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

• 0:00
  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 Padden,
• 0:14
  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. Padden uses a 15-minute meditation practice, deep breathing, plants, and even a tiny
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  desk labyrinth to get into flow, seem 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 than the clock
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  will ever allow, listen to how he has turned that pressure into a binge-worthy podcast. Let's get into
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  why as a creative is it important to think positively. When you say think positively,
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  it can take a lot of different aspects, whether you're at work or when you're just at home, but
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  it's not just a magical thinking type of thing. There are hormonal changes that go on within the
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  brain. There are the release of these positive hormones throughout the body that have not just
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  an effect on how you feel, but things like your blood pressure. For instance, if you are feeling
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  highly stressed, there's a little piece of the brain called the amygdala that flares off,
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  and it does things like raise your blood pressure, dilate your pupils,
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  brings your sweat to cool the skin. There's a physiological response. That's natural because
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  it's fight or flight. When you think positively, you do the opposite. It's just like a switch.
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  You turn that switch off. Not only does it just have a positive effect on your outlook,
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  but it also slows those processes down and takes you out of that fight or flight mode.
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  Okay, so my next question is that gives you the seat. None of the above. When it comes to fight or
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  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 saying?
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  Yeah, but the problem nowadays is that we're constantly in fight or flight mode. True. Because
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  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,
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  boom, things switched in. But nowadays with these telephones and everything else,
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  we're constantly in fight or flight because every little stress week. So your gauge never goes
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  from here back down to reset. You know, it goes here and then someone cuts you off in traffic.
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  Then it goes back here and then you think about, oh, I got this project to work. So it goes here.
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  So you stay in this constant fight or flight mode. But yes, the important thing that we have to learn
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  are one of those things that do help us reset because it is our natural state to not be in
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  fight or flight mode. You should be with just your person, that system kicking in and you're relaxed,
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  your blood pressure is under control. So that is a natural state. Unfortunately, in a society that we
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  live in and it really was a lot of things that we did, we have done to ourselves that it's hard to
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  get into that state. Think about if you're just sitting down and you say, no, I just want to sit
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  down and watch TV, watch an episode of my favorite show. And I was saying, your phone goes off,
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  being, you know, you got to answer it. And it's that cousin that's calling you, asking you for
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  money and like, oh, now I'm back. You know, I was just trying to relax. And so, you know,
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  things like that that constantly just goes, have us going up and down.
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  And so it seems to me that as a, as someone who works in the creative field that being in
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  fight or flight mode, the majority of the day is counterintuitive. We don't, we don't want that.
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  I mean, I would imagine you don't want that as a neurologist. You don't want that either.
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  So how do we, outside of just doing the, cut the, cut the umbilical cord that is our smartphone,
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  just like putting it away, stowing it away or whatever, how do we, how do we channel what,
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  what, what our natural existence should be when we're trying to create? Yeah. So the key word that
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  you're saying is being creative, being in a creative environment and creative field where you are
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  creating content for, for others, the problem is that they can't coexist together.
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  So in order to be in a creative environment, in order for your brain to be in a creative environment,
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  so think of it this way. Your, your brain is a bunch of circuits in neurons,
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  but you can't, you can't just have energy or, or devote energy to the whole brain at once.
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  It has to pick and choose like, all right, I need to put energy here. I need to put energy there.
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  Or else our brain will just constantly be overloaded because different parts of the brain
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  handle different things. So the creative piece and the, the fight or fight piece, I can't
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  like go opposite ends of the spectrum. So if you're in constant fight or flight, then naturally your
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  brain can't relax enough for those creative juices to flow. When people say creative juices,
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  that just means that you're creating, you're releasing those, those hormones within the brain
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  that gets your creativity going. And that's why I've you noticed that a lot of times,
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  some of our greatest ideas come either like right before sleep or maybe we meditate and we're like,
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  oh, you know, because our brain is in a more physiological standpoint where we've quieted
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  all the noise and now you can create. Okay, what you're talking about made me think of
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  Mel Robbins episode that I listened to years ago. I think she actually, I think she was a guest
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  on a show. And so I want to get your insights as an actual doctor. She's not a neurologist.
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  But she's talked about when you task switch that you're throwing your day off by 15 minutes. So
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  if if Dr. Patton is at his desk and he's, you know, writing a report on a patient and he's in that
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  mode like, okay, this is what I'm going to, oh, this is what we're going to do. This is a creative
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  solution to the MS, right? This is the creative solution to this. And he's being that production guy
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  Freddie just sent him a text. Oh, wait, oh, gosh, this is important. Now it threw you off by
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  quarter of an hour. I would dare say maybe even more. So what are your thoughts on that?
