Fasting Space

Today we're going to be diving in on our ideal health space.

How do we recognize it?

How do we design and create it?

We're going to stop trying
to, you know, white knuckle our way through a space,

trying to build up willpower,
something that is very difficult to do.

Try to build a space that is actually smarter, an environment

that helps us to flow through it in the best possible way.

That's what we really, want.

I was doing some thinking about this, yesterday,
and I ran into this quote.

Listen to this.

Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.

That's from James Clear.

I found it, from Atomic Habits.

Now, I'm reading through that,
as you know, if you're following along.

But I didn't get to that yet.

So we're stealing, the quote from the future.

But, the environment shaping our experience.

Do you feel that, like, can you identify places in your life

where it's easier in a certain space

to make a health decision that feels, better?

That is taking you in a direction? Can you see the opposite?

Whereas, like certain spaces where it makes it more difficult?

Certain environments, certain people, certain situations.

You say, man, that is a struggle, right?

So more than just forcing ourselves,

brute, forcing ourselves into a space.

How can we be wise?

How can we be smarter flow through these spaces?

This is what I want us to really think about.

And I'm gonna, show us
it can really be different, for different people.

Absolutely.

Again, that's why I've got a definitely generate
some awareness.

Definitely think about our life deeply.

What are the things in
my situation is really, really moving the needle.

So here's our mission.

This is the mission.

Maybe it can be a mission for the weekend coming up.

If you got some good time, identify the spaces

and the environments that make that easy.

The healthy choice.

The choice that is most in alignment with our goals

makes that just flow through it the best.

And to inspire that, I'm going to give you,

some thoughts on this exact topic from this,

wonderful book from Rick Rubin, The Creative Act.

If you're new to this type of thinking, the,

path that I'm trying to lead us on

is to envision ourselves

as an artist, as a creator.

I think really in this, space, we're really getting into it.

Like, you think about someone, who is,

a space designer, you know, someone

whether that's an interior designer, a landscape architect.

Right?

This is an artistic expression, creating a beautiful space

where everything, is aligned, flowing together,

beautiful, creating an emotional environment out of it.

See, all that is artistic, right.

And we want to bring some element of these things
into our life.

Right?

We want to be very thoughtful about how we arrange and design

everything around us
so that we're totally supported, in our health process.

If you believe this, quote, that the environment

shapes behavior, can you see where that's true?

Well, we want to create an environment
that is giving us every support, right?

So that we don't have to struggle,
see so much struggle in life.

We don't say, oh,
we're going to always free ourselves from struggle, right?

But we we don't seek it, right.

We don't seek out struggle.

We're trying to minimize the struggle as much as possible.

How did I say it in the description here?

I said, The best hack for willpower is to need less of it.

And so that's what we want.

Design a space where we need less willpower.

Okay, so this little, section I'm going to share

some thoughts to you from is talking about setting

the setting for, artistic work

and so we can think about the setting for our health work,
which is our expression.

Right? It's an artistic expression.
How are we living our life?

How are we channeling our experiences
and ideas into an expression of health?

Isn't that what a what a piece of art work is?

You know, a communication, an expression of an idea.

We're having a healthy idea.

We get to manifest that through our own life.

See, that's just beautiful.

But Rick says we are affected by our surroundings.

Like, even right there. Like just that one phrase.

Like, we could just pause right on that
and just think like, look around wherever you are.

Where are you right now?

Are you in your house or are you in a car?

Are you outside?

Like, how are your surroundings affecting us?

We can bring in so many things into it, the culture.

And just to do a little check
in, you know, how are we being affected by that?

Positive and negative. Right.

Okay. He goes on.

That was just the first phrase
where affected by our surroundings.

And finding the best environment to create a clear channel.

Right. Clear thinking this is what we want.

We want the most dialed in, clear thinking right.

Think of all the competing.

Ideas and influences that are coming at us every day.

How have you heard it?

They say this is the attention economy now, right?

Everything. Attention. Right.

And so if everything is vying for our attention,
like where is our attention?

What is our focus, we can say, would you agree?

