Conquer Anxiety

Patrick McKeown is one of the world’s leading experts on optimal breathing.

In our last +1, we chatted about the scientifically-proven power of gratitude: Simply writing down 5 things you’re grateful for can boost your happiness up to 25%. (Wow.)

Alison Wood Brooks is a researcher at Harvard Business School. She studies the most effective strategy for dealing with acute stress.

Imagine yourself as the Director of a movie.

In her great book Self-Compassion, Kristin Neff shares a little equation that can help us reduce our suffering.

While we’re on a roll with how to reduce our emotional suffering, let’s talk about something you want to quit doing: ruminating.

Alberto Villoldo tells us that we evolved to deal with one lion roaring at us at a time. That lion’s roar triggers a fight or flight response. We fight or we flee. And, hopefully, we live to talk about the tale later.

Byron Katie tells us that there are three different businesses we can be in: Our own business, someone else’s business, or God’s business.

In our last +1 we talked about Byron Katie’s idea that you can be in one of three businesses: someone else’s business, God’s business or YOUR business.

Are you chronically stressed?

What do you do when you feel challenged?

In No Mud, No Lotus, Thich Nhat Hanh tells us that suffering is a part of life.

In our last +1, we met our telomeres and learned how important they are in protecting our chromosomes so they can do their job and keep us nice and healthy. (Recall that they’re kinda like the end caps on our shoelaces and the offensive linemen that protect our quarterbacks!)

Quick pop quiz: Are you afraid of something these days?

Once upon a time in a land far away, there was an old farmer.

As we’ve discussed, years ago I did 1-on-1 coaching with one of my favorite authors, Steve Chandler. It was awesome.

Byron Katie wrote a great book called Loving What Is.

I live in a tiny little town in Southern California called Ojai.

Have you ever had food poisoning?

In our last +1, we talked about Joseph Campbell’s thoughts on Bliss AND Pain. Short story there, if you’re ONLY experiencing fun and excitement (and accompanying sunshine and rainbows and unicorns 🦄!) then you’re doing it wrong.

In Steve Chandler‘s great little book called Reinventing Yourself he makes a distinction between being an “Owner” vs. a “Victim” (It’s very much like our whole “Victim vs. Creator” paradigm.)

Way back in the early days of our +1 Optimizing together, we talked about the fact that our limbic systems evolved to deal with a single lion roaring at us at a time.

In our last couple +1s, we talked about a couple of ways to reframe life’s lemons into a little more Optimizade.

At this stage, most people have heard of Dale Carnegie’s uber-bestselling book How to Win Friends and Influence People. It was originally published in 1936 and has sold 15 million copies.

One of my favorite things in life is reading with Emerson. It’s a keystone habit for our family’s nighttime rituals that I absolutely cherish. It’s becoming more and more fun to engage in some great micro-philosophical chats about life as we read great books and snuggle. 😍🤓😍

Not too long ago, we talked about Sleep Curfews. Five of them, to be precise.

In our last +1, we put on our Optimizing nerd glasses ( 🤓 !!!) and explored the etymological (and psychological) opposites: prosper and despair.

In our last +1, we spent some time with Emily Fletcher and reflected on her meditation wisdom that thoughts are not our enemies.

Robert Emmons joined us to give us some EYE-POPPING (his words, my all caps!) stats: “People are 25 percent happier if they keep gratitude journals, sleep one-half hour more per evening, and exercise 33 percent more each week compared to persons who are not keeping these journals.”

Not too long ago, we hung out with my friend Tripp Lanier who helped us gain perspective via a little thought exercise that included us looking through the Hubble telescope at distant galaxies.

I’m the kinda guy who goes to a movie with a pen and paper ready to take notes.

In our last couple +1s, we had some fun using our challenges as fuel for our growth. Blazing fire making brightness and flame out of everything thrown into it for the win! 🔥

Did you know that the word courage comes from the Latin word for “heart”?