Transcript for:
Lecture Notes: Tricks for a Better Life

[Music] this was one of the hardest but also one of the  most life-changing habits I had to build want to   know how I did it hi everyone my name is Veronica  and today you will learn how to trick your brain   to make your life more enjoyable sleep your way  to success have you noticed that recently morning   routines have become quite trendy there's so many  videos on YouTube where people share everything   they do at 5:00 a.m. how productive they are  they wake up at 5:00 a.m. they feel amazing   but I think not a lot of people talk about evening  routines and to be honest I'm not a morning person   or I mean I can wake up early in the morning  but not at 5:00 a.m. and I definitely don't   want to because I don't like the darkness I don't  like waking up when the sun is not out yet I feel   extremely tired I feel very sleepy and like I just  cannot be productive and feel great at 5:00 a.m.   the only thing that can make me have a feel good  productive morning is a Feelgood evening routine   honestly this changed everything for me but  it's not always easy I completely understand   sometimes I want to stay up late because I'm  hanging out with my friends but I feel like   over the years I try to develop this principle  of if I want to hang out with my friends I try   to invite them over at like 6:00 p.m. and I tell  everyone okay guys please leave at like 9 or 10:   p.m. because then I'm going to get ready to  go to bed you cannot even imagine how much I   struggle with being on my phone while being in  my bed and it is not very healthy and it's not   something that I want to continue doing anymore  I would scroll on my phone and the rising anxiety   would make it hard to fall asleep I'm sure a  lot of you can relate to this sleep is taken   for granted and the consequences are disastrous  a silent epidemic is sweeping across our planet   as Millions find that they cannot sleep sleep  well and why we sleep Matthew Walker shares the   shocking statistic that our devices can reduce  the production of the sleep hormone melatonin   by up to 50% it basically means that if you stare  at your phone before going to bed even 8 hours is   not going to be enough like you're not going to  feel refreshed you're not going to feel amazing   when you wake up your sleep is not going to feel  as a restorative Eric partaker in his book The   three alarms mentions such a thing as a digital  Sunset it's basically an additional alarm that   you set on your phone an hour before going to bed  that reminds you to put your phone away and I feel   like nowadays many phones have this feature where  you can have this sleeping routine for yourself   and your phone is going to remind you hey it's  time to unwind it's time to relax so put me down   and don't look at me anymore but I'm not going to  lie I'm not perfect and sometimes it's so freaking   hard for me to leave my phone in another room  every single time time I lay in my bed and my   phone is in a different room I think but what if  I need it right now what if somebody calls me what   if I get a message what if I just want to be on my  phone so I get it because maybe some of you really   need your phone next to your bed because you need  your morning alarm or maybe use a special sleep   tracking app and it's not convenient for you to  leave your phone in a different room I think the   main idea here is reducing the screen light and  your brain activity the phone itself is not such   a big problem so so technically you don't need to  get rid of your phone but the problem is usually   a phone is a big stimulation for many of us at  least for me my brain really works a lot when   I'm on my phone and I think that it is true for  many of you watching this video so now let's go   through two possible scenarios when you have your  phone and when you don't have your phone next to   your bed the advantage of leaving your phone in a  different room is that we all feel extremely lazy   especially when we're cozied up in our bed like  we don't actually want to get up and go get our   phones and it's a lot more convenient to just  stay in bed and do something else but at the   same time I completely understand this feeling  of boredom and this urge to go grab your phone   because we're so used to overstimulation and OV  excitement and this is something that our phone   can give us so what helps me a lot and what you  can Implement is gradually changing this habit   of using your phone to something else for example  what I recently started doing is reading a calming   book something wholesome something fun usually  I read fiction before going to bed because it's   stimulates my brain a little bit because it's a  nice story it's interesting I also like reading   fantasy before going to bed because it's a  complete different world it's a completely   different story very unrealistic but so much  fun to read you can't really see here in the   video but I'm filming next to my bed this is my  bed and here I have my book so that every single   time I I'm in bed I don't have to get up get my  book go back to bed it's already here so even   if I feel lazy it's very easy for me to grab my  book and start reading a little preparation goes   a long way if you do need to have your phone with  you you can listen to an audio book or maybe do a   meditation there are amazing sleep meditations and  sometimes when I try one I fall asleep super fast   or you can listen to some ASMR music some really  relaxing music recently I fell in love with this   instrument called a hand pan or hand Rams I'm not  really sure but basically the melody the music   that this instrument creates it's crazy I love it  so much for me it's very relaxing something that   helps me unwind and every time I feel a little  bit anxious or stressed I turn it on I breathe   out and it works like magic I think you all have  noticed that recently I have been working a lot   on improving the quality of my YouTube videos on  working on the whole setup on my camera and also   on the way my videos are edited and if you want  to take your video editing skills to the next   level I highly recommend filur filora 13 is an  amazing video editing Suite designed to expand   your creativity it's powered by Ai and it can help  you make editing a breeze so the first feature   that filora 13 has that I'm very excited about is  their AI co-pilot editing feature