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[00:00:00] Hi everyone and welcome to Words of Wellness, the podcast for anyone interested in the ways we think, talk and write about wellness. Why do we use so many motifs like journeys, gardens, even battles when we talk about wellness? How do writers explain science and wellness concepts? How can we make sense of the wellness information overload we all face?

These are some of the questions we explore. I'm Daniel Anderson, and we're coming to you from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Today we have a research reporting episode. Our guests are developing research essays on wellness topics, and we'll share some of their wisdom. Joseph Chin will be speaking on the brain, physical health and discipline.

Adriana Vigil will look at sleep and [00:01:00] college age populations. Neil Patel will be talking about self-confidence in health. Lainey Grant will address heat-related fatalities for athletes, and Dar Shaw will look at the links between health and success. Let's get started. Hello everyone. We can, start with introducing ourselves and ~introducing ~what we wrote about.

I can start here. My name is Dar Sha. Welcome to our podcast, and I am writing about and going to speak about the link between health and success. My name's Adriana, and ~I'm going to, ~I'm going to be discussing the importance of sleep, especially in college students. My name is Laney Grant and I'll be discussing fatality in high school, heat stroke athletics.

My name is Neil, and I'll be, talking about the importance of self-confidence and how that affects her overall health. ~Yeah. ~I'm Joseph. I'm focusing, more on a ~niche. Oh, or I wouldn't say niche, ~part of the brain. And how ~physical things, specifically our ~physical health ~kind of ~[00:02:00] affects it.

~Awesome. ~Lane, congrats on winning yesterday. I saw that was huge. ~Thank you. ~Quick question for you. How do you balance staying active with a busy schedule and what strategies have worked the best for you? ~Yeah, obviously ~there's a lot to do in the day with college athletics ~in ~school and ~like ~social life ~and all that, ~so there's a lot to balance ~and I found.~

I have a lot of resources here as a student athlete ~in general ~to help me along with that. But I think the most simple ~and like cliche ~answer is ~like ~keeping a planner and ~like ~writing down my days ahead of time. Time management is really important and I feel as a college student, not just as an athlete, ~like ~you learn to really grow that skill once leave high school and you're more on your own and ~you ~don't have people helping you out as much.

So I would say just being smart about. Where you're choosing to spend your time and ~like ~eliminating those pockets where you're wasting hours, maybe scrolling on your phone or doing pointless things when you could be maximizing your time doing something more beneficial. Yeah, I'd love to redirect that question.

Everyone else here as well.

Just like keeping a schedule, what to do. Taking like [00:03:00] time outta my day to. At least do some sort of physical activity, whether that be ~like ~going on a walk or playing basketball or ~like ~working out. ~Just like ~making sure that I spend ~like ~a little bit of time every day ~and ~doing something that affects my physical health.

Yeah. So I know Laney mentioned maximizing your time. I want to tie that into what I'm gonna talk about. ~But ~before I get more into this specific part of the brain, ~I guess ~I can pivot to how it would affect, what Laney's talking about. ~And ~there's this concept called meta discipline, which is the highest form of discipline.

And it's basically saying that discipline isn't forcing yourself to do hard things. But rather creating systems where discipline choices becomes the default. So it's like what you're saying, where you're planning your day ahead of time, eliminating, that excess noise and just maximize your time, like how you would spend your day ahead of time.

But, I'm gonna talk about more, about the specific parts of the brain that affects, all of this, [00:04:00] later on. Yeah. I would say for me one thing would be, staying flexible. ~'cause ~even if ~we set these kinds of ~schedules ~that we might make for ourselves throughout the day ~to focus on our physical health and ~physical ~wellness.

We all know that things can happen that might affect, the ~block kind of ~schedule ~that ~we've made, prior. ~So I think just like ~being flexible with everything that may occur in the day is something ~that ~I prioritize ~and just realizing that ~just because not everything is going to plan doesn't mean I ~don't ~have to, let everything go.

