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#HURDLEMOMENT: A 3-Minute Exercise To Help You Alleviate Stress & Find Calm · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

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Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, Good evening. Emilyavonni. Here you are
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Speaker 1: listening to another installment of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle, a
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Speaker 1: wellness focused podcast to reconnect with everyone from your favorite
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Speaker 1: athletes to top experts in industry CEOs about their highest highs,
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Speaker 1: toughest moments, and everything in between. We all go through
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Speaker 1: hurdles in life, and my goal through these discussions is
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Speaker 1: to empower you to better navigate yours and move with
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Speaker 1: intention so that you can stride towards your own big
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Speaker 1: potential and of course have some fun along the way.
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Speaker 1: For today's episode, I am sitting down with doctor Greg Hammer.
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Speaker 1: He's a Stanford University professor and best selling author as
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Speaker 1: well as a mindfulness expert, and we are chatting about
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Speaker 1: his three minute strategy to manage stress and increase your resilience.
1:04
Speaker 1: Trust me, I'm right there with you. The last few
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Speaker 1: years have been a time gesturing behind this microphone, and
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Speaker 1: with everything that's been going on in the world, burnout
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Speaker 1: feels more prevalent than ever and that's because it truly is.
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Speaker 1: According to a survey that was put together by Deloitte,
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Speaker 1: including one thousand different respondents, seventy seven percent say that
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Speaker 1: they had experienced the burnout at their current job, and
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Speaker 1: ninety one percent say that the unmanageable stress or frustration
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Speaker 1: impacts the quality of their work, not to mention that
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Speaker 1: that burnout also negatively impacts their personal relationships. Again, I
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Speaker 1: get it, I've been there. Heck, sometimes I wonder if
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Speaker 1: I'm there right now. And that is exactly why I
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Speaker 1: decided to have this conversation with doctor Hammer for the show,
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Speaker 1: because who doesn't want to have tools in their toolbox
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Speaker 1: to navigating the things feel as though they are beyond
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Speaker 1: our control. In today's episode, doctor Hammer shares with us
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Speaker 1: the four pillars of what he calls his GAIN method,
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Speaker 1: which stands for gratitude, acceptance, intention, and non judgmental. He
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Speaker 1: talks us through how in just three minutes a day,
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Speaker 1: you can decrease negative thoughts and even potentially rewire your brain.
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Speaker 1: Trust me, it's truly possible. We talk about the importance
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Speaker 1: of daily practice over time, plus what it means to
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Speaker 1: be truly intentional and how you can bring intentionality into
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Speaker 1: your every day. Really found a lot of helpful takeaways
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Speaker 1: in this episode, in this conversation, and I know that
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Speaker 1: you will too. I want to make a quick call
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Speaker 1: out a lot of you really loved last week's episode
2:51
Speaker 1: on imposter syndrome. I'm going to make sure to link
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Speaker 1: that in the show notes to this episode. I want
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Speaker 1: to make content that serves you. I want to be
3:00
Speaker 1: talking to experts and chatting about the things that you
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Speaker 1: are interested in. So if you have a specific question,
3:05
Speaker 1: if there's something that you want to hear about on
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Speaker 1: the show, I am all ears the link to leave
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Speaker 1: me a voice message, say hello, ask a question, do
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Speaker 1: whatever you want. That link is there for you in
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Speaker 1: the show notes. Also, feel free to drop us a
3:18
Speaker 1: line over email over at Hello at hurdle dot us.
3:22
Speaker 1: Make sure you're following along with Hurdle over on social
3:24
Speaker 1: It's at Hurdle Podcast. I am over at Emily Abodi
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Speaker 1: And with that, let's get to it. Let's get to hurdling. Today,
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Speaker 1: I am sitting down with doctor Greg Hammer. He is
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Speaker 1: a professor at Stanford University. He's also a physician and
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Speaker 1: best selling author. How are you doing today, doctor Hammer.
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Speaker 2: I'm doing very well. Nice to be with you.
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for taking the time. This is
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Speaker 1: admittedly one of the first things I'm doing today, aside
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Speaker 1: from organizing for the week, and I feel like it's
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Speaker 1: very appropriate since we're here to talk about mindfulness and
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Speaker 1: kind of getting a rect together. Were you always interested
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Speaker 1: in this field of study.
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Speaker 2: No. I have always been interested in seeking the truth
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Speaker 2: the usual big questions, ever since I was a little boy,
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Speaker 2: and I got into astronomy as a school age and
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Speaker 2: middle school child and high school student, and I think
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Speaker 2: that sort of expanded my interest in the big picture,
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Speaker 2: let's say, so, I've always been very interested in that.
