Brienne writes

The study of Prevalence-induced concept change by David E. Levari as told by Michael Easter in the Huberman Lab Podcast.  A group of people were asked to look at 800 faces in a row. The participants had to deem whether these faces were threatening or non-threatening.  At the 200th face, the participants were shown fewer threatening faces.  For the second study, they had a similar set up but research proposals were used instead. Participants had to deem whether the research proposals were ethical or unethical.  About midway through, the participants were shown significantly fewer unethical proposals.  Both studies seem simple. Either the faces were threatening or non-threatening and the research proposals were either ethical or unethical based on a persons' moral grounds.  However, after the participants were shown fewer threatening faces, they started judging faces that were on the borderline as threatening. Participants said threatening just as many times ...

I went for a jog this morning even though I only had 6 hours of sleep because self care is important. I came home and had breakfast with my husband. Our usual- 2 soft boiled eggs.  Prepped lunch, cooked, ate, cleaned up, marinated my chicken for dinner. Showered and took a half hour nap.  Woke up, listened to a podcast before I cooked dinner.  Ate, washed up, cleaned up, husband helped too.  Doom scrolled after because I am tired.  8.56pm. A thought. Should I join Calligraphy Growth Circles Zoom tonight or just watch the replay? Let's show up. It's all about showing up for Bree. Had so much fun during the live learning about how to draw the florals on the capitals.  Smiled, learnt, laughed, tried again.  Learning is so much fun.  This couple of days left in the year, I hope you find the joy of learning, of failing, of trying again even if it's frustrating. Yes, definitely frustrating to not get it.  But keep going. How about learning somethin...

I've been struggling with this for a few weeks now.  I didn't have an answer. Then I asked the shower gods as I showered today.  For those of you who get creative ideas in the shower, you know what I mean ;) Shower God Bree answered "You can't get up before 7.30 a.m. everyday because you don't have something important to get up for." Oh wow , I thought. What she said is exactly right! Ok, then what's important? I asked. And she questioned me back, "Isn't Everest Base Camp something important to you?" Ahh. It is. And I haven't got the time to train for it because I've been sleeping. ;/ Thank you Shower God Bree. 

'The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place' by George Bernard Shaw.  I am today years old when I heard this quote shared by Kim Pong during a Chasing Horizons LinkedIn Live session hosted by Sau-yong .  Communication.  From the first day we breathe till the last day we take our last breath, we are in communication.  With the people around us, with living things like the pets we have or the whales in the ocean.  We communicate to get our needs met, our point across, to express frustration, excitement, eagerness or to persuade, negotiate and manipulate.  If we learn to become better communicators, the world will be a better place.  How have you become a better communicator?  Share your ideas with me in the comment box below. 

5 key takeaways from the Deep Dive podcast by Ali Abdaal with Alex Hormozi . 1. Look at what everyone else is doing and try to do it better 2. Everybody has unique depth of knowledge in certain areas and this knowledge either comes from      a)  Past jobs you’ve held     b)  Your parents' job      c) Your personal interests Which of these three things can you help someone do something better?  You want to sell the most valuable thing.  What is the problem I can help somebody else solve that I can charge the most money for or in reverse, that can help them to make the most money? 3. Exchange your time for money in order to learn, not to earn You need to earn to pay for food and rent but the major thing you’re doing is paying ignorance debt so the vast majority of income is coming in the form of education rather than earning. 4. To start a business, all you only need is a bank account and payment processing Make the first ten ...

1. I skipped 2 days in a row without writing here.  And to be honest, I still feel burnt out I don't know what to write. I don't know if it's sustainable. I feel as if I've lost all my energy.  Maybe I just need another day to rest and recuperate and I'll feel better tomorrow. 2. I've failed the second run of my no Instagram for 60 days experiment.  On Day 12, I logged onto Instagram to post a story for the event I attended over the weekend.  I could have not done it, but I did and I feel the need to talk about it. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to start all over again. Day 1 will be on 3rd April 2023.  3. I gave myself some horrible sleep this week.   Every night, I probably only slept for 6 hours max.  I wrote, tweeted, helped out with editing and made some changes for the event I threw my sleep out the window. This coming week, I aim to be in bed by 10.15 p.m.  4. I tweeted everyday for the week. At least an original and the rest was re...

Did something different and watched a video on @Keltieoconnor trying out @hubermanlab 's routine for a year. Totally inspirational. Ties in perfectly with my 60-day experiment with no Instagram. Then I'm going to try out his routines. One at a time. Who's with me? — Brienne (@rienneb) March 22, 2023 Second time around doing the 60-day experiment and I'd like to provide some updates.  (Click here to read about the first 30-day experiment.)  6 days into the 60-day experiment, I've found that: I'm watching more podcast episodes.  I'm reading more pages of books I've loaned in Libby and I find that I have almost no time to do anything else except writing. So. How. Did. I. Used. To. Spend. So. Much. Time. On. Instagram? I don't know.  I have a theory: Instagram will take how much of your time you give it. Especially if you don't have better alternatives.  When I'm on this side of the world (not using it),  I feel so absolutely freeing with load...

