February 19, 2025 • 37 mins
Are you tired of tossing and turning in a bedroom that feels more like a battleground than a sanctuary? Join us as we uncover a holistic blueprint for transforming your sleeping space into a haven of peace and restoration that supports total wellness.
You'll discover practical wisdom for creating an environment that promotes deep, refreshing sleep while nurturing your whole person - body, mind, and spirit. Learn how to eliminate common bedroom mistakes that sabotage your rest and replace them with proven strategies that align with natural healing principles.
This episode provides everything you need to create your own sleep sanctuary that supports living your most vibrant, abundant life.
Time Stamps:
02:31 The Concept of Total Body Load
08:27 Addressing ADHD and Mental Health
11:57 The Importance of Mental Toughness
18:49 Creating a Sleep Sanctuary
27:11 Managing Monday Moods and Mental Health Strategies
Links:
More episodes: Podcast Hompage
For a Copy of David’s Book: The Christian’s Guide to Holistic Health
Ask David a question to be answered on an upcoming episode: Ask Me Anything
Would you like to be on the Show? Schedule a Lifestyle Audit
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I just came across an article recently from a World Health Organization, and they said ifwe practice four good lifestyle habits, one was maintain a healthy weight, exercise
regularly, eat a healthy diet, and not smoke.
And if we don't do those four things, we reduce our chances of dying from a chronicdisease, a chronic degenerative disease, by 80%.
(00:22):
So I would suggest, and that's pretty good, right?
But that's only four.
I would suggest there's a whole lot more lifestyle factors that we have control over thanfour.
So the more the better.
Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle podcast, it's all about opting out of themedical matrix and taking greater control of your own health.
(00:44):
I'm your host, David Sandstrom, your resident lifestyle modification expert, and this isepisode number 172.
I want to remind everyone that I'm starting an online membership community that willcomplement the podcast and my book, but significantly expand on the content.
I'm in the process of creating a library of online courses
(01:05):
that'll be available inside the community.
I plan to do regular live Q &As with myself, of course, and some expert guests where youcan interact with me and the guests and get some questions answered.
Of course, we'll have a group of like-minded believers that want to opt out of the medicalparadigm or the medical matrix and take more control of their own health so you can avoid
(01:27):
chronic disease and pursue aging gracefully in abundant living God's way.
I also think it'd be nice to have a weekly newsletter that's only available to members.
I might even offer some office hours where members can schedule an appointment with me andhave a little one-on-one health coaching to help you move the needle in your health
building efforts.
(01:47):
Now, I'll be soliciting feedback from the founders, so as a founding member, you'll have achance to shape what the health club membership turns into.
As a founder, you'll also lock in the lowest price that'll ever be offered for themembership.
and your cost will never go up.
If that sounds intriguing to you, I invite you to get on the wait list and I'll keep youinformed as the launch date approaches.
(02:11):
Just go to chlpodcast.com forward slash membership and you'll see the wait list sign upbox there.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Today we have in the show Dustin Howes.
Dustin is a part of the natural nation and he's here to do a lifestyle audit.
Dustin, welcome to Christian Healthy Lifestyle.
(02:31):
Hey, thanks for having me David, great to be here.
It's really a pleasure to connect with you.
Thanks for signing up.
You're kind of the guinea pig here.
You're my second lifestyle audit.
So we'll see how this goes.
I'm not used to this format just yet, but we'll get it done.
Well, hey, I'm happy to be a part of something revolutionary.
I love the concept of, you know, being open and free.
(02:54):
And if my story can help anybody else, it's all worth it.
So happy.
Good.
Yeah, well glad to have you on.
So let's set a goal here and let's say, pretend for a moment that I'm a genie in a bottleand you summoned me and I can grant you three wishes for your health and wellness.
What would you ask me for?
(03:15):
Wow.
I think the first portion would be all about, trying to help fix my ADHD focus anddepression all mixed into one like superpower that I have essentially.
And getting a better handle on that would be my ultimate like wish, I guess.
(03:38):
Okay, all right, very good.
I've got a few ideas already.
How is your sleep doing?
How would you rate your sleep?
rate it would be in the like five ish range I would say I'm a I rarely get four hours in arow I rarely and I very super rarely get six to eight hours in a row I have no problems
(04:05):
falling asleep but staying asleep is the big issue that I have yeah
Okay, all right.
That sounds good.
Well, it doesn't sound good, but I've got some ideas to share with you.
Sorry that you're struggling there.
That's rough because sleep is huge, as you know.
I mean, it's a big deal.
So, you know, just because the lifestyle audits are kind of new, I'd like to give thenatural nation a little bit of background here on my approach to health and wellness.
(04:33):
When I had my practice, people would come in and a lot of times they would tell me thedrugs that they're on.
You know, they've been to a couple different medical doctors and
not found help.
And they would be asking me for a supplement that would do what the drugs would do withoutside effects.
And, you know, that's kind of the fast food approach.
You know, it's kind of the drive through approach, right?
You just want something quick, get on my lifestyle.
(04:55):
I don't want to change too much of my lifestyle and let me just, you know, five minutevisit and let me be on my way.
But that's not the way natural health works, right?
I know that you know that.
And so my approach to health is that we've got to consider the total body load.
And we have lifestyle factors that will enhance our health and wellbeing.
(05:15):
And we have lifestyle factors that will detract from that or be a health blocking factor.
So what we wanna do is stack as many health enhancing factors on the side of one side of aseesaw and build a lopsided seesaw and take away as many health blocking factors on one
side and add as many health enhancing factors on the other and build a lopsided seesaw.
(05:37):
So that's my approach.
And the concept of total body load is this.
Imagine we had a couple of sawhorses and we took a two by four and straddled them acrossthe sawhorses.
And I started stacking bricks on top of that two by four.
The two by four could handle a few bricks, no problem.
But if I keep stacking bricks, the two by four is going to start to sag.
(06:01):
And that's when we would develop some type of symptoms.
know, when the two by four is empty, think 21-year-old athlete, strong and durable.
But now it's starting to give a little bit with a bunch of bricks on top of it.
So if we kept stacking bricks, there's gonna come a point where that two by four is gonnasnap.
So was the problem the last brick I put on there?
(06:26):
or was the problem the total load of bricks underneath?
Right, it's the total load, right?
So the two by four when it snaps can be thought of as when you get a diagnosis, know,there's some kind of a health challenge you're dealing with now.
So what we wanna do is take some of the bricks off our two by four and eliminate some ofthose health blocking factors and start embracing some more of the health enhancing
(06:51):
factors and we'll let our bodies do what they already know how to do.
and that is to heal and to thrive.
Our bodies are pre-programmed to heal themselves.
We don't have to teach ourselves how to do their jobs.
They know what to do.
We've just got to get the obstacles out of the way.
Thoughts on that?
Any questions?
Uh, following along and, uh, completely understand, like love the metaphor for what I'mgoing through at the age of 42.
(07:18):
It just seems to compound until, uh, until it breaks.
And then I go to the doctor.
Like it seems like a repetitive nature in my lifestyle.
