Ari Meisel
Less doing
I had the opportunity to chat with inspirational leader Ari Meisel about his journey with Crohn’s disease. What can we learn from his experiences to reduce stress in our lives?
Entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and noted as the world's #1 leading expert on productivity. Ari has written multiple books on efficiency, graced the stage with companies such as NASA and Microsoft, and has been featured at TEDxEast.
Ari was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2006 but through a combination of yoga, nutrition, natural supplements, and rigorous exercise, he has been cleared by his doctors as showing "no evidence of active inflammatory disease".
Ari understands the value in minimizing stress to maximize health.
Upon being diagnosed with severe Crohn's, Ari was in and out of the hospital with an immense amount of pain and was prescribed sixteen pills a day to manage his symptoms. His prescriptions however created a series of additional problems for him including: vomiting; hair loss; and a heightened sense of emotion. In the months that followed, Ari began to have additional complications from IBD including kidney stones and a compromised liver. Ari lost 30 pounds over the next five years. His body was weak, his mind was defeated, and he knew that something needed to change.
Ari has credited a combination of yoga, nutrition, natural supplements, and rigorous exercise for his success. Ari and his family eat a very clean diet, cooking 95 - 99% of the meals they eat.
In talking with Ari, he highlighted stress management as the most important lesson he has learned through his journey with Crohn's. So much so that he has dedicated his life and career to helping others understand how they can live more efficiently.
Ari turned to yoga to calm his mind and relax his body and he also built a framework for stress management that he shares globally today.
Ari's philosophy towards stress management can be summarized by three key points: Optimize; Automate; and Outsource. You can learn more about these three key points and Ari's 9 fundamentals for Less Doing in his book "Less Doing, More Living".
Thank you for sharing your story Ari!
I instantly found several key points in Ari's book "Less Doing, More Living" that resonated with me. I could really relate with his ideas around "External Brain" as it can be directly applied to food journaling. I also love his ideas around the 80/20 rule and eliminating errands.
Check out Ari's post on Medium for more details on his story.
Watch Ari at TEDxEast here
Ari's Website: https://lessdoing.com
