0:00:00 - Natalie Jennings

Your value has nothing to do with your productivity. Your value as a human is completely separate from that and I always think, like the whole reason where we have these businesses and the whole reason we have these goals is because we want to feel a certain way. But why not also just feel that way now and still pursue the goal? So if you want to feel energized and good, you can do that and grow. They are not mutually exclusive, and I think I like to bring that conversation back together of like well, what would it look like if you woke up and your brain was at 90%? How would that feel to live your life?

0:00:35 - Tanessa Shears

This is the Photo Business Help podcast, a resource for photographers of all levels, from brand new to burnt out, who believe that business growth starts with personal growth. I'm your host, natalie Jennings. I created Jennings Photo back in 2010 and have been happily full time since, but not without some mistakes along the way. Those lessons, plus what's really helped me thrive financially and personally, are what I want to share with you so you can grow with your photo business, too. You'll also hear stories from other photographers and industry folks, as well as my favorite ways to be more mindful and happier on this journey.

Do you have brain fog or do you show up to your desk and kind of feel sluggish? Are you not maybe sleeping super well? Are you really trying to get in a flow of sitting down and having energy and feeling clear about what you're doing, but you just feel like it's not working? This conversation with Tanesa Shears is for you. She is an expert in all things biohacking, but we really go deep on some of the most tangible, easy things you can do right now to show up in the morning or whenever you decide to start your day with clarity and energy, and all the stuff that most of us are kind of after. So definitely listen to this if that resonates with you. First, a few words from the folks that support this show. I think what's really funny about all of the ways we can connect now is that even though it's supposed to be simple, it can be kind of complicated. Trying to figure out all the Zoom and I don't know.

0:02:22 - Natalie Jennings

Totally right? Yeah, well, at least for the most part it's Zoom, zencaster or Squadcast. It's usually one of the three.

0:02:28 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, totally. Where are you in the world right now? I'm in Vancouver in Canada.

0:02:34 - Natalie Jennings

How about you?

0:02:36 - Tanessa Shears

Awesome, so beautiful over there. I've only been over there a couple of times, but I love it.

0:02:41 - Natalie Jennings

Where are you from?

0:02:42 - Tanessa Shears

Minneapolis, so I'm just in Minnesota right now.

0:02:46 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.

0:02:48 - Tanessa Shears

And then on the other side, is that an aura ring? Oh, it sure is, do you? I mean, I'm not sponsored by them, but I have one on too.

0:02:57 - Natalie Jennings

Oh my gosh, I give all my clients. Get them as welcome gifts. I'm like we just can't tell what's going on if we can't have the data. It's like with business owners we need data to tell it, we need to know if what we're doing is working, and so that goes with the health. So that's why I find entrepreneurship and this kind of what I do. It blends them with the skills that we already have and then applies it to our health.

0:03:17 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, I love that, I think. So I'm working with an acupuncturist right now and it was one of the first things she said. She's like do you have a way to track stuff? And I was like I mean, I know people can't see that, but I like held up my aura ring and I think, just having that information, just going to a practitioner or a professional or anybody that's trying to help you, and if they want as much information as possible, I'm immediately in, Like I'm like, OK, you're my person, because yeah, right, well.

0:03:44 - Natalie Jennings

and then it's fun when you see another aura ring I call it in the wild and it's like oh yeah, we get each other. You're my people already. I could tell that's awesome.

0:03:52 - Tanessa Shears

What do you find most valuable for you? And I realize again, we're not sponsored by aura, but maybe someday.

0:03:57 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, you mean, like, what do I find most valuable in terms of the aura ring and what I use with it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, just for folks that might be like huh, yeah. So the thing I find most valuable is the ability to track my cycle from a temperature perspective, because I find that, like my sleep, my energy, my ability to focus, my appetite, my hunger, the intensity of my workouts everything really changes throughout the month. And before I felt like I was like why is this workout so hard? What's wrong with me? Or like, why am I going to eat so much food right now? Or why does my sleep so terrible? Why am I up at four in the morning? And I found it was a. It's so much easier to have compassion with yourself when you're like oh well, my progesterone just dropped, no wonder I can't regulate temperature, no wonder I feel not as strong, and it just really let me have compassion. I think that was the biggest thing.

