June 15, 2023 • 29 mins
On this show Karolyn talks with the authors of The Little Wonders Playbook which is a program that inspires positive changes in health, mindset, and relationships one habit at a time. Angie DeGeronimo and E. Brian Johnson are both experts about health and counseling psychology. Together they provide practical strategies to gain better health.
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(00:00):
Any health related information on the followingshow provides general information only. Content presented
on any show by any host orguests should not be substituted for a doctor's
advice. Always consult your physician beforebeginning any new diet, exercise, or
treatment program. Hello everyone, andwelcome to Five to Thrive Live. I'm
(00:43):
Carolyn Gazella and I co host theshow with my good friend doctor Lise Olschuler.
Today we're going to find out howlittle habits can create big results when
it comes to our physical and mentalhealth. But first I'd like to thank
our sponsors. Amuse, a uniquepatent postbiotic that gives your immune system a
key advantage. Amuses an ingredient inmany immune supporting dietary supplements. Look for
(01:07):
Amuse on the label or go toamusehealth dot com for more information. Also,
Cognizance cytocholine, which is nature's wayof keeping the brain's energy producing centers
firing on all cylinders. If you'relooking for a way to enhance your brain
function, including memory, focus,and attention, look for Cognizant on the
label or go to Cognizant dot comfor more information. And doctor Ohero's Probiotics.
(01:27):
It's a best selling probiotic for morethan thirty years. It contains twelve
probiotic strains that are shelf stable,so no refrigeration is required because of a
unique three year fermentation process, It'sa very effective probiotic. Learn more at
doctor Ohero Probiotics dot com and formore than thirty five years. Guya Herbs
has extensive experience manufacturing high quality ofherbal products for healthcare consumers and they have
(01:52):
a dedicated product line named Guya proTailor to healthcare practitioners. Healthcare practitioners can
learn more at Guya Herbs pro dotcom and consumers can visit Gaya rbs dot
com. And finally, pro Thriver'sWellness Sleep, a melotonein based sleep formula
specifically created for thrivers. Pro ThriversSleep is available through your healthcare provider or
(02:13):
online at Pure Formulas dot com.With Me Today are the authors of The
Little Wonders Playbook. Angie de Geronimois a sought after coach that focuses on
health, mindset, and hYP Johnsonis a writer, media producer, and
the host of Nutramedica dot org andinformative platform for health clinicians, which I
(02:37):
am on once a month, Sowelcome to you both. And Angie,
I'd like to begin with you,why did you want to create The Little
Wonders Playbook? Yes, um,you know what. Twenty five years as
a performance coach and an integrative movementspecialist in Silicon Valley, a lot of
(02:58):
my clients will really educated and highperforming individuals. Yet they would consistently tell
me, you know what, Iknow what I need to do, but
I just don't do it. Soin other words, they could change the
world, but had trouble changing themselves. So what I consistently noticed was instead
(03:19):
of engaging and how they were living, they were getting healthy, you know,
kind of treating it as a projectwith KPI's metrics and deadlines, like
you know, I'm gonna lose tenpounds for this wedding or I'm gonna run
this marathon in a month, Andunfortunately, most of the time I would
watch them fail, you know,as their coach. And that's when I
(03:40):
really knew there was a better wayand we needed to really take the attention
off those big goals and start focusingon just simple daily habits. It's you
know what, it's not a newidea. Aristotle said, we are what
we repeatedly do. But I realizedwe needed kind of a contemporary story that
(04:02):
was fun and accessible for people,and that's how Little Wonders was born.
Well, I love the book,and you're right, it is fun and
accessible, and you know, doctorAlshuler and I also talk about how small
habits can can create big change.So the book really resonated with me.
So, Brian, the same questionfor you, why did you want to
(04:24):
write the book and be involved withthis project. Well, apart from the
opportunity to work with Angie, whois just so much fun to be around
and has so much energy, youcan you can hear it into a voice,
I guess I came at it froma slightly different angle because working as
a counselor and also going through theexperience of recovery myself, I sort of
(04:47):
realize that people make choices because itfeels good, the sugar, the fat,
the salt, the alcohol, youknow, wine o'clock, And before
too long, those choices that theymake, they sort of become a comfort
zone, right, and a lifestyle, and it's how people start to cope
(05:10):
with chronic stress of the world welive in. The unrelenting workload that most
of us are under, and theyuse these things to distract themselves, you
know. And I'm not against aglass of wine, absolutely not. And
it's all fine until those coping mechanismsstart to have negative health outcomes, right,
(05:30):
And that is why there's actually sucha focus on quiet time in Little
Wonders and introspection. We call themtime ends, so that you actually have
time to think and process your emotionsand see where you're at and check in
with yourself. And one of thethings that I did love, just to
bring it full circle to Silicon Valley, is that I saw a rerun of
(05:54):
that Charlie Rose interview show, ifyou remember, and it had Build Gates
on it, and Charlie Rose hasasked Bill Gates to show him his daytimer,
and he opened up his daytimer andthere were just these big blank areas
and Charlie Rose is like, whathappens in those areas? You know,
I thought you'd be the busiest guyin the planet. He goes, well,
(06:15):
that's my thinking time, that's myinterest in time. And so at
least since Silicon Valley, Bill Gatesgets that part. We need that quiet
time, right, Yeah, Ilove time ends versus time all. It's
for sure. So, Angie,you know, before we dig in too
deeply, why is it so hardto get healthy? Yeah, I think
(06:39):
it's it has to do with distraction. We're so well, I'll say distraction
and instant gratification. Like we we'removing really quickly, which keeps us in
this fight or flight. It keepsus up in our parasympathetic nervous or a
sympathetic nervous system, out of ourparasympathetic nervous system. So I think has
(07:00):
to do with the dizziness of life. Um, you know it's it's a
systemic problem. We blame the victimfor the weight gain, their unhappiness,
their poor choices. Yet you know, there's a lot stacked against us.
