We are data geeks at heart and had a blast reading and researching for the content in Let That Sh*t Go. We referenced so many articles that the sources exceeded our target word count for the book! That said, you can find them all here. Enjoy and let us know if you have any questions.
Chapter 1
The article on Huffington Post by Dr. Bruce Davis titled “There are 50,000Thoughts Standing Between You and Your Partner Every Day!” discusses how the combined 100,000 thoughts between you and your partner each day make it tough to focus on matters of the heart, and how this equates to thirty-five to forty-eight thoughts a minute per person. It appeared on May 23, 2013.
We came across the article “Just Breathe: Building the Case for Email Apnea” by Linda Stone on Huffington Post. This originally appeared in 2008 and then was updated in 2011. Email apneais now a common term used to address a “temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email.”
For information on visualization and exercising, we found an article on Psychology Today by A. J. Adams: “Seeing Is Believing: The Power of Visualization.”Another study on gaining strength by using the mind by Guang Yue et al. was published in Neuropsychologiain 2004.
A Washington Post interview with Michael Phelps is where we learned that he likes to use visualization techniques to help him succeed in his competitions. The video interview is called “Olympics 2012: Michael Phelps Has Mastered the Psychology of Speed.”
Chapter 2
In a 2017 interview with The New York Times between Dean Baquet and Jay-Z titled “Jay-Z Discusses Rap, Marriage and Being a Black Man in Trump’s America,” Jay-Z says: “You can’t have a solution until you start dealing with the problem: What you reveal, you heal.” This is in response to whether the debate around race in America is happening in a healthy way.
We first heard of Dr. Masaru Emoto’s water experiment and Dr. Joe Dispenza’s ideas about potential for greatness and unlimited abilities in the 2004 documentary What the Bleep Do We Know?which is all about quantum physics and the mind. You can find more information about both on masaru-emoto.net and drjoedispenza.com.
Chapter 4
In Dr. Ali Binazir’s 2011 article on Huffington Post titled “Are You a Miracle? On the Probability of Your Being Born,” we came across a discussion of these odds. He runs through his math and finds the probability almost zero.
Wonderopolis.orgis a site that poses a question every day and then explores it. Under “What Are Your Odds of Winning the Lottery?” we found out the likelihood of winning the lottery (1 in almost 14 million).
We also discovered on wonderopolis.org, in the article“How Many Times Does Your Heart Beat in a Lifetime?” how many times your heart beats on average in a day (115,200) and what that equates to in a year (forty-two million).
An article by Elizabeth Howell from 2017 titled “Humans Are Really Made of Stardust, and a New Study Proves It” on Space.comstates that humans and their galaxy have 97 percent of the same kind of atoms.
From a Wikipedia entry titled “The Observable universe,” accessed in July 2018, we learned that the distance between earth and the observable universe is 46.5 billion light years.
The statistic about there being the same number of stars in the sky as grains of sands on Earth came from UCSB ScienceLine (scienceline.ucsb.edu), a site where research scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, answer questions from teachers and students in kindergarten to grade twelve.
On everydayhealth.comthere is an article titled“10 Amazing Facts About Your Blood Vessels” by Mary Elizabeth Dallas. The first fact states that your blood vessels could circle the globe more than twice.
We came across the article “Can You Live Without a Liver?” by John Staughton on scienceabc.com. It talks about liver regeneration and how humans can survive with 25 percent of their liver, and how the organ will eventually regenerate into a fully functioning liver.
Information about how much blood your kidneys filter to make urine can be found under “Your Kidneys and How They Work” on the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases website (www.niddk.nih.gov).
We discovered how many nerve cells your brain has in an article titled “How Your Brain Cells Talk to Each Other—Whispered Secrets and Public Announcements” by Mike Ludwig on the website Frontiers (frontiersin.org).
On the Wikipedia page “Spider Web” in the entry “Orb web construction,” it is stated that “it is common for a web to be about 20 times the size of the spider building it.”
There is much information about wasps, and the nests they create, on buzzaboutbees.net; and octopuses and how they smell and taste on octopusworlds.com.
We discovered on factualfacts.com that sea otters hold hands while sleeping so they don’t drift apart.
On latimes.com, July 24, 2014, there is an article by Deborah Netburn titled “In Alaska, Wood Frogs Freeze for Seven Months, Thaw and Hop Away.” This is where we read about how wood frogs freeze for months at a time.
You can find numerous talks by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on YouTubeor obtain more information on Sadhguru and the Isha Foundation on isha.sadhguru.org.
We came across a September 12, 2017, article on Live Science by Lauren Cox titled “Who Invented the Car?” that says it was Karl Benz who first invented the true modern automobile in 1886.
