Fasting Space

Today we're talking about how we are, what we routinely do.

Some big concepts that I try to communicate to people.

Finding a space of peace and contentment,

a mental, emotional space of peace and contentment.

That's a big vibe
that I want to communicate on this channel.

If we are what we routinely do, well, let's

do something where we center ourselves,

where we bring down the intensity for a little while.

I view, this space as kind of like a coffee shop,
you know, it's like

get together with some friends,
have a chat about health and wellness.

So we are what we routinely do.

We want to be someone who is calm and peaceful.

Let's, like, practice it a little bit.

We want to be somebody, you know, here
we are in a weight loss space.

I want to be somebody who is leaner and stronger.

It's like, well, it's like,
what are the habits that drive us there?

You know, talked yesterday a bit about identity,

like answering the big questions of life,
who am I and what does that mean?

And then we talk about the practices,
like practicing these things, practicing the way of being.

It's like stepping down the path toward the goal we want

and got different tools that we can use along the way.

Yesterday, dialing in on, bring

some exercise, you know, some more movement.

Like his feeling like the way to, go in that direction.

And that's beautiful.

I was inspired by that.

I was, I've been on a little down cycle where I was like,

I haven't quite been exercising
quite as much in the morning.

My idea of day in is to get up and and hit

a really great workout before I come and do this.

And so I was lying in bed last night thinking about,

you know, this session yesterday
and asking myself the same questions like, who am I?

Like, what am I?

I am a person who is, an athlete.

I am strong and I exercise and I, I get up and I do it.

And so I was firing myself up
just from the session, you know.

And so I got up this morning.

And so I just I feel so good now.

Just makes such a difference.

Do you experience that.

Like it's hard.

There's the barrier to so many of the things
that are healthy, right.

So many of the things that are nourishing and life
giving, to the body,

it's like the, the voice inside the, the process.

There's resistance. Right?

You don't have to do that.

You don't have to do it today. Do it tomorrow.

You know, we can see that in an exercise space.

You can see the exact same thing in a fasting space.

Delicate line always to walk.

Because of course, we have, said here,
no rules, no pressure.

We can put so much pressure on ourselves

across every domain of life, but especially in health.

Especially loved the thinking we did yesterday.

Like like, where is the joy?

You know, like, where is the calling?

And and so you have to want to do it, you know,

you have to want to do something
in order to bring the fire, the intensity.

And that's what we want,
you know, we want to be flowing in directions

when it's like, yes, this is the thing I need to be doing.

And like the food that we want to eat,
there's a calling, right?

Like in, in this world
where, like, the food there is cheaper

and it might even like look better
because it's packaged and marketed.

Say, I really want to dial in on this.

Like, this is an investment in my health.

And like purchasing food
that is going to become a part of me.

Such an incredible opportunity to,
to bring thoughtfulness into it.

Okay, so we are what we routinely do
think about eating healthy food.

We are the food we eat.

It's like we literally are it.

So if we are, investing in that, taking the time

to get to the stores
that sell the best food, you know, in some ideal

world, building relationships
with local producers of healthy food,

it's like the highest quality
that has not been shipped across the planet.

Oh man. Then we are it, right?

And we can bring that across all these domains, right?

We are the food that we eat.

And then think about it. We are the food that we don't eat.

That's how we bring everything into balance
with the fasting process.

Right?

It's like the inversion is like we can see it
that, okay, the physical body is built

out of the food that we eat,
but we say, I want the physical body to be leaner,

you know, like there's this part of the physical body,
some extra body fat.

I want that gone. Right.

Like we are going to bring in some fasting into that space,
allow that energy to serve as purpose.

Body's saving that energy to release it.

When we get through a food free space, a lean part, right?

Think about like the words right to say, are we in season?

Right. There's the famine.

This is the history of humanity
that we have survived through great difficulty

because of the incredible efficiency
and energy storage capabilities of the body.

Right now, we are in this hopefully privileged place
when we say we have enough to eat

and we want to be mindful
and try to help everybody to be in that space.

Absolutely.

But if we are fortunate enough right now
to be in that space, say, like,

I want my physical body to be leaner,

open up voluntarily the patch of space, the lean season

that we create, the fasting space,
not out of any, guilt or pressure to do it.

