Wagaliciousness Begins Here!

Welcome to the first “official” workday of the new year. Around half of Americans make resolutions to start a new year, and of those, fewer than 10% will follow through and succeed at their newfound resolve. Of the other 90+ percent, most will quit this week. This.Week. Ouch!

Before you get all bummed out about the looming mass failure, let’s step back a bit and examine why the failure rate is so high. There’s interesting brain science involved, and I’ll make sure you’ll understand it perfectly.

The brain loves patterns. Humans can learn as fast and as much as we do because brains look for patterns, connect the dots, and voila! A new pattern is formed around the new information. That’s where language skills come from, math skills, driving skills…all the skills start out as a basic pattern the brain forms. If you’ve ever driven somewhere and realized that you don’t really remember driving because you were preoccupied with something else, congratulations. Your brain is very good at run...

The week between Christmas and the New Year celebrations is usually a quiet one. Many people are on vacation, and those who are working this week feel like it’s some of their most productive time. Why? Because there are far fewer interruptions, meaning they feel they can get more done than normal.

Since the 1990’s, the major causes of interruptions at work are emails, messaging apps and phone calls.  Research conducted by Gloria Mark and her team at the University of California Irvine discovered something surprising – tasks which were interrupted were ultimately completed in less time with no difference in quality versus the same tasks when performed with no interruptions. Why the need for No Interruptions Day this Friday, then?

Because the stress, frustration level, time pressure and effort involved skyrocketed in the interrupted group. The level of workplace satisfaction was much higher in the uninterrupted group.

This is what mental wellbeing is all about – finding the small thin...

Today marks the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere, meaning it’s the beginning of astronomical winter north of the equator and astronomical summer to the south. As far back as 12,000 years ago, people have noted the change and even built monuments to track and celebrate the heavenly event. Stonehenge, anyone? It’s oriented to sunset on the winter solstice, marking the beginning of the longest night of the year.

Different cultures around the world created celebrations around the December solstice, with most of them centered around family, food, light, fire and a positive outlook for the coming season. Those all sound like great ways to celebrate, don’t they? Whatever tradition you embrace, may your life be filled with the optimism of your celebration. And if you need a little boost to find that optimism, the Wellbeing Wisdom Tiny Bite podcast is here for you!

Want a warmer love this winter? There’s a Tiny Bite...

Are you a fan of something? Chances are, you’re a fan of a lot of things – maybe your college sports team, a sport you play, a certain musician or type of music – most of us are fans of a lot of things.

When you’re a fan, it means you’re focused on something in a positive way – appreciating it, hoping good things happen to it and for it, and finding ways to incorporate the object of your fan-dom into your life more often.

So as you make the list of the things you’re a fan of, do this – add your name to that list. Become your own fan – appreciate yourself, root for yourself, and find ways to celebrate yourself more often in your daily life.

When you become your biggest fan, what you’re actually doing is paving the way for a happier, more successful life. I dare you – be a fan of yourself!

Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

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Do you know someone who doesn’t like chocolate? Most of us do – most of us, and not all of us. To a small percentage of people, chocolate tastes bitter and nasty and they avoid it. The rest of us make up for them, though - the average adult eats their weight in chocolate each decade of their life.

I might be a little ahead of the curve on that one – how about you?

As with most indulgences, there are reasons to enjoy chocolate, and reasons it might need to be avoided. Chocolate can help your brain focus, can have benefits where aging and heart health are concerned, and when we eat it, the part of our brain associated with falling in love is stimulated. No wonder chocolate can be so addictive!

Want some scientific reasons to indulge in chocolate? Cocoa is high in polyphenols and flavanols, antioxidants that help lower inflammation in the body. There are studies that show that blood flow is improved, blood pressure is lowered, heart disease is less common and the chance of having a str...

Wellbeing isn’t about your physical body, it’s about your emotional state. Wellness is physical, and often what ails you isn’t physical at all.

