Transcript for:
Daily Practices for Health and Well-being

this is every single Andrew hubman protocol from the first year of his podcast that I still use daily 2 years after learning about them these are all things that just about anybody can do whether you're working full-time studying full-time or straight lazy fulltime like myself and we're going to be starting with his most famous which is sunlight the protocol is to spend 5 to 10 minutes in the morning walking or just out in sunlight letting as much sunlight absorb into your eyes as possible without directly looking into the sun this is even to be done on overcast windy days like today there's still enough light seeping through the cloud cover to get the positive effects but you're going to have to increase the time outside to more like 15 20 minutes if you can you can extend this duration or combine it with some type of exercise walking or running for me that has been waking up and walking my dogs in the morning right when I wake up after the routine is implemented it feels like you're ready and awake without an alarm at the right time even if I'm away from the dogs I'll still make it a priority on vacation or wherever to get out and get some sunlight in the morning morning sunlight boosts cortisol epinephrine and dopamine by 50% enhancing energy immunity and mood it also crucially regulates the body's Cadian clock impacting wakefulness sleepiness and a bunch of other physiological processes but the benefits of sunlight don't end in the morning in fact spending time outside in the late afternoon carries its own set of benefits the unique wavelengths of the Sun during this time especially the warm yellows and oranges communicate to our Cadian clock that evening is approaching signaling the body to initiate the transition towards a restful night's sleep my girlfriend and I have both found that viewing the sunset is one of our favorite activities to do together and although it may sound mundane to most there's something truly mesmerizing in watching the sunset honestly it's a so good eh by incorporating this late afternoon sunlight into your routine it pretty much creates a second Anchor Point for you which reminds your Cadian clock of where you are in the day and ensures that your body remains in harmony with nature now onto the next protocol which is lateral eye movements 5 to 10 lateral eye movements left left to right in moments of stress or go for a walk where your eyes naturally perform lateral eye movements when walking this is referred to as self-generated Optical flow and works to decrease stress by suppressing the amydala the amydala is the part of the brain that deals with the detection of threats and activating appropriate fear related behaviors in response to threatening or dangerous stimuli this is also why eye movement desensitization reprocessing is showing more and more promise in the psychology space it's the same idea of Rapid lateral eye movements which help dampen the power of emotion ly charged memories of past and let the individual move on from that experience for me I make sure I just find myself running or walking through space at least once per day and also intentionally implementing the eye movements if I'm lucky enough to notice myself becoming stressed flustered or anxious over something which to be honest is pretty rare but every time I do catch myself it definitely helps out the situation we'll talk about more ways to decrease stress in protocol 8 but now we're going to move on to Old trade in Cycles use these intervals for Focus work beginning with 5 to 10 minutes of easing into tasks then ramp up Focus for 80 to 90 minutes then spend 10 to 30 minutes deliberately defocusing with the aim being 1 to three deep focus Cycles daily alrum rhythms are repetitive body Cycles occurring within 2 24 hours the goal is to use these rhythms to align with your natural work rest Cycles to enhance productivity and reduce fatigue to harness this natural Rhythm you want to block off your day into 1 to three intense Focus bouts most people find it challenging to sustain more than three to four solid blocks of concentrated work for me personally it's a non-negotiable that I get at least one learning bout per day and I'm absolutely exstatic if I manag to get two deep focus bouts in a day my process is I sit down put my phone on airplane mode or don't even bring it in the room I then start my 28 Minute pomodora Timer with 2 minutes rest I then repeat that three times and that is my full focus-based old Trad in cycle this is less of a protocol and much more of a mind shift change and that is that errors trigger plasticity in the brain so make a lot more of them the protocol focuses on how neuroplasticity enables our brains to reshape and adapt in response to experiences making errors and repeating them trigger the release of neurochemicals that signal our neural circuits to change creating an ideal environment for learning new skills pretend I'm trying to communicate with my Colombian girlfriend's mom who only speaks Spanish and in that conversation I'm practicing my Spanish and attempt to tell her that valer is embarrassed of me Valeria is me I can guarantee for the rest of my life I will remember that embarass Sala doesn't mean embarrassed and in fact does mean pregnant now not every error is going to cause that much of a response in the brain like that example but for me just that understanding has really changed my entire approach to learning and significantly decrease my fear of failure I've procrastinated a lot in my life when it comes to learning new skills because so many anxious thoughts rush to me you've literally failed at learning the piano for 3 years you are so at the piano you literally make my ears bleed you don't even know what gy is which but now with the understanding that mistakes are what trigger those changes I actively seek them out oh I can play 3 minutes of the 4minute piece on the piano that means it's time to practice from the last minute not play 3 minutes then make a mistake and start again which is what I would default to in an attempt to please my ego and stay safe and secure but the truth is if you're not failing you're not learning and that brings us to protocol 5 deliberate defocusing take 10 seconds within reps of learning a new skill after a block of learning along a defocus 5 to 30 minutes while practice and repetition are fundamental to mastering new skills research has illuminated the importance of integrating rest intervals within and at the end of learning sessions rest acts is the vital link connecting the learning process with the Improvement of neural Pathways my goto is just taking a conscious breath and closing my eyes Within reps of learning a new skill looking out the window and looking as far as I can in a panoramic fashion for a few minutes is my goto if the session was close up learning on the laptop and if it's something much more important that I really want to remember or