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How a Neurologist Protects His Brain So He Can Treat Patients and Host a Podcast · Your Mic

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  If your brain feels like it's always in fine or flight, this episode is for you.
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  I had a chance to sit down with my friend who's also a speak podcasting client,
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  he's a neurologist and host of your health, your wealth. His name is Dr. Eddie Patton,
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  and during this episode, we unpack what stress and constant notifications actually do to your
• 0:19
  brain when you're trying to create, lead a team or in his case, treat patients. You're going to
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  hear how Dr. Patton uses a 15-minute meditation practice, deep breathing, plants, and even a tiny
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  desk labyrinth to get into flow, see more clearly and build his podcast without burning out.
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  If you're a creative or a doctor who knows you've got way more to teach and do,
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  then the clock will ever allow. Listen to how he has turned that pressure into a binge-worthy
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  podcast. Let's get into it. Why as a creative is it important to think positively?
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  When you say think positively, it can take a lot of different aspects, whether you're at work or
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  when you're just at home, but it's not just a magical thinking type of thing. There are hormonal
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  changes that go on within the brain. There are the release of these positive hormones
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  throughout the body that have not just an effect on how you feel, but things like your blood pressure.
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  So, for instance, if you are feeling highly stressed, there's a little piece of the brain called
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  the amygdala effect that flares off, and it does things like raise your blood pressure,
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  dilate your pupils, bring your sweat to cool the skin. So, there's a physiological response.
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  That's natural because it's fight or flight, but when you think positively, you do the opposite.
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  It's just like a switch. You turn that switch off, and so not only does it just have a positive
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  effect on your outlook, but it also slows those processes down and takes you out of that fight or flight
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  mode. Okay, so my next question is that gives you the sea. None of the above when it comes to fight
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  or flight. It's like, no, you know what? I'm not fighting. I'm not fighting. I just want to live,
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  like, exist. Why do I have to choose between those two if I could just opt out? Is that what you're
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  saying? Yeah, but the problem nowadays is that we're constantly in fight or flight mode, true,
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  because it's like a dial. It's like a system. Years ago, in a hunter and gatherer days,
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  when you were just trying to protect your family and there were bears and tigers running around,
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  it was very important when you did go into fight or flight mode that boom, things switched in,
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  but nowadays with these telephones and everything else, we're constantly in fight or flight because
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  every little stress week. So your gauge never goes from here back down to reset. It goes here,
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  and then someone cuts you off in traffic, then it goes back here, and then you think about,
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  oh, I got this project to work. So it goes here. So you stay in this constant fight or flight mode,
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  but yes, the important thing that we have to learn are one of those things that do help us reset,
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  because it is our natural state to not be in fight or flight mode. You should be with just
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  your person, that system kicking in and you're relaxed, your blood pressure is under control.
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  So that is a natural state. Unfortunately, in a society that we live in, and really there's a lot
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  of things that we have done to ourselves, that it's hard to get into that state. Think about if
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  you're just sitting down, you say, I just want to sit down and watch TV, watch an episode of my
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  favorite show, and I'm saying, your phone goes off, being, you know, you got to answer it,
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  and oh, it's that cousin that's calling you, asking you for money, and like, oh, now I'm back,
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  you know, I was just trying to relax. And so, you know, things like that that constantly just goes,
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  have us going up and down. And so it seems to me that as someone who works in the creative field,
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  that being in fight or flight mode, the majority of the day is counterintuitive.
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  We don't want that. I mean, I would imagine you don't want that as a neurologist, you don't want
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  that either. So how do we, outside of just doing the, cut the, cut the umbilical cord that is our
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  smartphone, just like putting it away, stowing it away, or whatever, how do we, how do we channel what,
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  what our natural existence should be when we're trying to create? Yeah. So the key word that you say
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  is being creative, being in a creative environment and creative field where you are creating content
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  for, for others, the problem is that they can't coexist together. So in order to be in a creative
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  environment, in order for your brain to be in a creative environment. So think of it this way.
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  Your brain has a bunch of circuits in neurons. But you can't, you can't just have energy or
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  devote energy to the whole brain at once. It has to pick and choose like, all right, I need to put
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  energy here. I need to put energy there. Or else our brain will just constantly be overloaded
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  because different parts of the brain handle different things. So the creative piece in the,
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  the fight or fight piece, I can't like go opposite ends of the spectrum. So if you're in constant
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  fight or flight, then naturally your brain can't relax enough for those creative juices to flow.
