Kick your shoes on the floor, leave your worries at my door. Can we laugh for a while and make me smile? For the next few minutes, let's take a break from the craziness of our world. Let's make this place, this moment, a refuge where we feel safe to laugh, smile, listen to great music, and learn. Let's come together to discover forgotten simple ways to change our world in 15 seconds or less a day. And in doing so, remind each other of what it means to be human. Welcome to Make Me Smile. I'm Missed, your host. I'm a singer-songwriter and not a health professional. But like you, I want to be a part of something bigger and better. Let's build a family and a vision of the future that looks happier, more fulfilling, and more meaningful. Let's learn to smile again. I keep hearing about these TikTok challenges. To be honest, I've never done any of them, but it seems like every week or so, there is some new challenge happening that makes the news. Usually in a bad way. While some of those challenges can be innocent and fun, Some, like the one about eating washerpaws, was very dangerous. Still, people, especially young people, feel compelled to do these challenges because of the sense of connection it gives them with the other participants. And of course, the possibility of becoming a viral sensation. Today, I want to talk about challenging ourselves, but for a different purpose and intent. There is no chance that what we talk about today will make you famous. It won't gain you or I tons of new followers, but it will make you feel better, help you grow, and give you a sense of purpose. In this crazy world, that is more important than ever to keep us grounded. To challenge ourselves is the opposite of complacency. When we feel complacent, we don't try to do anything. If we're complacent about our health, we don't eat well. If we're complacent about our relationships, we don't foster them. Complacent about our work, that can get us fired. Complacency about our beliefs can mean that we are hanging on to something for years or decades just because it is convenient. I remember asking a 50-year-old woman one day why she belonged to a particular religion. She shrugged and said it was because her parents were of that religion. That is being complacent She was doing something just because she had always done it and didn't see the need to question her beliefs That didn't make her beliefs false but it also didn't confirm that her beliefs were true There are a couple of definitions about complacency that I found interesting From dictionary.com a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like. And this one from the Cambridge Dictionary. A feeling of calm satisfaction with your own abilities or situation that prevents you from trying harder. So why shouldn't we just be complacent? Feeling secure and safe seems totally okay. Shouldn't the world be better if we were all feeling secure and just okay? Just accept the status quo, our place in it, and be fine. Why challenge ourselves and others? Let's take a short stroll through the many reasons that challenging ourselves can enhance nearly everything about our lives, starting with our physical bodies. Doctors know that our muscles deteriorate when not used regularly. According to the National Institution of Health, I'm quoting, Sedentary behaviors have wide-ranging adverse impacts on the human body, including increased all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, cancer risk, and risks of metabolic disorders such as diabetes. End of quote. You see, muscles require challenge or resistance to stay healthy. They not only can be challenged, they want to be. When muscles are challenged, it actually creates micro tears in the muscle fiber, which encourages your body to rebuild stronger. Challenging your muscles not only can increase muscle size and definition, but increases metabolism. And it's not only muscles that benefit. Your bones can get stronger when challenged. One of the main ways to delay osteoporosis where the bone deteriorates is strength and resistance training. That includes things as simple as walking. There is zero evidence that complacency with our health, just sitting around hoping to stay healthy works. But we do know that challenging our body does. Likewise, our hearts were not meant to live complacent lifestyles either. They do better when constantly challenged. One of the main indications of heart disease is a sudden difficulty of walking upstairs. But one of the solutions is just as straightforward. Doctronic.ai says more stairs, more exercise, more physical challenges are beneficial. Obviously, with a doctor's supervision if needed. On the other hand, our hearts do really bad when they're not challenged or exercised. We're more likely to have heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. We lose quality of life. We die sooner. Even if a heart is weak, exercise is almost always beneficial. Again, please consult with your healthcare professional, but according to the American Heart Association, even after suffering from a stroke, bursts of intense exercise is good for the heart. Our bodies were designed to want and need to be challenged. There