How To Reinvent Your Life in 2026: 5 Powerful Habits That Really Work! with Dr Rangan Chatterjee #607

31:02You'll breathe more from your chest than your diaphragm, you'll start to breathe a bit more shallowly than deeply, and your breathing rates will quicken. But the amazing thing is, is you can literally hack your way out of that. Now I think the term hack has been very much overused, but I think it really works here. Because if you can intentionally slow down and focus on your breath, you can change those three things immediately. When you're not paying attention and you're breathing fast and shallowly and more from your chest and your diaphragm, you literally send stress signals up to your brain and your brain then responds by sending stress signals down to your body and it becomes a vicious cycle.

31:46But if you have a breathwork technique that you can utilize for let's say a minute or so, instead you can start to send calm signals up to your brain which in turn will send calm signals back down to your body. Now, there are a ton of breathwork techniques out there and I'm not particularly attached to any one of them, right? You have to find the one that works for you, the one that makes you feel good, that you feel you can do. There are quite a few examples on my website. So if you just go to drchatterjee.com and in the search, look up the blog on breathing or in the podcast archive, type for breathing, you'll see loads and loads of resources there that will help you.

32:26On a personal level, one of the ones that I found most effective with myself and with many of my patients is what I call the 3-4-5 breath. Basically, it's dead easy. You breathe in for three, for a count of three. You hold for a count of four. And you breathe out for a count of five. Now, ideally, I would say, yeah, do it through the nose and out through the nose if you can or in through the nose and out through the mouth. But if you can't do that, if nasal breathing is too difficult at the moment, okay, don't stress about that. Do it through your mouth if you have to. The key point with this breath is that whenever your out breath is longer than your in breath, you help to switch off the stress part of your nervous system and promote the relaxation part.

33:15Remember, at the start of this episode, I explained to you what the stress response is. And the case I'm making here is that if you're feeling chronically stressed and that stress response has been activated, we want to do something as soon as we can to bring us back into that relaxation state where the stress response is not being as activated as it was. And I don't really know of a quicker way to do this than with breathing. Now if the three, four, five breath technique for you feels too difficult, okay, just drop it down a bit. Go two, three, four. But the key is that the out breath should be longer than the in breath.

33:57And I have seen this three, four, five breath transform the lives of so many people. It's a great way to start the day. It's a great way to end the day. It's a great thing to do at lunchtime if you feel that your micro stress doses have accumulated and you're close to that stress a threshold and you don't want to keep accumulating them and getting more and more reactive and stressed throughout the day. Okay. I had a teacher once who literally at lunchtime would go out into his car in the car park and sit there for five minutes doing the three, four, five breath that I taught him. And he said it just had a transformative effect on the way his afternoons and evenings went.

34:38And that's that key point for me, guys, is that this stuff doesn't need to be hard. You can overcomplicate stress and what you need to do about it, but that just creates more stress in our heads. I'm trying to share with you some really simple things that I know work because they've changed my life and they've changed the life of thousands of my patients. So the key point here is find a breathwork technique that you like and enjoy and you can feel the difference from, and then just know that you've got that with you whenever you need to. I've even had teenagers and students who are nervous before exams do that 3-4-5 breath for maybe a couple of minutes before they go into an interview or go into an exam and it makes the world of difference.

35:28And just remember, if you're feeling time pressured, one of those 3-4-5 breaths takes 12 seconds, five of them takes just one minute. I can pretty much guarantee if you do that for one minute, you will feel different.

35:49Today's episode is sponsored by The Way. I have tried so many meditation apps over the years, but I've never come across one as good or as effective as The Way. I've been using it most mornings for many months now, and I absolutely love it. I find it a fantastic way to start off each day, and it has really helped me feel calmer, relaxed, and more present. In fact, I love this app so much that I recently decided to invest in the company and join them in their mission to get more people meditating. I believe that more people meditating will help create a more compassionate worlds. And as the Dalai Lama himself said, if every eight-year-old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.

