Time-restricted eating or intermittent fasting means restricting one’s eating to a specific period during a 24-hours day – or going without food for a fixed number of days. There is a biological difference between fasting and time-restricted feeding. Fasting and eating establish different biological conditions in the body, so time-restricted feeding is the term used to describe the overall plan of restricting one's eating window as it's called to a particular phase of each 24-hour day, or in some cases two specific days within the week.

Time-Restricted Eating

If one's main goal is simply to lose weight, then it really does not matter what one eats provided that the number of calories burned is higher than the number of calories ingested. A study from 2018 looked at weight loss in people following one particular diet versus another particular diet. The basic conclusion of the study was that there was no significant difference in weight change between people following a healthy, low-fat diet versus a healthy, low carbohydrate diet with significantly more dietary fats in them.

Low-Carb & Low-Fat Diets Produce Similar Outcomes For Weight Loss

There are many factors that impact the calories burned part of the calories in, calories out equation. <ul><li>Some of those are obvious: the amount of exercise, type of exercise, basal metabolic rate, and how much energy one burns just sitting there. </li><li>Metabolic factors and hormones are also essential. Hormones, such as thyroid hormone and insulin, and growth hormone; testosterone, and estrogen levels will also profoundly influence the calories out, the calories burned component of the calories in, calories out equation.</li></ul>

The Biology Of Burning Calories

<ul><li>It pays off in the metabolic sense and in the health sense and in the weight maintenance or loss sense to not ingest any food in the first hour after waking and potentially for longer. </li><li>For the two and ideally three hours prior to bedtime, you also don't ingest any food or liquid calories for that matter.</li></ul>It’s important that the feeding window take place during the most active parts of the day

Time Restricted Feeding Protocol

It's essentially cleaning up dead cells and cells that are injured or sick. And this is a natural process that occurs mainly during sleep. Fasting of any kind does tend to enhance autophagy.Autophagic conditions can also be created simply by following a sub-caloric diet. When we're asleep, the bad cells are getting gobbled up and eaten. And the good cells also are undergoing certain repair mechanisms mainly related to, or at least governed by the circadian genes.

Autophagy

<ul><li>There are a few factors that are going to govern how quickly you transition from ingesting food to a fasted state, as you ingest your last bite or sip of calories, that's not when the fast begins. </li><li>Very large meals are going to take longer to digest than very small meals. So learning to gauge food volume is important.</li><li>Foods that include some fats or a lot of fats will tend to slow gastric emptying time.</li><li>Be aware of foods that lead to big steep rises in glucose like pure sugars. </li><li>Fibrous foods will also create a more long-lasting sustained release of glucose. </li></ul>

Effects of Specific Categories of Food

People think that they are on an eight-hour feeding window or six-hour feeding window, but when their data are analyzed (from fasting apps), it almost is always the case that they're actually on a feeding window that's one or even two hours longer than they think.It turns out that people cheat, but they don't cheat in any kind of obvious way. They might have, you know, a glass of wine after dinner, or they'll have a cup of tea and a little bite of a cookie.

Almost Everybody Underestimates Their Feeding Window

Relatively short feeding windows of say four to six hours do produce a number of positive health effects. Things like increased insulin sensitivity, which we know is good, remember type two diabetes is a reduction in insulin sensitivity improvements in beta cell function and the pancreas decreased blood pressure, decreased oxidative stress decreases in things like evening appetite. So positive health effects and psychological facts in general.However, they either produce no change in body weight, or they tend to produce even increases in body weight.

4-6 Hour Feeding Windows

This window seems to be very beneficial across almost all the parameters, like inflammation, weight, loss, fat loss, adherence, etc. Also, people's ability to stick to the diet seems quite good during the 8- hour feeding windows, but when people try and undergo very short feeding windows of four to six hours, it seems that they are overeating in that four to six hours, at least overeating with respect to their metabolic needs. The 7-9 hour feeding window produces all of the major health benefits of time-restricted feeding as well as being pretty straightforward.

The 8-Hour Feeding Window

<ul><li>In endurance athletes, it leads to a significant decrease in free testosterone (not to the extent that it should be avoided).</li><li>Studies in athletes have shown significant reductions in cortisol.</li><li>Shortening the feeding window to less than 8 hours can increase stress hormones and pro-inflammatory hormones and decrease some sex hormones</li><li>Effects on fertility: reducing food intake or food calories too much can have negative effects on the ovulation cycle in women and sperm count in men because signals in the brain are looking for good reproductive conditions without stress .</li></ul>

Effects Of Time Restricted Eating On Hormones

If your main interest is maintaining and, or building muscle, then it can be beneficial to ingest protein early in the day.You would still want to obey the foundational rule of no: not eating any food for the first hour post waking or at least the first hour post.