~Yeah. Very interesting guys. ~Joseph, I'd love to learn a bit more about what you were saying there. I think your insights on discipline could be interesting to all of us. Yeah, of course. I just want to pivot back to Adriana for a second. I know she mentioned staying flexible. I wish. I absolutely agree with, I think flexibility is at the root of everything.

I clean neuroplasticity. ~Away from that. ~Flexibility to an, overt, extent is actually not very good. 'cause of three kind of reasons I've, been able to narrow it down to, through my individual podcast, being decision fatigue, glucose as fuel, and the finite resource model. ~So ~what do I mean by [00:05:00] that?

There's a part of our brain called the A MCC, which is like a muscle and, I can give an analogy ~to really be able ~to help ~you guys ~understand what it means. ~But ~it's ~essentially ~the part of your brain that's directly linked with your willpower, and you're able to develop it through deliberate, discomfort and challenges, ~however.~

It is a muscle, so it gets fatigued. ~And ~if you're overly flexible, meaning you make too many decisions, you can cause decision fatigue. ~And ~it also runs off a field from glucose. If you run outta the field, that's also not the best. ~Dha I'm gonna take it away for a second 'cause I think I'm talking too much about my topic.~

Yeah, you can go ahead and respond to that. ~Yeah, I think ~I think in terms of my answer, ~I think ~I was thinking more of like general, ~so ~I definitely agree. ~Like ~being too flexible, making decisions. I think with anything, if you, overthink it's gonna be ~like ~challenging.

But I think ~just ~as a general rule of thumb, just because, you might've slept in and oh, this messes up. Oh, I was gonna work out in the morning. Now this messes up, like my whole schedule, just being like, oh, you can you might've been going, you wanted, sorry, you ~might've ~wanted to go to the gym for an hour, ~but ~you can still go for ~I don't know, ~45 [00:06:00] minutes ~even ~if you woke up late.

So I think just like little things like that. Not super big, decisions that we'll be making that might affect. Super big aspects of your life. That's the kind of way I thought of it. Yeah, totally. I think your point about mental fatigue and decision fatigue is interesting, because a lot of the times we have to automate small decisions just because if you spend too much time, elaborating on those small decisions, you're not gonna have time for the ones that actually matter.

And so I think that does tie into ~an extent with ~not trying to be too flexible and think of a thousand different ways you can approach your problem. Whereas if you ~just ~automate several things in your life and ~then just ~focus on the things that really matter, that can mitigate ~the ~decision fatigue,

~I would like to say. ~Since you mentioned, ~speaking of ~fatigue, the topic I, talked about, in my audio essay was, getting enough sleep. So I wanted to ask you guys, ~what are some, like ~how does ~getting enough get ~not getting enough sleep affect you, especially in college, relating to your academic performance or ~just like ~your physical wellbeing overall?

If you have any experience with that. Yeah, of [00:07:00] course. Not to take it back to A MCC again, but I actually cover. How, poor sleep affects, this part of your brain, through my individual podcasts. ~But ~poor sleep reduces glucose availability, to the ~front ~prefrontal cortex and A MCC.

Right now, I am not, running on ~that ~much sleep. Therefore my glucose and my prefrontal cortex is pretty depleted, causing me to not really be able to form coherent thoughts. ~Material. ~I don't think it's ~like ~about the amount of sleep you get. I think it's more about ~like ~the quality of sleep.

Because through my personal experience, whenever I ~like ~get tired, and then I go to sleep, even if I ~get like ~sleep for five or six hours, I feel like a whole ~brand ~new person. Whereas if I'm ~like ~not tired and I ~get ~sleep for 10 hours, ~then it like wouldn't, but ~I still feel ~like ~groggy ~or something like that.~

~And then it also it through like personal experience as well. ~When I sleep on, ~like ~my bed at home, six and a half hours is good enough. Whereas ~I, ~in my dorm bed, I need nine hours, nine and a half till I get the same quality of sleep. So I don't think it's like the amount of time, I think it's about the quality of ~the ~sleep that you're getting.[00:08:00] 

Yeah, ~I think ~staying away from your devices ~as well ~and ~then just ~getting six hours of quality sleep rather than checking your phone every hour ~or two. That ~really changes a lot, ~especially ~if you're thinking, eight to 10 hours with your phone next to you. When you're checking notifications all the time, it's gonna be better than, the five, six hours you're getting when you're just constantly sleeping.

