Don't Stress It! - It's a Wrap
Recap of this 8-lesson journey and beyond
Welcome to The Feel Good Life! A newsletter about health, prevention, empathy, and hope. I’m Dr. Mariana and you have just arrived to my practical and medically-guided course on managing stress. (To get started with the course, go here.)
Hello! It’s A Wrap
You've made it!
What a great 8-lesson journey. You have now completed this full course on beating stress with healthy habits. I trust you have enjoyed every lesson with all its explanations, wisdom drops and fun challenges to help you understand the human body better and embrace it with a newfound clarity. It has always been (and will always be) my purpose to make health easy and enjoyable for you.
In today’s final wrap-up lesson you will learn:
Time For Change + A Summary of Each Lesson In This Course
How To Skyrocket Your Habits Into Their Next Level
One Final Special Challenge
Let’s go!
It’s Time For Change
And the most exciting part about this change? Your creative work is just beginning. Yes, improving yourself and your health is creative work.
After everything learned in this course, if you start approaching habit-building with the right attitude (you're eager to experiment, you're not afraid of screwing up, and you're going to stick at it until you find your perfect formula) then you're at the beginning of a very exciting journey.
I'd even use the phrase "a whole new You". Seriously. When you know you can make any habit stick, your ability to get stuff done is going to go through the roof - along with your self-confidence. This is a transformational skill.
Be prepared to be transformed.
You're not going to get it right first time. You may have already hit a snag with the challenges I set through the course - you might have even abandoned them.
If that's the case, let me tell you: that's absolutely, perfectly normal.
When you're building habits that stick, and when you're grappling with something as sneaky and devious as stress, you are going to fall off the wagon a few times. Maybe more than a few times.
Maybe a lot.
And it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter if you fail to make a habit stick. I'd fully expect that, probably repeatedly. I anticipate that happening to you. And so should you. Because it’s part of the habit-making process.
The only thing that matters is that you keep getting back on that wagon.
In fact - you are this mouse, and your habit is the cracker.
If you're that committed, you cannot fail. It's only a matter of time. YAY!
So, are you that committed? Are you determined to use everything I've taught you here and build those habits that will start transforming your life?
Good! You just made a promise to yourself - and to me.
And we're both counting on you.
So! We've covered a lot of ground in these 8 lessons. Let's sum the whole course up to refresh basic concepts and connect all the dots, shall we?
LESSON 1
In this lesson we looked at stress for the first time, and learned its true nature:
“We know stress can be detrimental to our health, but most of us think we’re protected, safe from its effects. In fact, we all suffer from it. All of us, without exception. It fills every empty corner of our lives. We think we know what it is, but if we really did, we’d be fighting it every day - even though it's a fight we'll never truly win.”
Stress can’t be beaten. But don't worry. We’re not trying to eradicate it - we’re trying to control it.
In Lesson 1's Challenge you started documenting the first hour of your day. Because the #1 step towards change is: Awareness. Only when you become aware of something, you can start doing something about it.
LESSON 2
We learned that willpower is unreliable…
"Here’s where you’ve been going wrong. You tried to use willpower to stick to your New Year’s Resolutions - and that’s the wrong tool for the job.
You didn’t fail because you’re weak. You didn’t fail because of some innate character flaw. It wasn’t because you’re lazy or self-destructive. It wasn’t any of that. It was simply because you used the wrong method.
There’s a way that works - and using willpower ain’t it."
...and we looked at the mountain-moving power of habits:
"The good news is, habits are easy to build, if you follow the right approach - particularly because once you’ve got them up and running, they require almost no willpower to keep doing. They’re automatic. Eventually, you do them without even being fully aware you're doing them. That’s their superpower - and when that happens, results appear out of nowhere, like magic."
Lesson 2's Challenge was about finding your morning no-brainers - the triggers you can use to build habits. This way helped you start realising what your morning routine looks like, and what elements from that routine can be used to help you add and create new habits. A powerful challenge this is!
LESSON 3
In Lesson 3 we took an exciting tour of the human body!
"Welcome to the place where everything you regard as truly You is at work. In every sense that matters, you are your brain. It’s the seat of all your thoughts and feelings - and it’s where your personality is stored.
Consequently, if you have a health condition that messes with the brain (like long-term stress), it’s not just messing with the biological machine you’re housed in - it’s messing with you, directly."
