As we start out 2022 with grand intentions, I want to invite you to also slow down.  Instead of running around like a headless chicken trying to get it all done, learn how to slow down and get into your “zone of focus” to actually get more done in less time and buy back time in your day!  Wouldn’t you love to have more time in your day for yourself?   I know it sounds counterintuitive, but tune into this episode to learn why slowing down is so important and some actionable steps that you can start taking today to help you slow down and get more done! 

Boost Your Immune System Workshop Registration: 

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Discover Your Toxic Load Quiz:  https://welcome.yourguidedhealthjourney.com/yourtoxicload

About the Host:

Melissa is an Integrative Health Practitioner helping people get to the root cause of their health issues.  Melissa neither diagnoses nor cures but helps bring your body back into balance by helping discover your “toxic load” and then removing the toxins. Melissa offers functional medicine lab testing that helps you “see inside” to know exactly what is going on, and then provides a personalized wellness protocol using natural herbs and supplements.   Melissa’s business is 100% virtual – the lab tests are mailed directly to your home and she specializes in holding your hand and guiding the way to healing so that you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. 

Melissa has been featured at a number of Health & Wellness Summits, such as the Health, Wealth & Wisdom Summit, The Power To Profit Summit, The Feel Fan-freaking-tas-tic Summit, and the Aim Higher Summit, and has guested on over 30 different podcasts teaching people about the importance of prioritizing our health and how to get get started. 

www.yourguidedhealthjourney.com

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Imagine getting up every day full of energy is

if you were in your 20s. Again, what would that be? Like? What

would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you?

Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without

it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are

taking it for granted. until something goes wrong.

No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or

chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be

proactive in our health through our school system, or public

health. As a registered health coach and integrative health

practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made

available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health

and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in

the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your

health for today and all your tomorrow's don't wait for your

wakeup call.

Welcome back to the don't wait for your wake up call podcast. I

am Melissa Daly, your host of the show. And as we start out

January 2022, I want to talk to you today about slowing down. So

often started the new year, we've had a little break at the

end of last year, we've set our goals. And we're jumping at the

bit to get going and start the year and do all that we can. And

sometimes it's actually better when we slow down. In fact, most

of the time, it's actually better when we slow down. And I

want to talk to you about that today. And hopefully by the end

of the show, you have some tips that you can take with you and

implement. And just a greater understanding around how our

brain and our stress signals impact our body's ability to

function at a top notch level. So we've been taught that

multitasking is a sign of high productivity. And those who can

get more done are good multitaskers it's considered a

skill in the corporate world, at least it was when I was in the

corporate world. And it's encouraged. And yet the science

shows that it is less effective than focusing on one thing at a

time and getting it done. And this is because we when we get

into the zone of focus, we truly can get things done. And every

time we get pulled out of that zone, it can take us 20 minutes

to get back into the zone. So if you're multitasking, and you're

working on one project over here, you know, maybe it's your

year and bookkeeping. And you've been working on that for half an

hour, you're in the zone focused. And if someone else

comes along and interrupts you, or if suddenly your brain is

like, Oh, but I have to do this, and I have to do this, I have to

do that, oh, I'll just look at my email quickly, you get pulled

out of that zone. And then you do a little bit of email, and

then you look at something else, and then maybe come back to the

accounting and you can't quite remember where you're at. And it

just takes you another 20 minutes to get into that zone.

And you would have been far better off finishing that

project before looking at email before dealing with anything

else. And so it may seem like multitasking is the way to get a

lot done, you actually waste a lot of time getting into the

zone of focus throughout your day when you have to keep going

back to that same project and it takes 20 minutes each time. So

you are better off time blocking your bigger tasks and projects,

and then turning off all notifications and blocking 45

minutes to an hour to do just that one thing that has to get

done. And then when it's done, take a break, go for a walk 15

minutes, you know, and then come back to whatever it is that you

need to focus on next.

And the reality is, is that one hour of focus time equals three

hours of unfocused time. So you're gaining an extra two

hours every time you give yourself that opportunity to

focus. And just stop and ask yourself, How often do you give

yourself that focus? Or how often are you interrupted and do

you allow yourself to be interrupted? How often do you

let your brain run the show and take you from this task to this

task to this task or how often do you get pulled out of your

focus because of alerts and notifications on your phone or

your computer? that make you feel like I'll have to check

that message. And that just breaks that zone of focus right?

