Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - BITESIZE | The 5 Minute Morning Habit To Reduce Stress, Overwhelm & Negative Thoughts | Dr Rangan Chatterjee #550

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

Journalling regularly has been shown to decrease emotional stress, make it easier to turn new behaviours into long term habits, improve the quality of our relationships and, ultimately, help us lead more mindful and intentional lives. It can help improve sleep, lead to better decision making and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my weekly podcast for your mind, body, and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. Today’s clip is from episode 413 of the podcast which was a solo episode where I outlined the transformative power of journaling.  I’ve recommended a journalling practice to thousands of my patients over the years, but I’ve also seen the positive impact it has had on my own life as well. In this clip, I share how you can get started really easily by asking yourself 3 powerful questions every morning. They are deceptively simple and answering them will take less than 5 minutes, but doing so can prove transformative. If you want to take a look at ‘The 3 Question Journal’ go to https://drchatterjee.com/journal Thanks to our sponsor https://www.drinkag1.com/livemore Support the podcast and enjoy Ad-Free episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/feelbetterlivemore For other podcast platforms go to https://fblm.supercast.com. Show notes and the full podcast are available at drchatterjee.com/413 DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.

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with your first order. See all details at www.drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better, Live More Byte Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 413 of the podcast, which was a solo episode where I outlined the transformative power of journaling. Now I've been recommending journaling to many of my patients over the years but have also experienced the numerous benefits in my own life as well. In this clip I share how you can get started really easily by asking yourself three powerful questions

every single morning. So many patients tell me that life just feels like a blur because of the pressures that so many of us face. The busyness, the overwhelm, the endless to-do list. I've heard it time and time again. Why haven't things changed? Why can't I bring these healthy habits into my life and make them stick?

I've been a medical doctor for over two decades and I have to say one of the most transformative practices I have ever seen is the practice of journaling. Because it breaks the loop. We have these unconscious patterns, these subconscious patterns running our lives. We have these unconscious patterns, these subconscious patterns running our lives. We don't realize how many anxieties and worries and concerns we have worrying around and journaling is a very simple

way to get the stuff out of your brain. You get it down onto paper and you see it and that does something really really powerful. There's many different ways to journal. I think one of the most powerful ways is to ask yourself some really, really important questions. And if all you do is choose one of these three questions and start asking yourself that question each day and taking maybe one minute to write down the answer, I can pretty much guarantee that your life is going to start to change for the better. So the first question is, what is the most important thing you have to do today? This question is deceptively powerful.

What comes up for you? Do you have an answer? Do you have the clarity on that question? Or do you freeze a little bit? You go, wow, well, there's lots of important things I have to do. One of the problems these days is that our to-do lists are endless.

What we feel, and so everything is equally important, and therefore we feel frustrated and out of control because our to-do lists are never done. But not everything in life matters equally. And by thinking it does, we fall into a trap. It's a trap the modern world sets for us. And it's that trap that if you fall into it, it's gonna keep you stuck.

You're gonna feel unmotivated. You're gonna procrastinate. You're not gonna move forward in your life because you've got too much to do. This question can immediately start to procrastinate. You're not going to move forward in your life because you've got too much to do. This question can immediately start to change that. Now when I first started asking myself this question, I would say, yeah, well, you know what? There's one answer here for my work life and one answer here for my home life.

But over time, as you do this more, you realize that there is only ever one answer. When I asked myself this question today, I wrote down, when my children come home from school, I'm going to put my laptop down, pay attention, and listen carefully to what they have to tell me. Yesterday, when I answered this question, I said the most important thing I have to do today is stop at lunchtime and go for a 20-minute walk around the block without my phone. That's just two examples from today and yesterday. Sometimes it's the same thing,

but it doesn't matter. Now, here's something I think many of us don't realize. Because the modern world is so busy and feels so chaotic and out of control, we often feel that we can only do the important things in life once everything else is done. But everything else is never done. And so the important things in life are health, our lifestyle behaviors, our relationships, they often fall by the wayside because we try and squeeze them in if we find that we have the

time. And I've seen this in my own life, I've seen it with my patients. We often feel that we don't. We don't have the time. What's so great about this question is that it forces you to write down what is the most important thing. And what that means is that you've shifted the focus in your brain. Essentially, you can say, if and when you do that thing that day, that day is a win.