basically what   it does is once you upload your video it's going  to give you some recommendations and creative   edits things you can do to improve your video and  make it look better the next powerful feature that   they have is their AI text based editing you can  transform your text into Dynamic visuals adding   a whole new dimension to your storytelling well  just a few clicks your words will come to life on   the screen you can also edit your thumbnails with  filora their AI will analyze your video content   and will generate the thumbnails that your  audience will be most likely to to click this   feature will obviously save you a lot of time the  AI music generator will analyze your video's mood   and content and generate the Perfect soundtrack to  fit your video I know how much time it can take to   find the perfect song for your video and filora  13 will help you do it a lot faster and finally   they have a lot of templates you can use to make  your editing go by a lot faster and to allow you   to be more productive the templates have a lot of  different formats on social media so that you can   stand out easily so if you want to give fura 13  a try you can download it by clicking the link in   my description it's completely free to download on  Windows and Mac and you can also get it on IOS and   Android thank you so much to fura for sponsoring  this video and again the link to download it   will be in the description and in the pin comment  turning addiction into healthy Obsession a common   misconception is that addiction is a choice or a  moral problem and that all you have to do is just   stop but researchers have found that the brain  actually changes with addiction and it takes   a good deal of work to get it back to normal  state but exercises such as deep breathing and   meditation can have a very positive effect on the  brain I used to be that person who Shi away from   meditation because I thought it was ineffective  but in reality I just didn't want to put in the   work obviously for meditation to start becoming  effective for you you have to make it a part of   your life and you can't resist right if when you  sit down to meditate all you think about is how   much you hate it that you think it's stupid that  you think it's dumb of course it's not going to   help you it's only going to make you feel worse  even before recording these videos for you guys   I try to sit down and breathe a little bit because  I just want to relax completely and let everything   go but here's another awesome thing that does the  trick learning new things if if you really want to   deliver education to everyone not only do you have  to make it accessible but also also you have to   make it so that people want to actually learn and  with dual Ling we've been able to do this and at   the highest level the way we've done this is by  making the broccoli taste like dessert I'll say   it another way what we've done is that we've used  the same psychological techniques that apps like   Instagram Tik Tok or mobile games use to keep  people engaged but in this case we use them to   keep people engaged but with education as I said  previously it's not about blaming your phone per   se because it can be very useful if you know  how to use it wisely a few weeks ago I started   learning the American Sign Language so for me  every single time before I go to bed I like to   practice it with my phone of course I'm using my  phone but at the same time this routine or this   practice is so relaxing for me because I don't  have to speak I only use my hand my right hand   and my left hand and that's it and I'm practicing  a new language the American Sign Language it's   something that I have have never studied before  and it really pushes me out of my comfort zone   because to be honest I don't have very good like  finger flexibility so sometimes when I do certain   signs for example this means D I don't know why  but this is painful to me like believe me this   letter is letter K and this is painful to me too  I'm like oh this finger really hurts so learning   the American Sign Language really pushes me out of  my comfort zone and of course at the beginning I   feel really uncomfortable sometimes sometimes my  hand hurts but I know that at the end it's going   to bring me the result that I want the key is to  be busy and open-minded and then you'll be getting   the same excitement you usually get from unhealthy  behaviors or let's say less healthy behaviors now   tell me please if you've seen those videos with  the word dopamine in the title yes when we receive   dopamine we feel great for example every time you  leave a comment and nice comment under my YouTube   video it makes me feel good but then this feeling  kind of Fades and we forget about this comment   whatsoever so it's not really about constantly  chasing pleasure to boost your dopamine and to   feel happy the secret is to nurture this inner  support within you enjoy the process and be cool   with the results 1,000 mediocre days Crossing 1  million subscribers on one of my YouTube channels   seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time in the  United States and moving to Mexico we're all just   one day but usually we don't think about all the  other 1,000 days of putting in all this effort and   let me show you what it looks like I'm reading a  book when the next video idea hits me I rush to   my desk to write it down in my notebook the next  day I start researching material for it with a   traffic noise outside the window I'm used to it  and sometimes it doesn't bother me but sometimes   it does I can't focus it triggers anxiety about  not being able to finish my work on time so I   give up and take a break I started doing yoga  to the music of hand drums it helps me a lot   the stress is slowly fading away I get back to my  research and start forming the main ideas reading   and typing a lot my body may get stiff but my mind  is happily absorbing insights the next day I do   some cleaning and set up a spot to film I check  my camera batteries and lights and then here we   are you see me in this moment recording this very  video it's just a tiny part of my day recording   recording this video but a lot happened before  this and today you saw it all by showing you   this little snippet I want to highlight how being  more aware can boost your overall performance when   you think about a goal you want to achieve