You will achieve so much more in any given day, if you just give

yourself that gift of focus. So most people focus the best in

the morning. And so plan your day around getting your biggest

tasks or projects done, when you know you are best able to focus.

And I say most people, because that isn't everyone. So if you

know you focus better after lunch, then make that your time

to focus in your calendar. And all of this is a little bit like

the story of the tortoise and the hare, right? Slowing down

and focusing on what needs to get done step by step Easy does

it rather than just trying to rush through and get it all

done. Because when we slow down, it will actually result in us

accomplishing more in less time. As counterintuitive. As that

sounds to all of us. When our brain gets into that state of

overwhelm, our frontal lobe shuts down. And it has a hard

time focusing or even deciding what to do next. And that's why

we have so much waste of time. We sit in that state of

overwhelm, not getting much done. And you know, all you all

know this state, we've all been there, right. So that is why

choosing to allow your brain to slow down through techniques

such as meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, is so

beneficial, it actually helps our brain come out of that state

of overwhelm. So we can get back to being focused. Now I get it

in the middle of your workday, you might not be able to just

start doing your yoga class. But you always have your breath with

you. So you can always do some breathing exercises, you can

always take five minutes, even if it's to go to the staff room,

if it's a quiet time of day, or to the washroom and just

meditate for five minutes. There's so many apps on your

phone free apps paid apps that have meditations for shortest

five minutes. And if you're meditating and breathing, you

just take your brain and body into a different state, you

bring it out of that state of overwhelm. And when I guide

people through just short meditations, as an example of

this, when I'm working with clients, I often will do it in

group sessions. And we just do it for five minutes, not even I

asked them how they feel afterwards, every single time.

They tell me they feel calm. We don't realize when our nervous

system is getting so worked up. And we're in that stressed out

state until we start to create awareness around this and do

check ins with ourselves and ask how am I feeling in this moment?

Am I feeling like I'm I'm in a state of overwhelm? Is that why

I can't focus, maybe I need to do some breathing. And in that

moment, allow our body to calm, which allows our brain to calm

so that we can then get into that zone of focus. So my

favorite breathing exercise, and if you've listened to this show

before, you will have heard this for sure, but it's just such a

simple one. And I want new listeners to hear this as well.

I call it 557 breathing, you literally you inhale for five,

you hold your breath for a count of five, and you exhale for

seven.

And you do that for 10 cycles. And as you do that, you're

actually signaling to your brain that you're safe. And your brain

goes hmm, I thought I was in a stressed out state. But I'm

breathing like a safe person, I must be safe, I'm going to turn

on my rest and digest nervous system. And that allows us to

come out of that state of overwhelm and into that state of

calm. And when you do that for just 10 cycles, you can

literally do that in less than five minutes. And you can do it

anywhere, anytime, because you always have your breath and it's

absolutely free. So give it a try. The reason it works so

effectively is that when we're in that state of overwhelm, our

brain actually thinks that we're in danger. It doesn't know the

difference between the danger of us being threatened by being

eaten by a lion back in our hunter gatherer days and the

sensations in our body. When we are in a state of chronic stress

from waking up in the morning waking up late. The alarm

doesn't go off. They Kids are, you know being a pain in the

neck and it's hard getting them out the door to school, you have

a spat with your spouse, you haven't slept well. And now

you're driving to work and your boss calls and asks why you're

not there, and you have a project deadline that's just

moved up by two days. All of those stresses stacking on top

of each other, just turn on that chronic stress state, that

nervous system is just rising up peeking, you are feeling the

overwhelm. And your brain thinks that it needs to save you from a

lion or a tiger. And so it's pumping cortisol into your body

and adrenaline so that you can get to safety, and it's shutting

down other systems. And in that moment, your brain is not able

to think about which of these tasks do I do need to do next,

because the only thing it can really think about is I'm in

danger. And I need to get to safety. And so it's you can't

get into that zone of focus, you need to get out of that stress

state. And if you were running away from a lion or a tiger, you

would be panting, right as you're pumping your arms and

running as fast as you can. So when we do this breathing

exercise, and your exhale is longer than your inhale, your

exhale is a count of seven, and your inhale is a count of five.

