Health by Design - Green & Healthy Places 029
The ‘Green & Healthy Places’ podcast series takes a deep-dive into the role of sustainability, wellbeing and community in office real estate, residential property, hotels and educational facilities today.
This is episode 29 of the Green & Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss wellbeing and sustainability in the built environment.
I’m your host, Matt Morley, Founder of Biofilico wellbeing design and Biofit health and fitness.
Today we’re in Vancouver, Canada talking to Ror Alexander, an integrative health expert with a strong Eastern influence to his philosophy.
Our conversation covers:
Environmental psychology
The connections between Feng shui, modern health sciences and biohacking
Organizing a healthy home
Detoxifying your home environment
defining an intention and energy level for different rooms in a house
Hacking the home office for productivity
His tips on Essential oil aromatherapy
And the ancient history of healthy buildings
Active vs Passive physical activity
Biophilic design
Building biology
FULL. TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS COURTESY OF OTTER.AI (excuse typos)
Matt Morley
Ror to talk once again, it's been a year since we last spoke, I would really like to start with your interpretation of what you do where you're at And how you you contribute to this world of green and Healthy Places from your base in Vancouver, Canada.
Ror Alexander
Well basically what I do is I come from a, what I call Integrative Health, health and weight loss is always the key when it comes to health nowadays, if you can lose weight in any healthy way it's good no matter what diet you're on, but I go past just weight loss like weight loss is great but you know, I really liked I have a saying my other slogan is live stronger, longer and better. And that's kind of the way I follow with my coaching stronger is saying Okay, muscle is the organ of longevity, So, if we get stronger first, which is your more traditional nutrition and fitness and then we go into the longer which is getting more into the micro nutrition, some of the more interesting aspects the little more less well known aspects and then the better is obviously like you will talk about travel or bettering your career or bettering passion so all that sort of stuff so I come at health from a very broad point of view but in phases not to overwhelm people.
Healthy indoor environments and feng shui
The environment is a big part of that so I have my what I call my bag of health which is from Fung Shui which is your eight areas of health because it just happened my eight areas and Fung Shui before I even learned about it almost match but what I don't have really described on my website very good yet is the border around that that Gula is actually your environment. So the way it works is your environment is on the outside pushes in towards the inside and that center square is your health so that's why I look at it like a kind of phasing in
Matt Morley
you mentioned the idea of how you independently developed your thinking and if you want to call it your value system your philosophy and then you found that actually correlated with a far more far wider system around finish rate reminds me I had a similar experience with this whole sort of biophilic design stuff I was just digging around and how you could bring that outside well then and then suddenly you stumble across a term that opens up a whole world to you and you're like oh well okay, it's exactly what I've been talking about and thinking about but someone's already defined it so but what led you towards Fung Shui in the first place?
Ror Alexander
So like I know you had time in Asia would it was that some formative in that process for you? Yeah, I mean, I took I took psychology in school and I was always interested in kind of East I took the I started took a few classes on like Eastern religions and stuff like that so I was always kind of interested in it. And then I went off to Asia and I lived in Hong Kong in the beginning and Hong Kong is you know, it's a mecca for Fung Shui architecture. So this started goofing around and learning a little bit about it on my YouTube channel I have you know, a Fung Shui tour I do where I take you in I kind of show you the interesting Fung Shui aspects. But yeah, just it was really just more like just kind of fun. I liked learning about temples and I kind of like the psychology and so I just started reading about environmental psychology and how the environment affects us. And it just kept leading me to feng shui and feng shui. And then from Feng Shui, I started to learn about fosu, which is the traditional Indian version.
So Vastu actually came first I found out and then from Shrek, and almost everything came from India, almost all knowledge at the end of the day really came from ancient ancient India, and then Ancient Greece, but even ancient India before that, and then spread especially in Eastern philosophy, right? So it's spread up into, you know, up into Thailand, and then it's spread up into China.
So Chinese medicine is actually based on IR VEDA Thai massage, Thai Yoga is based all the yoga is Tai Chi and Qi Gong all that all comes from yoga, but getting off track but yeah, that's that's how I can I started learning about Fung Shui in in Hong Kong, and then I just continued learning about it. I bought some books on it, a couple courses on it, I got a chance to interview a really, really cool contemporary Fung Shui master on a trip to Hong Kong and write that I really liked her take on it because her take was a very modern take.
