Stevie Puckett

Author: Stevie Puckett

  • The Next Step

    The next step doesn’t have to be difficult. It can flow to you easily. Ask yourself: How do you want to feel about the situation at hand? Knowing the feeling you want will help you realize the next step. 

    It’s fun to be clear on what to do next. Don’t you love clarity? You can decide ahead of time to know exactly what action to take at the right time or even at a certain time. You can look forward to knowing what to do at just the right time. Plan ahead to feel good about how easy it is to take the next step with perfect timing.

  • Tune In and Adjust

    Most of us have been taught to ignore our emotions or to control our emotions, or that emotions are uncontrollable. But actually, tuning in to how you feel in order to adjust your focus and your thinking so that you feel good is the best use of emotions.

    What you focus on and how you think about it directly affects how you feel. So take note of how you feel periodically throughout the day. Doing so is like taking a measurement that helps you adjust your focus and your thinking so that you feel good. Feeling good is of utmost importance.

  • Easy Does It

    In relationships, learn to give very little or no attention to what you don’t want to see more of. Doing this may seem counter-intuitive because bringing attention to what we don’t like and starting a discussion about what others should do differently is a more common strategy. Realize that talking about what is not wanted gives intentional focus to it, and soon that unwanted behavior seems more significant and harder to ignore.

    Instead, try a practice of not initiating and not encouraging further discussion about things that aren’t appreciated. Instead, have a key phrase at the ready to say to yourself such as “easy does it,” “back off, Tiger,” or “I can only change me.” Identify and use a phrase to remind yourself to change your direction of focus to something that you do want.

  • Nutritive Mismatch

    Today I keep thinking about Mark Scatzker’s book “The End of Craving.” I read it at the end of last year, and it was one of my favorite books of the year. There were many interesting case studies and ideas in the book, and I highly recommend it.

    In particular, my thoughts return to Dana Small’s research and ideas about what she calls nutritive mismatch. When the tongue senses the sweetness of food and drink, the stomach expects to find the corresponding amount of energy in the stomach. When the two calibrations don’t match up, the work of metabolism is left undone. Undigested sugars are left to float around in the bloodstream!

    After learning this, I immediately changed my diet to eliminate artificial sweeteners. I’ve heard arguments before regarding reasons to stop using them, but this one tipped the scales to avoid for me. It’s a fine line because I want to eat in a low-carb way and believe that artificial sweeteners allow me to have my cake and eat it too, hahaha, but now I see that they may throw a wrench in the works of the body’s calculations.

    It is shocking to have an understanding that gets blown out of the water. It has happened several times in my lifetime regarding nutritional information alone. I hope that by continuing to learn and to be willing to try the new ideas in my own life that one day I will truly have an optimum way of eating that serves me well.

  • Neuroplasticity and Healing

    Obnoxious title to this Revero podcast by Shawn Baker, but it is a good listen for the section about neuroplasticity and healing. How they are talking about managing your thoughts daily to make a new habit of mind is familiar to me. The maxim, “What you think about you become,” is even uttered.