0:04:45 - Tanessa Shears

Wow, that's like a great link from data to compassion.

0:04:49 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah well, right, because that's what I find the data lets us do. It takes the emotion out of it. The same way is like if you're looking at a return on investment with any type of ad spend or program you take or anything like that. We're looking at, OK, what is the best use of my time? And then also, how do I know how to evaluate? So if it's like, oh, it's deep sleep, that's bringing my sleep score down, now I can go right to those tricks instead of just feeling like I'm blindly choosing what to work on next and just throwing darts with a blindfold on, so to speak.

0:05:16 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, absolutely, which is kind of a good segue into what I really wanted to chat with you about.

So one thing that I think I don't think I know that a lot of people have been trying to navigate, particularly since COVID and the weird lifestyle cycles we got kind of locked into, is just finding energy again and finding focus.

And I teach, or rather like in my programs, like a big focus is clarity. I used to have a smaller program called Cultivate Clarity, but just this idea of being focused and kind of all of the areas of your life, not just your but not trying to sit down and like come up with a brilliant business idea when you're like not sleeping well, in a weird, like you just said, like maybe a more challenging part of your cycle, whatever it is, and I just I think all of this interests me and I think a lot of people are really struggling with that. So I just this was something that I really wanted to dive into but the ring we didn't talk about this like helps track your sleep as well and your, your heart rate and all these things that show if you're kind of fatigued or under overworked, under slept, whatever, and that's probably a good place to start.

0:06:21 - Natalie Jennings

I don't know if it is or not for you, but no, I love it. So here's the thing, as I don't think we fully really recognize that our brain is the biggest asset that we have in our business Period. It is what is responsible for our creativity, it is what is responsible for our ability to see things in a new way, solve problems, connect with our clients and customers. I mean, like, my ability to read my clients body gestures and facial expressions is going to make me know am I connecting with them? Are they comfortable? Am I doing this in a way that's best for them, or am I kind of feeling like they're confused or they're uncomfortable in this situation? Right, like I want to be able to read that. And all of that is fostered with a healthy brain that gets really good sleep. And so we often are like, no, no, it's my gear or it's my program, or it's my this or my software. That's the best asset. But really like, if our brains are able to show up sharp, clear and focused, not only do we just put out better quality work, but I truly believe that we get stuff done a lot faster. I mean, how many times have we shown up to do work and our brain is like foggy and it's hard to think and you're not feeling it and everything takes longer. And those are the days where we're just like I know it's 9 30 at night, but I'm just going to do two more hours of work because if I can finally get caught up then I'll feel okay. But we're telling ourselves that like well, sleep is the place we should cut.

But the kind of reframe I like to make is like it's not. Like sleep is not a pillar of health, like you would have exercise and sleep and food and stress. It's not a pillar of health. It is the foundation on which everything else is built and without adequate sleep and a brain that works, everything else is harder. Try showing up to your workout on a day that you wake up exhausted. Your cravings are more intense. If your sleep is fragmented or you're not getting enough, you're hungrier, which makes think about if you're just trying to even have more vegetable at lunch or healthier dinners. All you want to do is grab something that's quick and easy, because even your ability to tolerate short term, long term exchange of gratification, like being able to hold off for what you really want Everything gets harder. So it's not just one of those things. It's the foundation and it just makes everything else easier.

0:08:28 - Tanessa Shears

I could be a great example for that. Yesterday I slept under six hours and I know why I went to bed late and then I didn't want to miss my workout, but I had a really early appointment for photography downtown. I was like I'm not missing my workout. So I got up and I could feel right away that my sleep cycle was interrupted that kind of feeling you get when you're about to catch an early flight or something. You feel all woozy and you're like called sleep inertia, it's a thing.

That's what it's called. I knew there was a word for that. It's just a gross feeling. And my workout was just. I mean, by the end of it I felt it was a 30 minute lifting thing. It wasn't crazy cardio or anything, but it was like I felt okay. But just everything was harder.