We're living in a toxic food culturethat brings on habits of degeneration. We
frankly eat too much, too frequently, too late. We have a lot
(07:24):
of convenience foods. We make veryshort term decisions out of the business.
So to Brian's point that we're lessable to think deeply, Um, there's
a lot of worry and negative thinking. We're sleeping less. Thirty percent of
our kids are on medications. Um, sixty percent of our adults are fighting
some kind of chronic inflammation. SoI think it a lot of these things
(07:48):
has to do with why it's gettingharder. It's it's it's a modern,
fast culture. That yeah, yeah, you bring up some great some great
points, and fortunately the purpose ofyour book is to make it a little
easier. And before we go realpractical, Brian, I work with you
(08:09):
on another project, a Neutramedica project, and I know that science is a
big deal for you, So tellus a little bit about the science behind
the Little Wonders playbook. Sure,well, you know, everything that we
that we champion in the book isbacked by science. And that was something
that was really important to Angie andI because there's a lot of sort of
(08:31):
sketchy thinking out there with the selfhelp and personal development, and we really
wanted to make a stand. There'sa lot of great evidence for doing things
a certain way probably that you know, if I'm going to if I'm going
to just sort of pick one thebig pieces of this thing called neuroplasticity,
which is the ability of our brainsto continually change over the course of a
(08:52):
lifetime, right, neuroplasticity proves thatwe can, we will rewire our brains
for positive outcomes, and we dothat by rewiring our neural pathways. So
we came across this great work bya psychologist called Dan where talking about how
when you know brain cells communicate frequently, the connection between them strengthens, and
(09:16):
the messages that travel down those pathwaysthey go, they get faster and faster
and faster and more powerful. Andit's through repetition that these behaviors become automatic.
Right. It's like learning to ridea bike. Once you've learned and
you've created that muscle memory, younever have to think about it again.
You just get on your bike andoff you go. Right. One of
(09:39):
the things I was I love isthat Angie talks about this thing of having
a conversation with yourself. Right,So the conversation you're having with yourself is
shall I have that glass of wine? Or shall I have shall I have
that? Shall have that glass ofwater? Shall I go lie down on
the couch or shall I go straightto the peloton bike? And the point
(10:00):
of creating little habits is that younever have to have that conversation with yourself
again because you just automatically go tothe peloton bike. We have a gent
that we're working with right now,and over the course of the program,
he's basically built in a brand newhabit. Well, when he gets home
after work, he just goes straightto the peloton bike. He doesn't have
(10:20):
to have that conversation fight with himselfwhether he has the energy to do it,
or if today's the day to doit, or he's going to put
it off. It's just an automatichabit. And when he's done there,
he goes out into his garden andhe sits there for twenty minutes while he
cools off for his time in andhe never has to worry about thinking of
doing it or worrying about doing it. It just happens automatically. And that's
(10:43):
because he's rewired his neural pathways.And that is the science of neuroplasticity that
this whole program is built on.Yeah. I love that, and I
love the fact that we're creating thesehabits that are just second nature. I
think that that's really important. So, Angie, give us an example of
a practical strategy featured in the book, and how you present that strategy to
(11:07):
the reader. Yes, So oneof the strategies I'll choose is called habit
stacking, and habit stacking was developedby doctor B. J. Fogg it
right here locally at Stamford University,And basically it's as simple as choosing a
habit something that you do daily,and stacking something that you want to do
(11:31):
daily or get better at on topof that already established habits. So let
me give you some example. So, like to lose weight, let's keep
a bottle of water with you atall times and whenever you receive a text,
take a gulp, Or like toget more done, when you sit
down for your morning coffee, thatwould be a great time to write out
(11:52):
that to do list and underline somepriorities things like that for the day,
Say, to get more exercise,you might keep your running shoes next to
the dog lease to remind yourself tokind of move along versus just letting that
dog jump into the backyard for release. And then you know, to destress
or re energize, just taking somedeep breaths every time you sit down at
(12:16):
your desk, giving yourself a littlebit of an alert, which Brian's going
to talk about in a bit.But to remind yourself. This is something
I can do every time I sitdown to my desk. So these are
some examples of habits stacking something thatwe use in our courses. I love
it. Yeah, And actually ourshow last week we were talking about that
(12:37):
inner voice, that inner critic,and we utilized doctor Fogg's trigger method to
try to change that inner inner voiceand influence the inner voice. We've talked
about doctor Fogg on the show,so I can definitely relate to that.
So Brian, I'm going to askyou a similar question. I want you
to give me an example of oneof your favorite little wonders from the book.
(13:03):
Well, that's easy for me,and that's it's the mighty post it
And that's actually something that Angie introduced, so we all know what a little
post it note is. You knowthose colorful little squares that have that are
sticky, and so basically here's thething. You know, we're making a
decision. We make a decision allthe time about what we're going to do,
(13:24):
you know, And I don't wantto bang on about about the wine
thing, but either you're gonna havea glass of wine or you're gonna have
a glass of water. So therecomes a point when you're going to make
a decision in that moment about whatyou're going to do. So we use
post its to remind you in thatmoment of your intention to change. Right.
