Unapologetically Marie

Writer, podcaster, mental health advocate

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How to build a positive mindset 

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Do you stay awake at night replaying conversations? Do you find yourself ruminating over things people said to you? Or perhaps you worry about the future, thinking about all the ways something might go wrong? 

If so, you’re not alone. Over the past few decades, around the world there’s been an increase in levels of anxiety. The world has changed dramatically, and it can be overwhelming and worrying. 

But the research is showing that you can combat these thoughts by taking more control over your mindset. If your natural inclination is to ruminate and think of all the negatives, you can balance these thoughts by proactively thinking positive thoughts throughout the day. You can train your brain to think more positively! 

There is a raft of health benefits to building a positive mindset.  

You’ll live healthier and longer: Optimists tend to live healthier lives and have a lower risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease than pessimists. On the flip side, pessimists tend to have shorter telomeres, which means they age faster. “Cells with shorter telomeres circulate and release large amounts of inflammatory proteins that contribute to inflammation, which is a mechanism of aging,” says Aoife O’Donovan, Ph.D., a professor at University of California, San Francisco.  

You’ll be less stressed: People who have positive mindsets cope with the day-to-day turmoil of life better. They are also less anxious and less likely to suffer from depression.  

You’ll be more successful: Compared to pessimists, optimists are more successful in school, at work and in athletics. They are also more successful in their marriages and tend to have more friends and more supportive relationships. 

So how can you build a positive mindset? 

  1. Get good sleep  

Is there a link between poor mental health and sleep? Could getting a bad night’s sleep really be as bad as smoking? Does driving tired really put you in as much danger as driving drunk? According to the latest science, yes! Not only that, but not getting a good night’s sleep can significantly impact your happiness levels and your ability to cope with anything life throws at you – which let’s face it, has been a lot in 2020. In an increasingly hyperconnected world, in which many companies now expect their employees to be on call and to answer emails 24/7, Global consulting firm McKinsey argues that sleep is an important organizational topic that requires specific and urgent attention.  

  1. Limit social media 

Have you found yourself turning to social media to while away the long hours of Covid lockdown? Are you noticing some negative effects? If so, you may need a social media detox. Even before Covid, social media was well ingrained in most societies around the world. In Australia, as of January 2019 there were 18 million active users of social media websites (69% of the population). Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with ~16 million monthly users of the website. In the U. S., about 70 percent of adults say they use Facebook and YouTube, while Instagram and Snapchat are growing in popularity among 18–24-year-olds. Social media can be an important part of modern life, but unfortunately, the research also tells us that it can also be destructive to our mental wellbeing. Many studies have linked excessive social media use to increased depression, anxiety, loneliness, sleeplessness, and many other mental health issues. 

  1. Spend time with positive people 

In a recent New York Times article, researcher stated that people laugh five times as often when they’re with others as when they’re alone. Peak happiness lies mostly in collective activity. Not only that, but researchers have also found that the use and appreciation of humour is positive for overall wellbeing and psychological health. Humour is observed in all cultures and at all ages. But only in recent decades has experimental psychology respected it as an essential, fundamental human behaviour. According to positivity strategist Paul Osincup, “Humour is the new mindfulness.” You can actually train your brain to see and experience humour more often. So go on, have a laugh with some positive people. 

  1. Don’t suppress negative emotions 

One of the biggest misconceptions about the positive psychology movement is that people should always aim to be happy and negative emotions are to be avoided.  

This is a load of rubbish. Firstly, only being happy is impossible. Secondly, trying to suppress negative emotions can be really detrimental for mental health. The reality of life is that it’s messy, and even the people who are the happiest, most joyful and most fulfilled experience appropriate negative emotions when the situation calls for it.  

The key is to process negative events and emotions in a healthy way so you can move forward. So how can you process your emotions when times are tough? Simple, start a practice of journaling. Over the last few decades, many studies have shown that journaling is a great tool to help you understand yourself better, unpack old issues and let them go, and give your mind the knowledge to understand how you see and react to the world around you. It has also been shown to increase happiness, help to reach goals and even have some positive physical health benefits. And if you’re someone who is generally not comfortable opening up to people, studies show that journaling might be the most beneficial to you. 

“When we put our thoughts and feelings down on paper, we’re not just transferring them—we’re also transforming them. Writing forces us to arrange our ideas into a sequence, one after another; over time, themes and patterns start to emerge; new insights and perspectives start to bubble up,” according to Kira M. Newman, Greater Good Magazine. 

  1. Movement and exercise 

There’s a whole lot of research into the physiological and physical health benefits of exercise, but exercise can also it can make us happier. It is great for our mood and our mental state. Exercising released dopamine (DA), noradrenaline (NE), and serotonin (5-HT) – the happy drugs! They’re the things that make us feel joyful and they’re present when we exercise. They increase in their production when we move our bodies and do exercise.  

  1. Learn something new 

As Einstein famously said: “The important thing is to never stop questioning.” Learning something new is an essential part of creating a happy environment for yourself and a great way to start your day in a happy mood. Our brains develop more and release happy chemicals when we learn something new or stimulate them with exciting information. This doesn’t have to be a complicated or expensive happiness habit; it can just include watching a Ted Talk during breakfast or listening to a podcast on your way to work. This type of habit will put you in a happy mood just by stimulating your brain and getting your gears turning. Multiple studies and research suggest that consistent curiosity goes hand in hand with happiness.   

  1. Get outdoors 

It’s easy to forget how the little things – like taking a walk – can have such a huge impact on our mental health and make us happier. Studies show that brain structure and mood improve when we spend time outdoors. This has positive implications for concentration, memory and overall psychological wellbeing. Also, getting outdoors means getting natural light, which may be key to improving mood and reducing insomnia. A recent study showed more time spent outside in natural light was associated with improved mood, better sleep quality, and ease of waking. 

 

  1. Practice gratitude 

The science is clear. Practicing gratitude makes you happier and less stressed. It leads to higher overall wellbeing and satisfaction with your life and social relationships. Yet many of us don’t make gratitude a part of our weekly practices.  And it can be really simple, research suggests that expressing gratitude by texting may be just as beneficial as an in-person show of appreciation.  

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynicsand weekly email newsletter for regular updates and news! 

Please note that I may get a small commission if you buy something from my site. Your support helps to keep this site going at no additional cost to you. Thanks! 

9 Ways to improve your mindset (E104)

by

Happiness for Cynics podcast

Join Marie and Pete this week as they discuss 9 ways to improve your mindset and live a longer, happier, and more productive life.

Show notes

Sleep deprivation and genes

Study reveals sleep deprivation is associated with lower DNA repair gene expression and more breaks in DNA. The damage to DNA may explain the increased risk of cancers and neurodegenerative diseases in those who are sleep deprived.

Sleep is your superpower – Matt Walker

Transcript

[Happy intro music -background] 

M: Welcome to happiness for cynics and thanks for joining us as we explore all the things I wish I’d known earlier in life but didn’t. 

P: This podcast is about how to live the good life. Whether we’re talking about a new study or the latest news or eastern philosophy, our show is all about discovering what makes people happy. 

M: So, if you’re like me and you want more out of life, listen in and more importantly, buy in because I guarantee if you do, the science of happiness can change your life. 

P: Plus, sometimes I think we’re kind of funny. 

[Intro music fadeout] 

P: Hi!

M: Welcome back.

P: Here we are.

M: Here we are again!

P: Laugh, and again and again and again.

M: Every week, laugh.

P: Encore une fois. [Once more] Laugh!

M: So, what are we talking about today, Pete?

P: Ooh! What are we talking about today? The nine ways to build a positive mindset.

M: Are you sure we have nine?

P: I’ll invent one, laugh. I’ll create one.

M: Laugh.

