00:00:00 Jalene Szuba
So when you aren’t getting enough sleep, you don’t read facial expressions from other people in your lives. You can’t see the nuances there. So if you are not getting that sleep, you’re not connecting to your family to be that kind of dad who can sense when your children need you more or your wife needs you and to have that connection and intimacy. So there’s a lot of things. There’s, there’s, you know, it’s not just a waste of time, it’s there’s so many functions that happen.
00:00:30 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Welcome to the Kooler. Lifestyle Podcast I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn, and I’m excited to have you join me as I interview community members and business leaders from the communities in which I live, work and serve through my business. Kooler Garage Doors. We’re going to bring you highlights on characters in our communities. Why?
00:00:48 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Because community matters, and I want to know more about who is behind our business and leadership in order to understand and support the community fabric that our relationships make up. And collectively, we can build stronger communities that support our lifestyles, our youth and our health. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn. Today I’m sitting down with a new friend, Jalene Szuba who is a board certified health and Wellness coach beaming in from Crested Butte, Colorado. And one of the reasons dealing with our speaking is because when I kind of queried my my mind hive in in Facebook land, you were listed as a sleep specialist or somebody that specializes in sleep.
00:01:38 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So I’m excited to drop in. I think we’re going to have some good Nuggets, some good practical stuff for our listeners and I just welcome you to the show. Thanks so much for joining.
00:01:49 Jalene Szuba
Thanks for having me. I love your show. I love that you cover lots of different things.
00:01:53 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, we go pretty wide. And for a door guy, it’s just, it’s just fun. Yeah. So you’re up in Crested Butte. How long have you been up in Crested Butte?
00:02:05 Jalene Szuba
I’ve been here 15 years now, so I think I can consider myself a local.
00:02:09 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t know when when that moniker is, but at some point after 10 years, I think the stamp is is allowed. So that’s cool. And how long have you been a health and Wellness coach?
00:02:27 Jalene Szuba
Going on for four years now, so and I’ve come in and out of the Valley, I’ve worked in the Valley, I’ve been involved in the Nordic center and then I’ve left the Valley to go work in the Caribbean. And when I came back I really wanted something that was more in my passionate place. And I’m a natural empath and I’ve always loved to help people and that’s why I gravitated to health coaching.
00:02:51 Matthew Kuehlhorn
OK, that is something I want to dive into real quick. How would you define that natural empath?
00:03:01 Jalene Szuba
When I see someone in need, I inherently like at a cellular level. Want to go help. You know someone crossing the street or someone can’t get something working, like the grocery cart at the store, or someone is feeling sad or frustrated Like I just my body wants to just physically help that person or ease that person’s challenge. So that’s how I describe naturally empathetic.
00:03:33 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Do you do you have the ability to feel into people?
00:03:40 Jalene Szuba
Somewhat not like some, you know, I I’ve worked with like energy people who can really connect.
00:03:49 Matthew Kuehlhorn
For.
00:03:49 Jalene Szuba
Me, it’s more of a relatability.
00:03:55 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Love it. Very cool. I want to give a little bit of runway to you and have you explain a little bit of your journey. We don’t need to get all the nitty gritty, but how did you get into health and Wellness coaching? And potentially this goes into kind of the the realm of sleep, but how did this open up for you?
00:04:22 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Give us some of the highlights along your journey and how you ended up in Crested Butte Health and Wellness if you would.
00:04:32 Jalene Szuba
Yeah, I’ve always loved the Robert Frost Pawn. The road not taken. I believe that’s the name of it. It’s 22 roads diverged in the wood, and I chose the one less traveled. As a child, that really resonated with me.
00:04:49 Jalene Szuba
I was like, I’m just different and I’m OK with that. And my mom embraced that. So I didn’t go to college right away. There were things going on in my family and I was like, I’m not ready. And so I moved to Aspen.
00:05:02 Jalene Szuba
I’ve always been a skier. And my dad said, well, why don’t you be a ski instructor? So I did that for a while and then I was ready to go to college and my mom said we’ve always loved films. So I went to film school and did that in Chicago and worked in. I did some independent films.
00:05:20 Jalene Szuba
I did some corporate meetings and events and did that for a long time. And I’m a very organized person. I’m a problem solver. Goes back to that helping people and was loving the challenge of that environment. But it wasn’t, you know, I wasn’t making a difference in the world.
