Hey, What’s up with you? Me, I’m happy. I’m in a good mood. Plus, It’s Friday (safe bet on the good mood part) and that means evaluation of this week’s challenge. If you don’t now what I’m talking about, here’s the quick run:

For almost 2 years now, every sunday, I’ve put up a weekly challenge within an area of personal development on my youtube channel. This week I decided to work on my charisma, which meant trying to improve on these body language areas:

– How I use my body and hands

– Having a wide variety in voice and tonality

– How I use my facial expressions

The idea was to practice these skills in all my conversations throught the week. But, especiously going in with a foused mind when having my twice-a-day coffee breaks at work. If you want to se the introduction video, check it out here: link:

So how did it went? Well, not the way I wanted to – had some high expectations of me transforming into this awesome capetating storytelller! That didn’t happen. Bummer. But did I got some practice and good learnings from this experience. The biggest one perhaps getting reminded of the misstakes I’ve done plenty of times before: YOU NEED TO FOUS IN ON DEVELOPING ONE SPECIFIC SKILL AT THE TIME!

That’s just how it is. If you ask how a pro volleyball player practicies to become the best, he’ll tell you how he (she?) brakes down his general goal of beoming “a better player” to tiny digastable processes that can be analysed and improved upon. Like practicing doing a smash. That’s a tiny part of the whole spectra of skills that one needs to be a good player, but still a crucial one. Doing that one thing repetivley, analyzing the results, tweaking and tuning and then just grinding and grinding – that’s how that perfect smash evenetually will be second nature.

And it’s this very approach we need to have when we try to develop our social skills – our Charisma. When I went into conversations this week trying to practice three big bodylangue teqhniques all at the same time, I just got owerwelmed. Instead I should have picked one at the time to focus on and play around with. I shouldn’t have got ‘growth greedy’ (Yeah I just made that up, but damn I’ve been looking for that word for a long time!).

But remember, this is an important lesson that strethes outside social skill development, it’s applicable to all types of personal development. So the learning still have been vaulble this week, and perhaps worth more than the original wanted outcome, altough a toataly different one.

If you want to hear me ramble on a bit more about this, check out my weekly evaluation live stream I did earlier today here:

Now, I wish you a super duper great awesome nice Friday evening.

Ciao!

/Alexander

Honestly, writing this blog post is the last thing I feel like doing right now. Just got home after a looong day at work. Loooong. Woke up at around 04.00, my brain started working. As I’ve talked about, a lot of high-level thoughts circling around this week. A necessary state for growth, but energy draining as heck.

“I know how this works, either I lay here thinking for another hour or I just go for a nice run to work and get this day started” – so I did.

My morning workout habit, as well as this newer blog post writing, have through experience taught me that it’s worth the hustle it sometimes is. My brain knows I will feel good and be rewarded. This habit loop I’ve been running for my blog post for the last 25 days is really starting to sink in. That is – coming home from work (the que), writing a blog post (the routine), and then getting to eat food (the reward). As these actions becomesdeeper rooted, the more distant they get from involving any kind of decision. It just happens. Making it almost irrelevant to what levels of willpower I hold. Like now, close to zero.

One of my work colleagues stopped by my desk this afternoon to ask how my daily workout had been. “Great – how was yours?” This guy has since the new year started been doing a 20-minute run on the treadmill every morning. I can’t help but to be excited and proud for him trying to implement this habit – and he’s sticking to it. Because I know how much it can do for you. And I also know the willpower it requires! So I praised him for it. He however down talked and massively devalued his efforts.

“it’s only 10 km/h – it’s like walking”

“Yeah, but your fu** doing it every day. You’ll find yourself raising the challenge, I promise you. And I started my running routine by increasingly walking longer and longer to work, in the beginning it was like  500 meters to the next buss stopp”.

Another guy at work just came out of a long relationship and have been feeling like shit for a while. I made him promise me to just show up at the gym once a week for a minimum of 15 minutes. That’s all he have to do. But he must do that, and he needs report to me. This week he went to the gym three times, and I can literally see the proudness evaporate from him, like the heat on a asphalt road a sunny day.