She comes from it for a little more from a relationship background, or I just noticed right away what I really noticed was Fung Shui had so many connections with modern Health Sciences. It's just the terminology was very different. Like I remember the first time I was on my very first day I arrived in Hong Kong a friend pick me up and we were driving through an area called Stanley which is kind of like their beach area. And he said, Do you know why these buildings have these big wind big spaces in them? And I said, No, no idea why there's a hole was in the middle of a building. And he said that for the dragons to pass through. And I was like, Alright, Game of Thrones here, whatever. But the dragons represented ci, which represented the winners represented air.
So what actually will happen these buildings a lot is the air circulation will be placed into the sword allows the air to circulate more through the building, I was like, Well, that makes sense. Coming from a health point of view, it makes sense to have the clean air and have this kind of gap in the middle of the building, where there could flow through better for the ventilation.
So that's kind of where it came from. And then like I said, I traveled India learnable best do happen to know, there's only about 10 books that I know of read really written on the topic and I happen to be friends with one of the authors of that. So that was really interesting say that his Ayurvedic roots retreat in India had him on my podcast, you know, and talk to him about vasthu because just yeah, so it's just very interesting how these ancient traditions and what we call modern health or even biohacking, a lot of them are the same related just different topics like the dip, we talked about them in different permutations.
Matt Morley
I think something about fundamental truths that many of us get to from different angles at different times of our lives. But we often seem to join similar concepts, I’m reading a book at the moment called the Barefoot architect, it's all about more of an ancestral health approach to to how you would design homes and whether you call them dragons, or you call them ventilation courtyards or what have you. But again, you're getting to the same concepts, right? So I know that you're thinking when when you describe your relationship around functional functional now you have your sort of four pillars organization, detoxification, intention and optimization. So how does that how does that work in terms of your your advisory to a client or to an individual?
Environmental Psychology and a healthy home
Ror Alexander
Well, yes, functional like Feng Shui, you know, a lot of it is it's a lot of, you know, you hear a lot of people say, oh, Fung Shui is crap, there's nothing, it's all superstition, I'm like, well, you don't really understand it. And what really what it is, it is an art, it's also a science, but it's a lot of it's about psychology. And the way it's about organizing your home, so it affects you in a positive way, whether it's psychology or psychically, or, you know, physically. So the way I describe it to clients is I termed I try not to use the term feng shui a lot when I'm talking to people, but I'll just talk about healthy home design. And so the very first one is the organization. And I think, you know, any, any book any women's health, everybody talks about decluttering.
But there's truth behind it. decluttering, organizing house, arranging things, getting rid of the crap, getting rid of broken things. Like, you know, psychology tells us that when we have a desk that's all cluttered, our eyes are constantly scanning, and it's a little bit harder to stay on focus. So by straightening things up and minimizing your area, it just allows you to stay on target a little better, helps you to keep your attention. I mean, I think that everybody's had that you walk into a really messy, overwhelming room, your just senses are overwhelmed.
Organizing a healthy home
So the first step is very easy. And that's just organization, then from there, you can once it's organized, and you got it, you know, things lined up, you got your books stacked up, then you go through it. I don't really like the term mineralization. But I'm a bit of a minimalist, but things that either bring you function. So like you have cooking tools that you really need things that help your life be better, or things that bring you joy, or getting rid of things that bring you negativity, for instance, you've got something broken, you just never get around to throwing it away or fixing it. But it's always kind of bothering you, oh, there's a broken blank lampshade over there, that broken thing.
Or maybe it's something that maybe not a great relationship a breakup had, and you're kind of keeping something that was given to you from guilts. But you don't like it. And you're thinking, I really don't like that. But you know, grandma died, and she gave it to me, I feel bad for getting rid of it. So that's where the organization sort of part fits in. From there, you move on to what I call forget the terms. From there, we move on to the detoxification. And literally that is it.
Detoxing your home environment
That is just detoxing your environment mostly. And I'm talking about that from a mostly from a chemical point of view. So that is getting rid of any harsh sense, harsh odors, anything that could potentially have some negative effects on you breathing wise or food wise. So that is just again, that's the more the physical side, right.
The first part was kind of the psychological side, the second part, the fiscal side, because we're learning more and more about how so many man made and I'm not anti manmade things, obviously at all, but there's a lot of things that are just not that great for us when it comes to health wise. So one of the things things I do is I just detox the house and I say you know if you can't eat with it, or like you couldn't put it in your mouth, you probably shouldn't be cleaning with it.
So if you got little kids, right, they put it on, they get it on their hands, they put it in their mouth. So things like Lysol. Things like these really harsh antibacterials. I mean, they can affect your gut biome. Studies have shown that kids who come from homes that use green cleaners tend to weigh less than kids who come from homes that use heavy harsh chemicals. Right. But now people will make the argument well, is that because the house from the green cleaners, are they more concerned with healthy eating and getting their kids active period?
