Latest / The You Project / #1558 Understanding Your Brain - Dr. Shohreh Majd

Transcript

#1558 Understanding Your Brain - Dr. Shohreh Majd · The You Project

0:01
Speaker 1: I'll get a team. Welcome to another installment You project.
0:03
Speaker 1: You know who it is. I hope you're enjoying your week.
0:07
Speaker 2: What is it?
0:08
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday night. As we sit down and record this,
0:11
Speaker 1: I've got a new friend. I've got a new friend,
0:13
Speaker 1: while I'm about to make a new friend, doctor Sherry Madge.
0:16
Speaker 2: Did I get it right? Did I nearly get it right?
0:19
Speaker 3: That's perfect? Greg, you got it?
0:22
Speaker 2: Wow?
0:23
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for thanks for having a chat with us
0:26
Speaker 1: on the You Project. How has your day been?
0:28
Speaker 3: Wow? Pratty much technic. I'm busy, but I think it
0:31
Speaker 3: is good to have some busy days so you feel
0:34
Speaker 3: alive for production and you feel life is going on
0:38
Speaker 3: and you're.
0:38
Speaker 4: Part of it.
0:39
Speaker 2: So yeah, perfect.
0:41
Speaker 1: Now, in order for me to not read out some
0:43
Speaker 1: bio that puts people to sleep, not that you have
0:45
Speaker 1: a boring bio, but could you tell my audience a
0:48
Speaker 1: little bit about about you, about who you are and
0:52
Speaker 1: the work you do, and then we'll go from there.
0:55
Speaker 3: Of course, my pleasure. So Craig, as you probably ask,
0:58
Speaker 3: my name perfectly beautifully right. So my name is Cherry sharemaj.
1:03
Speaker 3: I am a neuroscientist, a PhD in neuroscience and two
1:07
Speaker 3: pastructress again in neuroscience, I've been working with different universities
1:12
Speaker 3: Flinders University at the moment and Tauhouse University in Canada,
1:17
Speaker 3: Melbourne University in Welburg, and so I work basically on
1:23
Speaker 3: the research and also teaching of neuroscience and my research
1:29
Speaker 3: basically focus on brain pathological situations during aging such as
1:35
Speaker 3: Alzheimer's disease, different types of dementia, Parkinson disease, you name it,
1:39
Speaker 3: and also brain aging in general. I'm also working as
1:45
Speaker 3: the editor of or in chief for some journals, and
1:50
Speaker 3: the one that I'm really passionate about is my speaking
1:53
Speaker 3: job is about the self hope speaking, also motivationally speaking,
2:00
Speaker 3: keynote speaking, and I really try to bring the science
2:06
Speaker 3: to this area. So what I actually consider as my
2:11
Speaker 3: own mission in this particular field is to fill the
2:14
Speaker 3: gap between science and different aspects of personal growth. So
2:20
Speaker 3: the like your story short, when you want to talk
2:23
Speaker 3: about how people behave, how people want to improve their lives,
2:27
Speaker 3: it's better to have science backed up. So if you
2:31
Speaker 3: have science, if you can understand what's actually happening inside
2:34
Speaker 3: your brain, when you want to make that change in
2:37
Speaker 3: your life for good. So I think it gives you
2:40
Speaker 3: better motivation to go for it and to keep going
2:44
Speaker 3: for it. So yes, at the moment, I'm also working
2:48
Speaker 3: with the Council of Ambulance Authorities, which is covering ambulance
2:53
Speaker 3: services in Australia and New Zealand AFA New Guinea, while
2:56
Speaker 3: I'm working with Philliners University too, So yesience speaking euro science,
3:03
Speaker 3: this is my passion.
3:04
Speaker 2: Wow, you're busy. Where did you grow up? Sherry Ow?
3:08
Speaker 3: I was born in Iran, Persia. I got my PhD
3:12
Speaker 3: over there. Then I got the invitation for on Flinders
3:14
Speaker 3: University to come over and work with them, so I
3:18
Speaker 3: came here. Then I got first POSTAG from Howard Flory
3:22
Speaker 3: Institute in Mobile and then I went to Canada while
3:25
Speaker 3: I joined the psychology department in da House University and
3:30
Speaker 3: I got my second post TAG. I joined the faculty
3:33
Speaker 3: and I worked with the department. I also worked with
3:36
Speaker 3: some pharmaceutical companies who developed some particular therapeutic tools for
3:41
Speaker 3: Alzheimer's disease. Then I thought, oh, Australia is my homeland.
3:45
Speaker 3: They have to come back. So I just came back
3:47
Speaker 3: to Australia.
3:49
Speaker 1: All right, I love it. So you've been You've been
3:52
Speaker 1: doing not much. The bottom line, you've just been relaxing
3:55
Speaker 1: and paying lazy exactly, exactly, city the academic couch, just
4:01
Speaker 1: twiddling your thumbs.
4:03
Speaker 2: Yeah right, So let's talk about.
4:07
Speaker 1: Let's talk about being Firstly, I want to talk about
4:09
Speaker 1: being a science communicator. So, like you, well, that's not
4:15
Speaker 1: your main job, But my main job is podcasting and
4:19
Speaker 1: corporate speaking. So I do over one hundred corporate gigs
4:22
Speaker 1: a year, give or take. Last week I did four.
4:26
Speaker 1: I'm busy in that space. But one of the challenges
4:29
Speaker 1: for me is sharing science in a way that's really
4:35
Speaker 1: understandable and usable and relevant. And because when you are
4:40
Speaker 1: and I mean this with respect, like when you're talking
4:42
Speaker 1: to corporate audiences generally or just the general public, you know,
4:47
Speaker 1: usually the majority of the audience are not researchers, are
4:51
Speaker 1: not scientists, are definitely not neuroscientists or neuropsychologists. But you're
4:56
Speaker 1: trying to share information and ideas and research that can
5:00
Speaker 1: be not only interesting, but stuff that they can put
5:05
Speaker 1: into practice. Right, So how do you do how do
5:08
Speaker 1: you do that? Like, how do you how do you
5:12
Speaker 1: make sure that what you're sharing is understandable to a
5:18
Speaker 1: room full of academics one and then two something that
5:21
Speaker 1: they can put to use.
5:23
Speaker 3: That's a very good question, right. Well, the thing is,
5:27
Speaker 3: I think the secret is simplicity. So if you want
5:30
Speaker 3: to talk, even to a room full of academics which
5:34
Speaker 3: they do understand your science, it's better to start with
5:38
Speaker 3: simple facts and then basically make your way through bigger
5:42
Speaker 3: stuff that you want to express. So you translated to
5:46
Speaker 3: a room full of different other people who have very
5:50
Speaker 3: good background, different other skills, but not your science. So
5:54
Speaker 3: you still go with that simplicity and try to bring
5:58
Speaker 3: the science the way that you know it, to translate
6:02
Speaker 3: it to the way that they can digest it, they
6:05
Speaker 3: can observe it, they can actually get it the same
6:08
Speaker 3: thing that you basically. For example, if you want to
6:11
Speaker 3: go to a mechanic and I don't know very much
6:14
Speaker 3: about car and you know, engines and everything. When I
6:18
Speaker 3: go there and ask them to explain what's happening to
6:20
Speaker 3: my car, he won't go through those very much you know, mechanical,
6:25
Speaker 3: very difficult things complicated. He tries to explain it to
6:29
Speaker 3: me in a way that I actually understand it. So's
6:33
Speaker 3: the thing about simplicity, So you bring the science without
6:37
Speaker 3: changing the fact about it and then bring it and
6:40
Speaker 3: then try to actually translate it to a language that
6:44
Speaker 3: people undress that. Luckily I have your lecturer for twenty years.
6:49
Speaker 3: So this is almost the same way that you want
6:52
Speaker 3: to talk to students, like, for example, the first year
6:54
Speaker 3: of student coming from high school and starts to study biology,
7:00
Speaker 3: for example, it's not working if you want to deliver
7:04
Speaker 3: the information in the actual scientific terms. You want to
7:08
Speaker 3: make her or that person interested this. You don't want
7:11
Speaker 3: to just push that person away. So because if you
7:13
Speaker 3: don't understand the things, it's going to be boring after
7:16
Speaker 3: why for you?
7:17
Speaker 4: So you have to make it very interesting for that person.