Protein Consumption & Timing for Muscle

You should allow yourself a transition period of anywhere from one week to 10 days in which you shift your feeding window by about an hour each day or so. And then once you establish a feeding window that feels comfortable for you and that you think you can maintain over time and you simply maintain that feeding schedule for at least 30 days (but ideally you would do that indefinitely.)

How to Shift Your Eating Window

<ul><li>Blood glucose and insulin go up when you eat and down when you don’t eat (barring type 1 or 2 diabetes)</li><li>What you eat has a differential impact on the rise in blood glucose (e.g., simple carbs and sugars will raise it the most, grains will raise it more than fibrous carbs like lettuce, etc.)</li><li>High blood glucose is correlated with mortality</li><li>Almost everyone has an increasing, resting blood glucose level as we age.</li></ul>

Blood Glucose & Feeding

It does seem that it can create significant weight loss and can help obese individuals because it can reduce resting blood glucose, and every other day fasting in many cases can produce more rapid effects on weight loss and reductions in blood glucose than time-restricted feeding. However, every other day type of fasting for most people is not going to be feasible. They're just not going to be able to do that for a long period of time.

Eating Every-Other-Day

One of the aspects of fasting that have drawn a lot of people to time-restricted feeding and fasting is the clarity of mind that people get. <ul><li>People don't have to think about when they're going to eat because they know when their eating window begins. They also don't have to think about regulating their behavior because they already know when they're going to eat and when they're not going to eat.</li><li> When you're restricting portions, you actually have to make decisions all the time.</li></ul>

Mental Focus And Clarity

It's all contextual. It depends on when you ate how much you ate and where you are in your circadian cycle.<ul><li>Anything that involves sugar in particular, simple sugars can potentially break your fast. </li><li>Drinking water, drinking tea, and coffee (provided it's black coffee) will not break your fast.</li><li>Eating 1 peanut when deep in a fasted state will not break your fast, eating a whole handful of peanuts might not even break your fast if you are in a very low glucose state.  If you just finished a meal that included carbohydrates, or it was a very large meal of any kind an hour ago, yes, indeed, eat<warningtag>ing one peanut could break your fast.</warningtag></li></ul>

What Breaks a Fast? 

There are not a lot of good studies exploring plant-based non-sugar sweeteners, like Stevia.Most people need to establish this for themselves. The best way would be to wear a continuous glucose monitor to go into a fasted state of either one hour or two hours, or maybe you've been fasting all night and then ingest Stevia in whatever form you want.