36:41Meditation has been shown to have all kinds of benefits, reducing stress, increasing calm, improving focus, and over time has even been shown to result in positive structural changes in the brain in areas linked to memory, focus, and emotional regulation. But of course, you only get those benefits if you actually do it. And that's one of the main reasons I love The Way so much. It makes it really easy to establish a meditation practice that sticks. If you don't believe me, I would encourage you to give it a try and find out for yourself. In fact, to help you do that, The Way are offering my podcast listeners an incredible 30 free meditation sessions to get you started with your practice.

37:29So you can try it out and see if you like it completely free of charge. To take advantage, all you have to do is go to thewayapp.com forward slash live more to get started and begin your journey towards peace, calm and purpose.

37:52So, habit number three, stop taking things personally. Okay, this is one that I think people find really, really difficult. And before I get into it, I just want to explain to you why this is so important to me. You might recall that at the start of this episode, I shared that many of us misunderstand stress. And one of the big things I think we misunderstand is where stress comes from. Most of us believe that stress is external. Okay, so it's to do with our to-do lists or the amount of emails you have to respond to or things there in your outside world. my boss doesn't treat me well, my boss asked me to do too much, I have too many responsibilities.

38:46Now of course, a lot of our stress is external for sure, but not all of it. A lot of stress is internally generated by the way we choose to interact with the world. Now I really want you to think about that for a minute. a lot of stress these days as I mentioned earlier it's psychological it's not from a physical threat it's from things that are coming into our minds but not everyone responds to those psychological stressors in the same way for many people those things just don't stress them out which means it cannot just be the thing on the outside that was causing the stress part of it is how we interpreted that external event.

39:34If you don't interpret it as stressful, it's often not. And the way you interpret events in the outside world is a skill you can cultivate. And it's probably one of the skills I'm most passionate about telling people about. Because I know on a personal level, understanding that I get to choose my reality in most situations has had such a powerful effect on me. Honestly it's one of the reasons why I generally feel so calm and contented these days is because I realize that much of the way I feel comes from how I actually interpret the world around me. So when I say stop taking things personally or try to stop taking things personally I mean try and change the way you look at these things when they happen.

40:31I know this is easier said than done but even setting the intention that this year you're going to try not to take things personally that will be transformative and even if you can't do it 100 % of the time if you can do it a little bit more than you currently are doing it honestly you will start to notice a difference because the reality is that most people's behavior has nothing to do with you. It is a reflection of their inner state. And when you stop absorbing other people's emotions as your own, you will start to increase your peace, your calm, your contentment immediately. Now I'll give you a prime example of this.

41:15It was literally yesterday morning where I went to play paddle with my son. Now, paddle is a sport I've taken up a few months ago, and I love it. And one of the reasons I love it is because me and my boy go and play as a doubles team. And it's just a way of us hanging out, playing a sport together, chatting. And I really, really appreciate every time I get to play with my son, because I, like many people, I'm thinking, oh man, in a few years wish that, oh man, I wish he spent more time playing. So literally I try and play two, three times a week with him, basically as much as he wants to. But that was a slight tangent.

41:58The point of me trying to share this panel example with you is this. Yesterday, we would used to play at 11.30 and we got to the paddle courts at 11.15. Now at the side of one of the courts, there was some open space. And we had previously seen people knocking up there and just warming up. So we thought, ah, well, we've got 15 minutes for the game. Let's just go and just hit some volleys to each other there and, you know, just get our touch and warm up before we actually start playing our match at half 11. And after about one minute, this lady suddenly came out from her court quite abruptly said, you're not meant to be playing here.

42:37And I just smiled at her and said, yeah, okay, no problem. Sorry, didn't mean to cause any problems. And we walked back and sat down near our court. what was really interesting for me is that my son was saying oh you know I can't believe she said that and you know all sorts of things I said hey darling listen you know that had nothing to do with us at all she's probably having a bad day maybe she's stressed out on a game maybe something's going on in her home life we have literally no idea it was honestly nothing to do with us I don't think we did anything wrong but of course we don't want to do something that is upsetting her so just put it out of your mind don't worry about it and really interestingly a couple minutes later her playing partner walked past us on the way to get some water said hey listen I'm so sorry about that I don't know what was going on there it's not off-putting at all we've had people do this before really really sorry I said hey honestly it's no problem we're just happy sitting here and waiting now why is this so important well what could have happened there is when that lady spoke to us in quite triggered fashion about us putting her off, I could have reacted.