Yesterday I wanted I had like a few simple tasks I had to do and they were just hard and I could feel in my face Like I looked 10 years older.

I was just you know, just like. And then I, yeah, I pushed probably like three things that I really wanted to get done yesterday Just off, because I was like I just can't, I can't do it and I made bad food choices last, not bad, but like I was like it's going to be a pizza night, and I mean you can see the pattern of that when you do that if you don't get get on a good schedule, because the way that I tend to operate best is, you know, eight hours in that neighborhood and I'm like a whole different person. It's just, it's an incredible difference. So I think it's great that this is something we're talking about, because people get really down on themselves Like, oh, I'm not getting anything done or I'm not good at this, or you know the the sort of negative self talk kicks in, when really you could just go to bed and get a really good night's sleep and probably feel really different.

0:10:11 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, I totally agree, and you know what the interesting thing is like. Sleep is sometimes the last place we look, because we have this like I can't tell you how many times I've heard I'm fine, like I get six hours, I feel fine. That's not it. But there's a gene we have called the ADRB1 gene and there are only mutations to one in about 250, or it was like four and a hundred thousand. It was something. It's point zero, zero. Four percent of people are able to function on six hours at full cognitive capacity and there's this crazy thing that happens called baseline resetting, and baseline for cognitive performance slowly sets downward and you don't even realize it's happening because it's so slow. But like this is normal, I feel fine. But it's only because we've been at that income, that we're incapacitated for so long in our ability for our brain to work, that we don't recognize the level of cognitive decline that has happened and our ability to focus and everything just feels normal.

0:11:07 - Tanessa Shears

Well, and I I'm always a little skeptical about folks that are like, oh, I don't really need to sleep. I'm like, hmm, okay, well, I don't know if I buy that Well, and that's the thing is.

0:11:17 - Natalie Jennings

I think there's a lot of trade off, and there's so I know in my experience of dealing with clients. There is a lot of conversations that I have frequently around the amount that they could get done, tied with their self worth and being like if I could have this level of success, if I could get this stuff done, then I'll feel better and then I'll know I have done enough. And it's this conversation of enough all of the time, and that that feeling, that desire to chase what enough might feel like, often outweighs the benefits of sleep for them. And so having to really reframe that is like your value has nothing to do with your productivity. Your value as a human is completely separate from that, and I always think, like the whole reason where we have these you know businesses and the whole reason we have these goals is because we want to feel a certain way.

But why not also just feel that way now and still pursue the goal? So if you want to feel energized and good, you can do that and grow. They are not mutually exclusive, and I think I like to bring that conversation back together of like well, what would it look like if you woke up and your brain was at 90%. How would that feel to live your life? What would it feel like to be able to engage better with your clients, to have more fun while doing it, to be more present with your kids. You know what would that feel like as a life, and do you really want to wait another 10 years to get there?

0:12:27 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, all of that and I think the self-worth piece could be a whole other podcast. But I really appreciate that you said that, because how much you get done has nothing to do with the worth of you as a human. So if you're feeling boopy about yourself and you're listening to this because you're not getting a lot done, like you are enough and that we can just move on from that. But I wanted to go back to the brain fog thing because obviously it's tied to lack of sleep. But what else is it tied to and what causes that?

Just another personal little note my acupuncturist has had me off of caffeine for a few weeks now two months and the first couple of weeks I was like I can't even think, I don't know what's happening. And now I'm feeling fine and a bit more grounded and normal. But I'm just curious, you know what, without going too deep into it, like what is going on with brain fog and I know that maybe that might be a female, male thing too, with hormones and stuff but I just want to hear your thoughts on that because I think that that for me personally has been a challenge in the past.

0:13:29 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, well, it's interesting, because you can't really go into a doctor's office and they won't be like, oh, that's brain fog, because it's not a thing. It's like a collection of symptoms, right? The best way I like to think about it is like imagine going for a run or a walk on concrete and then having to do it in sand. It's like you can do it, but it's not very efficient, it doesn't feel as easy. That's the same way I like to think of what thinking is like. With brain fog. You're just more easily distracted, you feel confused, you forget things. It's foggy thinking, you're hard to be creative.