But when you say I want it,
I want to bring that into my body.

I want to bring nothing into my body.

Like what a space, what a space.

And then the exercise. Right?

We are what we routinely do.

We want to be strong.

I want to be strong. Strong for life.

You know, just so that we can be functional,
doing the things we want.

Have the energy.

Do you ever feel it where it's like the energy is low.

It's like, how do we get the energy, bring the fire?

I put fire emojis in there because I'm feeling fired up now.

I did I did sprints on my stationary bike this morning.

Everything matters.

I loved that session. We did. Everything matters.

We want to be healthy people. Everything matters.

So our food matters.

Our absence of food, matters.

Our movement matters and our mental health practice matters,
bringing everything into balance.

So think of this.

Think of this balance I was contemplating this morning.

Okay. Peace and contentment.

On one side is like I was like, what balances like that out?

Like where is the balance? Okay.

The other side of it, meaning and purpose.

Right. So think of that.

Like if we are,
if we are just sitting, floating in a peaceful thing

all the time, like, okay, like that's great, we want that.

But like there's like energy that balances that out.

Like where is like the drive, the passion,

the intensity, the calling, the meaning, the purpose.

These things like that is what really

completes out like a healthy mental health,
you know what I mean?

Like, so if we're in a space, we say mental emotional health
not so good right now.

Struggling, depression, anxiety, discouragement,
so many sort of things.

All right.

It's like may be the place to flow
first is just to work on it

and flow over to that peace and contentment sort of space.

Like I say, a lot like neutral can be good enough, right?

If like if we just get to a place, like
everything is just okay.

Beautiful. You know what I mean?

And we can we could see we can take that mindset everywhere.

Everything doesn't have to be perfect. Extreme.

Everything can come into balance.

But sometimes, like if we're stepping forward,
if we're moving forward

and how if, like, we open up
our mind, like things can be better than just okay, right.

Things can be really good.

And, if we've sat around in a space

that is, peace and contentment for a while, like,
let's open up some bigger stuff.

Good morning. Welcome.

So nice to have you here.
I hope you are doing so well today.

We are what we routinely do.

I just want to keep centering, on that.

And then thinking, you know about it.

Personally, I've been thinking, okay,
I like to say on the channel, right.

We are on a journey together and the the big journey.

Okay.

I am trying to help lead people toward better health.

You know, this is like
I am dialed into that space in the best that I can.

I'm on a personal journey, right?

Like I want to get better at doing it.

And the the synergy between these things that I realized is
like, like, how do you get better at it?

Like, to me, I read like, this is what I do.

And I was realizing, okay, I want to get better thinking

for people like better thoughts, the thoughts,

as far as I can tell you,
you bring me any good, perspective that you can.

The thoughts that, could hopefully help me
have better, thinking for you.

The same things will help anyone to walk on a health path.

The thoughts that are creative and thoughtful,

insightful, powerful thoughts and analogies.

Like every thought.

Little tools to help us solve problems in our life
that are barriers that we're trying to overcome.

Right.

So I've chosen books, okay. The way I know.

How do you find thoughts like that?

Find the best books I'm trying to find,
you know, the best thinking

to bring into our space
so that we can all, move forward together.

That's kind of what I'm trying to do.

I'm trying to move forward in my process of helping
you give you these thoughts.

We are, like all, grow in our learning
and understanding together.

So one of these books, some people have gotten that one,
The Mountain is you.

I just love that.

And, I've been dialing on that

quite a bit and balancing it out with this one,
Atomic habits, and I know,

people also have read that
I've really been loving, these thoughts.

And so I wanted to share a little excerpt of this
with you today,

thinking like, this is how I'm framing this kind of chapter.

You we are what we do.

Who? I like this
some someone said what I other with my mouth.

My actions must prove I like that.

Thank you for sharing that.

That is a great thought.

There's such a powerful connection there.

And we have I have, said some session that I was doing

is, about the power of our words.

And,
like so many times we get stuck in our own head, right?

And we get stuck in thoughts. Do you ever experience this?

Thoughts just running around, racing around,
and it's like we're not really going anywhere.

And it's like we feel trapped in a thing.

Like, here's like one, thing to consider.

Just speak like, speak it out.