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  When people say creative juices, that just means that you're creating, you're releasing those,
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  those hormones within the brain that gets your creativity going. And that's why if you notice that
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  a lot of times some of our greatest ideas come either like right before sleep or maybe we meditate
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  and we're like, oh, you know, because our brain is in a more physiological standpoint where we've
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  quieted all the noise and now you can create. Okay, what you're talking about,
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  maybe think of a Mel Robbins episode that I listened to years ago. I think she actually,
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  I think she was a guest on a show. And so I want to get your insights as an actual doctor. She's
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  not a neurologist. But she talked about when you task switch that you're throwing your day off
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  by 15 minutes. So if if Dr. Patton is at his desk and he's, you know, writing a report on a patient
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  and he's in that mode like, okay, this is what I'm going to, oh, this is what we're going to do.
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  This is a creative solution to the MS, right? This is the creative solution to this. And he's being
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  that production guy, Freddie just sent him a text. Oh, wait, oh gosh, this is important. Now,
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  it threw you off by a quarter of an hour. I would dare say maybe even more. So what are your
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  thoughts on that? Oh, man, it's funny. You asked that because I've been doing a lot of reading
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  on this recently because I used to be one who fed into that whole thing of multitasking, be a
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  multitasker. Your, your brain can take on so much than you do. But what we now know through neuroscience
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  and everything else is that you become less productive by doing multiple things at once. Because
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  literally, you have to focus the brain's energy in order to accomplish. It's almost like,
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  like a bucket, a bucket of water. And once it's drained, it's drained. And when you have a bunch of
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  holes in the bucket, more of the water is draining out as opposed to just, all right, let's focus on
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  one thing at a time. So if you, if you want the brain to be able to devote that type of attention,
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  then the best thing is while you're at the computer during that test, being you get a,
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  I get that text from Freddie, it's important, but it can wait 20 minutes to finish this.
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  I finish the test, then I go address that throughout the eight hour day or whatever it is that I'm
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  sitting there, I will become much more productive. This gets to your point where there's 15 minutes
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  than if at every distraction, because what happens, I'm doing this task A, get the bang, get the
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  hit from Freddie, I do that. Then, okay, I got to do this at this time. Then you come back three
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  hours later, you're still having done task A yet. Wow. So now on the productivity scale of, okay,
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  today I needed to accomplish A being C, you haven't even accomplished A because you've been putting
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  out these small fires. So if you, if you rather than just pay attention, you know, if it's something
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  now, Freddie, Freddie takes me to say, Hey, man, I'm on fire right now. Well, I was so far, you know,
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  that's something. But if it's something where, okay, I can, I'll call you back in 20 minutes. So I
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  get with you, finish. If we compartmentalize and there's a lot of good books, man, I wish I could,
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  I don't remember offhand, but there are a number of good books that I've been reading. One in particular,
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  Atomic Habits is a really good book that I read and it talks about setting habits like that.
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  Like just, you know, finish the task first before going on to the next. But that gets back to
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  what you were saying as far as yes, it does throw off your productivity when you, when you're distracted.
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  What do you do besides turn off your notifications? Personally, what do you do to get into that flow
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  state to where you can be your best, a thousand percent, 10,000 percent for the patients that you're
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  helping? So I have a couple of techniques. One is that most mornings, because I don't want to lie and
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  say I do it every morning. Sometimes I get to the office and I'm just in fight or fight mode. I'm
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  just like scrambling because I'm running late or something. But most of the time, one of the first
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  things I do, and my staff knows this and they, and they act accordingly. I go into the office,
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  speak to people going up and I close my door and I have an app called a call map and I have it sent
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  for a 15 minute mindfulness meditation guided session. So I will sit down because you know,
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  you get to work and then you're like, okay, and everybody comes in and see it work now. So they
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  just coming in, dropping stuff on your desk. So in order to get things going, I've been dealing
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  with traffic, dropping kids off of school, all of that. So now, first thing I do is reset. So I'll do
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  a 15 minute mindfulness meditation session and then a couple of deep breaths and I open my door
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  and let it all come in. But you can do that throughout the day. So if I do have like a major test
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  that I need to focus on, some creativity, I need to come up with a podcast episode. I'll start with
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  a meditation session. I used to, okay, let me get on the computer and let me type away and let me
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  get some information and let me go here and then, you know, I'm like, oh, but I found that if I stop
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  meditate for 10 minutes, okay. Then I've switched off and now switched on those creative
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  juices and then I could just flow into it. What's the other trick? Oh, the other trick is actually
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  deep breathing exercises and I try to compartmentalize things. So from reading that I found is that
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  in the morning, I'll try to write out like these are the top things that I want to accomplish today.