That's a successful day because the most important thing got done. Now again, I wanna get you away from any perfectionist tendencies that you may have. You cannot have a perfect answer to this question, right? If we reflect on the two answers I gave today and yesterday about being attentive with my children when they come home from school or going for a walk yesterday, it's easy to say that they're both important.

And yes, of course, looking after my health and nurturing my relationship with my children are both very, very important things. But by writing down what the most important thing is that day, and that answer will depend on what's going on in your life, whether you walked the previous few days, whether you've seen your kids over the last few days or whether you've been too busy working, whatever it might be, it helps direct your focus.

It doesn't mean the other things aren't important, but what you'll find is when you ask yourself this question regularly, hopefully every day, you will start to put more intention and focus on what truly is important. And the act of asking yourself this question each day will get you better at making that decision. But the most important thing is that you actually make a decision. And by picking one each day, you will get better at it. I promise you that will start to transform things because it means no matter what's going on and many of us face these busy chaotic lives, you're going to focus on what is truly important. That's why I love this question and that's why I'd recommend you consider

asking yourself that question every single day. Before I get to the second question, I just want to say a couple of things about stress. So stress is thought to be responsible for up to 90% of what a doctor like me might see on any given day. Anxiety, depression, top two diabetes, even obesity, sleep problems, gut problems, low libido, all these things are strongly associated with too much stress. And many of us are feeling that stress overload these days.

Journaling can be a very powerful way of helping you reduce stress and reduce things like anxiety. One of the most common forms of stress that I see these days is related to what people do as soon as they wake up. What do you do when you wake up? What's the first thing you do? Do you pick up your phone? Do you look at social media? Do you look at the news? Hey, it's okay. Arguably most people these days do. But let's just think about why that could be contributing to your stress levels and potentially your mental well-being. A lot of your thoughts, a lot of your emotions are downstream of the content you consume. If the first thing you do each morning

is let's say watch the news, which if we're completely honest is usually full of negativity. Or let's even say social media, if your social media feed is full of negativity, what impact do you think that's going to have on your mood, on your thoughts and your actions? You're basically starting the day with a big dose of negativity and that then influences how you're going to be for the rest of the day. It influences the way you feel,

it may influence the way you interact with your partner, with your children, with your work colleagues, it may impact how likely it is for you to go for that walk, go for that workout, to do that meditation. Because you've got to understand that your brain is wired for negativity. Humans have this negativity bias. That negativity bias is what has kept you alive for so many years. For most of our days on this planet, humans needed to be fine-tuned to the negative.

You had to know whether that noise that you heard was just a rustling of leaves in the bush or a predator about to attack. So you're primed for the negative. of leaves in the bush or a predator about to attack. Right, so you're primed for the negative. In fact, psychologists find that humans take in nine bits of negative information for every positive bit. And that's why this second question revolves around gratitude. What is one thing you deeply appreciate about your life?

So when you go on the news or on social media, first thing in the morning, if it's full of negativity, you're basically reinforcing that pattern. And I would argue for most of us, we don't wanna reinforce that pattern. That pattern is there anyway. We wanna do what we can to focus on the positives. We're going to feel better. If you have positivity going into your brain first thing in the morning,

all your thoughts, your mood, your actions, your emotions are going to be downstream from that boost of positivity. And that's why I'm such a big fan of a practice of gratitude. Gratitude, intentionally looking for the things in your life that you already have, rather than focusing on what you lack, is one of the most powerful things you could do. It is the antidote to that negativity bias. And the more you practice it, the better you get. There's actually a lot of hard science

behind gratitude as well. Gratitude has also been shown to lower anxiety, reduce symptoms of depression, improve our self-esteem, improve our relationships and improve the way we feel about ourselves. And look, what's there not to like about gratitude? It's free. You don't have to buy anything. You don't have to go anywhere. It just takes a few seconds. No matter how tough our life is, most of us, if we really think about it, do have some positives. So if I was to ask you now, what is one thing you deeply appreciate about your life? Could you answer it? Now, if you're struggling, let's start off with really simple things. Okay, you can be grateful that you can afford food. You can be grateful that you've got the technology that allows you to listen to a podcast.

