⭐ Want to read faster and comprehend more?
YES, please.
Bionic Reading app with a chrome extension is genius. I love to read, but sometimes I feel that I am not retaining information that well. I get headaches often, and the paragraph example below is SO much easier on my eyes. I have just added this to my chrome, and I’m excited. Head to Bionic Reading if you want to find out more.
Here’s an example:
❤ A Poem I Love
Instructions for the Journey
The self you leave behind
is only a skin you have outgrown.
Don't grieve for it.
Look to the wet, raw, unfinished
self, the one you are becoming.
The world, too, sheds its skin:
politicians, cataclysms, ordinary days.
It's easy to lose this tenderly
unfolding moment. Look for it
as if it were the first green blade
after a long winter. Listen for it
as if it were the first clear tone
in a place where dawn is heralded by bells.
And if all that fails,
wash your own dishes.
Rinse them.
Stand in your kitchen at your sink.
Let cold water run between your fingers.
Feel it.
- Pat Schneider
🍷 If you imbibe, then you should know…
I’m fangirling over Andrew Huberman’s podcast, Huberman Lab. He has a knack for explaining complex subjects in a way that non-science people like myself can understand. And he released a fascinating new podcast/YouTube three weeks ago: ‘What alcohol does to your body, brain and health’. In this podcast, he explains the physiological effects that drinking alcohol has on the brain and body at different levels of consumption and over time. You’ll learn that there are genetic differences that predispose individuals to alcoholism, binge and habit drinking. He explains exactly how alcohol impacts neuronal function and changes our thinking and behaviour – in other words, why we act drunk. And you’ll discover how alcohol consumption of different amounts impacts inflammation, stress, neurodegeneration, and cancer risk and negatively impacts the gut microbiome, brain thickness, hormone balance, mood and feelings of motivation.
Alcohol is a widely used drug, and therefore, I think it’s important that we know the impact it has on our body and brain, particularly if we are trying to achieve certain health goals.
If you don’t want to listen to the podcast or watch the YouTube clip, Juan Pablo Aranovich has taken notes here at Medium.
📘 The book I can’t put down
I’ve been reading Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor the past few nights, and it is mindblowing. WHO KNEW a book about the breath could be so fascinating? Now, bear in mind that as someone who practices breath meditation, I was already extremely interested in the way we breathe and how it can change our state (ie, shift us from stress to ‘rest and digest’), but there is so much that I did not know, that I am learning in this incredible book. My partner tells me to ‘read it and sum it up for him’, but honestly, that is shitty advice. I say: READ IT. It is hands down one of the most ‘wow’ books I have ever read.
Here’s a snippet from the Amazon description
“Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance, rejuvenate internal organs, halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease, and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.
Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.”
I cannot wait to jump into bed every night to read some more of this book. And I’m feeling the pull to study more on this subject. I tend to hold my breath and take very shallow breaths, so this book is inspiring me to ‘breathe better’.
I stumbled upon beauty…
While walking with the kids the other weekend, I discovered some of the most magnificent art I’ve ever seen in my life. Oh my lord. I tried to go and have a close look, but the kids just wanted to touch everything, so I had to exodus quickly. (Grrrr), because these paintings by Tallulah Nunez are exquisite beyond words. Oh art, how it fills my soul. ❤
Beautifully done