The Better Show
Better Look Back Vol. 5 - Dreams & Resolutions
Episode Summary
We look back on how our experiments in dreaming & New Year's resolutions have gone. We'll discuss what worked, what didn't, and what new tips & strategies we learned.
Episode Notes
In this episode Ian, Darren & March continue the Better Look Back series. We reflect on our personal experiments with how to be better gift-givers and how to improve our relationships. We had a lot of successes to report on in this episode, but we also share some things that didn’t work out as planned. Finally, we feature a few new things we’ve discovered since our original episodes covering these topics. Lot’s a good stuff in this episode, including:
Show Notes
- 2:02 —Darren shares his review of two apps that offer tools to help induce lucid dreams: the Lucidity app and the Awoken app
- 4:27—We discuss the concept of a totem sound and explain how using that feature within the apps can help you “awaken” within a dream to enter a lucid state.
- 6:14 —Darren shares his conclusion that because of the time and attention required to experiment with lucid dreaming, these apps are best suited for the committed lucid dream enthusiast and are probably not the best for people only casually interested in lucid dreaming.
- 8:44 —Ian questions the practicality of lucid dreaming as a tool for self- improvement
- 10:09 —Darren notes some research that suggests that lucid dreaming can be helpful for treating PTSD and enhancing one’s creativity but acknowledges that the scientific results are still very preliminary.
- 11:59 —March drops the term “psychonaut” and notes some similarities between the clinical applications of lucid dreaming and virtual reality.
- 14:12 —March shares his experience trying out the M.I.L.D technique.
- 17:12 —March introduces the term “hypnogogic state”
- 18:07 —Ian gives his review of the book Lucid Dreams in 30 Days by Keith Harary and Pamela Weintraub and describes being a little frustrated at not being able to experience a lot of results from his dreaming experiments.
- 21:11— Ian shares the things he’s learned from using the Aura ring and measuring the quality and quantity of his sleep.
- 22:23 —Ian found that sleeping on his back in “tree pose” made a huge difference in the quality of his sleep. He’s been able to get quality deep sleep 5–6 days each week now.
- 25:07 —Ian’s feeling the results from better sleep in the form of much more effective workouts and more energy in the mornings.
- 26:36 —Darren shares the method that Thomas Edison used to use sleep to help boost his creativity.
- 29:45 —We jump into our experiments with New Years Resolutions and Darren kicks it off with a report on how he’s doing with the goal of losing a little weight this year.
- 31:05 —Darren shares insight from his doctor that the way you treat yourself in your 30s, 40s, and 50s will dictate the quality of your life in your 60s, 70s, and 80s.
- 32:27 —Ian taunts Darren with the temptation of delicious chocolate chip cookies 🍪 and Darren feels the need to excuse himself briefly to grab something from the kitchen. 😃
- 33:15 —It continues to go bad for Darren as Ian outs him for hiding his secret stash of cookies 🍪🍪 from his wife.
- 34:00 —Darren describes the new food rules that have helped him maintain a healthy moderation in his diet. He makes distinctions between routine meals and meals for pleasure or celebration and treats them separately.
- 36:34 —March notes how remarkable it would be if Darren were to eat 156 cookies this year and still lose 15 pounds and Ian suggests that as a headline to a future Better Show blog post.
- 37:00 —We hear about March’s wife, Kristen’s love of chocolate and how she used a trick to moderate the amount of chocolate she eats.
- 38:20 —March describes Gretchen Rubin’s concept of “moderators” vs “abstainers” and notes that he falls into the abstainer category.
- 39:39 —We learn about March’s secret addiction: gummy bears. 🐻🍬The man can literally consume pounds of the little creatures.
- 40:35— Ian suggests an experiment in the name of science where we put a 5 pound bag of gummy bears in front of March and see what happens.
- 42:24 —March shares his method of total abstinence from gummy bears in order to stay on his Keto diet.
- 42:32 —We marvel at March’s ability to maintain a Keto diet for as long as he has.
- 45:31 —March describes the different profiles in Gretchen Rubin’s quiz for how people relate to expectations: The Obliger, The Rebel, The Questioner, and The Upholder.
- 50:35 —We each take Gretchen Rubin’s quiz to find out how each of us relate to expectations.
- 50:47 —Ian reveals that he is a majority Questioner followed by Upholder which March and Darren believe is spot-on.
- 52:38 —March is a majority Obliger followed by Upholder which he thinks makes sense as he recognizes that he’s a bit of a people-pleaser.
- 55:08 —Darren scored a majority Questioner and was an equal mix between Upholder and Obliger.
- 56:27 —Ian notes that strangely, we all scored the exact same level on the Upholder scale.
- 57:53 —Gretchen’s advice about how to use the scores is not to try to change yourself but to recognize your natural tendencies and use them as strengths.
- 1:00:03 —March shares his progress on his New Year’s Resolution to write 30 minutes per day.
- 1:02:11 —Ian shares his progress on journaling each day and notes that he is more effective at writing when he allocates time in the evenings instead of trying to write in the mornings.
- 1:04:03 —March is continuing to journal using the 5-Minute Journal and has incorporated it into his morning routine now.
- 1:05:04 —For Darren the 5-Minute Journal is an on-and-off routine but he loves what effect it has had on his mental habits at the beginning of the day.
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