Yeah, ~I mean ~I think sleep is really an understated superpower for a lot of college students. It's not something that people prioritize 'cause you're going all day, and then you're laying in your bed and it's finally your time to relax for a bit and then, ~oh, ~you look at the clock and it's 2:00 AM ~But so I think that like ~for me personally, that can be a better discipline in my life because sleep isn't just about resting the mind.

It really recovers your body as well. ~Putting a prioritized, like ~prioritizing that aspect of my life, ~I think ~could, help me next year. And ~just ~for ~the remaining, like ~the remaining year, 

so one quick question for everyone here. What's one small habit you guys have adopted that has significantly improved your physical or mental wellbeing? ~Aside from just sleep. Yeah, ~I can start off here, ~but ~I'm pretty extensive on my, planning, ~as well, ~Lainey, but, something that I've really, subconsciously implemented is a time cushion for all of my events in the day.[00:09:00] 

So what that kind of cushion does for me is it counts for the ~like. ~Unaccountable, it allows me to still stick to my calendar, despite, the things that happen ~through our ~throughout the day, which I think has really, upped my game in terms of planning. One small habit that has improved my physical wellbeing is instead of taking the bus everywhere, I ~like ~walk a lot more now than I did ~like ~first semester.

So I get quality, downtime to process my thoughts as well as get physical exercise while walking ~to ~everywhere I go. ~I would say ~one small habit would be, you guys probably see me in class, ~like ~drinking water. ~So I think just staying hydrated. ~I just feel like ~when I do, ~when I'm not, ~keeping up with ~staying hydrated, ~I guess I feel like ~my brain is less, active.

~So ~that's one thing that ~I think ~has helped ~me. I would say for ~me something that's helped my physical health is ~like ~planning my meals and ~like ~cooking ~a lot ~more ~and ~trying to stay away from eating out. It's really easy to ~just ~revert back to that after a long day and just go pick up some food.

But planning before every week starts the meals that I'm gonna cook and make in the dorms has really helped me.[00:10:00] 

Yeah, very interesting. I think for me it's been just the fact that no matter what time it is, I'll make time to go to the gym. I'll have a mental block in my head, and I think that just sets the discipline from early on in the day that I know I'm gonna do something that I'll enjoy at the end of the day.

I think that will, in the long run, especially help my physical health. And what's you guys' take on like modern technologies. When it comes to ~these ~mental and physical health, do you ~guys ~think they're really helping ~you guys ~or are you ~guys ~trying to stray away from them? For me, I would say definitely stray away.

Especially in my topic of sleep. You touched on it a little bit, darsh with the ~kind of blue light, like in ~use of screen technology before bed, but, using such devices and we're so exposed to like digital devices in this blue, in blue light in general. 'cause of the digital assignments we have in school.

~But ~it really affects ~your, like ~the melatonin protection that we get, impacting, ~like basically ~getting you sleepy. Overuse of ~like ~technology in general, can be very detrimental to setting a sleep schedule or ~just like ~feeling [00:11:00] tired in general. ~And basically ~when you wake up the next morning, because you couldn't go to bed till 3:00 AM you're gonna feel horrible.

~So I would definitely say ~technology has a big impact on the topic of sleep for sure. ~I feel that ~it ~like, ~depends on ~like ~how you're using it per se. In my personal experience, I use like the website to develop like workout plans. I use like TikTok to see like what other people are doing in terms of like physical wellness and things.

And then ~I feel like. ~It can also be ~like ~negative because someone might ~just ~give you the wrong advice completely and it's not gonna help you with, with the cost benefit ratio is not there whenever you're like spending as much time with something that's not helping you. And then for ~like ~mental wellness, I think it's like bad 'cause you're always gonna be like comparing yourself to other people.

