Things I've learnt this month: March!

🍷 Not all ALCOHOL-FREE WINE tastes like sh*t! Having tried pretty much all of them, I can say that Selaks Rosé and Lindauer Free Bubbles (not the sparkling grape juice—that’s full of sugar) are the best. Giesen is also decent. Yet to try Ara. I actually find the alcohol-free versions better than the 5% ones!

💡 “Asking someone on the spectrum to ‘try harder’ to do something or understand your point of view is like asking a visually impaired person to ‘look harder’. Often, they just can’t”. (Professor Amanda Kirby.) I’m currently on a deep dive into ASD as I go through this process with one of my boys.

💨 The fastest way to CALM YOURSELF when stressed is to breathe out for twice as long as you breathe in. Try inhaling for 4 seconds and exhaling for 8 seconds. Repeat 10 times. You will feel different! I’ve been doing this A LOT this week!

🇬🇧 The4-DAY WORK WEEK! Over 200 UK companies have committed to a permanent 4-day work week - would you be up for it? Think it would work?

🧘‍♀️ YOU CANT CHANGE OTHER PEOPLE or control their behaviour. But you can learn to control how you respond to them. PERSPECTIVE is everything!

🔥 EARLY MENOPAUSE is more common than you think. 1 in 100 women experience menopause before 40, and 1 in 1000 before 30.

🎮 POKÉMON was born from an obsession! Its creator, Satoshi Tajiri, is Autistic and fascinated with collecting things - so he made a game that lets you do exactly that!

📱 Switching your phone to greyscale can REDUCE SCROLLING by as much as 50 minutes a day! Why? Because it’s just so much more boring to look at things in black and white. If you scroll too much, why not give it a try? 👀 (Cornell & IE University)

🍕 Studies suggest that a diet high in ULTRA-PROCESSED FOOD can lead to eating 500 more calories a day compared to a diet made up of minimally processed foods. (NIH study, Cell Metabolism). Find out more about UPF here.

😞 It’s heartbreaking to hear that the NZ NUTRITION FOUNDATION is closing in April due to a lack of funding. Huge thanks for all the incredible work you've done over the years supporting the industry and improving the well-being of our communities.

What have you learnt this week? 🤔

Claire x