The road to happiness is paved by the choices you make.
Hello, I’m Jessy, I have travelled the world making wine for the past five years. Now that I have settled down in Vienna I want to use what I have learned along the way to help you improve your habits.
A happy life starts with healthy habits so whether you are trying to develop good ones or break bad ones I hope you will find something to read here that will help you on your journey. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me.
Read this blog to reduce your stress by 68 % in 6 minutes
Hello, and welcome to my corner of the metaverse. I’m happy you’ve taken time out of your busy day to come here and unwind. Together we will embark on an adventure where I will discuss how small lifestyle changes can vastly improve your well-being. Stress is a natural response to challenging situations. However, chronic stress…
How to get in the flow
Flow is a state of complete absorption and focus in an activity. When in a flow state, you are fully immersed in the present moment and concentrating on what you are doing. You lose track of time and become so engrossed in the activity that you forget everything else.Flow is a delightful state where you…
Do you know how to listen to a book?
The history of books is an interesting one. The first books were utterly unreadable to anyone but the author or someone who studied the book intensely. Without punctuation or spaces, these books were written as a memory aid rather than to disperse ideas. Thanks to the invention of punctuation and the development of writing, books…
It’s time to stop should-ing all over yourself
The words you use when defining your values or asking questions determine how likely you are to have that request fulfilled or live up to the values you set. The arduous path to lasting change is through sheer willpower. It is much easier to start paying attention to your self-talk and use your words to…
The importance of community
Do a kind and caring community surround you? If not, it might be time to reconsider the role of friends and family in your life. It will make you feel better, boosting your longevity and keeping you feeling younger for longer. I learned the importance of community while travelling the world making wine. It was…
How to prepare for a longer healthspan
What is the opposite of war? If you think it’s peace, truce, or ceasefire, googles antonym generator would agree with you, but not me. War is an active conflict, which means the opposite should be an active resolution such as a collaboration, partnership or alliance. Throughout history, countries have either been at war or not.…
Choosing wisely in a finite time
Deciding what to do with our time takes a lot of work. Pop-up notifications trying to steal our attention are making it increasingly challenging. We all have digital vices where we spend more time or money than we should. But there are techniques we can use that make these difficult decisions easier. I consume audiobooks…
Would you rather be rich or wealthy?
Wealth and riches may seem the same, but they are not. Morgen Housel explains in the psychology of money the difference between the two. To be rich is to have expensive things, while wealth is derived from the ability to buy expensive items. He uses the example of buying an expensive car. When you see someone with…
The misleading effects of the compound effect
What makes Warren Buffet the most successful investor of all time, more than anything else, is his longevity. He has been investing successfully for over 75 years, leading to explosive financial success. There is no other word that can better illustrate the compound effect than an explosion. Let’s take an explosion we are probably all…
How to be spiritual in a modern world
It is possible to be spiritual in this modern world, but doing so is becoming more challenging daily. We are constantly bombarded with newer and shinier technologies that make it impossible to focus on any one thing for more than a few seconds but whether we see this technology as a blessing or a curse…
How to be at peace with being cold
Winter is here, and the season of swimming in nearly freezing water. We all know that one guy that goes swimming in winter. Sometimes it’s your neighbour, your co-worker or even your grandfather; in my circle of friends, it’s me. I took my first ice bath at Angelus Hut in the mountains of New Zealand.…
How to learn buckets of languages
We’ve just entered a new year, and many of us have resolved to learn or relearn a language. Assuming you can stick to your resolution and study that language long enough for it to become a habit, you’ll want to watch out for the leaky bucket effect. The leaky bucket effect started its life as a marketing…
How to stick to your New Year resolution
As the saying goes, “New year, new me.” It’s tempting to make a life-changing promise to ourselves at the change of the year. We make a New Years’ resolution to lose weight, learn a language, or practice mindfulness, telling all our friends about it, but what happens? Without the right plan: nothing. New Years’ resolutions are great in theory…
How to spice up your Christmas
Christmas is a time that brings out the best and worse in people. Originally a Pagan holiday, it was adapted to become a Christian one. It is safe to say that Christmas has become an atheist festival and something people can celebrate regardless of these backgrounds. Christmas gives us something to look forward to when…
How cultivating your curiosity
Having a growth mindset in today’s fast-paced economy is crucial. If you stand still while everyone moves forward, you are actually going backwards. To keep up with upcoming trends and to stay relevant in your industry, you must keep moving forward. Let’s use inflation as an analogy. With so much news about inflation lately, I’m…
How to boost your productivity through aimlessness
After so many blogs about reaching your goals, it’s time to write one about practicing aimlessness. Learning aimlessness through meditation can help you get to new levels of understanding which will help you on your path to accomplishing your dreams. It is more than a benefit of meditation; we aim to appreciate aimlessness through meditation.…
What is the snake effect, and why should you watch out for it?