In theTelegraph, Hugh Morris’s article “Why Do Planes Have to Fly So High?” states that the traditional flight altitude is 35,000 feet.
A National Geographic website article titled “Crossing the Atlantic: Then and Now” says that it took Henry Hudson, a seventeenth-century explorer, more than two months to sail from Amsterdam to New York City.
Live Science published an article titled “People Who Volunteer Live Longer, Study Suggests,” wherein they quote the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which finds that people who volunteer for selfless reasons live longer. The study followed 10,317 people.
An article on Psych Central by Louai Rahal titled “The Joy of Giving” quotes an experiment at the University of British Columbia that finds that participants who are asked to spend money on others versus themselves report higher levels of happiness.
Susan Dominus’s 2013 article “Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?” from The New York Times states that Adam Grant doesn’t see helping as a time-sapper but as something that drives increased productivity and creativity.
Chapter 5
We learned of Ellen DeGeneres’s journey to stand in her truth from watching her on Oprah’s Master Class and from The Ellen DeGeneres Showwhen she celebrated the twentieth anniversary of her “coming out” episode on Ellen, titled “The Puppy Episode.”
The statistics about highly sensitive people (on how they make up 15 to 20 percent of the population) were found on the Dr. Elaine Aron’s The Highly Sensitive Person website (hsperson.com).
We found the information on the number of gladiators who died each year (5,000) in an article by Hope Babowice titled “You Wanted to Know: How Many Gladiators Died in the Colosseum?” that appeared on the Daily Herald website.
Wikipediastates that the gladiatorial games went on for six hundred years. The first Roman gladiatorial games started in 264 BC. The popularity of the games finally declined during the early fifth century after the adoption of Christianity.
We quoted Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck (2016), on his advice abound how to control the number of f*cks given.
Information on Martin Luther King Jr. was found in the article “What Did Martin Luther King Do to Progress the Civil Rights Movement?” on the website yourdictionary.com.
From Susan David’s Ted Talk in November 2017, “The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage,” we reference her findings on how radical acceptance is the cornerstone of resilience.
Chapter 6
An article from the American Psychological Association titled “Survey says: More Americans Are Seeking Mental Health Treatment” reports that 48 percent of households have sought mental health help.
We came across a YouTube animated video titledBrené Brown on Blame. It’s an RSA Short wherein Brené expounds on blame: about how blame is simply the discharging of discomfort and pain, and actually has an inverse relationship with accountability.
The Dalai Lama himself states on Twitter (@DalaiLama): “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
We came across an article on The New York Times by Jon Pareles titled“Adele Cries to Her Music, Too,” where she is directly quoted: “In order for me to feel confident with one of my songs it has to really move me. That’s how I know that I’ve written a good song for myself—it’s when I start crying. It’s when I just break out in [expletive] tears in the vocal booth or in the studio, and I’ll need a moment to myself.”
Chapter 7
In an article by Andrea Park on CBS News titled “#MeToo Reaches 85 Countries with 1.7M Tweets,” we discovered the social media impact of #MeToo.
On Elite Daily, March 25, 2018, there’s an article by Shelby Black titled “How Many People Were at the March for Our Lives? It Was a Huge Day for Gun Reform,” which says that hundreds of thousands of people turned out in Washington DC alone (between 200,000 and 850,000 estimated).
On YouTube there is a portion of an interview Simon Sinek did with London Real, titled “Self-esteem, Gratification and Addiction.” In this interview he addresses his concerns with instant gratification.
In Tim Urban’s 2016 Ted Talk, “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator,” he discusses his tips for staying focused and not giving into the “instant gratification monkey.”
Neil Pasricha writes a biweekly column for Toronto Star.In one of his articles—“Three Actions to Improve Your Work-Life Balance,” appearing June 5, 2017—he discusses the work of David Meyer of the University of Michigan, who addresses the decrease in efficiency due to the “time cost” of switching (from laptops to phones to talking to co-workers, et cetera). We also obtained Pasricha’s tips “3 Ways to Stop Your Cellphone from Interfering with Your Happiness” on Toronto Star.
On The New York Times, May 3, 2013, there’s an article titled “Brain, Interrupted” by Bob Sullivan and Hugh Thompson that talks about Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, who found that a “typical office worker gets only 11 minutes between each interruption, while it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption.”
In TIMEmagazine’s Special Edition Mindfulness: The New Science of Health and Happiness, published in 2016, there is a two-part article titled “Devices Mess with Your Brain . . . So Give Yourself an i-Break!” Part one is written by Markham Heid, and part two by Ellen Seidman. In part two, Seidman suggests numerous ways you can disconnect.