So is it causation or correlation? Well, we don't know exactly. But it looks like when they've done studies, the gut biomes of these kids are different and a lot of it has been related, or at least strongly possible to the things that they're cleaning their homes with. So for me, detoxification is an easy no brainer. Like for instance, I brought a few pieces here I can show you right, like we use a stripper trinket vinegar over Windex, right. It's just I want to put Windex in my mouth. Right. It's quiet. For soap. We use Dr. Bronner's Dr. Bronner's
Healthy cleaning techniques for the home
Yeah, I mean this is this the clean your dishes, although don't use it for dishes. I usually just buy a decent, like natural dish soap, but I mean, we use it I use it for shaving shampoo. Use it for I mean, this is everything in the kitchen. We all just use it since it does everything.
Now people say well, okay, well what if you need to not just, you know, you need to disinfect your house, you got to get bleach or you need like, Clorox I'm like no, I just, you know, hydrogen peroxide right there works, you know, works very good. And then that's just basic cleaning supplies, you can take it up a step. You know, like for sunblock, we use pretty much just a natural zinc sunblock.
So little things like that, that if it doesn't affect your life, really negatively when something like if it's going to create a major house in your life, get rid of it, then don't but if something simple like switching Windex for vinegar, switching a laundry soda for some crappy you know, for breezy laundry soap, you know, using essential oils for smells instead of like I said, Glade fresheners. To me, they're no brainers, so that's detoxification.
Healthy homes with an intention in each space
Then you move on to intention. And this, I kind of like this, every room in your home, whatever space you're in, has an intention. It has a purpose it's supposed to serve, right. So what's a bedroom supposed to do? supposed to help you you're supposed to sleep in your bedroom, you're supposed to be able to kind of relax and whine to shut down in your bedroom.
So that's what the bedrooms intention is, is a place to sleep. The kitchen has an intention of being a place where you go to get healthy, it's the number one key to health in your home is your kitchen, your social area, I mean that the term social is what it's intended to do.
So if you have the room set up where it's there's an antisocial not facing each other, whatever, then that's not going to work. So I look at I maximize the intention of every room. And then you can get into things like the colors you use the Yang, the Yang energy, that's just it's just just means does it have a powerful energy, like something that gets you excited, like an office should have Yang energy, right? focused, bright, organize your do your best thinking in there, it's not distracting.
At the same time, a bedroom has to have Yin energy, kind of that soft, relaxing energy, you don't want a bunch of bright colors in there, you don't want bright lights, because that doesn't. That's not the intention of that space. So what I do is I break it down into the the intention of different roofs. And then finally, we have what's called call optimization, which is kind of its its relates to the intention, but what it is, is, um, I'll give you an idea of the bedroom. Right? So what is this, these are the little tweaks we can do to add into the intention.
So in my bedroom, for instance, I use only light balls with no blue and no green spectrum in them. And you probably know why that is, but maybe your listeners don't blue in the green are the ones that wake up your brain, right. So you got all these LEDs, you got your CFL that affects your melatonin level. So if your bedroom is full of fluorescent lights, even just the CFL bulb while you're reading at night, that's not going to help you getting a good sleep, it's going to perhaps push your melatonin back, make it later you just get more sleep. So that's what optimization is and the different tweaks you can do in every room to optimize the intention of that room. So for
Healthy buildings and ancient traditions
Matt Morley
I’m involved in the sort of the healthy building movement and creating you know workplaces that are good for employee well being and ever Things like the well building certification. And there's so much of what you've just described that is actually at the core of a lot of what's going into a very scientific and detailed corporate level approach to kind of achieving the same things that you've just described that as I understand that have a sort of, you know, a pretty serious history behind them.
And yet, we're still to this day kind of, in a sense, reinventing them reef rebranding it all putting it out there as well with this is this is a well building standard. And look, we've not not come up with new ideas, maybe more research behind it, but the principles, the underlying principles, and they've got hundreds of years of history behind them, and that's what's hardly spoken about, it seems.
Ror Alexander
And that's what it is. It's just the principles. That's why when people say Fung Shui is crap, I had got an argument, the guidance from that, like, it's not crap, like, there's nothing crap about it. It was a system developed to just help you maximize your natural biological rhythms and your psychological energy.
Circadian rhythm lighting
It's as simple as that, you know, whatever they call it, you know, don't sleep under the moon, it just okay, well, that just means don't sleep on bright white light don't have a bunch of bright light because the light of the moon they would say, Oh, the later moon affects your sleep, oh, whatever.
