Happy New Year to you all, I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
We are nicely set up at our new home in Kensington Avenue and I thank all our members for their continued love and support. It is a great set up and being slightly closer to Dominion Road and Balmoral has made travel that little bit easier.
Below I'm going to outline the two most important resources I've ever come across that really helped me to change my life, outlook, and brain.
At The Active Lifestyle, I encourage my members to live their best lives, and improve their physical as well as mental wellbeing with a combination of good quality strength training, heart rate raising activity, and improving their lifestyle's through better nutrition, mental training, and tenacity.
New Years Resolutions are great to get you started, but only by attacking your issues with long term consistency and smart training can you continue to succeed day in and day out.
As such, I close January by bringing you my two most poignant podcasts and apps that you can use to consistently improve your life, and the life of your families and loved ones. They have both helped me improve both as a personal trainer and as a person immeasurably. I would recommend devoting your time to at least a few episodes from both in whatever areas take your fancy!
Two Podcasts to listen to: (Available on Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube and other streaming platforms.)
Andrew Huberman is a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
The links below are to Huberman's takeaway notes, I highly recommending listening to the complete episodes, but these notes are a great way to get started.
Huberman Lab Podcast - Episode 39 Takeaway Notes - Controlling Your Dopamine.
Your dopamine levels control pretty much how you feel about everything. Whether you are excited and fulfilled, or demure, and lacking in energy. Huberman talks about how to maximise your dopamine levels to give you the best productivity and results.
Huberman Lab Podcast - Episode 44 Takeaway Notes - Using your Nervous System to Enhance Your Immune System.
This is an important episode considering the times, and by making sure you are breathing optimally, eating healthy, nutritious food that supports your gut microbiome and doing the right things around sleep, stress and water intake you can really support your immune system naturally.
Listening to the Huberman Podcast really helped me get my sleep under control, managing sunlight, circadian rhythm, and bedroom temperature / light, which allowed me to be more productive, better and more stable emotionally, and as a result, much better for my members.
The other podcast is that of Sam Harris, called Making Sense. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher and lecturer, graduating from Stanford and the University of California. He is a wonderfully open person who has studied both science and many years of deep Buddhist meditation. It is very interesting to hear his perspective on various things and he often gets guests that challenge him on controversial topics yet he is able to work productivity with them due to his nuanced and careful scientific understanding.
Two Apps to get now:
I would also highly recommend these two apps, which feature guided meditations around all sorts of topics, from anxiety, stress management, gratitude, self confidence and more. Both are available for free in trial format on whatever device you use.
My own journey is always continuing and evolving, and I feel as long as we are improving mentally or physically, it makes it easier to work on the other aspect due to the linked success and motivation you feel as you improve.
If you have any questions please shout.
Cheers,
James