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Speaker 2: I would say that, you know, mindfulness itself and the
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Speaker 2: very simple message of mindfulness is something relatively recent to
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Speaker 2: most of us. I mean really, mindfulness practice came to
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Speaker 2: the United States in the late nineteen seventies with doctor
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Speaker 2: John cabots In, who's one of my heroes, But it
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Speaker 2: really didn't become a thing that we talk about in
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Speaker 2: a term that we use until I don't know, probably ten,
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Speaker 2: maybe fifteen years ago. But in the meantime, I have
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Speaker 2: been a longtime student of ad vida and they both
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Speaker 2: really come from a Buddhist philosophy, that is advida and mindfulness.
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Speaker 2: Doctor cabots And himself was a longtime student of Buddhism,
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Speaker 2: and so yeah, I would say lifetime pursuit, if you will,
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Speaker 2: ten or fifteen year realization that there's nothing to pursue.
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Speaker 1: Interesting expand on that a little bit, Well, the.
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Speaker 2: Truth is within us, and I believe that happiness is
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Speaker 2: our true nature, and so it's already there. And like others,
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Speaker 2: I had really been looking outside myself my whole life,
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Speaker 2: either looking through a telescope to find the truth or
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Speaker 2: simply looking for it in general. And I think one
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Speaker 2: of the tenets of at vida and mindfulness too is
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Speaker 2: really that there's nothing for which to look. It's already there.
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Speaker 2: We just have to allow ourselves to sink into the
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Speaker 2: present moment, and that's where truth and happiness lie. It's
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Speaker 2: just that normally we are so distracted with the past
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Speaker 2: and the future that it's difficult for us to be present.
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Speaker 2: And I think that's the way that our brains have
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Speaker 2: been wired over tens of thousands of years of evolution,
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Speaker 2: possibly since early Homo sapiens, but certainly for the last
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Speaker 2: fifty thousand years or so. We are wired to really
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Speaker 2: focus on the past, and I think mainly on the
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Speaker 2: future in terms of our forebears, but most of us
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Speaker 2: are wired to really overthink the past and the future
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Speaker 2: and not spend enough time in the present moment. We
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Speaker 2: all have occasions where we experience the present moment but
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Speaker 2: not enough of them. And the other way that I
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Speaker 2: think our brains have become wired is that we have
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Speaker 2: a negativity bias. We tend to remember the negative and
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Speaker 2: forget the positive. And one can kind of explain these
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Speaker 2: things on an evolutionary basis. Some of these qualities in
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Speaker 2: the ways that our brain neurons are connected may have
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Speaker 2: been adaptive at one point, but they are no longer adaptive,
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Speaker 2: at least to the extent to which we tend to
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Speaker 2: embrace them. So I would say, you know, it's been
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Speaker 2: about a ten to fifteen year history on my own
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Speaker 2: part of realizing what I consider to be the truth.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, this whole concept thinking about positivity versus activity, and
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Speaker 1: you saying that happiness could be we have an opportunity
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Speaker 1: for that to kind of be the default. Whereas we
8:07
Speaker 1: know that I believe the number and please correct me
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Speaker 1: if you have others to throw out there, but the
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Speaker 1: National Science Foundation throughout that eighty percent of our thoughts
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Speaker 1: are negative. So for all of us navigating these persistent
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Speaker 1: negative thoughts, even if you desire to be in this
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Speaker 1: homeostasis state of happiness, it's quite difficult to get there.
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Speaker 2: Yes, So the idea is that our brains have this
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Speaker 2: amazing quality called neuroplasticity that means we can literally change
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Speaker 2: the way that we think. I don't know if you
8:41
Speaker 2: read Michael Pollin's book How to Change Your Mind, but
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Speaker 2: he's really talking about psychedelics, so that's a separate topic.
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Speaker 2: But the idea is that our brains are malleable in
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Speaker 2: terms of the way we think. So, whether it's through
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Speaker 2: microdosing with psilocybin or simply having a daily intentional practice,
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Speaker 2: the good news is that we can change the way
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Speaker 2: we think. But I do believe that our brains have
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Speaker 2: become wired the way they are over a very long
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Speaker 2: period of time, and we're not going to change the
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Speaker 2: way we think substantially overnight. But if we have intention
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Speaker 2: or purposefulness to change the way we think, we can
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Speaker 2: do it. And it's exciting and it's simple, and it's
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Speaker 2: fun and it's rewarding.
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Speaker 1: Well, first and foremost, I've got to hear about what
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Speaker 1: your regular mindfulness practice looks like, and then we'll talk
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Speaker 1: about getting intentional. So start us there, sure.