are not only the physical benefits of challenging ourselves, but exercise is consistently shown to release endorphins, which make us feel better not only about ourselves, but our lives in general. Our mental health and physical health are intricately intertwined, which makes sense if you think about it. As the episode on cleanliness a few weeks ago talks about, we are hardwired to appreciate order and feel good about it. When we take care of our physical health, we know we're doing something good and that improves our mental health. Even difficult mental afflictions such as depression are helped by challenging ourselves physically by exercise. Several studies have found that physical exercise can be as effective as therapy and a whole lot cheaper. When we consider how amazing our bodies are designed and the incredible activities they are capable of, this makes sense. If we never challenge ourselves physically, if we insist on being sedentary or inactive, it is like being given the world's most incredible off-roading vehicle ever made and merely letting it idle in front of your house its whole life. Periodically washing it so the neighbors won't write wash me on it. If you did that, after someone gave you that vehicle, you would feel guilty every day walking past it. It is the same with our bodies. If we do not take care of it and never use it or challenge it as intended, it affects our mental health. We just don't feel good about anything. I know for myself learning new things like unicycling or juggling gives me a real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction I don know why exactly but I do know the result and that is what all these studies tell us Physical exercise affects our brains too. Studies have shown that high levels of moderate to vigorous exercise may be a key in slowing neurological diseases such as Parkinson's. It seems our brains work better when we exercise our bodies. But exercising our brains is incredibly important as well. When we learn and challenge our brains, it literally changes the way it is wired. I discussed this at length in the Brian's episode, which was such an interesting study on what happens inside our brains when we have thoughts and memories. The thing is, the brain is like any other muscle. It requires use or it gets lazy. There is even a word for this, neuroplasticity. It means that the brain forms new neural connections in response to being challenged. It makes the brain more accessible, faster, and more focused the more we use it. Memory champions can do incredible feats like memorizing 59 decks of cards or a number 3,000 digits long in a matter of minutes, but they didn't wake up with that ability. They challenged and trained their brains just like any muscle in our body. Now we don't have to go that crazy, but the point is that using our brains to learn new things, whether that is a language, new ways to think, an animal that intrigues us, anything that keeps our mind active helps it grow and be healthy. We even have a term for our brain health. Mental health is an entire field of science. Our brains need stimulation or we can find ourselves depressed. which can cause us to lose our desire to live. But challenging our brains can go beyond learning new things. It can be a re-examination of beliefs and thoughts. We often find ourselves doing things the same way over and over, or making the same choices over and over. Double grande latte with oat milk and three shakes of cinnamon kind of thing. We can ask ourselves, why am I making that choice? The 50-year-old woman who was Catholic because her parents were Catholic went on to say that, I was born Catholic and I'm going to die Catholic. That very likely is true, but my question is, should it be? If a person chooses to be Catholic or Hindu or atheist, that is up to them. But making that choice because someone told them to or because it was convenient definitely does not challenge our brains. Our brain is the most powerful creation in the physical universe. To use it simply as a desktop calculator, typing things in and getting a predetermined result is a waste. Science has shown that we should have a growth mindset when it comes to our brains. We should embrace and challenge it, and that includes our belief system. The intent is not to critically challenge everything we believe, but rather to understand why we believe something. When we do that, the belief becomes something of substance and something that can be relied on. Not doing that is kind of like walking on a 100-foot-high, unstable platform that is supported by questionable engineering. That does not instill confidence. On the other hand, if we are standing on a high bridge that we know for a fact is extremely well made, safe and stable, the experience can feel exciting and exhilarating. Our beliefs are the same way. If they are based on solid, well thought out logic, We feel safe and comfortable even if someone questions them. On the other hand, if we're unsure of our beliefs or then tend to change rapidly, then when someone raises questions about them, we get defensive. I know what I believe is correct or even dogmatic. Everyone who is smart believes