Protocols - Andrew D. Huberman, PhD

Introduction

• Run farther or faster than the last time and the next run becomes easier...and unlocks the opportunity to run a little farther and faster, and so on.
• You get out what you put in.
• Periods of focused intensity with rest in between in order to avoid burnout.
• I found that putting as much attention as possible on each repetition in the gym, or by letting my mind go blank while I ran, I soon could switch on those brain states of focus and calm when not exercising.
• I was finally able to bring all the resources of discipline, focus, and energy to a specific, career-related goal.
• Build mental and physical strength and resilience. And endurance. Master getting a great night's sleep on a regular basis. Work hard in whatever job you do. That's the secret.
• Eat right, get sleep, exercise.The key is to become a systematic observer of you.

Chapter 1 Protocols for Sleep

• awning : auvent
• brimmed: bord
• overcast: couvert
• haunches: hanches
• unfurling: se déployer
• wee: faire pipi
• gnawing: tenaillant
• spindles : fuseau
• unstuck: sortir
• shed: perdre
• barge: foncer
• starchy: riche en féculents
• edible: mangeable

• ① View Sunlight as Soon as Possible After Waking
• SCN: Suprachiasmatic Nucleus for "above the chiasm"
• Intrinsically photosensitive RGCs (ipRGCs = Retinal Ganglion Cell)
• CAR : Cortisol Awakening Response
• ② View Sunlight in the Late Afternoon 
• ③ Avoid Viewing Bright Lights in the Final Hour Before Bedtime
• Dim the lights
• Use red lights at night
• Red lights for indoor lighting after dark as they don't spike cortisol or suppress melatonin as much as many bright LED lights do
• Consider buying a few high-quality red light bulbs
• Use combination UV, blue, and green light blocking glasses after sundown
• Nowadays, most indoor lighting comes from LEDs, which emit a disproportionate amount of short-wavelength light that can potently reduce melatonin levels 
• Habenula activation creates this states by altering dopamine and serotonin dynamics in brain areas associated with rewards.
• Your temperature minimum is the approximate time in your twenty-four-hour circadian cycle that roughly corresponds to two hours before you typically wake up.
• If you can find incandescent lights for your home, they are preferable because they're less disruptive to the circadian system : selon l'IA affirmation globalement fausse !
• If you're getting a lot of screen LED light in your eyes at night because you're scrolling on your phone or computer or watching a big flat-screen monitor, that will take a negative toll on your health.
• ④ Find Your Ideal To-Sleep and Wake-Up Times and Strive to Adhere to Them
• That is perfectly normal to wake up once to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. If you do, I highly recommend that you do not look at a clock or turn on bright lights.
• Sleep spindles - surges of transient brain activity that help consolidate information we have learned in the days prior.
• This means our most vivid dreams tend to occur as we approach morning.
• Researchers believe that this paradoxal state, during which our brain is highly active but our body is paralyzed, our locus coerelus is almost silent, and our body can't easily release adrenaline, serves as a sort of naturally occurring therapy, unloading the emotional burdens from our daytime experiences.
• Likelihood of cognitive decline fell in line with a reduction in REM (Rapid Eye Movement)  sleep.
• Getting sufficient REM sleep is also connected to overall longevity.
• Ask any sleep researcher "How can I get more REM sleep?" and they will tell you "Sleep in an extra hour or two".
• How long we sleep, when we sleep, and how consistent we are with our sleep-wake schedule affect our physical and mental health.
• One late night is not something to worry about.
• Non Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)
• ⑤ Lower Your Core Body Temperature at Night
• Lower the temperature of the room you sleep at night (between 18 °C and 20 °C)
• Warm your extremities before bed
• Make sure your feet and hands-on be easily exposed from underneath.
• Melatonin, a hormone that facilitates falling asleep, is released in sync with the nightly drop in body temperature.
• A review of several randomized clinical trials found that meditative movement like tai-chi and qigong improved sleep quality.
• ⑥ Increase Your Core Body Temperature in the Final One to Two Hours of Sleep Before You Wake Up
• Program your heating system for the room you sleep in at night
• ⑦ Nap (Correctly) to Offset Minor Sleep Deficits
• Postprandial drop, a dip in energy after eating.
• ⑧ Use Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) to Offset Sleep Deficits (and to Get Better at Falling and Staying Asleep at Night)
• https://www.hubermanlab.com/nsdr
• Yoga Nidra, which roughly translate to "yoga sleep".
• Yoga Nidra also reduced people's blood pressure and heart rate.
• "Thirty minutes of yoga Nidra is worth two hours of sleep".
• "Twenty minutes of meditation twice daily reduces your nighttime  sleep to several hours": faux
• ⑨ Consider Supplements to Support Sleep
• Magnesium
• Apigenin
• Theanine
• GABA
• Glycine
• Myoinositol
• Kiwi extract
• Tart cherry extract: jus de cerise acide = griottes
• Saffron
• Valerian
• Melatonin : we produce natural melatonin, a hormone that causes us to fell asleep.
• ⑩ Approach Prescription Sleep Drugs with Caution
• ⑪ Adjust Your Caffeine Schedule to Improve Your Sleep
• Caffeine makes our brain more active and increases our capacity for physical effort.
• Decaffeinated coffee confers the same benefit as caffeinated coffee, which includes a potential  reduction in the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, melanoma, endometrial cancer, liver conditions, type 2 diabetes, and neuro-degenerative diseases.
• ⑫ Avoid Alcohol Within Eight Hours Before Sleep
• If you drink in the eight hours before sleep, make sure you also consume sufficient water before going to sleep and after waking.
• Although many studies have been done on the potential benefits of red wine, conclusive evidence of this link does not exist.
• ⑬ Avoid Cannabis as a Sleep Aid
• Ask people who have used cannabis regularly and then stopped and you'll often hear about the wild dreams they experienced afterward. That is the REM-rebound compensation for the lack of REM they experienced while using cannabis.
• ⑭ Avoid Screens Within an Hour or More Before Bedtime
• Light from phones and other screens can disrupt your circadian clock
• Evidence suggests that LED screens can interrupt melatonin production, which, as you know, is essential for sleep.
• ⑮ A Tip Sheet for Avoiding Jet Lag
• Light
• Exercise
• Meal Times
• Social factors
• All LED lights are rich in blue and green wavelengths.