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Speaker 2: Well, intention is part of it. So I've spent a
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Speaker 2: long time thinking of what are really the essentials, What
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Speaker 2: is the essence of being present? And I will say
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Speaker 2: that I love doctor Cabotsen's definition of mindfulness, which I
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Speaker 2: think could be the definition of happiness, which is awareness
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Speaker 2: of the present moment, on purpose, non judgmentally. So therein
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Speaker 2: are some of the concepts that I hold dear as
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Speaker 2: primary and essential. One of them is, of course, as
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Speaker 2: we've said, being present. So awareness of the present moment,
10:18
Speaker 2: being able to really sink into the present moment on purpose,
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Speaker 2: and that on purpose intention is essential because if we
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Speaker 2: don't have purpose or intention, we kind of fall into
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Speaker 2: our old ways of thinking, our old habits of negativity
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Speaker 2: and distraction with the past and future. And non judgmentally
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Speaker 2: is so important. Also, so the four elements that I
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Speaker 2: have really come to understand as essential are express in
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Speaker 2: the acronym which is the title of my first book,
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Speaker 2: or at least the first word of the title in
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Speaker 2: capital letters, being gained is an acronym for these four pillars,
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Speaker 2: which are gratitude, acceptance, intention, and non judgment. So they
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Speaker 2: have those elements of on purpose, the eye and gain
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Speaker 2: being intention and the end and being en and game
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Speaker 2: being non judgment. So these I think are the four essentials.
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Speaker 2: And so my practice and the practice that I teach
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Speaker 2: and write about is simply based on gain principles. So
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Speaker 2: my daily practice is opening the blinds, hopefully there's some
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Speaker 2: light out there. Sometimes in the winter it's not quite
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Speaker 2: light yet, but doing the morning hygiene thing, and then
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Speaker 2: finding a comfortable place to sit. And I've kind of
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Speaker 2: made it start with a three minute practice because most
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Speaker 2: people think that meditation means you have to sit for
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Speaker 2: at least thirty minutes without moving or scratching an itche
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Speaker 2: possibly in an uncomfortable position, and mainly without having any
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Speaker 2: thoughts in your mind, which is virtually impossible for most people.
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Speaker 2: So I've actually morphed that into a three minute practice,
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Speaker 2: so you can sit wherever you want, just in a
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Speaker 2: comfortable chair is fine. If you have an itch, it's
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Speaker 2: okay to scratch it. And instead of trying to banish
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Speaker 2: all thoughts from the mind, I'm giving you these four
12:17
Speaker 2: things to think about sequentially. It's really five because it
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Speaker 2: starts with the breath, So it starts with focusing on
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Speaker 2: the breath, slowing the breath down. This actually activates something
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Speaker 2: called our parasympathetic nervous system, which is the one that
12:32
Speaker 2: opposes the fight or flight or freeze sympathetic nervous system.
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Speaker 2: So when we activate the parasympathetic nervous system, it slows
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Speaker 2: our heart rate, it lowers our blood pressure in a
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Speaker 2: healthy way, lowers the amount of adrenaline and cortisol in
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Speaker 2: our blood. We start to feel more positive just by
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Speaker 2: focusing on our breath. Then we actually do a contemplative
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Speaker 2: meditation for thirty or forty five seconds each of these
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Speaker 2: four gain principles. So I start with that for which
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Speaker 2: I'm grateful, and again my eyes are closed. I'm sitting
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Speaker 2: in a comfortable place. I have really focused on my
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Speaker 2: breath and slowing it down, which I kind of continue
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Speaker 2: to do throughout this three to five minute period. Focus
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Speaker 2: on that for which I'm grateful. You know, my next
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Speaker 2: meditation will be gratitude and meeting you at sharing a
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Speaker 2: lovely half an hour or so with you, a new friend.
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Speaker 2: I'm so grateful for all of the love in my life,
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Speaker 2: my family, my friends, my job. I feel very privileged
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Speaker 2: to do what I do, serving my neighbors, my community
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Speaker 2: so much for which would be grateful, my health, etc.
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Speaker 2: Then I transition to the A and gain, which is
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Speaker 2: acceptance because pain is a part of life as much
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Speaker 2: as joy is, and so we need to accept that
13:51
Speaker 2: because if we try to push it away or not
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Speaker 2: think about it, we amplify our suffering. So there's a
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Speaker 2: formula in the book suffering equals pain time's resistance. We
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Speaker 2: love formulas in medicine. Suffering equals pain times resistance. So
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Speaker 2: the pain is there, Okay, I lost my son at
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Speaker 2: the age of twenty nine six years ago. That pain
14:12
Speaker 2: is always going to be there. However, if I sit
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Speaker 2: and breathe, and I've gone over my gratitude and I
14:20
Speaker 2: bring that pain closer and closer, I opened my chest.