what I do. Statements like that belie our inability to provide a solid reason for what we believe. If we believe in God or not, if we believe the earth is round or flat, or that man landed on the moon, or if we go to heaven or hell when we die, why do we believe what we do? Challenging our brains to make sure we have a reason for what we believe in. feels good and makes us feel secure. After all, we have a brain that is capable of incredible understanding. Choosing not to use it to its capability is like using a quantum computer to calculate 2 plus 2. It is a common misconception that faith is blind. The word for faith in Greek is pistis. The definition for pistis is provided in the book of Hebrews, where it is likened to having in your possession a title deed or an assurance of something unseen. It is the same as having faith in gravity, because we see the evidence of how it affects us even though we can't see it. Our brains don't like accepting things by blind faith. We have problems doing that. Imagine a total stranger asking you to have faith in them while they blindfold you and lead you across an interstate highway by foot. That is blind faith, and it would be very uncomfortable. Asking questions about what we are told to believe is natural. Children start doing that around 2 years old when everything you say to them is greeted with, Why? It can drive you crazy, but that actually demonstrates the point that our brains want an explanation about everything. Believing or trusting something just because we're told to does not feel right. Just as a two-year-old wants to know why they shouldn't give broccoli to the dog, our brains want logic and reasoning, not blind faith. We can't be afraid that challenging our beliefs will put them in jeopardy. If we have always believed our fairy chair is brown, but you are shown today clearly that it is blue. Would you continue to insist it is brown? Setbacks or redefining our beliefs do not make us a lesser person. You've seen someone insist they are correct when everyone else knows they are wrong. Does your respect increase or decrease for that person? Challenging our beliefs and either adjusting or reaffirming is not a personal failure, but a chance to grow. In the book of Hebrews, it likens people who do not want to grow as babies, who only want milk and to be hand-fed. Milk is great and expected if you are a baby. Demanding to be fed is expected from a 6-month-old, but once you are 10 or 20 or 30 years old, asking for your bottle and someone to hold it is not how we show we have grown. We have to cultivate a desire to learn and to understand. A baby doesn't care how it gets milk, but a 20-year-old should understand where the milk comes from. Right? We've talked about some pretty big challenges that we can do, but small challenges are very important too. According to the journal e-clinical medicine, tiny behavioral changes can have a big impact. In their studies, people could live four years longer if they got 24 minutes of extra sleep. 3.7 extra minutes of exercise, and eat slightly better. Four years of life expectancy by challenging ourselves, do some small actions, is pretty amazing. But it shows how the human body was designed to be challenged and not complicit Just doing the same old thing over and over again puts us in a rut which neither feels good nor benefits us in the long run So for this week 15 second challenge to change our world let's pause for a second before we make our next decision. Even if that decision is small like having a cup of coffee or donut during our break or going on social media. Let's challenge ourselves to make a different decision. Note that we don't have to make a different decision. The idea is to challenge ourselves to ask why we're doing what we're doing and see if that is truly what is beneficial for our long-term goals or health. We don't want to change for the sake of change. We want to challenge ourselves to either confirm or not that what we do on a daily basis is what we really need to be doing for our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. When I come back, I'll tell you what decision I was about to make and what that made me think about. Okay, I'm back. I'm about to decide if I'm going to take a break now or ride the flow and record a little bit more. When I'm in a flow, my thoughts are more connected and I speak with better understanding and with more passion. But when I continue recording for over an hour, I stumble more often on simple words or on a difficult word many times, which builds frustration and I feel even more tired. Even though my tendency is to push my body and mind a little further, I think I'm going to take a break now. I tend to choose to forget that I work a lot better after I take a break. When we challenge ourselves, we rewire our brains. Humans have a tendency to fall into routines, kind of like riding a snow sled down the same path a hundred times. Doing that can be fun, or it can be limiting. Some of our routines are really good, and some, not so much. The idea is to break out of those patterns and try something new. Just by attempting to change a routine, we rewire our brains because