43:48I could have got annoyed. I may not have said anything, but I could have stewed about it and sat there with my son and go, oh man, I can't believe she did that. You know, how out of order was that? You know, I can't believe she spoke to us like that. You know, what you're basically doing is creating stress. That's the key point. That situation is only stressful if I choose to make it stressful. But it isn't. because I chose not to. I know that had nothing to do with me. So if I choose to take that on and perpetuate it for the next 10, 15 minutes, and maybe for the next few hours, that's because I've done that.

44:27Now, I get this is not always the easiest thing to do, and it does take practice. Hand on heart, I don't think 10 years ago I would have been that relaxed. Okay? I could have got triggered by something like that. But this is a skill you can work on. And the most important thing to understand is that there was an external event that happened. That lady said something to me in a triggered fashion. Okay? But there was a space between the stimulus of that lady's words and my response. and if I can work on that space over time and breath work for example that I mentioned in the last habit is a great way of doing this over time it helps you just create space and calm within yourself and presence over time you can also stop reacting as much as you currently do so I did not take what she said to me and my son personally and therefore it wasn't stressful now I totally understand that this is harder to do when it's people close to you.

45:35If it's your partner or your children or your mother, I understand that. I am not saying this is going to be easy. But remember this key point that I'm trying to make. Not all stress is external. A lot of stress is internally generated by the way we interact with the world around us. And a lot of that is changeable. So if you're someone who struggles with this, there's a couple of things I just want to leave you with. Number one, don't start necessarily with the people closest to you in your life because that can be hard. Start with the people maybe you don't know. Let's say someone pushes in front of you at the supermarket.

46:16You don't know them. They don't know you. You have literally no idea what is going on in their life or the arguments they had before they came to the supermarkets, or perhaps they've just had a divorce, or maybe their father has just died. You literally have no idea. But it's probably those things that are causing their behavior. So just practice in those non-threatening situations. Now there's one more thing I'll say there. If you don't manage to do that, and you do react, that's okay. We're all human. We all make mistakes. But later on that day, try and honestly reflect and say, hey, you're in the supermarket today.

46:54I really didn't need to. Why did I react? Again, this is a similar theme to the theme I spoke about in the Boxing Day episode a few days ago. So as I say, start on the simple things. If you don't get it right, that's okay. But try and reflect later on and over time that will change things. And I guess the final thing to say about not taking things so personally is that usually if you're someone who takes things personally a lot, it's probably because there's some deep insecurity within you. Now, I want to be really clear. I'm not saying this to make anyone feel bad or to judge you. I'm really not.

47:41I used to take things personally, okay? And it's because I wasn't fully secure in who I was. Maybe I hadn't practiced self-compassion enough. Maybe I felt there was something missing inside of me. And a good way to know if this might be you is how much are you driven by external validation? How much do you need validation from the world around you in order to feel good? I've shared my own journey with this multiple times on this podcast, so I won't necessarily share it all now. But what you will find is as you require external validation less and less, you actually naturally start to take things personally because you realize that it's not about you.

48:23And the only reason you were actually taking it personally is because you had a deep insecurity about something. So it really, really affects you when someone says something to you because you think it's an attack on you, but it isn't. You're interpreting it as an attack on you. And if this is a theme that you feel really applies to you, and it does for most of us, I really would encourage you to check out one of my last two books, Happy Mind, Happy Life, or Mate Change at Last, because I really do cover in those books this concept and how you can get better at it. Habit number four, practice true prevention.

49:04Okay, this is a really interesting one. What I have realized from patients and from podcast listeners, social media followers, people I bump into and chat with on the street, is that a major source of stress in their lives is worrying about their future health. And I completely understand. We know that a lot of people these days are struggling with chronic disease. And I think for some of us, it really hits home when someone close to us in our lives gets sick. It could be a mother or an auntie with Alzheimer's, or a dad or uncle with heart disease, or a friend from school who gets diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, suddenly it feels real and people can get really, really worried.