So we ask that you write downyour intention by stating a positive action,
(13:50):
or you can remind yourself of anegative consequence, and you write this
right on the post it. Soso, for example, an example of
the positive action be take a break, go for a walk, right,
And a negative consequence would be stopsnacking, you hate putting on weight,
(14:11):
right, And you write those downon the post it, okay, on
two different posters, and then youput them all around your house. So
maybe beside your bed, in thebathroom cabinet, on your car dashboard,
by your computer. So for example, you know, take a break,
go for a walk, you'd putthat by your computer so you would be
(14:31):
reminded of your intention to get upand move around a little more. You
know. One of my faves isthat someone we work with was wanting to
was finding that they were drinking wineevery night when they came home, so
they wanted to be reminded to drinkless, so they actually put the post
it on their bottles of wine.Right, So it was said this gives
you a hangover written on the postit and put right on the bottle.
(14:54):
And in the cabinet where where theykept their glasses, they had one saying
why not have a soda? Right? So in that moment, mighty post
its are a great way to remindyou of your intention to change. Now,
maybe some of the time you're goingto choose to have the glass of
wine anyway, and that's fine.But even if three or four out of
(15:16):
ten times you decide to have theglass of water or not to snack on
the chips, you're four ahead ofthe game. Right. It's an incredibly
simple, powerful little trick, themighty post step. Yeah, I love
that. And I'm gonna stick withyou, Brian for for a minute because
one of one of the things Iwanted to bring up about the book is
(15:39):
that it's not just about diet andexercise. You're talking about mindset and relationships
also in the book. Can yougive us an example of either one of
those, like how the book helpswith your mindset or how to help the
(16:00):
book may help with relationships. Well, for us, any healthy life is
about taking care of your physical body, right, taking care of your mental
health and also understanding that we're allsocial creatures. We all have families and
friends, and you know, speakingof the distracted world we live in,
(16:22):
it's easy for us to get overwhelmedwith problems or work, and you know,
our mindset can suffer and our relationshipscan suffer. So the idea behind
you know, little wonders is thatin the same way as these little habits
can help us be more physically healthy, they can also help us improve our
(16:45):
mindset. And I was interested tonotice that you actually did you did the
show was it last week? Onhow to manage that negative self talk?
And that's a huge thing because youknow, the science actually tells us that
when we focus on the negative,we actually get physically weaker. You know,
(17:06):
we actually get less able to beproductive. So there's a quite a
big chapter in the book where wetalk about this character the mad Monkey.
And the mad monkey are the monkeysin your head, and when you start
listening to the mad monkey, youcan soon spiral down. So we have
some you know, techniques to getcontrol of that of that mental aspect in
(17:30):
the moment as soon as, forexample, as soon as you hear yourself
saying oh I'm so fat today,or you know, God, why am
I so stupid? Or any ofthese things we saved each other. You
snap your fingers to remind yourself topull yourself up, and then we help
you develop some turnaround statements, right, And those turnaround statements are I'm not
(17:53):
actually stupid, I'm actually pretty great, and all my friends think I'm pretty
great, you know, or whateverthe turnaround statement might be, Oh,
I've got my mother's thighs. Youknow, Actually I can take action to
change what I eat and take controlof my body. I'm in charge of
(18:15):
my body. Right. So,this idea that you can take control of
the monkeys in your head in themoment with a simple technique of snapping your
fingers and a turnaround statement is superpowerful. And as far as relationships are
concerned, it's just about building thesesimple daily habits to nurture those relationships.
(18:36):
One of the things we teach isthis idea of active listening. Half the
time, when we're in conversations orwith people that are not really listening,
you know, they're being distracted bytheir phone or their mind is wandering.
So we actually have a we havea little mini course around how to practice
active listening, to really connect withthe person that you're talking to. Listen
(18:59):
to what they have to say,repeat it back to them so that they
know that you're listening and you ofcreating a positive connection right there. And
that is how you nurture healthy relationshipsby being present, by listening, by
asking questions. And that's just asimple daily habit. It's such a small
thing, but it just resonates throughoutyour entire life with positivity if you just
(19:23):
practice those little daily habits. Yeah, I would agree. And the Mad
Monkey and I'll tell you, Iam going to plug the show that we
did on this Inner Critic and InnerVoice because Lisa and I did it just
the two of us and it wasfun to do, but it was a
lot of a lot of great information. So if you go to I thrive
plan dot com and you look atthe past episodes, you should be able
(19:45):
to find that or just search whereveryou listen to your favorite podcast, because
you're right, it does influence usdramatically. And you do you have anything
to add when it comes to themental mindset in the relationship ships that Brian
just talked about, Why why didyou want to include that why didn't you
want to just stick with you know, diet and exercise, right, because
(20:08):
I you know, it's short term, it's shortlived, it's a transaction when
we just look at it from thatstandpoint without at least that's what I saw,
you know, as a movement specialista wellness owner, I was working
with clients every day on the goalof diet and exercise, and I was
watching them take the approach and notreally go into the mindset much at all,
(20:33):
and it would be very short lived. That weight would come right back
on. They would not. Itwas not a lasting change they were making.
So that was another big part ourframework for changes. The book.
We've named it The Answer. There'sacronyms through exactly why, and I think
all of them are based in myset, in mindset, attention and notice
and you know, we go througheach one of those letters and they're all
(20:57):
really based in mindset too, tohelp people overcome and have a framework for
change. Yeah, and it makessense because your work is all about helping
executives have higher performance and you know, so it all it makes sense that
it would all fit together. Andnow, Angie, I want to stick
with you again. I find thebook to be really positive and fun and
(21:19):
colorful and you know, easy toread and easy to navigate. You know,
was all that intentional? I mean, do you do you feel that
the way the information is presented evenfurther helps the reader. I'm so glad
to hear you say that. Thankyou so much. That was my hope,
you know, I I it madeso. I wanted it to be
(21:41):
easy so they could grasp, honestlymore difficult concepts, so the concept that
they might not even be able toface, Like we were in our courses
and someone actually said, well,I don't know the monkey. I don't
I don't know where she is orhow you know, I'm not even doing
that right, And I said,well, there it is, there's the
(22:03):
monkey. So yeah, they havea tough time connecting with those those things
that are closer, more emotional becauseof their busy lives. So yes,
I wanted to make this very interactiveand fun and colorful and approachable and accessible.
