Speak Up

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First Day of Eid for my Muslim friends. I went out in the morning to run an errand. It wasn’t 10am yet and the neighborhood kids were out in the street in groups, dressed up so nicely in their Eid clothes, sisters matching and sometimes not. I was happy for them and the day they have ahead.

Then, my heart clenched.

Kids not 3 hours far from me, woke up to destruction of their homes and a missing parent or sibling. The last day of the holy month of Ramadan was the day when they were supposed to be eagerly waiting for Eid. Instead, Palestinian kids in Gaza witnessed traumatic fear and agony that no kids ever have to go through.

This has to stop. What’s happening to our brothers and sisters in Palestine is inhumane. Please spread the word.

#SaveSheikhJarrah #GazaUnderAttack #FreePalestine

Speak Up

Seed Cycling

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I have shared the below recipe with more women than I can remember since I first read it in the eye-opening book Period Power by Maisie Hill which demystified the impact of hormones on my body and helped me honor it and respect its power. This is the seed cycling recipe to manage our hormones during the menstrual cycle. It helped me regulate my own cycle and minimize some physical and emotional symptoms I have before every period and also improve the health of my hair and the strength and length of my nails. Share this with all the women you know and start now.

“In the follicular phase of your cycle (days 1–14 of a 28-day cycle), or from new moon to full moon if you’re not currently menstruating, eat 2–4 tbsps of both ground flax seeds and pumpkin seeds per day to gently and naturally increase oestrogen levels. Pumpkin seeds are high in zinc which supports progesterone production and release in the second phase of your cycle.

In the luteal phase of your cycle (days 15–28), or from full moon to dark moon, eat 2–4 tbsps of both sesame seeds and sunflower seeds per day. The zinc in sesame seeds and the vitamin E in sunflower seeds both help stimulate the production of progesterone. The lignans in sesame seeds help to block excess oestrogen, and sunflower seeds provide selenium which assists the liver in its detoxification role and improve overall hormonal health.”

“Buy whole organic seeds and use a coffee or spice grinder to get a powder which you can add to porridge, soups, salads and smoothies. Or just eat them whole if you prefer. You can grind enough for the week ahead and store them in the freezer. Stay clear of pre-ground seeds as they oxidise rapidly and go rancid. You might experience a change in your cycle within the first month of seed cycling, but it usually takes 3–4 cycles to see a noticeable difference because that’s how long it takes for a follicle to mature and be released at ovulation.”

Source: Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working For You by Maisie Hill

Seed Cycling

New superpower

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I read a lot, however, I noticed that since starting writing here daily I have been reading differently. I am noticing the various writing styles and the expressions used so much more. I re-read sentences just to take in how clearly and concisely they were written. It is as if I am acquiring a new superpower, a new set of eyes. What a treat.

New superpower

The Key to your happiness

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When my husband and I were on the 9-hour flight back from our far east honeymoon, I got tired of watching movies so I decided to listen to an audiobook. It was The Mastery of Love: A Practical Guide to the Art of Relationship by Don Miguel Ruiz. It taught me that when we go into relationships, we usually give the key to our happiness to our new partners: “Here it is, it is now up to you. My happiness and misery are all in your hands.” But, that is the biggest lie we have believed based on the movies we watched and the fairytales we grew up reading. Nothing outside of us holds the key to our happiness. It’s too much of a responsibility, a burden even, to give to anyone.

Can you feel the irony of me learning about this as a new bride? The message was so loud and clear that it made me understand why it was so easy for me to get disappointed by my unrealistic and unmet expectations of what new husbands should and shouldn’t do. It was hard to hear, yet liberating.

The timing, in fact, always amazed me. It could not be any more perfect. This lesson was the wedding gift I needed to integrate as we were about to start our new life together.

The Key to your happiness

Delightful Encounters

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It feels like stumbling on a treasure to me whenever I find interviews where my most favorite authors talk to each other, it’s like: “I knew it! They DO know and like each other and life makes sense and my interests are so cohesive”. I actually squealed with excitement when I first saw the recording of the LIVE interview of Seth Godin with Martha Beck for her new book (The Way of Integrity). I always wondered if Seth and Martha knew each other and they did (imagine my excitement if I watched it in real time).

Another collaboration I enjoyed listening to and learning from last week, although done in 2019, is between my heroes Cal Newport and James Clear who continue to inspire me every single day including my latest podcast content.

One more brand new collaboration I highly recommend you go check out is the virtual book launch with the fantastic authors Jon Acuff and Greg McKeown about their just released books (Soundtracks and Effortless). As I mentioned in previous posts, I am reading them both and finding them beautifully complementing each other. Yesterday’s post was actually how they started this conversation and I had no idea they did until I listened to it this morning.

I also smiled when Greg said that going past episode 20 in your podcast is a huge success that only about 10% of podcasts achieve, others quit before.

I am about to launch my 25th episode.

So cool.

