Chatter: that voice in your head

 

You're not alone...

You know that voice in your head, the one that keeps asking what if questions and doesn't give you a moment's peace, especially when you're trying to get some sleep or do some real work or just trying to relax... you know, like all the time!

This book is about that voice, and some real research that has been done and what it tells us that we can do about it, and even make it work for you instead of holding you back, causing anxiety, lack of confidence, etc.

I found this book by accident; it's not something I would normally read. But I was drawn in by the writer's conversational style.

There was a time in my life when the voice in my head was just as described, and I was spiraling downward, finally ending in divorce, bankruptcy, and cancer. That was a time of some serious chatter going on.

I knew that my survival depended on ending the habitual negative thinking. I escaped that negative voice in my head and started back on the road to success. Some of the things I did are mentioned in the book, so I can validate a lot of it. Additional techniques are mentioned, based on new research.

If you have been wishing that voice in your head would just shut up and play something more productive, then this book is for you.

Integrated To Do List

EZchecklist™ was intended to be much more than a simple To Do List. It was intended to be more of a To Be checklist. That is, if we simply listed the behaviors of the person we want to be, and then we focused on doing those things, we would succeed wildly.

However, there's still the real world of stuff we have To Do, and they never really found a way to be included in EZchecklist™.  

So, in the latest experiment to recognize the need for a To Do list, check out how it's integrated at the end of the Take Action section. Notice that To Do items are not scored, just listed as the background noise of real life. There is no reward for doing the mundane stuff of life.

You can add this feature yourself by inserting a row below the last activity in your Take Action section. You can list all the To Do items in the one cell and double click to open the list, or create separate rows for each To Do item and make all of them a Group. The second approach will work better when using EZchecklist™ on your phone.

How are you keeping your To Do List now?

Money shot

EZchecklist™ your Perfect Day superpower

 image source: https://www.screenstab.com/editor/?ref=producthunt

The Science of Smiling

 

What's better than a facelift, is contagious, free, and makes you feel better?

The answer, of course, is a smile.

There’s great power in our smiles. Even though they’re often hidden by a mask right now, we might want to consider smiling anyway.

Smiles not only lift others’ spirits, they have overall benefits for our brain and body health. Science reveals why.

With each grin, a little party happens in our heads, caused by the release of both neurotransmitters and neuropeptides in our brains.

Neurotransmitters such as dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin are released each time a smile flashes across our faces. These brain chemicals aid in calming our nervous systems by lowering heart rate and blood pressure, and this is a very good thing.

Dopamine gives the brain energy, motivation, a rush, and is necessary for habit change.

The endorphins secreted in response to a smile reduce our perception of pain and trigger a positive, euphoric feeling in our bodies.

Serotonin plays many different roles and controls our over-all moods. It can be thought of as a confidence molecule and flows when we feel significant.

The discovery of neuropeptides was important as it allowed science to connect the workings of the mind with the processes of the body.

Among other things, neuropeptides tell our bodies whether we are happy, sad, angry, depressed, or excited. When we smile, the neuropeptides tell the body we are happy.

Smiling improves our immune function by reducing stress and cortisol levels in our bodies.

Cortisol is the hormone secreted in response to stress, and high levels of cortisol are hard on our bodies and inhibit our immune systems. One study found that smiling helps the body produce more white blood cells, which fight illness.

One experiment showed that participants with elevated heart rates had their rate return to normal more quickly when they smiled.

Smiling involving the eyes activates the orbitofrontal cortex, the region of your brain that processes sensory rewards. This suggests that your brain feels rewarded when you smile or see a smile; it could be a great diet strategy.

When we are smiling, we even perceive other people’s faces differently, and will tend to see a smile on even seemingly neutral faces.

When we are smiling others tend to perceive us differently. Smiling faces are deemed to be more attractive. 

People with smiling faces are judged by others to be, not only more attractive, but more confident, reliable, relaxed and sincere.

If you’ve nothing to smile about, smile anyway. The adage of fake it until you make it is true here, because even fake smiles have benefits.

The feedback from the skeletal muscles involved in making a smile tells your body to release hormones and neuropeptides. Research showed that even fake smiles lower our heart rates and ease stress.

People who frequently smile genuinely tend to live longer. They tend to stay married longer, live healthier, and have higher levels of physical and emotional well being.

Smiles are contagious, as most people can’t help but smile back at a smiling face. When we look at a smiling face, our brain coaxes us to return the favor.

This creates a symbiotic relationship allowing both people to release feel-good chemicals in the brain, activating our reward centers, making us more attractive, healthier, and more resilient.

Research found that when people were asked to frown while looking at the picture of the smiling face, they could not as they mimicked the smile unless they really focused.

The simple act of a smile can transform you and the world around you.

According to Thich Nhat Hahn, “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Smile! Let the party begin.

source: https://www.castanet.net/news/New-Thought/324572/The-science-behind-a-smile

The Gesture of Maximum Leverage - this is the story of how I discovered the magic of smiling, way back in 2003, before science figured it out.

