And we are back with another shorter episode. I wanted to talk about my favorite self care strategies, which is probably going to be slightly different than what you would expect. We will be mentioning things like journaling and meditation and getting out of nature, but I'm also going to ask you to assess your current routines and your schedule and your life. I'm going to challenge you a little bit here. I'm also going to ask you to address, Hey, Are there certain things that kind of drain me or even people that, you know, I need to create boundaries around? And of course, we're going to talk about the good stuff because we mostly believe in adding more positivity to life, right? Adding more of the good stuff, like I said, better practices without too much focus on what's bad. Of course, we're going to try to reduce our stressors, but if that's not possible, we're simply going to do our best. to make it work because I know your schedule is kind of busy. I know you're probably going through weeks where you're like, fuck, there's like not enough time in the day for me to get everything done. And then here I am also trying to lose weight. I don't look like I work out. I'm trying to figure that out. I feel overwhelmed because all the information online is conflicting. I need to get my steps in my workout, my protein, you know, the list goes on. How the hell do I make sense of this? Let's help you out today with. this brief self -care strategies mini podcast. One of my favorite books, I'm gonna, if you're watching on YouTube, you're gonna see this, but one of my favorite books is Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday. And I also wanna share a little bit of a personal story, I guess. So I spent about 10 years traveling the world, touring with bands, playing guitar in a few bands and working for other bands. I would tour manage, guitar tech, sell merchandise, I have done, I mean I filled in for a lot of bands both on guitar and bass, I did a lot of driving also and in between I would backpack. So for 10 years I was on the go, pretty much. I don't remember really being home for more than like one or two weeks, a lot. I might be able to count those times on like one hand. especially the last few years. Because I'm not because I was on tour the whole time, but I was traveling between and seeing people and you know, it was a lifestyle. It was very cool and very grateful for and I spent a year in Australia. But at some point, right? Thinking that I was going to go back to Australia where I did already kind of experience a little bit of this, but I actually couldn't afford going back because the tickets were so expensive and at the time I wasn't making a lot of money. Because I mean music it's great, but I was in hardcore mostly and you know, it's a little bit of a subculture There's not that much to be made and that's okay. I did it for the passion of music anyway, but you know It's different than pop music let's put it that way but that's okay anyway So I couldn't fly to Australia so I ended up going to Norway and set completely just random My friend was like, you know, do you want to fly out to Finland, which is where he lives? And then we drive up to the North, to the Arctic, and then we're going to see the normal lights and we're going to take photos. And at the time I just got into photography. And at the time I was like, you know, yes, absolutely. Because I had been to like the southern part of like Finland, a little bit up to the center. But I'd never been to the Arctic. So I was like, yeah, let's go. This sounds really cool. And long story short, I mean, you know, because this could be a whole different podcast, but long story short. I ended up moving to Norway four weeks later, four or five weeks later, very spontaneous, very random. I applied for a job as a Northern Lights guide. So like I was doing like outdoor, you know, showing people the Northern Lights and we would do some snow shoeing, some hikes, but super spontaneous, super random really. And, I got there and all of the sudden, right, I had my own place. I had a job and I was working my ass off. I was working day and night, almost every day. If I look at it back now, like I'm like, I was doing a lot. It's like probably very unhealthy. Well, not even probably, like definitely, but anyway, Hey, I was fired up to be there and I was loving it. You know, every Northern Lights tour I did, I was excited. Every snowshoe hike, every sightseeing tour, like I'm, I'm, I still love the nature out here. But my point, going back to stillness as the key, when I moved to Norway and I for the first time in a very, very, very, very long time, a decade basically. I was in the same place for more than a week, for multiple months this time. I finally got to slow down and because in the beginning, in the very beginning, I didn't have that much work until I started working every single day. I also had a lot of time to go outside, spending time in nature. I mean, obviously, right? Work was also outdoors. So I was out in nature the whole time. And I found this like stillness that I hadn't experienced a lot. I can remember a few moments also on tour and I wish I had the knowledge I have currently, but back then, like every now and then, I would go out in the nature and just kind of sit by a lake or something. Go for a hike in the forest or maybe sit by the beach if I was in Spain and you know. And now I know there's actually a lot of research to back that up to, you know, that that stuff works to calm you down and to lower cortisol and especially in nature. But okay, for the, for the first time, for a longer period of time, I experienced a lot more stillness in life, which was very unfamiliar almost, because I was just go, go, go for like 10 years, you know, and now all of a sudden I'm slowing down. So I'll