7:19
Speaker 3: And the way is to simplify these things, try to
7:23
Speaker 3: make it attractive the way that person wants to actually
7:26
Speaker 3: grab it, every bit of it. And I assume that
7:29
Speaker 3: people are coming to your thought for example or tomorrow talk,
7:33
Speaker 3: they are already interested in that subject, right, So this
7:36
Speaker 3: is the job of you for those people who are
7:39
Speaker 3: interested in the subject to make it simple so they say, oh,
7:42
Speaker 3: that's actually it's worth it coming to this thought.
7:45
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, that's the way I love it. Hell,
7:51
Speaker 1: how well do you think? And these are just thoughts? Right,
7:54
Speaker 1: this is This is not like I said to you before.
7:56
Speaker 1: This is not an interview. This is a conversation. How
7:59
Speaker 1: well do you think the average person understands.
8:04
Speaker 2: Their own mind?
8:06
Speaker 1: I know, different to their own brain, but well, you know,
8:10
Speaker 1: there's whatever. I know that's a bit of a construct.
8:14
Speaker 1: But how well do people understand their mind? And how
8:19
Speaker 1: much do people are nowhere diverging a little bit from diverting,
8:23
Speaker 1: a little bit from neuroscience, but how much do people
8:27
Speaker 1: think about how they think and why they think the
8:30
Speaker 1: way they think?
8:32
Speaker 4: Well, lots and listens. So the lots thing is people.
8:38
Speaker 3: I mean, I know myself better than everybody else around,
8:42
Speaker 3: so I know what is happening inside my mind when
8:45
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about something, when I do something, when I
8:48
Speaker 3: act in the way that I act, I know why
8:51
Speaker 3: I'm doing this. That is the That is the lot.
8:54
Speaker 3: But actually the little so something that we do most
8:58
Speaker 3: of the things I can tell you fortunately that we
9:01
Speaker 3: do during the day, these are happening automatically. These are
9:04
Speaker 3: the things that we or our brains have been trained
9:08
Speaker 3: since we were childhood, from family, from environment, from school,
9:12
Speaker 3: whatever that we've got the brain, the cells inside our brains,
9:16
Speaker 3: they have been trained in the way to.
9:18
Speaker 4: Think that way.
9:20
Speaker 3: Then when we come to adult food, we start practicing
9:25
Speaker 3: and basically acting the way that we have been trained
9:28
Speaker 3: to act and without sometimes without thinking. So I can
9:32
Speaker 3: give you one simple example, which I'm not saying wrong
9:36
Speaker 3: or right, but like religious beliefs that we have or
9:39
Speaker 3: believes about, some of the fundamental things that are actually
9:44
Speaker 3: turned to be our values and we think of them
9:47
Speaker 3: as our values, but we got them actually since we
9:51
Speaker 3: have been charged, and then we started to practicing them,
9:55
Speaker 3: repeating them. They have been told to us, do this,
9:58
Speaker 3: do that, or this is wrong, this is wrong. Now
10:01
Speaker 3: we're doing those things right. So when that thing happens
10:04
Speaker 3: to me, and when I want to ask that behavior
10:06
Speaker 3: the daily basis, I actually do it routinely, you know
10:09
Speaker 3: what I mean, And then I know that I'm doing it,
10:12
Speaker 3: but I actually don't know why I'm doing it. So
10:16
Speaker 3: that is the way that is when the neuroscience comes
10:20
Speaker 3: to the state and it tells you, all right, now
10:23
Speaker 3: just a stop, just pause. Think about what you are doing.
10:27
Speaker 3: You know that you're doing it, but you don't know
10:29
Speaker 3: why you are doing it. Think about if it is right,
10:33
Speaker 3: if it is the thing that serves you the best
10:35
Speaker 3: or this is just one practice that you learn and
10:38
Speaker 3: you keep doing it, it's not gonna serve you anymore.
10:41
Speaker 3: So you have to pause and think about it to
10:43
Speaker 3: observe what you are doing. And that is the second
10:47
Speaker 3: step that we have to improve. So we know what
10:49
Speaker 3: we are doing, we don't know why we are doing it.
10:52
Speaker 3: I think it's better to a short thinking about what
10:55
Speaker 3: we are doing, what we are doing, and then if
10:58
Speaker 3: we find them no working for us anymore, yes, sure
11:02
Speaker 3: to think about maybe it's time for a change. So
11:05
Speaker 3: you know, just lying story short answer your question. We
11:09
Speaker 3: know what we are doing most of the times, we
11:11
Speaker 3: don't actually have very much of the clue why we
11:15
Speaker 3: are doing it, and maybe we shouldn't do it.
11:17
Speaker 1: That's so true. And it's so true also that we
11:22
Speaker 1: were almost on this autopilot. You know, we're living. We
11:26
Speaker 1: do so many things unconsciously without making necessarily decisions. But
11:32
Speaker 1: we do it this way because we've always done it
11:34
Speaker 1: that way, even if it's a five out of ten result. No,
11:37
Speaker 1: this is how we do it, rather than going, well,
11:40
Speaker 1: this is probably not optimal, this is probably not ideal.
11:43
Speaker 1: I could maybe I could maybe, No, this is just
11:46
Speaker 1: how that we do it. And even people who I
11:49
Speaker 1: mean I told you before we started. You know my
11:51
Speaker 1: background is I didn't tell you this, but owning gyms,
11:54
Speaker 1: I owned gyms for twenty five years and working with
11:57
Speaker 1: the general public and athletes. But even people who simultaneously
12:01
Speaker 1: share you say something like they want to be healthier
12:05
Speaker 1: and fitter while simultaneously having all of these habits that
12:09
Speaker 1: make them unhealthy and unfit. Right, But if you say,
12:13
Speaker 1: do you want to be healthy fit, I'm not talking
12:15
Speaker 1: about vanity or ego or aesthetics. I'm just talking about
12:19
Speaker 1: health and function. They simultaneously want to be different while
12:23
Speaker 1: doing something that is self destructive. Like there's this divergence
12:29
Speaker 1: of what they want and what they do.
12:31
Speaker 4: You know, actually, so shouldn't agree more.
12:35
Speaker 3: It's just like yes, Like one simple example is, you know,
12:39
Speaker 3: going to fast food and we all know that is
12:42
Speaker 3: not with I don't name any company, just fast food.
12:44
Speaker 3: I mean know that this is not good, This is
12:46
Speaker 3: not healthy, this is full of saturated fact. Whatever we
12:49
Speaker 3: see in like TV and here from radio or everything, still.
12:53
Speaker 4: We go for it.
12:55
Speaker 3: And then if we go for it actually in a
12:57
Speaker 3: very exponential rate, I can't say this the general society.
13:02
Speaker 3: So yes, there is there is a line between knowing
13:06
Speaker 3: something and being motivated enough to do that something. So
13:11
Speaker 3: sometimes we know something is good, but there is something
13:16
Speaker 3: basically we need to push us a little bit more,
13:19
Speaker 3: and I believe that would be that knowledge that we
13:22
Speaker 3: can't occurre by understanding what is happening inside the bread
13:26
Speaker 3: is what is going on if I really want to
13:30
Speaker 3: be committed to make that change happen.
13:33
Speaker 4: So, yeah, you're absolutely correct.
13:36
Speaker 1: Do you think that one of the reasons that we
13:39
Speaker 1: don't like we know that we should do this thing,
13:41
Speaker 1: but we don't do the thing. And one is because
13:45
Speaker 1: we're in this kind of I guess psychological, emotional, and
13:48
Speaker 1: behavioral groove, right, We're stuck in this groove and this
13:51
Speaker 1: is just repetition and this is this is our autopilot.
13:55
Speaker 1: That's one reason. But another reason is quite often the
13:58
Speaker 1: thing that we need to do to create the change
14:02
Speaker 1: is hard, and we don't like discomfort, so we keep
14:06
Speaker 1: looking for the magic pill and the you know, the
14:09
Speaker 1: two minute apps or the instant gratifications. So there's that
14:13
Speaker 1: you have to be able to you know what I mean,
14:16
Speaker 1: I mean to be able to create real shift. Generally,
14:19
Speaker 1: real change is not quick, fun easy or painless.
14:23
Speaker 3: You know exactly, You're you're You're totally true. The thing
14:28
Speaker 3: that is actually happening, Craig, is when we want to
14:32
Speaker 3: make change, we need to know the definition of change.
