More Happy Life with Andy Proctor

Joy Clausen Soto is the founder of the annual Dolphin Interaction Program for patients from Rady Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She is a dolphin trainer, cancer survivor, TEDx speaker, and the director and subject of the documentary “Just One Year –A story of triumph over cancer.” Joy lives in San Diego with her husband and two kids.

Dr. Melina Roberts is a Naturopathic Doctor, Author of Building a Healthy Child, TEDx speaker and Founder of Advanced Naturopathic Medical Centre in Calgary, Canada. She is recognized as one of the top Bioregulatory Medicine practitioners in North America. She is a leading authority in the field of naturopathic medicine specializing in Bioregulatory Medicine effectively treating digestive issues, complex chronic disease and cancer. Dr. Roberts is a graduate of the University of Waterloo and a graduate of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. She did a 2 year post-graduate study in Biological Medicine with Parcelsus Clinic in Switzerland.

Dena Patton is an elite business coach and transformational speaker who has worked with thousands of purpose-driven business owners and world-changing leaders around the globe. She helps her clients to build GREAT companies that break records in their revenue AND their impact. She founded Dena Patton Coaching & Training Company 22 years ago while living in New York City where she created her world-class Greatness Methodology. Her 3-Pillar coaching approach helps businesses to build: the systems to be a well-oiled company, the strategy to be a well-marketed company, and the greatness mindset to be a well-led company. As a speaker, coach and best-selling author Dena has garnered over 60 media stories and she leads from 6 core values: Courage, Accountability, Authenticity, Faith, Integrity, and Fun!!

What are the 5 messages of smallness?

• Perfection
• Doubt - imposter 
• Fear (of success, failure, judgment)
• Overwhelm
• Distraction and confusion

In this episode, we talk about how we get stuck with these messages and how to overcome them on our way to becoming the highest version of ourselves.

Eric Barker is the author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller “Barking Up the Wrong Tree,” which has sold over half a million copies and been translated into 19 languages. It was even the subject of a question on “Jeopardy!” Over 500,000 people have subscribed to his weekly newsletter. His work has been covered by The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, and others. Eric is also a sought-after speaker, having given talks at MIT, Yale, Google, the United States Military Central Command (CENTCOM), and the Olympic Training Center. His new book, “Plays Well with Others,” will be released by HarperCollins in May of 2022.

Get Eric's new book here: https://amzn.to/39VnEeV

Jonathan Troen is a Life Mastery Coach and creator of the Self Love Revolution.

His mission: To help people find the joy inside of themselves.

Jonathan spent 20 years in the music and entertainment business, living the life of his dreams and interviewing the biggest stars in the world. But he still wasn't happy. He also found out, he wasn't alone. So he went on a mission to find out why. Once he learned the secrets of true happiness and success, he had to share it with others. This was the beginning of the Self Love Revolution.

Social Media Links:

Disclaimer: do not change your medications without first consulting with your doctor or health care provider. This can be very dangerous. Please listen to this episode with an open mind, but with the knowledge that one must be careful when changing their medication routine for mental illnesses. Always consult your psychiatrist, doctor, healthcare provider, therapist before making any changes. 

Known as the Disaster Avoidance Expert, Dr. Gleb Tsipursky protects leaders from disasters by developing the most effective decision-making strategies via his consulting, coaching, and training firm Disaster Avoidance Experts. A cognitive neuroscientist and behavioral economist, Dr. Tsipursky writes for Inc., Time, and CNBC. A best-selling author, his new book, available on Amazon and in book stores everywhere, is Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters.

Eric's new book Put Happiness To Work (that this episode is about) was just released! Make sure to get your copy here:

More about Dr. Anne Rimoin

Dr. Anne Rimoin is an LA-based epidemiologist (expert virus hunter) having worked in public health on the ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for years and now a leading researcher on COVID-19.  She's extremely knowledgeable as a scientist, but also very accessible in discussing the social effects of COVID-19 on a population.

