Dan buettner’s morning routine

Yesterday I posted about my morning routine. In the middle of my routine, the inspiringly languid and health-ful Dan Buettner emailed me, so I asked him to share his.

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Three things you should know about Dan:

* He’s the world expert on how to live longer and wrote Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.

* He’s spent his life as an explorer and, ok, looks a little like Indiana Jones. Which I just know he won’t like me saying. He travels the world working out what makes people happy, healthy and live longer.

* He’s a top bloke. Walks his talk.

* We met via this blog about a year ago. Common interests. Weird happenstance.

* Signs off on emails with “Live large” or “largely”. Which always makes me stop and think…”Ok, then”.

So Dan’s morning routine, from Dan:

The following three will verifiably boost your mood:
1.  At breakfast, eat fruits and grains, eschew meat.  I’m a smoothie fan during the summer months (blueberries and soy milk) and oatmeal (with walnuts and brown sugar) during the winter months

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the elegance of a morning routine

I’m quite convinced that having some sort of structure to the start of your day is key to living a life that counts.

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It gets you out of bed with a purpose. Delays, wonderings, phaffings…they get us down at early hours.

It gives you, possibly,  the only space for yourself all day (got kids? staff? partner? an agent?  true?)

And it ensures you tick off things that are important to you…before the day grabs you by your britches and runs away with you.

And this is the salient bit: the best kind of morning routine is one that’s a fiesta of stuff that gets you grounded, that nurtures your “inside people”, that brings you home to you. You tick off these things and then you can get on with serving the world. And all the rest.

Leo from Zen Habits outlined his routine the other day:

1. Sit. I wake up and start the coffeemaker, drink a glass of water, then sit on a small pillow. I just sit, and focus on my breathing. You don’t have to meditate — sitting still, contemplating, taking in the world, is a beautiful thing.
2. Read. I read a book. The paper kind, that doesn’t require electricity. I like reading with no distractions. I’ll read for about half an hour to an hour.
3. Write. Before I check email or Twitter or read my feeds, I sit down and write. It doesn’t matter what — a chapter for my new book, a blog post, answers to an interview someone emailed me, anything. I just write, without distractions.

I have friends who do the below:

1. Write. Creatively, for fun (as per The Artist’s Way)

2. Cook. They enjoy making dinner for that night in a slow cooker, before the kids get up

3. Drink coffee. In bed and reading fiction before heading off to the office.

Me, I do this:

1. Drench. I drink two litres or so of hot water with a hunk of lemon squeezed in. I potter while I drink. Tidy a little…and, let’s be frank, hang about until nature calls.

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I’m a soul nerd. It hurts sometimes. Until I realised…

“Literature is a yoga, a soulnerd’s intellectual-spiritual practice of contour-fitting what we know to what is so.”

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I read this in a Psychology Today article this morning. It’s given me heart on this Monday morning after a night of not sleeping and feeling really very raw about how I’m “doing life”. The article is about evolutionary thinker Jeremy Sherman’s take on what it means to be spiritual, in the context of coping with our mortality.He identifies that spiritual can either mean:

1. adhering doggedly to a doctrine of some sort that provides the answers for you (and comfort), or

2. existing in the now, such that you “let go” of the notion of the future (and impending death).

True.

But he also identifies a third way. That of the soul nerd. That of studying our predicament with considered curiosity.

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Sunday life: in which Oprah’s declutter dude Peter Walsh visits my apartment

This week I declutter my “sentimentals” and my “collectibles”

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What did we all do before we “decluttered”? We tidied. We picked up our crap, dusted under it, then put it back down again. We also used our crap. In my house we collected toothbrushes, icecream buckets and old singlets, which were used for cleaning our BMXs (the hub ballbearings would soak in kero in the buckets, the toothbrushes and rags were for extracting crud from the chain). And Dad used the old inner-tyre tubes for just about everything – fixing fences, espaliering the tomatoes and occy-strapping things to the ute.

Nowadays we buy more new stuff, and we don’t have time to get creative with re-using the old stuff. So we have more crap. And less room. But more importantly we’ve developed a raging intolerance for this clutter and a need to clear our lives of everything that could be bogging us down, physically, emotionally or spiritually. Decluttering has become a euphemism for the enema we’d like to take to our relationships, our schedules, the floors of our cars. In the US “storage solution” stores are experiencing exponential growth, while hoarding memoirs are emerging as the new “mis lit”. I tell you, decluttering is a dirty big business.

In this column I’ve subjected myself to many declutterings, consulting some of the world’s experts on the subject. I’ve overhauled my book collection, my email inbox; heck, I even did a colonic. But this week I went the next level.  I decluttered my “sentimentals” – photos, heirloomy knick-knacks, my grandmothers’ Jesus statues and the box of school certificates I’ve kept since kindergarten (for “good book work” and “trying hard during health hustle”).

Which is how Peter Walsh ended up in my loungeroom on Tuesday morning.

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how to build a blog (a Cleo interview)

I was quoted in this month’s CLEO magazine. I thought it might be of interest to anyone who’s thinking of start a blog and is not sure where to start. I know I had noooooo idea when I first decided to launch this one.