14:35
Speaker 3: So change, you know, if it is what I mean,
14:37
Speaker 3: behavioral change, ac curing a new skill, different whatever, whatever
14:42
Speaker 3: changes is. The definition of change is transforming from one
14:47
Speaker 3: state to another state, which is quite the same as
14:50
Speaker 3: the state that we had before. So to do that change,
14:54
Speaker 3: whatever change that you name it, we need to make
14:57
Speaker 3: that change first happen in our brain. And actually, when
15:01
Speaker 3: I say brain is physically like the brain, the cells
15:05
Speaker 3: inside the brain which are connected in one particular way
15:09
Speaker 3: that causes us to have that behavior, that thought, whatever,
15:12
Speaker 3: they need to change their connections to the different way.
15:16
Speaker 3: And it's not happening overnight. So the thing that happens
15:20
Speaker 3: to people is when they go like for as I said,
15:22
Speaker 3: like gym or changing the diet, changing more particular behavior,
15:27
Speaker 3: different things, they expect to see the results in very
15:31
Speaker 3: short time, like in maybe a couple of days, a
15:33
Speaker 3: couple of weeks if they're committed. But this is not happening.
15:37
Speaker 3: So imagine the behavior that you have or the skill
15:43
Speaker 3: that you learned.
15:44
Speaker 4: How many years for that language that you learned since
15:47
Speaker 4: your childhood?
15:48
Speaker 3: How many years it took for you to get perfect
15:51
Speaker 3: and fluent in that particular thing. Fi years? So how
15:54
Speaker 3: could you expect it to change that behavior in just
15:57
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks or a couple of months. Yes,
16:00
Speaker 3: your brain actually needs those cells which are connected so
16:05
Speaker 3: strongly to each other that actually makes you do that thing.
16:09
Speaker 3: They need to break down those connections and at the
16:13
Speaker 3: same time they need to break make new connections. And
16:17
Speaker 3: that's actually about actually making connections proteins. They need that,
16:21
Speaker 3: they need to build those proteins inside the brain. That
16:24
Speaker 3: takes time, that takes maybe months, sometimes years, and then
16:28
Speaker 3: you will see the results eventually. But unfortunately, this is
16:32
Speaker 3: the thing that as you said, like you see the
16:33
Speaker 3: ads and they say, oh, you have like five weeks,
16:38
Speaker 3: you will lose like ten pounds. I make you assure
16:41
Speaker 3: that if you lose ten pounds in five weeks, just
16:45
Speaker 3: like based on a very not healthy thing, it comes
16:47
Speaker 3: back because it is not happening inside your brain.
16:51
Speaker 4: So you need to be.
16:52
Speaker 3: Patient, You need to be consistent, You need to be
16:54
Speaker 3: persistent in following that particular goal.
16:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent agree.
17:01
Speaker 1: I've written a few books, but the first book that
17:04
Speaker 1: I wrote, which was a long time ago, maybe twenty
17:07
Speaker 1: five years ago, was about was about the reality that
17:15
Speaker 1: changing your body is largely not about your body, right,
17:20
Speaker 1: so exactly right, Yeah, working in with it's almost like
17:25
Speaker 1: the physical transformation is the byproduct. It's like, what I
17:30
Speaker 1: really needed to change was my cognitive default setting, you know,
17:35
Speaker 1: the way that I thought, the way that I chose
17:38
Speaker 1: my relationship with food, myself talk like, there were all
17:42
Speaker 1: of these other emotional, psychological and cognitive variables that were
17:47
Speaker 1: drivers of behavior, and ultimately my body was at the
17:51
Speaker 1: mercy of my choices and behaviors. And you know, and
17:55
Speaker 1: so while everyone was talking about fat and protein and
17:58
Speaker 1: carbohydrates and set and reps and energy in and out,
18:02
Speaker 1: which is all relevant, I realized that even if we
18:06
Speaker 1: got all the you know, the physiology stuff kind of right, sets, reps, weight, volume, workload,
18:14
Speaker 1: there was still this other cognitive, psychological, emotional component that
18:21
Speaker 1: really impacted the kind of results that people could get.
18:25
Speaker 1: And like you said, if somebody loses say ten pounds,
18:28
Speaker 1: let's wear Australia. So let's say they lose five kilos
18:31
Speaker 1: in five weeks. The chances of that person depending on
18:36
Speaker 1: how they lose it. But in my experience, which is
18:39
Speaker 1: vast in this space, the chances of them losing five
18:43
Speaker 1: kilos and then maybe another five and another five if necessary,
18:47
Speaker 1: and then keeping that off for the next thirty or
18:49
Speaker 1: forty years is almost zero, right, because we didn't change
18:54
Speaker 1: the underlying kind of stuff.
18:58
Speaker 3: You know said it that's totally true, Yes, exactly. It
19:03
Speaker 3: takes time, and it takes understanding that it can happen.
19:09
Speaker 3: You have to believe it. You have to make it,
19:11
Speaker 3: believer that it can happen, because it's as simple as this.
19:15
Speaker 3: If you work on the brain, it can happen. It's
19:18
Speaker 3: not just like until I guess, till the last moment
19:21
Speaker 3: if the brain is healthy. Of course, I'm not talking
19:23
Speaker 3: about pathological situation or this ease situation. But if your
19:27
Speaker 3: brain is healthy, you can't change it till the last
19:30
Speaker 3: moment that you breathe on this planet. That is actually
19:34
Speaker 3: gonna happen. Just you have to work on it. But
19:38
Speaker 3: the working on it is as a discipline. There's a commitment,
19:43
Speaker 3: and I'm sure if we get to that turning point
19:46
Speaker 3: that we see that okay, this is a time for
19:48
Speaker 3: the change, and we understand what is happening inside the brain,
19:52
Speaker 3: then we can change it. There is there is, There
19:54
Speaker 3: is no no question that it's gonna happen.
19:57
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I know there's no set answer to
20:01
Speaker 1: this question, so I don't want an answer. I just
20:03
Speaker 1: want your thoughts. And the question is and it varies
20:09
Speaker 1: person to person, and it varies depending on what the
20:12
Speaker 1: issue is we're talking about. But one of the things
20:15
Speaker 1: that I'm always trying to do is help people create
20:17
Speaker 1: a new operating system cognitive emotional behavior and to change habits.
20:23
Speaker 1: Do you have any you know destruct now, whether or
20:26
Speaker 1: not that habit is drinking too many coffees or snorting
20:29
Speaker 1: cocaine or pawn or you know, gambling.
20:34
Speaker 2: Obviously there are lots of variables.
20:35
Speaker 1: But what are your thoughts around changing habits that are destructive?
20:41
Speaker 4: Yes, So that's a very good question.
20:43
Speaker 3: And I really love to answer this question because some
20:47
Speaker 3: of those problems actually the problems that most of the
20:50
Speaker 3: people at this era are dealing with them. So the
20:55
Speaker 3: thing about changing a destructive behavior is think about why
21:00
Speaker 3: destructive behavior was created at the first step. So, for example,
21:04
Speaker 3: one simple example is gambling. Whatever behavior that we have
21:09
Speaker 3: and we keep doing that. That's because that behavior is
21:12
Speaker 3: actually giving us a sense of pleasure, a sense of fulfillment,
21:16
Speaker 3: even those bad behaviors. There is a system inside the
21:20
Speaker 3: brain which is called reward system. This is a simple
21:23
Speaker 3: system that the kid has. When the kids is doing
21:27
Speaker 3: a good job and then it's just like a candy
21:29
Speaker 3: or something as like the you know the price, then
21:32
Speaker 3: that reward system inside the brain is getting more activated
21:36
Speaker 3: and more activated. There is no difference between adults and kids.
21:40
Speaker 3: So when you get to do something and you activate
21:44
Speaker 3: your reward system, that makes that behavior stronger and stronger.
21:49
Speaker 3: You keep doing that, the reward system is getting more
21:53
Speaker 3: more active and the behavior actually consolidated inside your body.
21:58
Speaker 3: So exactly about gambling, about smoking, about different distructive behavior,
22:04
Speaker 3: about eating like fats like very delicious, the salty fatty
22:10
Speaker 3: which is really nice to the taste once and then
22:13
Speaker 3: you keep doing it. You keep activating your reward system.
22:16
Speaker 3: So if you want to stop doing that, you have
22:18
Speaker 3: to do something about that reward system. It's not just happening.