tie this back to you because I know I'm getting a little long winded with my own little thing here. But the point was I got to do a lot of thinking. I got to do a lot of reflecting and I have more time for myself to get my mind in check, which wasn't in a terrible place. But, you know, we all have our own things to work around and to deal with basically. And I sometimes feel like you might feel like this too. I sometimes feel like we're almost afraid to sit in stillness with our own thoughts, we're almost like worried about what might come out, you know what I mean? Which is also why I think you actually should do these kinds of things where you do go out and you sit by yourself with no distractions, no podcasts, get rid of social media for a little bit, right? Just sit with your own thoughts. Do you ever do that? Do your journal meditate, whatever it is, or any other form of mindfulness stillness, whatever you want to call it, right? Because we don't do that enough, I feel like. I know that by now, I mean, it's in the June. You probably feel like, holy shit, it's the middle of 2024 already. And I feel like it was New Year's last week. Where did the time go? I feel like I'm only working every single day. I cannot keep up. I gotta slow down, but I can't. Do you feel like that? I'm sure it sounds familiar, right? We gotta take some time to slow down and sit quietly with our own thoughts every now and then. We gotta clear our mind, be more present, right? You wanna be able to manage your emotions. You don't wanna allow stress to take over. You wanna find a little bit more joy and fulfillment in life. You wanna control your mind, reclaim control of your mind, I should really say. But how do you do that? Because it's already so busy and stressful and you know, hectic. Well, that's true. But could you take maybe 10 minutes? Maybe five even? Is there anywhere in your week where you could maybe prioritize you for a second, just for once? Even if it's once a week, let's start there. Now change always begins with awareness. So I want you to first even before doing that, because we're not just jumping in and we're going to say, you should now start to, you know, to journal every single morning. You need to also do meditation and all these kinds of things. Like, no, we need to create awareness first to make sure that you also know what needs changing. That is also why it's so difficult with a podcast like this or any, you know, nutrition, lifestyle change, advice, fitness. It's like, there's not one right answer. There's not one way to do everything for everyone all the time, which we need to understand. So I want you to reflect on your own life, because maybe you feel mentally exhausted, stressed, overwhelmed, unhappy, or even disappointed because you said you had this big ambitious goal, but you're not showing up for your goal. You're just not able to. You feel like you can't stick to it. Or hey, maybe if we're very real with ourselves, maybe we're not even putting enough effort in. But that's for you to figure out. I don't know that I can't assume that but I'm mentioning these things for you so that you can start to think about it and you're like, okay, this kind of applies to me. This maybe doesn't, but you know, I want you to really think here. I want you to also address what information and outside influence that you are allowing into your own mind. I want you to also assess your schedule, look at what's draining you and just get a clear view of just life currently, your current state. Where are you currently at? What would you like to potentially change? But also, like I said, create that awareness around what's coming in. Because you might not even realize that you are allowing so much negativity into your life from people, from social media, mainstream media. Maybe you constantly check your email, your notifications all day, even in the weekend, even after office hours. Maybe you're always surrounded by that nagging person. who can only talk shit about other people. I mean, out of everything that we talk about, right? On this podcast, in our social media posts, the protein, the workouts, all this stuff. How much have we actually been practicing this? I also want you to reflect on that effort, right? And how you are currently spending your time. Let's see if we think about proactively improving your sleep hygiene, your stress management skills. Where are those at? Are you actually managing your stress? Probably not, maybe not enough. Is your house full of clutter? And is life all work and no play? I want you to know as well, these are reminders towards myself as well. I'm currently looking at a desk full of clutter. Guess what I'm gonna do right after this podcast. I gotta get rid of that. But all joking aside, those kinds of things happen, right? We're human. Assess where you currently at. Assess your life right now before we jump into actually doing something. Then what we can do next is removing the drains. Because you can't always remove every life's stressor. And you know what? Not all of them are your own doing, of course. But it is within your control to manage what you are allowing to come into your life. Or at least how you respond. So now before... we start adding more of the good things that we talked about in the very beginning, we're actually gonna look at, hey, can I actually remove something? Maybe you need to cut down on social media and news consumption in general. Yes, it's important to keep up, but if you listen or watch to, you know, listen to or watch mainstream media all the time, you're likely getting a lot of overly, right, blown up. out of proportion, dramatic information. It's probably not gonna make you feel much better, right? Maybe you actually need a digital detox. Hey, maybe online, on social media, you should actually just unfollow