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#2047 Brain Literacy - Harps (PT1) · The You Project

0:00
Speaker 1: Good, are you, bloody champs? Welcome to the show. So
0:05
Speaker 1: I've decided to do a few episodes with more of
0:08
Speaker 1: an educational focus while keeping the vibe and the language
0:14
Speaker 1: user friendly. So I thought I'd just do something different
0:17
Speaker 1: and see how that goes, rather than spinning the wheels
0:20
Speaker 1: and having some of the repetitious conversations that can be
0:23
Speaker 1: had when we're doing the psychology, human behavior, human performance stuff.
0:27
Speaker 1: So we'll see how we go, and you, my audience,
0:32
Speaker 1: let me know. So these work, These episodes are a
0:36
Speaker 1: fair bit more work, which I'm happy to do, but
0:40
Speaker 1: it'd be great to hear whether or not you vibe
0:42
Speaker 1: with these kind of more We're not going to do
0:46
Speaker 1: them all the times that I'm panic, but a little
0:47
Speaker 1: bit more academic, a little bit more educational, a little
0:50
Speaker 1: bit more teaching than coaching, and a little bit more
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Speaker 1: kind of downloading information and nulle than it is specifically
1:04
Speaker 1: inspirational motivation. So today I'm going to do a deep
1:07
Speaker 1: dive into the single most powerful, confusing, brilliant, and occasionally
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Speaker 1: uncooperative piece of tech that you own or I own,
1:15
Speaker 1: and that is our brain. Your brain, my brain. So
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Speaker 1: I guess before we dive in I should unpack the title,
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Speaker 1: which is brain literacy. So what does that mean? Thanks
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Speaker 1: for asking? So it's it's what is it? It's basically
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Speaker 1: the you understanding how your brain works. It's you understanding
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Speaker 1: what it does, how it works, how you and it
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Speaker 1: can relate because it's not you and you're not it,
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Speaker 1: but you're kind of intertwained. So understanding it not in
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Speaker 1: a medical or necessarily necessarily an anatomical or academic or
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Speaker 1: a physiological sense, but in a way that helps you
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Speaker 1: think and live and choose and feel and behave better.
2:00
Speaker 1: So it means knowing the fundamentals, like that your brain
2:04
Speaker 1: is a prediction machine, not a reality machine. That most
2:10
Speaker 1: of your reactions are automatic, not in the moment, not intentional.
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Speaker 1: They almost happen, like a lot of our reactions happen
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Speaker 1: almost despite us, not because of us. If that makes sense.
2:25
Speaker 1: That stress changes what's happening in your brain. That habits
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Speaker 1: are wiring neurological wiring, not will power. That thoughts aren't facts,
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Speaker 1: just thoughts, constructs, just stories. Sometimes the story turns out
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Speaker 1: to be true. So I guess something can be a
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Speaker 1: thought or an idea or a belief and also a fact.
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Speaker 1: But in general terms, just because we think something doesn't
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Speaker 1: mean it's true. I guess it's also understanding your brain
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Speaker 1: is allso so knowing that you can train it, and
3:03
Speaker 1: you can calm it, and you can consciously manipulate what
3:08
Speaker 1: your brain is doing and how it works, you can
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Speaker 1: rewire it over time, and also understanding that your your
3:17
Speaker 1: brain's job is not happiness, it's survival. It's protecting you,
3:24
Speaker 1: it's safety. And it's also knowing that self awareness, understanding you,
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Speaker 1: the understanding of the self that's in the middle of
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Speaker 1: your life. I know that's a bit philosophical, but that
3:38
Speaker 1: changes behavior. You understanding how you work, you understanding your responses,
3:44
Speaker 1: and you starting to open the door on understanding your
3:49
Speaker 1: mind and brain. We maybe will dissect and separate those later.
3:56
Speaker 1: That's more important than motivation from a creating behavior, a
4:00
Speaker 1: change and real world change on planet you. So brain
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Speaker 1: literacy isn't it's not neuroscience trivia. It's about you understanding
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Speaker 1: the mechanics behind your thoughts and emotions and behaviors so
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Speaker 1: that you can work with your brain instead of being
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Speaker 1: confused and frustrated and controlled by it. So I guess
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Speaker 1: in simple terms, it's knowing brain literacy is knowing how
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Speaker 1: your brain functions well enough to improve how you function.
