Busy:
• “Busy is a decision” according to Debbie Milliman, famous graphic designer and podcaster. We choose how many tasks and commitments to place on our schedules.
• Marcus Aurelius said: “Get used to winnowing your thoughts so that when someone asked you what you were thinking, you could answer straightforwardly.” I would add “honestly without embarrassment.” Are you ruminating on 5 things you are worried about that will probably never happen? How you were offended this morning by a coworker?
• Spend your time wisely, but also spend your thoughts wisely.
Complementary:
• Left brain and right brain. Science and religion. Order and chaos. Masculine and feminine. Are these either/or pairings or could they be both/and pairings?
• Argument and narrative. Universal and particular. Data and anecdotes. Rules and stories.
• The cold impartial doctor deals in the rational, scientific, universal truth of disease and treatment. But a patient just knows the narrative of her suffering. Be the kind of person that synthesizes the two different forms of truth.
Efficient exercise:
• I rarely do burpees. Can’t really get past the name or the looks in the gym. But some people swear by them. It has been suggested that they are the single best exercise. A computer scientist did them every day for a year and changed his life (see his review here). For those unfamiliar, a burpee is the drop down, push up, jump deal that football coaches make players do until they throw up.
Pronounced:
• Article from NPR on a new practice at the Univ of Virginia Medical Center. They call it The Pause. Essentially the group stops after an arrest patient is pronounced, to take one minute of silence. Here is what the nurse who started the process first said:
“Can we stop just for a moment, to recognize this person in the bed? You know, this person before they came in here was alive — they were interacting with family, they were loved by others, they had a life.”
Cocoa or Cacao?:
• Short answer is that cacao is more “raw,” while cocoa undergoes higher heat processing and therefore loses some of the antioxidants. This definitive guide to chocolate does not go into cocoa vs cacao, but details everything else you could want to know about chocolate. Real dark chocolate has many health benefits: blood pressure, blood vessel health, insulin sensitivity, fatty liver / alcohol protection, UV damage, even aging. I learned about and bought this cacao powder and love it so far.
Quote:
“Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.”
-Francis of Assisi
Pretty cool quote even if you are not religious.
Treat people with respect in your words and your nonverbal communication.