When you ~like ~look at social media ~and ~you ~were, ~think of yourself as ~like ~inadequate.

I think I actually have a, ~I guess ~more, ~I guess ~cold take. ~Is it cold or hot take? I don't know you guys judge, but ~I think that this entire topic is over [00:12:00] overt, stigmatized, I think that we can do a lot from shifting away from this and accepting that technology is the future.

And how we are going to best implement it into our lives. I know you guys are mentioning ~a ~straying away from technology. I really don't think that it's gonna be fus, feasible like in five or maybe even, or 10 to even five years. And, I think right now, what we should like really be doing is just how we can maximize, like everything.

~Like ~using what we ~like ~know is gonna be the future. ~I would say I agree with that in a way. ~I see it from the lens of the type of technology that my team in particular uses to help us with our physical wellness, like low tracking, injury prevention, recovery tools, heart rate monitors, ~all those things.~

It's such a normalized part of my daily routine that I couldn't imagine doing it without it. ~But ~I ~do ~agree ~that ~it's all about ~how you're using it, like ~how much you're using it. If it's having a negative effect on you, then just simply [00:13:00] take it outta your life. But. I would say for me, ~like ~the technology for physical wellness is very normalized and ~it's ~constant.

I'm constantly dealing with it, I also agree with you're a hot take that like, we can't get like rid of technology in our daily lives because ~like nowadays ~it's so ingrained in everything we do. We're using these ~like ~laptops right now to generate what we do every day for our assignments of.

For learning tools. So I don't think we can stray away from it. We have to ~like ~better implement the tools, like you said. ~Yeah, ~I think we can definitely take technology in a lot of places in our lives, and leverage it with a grain of salt. But I also think that when you're speaking in terms of your wellness and.

A lot of the times wellness for a lot of people and your parents probably told you it's 'cause of that damn phone. A lot of the times it is. ~And like ~no matter what aspect of, wellness, it might be a lot of the times it's better to just stray away from it at an extent.

I do agree though, at like [00:14:00] most levels ~and aspects ~of your life professionally, career wise, and ~even like ~with your relationships, a lot of the times it's pretty mandatory. ~And ~new technology's gonna make it even more mandatory. But from a wellness standpoint, a lot of the times it might be better, but ~again, ~that can be very nuanced.

~Yeah. And ~I just want to throw this out there ~maybe ~for a thought. ~So I don't really hear you guys' take on it, but ~do you think, I mentioned that maximizing like use of technology that our time like in college and just like throughout the next couple years is gonna be about, like having.

Like the mo, like the highest baseline ~we can to be able ~to, interact with these ~kinds of ~technologies. ~And ~what I mean ~by that ~is just, still engaging in these like mentally exhausting, like things so that you have a stronger baseline in terms of what you're thinking at.

~And once like it's ~once it compounds over a couple years, you're really able to ~like just ~reap the rewards through interacting with ~what ~technology ~would be done? I don't know just interesting thought. ~Could you give an example of what you mean by baseline ~and like ~in the context of this question?

Yeah, understand. Say a middle school person and a [00:15:00] high school person, both uses chat, GBT for their school assignments. I feel like a high school person with that stronger baseline, meaning they have more ~just ~knowledge into what kind of prompts to use, ~like ~what, ~i, not to throw this out there, but ~society is looking for and ~like ~what their expectations are going to be.

~And ~it's a very iterative process, right? A high school person's all also going to be able to, get better feedback on whatever they're trying to prompt, because they're gonna have more, awareness and ~just ~know how to get more information out of whatever is available to them.

Meaning that they're more ~re ~resourceful. ~And ~do you think that, for the next couple of years, it's just ~gonna be ~gonna be about us maximizing our abilities to be as ~re ~resourceful as possible, if not for the rest of our lives? I think, yeah, for sure. As technology progresses, I think younger people are going to begin to, use that technology.