I know I keep nagging on about this, but it’s worth repeating. The incredible power of getting started, big or small, is just..   It’s fucking great! I’m not much for cursing, but today I guess I’m making an exception. We shouldn’t be afraid of setting low goals – the key is high volume and repetition. We’ll find ourselves go beyond – if it was the right how that is. Reaching a goal can be done in many ways, we have to look at what best suits us. Everybody isn’t made for running, and I’m not only talking about training. But it makes for a good example.

Taking it to a personal self-praising level – with the risk of being called a self-loving narcist – if it’s one thing I’m proud of it’s the habits and routines I’ve implemented in my life. They carry me when I don’t have the energy to carry myself. I know that if I get some workout in there, if I empty out my thoughts in my journal, if I do my gratefulness- & meditation practices, all those things I’ve intentionally implemented in my life, It will be worth it. But knowing can be worth shit sometimes, that’s why it’s convenient to have an autopilot stepping in when your drunk driving. My parachutes, insurance, call it what ever, but it works. But also remember that one fail, or even two, isn’t the end of the world. Tomorrow is a new day, and you decide what to make of it.

The last point I want to make is a reminder I want to put out there – celebrate your wins, big ones & small ones. Look at the day you’ve lived and experienced, what can you be proud of? Did you help someone, did you help yourself? I’m sure – most positive – that you can find something worth tapping yourself on the shoulder for. Do that, and feel proud.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for contributing to make this world a better place (because I chose to naively assume you are!) ?

/Alexander

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”

Should I get rid of my brother?

Major decisions – how the heck do we tackle them the best way? Right now, my mind is coping with so much overwhelming high-level stuff that totally blasts my brains out after a half a day of (over)thinking. Somehow it all seems to happen at once. It might also have something to do with finding myself in a situation that some could define  as an “existential crisis”. The term crisis is strong though and not something I’m relating to, but the signs they describe in this video belov is spot on. Which to some sense makes it easier for me to accept my current situation. I’m talking in riddles and I know this is off topic to the title. But I still feel how they overlap eacch other, and why my subpurpose of this blogpost is to recomend you to watch this short video too. I think it may help you realise that high level existential thoughts are something you’ll probebly deal with sooner or later. Or it’s jut me that in fact are having an… 🙂

The irony of being in energy-draining-overwhelming state that big questions, that only can be resolved with big decisions, have a tendency to keep you awake at night. It’s my third cosy night with only, me, myself and my thoughts hanging out. I invited sleep but he (she?) couldn’t make it, unfortunately. We’re having superfund twisting and turning on different scenarios.

However, going forth and back in your head, at least for me, usually doesn’t help that much. Unless I’ve gone through the process of sitting down and putting it to words in a rather structured way. Usually I write down all the positive and negative aspects I can think of, and then let my mind digest it (night time) so I eventually can reach a gut-based decision. Which always have final say.

But obviously I’m still lost – so don’t take my advice! Instead I thought I share one of my favourite ‘virtual mentors’ Brendon Burchard’s take on it. It’s a video I’ve seen a bunch of times, but never really applied that seriously. Now I have some good cases to test it out on. Anyways, here’s the video, and below is the summary he put together for it.

——————– SUMMARY: ——————–

“When uncertain or afraid, how do we free ourselves from delay, make good decisions, and take decisive action?

1. Make decisions sooner: It’s easier to make decisions earlier than later. For example, if you hate your job, make a decision to leave sooner. Yes, be judicious and and collect information…but don’t get into analysis paralysis or become scared of change. Set a date and prepare. Making bold decisions for yourself is the secret to moving your life forward. Ask,”What’s decision have I been putting off in my personal life? What decision have I been waiting to make at work? What decision do I need to make in my relationships?” Avoidance may be the best short-term strategy to avoid pain and conflict, but it is also the best long-term strategy to ensure suffering. Stop putting it off, make that decision and stick to it.
2. Set criteria: Criteria means you look at your decision making from three perspectives: What’s good for you? What supports other people around you? What should the universal rule be for everyone faced with this decision? This means you seriously contemplate if decisions are right for you, honoring of others, and generally good for most people. What other criteria could you set? Create a “cheat sheet to good decision-making” with your own criteria and keep it by your computer and in your wallet. Consult it at every important decision.
3. Do intelligent research: Bad decisions are often a result of acting without any information, listening to the wrong people or forcing a false choice. Intelligent research means collecting as much information as possible from informed people. There’s nothing you want to achieve or overcome in your life that someone hasn’t already achieved or overcome. Before you make your decision, go out and consult other informed, happy, smart, joyous, accomplished people who have done what you want to do. Often, you’ll find it’s not just a matter of choosing A or B, but rather there are a multitude of choices available to you.