Yeah, you're not alone.
There's a lot of people in the same boat.
yeah, so that's what the show is all about.
And that's what we want to do is identify some of the lifestyle factors that we havecontrol over.
(07:40):
know, some things we don't have control over.
You know, I can't control the 5G antenna tower that just went in down the street.
You know, I can't really have, I don't have much control over that.
But we can influence a whole lot of healthy lifestyle factors.
I just came across an article recently from a World Health Organization.
And they said if we practice four good lifestyle habits, one was maintain a healthyweight, exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, and not smoke.
(08:08):
And if we don't do those four things, we reduce our chances of dying from a chronicdisease, a chronic degenerative disease, by 80%.
So I would suggest, and that's pretty good, right?
But that's only four.
I would suggest there's a whole lot more lifestyle factors that we have control over thanfour.
So the more, the better.
All right, so let's talk about the ADHD.
(08:30):
Is this something that you've been dealing with all your life?
Absolutely, like all throughout my childhood, but when I was growing up, nobody diagnosedit or like suggested I take any kind of medication for it.
And I'm thankful that that didn't happen because I never wanted to be the person onmedication to fix a problem.
(08:55):
And so I've never even touched upon it until this year when I started taking some bup...
Buprotrin, I believe the word is.
And that has seemed to help with not only my focus, but the depression portion, which justcreeped into my life over the last couple of years.
(09:16):
Hmm, sorry to hear that.
Well, you know, if you start feeling better physically, you can't help but start feelingbetter mentally because the two are interconnected, right?
So let's see what we can do here.
So the first thing I like to tell people when I'm doing health coaching with them is ithelps to have your why clarified.
So if you could resolve your health issues, you know, what would you do?
(09:41):
Or another way of asking that is what have you stopped doing as a result of your healthchallenges?
that you'd like to do.
again, what would I like to stop doing?
Well, what have you stopped doing as a result because of the challenges?
And then what would you like to start doing if you got your health challenges resolved?
(10:02):
Sure.
mean, I think finding more time for exercise is a big fix for me and better exercise.
I'm doing treadmill underneath my desk because of my time is limited trying to be a gooddad and working 40 plus hours a week.
I'm trying to get in that exercise wherever I could, but dedicating a good hour, if notmore a day would be super helpful for me.
(10:29):
And that's a goal of mine I just can't get to yet.
Okay, all right, cool.
So you'd like more energy to engage with the family, engage with the kids and wife, wouldassume.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, all right, cool.
All right, so when it comes to something like going to the gym an hour a day, we have twotypes of goals.
We have an achievement goal, like something like I want to lose 20 pounds or I'd like tohave more energy or I'd like to run a marathon.
(10:55):
And we have process goals.
So going to the gym would be a process goal.
You'd say, all right, I'm gonna go to the gym three times a week.
I know it's gonna be beneficial.
No specific end goal in mind.
That's just something I'm gonna start doing.
So I like that.
I like the fact that you've got a process goal there to go to the gym.
That's excellent.
So your why is, when you find your why, you'll find your way.
(11:20):
So your why is, I want to engage with my kids more.
I want to have more energy.
I'd like to feel like I did 10 years ago.
Is that a correct assessment?
I feel like I give a lot to my kids.
I coach their teams.
I'm interacting with them on a daily basis and hanging out with them.
I think I'm good on that level.
Their energy level is unstoppable.
(11:44):
So like just doing my best is where I want to be.
And I can still beat them at sports.
So I get to rub that in their face.
What kind of sports do they do?
Eight and ten.
All of them, yeah, but I can still handle my own being an athlete.
Good for you.
(12:04):
That's really cool.
All right, so let's talk about some some mindset stuff here mental toughness a little bitso I would define mental toughness as Exercising our agency or our God-given free will to
be in charge of our thought lives Instead of our thought lives controlling us We'recontrolling them The Bible has some advice for us here Romans 12 2 says do not be
(12:29):
conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
So that tells us that we don't have to accept where we're at.
We can be transformed.
We can do better than we're doing today.
You know, it wasn't long ago where someone, if someone was involved in, let's say, caraccident, they had some brain damage, head trauma.
(12:50):
They were taught that you'll never gain back what you've lost.
And then we just have to work on compensation.
You got to work on learning how to do things differently and compensate for what you'velost.
But we now know that that's not true.
we can, because of neuroplasticity, we can build new neurons in our brains and train ourbrains to think better and to be more efficient at the thoughts that we want.
(13:14):
So that's part of being in control of our thought lives, right?
We don't have to be victims.
We can be in charge of the thoughts that we let in and the thoughts that we reject.
Another Bible verse that I'd to throw out there is 2 Corinthians 10-5.
We bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
So
If we have a thought that's serving our health building goals, well, entertain it.
(13:38):
Let's do that all day long.
But if it's blocking or getting in the way of our health building goals, that's somethingthat we need to reject.
Philippians 4.8 tells us, what everything's a true, noble, just, and pure, virtuous,praiseworthy, think on these things.
So that kind of leads me into going into the sleep.
(13:59):
So do you have trouble falling asleep?
No trouble whatsoever.
I feel like after my day, after staring at a screen eight hours, I have zero problem.
I read a book in bed for 15, 20 minutes and I'm lights out real quick.
That's cool, that's cool.
So let me tap the brakes here a little bit.
(14:21):
Any questions on being in charge of our thought lives?
Any thoughts that you struggle with?
I would have said no two years ago, but, I've just over the last couple of years, youknow, I had never been on any kind of medication whatsoever.
and the dark thoughts started creeping in, like the stress kept pounding in and likefinancial stress and being an entrepreneur and, those kinds of thoughts that I was able to
(14:53):
control earlier in my life.
And, and.
put a positive and happy spin on it, it just wasn't working the same for me.
like, I've lost that capability to have that control over my mind as well as I would want.
Hmm, interesting.
Okay.
(15:14):
So, there's chronic thoughts that plague you and when you go to sleep, you're thinkingabout your day, thinking about your week, and you just can't let them go.
Yeah, the stress is what keeps me waking me up at night.
Yeah, I'll go an hour maybe two and then just be awoken by those thoughts.
(15:35):
Give me an example of a thought that would do that to you.
it would be like, I've got to get this task done today.
I should, I should be getting up already and like getting that taken care of andsubconsciously I will wake up and like look at the clock and realize it's only midnight.
(15:56):
I should probably get some more sleep.
You know, I've actually been there and done that, know, might be two or three o'clock now.
I guess it's time to get up at three o'clock.
Maybe I to try to go back to bed.
It happens to me now and then too.
So here's a couple of suggestions I have along those lines.
You've got to give yourself permission to let that stuff go.
(16:20):
You've got to be able to say,
I had a guy on the show not too long ago.
He was a mental toughness coach, coaches elite athletes.
And he had an acronym that he used called WIN.
It was What's Important Now?
W-I-N.
What's Important Now?
And I asked him this question specifically about sleep.
And he said, well, what's important right at that moment?
(16:40):
It's to get some rest, right?