00:05:34 Jalene Szuba
And I’ve always had a desire to leave an imprint and and leave the world better and have an impact. So then I met Evan, my partner, and I was out here for a family reunion and my family member said you you two should meet because you both like to ski and you both like to sail. And that was 15 years ago. And then so I moved here and was like, how can I use these organizational skills? And the Grand Traverse, which is a big Backcountry race here was changing hands and going to the Nordic Center.
00:06:05 Jalene Szuba
And so I went to them and said I, I have all these skills and I would love to be your race director. So I got to do that. Brian Wickenhauser and I were Co race directors together for a couple of years and I loved it. And then Evan said, you know, we, we want to own our own sailboat someday. We want to sail around the world someday.
00:06:25 Jalene Szuba
What if we go work in the Caribbean for a little while and just see how we feel about it? Let’s let’s kind of do a little test. So completely. Did you know another 180 and went to the Caribbean and worked on charter boats for a couple years. Some yachts, I guess people would call them.
00:06:41 Jalene Szuba
They were in the larger range and we would take out eight guests for a week and go all around the British Virgin Islands and even down to Grenada and and we loved it and it was a lot of fun. It was it was challenging and that you’re gone for 10 months. So we’re away from this beautiful place that we love. And so as we were kind of both trying to decide how we could get back to Crested Butte, and I didn’t want to do production again, I wanted something different. And I’ve always loved to help people and started looking at, well, how how can you help people be happier?
00:07:19 Jalene Szuba
And I think that happiness comes from the inside. I think it’s a mindset. And I also think it’s a lifestyle and taking care of this amazing body that we’ve been given, this vessel that we live in. And that’s how I got into health and Wellness. And then as I was talking to my clients, I started realizing that it was just kind of this intuitive thing.
00:07:40 Jalene Szuba
It started out as sleep. Like sleep is we spend a third of our life sleeping. Why is that? It can’t just be to just check out, like there’s got to be things. And so I started doing more research and asking my clients, OK, well how is your sleep?
00:07:53 Jalene Szuba
And inevitably there was a link. If they were struggling to lose weight or stress management or relationship issues, their sleep usually wasn’t that great. And so that’s really what got me to then focus in and specialize more on sleep.
00:08:09 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Love this. So your website and we’ll we’ll talk about this at the end as well, but I want to make a connection here. Happiness anchor.com. I’m assuming after you shared your story, that there is a piece there that is rooted with sailing.
00:08:29 Jalene Szuba
Yeah, for sure. I so obviously I’ve talked about happiness and I think it’s so important for life. I think we all have a choice to be happy. And I was, I’m a daily meditator, and I was meditating on the boat. We were in Italy working on a yacht, and I was meditating.
00:08:50 Jalene Szuba
And I just started thinking about how meditation is my anchor, that that’s where I go when I’m feeling overwhelmed or frustrated or sad or confused, I take some time to just go within. And it just kind of popped. It’s literally popped into my head. Happiness anchor. OK, what’s what’s my anchor for Happiness?
00:09:15 Jalene Szuba
And I I literally ran to GoDaddy. It was like, is this even available? And it was. And then The funny thing is, after I bought the domain and formed the LLC, I started doing more research and Googling it. And it’s actually some psychologists use it as a term for children.
00:09:34 Jalene Szuba
Think of a time when you were really happy, and that becomes your anchor when you’re feeling all these other things in the world. Go back to that moment and remember how it feels, so, so little kids can learn as they grow. So it it’s crazy how it has all these multiple meanings, which I love.
00:09:54 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I love that. Very cool. All right, let’s let’s talk about sleep a little bit because I’m with you. I think that the lion’s share of, quote UN quote, success is done on the internal. We do our internal lifting.
00:10:12 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Whether that means healing, changing beliefs, mindset, I think it’s an internal game. I also get a little bit annoyed sometime and this is just me being honest. Like I’m an entrepreneur. I have my family, my kids, I have my health, I have my business. I want to grow.
00:10:36 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I want to do and why do I need to sleep 810 hours a day in order to hit my 100% on my whoop? Like what does? What have you found in your research? Like why do we have this quote, UN quote inconvenience? That’s why they keep grinding.