Whoo, well, no, but they're, they didn't have light bulbs back then nowadays, they functionally masterfully say, you know, don't sleep under a CFL, it's probably not the best idea. And it was about living in circadian rhythms. They didn't have electricity back then. So it was about building your house that would face the sun.
So you got the heat of the sun and all that stuff. It was about even things like you'll hear about people like the different spaces and function a while was because back in the day, you would take your most valuable objects and you move them to the back of the house and hide them because it was the most secure place. You didn't put your valuables right, your, your front door, right.
Healthy home office design
Matt Morley
So and you mentioned the idea of, of an office space and how these principles can be applied to that I think there's been so much happening over the last year and a half around, breaking down that barrier between that used to be quite a clear dichotomy for many of us where we have a place where we live, where we where we sleep, we eat with our family.
And then there's another place where we go to do our work and might be a co working, it might be a corporate office or just some other space where we go to do that type of productivity. And then suddenly, we all found ourselves without that barrier where the distinction was just broken down. Suddenly home is also the office work comes home.
And how are you now thinking about the home office? Because in a sense, I think that seems to be here to stay. or many of us have discovered that there are some positives to it. So what's your take on that? How have you set up your home office and any tips and suggestions for people?
Ror Alexander
Yeah, well, I definitely have a home office and I probably broke one of the biggest, you know, classical Fung Shui nodos, which is having your office in your bedroom. There's nothing I could do. There's no other space in my house, right? I can't put on my kid's room. I'm lucky that living rooms already have a gym in the middle of my living room, which is already not the greatest spot in the world. I can't from I'm right now I'm in my kitchen.
My kitchen is kind of my second office. But what I did is what I did is this they what they do say is, you know in Fung Shui you always hear about cures, you hear the word cure, which I don't like the word cure, but what it just means is mitigations. And what I did in my office is I decorate it a little differently than the rest of the bedroom. It's on the far side of the bed, right? So it's on the complete furthest area, I could put it from the bed.
So I'm not staring directly at my desk when I'm sleeping. right because I don't want to monitor there just you don't want that. I do have it set off into the picture, My room is the right hand corner. So the window is to the left of me because I do like having a window, you really should have a window that you can see through.
You know, because you're working, you want to have a window that you can pick out of every now and then plus that light coming in is nice. You don't want to directly in front of you because then you can't see your screen. You don't want to behind you because you can get a glare again, fluctuate things will tell you this too, but it's just common knowledge is kind of funny, too.
So there's the office, sorry, there's the life, the desk and then I paint the walls differently around my desk so they're painted in right now there are cream color, which actually came with the house and the bedroom is white. The walls are cream but they're eventually going to be gray. So I'm planning on doing like a light gray around the office to give that space a slightly separate feel.
The decor in the office is a little bit different than the rest of the bedroom to now something I've been toying with the idea of getting is you know, one of those Japanese dividers and all those wall dividers they sell them at IKEA and stuff you can put it up a sort of separate room. Again, just my room isn't really quite big enough.
Standing desks for a healthy office set-up
I think that would kind of get in the way and being more annoying. So what I've done is I've just put the office you know facing away from the bed facing out a window kept the decor different and kept This slightly different color scheme on it. And then again, I've used optimization tools around my office. So I have a standing desk, which I basically tell my coaching clients they have to get, I don't say you have to get a an expensive one like I got, I got a digital one, you know, you press the buttons up and down.
When I lived in Thailand, I lived in Thailand for years. I mean, I knew the importance of standing desks. Well, going back 20 years, I've probably always kind of used a standing area. So in Thailand, I just had a regular table and I put a box on top and I just had my laptop there and a mouse keyboard. Now somebody it doesn't have to be expensive.
They have desk converters now, but anyway, standing desk is a must for me, I have a couple little tools that I use, I can do some exercises with when I'm at my desk. And this isn't sweaty, I'm not trying like skinny on a sweat one. I'm working because you know, I don't want to do that. But things I can do some postural exercises, I have a barstool that adjusts different heights.
So I could sit on and put my foot up. So you kind of get those different movements, I've learned to do a few different stretches I can do at my standing desk, and I will put it down to sitting. Because there's a thing too, you don't want to just be standing in one position all day, just really standing in one position is not a heck of a lot better than sitting in one position, you're just moving the pain and there are the issues down the road from your back to your knees.
And then you got to look at you know, other things. And this rise screwed up a lot, actually, for years. Luckily, it was I caught it early enough but not having the screen set up to eye height. So I'd be working on a bar desk, for instance, but my head would be down.
