Three Things That Caught My Attention This Week
Diary of a CEO Podcast with Kristen Holmes
I found Steven Bartlett’s interview with “Fitness Expert” Kristen Holmes fascinating. Kristen is a psycho-physiologist at Whoop who researches sleep and recovery. She also speaks about mindfulness practices in her life as well as living by values instead of goals.
The interview covers lots of interesting topics, from fitness to alcohol, to being less liberal with whom we spend our time around. Her discussion of sleep led me to buy some blue light-blocking glasses to wear in the evening before going to bed.
In the discussion on sleep, she says that the single greatest thing that someone can do to begin improving their life and wellness is to start going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. The improvement in the quality of rest and mood can be dramatic.
Something I didn’t know: Shift work, any work schedule that falls outside the hours of 7 am and 6 pm, which is performed by laborers but also doctors and firefighters, can dramatically reduce life expectancy. It’s considered a carcinogen by the World Health Organization.
Joseph Nguyen on Thoughts and Boundaries
Booklyreads on Instagram posted a review of Joseph Nguyen’s book Don’t Believe Everything You Think. I downloaded it to my Kindle and enjoyed it so much I read his next book on creating boundaries as well.
I’ve discussed before how thinking is the cause of suffering, and how bliss and peace are experienced in a state of non-thinking. Nguyen’s book expands on that and discusses how the real problem is thinking about the original thought. A thought can be creative and inspiring, but it’s when you start examining that thought, doubting it, questioning it, etc., that negative emotions arise.
His book on creating boundaries also helped explain to me the purpose of drawing lines and saying no in your work and personal life — to create space for your peace and greater pursuits. I wrote some thoughts on these books here:
Two Lessons from Joseph Nguyen
Kirsten Powers on Life in the USA: The way we live in the United States is not normal.
Back in my politico days, I recall watching and reading Kirsten frequently on Fox News and in her USA Today and Daily Beast columns. I came across this post on Substack and was pleased to see she has also moved on from that circus.
Kirsten makes some compelling points about the limitations of living in the U.S. I have a vivid memory of a trip to Thailand several years ago where I was eating breakfast and there was a homeless family across the street from me. What stood out was that they seemed so happy — happier than many affluent people I know here in the U.S. Since then I can’t shake the idea that some things here are backward.
Kirsten is now residing in Italy and seems to have had a similar shift in perspective. Her point about the trend in “self-care” we see in the U.S. — such as meditation, massage, etc. — as a band-aid to the problem of being overstressed is compelling.
“On the other side of burnout, you discover you got the opposite of what you were promised. The more we acquire, the more we achieve, the less happy we are. Only now, you also have the problem of cratering mental health and often some sort of chronic illness. We are not designed to live this way, and our bodies are here to remind us of this fact.”
An Essay from Me On Travel Safety
The Travel Safety Paradox
People like to warn others not to go to foreign countries, even when they might never have been there themselves. I wrote some thoughts about this and looked into murder rates between our nation’s Capital and foreign destinations.
A Quote I'm Chewing On:
“If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it.” — Yogi Bhajan
What I’m Reading:
The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life, By Steven Bartlett
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds, By Carmine Gallo