Nataly Kogan is one of the leading global experts in optimizing your emotional fitness and elevating your leadership. She’s the creator of the Happier Method™, founder and CEO of Happier and Happier @ Work™, and author of HAPPIER NOW and GRATITUDE DAILY. Nataly is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker and has been featured in hundreds of media outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Dr. Oz Show. By the age of 37, Nataly held top positions at McKinsey and Microsoft, was a Managing Director at a venture capital fund, and started or was a member of the senior team at 5 startups and tech companies. But all of this overachievement came at a huge cost of stress and overwhelm, which was the catalyst for Nataly to give it all up to start her company, Happier, with this mission:

To help millions of people thrive in work and life by improving their emotional fitness with science-backed skills and practices.

Today, tens of thousands of people cultivate their emotional fitness and Elevated Leadership skills through Happier @ Work and virtual leadership programs, online courses, and other learning tools. Nataly came to the US as a refugee with her family when she was 13 years old, and one of her greatest accomplishments was learning how to speak English by watching Alyssa Milano on the classic 80s sitcom, Who’s The Boss? This is one of her proudest achievements.

Find Nataly here:

More about Katy:

Katy Sine is the director and executive producer of Positive Voices, creating, producing and directing positive media programming with thought leaders, leading academics and influencers in positive psychology. She is an assistant instructor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology program. Katy researches self-love and her goal is to further the science of self-love. She is currently working on a book on this subject and hopes to study this in more depth (which we get into in our discussion). I’m proud to be her colleague working together on Utah Positive Psychology initiatives and love spending time with her as she is an amazing individual. I hope you tune into today’s episode on the Science of Self-Love.

Katy is pioneering psychological research on self-love and has created the construct of Whole Self-Love, a deep knowing of self and a whole love for ourselves. She is currently studying the science of Whole Self-Love and the implications it can have on our health, wellness, relationships and the way we view ourselves and others

In my pursuit of the good life I have built a life-list of things that I want to accomplish or experience. One of the things that I was so excited to do recently was to hug the tallest tree on earth - Hyperion. It was amazing! Another thing on the list is to interview a gold-medal olympian. Today, that happened! Listen to the whole interview for the amazing story of an olympian who came back to win gold after breaking her back and then went on to battle an almost invisible enemy: Lyme disease. Her journey is amazing. I hope you have a listen. 

Arianne Jones is an Olympian, a plant-based chef, a holistic nutritionist and is currently battling Lyme disease. She is a speaker a storyteller, a food photographer, a fierce goal-chaser, an elixir mixer and an unshakable optimist. As part of her luge career, she has competed not only at the Sochi Olympics, but also in 10 Canadian championships and 52 world cups. In her last World Cup, she won the gold medal representing Canada.

If her story was a ride at Disneyland, it would be the Incredicoaster or perhaps the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride because it goes up and down a lot! She is a paragon of grit and someone who inspires me greatly. I first found Arianne on airbnb during the pandemic. My wife Stacie found her virtual experience of cooking a healthy dessert with an olympian. If you want to spend the night in your own kitchen learning and being inspired by Arianne, I highly recommend this experience as well! Today we dive into her story and hear even more about her unshakable optimism.

Find her here:

More about Dr. Hanks

Julie de Azevedo Hanks, PhD, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist with 28 years experience specializing in women’s emotional health and relationships. She is an assistant professor of social work at Utah Valley University. Dr. Hanks is the founder and director of Wasatch Family Therapy, an outpatient therapy clinic in Cottonwood Heights and Bountiful, UT. She is author of The Burnout Cure and The Assertiveness Guide for Women, a blogger, a local and national media contributor, an online influencer, a private practice consultant, and an award-winning performing songwriter.  A native Californian, Hanks currently lives in Sandy, UT. For additional resources visit DrJulieHanks.com or connect with @drjuliehanks on social media.

Where to find Dr. Julie Hanks

What’s something you can just do today to decrease the regret you would have in the future?