This is kind of that experience, right, and it comes down to just inflammation in our body that we are not addressing.

And you're right, sleep is a huge thing either not getting enough or not enough quality of sleep but it also comes from like stress that we don't address and we're just like that's another thing we acclimate to, and we're just like this is life.

Life feels like this, and the other one I see a really big one is actually what we eat, because our blood sugar levels have such an effect on our clarity of thinking and like, if you're hearing blood sugars, like when I first heard of it I'm like, well, that has to do with diabetes and I don't have diabetes, so that can't be for me. But blood sugar, we all have it. When we eat food, especially carbohydrates, our blood sugar goes up and then it goes down. And if that spike is really big and then it falls really drastically, we are going to feel energy crashes that go through that fog, like we've all had a delicious pasta dinner with some garlic bread delicious to eat but needed to take a nap about 45 minutes later or just that heaviness that sets in, that fatigue. Your brain can't, it doesn't feel clear anymore and that is literally just a blood sugar rise and fall. And we can do a lot for that, just by being conscious of what we're choosing. Especially during the times we need our brain to be at its clearest.

0:15:14 - Tanessa Shears

That's so interesting, and so, for someone that feels like they're constantly battling this, your first recommendation would be to try and maybe talk with someone about like, or even just self assess, like, what they're eating and how they're feeling when they eat, or something like that.

0:15:31 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, well, the first place I like to start with is breakfast, because for breakfast it's the first meal of the day, so we don't want to set ourselves off on like a brain fog train for the rest of the day. So I always like to think like, if I think the way North American breakfast set up are like perfect for brain fog, with, you know, the toast and the waffles and the bagels and the cereal and the granola and the fruity yogurt parfaits and fruit smoothies Like what we don't recognize is that most of our breakfast are 100% carbs, usually processed. Now, I love carbs, including them. There is nothing bad about them. I think we just, if we're concerned about brain performance, we just need to think about them differently.

And what that might look like is like okay, am I at least balancing it with a source of protein, and that's missing from a lot of breakfast, and one egg is not considered enough protein.

But really, look for sure, how can we bring in maybe ground turkey in the morning? Or how can we bring in a couple eggs or maybe some ham? Or looking at dinner leftovers really simple, no prep involved, but like that protein in there does help to mitigate the blood sugar spike. So that will be the first step I would do, and then the second one, really simple one, is whenever I look at my plate, I love to ask did everything on this plate come from the ground at some point? That means it's a fruit, a vegetable, something real or did it have a mother, meaning it is a source of protein or healthy fat of some kind? Because that is the key question you ask yourself if you're going to assess how much of my food is processed versus unprocessed, because if it came from the ground or had a mother, chances are it's a whole food and whole foods tend to have a more pleasant effect on your brain and energy and focus.

0:17:10 - Tanessa Shears

I would totally agree with that. How do like sort of high quality protein powders and stuff fall into that category, Because obviously that's a processed thing.

0:17:17 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah. So for me personally, I don't choose that route because I get it from real food. Now, I mean, there's always the situation, if you're just like, I will skip breakfast. If that is not the option because of you know how my schedule is organized, so there's always a time and a place for it. But for me I find that a lot of the protein powders do come with the sugars and the fillers and all of that kind of stuff, and we don't really know what's in it, because supplements are a regulated industry. So I always look for like okay, well, can I get this? Is there something I can do on Sundays that I can at least prep for three or four days? Like if I did like a sweet potato, egg ham hash or something like that and I can eat it for a couple of days. That'll at least get me half of the way there. But in general, like personally, I steer away from them if I have the capacity to make a full food instead.

0:18:02 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, I would say I'm really it, aside from the pizza thing I mentioned last night, which is the first time I had had pizza in like two months, which is good. It's great. But I also Like big on Whole Foods and we have a garden and all there's chickens next door and we get eggs from. It's great. However, I do also have a protein powder and I notice that when I make a Shake or a smoothie which isn't every day it's usually as like yesterday on a busy day where it's like I gotta like the workout was important, gotta get into the city.