This second video  below is not as in to details hand has a more straight forward approach that I better can realte to; letting values and beleives guide. Are you being true to your purpose and ‘why’? If you don’t know what these things are to you, then perhaps those are the real answers you should be looking for… 

Update: I

Have a lovley evening guys & thanks for stopping by:)

/Alexander

So let’s continue where I left of yesterday – I talked about being on an decision elimination diet. Which means I’ve for the last couple of weeks have been scanning my life for decisions, and eliminating or redesign those that doesn’t give me a proportional amount of value in relation to how much willpower they cost me. And when I say redesign, it could mean chunking a bunch of decisions together. Like the example I took yesterday of cooking my lunch for work every Sunday’s and therefore being ‘free’ from the “what am I going to eat today”-decisions I otherwise have to make daily. But – again – that’s why my ‘elimination diet’ might not fit you – it comes down to what you value in life! You need to examine your life with your eyes. Perhaps your daily lunch is the highlight of your day and hence is something you should to spend some daily brain activity on!

The most powerful impact I believe comes with removing temptations – if a urge isn’t even available; we can’t waste willpower on making that bad choice. Here’s some examples on how has played out for me:

• Getting rid of all the food I know I shouldn’t be eating from my kitchen. I’ve been working on emptying out all the shit from my kitchen during the last couple of week’s, and I’ve written a “Never-buy-this-food-list”. Which makes it simple for me, all the trigger foods I’ve put on that list simply isn’t allowed to be bought. It’s black and white. No long-haul internal decisions battling in my mind.
• Unsubscring to 90% of all the emails I had coming in. Every mail represents a decision – to open or not to open it. And if we open it, we analyse the content and make a decision for how to react to that. “should I buy this; should I reply; what should I reply; should I read this article; why am I reading this article”. Even if I didn’t read most of my emails, I still couldn’t help but to check the inbox constantly, just in case there was something juicy in there. I now find myself having a way less (still big though) urge to check my mail regularly.
• Eliminating social media during daytime. Oh, do I even have to start with how many decisions we are taking when we are scrolling down the flow? Because remember that not making a decision is also a decision.
• Deleting unnecessary apps (I don’t need to check my facebook on the phone)
• Removing ‘clutter in my environment. Less is more. Getting rid of shit I don’t need frees your mind.
• Tightening my eating routines. Having eating windows and not allowing snacking has made me free. And yes, I know much of my examples here have to do with food, but that’s because my entire life circles around that – and steals so much of my willpower. A relationship I’m determined to fix.

No, cutting your brother out of your life isn’t an option, even if his actions result in some draining of willpower…

I’ve also thought a whole lot about when I make certain decisions. Shitty decisions come later in the day after I’ve done the most important things (making sure what’s important always have sufficient energy levels/willpower available). In the evening I decide upon what clothes to wear and pack everything I need to bring to work so I won’t waste morning willpower on that. Same logic applies to the usage of social media – only evening time. I also plan out my coming day briefly in OneNote, listing the most important activates that needs to happen and people I need to reach out to.

Ironically enough, today I’ve made so many decisions on a construction task I’ve been working on the entire day. And I can just feel how my willpower is at rock bottom right now. Literally dead. Its surprises me greatly that I’m still sitting here writing. Only a deep motivation and passion for what I do can overcome my current brain fatigue. Because nor have I had time to do any of the “standby mode” activates (relaxing, meditation, etc) to get myself out of this “ego depletion mode” and restore some willpower. However, this also proves that this willpower approach can be overrun by the right mindset. But I also know that this blog post could have been way easier an enjoyable if I’d been better ‘charged’.