Like say, hey, I'm having like, these thoughts
and then try to, like, reprogram

in actually speak the types of thoughts and experiences
you want to be having.

And, and especially if you can dial it
into this kind of identity.

Hey, I am a person that is on a health path
and I am walking in this direction,

and this is what I'm gonna accomplish in this day.

This is this is heading into this actions,
uttering it with the mouth

like you are saying it, helping to drive the action.

Because of course, thinking a thought it is a good thing,

but then manifesting it in action is
is really what we want to do.

And so to make the thought more tangible, speak it.

To reprogram a bad thought, replace it out loud

with, with something variable,
you know, maybe head in the mirror

that was that section and say, look yourself in the mirror
and have a little conversation with yourself.

You know, say, hey, hey, I am a strong person.

I am not going to listen to this negative self-talk anymore.

I am going to take, you know, one action.

Make it small, make it an atomic habit, make it a tiny,

Tiny goal that you can accomplish.

They say it is building the evidence of who you are.

This is kind of where this section is going.

Say like.

Okay, let's center ourselves.

We are what we routinely do.

I think we'll read through it here in one of these sections.

But it's like when we say, like,
who are we actually like if we kind of are

what we do when we try to answer, I say, who am I?

We actually look at what we do as like,
well, I'm a person who does these things right?

So if you want evidence that you are on a path that you're
moving somewhere different, just do one small thing.

And now since you have done it, now you have some evidence
to say, oh, look, I have done this thing.

I'm the person who does this, right.

It this is like an incredible process of change.

Build some little bits of evidence.

It's like getting the process going.

Here's an interesting story.

So this, gentleman, James Clear, you know, at one point
think about his life.

He was a kid. He's growing up. He wasn't a writer.

But then he became like an incredibly.

Famous, professional writer.

And so look at, look at this just story of development
and think about how this sort of idea,

we could bring this into our own life and our own process
of what we're trying to accomplish, whatever it is.

He says, for most of my early life,
I didn't consider myself a writer.

If you were to ask any of my high school teachers
or college professors, they would tell you

as average writer at best, certainly not a standout.

When I began my writing career,

I published a new article every Monday and Thursday.

For the first few years, as the evidence

grew, so did my identity as a writer.

I didn't start out as a writer,
but I became one through my habits.

It's not so interesting
just to think about like, he's obviously a writer.

So like a bestselling author, New York Times
bestseller is like so many people.

I mean, I don't know how many people know about this book.

Tons of people know about this book, and I've read it.

It's helped. So many people.

How did it come into being?

It came into being by him.

Just like doing it, you know?

Like, like awesome.

This is such an incredible example for like,
say we have a goal, we have something we want to accomplish.

We have a health goal.

We say, I want to lose weight.

I want my blood sugar better. I want blood pressure better.

You know, I want to feel better.

All these sort of things.

So it's one thing to think the thought of it, okay.

We start thinking the thought of it.

You say, how do we manifest that reality?

How do we do it?

How do we become it?

It's like, well, we start taking the steps to do it.

How did you become a writer?

You write right?

And and this didn't happen instantly.

You don't make something like this
that affects millions of people.

It's like overnight, right?

You don't just say, I'm a bestselling author now.

You go through the practice of doing it and build it.

This is the same thing.

Like, you don't just say, I, I've, I've lost weight now.

Like it doesn't.

It just doesn't happen instantly.

It's the same things like you go through a process

and the process of doing it,

of becoming a say, I'm going to become a leaner person.

Just like the process of writing
I published every Monday and Thursday.

What is the system
that is helping you to become whatever your goal is?

You know? This, this?

Do you see how it is merging with,

the Rick Rubin book that I've been going
through, the creative act, that is all artistic.

It's totally right brain.

It's like, how do we paint a beautiful picture?

Basically, how do we sing a beautiful song?

But the thought is the same sort of process, right?

How do I become, something?

Creating the life, the experience, that I want.

I just love the overlap of that.

I love that no more, negative self-talk.

Right? No more bad talking to the self. There's good. Just.

I like that session
we did something like looking toward the light.

You know what I mean? Look toward the light.

See the good, lifting ourselves up, giving ourselves a pep

talk, giving ourselves every, good advantage,
that we need.

There's enough negative influences in the world,
you know what I mean?