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Speaker 2: I actually visualize opening my heart and bringing that feeling,
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Speaker 2: that experience into my heart and nurturing it, developing it
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Speaker 2: with my heart, and sitting with that for just fifteen
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Speaker 2: or twenty or thirty seconds, I find that I can
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Speaker 2: live with that, and it's not as bad as I
14:41
Speaker 2: thought it would be when I was trying to resist
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Speaker 2: it in a whole variety of ways. And so we
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Speaker 2: you know, we bring an experience that's uncomfortable or painful
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Speaker 2: in and we have that experience, and then we move
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Speaker 2: to the eye and gain, which is intention. And this
14:55
Speaker 2: is where our purposefulness is so important. So we need
14:59
Speaker 2: to fe focus our intention on for one thing, the
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Speaker 2: present moment. So in this gain contemplative meditation, let's first
15:07
Speaker 2: focus on our physical experience. We can actually focus on
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Speaker 2: the sensation of the chair against our body, maybe the
15:14
Speaker 2: tingling sensation and the soles of our feet. I live
15:18
Speaker 2: between the San Francisco and San Jose airport, both of
15:21
Speaker 2: which are you know, twenty miles away or so, so
15:24
Speaker 2: I focus on what I can hear with my eyes closed,
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Speaker 2: breathing slowly. Focused on my breath, I often will hear
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Speaker 2: an airplane going by in the distance, that lovely Doppler
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Speaker 2: effect where it's coming closer and the pitch is increasing
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Speaker 2: and then flying away. It could be, you know, focusing
15:40
Speaker 2: on the slightly sweet smell of the air we're breathing.
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Speaker 2: So we focus on our present experience, and then we
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Speaker 2: pledge as we breathe slowly to be more positive, to
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Speaker 2: focus on the positive things in our life, and then
15:55
Speaker 2: we transition to non judgment. And here a very simple
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Speaker 2: exercise is recognize first that judging is not necessary and
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Speaker 2: usually not positive and not helpful to us. Things don't
16:08
Speaker 2: have to be good or bad. So here we may
16:10
Speaker 2: focus on one of these beautiful NASA images of the
16:13
Speaker 2: Earth apparently suspended in space, and think, the Earth is
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Speaker 2: a planet. It's beautiful, but it really is neither good
16:20
Speaker 2: nor bad. It's just the planet that it is. It's
16:23
Speaker 2: just that it is. And then it's only logical to
16:26
Speaker 2: think that I, too, am a human being. I'm neither
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Speaker 2: good nor bad. I'm just the human being. I'm just
16:33
Speaker 2: a person that I am. And then I moved to
16:36
Speaker 2: the iam ness, the IAM and the breath and the
16:39
Speaker 2: IAM and we sit with this and then we slowly
16:44
Speaker 2: open our eyes and we're ready to go out in
16:45
Speaker 2: the world. And all of that took three or four minutes.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I like this practice because it feels like an
16:54
Speaker 1: entry point that you can approach with ease right in
16:57
Speaker 1: that Oftentimes, as you said at the top of this,
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Speaker 1: we are made to feel like a meditation, a gratitude
17:04
Speaker 1: practice needs to be this whole elaborate thing. And the
17:08
Speaker 1: reality is with these four foundation points you can really
17:12
Speaker 1: make it work for you. Now, when you started integrating
17:16
Speaker 1: this way of practice into your regular routine. Did you
17:20
Speaker 1: find it difficult at first in any way?
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Speaker 2: No, I actually found it refreshingly simple. So you know,
17:28
Speaker 2: I've I love Deepak Chopra, for example, but I have
17:32
Speaker 2: a hard time remembering, you know, the seven Fundamental ways
17:37
Speaker 2: of living or the ten steps to this or that,
17:41
Speaker 2: and life is too complicated. And I have trouble reading
17:47
Speaker 2: about spiritual matters because it's often complex. I think people
17:51
Speaker 2: make it more complicated than it is. My non duality
17:55
Speaker 2: or advita teacher makes it very very simple, very direct,
17:59
Speaker 2: and I love that. So I tried to come up
18:01
Speaker 2: with something that was easy both. You know, I like acronyms.
18:05
Speaker 2: We have tons of them in medicine. If you came
18:07
Speaker 2: on rounds in the intensive care unit, you probably wouldn't
18:10
Speaker 2: understand a word anybody was saying because of all the
18:12
Speaker 2: acronyms that are used, among other things. So I tried
18:15
Speaker 2: to make it very simple, and I found that when
18:17
Speaker 2: I kind of distilled things down to these gain elements,
18:21
Speaker 2: it's so refreshingly easy and simple. As you said, So, yeah,
18:27
Speaker 2: I mean I found everything before that somewhat difficult and complicated,
18:32
Speaker 2: but once I really sat with it and tried to
18:36
Speaker 2: distill things down to an acronym and a practice that
18:40
Speaker 2: would be so simple, not only for me, but for
18:42
Speaker 2: everybody else. It was like ah, you know, it was
18:45
Speaker 2: like an AH moment, even simpler than an AHA moment.
