What did our small group learn about holistic brain health, and what were the extra benefits of getting together each week? Here are my reflections on the Amen WHOLE-4 6-week Foundations Program after facilitating our faith-based group. We expected to learn a lot about how brain health was tied into other aspects of the body, mind, and spirit, and we definitely did. But we also learned a lot about each other, and built stronger relationships. There’s something really powerful about working towards individual health within a group that is striving for the same goals. We are happy and feel blessed to be a part of this national pilot program, and to offer our feedback. Learn more at https://amenwhole4.com.

How can we reach out to others who are different and unfamiliar, to put them at ease and gain new friends? My friend Parfait knows what it feels like to be the outsider, as an immigrant from West Africa who came to the U.S. to go to college. In the decades since, he’s become an expert and leading voice in peacemaking, fostering belonging, and creating social and business structures that bring people together. In his new book “The Way of Befriending,” Parfait tells the story of how he found his way, how he finds joy and healing in music, and how he has witnessed many others become unlikely friends. The book also presents many practical models for us to use in social and business settings. Here in my response, I talk a bit about his and my friendship and how Parfait’s ideas resonate with mine. To learn more about Parfait and order his book, visit parfaitbassale.com.

What can we do to push back burnout, retake control of our basic health foundations, and bring vitality home to our lives? Ramsey is launching a LIVE, weekly interactive and informative program on Zoom, Tuesdays at Noon Pacific Time, starting July 21st, called “Better Before Burnout: Waking, Eating, Moving, and Sleeping to Beat Stress and Bring Vitality.” Each weekly hour-long session will bring value on its own, and also build your knowledge, capabilities, and momentum week over week. In this episode, Ramsey lays out what impending burnout looks like, how we can push it back with the foundations of health, and how that all connects to nervous system regulation. Listen to the end of the episode to get a coupon code to enjoy your first Tuesday session free. Learn more at whatsworthwhile.net/better-before-burnout.

Why set aside focused, non-stressed time to eat lunch? Because we can create a bubble of space and time where our bodies can enter Rest and Relax mode, even if only for 30 to 60 minutes during an otherwise stress-filled day. That promotes effective digestion, especially when paired with some nice and fun or productive movement and exercise. It’s good to move throughout the day. We get stuck in traffic and at our desks too often, and movement is a big part of healthy living. I know we’re all busy, but lunch is worth scheduling and not cutting short.

How can you restore and deepen the strength of your romantic partnership? Kameran Alareqi is a certified marriage coach who meets couples where they’re at to help them strengthen their marriage by coaching them to become truly qualified to be in a marriage as individuals, deepen connection, improve communication, and apply tools needed to create the healthy marriage they envision and desire. Kam taught Ramsey a lot in this conversation about attachment, how people need to be honest with each other from the outset of a relationship, and how to establish safety between two people. She also introduced her own version of “the bases” that we are all trying to get around after our partner pitches us the ball. This is a great episode to learn what’s worthwhile to focus upon, in order to build healthy relationships. Learn more at www.recognizingpotential.com.

How can we turn the tide away from fast food, video games, and sleepless nights in our modern world filled with distractions, marketing temptations, and tasty highly-processed treats? Matt Campbell, PhD is a clinical psychologist who noticed over his many years of practice that patients were often depleted and exhausted. He wrote and published a workbook called Our Primal 5: The Simple 5-Week Guide to Self-Care. Ramsey and Matt focus in this episode on giving practical advice on how to make the healthy choices become the easiest choices. Matt’s Primal 5 are sunlight, sleep, movement, connection and consumption, which track closely to Ramsey’s Better Before Burnout strategies of waking, eating, moving and sleeping. This is a great episode to help you translate those basic but elusive foundations from aspirations to celebrations. Learn more at ourprimal5.com.

When? How long? Instead of coffee or along with coffee? This could be a controversial episode. Some folks swear by their afternoon power naps and others think they are a misguided waste of time. There is some great research on this, and surprisingly I actually took the time to consider it. I myself am a huge fan of afternoon power naps, and I have it dialed in to precisely 28 minutes on my timer. Normally I have coffee afterwards. But what if we did something crazy and drank the coffee BEFORE the nap?? There’s actually a name for that: The Nappuccino. Catch this episode to learn the strategy, the timing, the science and the art of coffee napping.

Who are our inner eaters, what do they crave, and how can we help them get along? Jeff Siegel struggled with anarexia as a teenager, and is now a men’s health coach, Harvard Teaching Fellow and author. He helps men look at how stress, identity, emotion, family, social pressure, physiology, and competing inner drives shape what they do around food. That work became his book Eating 2.0, which introduces the four inner eaters: Survival, Pleasure, Social, and Strategic. Each one wants something legitimate from food; the trouble starts when one hijacks the whole system. Ramsey and Jeff talk about his early relationship with food, how men’s struggles around food are often different than women’s struggles, and how we can all learn to understand and balance the needs and desires of our inner eaters. Learn more at jeffsiegelwellness.com.