22:21
Speaker 3: When I say, as parents said to my kid, that
22:23
Speaker 3: don't do that, that's not happening, or do this, that's
22:26
Speaker 3: not happening. You have to work on that reward system.
22:28
Speaker 3: And there are two. Actually I'm not going to give
22:31
Speaker 3: you kind of a prescription, but these are the things
22:33
Speaker 3: you have to consider if you want to change a behavior.
22:37
Speaker 3: Why you want to change a behavior you have to
22:39
Speaker 3: do and you have to work on two different areas.
22:42
Speaker 4: The first area.
22:44
Speaker 3: Is to try to get rid of that bad behavior.
22:49
Speaker 3: Why you replace it with a good behavior, Because the
22:52
Speaker 3: job of the brain is to think. The job of
22:56
Speaker 3: your brain is to ask for rear If you cannot
22:59
Speaker 3: suppress that reward system without replacing it with something good. Right,
23:04
Speaker 3: So at the same time, if you want, for example,
23:06
Speaker 3: to stop gambling, you have to get those gambling neurons
23:11
Speaker 3: connected to each other weaker and weaker. Why you replace
23:15
Speaker 3: it something else, something that can make your busy and
23:20
Speaker 3: a brain basy. So the first thing to get rid
23:24
Speaker 3: of that bad behavior is to think less focus on it.
23:28
Speaker 3: The job of the brain is thinking, is focus, and
23:31
Speaker 3: this is the job of the brain. You cannot fight
23:33
Speaker 3: it if you keep yourself less focused on that thing,
23:36
Speaker 3: that bad disruptive behavior. After a while, after a few months,
23:41
Speaker 3: a couple of years, maybe those connections they get weaker
23:45
Speaker 3: and weaker. Consequently, you will lose interest in that particular
23:50
Speaker 3: destructive behavior because the brain cannot get any reward of
23:54
Speaker 3: this anymore, any pleasure of this anymore. But at the
23:56
Speaker 3: same time, it still needs that pleasure. The still needs
23:59
Speaker 3: that we That's why people who are stopping gambling they
24:03
Speaker 3: come back to gambling after Why because now after a
24:06
Speaker 3: couple of months, they don't feel that pleasure anymore. They're
24:09
Speaker 3: just seeking that pleasure. So that's the second step. You
24:13
Speaker 3: have to replace it with some good things. Distract yourself
24:17
Speaker 3: with doing something that you know you're passionate about. I'm
24:20
Speaker 3: sure every single of us at least has one thing
24:23
Speaker 3: in life that we like to do. If it is
24:26
Speaker 3: like learning a new language, going to the gym, doing
24:29
Speaker 3: some sport, doing some writing, whatever, Just make your brain
24:33
Speaker 3: busy while you can get enough pleasure by doing that
24:37
Speaker 3: other thing while you're getting rid of that one. So
24:40
Speaker 3: long as sure make something and you know, destroy something else.
24:47
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
24:48
Speaker 1: I'm just writing notes here. It's like unlike a student.
24:54
Speaker 1: Well I literally am a student. I'm your student at
24:58
Speaker 1: the moment, all right.
25:01
Speaker 3: All right myself, so don't worry about it.
25:04
Speaker 2: We're all teachers and students.
25:08
Speaker 1: Okay, so again, no, as you said, this is not
25:13
Speaker 1: a prescription, this is not a personal recommendation. But let's
25:19
Speaker 1: just talk a little bit about how we can keep
25:23
Speaker 1: our brain functioning as optimally as we can.
25:29
Speaker 2: At any age.
25:30
Speaker 1: We know there's cognitive decline, but we also know that
25:33
Speaker 1: there are lots of variables around that. You know, some genetics,
25:36
Speaker 1: some lifestyle, some you know, food related, some sleep related,
25:40
Speaker 1: booze habits. You know, there are a lot of things
25:43
Speaker 1: that impact one's cognition. Talk to us a little bit,
25:48
Speaker 1: Dock about how we can keep our brain working somewhere
25:53
Speaker 1: close to optimal. Like, I'm sixty, right, and I'm very grateful.
25:58
Speaker 1: I don't drink booze, I've never calcol I've never been high,
26:02
Speaker 1: I've never had cigarettes. I sleep great, I don't have
26:05
Speaker 1: a lot of stress. I love my life. I work
26:08
Speaker 1: out every day. I don't think I have optimal genetics,
26:11
Speaker 1: but I have not bad genetics. But I think it's
26:15
Speaker 1: very hard because the Craig experience for Craig is subjective, obviously,
26:20
Speaker 1: but I feel like my brain works better now than
26:22
Speaker 1: it did twenty years ago because I'm researching, learning, studying, speaking,
26:29
Speaker 1: focusing all the time. So but enough about me, tell
26:34
Speaker 1: us about how we can optimize our brain.
26:37
Speaker 4: Sure, definitely, Well, Craig, I have written a book lately.
26:41
Speaker 3: It's name Metamorphosis, and that is From Neuroplasticity to Happiness,
26:47
Speaker 3: And I said it available on Amazon. But the reason,
26:49
Speaker 3: as I'm saying it is that alls come back to
26:52
Speaker 3: a term which is neuroplasticity. And by neuroplasticity it maybe
26:56
Speaker 3: just sounds a very big warrant, but it's actually not
26:59
Speaker 3: neuroplastic the meaning change. So change in the neurons inside
27:04
Speaker 3: the brain can help you to change whatever you expect
27:08
Speaker 3: from yourself, behavior, thought, whatever, So that neuroplassics it is
27:15
Speaker 3: actually very important, but it's not happening by itself. You
27:18
Speaker 3: have to do some change something around it to make
27:22
Speaker 3: the environment the situation prepare for doctor classicity. And one
27:26
Speaker 3: of the things that you said is our lifestyle. If
27:29
Speaker 3: you want to make a change, you have to make
27:31
Speaker 3: sure that you are starting changing your lifestyle. So, for example,
27:36
Speaker 3: you want to change a behavior, a distructive behavior, as
27:41
Speaker 3: you said, first of all, you need to change your lifestyle.
27:45
Speaker 3: It's really difficult sometimes if I want to change my diet.
27:48
Speaker 3: If I want to change the way that exercise, if
27:50
Speaker 3: I want to change the way that I sleep, I
27:52
Speaker 3: still like four or five days because the rest of
27:54
Speaker 3: the day I'm watching TV, I scrolling down my phone,
27:57
Speaker 3: and then like five six hours. So you have to
27:59
Speaker 3: make those changes. But first of all, to make those changes,
28:03
Speaker 3: you have to change your mindset. And that's when it
28:07
Speaker 3: comes to having a growth mindset. You need to open
28:13
Speaker 3: the I gues say, the cage of your brain to change.
28:17
Speaker 3: I can't change. I want to change. I'm not fixed
28:20
Speaker 3: under sound. I want to make some changes. So starting
28:23
Speaker 3: with what is not making you happy? And when you
28:28
Speaker 3: do want distructive behavior one at a time, past and
28:32
Speaker 3: think about that behavior. Think if that behavior is going
28:36
Speaker 3: to serve you for good or not. Usually it's a
28:39
Speaker 3: very good feeling to have a very nice fattierer pullop salt.
28:44
Speaker 3: But I guarantee ninety five percent of us we don't
28:48
Speaker 3: have a good feeling after eating it. Maybe during it
28:51
Speaker 3: a it, but after what we feel heavy, we feel
28:54
Speaker 3: a little DEBI guilty, we feel not happy because this
28:57
Speaker 3: is not what exactly what your body praise for. It
29:00
Speaker 3: is not actually healthy, right, So pousset when you want.
29:04
Speaker 3: Next time you want to do something, post just for
29:06
Speaker 3: a few seconds and think if that behavior that you're
29:09
Speaker 3: gonna do is gonna serve you for good or not.
29:12
Speaker 3: If it is for a good point. If it is not,
29:15
Speaker 3: stop doing it and start trying to Okay, this is
29:19
Speaker 3: not good for me, then find out what's gonna be
29:23
Speaker 3: good for you to replace. Right. If it is not,
29:26
Speaker 3: I'm not telling you just go to be just it's
29:28
Speaker 3: just vegetables all day. No, it's start little and simple
29:32
Speaker 3: at the time. Instead of having two guard years a
29:35
Speaker 3: day one day, maybe instead of having to to to
29:40
Speaker 3: casino to do gambling, maybe just pouse and think, oh,
29:43
Speaker 3: maybe it's not a good thing that I keep doing it.