There's enough things trying to bring us down,
tell us we're not good enough,

that we're small and we have no power or agency.

Okay. Are you on your own side? Are we on our own side?

Are we giving ourselves every,

encouraging word that we can?

This section is comparing, like something that happens,

like a one time event with a routine with a habit.

So think about this.

The effect of a one off experience tends to fade away.

Or the effect of habits gets reinforced.

This means that habits contribute most of the evidence

that shapes our identity in this way.

This is the part I love.

The process of building habits
is actually the process of becoming yourself.

So that's such a cool way to think about it.

Like we're becoming our self, like the future self,
or becoming our self

through the daily habits and practices that are shaping us.

Really nice way to think about it, right? Really nice.

The process of becoming yourself,
one note at a time, one chord at a time.

It's like each day is like,
let's make it like one of those chords.

You know a chord, right? It's build up on multiple notes.

Think of it this way, like a chord
that we're playing the beautiful melody.

It's the stack of all of these things
the mental health practices,

the movement, the food, the fasting space. Right.

So every good thing of health, we stack it together.

That's like a beautiful chord every day,

just marching to that beat, that rhythm, he says.

Here we don't change by snapping our fingers
and deciding to be someone entirely new.

It doesn't just happen
by do we change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit.

We are continually growing.

Continue in that process.

That's that rhythm, the beat, stacking

the practices, building the routines in the process.

Says every action you take is a vote for the type of person
you want to become.

How cool is that? As a thought?

Who goes in here to say basically like,
okay, you're casting votes.

Everything that you're doing is a vote
for who you want to be in the future.

And it was like he talks about kind of an election metaphor.

It's like, and that's why he says, you don't
have to be perfect if you don't win the election cycle.

100% of the votes, right?

Perfection not required.

You want to just want to tip the balance in your favor.

6040 be an incredible outcome, right?

You're going to win the election at 60%, you know.

And I love that.

Perfection is not required, right.

When we think about okay,
we are what we routinely do doesn't have to be perfect.

Like what are we doing most of the time.

Like saying most of the time like, you know, good enough.

Most of the time I'm choosing the healthiest foods.

Most of the time I'm getting some movement into the body.

Most of the time, I'm giving myself
the most thoughtful, positive thoughts that I can.

Most of the time in a day.

I open up some space without food.

If I'm trying to lose weight, you know what I mean?

It's like most of the time I'm like doing trying the best.

Perfection not required.

I couldn't even do it, like you say.

Couldn't even do it if you wanted to.

So why stress yourself out about it?

We got enough stress in life, you know?

Absolutely.

Take the pressure off of ourselves.

Perfection not required.

But having, you know, big goals also is great.

That's the balance.

Having a goal
and striving to be the best that we absolutely can see.

I put a smile on the face
because it's like when you're called to it,

not out of any pressure or judgment, like, oh,
if I screw up, if I'm not perfect, like punishing myself.

No, no, no, no.

Just doing the very best that we can with the opportunity.

See joy, excitement, move toward the joy.

Move toward the light. Move toward the excitement.

It. When you when you're moving in a joyful space,

when you're doing the best that you can, you just feel it.

You say, I'm dialed in here
I am moving in the just the best that I can see.

That feels good.

And it doesn't feel good to act out of guilt,
to be punishing, to be afraid.

Like, oh, if I screw this up,
I just am letting myself down again.

Okay, never think like that again, right?

You don't you don't want to bring any kind
of negative experience, right?

You want to say like, look at the type of person that I am.

I am a person who's just doing my best to recognize, like,

life is difficult, but look at the challenges that I have

and in the face of all of this difficulty,
I am doing my best to.

You just got to give yourself a big pat on the back
to be doing something like that.

I feel so good about you saying, look, we.

I am taking the most kind and thoughtful attitude.

I have all these obstacles.

I'm going to move toward them,
in the most thoughtful and gentle way,

but thoughtful and gentle like water flowing
that we see is actually powerful.

It carves through the stone, it creates the canyon.

You know, it's like nobody could even do it.

But the water just flowed through.

And then it didn't happen instantly.

Right?

Water doesn't flow through a canyon in a day, right?

It takes a process and time.

So that's what we're on and we have time.

You know what I mean?