P: Just give me five minutes, laugh.

M: Love it. All right, positive mindset.

P: Mmm.

M: What are the reasons why you want a positive mindset?

P: Because unhappy people die?

M & P: Laugh!

M: I don’t know why we laugh so hard.

P: Laugh, it’s our catchphrase!

M: It’s not really appropriate, laugh. [But] yes, they tend to not live as long, how about that.

P: But a positive mindset also has positive implications for your health.

M: Yes.

P: There’s a lot of studies that support that outwardly positive and, um, uh –

M: Optimistic.

P: – optimistic was the word I was looking for. People live better quality of lives and have better health outcomes.

M: Absolutely. And the research shows that you can train your brain to think more positively.

P: Yes.

M: So, if you balance negative thoughts with positive thoughts, then you can change your mindset. So, really, this is about creating those neural pathways in your brain again that we’ve talked about to counterbalance.

P: Mmm.

M: What is a natural tendency to think things are bad in a lot of people? Some people are just natural optimists, and they born that way. Or they grow up and learn that.

P: Yep.

M: A lot of us do tend to spend a lot of time ruminating over things or thinking about all the negatives. And we’ve seen a huge increase in anxiety and depression in all people around the world since, you know over the last 20 years or so. And so actively and proactively, creating a positive mindset or balancing your negative thoughts with positive thoughts is so important to learn how to do.

P: It also creates opportunity.

M: Yes, if you see a door opening and someone else sees the door shutting. You know, there’s two outcomes.

P: There are, yeah.

M: Two very different outcomes from that.

P: Yep. It’s a positive feedback loop.

M: Yeah, absolutely. So, you mentioned that they live healthier and longer. So, we do know that research shows that optimists tend to have healthier lives and lower risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease as the pessimists.

P: Yep.

M: And on the flip side, pessimists tend to have shorter telomeres.

P: Ah ha ha ha. What are telomeres?

M: Laugh.

P: Shorter bracelets!

M: Laugh. As we discussed a few episodes ago, that means that pessimists age faster.

P: Yes.

M: So, cells with shorter telomeres circulate and release large amounts of inflammatory proteins that contribute to inflammation, which is a mechanism of ageing.

P: So, if you don’t want wrinkles, you want long telomeres.

M: Yes.

P: Add some more beads to your bracelet.

M: By changing your mindset and becoming more positive.

P: Yes.

M: All right, what else we got?

P: Oh. I’m leading? I’m going on this one.

M: So, Pete hasn’t done his homework.

P: Oh, rude!

M: Laugh.  

P: Laugh, so rude.

M: You’ll be less stressed. So, people who have positive mindsets cope with the day-to-day turmoil of life better, and they’re also less anxious and less likely to suffer from depression. And so, I think throughout Covid, there have been two very different yet typical responses.

P: Mmm.

M: There are those who have thrived throughout Covid, who have had the skills and the knowledge and the self-awareness to find ways to be positive and proactive about their mental health and their physical health and everything that their body needs. And you’ve had a lot of people who floundered.

P: It’s the same is dealing with crises in general, really, isn’t it?

M: Mmm hmm.

P: There are those people that deal with crisis better or deal with it in a proactive way in a positive.

M: Rise to the challenge.

P: Yeah, and it is. It’s the way you interpret it, as we’ve talked about before, stress is an interpretation. And some people will see a crisis as an opportunity to exercise their brain muscles or their opportunistic, outwardly going selves… don’t know where I was going with that.

M: Laugh.

P: I was reaching, totally reaching.

M & P: Laugh!

P: But yeah, it’s about looking at the situation going right, ‘I’m going to take this. I’m going to drive with this challenge and see where I end up’, as opposed to those who were running away from the tidal wave going, ‘No! Don’t come at me!’

M: Or those who don’t know that they have to take action and therefore end up in a situation that they didn’t know they needed to avoid.

P: Yes, they’re not enabled.

M: Yep, absolutely. And then, lastly, do you want to go now?

P: Yeah. I’m up to the page now, laugh.

M: You’re reading your notes.

P: I was reading Harry Potter before.

M & P: Laugh!

M: If you’re not going to be interested in our show, no one else will be.

P & M: Laugh!

P: You’ll be more successful, yay!

M: Yay, third benefit of a positive mindset. So, tell us what the science says here.

P: Well, compared to pessimists, optimists are more successful. They create social connections. They create communities, they engage with people which allows for more opportunities. They’re also more successful in issues such as marriages –

M: Marriage is an issue?

P: Issues? Yeah.

M: Laugh!

P: It’s an issue. Sure, why not?

M: I’m going to tell my husband he’s an issue. Laugh.

P: There’s a cat next to me. Of course, I’m getting flustered.

M & P: Laugh.

M: So, they’re more successful. There’s a great book by Shawn Achor that makes the case and shows the science behind optimists being more successful in school, at work and in athletics. So, people who are more positive just do better at life.

P: Mmm.

M: Not only at issues like marriage.

P: Laugh! Well, some marriages are an issue.

M & P: Laugh!

M: Very true. Maybe you don’t want to be successful at those.

P & M: Laugh.

M: Alright, so how can you build a positive mindset? Let’s get to our nine, our nine steps.

P: Oh, can we get to number nine first? Because that’s the fun one.

M: How about we leave that right for the end?

P: Aww, but it’s so good!

M: Laugh.

P: Stay tuned, folks. It’s gonna get better!

M: All right, number one, no brainer. It’s get good sleep.

P: Yes, we talked about this a lot. Just one hour of sleep deprivation has big impacts on our genetics on our ability to re-create cells, our regeneration, all those big things.

M: On our genes.

P: On our genes?

M: Not our genetics, they’re set from birth.

P: Uh, no, they do have some impact on … our genetic code.

M: On our genes.

P: Yes… Oh, I see I’m sorry. OK, I got it wrong, I’m just going to be quiet now.

M: Laugh! But we understand what you’re trying to say here.

P: Mmm hmm.

M: It impacts you right down to the cellular level.

P: There we go. Keep talking.

M: Yeah, also, I don’t know about you, but I am just grumpy as all get up after a bad night’s sleep.

P: Laugh.

M: I’m not fun to be around. And I find it really hard to be an optimist if I haven’t gotten enough sleep.

P: Mmm, yeah. Resilience is always low when you don’t have enough sleep as well. You’re just not firing on all cylinders. You’re not seeing opportunities. You’re not seeing those. You’re not resilient enough to actually turn things into an opportunity rather than going, ‘Oh my God, my life sucks!’

M: Yep, or falling apart. You lose your resilience. So global consulting firm McKinsey, has done a bit of work on this in the past few months, and they’re arguing that sleep is an important organisational topic that requires specific and urgent attention.

P: Mmm hmm.

M: And it is so true. We have this hyper connected, always on world and this expectation now that everything has gone digital, that people can answer a call or an email 24/7 and that constant low-level stress is impacting our sleep. And also, people are sending messages and emails at all times of the day and night.

P: Mmm yeah.

M: And we need to change that work culture in order to enable people to have better sleep.

P: Yeah, there’s a really good Ted talk on this by Matt Walker. If anyone wants to look it up, it talks a lot about sleep being your superpower.

M: Mmm,

P: Really good on this topic.

M: Absolutely. All right, number two.

P: Number two.

M: Limit social media.

P: Ooh, I love this one.

M: Yeah, you do. This is your favourite, isn’t it?

P: Yeah. Get off Facebook people.

M: Laugh.

P: It’s evil!

M: Even before Covid social media was well ingrained in most societies around the world. So, in Australia in January 2019, there are 18 million active users of social media websites. Facebook is the most popular with 16 million monthly users in the US, about 70% of adults say they use Facebook, and YouTube. And Instagram and Snapchat are growing in popularity.