Chapter 2 Protocols for Exercise

• dearth: manque
• puffy: bouffi
• sore: faire mal
• undergird: soutenir
• effortful: lot of physical and mental energy
• markedly: nettement
• askance: d'un air soupçonneux
• slump: se casser net ; déclin
• brisk: vif
• to weave: tisser
• haphazard: incohérent, désorganisé

• Do not train for much than sixty to seventy-five minutes at a time.
• Learn to use resistance as a tool to stress the muscles you're trying to train. Focus as you do the lift to feel the muscles you're trying to train working.
• Hard training taxes your whole nervous system.
• Progressive overload.
• Quality reps and sets are what count.
• Body part split in which you train different body parts on different day.
• I define an "effective program" as one that people are likely to stick to over many years.
• During your work sets, you work hard - both mentally and physically.
• You're best off doing a combination of both resistance training and cardiovascular training.
• We know that resistance training is key. So is doing cardiovascular training.
• The most important thing to understand about exercise is why you're doing it.
• Thousands of coordinated, metabolic, molecular and even genetic changes occur when we exercise - a "molecular choreography".
• Like heat makes metal pliable, so too exercise brings the brain into a state where new neural connections in the brain and body can be forged.
• If we don't move, much of our brain is less active too.
• Exercise - provided it is of sufficient intensity - makes us cognitively resilient.
• Your body changes because your brain tells it to.
• Insulin is a hormone made and released from your pancreas that is essential for keeping your blood sugar, or glucose, levels within a particular range. Almost every cell in the body, including our neurons, requires glucose to function.
• Changing the type and amount of exercise, and the sequence in which you do them each week.

• ① Walk as Much as Possible Each Day
• Against obesity, sleep apnea, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and major disease disorder.
• Typically done in groups, which has a positive social component.

• ② Resistance Train Three Times per Week
• Because body fat loss is mostly the consequence of being in caloric deficit.
• It's calorie intake that determines if we maintain, lose, or gain weight.
• ③ Do Cardiovascular Training Three Times per Week
• ④ Incorporate Brief Mobility and Flexibility Work Two to Four Times per Week
• protocolsbook.com/videos

Chapter 3 Protocols for Stress Control

• sideswipes: choc latéral
• swerve: faire une embardée
• plummet: chuter
• arousal: excitation 
• sigh: souffle
• offhand: désinvolte 
• potent: puissant, fort
• to impart: transmettre
• to doze off: s'assoupir
• to quash: supprimer
• grapefruit: pamplemousse
• licorice: réglisse
• blunted: émoussé
• hinge: charnière
• inlaws: belle famille

