Practices to increase your wellbeing; handpicked by Dr Andrew Huberman

I’m not going to include much of a pre-amble. You are here because you know making small tweaks to your day can make a big difference to how you show up for your life.

There are a plethora of things we can do to increase our level of wellbeing, these are 10 protocols Dr Andrew Huberman is suggesting would give you a good bang for your buck:

1. Light exposure - 10 mins a day

2. Breathing exercises

3. Exercise – Zone 2

4. Dim lights before bed

5. Strength training

6. Fasting

7. Hypnosis

8. Essential Fatty Acids

9. Contrast hydrotherapy

10. Caffeine intake

Here they are explained in further detail:

1. Light is the primary way to set your body clock and be in tune with your circadian rhythm.

So one of the most effective things you can do to assist your level of flourishing is to expose your eyes to light for 10 mins within the first 30 mins upon waking.

Light needs to get into your eyes, so take off those sunglasses first thing in the morning. If you are up before the sun, artificial light is fine and just get out into the sunshine as soon as you can.

2. Your breath is your life source.

No surprises here but we don’t always breathe in a way that is most helpful to our wellbeing. To get the most out of our breath, we need to control it. As breathing is controlled by our diaphragm and intercostal muscles (muscles between our ribs), we need to learn how to engage them properly.

When inhaling, focus on expanding your lungs and notice how your diaphragm goes down. When exhaling, focus on contracting your lungs and notice how your diaphragm comes up.

How do we optimise our breath?  Aim for completing a 5 minute breathing exercise each day or take 5 minutes at least three days a week to build direct and deliberate control of breathing.

Options for exercises:

a. Emphasise the inhale - Inhale for 8 counts and exhale for 4 counts

b. Emphasise the exhale – Exhale for 8 counts and inhale for 4 counts

c. Both inhalation and exhalation is equal - box breathing. Inhale for 4 counts, pause for 4, exhale for 4, pause for 4 and repeat 4 times.

 3. Exercise

Ensure you do 150- 180 minutes of Zone 2 exercise per week. Exercise physiologists divide exercise efforts into “zones” – there are 5 heart rate (HR) “zones” based on a percentage of maximum HR.

Zone 2 is generally recognized as 60% to 70% of HR max. At this pace you should be able to hold a conversation easily but not necessarily sing a power ballad. For me, this looks like a couple of runs and a couple of fast paced walks per week.

 4. Dim lights

Get romantic, turn off screens and turn down the lights. No bright lights between 10 pm – 4 pm. Bright lights during this time blunts the amount of dopamine released (the chemical that helps us seek reward, our motivation chemical).

 5. Strength and hypertrophy

•   Strength training boosts energy levels and improves your mood.

Strength training will elevate your level of endorphins (natural opiates produced by the brain), which lift energy levels and improve mood and there’s evidence strength training may help you sleep better, too.

Other reasons why strength training is a winner:

•  Strength training makes you stronger and fitter

• Strength training protects bone health and muscle mass

• Strength training helps you develop better body mechanics – like balance

• Strength training can help with chronic disease management

• Strength training translates to more calories burned

• Strength training has cardiovascular health benefits.

 6. Intermittent Fasting

When we eat is as important as what or how much we eat. According to Dr Satchin Panda’s research, we need to eat within a 10-12 hour time frame. Here’s why:

Every organ and even every cell in our body has a circadian or 24-hour clock. This means these organs and cells have times of the day when they are active and when they must rest and rejuvenate.

If we don’t sleep, our brain does not get to clean out the toxins built up from the day and we develop ill mental health. If we eat within a pro-longed 15 hour time frame, meaning our first bite of food is at 7am and our last sip of wine at 10pm, we are not allowing our gut to rejuvenate and we are letting ourselves become susceptible to a variety of diseases.

If we choose to ensure our daily habits of eating and sleeping sustains our circadian rhythms, we will see the health benefits.

It is recommended we aim to fast for 12-16 hours per every 24 hour cycles. A great book for further detail on this (recommended by Dr Huberman) is ‘Warrior Diet’ by Ori Hofmekler.

I’d like to add the caveat that the fasting experience is different for everybody and you need to start slowly. I encourage the collaboration with an accredited nutritionist or dietitian for the safest and most tailored approach to your fasting.  

 7. Hypnosis

Controversial I know, but as a qualified hypnotherapist (from years ago, I am not currently practising), I would always skill the client up with the ability to come out of hypnosis at any time they wished during their treatment. I think this is an essential part of the therapy.  Hypnosis will only work if you are open to the suggestions it offers, if you remain closed and sceptical it won’t work, rest assure no one can make you be hypnotised, you accept the suggestion to experience hypnosis.

Non-sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) is hypnosis, (you can google this in YouTube) is a science supported tool for de-stress and relaxation. Brain scans show that hypnosis activates areas of the brain that enhances focus and relaxation. A free App that Huberman recommends is, ‘Reverie’. I listen to Reverie before I sleep and it has (among other good habits) been a helpful addition to my sleep routine.

 8. Essential Fatty Acids

Ensure you have 1000 mg of EPA – essential fatty acids. I’m not a nutritionist or dietitian so I encourage you work with a professional and achieve this through a quality and diverse diet. If you have specific restrictions in your diet, I again urge you to seek professional support to ensure you are getting this nutrient or the nutrients your specific body needs.

 9. Contrast hydrotherapy

This involves an alternating hot and cold water treatment. Different water temperatures affects your blood vessels and how fast your heart beats. These circulatory changes can help relieve various injury symptoms and reduce post-exercise fatigue for example.

In one session aim for:

• 20 mins heat

• 10 mins cold

• 20 min heat

 10. Caffeine

Delay caffeine for the first 90 mins – 2 hours after waking. This helps you avoid the afternoon slump.

Why do we slump? Adenosine, in normal conditions promotes sleep and suppresses arousal. During the day, the levels of adenosine in the brain rise each hour. If you have caffeine, the caffeine molecule blocks adenosine from attaching to its receptors in the brain. Adenosine continues to build in the brain and once the caffeine wears off, the adenosine floods the brain’s receptors…hence the slump. Because of the adenosine dump, we think it’s time for sleep. Apparently delaying my coffee in the morning will make a difference…I’m yet to experiment with this. Let me know how you go if you choose to do this one.

Remember focus on one of these tips that is possible for you in your life at the moment.

Start small, do it consistently and over time you’ll notice a big difference.

I only ask that you focus on doing just one of these things to start with. That you allow yourself to fail, learn from it, make adjustments and give it another go.