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Speaker 1: It was an AH moment, a breath of fresh air.
18:52
Speaker 1: You know what I'm hearing you say is that this
18:55
Speaker 1: really has worked for you, and that's truly beautiful. Now,
18:58
Speaker 1: for individuals who are interesting in trying this but do
19:01
Speaker 1: feel a little bit of that resistance, understandably, so trying
19:05
Speaker 1: something new can have its challenges, what do you recommend
19:08
Speaker 1: for them to feel a little bit more at ease?
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Speaker 2: I would say, first of all, recognize that we all
19:16
Speaker 2: have this negativity bias. Recognize that we all have trouble
19:19
Speaker 2: being present. So that first thought, actually that we're all
19:24
Speaker 2: made the same way. Our brains are all wired the
19:26
Speaker 2: same way, is so refreshing and such good news for people,
19:32
Speaker 2: because we all think the secret is that we're we
19:35
Speaker 2: have these awful attributes and we feel shame and low
19:40
Speaker 2: self esteem. So first of all, realize that everybody is
19:43
Speaker 2: this way. This is the way we're wired. The second
19:46
Speaker 2: thing is that you know, again, our brains are the
19:49
Speaker 2: way they are, having evolved over a long period of time.
19:53
Speaker 2: We're not going to change things overnight, so have no expectations.
19:57
Speaker 2: Don't just have low expectations. Set your expectations, take them,
20:03
Speaker 2: remove them, set them aside, and then realize that you're
20:08
Speaker 2: gonna take baby steps. Okay, this is a brief practice,
20:12
Speaker 2: and our brains are are not going to change overnight,
20:17
Speaker 2: so it's just baby steps. There's no such thing as failure.
20:21
Speaker 2: I think those concepts will really help people just sort
20:24
Speaker 2: of relax into the practice and not expect a huge
20:28
Speaker 2: change on day one. But I do think that if
20:31
Speaker 2: people set their intention and they do this very simple,
20:35
Speaker 2: as little as three minute practice every morning, Let's say
20:38
Speaker 2: I think it's a great way to start the day.
20:40
Speaker 2: We started talking about Monday morning, so it's a great
20:43
Speaker 2: way to start the day, a great way to start
20:44
Speaker 2: the week. I do think that after days, weeks, a
20:48
Speaker 2: month or two, everybody can look back and say, you know,
20:52
Speaker 2: I'm happier than I used to be. I'm more positive,
20:54
Speaker 2: I'm able to be present and actually notice what's happening
20:58
Speaker 2: right now.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that we keep mentioning this word intention
21:04
Speaker 1: and also getting intentional with this practice. I think that
21:07
Speaker 1: that is something that is easy to overlook, the positive
21:12
Speaker 1: intentions that mean we may have for our life, for
21:16
Speaker 1: our days. In this case, for this practice, for someone
21:20
Speaker 1: who wants to get more intentional with their positivity, where
21:25
Speaker 1: do you recommend that they start?
21:28
Speaker 2: I really think that the gain practice is a great
21:31
Speaker 2: way to start. It's simple, it's easy. You know, maybe
21:35
Speaker 2: spend a minute on the intention at first, you know,
21:40
Speaker 2: thirty or forty five seconds on gratitude acceptance, and then
21:43
Speaker 2: spend a little more time on intention. Try to gradually
21:47
Speaker 2: lengthen the period of time that you're noticing your present
21:50
Speaker 2: physical experience, you know, the pressure of the chair against
21:54
Speaker 2: your body, et cetera. Sit with that, Sit with those sensations,
21:59
Speaker 2: those perceptions that are current, that are right now, for
22:03
Speaker 2: a little bit longer, and then set your intention on
22:08
Speaker 2: being more positive and sit there a little bit longer
22:11
Speaker 2: as you link it to your breath. What happens with
22:13
Speaker 2: these elements and this practice is that when you find
22:16
Speaker 2: you're sinking into your old bad habits of being distracted
22:20
Speaker 2: and negative, a light bulb will go off. Right, so
22:23
Speaker 2: you've been doing your gain practice for a few weeks,
22:27
Speaker 2: when you're being ungrateful or resisting or unintentional and just
22:32
Speaker 2: kind of lapsing into negativity as you get out of
22:34
Speaker 2: bed in the morning and you focus on a body
22:36
Speaker 2: part that is uncomfortable or what have you instead of
22:39
Speaker 2: all the body parts that are working miraculously. Well, you know,
22:44
Speaker 2: you can just sort of gradually lengthen it and sit
22:48
Speaker 2: with the intention part a little bit more. But when
22:51
Speaker 2: you find that you're being unintentional, that light bulb moment
22:56
Speaker 2: will steer you back to being intentional and link taking
23:00
Speaker 2: these elements to your breath as we do, you know,
23:03
Speaker 2: your breath is always accessible. You're always breathing, and even
23:06
Speaker 2: though people may go a whole day without breathing deeply
23:10
Speaker 2: and properly in a way, you know, if you focus
23:13
Speaker 2: on your breath, then these things will just come back
23:15
Speaker 2: to you. It's like a conditioned response. Focus on your
23:18
Speaker 2: breath and you feel gratitude. Focus on your breath, you
23:21
Speaker 2: feel acceptance, et cetera. It's quite miraculous.
23:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, And when you say breathing correctly, can you shed
23:29
Speaker 1: a little bit of light on that?
23:32
Speaker 2: Sure? I think that during our morning meditation, but also
23:37
Speaker 2: throughout the day when we think of it, breathe intentionally,
23:42
Speaker 2: so breathe into your belly and slow your breath down.
23:47
Speaker 2: Just take a couple of slow breaths, so actually take
23:51
Speaker 2: your inspiration. You're in breath to a slow count of three,
23:57
Speaker 2: pause to account of three, and let the breath out
24:01
Speaker 2: very slowly and effortlessly to account of four or five,
24:06
Speaker 2: and get in this rhythm where you're slowing your breath
24:09
Speaker 2: down to what may amount to, you know, account of
24:13
Speaker 2: ten three in, pause for three, out for four, and
24:18
Speaker 2: that slows your breathing rate down if you think of it,
24:21
Speaker 2: If if each count is a second one two three,
24:26
Speaker 2: one two three, one two three for a second each,
24:32
Speaker 2: that's ten seconds, So that means your respiratory rate is six.
24:37
Speaker 2: You've slowed your breathing rate down to six, and you're
24:39
Speaker 2: taking slow, deep breaths into your belly. And this will
24:44
Speaker 2: get rid of the carbon dioxide that's in excess, perhaps
24:48
Speaker 2: in your bloodstream, increasing amount of oxygen in your blood.
24:52
Speaker 2: Open those little air sacks in your lung that are
24:55
Speaker 2: tend to collapse, those little LVLI would call this atalecticis
24:59
Speaker 2: when they call apps. So that kind of breathing will
25:02
Speaker 2: just be refreshing. It'll make you feel good, and it
25:05
Speaker 2: will slow you down. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system again,
25:09
Speaker 2: it will lower your adrenaline and cortisol. So that's what
25:12
Speaker 2: I consider sort of proper breathing, if you will. And
25:15
Speaker 2: that's the in breath is through the nose. I think
25:18
Speaker 2: that's important. The outbreath can be through the nose or mouth.
25:22
Speaker 2: So it's just focus breathing and it has a lot
25:25
Speaker 2: of benefits.
25:26
Speaker 1: And when you say through the nose is important, can
25:29
Speaker 1: you elaborate on that?
25:32
Speaker 2: You know, this is really just through what I've read
25:34
Speaker 2: and what I've experienced that we do a lot of
25:37
Speaker 2: breathing through our mouth. Yeah, and I think it mouth
25:41
Speaker 2: breathing when we're awake and when we're asleep actually kind
25:45
Speaker 2: of changes the morphology of our face in ways that
25:50
Speaker 2: are not favorable. It Actually it has negative effects on
25:54
Speaker 2: the openness or patency of our airway, which is a
25:57
Speaker 2: complicated set of structures. It begins with the lips and
26:01
Speaker 2: then outside of the nose, if you will, and then
26:04
Speaker 2: goes deep all the way down into the lung. So,
26:07
Speaker 2: you know, it just seems that breathing through the nose
26:09
Speaker 2: at least taking the inbreath through the nose is beneficial
26:12
Speaker 2: in a number of ways, and breathing through the mouth
26:16
Speaker 2: can actually cause more congestion in the nasal passages and
26:21
Speaker 2: so on and have some deleterious effects of its chronic
26:24
Speaker 2: So I just focus on breathing in through the nose.
26:27
Speaker 2: It seems to feel better to me.
26:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it feels better to me too. I love
26:31
Speaker 1: what you said before about the choice to focus on
26:34
Speaker 1: the positives in that I'll bring this applicable to what
26:38
Speaker 1: I'm navigating right now. I've had planter fascia i itis
26:41
Speaker 1: for what feels like forever, and every day I wake
26:44
Speaker 1: up and I know it's there. But I choose to
26:47
Speaker 1: be very intentional with my morning routine and lean into
26:52
Speaker 1: my gratitude practice and do my breath work and get
26:55
Speaker 1: to my journaling, and through that exercise, I am choosing
26:59
Speaker 1: to focus on the thing that I can control and
27:02
Speaker 1: the things that feel good and positive about my life,
27:04
Speaker 1: instead of what otherwise would be a very nagging way
27:08
Speaker 1: to start the day, which is the unsettling you know,
27:11
Speaker 1: a little jolt of pain that I feel when I
27:14
Speaker 1: limp out of my bed in the morning. Right, So
27:16
Speaker 1: I can recognize that it's there. I can acknowledge that pain,
27:19
Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean that that feeling needs to be
27:22
Speaker 1: the first thing that I'm going to focus on as
27:24
Speaker 1: I go throughout my day. And I do believe that
27:27
Speaker 1: it is through that meditation and journaling practice, similar to
27:31
Speaker 1: your gain practice, that has enabled me to get out
27:34
Speaker 1: of that frustration point, which admittedly has been a hard
27:39
Speaker 1: place to get to without a doubt.
27:42
Speaker 2: Well, you know that, I think what you're describing is resistance, right,
27:46
Speaker 2: So again it's the opposite of acceptance. So you get
27:49
Speaker 2: out of bed and you focus on this pain and
27:51
Speaker 2: these unpleasant sensations, and then you know you're thinking, why me,
27:57
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. This is a form of resistance,
27:59
Speaker 2: is the opposite of acceptance, and so it's not healthy.
28:03
Speaker 2: But also I have to say that really understanding the
28:06
Speaker 2: way the human body works, the heart, the lungs, the brain,
28:11
Speaker 2: the muscular skeletal system, has given me a very deep
28:15
Speaker 2: appreciation that we can all share that it's just miraculous
28:19
Speaker 2: the way our bodies work. You know, it's a miracle
28:22
Speaker 2: that a human baby is born healthy after all of
28:26
Speaker 2: the embryologic and fetal development that goes on and the
28:30
Speaker 2: blood supply through the placenta and all of these things
28:33
Speaker 2: coming together, these cells talking to each other and differentiating
28:37
Speaker 2: into skin cells, brain cells. It's a miracle. So when
28:41
Speaker 2: we get out of the bed in the morning, yeah,
28:43
Speaker 2: you know, like I can tell you, especially as you
28:45
Speaker 2: get older, you're probably going to have more aches and pains.
28:48
Speaker 2: So the idea is you start to feel that unpleasant
28:53
Speaker 2: sensation at the bottom of your feet from your plantar fasciitis,
28:57
Speaker 2: and direct your thoughts to what a mirror it is
29:00
Speaker 2: that I slept at all, That my body is working,
29:04
Speaker 2: my heart's beating. I was asleep and I kept breathing
29:08
Speaker 2: the whole time. You know, what a miracle, all of
29:11
Speaker 2: that beautiful unity and synchronicity of the human body. And
29:17
Speaker 2: when you direct your thoughts to that, it sort of well,
29:19
Speaker 2: you know, so there's this one little thing. The idea
29:22
Speaker 2: is to redirect your thoughts to the miracle of the
29:26
Speaker 2: way the rest of your body is working instead of
29:29
Speaker 2: focusing on the unpleasant sensation at the soles of your feet.
29:33
Speaker 1: Definitely, and so you have this practice that you do
29:37
Speaker 1: in the morning. Is there anything else that you do
29:39
Speaker 1: throughout your day or perhaps to cap off your day
29:42
Speaker 1: before hitting the bed.
29:44
Speaker 2: Yes, well, I think all day whenever it occurs to me,
29:48
Speaker 2: whenever I whenever the thought comes, I refocus on the
29:53
Speaker 2: breath and bring these gain principles back into focus. And then,
29:59
Speaker 2: you know, before I go to sleep, I kind of
30:01
Speaker 2: take stock of my day and I realize, you know,
30:03
Speaker 2: what a wonderful experience it has been. And I, you know,
30:06
Speaker 2: the idea is when you return your focus to your
30:09
Speaker 2: breath and you've you've linked your breath to these gain elements,
30:14
Speaker 2: they all come back to you when you focus on
30:16
Speaker 2: your breath. And so I certainly do that throughout the
30:19
Speaker 2: day and before I go to sleep. I'm not a journaler.
30:23
Speaker 2: I don't tend to write things down. I started a
30:26
Speaker 2: practice where I tried to write down my dreams when
30:28
Speaker 2: I woke up, but I found that, you know, I
30:32
Speaker 2: just kind of set that aside. So I'm not a journaler.
30:35
Speaker 2: I think if you are, it's terrific. It's a terrific
30:38
Speaker 2: way to focus on all the positive elements of the
30:43
Speaker 2: day that you've had if you do that in the evening.