P: Mmm.

M: It is such an important part of modern life, and I think people definitely feel FOMO [Fear of Missing Out]. They feel like they’re missing out if they’re not on these channels that everyone around them is using. But the problem is excessive social media use leads to increased depression, anxiety, loneliness, sleeplessness, and many other mental health issues.

P: Yep.

M: And so, if you want to be an optimist and positive, you really need to take control of that social media use and not let it control you and your moods.

P: Be an active user and not a passive user.

M: Yeah, absolutely. All right number three of ways to change your mindset.

P: [Mickey Mouse voice] Surround yourself with positive people, yay!

M: I think we’re doing well on this one.

P: Laugh! Like attracts like they say.

M: Yes.

P: So, bringing positive people into your sphere of influence means that you’re going to be more inclined to pick up on those vibrational, energetic connections. Oh, she’s getting down!

M & P: Laugh.

M: Talking energy.

P: Here we go, we’re going there. Cough-meditation-cough!

M: Laugh!

So, speaking about positive people, one of the best things that you can do with positive people is laugh.

P: Ah, yes. Laughter is contagious.

M: It is, it is. In a recent New York Times article, researchers found that people laugh five times as often when they’re with others, as when they’re alone.

P: Mmm hmm.

M: So, you’ll find if you’re watching a funny movie by yourself, you won’t laugh as much as if you’re watching a funny movie with friends or in a movie theatre. Because, as you mentioned, laughter is contagious.

P: See I’m the person that laughs out loud on his own.

M & P: Laugh!

M: But you won’t laugh as much as when other people are around.

P: True. I also laugh on public transport.

M: Laugh!

P: Maybe that’s my public laughter. I’ll just burst out… usually into song, but laughter as well.

M: Pete believes he’s in a musical.

P: My life is a musical.

M & P: Laugh!

M: The other thing to think about also is humour and the appreciation of humour. So, humour is one of the few things that is observed in all cultures and at all ages. And a lot of research has gone into humour more recently. And it’s one of the top five strengths of happy people, actually.

P: Ahh.

M: So, if you look at Martin Seligman and his work on strengths, you can actually do a lot of that online for free and work out what your strengths are. But if humour is one of your top five, you’re more likely to be happier and more likely to be an optimist.

P: So, Patch Adams was right.

M: Absolutely.

P: Humour is the best medicine. Or was that laughter is the best medicine?

M: Both? Both is fine.

P: We’ll take it.

M & P: Laugh.

M: All right. The next one is really important I think, especially when we talk about happiness and the importance of happiness. Really important, though number four, don’t suppress negative emotions.

P: Yep, they’re there for a reason.

M: Mmm hmm. One of the biggest misconceptions about the positive psychology movement is that people should always aim to be happy, and negative emotions are to be avoided. It’s a load of rubbish.

P: Yep, no. Can’t avoid them. They’re going to be there. They’re going to come up. You have to process them.

M: Absolutely. So, firstly, being happy all the time is impossible. We don’t live in a trouble-free world. And secondly, trying to suppress negative emotions can be really detrimental for mental health. So, the reality is, life is messy and sad and not what we expect and disappointing as well as good and beautiful and all of the other positive emotions. And we really need to make sure that we’re having an appropriate reaction to the situation.

P: Mmm yeah, that’s a good word. Appropriate.

M: Yeah, and that means processing negative events and emotions in a healthy way so you can move forward.

P: And having the skills to do that. And sometimes to have those skills, you need to do a little bit of work behind that.

M: Yep.

P: You actually need to spend some time contemplating, reading around it, going ‘how do I feel about grief? How do I feel about death? How am I going to process that when it comes to call or when it affects my life?’ And if you’ve done a little bit of that background work, it becomes a little bit easier to process your negative emotions and then by processing you get to the other side a little bit more easily.

M: Yeah, and two really good ways to help processes, journaling and talking to people, talking about it.

P: Yeah.

M: Number five.

P: Let’s exercise. [Starts singing] Let’s get physical, physical.

M & P: [Singing] I want to get physical.

P: [High pitched singing] Let’s get into physical!

M: Laugh!

P: There we go, musical theatre degree. Olivia was right.

M: Laugh, oh dear.

P: Movement and exercise if you didn’t get what that was about people.

M & P: Laugh.

P: Moving is good.

M: Absolutely.

P: Motion is lotion. Boom, Boom! Laugh. Thank you, Dan Horne.

M & P: Laugh.

M: So not only are there physical benefits to moving in exercise, but it’s great for your mood and your mental state. So, if you want to increase your positive vibes, if you want to become more of an optimist or increase your positive mindset, go get some exercise into your week or your day. And it doesn’t have to be a lot.

P: Nope.

M: But exercising releases dopamine nor-adrenaline and serotonin, and they’re all the happy drugs.

P: Happy drugs, laugh.

M: So, if we’re talking mindset and positive mindset, this is the fastest way to trick your brain into being happy.

P: Absolutely. You can do that really simply by getting yourself up and shaking the crap out of yourself, literally getting up and vibrating and throwing your arms around and getting really, really elevated with your heart rate.

M: Dance.

P: Actually, dance is one of the best ones. I wasn’t gonna go there because, you know I’m biased towards dance. But yeah, literally jumping up and down for 30 seconds is enough to actually get those endorphins going.

M: Yep, absolutely. All right, number six,

P: Learn something new.

M: I’ve got a quote.

P: Oh.

M: Einstein.

P: Mmm.

M: Mmm hmm. So, he famously said,

“The important thing is to never stop questioning.”

– [Albert Einstein]

M: And he was really smart.

P: Laugh! He was a scientist.

M: Don’t know if he was happy.

P & M: Laugh!

M: But I love the quote.

P: Laugh, he had crazy hair.

M: It is so important to add new things into your environment. So novel things. We’ve spoken about this before and learning a new skill or giving yourself something where you have autonomy and ownership over getting deeper experience and better skills at something is a great way to do that.

P: Mmm.

M: So, when we say learning, you could simply read a book or watch a documentary, you could listen to Ted talks. You could join a class. Or a course, you don’t have to go to a university degree there’s plenty of free classes out there and lots of micro learning nowadays as well. So, you could learn how to put floating shelves on your wall. Or you could go to your local TAFE and do a mechanics course and everything in between.

P: Yep, totally agree. I’m there, laugh.

M: And you know, you’ve just started back at university again, late life haven’t you.

P: Yep.

M: Does that –

P: Oh, huge amounts of mission and purpose.

M: Yep.

P: When we talk about mission and purpose is being one of the pillars of our happiness building. It’s so true because you wake up and you’ve got somewhere to go and somewhere to be, laugh.

M: I found one of the best parts of UNI was just the conversations you have. You have these new ideas running through your head and you’re wrapping your head around your values and how they fit into these new ideas and whether you believe them or not, and you’re forming your own ideas and bouncing them off other people.

It was one of the favourite things was sitting out in the quad on the grass, sometimes with the beer.

P: Laugh.

M: Often with a beer.

P & M: Laugh.

M: And debating these new ideas that we were discovering every day.

P: Yeah, I like the idea of it being reflective. It’s around your values and beliefs. I mean, that’s a great thing, because it does challenge your values and beliefs as well. And that’s a really great way to provide self-reflective practise.

M: Yep, and there are multiple studies and pieces of research that suggests that consistent curiosity goes hand in hand with happiness.

P: Yep.

M: Yep. All right, number seven.

P: Getting outdoors.

M: Ahh.

P: [Singing] Forest bathing.

M: Laugh. It’s the little things right. Taking a walk can have such a huge impact on your mental health and make you happier.

P: Yep, yeah. Go out and hug a tree. Sniff a leaf.

