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Welcome to Effective Habits, a weekly newsletter where I share evidence-based strategies and tools to help you live a happy, healthy, and productive life.
Today at a Glance:
Why It Can Be Good to Doubt Yourself
The Inflammation Gap
The Power of Asking ‘How?’
“When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.”
Why It Can Be Good to Doubt Yourself
Mark Manson
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
Doubting yourself can be a strength because certainty, especially moral or ideological certainty, can become dangerous when it hardens into what one might call a “Super Belief”: a sweeping idea so absolute that no evidence can challenge it and every experience is bent to confirm it. These aren’t just the extreme doctrines that fueled tragedies like Jonestown, they show up in ordinary life, too, in beliefs like “everything happens for a reason,” “my political side is inherently virtuous,” or “good parents never struggle.” Because these ideas feel “obviously true,” we rarely notice how deeply they guide our interpretations: one person sees a homeless man as a victim of society, another sees him as lazy; one person sees a setback as karma, another as a cosmic test; both feel certain they’re right. Super Beliefs quietly shape our choices, derail conversations, and justify judgments we’d never admit out loud. That’s why doubt matters, not to paralyze us, but to create enough humility to question the assumptions we treat as universal, to notice when we’re rationalizing rather than reasoning, and to prevent the slide from confidence into righteousness, and from righteousness into harm.
🎬Action!
Regularly challenge your deepest “obvious truths” by picking one belief you take for granted and deliberately look for real examples that contradict it. Spend a few minutes asking yourself: How else could this situation be interpreted? What evidence would actually prove me wrong? The goal isn’t to change all your beliefs, but this simple habit of questioning creates the humility that protects you from turning confidence into rigid certainty and keeps your thinking grounded in reality rather than in unquestioned assumptions.
The Inflammation Gap
Dr. Jason Liebowitz
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
Popular conversation about “inflammation” has drifted so far from medical reality that the same word now describes two entirely different worlds: in one, inflammation refers to immune cells gathering in tissues, releasing cytokines, and triggering chemical cascades meant to protect the body but capable of causing severe harm when misdirected (autoimmune conditions); in the other, the term has expanded to mean almost any vague sense of imbalance or distress in the body. Online culture has turned it into a catch-all villain blamed on ultra-processed foods, tick bites, heavy metals, energy imbalances, and spiritual misalignment, spawning a booming market of supplements, cleanses, cold plunges, and “anti-inflammatory” diets. Although healthier eating, movement, and stress-reduction practices can certainly support overall wellness, most influencer claims wildly overshoot the evidence, sometimes dangerously so, while modern biologics and targeted immune therapies quietly transform once-devastating autoimmune diseases into manageable conditions. The real challenge arises when patients, overwhelmed by conflicting narratives and frustrated by the uncertainty of autoimmune causes, lose trust in conventional care; some delay or abandon treatments that could prevent irreversible damage. In this widening gap between the complexity of medical science and the simple solutions of wellness mythology, lives can be lost not because the disease is untreatable, but because the conversation around inflammation no longer means the same thing to everyone.
🎬Action!
Confirm whether you’re dealing with true harmful inflammation. Don’t assume symptoms are “inflammation” just because the internet uses the term loosely. Get evaluated by a medical professional so you know whether it’s a normal inflammation healing response, a non-inflammatory issue, or an actual autoimmune process.
If it is autoimmune or harmful, prioritize proven medical therapies. Ask your doctor which treatments are backed by strong evidence, what damage they prevent, and what risks come with delaying therapy. Then, treat wellness practices (diet, movement, stress reduction) as supportive add-ons, not substitutes.
Use a simple rule for everything else: evidence first, safety always. Before trying supplements, cleanses, or protocols you see online, check for proof they work and whether they’re safe to combine with your care. If a claim sounds miraculous or universal, treat it as a red flag, not a treatment plan. Remember, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
The Power of Asking ‘How?’
Dr. Rene Almeling
🔦Lights, Camera, ...
When the world feels overwhelming and every headline triggers another frustrated “why,” shifting the question to “how” can open doors that “why” tends to slam shut. “Why” demands tidy reasons like why you took your job, why a system is broken, why a crisis keeps unfolding, and in doing so, it often narrows complexity into a single, overly neat explanation. But “how” invites a journey: the twists of personal history, the influence of networks and mentors, the local decisions inside organizations, and the macro-level forces like labor markets or political upheaval that shape the paths we walk. Asking “how did I end up here?” yields a story full of people, accidents, constraints, luck, and context; asking “how does a gender pay gap persist?” reveals interacting dynamics across individuals, workplaces, and society. “How” questions illuminate processes instead of conclusions, restoring agency by exposing the specific mechanisms, whether small or large, that keep problems in motion and that, once understood, create new leverage points for action. It’s a simple linguistic pivot, but the next time a conversation gets stuck in slogans or oversimplified answers, try swapping “why” for “how” and you may uncover complexity, clarity, and possibilities you couldn’t see before.
🎬Action!
Train yourself to swap every default “why” with a deliberate “how.” Whenever you catch yourself asking “Why is this happening?” about your own choices, someone else’s behavior, or a big societal problem, pause and reframe it as “How did this come to be?” Then trace the steps, influences, processes, and interactions involved. This single shift will push you toward deeper understanding, reveal hidden drivers, and uncover far more actionable points of leverage than a simple “why” could.
TOOL TIP
Ground News: A news aggregation platform that provides a tool for readers to compare how news stories are covered across the political spectrum, aiming to eliminate political blind spots and break free from algorithmic echo chambers.
FUN FACT
A penguin can reach depths of 550m in one dive. Typically, emperor penguins (the deepest-diving penguins) plunge to 100-200m, but the deepest penguin dive on record was more than 550m.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult a medical professional for advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We are not liable for any risks or issues that may arise from using this information.