And I also also wanted it tobe a kind of an action journal.
(22:23):
So we were very intentional in thebright orange binding that the book can
fold in on itself. We haveteachers using it in the local areas as
They love that concept for psychology classes, that they could just fold the book
and put it, you know,on an overhead projector kind of thing.
Yes, there's a lot of areasto write in the book. We do
(22:45):
encourage that. And I think justme being a movement specialist, I wanted
to have something that was you know, that could get thrown in the bag
and it could be pulled back outand it was kind of a self journal
kind of Yeah. And what Ilove about it too because I'm a person
who likes to read and then write. I mean, obviously I'm a writer
(23:08):
by trade. Um, So itseems like when I engage my writing,
it sticks. And that's what I'mthinking with this this playbook, because it's
very engaging and you're asking the readerto do things along the way. So,
Angie, does that help in thelearning process? It helps? It?
(23:30):
Does it help it stick? Itcertainly does. There is science around
having thought and writing as to havingthings like this. Um, when you're
putting two of those things together,the memory and the understanding of the information
(23:52):
is far better than if we're justthinking about it and we're not writing it.
So that that was very intentional.Okay, maybe maybe I can just
jump in quickly and say that.You know that in recent years there has
been a very welcome return to thisidea of habits. You know, James
Clear wrote Atomic Habits, which wasat the top of the best seller list
(24:14):
for a long time. But thesebooks are big and they're dense, right,
You've got to be committed to getthrough that book. And we just
felt that there was so much greatinformation that we wanted it to be super
accessible for people. And we madea promise to each other that on every
single page there is something for youto learn and something for you to laugh
at, you know, and wereally tried to do that. So you
(24:37):
can just keep that book around anywhere, pick it up at any time,
just for two minutes. We usedto talk about micro docing the Little Wonders
Playbook, and I think that's whatwe tried to do with the design of
the book. Yeah, it's perfect. I think it's really good. Brian.
Where can people find out more aboutthe book and the work that you
and Angie do together. Sure,well, we have a website of course,
(25:00):
where people can learn about our programs, and it's called the House of
Little Wonders. House of Little Wondersdot com and you know, it's a
great opportunity for you to you canyou can grab the book from there,
or you can dip your toe inand try one of our little mini courses.
(25:21):
And actually, Carolin, what Idid as a way of thanking you
and your listeners for allowing us tobe part of this is I created a
coupon five to Thrive that will actuallysave anyone fifty dollars on any one of
our mini courses if you just wantto see what it's all about and maybe
see how some of this great informationcan help you make healthy changes in your
(25:47):
life. So you just have tojump over the house of Little Wonders dot
com, pick your mini course andyou can use a coupon five to thrive
and you'll save fifty dollars. Andif I could just say one other thing,
you know, Angie does a fantasticjob of you know, pretty much
every couple of days, there's anew video up on her Instagram on Facebook
(26:08):
page you can find at um atAngie Sorry at um at Little Wonders with
Angie. Little Wonders with Angie isa great way for you to access her,
especially the movement stuff and some ofthe food stuff. It's always fun
and entertaining on on Instagram. Andnow, Angie, is Little Wonders Habits
(26:29):
dot com um a website where theycan find out more about your work or
is that one replaced with House ofLittle One. It all points to the
same place. Little Wonders Habits dotcom or House of Little Wonders dot com
all ends up at the same site. Okay, um, Angie, before
I let you go, tell mea little bit about these mini courses.
(26:52):
Yes, so the mini courses,it's a thirty minute um audio that you
that we've chosen specific topic on helpmindset and relationships. We did that on
purpose so you can listen at yourconvenience wherever you are. Just like a
podcast, it comes with a bunchof pds course materials that will help you
(27:17):
carry out what we're asking or teachingyou in those audio courses, and those
are all on the House of LittleWonders House of Little Wonders dot com.
Thank you so much for offering acoupon to our listeners. I really appreciate
that. And is there free contenton the website as well, so people
can kind of learn as they goand get some information on House of Little
(27:41):
Wonders dot com. There is verythere is free content there, but the
best place to connect with our freestuff is on social so you can find
that on Angie's Instagram, TikTok aswell and Facebook, and that is Little
Wonders with Angie does lots of freecontent, constantly updating that so that's a
(28:02):
great place. Perfect well good.I know you guys are very focused on
education and getting the information out andwe appreciate that very much. Thank you
Angie for joining me today. Thankyou the pleasure. Yeah, and thank
you Brian for joining me. It'sa real pleasure, and thank you for
including us absolutely well. That wrapsup this episode of five to Thrive Live
(28:27):
once again. I'd like to thankour sponsors Amuse Postbiotic to give your immune
system that extra boost, Cognizanceiticolin tohelp enhance memory, focus and attention,
Doctor O'Hara's award winning shelf Stable Probiotic, Guya Herbs, makers of exceptional quality
herbal products, and pro Thrivers Wellnesssleep formula. That wraps this episode up.