Delightful Encounters

Light & Easy

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“Imagine if the hardest thing you have to do at your job was light and easy. Instead of dreading the year-end report you prepare for the leadership team, what if it felt light and easy? What if the budget you had to present at the sales conference was light and easy? What if standing on the scale was light and easy? What if the parent-teacher meeting for your high schooler was light and easy? Take anything challenging in your life and think what would happen if you retired the frustration you have about it and instead replaced it with a soundtrack that said “light and easy.” I scribbled those three words on a Post-it note and stuck it on the window I look out every day at my desk. From here on out, the writing process was going to be light and easy. That was the new soundtrack I was going to listen to.“
~Jon Acuff, Soundtracks:The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

I am really enjoying listening to this book, Jon is so funny too. I love this part about Light & Easy and thought I would use it to make today’s post easy.

Go read this book, especially if you are an overthinker. Even if you are not. It will give amazing mantras that you can tell yourself to move upward in life.

Light & Easy

Morning Flow

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I spent 90 minutes this morning preparing, almost studying, the notes for my new podcast episode about Atomic habits (the part about the 3rd law of habit formation). While doing that, I opened the webcam of my laptop and recorded a video of myself. In the video, I said: “Remember Bardees, how perfect you feel right now.”

I made this video as a documentation of the flow state I was in while researching and studying to share knowledge and my own experience in the podcast, which I spent 60 minutes recording afterwards (including few interruptions here and there).

It’s good to rediscover what we’re good at and enjoy doing for hours at a time. It’s so rewarding to do deep work and get to experience flow.

When was the last time you experienced flow?

Morning Flow

Work Desk Must haves

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Yesterday I shared about my whiteboard, a key element in my office that inspires me.

Today, I will share what I also keep at my desk in front of me at all times:

On cardboard paper:

  • My Work Goals for the quarter (it’s very important to keep your goals visible)
  • My work affirmations (added just recently).
    • I am committed to being a leader, an initiator, an over-communicator and fast deliverer at my job.
    • I am committed to getting better and better at my job.
    • I am committed to communicating clearly and effectively.
    • I am committed to giving generously to others, the more I give, the more I receive and the happier I feel.
    • I am committed to expanding in abundance, success and love and inspiring others to do the same

On post-it notes:

  • My mantra of the Year: Practice Focused Attention. Maybe I need to rephrase into a question: Are you practicing focused attention? Much more powerful, no?
  • My workday startup ritual steps, including the check-in questions.
  • My workday shutdown ritual steps, including the check-out questions.

Since writing my ritual steps on post-its last month I’ve been committing to them more. In addition, I set an alarm 30 minutes before workday end to remind me to start my shutdown ritual and leave on time.

I hope you find this helpful to you.

Snapshot from my work desk showing some of the above

Work Desk Must haves

Whiteboard Love

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What’s the most important thing I need to do today?

This is a wonderful question that keeps me focused. I wrote it in on the whiteboard in my office right in front of my desk. I will keep it there for a while until I need to change it again when it gets blended with the environment.

The first thing I asked for when I started my current job three years ago is a whiteboard to write inspiring quotes or questions on, like I had done in my previous job. Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I thought how grateful I really am for this space I am inhabiting 8 hours a day. It’s the first office I have with a door, a whiteboard and an evergreen plant.

I never wrote a To-Do list on my whiteboard. I have my planner for that. My whiteboard is to inspire me and whoever passes by my office or checks my social media.

In fact, my early Instagram feed was photos of my whiteboard quotes, not always taken in the highest quality, but always motivating and never boring quotes like this and this and this

I also kept all the quotes I picked and wrote on my whiteboards throughout the years in a Google doc so I wouldn’t repeat one by mistake. When I started this job, this doc came in handy as I referred to it to write quotes again.

What’s on your whiteboard?

Whiteboard Love

Power Hour for Nagging Tasks

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When I read Better than Before book by Gretchen Rubin, I learned so many helpful tips and tricks, one of them is Power Hour for nagging tasks and this is how she defines them:

With this hour, I’d tackle only tasks where I had no deadline, no accountability, no pressure—because these were the tasks that weren’t getting addressed. That’s another Secret of Adulthood: Something that can be done at any time is often done at no time.
-Gretchen Rubin

According to Getting Things Done book, if a task takes less than 2 minutes do it now. If it takes more, write it down to free up mental space and have the list accessible to you to use whenever you have some time free time or for your weekly power hour. Gretchen downsized this rule in her one-minute rule in her book The Happiness Project.

Sometimes I have no idea how long a nagging task would take, so I use a stopwatch to time it and find out and most probably laugh at myself afterwards for all the times I felt burdened by it.

A recent example is when I wanted to add a subscription option to my blog but didn’t know how, so I set the stopwatch. It only took me 10 minutes to make it happen and I felt lighter after.

Another tip is that you can set a timer and decide beforehand that if the time is up and the task is not complete yet it is perfectly ok to stop the task too, or, if you get some momentum going, keep at it until it is complete.

Celebrate the progress either way.

Power Hour for Nagging Tasks