NeildaVerse Notes #32

Extreme Cold Warning, Personal “Weekly Heat-map” Analysis, and Essential Oils

Feb 03, 2023

Hi friends!

I’m writing this newsletter after waking up to this warning this morning.

Yes, you’re reading that right. It’s -16F here in Ottawa, and there’s ice on our kitchen window indoors. It looks like it’ll only get colder throughout the day and night. By 8AM Saturday morning, it’ll reach its coldest at -21F before it starts warming up again.

Perhaps this is why the annual Ottawa Winterlude National Ice-Carving Championship is happening this weekend. Assuming it doesn’t get postponed because it’s too cold!

Ice Ice Baby…

🖋️ Quote of the week

If the first commercial version of your work excited no one to action, it’s time to move on to something different…If your work inspires some excitement and some action from customers, get ready to chew through some walls. You might have something worth fighting for.
- Scott Raymond Adams, Dilbert Creator

🏆 Wins

I’m Day 6 out of 7 of Keeping Track Of My Energy

Last week, I shared my first Notion template to help me analyze my energy levels throughout the week using a Personal “Weekly Heat-map” Analysis. After one week, I can use the data to optimize my schedule and increase my productivity by doing tasks and projects that fit your high, medium, and low energy time frames.

Since last Sunday, I’ve been diligently recording my energy levels and activities in 30-minute increments, doing my best not to analyze the results before recording the full seven days; just in case it affects what I do the following day, resulting in me starting over.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be the final day. I look forward to seeing my data!

Here’s the link to the Notion template if you want to try it out also:

Personal “Weekly Heat-map” Analysis

👩🏾‍💻 What I learned

Peppermint & Rosemary Oil Are Good For Your Brain

In my quest to increase my energy, optimize my productivity, and stay in my focus state longer, I fell into the rabbit hole of essential oils. I learned that peppermint and rosemary oil are good for your brain. For years, I’ve avoided purchasing them and partook in the occasional whiff in the Whole Foods or farmer’s market as I head toward the fruit and veggies. But this time, it was different.

To confirm essential oils weren’t just pseudoscience packaged in cute bottles, I referred to Elicit: The AI Research Assistant to confirm whether peppermint and rosemary oils were backed by science. It turned out they were!

Prompt: Is rosemary oil good for your brain?
Elicit: These papers suggest that rosemary oil is good for your brain. Moss 2018 found that the acute ingestion of rosemary water had cognitive and cerebrovascular effects in healthy adults. Moss 2017 found that the inhalation of rosemary essential oil improved cognition in school children. Pengelly 2012 found that dried rosemary leaf powder had a beneficial effect on speed of memory in older adults at low doses. However, Pengelly 2012 also found that dried rosemary leaf powder had an impairing effect on speed of memory in older adults at high doses. Therefore, rosemary oil is good for your brain at low doses, but bad for your brain at high doses.

Prompt: Is peppermint oil good for your brain?
Elicit: These papers do not explicitly address the question "Is peppermint oil good for your brain?", but they provide some evidence that peppermint oil may be beneficial for brain health. Vaka 2010 found that peppermint oil increases the bioavailability of NGF, a protein important for the growth and maintenance of neurons. Ingrosso 2022 found that peppermint oil has antispasmodic properties, which could be helpful in reducing anxiety. Koo 2007 found that peppermint oil inhibits heat shock-induced apoptosis of astrocytes, which suggests that peppermint oil may help to protect against neurodegenerative diseases. Umezu 2001 found that peppermint oil increases ambulatory activity in mice, which suggests that peppermint oil may improve brain function. Overall, these findings suggest that peppermint oil may be beneficial for brain health, although more research is needed to confirm these effects.

So there we have it! I’m awaiting my Amazon order for my diffuser and essential oils as we speak.

🖼️ AI-Generated Image(s) of the week

Text description: “Kitchen made of ice, digital art”
AI system used: DALL·E 2 by OpenAI

🤔 My question for you

What was the last thing you celebrated?

👋🏽 That's all for now

I’d love to hear from you, whether it’s feedback on what you enjoyed about this newsletter, what needs work, and what you want to hear more about. Just hit reply.

Till next time!

Cheers,
Neilda