~Just, ~I think it's a part of ~like ~human nature, for us to take advantage of things that make, [00:16:00] tasks ~that are given to us or whatever may be ~easier. So I definitely think that it will ~be, ~become, more relevant, to our daily lives, but I think that ~we shouldn't really. ~We should try, at least for our younger generations, to not introduce them to ~this sort, at least in the terms of ~generative ~ai.~

Not, we should try our best to not introduce them to things like chat GBT or other like generative, devices early on, just so they can have that, ~like what you mentioned before, ~baseline ~of ~knowing ~what would ~the best prompt to use to input to ~the center of ~an AI source or just so that they have more, avail availability.

Availability to think on their own. Because there may be a time where they might lose their technology, they may not be able to think for themselves. And if we constantly keep on, if we constantly, rely on the technology, there's gonna become a point where we don't have our own thoughts, we don't have our own, problem solving skills.

So I think it's important to set barriers of, I think especially in college, there's certain classes where we, there is these sort of barriers put in place, but in general I think it's important to set barriers of when is it okay to use such [00:17:00] sources and how does it affect the learning that we're doing basically.

~I dunno if you guys have any thoughts on that. ~I think that the willingness to adapt and to learn, ~I think that in general ~at the very least for my, script and what I wrote about was fatality in high school football in particular due to heat stroke. ~And ~a lot of the reason why there continues to be two to three consistent deaths a year in high school is because people are unwilling to change how they used to go about pushing players and practices.

So I think that can connect to the willingness ~to, ~for human nature to ~yes, we're gonna ~adapt, but there is ~like ~a ~little ~bit of pushback on ai. ~Like ~you see it ~like there's ~in the different generations how some people really support it and they're like, this is great. And then other people are like, ~wow, ~this is gonna ~like ~completely end.

~Like kinda ~what you were thinking and ~like ~what you were saying. And I think that it's ~just ~interesting to see the dynamic between ~that. And I think ~that. As we continue to learn and as time passes, we'll see that smooth out a bit, and I hope that can translate to other things and willingness to adapt and to learn and to use the resources that we have, like generative AI and [00:18:00] other technologies to improve physical wellness, to keep athletes safe and to keep, learning and growing in fields and things that we can continue to improve on.

~Yeah. ~Joseph, I think you brought up an interesting point about how as we progress like sole kind of goal of a lot of our lives is going to be to ~effectively ~achieve as much as we can in a short period of time. ~I think that's interesting. ~I think that ~really ~ties into one of the quotes I mentioned during my podcast.

I know he went over it as a class, but, I can ~kinda ~repeat it ~again. ~It's ~like ~a Steve Jobs quote. ~It says, ~he says that. At the end of his life, ~right ~when he is on his deathbed, I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others' eyes, my life is the epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy in the end.

Wealth is only a fact of life that I'm accustomed to at this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realized that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of impeding death. I'd love you guys', like thoughts on that quote, like [00:19:00] how it maybe applies to your ~guys' ~life, if you ~guys ~are being mindful, in the long run.

~Of course it's a lot more deep than it might seem when you guys are 18 years old and a lot more naive than you will be when you're gonna be 40, 50 years later down the line. Yeah. So going back to the Steve Jobs quote, ~I find it ~like ~interesting how ~like ~the creator of Apple, 

overworked himself to the point where he had no joy in life. ~But ~it ~like ~shows us that like this, like materialistic society that we live in. It's not like the end all be all. There are other things that are ~like ~more important than just ~like ~gaining wealth ~and ~we should prioritize. Sure, ~like ~money is important to get the things we want, but ~like ~at a certain point ~we, ~when we have enough, we can just go on and ~live, live life, ~live our lives ~like ~happily.

And we should prioritize spending our time on the things that we enjoy instead of just ~like ~doing it for the money or for the work. This quote reminds me ~I guess basically ~what he's saying is we all hear it before we all, we've all heard it before is money equal to happiness?

Or something along that lines. And I think it really depends on your background and where you come from. ~'cause obviously ~if you're already, in ~a, like ~a stable place of income, it's ~really ~easy to say that, money doesn't affect, happiness levels. But if we look at very ~like ~poor communities that have, less [00:20:00] access to things like medical care ~or like ~clothing or food, ~just in general, ~you're obviously gonna be.