Here are the top 5 regrets of the dying:

1. I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself rather than the life others expected of me
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
3. I wish I had the courage to express my feelings
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
5. I wish I had let myself be happier

What can you do to connect with your friends more? How can you arrange your life to work less? How can you be more yourself? What are you doing express your true feelings? How are you deliberately adding to your levels of happiness?

I have a list that is growing. I had a bucket list before, but after hearing about Stacy Taniguchi’s 100 LIFE list, I changed the name. I don’t like the focus on avoidance of death or hurrying before you kick the bucket. I like the focus on LIVING and celebrating the life we have now.

Here are a few things from my LIFE list:

I have two categories: to accomplish and to experience.

In the “To accomplish: category:

• Get a doctorate degree
• Write a lastingly relevant book
• Deliver a TED talk
• Teach over 10,000 students about how to thrive in life
• Give my mom a home to live in
• Become a blackbelt in some martial art

In the “to experience” category:

• experience Being a dad
• Experience the summer Olympic Games in person
• A photographic tour circumnavigating the globe
• Thank J.K. Rowling in person
• Swimming next to a whale
• A bioluminescent beach at night with my camera

Your list will be different than mine, but what I have found is that as I contemplate these experiences and accomplishments that I want to have, it makes me excited to be alive. It brings meaning to the struggle in my life. The hard stuff becomes a little less hard because I’m headed toward something.

There is a book called The Happiness of Pursuit that I highly recommend. In this book, the author often talks about the importance of always having a “life-affirming quest”.

What is your life affirming quest? Do you have one right now or are you just kind of floating along? No judgement. I have definitely had some moments of floating along.

No matter what your job or your current vocation, adding something to your life list can be a catalyst for a life-affirming quest and make your life more meaningful.

If you have things to live for, you’ll be more likely to live.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of negativity in the news? Do you doomscroll? Well, 2020 is the year of the doomscroll and it can be really hard to avoid the negativity that inundates our digital news feeds. I have spoken about the benefits of taking breaks from the news and the negative impact that constantly watching the news can have on our health. Some choose to avoid the news altogether, but with the constant changes in even our local regulations, you have to be informed.

When was the last time something really hard happened to you? How did that change your life? Have you healed and moved on from this? Bruce Feiler's research showed that the average adult goes through a major disruptor about every twelve to eighteen months. And that adults face three to five big ones, what Bruce calls “lifequakes,” with an average aftermath of three to five years. This aftermath of disruptors could last over half the life of adults! 

For the women listeners who want to support the men in your life, this is the episode for you. For the men who need support from other men or women, listen in. I loved Kristin’s thoughts in this episode to help liberate men to express themselves. Personally, I have struggled to feel comfortable as a man to express myself. I am a very expressive person and it’s hard to know when I can express my true emotions. This conversation was refreshing for me to dive into the barriers to emotional expression that exist in Western Culture for men. We also dived into some amazing topics in positive psychology like gratitude, wonder and awe. I just returned from one of the most awe-inspiring places on earth - the giant redwood forests of Northern California.

I hope you tune in to the whole chat with Kristin Petrucci. 

In Episode 132, I speak with Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, THE leading researcher on social isolation, loneliness, social connection and how those things impact health. Maybe you have heard the statistic that loneliness is worse for your health than smoking up to 15 cigarettes per day. Well, we dive a little deeper to clarify this notion to include the difference between loneliness and social isolation. We also talk about what a healthy socially connected life might look like. We also cover a few preliminary data points on how the coronavirus pandemic of COVID-19 has had an impact on social isolation and loneliness. 

Here are some of the main points from our conversation:

• What led Dr. Holt-Lunstad to study social neuroscience and health psychology
• What is the definition of an epidemic?
• Is there actually a loneliness epidemic in the world? 
• What data can back this up?
  • The impact of COVID-19 on loneliness (some data is showing a 20-30% increase in loneliness (due to social distancing).
  • That Gen-Z has the highest prevalence of loneliness (some data shows up to 79% reporting feeling lonely)
  • What is the difference between loneliness and social isolation?
  • Why is social connection so important for our health?
  • How do social connection or social isolation compare to the impacts of well researched things like exercise, sleep, smoking, etc.?
  • What would a healthy socially connected life look like?

Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad's advice on how to be happier:

• Increase social connection and emphasis on your close relationships. 
• Positive relationships are key to a happy life.

More about Dr. Holt-Lunstad:

Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, where she is also the director of the social neuroscience lab. Her research is focused on the long-term health effects of social connection and has been seminal in the recognition of social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for early mortality. Recognized as an expert in the field, Holt-Lunstad has provided expert testimony in the US Congressional Hearing, worked on the US Surgeon General’s Emotional Well-Being in America initiative, served on the advisory group for the UK Cross-Departmental Loneliness Team, and a consensus committee for  National Academy of Sciences. She also serves as scientific advisor for the Australian coalition to End Loneliness, the Foundation for Art & Healing, the Rural Aging Advisory Council, AARP Services Inc. and United Healthcare; and she regularly consults tech companies as well.

Holt-Lunstad has received too many awards to name and is making a positive mark on the world with her research. Her work has been highlighted in the BBC 100 Breakthrough Health Discoveries in 2015 and has been covered in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time magazine, Scientific American, “This American Life,” the TODAY show, NPR, and many other major media outlets. I am honored to be her TEDx speaker coach for her TED talk, and something we joke about is that her research has been cited in at least 10 other TED talks and dozens of books.

It’s an honor to have Dr. Julianne Holt-Lunstad on the show and I hope you listen all the way to the end for her advice on how to build a happier life.

Where to find and follow Dr. Holt-Lunstad:

Who do you intend to become? Are you satisfied with where you are at right now or do you want to witness a positive evolution of yourself? If you desire a change, this episode is for you.

I honestly believe that this has to be one of the most life changing episodes I have ever recorded because it is jam packed. If you’re like me, you’ll want to re-listen to this one and take notes and then go buy the book because today’s guest goes over some amazing principles about how to create real change inside yourself.

Today’s guest is Dr. Benjamin Hardy is an organizational psychologist and bestselling author Willpower Doesn't Work. From 2015-2018, he was the #1 writer in the world on Medium.com. During that time, he grew his email list from 0 to 400,000 without paid advertising. Ben and his wife Lauren adopted three children from the foster system in February 2018 and one month later, Lauren got pregnant with twins who were born in December of 2018. They live in Orlando. Ben's blogs are read by millions monthly.

On a personal note, I had the great opportunity to get to know Ben a little more personally as well and I have witnessed first hand that he is the real deal. He doesn’t just write really amazing blog posts and books and have another life. He lives it. I share a story in the podcast about how Ben’s book Willpower Doesn’t Work changed my life a few years ago and I think that his new book is even more life changing.

In this episode we talk about increasing resilience through listening. We go into depth on many ways this is possible, but the one we really focus a lot on is getting present with our body. I loved this conversation. It calmed me down and I hope that it helps to calm you down as well. 

Here are some of the topics we covered:

Talking to strangers may seem like an anxiety producing task, but not if you have a place that is set aside to be friendly with your community. Today’s episode highlights community activist Lyndsey Young, the founder of The Friendly Bench, CIC.

In this episode we discuss why loneliness and social isolation are so hard and bad for your health as well as what can be done to overcome these things. We then talk about the story behind The Friendly Bench and why having a place where you can create deliberate connection is critical for a community.

Learn more about Lyndsey Young:

Lyndsey Young is the founder of award-winning The Friendly Bench CIC, a movement to tackle loneliness, social isolation and community disconnectedness using innovative outdoor social spaces that reconnect people back to their own community. Lyndsey created The Friendly Bench™ after suffering from loneliness and social isolation herself. Bringing together her extensive design knowledge and experience of working on nature and wellbeing projects, The Friendly Bench™ was born. Being closer to nature, active social spaces and bringing people together is what it’s all about – with community at its core.