Check out my previous blog post if you want more on what these terms means. But my point is that now when I have these willpower glasses, we see the connections so clearly, which makes it easier to design our days in ways that makes us use our buffer more wisely and recharge more strategically. I mean most of this is kind of intuitive and it doesn’t come as a surprise that a nap makes us feel revitalized. BUT, for me the big realizations have been how much all these tiny decisions we take affect our willpower levels. The beauty of this decision elimination diet is that the effect comes so instantly, it’s not beach 2018 pay off. It’s a daily pay off. Plus, it’s kind of fun to see how one can cut out junk and feel massive improvement with so small tweaks. Okay cutting down on social media doesn’t come that easy for everyone… But still!

If you want one good video on willpower I recommend this one:

And if you want a full video mini course on Habit implementation and willpower check out this playlist:

/Alexander

This Friday I wrote

Healthy Diet?

a blog post about waking up to ‘reality’ and finding myself standing in the middle of a storm. One could also choose to see those chaotic moments as a bunch of decisions that needs to be taken to ‘continue on with life’. As if it was somehow conveniently paused whenever the shit hits the fan. Those high-level decisions like career choices, where to live, what food to eat a Friday evening – you know the kind! And we intuitively feel how it drains us when trying to reach a tough decision. What may not be as obvious to everybody is the amount of energy – willpower – that all the small easy decisions we take throughout our days take may be equally impactful when we sum them up.

20.000. Yepp, that’s the amount of times you’ve farted publicly. Or was it the amount of decisions? Anyways, I’m not going to fact-check that figure! But I’m quite sure I heard it in a Ted-talk last week and it sounds plausible. And if we accept the idea that it sucks willpower for every decision we make, it would also make sense to eliminate as many ‘wasteful’ decisions as possible.

So that’s why I’m currently on my third week of an elimination diet for cutting out unnecessary decisions from my life. How does that work in practice? Well, firstly I started observing my life and all the decisions I was taking on a regular basis. And I’m still doing that, constantly finding new sources of decision clusters I know see as energy thief’s!

Some decisions you can’t escape – like how to resdesign a fitting at work

I then try to evaluate how much value the outcome of the decision gives me. Like what I’m having in my lunchbox for work is not that important as long as it is nutritious. Hence, I just make something healthy on the Sunday that I can eat throughout the week. One decision being made on Sunday. Saves ton of willpower instead of every day thinking about what to have for lunch the next day, and the putting that in to action. However, It would be naive to think that I can eliminate them all – what’s then left to live for? No, I’m just looking for things that use up my willpower without giving me a proportional amount of value in return.

You see there’s always an alternative cost. If I choose to waste willpower on shitty things in the morning, that means that the likelihood for me doing things that truly adds something later in the day, decreases. And when I put it like that, it’s much easier for me to stay disciplined. But discipline and motivation will eventually always fail, it’s all about designing your life in a way where temptations aren’t as easily accessible. Now I’m going to stop here, because I’ve got some work to do and I’m as a hungry as Ukraine Pitbull that just got a sniff of Putin. Put I’ll share the rest of my thoughts, some tips and the results of my diet so far tomorrow.

I wish YOU a lovely evening, PEACE OUT

Link to the plog bost I wrote on willpower last week:

The Power Of Willpower

/Alexander

Growing up I always thought Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock was kind of a lame actor I couldn’t care less about. Perhaps a fascination for how huge this dude was, but that’s it. But, since I a while back adopted a charisma perspective when analyzing and shaping opinions about people, I can’t help but to admit that this guy ranks as a bromance quality. So last night when I accidently saw the Charisma break down video of The rock for the tenth time, I had to throw my original weekly challenge a side in exchange for a Charisma focused week. Centered around a rock.

let him who is without sin cast the first stone

Jesus – ( What does that have to do with anything? Nothing, I just like putting in nice quotes to make the text breath a bit. Plus it did have a rock in it.)

