My first newsletter is here and I'm honored you are, too. For this inaugural note, I present to you my latest podcast episode. I know, self-promotion, how groundbreaking.

The episode is based on this conversation between Dr. Huberman and Dr. Lembke in which they talk about how life today can be really boring, and as such, it's become harder for us. With all our needs met, we're left to fill our time. And guess what? We fill it with a lot of mindless stimulation. We binge social media, TV shows, video games, food, relationships, and more. When we binge, we lower our overall dopamine threshold leading to a deficit. If we keep this up, over time nothing brings us pleasure. For some, it can feel like a low-grade depression.

My takeaway: in a world that's constantly trying to capture our attention, we must set our own boundaries. The future will be made by those who use their time to serve their goals. Not only that, the future will be made by people who understand themselves enough to do what works best for them. That means when to drop a bad habit, when to do deep work, when to take a break, etc.

Listen here for the rest.

Here's a good habit - walking. Getting sunlight in your eyes (even if it's through clouds) has been found to help you sleep better, eat less, and boost your mood. Try one of my free walking meditations next time you take your body out for a spin.

Hypnosis helps reprogram subconscious beliefs that we picked up - usually in our childhood - and that are still running the show. I listen to this hypnosis while making coffee in the morning - give it a try. Hypnosis isn't the clucking chickens we've been made to think it is:

Yoga Nidra or Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) is a way to relax and put your brain into a theta wave state, which relieves stress, fosters creativity, helps with memory retention and cognitive function, improves sleep, and much more. If you are choosing between meditation and yoga nidra, the experts say pick yoga nidra. Check out this short recording to give it a try.

Bars from the habits god himself (read Atomic Habits).As I mentioned, we have endless choices. Most of them were designed to get us to waste our time or spend money. I hope this year you have the courage (and self-love, grace, and respect) to eliminate what doesn't work for you and build something that does.

Alex