(28:51):
May you experience joy, laughter andlove. It's time to thrive everyone,
have a great night in love.This is gonna be loves baby good
luck, good luck, to saythe scape that change the cities of five
(29:11):
lives, Baby love, good lives
Any health related information on the followingshow provides general information only. Content presented
on any show by any host orguests should not be substituted for a doctor's
advice. Always consult your physician beforebeginning any new diet, exercise, or
treatment program. Hello everyone, andwelcome to Five to Thrive Live. I'm
(00:43):
Carolyn Gazella and I co host theshow with my good friend doctor Lise Olschuler.
Today we're going to find out howlittle habits can create big results when
it comes to our physical and mentalhealth. But first I'd like to thank
our sponsors. Amuse, a uniquepatent postbiotic that gives your immune system a
key advantage. Amuses an ingredient inmany immune supporting dietary supplements. Look for
(01:07):
Amuse on the label or go toamusehealth dot com for more information. Also,
Cognizance cytocholine, which is nature's wayof keeping the brain's energy producing centers
firing on all cylinders. If you'relooking for a way to enhance your brain
function, including memory, focus,and attention, look for Cognizant on the
label or go to Cognizant dot comfor more information. And doctor Ohero's Probiotics.
(01:27):
It's a best selling probiotic for morethan thirty years. It contains twelve
probiotic strains that are shelf stable,so no refrigeration is required because of a
unique three year fermentation process, It'sa very effective probiotic. Learn more at
doctor Ohero Probiotics dot com and formore than thirty five years. Guya Herbs
has extensive experience manufacturing high quality ofherbal products for healthcare consumers and they have
(01:52):
a dedicated product line named Guya proTailor to healthcare practitioners. Healthcare practitioners can
learn more at Guya Herbs pro dotcom and consumers can visit Gaya rbs dot
com. And finally, pro Thriver'sWellness Sleep, a melotonein based sleep formula
specifically created for thrivers. Pro ThriversSleep is available through your healthcare provider or
(02:13):
online at Pure Formulas dot com.With Me Today are the authors of The
Little Wonders Playbook. Angie de Geronimois a sought after coach that focuses on
health, mindset, and hYP Johnsonis a writer, media producer, and
the host of Nutramedica dot org andinformative platform for health clinicians, which I
(02:37):
am on once a month, Sowelcome to you both. And Angie,
I'd like to begin with you,why did you want to create The Little
Wonders Playbook? Yes, um,you know what. Twenty five years as
a performance coach and an integrative movementspecialist in Silicon Valley, a lot of
(02:58):
my clients will really educated and highperforming individuals. Yet they would consistently tell
me, you know what, Iknow what I need to do, but
I just don't do it. Soin other words, they could change the
world, but had trouble changing themselves. So what I consistently noticed was instead
(03:19):
of engaging and how they were living, they were getting healthy, you know,
kind of treating it as a projectwith KPI's metrics and deadlines, like
you know, I'm gonna lose tenpounds for this wedding or I'm gonna run
this marathon in a month, Andunfortunately, most of the time I would
watch them fail, you know,as their coach. And that's when I
(03:40):
really knew there was a better wayand we needed to really take the attention
off those big goals and start focusingon just simple daily habits. It's you
know what, it's not a newidea. Aristotle said, we are what
we repeatedly do. But I realizedwe needed kind of a contemporary story that
(04:02):
was fun and accessible for people,and that's how Little Wonders was born.
Well, I love the book,and you're right, it is fun and
accessible, and you know, doctorAlshuler and I also talk about how small
habits can can create big change.So the book really resonated with me.
So, Brian, the same questionfor you, why did you want to
(04:24):
write the book and be involved withthis project. Well, apart from the
opportunity to work with Angie, whois just so much fun to be around
and has so much energy, youcan you can hear it into a voice,
I guess I came at it froma slightly different angle because working as
a counselor and also going through theexperience of recovery myself, I sort of
(04:47):
realize that people make choices because itfeels good, the sugar, the fat,
the salt, the alcohol, youknow, wine o'clock, And before
too long, those choices that theymake, they sort of become a comfort
zone, right, and a lifestyle, and it's how people start to cope
(05:10):
with chronic stress of the world welive in. The unrelenting workload that most
of us are under, and theyuse these things to distract themselves, you
know. And I'm not against aglass of wine, absolutely not. And
it's all fine until those coping mechanismsstart to have negative health outcomes, right,
(05:30):
And that is why there's actually sucha focus on quiet time in Little
Wonders and introspection. We call themtime ends, so that you actually have
time to think and process your emotionsand see where you're at and check in
with yourself. And one of thethings that I did love, just to
bring it full circle to Silicon Valley, is that I saw a rerun of
(05:54):
that Charlie Rose interview show, ifyou remember, and it had Build Gates
on it, and Charlie Rose hasasked Bill Gates to show him his daytimer,
and he opened up his daytimer andthere were just these big blank areas
and Charlie Rose is like, whathappens in those areas? You know,
I thought you'd be the busiest guyin the planet. He goes, well,
(06:15):
that's my thinking time, that's myinterest in time. And so at
least since Silicon Valley, Bill Gatesgets that part. We need that quiet
time, right, Yeah, Ilove time ends versus time all. It's
for sure. So, Angie,you know, before we dig in too
deeply, why is it so hardto get healthy? Yeah, I think
(06:39):
it's it has to do with distraction. We're so well, I'll say distraction
and instant gratification. Like we we'removing really quickly, which keeps us in
this fight or flight. It keepsus up in our parasympathetic nervous or a
sympathetic nervous system, out of ourparasympathetic nervous system. So I think has
(07:00):
to do with the dizziness of life. Um, you know it's it's a
systemic problem. We blame the victimfor the weight gain, their unhappiness,
their poor choices. Yet you know, there's a lot stacked against us.