49:55Now, the problem here is that modern healthcare, for all its benefits, doesn't tend to focus that well on prevention. The way we are trained as medical doctors is very much in a disease-centered model. Most of our training is about diagnosing disease and treating that disease and the symptoms of that disease, usually with pharmaceutical drugs. And that can have value, of course, in a lot of different cases. But going back to the point of this habit, if you're worried that you may get sick in the future, at the moment, it's not that easy to do something about that. And if you've been listening to my podcast for a while, you will know that you don't just get sick overnight.

50:46Type 2 diabetes, for example, starts 5 to 10 years or so beforehand in your body before you get a diagnosis. Alzheimer's starts maybe 30 to 40 years before you ever get a diagnosis. So changes are happening in your body at a much earlier stage than we actually look for in modern medicine. And that's why I think people get worried. they go and see their doctor and the doctor unfortunately doesn't have that many tools available to practice what I call true prevention. Now the way I've tried to tackle this for a number of years is to share that information in my books and on this podcast. But then I started to realize that even with that information people were struggling to make sense of what to do with it.

51:37I'll give you a prime example. On many occasions, I've explained on the show both myself and through talking to a variety of different guests that your metabolic health is absolutely crucial to reduce your risk of getting things like type 2 diabetes or heart attacks or strokes or Alzheimer's in the future. And I've spoken to many guests like Ben Bickman recently, Mark Hyman, Robert Lustig, David Pohlmutter, and the list goes on about the importance of testing regularly things like fasting insulin. Because one of the earliest things to go off in the body, many years before you will get a diagnosis, is your fasting insulin levels.

52:25So I can talk about this on my podcast, and I have, but then people go out there and they can't get it from their doctor, or they can't get it from a private provider when they are trying to practice true prevention. And so a few months ago, I decided that I was going to try and do something about it. And I've been quietly working away on something that I am really, really excited about. I have partnered with a group of amazing individuals to create Do Health. Now Do Health is a personalized health companion that's powered by your biology and your lifestyle. And one of the underlying philosophies behind it is that knowledge is not enough.

53:06Health only changes when you act. Now I have over 20 years of clinical experience, seeing tens of thousands of patients, and the truth is that 80 to 90 % of what we struggle with these days is in some way driven by our collective modern lifestyles. But people feel overwhelmed. They're often being exposed to generic health advice that is often conflicting and they don't actually know what to do next. And even if they do make a change, they often remain confused as to which of those changes are actually working. And that's one of the main reasons why I decided to create Do Health. I also believe that within a few years, this will become or it stands a chance of becoming the standard for true prevention within the NHS and in many other countries around the world.

54:03With Do Health, we're going to help you understand what your body actually needs, then give you the most important next step to feel better. no guesswork no overwhelm just clear personalized weekly actions mapped to the four pillar framework that I first outlined in my very first book the four pillar plan eat move sleep and relax so how does it work well it's an app that you download and when you sign up you start up with a simple blood test that shows us exactly what your body needs. We do screening bloods right at the start, but mainly we're focused on 11 core biomarkers across the three areas that matter the most for you, energy, circulation, and inflammation.

54:55Now I mentioned earlier, didn't I, fasting insulin. Fasting insulin is one of those 11 core biomarkers and I insisted that we give people regular access to this blood test. Now we're going to check those 11 core biomarkers three times throughout the year because it's important that you understand what changes in your lifestyle are working and which ones are not. So that's the first part, okay? We understand your biology by doing your bloods. Secondly, we make recommendations to you based upon your biology and your lifestyle. And the recommendations we make are the things that we believe will have the biggest positive impact on how you feel right now and reduce your risk of getting sick in the future.

55:42And the third step is do. You get your personalized weekly action plan based upon my four pillar framework, small doable actions designed to fit around your everyday life. I am so, so excited about this. I don't believe there's anything out there that exists like this. As part of the app, you have access to an AI health coach that has been trained over the past few months on my philosophy around health. Basically, everything that's in my books and my podcasts, how I see the world, how I see health, that has all been fed into this AI coach, which you will be interacting with as much or as little as you want to.