Have you ever noticed that you don’t age? Not visibly, it happens slowly, especially as you reach adulthood, where changes occur so gradually that they become imperceivable. Then, one day you wake up and are much older than you remember. In The Science and Technology of Growing Young, Sergey Young describes aging as: “… the…
A guide to mindfulness – the secret path to happiness.
Whether your goal is to lose weight or quit smoking, becoming more mindful is the first step toward that change. Aside from helping you change your habits, it carries some benefits. Becoming more mindful can help you control your emotions, focus, and be more joyous. Read on to find out how. What is mindfulness? The…
Long Life Events
Sibling rivalry – May 7th, 2023 – Prague
The wave of craving – how to overcome any bad habit
Do you find yourself constantly struggling to avoid temptations? Me too; that’s why I have written this blog to reaffirm what I have learned about self-discipline and guide you down a path to better self-control. Craving as a wave My meditation practice began falling apart lately, and I noticed it has had knock-on effects on…
How to cultivate curiosity
The leaves are falling, and school is in full swing with exams just around the corner – this is a learning time. The days are getting darker and colder, giving us the perfect reason to curl up with a blanket in a warm place and learn something new. To make learning a habit, you must…
How to bundle temptations to build habits.
Using temptation bundling can increase your motivation and help you build good habits. It’s simple; you pair something you enjoy with something you would like to enjoy. This way, you develop a positive association with the new thing and eventually crave it. Coffee and alcohol do this automatically. Most people don’t actively decide to start…
Are you ready for the next stage of your life?
Life has traditionally been divided into three stages: school, work, and retirement. This three stages system has become outdated and is quickly being replaced by a more flexible multi-stage system. In this new system, people float between different levels of what would have previously been called “success.” Traditionally, you would have gone to school. In…
Why autumn is perfect for cold showers
Those in the Northern Hemisphere can feel it – winter is coming. The mornings are getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and soon we’ll all be snuggling in a blanket, waiting for the spring. If you want to prepare for this cold period, I suggest ditching the snuggy and taking a cold shower instead.…
How to manage your assets for long life (part 2)
Last week I discussed the importance of maintaining your financial and mental assets. This week I will focus on the importance of building a community and maintaining your health for increasing healthspands. Community In elementary school, having a robust social network was easy. If you still live in the region where you grew up, you likely…
How to manage your assets for a long life (part 1)
To manage your assets, you must develop a long-life mindset and habits that match that mindset. In life, there are tangible and intangible assets. Tangible ones are the ones most people think of with an attached financial value. Meanwhile, the intangible ones are the ones that have an impact on your life but have no…
How to avoid the accomplishment trap
This is the moment you’ve been training for; all of your effort over the past weeks, months, and years has been for this moment. It’s finally the big day, the biggest challenge you have undertaken; you are ready for it. You start, you struggle, but in the end, you succeed, and then you are hit…
The three-step approach to achieving your goals
Do you ever wonder if you are on the right path? There are many ways to get to a destination, so it can be hard to know if you are on the right one. To ensure that you are on the right path, you must first have the right mindset. The Motivation Myth illustrates that you are…
How to have a more optimistic mindset
Do you believe in abundance or scarcity? The world might seem to be falling apart, but that’s probably because of the media you consume. Read on if you want to have a brighter view of the future.
How to be rich, a guide to investing in yourself
Art is a physical representation of the value of someone’s time. How can you know what you are worth if you never make an audit? The value of shares, bonds and NFTs depends on many complicated factors. This blog aims to help you improve your overall life, not just your financial life, so I will…
What’s better: meditation, coffee, or both?