30:45
Speaker 2: But I just simply go back to my breath and
30:47
Speaker 2: the gain elements, you know, I might be riding my
30:50
Speaker 2: bicycle and I'm going down this narrow lane on my
30:52
Speaker 2: way to the hospital, which I do every time I
30:55
Speaker 2: ride my bike to the hospital, and you know, maybe
30:58
Speaker 2: somebody is walking in the path. And as I get closer,
31:01
Speaker 2: I see, well, they're in the middle. I'm gonna have
31:03
Speaker 2: to go around them. It's kind of inconsiderate of them
31:05
Speaker 2: not to walk on the side. And there's this beautiful
31:08
Speaker 2: light filtering through the tree tops, and this person is
31:11
Speaker 2: looking at their screen on their phone, and I've noticed
31:14
Speaker 2: they have buds in their ears. I start to make
31:16
Speaker 2: all these judgments, a light bulb goes off, Hey, I
31:20
Speaker 2: just did my gain meditation. I let go of all
31:22
Speaker 2: the judgment and I kind of laugh at myself drop
31:25
Speaker 2: the judgment. And as I go by that person, I
31:27
Speaker 2: look down and smile and they look up at me
31:29
Speaker 2: and smile. I got a little hito dopamine instead of
31:32
Speaker 2: having this negative judgment experience. And so these light bulb
31:36
Speaker 2: moments happen throughout the day, and the more you kind
31:40
Speaker 2: of settle into this practice, the more automatic that becomes.
31:43
Speaker 1: I really enjoy how you tried something and recognized, Okay,
31:47
Speaker 1: this doesn't feel right for me and without judgment. Again,
31:51
Speaker 1: going to this non judgmental place, you let it go
31:53
Speaker 1: right instead of forcing yourself to really linger in this routine,
31:58
Speaker 1: maybe because you feel as though you should be doing
32:01
Speaker 1: something like that, and that can be challenging as well.
32:03
Speaker 1: Letting things go.
32:05
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, I think there's certain things we need
32:07
Speaker 2: to persist at, right, we need to really even though
32:10
Speaker 2: it doesn't feel right, maybe try to think about it
32:13
Speaker 2: in a different way, but keep doing it, like I
32:15
Speaker 2: think going out for a walk in nature, even just
32:17
Speaker 2: walking around the block, especially during COVID when people were
32:20
Speaker 2: so cooped up. You know, maybe at first it felt like, oh,
32:23
Speaker 2: I'd rather be sitting in my chair my computer. But
32:26
Speaker 2: we do have to have intention or purposefulness to form
32:31
Speaker 2: new ways of being, new habits. So yes, you have
32:34
Speaker 2: to be persistent in some ways, but I think you
32:37
Speaker 2: also have to develop the intuition to know what's right
32:40
Speaker 2: for you. And if writing things down is resonant and
32:44
Speaker 2: you find it's easy to get into that habit, that's wonderful.
32:48
Speaker 2: But if you've been trying it for a few weeks
32:50
Speaker 2: and it's just not your thing and you find that
32:52
Speaker 2: you get just as much meaning out of focusing your
32:56
Speaker 2: thoughts without writing them down, then that's fine. So we
32:59
Speaker 2: have to just n you know, we have to focus
33:02
Speaker 2: on good sleep, hygiene, exercise, routines, the way we eat,
33:09
Speaker 2: and sometimes we have to change those things, just like
33:12
Speaker 2: the way we think in ways that are require persistence
33:16
Speaker 2: and baby steps. But there's other things we can try
33:19
Speaker 2: and we recognize they're not really necessary and we can
33:22
Speaker 2: let them go. So we do have to discern, you know,
33:27
Speaker 2: but that's the art of living.
33:28
Speaker 1: Isn't it the art of living? It is? It is
33:30
Speaker 1: now before I let you go today, Doctor Hammer. Is
33:33
Speaker 1: there anything else to add about this three minute gain
33:37
Speaker 1: meditation that I am sure many of the people listening
33:40
Speaker 1: are about to give a shot, maybe today, maybe tomorrow.
33:45
Speaker 2: I think we've I think we've covered it. I really do.
33:48
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time today, doctor Hammer.
33:50
Speaker 1: For those that may want to follow along with you,
33:53
Speaker 1: how do they do so? Where can they find you?
33:56
Speaker 2: Greg Hammer MD dot com, g R E G h
33:59
Speaker 2: A N M R MD dot com. That's the website.
34:03
Speaker 2: There's also Facebook and Instagram, and I don't know how
34:06
Speaker 2: to connect to those, but I'm sure people who are
34:08
Speaker 2: social media sapp will figure it out. But greghammer md
34:12
Speaker 2: dot com.
34:12
Speaker 1: Is a good place to go perfect. I'm over at
34:15
Speaker 1: Emily Body and at Hurdle Podcast. Another hurdle conquered. Catch
34:19
Speaker 1: you guys next time