You could focus on things that you're proud of. You know, I'm proud that I managed to get this job and that I managed to keep it, even though it's been hard. You could also write about things that are giving you pleasure. When I met a friend today, my colleague made me a cup of tea at work, whatever it might be.

The more you start to look might be, the more you start to look for it, the more you're going to see. So don't worry too much. You don't have to write a long essay. It could just be a few words or just one sentence. What is one thing you deeply appreciate about your life? The power comes from asking yourself the same question regularly. You ask yourself that every day and you get better. You go deeper. You get to understand yourself better. You start to see things that previously you were blind to. Your brain is wired to focus on the negative. Don't reinforce that. Start each morning by focusing on the positive

and watch how things start to change. The third question is what quality do I want to show the world today? What comes up for you when you hear that? Is your mind blank? Or do a few qualities come up? Whatever comes up for you, that's completely okay. Even if you don't know what you would answer.

The point is, by regularly asking yourself this question, like all the questions, you'll get better at answering them. You'll learn more about yourself and it will start to change the way you experience each day. For me, this is a very powerful way of intentionally deciding how you want to be in the world. So many of us never really think about how we want to show up that day, how we want to be in the world that day. So we end up repeating past behaviours. We're often reactive.

We're often in a rush. And we think that's who we are. But it's not who we are. It's who we might have become over a period of time. And that's okay. But this question is really, really powerful. Like this morning, what did I put down in my journal? Because I do these questions every day.

I said, what quality do I want to show the world today? I want to show the world the quality of patience. Now what's really powerful about that is by taking a moment to think about it and write it down, it means I've brought that into my current awareness. It means that if there's a situation in life where I may have been tempted to react, I'm gonna catch myself if someone sends me an email that I may have previously interpreted as a bit cold or confronting.

I'm gonna take a beat, take a pause and be patient. And the real power is not by asking yourself this question once, it's by asking yourself every day. You start to reinforce the qualities that you want. And what are those qualities that you want? It could be compassion, it could be kindness, it could be curiosity. It could be, you know, today I'm going to be curious. When someone has a different opinion to me, when someone says something I don't agree with, I'm not going to get annoyed.

I'm going to try not to feel emotionally triggered. I'm going to lead with curiosity. I'm going to ask myself, oh, I wonder why that person has a completely different opinion to me. In many ways, this question is about choosing who you want to be. You don't have to just wake up and behave the way in which you've always behaved.

I think that that's down to chance, that's just who you are. It may not be who you are, it may be who you became. And you can change that. And this question has changed the way I interact with my loved ones. And I've seen it changed the way my patients interact. As a doctor, I'm interested in people making better choices with their lifestyle. And a lot of the time we don't realize why we're making poor choices. Let's say we're trying to eat well,

and with our rational mind, we think we're gonna change things. Well, what often happens is, let's say with our relationships, let's say we've been a bit reactive. We've had a bad day at work, we've had too much to do, we've got home a bit stressed,

and then we've been a bit short with our partner or our children. It's a pretty common scenario. I've seen it with so many patients. What a lot of us don't realise is that generates emotional stress in our bodies. And that emotional stress needs to be neutralised. And how do we neutralise emotional stress in our bodies? We generally go towards behaviors that are not that helpful. Sugar, alcohol, doom scrolling online, whatever it might be, because you've generated this stress. A lot of the time that

stress comes from the way we interact with others. This is a big problem. And bringing it back to that question, that's why this question is so powerful. In fact, these three questions are really, really powerful. They are deceptively simple. But I promise you, if you start asking yourself these questions each morning, these three questions, or even just one question, you will start to get to know yourself better.

You will start to feel better. You'll have more energy, more clarity, more focus. Your mental wellbeing will improve. You're gonna make better decisions. You're going to interact in a much better way with the other people in your life. You're gonna feel better about yourself. And really these questions are

they're about living an intentional life. That's why I love journaling. That's why for me it's a keystone habit. On the days that I journal, I'm a better human being. I'm more patient. I'm calmer. I'm more productive. I'm more patient, I'm calmer, I'm more productive, I'm more intentional with how I live that

day. And ultimately, it transforms the way I experience life. So think about where you're going to put it in your day. Start small and good luck. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Start small and good luck. that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it free of charge at DrChatterjee.com forward slash Friday

five. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long form conversational Wednesday and the latest episode of Byte Science next Friday. Music