Listening to a very charismatic person makes me feel two things – fascination for being so drawn into what the person is saying, but also a longing to be able to do that too. But to be charismatic and a good storyteller we need to practice. A lot. And we need to dare to act, give it that extra energy and live the words we are saying. But don’t listen to me, I’m no expert, quite the opposite. As I said – I want to become that. But I’m eager, hungry and dying to be more charismatic, hence I try to constantly work on developing these skills. And this video shows us HOW to do all that.

Although I’ve gotten better at it, most of the time I don’t believe in myself as a storyteller, and I don’t believe in the value of the content that I’d like to share with people. As soon as I start telling something I’ve subconsciously already given up on myself, making me rush through what I have to say. But once and a while I dare to live it, I dare to be animated and use my body and facial expression. I dare to play around with my voice, and I dare to go into character. I dare. I’m going to dare this week. And I dare you likewise.

So, the challenge of the week is to practice being a bit more charismatic (like 4-5 rocks ~1,5 kg). Easier said than done. Yes, that’s usually how I work. Deception. Muhaha. Evil Face. Anyways, how are we doing this? Start with checking out my video, where I’ve borrowed the essential parts (for this week) from Charisma On Command’s Dwayne Johnson breakdown video. However, I strongly express a wish for your dopamine thriving brain to indulge in the marvellous piece of charisma candy you’ll get from the full video (link). The Charismatic traits we’ll be practicing are:

“THERE ARE THREE TOOLS THE ROCK USES AMAZINGLY WELL:
HIS SPEAKING VOLUME
HIS BODY AND THE SPACE IT TAKES UP
AND HIS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS ”

So the objectives are:

• Practice applying these techniques in the conversations you’ll be having this week. If you have any recurrent social meetings, make these your focused sessions where you really give it an extra effort. For me it’s going to be the coffer beaks we have at work two times a day. Think habit; Que (when), Routine (what), Reward (treat yourself with some proudness. Or a fruit).
• Also, try to – once a day – have a conversation with at least one random person you’ll never talked to before. It can be easier to break your regular low-key self with people that doesn’t know you. Personally – subconsciously it makes me think that people think I’m fake when I’m trying to be more charismatic, just because I’m not behaving like I usually do. All in my head. And if not – don’t care (conscious me speaking. Yeah!).

 Bonus: A secondary focus for me this week will be to understand the decision-making process better, and try so slim down the number of decisions I have to make every day to a bare minimum. By that, not wasting willpower on stuff that isn’t of real importance. But instead saving if tor the touch conversations, actions or whatever things that actually impacts my life in a meaningful way. Not weather I should read another advertising email more or not. I’ll properly wright a blog post or two about this in the week! Started doing this last week, and have had some GREAT results.

Well that’s it for me! Good luck with the challenges, and enjoy your week?

/Alexander

Saturday = peace within – High Self-estem = peace within = saturday everyday

Saturday my friend. Yes. That’s a fact. And I Imagine that’s the case for you too. It’s my  ‘me-time’ time and preparation for the coming week’s challenge. Hence, I’m going to keep it short so I can focus on understanding the decision-making process, which is the challenge theme of next week!

Instead I’m going to talk briefly about my favourite book The Six pillars of self-esteem, written by Nathaniel Branden, a self-esteem researcher and a guru within the field until he passed away some years ago. It’s without a doubt the book that has made the biggest impact on my life. Why? It gets to those 20% that makes 80% of the difference, and is does so in a straight forward and easy to grasp way. It’s about changing from within, taking control of what you can take control of. Your mind.

The book presents Six pillars that are essential if we are to develop and live a life with high level of self-esteem. The six pillars of self-esteem are:

1. The Practice of Living Consciously
2. The Practice of Self-Acceptance
3. The Practice of Self-Responsibility
4. The Practice of Self-Assertiveness
5. The Practice of Living Purposefully
6. The Practice of Personal Integrity

What’s self-esteem you may ask, because I didn’t even know there was a difference between self-esteem and confidence two years ago. Nathaniel Branden, came to the following definition:

“Self-esteem is the disposition to experience oneself as being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and of being worthy of happiness. It is confidence in the efficacy of our mind, in our ability to think. By extension, it is confidence in our ability to learn, make appropriate choices and decisions, and respond effectively to change. It is also the experience that success, achievement, fulfilment – happiness – are right and natural for us. The survival-value of such confidence is obvious; so is the danger when it is missing.”

