Author: Kivo Daily Staff

The top earners in the country all have one very simple thing in common: they all get a good night’s rest! People like Jeff Bezos, Serena Williams, and Tim Cook all get over 7 hours of sleep a night and relate that to their overall success.

While getting a good night’s rest may seem like an overly simple component of success, it is actually proven to increase overall productivity. Lack of sleep has been proven to lead to many different health, psychological, and overall life problems. People who get insufficient sleep are twice as likely to get into a car accident, experience impaired coordination, and have an overall lower quality of life. 

Lack of sleep clearly affects people physically, but did you know that it also has financial consequences? People who experience a lack of sleep have a reduced ability to make wise financial decisions. Insufficient sleep also leads to more people experiencing physical symptoms that may lead them to call out of work, and an average 1.2 million work days are lost each year due to this lack of rest. With all of these lost work days, lack of sleep cost Americans more than $411 billion in lost productivity each year!

With all of the numerous consequences of insufficient sleep, it seems strange that most Americans deprive themselves each and every night. A good night’s rest can greatly increase your overall quality of life, so what are some easy ways to start improving your sleep schedule? 

One of the easiest ways to improve your sleep is to launder your bed sheets each night. 73% of people report that they are more excited to sleep with fresh sheets. If you’re more excited to go to sleep, you’ll find yourself getting into bed earlier and sleeping longer.

Another great way to increase the quality of your sleep is to limit your nightly blue light exposure. Blue light is produced from all screens, and it inhibits your natural melatonin production which is the chemical that induces sleep. Try decreasing your screen time before bed to increase your melatonin production, or investing in blue light glasses which will filter the light for you.

A weighted blanket is another great way to improve your quality of sleep. Weighted blankets help people who suffer from anxiety and insomnia. These conditions make it difficult for people to fall asleep and stay asleep, and can greatly decrease overall quality of life due to the lack of sleep. People suffering from insomnia who used weighted blankets for two weeks reported an overall calmer night’s sleep with fewer movements. Weighted blankets are a cheap and easy way to improve not only your sleep, but overall quality of life. 

One of the most effective ways to increase your nightly rest is to get a more comfortable mattress. 93% of people say that a comfortable mattress is what contributes to their best quality of sleep. Investing in a new mattress can be your ticket to better rest and overall increased productivity!

Sleep is one of the most important aspects of a happy and productive life, and yet most of us deprive ourselves of it. If the most successful people contribute part of their success to their sleep schedule, it is clear that we should be trying to improve our own sleep schedules. Improving your sleep schedule can be as easy as changing some of your daily activities. Try making some of these easy changes and reap the benefits of a good night’s rest.

As a physician with 25 years in the healthcare field, Dr. Marcea B. Whitaker is accustomed to helping people heal, recover, and restore their health and wellness. However, despite her successful career in medicine, Whitaker felt drawn toward a different purpose.

In 2019, she launched In Full Bloom Health and Life Coaching, helping professional women across the country unlock their full potential and realize their dreams. As a coach, author, speaker, and physician, Whitaker has a unique set of experiences that set her apart in the industry. Most of all, she has the ability to help women free themselves from self-limiting beliefs, unfulfilling careers, and damaging relationships.

“There is this concept of being trapped in a personal prison,” Whitaker explains. “It can be something in our relationships, it can be in our careers – it can just be how you’re thinking about things.”

She compares it to the television classic The Andy Griffith Show, when Otis Campbell would lock himself into the town jail each night – and each morning, he would unlock the door and walk out.

“That’s how we often are as women, we lock ourselves into this box,” Whitaker says. “But we have the ability to unlock it, we have the keys. So, I help people through that process.”

For Whitaker, an important part of her success as a life coach and public speaker is her willingness to share her own story. When other women understand what she has gone through, and that she was able to overcome it, they are more willing to seek the help they need, Whitaker says. Often, the first step can be the hardest one to take.

“I was in an abusive relationship from an emotional and financial perspective, and no matter how much you coach yourself, or you get coached, if you don’t deal with that number one thing that is pulling you down, you will continue to stay trapped,” Whitaker says. “I was living the same year over and over, year after year. And I had to say, in order for me to help somebody deal with their biggest struggle, I needed to attack and deal with my biggest struggle.”

Now, Whitaker is on a mission to empower women every day to both understand and overcome their biggest hurdles. By connecting with a professional life coach, she says, anyone can not only conquer their greatest challenges but do it faster and with less stress.