It results in your brain going, hmm, I thought I was in danger.

But I'm breathing like a safe person, I must be safe. And it

takes you out of that sympathetic nervous system and

into your rest and digest nervous system, which allows you

to feel more calm, and allows you to get out of that state of

overwhelm, and get into that zone of focus. So that's a

really important tool that you have with you all the time that

you can use. And the reality is, is that many of us are living in

a state of chronic stress in this doo doo doo world. And that

does lead to overwhelm. And then we feel like we already have too

much to do in any given day, and we can't get it all done. And as

such, it may feel like an impossibility to even consider

slowing down. Because then how are you going to get more done

if you slow down. But the reality is, is that when you

slow down and you get into that zone of focus, you can get so

much more done. As I said, one hour of focus time, you can get

as much done as you would in three hours of unfocused time.

So you're gaining two hours, every time you have an hour of

focus time. And I want to invite you to take a look at your

average day. How do you feel as you go through each day? Are you

truly living and enjoying your life or simply running around

like a headless chicken? And now stop and think about? How do you

want to feel as you go through each day? If you are feeling

like you're running around like a headless chicken, does that

feel good? Is that what you want? For every day moving

forward? Unlikely, right? Because that headless chicken

feeling is a feeling of being out of control and never getting

it all done. And that doesn't feel great. So stop and think

about how do you want to feel? You probably like to feel a

little bit more in control.

And like you can actually get out of that state of overwhelm,

right? And I'm here to tell you that you can, but you need to

trust yourself and to give it a try. If you don't give it a try.

Nothing changes, right? So what have you got to lose? If you are

truly honest with yourself? Is your current status quo working

for you? And if not, then it's definitely a sign to try

something different. So here are a few steps to get you going.

Look at your to do list, because we all have them. And for each

item on the list, ask yourself three questions. Does this need

to be done? Does this need to be done by me? And does this need

to be done right now. From there, you should be able to

pare down your list because maybe that doesn't really need

to be done at all. Or if it does need to be done. Maybe it

doesn't need to be done by you. And maybe you can delegate that

if it's something at home you can have your spouse or children

help you if it's something in the office, you can delegate

that out to a colleague write the name down of the person you

can delegate it to next to that item on your list and doesn't

need to be done right now. If so, if it has to be done by you

and it has to be done right now then maybe that's one of the top

Three things you need to get done today. But if it doesn't

have to be done right now, then you're going to drop that lower

in your list. Because I want you to come up with three up to

three things that you personally have to do. And that has to be

done today. Now, if some of these things on your list are

long term projects, then you need to break them down into the

achievable steps that you can get done in any given day. Okay,

because if you're, if one of the things on your list is I have to

renovate my house, well, you're obviously not going to get all

of that done in one day. But you can break that down into steps.

I mean, first of all, maybe you need to have some plans drawn,

maybe you need to be reaching out and contacting architects,

you know, break it down into each step, because you can

totally make a few phone calls to have some conversations with

different architects today to start choosing which

architecture you might want to use. And, you know, set up an

appointment to start working on getting plans drawn today. But

you're not going to get the whole house renovated today. So

I want you to make a list of the top three things that you have

to get done today. And each of those things needs to be done

within a one hour time frame. And then I want you to block

that time in your calendar. Because when you block that time

in your calendar, it's much more likely to get done. So if you're

that morning focus person, maybe in your calendar, maybe you get

to work at nine. So by 930, you can settle and you can block 930

to 1030 to get the first task done. If you get it done in less

than an hour, awesome. Take a break. And you can start on your

next thing early bonus, you're already saving time, if it takes

you the full hour, great, no worries, take a break, go for a

walk 15 minutes, breathe. If you've if you want to come back

and start the second thing, give yourself an hour. Now you have

you may already have meetings in your day scheduled in. So you

might have to work some of these hours of focus time around

different meetings. But it'll be easier to do. If you book it

into your calendar further out, by literally just go in and

block your calendar every Monday to Friday, from 930 to 1230 for

the rest of the year. So you've got your three hours of focus

time or even until one o'clock. So you have little breaks in

between and lunch at one o'clock. And then maybe your

afternoons is when you attend meetings, because you don't have

to be as focused in the meeting is more social, potentially. And

that's a better time for attending meetings for you.

