A lack of sleep is damaging more than just your health

If you want to give the best to those you love, you might want to cut off that House Hunters marathon a bit earlier.

It can’t be understated how critical quality sleep is to your overall health and wellness. But it can go deeper than that. A lack of quality sleep can have a profoundly negative impact on your relationships.

If you’re not at your best, you can't expect to give your best, and you need to make sleep a priority.

What Happens When You Get Poor Quality Sleep?

When you deprive yourself of quality sleep, your health suffers. Insufficient sleep causes a rise in stress hormones in your body. These stress hormones are not only damaging your health, they are affecting your mood, patience, and even your empathy. …

Tip #2. Be aware of the power of the breath

Where would you say your stress levels are on a 1–10 scale? Where would you want them to be?

The important thing to remember is you will never fully eliminate stress — it’s about managing it as best you can. But how do you manage what feels like never-ending levels of it?

This is a quick look at the damage stress causes, and a few ways to manage it better.

What Happens When Stress Gets Out of Control?

Stress could be called the silent killer. A little is alright for you, but chronic long-term stress may be destroying your health.

We need stress to survive. It’s critical for jumping out of the way of a speeding car. Brief bursts are ok, long-term — not so much. The problem is, your body doesn’t know the difference between real stress and perceived stress. …

Switch up your morning routine for better output and creativity

You have my respect. If you are the type of person able to get up and write first thing; I commend you. I just don’t have the mental capacity to put down anything coherent early in the morning — and I’ve learned to wait until later.

All great content starts with writing. For business, it’s the cornerstone. Blogs, copy, sales pages, email newsletters, even social media depend on the writing. Writing needs to be the most important part of your day — but should you do it first thing like many say?

My morning involves either a workout, run, bike ride, or just a walk. The activity is obviously important for physical health — but I do it just as much for creative inspiration. I use 9–11 am to get errands done and exercise. I like to write around 11:30 as I feel the creative juices from the activity have begun to flow. …

No other special better captures tradition, love, and family

What’s your favorite Christmas movie ever? What about your favorite Christmas special? What if I told you that 1987’s “A Muppet Family Christmas” surpasses them all?

With all due respect to Rudolph and Frosty, I believe this special is completely overlooked and contains everything that makes the holidays great.

You may not know of it because of its limited air time — and many people missed it. If this special aired year after year, I believe it would have cemented itself as a yearly TV classic.

Let’s look back on what makes “A Muppet Family Christmas” so great. …

Don’t let marketing tell you what you need to be healthy

Look through any grocery store and you’ll see a ton of products labeled “gluten-free,” “keto,” “healthy,” or “all-natural.” Descriptive titles like these are a simple way to separate your products from the rest — even if they have nothing to do with the title they’ve given themselves.

Products that never included gluten now contain a flashy “gluten-free” logo to stand out as a superior alternative. With the gluten-free example, you now see it on packages of nuts, bags of chips, popcorn, nut butters, even cans of beans.

These never had gluten in the first place.

It gets worse when products try to masquerade as healthy when they really aren’t. Great marketing convinces us that their product is what we need to improve our health — but we need to stop being fooled. With that in mind, here are 4 fake health foods to look out for. …

Marvel was once nearly bankrupt, and a child’s toy helped in its resurrection

It’s hard to imagine a world without Marvel. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has changed Hollywood and movies forever — but it almost didn’t happen. If it wasn’t for the Skip-It, none of this would have existed.

If you’re not familiar with a Skip-It, it’s a children’s toy that attaches at the ankle. It spins 360 degrees while you jump over it. The connection involves Tiger Electronics, Avi Arad, and a bunch of disregarded comic book heroes.

Simple ideas are often the most successful. The bizarre link between the MCU and the Skip-It goes back to the 1960s, but really took off when it was released in the 80s. …

Everything starts with writing

Are you doing too much? If you’re not repurposing your original content, you’re not getting everything your work has to offer. If you spend a majority of your time creating specific content for every platform you’re on — you’re not working efficiently.

The problem today is, there are so many outlets for content it can get overwhelming. Instead of having to create unique content for each, start expanding one main piece in different directions.

And it all starts with the writing.

Writing Makes Content Come to Life

Besides articles and books, your favorite movies and TV shows don’t exist without writing. All of these things have gone through constant rewrites and have been fine-tuned down to what you now know and love. …

How this deep-decluttering custom clears your home and your mind as a “memento mori” in action

Don’t worry: It’s not as violent as it sounds. If you need more control in your life, Swedish Death Cleaning may be the answer.

This practice goes much deeper than just cleaning. It’s about tapping into your emotions, your legacy, and discovering what’s truly important to you. Swedish Death Cleaning is something that you can use at any point in your life — but sooner may be better than later.

The best way to think of Swedish Death Cleaning is like the ultimate spring cleaning. …