Down in the dumps … bored … melancholy … moody… heavy hearted – those are normal human ways to feel. We don’t celebrate them and we don’t seek them out, and sometimes we find ourselves in the grips of a lack of wellbeing.

When that happens, try this – step away from any screen you might be interacting with and go outside. Seriously…set the phone down and walk away from even that screen.

Spend 10 minutes outside. Walk if you want to, run if the spirit moves you, or just sit on a bench or a rock or a tree stump. Spend ten minutes outside and let the magic of having no roof over your head soak into you. Spend ten minutes doing nothing and let the stress seep out of you. Don’t fret about whatever was bothering you – turn those thoughts off if they try to intrude on your outdoor time.

When you’re ready, go back to what you were doing before with...

Mac McAnally and Jimmy Buffett wrote a song called "Changing Channels.” It’s a song that speaks to the desire to stay in one place even as the world changes around you, and plays with the word “channels” as life events and also as waterways to new destinations.

What if you could view the changes that happen in your life as simply changing channels?

Can you see the end of a relationship as just a change of channels? Can you see the need to move to a new place of employment, or maybe even start your own business, as a new channel in your life?

When you can view your life as something you’re in charge of, so in charge that you can choose to change channels whenever you please, then you remove most of the sources of stress in your life. You are in control, and you operate as if you’re the captain of your own ship, choosing your channel as you navigate your own life.

Mac and Jimmy would be proud of you!

Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

 #vete...

Life handed me lemons recently. Really disappointing, really expensive lemons.

Has that ever happened to you?

Something you’d planned didn’t work out, or something you’ve worked hard to achieve didn’t happen? It feels awful, doesn’t it?

Not gonna lie, the day my lemons showed up wasn’t my most productive day, by a long shot. A lot of people will tell you to dig deep, tough it out, fake it ‘til you make it, and I’m here to tell you it’s OK to feel the disappointment. It’s ok to want what you want and to not be happy when it doesn’t happen.

We’re human and we have a full range of emotions for a reason. Mourn the loss of your dreams and plans and remind yourself that often when something feels like it didn’t work out, it really did. For reasons we may not know until later, our dream didn’t fit right now so it didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean it never will, just that it might take a bit longer.

Slowly add sugar to the lemons as you think of ways to sooth your sadness, just like you’d ...

Someone I know works in a difficult environment. She is surrounded by people who aren’t her co-workers, they’re her competitors. The company fosters the competition between employees, and while some of them thrive in that environment, my friend doesn’t.

The money is good. The benefits are solid. And she’s miserable.

Instead of being proactive and looking for an environment more suited to her strengths, she keeps beating her head against the wall and then complaining about the wall. She rails at how unsupportive her boss is, how cut-throat her co-workers are and how she’s not appreciated.

And she is creating all of that angst for herself by not facing reality.

Her boss got to where she is in that company by being competitive, and by fostering the competitive nature in her team members. Her co-workers are cut-throat because that’s what’s expected of them. And she’s not appreciated because she’s not a good fit.

Maybe you can relate? Next time you’re in a spot like that, face reality....

Do you love old Fleetwood Mac songs? The sound of Stevie Nicks’ voice enthralled me, and her lyrics inspired me.

Her songs are often about the moment when life changes in a big way – like the painful betrayal that ends a relationship in The Chain and thinking about the mortality of a parent in Landslide. Even though her songs were often written as a way for her to get through the not-OK times in her life, she’s a role model for being OK. In an interview she said, “All the things you’re afraid of will come and they will go, and you’ll be alright.”

Behold, Stevie Nicks, the neuroscientist.

When something bad happens, the brain gears up for it. Coping mechanisms are put into place without us even being aware. Have you ever looked back at a crisis that happened to you or around you and you’re kind of in awe of how you handled it? Hold that thought…hold that feeling.

Stevie Nicks has it just right – when we focus on our fears we scare ourselves. When the thing we fear happens, we deal w...