So when I say everything is okay,

you know, like we don't have to rush everything, anything,

everything is happening in its own time, in its own season.

We can move toward it in a thoughtful and gentle way,
practicing these,

beautiful practices
that lead toward health, life, vitality, flourishing.

In this in this section,
he says, the first step isn't what or how, but who.

Who do you want to be? And I underline this.

He says, otherwise
your quest for change is like a boat without a rudder.

I just I'd put that because I say that a lot

is like I've said, that that's that is absolutely true.

That is kind of, the the deepest question.

I did that, session, the most important question
and, weight loss.

I said, what do I really want?

Maybe this would would challenge that.

And maybe this is like the connection, like,
who am I really?

Maybe. Is that even a more powerful question?

Then what do I want?

Yeah, let's think on that deeply.

What do I really want so important.

That may be the meaning. Like, who am I really?

Yeah.

What is a bold prayer for me?

Like you, you're saying a prayer for yourself, right?

You're trying to be really intentional.

That prayer is something about like the future, right?

Where we're praying, you know, is, is
and bringing so much thoughtful intensity to something.

But what is what is it?

You know, what do I really want? Or who am I really?

Who am I trying to be?

However it shakes out, you know,
how does it shake out for you?

What is a more powerful question?

Maybe on a different day
you answer the question differently and that's okay.

And maybe you don't know how to answer it.

You know, in the moment.

And that is okay
to like we're searching for a place of clarity,

you know, like, wouldn't it be great
if everything in life was just clear all the time?

It's like, oh, everything is clear.

We're trying to create, a space here.

Fasting space. I would say it is about that.

Have you experienced it?

Physical fasting space in the body.

You open up some space without food.

It's like you experience more clarity,
like the thinking is more clear.

I know in my, personal, experience fasting space,

incredible space for, like, productivity,
getting things done, thinking clearly.

You can, see the, distinction most clearly.

I think we see where would be the time where you are, like,

least likely to want to be, productive.

It's like,
at least you want to do your least amount of, like,

really powerful thinking, like,
right after Thanksgiving dinner, right?

You just have some huge meal and you eat all this

food is like,
you want to, like, lay on the couch, you have some big meal.

It just shows you, okay, we're not in our prime
thinking there and physiologically in the body

is because like, the blood flow is all getting shouted down
the GI tract, like that's one of the things.

And then all those digestive, the,
the hormones, the insulin, all these things,

it's like we have shifted out of fasting space

into digestion mode, right into food processing mode.

And so, you know, gotta do that from time to time.

But then look at the whole other side of the equation, okay?

When we have opened up a fasting space,

we've completely cleared out any blood sugar
swings, insulin level,

totally stable, everything calm,
no blood flow going to the digestive system.

That's like mental clarity.

Space gets so much done.

Queen of Heaven says yes.

Getting more done is like super, productive space.

I've got some sessions.

Live sessions,
if you look in the archives, fasting productivity

sessions, you know that are just a space dial
in with some thoughtful music,

have that dedicated fasting productivity space.

Love it. clarity. Right.

So clarity in the short term fasting space
like actually in the body.

You know what I'm trying to create here in this space.

This is the mirror right. Fasting space in the body.

Fasting space.

The program
a session to try to help us dial in on the thinking,

to help us actually do it in the most powerful way.

Seeking clarity.

This is what I want.

Think of the weight loss landscape in the country.

In the world, you know, today so many things are not clear.

You know, so many things not clear,
because so many people trying to sell things,

so many people influenced by so much of, culture
and so much of things.

It can be hard in a landscape to even say, like,
what is even true?

And how is it people disagree about so many things?

Simple fasting part of the idea, you know, I choose a word.

Simple is just like we're looking for clarity, you know.

So like in the midst of all this confusion,
can we bring things down to a level?

It's like it's comprehensible.

We just want to understand what is happening
so that we can move forward.

You know, what is the path to move forward?

Where is the clarity? This is what we are seeking.

What are things that are true?

This is the that what I care about.

I want things that are true and honest and,

effective, sustainable in the long term.

This is what we are,
what we say we are, what we routinely do.

We want to be doing just this.

Get the basics down.

I was watching a a video yesterday
and I was giving an analogy of some pro tennis player.

I'm not a tennis person, okay?