Nowadays, our heads are always down because the phone then got your computer screen down too. So at the end of the day, it always kind of like this, you know, even though you're using a standing desk that you're supposed to your network the store. Now I got everything optimized. So it's all the perfect heights ergonomics I've learned a lot about.
So I would definitely say learn about ergonomics. And for regular chair, I just use a Swiss ball, I have a Swiss ball that I sit on, instead of just a regular seat. So my standing my desk and I'm buying for hours. It forces me though, to move a lot. So I have a timer set up to sometimes so every 30 minutes and I got to watch nowadays that reminds me, but before that I would set a timer for 30 minutes or an hour and it would buzz and Okay, kind of move it down, but it's time to move it up.
Aromatherapy for productivity and focus
So just few little things that I've done in my office and that essential oil, I keep them a very scientifically purchased essential oils at my desk, which is largely peppermint, I use a lot of peppermint oil on my desk because peppermints been shown to actually wake you up and help you focus. I'll also use Cypress there I like to have for smells a lot of you know biophilic design I'm a huge fan of I got it's like 10 drops a Cypress I think only one or two drops of patchouli too much actually start to smell like a hippie, you know, but but Julie I like it because it does have that moss scent when you walk into a forest.
And then usually a dropper to a peppermint in there as well. You know, the Cypress has been shown even to help rate boost your immune system help boost focus, but at the same time, it's not a stressful focus. It's not like it's the smell stress you out, you know, Cypress and forest bathing, you know, shinrin rokeya it's calming, it's calming and clarity at the same time. It's very interesting.
Matt Morley
I like your approach to creating an experience , thinking about the light, where how you're, you're physically interacting with your your workspace, the sense around you. And a lot of that stuff that I've applied to gyms in the past and you mentioned the gym, so I've got to go there. I'm interested to dig into this topic that you you've described elsewhere around, I think you use the terms of conscious deliberate exercise and then passive movements. So not everyone's necessarily thinking about movement in those terms. But from your perspective, how are you distinguishing between those two concepts?
Conscious exercise for health
Ror Alexander
Yeah, so it comes down to what they call NEET, which means non exercise activity thermogenesis. People don't think about that a lot. And you know, when you think about burning calories, so what's the first thing people think about burning calories, I think go to the gym. Right? It's always go to the gym, go to the gym exercise. Well, even the most hardcore workout.
At the end of the day, if you were to measure all your calories, your basal metabolic rate burns the most that's your brain, your breathing, you know, all that sort of just being alive is about 60% of your calorie use in a day. T
he next biggest one after that is neat or non exercise activity thermogenesis So you notice I'm a hand talker, I talk a lot with my hands. That that's a that's neat. That is anything where I'm moving on. But I'm not, I'm not sweating. This is at heart. And then after that you got exercise the thermogenic effect of food. Well, for me focused exercise means that's exactly what it is I separate between movement or what I call physical activity and exercise.
Exercise, to me focused exercise means I'm going in there either putting a load on my muscular skeletal system, an outside load, or perhaps I'm putting myself into a position where there's extra load on, you know, doing a push up, for instance, right, there's gonna be extra load on my chest that's normally not there, or there's a load and or I should say, stress on the heart and the lungs, right, your heart rates going up, because you're taking it out of that typical standing and sitting zone. So that is what I call active exercise. And it's important, it is very important, you know, but that neat, that non exercise activity thermogenesis that passive movement, that movement without sweating is so important, it can burn between 15 to 30% of your calories a day.
And it's so easy to make that closer to that, you know, 30%, and that 15% by doing simple things like using a standing desk, creating environments that just force you to move more passively, you don't even think about it, one of the simplest descriptions I get is, if you were to go into a room that had only standing desks, well, you're gonna stand, no option, if you go into a room that has no furniture, you're gonna sit on the floor, there's no choice, right and sitting on the floor is not overly comfortable. So you're going to be moving around a lot.
Passive vs Active movement training
So I always talk about designing spaces is particularly your home to really force passive health on you. And one of the aspects is passive movement. So that's what that like that Swiss ball, like I said, my office core, you're constantly moving on it, you don't just sit it's not a lazy boy standing up. So those are just, it's just two really great movements. So that's the way I separate them, there's that low level movement that and I call it passive, because you're not thinking about it, it's just your environment is forcing you to do it. And then there's Oh, I'm gonna go to the gym. And I'm gonna, and I have my weights worked out. And I know exactly what I'm going to be doing and counting my steps and reps and counting my load.
