A 1-minute, Monday-Friday email, to help busy professionals move more, eat better, and think clearer.
Mano Minute (3/6): The thing I got wrong about stress for years π€
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Mano Minute (3/6): The thing I got wrong about stress for years π€ Stress has a bad reputation. There are two very different kinds of stress. Acute stress is short term, intense, and purposeful. A hard workout. A cold shower. A difficult conversation you finally have. Your body responds, adapts, and comes out stronger. That is what acute stress does. It builds you. Chronic stress is the opposite. It is low grade, persistent, and unresolved. Social pressure. Financial pressure. A job that drains you daily. Poor sleep stacking up week after week. Your body stays in a state of alert with no recovery window. Chronic stress does not build us, it breaks us down. Let's use going to the gym as a great example. The acute stress is the discomfort of a hard set. That is the signal. Recovery afterward is where the adaptation happens. The chronic stress is knowing you need to get healthier, but yet continuing pushing it off. It's a roller coaster of thoughts. But itβs a constant stress on the body. The same is true in life. Challenge is not the enemy. Unrelenting pressure with no solution is. TIP: This week, notice where your stress is coming from. Is it acute and purposeful, something that is making you stronger? Or is it chronic and draining, something that needs to be addressed or reduced? That distinction matters more than most people realize. |
Mano Minute
A 1-minute, Monday-Friday email, to help busy professionals move more, eat better, and think clearer.
Mano Minute (3/20): The 12 years no one talks about β³ The average lifespan in the United States is 76.1 years. The average healthspan is 63.7 years. That is a 12 year gap. Healthspan is the number of years you live in good health, free from chronic disease, disability, and significant decline. Lifespan is just how long you are alive. Most conversations about longevity focus on living longer. But the more important question is how you are living during those years. That 12 year difference...
Mano Minute (3/19): Your brain can only handle four habits at a time π We try to change too many things at once. New diet, new workout plan, better sleep schedule, daily journaling, less screen time. All at the same time. And by week three, most of it falls apart. Here is why. The human brain cannot sustainably stick to more than about five new habits at a time. And even five is pushing it. The more decisions you have to make each day about new behaviors, the faster your willpower runs out....
Mano Minute (3/18): What happens while you sleep π§ For a long time, I thought sleep was just one thing. You close your eyes, you rest, you wake up. Turns out, there is a lot more going on. Your brain cycles through distinct stages throughout the night. The two main categories are NREM and REM. NREM stands for Non Rapid Eye Movement sleep. This is where your body does its physical repair work. Tissue rebuilding, immune system strengthening, and growth hormone release all happen here. NREM...