29:46
Speaker 3: Maybe I have to go to a movie for example.
29:49
Speaker 3: Replace it with something else. If you are not doing
29:52
Speaker 3: exercise and doesn't vary good example, because physical exercise actually
29:56
Speaker 3: will help your brain to have good blood circulation, work, healthier,
30:01
Speaker 3: work nicer, get rid of those toxic proteins that's gonna
30:05
Speaker 3: build up during when we are aging, and that's that's
30:07
Speaker 3: gonna work for you for good in different areas. Right,
30:10
Speaker 3: So next, I'm not saying like you have to go
30:14
Speaker 3: to gym every every hour now. But if you want
30:17
Speaker 3: to do some physical activities and you just don't want
30:21
Speaker 3: to do it, just think about it. It's short and small.
30:24
Speaker 3: Maybe ten minutes. It's not gonna tell me ten minutes,
30:26
Speaker 3: I start jogging. For ten minutes, I start doing like
30:29
Speaker 3: simple exerts even at home for ten minutes. That's good.
30:32
Speaker 3: I'm watching TV. Ended up sitting on the couch. It
30:34
Speaker 3: started like.
30:35
Speaker 4: Doing some exercise in front of TV ten minutes a day.
30:39
Speaker 3: And that actually that that that sounds really logical for
30:43
Speaker 3: every other behavior that we can have. And this is
30:46
Speaker 3: the thing that you said at the beginning of this podcast,
30:49
Speaker 3: and you said, do we know what we do?
30:52
Speaker 4: And I said a lot?
30:53
Speaker 3: A lot, Because when it comes to pausing there and
30:56
Speaker 3: thinking about the behavior, we know a lot. We know
31:00
Speaker 3: that this is not good for us. That's the part
31:02
Speaker 3: that knowing lots comes about us, right, So I know
31:05
Speaker 3: that that's working for me, Then that post helps me.
31:09
Speaker 3: That's that's the mindfulness of what we are doing. Observing
31:12
Speaker 3: what we are doing, pose it without just repeating it
31:15
Speaker 3: automatically next time that I just drive to that fast
31:19
Speaker 3: food shop automatically, just.
31:21
Speaker 4: A sub car.
31:23
Speaker 3: Actually, maybe I'll turn it around and this time I
31:25
Speaker 3: just ignore just going this sub time to fast food
31:29
Speaker 3: and just maybe tomorrow. So try to do one thing
31:32
Speaker 3: at the time, start small, and then as I said, like,
31:35
Speaker 3: try to change your life son with open mind. So
31:40
Speaker 3: and I guarantee that it's gonna happen. It is going
31:43
Speaker 3: to happen to you one at a time. And then
31:46
Speaker 3: at the end of you know the day, you will
31:49
Speaker 3: see like lots of change happened in your life for good.
31:52
Speaker 1: Now love it. I've got a million questions. I'm gonna
31:56
Speaker 1: you busy, all right, My next question. My next question
31:59
Speaker 1: is this. So, in terms of things that can impact
32:05
Speaker 1: the way that your brain works negatively, I'm going to
32:07
Speaker 1: give you four things, and I want you to rank
32:12
Speaker 1: them in terms of like one being the worst, like
32:15
Speaker 1: one is the worst, down to four the least bad,
32:18
Speaker 1: which is yeah, and you know what you might say
32:24
Speaker 1: to me, Craig, They're all equally bad.
32:26
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter.
32:27
Speaker 1: So in terms of things that might impact our cognition,
32:33
Speaker 1: the way that our brain works, brain health in the.
32:36
Speaker 2: Short, medium and long term. Yes, So number number one
32:39
Speaker 2: is for sleep.
32:41
Speaker 1: Number two is alcohol and drugs, And of course there
32:44
Speaker 1: are lots of variables number three is terrible diet and
32:49
Speaker 1: number four is consistent stress.
32:52
Speaker 2: So sleep, sleep, booze boos and drugs, sleep one, boos
32:58
Speaker 2: and drugs too, diet three, and stress and anxiety four.
33:04
Speaker 3: All right, So then I really don't need to think
33:08
Speaker 3: very much because the answer is simple. So when you
33:12
Speaker 3: have you are in a imagine that you are in
33:17
Speaker 3: a very uh disasters scenario. You are in the in
33:23
Speaker 3: the middle of for example, fire like it fire in
33:26
Speaker 3: just in the middle of the fire, or like something
33:28
Speaker 3: very dangerous to you, right, So, and there are different
33:30
Speaker 3: dangers around you, and each of them can kill you.
33:34
Speaker 3: So you cannot point to one that can kill you
33:37
Speaker 3: more because when they kill you, they kill you. Right.
33:40
Speaker 4: So the four thing, those four things, they are actually all.
33:44
Speaker 3: Of them are dangerous. So I cannot say this one
33:47
Speaker 3: is better than the other one. What I can say
33:49
Speaker 3: is how each of the stronger it can affect our lives.
33:54
Speaker 4: So, but if I want to.
33:56
Speaker 3: Go for everything, and that might be a little bit
34:00
Speaker 3: uh stress to the audience, but I go for a stress.
34:04
Speaker 4: A stress is the mother of every other bad things.
34:08
Speaker 3: I mean by a stress, I mean toxic stress because
34:11
Speaker 3: the stress as a as a very normal level is
34:14
Speaker 3: actually good for us. It keeps us away from danger,
34:17
Speaker 3: it keeps us focus on what we want to do.
34:20
Speaker 3: But if it is toxic, it's gonna affect every single
34:24
Speaker 3: part in our body and then it will bring us
34:27
Speaker 3: to a stage of totally unastable situation. So this is
34:32
Speaker 3: the mother of everything. That doesn't mean that alcohol is
34:35
Speaker 3: good or smoking is good or different. Other bad elements
34:39
Speaker 3: are good. So for example, talking about the sleeping, you
34:43
Speaker 3: need to have a quality time sleeping and you can live.
34:49
Speaker 3: We human we can live longer without water, without food
34:54
Speaker 3: than without a sleep. So you don't sleep for fourty
34:58
Speaker 3: eight hours or three days is in a row and
35:01
Speaker 3: the brain is sort of losing its functionality. It gets confused,
35:05
Speaker 3: just start hollosing anything around you know, So then then
35:08
Speaker 3: the brain actually starts to die. So that meaning that
35:12
Speaker 3: you can stay alive for without water for two, three,
35:15
Speaker 3: four five days, without food for a week or so,
35:17
Speaker 3: but not without the slip. So that how makes it
35:20
Speaker 3: important about drugs and alcohol? Definitely they are nothing. They
35:25
Speaker 3: don't have anything good for your health and definitely not
35:28
Speaker 3: for your brain. Actually alcohol and you say we don't drink,
35:31
Speaker 3: I don't drink either, and not because of religious reason,
35:35
Speaker 3: not just because of science reason. And the reason is
35:39
Speaker 3: because the brain is so sensitive to alcohol. If you
35:43
Speaker 3: drink alcohol, after a minute, you can feel the actual
35:48
Speaker 3: effect on your brain. This is how fast the brain
35:51
Speaker 3: absorb alcohol, right, and then alcohol actually kills the brain
35:55
Speaker 3: it cells. So there is one There is one thing
35:58
Speaker 3: about red wine which has a component and it is correspiratol,
36:03
Speaker 3: and it is good for Alzheimer's situation. However, you can
36:06
Speaker 3: get it from other elements. I'm not saying don't drink,
36:09
Speaker 3: but I'm saying at a moderate level, not too much.
36:12
Speaker 3: Same as drug drug, No, no, moderate level. There is
36:16
Speaker 3: nothing zero tolerance for a drug because every single amount.
36:20
Speaker 4: Of it could affect your brain in a very bad way.
36:22
Speaker 4: So that's the thing. What was that?
36:25
Speaker 2: What was the other one?
36:27
Speaker 1: So slight alcohol and drugs, poor diet and stress?
36:31
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, so diet. Have you heard nothing that they
36:34
Speaker 3: say you are what you eat?
36:36
Speaker 2: Yeah?
36:37
Speaker 3: No, that's actually sure. So if you keep eating something
36:41
Speaker 3: healthy and I'm not saying don't eat meat, or I'm
36:44
Speaker 3: not saying don't it you know soft because soft is actually.