Matt Morley
I like I like the idea of having a combination of some degree of willpower to make that happen to get your sort of low level movement during the day, but also more of a systems approach. So take the desk and the low chair away and replace it with an alternative. And then you're no longer relying on your, your own willpower, but the systems we put in place and boom, off you go, you can then you can scale it back,
Ror Alexander
right. It's all about the systems and having what I call it, there's a there's a movement right now called the no furniture movement. And I'm kind of a member of that movement. Mine's a little more low furniture for almost a year, my first year, year and a half, I moved back from Asia access and didn't really have any furniture even a floor just on the bed. Sorry, bed on the floor. Now I have a little more but even my furniture whenever I buy my furniture, I asked myself Hey, is this gonna make me like just zonk out it's like lazy boy for and binge on Netflix for hours.
There's not so the only two chairs we own or pop us on chairs, which are cool, because you can flip them up like a bowl, and they actually make great meditation seats too. And they're not. They're not uncomfortable, but they're not you can't sit in them for you know, three hours on end with, you know, for the most part, they're just not the most comfortable chairs in the world. But the wife likes and two from Thailand, you know, they're she's like, well, I grew up with these chairs. And I go, Well, you guys grew up with these chairs, and the guys are in much better long term health than we are. So lots of little secrets.
Matt Morley
I like you're quite far out there in terms of really pushing the message. So I appreciate that. And I've got a feeling I know what the answer to this question. This next one will be but your your take on EMF and what the risks are in from a sort of building biology perspective for people who aren't necessarily aware of the concept and where you stand on 5g, etc.
Building Biology
Ror Alexander
Yeah, um that's a hard because I think there's people that you know that people don't know the science really good, and they can explain this much better than I can. But in my coaching, I do have an option to work with a building biologist named Jason Messick, and he goes into your house and he primarily focuses on three things. The first one is your air quality. The second one is your water quality. And the third one, which honestly his biggest thing he focuses on is the EMF in your house. And I guess it comes down to the problem is when people think of emf they only think of Wi Fi. And yet there's you know, there's what he calls magnetic which is currency.
So there's magnetic fields that can affect you. There's the electric or the voltage fields that can affect you dirty electricity, which is Because Ken can kind of create some problems, it's like almost like pulses and surges. And then radio frequencies, which is, which is your Wi Fi and stuff like that. Obviously, you know, like, I got lights all around me, we all live in house with electricity. I'm not opposed to electricity. And but I think we, I think we should try to mitigate it when possible, you know, like, whether or not you want to go as far as not having any metal in your bed not having a springs in your bed, which I don't.
And there's some interesting research that shows that Hey, y'all thought that those all that wiring could attract and magnify fields? Other studies saying no, they don't they don't at all. Jason has said he's gone to places where he's held a compass up over the bed on the compass spins around, right? So there's a very strong magnetic field around that bed.
And depending it like it all comes down to what as Jason explains it, you've got the duration, so how long you're in, like how long you're in a space for, and the distance. And then there's the intensity? Right? So those are the three things I'll say to people.
Well, and people that would maybe have no problems with EMF, don't believe anything like that, you know, well, would you put your face right in front of your microwave while you're cooking the entire time? And most people will say no, most people would say, I don't say, Well, why if they're not, if they're not worried about it, then why wouldn't you have your face in front of the microwave? Good, because it just doesn't feel like a smart thing to do, does it? Whether or not, I don't know, I don't know. S
o I would have to say I am strongly concerned about EMF 5g, from what I understand it doesn't sound like it's super awesome for our health, I get it, you know, you got guys that are much better than me that I've interviewed, I can talk about how the pulses that can affect the calcium signaling between nerves. The blood brain permeability can be affected by strong EMF. So again, when it comes to me and my health coaching, I err on the side of caution, providing it doesn't interfere with your life to the point where it's going to cause stress on your life, if you got rid of it, because stress is one of the worst things we can do.
So if you're going to get if, if what I suggest to you is just like mass can be so hard, I can't and it's gonna bother you and be negative, then don't do it. But if you can try to cut down and think about your, you know, EMF overall, and I think having a building biologist come in is a good idea. I mean, I don't think it's a great idea to have your bed right behind a wall where your refrigerator is just going to create a strong magnetic field. And you know, there's quite a bit mood disorders, Melatonin is a big issue when it comes to Wi Fi signals, apparently. I guess I'm not the most professional, but I do err on the side of caution. I mentioned it to clients, and I gauge their interest.