We also learned the secret of good health:
"If you’ve always thought of your body as something like a car - a network of components that can be successfully ‘swapped out’ when they’re damaged - then you’ve got it all wrong. Doctors treat “health” as a complete system because to do otherwise is to put your life at risk. Everything needs to work well for you to stay healthy."
In Lesson 3's Challenge I prompted you to drink a small glass of water after every visit to the bathroom, aka. The Pee Challenge. In which you experimented with making a new habit and sticking to it for a few days. How did that feel? I bet it made you realise a few interesting things.
LESSON 4
Here, we looked at the "8 glasses of water a day" thing, and found some interesting facts (and myths) about this famous rule:
"It probably originated in a nutrition report from 1945 that suggested most people need to consume at least 2.5 litres of water a day, which is - you guessed it - around 8 tall glasses of water. Unfortunately, most people sharing the 8 glasses rule ignore the next sentence in that report, which points out that a lot of this water could be found in the food we eat every day.
Fact: there’s no proof that drinking 8 glasses of water a day is necessary for the average human being to stay healthy."
Then we also looked at how drinking that much water can actually prevent you forming a healthy hydration routine...
"If [8 Glasses Of Water], then [Terrible Night’s Sleep] + [Feeling Awful The Next Day]
In other words, you made a new habit. Unfortunately, it's an entirely unhealthy one."
...before suggesting a better way to stay topped up:
"That's enough to perk you up and feel the benefits of being fully hydrated all day. It’s enough to help you manage stress. And it’s something you'll do automatically, without having to remember to drink that water and summon the willpower to do it"
In Lesson 4's Challenge you attempted to leave your beloved internet-connecting device out of the room when it's time to sleep, better known as The Phone Challenge. Which help you get prepared to find the astonishing benefits of disconnecting your brain and getting a proper regenerative rest. Because sleep is good medicine!
LESSON 5
In this lesson we looked at how too little water can make your brain shrink...
(But not to the size of a walnut, no.)
And the result of your brain shrinking is a massive headache, in every sense."
...and then we saw how Dan Ariely hacked his own brain to stick to one of the toughest habits imaginable:
"After a while, his brain learned the following habit:
[Interferon injection] + [Videotapes] = [Video night! Yay!]
And after a while he actually started to look forward to those injections, because of what they meant in terms of the reward he gave himself. Awesome stuff. He's a very clever man."
Lesson 5's Challenge was about hacking your own brain (just like Ariely did), by deciding what your Rewards were for doing the previous challenges. You learned that by creating a new habit, you can reward yourself. This is as important part of the habit-making process as any other. Who wouldn’t want a little prize or recognition after a well-made effort? :)
LESSON 6
In this lesson, I recommended a miracle treatment for stress that has the side-effect of knocking you unconscious for around 7 hours:
"Sleep is incredibly powerful.
Unfortunately, so is a lack of sleep.
Sleep deprivation has the same debilitating effect on you as alcohol. In the words of Inc’s Jessica Stillman, “if you’re coming into work sleep-deprived, you’re basically functioning drunk."
The brain knows best, but it needs you to take good care of it.
"Your lizard-brain knows it's time to go to sleep because the light outside starts fading - and it knows it's time to wake up because the daylight's streaming into your room. However, because your species is obsessed with the invention of one Mr. Thomas Edison, you're really good at ignoring daylight.
The solution is simple: if your sleep pattern is out of whack, check the light you're bathing yourself in."
Lesson 6's Challenge was about finally putting more of your new knowledge into action by creating a bedtime habit from scratch, using everything you've learnt so far about building lasting habits. It’s been a couple of weeks since, so tell me, how’s that working so far? (Extra Tip: Take notes while building your new habits - it’s a great way to stay accountable and keep track of your new experiences and sensations.)
LESSON 7
In this lesson, we looked at the main reason so many people fail to exercise regularly:
"Do you imagine self-inflicted agony, unflattering tracksuits and lycra, muscles burning with pain, pounding headaches, growing despair - and, finally, self-disgust on that inevitable morning you decide it’s all too much, turning the alarm off and going back to sleep?
Who wants that in their lives?
So, forget “exercise”. It’s too ambitious. Too miserable.
Too impossible."