Medicine is taken regularly to keep you in the “therapeutic window” of that medication. Too little, and it becomes ineffective; too much, and you risk side effects. This zone is when you get all the benefits with minimal side effects. I will use coffee to illustrate this point as it contains a bitter white powder…
Lulu shorts and a magical tailor – the best financial habits for millennials
Longevity is about more than health; you will also need money as you age. The earlier you develop healthy money habits, the better off you will be. This post was inspired by a recent trip to the tailors. Hence, the Lulu shorts. I love these shorts as they have convenient pockets and are quite fashionable. …
How vacations ruin good habits and how to get over it
Vacations are terrible for longevity. Sure, they help you unwind, but boy, do they ever mess with your longevity habits. The long flights, exhaustion and constant exposure to temptations drain your willpower. Your bad habits start to creep back in while the good ones disintegrate. It’s normal; you’re on vacation, a time to be glutinous and…
How to effectively use Duolingo
Duolingo is the most downloaded language. While they do a great job of making language acquisition fun. Their programs are based on translation which is an inefficient way to learn a language. There are few applications for learning Czech; that’s why two years ago, I downloaded Duolingo. Since making that decision two years ago, I…
A meditation on chocolate – how to appreciate chocolate
A meditation on chocolate – how to appreciate chocolate If you are reading this, then I imagine that you – like I – love chocolate. Chocolate has been my weakness for as long as I can remember. I used to devour anything chocolaty like Cookie Monster eats cookies; through meditation and practice, I have learned to savour it…
The four stages of my marathon – How failure became a success.
Nobody wants to pay for Netflix, but we all want access to it. After several years of casually passing the Netflix puck back and forth, my brother and I devised a final solution for who would foot the bill that year: a race. Last year we both did a half-marathon with moderate difficulty. This year,…
The habits of Animal Farm – and how to learn from them
Animal Farm is a story by George Orwell about a group of animals revolting against the status quo and taking over the farm they inhabit. It is now a bit dated in the specifics. Still, it is a thought-provoking book that illustrates several societal habits that can impact your life. Orwell demonized the pigs and the dogs,…
How meditating with a group can deepen your practice
Meditation is the act of focusing on a single thing and simply observing the rest of the world. This activity has many benefits and is a buzzword in many circles. I would even go as far as to say that people now talk about their meditation practice as much as vegans like to point out…
How to live with less – the art of substraction.
We live in a world where we constantly have to make decisions; these are made even more challenging by the endless number of choices available. How we choose is important and affects the quality of our life, but how much we choose to surround ourselves with can also be draining. Individuals and businesses tend to solve problems…
How to effectively boost your motivation using a visualization meditation.
Yin and Yang represent the complementary forces of light and dark, positive and negative. Last week I discussed the importance of maintaining a positive attitude. Pessimism can be combined with optimism to ensure you are ready for the pitfalls as you work towards your goals. In life, there must be balance; every Yin must have a…
Three steps to a wealthy and fulfilling life
Looking backwards, it seems like everything I wanted to be when I grew up happened; I wanted to travel the world and go on adventures. Now that I have spent the last five years doing exactly that, I am ready for another type of adventure: stability. I didn’t realize it as it was happening, but…
How to use suffering to be happy, healthy and wealthy
The world you live in is the world you create for yourself. Whether you live in a happy or miserable place depends more on your perception of it than the place itself. Negativity in the news often misleads us thinking that the world is hostile. Still, in reality, the world is full of opportunities. Rhonda…
How to plan for a long life
Most people have a grim vision of what it’s like to reach 100 years of age. They imagine that by then, they will have lost all their friends, watched their bodies deteriorate and have difficulty remembering where they left their keys. It’s not a pretty picture, but it can be. Three limitless things will change…
Four steps to fluency
I have been flirting with different languages since the day I was born. I grew up in a French-speaking household in Northern Ontario. My first language was French, but as I grew up in the English part of Canada, I am now substantially better at English. Growing up, it did not take long for me…
How to acclimate to the longevity diet
Since Dr. Valter Longo published his meta-analysis on what is the optimal diet for longevity a ceaseless stream of articles has been published outlining what you should be eating. While insightful, they seem to be a simple regurgitation of the detail rather than elaborating on them. So, instead of simply rewriting the longevity diet, as has been…
The best way to develop exercise habits for longevity and weight loss
What if you were only allowed to have a certain amount of fun in life? You can enjoy your life, but you make it a little shorter with every fun activity – like in the movie The Covenant, their magical powers age them rapidly. Still, for us mere mortals, instead of magic, it’s fun. Well,…
Mental habits for longevity