We're living in a toxic food culturethat brings on habits of degeneration. We
frankly eat too much, too frequently, too late. We have a lot
(07:24):
of convenience foods. We make veryshort term decisions out of the business.
So to Brian's point that we're lessable to think deeply, Um, there's
a lot of worry and negative thinking. We're sleeping less. Thirty percent of
our kids are on medications. Um, sixty percent of our adults are fighting
some kind of chronic inflammation. SoI think it a lot of these things
(07:48):
has to do with why it's gettingharder. It's it's it's a modern,
fast culture. That yeah, yeah, you bring up some great some great
points, and fortunately the purpose ofyour book is to make it a little
easier. And before we go realpractical, Brian, I work with you
(08:09):
on another project, a Neutramedica project, and I know that science is a
big deal for you, So tellus a little bit about the science behind
the Little Wonders playbook. Sure,well, you know, everything that we
that we champion in the book isbacked by science. And that was something
that was really important to Angie andI because there's a lot of sort of
(08:31):
sketchy thinking out there with the selfhelp and personal development, and we really
wanted to make a stand. There'sa lot of great evidence for doing things
a certain way probably that you know, if I'm going to if I'm going
to just sort of pick one thebig pieces of this thing called neuroplasticity,
which is the ability of our brainsto continually change over the course of a
(08:52):
lifetime, right, neuroplasticity proves thatwe can, we will rewire our brains
for positive outcomes, and we dothat by rewiring our neural pathways. So
we came across this great work bya psychologist called Dan where talking about how
when you know brain cells communicate frequently, the connection between them strengthens, and
(09:16):
the messages that travel down those pathwaysthey go, they get faster and faster
and faster and more powerful. Andit's through repetition that these behaviors become automatic.
Right. It's like learning to ridea bike. Once you've learned and
you've created that muscle memory, younever have to think about it again.
You just get on your bike andoff you go. Right. One of
(09:39):
the things I was I love isthat Angie talks about this thing of having
a conversation with yourself. Right,So the conversation you're having with yourself is
shall I have that glass of wine? Or shall I have shall I have
that? Shall have that glass ofwater? Shall I go lie down on
the couch or shall I go straightto the peloton bike? And the point
(10:00):
of creating little habits is that younever have to have that conversation with yourself
again because you just automatically go tothe peloton bike. We have a gent
that we're working with right now,and over the course of the program,
he's basically built in a brand newhabit. Well, when he gets home
after work, he just goes straightto the peloton bike. He doesn't have
(10:20):
to have that conversation fight with himselfwhether he has the energy to do it,
or if today's the day to doit, or he's going to put
it off. It's just an automatichabit. And when he's done there,
he goes out into his garden andhe sits there for twenty minutes while he
cools off for his time in andhe never has to worry about thinking of
doing it or worrying about doing it. It just happens automatically. And that's
(10:43):
because he's rewired his neural pathways.And that is the science of neuroplasticity that
this whole program is built on.Yeah. I love that, and I
love the fact that we're creating thesehabits that are just second nature. I
think that that's really important. So, Angie, give us an example of
a practical strategy featured in the book, and how you present that strategy to
(11:07):
the reader. Yes, So oneof the strategies I'll choose is called habit
stacking, and habit stacking was developedby doctor B. J. Fogg it
right here locally at Stamford University,And basically it's as simple as choosing a
habit something that you do daily,and stacking something that you want to do
(11:31):
daily or get better at on topof that already established habits. So let
me give you some example. So, like to lose weight, let's keep
a bottle of water with you atall times and whenever you receive a text,
take a gulp, Or like toget more done, when you sit
down for your morning coffee, thatwould be a great time to write out
(11:52):
that to do list and underline somepriorities things like that for the day,
Say, to get more exercise,you might keep your running shoes next to
the dog lease to remind yourself tokind of move along versus just letting that
dog jump into the backyard for release. And then you know, to destress
or re energize, just taking somedeep breaths every time you sit down at
(12:16):
your desk, giving yourself a littlebit of an alert, which Brian's going
to talk about in a bit.But to remind yourself. This is something
I can do every time I sitdown to my desk. So these are
some examples of habits stacking something thatwe use in our courses. I love
it. Yeah, And actually ourshow last week we were talking about that
(12:37):
inner voice, that inner critic,and we utilized doctor Fogg's trigger method to
try to change that inner inner voiceand influence the inner voice. We've talked
about doctor Fogg on the show,so I can definitely relate to that.
So Brian, I'm going to askyou a similar question. I want you
to give me an example of oneof your favorite little wonders from the book.
(13:03):
Well, that's easy for me,and that's it's the mighty post it
And that's actually something that Angie introduced, so we all know what a little
post it note is. You knowthose colorful little squares that have that are
sticky, and so basically here's thething. You know, we're making a
decision. We make a decision allthe time about what we're going to do,
(13:24):
you know, And I don't wantto bang on about about the wine
thing, but either you're gonna havea glass of wine or you're gonna have
a glass of water. So therecomes a point when you're going to make
a decision in that moment about whatyou're going to do. So we use
post its to remind you in thatmoment of your intention to change. Right.
