By Shoba Sreenivasan, Ph.D. and Linda E. Weinberger, Ph.D.

We women know all about calories. Think of how you examine the packaging of a product for its nutritional content. How many calories? Is it high fat or low fat? Some products may look good, but it turns out they’re not good for you.

But what about your emotions? There are junk emotions, just like junk food. Junk emotions don’t bring out your best. What would happen if you started to consider your emotions from the perspective that they are ingredients that you feed yourself? In our book, Psychological Nutrition, we did just that.

We look at relationships as products. Some are nutritious, others are not. Just as with junk food, a diet of junk emotions (anger, resentment, worry) leads to psychological malnourishment.

Because we don’t look at our emotions in this way, we unthinkingly consume a diet so high in negative emotions (high fat), that there’s no room left for positive emotions (low fat). We see this in women who are juggling work and family. They are sandwiched between childcare, eldercare, and family and professional obligations; pretty soon they’re running on empty because they’re in psychological starvation.

Here are some key concepts:

HIGH-FAT EMOTIONS are negative and energy draining; they suck the fun and creativity out of your life and are bad for you.

• High fat emotions create and maintain a cycle of pessimism and low-energy. They are fatiguing and close the door to creativity and joy.
• They require no discipline; are knee-jerk emotional reactions; are a long-term habit.
• Some examples: guilt, resentment, anger, envy, jealousy, pessimism, feeling less-than, fear, doubt and second guessing yourself, pessimism, frustration

LOW-FAT EMOTIONS are positive and increase your energy. Low-fat emotions should dominate your psychological intake.

• Low fat (or positive) emotions energize you. They open up your world, both in terms of your inner self and the doors to opportunity.
• However, they require practice and discipline.
• You have to be mindful of the emotions you are consuming; you have to deliberately restrict your diet of high fat emotions.
• Some examples: excitement, optimism, calmness, contentment, joy, focused attention, clear thinking, laser-like concentration.

So what do you do?

Just like food products have labels that describe their nutritional content, there should be “psychological nutritional labels” for reactions, relationships, and situations. In this way, you will know (or at least have a good idea) whether a situation has a “high fat” or “low fat” content before you enter it.

7-day Snapshot:

In order to be mindful of your high and low fat emotional intake, you will have to undertake an assessment process in the form of diary. Many of us hear the word “diary,” and we groan, “Oh my God, another obligation!” Let’s face it, we’re all busy. But, we’re also interested in becoming and staying healthy.

Psychological Nutrition simplifies this to a 7-Day Snapshot.

We test-drove it on ourselves just to make sure it really was doable. And it is.

• The 7- Day Snapshot means taking one period of 7 days, and for each day recording your emotional reactions, the triggers, and the values (positive or negative). We tell you exactly how to do this.
• This snapshot gives you a clear picture of your emotional nutritional content and whether you are psychologically nourished or malnourished.
• That is, how many “high fat” or “low fat” emotions do you experience in a day?
• The 7-day snapshot can also help you construct a psychological nutritional label. Are there people or situations that should have warning labels?

The Pay off:

Even though we are psychologists and intellectually appreciate the impact of negative emotions on our own psychological well-being, we were both astonished by our first 7-Day snapshot. It revealed that we would wake up tired, hurried, looking toward what was next on the agenda, and not really aware of what we were experiencing. We were living on a diet of high-fat emotions—mainly driven by the work ethic. So, our psychological nutrition was poor.

We are much more mindful now. We literally construct psychological nutritional labels, where some have clear warnings.

Tips:

If it is dangerous to your psychological health, don’t do it.

• Even if it means someone won’t like you.
• Even if it means that person has the label of “family member” and you feel obligated to do it.
• Even if it means by saying “no” you will be perceived as not accommodating.

Time is a finite quantity and none of us know how much of it we have. Start each day in making life as fulfilled and joyful as it can be, and build on that.

Dr. Shoba Sreenivasan earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA in 1986 and completed a post-doctoral forensic fellowship at USC. She is a Clinical Professor at Keck School of Medicine of USC, works as a VA psychologist, and has a private forensic psychology practice. She’s co-authored Totally American, a motivational book, and authored the Mattie Spyglass series. She has also written numerous scholarly publications and book chapters in the fields of forensic psychology, violence risk assessment, and Veterans’ issues.