Winning support from the UK’s Prime Minister; Loneliness Minister, Baroness Diana Barran, and national charities and campaigns tackling loneliness, as well as being featured in New York Times, Huffington Post and Reuters, The Friendly Bench™ network is growing, with further The Friendly Benches launching across the UK this year, The Friendly Bench CIC is also in talks with organisations in Australia and Canada to expand overseas.

I loved learning about The Friendly Bench from Lyndsey and I loved her kind optimism and gentle goodness. I really love what Lyndsey is doing because it’s not just trying to build awareness around loneliness and social isolation, but she is ACTING to make a change.

Find the Friendly Bench here.

Have you ever felt lonely? Unfortunately, most people would answer yes. There is a loneliness epidemic going on in the world today and I am on a mission to help fight against it. So is Rite of Passage designer and TEDx speaker, Baya Voce. As I was researching loneliness, I found Baya's TEDx talk (with over 4 million views) on a simple cure for loneliness. This intrigued me and I knew we had to chat. It just so happened that serendipity wanted us to chat as well. My friend and former More Happy Life podcast guest, Doug Cartwright (see episode 120) happens to be friends with Baya and we got on the phone and made this episode a reality. 

We talked about some really life-changing principles here:

• Micro and Macro Transitions
• How to experience Grief and Gratitude simultaneously
• Rituals to help with grief and transition
• Loneliness and how to deal with it
• Connecting with our inner wisdom to find the answers we need

Baya also shares a never-before-published story of how she was able to use ritual to get through a major heart break that began on the TEDx stage. 

If you are going through something hard right now, you should listen to this episode. 

If you have ever gone through a major transition, you should listen to this episode.

If you have ever felt lonely, you should listen to this episode. 

Don't miss this one!

About Baya Voce:

Baya Voce is a Rite of Passage Designer, helping people turn their life transitions into rites of passage through ritual and ceremony.

She's known for designing and facilitating experiences ranging from two-person rituals and 20-person Jeffersonian-style dinners to 100+ person women's circles, elaborate 1,000+-person theatrical productions, and conferences at places like Lincoln Center.

The future of work will be determined more by how we feel than how we are paid. This was said by Don Rheem in his TEDx talk given in 2018. I was sitting on the front row, riveted by his speech. I couldn't wait until it was edited and on YouTube so that I could start sharing it with my colleagues and manager. 

There isn't a labor surplus anymore and there likely won't be one for a while. What this does it it enables employees to choose between the best jobs. There are more unfilled jobs in America than there are unemployed people to fill those jobs, and it will likely be this way for at least the next 20 years. 

This is why it is so important for managers to prioritize making the workplace a place where their employees feel good. 

Listen to today's episode to learn more about how to be a manager who can do that as well as an employee who can find a job that you love. 

Find Don Rheem here:

His Book: Thrive By Design: The Neuroscience That Drives High-Performance Cultures

In episode 123, I speak with Stacy Sherman about the power of a transformational customer experience. Everyone is used to interacting with a business in a transactional way, but when a business can make a transaction into a transformation, that's when magic happens!

In our conversation we discuss how to make this happen by starting at the top and moving down. If the executives are seeking to increase their own wellbeing, they will naturally desire to make the wellbeing of their employees a priority. And when the employee wellbeing and happiness becomes a priority, it can impact the bottomline in a tangible way.

In other words, customer satisfaction begins with employee satisfaction and employee satisfaction begins with executive wellbeing.

If you feel like you are not enough or that your life needs to change for you to be happier and healthier, Episode 120 is for you. In this episode I interview the founder of The Daily Shifts, Doug Cartwright. The Daily Shifts is an app that encourages you to engage with your mind and body in a way that can turn your day around. 