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  Oh, man, it's funny you asked that because I've been doing a lot of reading on this recently
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  because I used to be one who fed into that whole thing of multitasking, be a multitasker.
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  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.
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  Because 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, I get that
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  text from Freddie, it's important, but it can wait 20 minutes to finish this. I finish the test,
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  then I go address that throughout the eight hour day or whatever it is that I'm sitting there,
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  I will become much more productive. This gets to your point where there's 15 minutes,
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  him and then if at every distraction, because what happens, I'm doing this task A, get the
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  bang hit from Freddie. I try to do that. Then, okay, I got to do this at this time. Then you come
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  back three hours later, you're still having done task A yet. Wow. So now on the productivity scale
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  of, okay, today I needed to accomplish A being C, you haven't even accomplished A because you've
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  been putting out these small fires. So if you, if you rather than just pay attention, you know,
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  if it's something, now Freddie, Freddie takes me to say, hey, man, I'm on fire right now.
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  Well, I was so far, you know, that's something. But if it's something where, okay, I can, I'll call
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  you back in 20 minutes. So I get with you, finish. If we compartmentalize and there's a lot of good
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  books, man, I wish I could, I don't remember off-hand, but there are a number of good books that I've
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  been reading. One in particular, Atomic Habits is a really good book that I read and it talks about
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  setting habits like that, like just, you know, finish the task first before going on to the next.
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  But that gets back to what you were saying as far as yes, it does throw off your productivity
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  when you, when you're distracted. What do you do besides turn off your notifications?
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  Personally, what do you do to get into that flow state to where you can be your best a thousand
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  ten thousand percent for the patients that you're helping?
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  So I have a couple of techniques. One is that most mornings, because I don't want to lie and say I do
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  it every morning. Sometimes I get to the office and I'm just in fight or fight mode. I'm just like
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  scrambling because I'm running late or something. But most of the time, one of the first things I do,
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  and my staff knows this and they, and they act accordingly, I go into the office, speak to people,
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  going up and I close my door. And I have an app called a call map and I have it set for a 15-minute
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  mindfulness meditation guide extension. So I will sit down because, you know, you get to work
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  and then you're like, okay, and everybody comes in and see you at work now. So they just coming in,
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  dropping stuff on your desk. So in order to get things going, you know, whether I've been dealing
• 10:59
  with traffic, dropping kids off of school, all of that. So now first thing I do is reset. So I'll do a 15-minute
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  mindfulness meditation session. And then a couple of deep breaths, then I open my door and let it all
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  come in. But you can do that throughout the day. So if I do have like a major task that I need to
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  focus on, some creativity, I need to come up with a podcast episode. I'll start with a meditation
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  session. I used to, okay, let me get on the computer and let me type away and let me get some
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  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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  produces 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 another day 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 at the end of
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  every day when I did the compass five, six, and seven. I'm like, oh my god, I'm such a failure.
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  I don't know how to use my time. And listen to that. So, um, doctors feel that? Oh, absolutely.
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  Because we look at doctors. I see winners like you guys are helping people. You're saving lives.
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  You're fixing stroke victims. Yeah. Wow. Well, the thing about that is so much of that now has become
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  automatic. You know, it's what you do is what you used to. So it's the other tasks that come in,
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  that you want to accomplish, that you're like, man, you know, yeah, I may have got this
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  purchased by City of Gravins better, but I didn't, you know, make that phone call. And I said, I had
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  to make today about 12 o'clock. And that's those little things that I want that typically get my
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  fight or flight going. I got to know what is part of your creative process as a doctor.
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  Because what you do is creative. You're looking for solutions to help people with mice than your
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  grovis. You help people with Parkinson's. How do you get in that flow state? You've talked about
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  the meditation, the breathing. What else are you doing? Like, is there, is this kind of going to
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  get a little nerdy? Is there a room in your, in your house? Is it at your office? Is it at a part?
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  Like what specifically? Yeah. Yeah. So on a day to day basis, I'm constantly in creative mode.
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  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?
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  Yeah, like those usually can walk through them through hedges. They have them a lot of like
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  churches, like amazed almost like the shining like yeah, absolutely. But there's a small one
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  that you can do, use your finger. Oh, go through. And if you go through that, it just relaxes you
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  so they're all type of small. I like that. What do you think that is? Do you think it's the plant
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  that's kind of soothing and the like the tactile feeling? I think it's a combination of the two
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  because even though I've done it a million times, it's just the point of focusing. And you can
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  meditate during that time as you're doing it. And so it's a way of just like stopping for a few
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  seconds or minutes and and just going through this through this process. For me, I love white
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  boards. I found that if I write my ideas down on a whiteboard, I can become much more creative.
