More than forty years ago Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi posed a simple question: “How does it feel to master something?” To figure this out, he interviewed hundreds of people who had demonstrated excellence in their chosen field. They included rock climbers, painters, chess players, basketball players, athletes and surgeons. The short answer to his question was: joy. “A strong relaxation and calmness comes over me. I have no worries of failure. What a powerful and warm feeling it is! I want to expand, to hug the world. I feel enormous power to effect something of grace and beauty.” - professional dancer describing a sense of control experienced while dancing.
Hi all! Nurse Extraordinaire here wishing you a wonderful Easter break! Life has been chaotic and I will use any measure I can (provided it’s legal) to assist me on my quest to remain extraordinary!
Ingredients Serves 2 1 – 1 ½ Chocolate powder 2 Tbsp Grass fed Ghee A pinch of Himalayan salt 1 ½ cups organic coconut cream ½ cup of boiling filtered water Raw honey, pure maple syrup or liquid stevia to taste Peppermint essential oil (food grade) to taste Vanilla powder, sprinkled on top Optional Extras: 1 Tbsp of grass-fed gelatin (bloomed), for the hot chocolate version only.
Modern lifestyles, particularly in the “western world”, are clearly having an impact on human health. Chronic stress and anxiety are recurrent and have a highly deleterious effect, leading to the development of chronic diseases and to an earlier onset of many age-related conditions. Our feeding habits have also changed rather significantly. Throughout evolution, humans were designed for feeding patterns that highly differ from those currently observed. Modern western diets rely heavily on high-energy, low-nutrient processed food, for which we are not optimised. These choices are not innocuous - nutrition is a fundamental element in our health and in our resistance to disease. The steady rise in chronic conditions observed in the last decades is most likely a consequence of these lifestyle options. Today’s most prevalent chronic diseases have been found to share a common ground that can be attributed to modern environments and behaviours.
Coconut & Berry Chocolate Bites Ingredients ½ cup Cacao Butter ½ cup Chocolate Powder 2 -3 Tbsp of Grass Fed Ghee or coconut oil Raw honey or liquid stevia to taste 1 tsp vanilla powder A pinch of Himalayan salt ¼ cup coconut flakes ½ cup fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries or raspberries)
Metabolic disorders such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome or obesity, are a sign of our times. They are an outstanding consequence of our modern feeding behaviours, and their incidence has been steadily rising in the last few decades. Obesity can actually be considered a global epidemic - the World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, at least one billion adults are overweight and 300 million are obese, and the prevalence of obesity is also rapidly increasing in children. These metabolic disorders are more than meets the eye. They have insidious consequences that in the long run can be significantly damaging. In fact, the rise in human obesity is closely linked to the increase in other chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, neurodegeneration, and certain cancers.
Of all the colours in the light spectrum, blue light is one of the most damaging simply because we overdose on it with all of our technology…all day and often much of the night for many of us. You have heard me speak on this before. How we need to block the blue light at night to allow melatonin levels to rise. My concern is that we are not waking up to this fact fast enough. Working in an intensive care unit is as bright as bright can be. We often do not have the lights dimmed down too much at night. I worry for our poor patients….who get sleep deprived and starved of natural sunlight. If I had the money and power (dreams are free!) I would make hospitals one level only with retractable roofs. Then, every day, when it is not raining, I would open those roofs for at least 15 minutes to give patients and staff access to natural normal sunlight. And it might sound crazy, but I think they would heal better, faster and be FAR better off emotionally.
The development of the human cerebral cortex has been linked with multigenerational consumption of oily fish containing essential fatty acids, in particular, DHA and EPA. A decline in proportionate consumption over the last century correlates with the marked rise in lifestyle-diseases, and perhaps even a dumbing-down of the population. Without essential fatty acids (DHA and EPA), humans fall prey to a host of debilitating and lethal chronic diseases, including the big C. Our focus today is on two long chain Omega-3 essential fatty acids known as EPA and DHA. They are essential because our bodies can’t manufacture them so we must obtain them exogenously, i.e. in our food (1). And when we don’t get them, we're in a whole lot of trouble.
Struggling for great gift ideas for the biohacker in your life? We’ve put together an OptimOZ Christmas shopping guide so you can upgrade your gift giving this festive season.