Better Before Burnout: Waking, Eating, Moving, and Sleeping

What shall we focus on next? Taking good care of ourselves is the basis for creating healthy connections with others and building stronger relationships.  Ramsey has been working with these ideas more and more.  The next area of focus for the What's Worthwhile Podcast will be around the foundations of health for self care; meeting and learning in groups in order to practice healthy connections; and using that increased capacity to improve the most important relationships in our lives.

Where have I been? The Journey has taken me many places, recently Oregon, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC and Colorado.  I got to spend quality time with my kids, my parents, my wife, and all my high school friends in the past few weeks. Which is a huge deal for me, because I live far away, and because I've been gone for years.  This "What's Worthwhile" podcast has always been about my metaphorical Journey.  These past few weeks, I've been on physical journeys.  I feel whole and complete in ways I perhaps never have before.  The Journey is not over ... but I do feel like I've reached some kind of destination.

Who are our inner eaters, what do they crave, and how can we help them get along? Jeff Siegel struggled with anarexia as a teenager, and is now a men’s health coach, Harvard Teaching Fellow and author.  He helps men look at how stress, identity, emotion, family, social pressure, physiology, and competing inner drives shape what they do around food. That work became his book Eating 2.0, which introduces the four inner eaters: Survival, Pleasure, Social, and Strategic. Each one wants something legitimate from food; the trouble starts when one hijacks the whole system.  Ramsey and Jeff talk about his early relationship with food, how men’s struggles around food are often different than women’s struggles, and how we can all learn to understand and balance the needs and desires of our inner eaters.  Learn more at jeffsiegelwellness.com.

When? How long? Instead of coffee or along with coffee? This could be a controversial episode. Some folks swear by their afternoon power naps and others think they are a misguided waste of time. There is some great research on this, and surprisingly I actually took the time to consider it. I myself am a huge fan of afternoon power naps, and I have it dialed in to precisely 28 minutes on my timer. Normally I have coffee afterwards.  But what if we did something crazy and drank the coffee BEFORE the nap?? There’s actually a name for that: The Nappuccino.  Catch this episode to learn the strategy, the timing, the science and the art of coffee napping.

How can we turn the tide away from fast food, video games, and sleepless nights in our modern world filled with distractions, marketing temptations, and tasty highly-processed treats?  Matt Campbell, PhD is a clinical psychologist who noticed over his many years of practice that patients were often depleted and exhausted.  He wrote and published a workbook called Our Primal 5: The Simple 5-Week Guide to Self-Care.  Ramsey and Matt focus in this episode on giving practical advice on how to make the healthy choices become the easiest choices.  Matt’s Primal 5 are sunlight, sleep, movement, connection and consumption, which track closely to Ramsey’s Better Before Burnout strategies of waking, eating, moving and sleeping.  This is a great episode to help you translate those basic but elusive foundations from aspirations to celebrations.  Learn more at ourprimal5.com.

How can you restore and deepen the strength of your romantic partnership? Kameran Alareqi is a certified marriage coach who meets couples where they’re at to help them strengthen their marriage by coaching them to become truly qualified to be in a marriage as individuals, deepen connection, improve communication, and apply tools needed to create the healthy marriage they envision and desire.  Kam taught Ramsey a lot in this conversation about attachment, how people need to be honest with each other from the outset of a relationship, and how to establish safety between two people.  She also introduced her own version of “the bases” that we are all trying to get around after our partner pitches us the ball.  This is a great episode to learn what’s worthwhile to focus upon, in order to build healthy relationships.  Learn more at www.recognizingpotential.com.

Why set aside focused, non-stressed time to eat lunch? Because we can create a bubble of space and time where our bodies can enter Rest and Relax mode, even if only for 30 to 60 minutes during an otherwise stress-filled day. That promotes effective digestion, especially when paired with some nice and fun or productive movement and exercise.  It’s good to move throughout the day.  We get stuck in traffic and at our desks too often, and movement is a big part of healthy living. I know we’re all busy, but lunch is worth scheduling and not cutting short.

How can we feel our best year-round, nourish ourselves with the right foods, and avoid illness as the weather (and our bodies!) change with the seasons? Marylee Calmes is a 30-year practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and an educator. Her own healing journey began in the midst of illness, where she discovered that true healing is not a race,  it’s a rhythm. That gentle, cyclical approach now informs everything Marylee teaches through her work with Living in the Season. Ramsey and Marylee spoke about the five seasons of TCM and how they connect to the elements, how TCM can complement Western Medicine, and specifically what we should be eating as we head into late Summer. In her practice, MaryLee offers seasonal guides, reflections, recipes, and meditations that bridge science, spirit, and natural medicine. She holds advanced degrees in Acupuncture, Oriental Medicine, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Psychology, and Education. Her approach is one of calm compassion and practical advice.  Learn more at livingintheseason.com.

Are tribes good or bad, healthy and natural, or destructive and hateful? I’ve heard a lot of negativity directed at tribalism, but recently also read about how people find belonging and shared purpose within their tribes. So what are the best and worst aspects of modern life within our various tribes? We all have tribes, whether they are ethnic, cultural, sports teams, shared hobbies, or faith traditions. Can we question the leaders and dogma of our tribes, and sometimes agree with those of others? Can we admit when other tribes get things right, and ours do not? Can we celebrate our tribes without hating others? The answers to these and other questions may determine not only the health of our tribes, but also our own independence and personal expansion within our tribes.

What can we do to push back burnout, retake control of our basic health foundations, and bring vitality home to our lives? Ramsey is launching a LIVE, weekly interactive and informative program on Zoom, Tuesdays at Noon Pacific Time, starting July 21st, called “Better Before Burnout: Waking, Eating, Moving, and Sleeping to Beat Stress and Bring Vitality.” Each weekly hour-long session will bring value on its own, and also build your knowledge, capabilities, and momentum week over week. In this episode, Ramsey lays out what impending burnout looks like, how we can push it back with the foundations of health, and how that all connects to nervous system regulation.  Listen to the end of the episode to get a coupon code to enjoy your first Tuesday session free.  Learn more at whatsworthwhile.net/better-before-burnout.