So we ask that you write downyour intention by stating a positive action,
(13:50):
or you can remind yourself of anegative consequence, and you write this
right on the post it. Soso, for example, an example of
the positive action be take a break, go for a walk, right,
And a negative consequence would be stopsnacking, you hate putting on weight,
(14:11):
right, And you write those downon the post it, okay, on
two different posters, and then youput them all around your house. So
maybe beside your bed, in thebathroom cabinet, on your car dashboard,
by your computer. So for example, you know, take a break,
go for a walk, you'd putthat by your computer so you would be
(14:31):
reminded of your intention to get upand move around a little more. You
know. One of my faves isthat someone we work with was wanting to
was finding that they were drinking wineevery night when they came home, so
they wanted to be reminded to drinkless, so they actually put the post
it on their bottles of wine.Right, So it was said this gives
you a hangover written on the postit and put right on the bottle.
(14:54):
And in the cabinet where where theykept their glasses, they had one saying
why not have a soda? Right? So in that moment, mighty post
its are a great way to remindyou of your intention to change. Now,
maybe some of the time you're goingto choose to have the glass of
wine anyway, and that's fine.But even if three or four out of
(15:16):
ten times you decide to have theglass of water or not to snack on
the chips, you're four ahead ofthe game. Right. It's an incredibly
simple, powerful little trick, themighty post step. Yeah, I love
that. And I'm gonna stick withyou, Brian for for a minute because
one of one of the things Iwanted to bring up about the book is
(15:39):
that it's not just about diet andexercise. You're talking about mindset and relationships
also in the book. Can yougive us an example of either one of
those, like how the book helpswith your mindset or how to help the
(16:00):
book may help with relationships. Well, for us, any healthy life is
about taking care of your physical body, right, taking care of your mental
health and also understanding that we're allsocial creatures. We all have families and
friends, and you know, speakingof the distracted world we live in,
(16:22):
it's easy for us to get overwhelmedwith problems or work, and you know,
our mindset can suffer and our relationshipscan suffer. So the idea behind
you know, little wonders is thatin the same way as these little habits
can help us be more physically healthy, they can also help us improve our
(16:45):
mindset. And I was interested tonotice that you actually did you did the
show was it last week? Onhow to manage that negative self talk?
And that's a huge thing because youknow, the science actually tells us that
when we focus on the negative,we actually get physically weaker. You know,
(17:06):
we actually get less able to beproductive. So there's a quite a
big chapter in the book where wetalk about this character the mad Monkey.
And the mad monkey are the monkeysin your head, and when you start
listening to the mad monkey, youcan soon spiral down. So we have
some you know, techniques to getcontrol of that of that mental aspect in
(17:30):
the moment as soon as, forexample, as soon as you hear yourself
saying oh I'm so fat today,or you know, God, why am
I so stupid? Or any ofthese things we saved each other. You
snap your fingers to remind yourself topull yourself up, and then we help
you develop some turnaround statements, right, And those turnaround statements are I'm not
(17:53):
actually stupid, I'm actually pretty great, and all my friends think I'm pretty
great, you know, or whateverthe turnaround statement might be, Oh,
I've got my mother's thighs. Youknow, Actually I can take action to
change what I eat and take controlof my body. I'm in charge of
(18:15):
my body. Right. So,this idea that you can take control of
the monkeys in your head in themoment with a simple technique of snapping your
fingers and a turnaround statement is superpowerful. And as far as relationships are
concerned, it's just about building thesesimple daily habits to nurture those relationships.
(18:36):
One of the things we teach isthis idea of active listening. Half the
time, when we're in conversations orwith people that are not really listening,
you know, they're being distracted bytheir phone or their mind is wandering.
So we actually have a we havea little mini course around how to practice
active listening, to really connect withthe person that you're talking to. Listen
(18:59):
to what they have to say,repeat it back to them so that they
know that you're listening and you ofcreating a positive connection right there. And
that is how you nurture healthy relationshipsby being present, by listening, by
asking questions. And that's just asimple daily habit. It's such a small
thing, but it just resonates throughoutyour entire life with positivity if you just
(19:23):
practice those little daily habits. Yeah, I would agree. And the Mad
Monkey and I'll tell you, Iam going to plug the show that we
did on this Inner Critic and InnerVoice because Lisa and I did it just
the two of us and it wasfun to do, but it was a
lot of a lot of great information. So if you go to I thrive
plan dot com and you look atthe past episodes, you should be able
(19:45):
to find that or just search whereveryou listen to your favorite podcast, because
you're right, it does influence usdramatically. And you do you have anything
to add when it comes to themental mindset in the relationship ships that Brian
just talked about, Why why didyou want to include that why didn't you
want to just stick with you know, diet and exercise, right, because
(20:08):
I you know, it's short term, it's shortlived, it's a transaction when
we just look at it from thatstandpoint without at least that's what I saw,
you know, as a movement specialista wellness owner, I was working
with clients every day on the goalof diet and exercise, and I was
watching them take the approach and notreally go into the mindset much at all,
(20:33):
and it would be very short lived. That weight would come right back
on. They would not. Itwas not a lasting change they were making.
So that was another big part ourframework for changes. The book.
We've named it The Answer. There'sacronyms through exactly why, and I think
all of them are based in myset, in mindset, attention and notice
and you know, we go througheach one of those letters and they're all
(20:57):
really based in mindset too, tohelp people overcome and have a framework for
change. Yeah, and it makessense because your work is all about helping
executives have higher performance and you know, so it all it makes sense that
it would all fit together. Andnow, Angie, I want to stick
with you again. I find thebook to be really positive and fun and
(21:19):
colorful and you know, easy toread and easy to navigate. You know,
was all that intentional? I mean, do you do you feel that
the way the information is presented evenfurther helps the reader. I'm so glad
to hear you say that. Thankyou so much. That was my hope,
you know, I I it madeso. I wanted it to be
(21:41):
easy so they could grasp, honestlymore difficult concepts, so the concept that
they might not even be able toface, Like we were in our courses
and someone actually said, well,I don't know the monkey. I don't
I don't know where she is orhow you know, I'm not even doing
that right, And I said,well, there it is, there's the
(22:03):
monkey. So yeah, they havea tough time connecting with those those things
that are closer, more emotional becauseof their busy lives. So yes,
I wanted to make this very interactiveand fun and colorful and approachable and accessible.