I mean, you've you're finished your your tasks for the day.
And if you were to sit there and dwell on the stuff that you've got to get done tomorrow,
you're not focusing on what's important now.
What's important is that you give your body a chance to rest and recuperate andrejuvenate, know, let your hormones be balanced, let your cells recover, and give your
(17:07):
body an opportunity to wake up refreshed and ready to face the new day.
So I think one of the suggestions I would have for that is, you ever tried journaling?
I've tried.
I've never been consistent enough about it.
Well, know, there's something powerful about writing things down.
And if you were to take some of those, let's say, three, four, five things that you wantto get done tomorrow, or let's say this week, and it's weighing on you heavily, there's
(17:34):
something about writing it down.
You say, OK, now that I've written it down, it's OK, let it go.
And when I get up tomorrow, I'll pick up my list and I'll start dealing with it.
But right now, I'm going to let it go.
I think a pretty useful tool.
I use that.
personally, and it's been effective for me.
Because I've had some of sleep issues you're dealing with too.
(17:57):
My thoughts will race and it will interfere with my sleep.
And doing some journaling, for me a little prayer, just turning things over to God,acknowledging that I am not in control.
I have a role to play here, but ultimately the man upstairs is in control and I've got tojust rest in that.
(18:18):
And that helps me rest.
Another thing that I do, and I did this for many years, and that is I visualized atranquil scene.
one day when I was in high school, I lived down in South Florida, I skipped school.
we were just a few miles from the beach, and I just walked to the beach.
(18:39):
I didn't even have license yet, didn't have car, motorcycle, anything.
I walked to the beach, and I remember taking my shirt off, laying on down on the sand,just laying in the sun, listening to the surf.
listen to the seagulls, white puffy clouds floating by, and just really, really enjoyingthat time of saying, hey, I didn't have to go to school today.
(19:00):
This is great.
I'm loving this.
And a little sweat rolling down the side of my face, that was OK.
It was very enjoyable for me.
I got in trouble when I got home.
School called my parents, and I got trouble.
But it was something I'm glad I did, because I used that for many years.
And my wife is amazed, I don't even have to use it anymore because I will fall asleep likea light switch.
(19:24):
And my wife's amazed how fast I can go to sleep.
It's because I practiced the tranquil scene in my mind for so many years that I just gotthat ingrained in me.
When I put my head on the pillow, that's what I'm doing.
I'm just gonna relax, I'm gonna let go of my cares, and I'm gonna go to sleep.
And it's worked for me.
I mean, it's just incredibly good.
(19:46):
But I know that you're waking up in the middle of the night, right?
Yeah, but still a great tip altogether.
Like I don't do that.
And I think that could alleviate some of my waking up in the hours if I had tabled mystress and issues in the right format, because I can't just tell my brain like, stop
(20:08):
thinking about this and stop stressing about this, go to sleep.
It doesn't work like that.
I think that tranquility of being in your happy place is a really good tip.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's more along those lines as well.
For instance, you can kind of turn your bedroom into a sanctuary.
(20:29):
First thing I would do is if you have a TV, take it out.
Unplug it.
You don't want to watch TV before you go to bed.
All shows, especially the news, are designed to engage you emotionally.
They're trying to get you wound up so you keep watching.
Sitcom.
They still want to grab your emotions.
They still want to pull you in so you keep binge watching.
(20:51):
So turn the TV off.
That is a really, really powerful thing to do.
If you have any clutter in your room, get that out of there.
Make it a tranquil place.
Do you have anything like an exercise machine in your room or anything like that in yourbedroom?
do, there is a treadmill and a peloton in the corner of the room.
(21:11):
Okay, cool.
Well, good for you for having those.
But I would suggest trying to get those into a different room because you want yourbedroom to be that sanctuary.
You don't want to be in there for exercise.
You want to train your mind and your body that when I'm in here, this is my relaxation.
This is my place in time to rejuvenate.
(21:32):
And I think that would be useful as well.
What about caffeine?
How much coffee you drink or do you drink coffee?
I found that when I'm on this medication that is helping with my focus that caffeineactually triggers my brain to go to sleep somehow.
(21:52):
so therefore I just cut it out of my diet altogether.
I will have maybe one cup of coffee a week if I need really need something extra in theafternoon to get me through the day.
But yeah, I've got it out of my diet, which I'm pretty excited about.
(22:13):
That's great.
Good for you.
That's really good.
I think the ideal is no caffeine.
I don't drink a lot of coffee myself.
I do drink these energy shots.
Ethan's energy shots, they're organic.
And erbayusa is the herb that they use and source of caffeine is pretty clean.
It's pretty good.
I like it a lot.
(22:33):
actually have...
I don't have one.
They don't do that.
yeah, I'll hook you up though.
If you buy enough, you can get a wholesale discount.
I'll let you know after the show.
That's pretty good.
So anyway, back to the sanctuary in the bedroom.
(22:56):
Another thing you want to do is stop eating three hours before bedtime.
Because digestion is a lot of work.
And your body is busy digesting that food.
It can't not do it.
It has to do that.
You send that food down there, your body has to get hard at work.
So if you stop eating three hours before bedtime, that should help with the restful sleep.
(23:17):
You'll be more comfortable, and that's one of the ways you can go to sleep and stayasleep, is not having any bloating or digestive issues going on.
Another one is using some blackout curtains and making your bedroom as dark as you can.
I have a link on my website, Christian Healthy Lifestyle.
(23:41):
And there's a to Amazon there.
It's a company called Nice Town Curtains.
Really inexpensive, nice colors, great quality, blackout curtains.
You have to buy the curtain rod that kind of wraps around to go flush with the wall.
And you'd be surprised how good they are.
And getting your room as dark as possible is very, very useful.
(24:03):
We're designed to go to sleep when it's dark out.
So the darker, the better.
Ideally,
You don't want to see your hand when it's in front of your face.
That would be the ideal.
You might not be able to get there, but do your best to get there.
And I think you'll notice a difference.
And here's something else that I think I would suggest for better, more restful sleep, andI really can't recommend this enough, and that is the blue and green blocker glasses.
(24:29):
You've probably heard of blue blockers, right?
I've got these from Dave Asprey like for my my screen that I'm staring at all day.
I have found some some difference in it.
He also suggests ones like at night to start wearing them a couple hours before bed.
(24:50):
Do you have those as well?
Yes.
Yeah, I those on my website as well.
They cost about 60 bucks And they block blue and green so you're only gonna see variousshades of red So yeah blue green red makes up all the colors of the spectrum, so you're
only gonna see various shades of red I wouldn't drive with them But if you're home, youknow, it's great you put them on and I'm not kidding if I put these on it say 9 o'clock by
(25:18):
9 30 man.
I'm getting tired
I'm getting, my body's getting ready for sleep.
And when you think about it, it mimics our natural circadian rhythm because, know, acentury ago or more, we didn't have electricity for, you know, throw a light switch and
turn all the lights on and turn all the electronics on.
If you wanted light, you lit a candle, right?
Or a lamp of some sort, a little over hundred years ago.