Artificial Sweeteners, Plant-Based Sweeteners

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Longevity

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Food

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Health

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Exercise & Fitness

Fasting Basics

This episode I discuss the science and practice of fasting also called time-restricted feeding. I review the data on how limiting food intake to specific portions of every 24-hour cycle (or fasting longer) impacts weight loss, fat loss specifically, liver health, mental focus, muscle, longevity and more. I explain how "fasted" is contextual, and relates to blood glucose levels and their downstream effects, and how the depth of fasting can be adjusted with behaviors such as different types of exercise, or with glucose disposal agents. I also discuss the optimal fasting protocol: and both the absolute (non-negotiable) and variable (contextual) features of a fasting/time-restricted-feeding protocol that will allow you to get the most benefits. I also discuss what does and does not break a fast, the effects of fasting on hormones like testosterone and cortisol and on fertility. I also review how different feeding windows of 8 or 10 or 4 hours differentially impact the effects of fasting, and why the classic 8 hour feeding window came to be but also might be ideal. I discuss mechanisms and offer tools to discern the optimal fasting duration and timing for you.  Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/huberman Thesis: https://takethesis.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction, Blood Glucose & Mortality, Mice Vs. Humans (00:06:02) Sponsors (00:09:42) Neuroplasticity Protocols & Online Lecture (https://youtu.be/Oo7hQapFe3M) (00:11:20) Feeding, Fasting, Performance (00:13:50) Calories-In, Calories-Out (CICO); Perfect Diets (00:19:48) Feeding-Induced Health Conditions  (00:25:33) Time Restricted Eating: When We Eat Is Vital (00:29:45) The Eight Hour Feeding Window  (00:31:26) Feeding Deep Into the Night Is Bad (In Humans) (00:36:33) Liver Health (00:39:45) Time Restricted Feeding Protocol: Rules (00:41:35) When to Start & Stop Eating (00:45:38) Gastric Clearance, Linking Fasting to Sleep (00:52:35) Effects of Specific Categories of Food (00:55:40) Precision In Fasting: Protocol Build (00:59:30) 4-6 Hour Feeding Windows (01:03:08) Protein Consumption & Timing for Muscle (01:08:13) How to Shift Your Eating Window (01:13:20) Glucose Clearing, Exercise & Compounds (01:22:37) Blood Glucose: Monitoring, mTOR & Related Pathways (01:27:40) Gut Health: Fasting, Clock Genes and Microbiota (01:29:15) Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver  (01:32:00) Effects of Fasting on Hormones: Testosterone, Cortisol (01:38:40) Fertility (01:41:50) 8-Hour Feeding Window: Weight Loss Without Calorie Counting (01:43:20) Eating Every-Other-Day  (01:45:29) Adherence (01:47:15) Mental Focus & Clarity (01:49:12) Enhancing Weight Loss from Body Fat: Hepatic Lipase (01:53:15) What Breaks a Fast? Rules & Context (01:58:50) Artificial Sweeteners, Plant-Based Sweeteners (02:01:42) Glucose Clearing II, Cinnamon, Acidity, Salt (02:06:42) My Circadian Clock, Zero-App  (02:08:20) Odd (But Common) Questions (02:09:23) Effects of Sauna & Dehydration on Blood Glucose (02:11:12) The Ideal Fasting Protocol  (02:24:00) More Resources, Ways to Support Us, Supplements Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

podcasts

Podcasts

This episode I discuss the science and practice of fasting also called time-restricted feeding. I review the data on how limiting food intake to specific portions of every 24-hour cycle (or fasting longer) impacts weight loss, fat loss specifically, liver health, mental focus, muscle, longevity and more. I explain how "fasted" is contextual, and relates to blood glucose levels and their downstream effects, and how the depth of fasting can be adjusted with behaviors such as different types of exercise, or with glucose disposal agents. I also discuss the optimal fasting protocol: and both the absolute (non-negotiable) and variable (contextual) features of a fasting/time-restricted-feeding protocol that will allow you to get the most benefits. I also discuss what does and does not break a fast, the effects of fasting on hormones like testosterone and cortisol and on fertility. I also review how different feeding windows of 8 or 10 or 4 hours differentially impact the effects of fasting, and why the classic 8 hour feeding window came to be but also might be ideal. I discuss mechanisms and offer tools to discern the optimal fasting duration and timing for you.  For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Introduction, Blood Glucose & Mortality, Mice Vs. Humans (00:06:18) Sponsors: AG1, LMNT (00:09:42) Neuroplasticity Protocols & Online Lecture (00:11:20) Feeding, Fasting, Performance (00:13:50) Calories-In, Calories-Out (CICO); Perfect Diets (00:19:48) Feeding-Induced Health Conditions  (00:25:33) Time Restricted Eating: When We Eat Is Vital (00:29:45) The Eight Hour Feeding Window  (00:31:26) Feeding Deep Into the Night Is Bad (In Humans) (00:36:33) Liver Health (00:39:45) Time Restricted Feeding Protocol: Rules (00:41:35) When to Start & Stop Eating (00:45:38) Gastric Clearance, Linking Fasting to Sleep (00:52:35) Effects of Specific Categories of Food (00:55:40) Precision In Fasting: Protocol Build (00:59:30) 4-6 Hour Feeding Windows (01:03:08) Protein Consumption & Timing for Muscle (01:08:13) How to Shift Your Eating Window (01:13:20) Glucose Clearing, Exercise & Compounds (01:22:37) Blood Glucose: Monitoring, mTOR & Related Pathways (01:27:40) Gut Health: Fasting, Clock Genes and Microbiota (01:29:15) Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver  (01:32:00) Effects of Fasting on Hormones: Testosterone, Cortisol (01:38:40) Fertility (01:41:50) 8-Hour Feeding Window: Weight Loss Without Calorie Counting (01:43:20) Eating Every-Other-Day  (01:45:29) Adherence (01:47:15) Mental Focus & Clarity (01:49:12) Enhancing Weight Loss from Body Fat: Hepatic Lipase (01:53:15) What Breaks a Fast? Rules & Context (01:58:50) Artificial Sweeteners, Plant-Based Sweeteners (02:01:42) Glucose Clearing II, Cinnamon, Acidity, Salt (02:06:42) My Circadian Clock, Zero-App  (02:08:20) Odd (But Common) Questions (02:09:23) Effects of Sauna & Dehydration on Blood Glucose (02:11:12) The Ideal Fasting Protocol  (02:24:00) More Resources, Ways to Support Us, Supplements Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