M: Yep. So, the studies show that brain structure and mood improved when we spend time outdoors, and this has positive implications for concentration, memory and overall psychological wellbeing. Also, when you get outdoors, it’s not only the trees and the air, but it’s also the light. So having more sunlight in your day has been shown to improve sleeplessness and mood. So, if you have insomnia, get outside.

P: Yeah, definitely.

M: Number eight.

P: Oh, you take this one. This is yours.

M: Gratitude!

P: Laugh.

M: Practise gratitude. And as we said before, it’s about rewiring your brain so that it’s not constantly focusing on the negative, and the science is really clear on this one. Practising gratitude makes you happier and less stress… Less stressed.

P: Laugh.

M: It leads to higher overall wellbeing satisfaction with your life and social relationships, so making it part of even just a weekly practise can give you all of those benefits and help you balance that negative way of thinking with some more positive and over time, that reinforces, and you start seeing more positive things in your day to day.

P: Yeah.

M: All right, Pete, and what’s your made up number nine?

P: It’s not made up, it’s backed by science.

M & P: Laugh.

P: Drink champagne! Laugh!

M: I think, I think this is my favourite way to improve your mindset.

P: So, a recent study came out in The Guardian in the UK that was talking about when we reach the alcohol, what it is that we’re doing. And studies showed that most people will have a drink when they’re actually feeling happier. So, alcohol can actually lead us to being a little bit more contented. Sure, there is the flip side of that where we do reach for the bottle as a negative coping mechanism for depression or grief or whatever.

But on the whole, most people will have a glass of wine or a beer in the day to increase their happiness.

M: Sorry. Just to be clear, the study showed that people are more likely to drink when they’re happy.

P: Yes.

M: Not the other way around. Not the flip way. So, there’s no causality. Yeah, there’s no causality here.

P: Champagne makes me happy.

M: Laugh.

P: I hear a pop and I’m ready, laugh.

M: Unless you’re Pete.

P & M: Laugh!

P: We don’t want to be encouraging people to be alcoholics.

M: No. [meaning yes] And if you’re feeling sad, reaching for the bottle isn’t going to make you happy.

P: No, that doesn’t work. If you’re already negative, then no.

M: So, I guess what we’re saying is, if you’re happy, you’re more likely to have a drink.

P: Don’t berate yourself if you’re going to have a glass of wine out in the sunshine when you’re out sniffing the trees or being in the ocean whilst expressing gratitude and having a sleep.

M & P: Laugh.

P: All the nine steps above. It’s okay, laugh.

M: And on that note, we’ll finish up for the week. Thanks for joining us again.

P: Have a happy week.

M: And stay cynical.

[Happy exit music – background] 

M: Thanks for joining us today if you want to hear more, please remember to subscribe and like this podcast and remember you can find us at www.marieskelton.com, where you can also send in questions or propose a topic. 

P: And if you like our little show, we would absolutely love for you to leave a comment or rating to help us out. 

M: Until next time. 

M & P: Choose happiness. 

[Exit music fadeout] 

Want to learn more about the science of happiness? Make sure to subscribe to my podcast Happiness for Cynics and weekly email newsletter for regular updates and news!  

Please note that I may get a small commission if you buy something from my site. Your support helps to keep this site going at no additional cost to you. Thanks! 

Snooze Blues? How Using Your Favourite Song as an Alarm can Help you Wake up More Alert

by

Stuart McFarlane, RMIT University; Adrian Dyer, RMIT University, and Jair Garcia, RMIT University

This morning after awakening when the alarm went off, you may have experienced a feeling of grogginess and lack of alertness. This is a physiological phenomenon termed “sleep inertia”. If you experience this, you are not alone. Aboard the International Space Station a NASA astronaut reported:

The morning started disastrously. I slept through two alarms, one set for 0600 and another a half-hour later to remind me to take some CEO (Crew Earth Observation) pictures. My body apparently went on strike for better working conditions.

Good-quality sleep — and feeling alert when we wake up — is vitally important. In Australia, lost productivity due to inadequate sleep has been estimated to cost A$17.9 billion a year. Sleep inertia can last up to four hours, although it can potentially be remedied by caffeine, light, or a nice hot shower.

But here’s another potential tactic to combat morning grogginess. Our new research shows how choosing the right sound to wake up to can reduce sleep inertia.

In an initial study, we found that alarm sounds perceived as “melodic”, irrespective of the specific type or genre, lead to significantly reduced feelings of sleep inertia, when compared with alternative musical variations such as “unmelodic” beeping alarms.

“Melodic” music can be defined as a tune that’s easy to sing or hum along to, such as Madonna’s song Borderline, Midnight Oil’s Wedding Cake Island, or Happy by Pharrell Williams.

Relative frequency of alarm sound type and perceived sleep inertia.

To study this intriguing effect in more depth, we carried out a second study to evaluate the effect of wake-up music on factors such as mental alertness.

We used a custom-designed app to allow participants to wake in their own bed to different alarm sounds on their smart-phone, then immediately perform a game-like task to assess their state of alertness. Similar to the test performed by astronauts on the International Space Station to monitor changes in sustained attention, our participants were required to touch their mobile phone screen as quickly as possible when the colour of a shape changed.

Melodic alarm sounds resulted in participants having faster and more accurate responses, compared with a control group who woke up using classic alarm sounds without melody.

Do Other Alarm Sounds Influence how Well we Wake up?

We don’t always awaken to a preset alarm. Sometimes we have to wake up quickly, perhaps to a smoke alarm, for instance. Some people, such as members of the military or emergency services, have to wake promptly and immediately respond to urgent situations.

To look at these cases, we reviewed all the available research on both sound alarm design and awakening in different age groups. This revealed that in emergency scenarios, children are also receptive to how alarm sound design affects their waking state.

When children awaken in emergency conditions, a low-pitched alarm or even the sound of a human voice seem to be much more effective than conventional higher-frequency alarms at combating the effects of sleep inertia. With the right type of alarm, children demonstrated better response time and memory of events, which is likely to be important in following instructions or action plans in an emergency such as a fire.

Why are these lower-pitched sounds more effective? It might be because there are crucial frequency bandwidths and how sound is processed by the inner ear and then the brain. For example, it has been shown that music does activate certain areas of the brain that control attention, although the exact mechanisms of this effect are still being investigated.

Efficiencies of sound and waking

Given we now know that different alarm sound types can influence how humans wake in normal, residential and emergency scenarios, it is interesting to consider the possibilities presented by modern technology.

Digital audio is now readily accessible and easy to share, meaning that when we go to bed we can set ourselves an alarm consisting of almost any conceivable sound.

What’s more, wearable technology and health monitoring apps are improving so rapidly that they might be able to help us choose the exact best alarm for us. You could even tailor it to different situations: if you have to wake up early and drive kids to school, you might choose a wake-up alarm that leaves you as alert as possible, whereas you might choose something different to wake up for your Saturday morning yoga class.

Vehicles could be fitted with personalised alarms to help drivers stay focused and avoid falling asleep at the wheel. Human space exploration may one day use these types of sound treatments to maximise astronaut well-being and performance.

Like the astronauts orbiting above Earth, we all have to live and work in a complex world. Almost all of us sometimes have to wake up before we’re ready, and feel groggy as a result.

But next time you’re setting your alarm, why not try something you can sing or hum along to, or just a favourite melodic song? You might experience a refreshing change.

Related articles: Is a Good Night’s Sleep the key to Sustained Happiness?

Stuart McFarlane, Researcher, Auditory Perception and Cognition, RMIT University; Adrian Dyer, Associate Professor, RMIT University, and Jair Garcia, Research fellow, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Are You Getting Enough Sleep? (E54)

by

Happiness for Cynics podcast

This week, Marie and Pete talk about how sleep affects your health and happiness. So, are you getting enough sleep?

