BITESIZE | The 5 Minute Morning Habit That Can Transform Your Life | Dr Rangan Chatterjee #605

0:00Today's Bite Size episode is sponsored by AG1, a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over seven years. Now, this is the time of year when our immune systems are under the most pressure. It's natural to look for extra ways to support our immune defenses. But most people don't want to juggle multiple pills. They want something simple, effective and easy to stick with. AG1 is a daily health drink that provides key immunity supporting nutrients, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc and selenium, all of which contribute to the normal function of the immune system. These nutrients are included in highly bioavailable forms, meaning they are much easier for the body to absorb and use.

0:50And the best thing, of course, is that all this goodness comes in one convenient, tasty daily serving. For a limited time only, get a free AG1 flavor sampler and AGZ sampler to try all the flavors, plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's$87 in free gifts for first-time subscribers. See all details at drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 413 of the podcast, which was a solo episode that I recorded to celebrate the launch of my three-question journal where I outlined the transformative power of journaling.

1:53Over the years, I've recommended a journaling practice to thousands of my patients and I've experienced the benefits firsthand in my own life as well. In this clip, I share a simple way to begin each day by asking yourself three powerful questions. They are deceptively simple and answering them will take less than five minutes, but doing so regularly can prove transformative. If you want to take a look at the three-question journal, all you need to do is go to drchatterjee.com forward slash journal. So many patients tell me that life just feels like a blur because of the pressures that so many of us face.

2:37The busyness, the overwhelm, the endless to-do list. I've heard it time and time again. Why haven't things changed? Why can't I bring these healthy habits into my life and make them stick? I've been a medical doctor for over two decades and I have to say one of the most transformative practices I have ever seen is the practice of journaling. Because it breaks the loop. We have these unconscious patterns, these subconscious patterns running our lives. We don't realise how many anxieties and worries and concerns we have whirring around. And journaling is a very simple way to get the stuff out of your brain.

3:14You get it down onto paper and you see it. And that does something really, really powerful. There's many different ways to journal. I think one of the most powerful ways is to ask yourself some really, really important questions. And if all you do is choose one of these three questions and start asking yourself that question each day and taking maybe one minute to write down the answer, I can pretty much guarantee that your life is going to start to change for the better. So the first question is what is the most important thing you have to do today? This question is deceptively powerful. What comes up for you?

3:54Do you have an answer? Do you have the clarity on that question? or do you freeze a little bit? Do you go, well, there's lots of important things I have to do? One of the problems these days is that our to-do lists are endless. We feel as though everything is equally important and therefore we feel frustrated and out of control because our to-do lists are never done. But not everything in life matters equally. and by thinking it does we fall into a trap it's a trap the modern world sets for us and it's that trap that if you fall into it it's going to keep you stuck you're going to feel unmotivated you're going to procrastinate you're not going to move forward in your life because you've got too much to do this question can immediately start to change that now when I first started asking myself this question I would say yeah well you know what there's one answer here for my work life and one answer here for my home life.

4:57But over time, as you do this more, you realise that there is only ever one answer. When I asked myself this question today, I wrote down, when my children come home from school, I'm going to put my laptop down, pay attention, and listen carefully to what they have to tell me. Yesterday, when I answered this question, I said the most important thing I have to do today is stop at lunchtime and go for a 20-minute walk around the block without my phone. That's just two examples from today and yesterday. Sometimes it's the same thing but it doesn't matter. Now here's something I think many of us don't realize.

5:39Because the modern world is so busy and feels so chaotic and out of control, we often feel that we can only do the important things in life once everything else is done but everything else is never done and so the important things in life our health our lifestyle behaviors our relationships they often fall by the wayside because we try and squeeze them in if we find that we have the time and I've seen this in my own life, I've seen it with my patients, we often feel that we don't, that we don't have the time. What's so great about this question is that it forces you to write down what is the most important thing.