But they were doing this video bag,
one of the best tennis players in the world,

and they were watching his practice session
and they were comparing it with the amateur

and you know, amateur tennis player
does they do doing all these crazy,

crazy drills and like all these things
and I'm sure they've done that.

But they were just watching this session from this guy
and all he was doing was practicing for the serve,

just practicing throwing the ball up again
and catching it just again and again.

The very most basic thing you know,
and they're so they're seeing like this guy

who's like you think would be doing the most advanced,
drills.

He's he's got tons of money.

He's got professional coaches, all this stuff.

What is he doing?

He doesn't have special machines.

He doesn't have all this stuff.

He's just throwing the ball again and again and wrapping
just the very basic

to do like his very best on the fundamentals.

And that's what I'm say about this space.

Like the fundamentals, the very basic sort of things.

You know, think how complicated
everything has been made and weight

loss and think how expensive and how confusing.

And it's just all this thing
that's like, hey, let's bring things down

to like a really, really simple, basic,

pure level
or try to eliminate as much confusion as possible.

Move toward things in as thoughtful
and gentle a way as possible.

That's actually what makes it the most powerful.

Know when we're not burning ourselves out in any fashion,

when we recognize, okay, there are powerful practices here.

You realize fasting is a powerful practice.

Choosing healthy foods, a powerful practice movement,

powerful practice, mindfulness practices.

Each one of these things are incredible
tools of wellness in their own regard.

You can lean into all of them.

Each of them is a pathway toward health and flourishing.

Okay.

And then it's like you start to realize that
and you're like, oh, man.

And then like, we we can mix all of these things together

and we realize it's like there's so many good things to do.

I was like, that's why we can be thoughtful and gentle

with it, build the positive encouragement,

enthusiasm where it's like like every day
I have an opportunity to practice like these things,

put them together in this incredible
melody of health playing the song.

It is my expression of health,
like just beautiful, you know?

And that's that's how we can get in a space.

We don't have to force anything.

Fasting never forced.

I say the same thing either way.

It's like exercise. Never have to be forced.

Don't have to force ourselves
into some specific dietary thing.

You say, oh, I'm the I'm going on this diet
I can only own eat this types of things.

You know, it's like and we get get stuck into these grooves,
you know, where we feel trapped in it.

Even you could do it in fasting.

Say it.

Well, I got to a certain place.

I was only eating one meal a day.

Omad and I got to think,
you know, that can be great for a season.

But you said you need to step back, you know,
and some people will say, oh, I've gotten to this level.

I can't ever go back.

And I say, no, no, no, no, no, no.

These are flexible processes. All this.

So you want so much flexibility
because like our life is dynamic.

Seasons change.

We can't get stuck into rigid things.

Otherwise it can't be sustainable.

And so we want to see the whole palette.

You know the different health processes
like different colors of paint.

We're trying to paint this
beautiful expression of health in our life.

Sometimes we're painting with one color, like a whole bunch.

Sometimes we're painting with another one. Right.

And like in our analogy, it's like I don't say like

we lean on one side, I don't abandon the other ones.

But like, we can pull back in one spot,
lean forward to another space.

Like you say here, Queen of Heaven
says, winter has been hard on me.

Yeah, I mean, winter.

Winter is the hardest season by far.

For weight loss, for health, for many reasons.

You know, we got holidays in many is like, the culture's
like just pushing food, food, food and like that.

There's certain good to it,
you know, it's great to connect with friends and family,

but it is a challenge to try to lose weight
during that season.

And then it's dark.

I think for me personally, on a mental health perspective,
the dark is even harder than the cold.

You know, I'm up here in Wisconsin, frigid, place,
but I think it's the dark.

I've. I've described myself as like a plant.

I say that when the sun is shining, my mood is better.

Do you feel that way? And like it is, the.

When the spring is coming
and the light is coming like you try to get up.

You know, today I got up.

I was psyched up by the session yesterday.

I set the alarm. It's totally dark.

I got up, I exercised, okay,
but that's a barrier to have to do it

when the sun is up at 530 and it's like it's bright.

It's. It's a lot easier to do that. Right?

And then the cold to say it's easy to say is
I want to get outside.

I want to be active. Right.

Get some fresh air, get the actual sunshine right.