Transcript

[Happy intro music -background]

M: Welcome to happiness for cynics and thanks for joining us as we explore all the things I wish I’d known earlier in life but didn’t.

P: This podcast is about how to live the good life. Whether we’re talking about a new study or the latest news or eastern philosophy, our show is all about discovering what makes people happy.

M: So if you’re like me and you want more out of life, listen in and more importantly, buy in because I guarantee if you do, the science of happiness can change your life.

P: Plus, sometimes we’re kind of funny.

[Intro music fadeout]

P: Oh… We’re on? [Silly voice] Are we good to go? He he. Am I on? Hello?

M & P: Laughter.

M: You are on.

P: I shouldn’t be on, we should be sleeping. We need more sleep.

M: We do need more sleep.

P: Apparently we’re not sleeping enough.

M: Actually, I’m really good at sleep.

P: Laugh.

M: Ask anybody.

P: Me too. I don’t sleep [the same as] with everyone’s sleep patterns, but I like my sleep.

M: I love my sleep.

P: Laugh.

M: And I protect it and guard it. Obviously this is the one thing I’m not failing at in my life.

P: Laugh. Exhibit.

M: Absolutely. So why do we need more sleep, Pete?

P: Our sleep is so good for us. There’s so much that sleep does for us. It’s basically influences our physical and mental capacity and every aspect of our life. So if you’re not getting sleep, things don’t happen! Laugh.

M: Absolutely. And we’re increasingly not getting enough sleep.

P: We are, in the 1940’s, eight hours of sleep was the normal arrangement of sleep, and we were pretty good at getting that amount of sleep. That was the average amount that most Americans and Australians were getting. But in the contemporary 21st century, we’re getting less and less.

In 2016, 30% of U.S. citizens were not getting seven hours of sleep. And in Australia, according to a health line survey conducted in March 2019 32% of Australians are also not getting seven hours of sleep. So we’re losing, at least one hour there.

M: And there’s been over the last 10/20 years a whole lot of books by quacks, complete quacks that say you can operate on four hours or five hours a night.

P: No. It’s bullshit.

M: It is.

P: Do not believe it people. Laugh.

M: Just like the dieting fads, these sleep fads are really harmful for you.

P: Yep, they are.

M: And not only that, yet again, you will die!

P: Yeah, laugh. Pretty much and it won’t be pretty. There’s a, there’s a direct link between cardiovascular health and sleep, diabetes, pretension, asthma, flues and colds, cancers, heart attacks.

M: Heart attacks in women in particular and more weight issues, which then leads to diabetes.

P: That’s a pre morbidity indicator.

M: Yeah, absolutely. You get more cravings of sugars and fats because your energy levels drop if you’re not getting enough sleep. So what does your body do when it’s low on energy?

P: Go get more fuel.

M: Exactly, it craves all those bad foods.

M: Yes.

P: The sugars.

M: So if you are obese. One of the first things you should be looking at if you’re hoping to lose weight is your sleep.

P: Mmm. Make sure you get enough sleep.

M: Yep.

P: And that means eight hours, not seven.

M: For adults.

P: Yes.

M: And it is more for teenagers and more for children and even more for babies. And here’s the really scary thing, we’re not even letting our infants get the recommended amount of sleep a lot of the time.

P: Oh really?

M: Yes.

P: Oh, Ok.

M: So you would never, never, if you were told how much sleep your baby should get, want to deprive that child of sleep.

P: Very true.

M: Why do you do it to yourself? This is yet another example of where we’re so much harder on ourselves than we are on other people.

P: Yes.

M: You’d never deny someone else they’re asleep that they say they need.

P: No.

M: Then we do it to ourselves all the time.

P: And another myth about sleeping is, it’s not a bank.

M: Yeah.

P If you miss out on sleep. You can’t make it up by having a big sleep. That doesn’t work that way.

M: No, not at all.

P: So that myth debunked, laugh!

M: It’s a debunking episode today isn’t it?

P: Laugh.

M: The other thing is, it makes you look old. It’s like smoking or getting out in the sun. So, you know, you get the bags under your eyes it’s really bad for your skin.

P: Your cells don’t regenerate as much.

M: Yep.

P: Not getting enough sleep has a huge effect on our cellular damage and our organs. The ability for our organs to regenerate.

Dr. Pam Taub of the UC San Diego School of Medicine talks a lot about this. She’s been doing a lot of work with firefighters and people on shift work and working around why they are so prone to cardiovascular disease and cancer due to the disruption of their circadian rhythms and the interruption of natural sleeping patterns.

M: So moving toward 24/7 world is going to kill us.

P: And that’s one of things that has killed us, and that’s one of the big shifting factors is in the post industrialised era we have more ready access to food, and we are eating much longer during the day. Our ancestors used to eat when the sun was up. We’re now eating well into the evening and we’re eating first thing when we get up, we get up at six, we get a coffee, we grab some breakfast and then we go to the gym and then we’ll go to the work and we’ll have something at 11 o’clock so we’re eating for longer.

We’re not getting that downtime of 10 hours where we’re not putting food in our stomachs. That’s upsetting our circadian rhythms. And that, in turn, upsets our sleep patterns.

M: Mmm.

P: It’s one of the big indicators that I found in some of the reading that I’ve done and the other, the other issue that comes around with that is our access to light.

M: Yes.

P: And the fact that there’s light pollution. Professor Ian Hickey of the University of Sydney is a big critic of light pollution and its links to bipolar and mood disorders.

M: Interesting.

P: And he talks [about] cognitive disorders being much larger amongst the teenage population because of our addiction to devices. Kids are going to their rooms and they have their iPad and they have their phone and they’re staying up until two o’clock in the morning on Facebook, watching YouTube and things like that. That’s having a major issue and damaging effect to our brain retention and mood cognition. And he says that’s a big one for getting rid of the issues that make us not get enough sleep.

M: I have to say it is one of our ongoing marital arguments.

P: Aaahh.

M: That Francis and I have.

P: Laugh! I’m going to go out on a limb here, are you the one on the devices or is Francis?

M: No, no, no. Not devices, light. In the bedroom.

P: Oh, yes. Right.

M: So he wants absolute pitch black or he says he can’t sleep, whereas I want to wake naturally with light rather than in a pitch black room and I can’t tell whether it’s eight AM or two AM and wake to a blaring alarm in a pitch black room.

P: Yes.

M: That to me just gets me up and in the wrong frame of mind and, and often times waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle rather than coming out of a sleep cycle and waking naturally.

P: Yeah.

M: So there’s no, there’s no solution, for the two of us, right?

P: I’m on your bank there Marie, because the fact that sunlight coming in stimulates our body into melanin production and all those, those responses that need to happen it’s a, I’m a big one for waking up with the sunshine.

M: Yes. So I think for the rest of my life that I live with Francis, for better or worse, we will be arguing over how much light is in our room when we go to sleep in the evenings.

P: Laugh. Well, how much does light affect us? You’ve referenced a study in Germany here.

M: Oh, I love this study. I love all studies that I come across!

P: Laugh!

M: There’s something fascinating to me about studies in psychology. Most of them, some of them are just dry as anything and so boring.

P: Yeah, laugh.

M: But so many of them are just super cool.

P: Where do these people come up with these ideas?

M: I know, they’re great!

P: Laugh.

M: And another area that you have to look into if you find this stuff as fascinating as me is behavioural economics because that is some really trippy stuff.

P: Wow, Okay.

M: Where you think that people would do… So It’s stuff like you put a marshmallow in front of a kid and you say, “if you wait five minutes and don’t eat it I’ll give you another one.”

P: Laugh.

M: And then walk away. And a lot of kids will just go ‘meh’ and eat the marshmallow when if they’d only waited five minutes they could have had two.