But when I do mix in the protein, I do have much better energy and focus. So even though it's not like maybe a choice you know, has a mother kind of came from the earth thing I do find that that that addition has really really made that option for me better, because because of that and it is interesting, like I was just sort of reflecting as we were saying that like when I have protein and we eat a lot of eggs again chickens next door and all that kind of stuff, but I had eggs this morning I do feel I feel great when I, when it's kind of a protein-based thing, like I haven't. I don't think I've had cereal in Years, so you know.

0:19:09 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, well, and there's other good changes that you can make to smoothies as well. Right, like if we're thinking about it, when we add protein and fats to things, it slows down digestion, which is great for managing, keeping blood sugar very stable. So other things you can do are add in like half an avocado, like that is an amazing way to get the fat, which has a very similar effect to the protein. Other things you can do is, if you love seeds ground flax seeds, g seeds, hand parts like when I make a smoothie, it has very small amount of fruit because that also has that blood sugar spike In effect, but it's like how can I make this a very high fat, high protein, like even something like 10% Greek yogurt, something also as high fat, high protein, and those are kind of things that not only keep your blood sugar stable and your brain clear, but they keep you satiated.

I find so many my clients are like at their desk an hour and a half after breakfast and they're just eating, right, and that's constant snacking at our desk all day, even on the healthy stuff, like I've had clients be like it's grapes, it's almonds, it's this, it's that, but we're constantly keeping our blood sugar elevated, it does create inflammation. So we want to give ourselves Meals that are keeping us full and are safety eating and our meeting our nutritional needs, and so that we can make it until lunch without feeling grabby, because that's when things like chips come in or that's when things like candy at the desk come in. It's just like something to keep us going. But we want to leave the, the nutrition in our meals. That's, that's the meals job.

0:20:33 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, that's super helpful, I think, for a lot of people, listening, just really taking a look at just your morning, like you said, can be big game changer. What are some other? You know we're talking about ways to be, you know, more focused and energetic when we show up in our businesses. What are some other ways that we can do that?

0:20:48 - Natalie Jennings

I think it's really looking at getting a high quality sleep. So we intuitively know that like, okay, I get it longer. Seven, eight hours of sleep, that's great. But what actually goes on in your sleep is so important. Not only for the quality, because if your sleep is either low and deep sleep or low in dream sleep, or if you're waking up multiple times a night, like this can severely impact how you're showing up the next day, right? So the one of the most potent things you can do actually give you two of them, and they involve what we do in the hours before bed.

But if we are able to stop eating two to three hours at minimum before we go to sleep, it'll have such a wonderful effect on our ability to recharge. Because, if you think about this, the purpose of sleep is to Reboot our brain, get everything ready to go, so we're good to go the next morning. And when our heart rate Reaches its lowest during the night and you have an oar ring, you know it's that little white dot on the heart rate graph. The sooner in your night that that happens, the better. That is for the rest and recovery, because you spend way more time recovering after that. But when we eat or snack, even the healthiest stuff, right up until bed. It brings up our blood pressure, it brings up our heart rate and then our body's like hey, I got a digest, this food will recover your brain later.

And so I often find like a simple thing is like I asked my clients three hours before bed Wrap up dinner and that'll make a massive effect on their ability to stay asleep and wake up feeling a lot better the next morning. And that's the first thing. And I think the second thing we could talk about is like what are we doing with our light? And it's something that it's an easy thing and it's a set it and forget it thing. But if we are exposing our eyes to blue and white lights that comes from screens Even, like the pot lights in our kitchen, in our bathroom vanities that stimulates our brain to stay alert, we don't need to wind down yet.