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  One, two, and three. And maybe you should do five. And the thought process is if I at least do
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  one, two, or three, then I've had a successful day. So you focus, begin it on those three.
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  If you don't get to five, six, and seven, it's okay. Put those for tomorrow at the beginning.
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  And what that's done for me is that it's got me out of that mindset of failing
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  at the end of every day when I didn't accomplish five, six, and seven. I'm like, oh my god, I'm such a
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  failure. I don't know how to use my time. And listen to that. So, uh, doctors, feel that? Oh,
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  absolutely. Because we look at doctors. I see winners. Like you guys are helping people. You're saving
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  lives. You're fixing stroke victims. Yeah. Wow. Well, the thing about that is so much of that now
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  has become automatic. You know, it's what you do is what you use to. So it's the other task that
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  comes in that you want to accomplish. That you're like, man, you know, yeah, I may have
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  got this purchased by City of Gravis better, but I didn't, you know, make that phone call
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  that I said I had to make today by 12 o'clock. And that's those little things that I want
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  that typically get my fight or flight going. I got to know what is part of your creative process
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  as a doctor. Because what you do is creative. You're looking for solutions to help people with
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  mice than your gravis. You're helping people with Parkinson's. How do you get in that flow state?
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  You've talked about the meditation, the breathing. What else are you doing? Like, is there?
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  Is this kind of going to get a little nerdy? Is there a room in your in your house? Is it at your
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  office? Is it at a park? Like what specifically? Yeah. Yeah. So on a day-to-day basis, I'm constantly
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  in creative mode. Because to be honest with you being a physician, you have to be creative.
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  Because you're creating a story based on what this patient tells you. And based on that story,
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  you're trying to figure out what's going on. And you're trying to think about what test do I need
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  to order to help me figure this out. What's the best treatment? So you're constantly in creative
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  creative mode. I found that plants in my office help. So I have a number of plants. And I have,
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  and I know people say it's weird, but I have what's called a desolabrant. A desolabrant? Yeah,
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  like those usually can walk through them through hedges. They have them a lot of like churches,
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  like a maze almost. Like the shining? Yeah, absolutely. But there's a small one that you can do use
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  your finger. Oh, go through. And if you go through that, it just relaxes you. So they're all
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  type of small. I like that. What do you think that is? Do you think it's the plant that's kind of
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  soothing and the like the tactile feeling? I think it's a combination of the two. Because even
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  though I've done it a million times, it's just the point of focusing. And you can meditate during
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  that time as you're doing it. And so it's a way of just like stopping for a few seconds or minutes.
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  And and just going through this through this process. For me, I love whiteboards.
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  I found that if I write my ideas down on a whiteboard, I can become much more creative. So I
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  have a whiteboard in my office, and one in the conference room. And sometimes I'll just get up
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  and start writing and really put those ideas out. The way that the mind works is that there's
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  several layers of communication. And each communication adds a different level to the other.
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  So I can tell you one thing, but then I can write it as well. And that's a whole another level.
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  So by doing that over and over again, that helps my creativity flow because I'm not only saying it,
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  I'm not only speaking, I'm not only thinking it, but I'm speaking it, and now I'm writing it.
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  Okay, so when you plan your episodes, because this is a beautiful transition to your podcast,
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  which is your health, your wealth, available wherever you get your podcasts. And so you you have
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  these episodes beautifully scripted. And so are you are you outlining on your whiteboard,
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  then writing longhand and then dictating into a device, or are you typing, or is it like a
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  hodgepodge? What is what is a neurologist's creative process from ideation to actually writing and
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  scripting? You know, if you follow my podcast from the very beginning, what you'll notice is that
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  in the beginning, I used to just read. I mean, I would pretty much type out the episode almost
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  verbatim complete and read. And what I found was that I didn't like that flow and didn't think
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  it accomplished because I wanted this to be a conversation. So now what I've I start with high
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  level topics, bullet points. And I try to just kind of talk and use that as a reference. And what I've
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  noticed is that as I've done this now, for a year and plus, that that's gotten more and more,
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  that it has become more conversational. I'm flowing more without having to depend on just reading
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  verbatim. So that's how my creativity concerned the podcast has evolved. And yeah, when I have an
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  idea, the first thing I'll do is just like, what's the topic? I'll write it on the on the on the
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  board. And if I can come up with like three major points, and then one of the three takeaways, I want
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  people to get from it. And that's usually my start. And I can go from there. How long do you let an idea
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  sit or better? Let's back up. I do want to know how long you let an idea for an episode sit. But
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  also I want to know, have you had any ideas for an episode and you're like, eh, maybe not. Yeah.