And I also also wanted it tobe a kind of an action journal.
(22:23):
So we were very intentional in thebright orange binding that the book can
fold in on itself. We haveteachers using it in the local areas as
They love that concept for psychology classes, that they could just fold the book
and put it, you know,on an overhead projector kind of thing.
Yes, there's a lot of areasto write in the book. We do
(22:45):
encourage that. And I think justme being a movement specialist, I wanted
to have something that was you know, that could get thrown in the bag
and it could be pulled back outand it was kind of a self journal
kind of Yeah. And what Ilove about it too because I'm a person
who likes to read and then write. I mean, obviously I'm a writer
(23:08):
by trade. Um, So itseems like when I engage my writing,
it sticks. And that's what I'mthinking with this this playbook, because it's
very engaging and you're asking the readerto do things along the way. So,
Angie, does that help in thelearning process? It helps? It?
(23:30):
Does it help it stick? Itcertainly does. There is science around
having thought and writing as to havingthings like this. Um, when you're
putting two of those things together,the memory and the understanding of the information
(23:52):
is far better than if we're justthinking about it and we're not writing it.
So that that was very intentional.Okay, maybe maybe I can just
jump in quickly and say that.You know that in recent years there has
been a very welcome return to thisidea of habits. You know, James
Clear wrote Atomic Habits, which wasat the top of the best seller list
(24:14):
for a long time. But thesebooks are big and they're dense, right,
You've got to be committed to getthrough that book. And we just
felt that there was so much greatinformation that we wanted it to be super
accessible for people. And we madea promise to each other that on every
single page there is something for youto learn and something for you to laugh
at, you know, and wereally tried to do that. So you
(24:37):
can just keep that book around anywhere, pick it up at any time,
just for two minutes. We usedto talk about micro docing the Little Wonders
Playbook, and I think that's whatwe tried to do with the design of
the book. Yeah, it's perfect. I think it's really good. Brian.
Where can people find out more aboutthe book and the work that you
and Angie do together. Sure,well, we have a website of course,
(25:00):
where people can learn about our programs, and it's called the House of
Little Wonders. House of Little Wondersdot com and you know, it's a
great opportunity for you to you canyou can grab the book from there,
or you can dip your toe inand try one of our little mini courses.
(25:21):
And actually, Carolin, what Idid as a way of thanking you
and your listeners for allowing us tobe part of this is I created a
coupon five to Thrive that will actuallysave anyone fifty dollars on any one of
our mini courses if you just wantto see what it's all about and maybe
see how some of this great informationcan help you make healthy changes in your
(25:47):
life. So you just have tojump over the house of Little Wonders dot
com, pick your mini course andyou can use a coupon five to thrive
and you'll save fifty dollars. Andif I could just say one other thing,
you know, Angie does a fantasticjob of you know, pretty much
every couple of days, there's anew video up on her Instagram on Facebook
(26:08):
page you can find at um atAngie Sorry at um at Little Wonders with
Angie. Little Wonders with Angie isa great way for you to access her,
especially the movement stuff and some ofthe food stuff. It's always fun
and entertaining on on Instagram. Andnow, Angie, is Little Wonders Habits
(26:29):
dot com um a website where theycan find out more about your work or
is that one replaced with House ofLittle One. It all points to the
same place. Little Wonders Habits dotcom or House of Little Wonders dot com
all ends up at the same site. Okay, um, Angie, before
I let you go, tell mea little bit about these mini courses.
(26:52):
Yes, so the mini courses,it's a thirty minute um audio that you
that we've chosen specific topic on helpmindset and relationships. We did that on
purpose so you can listen at yourconvenience wherever you are. Just like a
podcast, it comes with a bunchof pds course materials that will help you
(27:17):
carry out what we're asking or teachingyou in those audio courses, and those
are all on the House of LittleWonders House of Little Wonders dot com.
Thank you so much for offering acoupon to our listeners. I really appreciate
that. And is there free contenton the website as well, so people
can kind of learn as they goand get some information on House of Little
(27:41):
Wonders dot com. There is verythere is free content there, but the
best place to connect with our freestuff is on social so you can find
that on Angie's Instagram, TikTok aswell and Facebook, and that is Little
Wonders with Angie does lots of freecontent, constantly updating that so that's a
(28:02):
great place. Perfect well good.I know you guys are very focused on
education and getting the information out andwe appreciate that very much. Thank you
Angie for joining me today. Thankyou the pleasure. Yeah, and thank
you Brian for joining me. It'sa real pleasure, and thank you for
including us absolutely well. That wrapsup this episode of five to Thrive Live
(28:27):
once again. I'd like to thankour sponsors Amuse Postbiotic to give your immune
system that extra boost, Cognizanceiticolin tohelp enhance memory, focus and attention,
Doctor O'Hara's award winning shelf Stable Probiotic, Guya Herbs, makers of exceptional quality
herbal products, and pro Thrivers Wellnesssleep formula. That wraps this episode up.
(28:51):
May you experience joy, laughter andlove. It's time to thrive everyone,
have a great night in love.This is gonna be loves baby good
luck, good luck, to saythe scape that change the cities of five
(29:11):
lives, Baby love, good lives
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