So a simple switch that I made is I bought a, an Edison bulb, one of those like kind of fancy balls, but they're the kind like an orange, red hue and I put that in one of our bedside lamps and so after about an hour and a half before we go to bed, the Edison bolts go on and that dimness and that change in hue actually enters my eyes and tells my brain like, hey, if we were in the past, this would have been your fire, and the color of the fire is orange and it's nice and dim and the sun's gone down, we should probably get going to bed and it actually cues my brain just start winding down. So I put that in combination with some screen-free time before bed and it helps so much with deep sleep and REM sleep specifically, and REM is that type of quality sleep we talked about earlier that makes us creative and in control of our emotions is rem the, else is also the dream, sleep right.

Yes, rem is rapid eye movement. It's kind of cool like our brain waves look the same as when we're awake, as we're dreaming. We're so active during that and it does so many wonderful things for who we are as entrepreneurs, but also just our emotional well-being, like if we find that we're overwhelmed during the day. We stress out easily, we're on edge, we're impatient. It's likely because there's something going on with our dream sleep or we're not getting enough of it.

0:23:37 - Tanessa Shears

I do notice that. I will say, having having the ring and looking at that, even if I get great deep sleep, if my, if something cuts into my REM sleep, which is usually the later half of the night for me, and into the morning that I feel off, I could get eight hours.

0:23:51 - Natalie Jennings

But if it's like a weird eight hours like that REM sleep gets messed up, I don't have, I don't feel as good right, and it's like if we can start to see that's what I love about tracking like if you can see, oh, my REM sleep is really short. Then there are go-to things like screens before bed Alcohol's another big one that disrupts REM sleep and sleeping in a warm room I don't know if you've ever woken up like sweating, especially during the last like week before my cycle starts, and I have a lot of clients that are in a Perry menopausal phase as well that they're just like my temperatures all over the place, and when we can control for our bodies temperature, it really helps us sleep through the night, because we're most easily woken up in the early morning, which is like what you said. That's when we get all our REM sleep right. Yeah, so if we're able to make it through that without wake-ups, we'll see a big boost in REM sleep.

0:24:36 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, we definitely make a point to keep the room really cool and this time of year, at least in Minnesota, is for you as well. It's like so awesome to have the windows cracked and it's like that fall air that gets quite cool. So the bedrooms like nice and cold. I find that I sleep Really really well.

0:24:53 - Natalie Jennings

Yes, exactly, and I think it's what's one of the. I know a lot of people that'll tell me. But I love to sleep with socks on, I love to sleep on a heating pad, I love to bundle up before bed, but it's like if we can allow our core temperature to drop, it's actually one of the things that has to happen to facilitate melatonin production, which is that hormone that helps you sleep. So by keeping ourselves warm, it's actually setting us up for a less quality sleep. So I always think of like I go to bed Cold because I know I heat up during the night and so I prepare for that, so I'm not waking up in the middle of the night, like throwing the blankets off and then spending 10, 15 minutes away trying to get back to sleep.

0:25:27 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, that's great advice, and for me I find too, if you're going to do a window open thing, usually the room's at the temperature drops. So if I am comfortable or a little chilly, by the time the temperature drops in the room, I'm already cozy and it's fine. So I think that that's a great tip.

0:25:44 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, absolutely. I just love the temperature trick. It's such one of a set and forget it. And thermostat too right, Like it's like that 65 to 68 Fahrenheit. That's the sweet spot for most people.

0:25:54 - Tanessa Shears

That's a great, that's exactly it. But also knowing for women, knowing that, like that last week before your cycle, like your temp climbs, and so that's a real thing and it's been really fun to watch it on the ring. But it's like a huge difference between like days after the period versus the week before. It's like wildly different.

0:26:13 - Natalie Jennings

Right. Well, it's also times where I know if I'm going to be scheduling like a bunch of client intensive work or a bunch of interviews or stuff like that, like I know that that week can be hit or miss for sleep. So if I can, I'm going to put the work that is cognitively demanding and that I need flow of language. Let's just say I need the words to come easy. I'm not going to put it during that week, if I can help it. So it kind of just lets you have a bird's eye view of when you're going to be able to show up at different energy levels and different levels of clarity in your business.