Smiling also builds trust.

Sleep Like Tom Brady

 If you can't Be Tom Brady, at least You can sleep like him...

There’s no doubt that Tom Brady is doing something right.

At 43, Brady won his seventh Super Bowl and earned his fifth Super Bowl MVP title (a league record for both) after his Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

Brady credits his longevity and success to his strict health and wellness regimen, the TB12 Method, which he co-created with his longtime trainer Alex Guerrero.

One of the key components in Brady’s plan is his sleep routine.

Brady said in his 2017 book, “The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance” that he sticks to a 9 p.m. bedtime and he wakes up at 6 a.m. (for nine hours of sleep).

Here’s what else is in Brady’s sleep routine, according to his book.

No eating too close to bedtime

Brady makes sure he doesn’t eat anything too late in order to give his food time digest before he goes to sleep. He also avoids alcohol and caffeine, which research has linked to sleep disruption.

“The last thing I eat at night is dinner—and if I ever eat dessert, I try to do it after lunch, so the excess sugar won’t keep me up at night,” Brady said in his book.

No exercise before bed either

Brady likes to get his workouts in early.

“If you exercise at night, make sure it’s two to three hours before you go to sleep, since you don’t want to overstimulate your body and brain,” he wrote.

No distractions

Brady said he turns off all his electronic devices a half hour before bedtime to avoid distractions. His wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, doesn’t even allow cell phones near the bed when they sleep, according to the book, and their bedroom has no TV.

A cool bedroom

For Brady, the ideal sleeping temperature is around 65 degrees Fahrenheit. “I like my room cool, dark, and as quiet as possible to make sure I get a great night’s sleep,” he said in the book.

Additionally, though he did not say whether he uses it himself, Brady said in his book that ”contaminants like animal dander and dust can interfere with proper breathing and sleep,” and suggested putting a plant in the bedroom to filter out carbon monoxide and pump more oxygen into the room.

A negative ion generator (on Amazon for about $30), is another option, according to Brady, who wrote that it can enhance respiratory function, filter out indoor air pollutants and guard against mold and bacteria. However, while some studies have shown that negative ions can clean indoor air, the heath benefits relating to humans need to be further verified.

source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/06/-inside-tom-bradys-sleep-routine.html

The EZchecklist™ Update, February 2021

   

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The EZchecklist™ Update, February 2021

"all the news that's worth checking"

Here's what's happened in the past month: 

1. Powerful Morning Soundtrack

I always thought that a wake-up motivational soundtrack would be a good thing, but I had no idea how good until I actually took action and created one! Check out what I've come up with so far, and make your own.

2. ❤️ Love the love ❤️

Valentine's Day is coming, and thoughts turn to love, and what could be better than loving your new found superpower for creating the person you want to be! Click the link and check out what EZchecklist™ love looks like.

3. Groups feature eliminates visual noise

One of the more important fundamentals of building an effective checklist is to keep the list short and simple. When it starts to get long, say around 10 items, it's time to break it up into shorter groups. Check out this new feature that lets you do just that. And it's fun! This feature can be retro-fitted to you version. Let me know if you want help... I'm here for you!

4. Refreshed User Guide

If you haven't checked it out lately, click the link and get up to date on all the good stuff.  

My Powerful Morning Playlist

My morning playlist keeps getting better, of course, because that's the way things go when you are using your EZchecklist™.  It's the concept of Kaizen (continuous improvement). 

I've been thoroughly enjoying waking up to some excellent inspirational videos. Don't tell YouTube, but I don't watch the videos, I'm too busy doing things to get ready for my day (making the bed, coffee, breakfast, getting dressed, etc). I just listen to the audio track, and all that good brain food sinks into my being.

This is an ongoing experiment, so the playlist as I have it now will continue to change and improve. Check it out, and make up your own playlist, and let me know some good stuff you've found inspirational. 

Hint: I subscribe to YouTube Premium so there are NO ADS! Best 12 buck you can spend. I have cancelled all the other stuff like Netflix, Hulu, blah, blah, blah. Those apps are there for only one purpose: to get you addicted to passively watching your life go by. Surely there is something more important you can be doing, right? Like being addicted to creating the life you want, the person you want to be?

❤️ Love the love ❤️

 "Love makes the world go 'round" as the saying goes. Well, I'm pretty sure it was going around before love was invented by Madison Avenue advertising executives, but it's powerful stuff, love is. And sitting here all alone in Covid enforced isolation, the only real love we get is from happy users, like you.

So recently I thought I'd load all the user reviews into a word cloud generator and see what the love looks like, and here it is:

Just in time for Valentine's day, right? If you have been using EZchecklist™ for a while since your user review and have found even more stuff to love about it, and you would like to update your review with even more love, go for it... send me an email at mm@DBLM.com.

You guys are the best.

PS: Read some user reviews... Here!

❤️