Back to reading Matthew Dicks's Someday is Today and he wrote how we often remember the bad stuff but forget the good things that people tell us, save for the ones that are truly memorable. He recommends building a file of compliments to refer to when our days get ridden with bad things happening or on days we need a little sprinkle to push forward. I'm trying to remembering the compliments I've received to start building my treasure trove of compliments.  I can't think of any. I remember one of my exes calling my unreasonable. Another one called me crazy. But I consider this a compliment because I believe all geniuses are blessed with a tinge of craziness in their blood. I remember my boyfriend telling me how he likes my writing and he can never write like me. Those are what I can think of in 3 minutes. Matthew also shared he forwards the compliments to himself in the future to resurface them and it always put a smile on his face when he receive one he has completely...

When the student is ready, the master will appear - source unknown. Was pondering in the shower how we often overlook certain facts and information until we're ready to absorb the lesson we are meant to learn. Like with writing.  I took over 3 years to find a way to write consistently.  At first, it was numbering the posts and forcing an entry everyday. I did that by drafting out an entry and editing the previous day's entry before publishing.  I kept up with it until entry #39 where I just stopped writing altogether.  Thinking I had such a long way to go before #100 was too daunting.  8 months later, I picked up writing again. I went through all 44 posts, including those unpublished to look at pieces of information I've learnt and forgotten. Reading what I wrote was a humbling experience.  If one person read what I wrote and took away something, I've achieved my objective of writing.  In entry #4 , I wrote " The next time someone asks me that question...

I've learnt so much from reading Someday is Today I don't even know where to begin. For a start, maybe to share the impact the book have had on me. I read the whole of today, only to stop for meals and to watch two and a half episodes of a Korean drama my boyfriend and I are currently into. I know what you're thinking, watch 2 and a half episodes? Isn't that a waste of time?  I don't think it is because we spent quality time together. Besides, the majority of my time was spent reading. I went from completing 19% of the book this morning to completing 36% after dinner.  We really do have a lot of time. If we use it wisely.  But most of us squander it away like death is something that will never happen.  Now the question " What will your hundred-year-old self want you to do? " occupies my mind every time I want to make a decision.  The story of the most expensive popsicle in Chapter 4 is what I want to keep going back to to remind me to focus on what reall...

Today, I got to observe something interesting.  I went for a run, the first of the month. It was supposed to happen on Monday but it poured that day. And it was a long and tiring day.  The plan for the week was to work out thrice and I already missed the opportunity to complete one. Fast forward to today, I took a nap but woke up still tired. Weather was good so I was determined to do the run. I ran fast, I felt I had the momentum and the flow going, I pushed a little harder, finished faster but didn't reach the finish line that I set for myself. Still a win because I got it done. But my energy was drained. I came home, had dinner and thought I'd like to make progress on a course I'm studying. I open Youtube to search for the same topic because the modules in the course often take a while to load and I'll toggle between the two windows to learn while waiting.  Wrong move.  Bree with zero energy and willpower could not stop watching unrelated YouTube shorts. It was on...

Read something interesting from Paul Millerd's Boundless newsletter this morning.  He writes,  In the book, the author W. Timothy Gallwey shares his approach for thinking about improvement through the lens of tennis.  He argues that everyone has two selves: Self 1, the "teller", and Self 2 the "doer". It is the relationship between these two selves that determines how well people are able to translate "knowledge into effective action." This is what he calls the "inner game.". ...the message is quite clear: we spend far too much time in self 1 mode and struggle to let go enough to shift into self 2 mode.  The problem is that you can't just "do" doing. We have to find ways to loosen the grip that self 1 has over our actions. Which is really hard because most of us are brought up in cultures that tell us that life is pretty much about avoiding bad outcomes, aiming at "good" goals, and trying harder when we fail.  Farnam...