that made me extremely fatigued I'll perform a non-sleep deep rest protocol that we'll talk about more in protocol 7 during these rest periods something remarkable occurs within the brain both the hippocampus and cortex crucial brain regions remain highly active they tirelessly process the recently acquired information at an astonishing rate approximately 20 times faster than during active practice which is honestly insane and exactly why I still use those techniques nearly 2 years later after learning about them now that brings us to myopia for every 45 minutes of screen viewing look as far as you can on the horizon for 5 minutes so since I underwent my high school certificate in 2016 Then followed up with University in 2018 there was a lot of closeup reading laptops books textbooks study all of the above and every single one of those years my distance Vision has got increasingly worse that was up until 2 years ago that I started implementing this now Andrew hubman is not the first person to recommend this but he was the one that made me take action and actually start incorporating it into my life so every half an hour my watch actually vibrates little haptic feedback thing a lot of watches do it or maybe it's usually on the hour I literally just sit back look out the window for a minute or two kind of focusing as far as I can sometimes adding a little bit of movement in the uh foreground and then also Focus distances on different objects but for me this is honestly been a game changer and I'm happy to say that my lens prescription has not changed in the last 2 years whatsoever which goes directly against what my optometrist said would happen now that brings us to non-sleep deep rest it's a protocol that involves listening to a 10 to 30 minute mindful breathing and body scan that guides The Listener into an aware yet deep L relaxed date this protocol is so powerful that I'm going to have to make its own video for it it literally carries all the benefits of defocusing in the previous protocol plus so much more there are four different times I would use this in my day depending on what I'm doing and how I'm feeling first is after a learning bout which will only be a 10 to 15 minute script now the second type of yoga needra I'd use is probably a longer 30 minute one I'll do this after like a super intense like I guess vocab learning or something like that like language learning or something analytical to get all the memory consolidation benefits or I might just do after work a 30 minute one just to kind of destress relax a little bit recharge and get ready for the evening I literally made this for yoga needers and it's served me well third is right after a workout when I want to switch my nervous system from sympathetic to parasympathetic it ensures that I'm able to start my recovery as quickly as possible but the fourth time I would do yoga need throughout my day is if I I'm struggling really hard to get to sleep I'm lucky that because following a lot of sleep advice I tend to sleep pretty well at the same time very quickly but there's a few nights where you know ruminating thoughts might come in and you just can't get to sleep in toss and turn I just whack the earphones in I close my eyes and generally I'm already off and asleep before the body scan part of the yoger even starts so it's definitely effective I got to recommend that one you guys are got to try it it's so good anyway next one physiological sze this one is just easier for Professor hubman himself to explain it there's a pattern of breathing called the physiological side that involves two inhales followed by a long exhale inhale through your nose very deeply and then after inhaling as deeply as you can you're going to try and sneak in a little bit more air on a second inhale also through your nose and then after you do that you're going to do a long exhale to the point where your lungs are empty it goes like this [Applause] this is one of the best protocols that I literally had never even heard of before Andre hubman and the best part about it is that it can literally just bring a sense of calm in real time in this new study from the lab it showed that practicing this technique of breathing for just 5 minutes a day can have a better effect of reducing stress than meditation box breathing and cyclic hyperventilation I like to take a few conscious physiological size anytime I'm transitioning from a short-term stressor like exercising in the gym or after run I'll finish the exercise begin some light stretches while implementing the breathing then for 5 minutes do nothing but physiological size in an effort to Kickstart my recovery the second most used time for this is anytime I start feeling flustered or if a disagreement feels like it's about to begin it just gives you that sprinkle of time in between making your decision and how you react to what's in front of you hopefully to make a better more rational decision if you hadn't taken the breath now that brings us to our last two protocols which is supplementing fish oil and magnesium the the protocol is 1 to 4 G of fish oil aiming for 2 G of EPA and 300 mg for magnesium after trying a multitude of supplements over the Last 5 Years these are the two that I always come back to and just about don't want to live without for Omega 3s I've not seen a big difference in paying for more expensive versus cheaper supplements as long as you're hitting the goal of 2 G of EPA per day just make sure that they're not oxidized by keeping them out of the light and refrigerated omega-3 fatty acids have also been shown to improve concentration enhance cognitive function and even support a positive mood additionally Omega-3s have anti-inflammatory properties promoting overall wellness and reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease for me the main benefit is decrease in delayed onset muscle soreness which is just sore muscles after training magnesium on the other hand I've found widely different results depending on what form I'm using after trying the expensive 3 andate and a multitude of different types at different price points I've found that magnesium glycinate has been the best for me in my last upload you see it's influence in increasing my testosterone 97% in a month plays a vital role in muscle relaxation which can help alleviate muscular soreness and promote a sense of calm it also supports healthy sleep patterns reduces stress levels and contributes to strong bones additionally this mineral is essential for energy production within our cells keeping his feeling energized and revitalized let me know in the comments any protocols that I haven't been using that you guys have been using over the last 2 years since you heard about them and if you want to see my results in following his foundational Fitness protocol for 6 months be sure to check out my channel as that video is already uploaded anyway that's all for me thank you so much for watching and see you guys in the comments