Wrapping up our successful first season, we offer a big picture view of what we see as the top 10 fundamentals of healthy, happy living, and how they fit into five key domains of wellbeing. We point out some of the essential connections between all these considerations, and we explain why each of them matters — especially those elements commonly overlooked or underemphasized by the conventional media. If you’re looking for a quick tour of what healthy living looks and feels like, you’ve come to the right place.

Episode Highlights:

• Pilar outlines five dimensions of health and healthy living (4:40)
• Dallas and Pilar share their top 10 biggies (fundamentals for being the most vital human you can be), in no particular order (7:40)
• #1: Whole food nutrition and hydration (8:00)
• #2: Rest and recovery (10:20)
• #3: Healthy movement (12:00)
• #4: Face-to-face intimate social connection (16:25)
• #5: Empowered role in directing and managing your own healthcare (19:35)
• #6: Minimal exposure to toxic chemicals, environments and relationships (25:10)
• #7: Appropriate balance of stress/challenge and recovery/repair opportunity (29:00)
• #8: Positive growth-and-learning mindset (32:15)
• #9: Time in nature and the outdoors (35:50)
• #10: Conscious, discerning relationship with media and marketing (39:00)
• The art of conducting (and being) your own "living experiment" (43:55)

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Resources:

• Pilar’s “101 Revolutionary Ways to be Healthy” (you can explore them all and access the free mobile app here, too!).
• Pilar's "Revolutionary Acts" column in Experience Life
• Dallas's More Social, Less Media program
• Byron Katie’s “The Work” for developing a healthier, more conscious mindset.
• The learner/judger Choice Map from Dr. Marilee Adams and the Inquiry Institute.
• Articles from Experience Life magazine on all of the Top-10 Biggies (search on the topics of interest to you).

PLUS ...

• Sign up for our newsletter so you can stay up to date with us and receive new-show highlights as soon as they're published.
• Subscribe to The Living Experiment on iTunesto have fresh episodes delivered to your podcast feed each week.
• Sponsor link: Check out Brian Johnson’s life-changing “Habits 101” Master Class for FREE.

On this episode of The Living Experiment, we’re talking about “Addiction” — what that phenomenon is all about, and how to address the sometimes-subtle dependencies that may show up in your own life. We address everything from physical and psycho-emotional attachments to food, exercise, emotional drama and social media to entrenched end-of-day drink rituals — even porn. We also help you reflect on the dynamics that can drive your own addictive tendencies, so you can start to shift them in ways that work for you.

Episode Highlights:

• Our all-purpose definition of addiction (3:10)
• Cool neuroscience — the pharmacy inside your brain (7:00)
• How the biochemicals associated with stress feed our dependencies (8:35)
• Figuring out the root causes of addiction, and noticing how our culture helps create them (15:00)
• The connection between addiction and lack of human connection  (19:50)
• Breaking the addictive cycle with mindful practices and conscious choices (22:00)
• The satisfaction problem — why it's hard to get "enough" porn, doughnuts, and social media (28:45)
• The connection between women's "food" issues and a lack of sensual satisfaction (31:00)
• How guilt and shame drive self-destructive behaviors (33:10)
• Shifting our addictive tendencies (37:20)
• The importance of tracking the outcomes of your choices (39:30)
• This week’s experiments (41:55)

Weekly Experiments:

Dallas suggests: Why do you do what you do? Identify your addictions.

• Using our definition of addiction, take a look at your own behaviors. Do they make your life better? Are you doing them even though they’re harming you?

Pilar suggests: Challenge your daily alcohol ritual, and observe your attachments.

• If you usually have a drink after work, first sit down with a glass of water and just reflect on how you are presently feeling (body and mind). Then notice how it might feel to do without the wine, beer or cocktail on this particular day. What does the drink represent? What are the feelings that come up when you even consider withholding it?

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Each week we offer you a few life-shifting experiments to try on your own. We'd love to hear how they turn out, and what insights they provoke! Connect with The Living Experiment on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and share your stories with us there.

Resources

• Bruce K. Alexander's Rat Park addiction studies.
• The fun and fascinating little animated video Pilar referenced: "Addiction - In a Nutshell"by Kurzgesagt.
• BJ Fogg's behavior-change work at Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab.
• Judson Brewer's research at Yale on using mindfulness to treat addiction: "You're Already Awesome. Just Get Out of Your Own Way!" TEDx Talk; and his Huffington Post blog.
• Dallas's blog post, "Porn, Shame, and Doughnuts".
• Dallas's More Social, Less Media program (helpful for exploring your relationship with technology).
• Pilar's video interview with Alexandra Jamieson, author of Women, Food, and Desire.
• The Sipping Point, an article on women and drinking by Gabrielle Glaser from Experience Life
• Potential Adverse Cardiovascular Effects of Excessive Endurance Exercise via Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

PLUS …

• Sign up for our newsletterso you can stay up to date with us and get notified when a new episode is available.
• Subscribe to The Living Experiment on iTunes so you automatically get new episodes when they come out.
• Sponsor link: Check out Brian Johnson’s “Habits 101” Master Class for FREE.