Alchemy For Life Author Mark Bradford

Sometimes you get the chance to see something from two perspectives.







Sometimes both perspectives come from the same person.







Sometimes that person is you.







The fun part







Here’s a quick 10-minute episode on how and why this happens, and how you can use it not only on yourself but to understand others (and maybe help them understand you!)

Remember the How Do You Have Time For This? episode? If not, check it out. I talked about how more than once I’ve been asked “How do you have time for that” when I chat about books, speaking, podcasts, projects, etc. And my answer to them is always “That’s the wrong question.” The question should be, “How do you have energy for that.”







Energy over time







You will find fairly often that you actually have the time for it, but all the time in the world will not be enough if you simply don’t have the energy. Think being drained from work and staring at the TV instead of doing that cool thing.







Work







Almost without exception, work (and you) is measured in an amount of work in a given amount of time. Even if you are salary, even if you work on long term projects, and even if you are a pure salesperson, you are measured that way.







If you disagree, tell me what would happen if your current output of work happened in twice the amount of time. Would you still be paid the same? Would you even have a job? Time is money ain’t just a catchy phrase.







Your formula







If someone gives you a certain amount of time to do a thing, the first thing your brain does is assess the amount of energy it takes to do that. And that’s how you assess if you have been given enough time.







Then you react. Does it stress you? Or does it make you feel comfortable?















Let’s explore this.

Parasympathetic Nervous System







The network of nerves that creates the system that’s known for the ‘rest and digest’ feelings is the parasympathetic nervous system. This system is what aids in digestion, slows your heart rate and give you general feelings of well being.







I want that. I want a lot of that. I bet you do too.







Sympathetic Nervous System







The opposite is the Sympathetic Nervous System—otherwise known as the fight or flight system. While this is responsible for kicking things into a higher gear, the aforementioned system kicks it into a lower one, while still taking digestion up a notch.







The Color Green







I have always felt (quite literally) the effects of being around green—particularly the green of nature—trees, grass, etc. I’m pretty sure you have as well. There’s more to it than just a simple preference. it has actually psychological effects on us. Guess which of the two systems it also activates?







Lets talk about our parent’s warning about swimming after eating, what you can do to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and the fact that I say that word like ten times in the podcast and don’t even mess it up.















🙂















Transcript of episode:







Rest and digest. Doesn’t that sound nice?







Well, hey there, welcome back.







What I want to talk about today is not something that’s really linear, but more a number of things that are all connected, like we are, in our system, in our nervous system. Do you remember how we were always told to wait an hour before swimming because we’d cramp up and die and drown? Well, it turns out that’s not exactly true.







In fact, something very close to the opposite of that is true. So, let’s start there. So, a recent sports medicine meta-study found that walking after eating has some tremendous benefits.







It affects cholesterol, the efficiency of how you digest your food, feelings of relaxation. There’s less of a spike in sugar. And if you’ve ever read The 4-Hour Body, you know just how important spiking glucose, or rather, not spiking glucose, can change the way that your body even stores the food.







In addition to all of that, walking also stimulates your vagus nerve. It’s a rather long, large nerve in your body that connects to something called the parasympathetic nervous system, which I just love saying, by the way. Isn’t that a fun word?







The parasympathetic nervous system is also known as the rest and digest system. It’s the opposite of your fight and flight system, and that’s your sympathetic system. So the parasympathetic is basically the opposite.It’s the, oh my God, we went through this really stressful time. Let’s kick in the parasympathetic so that we can rest and digest and calm down and feel nice. So, oddly enough, movement after eating, in fact, you have this little window that right after eating should be used to then start movement, and the movement can be as little as 10 minutes.In fact, the sweet spot’s probably, from what I keep researching, probably about 20 minutes or so. So if you go for like a 20 minute walk after eating, you’re going to kick in your parasympathetic nervous system, and that’s going to do all those wonderful things I just talked about. So imagine that you can literally affect the way that you’re absorbing food and its effect on your body just by taking a little walk.







So I would highly,

Stroke support Group







Recently, I sat in on a stroke support group. The group was for both the individuals who experienced strokes as well as their caretakers/family members. I had the blessing of the admin staff to do so. Was it uncomfortable? Yes did I feel out of place? Sort of. Did I learn something very powerful? Absolutely. I always do.







Comfort zone







We all stay in our comfort zones because they are, well, comfortable. Sometimes that discomfort is really quite a rush because it tells you you are in new territory and about to learn something. And I did.







The lesson







The powerful lesson I learned wasn’t from someone who had one, two, or even three strokes. It was from a dear lady who had had seven. Along with her support dog, she brought an iPad. She was clever enough to type up the things she wanted to share with the group a staff member read her experiences and they were shared. But unfortunately, those were quickly used up and she had far more to contribute. So she began slowly typing but then she noticed the room of silence waiting for her to finish. As her frustration mounted, she decided she would speak.







When she did, she did methodically, with a lot of effort, and with very few words. She seemed to make each one count, but for her she didn’t feel she was conveying thoughts in the same way everyone else did, so she apologized. She did so by moving her hand to her chest, then her mouth, and then her eye while she said “Sorry, talk hard.”







She needn’t have apologized for you see, I could understand her perfectly and I’m sure everyone else could as well. Despite what she thought, she was doing great! In fact, the problem wan’t that she wasn’t using enough words, it’s that we use too many.







Saying much with so little







So the next time you communicate with others—clients, your boss, your employees, potential clients, friends, and family and loved ones. Remember this lesson.







Phrases like:







“I’d love to help you.”







I’m glad you’re my client.”







“You’re important.”







“I’d like to get paid now“







“I need help.”







and







“I love you.”







Those phrases convey so much with just a few words.







I’m Mark Bradford, I’m glad you read this, and you’re important to me.

Knowing your strengths







Do you know your strengths some people do and some people don’t. If you do know your strengths, there is something about them. You may not realize and that’s the subject of this podcast.







Stretching too far







Sometimes when we approach a goal or a task, we look for a way to do it that makes sense. We learn new skills and get better at our approach.







Just keep doing it!







Push harder and harder!







That’s pretty straightforward, but sometimes we encounter things that seem very counterintuitive and this is one of them… it can be disorienting and frustrating to discover it.







What if you push too hard? What’s the downside?







Listen in for what this means, how to recognize it, and the good news of what happens when you do.







It’s one of the most powerful life lessons I’ve understood. And it all comes from a simple phrase.







A strength stretched too far becomes a weakness.

What is an iteration?







An iteration is an updated version of something built upon its previous version. But, and iteration can also be another separate version.







Examples of iterations







When someone bakes a cake, they can create a cake that has chocolate filling, vanilla frosting, and multicolor sprinkles on the outside. They can assess that cake and then realize that it would be better with raspberry filling, so they go back and create another cake with those parameters. Even though they’ve created two separate cakes—the second cake is an iteration of the first.







When someone works on a video or a movie, they have the benefit of being able to iterate that work product. They can add, delete, and adjust sections of the movie. They can apply a filter to specific instances of scenes or people. However, its the same movie. In the end everyone only sees the final product.







Kinda like you?















How we iterate







We live life iteratively. We can’t create duplicates of ourselves, but we do build upon the foundation of the past. Like the movie producer, we are able to add delete and adjust aspects of ourselves.















Let’s talk about how we live life iteratively, and what that means for us, improving ourselves, our relationships, and even our client connections.