It can really be a challenge to move forward in health,
like our

our whole society kind of flowing in a direction,
not really very healthy.

Right.

And so trying to move in a direction of health
is kind of like swimming upstream.

Right.

It's like moving against the current.

Got to clear out some space to do that.

This is what we're trying to do right here in this session.

Clear out the space, dial
in on the very most important things, the clear thinking,

so that we can make our best decisions flow
through to health in the best way.

When to create a clear channel.

And it also depends on your intention.

See we've dived we dove in deep on that.

Isolated places like a forest, a monastery

or a sailboat in the middle of the ocean are fine

to receive a direct transmission from the universe.

Okay, I love, I love this guy.

Do you do you love things like that?

See, to me, that is so big.

That can take.

Some people say, oh, that is going in a direction
that is maybe spiritual or something in some fashion, like,

I don't know, you know, when you step outside, you have you
do you ever do this?

It's a dark night.

Maybe you're out of town
and you just look out into the starry sky.

You see the Milky Way.

Have you ever had this?

And you're just, like, overwhelmed at just how huge

it is, how beautiful and incredible it is.

Do you ever have a moment where you just reflect on
how wild it is

that we're just here,
that you can be looking at something like that?

As deep questions about life,
why are we actually here and how did all of this come to be?

Right.

So to me, that's the closest I get when I see am
I receiving a direct transmission from the universe?

I'm looking at a billion stars you can't possibly count.

It kind of gets you into a space.

Like whether you believe, like,
I was like the term strict materialist.

I know lots of people like that.

Right?

Say, the only thing that exists is atoms
and molecules is fine.

Okay.

You can still look in a beautiful sky and see the universe.

So to me, there's great value in that.

He's trying to tap into that sort of mindset.

This is a type of mindset that I have found.

So empowering for people to help move in
a health space is to say, because it can be a struggle,

a life can be a struggle, it can be a challenge
to swim against the stream, to move toward health

when the current is flowing away from it, say,
is there something bigger, you know, than myself?

Like, are there bigger things happening?

When you look into the sky,
you see the actual universe say, you know what?

Like like, look at this,
look at all the pieces are moving together.

Okay. So that's one study weaves here. Now look at this.

He is a completely different thought.

If instead you want to tune into the collective consciousness,

you might sit in a busy spot with people coming and going,

an experience source filtered through humanity.

The second approach is no less valid, right?

So I was describing right out in the countryside, away

from all people,
just looking into the starry sky like picture.

The complete opposite is sitting in Times Square, just

people watching,
and there's a million people going by everywhere.

Like, do you see that inspiration can come from anywhere?

Actually?

What is the environment?

And see, it's not like both those things don't have value.

Like think of your life like I mean, I think I've done each
of those things and each of them are interesting experiences

and they provide context that can give us an opportunity

to reflect deeply and on life from different perspectives.

We're going to see how we can weave each of those things
into processes that can help us move forward in health.

Now, this is an interesting paragraph.

There's a little paragraph here.

We think we think about it. Okay.

One step further removed might be to plug into culture itself

constantly consuming art entertainment, news, social media.

See my little red flag was going off there.

I say, well, we'll look out, all while noticing the patterns.

Okay, you got to hear the next phrase to connect with that

says it's helpful to view current events in a culture

without feeling obligated
to follow the direction of their flow.

Do you see this is what we're trying to do, right?

The flow is happening.

It can be helpful to observe it right
and to see yourself that way

as an observer of what is happening,
try to create some distance from it.

Notice them in the same connected, detached way.

You might not notice a warm wind.

Let yourself move within it, yet not be of it right?

This is what I'm trying to describe as our health path. Right?

River is flowing. We're trying.

Maybe we're not swimming, right?

Maybe it's just water walking.

We're walking up against the flow.

This is exactly how he's describing it.

Let yourself move within it, yet not be of it.

This to me,
we're trying to create a way of being in the world, right?

We've got health tools.

I'm dialed in. Help people open up fasting space in life.

This is something that has immense value.

Very underappreciated, in society, tremendous

health space, a fasting space, but, like,
not not really visible in cultures.