(25:41):
So that red light coming from a flame is okay.
It doesn't interfere with our sleep, but the blue and the,
and the green do.
And I found these glasses, they're a little dark, but man, they are fantastic at makingyou sleepy, helping you fall asleep, and stay asleep.
I wake up more rejuvenated when I use them.
(26:02):
I don't use them every night, but I use them quite frequently, and they're pretty darngood.
I like them a lot.
All right.
I get them.
Okay.
Yeah, okay.
Let's see, what else can we talk about here with sleep?
I forgot to mention this on my discussion with Dustin on the recording session, but ifyou've implemented all the changes that I suggest on creating a sleep sanctuary and it
(26:26):
still hasn't helped, you might want to consider some supplements.
The last thing you want to do is get on sleeping pills because they're very addictive.
That would be really, really tough to get off of.
So a couple of supplements that I would recommend, first and foremost, is a product calledRescue Sleep.
It's a homeopathic.
It comes in a couple of different forms.
One is a dropper.
One is a spray bottle.
(26:47):
And they also have some pellets that you can put sublingually under your tongue.
And that homeopathic works on calming your thoughts.
So if racing thoughts are keeping you up in the middle of the night, as Dustin explainedin this episode, that would be an excellent product to use.
It's called rescue sleep.
And another one is called L-theanine.
It's an amino acid that will help calm anxiety and produce more restful sleep as well.
(27:11):
L-theanine.
So if you want a good source for those products, go to my websiteChristianHealthyLifestyle.com forward slash full script.
Use my link there and create an account and you'll be able to get access to thousands ofproducts that are practitioner grade products that you can't even get at the retail level.
High, super high quality.
And you'll lock in a 10 % discount for life and get free shipping over $50.
(27:36):
It's a win win win for everyone.
It's a no brainer.
Go ahead and do that today.
Now let's get back to my conversation with Dustin.
got, I've got one other like big topic that I don't know really how to handle.
And it is what I call Monday Mopies.
So once I have a real fun weekend and like have a few drinks or, or have a, have a gummy,you know, to relax during the weekend, I show up on Sunday and I don't take anything and
(28:07):
put nothing in my body so that I can rejuvenate into Monday.
And Monday rolls around and inevitably I'm just a sad day, like all together.
And I have a very tough time getting my mood into out of that.
It's not quite a depression state, but I feel like I want to sleep a little more and I'mjust not as motivated to work.
(28:33):
And I want to get that out of my life.
And I don't know if there's any supplementation that I can take to help.
move those wheels faster.
Yeah, that's a good question.
know, when it comes to that's like money morning blues, when it comes to that kind ofthing, I don't have a magic pill.
(28:53):
I wish I did.
But I do know this.
I know that it's hard.
These mental health issues are hard.
They're stubborn.
And I do know that our spirit, and body are interconnected.
And by when we strengthen one part of who and what we are, we can't help but straightenthe others.
It just absolutely happens.
For instance, I was in Greece not too long ago.
(29:14):
wife and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary over in Greece.
And we went to a stadium called the Panthenian.
And it was like a 90,000 seat marble stadium where the Olympics got started.
And I was just pondering that.
I was like, this is so cool.
These people really took physical fitness very seriously.
(29:35):
So I don't think it's any accident that the Greeks were, the ancient Greeks were intophysical fitness.
but they also produced some really smart philosophers and some thinking and philosophiesthat have survived Aristotle.
These concepts that have survived for centuries, I don't think it's an accident that theywere into both because I think one feeds on the other.
(30:01):
So I would suggest that exercise is gonna be a great thing for that.
It really will.
And then,
recognizing the toxic thoughts and taking your agency, taking your ability to processthose in a helpful way.
I actually have a PDF that I made that's really good.
(30:22):
I call it the ABCDE method of identifying and correcting toxic thinking patterns.
you get the download the PDF from my website.
You'll see it's great.
I'll make sure it's available in the show notes.
But A stands for activating event.
So the activating event is something that happens that it pushes our buttons.
(30:46):
We react more strongly to that than the average person.
This is a hot topic for me.
Whatever that activating event is, somebody maybe teases you or insults you or maybe it'scut you off in traffic.
I don't know.
Maybe somebody flips you off in traffic.
You know what I mean?
There's some type of things that can happen to us that will trigger us.
(31:09):
And we wish we weren't getting so wound up, but we are.
And then B stands for the beliefs or the self-talk that goes along with that activatingevent.
So where is that self-talk going to take me?
And again, this gets back to, I in charge or are my thoughts in charge?
So we are the ones that should be in charge of all that.
(31:30):
So C stands for the consequences.
of believing and talking to ourselves that way.
If I have that happen to me and I have this thought pattern that comes along, theself-talk that I engage in frequently, where does that lead me?
Does that lead me to more relational connectedness with my family?
(31:52):
Does that lead me to being a better employee or a better business owner?
Is that helping my health building efforts?
Where's it taking me?
And if it's taking the wrong direction,
Then you've got to use D, which is dispute those beliefs and that self-talk.
Say, hey, wait a minute, is that true?
Is that really true?
Am I really a victim here?
(32:13):
Do I have to react this way?
So you start disputing, saying, a minute, maybe that's not true.
Maybe I've just learned that reaction as a child, and now as an adult, that's what Iautomatically default to, but I don't have to.
I can change things, I can change the way I respond.
(32:34):
Then E stands for enjoy the energy shift.
So when you practice the ABCDE method, and again, there's something about writing it down.
That's why I made the PDF.
You can write this stuff down and you can say, all right, the old me would say this, thenew me is gonna say this instead.
I'll give you an example.
(32:54):
I've been leading marriage groups with my wife for the last 12 years.
one of the common things you might hear from a spouse that's wanting to improve theirmarriage, you know, sometimes I just feel like things will never change.
Well, who's the only one that knows the future?
It ain't us, it's God, right?
So when you say things will never change, you're claiming that you can predict the future,right?
(33:20):
So is that based in truth?
No, it's not.
Okay.
So a more productive pattern would be, I don't like the way things are.
But let's work on this.
Let's get some counseling.
Let's talk to one another like human beings and maybe we can both pursue a more productivepath.
That would be a better way of thinking.
just an example of how to use it, but you could use it for almost anything.
(33:42):
Any thoughts on that?
Questions?
Love it.
Um, I think there's a great power between like going through that ABC process when atriggering event happens.
And I've never gone through those steps in particular.
I've tried to, you know, handle it on my own, but then inevitably if I don't come to aresolution, that's when that stress happens at night, which triggers the bad sleep.
(34:11):
So I love that.
Love that.
process that you've come up with there and I'm gonna employ that I would love to.
Excellent.
Yeah, I'll make sure I got a link in the show notes so anybody can download that PDF ifthey want it.
Well, we're kind of running out of time here.
Anything else you want to talk about?
Man, I'm good, Doc.
This has been really helpful and I appreciate you taking the time with me today andrunning through some of my problems that I'm having.
(34:39):
glad I could help Dustin.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
You got it.