56:28Now, because the theme of today's podcast is all about stress, I want to tell you something that I'm not a fan of. There's a lot of providers now out there who are offering you hundreds and hundreds of biomarker tests. They're saying, you come to us, we'll do this blood test, and we're going to do 200 bloods or 300 bloods. And I'm not convinced that for most people, that's the right approach. Because it becomes confusing and overwhelming. If you look at the science, and if you've had enough real life clinical experience as I have, you basically understand that there's only a few things that really matter.

57:12So instead of measuring everything and confusing people, at DoHealth, we're going to focus on the 11 core biomarkers that matter most. And over the course of a year, they're going to help you improve them. And the truth is, if you can get these 11 core biomarkers as good as you possibly can, two big things are going to happen. Number one, you're going to massively reduce your risk of getting sick in the future. Number two, you're going to start feeling better within weeks. more energy more vitality more focus because good long-term health starts with good short-term health today so if you'd like to join do health to help you stop guessing and start doing in 2026 you can join our wait list at drchatterjee.com forward slash do please know early access spots are limited so we can make sure we give people the support that they deserve.

58:15So if this sounds like the right thing for you, please don't leave it too long. And if you're someone who feels overwhelmed by all the health advice out there and just wants to know what to do next for your body, I believe that you're going to really, really get a lot out of Do Health. As I said already, all you have to do is go to drchatterjee.com forward slash do to join the wait list. Now, I believe if you're someone who worries about your future health, I think do health is going to reduce stress for you because you're going to start realizing that, wait a minute, I don't need to wait for 20 years to find out I've got a diagnosis.

58:58I can start looking after myself today, I could start seeing what lifestyle changes actually move the needle in these core 11 biomarkers. Now, initially, we're only launching this in the UK. But of course, over time, we will look to expand. And if you can't access DoHealth for whatever reason, or you live in a different country and can't have access to it just yet, I really don't want you to worry. I want you to think about this idea that good health in the future starts with good health today. There are things that you can test immediately that really do give you an indication on how you're going to be in the future.

59:45Things like HbA1c, your average blood sugar, homocysteine, that's something that's not commonly done, but we know that high homocysteine levels, for example, are associated with cognitive decline and you can easily bring them down if you know that they're up. But most people are not testing this. Fasting insulin, I've already mentioned, liver function tests. You can get some of these things done. Go and see a doctor, see if they're open. If they're not, listen to some of the podcasts and see what you can get done yourself. Hopefully that will reduce your stress and help you feel that you're actually doing something.

1:00:24And of course, this is the main reason I created Do Health. I basically put together the program that I want for myself. I want to know what those 11 biomarkers are doing three times a year because I know if I can keep them where they need to be, it's highly likely I'm going to stay well for a long period of time. Habit number five, prioritize sleep. Not sleeping enough regularly is one of the biggest stressors on our bodies. It quite literally stresses our bodies out. And we know that sleep deprivation is on the rise. Compared to maybe 60 or 70 years ago, it's thought that humans are sleeping maybe one to two hours less, which is utterly remarkable.

1:01:19On an eight-hour sleep cycle, that could mean some of us have lost 25 % of our sleep. Now, when we go to sleep, it's not just about the quantity of time we sleep for, it's also the quality of that sleep. And one of the fastest ways you can reduce stress in your life is by sleeping better. If I would go as far as to say, if you're not currently sleeping enough and you are able to make some changes to improve your sleep, out of all the five things I'm mentioning today, this may well be the most important. Because here's the reality. When you sleep well, life feels completely different. You see the world through different eyes.

1:02:08but when you sleep well your mood is better your motivation is better your physical health is better you've got more energy focus and presence your ability to resist temptation is much better which is quite interesting for any of you who struggle to resist things like sugar or alcohol well we know that when you're sleep deprived your ability to resist that temptation is much lower. So sleeping more helps you with that. When you sit well, you're less anxious. We know, for example, that people who sleep five hours compared to maybe seven and a half or eight hours a night, that amygdala, which I explained right at the start when explaining the stress response, that emotional part of your brain, that can be up to 50 % more active when you've only had five hours sleep.