Huberman Lab discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has consistently published original research findings and review articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of several National Institutes of Health review panels and a Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology development companies, professional athletic organizations, and various units of U.S. and Canadian Special Operations.

Huberman Lab

Effects of Fasting & Time Restricted Eating on Fat Loss & Health

Effects of Fasting & Time Restricted Eating on Fat Loss & Health | Episode 41

The road is full of failed transformation programs: Leaders define objectives, design a project plan, agree on KPIs, and recruit the right people. Yet the failure rate in transformations is far too high and one that organisations can't afford. For a transformation to be successful, leaders should approach it in ways designed to mitigate emotional harm to employees.

Leading a successful organisational transformation

Research shows that leaders and workers start transformations excited and optimistic. But as the transformations get rolling, they all show reduced positive emotions and increased negative emotions. All transformations are difficult, and confidence is bound to dip. Yet this is key to the transformation's success. The heightened stress raises performance, and leaders who learn from their emotions use those lessons in their transformation. This maintains high performance.

What makes transformations successful 

Leaders must create psychological safety and mechanisms for all voices to be heard. Without psychological safety and support, workers feel anxious and overworked. Moreover, workers lose faith in transformation when there's no compelling vision, visible progress, or practical and emotional support from leaders. When leaders themselves lose faith in the transformation, they may become distant, look to reduce damage to their own brands and jump to different activities.

What makes transformations unsuccessful

Failed transformation can lead to employees suffering emotional damage, losing confidence in leaders, and becoming sceptical of further attempts at transformation.Ways to set transformation up for success by prioritising their employees' emotions.<ol><li>Address the unsustainable status quo.</li><li>Detach from the status quo.</li><li>Develop a purposeful vision.</li><li>Lead emotional transformation.</li><li> Include both the rational and emotional. </li><li>Align KPIs, funding, resources, and people.</li><li>Make transformation the new normal.</li></ol>

Seven steps for a successful transformation

Any transformation begins by recognising that the status quo is unsustainable. It means working on yourself first and starting a transformational emotional journey.  Understanding the unsustainability of the status quo means putting yourself as a leader in a separate place to see yourself, your company and from where you operate differently.

1. Address the unsustainable status quo

Embrace the unknown and adopt the humility required to challenge your mindsets and assumptions about your company, its current ways of working, the industry and what will result in success. <ul><li>Be open to learning.</li><li>Lean into the emotions of anxiety, fear, and excitement.</li><li>Understand the system you're in, how it's changing and what opportunities and risks are being created.</li><li>Expose yourself to new ideas that will inform and structure the future of your industry and company.</li></ul>

2. Detach from the status quo

Embracing the unknown and adopting humility helps you to create a vision because you can see more clearly what needs to change and why.  You can then imagine how you might create value differently at a functional, product and service, or even entire business model level.

3. Develop a purposeful vision

Transformation is both exciting and unsettling for employees. For example, they can't see how their skills will be relevant. Therefore, it is essential to address these emotions. Formal conversations will help them to work through their anxiety and fear of the unknown.Yet, listening skills are just as important:<ul><li>Encourage emotional awareness and expression through simple questions such as, “What are you feeling? Can you tell me more about that?”</li><li>Paraphrase what you think you’ve heard to facilitate emotional regulation.</li><li>Create workshops that enable active reflection on emotions.</li></ul>

4. Lead emotional transformation

When executives begin a transformation, they will reach for a project plan that focuses on a rational understanding of how long it will take to deliver key activities. These plans are often overly ambitious and miss the critical listening component, which causes the process to slow down.  Conduct one-on-one listening exercises as well as in small groups and workshops to help leaders and employees understand their own purpose and how they are part of the bigger purpose.