Maybe you can make that work, maybe you have enough control

around your calendar to do that. Or maybe you blocked two hours

in the morning and focus time around a meeting. And then you

have one hour in the afternoon as well. But you really want it

blocked in your calendar. And then each day, you can mark in

there what the item is that you're going to do in each of

those hours. So that you focus on it and you get it done. When

you assign the task to the time that you've blocked, it's much

more likely that you'll focus on that task. And then turn off all

your notifications. So nothing pulls you out of that zone. Make

whatever you're working on full screen, so you don't see your

email tabs or anything else that might threaten to pull you out

of your zone.

Even before you get to work and getting into your zone, I also

want to invite you to look at your sleep. How are you

sleeping, because sleep is so critical to our optimal

performance during the day. And the better our sleep, the more

focused we can be during the day. So if you're struggling

with sleep, then you also need to take a look at what can you

do to improve your sleep. And in March of 2020, I did four

episodes on sleep, you can go back to those podcasts and check

them out. If you want more help with sleep definitely feel free

to reach out to me. It is an area that I do help support

people because sleep is so critical to our health. I also

want you to look at your nutrition, especially what you

eat in the morning. But also what you eat in the evening and

when you eat is impacting your sleep. But what are you doing in

the morning? How are you starting your day? It matters to

your ability to be able to focus. If you've started your

day, with coffee and sugary breakfast, you're going to feel

focused for a short amount of time but then that focus is

really going to wane and your your brain is going to be asking

you for more and you don't want to get onto a cycle of a

rollercoaster ride of needing sugar and crashing meeting sugar

and crashing. So having a more nutrient dense breakfast is

going to sustain you for longer through your zones of focus. And

I love starting my day with smoothies, because you can pack

them full of nutrition. In every meal, we want to be having two

to three cups of fruit and vegetables. Well, that's so easy

to do with a smoothie, throwing in some spinach, some kale,

throwing in some fruit, etc, using nut milks and blending it

all up together in the blender. The other bonus of that is that

because the blender is doing all the work, your digestive system

doesn't have to work so hard to break it down and absorb all the

nutrients, you've just fed it. Every time we put food in our

mouth 30% of our energy goes towards digestion to break that

food down. But if it doesn't take as long to break down the

food, because the blenders already done a lot of the work,

we're not losing that energy to digestion, that gives us more

energy for cognitive function and focus. So what you eat in

the morning and how you start your day, is really important.

And then also consider doing some functional medicine lab

testing, because that will show us where your stress levels are

at in the body. And if you are someone that's been living in

that chronic stress state, you could be starting to burn out

your adrenals you could be becoming deficient in key

vitamins and minerals that the body needs and the brain needs

in order to function at an optimal level. And your body can

becoming out of balance. And when we run these lab tests, we

can see exactly where those deficiencies are for you where

your body is out of balance, what your cortisol levels are

doing, because they can be impacting your sleep, where your

body might need help calming with some natural adaptogenic

herbes while we bring the body back into balance. So it can do

all of this on its own. Again, our fast paced, stressed out

modern world has most of the population out of balance and

depleted not only that our soil systems are depleted. Therefore

a lot of the key vitamins and minerals we need aren't in the

soil, so they're not in our food. So you definitely wouldn't

be the only one I see this all the time. And honestly, it is so

much easier to rebalance the body when it's just a little bit

out of balance than when it's way out of balance and you're

burning out your adrenals that takes so much longer to come

back from. So if that's something that you are

interested in, definitely reach out. It's something you may not

have known about before. But functional medicine, lab testing

is very powerful in showing us what's going on inside the body

where those imbalances are, so that we know how to bring the

body back into balance. Because a depleted body also has a

harder time focusing. It's it's not got all its engines running,

right. And so that leaves you in that state, again, of overwhelm,

and not getting it all done. And feeling like that headless

chicken running around. The other thing that you can be

doing is reading some books on this topic. So I have a couple

here. There's make time by Jake Knapp and John Zaretsky. And

that is how to focus on what matters every day. And so some

great suggestions in this book, it's a really easy read. And

like I said earlier, making that list of the three things that

you have to get done today, not the 10, or the 20, or the 30

things on your to do list the three most important things,

prioritize them and get them done. Because then you feel

great about yourself, you've got them done, you feel productive.

