Being sick for most of the week has left me for a loop! So for this week’s Friday Focus I decided to share a bit of everything that’s happened this week including how I got over the flu, new books I’m reading, and adventures of Kombucha brewing!
Category: Personal
How The Flu Affects Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
Man oh man, I got reminded of how much I hate being sick once again.
On a whim I decided to go to Portland for a day trip. We left at 7am, and here in the Pacific Northwest, depending on the weather, the day actually doesn’t brighten up until about 8:30am – 9:00am. That morning the sky was showing off in a fabulous way. The silhouette of the Cascade mountains, the sun peeking over from behind the mountains, and the sky…. the beautiful mix of orange, red, pink, and purple. It was a masterpiece.
And Portland? Portland was a blast! The coffee scene is on point and people are incredibly friendly. One of my favorite parts of the day was walking around the different neighborhoods and getting a feel for what each had to offer. I even had a chance to go to the Saturday farmer’s market and pick up a set of pasture raised farm fresh bacon. Let me just tell you – DELICIOUS!!!
Unfortunately I didn’t dress for the occasion and was freezing while walking around. I was lent a scarf and beanie which saved me from the worst misery 😉 Though I could tell by the way I was going from freezing one second to burning up another second that this wouldn’t end well.
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Friday Focus – 1/27/16
How do we want to remember our lives?
I was struck by a passage in one of the books I am reading, “The Mindful Path through Worry and Rumination: Letting Go of Anxious and Depressive Thoughts
This made me think, through what lens have I been remembering my past? Through what lens am I living my life NOW? And finally, through what lens do I want to live my life in the future? At the end of the day, how do I want to remember all this?
I come back, again and again, to reminding myself of the infinite power we have within ourselves to choose our thoughts.
If your current state of being is one of anxiety, worry, fear or chronic stress, ask yourself the question – what am I predominately thinking about? Very often what we think about induces your state.
When The World Seems To Crash On You
What do you do? When, at the end of the day, the world just seems to be crashing down on you? Your breathing becomes rigid, perhaps your fingers go numb, and you just want to scream or maybe cry?
Experimenting With Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Pt. 2
I have to say… this experiment has been incredibly fun and insightful. I never thought I’d geek out on HRV (staring at graphs and numbers doesn’t excite me too much) but to be able to see, in real time, how you are doing each day against your baseline has been incredibly helpful in a couple of ways:
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Hearing The Silence In Bali
It was hot. Hotter than hot. As we stepped out of the airport I was suddenly aware that we were enveloped by a warm blanket of humidity. (If humidity took form I would have been able to slice through it with my arms.) Helloooooo Bali!
As we traveled to our temporary abode, what I immediately noticed about Bali was it’s serene presence and reverence for spirituality.
It was in the many quiet moments, whether by the beach, in the jungle, among the lily pads, or rice fields, where I was able to hear silence. You know, non-existent chatter.
Here are a few moments where I experienced serene moments of peace…
How To Hear Your Inner Voice
“I’ve developed more awareness of myself… I can hear the deeper part of me speaking what’s really true. I hear the truth if I listen closely.”
“That’s wonderful. Where do you feel it coming from?”
“Mostly here.” (Hands motioning pointed toward chest and stomach) “Yea… here.”
(pause)
Friday Focus – 1/13/17
The theme for me this week has been consistency. In a major way.
Experimenting with Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
In recent years I’ve heard of heart rate variability (HRV) time and time again. It was the newest thing to the quantified self but I had no interest… until now.
First, what is HRV? In short, HRV is an indicator of how well your body is managing stress. Over time, your personal HRV should be able to tell you whether or not you are ready for an intense workout, or if you should take it easy and go for a walk instead. If working out isn’t your thing, it can also indicate whether or not you have other stressors in your life, such as that big project you’re on at work, relationships, or simply taking on too much. Remember, your body doesn’t know the difference between mental/emotional/physical stress so it truly is about how well balanced you are with your life.
So why the sudden interest in HRV? Well, after experiencing adrenal fatigue, and knowing how I actually like the feeling after a hard training session, I thought it would be nice to find a way to measure A) how well my body was managing stress, and B) get a second opinion on how “ready” my body was to train for the day. While I’ve gotten a lot better with intuitively knowing when to rest and when to go hard, I also found that it’s pretty fun geeking out on this sort of thing too 🙂 Who knew?!
Before buying any gadgets I decided to first do my research. After scouring the internet and reading every article I could, I then read Mark Sisson’s Primal Endurance: Escape chronic cardio and carbohydrate dependency and become a fat burning beast!
Here’s what I ended up purchasing as part of my arsenal. We’ll see how it goes in the next few months:
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How I Recovered from Adrenal Fatigue Pt. 4
I remember a time, after I first saw the cortisol test results, of scouring the internets in search of some testimony to how someone out there cured their adrenal fatigue. Anything. A book, a pill, a guru, yes… I was desperate.
I wrote about how I felt despair and a whole host of other emotions in previous posts and how at the end of the day, it was the core thoughts, beliefs and emotions that I needed to switch up in order to truly make recovery in leaps and bounds.
While I don’t discount the professionals I consulted and the plans I was on to help heal the adrenals, it all couldn’t have been possible without being at peace first.
Yes, thought management.
All that said, I do remember how I felt hoping I could find some source of information that could accelerate my path to recovery, and thought I should share a bit more on the supplements side of things.
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