P: Two!

M: But that’s not how human behaviour works, right?

P: Laugh!

M: That’s the really simple behavioural economics, kind of.

P: In a nut shell.

M: Yep.

P: It’s a marshmallow.

M & P: Laughter.

M: But we do some really whack things, humans, that just go against our self-interest –

P: Laugh!

M: – all the time! Anyway.

P: Like not getting enough sleep, laugh.

M: Yep. Yes, laugh, back to what we were talking about.

P: Laugh. Reverse! Come on, reel it in!

M & P: Laughter!

M: So this study in the late sixties and early seventies in Germany, where they put a bunch of people into a bunker and they had no idea of the time. So, there was no natural light, no radios, no TVs, no clocks, nothing for weeks.

P: For weeks!?

M: For weeks!

P: Oh my god, those poor people.

M: And they watched. I think they just found a bunch of students, to be honest. They were happy to do some quiet study, laugh.

P: And get paid for you it.

M: And get paid, yeah. Which is, you know, pretty much every study is just students.

P & M: Laughter!

P: We know one of those, laugh.

M: Poor students.

P: Laugh, that’s why she can come to dinner every now and then.

M & P: Laughter.

M: So they then watched all of these people and saw how their bodies realigned to some kind of rhythm. And they did.

P: Mmm.

M: They reverted to their natural rhythm, so free from any external indicators of what they should be doing, their bodies went back to a natural rhythm of wakefulness and sleep.

P: Mmm.

M: Now there were, just as a side note, a few crazies out there who went to a 48 hour rhythm with their awake hours.

P: Oh, wow.

M: So this isn’t when we talk about “normal” I’ve got a quotes going for people at home.

P: Laugh.

M: And when we talk about “normal”, there are always exceptions. And there were in this study, some exceptions of people who went to a 48 hour body clock, and that was normal for them.

P: So did that mean that they were sleeping for longer periods and staying awake for longer periods?

M: Yes.

P: But their average amount of sleep across seven days would be the same as someone on a 24 hour cycle?

M: I didn’t look that closely, laugh.

P: Maybe you should see?

M: Ah, look at our show notes, I’ll see if I can find that, laugh. [Please see full study on sleep cycles here.]

P: All the reading of the research that I have done says that that would be the case, even though sleeping is not a bank. Like you can’t have one big, long sleep and make up your sleep. But you do need regular intervals of sleep/ wakefulness to keep those circadian rhythms happening.

M: And to do things like commit things to memory, long term memory.

P: Yes.

M: It’s so critical for making those connections and banking all of your data the end of the day.

P: Yeah.

M: I don’t think that, again I’ll have to look into it, but I highly doubt people are awake for 24 hours and then sleeping for a full 24 hours.

P: Yeah.

M: I’d say they’re probably at 36 of awake and then a good 12 hours sleep or something.

P: That would be interesting.

M: Or they may have been having naps throughout that time.

P: Ah, so does napping work?

M: Well, according to science, it does.

P: Okay.

M: Yep, but anyway, most people in the bunker study, the bunker sleep study, reverted to a 25 hour body clock.

P: Interesting.

M: So we’re an hour out from the day.

P: Mmm.

M: And I find that a little bit interesting. So when we’re out not in bunkers, laugh.

P: Laugh!

M: And have access to daylight to guide our activities. We, we go and follow and force our bodies to follow a 24 hour clock, generally with some small exceptions when we party too much at university and things like that.

P: Laugh.

M: But we force up what is into a 24 hour cycle. And that might actually be, not great for anyone, either.

P: I’m wondering if whether the weather, seasons, make a difference as well?

M: Mmm.

P: We tend sleep more during winter because it is darker.

M: Earlier, yep.

P: Whereas in summer, we’re out and we can’t sleep because it’s hot sometimes and the sun is up a lot longer, so again, that might be the 25 hour rhythm.

M: Well, remember when we were in Sweden?

P: Yeah, that was weird way absolutely.

M: And we came out of the restaurant and it was 11 o’clock at night and it was still light.

P & M: Laugh.

M: Yeah, and that really messed with us for a while. We were all so jet lagged, I would say.

P: Laugh. Well, it’s interesting you touched on the types of sleep because Dr Laura Jacobson, who’s the head of the Sleep and Cognition Laboratory of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, that’s a mouthful, –

M: Laugh.

P: – in Melbourne in Australia, she says that getting quality of sleep is important. Everyone talks about REM sleep and that REM sleep is so important for what we need.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: It is important for our invention and our problem-solving capability. I think it was Isaac Newton who said that his theories came to him in a dream. Composers talk about it all the time, ‘oh the melody came to me in a vision when I was asleep.’ And that’s because REM sleep accesses those inventive areas of our brain.

M: It makes, it allows you to make the connections between the different parts of your brain, and that is where you get true creativity. So, it’s when the math part of your brain talks to the psychology part of your brain, and you’d never put those two together. And that’s why some of the greatest inventions were from people who had broad education and understood a little bit about everything.

P: Yeah, ‘cause they could link things together.

M: They could make those links, and they guaranteed, would not have made those links without the freedom, free of devices and free of people to let their minds wander and make connections, but also without some really good sleep.

P: Yep, who was the apple on the head dude?

M: Newton.

P: Newton, him, Yeah!

M: Laugh.

P: Sitting under a tree, apple hits him on the head. ‘Ah, I’ve come up with the theory of…

M: Relativity.

P: I was thinking that.

M: No, gravity.

P: Right, relativity was Einstein. Oh, we’re going all over the place here, I need more sleep! Laugh!

M: Gravity.

P & M: Laugh!

P: But, getting back to Dr Jacobson, she also talks about the importance of non-REM sleep and that we equally need that because that’s good for our learning and our memory retention and organising our memories into long term memory and short term memory. So, which would explain why, if you’re not getting quality sleep, it’s constantly being broken, and you’re not getting that natural swing between REM and non-REM sleep. You’re befuddled the next day, you can’t recall things, you can’t remember what the article said that you were reading 5 minutes ago.

M: What the thing was?

P: The theory of relativity versus gravity?

M & P: Laugh!

M: You know that thing, dooby whacker.

P: Laugh. So students who are pulling all-nighters before exams. You’re doing yourself a disservice?

M: Well, it is important, you know, to say that you can sustain it for short amounts of time. So if you are pulling an all-nighter before an exam – Oh, sorry. If you’re pulling an all-nighter to get a paper in.

P: Mmm hmm.

M: Then you can do that and not see the decline straight away. But the next day, after you’ve handed your paper in, you know, you’re going to feel it, right?

P: Yeah, you will feel it.

M: You’ll feel it.

P: This is what I’m finding with a lot of the research they’re saying, don’t fool yourself if you’re denying yourself sleep, it will hit you.

M: Absolutely.

P: There’s a there’s a compensation that has to happen. Same as if you’re going to not eat for 24 hours, you can’t go and exercise when you’re not eating.

M: Yep.

P: But you can, not eat for 24 hours and you won’t die. It’s actually good for you.

M: Ooohhh! In some situations.

P: Well, that another episode right there. We’re going to get side-tracked in a minute.

M: Uh, huh. You’ve got to be –

P: Laugh, I’m pro-fasting.

M: – really, you’ve got to be really careful. Fasting is not for everyone.

P: Yep, another episode.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: Laugh.

M: So, back to napping though,

P: Yes.

M: There are definitely revitalising effects that come with napping.

P: Ok. ‘Cause I’m not a napper.

M: And – no me neither, I get really groggy.

P: I find it really frustrating.

M: Oh I can, I can, I just want a nap for three to four or five hours, laugh.

P: Which they say isn’t good for you.

M: Which means I can’t sleep at night.