Thanks for having me.
Take care, man.
And be sure to stick around for the next episode.
I'm going to be covering a really important topic when it comes to our health andvitality.
And that is being in loving, connected relationships.
Genesis 2.18 says, it is not good for the man to be alone.
(35:01):
Now that may be a short, pity statement, but there's all kinds of implications in therefor our health and well-being.
I'll be talking about that in the next episode.
You don't want to miss it.
That's it for now.
Thank you for listening.
I appreciate you.
Go out there and live abundantly.
I'll talk with you next week.
Be blessed.
I just came across an article recently from a World Health Organization, and they said ifwe practice four good lifestyle habits, one was maintain a healthy weight, exercise
regularly, eat a healthy diet, and not smoke.
And if we don't do those four things, we reduce our chances of dying from a chronicdisease, a chronic degenerative disease, by 80%.
(00:22):
So I would suggest, and that's pretty good, right?
But that's only four.
I would suggest there's a whole lot more lifestyle factors that we have control over thanfour.
So the more the better.
Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle podcast, it's all about opting out of themedical matrix and taking greater control of your own health.
(00:44):
I'm your host, David Sandstrom, your resident lifestyle modification expert, and this isepisode number 172.
I want to remind everyone that I'm starting an online membership community that willcomplement the podcast and my book, but significantly expand on the content.
I'm in the process of creating a library of online courses
(01:05):
that'll be available inside the community.
I plan to do regular live Q &As with myself, of course, and some expert guests where youcan interact with me and the guests and get some questions answered.
Of course, we'll have a group of like-minded believers that want to opt out of the medicalparadigm or the medical matrix and take more control of their own health so you can avoid
(01:27):
chronic disease and pursue aging gracefully in abundant living God's way.
I also think it'd be nice to have a weekly newsletter that's only available to members.
I might even offer some office hours where members can schedule an appointment with me andhave a little one-on-one health coaching to help you move the needle in your health
building efforts.
(01:47):
Now, I'll be soliciting feedback from the founders, so as a founding member, you'll have achance to shape what the health club membership turns into.
As a founder, you'll also lock in the lowest price that'll ever be offered for themembership.
and your cost will never go up.
If that sounds intriguing to you, I invite you to get on the wait list and I'll keep youinformed as the launch date approaches.
(02:11):
Just go to chlpodcast.com forward slash membership and you'll see the wait list sign upbox there.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Today we have in the show Dustin Howes.
Dustin is a part of the natural nation and he's here to do a lifestyle audit.
Dustin, welcome to Christian Healthy Lifestyle.
(02:31):
Hey, thanks for having me David, great to be here.
It's really a pleasure to connect with you.
Thanks for signing up.
You're kind of the guinea pig here.
You're my second lifestyle audit.
So we'll see how this goes.
I'm not used to this format just yet, but we'll get it done.
Well, hey, I'm happy to be a part of something revolutionary.
I love the concept of, you know, being open and free.
(02:54):
And if my story can help anybody else, it's all worth it.
So happy.
Good.
Yeah, well glad to have you on.
So let's set a goal here and let's say, pretend for a moment that I'm a genie in a bottleand you summoned me and I can grant you three wishes for your health and wellness.
What would you ask me for?
(03:15):
Wow.
I think the first portion would be all about, trying to help fix my ADHD focus anddepression all mixed into one like superpower that I have essentially.
And getting a better handle on that would be my ultimate like wish, I guess.
(03:38):
Okay, all right, very good.
I've got a few ideas already.
How is your sleep doing?
How would you rate your sleep?
rate it would be in the like five ish range I would say I'm a I rarely get four hours in arow I rarely and I very super rarely get six to eight hours in a row I have no problems
(04:05):
falling asleep but staying asleep is the big issue that I have yeah
Okay, all right.
That sounds good.
Well, it doesn't sound good, but I've got some ideas to share with you.
Sorry that you're struggling there.
That's rough because sleep is huge, as you know.
I mean, it's a big deal.
So, you know, just because the lifestyle audits are kind of new, I'd like to give thenatural nation a little bit of background here on my approach to health and wellness.
(04:33):
When I had my practice, people would come in and a lot of times they would tell me thedrugs that they're on.
You know, they've been to a couple different medical doctors and
not found help.
And they would be asking me for a supplement that would do what the drugs would do withoutside effects.
And, you know, that's kind of the fast food approach.
You know, it's kind of the drive through approach, right?
You just want something quick, get on my lifestyle.
(04:55):
I don't want to change too much of my lifestyle and let me just, you know, five minutevisit and let me be on my way.
But that's not the way natural health works, right?
I know that you know that.
And so my approach to health is that we've got to consider the total body load.
And we have lifestyle factors that will enhance our health and wellbeing.
(05:15):
And we have lifestyle factors that will detract from that or be a health blocking factor.
So what we wanna do is stack as many health enhancing factors on the side of one side of aseesaw and build a lopsided seesaw and take away as many health blocking factors on one
side and add as many health enhancing factors on the other and build a lopsided seesaw.
(05:37):
So that's my approach.
And the concept of total body load is this.
Imagine we had a couple of sawhorses and we took a two by four and straddled them acrossthe sawhorses.
And I started stacking bricks on top of that two by four.
The two by four could handle a few bricks, no problem.
But if I keep stacking bricks, the two by four is going to start to sag.
(06:01):
And that's when we would develop some type of symptoms.
know, when the two by four is empty, think 21-year-old athlete, strong and durable.
But now it's starting to give a little bit with a bunch of bricks on top of it.
So if we kept stacking bricks, there's gonna come a point where that two by four is gonnasnap.
So was the problem the last brick I put on there?
(06:26):
or was the problem the total load of bricks underneath?
Right, it's the total load, right?
So the two by four when it snaps can be thought of as when you get a diagnosis, know,there's some kind of a health challenge you're dealing with now.
So what we wanna do is take some of the bricks off our two by four and eliminate some ofthose health blocking factors and start embracing some more of the health enhancing
(06:51):
factors and we'll let our bodies do what they already know how to do.
and that is to heal and to thrive.
Our bodies are pre-programmed to heal themselves.
We don't have to teach ourselves how to do their jobs.
They know what to do.
We've just got to get the obstacles out of the way.
Thoughts on that?
Any questions?
Uh, following along and, uh, completely understand, like love the metaphor for what I'mgoing through at the age of 42.
(07:18):
It just seems to compound until, uh, until it breaks.
And then I go to the doctor.
Like it seems like a repetitive nature in my lifestyle.
Yeah, you're not alone.
There's a lot of people in the same boat.
yeah, so that's what the show is all about.
And that's what we want to do is identify some of the lifestyle factors that we havecontrol over.
(07:40):
know, some things we don't have control over.
You know, I can't control the 5G antenna tower that just went in down the street.
You know, I can't really have, I don't have much control over that.
But we can influence a whole lot of healthy lifestyle factors.
I just came across an article recently from a World Health Organization.
And they said if we practice four good lifestyle habits, one was maintain a healthyweight, exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, and not smoke.