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  Because if you have had episodes that you think are bad, I want to tell you whether I think they're
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  good because then I want you to have I want you to talk about them. Um, I absolutely have had
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  episodes that I thought would be good before a number of reasons like, eh, maybe not. I'm going to
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  bully him in recording those episodes. And a lot of it could have been either political. Um,
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  you know, I think about a number of things like, is this, you know, too sensitive of a topic? Got
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  you. And, um, and on the flip side, you have to know your audience. So there they've been some
• 19:31
  topics where I was geeked out about this rare neuromuscular disease. But I'm like, who wants to hear
• 19:37
  about that? Like, unless you know, well, in their ways in which you can even make that interesting
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  is as well. But for the most part, most of the episodes, when I, and I've gotten, I tell you,
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  in my mind, I have about, oh, I have so many different episodes. But I sometimes overthink
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  things. We hold it. And I sometimes, you know, so I sit back and, okay, how would I do this?
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  You know, how would this hit? Who, who would want to listen to this? Um, just like the last
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  episode I recorded was when I actually came up with the day up because I, I was actually
• 20:17
  head out line another episode which I'm going to do later. And even before that, I had another
• 20:23
  episode that I live before that one. So I have a men's secession. I'll go back. But the great thing
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  for, for me is that this is such a rich topic. Like, I have a number of interviews that I have
• 20:35
  set up. And so I can add these episodes in between as they come around. What is your favorite part
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  about being a podcast host? Oh, you know, when I said to do this and we talked about this early
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  on, I wanted it to be a venue to talk about those things that I don't have time to talk about when
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  I'm in the room with patients. And I have so much knowledge about health care and health care
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  system and, and what's going on in my background and finance and everything else. You know, it was really
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  a way, because as a clinician at heart, teacher at heart, I just want to get this information out.
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  And so it was really a way of doing that. And I was, I've been pleasantly surprised
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  because some of the feedback I've gotten from people, you know, in person is that, wow,
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  you put that in a way that I understood. And it was warm and inviting. And I understand this now
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  because I listen to your podcast. So if I can continue to do that, I will consider the success.
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  I love that. And I appreciate you so much. Dr. Padden is one of the OGs.
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  We have, let's see, we have the Rose, we have the funeral history museum. Those are the first two
• 21:56
  and then Dr. Sturm. You're one of the original ones and you've stuck with us. And I appreciate
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  you so much. I'm glad that that we've met. I've learned so much, not just asking you silly brain
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  questions from my other podcast, but learning just about neurology and the health care system
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  as a whole. And throughout the process, that is amazing. So, you know, and it's been, it's been
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  a journey for me and being from the beginning. I've been through different studios, different
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  equipment and the evolution of your show and what you've been providing. And I truly believe that
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  as we look at people and how we're evolving, we're getting information in different ways.
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  You know, used to be about getting the paper dropped off at your doorstep and someone throws
• 22:45
  the paper in your yard every day. You know, that rarely happens now. We're getting information
• 22:51
  so much ways and so many ways. And as much time as I spend in traffic, I listen to a lot of
• 22:56
  podcasts. So, I think what you do is so important because this is a venue where people can get out
• 23:03
  and can encourage you to go exercise. I often listen to podcasts while I'm exercising and
• 23:07
  everything else. So, I've enjoyed this journey with you as a super producer and talking me through
• 23:15
  the process. And some of those episodes, after every episode I ask, what did you think about this?
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  You know, how did you feel about this episode? So, I thank you as well for getting me going on
• 23:26
  this journey and I look forward to where things are going. Dr. Patton, really appreciate you, sir.
• 23:33
  Absolutely. Thank you. All right. And please, again, subscribe and listen, binge listen to all of
• 23:40
  Dr. Patton's episodes of your health, your wealth, on your favorite podcast app. I would have
• 23:46
  to tell you and I'll link in the show notes. You've got to start with the power, positive thinking.
• 23:50
  If you are a parent of teenager, start with that. If you're curious about Myastinia Gravis,
• 23:56
  he's got an episode about that as well. Diet, exercise, AI in health care. There are tons of
• 24:03
  episodes. You can start your binge listening journey after this episode right here. So,
• 24:09
  thank you so much for listening to this episode of Your Mike.