5. Include both the rational and emotional

Employees may find the reality of major shifts in KPIs, performance management, funding, and resources difficult. Their lack of belief in the transformation becomes real as they lose power, status and even their roles. Losing people is inevitable in a successful transformation, but research shows that making practical decisions sooner enables people to move from one emotional state to another.

6. Align KPIs, funding, resources, and people

The old model of predictability, stability and hierarchy was the norm in many organisations. However, stakeholders demand a more "organic" organisation where continual transformation is the norm. Enabling transformation requires giving employees the information and resources they need to develop and innovate in other directions.

7. Make transformation the new normal

It’s not news that organizational transformations are prone to failure. To understand the skills, mindsets, and capabilities behind successful transformations in today’s dynamic environment, EY and Oxford University formed a research collaboration to investigate what it takes to lead a successful transformation. One of the authors’ most important findings is that, in order for transformation to be successful, leaders must approach it in ways designed to mitigate emotional harm to — and drive emotional commitment from — employees. The workforce bears the brunt of failed transformations, and the emotional damage can be substantial as employees lose confidence in leaders and become skeptical of further attempts at transformation. Drawn from their research, the authors present seven ways for leaders to set their transformations up for success by prioritizing their employees’— and their own — emotions.

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Corporate Culture

communication

Communication

business

Business

Organizational Transformation Is an Emotional Journey

When we think of an addict, we often imagine a homeless person in the park sniffing glue or a gaunt person with a heroin needle in their arm. However, addiction doesn’t have anything to do with what one is addicted to. Addiction simply means leaning on something. The addict relies on their chosen pursuit to block unwelcome emotions from entering their consciousness. The particular object of their addiction may be whisky or marijuana, but it could also be their mobile phone, buckets of a specific snack, cleaning cupboards, or tracking birds.

How we imagine addicts

The popular misunderstanding of addiction allows people to claim they are merely going to the office again, checking the news or working out at the gym. Yet, addicts are not weak or evil. They are, first and foremost, scared. The solution shouldn’t, therefore, involve censorship and lectures but love and reassurance. We should make moves to allow people to feel safe about facing their emotions and confident they can handle what is going on in their minds.

The addict fears being left alone

When we think of an ‘addict’, certain stock images come to mind: a homeless person sniffing glue, a gaunt figure with a heroin needle in their arm. But this masks what is in reality a far more universal phenomenon. We are all addicts. Sign up to our new newsletter and get 10% off your first online order of a book, product or class: https://bit.ly/3HpVdSa For books and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/3NWKnGj Our website has classes, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://bit.ly/3NSIFpj Join this channel to get access to exclusive members perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog/join FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/3xOMHts “When we think of an ‘addict’, certain stock images come to mind: a homeless person in the park sniffing glue, a gaunt figure with a heroin needle in their arm, a breakfast-time vodka drinker… But such gothic characterisations mask what is in reality a far more universal and less overtly dramatic - though still pernicious - phenomenon. Addiction doesn’t have anything to do with what one is addicted to: it can’t be neatly circumscribed to those who rely on hard drugs or alcohol. In its essence, addiction simply means leaning on something - it could be anything - because it prevents particular ideas from coming into our minds. The addict relies on their chosen pursuit to block unwelcome emotions from storming the theatre of their consciousness…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://aaronsampson.co.uk Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Mental Health

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Videos

When we think of an ‘addict’, certain stock images come to mind: a homeless person sniffing glue, a gaunt figure with a heroin needle in their arm.  But this masks what is in reality a far more universal phenomenon. We are all addicts.
Sign up to our new newsletter and get 10% off your first online order of a book, product or class: https://bit.ly/3HpVdSa
For books and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/3NWKnGj
Our website has therapy, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://bit.ly/3NSIFpj

FURTHER READING

You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/3xOMHts

“When we think of an ‘addict’, certain stock images come to mind: a homeless person in the park sniffing glue, a gaunt figure with a heroin needle in their arm, a breakfast-time vodka drinker…
But such gothic characterisations mask what is in reality a far more universal and less overtly dramatic - though still pernicious - phenomenon. Addiction doesn’t have anything to do with what one is addicted to: it can’t be neatly circumscribed to those who rely on hard drugs or alcohol. In its essence, addiction simply means leaning on something - it could be anything - because it prevents particular ideas from coming into our minds. The addict relies on their chosen pursuit to block unwelcome emotions from storming the theatre of their consciousness…”


MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Aaron Sampson
https://www.motionmaverick.com
https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/

 
Title animation produced in collaboration with

Vale Productions
https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're interested in self-understanding, calm and emotional maturity.