it takes conscious effort to do that. And that is good. Our brain likes it and so does our body. When we do the same physical exercise every day, your results often peak. There is even a term for this. It is the use of adaptation principle. Our bodies become more efficient at performing the same thing over and over again. That is exactly why you might practice a certain motion or movement if you are training for a specific sport. You are trying to get your body to find those shortcuts and create a muscle memory. That is great for perfecting a golf swing, but not so great for our body and mind to keep growing. Even changing the way we do things a little bit has big benefits. In an article entitled, Six Dopamine Boosting Hobbies You'll Actually Enjoy, Dr. Kaler suggests that even adding a twist to something you're already familiar with positively affects us. She says the brain loves new and novel things. Trying something new can give you a burst of dopamine. For example, try a new coffee shop, a new recipe, or a new skill. Anything that challenges the brain in a fresh way can sustain dopamine levels. So if we really don't want to completely switch things up on ourselves, we can simply add a twist to something we always do. Change your Starbucks order. Go right instead of left on your dog walk. Or like me, try juggling. I started with oranges a couple of weeks ago, but bruised too many. So now I'm using three little bean filled bags. The same principle applies to our families. If we have lived with a person for years, it is common that we stop talking and questioning each other because you know each other so well. But that is not healthy for a relationship. There was a recent article about a couple who decided to be intimate every day for a year. They had kids and jobs and stress, but challenging themselves in this way had immense benefits. In her words, after a while of this new routine, We were more romantic with each other, touching arms as we passed, kissing longer before work, and not just the cold familiar peck. Sometime after the experiment ended, Brittany added, However, the effects and lessons from the experience are still apparent in our marriage even now. End of quote. Sounds like something many of us would like in our relationships. This was a serious challenge, but it changed their lives for the better. Children also need to be challenged. We may think that helping our child always win or feel good about every endeavor they undertake is good. But it turns out that children who live in a culture that shields them from experiencing adversity, challenges, and failures is not healthy. That does not mean we become the screaming parent at the ballgame for our child to hit a home run every game, or the one who tells their child they must get all A's or L's. I lived that, and I can tell you that is not healthy. but learning that challenging ourselves and persevering will help us learn and grow and actually make us more confident and happy. That is good. Our child may draw an amazing giraffe one day and the next day a five-legged dog that looks like it is a mix between a rabbit and a wolf. It is okay to tell them that the giraffe was better. That is not being critical. That is actually helping them grow and learn, to challenge themselves to do better. I grew up in a culture that raised all the boys to be princes. Always right, always got what they wanted, always told they were the best. except when they got out into the secular world. They were shocked to find that was definitely not the case. That has resulted in a generation of boys who are now adults but who do not know how to cope with any adversity. Raising a child to believe they are great in everything they do is not teaching them resilience. It is teaching them dependence. Challenging children should be done as a family. We can show them by example that winning and losing is okay. That learning and growing is the happiest way to live. By reaching to the stars, even if we may never hold one in our hands, that is okay too because they just may learn that the journey to the stars is amazing in of itself. Communities can also grow under challenging circumstances. Natural disasters like the one we saw in LA in early 2025 tend to bring people together. That reliance teaches us that we are not alone and it reminds us of what is truly important We are not defined by the houses and material possession we have but rather by the community and friendships we have Challenging times provide a litmus test to show us how we are doing with what is really important It can help us refine our vision for our future, our relationships and connections, and then help us adjust them to achieve what is most important to us. We do not look for natural disasters to test who we are, but when they happen, we can use them to help us grow into who we want to be. Steel is hardened by fire. That doesn't make it numb. It makes it resilient and helps it endure under stress So with us Imagine for a moment if nations looked at challenges that way Nations like us have choices when facing challenges. Get mad and lash out. Blame someone. Or get together and move forward. We all understand