples of each and help explain why I use mind maps, recall practice and minute papers (and games) in my classes so much. Action item: go back and listen to this episode a second time with a pen and piece of paper and see what you can learn about learning!

In this episode, I talk about the ways in which we talk to ourselves and how that affects what we think of ourselves, which in turn affects what we do (or do not) believe we can do to "do better". I define shame and guilt, using Brene Brown's book Atlas of the Heart, and talk about how all humans make mistakes every single day and we can believe that we ARE bad (shame) or that we DID something bad/made a bad choice (guilt). Brene Brown says that shame is never helpful but guilt can help us to make better choices in the future. Action item: any time you find yourself telling yourself "I AM ____ (dumb/bad at this/etc.)" this week, try to instead tell yourself I DID _____ (something dumb/made a bad choice, etc.). 

In this episode, I talk about not quitting. It's the end of January and I'll bet we have mostly quit our New Year's Resolutions at this point (I've forgotten what mine were?), which a lot of the time involve exercise. You don't have to use the advice in this episode for only exercise/running, but I talk about how I have not (yet) quit running over the past almost 3 years. My trick: tricking(?) my brain into believing I LIKE running, running helps me feel better, and that I am a runner now so running is just what I do, rather than coming up with a goal to "lose weight" or even at this point "be strong" or "run a 5K"- I have no goals and now I Just run for "fun." Yep, I'm one of THOSE people now. But also, I think it's important to say that I'm not particularly "good" at running (I don't run super fast or particularly far each week for most people's standards) and I'm not trying to get better at it either. It's just- fun? And a way to de-stress. Action item: listen to decide if any of my tricks could work for you to help you not quit something (exercise or otherwise) that is important to you.