2010-09-20_11252010-09-20_1126The other advice I would give is:

* Follow really strong bloggers and check out which style you like. You might like a vertical style, or a text only one like Seth Godin‘s, or a visual one, or a very simple style, like mnmlist.com. I’m quite liking the text-based ones these days…they cut out the bells and whistles and rely on pure, good, substantial content. Which is good. It’s the way of the future.

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strong women: do you need a knight or a king?

This Psychology Today article that gives a rundown of the type of relationship strong, career-orientated women want now hits  nails on heads for me.

article-1269277-0906216A000005DC-810_468x302It makes a number of strident and true points. I’ve added my own thoughts to the mix too:

* “There is a new type of male/female relationship forming in our culture not defined by who is more dominant and successful.” Indeed, there is a new whiff to things right now. I don’t know that anyone really “knows” how all this plays out yet, but we “feel” that the old “push/pull” of sexual relationships is redundant somehow. Every relationship needs a balance of yin and yang, but it can play out in so many different ways. Masculine strength can be about being a rock or being the “provider” of emotional stability to a frantically busy career woman. Sometimes all we want is a guy who can say “everything’s going to be OK” at the end of the day while massaging your foot.

* Strong women want a man who will share the responsibilities at home and won’t get his ego tied up in a knot over it.

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Tuesday eats: six healthy snacks (in six ingredients or less!)

The Internet Chef recently posted a list of the top 30 health posts from the internet. They’re a great collation. Here’s my choice six snacks, plus some simple throw-together-from-the-pantry snack tricks I eat by. Enjoy!

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* Tamari Pepitas

Toss some pumpkin seeds around a hot pan (no oil required; the oils from the nuts are enough to keep them from sticking). As they start to sizzle and pop a little, drizzle tamari over the the lot, stirring. It becomes a gooby mess pretty quickly, so remove from heat almost immediately.

* Frozen banana yoghurt

I buy bananas in bulk, peel them and put them in the freezer in a zip-lock bag. When I need a snack (I also eat this for breakfast) I pull one out, hack it into chunks and put in a cup. Then I pour some yoghurt over it and either mush with a fork or stab-mix in the cup. I then stick it back in the freezer. Within 5 minutes it’s the most sublime frozen snack ever. Sometimes I add chia seeds and cinnamon, or coconut water.

* Air Popped Popcorn (from my mum)

Put a small handful of popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag. Roll down top of lunch bag to close. Place in microwave for 2 minutes. I toss through some salt or dulce. No oil or butter required!! Use this no-fat trick for the popcorn recipes below.

Or try these. They’re pretty clever!! I reckon you could do the first one without the waste-of-space chip divider….? Feel free to add some suggestions to the list!

Microwave potato chips by Nooschi

Microwave potato chips by Nooschi

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wanted: Multi-media/writing assistant (paid position; two days a week)

NOTE: This post has been amended!!!!

Wow I’ve been inundated with lots of interest. PLEASE if you’ve already emailed me your details, please refer to the application criteria below and resubmit your application attending to this details. Thank you!!

Well, my little business of one is expanding! Want to join my fun?

I’m looking for a super enthusiastic person to work directly with me, assisting me with the technical side of my blog and online offerings, as well as performing PA duties (coordinating schedules and my TV commitments, some research and banal things like going to the post office). So,  it’s a bit of a girl/boy Friday position. The role could also include writing work (with bonus mentoring!), depending on the candidate.

Ideally, you:

  • are thrilled to work two days per week. Perfect for students or parents, or…
  • are able to work at least one of the days with me from my Darlinghurst office (on Oxford St).The other I’m happy for you to work from the moon, or…
  • own your own Apple laptop computer
  • have had some sort of PA/office experience
  • have a driver’s license
  • are keen to start immediately

The position is a paid one. But also one that is about learning and growing.

The role would suit a multi-media/technology student, a budding writer/journalism student who’s proficient with blogging technology, or a PA who “gets it”.

How to apply (please read carefully):

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so, i think you should ride a bike

I’ve been thinking for a while that I should be putting some energy to inspiring as many people as possible to ride a bike. I’m not sure how I’ll do this yet, but let’s make it a campaign.

Let’s call it A Campaign to Ride A Bike (unless anyone out there would like to pose a better name?). And as our mantra we can defer to HG Wells:

“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”

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It won’t be a dorky campaign. Just the stuff that might get more people fired up and informed to buy/dig out a bike and get moving.

To start with a bit of an explainer about why I care about this issue:

* Riding makes you happy: I’ve ridden a bike since I was four and I believe this to be totally true. I started out BMX racing and, then, got my first mountainbike at 11. I’ve done downhill racing and 24-hour mountainbike races. I’ve toured around the world and pretty much every major holiday has been on a bike (Vietnam, Tasmania, California, Spain, New Zealand… I once rode Brisbane to Cairns just to kill some time). You see things on a bike. You smell things. It’s free and flowing and honest. Your skin glows on arrival. You have time to think. You can swoop through traffic. You’re alive to things, not a passive, dull passenger.

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