And if they're interested, I'll have you know, on Sunday, set him up with a call with Jason or show him some videos I've done with Jason, and then I let them decide. But I really think it's a good idea to at least mitigate most of the problems if you can.
Matt Morley
Nice. I appreciate that. And and in terms of your thoughts, then sort of you bridge this gap between the world of like physical activity and physical work and training and the physical environment around us. And so within that framework, how do you think about rest and recovery when you're working with clients now? Like how big a role is that playing? Do you think you've seen perceptions of the importance of rest and recovery change over recent years? Are you still sort of trying to push that message? Is it still under appreciated?
Ror Alexander
It's it honestly it's still under appreciated? I think what happens even to me, it's just like, you know, to me, it's like we know about blue light and how it affects us. I mean, to me, it's a no brainer and But to this day, I don't think I've met a client yet that has any idea what I'm talking about. I think the problem is a lot of times we in people like me health coaches and people like you too
We probably get we kind of get caught in these circles where we'll listen to health podcasts will listen to biohacking podcast you know what listened to kind of fringe your stuff and and we hear from all these guys talking about you might have 20 different specialists talking about a blue light effects and we're like wow, it's becoming so common knowledge.
It's great, but it's not. It's like you go to the grocery store right now. everything we know about diets and nutrition you know everything we know go to the grocery store and I'll go to your local I don't want your big one is there in Spain or England whenever, you know for us, it's a superstore, Canadian superstore. Go to the superstore and watch what people are buying, and it's still Cheetos and Coca Cola is and just crap. So in small circles and biohacking circles, yeah, they're learning about stress but I would say for the majority of the population Fortunately, it's still not that we haven't been able to reach the masses yet. Little things like yoga has become more popular.
But even then we bastardize Yoga, in my opinion, to where we've just turned it into an exercise routine. It's not what real Yoga is supposed to be. So yes, I do discuss a lot about stress with my clients. Again, I come from a bit of a I liked the idea of meditation and breathing, but I don't use the word meditation very often, especially for guy clients. Just because meditation still, I mean, I was anti meditation really, and yoga, I thought it was so you know, the first, when I was back in the day, I was teaching CrossFit, like laughing at yoga people. And then I went to Indonesia, and we had a yoga class there. And I tried it a few times, and kind of just started to, I was so bad at it. I was like, I just wanted to get better at it.
But over the years is I learned more about yoga about meditation, I traveled to India a couple times. I was like, yeah, this is this is actually something we need. And I have ADHD, I'm kind of all over the place. And for me, just focusing on I don't even really want to say, um, I guess, I don't sit and meditate in with my legs crossed like this, you know, but I'm very aware of my breathing for me. So I've really, in the last few years really switched to focus on my nasal breathing.
So I'll teach clients about that. I find a lot of the people said that one of the problems I have with these meditation retreats and stuff is you go and people feel so Zen down and relax, and I feel great, I feel amazing. And within a month and back to the west, they're, you know, all stressed out again, and they forgot all their lessons. So I just prefer to come at it from what we can do in our day to day. And meditation is a great thing to work up to, but I call it breathing. So I'll talk about nasal breathing first and belly breathing after your workout. That's a big one.
I talked about just two to three minutes, that nasal breathing period, then I'll get into box breathing because it's a little more you know, because the Old Navy SEALs box breathe. Oh, okay, well, that must be good. It's really just a very westernized folk way of doing a meditation. So, but yes, I definitely stressed,
Matt Morley
it kind of brings us background to where we started, right? I mean, what's more elemental, and basic than breathing? And yet, how often do any of us really just take a moment, if it's a minute, or 10 minutes in the morning, or the last thing at night just to reconnect just to just to listen in and allow there to be some space in our minds not to plan or, or worry, or, you know, relive some moment of the day or sort of anticipate what might happen later in the day and just connecting with the breath. Really, it doesn't need to be anything spiritual.
Ror Alexander
No, not at all. And if you can design like I taught, one of the things I talk about a lot is designing Zen zone in your house, which again, comes from I've been very influenced by Eastern traditions, I think I sent you a picture of my kid in our Zen zone. So it's, it's pretty cool. It's a Papa Sancerre. And we got this cool light that hangs over top of it, which we use at nighttime, because that's in our living room, all of our house has special lighting, so it has circadian lighting the entire house. So at 7pm, the house goes all the blinds come down, and then the house switches to those non blue and green spectrum blocks the entire thing. Because there's no point having it if you're just gonna switch on your kitchen light, you know, ruin your melatonin again. But the Zen zone, you know, mine's very Eastern based, we got some cool stuff we have from Thailand, and I got some fun stuff from Hong Kong and stuff around it. But it doesn't have to be. It can be, it can be really simple. A few cushions on the floor doesn't even have to be a cushion on the floor. It could be a lazy, it could be anything you want.