00:10:59 Jalene Szuba
Yeah. So we’re going to do a little mindset shift, Matt.
00:11:02 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, fair.
00:11:03 Jalene Szuba
It’s it’s not, it’s not a waste of time. It’s actually an amazing use of time because that’s when your body there’s there’s so like I get so excited. There’s so many things that happen while we’re sleeping, all the things that you’ve been learning all day. That’s when they’re actually sitting and we kind of fight moving their way around the brain and getting into your long term memory so that you can, you know go back, you know how to do those skills that you need for work. It’s also when a lot of our organs and bodily functions are doing a reset.
00:11:39 Jalene Szuba
It’s like shutting down your computer. Like sometimes you just have to go back to that base. I also like to think of it as, you know, the Zamboni on the ice goes around and cleans the ice for the next game. It’s all smooth and pretty. That is happening in our bodies.
00:11:53 Jalene Szuba
There’s a fluid that flushes our brain out. We build up plaque and proteins all day long, thinking and doing. And so when we sleep, there’s a fluid that can wash through and clear all of that away. And there’s some research that’s showing that when that doesn’t happen, those plaques, if they stay in there, that can lead to Alzheimer’s and longer chronic diseases, longer term illnesses. So it’s a time for your body to restore, regenerate, revive.
00:12:24 Jalene Szuba
And like I said, there’s there’s a reason we spend a third of our life, you know, like our bodily functions need that time. There’s also studies that show when you aren’t getting enough sleep, you don’t read facial expressions from other people in your lives. You can’t see the nuances there. So if you are not getting that sleep, you’re not connecting to your family to be that kind of dad who can sense when your children need you more or your wife needs you and to have that connection and intimacy. So there’s a lot of things.
00:13:00 Jalene Szuba
There’s, there’s, you know, it’s not just a waste of time, it’s there’s so many functions that happen.
00:13:04 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah. I mentioned some of that in jest and did throw out some contrast. But I do appreciate sleep. I understand. You know, when I look at at the world on a very macro and even micro scale, like it is cycles, it’s all energetic cycles, there’s waves of energies.
00:13:24 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And so it makes sense that as animals, as as this thoroughbred athlete body and I think we’re all athletes, we all have thoroughbreds that we are in charge of, then it makes sense to appreciate the cycles. So there’s there’s awake and there’s there’s sleep, there’s the cycles of emotions and and I can go on and on. So I understand there’s a big reset. There’s a lot of clearing, a lot of healing, a lot of just micro adjustments, a lot of filing of of experience and this information gathering and we’re putting this all into places. I also have done some research and I understand like the level of sleep can definitely impact how we think and like you were mentioning with the interpretation of of facial expressions.
00:14:22 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And on a micro level and what I find fascinating is that you know we all have a certain amount of time and yet some of us can leverage time differently than others to gain different experiences, more financial wealth, to grow different things. And I have to imagine some of that is based on just our own sleep patterns and our health and wealth. But when we’re talking about sleep, what have you seen that goes into making it better?
00:15:09 Jalene Szuba
OK. So I lost you for a second there. I don’t know if it’s my Internet, but the question was and I love your analogy, we are cyclical, right? Like we’re even spinning on the Earth and the the planets are all. So yes, I agree with you 100%, we are cyclical.
00:15:26 Jalene Szuba
So was the question about how sleep relates to that cycle?
00:15:30 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Well, I kind of went on a on a roundabout, but ultimately the question is like, OK, let’s own the fact that sleep is important. How do we optimize it? What can we do to make it better? You know, some of that is in the mindset of just being like, all right, yeah, sleep is important. Let’s get that.
00:15:49 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Are there practical pieces that I can do prior to bed or when I wake up or throughout the day that can really set me up for success? And and what am I ultimately aiming for as another level to that question?
00:16:03 Jalene Szuba
Yeah, absolutely. There are things that you can do all day. In fact, the moment you wake up, you’re starting to prepare yourself for sleep. So I recommend people get outside first thing when you wake up. I’m a big fan of drinking a glass of water because we lose.
00:16:20 Jalene Szuba
We are dehydrated, we’re sweating overnight. So getting that glass of water going gets everything in your body going. And from the moment you wake up, you start building what’s called sleep pressure and that’s what makes you tired at the end of the day. So and and then the other thing is our circadian rhythm back to that cycle and and rhythms. We work on a 24 hour clock and we are just biologically hardwired to be awake when the sun is up and to sleep when the sun is down South.
00:16:52 Jalene Szuba
Another way to get that going is to get outside and work at the sun early morning between like you know sunrise and you know 8:00 or 9:00. There’s colors in the spectrum that help stimulate our brain and start that sleep pressure going and and it’s it’s almost like starting the clock on the day and then throughout the day what you can do is you know be aware of your caffeine intake. It takes us, you know, anywhere. Everybody’s a little differently, but roughly, our bodies need like 68 hours to metabolize caffeine. So if you want to be going to bed at 10, you want to be reducing or stopping your caffeine around 2:00.
00:17:33 Jalene Szuba
Same thing with alcohol. If you’re going to do, if you know you’re going to, you know, be going to a big event, I believe it’s more like 4 to 6 hours to metabolize alcohol. And alcohol impacts REM sleep. It impacts the quality of our sleep. I think as we get older, we start to notice that more too, like drank a lot.
00:17:49 Jalene Szuba
I didn’t sleep so well. It woke up a lot. So if you’re going to be doing some drinking, do it earlier in the evening and then try to taper. I am a huge fan of moderation. I I believe that life is, you know, we’re here to be happy and enjoy things.
00:18:05 Jalene Szuba
So I’m, I’m not one to say don’t do this or don’t do that, but be more mindful of it and try to moderate where you can. And then in terms of getting ready to sleep, I I like to say it’s it’s landing an airplane, you know, ’cause like you said, we are these magnificent, amazing things. It’s not flipping a light switch. You can’t go, go, go all day and jump in bed and expect this body to go, OK, I’m done. It doesn’t, unfortunately, doesn’t work like that.
00:18:35 Jalene Szuba
If it did, we could optimize our time even more. So your bedtime routine, reducing screen time. Electronic devices like computers and phones emit a blue light that is very similar to that color spectrum of the sun. And so our brains think they’re supposed, it’s supposed to be working, it’s daytime, it’s supposed to be stimulated. So reducing time in front of devices.
00:18:58 Jalene Szuba
They do make blue light blocking glasses. So if you’re someone that has to be working on your computer or you need your phone, I use those at night if I know I’m working a little bit later. Dimming the lights in your home can also help send that signal to your brain that we’re going to be moving into a sleep cycle and then your actual bedtime routine. So I try to, you know, we are creatures of habit. Our bodies love routine.
00:19:25 Jalene Szuba
Our bodies like to know what to expect. And so I try to have the same routine at night so my body knows what’s coming and that’s brushing my teeth, washing my face, taking vitamins, maybe laying out my clothes for the next day, maybe doing one more look at my calendar just so I I know what my day is going to be like tomorrow. And then the very and then I love to read. I’ve always loved to read, So I try to read right before I go to bed, the book. And then the very last thing that I do, I turn out the light.
00:19:53 Jalene Szuba
And then I replay the day with a lens of gratitude. What happened? And I started the morning, what happened all day long that I am grateful for and how can I shift, you know, my perspective instead of, oh, that happened and that was a negative. What were the positives that happened? And it can be little things like, you know, I use my favorite pen today or I got to take the dog for a walk or, you know, I got something done, I got a parking space so that you’re going into slumber with a calmer state and frame of mind.
00:20:30 Jalene Szuba
And then consistency is is, is also very important. Like I said, we’re creatures of habit. So as much as you can, keeping that bedtime and wake up time within 1/2 hour to an hour, the same seven days a week, It’s challenging because Monday through Thursday we’re focused on work, getting up for work, going to bed, And then Friday and Saturday comes and we want to stay out with friends. Or Saturday, Sunday morning comes and we want to sleep in. And by Sunday night our bodies are like, which schedule am I supposed to be on?
00:20:58 Jalene Szuba
So as much as you can seven days a week keeping consistency, I mean, consistency is such a key for so many things in our life.
00:21:07 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, for folks that maybe have this consistency or maybe are not even optimizing for sleep, what would you say as far as speaking to the importance of sleep? Is there research that shares for those that get consistent 8 hours of sleep and hit like an hour and a half, two hours of R.E.M. deep sleep, like they live longer, they’re more productive. Is there anything that’s like scientifically anchoring in that that might give a little bit more of to like all right, I’m going to optimize sleep because.
00:21:49 Jalene Szuba
Yeah, yeah, you’re right. When we all need a a why and a motivation. And so that’s what’s why I love sharing all this science because I think if we understand why sleep isn’t so is so important, we are more motivated to make it a priority. So yes, they are showing that you know the the six to eight hours, we’re all a little different. So 6 to 8 hours, you’re going to reduce chronic diseases, heart diseases, dementia, diabetes, blood pressure.
00:22:23 Jalene Szuba
And like I said, you know, people who are getting that 6 to 8 are less likely to have Alzheimer’s and and long term memory loss. You are more productive, you are more focused. So you’re actually doing your job better. There is, there are, there’s research and charts that show like your your cognitive skills really decrease. So even though like in high in college, you know, you stay up late cramming, you think like oh, but you’re actually not going to retain any of that information.
00:22:55 Jalene Szuba
It’s actually better for you to go to sleep, get 6 to 8 hours and you’re going to retain that that information that you did study. There was something else that you asked too that was making me think about another why, You know, long term health is is definitely better focused relationships. They all improve when we sleep. Oh so a great way to know how much you need because we are so different is pick a day when you know you can sleep in like on the weekend and go to bed. You know, whatever time you go to bed, don’t set an alarm and just see what time your body wakes up naturally.
00:23:37 Jalene Szuba
And that can give you an idea of if you’re more of a six hour or if you’re more of an 8 hour.
00:23:43 Matthew Kuehlhorn
I’ve been starting to measure some of my sleep with my whoop. Do you use this, or are there other pieces that you would recommend for folks? I mean, it seems like it can measure my sleep and I just have a little bit of skepticism to it yet, but I’d love your insight on that.
00:24:02 Jalene Szuba
Yeah, you know, I I like those devices. I think they’re tools that are are helpful to get an idea where I, I, I caution is don’t let that be the dictator. If you wake up and you’re feeling great and you’re rested, but the whoop is telling you something different, go with what you know you’re feeling. Don’t let it be an influencer. It’s more of a place to get information and do some tracking.
00:24:29 Jalene Szuba
I don’t have a whoop. I have considered getting one. I think another great device is the Aura ring. That’s another device that monitors a lot of that kind of stuff. So I think there’s a place and they can be helpful, but if you wake up feeling great and it tells you it’s you didn’t get any good, any sleep, then then that’s kind of that goes back to that mindset and that mind over batter and now you’re letting something else tell you how you actually feel.
00:24:55 Jalene Szuba
So kind of checking in with yourself first and then looking at the data.
00:25:00 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah, I love that. And it is a tool and it, you know, it’s it’s not the dictator necessarily. So use it as such. This is good. Let’s see if we can break this down.
00:25:15 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So if I was to take our summary of this conversation and break it into practical terms, I think first and foremost, and I’m checking this with you, see if you would agree, start with really start with what you want and why.
00:25:37 Jalene Szuba
Yep, got to start with our why?
00:25:40 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And I know we have a little Internet connectivity pieces going on, but each one of us is getting uploaded on our own side, so it should play out in in our show form. But if we’re if we’re starting with with the why and understanding the mindset behind it, the next piece says, I love the analogy of landing an airplane and in kind of looking at the day as this big movement of momentum and being mindful of how I’m bringing this down and maybe that includes blue light glasses or shutting off the screens altogether for me. And one thing we haven’t even touched base on our on our conversations yet is you know using some kind of a supplement like a melatonin or another type of vitamin that could become part of a routine where it’s like OK, I’m taking this now, I’m like turning this down. But are there any long term, have you seen any long term implications to a melatonin or another type of vitamin type of piece?
00:27:00 Jalene Szuba
Supplements. Yeah, melatonin is is OK on a short term. I have used melatonin when I when I used to work in production and I knew I I wasn’t going to have the time to land the plane. Like I just really needed to kind of get into that sleep faster. I would use melatonin then and and also knowing if I didn’t have a window to get a long period of sleep.
00:27:24 Jalene Szuba
The problem becomes long term use our bodies produce melatonin naturally and so if you start supplementing it then your body’s going to stop making it or make less of it and you kind of become dependent on it. So I’m not a fan of using it long term. I think you know if we got more magnesium in on into our diet and and and that’s where I would lean if I were going to do supplements more in that capacity because that’s also helping brain health. So much of our body functions need magnesium. So yeah I I try to not do sleep aids.
00:28:05 Jalene Szuba
I think that they’re you know like sleeping pills. Again, if you were in a very, you know, say you’re grieving or something traumatic has happened and you can’t sleep, you can’t stop your brain. Short term, it’s a Band-Aid. It’ll help you get through so that you can continue to get the sleep to heal through whatever trauma you’re dealing with. But long term, I’m more a fan of behavioral change.
00:28:28 Jalene Szuba
Now, if someone is having, you know, if they’re waking up in the night and they’re they’ve tried every behavioral change and things aren’t happening, I also highly recommend you talk to your doctor and see if maybe a sleep study is something. Maybe you have sleep apnea. Maybe you are not getting enough oxygen at night. So big fan of starting with behavior change and if that’s not working, talking to your your medical practitioner and seeing maybe if there’s something else that’s that’s lacking.
00:28:56 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, love it. So get the mindset. Understand and value sleep. Recognize that it is a productive part of a a well fulfilled life. Bring the plane down as naturally as possible and what I’ve heard and what I might include also like I’ve heard you know, limiting screens, blue blocker glasses to reduce that type of light that can indicate to us that it’s go time and have a bit of a routine so we can start slowing down.
00:29:32 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Maybe that includes some kind of calming breath work. I think what I one thing I’ve noticed is just reducing any food consumption a number of hours. Like if I have a late dinner I notice that disrupts my sleep and that’s not even including any imbibement of alcohol or substance which can also interact with that kind of stuff. Trying to think, I mean I heard magnesium could be a a good supplement to add to a diet, not necessarily as a a sleep supplement but limiting anything that would really incur sleep because like you mentioned melatonin is made within us. Let our natural bodies like do our game and and do what is best.
00:30:26 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Just trying to think and then I also heard, you know, wake up and get out in the sunlight and like spur the spur the activity so that we can actually feel both ends of the cycle. Anything else is jumping out as far as practical pieces that that listeners can take and improve and optimize sleep.
00:30:48 Jalene Szuba
Yeah, I would say track. You know, there’s there’s a lot of great tracking, you know, PDFs or there’s probably web apps too. But we are all so different and unique and so these are just, you know, some broad tips. But what what really works is tracking your own. What are you eating?
00:31:11 Jalene Szuba
You know, like you said, are you drinking? You noticed. It’s it’s self-awareness and that only happens when you, you know, you can really track it. Like it’s so hard to remember and may and then when you are tracking it, you’re making connections like you did like eating later. I don’t sleep so great, So what am I eating?
00:31:27 Jalene Szuba
What am I drinking? Caffeine. Alcohol stress level. What time did I go to bed? What time did I get up?
00:31:33 Jalene Szuba
How was my sleep. And then you can connect the dots but but ultimately you know, like you and I have talked about, it’s it’s mindset, whether you, you know Henry Ford quote that I go back to, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right. So if you think you can’t get good sleep, it’s going to be even more challenging. But if you can give yourself some grace and say, you know what this is. I may not have had great sleep in the past, but this is something I want to improve because I know it’s better for my health and I’m going to see a lot of great benefits.
00:32:05 Jalene Szuba
And I am. I’m working on it. You know, we’re all a work in progress.
00:32:10 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah, I love that. OK. We’re getting very close to putting a bow tie on this conversation, Jaylene, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you this question. Do you have any tips for those moments? Maybe I ate a burger late at night.
00:32:25 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Maybe I just have my mind spinning and it’s like one in the morning, 2:00 in the morning. Snow falls off the roof. I’m awake. Yeah. And I’m like, oh, man, I’ve got 4 hours until I normally wake up.
00:32:42 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Do you have any tips, tools, insights? Like, is it time to get up, move the body around and kind of go back into the routine to settle? Is that counting sheep? Like, I know we’re all different. I’m just wanting to pick your brain and see if there’s any tips like in that moment of what I would call insomnia.
00:33:02 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And maybe it’s not chronic, maybe it’s just spur of the moment, but what might you say to your clients? Like what tips, tools might there be out there to help reset or get back to sleep? Or you just wake up and go with it?
00:33:19 Jalene Szuba
Yeah, yeah. Thank you for asking because I think it’s very common. I think a lot of people do. Many of us wake up in the middle of night just to go to the bathroom. And then if you start thinking you know that, then it’s hard to fall asleep.
00:33:34 Jalene Szuba
So tips are if you, if you are someone that goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night, try to minimize any light. Don’t flip on lights because now you’re going to be activating your brain. So if you need light to get to the bathroom safely, keep a keep a low level night light in the bathroom so you can get there safely. Or or don’t use you know, I don’t use a light at all. I know my route.
00:33:56 Jalene Szuba
I use my hands. And then if you do get back to bed or if you do wake up and you’re just your thoughts are racing, I recommend if you’re someone who’s chronically worrying, I recommend a worry journal. So in the middle of the day you write down all your worries. The money is everything you’re worried about. And then so when you wake up in the middle of the night, if you’re start playing that, if you get in that hamster wheel, you’re like, you know what, It’s in the worry journal.
00:34:22 Jalene Szuba
I’ve taken care of it. I will deal with it tomorrow. But right now I need to sleep because not a lot gets solved at 3:00 in the morning, you know, like, And the more you worry that I’m not sleeping, the the harder it’s going to be to calm your brain down, to go back to sleep. So, but if you do find that you’re sitting there and it’s been 30 minutes and you’re just not falling asleep, it is recommended to do to get up and to go move somewhere else and sit and read with like a low light book, a low light light on your book. Because that will kind of calm your brain down and get you a little more tired.
00:34:59 Jalene Szuba
And the reason they say to get out of your bed and go sit somewhere is we don’t want to associate our bed with somewhere. We’re stressed. We want our bed to be a place of relaxation. So if you were laying there and just beating yourself up because you’re not sleeping, then yes, it is. It is a good idea to just go move somewhere else, put a low light on, read a book, don’t pick up the device, because now we’re activating the brain again.
00:35:22 Jalene Szuba
But what I do is I either meditate, you know, I like we’ve talked about the calming breasts, counting my breasts, or I’ll go back to that gratitude. I’ll go back to like, what? You know, what am I grateful for? What’s happening in my life or what am I looking forward to that I’m grateful for and that I find that just that that’s my silver bullet for me. Just going.
00:35:42 Jalene Szuba
I find gratitude is like the antidote for everything. If I’m angry, if I’m sad, I just go, OK, what? What’s one thing I can be grateful for right in this moment? And that can usually help shift my emotions.
00:35:56 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s so powerful. I I really appreciate that. I’ve been training myself. You know, when I do wake up, as soon as my feet hit the ground, I say thank you. And that’s been a very consistent piece that can set into motion a different style of day than if I’m waking up and all of a sudden I’m like, oh, what’s going to happen today?
00:36:17 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Oh my gosh. So I really appreciate that. That’s been a big piece in my life. I think that in and of itself could be 1 nugget that a listener can take if they’re popping up and waking up in the middle of the night or even if they’re just trying to settle. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
00:36:35 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And starting there and looking at all the little micro things that are available to us to be grateful for can make that mind shift dramatically. So I really appreciate that for folks that are listening that that are local or even outside of local like how do we get in touch with you, how do we learn more from you, potentially engage in your, in your services, give us some of the details.
00:37:06 Jalene Szuba
All right, website ishappinessanchor.com. My e-mail is happy@happinessanchor.com. I’m on Instagram. Happiness dot anchor. My phone number is 773-294-1147.
00:37:23 Jalene Szuba
I like to get text messages and phone calls and I do work with people all over the world. That’s, you know, one benefit of COVID is we all became really comfortable with Zoom and that’s usually how I coach.
00:37:36 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah. Yeah, I love it. Well, Jaylene, thank you so much for the conversation today. Again, I’ve got to emphasize the the point of gratitude. I think that’s so good.
00:37:48 Matthew Kuehlhorn
And then just some really good Nuggets for optimizing sleep. I really appreciate the knowledge that you dropped and shared. Thank you so much.
00:37:55 Jalene Szuba
Thank you for having me. This was a pleasure.
00:37:58 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. We count on your subscriptions, your likes, your shares and I encourage you to do that. Now, if you’re watching on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe lower right hand button. If you’re on audio, download this, share it, and we look forward to having you on the next one.