36:49
Speaker 4: Is sodium chloride, which your body actually needs.
36:52
Speaker 3: Is a part of the cell components, so you need
36:56
Speaker 3: to have everything in moderation. But going for extreme of
36:59
Speaker 3: some particular types of food is not actually healthy for
37:02
Speaker 3: our body, and that is coming in combination with doing exercise.
37:07
Speaker 3: So you barely see any fat animals in the wild nature, right,
37:12
Speaker 3: So you see like lions and their feet, so you
37:15
Speaker 3: don't see fat. And because they have a balance between
37:19
Speaker 3: workout they have to hunt and the balance within what
37:22
Speaker 3: they eat, like they input and their output. While in
37:26
Speaker 3: human beings we eat more than we burn, more than
37:30
Speaker 3: we use as energy, that's what we keep actual relating
37:34
Speaker 3: fat is not a good way and in long term
37:36
Speaker 3: definitely going to affect our brain health, our cardiovascular health.
37:40
Speaker 1: Like yeah, we do say fat labradors though, and that's
37:45
Speaker 1: because they're aren't by humans exactly exactly, that's because they
37:52
Speaker 1: aren't by humans and fed by humans. So so something
37:59
Speaker 1: I'm I'm more in the neuropsych than the neuroscience, but
38:03
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated with I'm fascinated with the physiological consequences of
38:10
Speaker 1: thinking right right, and so like for example, if right now,
38:17
Speaker 1: and my listeners have heard something like this before, but
38:20
Speaker 1: if right now I have a thought that I'm in
38:22
Speaker 1: danger for no reason. But I think I'm in danger,
38:26
Speaker 1: but I'm not in danger. But I think I am,
38:28
Speaker 1: and I believe I am. Then the emotion is fear,
38:32
Speaker 1: and then the physiological response is elevated heart rate, breathing, adrenaline, cortisol,
38:37
Speaker 1: sympathetic nervous system, all of those things. So all of
38:40
Speaker 1: a sudden, just from a thought that is not true.
38:45
Speaker 1: But well, you know, I believe it, but the idea
38:48
Speaker 1: is not true. I'm not in any danger. But when
38:52
Speaker 1: I believe that I'm in danger while not being in danger,
38:55
Speaker 1: my body can't tell the difference, So my body will
38:58
Speaker 1: go into a stress response state. Right, And so that
39:03
Speaker 1: you know, the mind and the emotions and the physiology
39:07
Speaker 1: biology are intertwined. It's one system kind of. I mean
39:11
Speaker 1: we isolated in research, but as a as an experience
39:15
Speaker 1: of being a human, it's all integrated. Right, Everything affects everything.
39:22
Speaker 1: So now here's the thing. If twenty times a day
39:27
Speaker 1: I'm telling myself some story, I've excuse my language, fucking
39:31
Speaker 1: doom and gloom, right, twenty times a day, then twenty
39:36
Speaker 1: times a day, my sympathetic nervous system's going off and
39:40
Speaker 1: my endocrine systems go and nuts and I'm doing it
39:43
Speaker 1: to myself. Talk to me about that from a neuroscience
39:48
Speaker 1: point of view, and just you as somebody who's curious
39:51
Speaker 1: about human behavior.
39:53
Speaker 3: That's a married good question. I can give to another example.
39:57
Speaker 3: That's what I say to my Audia sometimes in the
39:59
Speaker 3: like of having the talk, and I asked him to
40:01
Speaker 3: imagine that you have a lemon, very sour lemon in
40:05
Speaker 3: your hand, and then you cut it, and then you
40:08
Speaker 3: start squeezing it into your mouth. Is your saliva is running, yes,
40:16
Speaker 3: in your hand.
40:16
Speaker 4: But you know what I'm talking to you, I feel
40:19
Speaker 4: actually myself.
40:20
Speaker 1: It's like if you say to someone picture yourself scriping
40:25
Speaker 1: your fingernils down a blackboard.
40:27
Speaker 2: Oh god, God, you're not anywhere near a blackboard.
40:34
Speaker 3: So you know what is a mechanism behind that. I'm
40:36
Speaker 3: sure you know it, but I'm just trying to just
40:38
Speaker 3: bring it out a little bit to the details that
40:41
Speaker 3: the brain actually doesn't have that ability to separate fact
40:46
Speaker 3: from fictions. So whatever happens to brain, whatever you tell
40:50
Speaker 3: the brain, whatever we've see the media, the brain accepts
40:53
Speaker 3: this as a fact. That is the job of our brain,
40:56
Speaker 3: because that's actually there is one evolutionary reason behind it.
41:00
Speaker 3: Brain has to do that to basically protect our body
41:04
Speaker 3: from danger, it has to believe everything around to them.
41:08
Speaker 3: The next step to see, oh this is dangerous, I
41:11
Speaker 3: have to just either hide from it or fight them. Right. So,
41:15
Speaker 3: based on that the brain, whatever you say to brain,
41:18
Speaker 3: the brain accepts this as a fact. So when you
41:22
Speaker 3: go to for example, let me start having that negative
41:26
Speaker 3: self talk, which we have all of us. I'm sure
41:30
Speaker 3: ninety five percent of our self talking is negative.
41:33
Speaker 4: When you start talking that negative.
41:35
Speaker 3: Self talk to yourself since the moment that you work
41:38
Speaker 3: up for a morning, the brain start having those.
41:41
Speaker 4: Experiences for real life.
41:44
Speaker 3: The brain start thinking that those things that you're saying
41:48
Speaker 3: to yourself is going to actually happen to it. That's
41:51
Speaker 3: the brain. That's the brain perception from what you say
41:55
Speaker 3: to yourself. Same as when you start saying positive things
41:58
Speaker 3: to yourself, you suddenly I start feeling happy inside. That's
42:04
Speaker 3: why when we see somebody's laughing that gives us a
42:08
Speaker 3: sense of happiness, is that that event, whatever it is
42:11
Speaker 3: which is making the happiness sense, is not happening to us.
42:14
Speaker 3: We just see somebody smiling, We just see a kid
42:17
Speaker 3: or a baby is laughing, and that actually brings happiness
42:20
Speaker 3: to us. Right, that's because the brain thinks that thing
42:24
Speaker 3: actually happens to us. When we see a dramatic movie
42:27
Speaker 3: or something, well, start crying. We're not going there is
42:31
Speaker 3: nothing happening to us, but the brain start.
42:33
Speaker 4: Believing that thing.
42:35
Speaker 3: Actually, we can't use that ability of our brain to
42:38
Speaker 3: our advantage. We can start thinking that. Okay, now that
42:43
Speaker 3: I know that the brain is gonna believe it, how
42:46
Speaker 3: about I take it to make it right?
42:48
Speaker 4: How about I start talking some.
42:50
Speaker 3: Good things about myself. I am good, I'm strong. I
42:54
Speaker 3: can't do it. Even if I cannot do it, I
42:57
Speaker 3: cannot do it yet, but I can do it. Sure,
43:00
Speaker 3: So start saying something good and believe me, your brain
43:04
Speaker 3: is gonna believe it. And at the end of the
43:06
Speaker 3: day you will have more achievement than days before. You
43:10
Speaker 3: will have more happiness than the days before. And then
43:12
Speaker 3: at the same time whenever again again it comes to mindfulness,
43:17
Speaker 3: but the self. Next time that the self negative self
43:21
Speaker 3: talk comes to you, pause it, pos it And then
43:25
Speaker 3: I start thinking, if I keep doing this, my brain
43:28
Speaker 3: actually thinks that's happening to me. And that's one every
43:31
Speaker 3: thing is actually my beautiful, amazing mom does. I have
43:35
Speaker 3: the most beautiful mom in the world that did everything
43:39
Speaker 3: for me, and whatever I have is from her, and
43:42
Speaker 3: she will. We all have some problems in our life.
43:44
Speaker 3: And still when she starts talking to me from time
43:47
Speaker 3: to time she says, remember when like that thing happened
43:51
Speaker 3: to us? And I feel that when she's talking about
43:54
Speaker 3: that kind the story from behind this, I can see
43:57
Speaker 3: the sadness in her face and I stop her. Mom's up.
44:00
Speaker 3: You see, your brain thinks.
44:02
Speaker 4: That sad event is going to happen to you again.