(08:08):
And if we don't do those four things, we reduce our chances of dying from a chronicdisease, a chronic degenerative disease, by 80%.
So I would suggest, and that's pretty good, right?
But that's only four.
I would suggest there's a whole lot more lifestyle factors that we have control over thanfour.
So the more, the better.
All right, so let's talk about the ADHD.
(08:30):
Is this something that you've been dealing with all your life?
Absolutely, like all throughout my childhood, but when I was growing up, nobody diagnosedit or like suggested I take any kind of medication for it.
And I'm thankful that that didn't happen because I never wanted to be the person onmedication to fix a problem.
(08:55):
And so I've never even touched upon it until this year when I started taking some bup...
Buprotrin, I believe the word is.
And that has seemed to help with not only my focus, but the depression portion, which justcreeped into my life over the last couple of years.
(09:16):
Hmm, sorry to hear that.
Well, you know, if you start feeling better physically, you can't help but start feelingbetter mentally because the two are interconnected, right?
So let's see what we can do here.
So the first thing I like to tell people when I'm doing health coaching with them is ithelps to have your why clarified.
So if you could resolve your health issues, you know, what would you do?
(09:41):
Or another way of asking that is what have you stopped doing as a result of your healthchallenges?
that you'd like to do.
again, what would I like to stop doing?
Well, what have you stopped doing as a result because of the challenges?
And then what would you like to start doing if you got your health challenges resolved?
(10:02):
Sure.
mean, I think finding more time for exercise is a big fix for me and better exercise.
I'm doing treadmill underneath my desk because of my time is limited trying to be a gooddad and working 40 plus hours a week.
I'm trying to get in that exercise wherever I could, but dedicating a good hour, if notmore a day would be super helpful for me.
(10:29):
And that's a goal of mine I just can't get to yet.
Okay, all right, cool.
So you'd like more energy to engage with the family, engage with the kids and wife, wouldassume.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, all right, cool.
All right, so when it comes to something like going to the gym an hour a day, we have twotypes of goals.
We have an achievement goal, like something like I want to lose 20 pounds or I'd like tohave more energy or I'd like to run a marathon.
(10:55):
And we have process goals.
So going to the gym would be a process goal.
You'd say, all right, I'm gonna go to the gym three times a week.
I know it's gonna be beneficial.
No specific end goal in mind.
That's just something I'm gonna start doing.
So I like that.
I like the fact that you've got a process goal there to go to the gym.
That's excellent.
So your why is, when you find your why, you'll find your way.
(11:20):
So your why is, I want to engage with my kids more.
I want to have more energy.
I'd like to feel like I did 10 years ago.
Is that a correct assessment?
I feel like I give a lot to my kids.
I coach their teams.
I'm interacting with them on a daily basis and hanging out with them.
I think I'm good on that level.
Their energy level is unstoppable.
(11:44):
So like just doing my best is where I want to be.
And I can still beat them at sports.
So I get to rub that in their face.
What kind of sports do they do?
Eight and ten.
All of them, yeah, but I can still handle my own being an athlete.
Good for you.
(12:04):
That's really cool.
All right, so let's talk about some some mindset stuff here mental toughness a little bitso I would define mental toughness as Exercising our agency or our God-given free will to
be in charge of our thought lives Instead of our thought lives controlling us We'recontrolling them The Bible has some advice for us here Romans 12 2 says do not be
(12:29):
conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
So that tells us that we don't have to accept where we're at.
We can be transformed.
We can do better than we're doing today.
You know, it wasn't long ago where someone, if someone was involved in, let's say, caraccident, they had some brain damage, head trauma.
(12:50):
They were taught that you'll never gain back what you've lost.
And then we just have to work on compensation.
You got to work on learning how to do things differently and compensate for what you'velost.
But we now know that that's not true.
we can, because of neuroplasticity, we can build new neurons in our brains and train ourbrains to think better and to be more efficient at the thoughts that we want.
(13:14):
So that's part of being in control of our thought lives, right?
We don't have to be victims.
We can be in charge of the thoughts that we let in and the thoughts that we reject.
Another Bible verse that I'd to throw out there is 2 Corinthians 10-5.
We bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
So
If we have a thought that's serving our health building goals, well, entertain it.
(13:38):
Let's do that all day long.
But if it's blocking or getting in the way of our health building goals, that's somethingthat we need to reject.
Philippians 4.8 tells us, what everything's a true, noble, just, and pure, virtuous,praiseworthy, think on these things.
So that kind of leads me into going into the sleep.
(13:59):
So do you have trouble falling asleep?
No trouble whatsoever.
I feel like after my day, after staring at a screen eight hours, I have zero problem.
I read a book in bed for 15, 20 minutes and I'm lights out real quick.
That's cool, that's cool.
So let me tap the brakes here a little bit.
(14:21):
Any questions on being in charge of our thought lives?
Any thoughts that you struggle with?
I would have said no two years ago, but, I've just over the last couple of years, youknow, I had never been on any kind of medication whatsoever.
and the dark thoughts started creeping in, like the stress kept pounding in and likefinancial stress and being an entrepreneur and, those kinds of thoughts that I was able to
(14:53):
control earlier in my life.
And, and.
put a positive and happy spin on it, it just wasn't working the same for me.
like, I've lost that capability to have that control over my mind as well as I would want.
Hmm, interesting.
Okay.
(15:14):
So, there's chronic thoughts that plague you and when you go to sleep, you're thinkingabout your day, thinking about your week, and you just can't let them go.
Yeah, the stress is what keeps me waking me up at night.
Yeah, I'll go an hour maybe two and then just be awoken by those thoughts.
(15:35):
Give me an example of a thought that would do that to you.
it would be like, I've got to get this task done today.
I should, I should be getting up already and like getting that taken care of andsubconsciously I will wake up and like look at the clock and realize it's only midnight.
(15:56):
I should probably get some more sleep.
You know, I've actually been there and done that, know, might be two or three o'clock now.
I guess it's time to get up at three o'clock.
Maybe I to try to go back to bed.
It happens to me now and then too.
So here's a couple of suggestions I have along those lines.
You've got to give yourself permission to let that stuff go.
(16:20):
You've got to be able to say,
I had a guy on the show not too long ago.
He was a mental toughness coach, coaches elite athletes.
And he had an acronym that he used called WIN.
It was What's Important Now?
W-I-N.
What's Important Now?
And I asked him this question specifically about sleep.
And he said, well, what's important right at that moment?
(16:40):
It's to get some rest, right?
I mean, you've you're finished your your tasks for the day.
And if you were to sit there and dwell on the stuff that you've got to get done tomorrow,
you're not focusing on what's important now.
What's important is that you give your body a chance to rest and recuperate andrejuvenate, know, let your hormones be balanced, let your cells recover, and give your
(17:07):
body an opportunity to wake up refreshed and ready to face the new day.
So I think one of the suggestions I would have for that is, you ever tried journaling?
I've tried.
I've never been consistent enough about it.
Well, know, there's something powerful about writing things down.