We then explored the exciting, stress-suppressing world of non-exercise (aka. easy movements) and what it can do to your brain:
"BDNF is great for your brain - in fact, many diseases (for example, Alzheimer’s) are associated with lowered levels of BDNF. When it’s present in the right amount, this protein strengthens the neural pathways associated with information retention. As if by magic, you’re suddenly better at forming and retrieving memories - and that means you learn faster. Your thoughts are clearer, you don’t struggle to concentrate, and you feel an amazing sense of control of your own mind."
At the same time, your brain releases endorphins, better known as the chemicals that make you happy. These counteract the discomfort you’re feeling from exercising, cushioning you against pain and giving your mood a huuuuuuuuge lift.
Within minutes, maybe even seconds of doing something a little more energetic than usual, you feel really, really good. Ahhh yeah.
This whole process is designed to fight stress. That's literally what it's for."
Then we had Lesson 7's Challenge, in which we attempted to use a little time hack to create your own movement habit through The Kettle Challenge: what can you get done in the time it takes the kettle to boil? I personally love this one fun little challenge!
LESSON 8
In this our final lesson we looked at ways to re-engineer a bad habit by taking a look in the mirror into our lady from Lesson 1 and coming full circle after everything learned.
"She checks her work e-mail while in bed, allowing work-related stresses to intrude on her home life.”
At first sight, this seems weird. Why does she want to worry about work stuff? Surely she wants to avoid thinking about work stuff, if it stresses her out? What kind of reward is that? So why does she keep doing it?
My bet, as a doctor, habit-nerd and fascinated observer of human nature, is that her brain craves stimulation first thing in the morning. When she wakes up, she wants to have something to think about. Something important.
Then, we talked about the 4 things that everyone needs to realise about their human body in order to counteract the fatal effects of longterm stress. Mostly how the body needs movement, good sleep, proper hydration and the right stress/stimulation balance.
In Lesson 8’s Challenge we finally created a plan for measuring the steps you take daily (or some other physical activity) so you could see and acknowledge how you're already levelling up your health, day by day and week after week. Every movement you make counts, and it’s vital that you acknowledge it. You’ll be surprised at how much exercise you’re actually doing without you even realising!
What a beautiful journey indeed. Doesn’t it make you feel both amazed and proud knowing all that you’ve learned about yourself since Lesson 1? I am certainly proud of you!
So What’s Next For You? Skyrocket Time!
What's next is, of course, you keep working on these habits until you find the right way that fits for you, to make them stick. But - maybe you're already there. Maybe these habits aren't enough, and you want to build more on these successes.
What then? Let’s go next level and skyrocket what you already know.
Here are a few suggestions.
But before I give them to you, BEWARE. If your foundation habits aren't in place, you're taking a big risk in attempting something more challenging. It's like any foundation - if it's wobbly, everything built on it is going to wobble.
NO WOBBLING!
Doctor's orders. ;)
So, here are a few ways to skyrocket your habits to the next level:
1. Adequate Hydration --> Perfect Hydration
Get a bottle. To master hydration, you need to measure exactly how much you're drinking, and have no obstacles between you and the water you need to drink. A sturdy, stylish water-bottle will make this so much easier. Here's a great-looking bottle you wouldn't be ashamed to be seen out with - and it's insulated, so it'll keep your water cool in the summer and hot in the winter.
Make your own drinks. "If it came from a machine, it's probably really bad for you." Repeat this 1,000 times, and then start preparing your own drinks. I've already mentioned homemade lemonade, but the options are endless, from smoothies to your own warm infusions. Try starting here. And if it's winter, fruit is still your friend.
If you exercise harder, or if you're somewhere a lot warmer than you're used to, adjust your hydration accordingly. Here are some good tips that will never get old.
2. Sleep --> Deep Sleep
Meditate. The benefits are extraordinary, especially come bedtime. Just remember that "meditation" is the word for a huge range of activities, including laying on your bed with your eyes closed and breathing calmly, trying to calm your thoughts. It doesn't matter where, how and in what form you do it. It just matters that you do it. (I say again - Headspace is a great place to start.)
Yoga. It's great for reducing stress. It's also a series of slow, smooth movements that will calm your brain down - and exhaust your body in a relaxing way. Let's be clear here: yoga makes your body incredibly strong, not just in the arms or legs, but all over, mind included. Do these people look weak to you? And they got that way by doing yoga. If you’re not into yoga, no worries! There’s always options. I’ve personally found that Pilates and Ballet do the same for me in ways that I enjoy even more. So whatever your preference, experiment and find a calming exercise that helps you get ready for sleep.
