Historically, I’ve promoted the idea of defining a minimum effective dose  of self-care—small, consistent actions that keep you grounded. After returning from deployment, I learned that to withstand significant daily stress, I needed to do just three things every day: Move my body. Learn something new. Let my family know I love them. When I did these consistently, I became more resilient. Dan John teaches a similar concept he calls a pirate map : a short list of 3–5 non-negot

The Pain Dial: Why We’ve Stopped Recognizing Our Own Stress A concept I’ve been thinking about lately is how few people recognize their own level of stress. I often hear patients say, “I don’t feel stressed.” Then I start listing what’s actually happening in their lives: marital conflict, a child struggling with addiction, looming retirement without a plan, the guilt of having to let long-time employees go, financial insecurity, and 50 extra pounds they can’t seem to lose. Su

Healthy, Happy — and Why “Happiness” Feels So Hard When I ask people, “What would make next year a success?”  the most common answer I hear is simple: “I want to be healthy and happy.” Health, I’ve written about before—metabolic flexibility, rest and effort, the dance between individual well-being and community responsibility. Happiness, however, is harder. Not because it’s mysterious, but because we often confuse a fleeting emotion with a state of being. When most people say

Isolation One of the most distressing human experiences is isolation. Renowned neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky has argued that...