Well, it's another barrier in the winter, right.

If it is cold, it's like,
I just want to stay inside another barrier.

So what we are doing here in this space especially.

Great. Here we are in the winter, right?

We are doing our best to do it and recognize.

Right.

If you look at epidemiological studies,
meaning like population

level studies,
I mean, most people gain weight over the winter.

People.

People do, and a lot of people lose weight

over the summer, like when we're, most, active.

Absolutely.

So we are right now in this space,
we're recognizing the realities of these,

things and saying, hey, let's put together the practices,

the routines that help to mitigate this to the best we can.

And that could include, like saying
just preservation is progress.

You know, like I say, hey, if you can float
through the winter and just keep everything in balance,

not gaining weight and,
not necessarily losing, realize, hey,

we floated through that season,
we just preserved everything so that can be good enough.

And then as the spring is coming, the energy is flowing.

We're easier to get more active.

Maybe when you're getting more active,
you say easier to distract myself.

Can can get me into a more of a fasting space.

See, all these things flow together.

There can be seasons to things.

That's the point of what I was trying to do, their seasons
to things.

We can flow through them.

We've got the whole palette of,
space of wellness, space to operate off of.

Different people going to approach that in different ways.

You know, I, I try to tell people look fat in the winter,

maybe fasting is actually the path
to lean into more heavily in this winter season.

I like to say look at the trees, okay?

Especially here in the frozen north.

Leaves have fallen off, trees basically gone asleep.

However you want to think about it,
they're hibernating through the winter.

Trees aren't eating right,
no light coming in, no tree eating.

We can hear that and we can say, look, in the winter,
maybe I'm not so active,

so maybe I can just be like the tree,

the winter, the natural cycle, fasting through the winter.

And you say in the summer this is a lighter, it's
warmer, easier to get out, be more active.

Say, maybe I won't do so much fasting then,
but I'm leaning more on the activity so you can move it.

Other people would do that opposite,
you know, people would say, it's harder

for me to lean into, one of these practices in the winter.

But when I'm out and active, it's easier to do.

We are trying to learn.

See, there is not a one size
fits all process for every person,

even individually, for each person.

This can change throughout the year, throughout the season.

So we want to give ourselves the flexibility. You know.

Flexibility is what makes us sustainable.

Think of like the tree.

What tree survives the storm, right?

The one that is flexible, right?

The one that is so hard
that could snap right into the big storm.

Right.

So we're in kind of a storm in life, right?

So much stress, so much pressure every way.

We want to give ourselves the most flexibility, that we can

so that we can bend and adapt,

to everything that, comes
our way is how we can stay on track.

And the path winding as it may be.

Yeah.

Like you're saying, stress, worry, it affects everything.

This is the reality. This is the pressure that we face.

This is like, kind of ever present,
you know, stress and worry.

It is affecting everything in life.

We have to deal with all of these things.

This I really loved the,
thinking we did the other day about the cocoon,

you know, build think of caterpillar going in cocoon.

It's it's creating a very protected environment.

Caterpillar going through a process, a transformation,
becoming a butterfly.

Right.

What an incredible process

that takes place in the cocoon, this protected thing.

If, if the caterpillar, it goes in there,
it's doing its thing.

If you cut open the cocoon, you're going to kill it.

It can't go through the process of becoming something new

and beautiful without this protected space.

And so look what we're trying to do.

We say we're trying to grow.

We're trying to develop.

We're trying to become something new.

I think we need to have a protected space.

You know what I mean?

This is what I kind of envision this program,

or this type of session being like a space where

we can guard our mind, guard
our thoughts, like clarify our thinking,

our every day, you know,
so I kind of the thought dial in and focus.

What are the things that truly matter?

How am I going to approach this day and just win this day?

This is how we start living in the present, right?

So much of worry
and things is like we're afraid of the future.

We hear about some thing that is happening.

We say, how's that going to affect my future?

What is going to happen to me?

How am I going to be okay right?

In large
measure, the process of building our little cocoon, right?

Our practice of health, health, space, protected

space where we can transform, grow into something new,
protecting us from that.

So I'm not going to worry about that.

I'm just going to have some trust.

I'm going to trust that things are going to work out okay.