We have thousands of articles about emotional life for you on our website: www.theschooloflife.com

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We publish one film a week, on Wednesdays at 14.00hrs GMT.

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Why We Are All Addicts

Eid literally means a “festival” or “feast” in Arabic. There are two major eids in the Islamic calendar per year – Eid al-Fitr earlier in the year and Eid al-Adha later.Eid al-Fitr is a three-day-long festival and is known as the “Lesser” or “Smaller Eid” when compared to Eid al-Adha, which is four-days-long and is known as the “Greater Eid.”

The Festival Of Eid

The two Eids recognize, celebrate and recall two distinct events that are significant to the story of Islam.Eid al-Fitr means “the feast of breaking the fast.” The fast, in this instance, is Ramadan, which recalls the revealing of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad and requires Muslims to fast from sunrise to sundown for a month.

The Two Festivals Of Eid

Eid al-Fitr features two to three days of celebrations that include <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Islam.html?id=L31e4m2GUTwC">special morning prayers</a>. People greet each other with “Eid Mubarak,” meaning “Blessed Eid” and with formal embraces. Sweet dishes are prepared at home and gifts are given to children and to those in need. In addition, Muslims are encouraged to forgive and seek forgiveness. Practices vary from country to country.

Celebrating Eid al-Fitr

The other festival, Eid al-Adha, is the “feast of the sacrifice.” It comes at the end of the Hajj, an annual pilgrimage by millions of Muslims to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia that is obligatory once in a lifetime, but only for those with means.Eid al-Adha recalls the story of how God commanded Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail as a test of faith. The story, as narrated in the Quran, describes Satan’s attempt to tempt Ibrahim so he would disobey God’s command. Ibrahim, however, remains unmoved and informs Ismail, who is willing to be sacrificed.

Celebrating Eid al-Adha

Eid al-Fitr is celebrated on the first day of the 10th month in the Islamic calendar.Eid al-Adha is celebrated on the 10th day of the final month in the Islamic calendar.The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and dates are calculated based on lunar phases. Since the Islamic calendar year is shorter than the solar Gregorian calendar year by 10 to 12 days, the dates for Ramadan and Eid on the Gregorian calendar can vary year by year.

The Days Of Celebration

Eid al-Fitr, as it follows the fasting of Ramadan, is also seen as a spiritual celebration of Allah’s provision of strength and endurance.Amid the reflection and rejoicing, Eid al-Fitr is a time for charity, known as Zakat al-Fitr. Eid is meant to be a time of joy and blessing for the entire Muslim community and a time for distributing one’s wealth.Charity to the poor is a highly emphasized value in Islam.

The Spiritual Meaning of Eid Al-Fitr

Observed by millions of Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is an interesting mix of austerity and celebration. Read on to find out why it’s so important to the Islamic faith

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Religion & Spirituality

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Travel

Ramadan: Islam's holiest month

Muslims throughout the world will celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a celebration at the end of Ramadan.  Here’s an introduction to this important feast and its partner, Eid al-Adha.

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Society, Arts & Culture

What is Eid al-Fitr and how do Muslims celebrate it?

Millions of Muslims worldwide have been observing Ramadan, during which strict fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset. The exact date of fasting depends on the interpretation of whether one follows the Islamic calendar or visibly sees the new moon. For Muslims, Ramadan means abstaining from food and drink during the regular 9-to-5 workday.

Ramadan

Many non-Muslims don't know much about Ramadan. However, most Muslims welcome questions from colleagues and friends. Being open about Ramadan can also help employees plan their meetings when fasting Muslims have more energy.

Don't be afraid to ask questions

Ramadan is traditionally a social holiday: Muslims break their fast with family and friends, and visit mosques more often for additional prayers. Working remotely might make flexible work hours easier as fasting Muslims lose energy as the day progresses. While Muslims don't expect any extra accommodation, it really feels good to be recognized.

Managers can privately ask if their direct reports would like any special accommodations

Most Muslims use the Arabic translation "Ramadan Mubarak" to greet each other. You can also say "Ramadan Kareem." It means "have a generous Ramadan."