P: Yeah.

M: So the ideal amount of time is about 90 minutes.

P: Oh, really?

M: But as short as 20.

P: Oh, Okay.

M: And here’s why a lot of people don’t do it because they can wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle and feel groggy and therefore not feel like they got any benefit from it there feeling worse than when they had when they went for the nap.

P: Right.

M: So the trick here is splashing water on your face and take a few steps to get your heart rate up again.

P: Ok.

M: And your brain will actually have had the benefits from that nap.

P: Oh.

M: So, it is worthwhile if you can get a nap in because you feel you need it.

P: Yep the power nap idea.

M: Always worthwhile to do it, even if you do wake yourself up in the middle of a sleep cycle, you’ve still let your brain have some downtime to recover, to put all those things into long term memory, etcetera, etcetera.

P: Yes, mmm.

M: So 20 to 90 minutes. And also, if you can’t do it during the day, which there’s no way I could fit a nap into my corporate life.

P: Laugh!

M: It’s just not happening.

P: Yep.

M: If you can’t do that, then a nap on the weekend is better than no nap. So if you only do a nap on Sundays.

P: A lot of people do that.

M: Yep. Do it.

P: Understood?

M: Absolutely.

P: So before we wrap up, how do we get better sleep if we’re not getting enough sleep?

M: There’s so many things that go into this.

P: Mmm. There are.

M: And, so many different things you should talk to your doctor about. And I’m gonna bring it back to me again.

P: Laugh.

M: Because it’s all about me, laugh. I suffered with bad sleep for a number of years because of my diet.

P: Ah, yes.

M: And it wasn’t because I was eating late. It was purely because I’ve had food allergies and intolerances for so many years, and it impacts my ability to sleep and stay asleep.

P: Understandable.

M: And everyone would tell me ‘you need more sleep’. And I was getting plenty of sleep. It wasn’t light, it wasn’t devices, it wasn’t all the usual things. So absolutely talk to your doctor of you having troubles with sleep because there are so many different things that can impact your sleep. But I think you’ve got three here, Pete, that we might end on that are the usual culprits, right?

P: Yes. So eating late, we’ve talked about it.

Don’t eat late.

Try to give yourself 10 hours without food, so don’t eat [late], especially don’t do what I do, which is a big meal before going to bed, it just keeps you up.

M: Mmm hmm.

P: I’m really bad at it because I finish work late. So don’t eat late.

Put down the devices, no light pollution.

Now that can also come down to keeping lights on in the bedroom, reading just before you go to bed. Which again I’m guilty of, having lots of light around you upsets your circadian rhythms and won’t allow you to rest.

M: Or having poor curtains or outside light.

P: Yep.

M: We have an apartment once that had a big spotlight.

P: Urrgghh.

M: And it used just come in out bedroom window.

P: That’s rough.

M: Most annoying thing in the world.

P: Yep, you want to get a BB-gun and take that thing out.

M & P: Laughter!

P: Last one.

Establish a routine that naturally brings you down.

P: So for me, one of the best things that I can do is to turn all my lights to really low and do some yoga. 20 minutes of yoga, not the big arches and the standing series, nice gentle on the floor, a couple of stretches with some soft music, if you need it, or no music at all. Decrease all the sensitivity of the sympathetic nervous system and naturally you’ll drift off to sleep really well.

M: I personally try to read for 10 minutes every night before bed, at least.

P: Which is fine because you’re resting and it’s fine to do that as long as you.

M: So no device and no white light

P: Yeah, no white light.

M: Definitely, come in here, turn the main lights off. Put the reading light on. Get into bed. 10 minutes often becomes 30 minutes or an hour but I’ll read and it’s –

P: – It’s your way to come down. It’s a good way to do it.

M: Yep.

P: Then you’re not like my mother with the woman’s weekly on your chest at 4am in the morning with glasses on.

M: Laugh!

P: Such a funny sight. You walk past and you’re like ‘Yeah, that’s good.’

And on that happy image, get more sleep people, it’s important!

M: Good night.

[Happy exit music – background]

M: Thanks for joining us today if you want to hear more please remember to subscribe and like this podcast and remember you can find us at www.marieskelton.com, where you can also send in questions or propose a topic.

P: And if you like our little show we would absolutely love for you to leave a comment or rating to help us out.

M: Until next time.

M & P: Choose happiness.

[Exit music fadeout]

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Balancing Work Pressures With Health and Fitness

by

Dade Bailey, corporate leader and personal trainer, talks about the importance of balancing work and health

We all know we need to do exercise. There have been hundreds, probably thousands, of studies into the positive effects of regular exercise. It leads to better moods, decreased stress, more mental resilience, more confidence, more energy, and I could keep going on. So, there is no way I could have a site dedicated to happiness and mental health, and not cover exercise.

Unfortunately, when we get busy, exercise is often the first thing we drop!

That’s why this week I’m interviewing Dade Bailey, who has had a very successful career in the corporate world, but he also recently retrained as a personal trainer. I spoke to him about the importance of balancing the pressures of work with health and fitness, and how to bring a bit more balance into your life.

You’ve had a very successful career with some big Australian brands, but there’s more to you than your professional career… Let’s cut to the chase: you’re buff.

<Laughs> Nice, thanks. Yes I’m Okay. So yes, but it took a long time for me to get here.

How much time do you spend working out or doing exercise each week and what do you do?

On reflection looking back, I always wanted to get to this point of being able to look in the mirror and go, yeah, I look good. I feel great. I’ve got a healthy balance, and it took a very big mind shift to get there.

The gym I’ve been with for 14 years called Hiscoes in Surry Hills [Sydney], is such a great gym, I did a strength challenge with them that was the catalyst. They really gave me the understanding of how muscle groups work, how nutrition needs to work, how building good longevity strength really would help. And that helped me set my mindset to where I am now.

Now, I’m at the gym about four or five times a week for my own personal training. I do different things, that could be strength training, high intensity training, but also it could be just something for stress relief – like going to kick the crap out of a boxing bag, or just going to do some yoga for active recovery. I really love Pilates – Reformer Pilates – that’s really good. So, four to five times a week because rest is so important as well. You’ve got to be able to allow your body time to recover.

Is balance something that’s important to you?

I think being in the corporate world for such a long time, exercise is always my outlet and going to the gym in the morning sets me up for the day, to really start my day off well. So from a mental health point of view, it was like, I’m ready. I’m walking in the office ready to take on the day. I’m feeling good. I’ve got all these endorphins happening. It’s great. Fantastic.

However if my nutrition wasn’t balanced and I was then going to eat an egg and bacon sandwich every day, and not really balancing my food, I wasn’t really complimenting my training well. Then then looking at other parts of my life and ensuring I have a balance in those areas.

When I lead teams questions I’d ask ‘are you exercising? Are you eating right? Are you sleeping right? How’s home life?’ To see if their life is balanced, and if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t be able to bring their best selves to work. At the start of each week, I used to ask my team “How are you feeling out of 10 this week?” To gauge how balanced they are heading into the week and how I could support them better.

Additionally I included exercise at work, instead of just having a 1:1 in a room, we’d go and have a walk and talk to do some exercise at the same time. Or have team meeting, we’d get out the building, so you were getting away from your desk.

Now I’ve become a personal trainer and I know a lot more about the sciences behind it, so going back into the corporate world is really going to help me as a leader to help my team thrive, so they get the best out of their work and bringing their best selves to work.

A lot of people join gyms and go to one or two classes and never go back. How did you find that spark or that passion to begin with?

As I said before there was a challenge at the gym. It was an eight-week strength challenge and I’m like, you know what, for eight weeks, I will commit. This is a short amount of time. Really commit. And even by week four of the eight weeks, I was seeing so many different changes in my body, how I was sleeping, how I was motivating myself. I changed myself from not being a morning person to being a morning person.