0:26:40 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, actually that's an excellent tip for just sort of looking at your calendar. And I know a lot of folks, a lot of people can't really help that. I mean they go to work and they have to be there and but if you do have any autonomy over, like, the choices you make during that week and I often forget this time of year is busiest for photographers so we're just on from like September 1st till the end of October and it's expected. It's expected and it's not all the time and it's not permanent, so I just kind of roll with it. But I often try my best to sort of look at the calendar and go like what's going on this week.

You know, I think I need to.

0:27:15 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, what if you can't account for work? Like you said, you can account for your social battery and knowing that maybe that might not be the time to schedule your full weekend full of social events, when maybe you just might done to take one of those nights to recharge.

0:27:28 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Well, what are some other ways? We've talked about, like looking at breakfast. We've talked about looking at your sleep. Are there any other ways that we can sort of bring more clarity of mind and focus and energy into our work day?

0:27:42 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, I think part of it comes down to looking at our work environment we are in and one of the it's a really simple one and it goes kind of funny to the crack. The windows thing we just talked about is if you are in a room or like an area of your home and you are in an airtight environment and the windows are closed and you're recycling that stuffy air all day long, you ever notice that if you just get outside for a little bit you feel fresh again. Well, that's just likely because you're not rebreathing in all that same air and likely the dust in our environments. So I like to pair that with just getting outside and getting some sun. Like that's actually something I love.

First thing in the morning is like if you can get outside within 30 to 60 minutes and, you know, expose your eyes to the daylight even on a cloudy day, it does amazing things for boosting your mood with serotonin, suppressing extra sleepiness and just helping set your whole body clock, so you're falling asleep on time that night.

And if you're like me, like I, wake up really early and the sun is not out anytime when I wake up, that's okay. I can get out as soon as it is light. It doesn't have to be this long 30 minute walk. It could be 10 minutes of coffee on the deck. Walk your kids to the bus stop, take the dog out to the backyard Like this is such a wonderful thing we can do to boost our energy as well. So I kind of like to do one in the morning and then, if I can, one in the middle of the day, just like you know, when I've been in my office for like two, three hours. Let's get out on the deck, maybe have lunch outside, even on the cold days if it's not pouring rain.

0:29:03 - Tanessa Shears

It's something I've built into my. I'm really glad you said that because it's I've noticed a huge difference since I've built that into my day. So when we wrap up today, I'll do, you know, record some intros and get everything over to production, and then I'll go out on the deck and like futs with the tomatoes and the pots and, like you know, maybe feed the birds and just kind of walk around. And same thing, like I'll take like 10, maybe 15 minutes sometimes to just be outside, walk around barefoot if possible, and and just like be outside. And it makes such a big difference when I come back to my desk and like I'm good, I feel good, you know, and then I try and do that like every couple hours.

0:29:39 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, and that's a brilliant way to do it.

And one other thing that might be helpful in the morning and I often get a little bit of like I don't know about that one especially if you either A you wake up and you didn't get a great sleep the night before, or, b you got a good sleep but you want to be like really on your game that day is, I'll actually turn the end of my shower cold, and the reason for this is cold showers on the outside of your skin actually causes a reverse effect with your core temperature.

It's like ooh, it's cold, we got to heat it up and that increase in heat actually will stimulate alertness, and then that combines with the adrenaline of getting hit with cold water and it is a beautiful clarity that comes out of that and it is something like if I have a day of interviews lined up or client calls, or I really want to be on because I'm filming some content or anything like that Like I know that that is something that is non-negotiable on my shower. It's not something that I'm like standing there enjoying, but I enjoy the effects of it and I always want to be the one that decides how I want my day to feel not like me being like I don't feel like it because I never feel like it, but I always love how I feel after.

0:30:40 - Tanessa Shears

Yeah, no one ever feels like a cold shower rarely. How long do you need to expose yourself to the cold for the effects to be effective? Could have phrased that better.

0:30:51 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, so scientific literature says that the optimal amount of cumulative cold exposure during a week is 11 minutes. That is what is considered to not anymore. It doesn't really see a benefit, and less than that as much. It's 11 minutes cumulatively, so it also has to fit and be something you want to do. If you're 11 minutes you're like heck. No, you can just start honestly with 15 seconds on the end of your shower and then you can work up. I mean what I ended up doing when I was really using it actually funny enough not only as a clarity tool but a fat loss tool, because it does help convert some of our fat to something called brown fat, which then burns fat as energy. It's called a metabolically active tissue, but during that time I was doing two to three minutes three to four times a week and so spreading it out like that.