• Put simply, the frequency and/or magnitude of the stress response is far too high relative to the stressors many people face.
• The problems arise when the intensity or the duration of the response is too great.
• Quickly control our stress response once it hits, and to periodically reset our stress threshold to a level that best serves us. We can't always control what life throws at us, but we can indeed control our stress response, and we can raise our stress threshold.
• Meditation is powerful as a tool to buffer against the stress response.
• The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) and the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)
• Hard to get just right.
• Breathing and the neural centers that control breathing represent a bridge between our conscious and unconscious mind.
• Inhales reduces PNS activity, leading to relatively more SNS activity and thus, arousal. Exhales directly increases PNS activity. This means your heart rate is faster during inhales than during exhales - which incidentally is the basis of heart variability (HRV). Higher HRV in sleep and throughout your day is better than lower HRV, because it means PNS activity is periodically slowing your heart rate down.
• When stress hits, your prefrontal cortex changes its pattern of electrical firing in a way that limits the range of solutions you can come up with to a problem.
• Resilience is our ability to control stress.
• It means taking ourselves from endlessly looping thoughts to deep sleep.

• ① Do One to Three Physiological Sighs to Reduce Stress Fast
• If you've ever wondered why it's advised to breathe into a paper bag if you're having a panic attack, it's to recapture some of the carbon dioxyde that would otherwise be expelled.
• By deliberately changing how we breathe, we can shift our internal state.
• ② Use Deliberate Cold Exposure to Raise Your Stress Threshold
• It is best to do it before resistance training, or on rest days. Or allow six or more hours to elapse after resistance training before deliberate cold exposure.
• We are living in the midst of a "fire hose of dopamine", triggered by our phones, caffeine, sugar, and other aspects of modern life. And part of the way out of this is to temporarily abstain from pleasure and to intentionally seek pain - not life-threatening pain, not any dangerous, but discomfort. We need to learn to cope with stress, not just eliminate it. Stress is a part of life, and we are capable of withstanding it. Cold immersion show us how.
• ③ Do Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) to Buffer Against Stress 
• Protocole de Repos Profond sans Sommeil
• hubermanlab/nsdr
• yoga nidra (aka NSDR)
• NSDR asks that you shift from thinking, doing, and planning, to being and feeling.
• Turning off our thoughts is really hard. In fact, we can't do it. Even in sleep, we dream.
• We can, however, easily shift our immediate experience from planning and analyzing to just experiment physical sensations.
• NSDR is done lying down with eyes closed.
• Mindfulness meditation - which is a skill you build up gradually over time and that requires daily practice to maintain the positive effects.
• You lie down, listen to the instructions, and voila!
• ④ Do a Micro Meditation Immediately After Waking Up
• Plenty of evidence exists that mindfulness-based meditation practices buffer us against stress, and even brief daily sessions reduces anxiety.
• Eight weeks of thirteen-minute daily meditation notably decreased anxiety.
• Richard Davidson - one of the world's foremost experts on the science of meditation.
• ⑤ Boost Your Morning Cortisol and Catecholamine Peak
• Get bright light, ideally sunlight, in your eyes for about ten minutes, as soon as possible after waking.
• Hydrate with 47 to 95 cl of water and consume some caffeine in the first two hours of the day.
• Do one of the deliberate cold exposure protocols.
• Use of low-dose licorice (réglisse) root containing glycyrrhizin or consume grapefruit (pamplemousse) in the first one to three hours of your day.
• Even if you use an alarm-clock, you can be sure your cortisol levels were rising as you approached the start of your day.
• You want your cortisol and catecholamines relatively high in the morning and daytime, and you want them low in the evening and at night.
• ⑥ Consider Specific Supplements to Help Offset Excessive Stress
• Behavioral protocols are the foundation of mental and physical health and performance.
• Ashwagandha: Ashwagandha, also known as Indian ginseng or winter cherry.
• L-theanine: is an amino-acid present in green tea and been recognized as one of its active compounds, alongside caffeine, catechin, and other molecules. L-theanine group showed an increase in alpha brain waves, suggesting a more relaxed state of mind.
• Rhodiola rosea: Rhodiole, anti-oxydant végétal, is a yellow-flowered plant that grows in northern regions of Europe and Asia and on the Atlantic coast of North America. People taking Rhodiola rosea can lean into sustained effort without feeling exhausted.

