Hey all,

After over 5 years of meditating daily, my streak has come to a close. And it couldn’t have come in a less climactic way. I just forgot to meditate one night last month.

The main reason I meditated for those 1,800+ sessions, totaling nearly 400 hours, was for the true difference I felt from meditating. I’d be lying, though, if I said I didn’t like the streak. I used my competitive mentality to my advantage which forced me to push through many times I would have otherwise not hit that play button on my Headspace app.

Regardless of the motivation, I never ended a motivation thinking “that’s wasn’t worth it.” Each session, in one way or another, taught me something. Here are some things i learned from those 400+ hours of meditation:

• Meditation is hard. In all of the years I’ve been doing it I’ve probably achieved a true bout of flow less than 20 times.

• While flow is nice, the biggest benefit was improving my interception and self-awareness. Whereas years ago I had no concept or awareness of this, I can literally tell what part of my body I feel certain emotions and what those sensations are.

• These formal meditations have nudged me to be more mindful, especially when I’m at emotional extremes—happy, sad, angry, frustrated. This has, in turn, made me less judgemental of myself (and others) when the emotions become heightened.

• The environment has a strong influence on me. I’ve meditated in saunas, airplanes, on beaches, and on a bench early one morning at a bachelor party. At times I use my surroundings as a way to embrace mindfulness and other times I use it as a challenge to overcome the external influences. Through this, I’ve learned to voluntarily seek the positive environments that have a net positive, often subtle, sway over me,

While I’ll eventually start another streak, right now I’m going to fill that mindfulness meditation gap with more mindless sleeping.

Have a great week.

Brian 

March Blog Posts

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Mind

• Atlas of the Heart: 3 Takeaways

• Supermarket Psychology: Sneaky Influences To Get You To Spend Money

Body

• The 5 Worst Shoulder Exercises (& What To Do Instead)

• 8 Tools For Better Sleep

• Q&A: What’s The Best Way To Stretch? (And Do You Even Need To?)

• The Body by Bill Bryson: 3 Takeaways

• How To Improve Your HRV Score: 8 Ways According To Science

• What Are The Healthiest Fish To Eat? (And The Ones To Avoid)

• What’s In My Water? Health Concerns, Water Tests, And The Best Filter

Dad

• The Secret Of Happy Families: 3 Takeaways

• The New Nordic Diet: The Best Diet For Kids’ Mental Health?

The MBD Corner

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Mind

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“You can gauge someone's ignorance by the number of phenomena they explain with the same answer.

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Most Filling

1. Potato (boiled)

2. Ling fish

3. Oatmeal

4. Oranges

5. Apples

6. Brown pasta

7. Beef

8. Baked beans

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10. Whole meal bread

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1. Croissant

2. Cake

3. Doughnut

4. Mars bandy bar

5. Peanut

6. Yogurt

7. Crisps (chips?)

8. Ice cream

9. Museli

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• there is good enough parenting. you don't have to be perfect, and your children will not be either. that's okay.

• Start how you wish to continue.

• Almost all parenting advice you receive is terrible.

Children are compassionate unless there’s a reward at stake, according to one study.