Wishing a coworker "Happy Ramadan" isn't offensive

Muslim women don't fast when they are on their periods and would prefer not to have this pointed out in public. There are also other reasons why Muslims don't fast, such as illness or travel. Don't apologise for eating or drinking in front of a colleague observing Ramadan. The point of the month is that it should be challenging. They don't want to feel guilty or awkward. However, don't make jokes about your colleague not having coffee or eating lunch, either. It can appear offensive.

If you notice a coworker isn't fasting, don't publicly ask why

Here's what to know to make sure you don't say the wrong thing to a Muslim colleague who is observing Ramadan.

How to support your Muslim coworkers who are fasting during Ramadan

<ul><li>The management upskill begins with building new professional networks. All the studies mention a solid managerial approach will be the cornerstone of the Future of Work.</li><li>For this reason, managers must learn how to be great communicators and coaches to develop their team members through supportive and consultative behaviors before challenging them.</li><li>This is the only way to build upon the Maslow Pyramid to reach the ultimate levels: the collective sense of belonging, and the esteem and self-actualization needs. </li></ul>

Managament upskill and professional networks

When leaders believe in innovation to make the change happen, it’s called transformational leadership. They work on inspirational motivation while challenging their people with trust and respect. Many organizations went through this process successfully during the pandemic.Changing a culture to adapt to the virtual world is about giving a new meaning to the effort that transcends everyday problems.It can be addressing a new market segment with new customers, launching a new product, or simply serving customers better as an underlying purpose.

The hard work of changing company culture in the hybrid world

The majority of people redefined their professional success through work-life balance, mental health, and flexibility – the top three new priorities for most of us.

Redefining professional success

An example of best practice within the team is formalizing the values and expected behaviors in a team contract.<ul><li>For example, showing respect or giving the benefit of the doubt are compelling values in the virtual world to create a shared feeling of safety within the team.</li><li>It helps shut down and reprogram the “catastrophizing” cognitive bias that causes our brains to imagine the worst-case scenario, especially when limited communication or data is missing.</li></ul>It might be counterintuitive, but thinking about the worst doesn’t prepare you at all. Instead, it makes us continually feel bad.

Promote healthy mental behaviors and individual accountability

How upskilling helps businesses adapt to a rapidly changing labour market

Discover the world of business and economics.

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Economics

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Leadership & Management

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Career

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Personal Development

Upskilling: Preparing For The Future

How to Upskill Management while Increasing Individual Accountability for an Inspiring Hybrid Culture

Many employers try to meet the demand for remote work by saying all the right things to prospective employees. However, they are not committed to or effective at building a healthy, high-performing remote or hybrid workplace. It can help to fully understand a company's remote work infrastructure during recruitment. The key is to look for attributes about the organisation's remote culture and ask the right questions about the principles and norms that dictate the overall company culture and remote work experience.

The ideal remote workplace

When considering if a company has an effective remote culture, ensure the company has strong core values and a healthy culture. One key truth is that the elements needed for an effective remote company culture are the same for a great company culture in any type of workplace. Research the company's values, then ask questions about those values in the interview.<ul><li>Ask the interviewer to share the company's values and see how they respond. Do they know the values?</li><li>Ask how core values factor into employee evaluations and advancement.</li><li>Research the company on Glassdoor or a comparable review site.</li></ul>

Company culture and values

Many companies are not fully committed to a strong remote work environment.Candidates need to know if the remote policy is a well-planned strategy with supporting systems and processes instead of a haphazard strategy. <ul><li>Ask how often remote employees are expected to be in the office. An employer should give clear guidelines.</li><li>Ask how prevalent remote work is at the organisation. It is unhelpful if you are the only remote employee on a team.</li><li>Ask how the company handles one-on-one, team, department, or company meetings.</li><li>Ask about the tech infrastructure and how their technology supports remote work.</li></ul>

Remote work strategy

The best remote organizations create opportunities for people to meet and bond in-person. Candidates should ask if the company hosts all-company events, co-working days, or other opportunities to connect in -person. Most remote employees don’t want to work from home to avoid seeing people — they want more flexibility or the chance to skip their painful commute.

In-person connnectivity

The job market is filled with partially or fully remote roles. However, some of these companies are offering opportunities that are less rewarding than they seem. Therefore, candidates should do their homework to ensure that the company has a good hybrid or remote environment before accepting the job.

Questions to ask before you take the job.