Habits for longevity are meta-habits; they are composed of other habits. The three meta-habits for optimizing your brain health over time are sleep, spirituality and mental exercises. It’s hard to see sleep as a meta-habits or even a habit as it is something that we must do every night. Sleep itself is not the habit;…
Longevity habits – A guide to a long and healthy life
Longevity is about more than just living longer; it’s about having a sustainable lifestyle. Too many people assume that pain and sickness are a natural progression of life, thinking it is what happens as you age. They gradually gain weight, become progressively more sedentary, and are more frequently sick as they age. All habits have…
4 Methods to Help you Choose Wisely
To work out or not to work out, that is the question. Decisions are not all created equal; they vary in subtlety and difficulty. Whether complex, simple, obvious or subtle, any decision can be made easier through habits. Every day you make thousands of decisions. Making these is taxing and can easily lead to making…
How to let go of the past: a lesson from psychedelics
Trying to relive an experience is the quickest road to disappointment; learning to appreciate the moments as they happen is the slow windy path to a happy and fulfilling life. That’s it; the art of letting go is the practice of appreciation. Practicing appreciation is much easier said than done. Sure, that piece of cake…
How to meditate: a beginner’s guide
Compared to monks or even long-term meditations, I am still a beginner myself than monks or even long-term meditations. In a sense, a meditator is always a beginner; the goal of meditation is to learn to keep a beginner’s mind. Think of the Dunning-Kruger effect: When you first start, your confidence skyrockets and before you…
The best habit for boosting your happiness
The habit I am talking about is altruism. Altruism – the act of selfless giving – is possibly the most selfish action there is because of how much joy it brings you. We get so much when we give selflessly that the sacrifice is easily forgotten. The key is to start, once it becomes a…
How to optimize your mornings
Taking advantage of the morning is the secret to increasing your daily productivity. This is the period in the day when you have the most creative and physical energy but most people underutilize it, choosing instead to sleep in and wake up just in time for work. I am usually exhausted after work. The first…
How sleep can save your life
We all do it, and we are completely lost without it: sleep. That seven to nine hours in which you lay in bed are much more important than you may realize. Most of us never ask ourselves why we sleep, we just accept it as part of life. For those interested in learning what we…
How to taste wine like a professional
I never thought I would grow up to say this but technically, I am a wine professional. Most people that write about tasting wine have a very well-developed pallet but only a vague idea of how the wine is made. I am the exact opposite. My focus is making the wine and while I am…
3 steps for compounding your habits
The compound effect is commonly thought of in a financial context; as your investment grows, you start to gain interest in the growth which causes it to grow faster. I want to change your paradigm so that it also includes other types of investments: physical, mental and temporal. This effect best illustrates the power of…
How your word choices cause motivation
The words you use when defining your values or asking questions determine how likely you are to have those requests fulfilled or to live up to the values you set. Some words are hard while others are soft. When seeking to motivate either yourself or others it’s important to use the hard ones and avoid…
The Fallacy of Consumerism
We already possess sufficient technology for the world to live from a fifteen-hour workweek. So why are so many of us taking on second jobs just to make ends meet? Because we would rather buy a shiny new thing than have more personal time. There are many people that would love to travel but say…
How to be happy and accomplish almost anything.
The paradox of leisure is that either you have a lot of time or a lot of money; the two seem to be mutually exclusive. Learning to take advantage of the leisure time you do have can help you accomplish anything you set your mind to and live a more fulfilling life. Over the past…
The 3-Step Approach to Taking an Ice Bath
Cold therapies such as cold showers and ice baths are much more mental than physical. Your body might be the one exposed to the heat sink, but your mind is the one that keeps you there. You are making the decision to go out of your thermal comfort zone—into the cold. My goal is to…
What Is Meditation and Why Does it Matter?
I have previously mentioned meditation as a path to spirituality. Now I want to focus on what meditation is and how it can benefit just about anyone. The practice of meditation is several thousands of years old, but recently it seems to have gone viral. Everyone I have talked to lately has either developed a…
Are your habits working against you?
The difference between a habit and an addiction is desire; an addiction is just an undesired habit. By having a deeper understanding of habits you can change your bad ones into good ones. Optimize the way you live your life and spend your time how you believe is best. The act of writing this blog…
3 paths to spirituality
We all have different ways of getting there and feeling that there is something greater out there. What is it? Where does it come from? How do we get there? I recently joined a book club in Vienna and when we got to discussing the books we enjoyed I mentioned that I had enjoyed learning…
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