Dr. Linda E. Weinberger earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Houston in 1979 and subsequently completed a postdoctoral forensic fellowship at USC. She has been the Chief Psychologist at the USC Institute of Psychiatry, Law, and Behavioral Sciences, and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Keck School of Medicine of USC for over three and a half decades. She is the author of numerous book chapters and scholarly publications in the fields of forensic psychology, suicide risk, and violence risk assessment.

Learn more about authors on www.psychologicalnutrition.com.

We all strive for more meaning in our lives, right? Being more productive may be the key to having more precious moments every day.

We want to do the best and be the best we can be, not only for ourselves but for our spouses, our children, and all the people in our lives. Being the best version of ourselves creates opportunities that change our lives for the better. Being productive doesn’t mean you are doing more or doing it faster, it means you are living intentionally, creating time for the things that bring you the most joy and satisfaction in your life.

When we solely focus on the urgent things in life, we miss out on the beautiful moments that we live for: the deep connections with friends, morning yoga, meditation and reflection, playing with our children and making real time with family. Experiencing these moments means we have to move beyond simply existing, to actually living. It means we must stop mindlessly chauffeuring our children around and managing the family to do list, to inhaling and exhaling the beauty that each day brings. We become more present when we put ourselves first, mind, body and spirit. No more promising yourself you will meditate when you have time for it and don’t feel rushed. Oh, the irony!

It is time for a change. If we want different results, we must be willing to do things differently.

Imagine feeling fully present in every moment. You’ve completed your to do list, you have a good handle of what is coming up in the next few days and your feel rejuvenated from your morning walk or work out. You are feeling good about life and about yourself and you are able to fully invest and be fully present in all areas of your life….it’s tough to even imagine that feeling isn’t it? The fact it, that sense of freedom is at the tip of our fingers, we just have to be willing to put in the work to get there. The longer we procrastinate and let things slip, the further behind we feel and the heavier the weight of each day feels. How we are supposed to be present in each day if we can barely get through breakfast without panicking about all the things we didn’t get done the day before and all the things we aren’t prepared for today?

Based on my experience coaching thousands of women around the world towards achieving their greatest potential, I find this one exercise to be one of the most effective tools out there to help you become more productive and ultimately more present in your daily life: The 30/30 Rule.

The 30/30 Rule is more than a rule or a task, but a way a life. The idea is to spend 30 undistracted, uninterrupted, completely intentional minutes every day on something that is 30 or more days away. By checking into your schedule 30 days out, you are not only seeing what is coming up but gathering perspective on your life by acknowledging what you have already said yes to. If it’s on your calendar, you’ve already said yes, meaning you care about it and have made it a priority. Definitely don’t let those things slip through the cracks by not being prepared for them.

By implementing these 30 minutes into your day, yes you will be losing 30 minutes but you will be gaining so much more. Not only will you feel more confident about your schedule, but you will be practicing accountability and becoming impeccable with your word each and every day. If you see your child has a party at school coming up and you have signed up to make the cakepops, use those 30 minutes to put a reminder in your phone to pick up the ingredients in a few days so you are prepared to make them when the time comes. Being prepared is everything and it sure beats running to the store 10 minutes before they close the night before!

Life is full of enough surprises! Don’t let things on your calendar surprise you. By staying on top of the things you have committed to, you are freeing yourself up to those beautiful moments that make life so enjoyable.

I encourage you to find a friend that will hold you accountable as you make the shift to implementing these 30 minutes into your day. Their encouragement and support will take you further than you think. We are so much better together than we are alone! Or maybe the 30 minutes a day seems doable, but you still don’t know how you can find time for your morning yoga. Ask a friend to be your accountability partner in this endeavor. Sharing your dreams and desires with others is a healthy habit to develop. By doing this, you are building your team. A team of people who love you, support you and will cheer for you, even on the rainy days.

Use those 30 minutes to create the life you dream about. Chase it and embrace it! Drop the excuses, stay ahead of your schedule, and live freely – breathing in every moment, enjoying every laugh and being fully present.