Cultures say, what is that? That's not what we do, right?

Incredible tools, healthy nourishing foods,

gentle or powerful movement practices.

Just expressing the energy in the body
out as powerful movement.

Right. So all these things are so good.

Ways of helping that energy
that is within us flow out in the midst of this culture.

So taking that second sentence,
I love that that second part about moving within it,

I would
I would take this list as like a triage, an order, he says.

Constantly consuming art.

Okay, better than consuming.

Just entertainment, better than consuming news.

And then I say better than social media.

So I would go in that order.

Social media I was seeing the other day
a bunch of European governments trying to just ban this stuff

because it's especially for kids, you know,
which I think is a pretty good move to protect kids.

I say.

And then protect ourselves, right.

To protect everybody from influences of bringing people down.

You don't need to wait for some government to pass something
to, like, protect us.

Something, okay? Protect ourselves and our mental space.

One person's connected place might be another's distraction,
so there's a way to think about it.

See both sides of it, right?

There can be great things on social media, right?

People are trying to connect with other people,
send out good ideas, see the good in it.

I love that and realize the distraction can pull us away

from a space to different environments.

Might be right at different points in the process.

And then he goes through
and he lists a bunch of different artists that he work with.

Remember, this guy's like a huge producer.

He's produced all these incredible albums.

He says.

Some people put on a TV, a radio and a record player
all at the same time.

It's just this crazy space to say,
who could create something there, but that helps one person,

other people just going in a soundproof room, totally quiet.

This is where I want us to go in this space, right?

To really dial in and think if we're trying to move

forward in health,
what is the kind of environment that is best?

Are you picturing it
say, man, I could flow through a space like this all day.

Is it somewhere totally quiet?

Is it music that is helping you flow through it?

Is it a busy space where you're just feeling the energy
of the city and people are going in, is just powering you up?

But listen to what he says here.

Says it's not always easy to follow

subtle, energetic information.

Especially when your friends, family, coworkers,
or those with a business interest

in your creativity are offering you rational advice
that challenges your intuition.

That's what we're seeing the flow of the culture.

We're trying to dial in on our own process, right?

Our own path of health.

I try to help you do that, but you see, I'm not telling.

I'm not telling anybody what to do.

I'm just showing, like here are different tools.

Like, here are things that we can do. It's like options.

This is like giving people the paint
and you paint the picture right?

He says here, to the best of my ability,
I have followed my intuition to make career decisions,

and I have been recommended against doing so every time.

It helps to realize that it is often better
to follow your intuition and those around you.

So it's a perspective to have, right?

It's we can definitely get good advice from people.

I think it's great to seek counsel from wise
and thoughtful people.

All right. But there is definitely a balance there.

And this is the importance of being grounded and centered is,

there's a quote that is coming to me is to paraphrase, it's
something basically like,

if you're not sure about where you're going,

someone is someone else is going to definitely tell you,

you know, where to go,
you know, and it's going to be where they want you to go.

So this is the big thing.

Do we have a space?

This is the theme we're trying to do, a space
that is centering where we can get straight on our part of it.

Not that we can't ever listen to other people
for guidance and perspective, but do we know who we are?

Do we know where we are going?

Do we know what is important?

Have we done the deep work to ask, like, who am I really?

And what do I really want?

And then out of that identity in that process

flows out the expression, right.

That's what helps you to decide, okay.

When I know who I am and I know what I want
and I know where we are going as a general concept,

okay, then out of that flow,
the decisions I am this and I'm doing such and such.

Therefore I'm eating this
or I'm not eating that or I'm opening up a fasting space.

I'm taking a walk now
because, you know, all these deep things.

This is how it flows out.

Health flows out of these deeper processes.

I think about the inversion of this sort of, practice from,

you know, typically the perspective in society
go to the, appointment.

They say like do this, like get a result.

Okay. It's like superficial, right?

Trying to really dive deep into it.

I really want to encourage you to do it is worth it.

Dive deep on it. Dive deep.

Like here's another side of it, right?

Interference may also come from the voices within.