In this episode we talk about so many amazing things:

• Loving kindness meditation 
• Breathing: Inhale in for 2, Hold for 2, Exhale for 2
• The power of Gratitude
• The importance of knowing how to manage your energy
• "In less than two minutes you can totally change your energy"
• The power of transitions to boost or suck our energy
• "The number one most important decision I've made was I surrendered my life to the universal flow of the planet."
• Surrender to the universe, AND show up everyday the best you can.
• A powerful mindset: "Life is happening FOR you and not TO you."
• We get back what we put out into the world
• Transformative journalism with Michelle Gielan (25:15)
• Unfollow negative news and people who are spreading negativity and replace with positivity
• How to vote when you don't follow the news (ask trusted friends and then use iSideWith.com to save a year of contention and negativity energy suck.
• The loneliness epidemic (31:45) is based in the belief of "I'm not enough"
• We are here on earth to do two things: Create and Connect
• To have a more happy life create a routine ritual to connect with your intuition and higher self (37:25)

There was once a girl 

With a hole in her heart.

Little Love was her name.

Where was she to start?

It was not of her doing. 

She was not to blame.

But the hole in her heart

Was there just the same.

In this interview, Rose and I talk about how easy it is to get caught up in allowing other people to tell us what our worth is. However, we never should forget that it is ultimately the love we have for ourselves that is most important. This beautiful truth is illustrated in a new children's book called Little Love. 

More about the book:

Join Little Love on her path to self-discovery where she meets Beauty and Fame, and learns the true value of her self-worth. Written for children, but with a timeless message for the child in all of us, Little Love reaffirms the importance of self-acceptance in life's journey toward love, joy, and friendship.

Rose Stanek is an award winning graphic designer, interior designer, and now children's book author who is actually a full-time Amazonian (she works for Amazon). She is the mother of two cowcats, Monty and Tyson, and calls the Pacific Northwest home. She loves creative storytelling, and empowering others to live their dreams.

Have you ever experienced something difficult or traumatic? If you're listening to this, the answer is probably yes. I believe that a huge part of happiness is the skillset we have built up that enables us to bounce back from the difficult things that happen to us. A few weeks ago, I went to the TEDxSLC event and saw Em Capito speak about what she calls "resiliency field trips." These are adventurous experiences that encourage us to get out of our comfort zone and do something intentional to challenge ourselves. It includes curiosity, fun and adventure. As a psychotherapist, Em has been helping people to have these experiences and has found that with those who have done them, a sharp decline in fear occurs. In order to qualify as a resiliency field trip, it has to have the following:

1. New - when we introduce novelty, our brain will be more likely to remember it. This is why travel is often so memorable.

2. Slightly scary - Step out of your comfort zone to push the limits of what you currently believe you are capable of.

3. Intentional - This must be something you value or something that excites you. 

Intentional discomfort is important to engage in if we want to overcome anxiety or make progress toward goals that we deeply value, but we are afraid to accomplish.

In this interview we talk about why it is so hard to get outside of our comfort zone and why it is so important. 

More about Em Capito:

Em Capito is an unconventional psychotherapist obsessed with the widespread loss of resilience in the face of overwhelming comfort. While studying her own trauma from the inside out, Em embarked on a series of experiments that led to a prescription of intentional discomfort. Em blends these experiential interventions with meditation and yoga therapy to build the holistic mind-body resilience that carries us through our darkest moments. She completed a master’s degree in social work at the University of Utah in 2007 and a masters in business administration at the University of Phoenix in 2011. Em is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a certified LifePower yoga teacher, and a Dharma Method meditation teacher with a private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Find and follow Em here:

Today I interview the very knowledgable Dr. Adam Moore. We talk about how we go about making a change happen in our life. He relates changing to launching a rocket into space to escape the world's gravity. The elements are:

1. Institute a unique approach
2. Believe and Hope that you actually can change.
3. Create Traction with Small Wins and ritualize it so that it sticks
4. Acknowledge and celebrate that you have made the change
5. Make it social so you stick to the change

He also gives some key advice on how to be happier today:

• Find one or two people that you really connect with and invest in those people
• Everyday make a meaningful contribution in the life of one human being. 

This is a great episode. Don't miss it!

Find Adam here: 

Studies show that our wellbeing can be greatly impacted by our commute, but that it's what we believe about our commute that makes the difference. Here are 8 tips that can help you tell the right story and make your commute the best part of your day. 