Chapter 4 Protocols for Nutrition

• gallows humor: humour noir
• carbohydrates: glucides
• scallops: coquilles Saint Jacques
• hemp: marijuana
• beans: haricots
• whey: petit lait
• elk: élan
• starches: amidons
• no pun intended: pas de jeu de mots
• yams: patate douce
• scrumptious: délicieux
• rye: seigle
• sourdough: levain
• oatmeal: flocons d'avoine
• a staple: un essentiel
• kale: chou
• chard: blette
• cashews: noix de cajou
• ghee: beurre clarifié
• tallow: suif
• starch intake: apport glucidique
• dyes: colorants
• stem: tige
• edible: comestible
• pumpkin: potiron
• soy: soja
• leafy: feuillu
• cauliflower: chou fleur
• grains: céréales
• rash: éruption
• rancid: rance
• mackerel: maquereau
• herring: hareng
• cod: morue (ou cabilleau)

• How many calories we eat relative to how many we metabolize does matter.
• Muscle is very metabolically active.
• There are three macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
• Dietary proteins are foods rich in amino acids, compounds that our body needs to make its own proteins.
• Unless you're burning significant calories through long-duration exercise or physical labor, relying on low CP:C ratio foods to try to get enough complete protein often leads to eating excess calories and putting on body fat.
• In resistance training fitness circles that prioritize muscle protein synthesis - a process that is stimulated by weight lifting.
• ketogenic diet : very low carb
• Although fairly calorie dense, clean starches like oatmeal, potatoes, rice, beans, and lentils are terrific sources of energy because they are more slowly converted to glucose by the body.
• I'm not one demonize the packaged food industry but their goal is simple: to get you to buy and consume more of what they sell.
• CP:C => Complete Calorie / Calorie
• 30 to 50 grams of high-quality protein at each meal.
• If you lose muscle, your resting metabolic rate decreases. if you gain muscle, your resting metabolic rate will increase. This suggest that one reason people put on weight as they age is they lose muscle mass.
• If you are choosing to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight, and you resistance train, more of the weight you lose will come from the body fat and less will come from muscle. If you don't resistance train, you'll lose roughly equal amounts of body fat and muscle.

• ① 90 Percent of More of the Food You Eat Should Be Unprocessed or Minimally Processed
• ② Stay Hydrated
• ③ Eat High CP:C Ratio Protein at Each Full Meal
• All living things need amino acids to make proteins
• The feeling of satiety is strongly linked to obtaining enough essential amino acids.
• ④ Choose Fibrous Vegetables and (Some) Fruit as Your Major Sources of Carbohydrates
• Paleo diet, which focuses on fruits, vegetables, lean meat, fish, eggs, and nuts (in other words, foods that likely reflect the diet of a hunter-gatherer living in the Paleolithic era)
• Many foods that would be high in magnesium are grown in soil depleted of this mineral due to modern farming methods.
• ⑤ Consume Healthy Fats as Part of Most Meals and Snacks
• Some fat, like red meat and eggs.
• Two crucial benefits that consuming fat provides : the way it slows the rise of glucose in the bloodstream and the way it increases satiety between meal.
• ⑥  Consume Low-Sugar Fermented Food
• miso
• fermented dairy foods like yogurt and kefir
• Temporarily being pushed out of our comfort zone is good for our gut diversity.
• Antibiotics tend to wipe out both the beneficial and detrimental bacteria from our gut.
• ⑦ Consume Fatty Ocean Fish and/or Consider Omega-3 Supplements

Chapter 5 Protocols for Light

• brimmed hat: chapeau à bords larges
• whammy: grand coup

• ① View Bright Light in the First Hour After Waking to (further) Increase Your Morning Cortisol Levels
• You actually want your cortisol levels to be very high in the first hours of your day.
• CAR : Cortisol Awakening Response.
• Cortisol is not just a stress hormone. It's an energy-releasing hormone.
• ② View Sunlight in the Late Afternoon and/or Early Evening to Help Buffer Against Negative Effects of Artificial Light at Night
• melatonin, which facilitates falling and staying asleep.
• Melatonin levels are lowest in the morning and highest at night.
• When cortisol is high, melatonin is low, and when cortisol is low, melatonin is high.
• ③ Avoid Viewing Bright Light One Hour Before Your Bedtime
• Avoid not just lights that appear blue, but also bright "white" LED lights, fluorescent lights, and screens, because they emit a lot of short wavelengths that stimulate cortisol release and inhibit melatonin.
• The point is that viewing bright light at night is disruptive to your immediate and long-term health.
• Across the general population, avoiding night light and seeking daylight may lead to reduction in disease burden, especially cardio metabolic diseases, and may increase longevity.
• ④ Expose Your Upper and Lower Body Skin to Sunlight During the Day
• There is no substitute for sunlight.
• Sunlight contains short wavelength UV light triggers the production of vitamin D in the skin.
• ⑤ Expose Your Skin and Eyes to Long Wavelength Light (Red, Near-IR, and Infrared)
• Exposing your skin to long wavelength light can reduce your glucose levels, and increase your metabolism.