1:03:02So sometimes our anxiety is a direct consequence of the fact that we've not slept. And the things I've already mentioned, like having a morning routine, you're much more likely to stay motivated and actually do that when you've slept better. You're also less likely to take things personally when you slept well. So sleeping better is one of the fastest ways to reduce your stress. And of course, there's many different things that we could be talking about here. And of course, I could easily do a 90 minute session here just on sleep alone. There are many conversations I've had on this podcast in the past, maybe I think three now with Matthew Walker, two with Professor Russell Foster.

1:03:44Those things are just brilliant episodes, chock-a-block full of information on how you can sleep better than you currently do. But the overarching message I want to give you here is that for most people, they are doing something in their daily lives that they do not realize is affecting their ability to sleep at night. Yes, primary sleep disorders like sleep apnea do exist, which may need some help from your doctor. But most of what people struggle with can be fixed by making some changes to the way that they live. And I just want to give you a quick overview of the things that I've seen over the course of my career make the most difference.

1:04:30Number one, a good night's sleep starts when you wake up. You want to expose your eyes to natural light as soon as you can after waking up. So as soon as it's light outside, if you can, get 15 to 20 minutes natural light exposure. So you could do this by going for a walk or having your morning cup of tea or coffee outside. That helps set your body's daily circadian rhythm. So that natural light exposure in the morning helps you sleep better that night. If you can't do it first thing in the morning, don't worry, but do it as soon as you can. Even 20 minutes of outside time at lunchtime can make a difference.

1:05:10Second thing, which a lot of people don't think about is caffeine. They're often thinking about caffeine in the evening, which they know can make them feel alert and reduce the likelihood of them falling asleep. But caffeine hangs around for a long time in your body. And if you're someone who regularly drinks caffeine, I'm not saying don't do it. A lot of us love a good cup of coffee or tea, but just know that it may well be impacting your sleep. For many of my patients who struggle, I will say for a period of time, let's say seven days, try not having caffeine after 12 o 'clock noon. And for some people, it is game changing.

1:05:49And for others, I've even gone as far as to say, well, listen, I think caffeine may be playing a role. So why not try seven full days without it? Of course, you might have withdrawal symptoms, you might need to taper down slowly. But there's no question that for some people, caffeine is playing havoc with their sleep, even if you're just having it in the morning. And one more thing I'll say here is that your tolerance to caffeine can change as you get older. I have had so many patients over the years who've told me, oh, caffeine doesn't affect me. You know, I've been fine in my 20s. I could nail an Americano after dinner and I'd still fall asleep.

1:06:27Sure, great. You may well have done that in your 20s. But I have seen many, many times that as people get older, their tolerance to caffeine changes. things that they could do when they were younger, they can no longer do. So caffeine is one thing to think about. And remember, caffeine does not just come in coffee and black tea. You also get it in herbal teas like green tea. You can also get quite reasonable amounts in dark chocolates. So me, Percy, I will not have dark chocolates after about 3 or 4pm because I know I can feel the effects of it when trying to sleep at night. And then finally, I would probably say one of the most important things I've found over the years for my sleep and for many of my patients is what are you doing in the one hour before bed?

1:07:20There's many different things you could do, but in essence, what you're trying to do is send your brain signals that the workday of busyness and activity is over. Think about what we might do with kids. If you have ever looked after young kids, what did you do with them before they went to bed? What you probably didn't do was turn a load of bright lights on, get some loud music pumping and give them a ton of sugar. I know it sounds ridiculous when I say that, but this is sort of what many of us do as adults. For children, we know you need a little routine. You need to dim the lights, lower your voice, read them a story, create the environment that sends their bodies a signal that now's the time to start switching off so I can fall into a deep, relaxing slumber.