Happier if you have ~such like ~basic necessities, which are made possible through having ~this sort of ~income. But, I think it ~just ~depends on ~like ~the level ~that ~you start at. Obviously if you're having so much money, come in, and it's would I do with my life now?

I can do literally whatever I want. ~Like ~how can I challenge myself? ~I would say ~if I were ~ever ~to reach that point, I would say, how can I challenge myself mentally, ~because. ~Obviously, ~I think ~a lot of people in this life, it's all about money, which makes sense, ~like thinking about nowadays ~because money does make the world go round.

~But ~I think it's a very hard question to answer in one way, but that's just my thoughts ~of it. ~It really ~just ~depends on ~like ~where you start originally, ~yeah, I would. ~I would disagree in the fact that I don't think ~that ~it's just necessarily about money for him. I think ~that ~he was in the pursuit of being the best in the business, and I think that's what drove him to the point where he couldn't think ~or.~

Of anything else other than his business and being the best. ~And ~you get in these phases where your goals are everything to you. ~And like ~you put your head down and you work and you look up and ~you ~realize how far you've gotten. And ~then you look up and you realize ~how [00:21:00] small your circle is.

~And I think that. ~Maybe that's something that he went through ~in that aspect of it and sure, like ~obviously he wanted to make money and live a comfortable life, but ~I think that ~for somebody who experienced so much success, it wasn't even about that. It was about cementing a legacy as being one of the most successful to ever do it.

I think that's a double-edged sword that like people who are on pursuit of greatness have to juggle. Yeah. Yeah. I actually a pretty funny, anecdote with Steve Jobs, ~but ~it's ~actually ~said that Steve Jobs wears the same turtleneck every day to minimize his decision fatigue so that he can, maximize himself as an individual.

Crazy. ~Yeah, I think. ~I think I've heard the anecdote from both of you guys quite a bit, where when you start at a lower point, you're gonna want to push to get higher, but once you reach a certain point, it just gets to a point of, like you said, just putting your head down and depends how much you want it, if you really want it, you're gonna put your head down and make it happen and realize that, you got lost in the sauce and ~you ~just wanted to keep going. Whereas a lot of people, they might start at a certain point where. Once they [00:22:00] become consent, they realize that the people that helped them get to that point, they wanna share their wealth with, and they can take a step back, value their relationships, value their health.

~And so ~it just boils down to a balance. ~Yeah. Yeah, I think ~balance is definitely important. It's ~definitely ~really easy to get caught up, in everything except for the social aspects of our, college lives. I was crashing out with Darsh last week during one of our pitch con meetings late night on the B school.

I, I realized that I really didn't have a close group of friends, ~necessarily ~around me, and that I ~really ~needed to make an effort, ~of that sort ~to have more friends. ~So yeah, ~balance is super important, guys.

It's okay. We'll be your friends. Yes. ~Yeah, it's ~I think if I take one thing away from the podcast, ~it's just ~I'll have you guys as my friends ~Yes. ~Forever. Don't worry. ~Yeah. I think ~social interaction ~is definitely, ~and having these sorts of relationships in college or just in general is ~definitely ~crucial to ~like, ~having, ~good physical or ~good physical and mental, definitely mental, wellness because, having relationships like that give us [00:23:00] people that we can talk to if we're having difficulties ~or just.~

~It's always helpful to have someone to listen or to just be a lending lending or, sorry. Yeah, like a, I forgot the word guys, but just, ~it's always helpful to have someone listen, and, be there for you for sure. ~So ~I definitely agree. I definitely relate. ~Yeah. ~Thank you all for taking us through those topics.

I appreciate the wisdom ~that has been ~offered about how success can take many different forms and the need to prioritize. Thanks to Darsh, Adriana, Lainey, Neil and Joseph, and thanks to our listeners, stay tuned for another episode of Words of Wellness.