What Is the Key Element to Focusing Both on the Immediate Sense of the Task at Hand and on the Broader Sense of Our Lives as a Whole?

Hey, it's J.J. here.

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The key element to focusing both on the immediate sense of the task at hand and on the broader sense of our lives as a whole?

Foreign.

This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions, and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. Dana on Facebook asks, what is the key element to focusing both on the immediate sense of the task at hand and on the broader sense of our lives as a whole? Hey, it's Jay Day, and I've got New York Times bestselling author of the Urban Monk and the Art of stopping time, Dr. Pedram Shojai, with me to answer this question. He's a qigong master and Taoist abbot with a practical approach to modern living, using Eastern thinking and practices to help overcome the Westernized challenges of everyday life. And in his spare time, when he's not skiing the black diamonds at Deer Valley, he's producing compelling docuseries, including Interconnected Origins and Exhausted. He'll be right back to answer this question. Stay with us.

Hey, J.J. virgin here. Okay, Real talk.

So often the holidays sneak up on.

Me, travel, gifts, hosting, you know, all the things, and suddenly it's like, wait.

Who spent what and where?

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Hermes Trimiscus has a famous line that says as above so below. What you do in every instant of your mindfulness will be reflected in your life. And that's why I wrote this book. It was a really important piece of the puzzle for me is that in the information age, we are all being functional, armed in mind for our attention and our focus. And the more you put your focus into the world of social media, into the world of TV dramas, into the world of fake news or whatever it is that you're getting pulled into, the less your focus is in on your life. And if your life isn't going the way you want or choose, there it is. There's your evidence, right? You need to retroflect your attention back to you. You need to drive your life. You need to be mindful of the decisions you make. You need to power up your prefrontal cortex. You need to power up the part of your brain through meditation that allows you to live in the parasympathetic nervous system. Rest and digest. This starts to suppress NF Kappa B and inflammatory cascades. This is where your body is healing. This is where you're making good decision decisions. And you are not making just decisions out of duress. You're sitting there minding your own business. You're supposed to go home. On the way home, you're supposed to go to the gym. And then you're going to have a nice dinner with your family. You have health, you have exercise. You have family time planned for the evening. Friends call up and say, hey, so and so's in town. We haven't seen him since college. Come meet us for a Drink. There's a decision there. It's either say yes to the friends and the drinks, which then makes you effectively say no to the dinner, the family, and the quality decision that you made to go exercise. So now you have your health and your family time that you had allocated as plants in your garden. And then this one impulsive yes shows up that if you jump on, if you take this, you are now saying no to the things that were valuable and important to you that night. And so in that impulsive moment, that's where the focus, that's where the mindfulness comes in, where you're like, oh, man, I would really love to see you guys, but I got stuff going on. It's a school night, man. I got to go. Maybe next time she's in town. And that no is uncomfortable socially. And impulsively, it's like, yeah, I want to see my friends. I'm going to go get some drinks and then eat some nachos and have a late night and get up and drink extra coffee and have to have a Danish the next day because the coffee made me all cracked out. Just go downstream on those two decisions. And look, if you miss your friends that much and you really need to see them, then maybe the answer is, okay, I'll go see them, but not weighing the consequences. And all the things that you had said to you were important and just saying yes to the friends. Yeah, that's also a reflection of focus, isn't it? And then it takes about a week to recover from that night, doesn't it? And then after that week, you've lost your focus, and it's easier and easier to keep saying yes to things that are more impulsive, that knock you off your perch. So it's really important to understand that the microcosm leads to the macrocosm. And what you're doing for 10 minutes on your cushion this morning will absolutely emanate and reflect into every aspect of your life. Just look at your life. Look at the chaos, look at the lack of focus, and understand that there's nobody responsible for that other than you. Good news. You're one breath away from turning that back inward. You're one breath away from retroflecting your energy, your time, all of your attention back into your priorities in life so that you can map out and choose the life that you want instead of tumble around in the white water getting the life that you get.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

Foreign.

Hello listeners, this is Anne Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I take all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately, and I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment. Whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything, you'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website what Should I read next podcast.com to find out more.