So it's at love.

All these things.

We're looking at both sides of these things.

Right. We're talking about okay.

We've got to like listen to the internal voice,
the guide, the intuition.

Then we see the other side of it, thoughts in our head
that murmur the negative thinking.

We really dialed in on that this week.

How do we abolish the negative thinking?

When I get rid of it?

The voices that murmur, you're not talented enough,
your idea isn't good enough, your art or your expression.

It's not a worthwhile investment in your time.

You know better to do something else.

Your results won't be well-received,
so he's just listing off all the types of negative thinking.

You're a failure if your process isn't successful.

This is. This can limit us.

Maybe we don't even step out on the path because it's like

if we don't have our success right away

and we be judged, we judge ourselves for all of this.

We want to wipe away.

It's helpful to turn those voices down.

I love this turn those voices down

so you can hear the chimes of the cosmic
clock ringing, reminding

you that it is time, your time to participate.

I love that cosmic clock is ringing. I love that.

Whatever that is, it's your time to participate.

We are here in this moment, in this beautiful expression.

Whatever it is,
we have an opportunity to move toward, health.

And, I just personally, I just love that book.

If you're looking for another book, try to pick up
and just say, man, can I glean some inspiration.

You know, every page of that book has some sort of beautiful

fragment of thought that can help
you see things from a different perspective.

So today that reading is giving us this challenge to like,
really

think about the environments we're putting ourself, in.

Do you have environments like have you thought of it?

What is an environment that you really like?

That you say, man, if I'm in this sort of space,
I can move toward, health.

It's a space
maybe distractions, things that you don't want, like

negative influences are out of that space,
so you don't even have to think about them.

Every good thing that is there that can support
you is already there.

Yeah.

Can be a lot of different things.

Do you resonate between the two?

Maybe just in one day or the other?

Do you resonate more with that kind of solitude space?

Get out of town, get in nature.

Maybe it's just a park. Maybe it's taking a walk.

You know, there is an ideal space, say, tech free.

You know, leave the phone.

It's like, get all the electronics off.

That being just walking through the world, you know, I do

resonate with that sort of space.

Is that a space where you can clear the thinking to dial in

on the truly important, things of health?

Or are you resonating totally with the opposite, thing?

Like, I experience a lot of that,
you know, over Christmas, we're down in Chicago,

shared some pictures of that as, like,
you just get into, like, the busiest place in the world.

People everywhere, so much energy.

And do you feel empowered by that
to go walk around somewhere like that?

Hardly a tree to be seen, but, but energy is still flowing
and you can feel inspired from it.

Then just like bringing things, like, into our actual house.

Like the most important place,
I say we want it to be like our little sanctuary.

Like protecting the thinking space.

Okay. How are you doing?

Curating the space of the home,

wherever it is, so that it is supporting your health process.

Would you say the way that you have everything
organized in your house?

Is it charging up your battery or is it driving you down?

You know, is it draining the charge?

You know, a, our environment in our home,

I should say that should be like a battery charger.

That should just be charging us up physically.

Mentally.

But I say one thing to think about.

How about the kitchen?

You know, how is the kitchen designed?

I often say a lot.

Do you keep the food put away so that
if you have to walk through it like you don't even see it?

If you're trying to go through a fasting space, harder
to go through a fasting space.

If you're looking at food like all the time, right?

Every time you go by, then you're seeing it.

You always have to make the decision.

See, this is the way
we're trying to use less willpower, right?

So we want to put everything away

as much as possible so that we can flow through the space

without having to dive into our willpower bank
we described in the fall,

when we were going through our series Thinking Fast and Slow,

that we had limited mental capital. Right?

We've got a limited number of times that we can dip into

that, account during the day.

And we organized our kitchen in a way

where we have to withdraw from that account,

as few times as possible.

And then what about when we do?

So here would be a next level is like,
what are the eye level things like

do you put the healthiest choices like when you're planning

and designing is the kitchen set up so all the healthiest
things are the things that you see first,

the nutrient dense, minimally processed,
all this sort of stuff.