But it's a space where you go to purposely recharge and get a few minutes a meet time. But again, it's not something I say to a client, Oh, great, you want to lose 10 pounds, we got to build you a meditation space. It's something that I'll work towards down the road. I think that's based in India, it's called a puja room. It's a prayer space on all Eastern cultures, that spiritual zone is a part of your home. And it's a part that we're severely missing here. And it's not vague. It could be a meter by a meter. It's not a big space. So I'm not saying you need to
Matt Morley
love it. Thanks, man. It's been really interesting to get your take with a slight sort of Eastern twist on a lot of themes that even for myself, I kind of, yeah, you get you get focused in your own world. And sometimes you need a little bit of, you know, fresh, a fresh angle, a fresh perspective on things. It's really, it's really just reiterated how much of this is just part of a fundamental connection between us and the natural world and the terminology, the descriptions and their histories and traditions behind it can, you know, we can come at that from many different angles, but ultimately, it all comes back to the same ideas and I think you've really encapsulated that.
Biophilic Design
Ror Alexander
And then biophilia designs a big part of it. You know, I got in my living room is I got a green wall. I see you got one to your right hand side there. I think I got biophilic wall in my office. I got a biophilic wall. We got plants Going up the ying yang and we want to get more plants. But yeah, I mean, nature is a huge element of it. And then Fung Shui always talked about nature too, right? It always talked about the importance in nature, when you look at, like you talked earlier about, it was like, you know, you look at all the old Buddhist temples, they'd always have a courtyard in the middle, you know, you look at and you want to take that to the most modern, crazy extreme Singapore like Singapore's airport, a vortex waterfall to create negative ions and a jungle.
I mean, Singapore, that's where I got really interested in biophilic design was visiting Singapore, I mean, that place if you're going to look at a place this is, what is the poster child for modern and biophilic design, and they've put it together and they've done it on purpose. I mean, so the biophilic design, I think it's just a huge aspect. That's so important. So I really try to get people into biophilia as much as I can you know, even if even if it's a fake green wall it's still better I mean, how they shouldn't just pictures of nature can make people feel better so that gets us that's what a pitcher can do. Just imagine what real plants can do and then to the level you can take it to
Matt Morley
and with your and I noticed you've got lots of fresh herbs it looks like in the background there in your in your kitchen which is another one because they adding a runner and scent right and it's sort of doubling
Ror Alexander
we got that we got basil going on here I got sprouts growing you know we got the whole thing and that's part of the nourishing kitchen you know I got a clean green clean nourishing kitchen you know where it's again it's just talking about natural cleaners I've talked about and then having clean Whole Foods not junk foods and then obviously nourishment is that whole thing for together I you might have a kitchen that inspires you to eat healthy, not stinky, bright organize, we got you know, one of the things in the in the Blue Zones, right they have fruit bowls and table under the ours is empty right now, we do have three fruit bowls behind it, but we just ran out of bananas today. Our good fruits are always on display and the crappy foods are either not in the house or they're hiding pretty good. So get just more little tip. So lots of tips. Love it.
Matt Morley
Yeah, the basic common sense, but it just it's so helpful to be reminded then it can seem so that immediately makes complete sense to me. But you think Well, yeah, things on display. Are they hidden away in the fridge? Okay, well, maybe I could just bring them out of there and have them visible in the kitchen and that would have an impact on on my mother.
Ror Alexander
I have Oreos out here. If I see him. I'm like, it's true. It's true if I so I got a little junk food that I do keep on displays my dark chocolate covered almonds. And I even need more of those than I really should. But you're
Matt Morley
gonna hide them away somewhere in the corner. Right. That's it. Thanks so much, man. So listen, where can people find you? What's the best way to keep in touch? I know you have your own podcast, your YouTube channel. Yep, well,
Ror Alexander
there's a couple. Like I said, my own health podcast is health by design, which they can check that out. And then YouTube, it's just almost everything for me is Ror Alexander a rural and that's just our model line. So raw Alexander, you know, find me on Instagram, Facebook's probably my best one. I tend to deal with an older audience, you know, like mid 30s 40s 50s. So Facebook still the place.
I do have a tick tock but I don't understand that one. really bother much with that. But my main place I like the best because I kind of host everything there is my website, which is again, just raw alexander.com and then you can link to everything from there. It's my resource for everything. Blogs video,