If you knew how you could optimise your mind to do whatever you will it to to get exactly what you want would you? Am still in the midst of listening to The Diary of a CEO Episode 215: The Mindset Doctor: The Secret Man Behind the World's Top Performers .  In it, Prof. Steve Peters talked about our 3 modes of thinking. The Human, the Chimp and the Computer system. The Human system is logical and very slow. When you operate in this system, your body and reflexes slow down because you're analysing as you go along. That's good in some circumstances but not in fast moving sports. The Chimp system is a primitive system although it thinks. It's more than just a reaction and impulsive system but it thinks emotionally. It'll think thoughts which are not helpful such as "Should I go faster at this point? Or should I slow down and conserve my energy?" And then it could make a decision to go faster and then burn out.  Particularly in fast sports, we'd want to ta...

off the top of my head there's so many things I'd like to share with you. just thinking for myself I'd love to share loads of stuff here stuff that could help optimise our lives help us lead happy, healthier lives,  stuff that could help us make tiny tweaks with massive return on investments. Well, if you're reading this, join me. I'm still a work in progress, forever will be,  but I'd love to grow with you and learn from you too.  --- am currently listening to this podcast episode by Steven Bartlett . I'm liking what I'm hearing. I'd recommend you go give it a listen. Will summarise what I've learnt in future blog posts.  See you in the next one. In the meantime, keep learning will you? It's so much fun. 

From Ali Abdaal's weekly newsletter : Starting my Fitness Journey . Book Summary of Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg . Compliments are life-alienating. In nonviolent communication, compliments are life-alienating because they are a type of judgement . When someone calls you brilliant or talented, they're making a judgement about who you are as a person. Instead, we can express appreciation authentically by telling them how they've specifically improved our lives . This requires three pieces of information. 1. What the person did. 2. What needs their actions fulfilled. 3. What positive emotions that fulfillment created. Imagine you've attended a lecture and want to compliment the speaker afterwards.  Instead of saying, "you're so brilliant!", recognize a specific action, the need that action met, and the positive emotions you feel as a result: "when you talk about ways to resolve a conflict, I felt hopeful because your words showed m...

Already have all your ideas in drafts? Need someone to sieve out the best ideas for you? Or someone to articulate your thoughts or give you a fresh perspective? Look no further! Drop me an email and I'll assist you for free! Limited time only! Love, Brienne, 28 March 2022, 8.37 p.m. 

Marisa Peer says the language we use to speak with ourselves is very important. There's a 4% chance of getting into the football club. You gotta think, "I'm in the 4%".  There's a 20% chance of surviving this complicated surgery. You gotta think "I'm in the 20%"  [To know more, listen to it here ]   I noticed that my daily writings are basically me speaking to myself. I typed "You need to learn to do what's best for your body, your health, your career. Make the wise decisions. Treat yourself as your best friend. Write what you're working on. What did you learn today?" Yesterday, I learnt that I value writing. I wrote even after coming home from a very late night. I also like looking at what I thought at that time. I went ahead and published the  draft on my main page.  I learnt that you could very much lose yourself in a relationship when you love someone. You got to find the balance.  These questions helped me find my center and ...

I told my mother I was shy because everyone would be looking at me. She said,  "Don't flatter yourself darling, you think anybody downstairs is interested in you? They're not.  Your job is to go and make them happy" And I brought my guitar and went down and sing. And from that day on, I was no longer the center of attention. You're the center of mine. From  The Art of Being Yourself | Caroline McHugh | TEDxMiltonKeynesWomen --- There's so many things stopping us from doing what we want to do. We're afraid people would laugh at us, people would judge. But everyone is only worried about themselves.  You do your own thing. And look at who would laugh. Even if they do, you lived your life the way you want to.  You lived out your dreams. Wanna do something?  Just do it.  Even if you fail, you know at least you tried.  If you don't try, you'll just be imagining for the rest of your life.  Love, Brienne, 23 March 2022, 9.10 p.m. 

Am in the midst of KonMari-ing my stuff.  Wanted to keep some study notes to look at in the future. You know those where you love the module so you put a lot of effort into making handwritten pretty notes and you can't bear to part with them.  Then, I saw a silverfish crawling among one stack.  Just like that, I threw away 2 huge boxes of study notes. Not a second look even for those with elaborate mind maps drawn.  Books that were kept together went to the trash too. How can you keep them when more silverfish can be among them? I'm glad I saw the silverfish today.  Love,  Brienne, 19 March 2022, 9.54 p.m. 

As human beings, we take things for granted.  Got a bad ache in my back after spending the whole day seated on the floor yesterday. Then I thought of how I haven't completed the Traditional Chinese Medicine course on Coursera .  /Check out Coursera for courses you can take up right now, for free! I took up the course because I wanted to have something to rely on other than western medicine.  I could guess I was probably wanting to take a long term approach because of some ailments I had back then. Slowly, I recovered and the course was the last thing on my mind. The pain in my back made me want to listen to a health related podcast today.  Mark Bell's Power Project: Episode 691 - Barefoot Sprinter Graham Tuttle Weak Feet = Huge Problem, This is How to Strengthen Them Some snippets that I enjoyed.  "You need to assess the people you keep very close to. Some people you can't but you need to limit the amount of time you allow that energy." "If a process is not a...