CTV News Toronto published an article titled “GTA Hospitals Reporting Baby Boom 9 Months After Ice Storm,” which notes the increase in babies born nine months following the vicious ice storm of December 2013.
The statistic on increasing the number of cells in your hippocampus through silence came from an article on Medical Daily titled “5 Benefits of Being Silent for Your Mind and Body.” The article quoted a 2013 study found in the journal Brain Structure and Function.
An article on CNN titled “The Recipe for Happiness and Success? Try Compassion” states that soldiers who have had compassion training recover from stressful situations faster. Their heart and breathing rates return to normal faster than did those who had not taken the training. This was found in a study published in the Cognitive and Behavioral Practice journal.
USA TODAY published an article on May 1, 2018, titled “Young Americans Are the Loneliest, Surprising Study from Cigna Shows” by Jayne O’Donnell and Shari Rudavsky. In it, they discuss young people being far lonelier than senior citizens. The authors also state that the loneliness is due to lack of “meaningful social interaction,” and they address the concern of Jagdish Khubchandani, a health professor at Ball State University, that screen-time conversation provides a “false sense of relief.”
On Psychology Today, Dr. Emma M. Seppälä has an article titled “Connect to Thrive: Social Connection Improves Health, Well-Being and Longevity.” In it, she addresses how loneliness can be a detriment to our health and how, through human connection, we can turn this around. She also talks about how “people who feel more connected to others have lower rates of anxiety and depression.” This was published on August 26, 2012.
On TIME, April 25, 2018, Tara John published an article titled “How the World’s First Loneliness Minister Will Tackle ‘the Sad Reality of Modern Life.’” In it, she addresses the statement by Vivek Murthy, former US surgeon general, that loneliness is a “growing health epidemic,” and explains how Britain has appointed the world’s first minister for loneliness, Tracey Crouch, to remedy this problem.
Chapter 8
In an article on The Independenttitled “The Dalai Lama Reveals What Makes Him Angry: ‘It’s When My Staff Do Something Carelessly,’” the Dalai Lama says: “You never stop getting angry about small things. In my case, it’s when my staff do something carelessly, then my voice goes high. But after a few minutes, it passes.”
The research on the correlation between kindness and stability of relationships was found in The Atlantic article “Masters of Love: Science Says Lasting Relationships Come Down to—You Guessed it—Kindness and Generosity” by Emily Esfahani Smith. The research came out of John Gottman’s Love Lab, started in 1986.
The statistic on stress was taken from a 2013 Work Stress Survey done by Harris Interactive on behalf of Everest College. In an article on Huffington Post titled “Work Stress on the Rise: 8 in 10 Americans AreStressed about Their Jobs, Survey Finds,” the authors quote a phone survey of 1,019 adults that found that 83 percent of Americans are stressed by at least one thing at work.
In an article titled “Alleviating Anxiety, Stress and Depression with the Pet Effect,” the Anxiety and Depression Association of America quotes a study wherein 74 percent of pet owners report mental-health improvements with pet ownership.
We came across an article on Reuters, May 17, 2018, titled“At Germany’s SAP, Employee Mindfulness Leads to Higher Profits” by Emma Thomasson, which quantifies the impact of implementing mindfulness in the office.
The quotation from the study done by Holly Rau from the University of Utah on mindfulness and sleep was found in the April 8, 2013, Huffington Post article “Mindfulness Meditation Benefits: 20 Reasons Why It’s Good for Your Mental and Physical Health” by Amanda L. Chan.
The tip from Tim Ferriss on reducing your fear around money comes from one of his podcasts on The Tim Ferriss Show, No. 137: “How to Practice Poverty and Reduce Fear.”
Chapter 9
An article on the blog Headspacetitled“New Study Shows Meditation Might Have Longer-Lasting Effects Than Vacation” quotes a study that found that vacationing people who meditate on a regular basis, versus those who go on vacation without meditating, show a greater maintenance of lower stress over time.
We have been following Dr. Sara Lazar, associate researcher in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor in psychology for Harvard Medical School, for a number of years. You can find more information around her research on the impact that yoga and meditation have on various cognitive and behavioural functions by checking out the Lazar Lab (scholar.harvard.edu/sara_lazar/home).
The May 26, 2015, Washington Post article “Harvard Neuroscientist: Meditation Not Only Reduces Stress, Here’s How it Changes Your Brain” by Brigid Schulte has a Q&A with Dr. Lazar about her research on meditation and its effect on the brain.
The quote from Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn around non-striving in meditation came from his book Full Catastrophe (1990); the quote appeared as an excerpt in a 2016 article on mindful.orgtitled “No Blueprint, Just Love.”
Information on how to build habits (cue, routine, reward) came from Charles Duhigg’s book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life,published in 2012.