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Speaker 1: And I guess it's important that we all have a
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Speaker 1: basic understanding of how our brain works, because like, it's
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Speaker 1: the author of your story, it's running the show, it's
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Speaker 1: running Planet you, it's the operating headquarters on planet you.
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Speaker 1: So because every thought that you and I have, every
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Speaker 1: feeling that we feel, every decision that we make, every
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Speaker 1: habit that you and I repeat, and every relationship that
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Speaker 1: we navigate is filtered through this kind of one point
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Speaker 1: three kilo if you're in America, three pound, give or
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Speaker 1: take this lump, this prediction machine, this lump of meat
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Speaker 1: that sits between our ears. And when we understand how
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Speaker 1: it works, the wiring, the shortcuts, the biases, the alarms,
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Speaker 1: the habits, the patterns, we stop taking everything personally and
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Speaker 1: start seeing it mechanically. Yeah, a bit more objective, a
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Speaker 1: bit less subjective. We stop blaming ourselves for being weak
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Speaker 1: and broken and start recognizing old wiring survival responses and
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Speaker 1: that long established not always good for us, often destructive
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Speaker 1: automatic programming. And once we get it, once we understand it,
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Speaker 1: like we can't develop, we can't work with we can't solve,
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Speaker 1: we can't mitigate the thing that we don't understand. So
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Speaker 1: once were understand or begin to understand our brain, we
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Speaker 1: can begin to work with it, not fight it. We
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Speaker 1: can calm it, we can we can work at training it,
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Speaker 1: rewiring it, and ultimately steer our life with far more
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Speaker 1: clarity I guess, and control and confidence and self awareness.
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Speaker 1: So for me, learning about the brain, you learning about
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Speaker 1: the brain, Understanding how our brain works, brain literacy. It's
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Speaker 1: not just interesting, it's really really important, and it's also
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Speaker 1: kind of life changing. It's liberating. So our brain runs,
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Speaker 1: our body, shapes our personality, creates our reality, stores memories,
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Speaker 1: controls emotions, forms habits, and makes about ninety five I
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Speaker 1: don't know what the exact number is, but over ninety
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Speaker 1: they say about ninety five percent of our decisions before
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Speaker 1: we're even where we've made them. So much of what
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Speaker 1: we do and how we do it is not even
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Speaker 1: really conscious. It's almost just this as I always talk about,
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Speaker 1: it's this autopilotness, this groundhog day, where we just we
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Speaker 1: don't even really choose consciously, we just respond automatically. And
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Speaker 1: most of us have never really been taught about how
7:19
Speaker 1: this stuff works, and honestly, I'm still solving this problem.
7:24
Speaker 1: I'm still learning this thing. And part of the reason
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Speaker 1: I want to do some of these sessions with you
7:28
Speaker 1: is because I'm learning as I'm teaching. I'm consolidating and
7:32
Speaker 1: clarifying information as I go with you. So we're really,
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Speaker 1: I mean, this is introduction to your brain, one oh one,
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Speaker 1: this is the fundamentals. You're not going to come out
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Speaker 1: the other side of neuroscientists. Neither am I. But we're
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Speaker 1: just stripping it back. So no jargon, no neuroscience flexing,
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Speaker 1: just clear, relatable, Oh that makes sense, explanations of why
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Speaker 1: your brain does what it does, and more importantly, how
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Speaker 1: you can work with it consciously rather than being dragged
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Speaker 1: around by it by your old wiring unconsciously. So we're
8:12
Speaker 1: going to explore why your brain sometimes works against you,
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Speaker 1: how much of your thinking is automatic, why you repeat patterns,
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Speaker 1: why what stress does to your operating system, and how
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Speaker 1: your brain can struct your reality and whether or not
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Speaker 1: we can truly rewire it. So for the purpose of
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Speaker 1: this episode, I've decided to explore ten what I think
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Speaker 1: are important, powerful, fascinating brain related questions. So keep in
8:41
Speaker 1: mind that you're going to forget most of what I
8:43
Speaker 1: share a So this for some of you might be
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Speaker 1: something that you come back and revisit. You might want
8:50
Speaker 1: to listen through. You might not want to listen, or
8:53
Speaker 1: you might go fuck your educational series, Craig, stick it
8:56
Speaker 1: up your clacker, not interested. But for some of you,
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Speaker 1: I know some of you want to understand yourself and
9:01
Speaker 1: understanding yourself, understanding your mind, understanding your actions and reactions,
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Speaker 1: your biases, your default setting, why you do the way
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Speaker 1: you do, why you do life the way you do.