44:06
Speaker 4: That's why you feel sadness. That's why your voice is
44:08
Speaker 4: getting down. So pose it.
44:11
Speaker 3: Think of it as this is the behavior that I
44:15
Speaker 3: don't want to have. I don't want my belief, my
44:17
Speaker 3: brain to believe that this bad thing is going to
44:21
Speaker 3: happen to it.
44:21
Speaker 4: So I pose it.
44:23
Speaker 3: As soon as you pose it, the brain stopped thinking
44:25
Speaker 3: about this, right and then again. So this this is
44:30
Speaker 3: the power of our brain. The job of our brain
44:32
Speaker 3: is thinking. You cannot stop thinking, but you can't pause
44:36
Speaker 3: on something that is not working for you and work
44:38
Speaker 3: on the other thing. So, as I said, like ninety
44:42
Speaker 3: five percent of the thoughts that we have during that
44:44
Speaker 3: they never going to happen to us. So be thinking
44:47
Speaker 3: about what if if I go through this and I
44:49
Speaker 3: lose my job, and I lose my home and I
44:52
Speaker 3: lose and that ninety five person even I can say
44:54
Speaker 3: ninety nine percent never going to happen.
44:57
Speaker 4: But it keeps armone and that is natural because our
45:00
Speaker 4: brain wants to protect us against the danger. But that's
45:03
Speaker 4: actually too much.
45:05
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I love it. They actually did some
45:07
Speaker 1: research on that. How many of the things that we
45:10
Speaker 1: ruminate on the negative future potential problems and catashphes and
45:16
Speaker 1: it's it was either ninety one or ninety four percent,
45:20
Speaker 1: and all the remaining of the remaining percent, they generally
45:23
Speaker 1: weren't as bad as we thought, right, you have you
45:27
Speaker 1: heard Sherry about And I apologize to my listeners, but
45:31
Speaker 1: I love this experiment. There was an experiment done by
45:34
Speaker 1: some Canadian researchers around milkshakes. Have you heard of the
45:39
Speaker 1: milkshake experiment?
45:41
Speaker 3: No?
45:42
Speaker 1: No, you'll love this right, So talk about the power
45:45
Speaker 1: of the power of thinking and brain. And so they
45:49
Speaker 1: had all of these people who were hungry, so they
45:52
Speaker 1: hadn't eaten, they were hungry, so they measured their you know,
45:56
Speaker 1: grellin the hunger hormone. Yes, right, So they measured their
45:59
Speaker 1: grellin levels. It was high, and then they gave them
46:03
Speaker 1: over three different sessions. They gave them three different milkshakes,
46:07
Speaker 1: and one was a full fat, full sugar, full calorie
46:12
Speaker 1: like six or seven hundred calorie milkshake, and then they
46:17
Speaker 1: gave them at a second sitting same.
46:20
Speaker 2: You know, when they were hungry.
46:21
Speaker 1: They gave them a middle of the range three three
46:23
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty calorie milkshake, and then at another sitting
46:27
Speaker 1: they gave them like a low calorie, low fat, no sugar,
46:31
Speaker 1: one hundred and ten or twenty calorie milkshake.
46:34
Speaker 2: And as you would.
46:35
Speaker 1: Expect, after they had the full fat, high calorie milkshake,
46:41
Speaker 1: their grelon levels had plummeted, right, Their grelon levels were
46:44
Speaker 1: very low, and then when they had the next one
46:48
Speaker 1: they were a bit higher because there was not as
46:51
Speaker 1: many and then when they had the low fat, low sugar,
46:53
Speaker 1: low calorie version, their grelon levels remained relatively high.
46:59
Speaker 2: And then they got them.
46:59
Speaker 1: All together and they brought them in and they debriefed
47:02
Speaker 1: them and they said they told them that they gave
47:04
Speaker 1: them the data, the results, and everyone's like, well that
47:07
Speaker 1: makes sense. And they said, yeah, it makes sense, except
47:10
Speaker 1: you had the same milkshake every time. How crazy is that?
47:17
Speaker 3: That is really.
47:20
Speaker 2: I I can send you that study. Yeah, and so
47:24
Speaker 2: they actually.
47:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, so what produced the different result or the different
47:30
Speaker 1: ground level result was not what they were drinking, but
47:32
Speaker 1: what they thought they were drinking exactly.
47:37
Speaker 2: The brain. The brain is amazing, isn't.
47:39
Speaker 3: It is amazing. It is amazing. I can give you
47:43
Speaker 3: one a more example. And that was really amazing that
47:46
Speaker 3: you just said. And you know what, like uh, and
47:49
Speaker 3: I think many of athletes, they have their professional ones,
47:53
Speaker 3: they may have had this experience that. For example, if
47:56
Speaker 3: you see many of those football players or psychoplayers when
48:00
Speaker 3: they are in the field and they actually eager, they
48:04
Speaker 3: actually actually actually don't feel the pain they I mean,
48:08
Speaker 3: you see that that person is running all through the
48:11
Speaker 3: game with kind of the broken thumb or broken something,
48:15
Speaker 3: you know, and then it actually is not just like
48:17
Speaker 3: it's pretending it doesn't feel the pain.
48:20
Speaker 4: This is the power of your brain.
48:22
Speaker 3: And the pain is there, the damage, the broken bones,
48:25
Speaker 3: but the brain actually expends you not to feel the
48:28
Speaker 3: pain because you are important for this team to win.
48:32
Speaker 3: So if you just get out of the field.
48:35
Speaker 4: Your team will lose. So this is the power of brain.
48:38
Speaker 3: We we have the most powerful tool in the entire
48:41
Speaker 3: universe in our hands. It's totally up to us if
48:44
Speaker 3: we want to use it in our advantage or we
48:46
Speaker 3: don't use it, or even worse, we use it against
48:50
Speaker 3: our advantage.
48:51
Speaker 4: So it's totally in our hands.
48:53
Speaker 3: And that is that is the most important thing to
48:55
Speaker 3: know that we are in control, not you know, not
48:58
Speaker 3: anything else.
49:00
Speaker 1: You know in this is very current, but in you're
49:06
Speaker 1: in South Australia, right, yes, yes, okay. So there's a
49:12
Speaker 1: guy called Christian Petrarca who plays for Melbourne in the AFL.
49:16
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yeah, yeah.
49:21
Speaker 2: So he.
49:23
Speaker 1: Not this weekend, the one before he was playing, he
49:28
Speaker 1: got hit really badly. He broke four ribs. He punctured
49:33
Speaker 1: his lung and he ruptured his spleen and he kept playing.
49:39
Speaker 1: He kept playing, right, I mean obviously he was in pain,
49:43
Speaker 1: but I mean there's no way he should have been
49:45
Speaker 1: able to play. You know, even if you have one
49:49
Speaker 1: broken rib, it's agony. Yes, so, I mean I don't
49:52
Speaker 1: know if that's adrenaline or what that is. But all right,
49:55
Speaker 1: we've got to wind up. But I want to ask you.
49:58
Speaker 1: So we've had we've had a guy on the show
50:00
Speaker 1: a couple of times from Harvard University. His name is
50:03
Speaker 1: Professor Jeffrey Reddiger, and he is a genius in the
50:08
Speaker 1: space of place ebos and spontaneous healing, and you know
50:13
Speaker 1: he talks about again in this space.
50:16
Speaker 2: Have you heard of him?
50:18
Speaker 4: Yes, of course, yes, most of the people who say
50:21
Speaker 4: they don't.
50:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's amazing. So we've had him a
50:25
Speaker 1: couple of times. What are your thoughts on placebo like
50:31
Speaker 1: the power of the mind to basically create a healing
50:35
Speaker 1: effect on the body.
50:37
Speaker 3: Yes, well, actually I totally believe it. Plus and that
50:41
Speaker 3: is not actually a fiction thing or just the war.
50:45
Speaker 3: That actually comes back to the power of reign to basically,
50:50
Speaker 3: either in short term or long term, change the way
50:54
Speaker 3: that it can act. So I just give you a
50:57
Speaker 3: simple example, and I'm not sure that you're not about to,
51:00
Speaker 3: but the job of the brain cells are talking to
51:04
Speaker 3: each other. They communicate with each other, that's the job.
51:07
Speaker 3: That's the simple thing that they do. If they want
51:09
Speaker 3: to send a message to a muscle to work or
51:12
Speaker 3: my tongue to talk, they just send that cigy not right.