0:31:36 - Tanessa Shears

Great. I try to do 30 seconds to a minute after my showers on the days that I like work out and stuff. So it's probably if, yeah, probably a few times a week, but it's not the most fun and we have so we're. We have well water which is way down there in the ground, and very, very cold, especially in Minnesota. So it is definitely like a shock to the system but it's very effective.

0:31:59 - Natalie Jennings

Yes, totally, and it's one of those, like you, don't have to do it every day if you don't love it, but you know you have it as a tool to use if you need it.

0:32:06 - Tanessa Shears

That's awesome. Well, I love all this and I think this is. I mean, if people that are listening just do some of these things, I think there is going to be a shift in alertness without even you know getting blood drawn and having a ring and all that kind of stuff. But what is something I always kind of like to wrap up this way Like what is something that you want to leave people with? Like maybe something like a tip that you often give your clients or something that, like has been really helpful for you. It can be a quote, it can just be something that you live by, but just something that maybe you want to leave people with, and it doesn't even have to do with any of what we talked about.

0:32:39 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, it was a piece of coaching that I received when I was 26 weeks pregnant with my first daughter, and she said to me she goes. You know, tessa, as long as the problem that you're trying to solve you perceive it as outside of you, the solution will always be outside of you. So as soon as we recognize that a lot of the problem is with the way our brain perceives it and the thoughts we have about it, that's the best news you can get, because your solution can come from your thinking as well. And it's such freedom to know that, like any problem I have, if I can change the way I think about it, it'll change my experience with the problem. It doesn't change the circumstance itself, it changed my experience of it, and if I don't want to feel the way I'm feeling about it, I have the capacity to change that. That's up to me. It was really free.

0:33:23 - Tanessa Shears

It's so empowering, it's such an awesome, awesome way to think. I think it was like Victor Frankel or something like Manch Search for Meaning or something, but like was he the one that was imprisoned and basically like started writing about this idea, like, inside the worst situation of his life, was able to to really think differently, couldn't change the circumstances necessarily, but could change how he felt about it. I might have really messed that one up, so I should probably fact back that.

0:33:49 - Natalie Jennings

No, I think you got it right, because mine, specifically what I went for coaching on, was like I don't know how to run a business and have kids. Like what if my business falls apart Because I can't do it? And she said you know you'd have to choose to shop showing up and you can't put that responsibility on your baby. That's a choice you would make. Maybe it's necessary in this season, but take that responsibility as a choice you're making instead of letting that responsibility fall on this unborn baby. And I was like whoa, that's so huge. I know it changed everything for me going into having my first daughter. Now I have my second and just seeing how that my interaction with my business and how I wanted to make it work has totally changed because of that one thing she said to me it's your choice.

0:34:31 - Tanessa Shears

I love that. That's a great place to wrap this up. Thank you, tanesa, for being here and having this chat. I where can people find you if they want to connect with you and even work with you?

0:34:41 - Natalie Jennings

Yeah, so I have a podcast called Becoming Limitless. It's all about biohacking for entrepreneurs. So if you've heard it, one tip that you like today. I guarantee there's a whole episode on it. But beyond that, if you're wanting to kind of get all these tips that help with energy the most in one place, I have a PDF and it's a playbook called 12 Ways to Biohack your Energy, and each tip goes deep into like what it is, how to implement it, and here's a link to a podcast if you want to dive in further on it. But it's like the hub of what I call the biohacks that have had the biggest impact on myself and clients, and that's just on my website at tanesashearscom little tab free training at the top. That's where you can get it.

0:35:14 - Tanessa Shears

Awesome. I'll probably check that out too. That sounds really cool. Thank you so much for being here. I think this is incredibly useful and maybe we'll do it again sometime. Thank you, Tanesa. Thank you.