when  you actually reach it it's just another regular   day but there's so much more that happened in  between from this point a to this point B all   of this is the story of how you achieve this goal  but the problem is we live in this world where we   we tend to Showcase or see this only one special  day very few people actually share their average   days on social media because they think it's  boring and quite frankly videos where people   achieve something great generate a lot more views  and get a lot more likes we don't post a 30second   video of cleaning our shoes on Tik Tok but we all  do it we just don't show it this realization is   the way to bring more awareness into your life  so let your Rin know these three things you're   actually doing more than you think celebrate that  everybody else had 15 hours of life before posting   that cool picture remember that every hour you  work towards your goal counts remind yourself   of that I'm just trying the first four to five  months I was trying to learn Spanish that was   my identity I would always tell people I'm trying  I'm trying to learn Spanish and because of that   I wasn't actually learning like I was not acting  like the person I wanted to become and I wanted to   become a fluent Spanish speaker and then probably  I would say eight months in like yeah it took me   eight months to actually realized that I was doing  something wrong and so eight months in I was like   actually I need to stop trying and start learning  you know sometimes you just have to stop trying   and start doing it actually and be confident and  what you're doing and when you talk to people   tell them yes I'm learning Spanish maybe right now  my Spanish you know I'm not like 100% fluent but   it's fine but I'm still learning I'm not trying  I'm learning I'm very serious about it right now   and the way to approach it is to write it write  things about yourself that sound more affirmative   specific and look more like actions for example  I'm learning new things about nutrition from the   article I found online instead of I'm trying to  get healthier this week I'm taking notes on how   to build passive income instead of I know I need  to find other ways to earn money I'm scheduling   three therapy sessions this month instead of  I've heard a lot of good things about therapy   it's basically all about identifying yourself  with this new version of yourself sometimes I   struggle with staying consistent when it comes to  journaling and I would say that yes I'm trying to   journal so when I say that I'm trying to journal  I identify myself as a person who is trying who is   always trying I know many of you might be saying  I'm trying to learn a new foreign language so this   way you're not actually learning you're trying and  it's a completely different thing so the sooner   you identify yourself as a person who journals as  a person who goes to the gym as a person who cooks   healthy meals every single day as a person who  is learning not trying to is learning a foreign   language the sooner you will actually become that  person the observer effect we change our Behavior   a lot when we expect to be seen in biology when  researchers want to observe animals in their   natural habitat it is Paramount that they find  a way to do so without disturbing those animals   otherwise the behavior they see is likely to be  unnatural because most animals including humans   including us change their behavior when they're  being observed the way children act at home is   not the same as in the playground the dog bark  Slaughter outside the house to alert you or to   get your attention if your work meeting is being  recorded you'll make sure your hair looks good   you'll sit up straight maybe you'll change your  outfit and you'll give it your all we tend to   be on our best behavior when we know that we're  being observed Thomas Jefferson once wrote that   whenever you do a thing act as if all the world  were watching I'm going to tell you something   super crazy and super funny right now we don't  actually need anyone else watching us all we need   is a poster with eyes on it and it can make such a  big difference Yes you heard me right just hang a   poster on the wall with eyes on it so there was  the school experiment where scientists hung out   posters with eyes and University cafeteria  and then they watched how students behaved   especially when it came to cleaning up after  eating and they did it for 32 days moving the   posters around every single day and guess what  when posters had eyes on them instead of just   flowers or mountains twice as many people cleaned  up after themselves it's pretty well to imagine   how something as simple as eyes on a poster can  change your behavior so freaking much if you're   curious about why this happens you can check out  the link to the source in the description so I   feel like in a way when I started my first  YouTube channel and then my second YouTube   channel I made other people observe me like on my  first channel I talk about language learning and   at the very beginning I was only learning English  so I was talking a lot about English tips and the   fact that so many other people were watching my  videos motivated me because I knew that I had to   keep going I couldn't just stop there were so  many eyes on me and I had to be committed and   practice the language even more so how can you  implement this enter your life of course you can   hang up a poster with eyes on it if you want to  but you can take it a little bit further if you   want to build a the habit of going to the gym  you can take a friend with you like you can   both create this habit and this way your friend  is going to become your accountability buddy   they're going to make sure you actually go to the  gym because your friend will know when you don't   actually go to the gym you can also talk about  on social media if you want to or you can use a   habit tracker something as simple as just using  a pen and paper so guys if you want to perform   better and work faster consider either hanging  a poster with eyes on in or learning a new skill   or joining a group class don't forget to check  out fura by clicking the link in our description   it will help you take your video editing to the  next level if you want to learn how to set your   goals you can watch this video right here thank  you so much for watching and I'll see you there