Chapter 6 Protocols for Focus, Motivation, and learning

• bout: poussée, accès
• solace: réconfort
• pouches: sacs
• parsing: analyser
• proficiency: maitrise

• It forced me to realize that no one was coming to save me and that I had to change things on y own.
• Changing is very energetically demanding for brains.
• Dopamine is a major neuromodulator released in response to novelty and surprise, which facilitates plasticity for learning and memory.
• ① Shift into a State of Alertness and Focus
• Resist the temptation to quit.
• But only if we focus intensely on what it is we are trying to learn.
• Block out our peripheral vision and outside noise to help people focus.
• Whether young or old, if we want to learn, we need to focus intensely on new information, or in the case of cognitive or motor skills, on our attempt to perform them.
• Mark the days you do it on your calendar to keep track of your progress.
• To maximize focus, put your smartphone in an entirely different room from where you are.
• ② Use Mental Contrasting to Achieve a "State of Urgency" and reach Your Goals
• It asks you to imagine your goals, and the obstacles to achieve them.
• A mindset is a setting for your brain.
• Running that extra mile, putting in extra study hours.
• Stress can help with growth, implies that challenge can improve your outcome, rather than limit you.
• Swapping the word motivation with a state of urgency.
• Viktor Frankl: "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how"
• A state of urgency keeps you practicing.
• Positive thinking and visualization.
• Too much reward prior to the effort, or too much reward without effort, undermines future effort.
• Contrats between visualizing the goal and thing about the obstacles to achieve is that creates a state of heightened physical and mental energy.
• WOOP: Wish, Outcome, Obstacles, Plan
• Wish: I want to be selected for Boston marathon
• Outcome: I will have the six medal
• Obstacles: I need a specific and targeted training and a lot of physical effort
• Plan: 6 months plan, 5'20" / km, long sequence on Sunday: up to 32 km
• I plan to keep using mental contrasting any time I need to generate a state of urgency for something.
• ③ Embrace Errors to Improve Your Performance
• While maintaining focus, moving into a state of urgency, making errors, and calibrating adjustments, we can all learn to execute new skills.
• Focus and learn.
• ④ Prioritize Sleep the Night After a Learning Bout
• ⑤ Incorporate Micro Rests into Your Learning Bouts
• Short breaks of five to thirty seconds
• Short breaks of five to ten minutes
• ⑥ Increase Retention of New Skills and Information with Mental Rehearsal
• We know that underlining and highlighting information only helps us remember it if we also later write down what was highlighted and underlined.

Chapter 7 Protocols for Personal Growth

• unbashedly: non dissimulable
• squishy: mièvre
• to conjure up: faire apparaître
• kitty: minou
• to cast upon: lancer
• tether: attacher
• tethered: attaché
• deterrent: moyen de dissuasion
• chastise: réprimander
• to blunt: émousser
• to humble out: masquer la douleur
• to dampen: atténuer
• salience: prépondérance
• to inhibit: inhiber
• corny: ringard
• squishy: spongieux, mou
• wishy-washy: fadasse
• duress: contrainte
• grief: chagrin
• keepsake: souvenir
• bereavement: perte d'un être cher
• bereaved of: être en deuil
• yearning: désir
• outset: début