51:15
Speaker 3: So the way that they can do their job better
51:17
Speaker 3: and stronger is when they communicate a stronger and by
51:21
Speaker 3: that communicating a stronger I mean that they have to
51:24
Speaker 3: actually connect more to each other, they have to grow more.
51:28
Speaker 4: Hands to each other and then make it happen. So
51:31
Speaker 4: this is the long term.
51:32
Speaker 3: Effect that the brain uses to develop a skill, develop
51:36
Speaker 3: something else. But that's all of those the long term
51:41
Speaker 3: development of a skill.
51:42
Speaker 4: That's sort of in the very short term.
51:44
Speaker 3: Like the first step as I can say, and that
51:47
Speaker 3: is the thing that you want to change something.
51:49
Speaker 4: You think that you need to change something, and then after.
51:54
Speaker 3: Reach into that when you start doing that thing. So
51:58
Speaker 3: doing that thing or thinking about changing that thing could
52:01
Speaker 3: actually happen to brain in real life or could happen
52:05
Speaker 3: to break not in real life, doesn't matter.
52:08
Speaker 4: As I said, the brain cannot differentiate with fact and fiction.
52:13
Speaker 3: That's why the team in that Canadian said it. The
52:16
Speaker 3: brain actually worked the same way because the brain thing
52:20
Speaker 3: that change is going to happen. That is the most
52:22
Speaker 3: important thing. If the brain thing change is going to happen,
52:26
Speaker 3: it will happen to the brain, and the brain makes
52:29
Speaker 3: it actually realistic for you. So you think that you
52:32
Speaker 3: are going to feel less hungry because of the milkshake.
52:37
Speaker 3: So then you will feel less hungry because of the
52:40
Speaker 3: milkshake because that change is the trigger for the cells
52:43
Speaker 3: to start communicating in different different terr right, So that's
52:48
Speaker 3: happening when you have placebo.
52:50
Speaker 4: So next time, if.
52:51
Speaker 3: One of your family members have not not a serious
52:54
Speaker 3: physical problem, just a little bit of headache or something
52:57
Speaker 3: that just sometimes give it the ticksack instead of you know, uh,
53:02
Speaker 3: perceptable and the person start feeling better actually because the
53:06
Speaker 3: brain actually doesn't think. I said, if it's not a
53:09
Speaker 3: serious problem, I'm not going through the medical terms. But
53:13
Speaker 3: the brain thinks that that is perceptible. What's the job
53:17
Speaker 3: of personable? It makes me feel better, to feel less pain.
53:21
Speaker 3: So now I'm taking it and it starts actually working
53:24
Speaker 3: on the brain in the same area.
53:26
Speaker 4: Right, Your brain start to think that, oh, this.
53:29
Speaker 3: Cell which is happening something to it, and then it's
53:33
Speaker 3: started feeling pain for me. Now you're receiving and actually
53:37
Speaker 3: happening inside the braain is receiving the agent, the substance
53:41
Speaker 3: that's gonna help it. So the brain starts automatically physically
53:45
Speaker 3: feeling less pain around itself. So I don't want to
53:49
Speaker 3: go through the details. But actually physically it happens to
53:52
Speaker 3: the brain. It's not just like a fiction that it
53:55
Speaker 3: inside the brain. If you go inside the brain, you
53:57
Speaker 3: see that those elements which are creating pain, they are
54:00
Speaker 3: reducing just by that thought in your brain. That's why
54:03
Speaker 3: you feel less actually pain. That's why that person in
54:06
Speaker 3: the in the field. The injury is there, I'm sure
54:10
Speaker 3: even sometimes the bleeding is there, the damage, the tissue
54:13
Speaker 3: is there, but the person doesn't feel that much of pain.
54:16
Speaker 3: That's because the brain thinks that this is the change
54:19
Speaker 3: that I have to happen. I have to come it
54:22
Speaker 3: to happen, and that is the winning of the game.
54:24
Speaker 3: And I forgot one. There is no injury, there's no
54:26
Speaker 3: breaking bones, there is no no, no, no serious damage,
54:30
Speaker 3: and it believes it, you know.
54:32
Speaker 4: So I give you one example.
54:34
Speaker 3: Uh, like back to a few years ago, I had
54:38
Speaker 3: a few of kids in my home, like playing like
54:40
Speaker 3: my families, and one of them actually uh started writing
54:46
Speaker 3: dot point like red with the red pencil and the
54:49
Speaker 3: other ones hand and the other girl thought that it
54:52
Speaker 3: was blood and it was not blood, just like the
54:54
Speaker 3: marker and the kid crime somehow that it was actually
54:59
Speaker 3: painful and that's the power of brain. You see that thing,
55:03
Speaker 3: and do you think that's actually happening? So, as I said,
55:06
Speaker 3: each can use definitely in our advantage because the brain
55:08
Speaker 3: actually believes it whatever you can give it. That's the
55:11
Speaker 3: power of media. Actually, you think when you see at
55:14
Speaker 3: the news is not going to affect your brain, It's
55:16
Speaker 3: going to affect you massively. So because whatever you see,
55:20
Speaker 3: you're gonna believe it. So again, that plasicle thing sometimes
55:24
Speaker 3: is good because it helps you to heal without actual
55:30
Speaker 3: chemical intervention or anything, which is good. But I'm not
55:33
Speaker 3: saying that it's going to help for in any situation.
55:36
Speaker 3: Depends on the situation, of course.
55:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
55:39
Speaker 1: Wow, I love how excited you are about your work
55:43
Speaker 1: and your I love that.
55:45
Speaker 2: I love that.
55:45
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, how do people connect with you? Share if
55:49
Speaker 1: people want to book you, tell us where to find
55:54
Speaker 1: you on social media and website, and how organizations or
55:58
Speaker 1: individuals can connect with you.
56:00
Speaker 3: Definitely, So I actually, as I said, like I had
56:05
Speaker 3: a book on Amazona mindset with some more folsus from
56:08
Speaker 3: your Plasity to Happiness. Uh if it's online like ebook,
56:12
Speaker 3: and also you can order it. But if you want
56:14
Speaker 3: me to, I'm more than happy to get involved.
56:18
Speaker 4: To workshops, to talks and as you see, I'm very passionate.
56:22
Speaker 3: At the end of the session, you will find you
56:25
Speaker 3: just have to jump on, you know, doing something.
56:30
Speaker 2: Well. And I really like this is yeah, sorry, sorry,
56:34
Speaker 2: keep going.
56:36
Speaker 3: So I really I really like, like I'm not saying
56:42
Speaker 3: that you're my students, but I really like to act
56:44
Speaker 3: as somebody to motivate my students still to go do it.
56:51
Speaker 4: You can do it.
56:51
Speaker 3: And because I saw the results happening. So I have
56:54
Speaker 3: a website shrymagic dot com. So and also so I
57:00
Speaker 3: am in Flinders University, so we can work well. I
57:03
Speaker 3: can go to my Flinders University website. I'm linked in.
57:08
Speaker 3: Just search for my name Sherry Shoremas and I'm also
57:10
Speaker 3: on Google scholar if you're interested in reading my publication,
57:14
Speaker 3: my peer review articles. But the best way to book
57:17
Speaker 3: me is to go through that website, Sherry Mauch dot com.
57:21
Speaker 3: And you can go through different services that I can
57:25
Speaker 3: offer you in their workshops, in their webinars, in their
57:29
Speaker 3: talking and then you can book it depends on the events.
57:32
Speaker 4: And yes, yes, I will.
57:34
Speaker 3: Be available to come and talk to you and we
57:36
Speaker 3: can go through that journey together.
57:38
Speaker 4: I'm still learning, so I can learn something from you
57:40
Speaker 4: and you can learn.
57:41
Speaker 3: Something from it.
57:42
Speaker 2: Two ways awesome.
57:44
Speaker 1: And if all that files, everyone just send us an
57:47
Speaker 1: email via the show through the website and we'll put
57:51
Speaker 1: you in We'll put you in contact with Sherry. We'll
57:54
Speaker 1: say goodbye off but for the moment, Sherry, thanks for
57:57
Speaker 1: being on the You project. I really enjoyed it and
57:59
Speaker 1: I appreciate you.
58:01
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Craig for having me.
58:03
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed your insightful podcast and I hope I
58:06
Speaker 3: can come back sometimes again.
58:08
Speaker 2: Well, I would love it.
58:10
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.