So, what’s the point of this blog post? Well, I just wanted to open you up to the concept of self-esteem, and personally testify to how it changed my life after putting some serious effort into developing it. If you’re curious, you can listen to the audiobook here (link), it’s only three ½ hours long. And if you want to have it as an mp3 on your phone, just copy the YouTube link and use this webpage (link) to download it.  If you want the quick fix, here’s kind of a summary I did a while back:

Besides that, I wish you a great day. For me, the evening is going to be spent with friends and board games. Did I mention I love Saturday?

/Alexander

Do you ever find yourself feeling happy in one moment but then totally lost in the next one? Or even more subtle – like a weird undefined gray-misty-mood coming and going.  But since you’re constantly keeping yourself so occupied with external inputs, you’re not allowing yourself the breathing room to ‘vent’ what’s going on. But reality will eventually catch up. It always does.

That’s my reality right now. Or well, let’s not exaggerate things – my life hasn’t totally imploded on me! I’m just realizing I’ve got some things to deal with. Just ended a great week – had a blast at work, nice morning workouts, a focused and controlled mind, and on top of all that a weekly challenge that pushed me to meet and talk to 5 beautiful women. Three of these conversations making me smile in this very moment just thinking about them. Honestly, had such a tremendously awesome week! But it was also intense. So today when Friday came around, and I gave myself some much need breathing room, clarity stroke with an essance of chaos stroke.

Now this is a regular recurrent thing for most people. I Imagine. We have our periods of clarity in direction and purpose, then we staggnate, or dip down if we don’t adress the issue. This can be described with S-curves, which I took the liberty of borrowing this picture to describe ( source in the caption ):

Source: https://hbr.org/2012/09/throw-your-life-a-curve

True for most people is also the part of not having time to address the much-needed tings that needs to be addressed. It’s related to living with a low level of consciousness, which I’ve talked about earlier in this blog. That’s why I’m a strong advocate of having a scheduled moment at least once a week to sit down and reflect on your life – a weekly review. What has happened, what reflections and learning can be extracted looking back, what was my top moments, did I progress towards my goals the way I intended; did I do what I sat out to do, and if not – why? Looking forward, Is there something I need to tweak and what do I want to accomplish in the coming week?

The weekly review should also include a birds view perspective on your life; what do you want to achieve in life; goals, purpose and vison for yourself. Regularly evaluating your journey to make sure that you’re doing the ‘right things’. That your way of living life is in fact a reasonable good match to how you WANT to live life. Giving yourself that moment every week is priceless. Sometimes you’ll not throw yourself out to the high-altitude-level-stuff, but if you have the routine of doing a weekly evaluation – you’ll fell when it’s necessary!

The practicality of it all happens in OneNote for me, which is part of the Office365 package. A free alternative is Evernote which has a similar look. But you might just as well use a sheet of white paper. If you don’t know where to start, you can download a  weekly evaluation guide (here https://liveyourlegend.net/email-updates/ ).

Now, I have got some high-level altitude questions I need to address; career, future, love life, friends, family, living arrangement, YouTube channel, lifestyle choices (training & health). But I wish you a happy Friday evening?.

If you want to listen to the live stream summary of my week’s challenge, just check out this video:

/Alexander

Ahh.. Food.. Come to me baby! Delicious sweet potato with a sunny side up egg, served with a perfect avocado… And maybe some sun-dried tomatoes – or did I eat all of them?!

As soon as I’ve posted this post, I’ll break my 21 hours fast. Hang in there Alex. I’ve been starting to play around with intermitting fasting – again – this week. Something I started doing quite regularly on and off 3 years ago. However, the last year it has only happened sporadically like every other week. When you’re not used to longer fasting, well, then it momentarily can feel like someone cracked your head  open like an egg, and the mess is floating out all over the place (can’t stop thinking about them..). Weak, hungry, itching in the body, distant from the world and a bit foggy, yet in some strange way that’s hard to pin point, absolutely amazing.