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JODI WOMACK is the CEO of the Get Momentum Leadership Academy, the online coaching program with a personal touch and co-author of Get Momentum: How to Start When You’re Stuck. (Wiley, 2016)
Interested in FINALLY getting ahead? The Get Momentum Leadership Academy offers a 15-Day free trial. No obligation. No credit card required. Just a taste of what professional support and consistence feels like. This program provides you with the insights, strategy and accountability to make the kind of advancements you’re looking for. Click here to get started!

An Excerpt from Your Inner GPS by Zen Cryar DeBrücke

You were born with a factory-installed guidance system. It is like the GPS in a car. This system is called your Internal Guidance System, or IGS.

The guidance it gives you has many different purposes. The most important one is to get you from one end of your life to the other with as much joy, ease, and fulfillment as possible. Throughout the book, I will reveal other parts of its purpose in guiding you. For now it is important for you to recognize that it knows and deeply understands everything you desire to achieve, as well as countless things you have yet to even think of. It also knows specifically how you would most like for your desires to be achieved. Its purpose is to guide you to the specific way of going about your life that will make you, and everyone around you, the happiest.

The reason its guidance is unique and special is because it was designed just for you and your life purposes. What I have discovered is that we have not just one life purpose but several, if not hundreds of them: to be a good parent, to support particular people in our lives, to be a good child, to care for aging parents, to transform the world around us in either little or big ways. Your life purposes can range from something as simple as giving the perfect book to someone at just the right time, to transforming the industry you work in, to giving your child the start in life they need to accomplish their own life’s purposes.

There are also things in your life that are not yours to do, and your IGS will guide you away from them so you don’t waste your life force or use it unsuccessfully. As a group these purposes can feel overwhelming, but with your IGS it is not only possible but also easy and enjoyable to do it all.

This inner GPS contains your life’s specific road map, which shows on a soul level all the things you are here to participate in, experience, and achieve. Your GPS is with you every moment of every day, constantly there to support you — to give you guidance about what you are thinking and doing and how you are being. This can sound a bit scary or uncomfortable, until you realize that it has no judgment on any of these aspects. It does not think of you as good or bad. It relates to you as a soul that it is here to guide and protect. It knows who you really are deep down inside. It knows the “pre-you,” the one who preceded who you are now. One of its purposes is to help you uncover and remember who you really are — the “you” who existed before life took over and covered up your perfection and beauty. It has only unconditional love for you and the journey you are on.

Your IGS is very much like a wise best friend, a career counselor, a life coach, and a spiritual teacher all rolled into one. In fact, it is so amazing and interesting that I had to write an entire book to introduce you to it.

How Your IGS Works
Your IGS provides guidance by giving you sensations in your body. It resides in the area between your throat and solar plexus. The solar plexus is the triangular area between your lower ribs, above your stomach. The sensations that you feel in this area of your body are forms of guidance.

As you are thinking, your IGS is listening and sending a physical signal letting you know whether your thoughts are true, aligned with your purpose, and taking you toward health and happiness.

Your IGS creates what I like to call an urging feeling. It nudges you to move toward various activities in the world around you. It feels like a desire upwelling inside you. For an example, think of the last time you had an urge to call a friend or family member. When you followed that urge, did they respond with “I was just thinking of you!” or possibly “I really needed to talk to you. How did you know?” That urge was from your IGS.

Your IGS provides you with information that supports you as you: respond to your life as it develops instead of reacting to it according to false scenarios, old habits, or unconscious beliefs; and learn to focus on your desires instead of fears.

By learning to follow your IGS, you will find that your life seems to work out, that it is somehow just right in the way it unfolds, and that you become a magnet for what many consider small and large miracles.
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Zen Cryar DeBrücke is the author of Your Inner GPS. She is an internationally renowned teacher, speaker, and coach whose programs have helped people all over the world transform their personal and business lives for the better. Visit her online at http://www.zeninamoment.com.

Excerpted from the book Your Inner GPS: Follow Your Internal Guidance to Optimal Health, Happiness, and Satisfaction. Copyright ©  2016 by Zen Cryar DeBrücke. Reprinted with permission from New World Library. www.newworldlibrary.com