“Left to your own devices, your brain does what it does which is spin out of control,” Whitaker says. “You could be in it for weeks, months, or years thinking about the same things and addressing it the same ways. What a good coach does is help you get perspective, ask powerful questions, help you plan it out, and ultimately lead you toward an aha moment.” That moment when it clicks, when it shifts, when your life transforms. 

By doing so, Whitaker has helped thousands of women achieve extraordinary goals in their careers, relationships, and lives. As the founder of In Full Bloom Health and Life Coaching, Whitaker provides a dynamic 12-week group coaching program called Women Ready to Move Academy and exclusive one-on-one coaching for VIP clients. 

For women struggling with obstacles that seem impossible to overcome, Whitaker encourages them that they are not alone – and that asking for help can be the first step toward unlocking the door toward a brighter future.

“A lot of times we don’t ask for what we need,” Whitaker says. “So, we sit in this place of being stationary, being stalled, being stuck.”

Although asking for help is a critical first step, Whitaker says another common obstacle is not valuing “self” enough to invest in their most important resource: themselves.

“We invest in houses and cars, formal education, we invest in our kids,” Whitaker says. “But when it comes to investing in our brain, how we’re thinking, we believe that may be too much.”

Yet Whitaker believes that the transformative power of coaching is available to all women who are willing to ask for help and invest in themselves – women who are ready for positive change.

“Everyone can benefit from a life coach,” Whitaker says. “Coaching can change your life.”

Dr. Marcea B. Whitaker is a physician, author, speaker, and life coach. She is the founder of In Full Bloom Health and Life Coaching as well as the author of Marked From Birth, which will be released in May 2022. 

To learn more about Dr. Whitaker’s coaching programs, visit www.infullbloomhealthandlifecoaching.com.

To book Dr. Whitaker for a speaking engagement, please visit www.drmarceabspeaks.com.

Over the years, the world has undoubtedly become highly advanced, and many industries have seen immense progress. Yet despite these developments, it seems that society still has not found a way to assist those who are going through mental health crises properly. Even talking about these crucial topics is still deemed taboo. Cognizant of this sad reality, Dylan Sessler has devoted himself to helping people overcome their struggles.

The mental health coach and professional speaker is no stranger to adversities and painful experiences. When he was only six years old, he lost his father to suicide. He was also abused and bullied as a child. On top of all that, the combat veteran was also exposed to traumatic incidents during his time in Afghanistan.

These unpleasant memories, alongside other problems, pushed him to nearly end his life when he was only 25 years old. However, despite being the lowest moment of his life, it helped push Dylan Sessler to learn more about mental health and question why he found himself in that dark place. Through his newfound wisdom, he triumphed over his suicide ideation and PTSD. As a result, he finally learned how to enjoy life even with all the challenges and struggles that come with it.

Inspired by his success, he decided to take on the impressive vocation of helping others going through similar journeys. As a champion for mental health, his biggest mission is to bridge the gap between lived experience and professional mental health support. 

As such, he has developed an extraordinary coaching strategy that fulfills this goal. The mental health coach does one-on-one sessions with clients where he guides them on overcoming their problems. He caters to different types of clients such as those who have been through a divorce, child abuse, or sexual abuse, as well as veterans, suicide survivors, or people who have PTSD.

Aside from conducting private coaching, Dylan Sessler also shares his insight and expertise through various ventures. For example, he penned Defy the Darkness: A Story of Suicide, Mental Health, and Overcoming Your Hardest Battles. The book, available on Amazon and Audible, talks about the critical yet often undiscussed topic of mental health. He also hosts the podcast The Dylan Experience.

In addition, he has a daily inspirational and self-development text platform that has been active for roughly 18 months. It has serviced approximately 1700 people and has saved multiple lives in the process. Interested individuals can reach it by texting ‘hi’ to 1-608-336-4480 but it is only available in the United States and Canada.

More recently, the mental health advocate has found another innovative way to widen his reach through the social media platform TikTok. He started uploading clips that tackle mental health and trauma in January 2020. Because of his inspiring messages, he has already amassed a massive following of over 560,000.

Dylan Sessler has undoubtedly made great strides in championing the importance of mental health. Moving forward, he plans to continue creating other innovative projects that further his cause. Additionally, he aims to publish more books and continue building his entrepreneurial spirit. 

But above all, he hopes to continue inspiring people that mental health issues and other traumatizing events do not have to dominate someone’s life and that there is hope for those struggling.