And if you were to take some of those, let's say, three, four, five things that you wantto get done tomorrow, or let's say this week, and it's weighing on you heavily, there's
(17:34):
something about writing it down.
You say, OK, now that I've written it down, it's OK, let it go.
And when I get up tomorrow, I'll pick up my list and I'll start dealing with it.
But right now, I'm going to let it go.
I think a pretty useful tool.
I use that.
personally, and it's been effective for me.
Because I've had some of sleep issues you're dealing with too.
(17:57):
My thoughts will race and it will interfere with my sleep.
And doing some journaling, for me a little prayer, just turning things over to God,acknowledging that I am not in control.
I have a role to play here, but ultimately the man upstairs is in control and I've got tojust rest in that.
(18:18):
And that helps me rest.
Another thing that I do, and I did this for many years, and that is I visualized atranquil scene.
one day when I was in high school, I lived down in South Florida, I skipped school.
we were just a few miles from the beach, and I just walked to the beach.
(18:39):
I didn't even have license yet, didn't have car, motorcycle, anything.
I walked to the beach, and I remember taking my shirt off, laying on down on the sand,just laying in the sun, listening to the surf.
listen to the seagulls, white puffy clouds floating by, and just really, really enjoyingthat time of saying, hey, I didn't have to go to school today.
(19:00):
This is great.
I'm loving this.
And a little sweat rolling down the side of my face, that was OK.
It was very enjoyable for me.
I got in trouble when I got home.
School called my parents, and I got trouble.
But it was something I'm glad I did, because I used that for many years.
And my wife is amazed, I don't even have to use it anymore because I will fall asleep likea light switch.
(19:24):
And my wife's amazed how fast I can go to sleep.
It's because I practiced the tranquil scene in my mind for so many years that I just gotthat ingrained in me.
When I put my head on the pillow, that's what I'm doing.
I'm just gonna relax, I'm gonna let go of my cares, and I'm gonna go to sleep.
And it's worked for me.
I mean, it's just incredibly good.
(19:46):
But I know that you're waking up in the middle of the night, right?
Yeah, but still a great tip altogether.
Like I don't do that.
And I think that could alleviate some of my waking up in the hours if I had tabled mystress and issues in the right format, because I can't just tell my brain like, stop
(20:08):
thinking about this and stop stressing about this, go to sleep.
It doesn't work like that.
I think that tranquility of being in your happy place is a really good tip.
Thank you for that.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's more along those lines as well.
For instance, you can kind of turn your bedroom into a sanctuary.
(20:29):
First thing I would do is if you have a TV, take it out.
Unplug it.
You don't want to watch TV before you go to bed.
All shows, especially the news, are designed to engage you emotionally.
They're trying to get you wound up so you keep watching.
Sitcom.
They still want to grab your emotions.
They still want to pull you in so you keep binge watching.
(20:51):
So turn the TV off.
That is a really, really powerful thing to do.
If you have any clutter in your room, get that out of there.
Make it a tranquil place.
Do you have anything like an exercise machine in your room or anything like that in yourbedroom?
do, there is a treadmill and a peloton in the corner of the room.
(21:11):
Okay, cool.
Well, good for you for having those.
But I would suggest trying to get those into a different room because you want yourbedroom to be that sanctuary.
You don't want to be in there for exercise.
You want to train your mind and your body that when I'm in here, this is my relaxation.
This is my place in time to rejuvenate.
(21:32):
And I think that would be useful as well.
What about caffeine?
How much coffee you drink or do you drink coffee?
I found that when I'm on this medication that is helping with my focus that caffeineactually triggers my brain to go to sleep somehow.
(21:52):
so therefore I just cut it out of my diet altogether.
I will have maybe one cup of coffee a week if I need really need something extra in theafternoon to get me through the day.
But yeah, I've got it out of my diet, which I'm pretty excited about.
(22:13):
That's great.
Good for you.
That's really good.
I think the ideal is no caffeine.
I don't drink a lot of coffee myself.
I do drink these energy shots.
Ethan's energy shots, they're organic.
And erbayusa is the herb that they use and source of caffeine is pretty clean.
It's pretty good.
I like it a lot.
(22:33):
actually have...
I don't have one.
They don't do that.
yeah, I'll hook you up though.
If you buy enough, you can get a wholesale discount.
I'll let you know after the show.
That's pretty good.
So anyway, back to the sanctuary in the bedroom.
(22:56):
Another thing you want to do is stop eating three hours before bedtime.
Because digestion is a lot of work.
And your body is busy digesting that food.
It can't not do it.
It has to do that.
You send that food down there, your body has to get hard at work.
So if you stop eating three hours before bedtime, that should help with the restful sleep.
(23:17):
You'll be more comfortable, and that's one of the ways you can go to sleep and stayasleep, is not having any bloating or digestive issues going on.
Another one is using some blackout curtains and making your bedroom as dark as you can.
I have a link on my website, Christian Healthy Lifestyle.
(23:41):
And there's a to Amazon there.
It's a company called Nice Town Curtains.
Really inexpensive, nice colors, great quality, blackout curtains.
You have to buy the curtain rod that kind of wraps around to go flush with the wall.
And you'd be surprised how good they are.
And getting your room as dark as possible is very, very useful.
(24:03):
We're designed to go to sleep when it's dark out.
So the darker, the better.
Ideally,
You don't want to see your hand when it's in front of your face.
That would be the ideal.
You might not be able to get there, but do your best to get there.
And I think you'll notice a difference.
And here's something else that I think I would suggest for better, more restful sleep, andI really can't recommend this enough, and that is the blue and green blocker glasses.
(24:29):
You've probably heard of blue blockers, right?
I've got these from Dave Asprey like for my my screen that I'm staring at all day.
I have found some some difference in it.
He also suggests ones like at night to start wearing them a couple hours before bed.
(24:50):
Do you have those as well?
Yes.
Yeah, I those on my website as well.
They cost about 60 bucks And they block blue and green so you're only gonna see variousshades of red So yeah blue green red makes up all the colors of the spectrum, so you're
only gonna see various shades of red I wouldn't drive with them But if you're home, youknow, it's great you put them on and I'm not kidding if I put these on it say 9 o'clock by
(25:18):
9 30 man.
I'm getting tired
I'm getting, my body's getting ready for sleep.
And when you think about it, it mimics our natural circadian rhythm because, know, acentury ago or more, we didn't have electricity for, you know, throw a light switch and
turn all the lights on and turn all the electronics on.
If you wanted light, you lit a candle, right?
Or a lamp of some sort, a little over hundred years ago.
(25:41):
So that red light coming from a flame is okay.
It doesn't interfere with our sleep, but the blue and the,
and the green do.
And I found these glasses, they're a little dark, but man, they are fantastic at makingyou sleepy, helping you fall asleep, and stay asleep.
I wake up more rejuvenated when I use them.
(26:02):
I don't use them every night, but I use them quite frequently, and they're pretty darngood.
I like them a lot.
All right.
I get them.
Okay.
Yeah, okay.
Let's see, what else can we talk about here with sleep?