that it is easier to get mad and blame others. But if the nations instead use those moments as challenges to draw together, then their people will benefit not just physically but by gaining mental and emotional strength which enables them to overcome adversity. We've seen leaders do this in the past. FDR, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and others during times of great national challenges. Nations that embrace challenges together come out stronger. Those that cause divisions by blaming someone or a group of people will always come out weaker. The other day, my daughter asked me to take her to a dirt bike track. She used to go years ago, but she wants to again. Where we live, there are lots of places to ride a bike, but she didn't think they were challenging enough. She wanted the bumps, slopes, hills, and jumps that would help her become better, more skilled. I thought to myself, that is kind of the opposite of what I want on a bicycle. I want flat, smooth, and easy. But perhaps I should learn something from my daughter in this. She inherently knows that challenging herself is good for her, and in the end, being challenged will help her grow and make her happier. She's 100% correct. Go story! If you are wondering where my song is for this week, I'm going to conclude with the theme song for this podcast, Make Me Smile. After all, challenging ourselves to smile is one of the healthiest things we can do, and it is something we should do more often. Take my hand and sit It's been a long, long day Take a moment to breathe We've got a lot to say Let's just take our time, take our time It will be alright, I won't be here We can take all night, if you need to You can stay, you can stay Kick your shoes on the floor Leave your worries at my door Can we laugh for a while and make me smile? Kick your shoes on the floor, leave your worries at my door. Can we laugh for a while and make me smile? Make me smile It's so nice to see That you are still with me After all these years And the hugs and tears I can't wait to tell everything I will listen and we can see You can have my heart as you've given yours to me Kick your shoes on the floor Leave your worries at my door Can we laugh for a while and make me smile? Kick your shoes on the floor Leave your worries at my door Can we laugh for a while And make me smile Kick your shoes on the floor Leave your worries at my door Can we laugh for a while and make me smile? Kick your shoes on the floor, leave your worries by my door. Can we laugh for a while and make me smile? Take me smile, take my hand and sit. It's been a long, long day. Remember, there are many 15-second actions we can do every day that will change our world. Five of these actions are printed on my kindness cube. Remind someone you love them. Smile. Say a kind word. Be silly and be grateful. You place the three-inch kindness cube on your vanity or nightstand to remind you to do these simple actions. It is available on my website at mistthesinger.com slash podcast and is sent on a donation basis to anywhere the post office delivers. I really hope you enjoyed this episode of Make Me Smile with me, your host, Mist. I truly look forward to spending time with you next week. You can reach out to me with your comments on social media accounts. At the top of my Facebook or Instagram, you will find a post on this podcast. You can comment right there or you may email me at mist at mistthesinger.com. I would really appreciate your reviews and comments on all platforms. Please join me on next week's Make Me Smile with Mist. You can subscribe on whatever platform you are using or learn more on my website, mistthesinger.com slash podcast. Today is a good day to change your world in 15 seconds. We have much to be grateful for. Remember, I never want you to feel overwhelmed by being asked to do things you just cannot do. We are all imperfect and have our own issues and challenges. Always do what you can to the best of your ability. It is not a comparison or competition. Like you, I'm someone who struggles and learns and grows, so please do not take this podcast as a substitute for seeking professional help. And if you're having dark thoughts right now that you can't control, please reach out to 911 or 988, the Suicide Prevention Hotline. The ideas we talk about here are about changing the way we live our lives and it should always be positive and fun sometimes a bit hard if we're out of the habit but worthwhile if we put in the effort the only failure is giving up Please don't ever give up and please have a good week and always remember to smile. I hope you enjoyed the music and the podcast today. You can find a lot more of my original music on any streaming platform or my music videos on YouTube. You can find me by simply searching for Mist with two eyes. The Make Me Smile podcast is a Pantheon Media and Ephemeral Music production hosted by Me, Mist, with two I's Written and recorded by Mist and Andri Swang Produced and engineered by Jerry Danielson Executive produced by Andri Swang, David Young, Christian Swain, and Peter Ferrioli All songs and music by Me Again Thank you for listening to Make Me Smile with Mist.