I can’t explain it, but it’s something about. Especially when these tougher moments disappear, because it’s a temporary state. Like right now I can feel myself coming out of that awfulness, into the better place. But I won’t deny that the last three hours required some serious willpower to keep me going. And not die.

What’s intermitting fasting? Well basically it means that you have an eating window of 8 hours and then a fast of 16 hours. These time windows aren’t set in stone, but the idea is to put your body in a fasting state which you transfer into after around 12 hours. Anyways, there’s a bunch of claimed advantages, some backed up with stronger studies some perhaps not so much. A quick googling gave me this article “7 Science-Backed Health Benefits of Fasting” (source) and they stated the following benefits:

1. Fasting Can Help the Aging Process And Increase Longevity
2. Fasting May Help Promote Weight Loss, Predominantly Fat Loss
3. Fasting Can Help Reduce the Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes
4. Fasting Can Offer Protection Within the Brain
5. Fasting May Offer a Promising Therapeutic Potential Within Multiple Sclerosis
6. Fasting Can Switch on Specific Repair Genes: Autophagy
7. Fasting Can Offer Protection from Certain Cancers and Help Mitigate the Side Effects of Standard Treatment

I don’t buy into these too serious. Let me rephrase that – they are not the reason for why I’m fascinated by fasting and have tried to implement it as a regular thing in my life. Or well, I do have a goal of living to at least 130, so the longevity part for sure interreges me and was what first arose my curiosity. No, for me the number one reason is the practicality of not having to think about food for so long. It’s black and white. When I’m not supposed to eat, I’m not going to eat. That’s the end of it. And I don’t need to keep battling my mind to convince me otherwise. To clear my mind like that and be free, man do I love it.

The second reason I think it’s amazing is due how you train yourself to resist urges. Which actually increases your willpower long-term (video link ) – even though it drains the shityou’re your willpower when you’re not used to it. Today really was a struggle, let’s just say that. And that’s also why I chose to do my weekly challenge ( approach-a-girl-every-day-and-start-a-conversation) on my way to work instead of on my way home. If you’re curious to find out how it went when I started talking to a random girl this morning on the train, check out this live stream I just did below.

Besides that, I’d just like to invite you to try some fasting out. It’s interesting and helpful to get to know your body. Before I’d ever tried it, I thought it was impossible for me to go without food for more than 6 hours. It would kill me. Now I know I can make it for days. I think the longest I’ve went was something like 48 hours. It makes me flexible and okay in situations where food isn’t available ( yeah that happens sometimes ), and just that in itself is worth a lot to me!

Have a great evening!

/Alexander

Hey guys! It’s Wednesday and we are half way through the week. Just love that feeling. Not because I hate the beginning of the week, but because the mode shifts to a different kind of mode. And variation is one of my favourite things. Even the bad kind. Perhaps not initially, but long-term, as it always brings me new perspectives and appreciations for things. Getting to know myself better.

Anyways, I don’t if your Wednesday is as good as microwaved Banas with cardamom served with walnuts, raspberry’s and yogurt, but mines freaking great! I just had an exciting conversation with a random girl I approached on my way home from work. If you’ve missed it, it’s a part of my week challenge. If you’re curios you can see the video where I introduced the challenge here (link), and if you want to hear me tell the story of what just went down, you can see the replay live stream I did 30 minutes ago here:

Besides that, I’m not going to say much more today. Need to get working on a video I’m editing. BUT, I just have to share this great video on the topic of willpower I stumbled across today ( it’s in the beginning of this post). I know I’ve already been discussing it a whole lot here – but willpower is the theoretical focus of the week. And I just love to nerd in on stuff.

What I particularly want you to take with you is a breathing exercise they present – 10 seconds in and 10 seconds out. I tried this for 20 minutes on the train home before approaching that girl I talked about. It’s some scientific evidence backing it up for enabling you to enter a state of “pause & Plan” – the opposite of the Fight & flight mode we enter when adrenaline enters our system. Don’t take my word for it, I’ve just started doing it (but I liked it). Instead watch the video if you’ve time, it’s well put together.

Thanks for stopping by & See you tomorrow!

/Alexander