6:24And what that means is that you've shifted the focus in your brain. Essentially, you can say if and when you do that thing that day, that day is a win. That's a successful day because the most important thing got done. Now again, I want to get you away from any perfectionist tendencies that you may have. You cannot have a perfect answer to this question, right? If we reflect on the two answers I gave today and yesterday about being attentive with my children when they come home from school or going for a walk yesterday, it's easy to say that they're both important. and yes of course looking after my health and nurturing my relationship with my children are both very very important things but by writing down what the most important thing is that day and that answer will depend on what's going on in your life whether you walk the previous few days whether you've seen your kids over the last few days or whether you've been too busy working whatever it might be it helps direct your focus it doesn't mean the other things aren't important but what you'll find is when you ask yourself this question regularly, hopefully every day, you will start to put more intention and focus on what truly is important.

7:45And the act of asking yourself this question each day will get you better at making that decision. But the most important thing is that you actually make a decision and by picking one each day you will get better at it. I promise you that will start to transform things because it means no matter what's going on, and many of us face these busy chaotic lives, you're going to focus on what is truly important. That's why I love this question and that's why I'd recommend you consider asking yourself that question every single day. Before I get to the second question, I just want to say a couple of things about stress.

8:27So stress is thought to be responsible for up to 90 % of what a doctor like me might see on any given day. Anxiety, depression, type 2 diabetes, even obesity, sleep problems, gut problems, low libido. All these things are strongly associated with too much stress and many of us are feeling that stress overload these days. Journaling can be a very powerful way of helping you reduce stress and reduce things like anxiety. One of the most common forms of stress that I see these days is related to what people do as soon as they wake up. What do you do when you wake up? What's the first thing you do?

9:16Do you pick up your phone? Do you look at social media? Do you look at the news? Hey, it's okay. Arguably, most people these days do. But let's just think about why that could be contributing to your stress levels and potentially your mental wellbeing. A lot of your thoughts, a lot of your emotions are downstream of the content you consume. If the first thing you do each morning is let's say watch the news, which if we're completely honest, is usually full of negativity. Or let's even say social media, if your social media feed is full of negativity, what impact do you think that's going to have on your mood, on your thoughts and your actions?

10:05You're basically starting the day with a big dose of negativity and that then influences how you're going to be for the rest of the day. It influences the way you feel. It may influence the way you interact with your partner, with your children, with your work colleagues. It may impact how likely it is for you to go for that walk, go for that workout, to do that meditation. Because you've got to understand that your brain is wired for negativity. Humans have this negativity bias. That negativity bias is what has kept you alive for so many years. For most of our days on this planet, humans needed to be fine-tuned to the negative.

10:51You had to know whether that noise that you heard was just a rustling of leaves in the bush or a predator about to attack. So you're primed for the negative. In fact, psychologists find that humans take in nine bits of negative information for every positive bit. And that's why this second question revolves around gratitude. What is one thing you deeply appreciate about your life? So when you go on the news or on social media first thing in the morning, if it's full of negativity, you're basically reinforcing that pattern. and I would argue for most of us we don't want to reinforce that pattern that pattern is there anyway we want to do what we can to focus on the positives we're going to feel better if you have positivity going into your brain first thing in the morning all your thoughts your mood your actions your emotions are going to be downstream from that boost of positivity and that's why I'm such a big fan of a practice of gratitude.

12:02Gratitude, intentionally looking for the things in your life that you already have, rather than focusing on what you lack, is one of the most powerful things you can do. It is the antidote to that negativity bias. And the more you practice it, the better you get. There's actually a lot of hard science behind gratitude as well. Gratitude has also been shown to lower anxiety, reduce symptoms of depression, improve our self-esteem, improve our relationships and improve the way we feel about ourselves. And look, what's there not to like about gratitude? It's free. You don't have to buy anything. You don't have to go anywhere.

12:47it just takes a few seconds. No matter how tough our life is, most of us, if we really think about it, do have some positives. So if I was to ask you now, what is one thing you deeply appreciate about your life? Could you answer it? Now, if you're struggling, let's start off with really simple things. You can be grateful that you can afford food. You can be grateful that you've got the technology that allows you to listen to a podcast. You could focus on things that you're proud of. I'm proud that I managed to get this job and that I managed to keep it even though it's been hard. You could also write about things that are giving you pleasure.