a whole bunch of people who might be making you feel confused, overwhelmed, like crap. Maybe you're comparing yourself. I would love to live their life. I would like to look like that person. Unfollow people. I do this all the time. Hey, even if it's people who you know, it doesn't matter, it's okay. I've done this plenty of times. It's nothing personal, but you got to control what's coming in. And if there's negativity from other people, by the way, also in person, right? You got to set those boundaries. Maybe you just need to learn how to say no, sorry, more often. And maybe you just need to look at, hey, like what's actually holding me back from practicing these healthy habits. Is there anything else in my current environment, in my life that's not supporting my long -term goals? There's going to be a lot of things that you simply cannot change also. We can't just remove that nasty colleague or whatever it is or anything like that. Hey, maybe you have to keep your notifications on, which by the way, you can also turn off, right? Maybe you have to for whatever reason, keep them on or, you know, maybe you have to be available via the phone. you can still control how you respond and deal with the things that you cannot control. Make sense? It's still up to you, which is hard to accept sometimes. Now let's actually look at adding more of the good stuff, because I think that's important too. I think we want to think, okay, like I've addressed my current lifestyle, I've created the awareness. I've also looked at, hey, what can I maybe remove or maybe, you know what, I can create a system around something or a routine. just make it easier. Hey, I'm gonna start meal prepping to save myself, you know, four separate half hours of cooking. I don't know, just making up right now, but you know what I mean. Can we schedule any off time? Can we schedule play time? Now that we have created a little bit of space. One of the very first things I learned from my first mentor, Sam Miller, he told me like, yo, actually first thing you want to do is schedule off time. You need time to recharge as well so that you can be productive in the time blocks that you are actually working. Is there anything else you want to do more of? Like, can you reconnect with any of your passions, your hobbies? Are you actually practicing your hobbies? I mean, you can see the guitar behind me. I barely play these days. So that's something I get to work on. And I'm using myself as an example, because I'm here, you know, I don't want to be that person like telling you what to do. I'm like, look, I'm imperfect as well, you know, and we all are, and that's okay. Just a little side note, please allow yourself to be imperfect as well, you know. But can we explore journaling? Can we create more stillness in our life? Can we explore meditation? It's difficult. A lot of people will get frustrated. Hey, that was me. But if you keep trying, it can be very beneficial. Or maybe it's not for you, you just go on a walk, which by the way, you can still stack as well. Again, get rid of the distractions, the podcasts, whatever, which you can also do from time to time, but sit with your own thoughts for a little bit or walk with your thoughts. Make sense? Especially if you go out in a green zone. like a park, forest, whatever. The Japanese call this Shinrinjoku, I think it was, which basically stands for forest bathing. And there's actually a lot of research to support that, right? It's lowering cortisol even more than just going on a walk, for example. So there's going to be a benefit of connecting with nature. Okay, connect with your people too, by the way, with your friends, family, right? Without those phones, I get rid of them. Don't sit like... Don't meet up with your friends and just sit like, you know, staring at that screen. You can do that at home. Again, guilty as charged. I'm not judging. I do this too much. I think you do this too much. I think we all do. I have no crystal ball, right? But I can assume that most of you guys listening have that same issue. You sit with your family, your friends, whatever, and we're all just staring at that screen or it's the TV. Let's connect a little bit more. I got to do better there too. Can we maybe take 15 minutes just to go to bed a little earlier? Maybe with a book, maybe you want to listen to music, play music even, like I said, play guitar, those kinds of things. I know in Norway knitting is pretty popular. Can you just knit something? Maybe you haven't done that in a long time, you like doing it. I know our coach, Alexander, loves dancing. Just play, do whatever you enjoy. That's the main goal here. So to wrap it up for today, because I wanted to explore this with you and I wanted to kind of take you on a little bit of a journey of self -assessment, looking at the stressors in your life and then also just looking at, hey, what can I remove and what can I add? Because you are still in control of setting your life up for success. It's difficult sometimes. I know that it requires work. I know that, but you can figure things out and you can allow for more play and... you know, laughing and fun and recharging in your life. Even though you think that you currently do not have enough time. It's just that we are in that stress where, you know, we're not in control, right? We're in that state. We're worried. We're always chasing, you know, the next task. Pick a moment in your week, even if it's 10 minutes, and just start to think about what we talked about today. You can do this in the weekend. You can do it anytime. Do it today if you want to. Give yourself a chance to do a little bit of self -assessment, a little bit of, hey, you know, where am I currently at? What can I do better, differently? And then take it from there. Thank you for listening. I will talk soon.