And whatever else happens in the rest of the day is is gravy in

terms of getting things done, and you feel so much better than

getting to the end of the day and feeling like you got nothing

done because you were focusing on trying to get too many things

done multitasking and never finishing any of them been

there. I'm sure you have because I know I have. And so I follow

these steps myself, for instance today the most important things

for me that I need to get done, or I need to record two

podcasts, and then I have my membership q&a later today. So

those are my three things that I want to focus on today. So I'm

starting my day recording two podcasts for the month of

January. And then after that, I'll go straight into my q&a By

lunchtime. I am going to feel totally accomplished because I

got those three things done. And whatever else needs to be done

is gravy.

The next book that you might find really helpful is called do

less by Kate Northrup. And both books are excellent books. I

highly recommend them but I don't want you to just read the

books and do nothing. You need to read these books and

implement their recommendations into your life just like

listening to this podcast I'm giving you These tips don't just

walk away and go, yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before.

Because if you've heard it all before, and you're still in a

state of overwhelm, you haven't taken the steps to take action

to make some change in your life. So read the books,

implement the recommendations, implement the recommendations

I'm giving you here today. So you may notice when you come to

reading, do less, that step one above, the one where I said,

make a list and ask these three questions to yourself, Does this

need to be done? Does this needs to be done by me? And does this

need to be done right now? They actually come from that book.

Because when I read books, I take the learning and I

implement it into my life. So none of this is difficult to do.

But it does take a willingness to implement some changes in

your life. And so you also need to be on alert for your brain

recognizing these new habits and wanting to keep you safe and

calling you back into your comfort zone. When it starts

chirping at you with thoughts like, why are you changing

things up? You don't even know if this will work? Why don't you

just do what you were doing before because it's easier, you

don't have to learn anything new. When you hear those voices

in your head, just acknowledge your brain's opinions and gently

let it know that you're taking it to a place of more calm and

more productivity down the road. And to just bear with you while

you get there. Getting into the zone will also take practice.

Like everything else that's new, you won't be perfect the first

time you try this. But honestly, if you do this for just the next

30 days, you will notice a huge difference in that time as it

becomes your new modus operandi. Next week, I'm bringing a guest

on the show who has been there she called herself Mrs. overdo

it. So join us to learn her story and how she was able to

get out of that state and into a state of productivity. So thanks

so much for listening today. If you enjoyed this episode, please

feel free to rate and review it and share it with somebody else

that you think might benefit from the show. Happy New Year.

And I hope you can find a place of more calm and getting into

that zone of focus so that you can slow down but get more done

in 2022. Thanks for listening to the don't wait for your wake up

call podcast. I just want to let you know that I have another

couple of workshops coming up and back by popular demand, I am

repeating my boost your immune system workshops because there

is never a better time than to boost your immune system then

right now, this workshop is a 90 minute workshop that will be

interactive and will teach you five habits that you may have

that are unknowingly weakening your immune system right now.

And that might be helpful to know right, because when you

know you do better and you can start to change those habits. As

well as I will be teaching you some great tools and steps that

you can take to further boost your immune system including a

very simple supplement protocol that you can follow and easily

implement right away. So I will put the link to register for

these workshops. They're absolutely free. Invite your

friends and family. I will put that link in the show notes. So

please check that out at the end of the episode. Thank you so

much. And I look forward to having you join the workshop

thank you for investing this time with me on the don't wait

for your wake up call Podcast. I'm so glad you joined in. If

you can take two minutes to share this episode with someone

who you think can benefit and have a positive impact on their

life. That would be wonderful. Please leave a review by going

to your favorite podcast listening app and let me know

what you enjoy. Or we'd like to hear more of it will support me

in my effort to bring the possibility of natural healing

to a wider audience and help disrupt the sick care system we

have today and make human health a global priority. Health is