13:36I met a friend today? My colleague made me a cup of tea at work. Whatever it might be, the more you start to look for it, the more you're going to see. So don't worry too much. You don't have to write a long essay. It could just be a few words or just one sentence. What is one thing you deeply appreciate about your life? The power comes from asking yourself the same question regularly. You ask yourself for every day and you get better. You go deeper. You get to understand yourself better. You start to see things that previously you were blind to. Your brain is wired to focus on the negative. Don't reinforce that.

14:21Start each morning by focusing on the positive and watch how things start to change. The third question is what quality do I want to show the world today? what comes up for you when you hear that?

14:42Is your mind blank? Or do a few qualities come up? Whatever comes up for you, that's completely okay, even if you don't know what you would answer. The point is, by regularly asking yourself this question, like all the questions, you'll get better at answering them. you'll learn more about yourself and it will start to change the way you experience each day for me this is a very powerful way of intentionally deciding how you want to be in the world so many of us never really think about how we want to show up that day how we want to be in the world that day. So we end up repeating past behaviours.

15:31We're often reactive. We're often in a rush. And we think that's who we are. But it's not who we are. It's who we might have become over a period of time. And that's okay. But this question is really, really powerful. Like this morning, what did I put down in my journal because I do these questions every day I said what quality do I want to show the world today I want to show the world the quality of patience now what's really powerful about that is by taking a moment to think about it and write it down it means I've brought that into my current awareness. It means that if there's a situation in life where I may have been tempted to react I'm going to catch myself if someone sends me an email that I may have previously interpreted as a bit cold or confronting I'm going to take a beat, take a pause and be patient.

16:40and the real power is not by asking yourself this question once it's by asking it to yourself every day you start to reinforce the qualities that you want and what are those qualities that you want it could be compassion it could be kindness it could be curiosity it could be you know today i'm going to be curious when someone has a different opinion to me. When someone says something I don't agree with, I'm not going to get annoyed. I'm going to try not to feel emotionally triggered. I'm going to lead with curiosity. I'm going to ask myself, oh, I wonder why that person has a completely different opinion to me.

17:23In many ways, this question is about choosing who you want to be. You don't have to just wake up and behave the way in which you've always behaved. I think that that's down to chance. That's just who you are. It may not be who you are. It may be who you became and you can change that. And this question has changed the way I interact with my loved ones and I've seen it change the way my patients interact. Now as a doctor, I'm interested in people making better choices with their lifestyle. And a lot of the time we don't realise why we're making poor choices. Let's say we're trying to eat well and with our rational mind we think we're going to change things.

18:11Well what often happens is let's say with our relationships, let's say we've been a bit reactive, we've had a bad day at work, we've had too much to do, we've got home a bit stressed and then we've been a bit short with our partner or our children. It's a pretty common scenario. I've seen it with so many patients what a lot of us don't realise is that generates emotional stress in our bodies and that emotional stress needs to be neutralised and how do we neutralise emotional stress in our bodies? We generally go towards behaviours that are not that helpful sugar, alcohol, doom scrolling online whatever it might be because you've generated this stress a lot of the time that stress comes from the way we interact with others.

19:00This is a big problem. And bringing it back to that question, that's why this question is so powerful. In fact, these three questions are really, really powerful. They are deceptively simple. But I promise you, if you start asking yourself these questions each morning, these three questions, or even just one question, you will start to get to know yourself better. You will start to feel better. You'll have more energy, more clarity, more focus. Your mental well-being will improve. You're going to make better decisions. You're going to interact in a much better way with the other people in your life.

19:40You're going to feel better about yourself. And really, these questions are about living an intentional life. That's why I love journaling. That's why for me, it's a keystone habit. On the days that I journal, I'm a better human being. I'm more patient. I'm calmer. I'm more productive. I'm more intentional with how I live that day. It transforms the way I think. transforms the way that I show up and ultimately it transforms the way I experience life. So think about where you're going to put it in your day, start small and watch your life start to change. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family.

20:36If you enjoyed this episode I think you will really enjoy my bite-sized Friday email. It's called the Friday Five. And each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it free of charge at drchatterjee.com forward slash Friday Five.