When I believe that things are going

to be okay, let's sink into this present moment,
because this is ultimately

the only thing that we can actually do or experience.

We can only do and experience right now.

And you say being in the cocoon, caterpillar is not worried
about its life as a butterfly in the future.

It doesn't even know.

Like it's like I'm just going to take care

of this present day,
the work that I can do right now, right here in this moment.

That's today. That's the rest of this.

So I say, let's ground ourselves here now, in the present

moment, create a space, an environment for ourselves,

where we can take the powerful steps
that are present in this day.

And that powerful step could be just finding

a few moments of peace, contentment.

Take a little moment to do some check in.

Take a few deep breaths.

Give ourselves some encouraging words.

Just tell ourselves, hey, everything is okay.

Everything is going to be okay.

See, this is an incredible health practice
because you start telling yourself that it's

okay, bringing the pressure down, how to calm things down.

That's having physiologic effects in the body
at that parasympathetic flow.

It's going out.

That's what's bringing down the stress levels in the body.

Helps to balance the hormonal state.

Right. As we have cortisol stress hormones.

We did that session chronic inflammation.

We saw the flow into different disease states
that chronic stress.

And it's not even just the chronic stress
because so much chronic stress can't be avoided.

But how are we coping with it?

That that's what can flow into weight
gain and blood sugar problems, all these sort of things.

So you want to get way upstream of that.

Can something as simple as a breathing practice

that is helping to mitigate our stress, balance it out.

See that's part of what forms are kind of cocoon right?

Our little barrier from the stress of life.

We can't move, so we can't stop the stress from happening,

but we try to keep it from affecting our process.

Our system, our way of being.

And so having a space like that,

then in the midst of all the stress that is happening,
all the difficulty we have to do, we say we are

remaining healthy despite of that, in the midst of it,

we are flowing through these difficult things.

The actual tools and practices

that are actually helping us walk
our path, that are helping us to be healthy.

They are all stress management
tools, you know, choosing healthy foods that gives our body

strength and nutrition so that we can think
clearly and be strong in our best fasting space.

Like we are saying, open up spaces of mental clarity
where we can do our best thinking,

be our most productive, get as much done to deal
with all the things that we have to do,

which is like
how do we show up as the best version of ourselves?

The strongest, the most thoughtful and powerful?

Okay, you got to really take care of yourself,
you know, to do that, be incredibly thoughtful.

This is what is what we're all trying to do here together.

Build the best thinking, the most thoughtful perspective
that help us to flow through life

and our day in the most thoughtful, powerful,
healthy way that we can.

And then to me, this is like the ultimate

inversion of what is classically happening in our society.

Like we feel bombarded or we can
I know I do can feel bombarded

by all the stress and the pressure
and you know, of everything that is happening.

And then we have to do
and we so many avenues that that can could be coming on

financial pressure and social pressure,
all these sort of things.

And we invert that whole process outward

where we're starting with ourselves
first were grounded and were present in this space.

And we have are developing the skills across
all of these domains of health

so that we are filling ourselves up with health,

and then we can radiate that out into the world,

you know, shine the light outward and,

that to me is like, that's the one thing we can do is like,
say, I can't control this.

I can't control that. I wish these things weren't happening.

I was like, but here's my my one little life right here.

And we can do this. Just basic things.

We take care of ourselves the best we can,
and then we send that. Out.

Showing a lot of grace to ourselves on the way.

That's what we got to do.

We are what we routinely do.

I say, let's, do those things.

Let's do these health practices.

Let's practice it in our day, show ourselves tons of grace,

do the best that we can, and flow into these spaces.

It's like, look for the opportunities.

Hey, where can I open up some fasting space today?

If it feels good to do it?

How can I choose the healthiest food in this day
that nourishes my body?

How, can I move my body in a healthy way?

You know that maybe killing so many birds with one stone,

bringing blood sugar down,
you know, bringing stress level down, burn off the stress.

Just take a walk. Right. Do you experience that?

You take a walk and it helps you process things

in a different way, move forward in all these spaces.

And then we will reconvene tomorrow
and we will take another,

step forward in health together.

Really great to share this space with you
and I hope you have a beautiful day.

Thank you so much for being here
and for the, comments and discussions.

And, I will look forward to.

Continuing the conversation