1:08:15Well, kids need bedtime routines, but we as adults need bedtime routines as well. And the key thing is, what are you doing? What signals are you sending your body and brain in that one hour before bed? So for me personally, for many years, I will not have my laptop open in the last hour before bed, particularly because my work is on my laptop. I'll make sure the laptop's shut. I won't be looking at work emails. I will dim the lights in the house or in the room in which I'm sitting. Maybe I'll put a candle on. Maybe I'll put a little bedside lamp on or in the living room downstairs, just a corner lamp so it's nice and dim.

1:08:52I might read a book, I might do some stretches, listen to music, play some cards with my kids, something that is sending my brain the signal that this is relaxation time. And I can tell you, if for an hour, if you can't do an hour, even for 30 minutes before bed, if you can start sending your body relaxing signals rather than activating signals, you're going to massively increase the likelihood that you're going to be able to fall asleep. Early on in this podcast, I mentioned the 3-4-5 breath or breathwork techniques. That can be a fantastic thing to do in the evening before bed, whether it's the 3-4-5 breath technique or another one.

1:09:36If you get the right breathing technique done in the evening, even when you get to bed, you can have to switch off the noise in your brain, switch off the stress part of your nervous system and activate the relaxation part. So that was a quick overview of sleep but I really do feel that if you are able to sleep a bit better this year you will naturally find your response to stress much better. Okay guys, so I can hear it's still raining outside the studio. I hope the weather is much better wherever you are in the world listening to this. And just remember, a little bit of stress is okay, but chronic stress can be toxic.

1:10:22And I believe if this year you make your overarching thoughts, how can I better manage stress in my life? I think you're going to have a fantastic year. The five things I spoke about were having a morning routine, learning a breathing technique that you can take with you in your life, stop taking things personally, practice true preventive health, and finally, prioritize your sleep. I genuinely hope you found this podcast interesting. I hope there are some insights there that you can take away and apply into your own life. If you do want to learn more about some of these concepts, I do have six books out there that have been bestsellers all over the world, but I'd probably point you to my most recent two books.

1:11:14Happy Mind, Happy Life, 10 Simple Ways to Feel Greats Every Day, which has been re-released in the UK today, January the 1st, 2026, in a brand new format. I've got rid of all the pictures it's lighter it's more accessible it's got a gorgeous new cover a new forward from Oliver Bergman and a reflective chatter from me so if you want to learn more about the skill of happiness how to keep stress low in your life so you can truly thrive I'll check out that book you could also check out another one of my recent books which is Make Change That Lasts Nine Simple Ways to Break Free from the Habits That Hold You Back All of my books are available as paperback, ebooks and audiobooks which I narrate.

1:12:06I really hope you enjoyed this week's episode. I hope it provides a great springboard at the start of the new year for you to think about your life in perhaps a slightly different way. If you want to keep in touch with my thoughts and what I'm thinking about beyond the ideas I share in this podcast, I would really encourage you to sign up for Friday Five, my free weekly email newsletter. Yes, of course, I post on social media, but more and more, social media is becoming a medium that I'm not so sure about. Algorithms are constantly changing and a lot of platforms are promoting the kind of negative and divisive content that I don't really want to make.

1:12:51And ultimately, if you don't make that type of content, the platforms are showing your posts to less and less people. So I'm spending more time trying to create positive and uplifting content online for my newsletter community. I share exclusive insights in Friday Five that I do not share anywhere else, including health advice, inspirational quotes, my comments on new research, and so much more. It's dead easy to sign up and if you don't like it it's dead easy to unsubscribe as well so if you want to check it out it is completely free all you need to do is go to drchatterjee.com forward slash friday five thank you so much for listening i hope you have a wonderful week and a wonderful year and before you go i just want to let you know about an exclusive january offer if you want to listen to every episode without having to hear any of the adverts, you can do so with an Apple subscription.

1:13:56We're extending the free trial from seven days to 30 days. So if you want to take advantage of this offer and support the podcast and enjoy every single episode advert-free for an entire year, just go to the Apple Podcast app and subscribe. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a wonderful start to the new year. And always remember, you are the architect of your own health. Making lifestyle change is always worth it. Because when you feel better, you live more.