If you're going for a snack, have you ideally gotten out
anything you wouldn't really want to eat

when you're in your right thinking mind and saying,
hey, I'm dialed in, just get it out of the house

so that when you're in the moment, when it's difficult,
when you feel some sort of craving

for some sweet thing, like you say, you know,
what is here is just a healthier option.

Some blueberries are here right?

You want to make the choice as easy as possible.

Hiding, removing any triggering things, any stressful things.

Setting up things to support you
that are the most prominently located.

One one session I was thinking.

Or one idea.

Okay, we take this idea of fasting space, right?

Like, do we have an actual fasting space?

You could make a fasting space.

Maybe you call it like a fasting tray.

It's like you put all your fasting aides on a tray

that is like prominence,
like out on the table or something during the day.

And then you put on there like every specialty that you want,

any sort of,
you know, little electrolyte thing that you might use

and you got a nice water, like,

you could make a little lemon, ginger infused water,
you know, something really elegant and nice,

make it look great
so that you're trying to flow through a space.

As soon as a little difficulty comes to, you know,
my first stop is at the fasting space.

Like the actual fasting space.

Maybe you bring in thoughtful things to it.

Like, I got my little fasting stone.

I did the the session, the fasting stone.

Tangible, physical things are helping us

get through a space so that we can move forward in health.

You know that we're not just stuck in our head,
something we can grab that we have imbued with meaning.

So we take that fasting space in our home.

All of a sudden we're creating an environment
where there's real, tangible,

physical things to help and support us through a space.

And then that can be fasting space,
one element of what we're trying to do

and then that is totally in align

with the way we design,
you know, our food storage, our kitchens,

so that these are the two balances we balance

fasting space, healthy eating, two sides of the same coin.

We bring those two things together in the ways,

that bring balance to our life
so that we can flow through it.

And then those same concepts
we design, you know, in our house or our life more broadly.

You know, if you are someone who likes to go to the gym,
you know, how do you make it as easy

as possible to get there and actually use that?

Or if you're someone I like to walk around the neighborhood
and the area,

are we finding the places where it's safest,

most beautiful, like the best experience,
you know, to, to have an enjoyable,

exercise, movement, practice?

Are we doing it in our house?

Are we preparing the environment ahead of time
so that in the moment, every decision is as easy as possible?

The yoga mat is already out the night before the clothes
are arranged, you know, so that everything's set up.

Because don't you get it in that moment?

If you're going to get up and then right in that moment,
you set the alarm, it's like.

But you could hit snooze.

The voice is telling you, maybe tomorrow.

But if you've done it, look, the clothes are already out.

Everything's lined up.
We have the plan together like it should.

We want to remove every barrier in every domain of life,

so that it's as easy as possible
to flow through every health decision.

And maybe we don't win every battle, right?

But we're trying to reduce the barriers

so that we can hit as many possible wins as possible.

And we're just trying to tip the balance in our favor. Right?

I think one of these sessions this week, we saw the analogy.

I was like,
you don't win an election with 100% of the vote, right?

You just you got to get the majority of the votes.

So this is how we flow through these spaces, having,

grace for ourselves realized we don't have to win every vote,

but we do bring the intensity to it

to the extent
we want to, to the extent that it brings us joy in our.

They say like, man, I made a really good decision.

There is like we try to ingrain that habit and the more
we stack up those wins, the more we are building evidence.

We see, oh, I'm really on the path.

I'm really walking here. Look, we did it.

We recorded those wins in the journal. It's like.

Like you write out something like that.

Got the clothes out the night before, and I did it
and it helped me get up and we got it.

And now I'm feeling so good, you know, put out

the little fasting tray had on something on it.

Like, here's another thing. I brought a little thing.

This is something I've been thinking about.

I got this is a Christmas present someone gave me.

Lavender essential oil. Okay.

Another type of thing that I would, typically buy

because I'm like, tough guy, right?

But I gotta tell you, you just open up something like,
this is the most calming thing.

This is called calming blend.

Oh my word.

It's like the most luxurious smell.

And, I mean, it's almost impossible.