Sleepy Foods. There are many foods known for their sleep-inducing properties, such as lettuce, cherries, cardamom or warm milk. You'll have to experiment with this one. Some people are knocked out by a few mouthfuls of lettuce. Others prefer the soporific effects of a mug of warm milk, or a nice Horlicks. Find the foods and drinks that shut you down (gently - not like, say, a jug of homemade cider) and build a comforting habit around them. And of course it goes without saying, but just in case, here it goes again: avoid caffeine.
Clock Out. Still working in the evenings? No wonder you're not sleeping - you're keeping your brain awake, and it'll take hours to calm itself down. Instead, shift whatever you do in the evenings into your mornings or lunchtimes or Saturday morning as possible. Set a "clocking out of work" alarm on your phone, and refuse to do anything except unwind after this point in the day. Tell people you don't work evenings (or Sundays, or weekends). Establish boundaries and make them public, so you never have to explain yourself. Treat your evenings as sacred shut-down time...and I guarantee you'll struggle to keep your eyes open until bedtime. Bliss!
3. Non-Exercise --> Exercise
Duration. Simply put - do it longer. Instead of 5,000 steps a day, how about 10,000? Then 15,000? Whatever you're doing to raise a sweat, keep doing it for longer, and find out where the limits of your stamina are - then push at them.
Intensity. Whatever you're doing, find a way to do it harder. If your walk to work is 12 minutes of walking, then push yourself a bit do it in 10 minutes - then 9, then 8. Try a strength-building session at the gym - then, when you're feeling stronger, push yourself through something that absolutely kicks your ass (I promise you’ll love it).
Yoga, Pilates or similar. See above, when I talked about how strong it can make you.
Embark On A Quest. Ever been tempted to walk the famous Camino de Santiago, across the north of Spain? It's one of the world's most popular walks - and it's a serious commitment of your time, your energy and yes, your finances. If you do it, you take it seriously - especially if you're part of a group and people are relying on you. So - what else could you sign up for, on this kind of scale? How about running a marathon? Or joining a local jogging group? How about running 27 marathons in 27 days, like this 54-year-old man? (Okay, this one’s a bit crazy, but why not? Only you know your limits!) The main point is: commit to it, tell people, get really really scared at the scale of the thing you've just signed up for - and then go do it.
How’s that for some cool skyrocketing your baseline or newly created habits? There’s a lot of inspiration and infinite ways for you to do this. This is where creativity jumps in. Any health journey can be a creative one. Along with your consistency and motivation, it’s only a matter of time for you to feel like a whole new version of You.
And how exciting is that thought? I’m proud of you.
Final! The Sharing Challenge
To end our journey with a good task as always, here's a final challenge - and it's something you can do for me. (Thank you!)
If you've enjoyed this course, please point someone else towards it. Tell them what the course has done for you - and show them how they can sign up for it too. It’s easy:
You can invite them to join this newsletter, just by sending them this link.
You can point them to this Don’t Stress It course so that they can benefit from it too.
Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is - and a personal recommendation goes a long, long way. If you did this for me, you'd be helping me create more courses like this, to teach other people how to manage their stress and take control of their health - exactly the way you're doing right now.
And if you feel like going next level by upgrading or gifting a subscription, it would help me even more as I build The Feel Good Life and its upcoming Foundation. Yes, I’m going big! And your support will always be my best motivation.
Thanks so much!
And That’s a Wrap!
GREAT JOB! You’ve finished this course. And now your creative work to keep putting all this new knowledge into practice continues.
I’m proud of you.
And also grateful! I thank you so much for being here and having gone through this journey together.
You choosing your health means EVERYTHING to me. It’s inspiring, as it prompts me to keep going, creating and writing more courses for the greater good.
So, let’s do this!
See you sooner than you think in our next health endeavour together. :)
Much love,
Dr. Mariana
P.S.: If you have any questions or doubts about the lessons or the challenges, please, just hit Reply or message me at thefeelgoodlife@substack.com and I’ll be right with you! :)
Brava on a job well done! I’ve enjoyed following along with your course!