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Remote Work

How to Vet a Remote Workplace

Metacognition is defined as "thinking about thinking" or "knowing about knowing." It is the process of knowing and understanding one's own thoughts, feelings, and memories. When you are aware of your thoughts, feelings, and knowledge while they are happening, you can bring those thoughts under control.

Metacognition: Knowing yourself

Edward de Bono rightly states that “Only the human brain can deliberately change perceptions, change patterns, invent concepts and tolerate ambiguity.” Learning about yourself is vital. You know what makes you happy or sad and what motivates you. Self-awareness is about understanding what is happening in your head and how to improve your ability to think about your thinking.

A metacognitive mind is a superpower

Like any skill, you can improve how you think to make better and more rational decisions. The first step to improve your metacognition is to realise what you know you know and what you know you don't know. That knowledge can reveal what you need to improve. Then you can get educated on topics like mindfulness and self-awareness to improve.

Metacognition is a skill

<ul><li>You learn more quickly because you can identify the steps you need to complete a task.</li><li>If one approach does not work for you, you can adjust your learning strategies.</li><li>You can practice self-discipline by reflecting on your habits and practices and changing them.</li><li>You can be aware in the moment of what you're doing and how it affects your mental state.</li></ul>

How metacognition can improve your life

‘’Metacognition’’ is often defined as “thinking about thinking” or “knowing about knowing.” Or better still, the thoughts people have about their own thought processes. It’s a vital life skill that…

How to Use Metacognition Skills to Become More Self-Aware

Study after study report that the majority of managers today are terrible at providing feedback. Yet, we also know that regular feedback leads to improved employee engagement. Employees want more, effective feedback — but managers are terrible at providing it. So how do we reconcile this? Small, incremental improvements can happen by individuals resolving to do better, but the real impact happens when the entire culture becomes comfortable with feedback.

The struggle with feedback

An organization must start by acknowledging its current state. If you don’t have a feedback culture, but want one, then say that. And, while you say it, recognize openly where you’re starting from, and acknowledge that some people may have had bad experiences. From there, commit to doing better.

Assess your relationship with feedback

The problem in many businesses is that feedback is a one-way street. Bosses critique their subordinates’ work and that’s the end. Ensure everyone in the company gets — and gives — feedback through regular, standardized cadences.Here are some recommended feedback cadences:<ul><li>Boss to subordinate</li><li>Subordinate to boss</li><li>Peer to peer.</li></ul>

Switch up the format

It can be hard to hear that we're falling short, but without critical feedback, we miss our chance to fix it and grow. 

How to Create a Culture of Feedback

Buying in can mean workers consider the organization part of themselves. In many cases, employees not only get on board with a company’s stated mission, but also the culture, and feel like they share values with the organization.But while many workers buy in to the companies they work for when they’re first hired, some people find their enthusiasm fades. Several factors can lead to a loss of buy-in, like when workers believe companies fail to live up to their values or feel there’s an uneven exchange between employee and employer

Subscribing to a company's culture

These days, jobs are less and less about pure security and safety needs, and more and more about identity and belonging needs and even self-actualization.Employers and potential workers expect to share the same core values. Indeed, research shows workers increasingly value working for mission-driven companies, whose causes they care for.

The rise of buy-in

Many workers do see the work they do as meaningfully contributing to their company’s overall mission. And as an increasing number of companies advertise themselves as mission-based to attract talent, especially in dense industries, employee buy-in has become a major part of some corporate cultures. Buy-in can also help an employee emotionally navigate potential turmoil during their tenure, something particularly prevalent in start-ups and creative industries.: People hate uncertainty and in order to tolerate that, you have to really believe that it's there for a reason and that you’re doing it for a reason.

Having a meaningful contribution

As you start to doubt your company’s mission or think it's hypocritical, the impacts on your motivation are astounding. Without this motivation, employees are far less likely to receive recognition or promotions for their work.Distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable expectations of buy-in from companies is a very individualized decision. If you don't actually buy in but still stick to your work, it is possible to get ahead – it just won't be as personally rewarding

When enthusiasm fades

Subscribing to a company's culture is a big component of succeeding in a job. What happens when you don’t want to jump on the bandwagon?

Effects of Fasting & Time Restricted Eating on Fat Loss & Health | Episode 41

Organizational Transformation Is an Emotional Journey

Why We Are All Addicts

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How to support your Muslim coworkers who are fasting during Ramadan

Sylvia Wade