Mindfulness -

• don’t close your eyes, connect to yourself, connect to God, get in touch with your body.
• Engage in loving kindness meditation,

Education-

• Millionaires read more than anyone else. Constantly educating. Create an education program that gets you excited.
• What are you interested in? Create a playlist on podcasts, audible, Libby or get a subscription to Blinkist and learn like crazy.

Dealing with road ragers-

• Make the good assumptions
• Tell the right story.
• It doesn’t matter to them anyway. 
• Here are some good stories:
  • wedding night
• Hospital pregnant
• Kids in trouble

What’s your story of the commute?

• What story are you telling yourself?

Savor the good stuff

• architecture
• Nature

Change it up

• don’t go the same way every time. Our brain thrives with variety. Get playful with it. If you ride a train, sit somewhere different

Dance party

• make an amazingly energizing playlist
• Be that guy who you see rocking out in their car
• Be the girl in the train with headphones who is so into her playlist that taps her foot and would be dancing if there were room

Connect

• Look at your friendship wall each week and decide to connect to someone during your commute
• Connect with a family member on the phone during the commute. If you can’t talk, leave them a Marco Polo or a voice message

Use it as a transition to boost energy

• We lose quite a bit of energy through our day because we don’t transition. So take advantage of the time you have during your commute to transition from work to home or home to work.
• Inhale, release tension, exhale, set intention

When was the last time you felt overwhelmingly happy? When I have asked this to people in the past, it has almost always paired with a time when they were having fun. We have talked about play before (episode 105), and in this episode Mike differentiates play from fun and shares some great tips on how we can fit more fun into our every day life. 

In this episode we talk about all things sleep and much more!

• How does sleep impact our energy, mood, and clarity?
• How much sleep do we need each night?
• How did you discover your Narcolepsy?
• How can we improve our sleep patterns?
• Should naps be allowed and supported at work?
• Let's talk about dreams and remembering dreams
• What would you tell people who just found out they have narcolepsy?
• Find your self affirming voice within all the voices in your head. This will make you happier. 

More about Julie:

Have you walked down the street and seen a homeless person and thought: "they just need to get a job"? You're not alone. Bob Dalton also thought this before his well-educated, hard-working mother became homeless in 2013. It was at this time that Bob decided he needed to do something not just to help his mom, but to help the homeless. This episode is the story of how Bob founded his company Sackcloth and Ashes that gives away tens of thousands of blankets to the homeless each month. Bob is an inspiration because he has used his strengths of creativity and entrepreneurship to fighting against an injustice in the world. 

We talk about how he was contacted by Instagram - YES Instagram - to feature his Instagram account, gaining them 20,000 followers overnight. This launched his business to the next level. For Bob it was bigger than just selling blankets or giving blankets to shelters. It was about building a legacy of something bigger than himself. 

What can you do to build a legacy bigger than yourself? Listen to this episode to be inspired to grow, to work hard for something you believe in and to make the world a better place. 

Find Bob here:

"Insight never comes to a fatigued mind" - Helmholtz

When was the last time you had a big idea? Not just any idea, but a life-altering breakthrough that carried you through the next year (or five years) of your life? Today's episode features Craig Case, the Coauthor of the book Big Ideas: How To Unleash Your Creative Self and Have More Aha! Moments.  In this episode we cover the difference between random daily ideas and big ideas. We talk about the correlation between awe experiences and aha moments. We talk about the brain science in the difference between being busy and being innovative. We talk about why insight is critical for a more happy life. We also talk about how anxiety is one of the natural brain responses to cognitive abuse. We talk about the difference between motivation and inspiration and which one carries us further in terms of inner drive and implementation. 

So many amazing nuggets came from this episode! This is not an episode to miss!

Where to find Craig:

In this episode we talk about the amazing power we all have to climb out of the depths of trauma and misery using what Allie Gardner calls "radical motivation". Allie Gardner is a highly acclaimed musician who, in 2017, lost 14 of her dear friends and family to death. Can you even imagine?! She shares how she was able to climb out of this by remembering her strengths and then using them to benefit the lives of others and lift those around her. 

Where to find Allie: