Why Rituals Are So Important & Healthy Living Made Simple – SYSK Choice
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Where do you do your best thinking?
Today on Something You Should Know, why you probably don't do your best work at work and how to fix that. Then, rituals. You have a lot more of them than you realize, and they really do help.
One of the things that researchers suggest rituals help us with, if you think of them, they're very orderly, they're very familiar. Rituals give us a sense of being in the here and now and help us to get ready for what's coming instead of often our own minds stressing.
Also, why revenge can be so sweet. And how to be healthy, what's proven to work, and the myths to avoid.
For example... There's this idea that, for example, you have to do 10,000 steps a day. That's the magic number to be healthy. And if you look into where that number came from, it was actually made up by a Japanese company that was trying to sell pedometers, those things that measure how far you walk.
All this today on Something You Should Know.
Hey, it's Hillary Frank from The Longest Shortest Time, an award-winning podcast about parenthood and reproductive health. We talk about things like sex ed, birth control, pregnancy, bodily autonomy, and, of course, kids of all ages. But you don't have to be a parent to listen. If you like surprising, funny, poignant stories about human relationships and, you know, periods, The Longest Shortest Time is for you.
How do rituals impact our daily lives?
Find us in any podcast app or at LongestShortestTime.com.
Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hey, hi, welcome. And thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to another episode of Something You Should Know. We start today with a question. Where do you get your best ideas? Or where do you do your best work? it's probably not at work. Most of us work in an environment that is full of distraction, and distraction saps our creativity and concentration. This is according to Edward Halliwell, who is one of the real gurus on distraction. He's written several books on the subject.
What role do rituals play in reducing anxiety?
And Edward says that when people are asked where they do their best thinking, the number one answer is in the shower. And usually you don't have any distractions in the shower. When you're distracted from doing something, it isn't just the distraction that's the problem. Once you go back to whatever you were doing before, it takes a while for your brain to get back to where it was. And sometimes it never gets back to where it was. So in order for your mind to work well, you need uninterrupted time, away from all the distractions of everyday life. And that is something you should know. Your life is full of rituals, even if you don't know it. You shake hands? Ritual. You celebrate holidays? Rituals. Pray?
Ritual. In fact, religions are full of rituals.
How can rituals strengthen relationships?
Graduation day? Ritual. Weddings, funerals, ritual, ritual. And there's more. Many of us have daily rituals we perform. Humans seem to like rituals. Maybe we need them. What role and function do rituals serve? Should we have more rituals? Well, that's what Michael Norton is here to discuss. Michael is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and he is author of the book, The Ritual Effect. Hi, Michael. Welcome to Something You Should Know.
Thanks so much for having me.
So I'm curious, first of all, you're a professor of business administration and you wrote a book about rituals. So bridge that gap for me.
I'm a psychologist by training. And so my favorite thing to do is observe very weird things that humans do. And it turns out we do lots of them all the time. So my job is pretty easy. But about a decade ago, I started thinking a lot about a particular type of unusual thing that we do, which are rituals. And I started seeing them in many different places in life. So for sure, we can think of things like holidays and weddings and funerals are all times when rituals bring us together. But I also started to think about the role of rituals in our own daily lives, the way we get together in the morning, the way we might wind down at night, what we might do at work when we're nervous for a big meeting.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Where do you do your best thinking?
0:02–1:27
2
How do rituals impact our daily lives?
1:27–2:20
3
What role do rituals play in reducing anxiety?
2:20–3:14
4
How can rituals strengthen relationships?
3:14–7:09
5
What are simple ways to improve your health?
7:09–10:42
6
How does mindset affect healthy living?
10:42–14:03
7
What common health myths should you avoid?
14:03–23:34
8
Why is revenge considered sweet, and what does science say?
23:34–46:06
Speakers
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