• The more we focus on something the richer the simulation of that thing becomes.
• Attractor states: when brain activity increases in a certain set of circuits and as it does, activity in other circuits diminishes.
• Humans only use a small percentage of our brain at any one time.
• "Hold that thought for a second, I need to change lanes." You are reflexively limiting the amount of information coming in so you can switch simulations - from talking and listening, to driving and navigating. You are allocating resources to different brain circuits.
• The way we see our lives, the way we narrate our lives and the events of the world at large to ourselves, shapes the thoughts we have.
• Push-pull between "needing to perform outward roles in life" and "being true to oneself".
• ① Replace Mind Wandering with Present-Tethered Awareness
• Throughout your day, periodically ask yourself if your thoughts are focused on the present.
• If your thoughts are elsewhere, re-tether them to the present.
• Controlling your thoughts
• Daniel Kahneman showing that beyond a certain threshold income level, having more money does not increase happiness.
• Mindfulness
• Being "present" to our daily experiences, a mindset long embraced in Eastern traditions, is vital to our well-being.
• Mindfulness and also meditation.
• Mindfulness is a familiar term, and meditation is a common practice.
• Richard Davidson
• Thinking about times and places and things that have nothing to do with the present.
• Even when those specific activities were boring or unpleasant, that focus was still a buffer against unhappiness. "A wandering mind is an unhappy mind".
• Being present during a less enjoyable activity seemed to make people happier than daydreaming about pleasant things unrelated to the present activity.
• Link between mind wandering an unhappiness.
• Make the effort to be present in your daily activities, tasks, and relationships.
• DMN: Default Mode Network
• So does dancing, exercising, socializing with friends, drawing...essentially anything that requires your attention.
• If you are too much in your own head, feeling anxious or depressed, you would do well to focus outside yourself, literally on your surroundings. Better yet, engage in an activity that forces you to do that, such as exercising, reading a book, or listening to a podcast or music.
• ② Apply James Hollis's Guide to Creating Your Best Life
• Shut Up: Don't whine, instead incorporate a daily gratitude practice in your routine
• Suit Up: Use a task-switching protocol to move between tasks associated with your outward roles
• Show Up: Fulfilling our outward roles moves our life forward. That is what gives you real confidence.
• Engage in an activity unrelated to any ambitions or outward roles: draw, read, think, stare at the sky, go biking...whatever it is, this is just for you.
• Simply close your eyes and let your thoughts emerge.
• "Shut Up. Suit Up. Show Up."
• Suit Up: this means to be prepared.
• Show Up: This means hold yourself accountable
• We choose a role, we commit to it, we do well, and then we are lifted into gratitude.
• We are seeding thoughts of gratitude, we suppress negative thoughts.
• The past week by writing about (1) up to five things they were grateful for; (2) up to five things that were a hassle (a dirty kitchen, doing poorly on a test, etc...); or (3) five events that affected them in some way in the past week (attending a concert, cleaning a closet, and so on)
• Gratitude comes from a two-step cognitive process:
• recognizing that one has obtained a positive outcome
• recognizing that there is an external source for this positive outcome.
• Pausing each day.
• Theory of mind: refers to the ability to understand what another person might be thinking.
• All of these findings point toward the importance of practicing gratitude.
• Observe someone sharing gratitude performed by others.
• The importance of having a ritualized task-switching protocol.
• We can get stuck in our own heads on big decisions before we make them.
• People who excessively focus on excelling in outward roles often feel unfulfilled or they end up neglecting other important areas of life.
• This is about ou and you alone.
• Simply close your eyes and ask how you're feeling, and watch for what brings you joy or makes you uncomfortable.
• Take a few minutes alone without inputs from others or even your phone.
• Spending time alone can help quiet negative voices we've internalized so that we can better hear our own inner voice.
• Carving out time to pursue our personal interests is good for our health, whether we are still in the workforce or not.
• Take the time to regularly exit the stimulus-response rule.
• We all have an inner and an outward life, and that learning to understand and bridge the two is key to our own sense of fulfillment.
• Would going for a walk work as a way to exit the stimulus-response? Absolutely, and leave the phone at home.
• ③ Resolve Inner Pain Points Through Expressive Writing
• Write for fifteen to twenty minutes about  challenging experience that affected your life.
• What happened, what you felt at the time, what you feel now and any lasting repercussions.
• Sleep disruptions.
• "As people seek out help, is there anything they can do on their own?"
• Without that internal dialogue becoming an open-ended rumination, which ends up occupying even more mental real estate. The idea is here to deal with those past pains in a way that lets you make peace with them, and then move forward.
• ④ Reframe Loss to Effectively Move Through Grief
• Understand grief as a lack of reward.
• Spend ten to thirty minutes a day to deeply feel your attachment to the person, animal, or thing you are grieving.
• Avoid what-if thoughts.
• Grief is akin to searching for a reward that never arrives.
• Grief exists where these circuitries contradict with reality.
• Avoidance makes this learning process even harder because it prevents us from incorporating new information into the map. "If we are refusing to face reality, then our brains can't integrate it".
• Visiting a grave can be understood as a grief ritual.
• "if only" are the two most destructive words we can think, say, or write.
• Understand that grief is like a craving for a reward that is no longer coming.

Before You Turn the Last Page

• Become a systematic observer of you. Record your results.
• Taking your health and well-being seriously.