I forgot to mention this on my discussion with Dustin on the recording session, but ifyou've implemented all the changes that I suggest on creating a sleep sanctuary and it
(26:26):
still hasn't helped, you might want to consider some supplements.
The last thing you want to do is get on sleeping pills because they're very addictive.
That would be really, really tough to get off of.
So a couple of supplements that I would recommend, first and foremost, is a product calledRescue Sleep.
It's a homeopathic.
It comes in a couple of different forms.
One is a dropper.
One is a spray bottle.
(26:47):
And they also have some pellets that you can put sublingually under your tongue.
And that homeopathic works on calming your thoughts.
So if racing thoughts are keeping you up in the middle of the night, as Dustin explainedin this episode, that would be an excellent product to use.
It's called rescue sleep.
And another one is called L-theanine.
It's an amino acid that will help calm anxiety and produce more restful sleep as well.
(27:11):
L-theanine.
So if you want a good source for those products, go to my websiteChristianHealthyLifestyle.com forward slash full script.
Use my link there and create an account and you'll be able to get access to thousands ofproducts that are practitioner grade products that you can't even get at the retail level.
High, super high quality.
And you'll lock in a 10 % discount for life and get free shipping over $50.
(27:36):
It's a win win win for everyone.
It's a no brainer.
Go ahead and do that today.
Now let's get back to my conversation with Dustin.
got, I've got one other like big topic that I don't know really how to handle.
And it is what I call Monday Mopies.
So once I have a real fun weekend and like have a few drinks or, or have a, have a gummy,you know, to relax during the weekend, I show up on Sunday and I don't take anything and
(28:07):
put nothing in my body so that I can rejuvenate into Monday.
And Monday rolls around and inevitably I'm just a sad day, like all together.
And I have a very tough time getting my mood into out of that.
It's not quite a depression state, but I feel like I want to sleep a little more and I'mjust not as motivated to work.
(28:33):
And I want to get that out of my life.
And I don't know if there's any supplementation that I can take to help.
move those wheels faster.
Yeah, that's a good question.
know, when it comes to that's like money morning blues, when it comes to that kind ofthing, I don't have a magic pill.
(28:53):
I wish I did.
But I do know this.
I know that it's hard.
These mental health issues are hard.
They're stubborn.
And I do know that our spirit, and body are interconnected.
And by when we strengthen one part of who and what we are, we can't help but straightenthe others.
It just absolutely happens.
For instance, I was in Greece not too long ago.
(29:14):
wife and I were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary over in Greece.
And we went to a stadium called the Panthenian.
And it was like a 90,000 seat marble stadium where the Olympics got started.
And I was just pondering that.
I was like, this is so cool.
These people really took physical fitness very seriously.
(29:35):
So I don't think it's any accident that the Greeks were, the ancient Greeks were intophysical fitness.
but they also produced some really smart philosophers and some thinking and philosophiesthat have survived Aristotle.
These concepts that have survived for centuries, I don't think it's an accident that theywere into both because I think one feeds on the other.
(30:01):
So I would suggest that exercise is gonna be a great thing for that.
It really will.
And then,
recognizing the toxic thoughts and taking your agency, taking your ability to processthose in a helpful way.
I actually have a PDF that I made that's really good.
(30:22):
I call it the ABCDE method of identifying and correcting toxic thinking patterns.
you get the download the PDF from my website.
You'll see it's great.
I'll make sure it's available in the show notes.
But A stands for activating event.
So the activating event is something that happens that it pushes our buttons.
(30:46):
We react more strongly to that than the average person.
This is a hot topic for me.
Whatever that activating event is, somebody maybe teases you or insults you or maybe it'scut you off in traffic.
I don't know.
Maybe somebody flips you off in traffic.
You know what I mean?
There's some type of things that can happen to us that will trigger us.
(31:09):
And we wish we weren't getting so wound up, but we are.
And then B stands for the beliefs or the self-talk that goes along with that activatingevent.
So where is that self-talk going to take me?
And again, this gets back to, I in charge or are my thoughts in charge?
So we are the ones that should be in charge of all that.
(31:30):
So C stands for the consequences.
of believing and talking to ourselves that way.
If I have that happen to me and I have this thought pattern that comes along, theself-talk that I engage in frequently, where does that lead me?
Does that lead me to more relational connectedness with my family?
(31:52):
Does that lead me to being a better employee or a better business owner?
Is that helping my health building efforts?
Where's it taking me?
And if it's taking the wrong direction,
Then you've got to use D, which is dispute those beliefs and that self-talk.
Say, hey, wait a minute, is that true?
Is that really true?
Am I really a victim here?
(32:13):
Do I have to react this way?
So you start disputing, saying, a minute, maybe that's not true.
Maybe I've just learned that reaction as a child, and now as an adult, that's what Iautomatically default to, but I don't have to.
I can change things, I can change the way I respond.
(32:34):
Then E stands for enjoy the energy shift.
So when you practice the ABCDE method, and again, there's something about writing it down.
That's why I made the PDF.
You can write this stuff down and you can say, all right, the old me would say this, thenew me is gonna say this instead.
I'll give you an example.
(32:54):
I've been leading marriage groups with my wife for the last 12 years.
one of the common things you might hear from a spouse that's wanting to improve theirmarriage, you know, sometimes I just feel like things will never change.
Well, who's the only one that knows the future?
It ain't us, it's God, right?
So when you say things will never change, you're claiming that you can predict the future,right?
(33:20):
So is that based in truth?
No, it's not.
Okay.
So a more productive pattern would be, I don't like the way things are.
But let's work on this.
Let's get some counseling.
Let's talk to one another like human beings and maybe we can both pursue a more productivepath.
That would be a better way of thinking.
just an example of how to use it, but you could use it for almost anything.
(33:42):
Any thoughts on that?
Questions?
Love it.
Um, I think there's a great power between like going through that ABC process when atriggering event happens.
And I've never gone through those steps in particular.
I've tried to, you know, handle it on my own, but then inevitably if I don't come to aresolution, that's when that stress happens at night, which triggers the bad sleep.
(34:11):
So I love that.
Love that.
process that you've come up with there and I'm gonna employ that I would love to.
Excellent.
Yeah, I'll make sure I got a link in the show notes so anybody can download that PDF ifthey want it.
Well, we're kind of running out of time here.
Anything else you want to talk about?
Man, I'm good, Doc.
This has been really helpful and I appreciate you taking the time with me today andrunning through some of my problems that I'm having.
(34:39):
glad I could help Dustin.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
You got it.
Thanks for having me.
Take care, man.
And be sure to stick around for the next episode.
I'm going to be covering a really important topic when it comes to our health andvitality.
And that is being in loving, connected relationships.
Genesis 2.18 says, it is not good for the man to be alone.
(35:01):
Now that may be a short, pity statement, but there's all kinds of implications in therefor our health and well-being.
I'll be talking about that in the next episode.
You don't want to miss it.
That's it for now.
Thank you for listening.
I appreciate you.
Go out there and live abundantly.
I'll talk with you next week.
Be blessed.
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