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  So I have a whiteboard in my office and one in the conference room. And sometimes I'll just get
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  up 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, which
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  is your health, your wealth, available wherever you get your podcasts. And so you have these
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  episodes beautifully scripted. And so are you are you outlining on your whiteboard then writing
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  longhand and then dictating into a device or you typing or is it like a hodgepodge? What is a
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  neurologist's creative process from ideation to actually writing and scripting?
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  You know, if you follow my podcast from the very beginning, what you'll notice is that in the
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  beginning, I used to just read. I mean, I would pretty much type out the episode almost verbatim,
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  complete, and read. And what I found was that I didn't like that flow and didn't think it
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  accomplished because I wanted this to be a conversation. So now what I start with, high level
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  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, what's the topic? I'll write it on the board. And if I can come
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  up with like three major points and then one of the three takeaways I want people to get from it,
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  then that's usually my start. And I can go from there. How long do you let an idea sit,
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  or better, let's back up. I do want to know how long you let an idea for an episode sit, but also
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  I want to know, have you had any ideas for an episode and you're like, maybe not. Because if you
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  have had episodes that you think are bad, I want to tell you whether or not I think they're good
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  because then I want you to, I want you to talk about them. I absolutely have had episodes that
• 18:59
  I thought would be good before a number of reasons like, yeah, maybe not. I'm going to bully him
• 19:04
  in recording those episodes. And a lot of it could have been either political. I think about
• 19:15
  a number of things like, is this too sensitive of a topic? Gotcha. And on the flip side,
• 19:28
  you have to know your audience. So they've been, some topics where I was geeked out about
• 19:33
  this rare neuromuscular disease, but I'm like, who wants to hear about that? Like a list you know,
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  well, in their ways in which you can even make that interesting as well. But for the most part,
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  most of the episodes, when I, you know, I've gotten, I tell you, in my mind, I have about,
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  I have so many different episodes. But I sometimes overthink things.
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  We hold it. And I sometimes, so I sit back and, okay, how would I do this? You know,
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  how would this hit? Who, who would want to listen to this? Just like the last episode I recorded
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  was when I actually came up with the day up because I, I was actually, had outlined another episode
• 20:19
  which I'm going to do later. And even before that, I had another episode that I would lie before that
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  one. So I have a men's secession. I'll go back. But the great thing for, for me, is that this,
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  is such a rich topic. Like I have a number of interviews that I have set up. And so I can add
• 20:36
  these episodes in between as they come around. What is your favorite part about being a podcast host?
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  When I said to do this, and we talked about this early on, I wanted it to be a venue to talk about
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  those things that I don't have time to talk about when I'm in the room with patients. And I have
• 20:59
  so much knowledge about healthcare and healthcare system and, and what's going on in my background
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  and finance and everything else. You know, it was really a way, because as a clinician at heart,
• 21:12
  teacher at heart, I just want to get this information out. And so it was really a way of doing that.
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  And I've been pleasantly surprised because some of the feedback I've gotten from people,
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  in person is that, wow, you put that in a way that I understood. And it was warm and inviting.
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  And I understand this now because I listen to your podcast. So if I can continue to do that,
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  I will consider the success. I love that. And I appreciate you so much. Dr. Padden is one of the OGs.
• 21:50
  We have, let's see, we have the Rose. We have the funeral history museum. Those are the first two,
• 21:56
  then Dr. Stern. You're one of the original ones and you've stuck with us. And I appreciate you so
• 22:02
  much. I'm glad that that we've met. I've learned so much not just asking you silly brain questions
• 22:08
  from my other podcast, but learning just about neurology and the healthcare system as a whole.
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  And throughout the process, that is amazing. So, you know, and it's been a journey for me.
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  And being from the beginning, I've been through different studios, different equipment and the
• 22:27
  evolution of your show and what you've been providing. And I truly believe that as we look at people
• 22:34
  and how we're evolving, we're getting information in different ways. You know,
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  used to be about getting the paper dropped off at your doorstep and someone throws the paper
• 22:46
  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've been 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 to tell
• 23:47
  you, and I'll link in the show notes. You got to start with the power of 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, A.I. in healthcare. There are tons of
• 24:03
  episodes. You can start your binge listening journey after this episode right here. So, thank
• 24:10
  you so much for listening to this episode of Your Mike.