That’s huge!

It’s huge. I never used to be able to get out of bed. I used to sleep in and just go to work, but now I wake up at like 5:30 in the morning, quite happily.

Okay, I need your secret. We’ll get to that in a second.

But I think for me, it was that you’ve got to be able to help yourself and that was the mindset thing. You are the only one who’s going to be accountable here. You’ve got personal trainers that will help you, use them to help build out a program but it’s also “Where’s your commitment in this?” And I had to make a commitment to myself.

The corporate world is relentless, and it’s nonstop. And you have to find those moments to find that balance.

A lot of us are spending long, long hours in corporate world, and it’s becoming harder and harder to say no. What advice would you give to people to make sure they can find the balance in their life to fit in exercise.

Just from a personal point of view, after 14 years of working in an organization of the scale and the complexity that I did, I was really burnt out. And I’ve taken the time out to do some of the things I wanted to do, like become a personal trainer, which is amazing.

The corporate world is relentless, and it’s nonstop. And you have to find those moments to find that balance. As a leader in an organization, it was making sure that people came to work and they had a balanced life outside of work was my priority, because if they were wandering in and they didn’t have that balance, they weren’t able to perform at work. So for me, them making sure that they could do work flexibly if they wanted or being able to prioritize going to the gym classes that they wanted, or “hey, there’s a yoga class at four.” Go for it. You can. I know you’ll work to make up the hours. It’s about not putting restrictions on or being stuck in the old way of working of, “I need to see you at your desk from nine to five, and you need to produce X amount of widgets.”

Instead it’s like, “Here are the outcomes that you need to achieve. I expect you’re an adult and you’re able to achieve them. I will give you accountability to do that, and you work how you want. Giving people that freedom enabled them to be able to bring more of themselves to work and they were honest with me going, “I’m going through a tough time with this happening at home.” Okay, cool, at least I’m aware. But at least that kind of relationship really helped people bring everything they can to the office, and I created teams that thrive. And that’s where I’m always very proud of those moments. Because for me, if I’m running a team and they’re not living their best life outside of work, they’re not going to enjoy coming to work every day.

Absolutely. So obviously we all wish we had a boss like you! Were there any points in your life where you had bosses that didn’t subscribe to this idea? And how did you deal with explaining that you need to take time for yourself in order to be better for the organization or for your boss?

I had a boss who was a micromanager, and he really pushed my buttons. In the end, I learned that to manage the micro manager, I had to manage back. Okay, you want to know everything I’m doing? Here is a task list. Here’s everything I’m doing. You want to see that I’ve done all these tasks? Awesome.

Instead of them controlling me, I had to take control of them. But I also gave them honest feedback. I’d ask, “Can I just ask why you need to know this level of detail?” And sometimes people are just afraid of the boss. So just ask the question, “What was this to achieve? What’s the outcome?” Because for me, that kind of open and honest communication doesn’t happen enough in the corporate world. People need to ask the question “why” a lot more.

Have there been any times since you first started including exercise in your life on a regular basis that you haven’t been able to exercise, and have you noticed any impacts on your mental health or resiliency?

Absolutely. When in high delivery times, if I don’t get sleep and I don’t get to the gym in the morning, I go straight to work, I can sense my productivity levels dropping. I’m wandering in, I don’t feel energized, it would take me about two hours to get going. And people are bombarding me with questions and I wasn’t firing on all cylinders!

So that’s why it becomes so important to make sure you find that time and make sure that it happens, saying ‘this is important to my balance and the reason for that is to avoid two hours of wasted time as I wander in.’ Make sure you have the conversation as to why it’s important with your leaders to go, ‘this is me, this is why I need to do this. This is going to be better for you.’ This could be not just exercise, it could be making sure you’re dropping the kids off or going to swim class with the kids or prioritising a doctors appointment. As long as they let me know, there were ways we could make it work.

One time I noticed it started to affect my mental health was when I was leading the one of the biggest, complex change programs to deliver IT experiences to the whole organisation. It was consuming so much of my time, I started see my drinking habits go up each day, I was working longer hours, I was getting to bed late and sleeping in and not getting to the gym.

So I actually did a checkpoint, a kind of ‘put me at the centre’ activity and what actually makes me happy overall. For me it was flexible working, meaningful work, getting to the gym, making sure I’ve got time for my nutrition and making sure I’ve got time with my friends. When I started to protect those parts of my personal life, I felt the balance returning. I ensured I could cook on a Sunday night for the food for the week, ensured I limited my drinking to weekends, had conversation with my boss to come in a bit later so I could fit in my gym in the morning.  I really had to look at and put myself under the microscope and go, what makes you happy on a day to day basis from the outside of work. And what is work affecting of those pillars? And make changes.

I think it’s such an irony that when we’re needed most at work, we let down all the other areas of our life that keep us healthy for work.

But it’s also the ability for a leader to see that in their people. And for me now coming into a personal training side, I think I’m rounding out my skills in a very different way. Because it will be a very much, “well, what makes you ‘you’ outside of work? Is it exercise? Is it nutrition? How are you balancing yourself out? And how as a leader can I help that outside work operate well? What blockers do I need to remove to help free that up so you come into this office skipping?”

Can I ask you since you have been training and doing your certifications, what are some tips for people who are just starting out on their exercise journey?

Ask questions of anyone working in that gym. I’ve had the same personal trainer since day dot (Hi Mac) and he’s just so full of knowledge, like how bodies work, how you sleep, how exercise affects your energy levels – there’s so much knowledge that they have! Learn from them and really ask questions. They want to be asked and if you have a question over motivation, programs, technique or what is best to achieve your fitness goals, ask them. And if they don’t know they’ll know someone who can [help].

A lot of people don’t do the gym because they have a fear that they may look silly, don’t know how to  use the equipment or may go “ahh no, they look really fit, I can’t join that class.” But everybody working at the gym is there to help you. And yes, there are some people in gyms that are all there posing in front of mirrors or at the other end of the spectrum where they’re like, “Oh, my God, you had an alcoholic beverage, the world is ending.” But remember most people are there to better themselves. You’re all there for the same reasons, you’re there for health or want to look better for your wedding that’s coming up, or something like that. And there are people in that gym, with so many skills to help you achieve that. Don’t be afraid.

I know I was! I think I first went to a gym when I was 13 or 14 and those machines looked so scary. I don’t know if you remember going, “Oh my gosh, how do these work?” So would you recommend maybe taking a class to get started versus going straight for the weights equipment?

A couple of things that I’d recommend: most gyms overall should have some kind of introduction assessment. They should do a fitness assessment with you as soon as you walk in. Let’s sit down and get a baseline, let’s do some measurements. Let’s make sure you can know what your goals are, what do you want to achieve. A good gym will sit down and help you design a program and not only help you design a program to help you start to achieve that, but also show you how to use that equipment.

Regarding your point on the machines looking scary, they are built to help you ensure you’re doing your form correctly. Most should have a little illustration on them as how to use it properly, if you don’t have the confidence to talk to someone at the gym to demonstrate it to you. Otherwise, ask one of the trainers because they honestly want you to use the gym, use it safely, have correct form and they want their product to be used and for you to get the best results.

Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want to add before we go?

I think in summary it’s about finding balance overall. If you are completing exercise or want to start, then work with your gym on how to do that and remember your body needs fuel for that exercise. Complement this with great nutrition, getting the sleep you need sleep, ensure you have time for your own mental health and having time for enjoying life – you need to look at what factors of your life are really are important to you, see how you get balance across them and see how you protect them.

After all, we work to live, not live to work!

If you’re in Sydney, you can find Dade at Hiscoes gym in Surry Hills. Visit www.hiscoes.com.au.