You put a little something on this on.

Just touching the bottle. It smells so good.

It is super calming.

And you say whether it's really calming
or is it a placebo effect?

I don't know, it's like it says calming on it.

So I use it as calming. It smells good. It's pleasant.

You put something like that
on your fasting little tray, right?

What if every time you were feeling anxious,

you say, I'm trying to flow through this space,
but I'm feeling a food craving?

What if you went to your little fasting tray,
you had a beautiful lemon ginger infused water

and got yourself a little lavender oil,
and then you just did some breathing of that,

because then when you're doing the breathing,
breathing going to help you calm down,

you're smelling these beautiful smells here, this luxurious
sort of thing refreshed with water.

See, water quenches hunger as much as it quenches thirst.

You have some beautiful, refreshing water.

Beautiful, refreshing aromatherapy.

Just calm you down.

Grab a little something off the tray that has meaning,
that is connecting with you.

And, and then do some breathing.

Oh, man. Do you see that?

This whole environment,
you transform your environment into just,

a really peaceful space,
just totally supporting your mental health, wellness.

Helping you confront any stressful thing that is,
coming at you, say, hey, we cannot necessarily change this.

Maybe we can see we center ourselves
if we can change it, you know.

What is that? Serenity prayer.

You know, change the things that we can
and recognize the things

that we can't, you know,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

That's the trick.

This is the type of environment we want.

So, I'm describing,
you know, the home environment in this really zen kind of,

sort of way, some stuff like that,
that's what, you know, would help the most.

Oh, and put the music on, you know, music helps
you to get out of your head a little bit.

You know, if you, we get trapped in a cycle of thought.

The breathing can help with that.

Especially you kind of counted out just a little pattern.

Interrupt black the cycles of negative

thinking with some pointless numbers
one, two, three, four, where

we're counting as we're breathing through a cycle.

Hard to think of two things at once.

You're thinking one, two, three, four.

That's just smashing down the negative thoughts.

Helps to reset that.

Reset the mental environment, you know.

So we've been talking through this whole section
the physical environment.

You know how how is that physical environment.

Is it supporting us.

And then, you know, we dive in with this sort of practice
counting breathing.

Right now we're diving in sides.

Like how is our mental environment really?

Are we keeping that cleaned up just like we're trying

to clean up the external environment so it supports us.

Are we trying to you know, we're unfollowing at least

the negative influences on social media
where we're liking and boosting up the positive influences

so that our feed is doing
more of showing us at least good things.

And then are we also like setting some time aside
where we're shutting all that off

and just letting all those poor dopamine receptors
just calm down and resettle?

So that we can find a space of peace and contentment.

The the attention economy is thrives on dopamine, right?

Because dopamine is addictive.

We get in a cycle.
We want more of it. Clicking begets clicking.

You know, and that keeps eyeballs on the screen,

keeps people in a space
where they might want to buy something.

This is, you know, the, the crazy part of our society.

So are we protecting that space?

I'm gonna take myself out of that flow,
preserve the mental, space.

So I just say, in this session, do a little audit.

You know, we've, flown through.

We flowed through different areas of life from our movement

and food and fasting space to mental health.

Like, how are all these areas in our life?

How are they going? Remember the session we did?

Was it just yesterday?

You're the CEO of the your life, right?

We're trying to manage the different departments
like what is the environmental audit?

Are there things you can change in these ways
that would, equip you

with things that we can bring into this space
to support the journey?

I say, do it.

I said, let's invest in ourselves.

Let's give ourselves every good tool, that we can.

Let me know your favorites if you're coming through
on the replay to throw in the comments.

What, what are your favorite, environmental practices?

What are the spaces?

What are the things in a space that are the most helpful

to you to take powerful steps forward in health?

Love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Really nice to share this space with you today.

Let me know!

Ongoing questions you have.

I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

I will look forward to connecting with you again next week.

And we take another step.

Every day we take a step forward in health.

Let's hit this day.

Try to do one extra thing today to shape our environment
in a way that is thoughtful and supportive.

Have a great day, everybody. We'll see you back here soon.