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Speaker 1: A big part of that is trying to understand your
9:16
Speaker 1: own brain. So this might be something that you revisit.
9:22
Speaker 1: Maybe you come back and take notes and do a
9:26
Speaker 1: deeper dive on some of the ideas and concepts that
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Speaker 1: I present here. So question one of my I think
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Speaker 1: I've got ten is what is the role of my brain?
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Speaker 1: So the role of our brain is to run the
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Speaker 1: human system, you and me. That's to unplanet you. It's
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Speaker 1: in charge. So it's the control center that keeps you alive,
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Speaker 1: it helps you navigate the world, and it creates the
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Speaker 1: experience that we call us or you call you, I
9:53
Speaker 1: call me. At the basic level, the brain regulates the
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Speaker 1: essentials heartbeat, breathing, temperature, hunger, hormones, and unity, movement and
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Speaker 1: survival responses. It's constantly scanning our external and internal environments,
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Speaker 1: predicting what's happening, what might happen, what we think is
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Speaker 1: going to happen, and adjusting everything physiologically, psychologically, emotionally, adjusting
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Speaker 1: everything according to what we think is happening or will happen.
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Speaker 1: But it also does not just in that moment, in
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Speaker 1: the moment kind of predictive intuitive survival stuff that it
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Speaker 1: does the high level stuff thinking, planning, learning, remembering, imagining,
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Speaker 1: problem solving, creating meaning. It builds stories, expectations and interpretations.
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Speaker 1: It decides what matters or it predicts what's dangerous, what's possible,
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Speaker 1: and who you think you are identity. So, in short,
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Speaker 1: the brain's role is to manage the body, interpret the world,
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Speaker 1: and create your reality. They're probably very key things. It's
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Speaker 1: both the hardware and the software, the engine that keeps
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Speaker 1: you alive and the storyteller that shapes your life. But
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Speaker 1: question two is somewhat philosophical, but it's a really good
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Speaker 1: and powerful question and relevant, and that is can I
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Speaker 1: manage my brain or does it manage me, And the
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Speaker 1: answer is you're probably going to guess what I'm going
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Speaker 1: to say. The answer is both. So your brain is
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Speaker 1: the automatic pilot, and you're the pilot in training, learning
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Speaker 1: how to take the controls. On the one hand, your
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Speaker 1: brain absolutely manages you. It fires before you think, It
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Speaker 1: predicts stuff before you're aware, it reacts before you've even
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Speaker 1: got the full picture or the context. And it keeps
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Speaker 1: you alive using systems that you can't consciously access. Heartbeat, fear, responses, habits,
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Speaker 1: all these things that happen autonomically. Impulses, cravings, hormones, endocrime system,
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Speaker 1: nervous system, stress, chemistry. So that's the brain in action.
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Speaker 1: But you also you also have the capacity to manage
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Speaker 1: the manager. So every time you pause instead of react,
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Speaker 1: every time you question a thoughts instead of believing it,
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Speaker 1: choose the uncomfortable but useful option or practice the new behavior,
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Speaker 1: that's you taking the controls back from the autopilot. So
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Speaker 1: you can't stop the brain from running its programs, but
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Speaker 1: you can rewire them. You can train your attention, regulate
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Speaker 1: your reactions, rewire your habits. Not quickly, by the way,
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Speaker 1: it takes a while. Update beliefs, change beliefs, challenge beliefs,
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Speaker 1: choose better behaviors. Calm your nervous system again takes a while,
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Speaker 1: takes training, takes patience, takes courage, and you can build
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Speaker 1: a smarter what would we call it, internal operating system.
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Speaker 1: So the brain manages you by defaults. You manage the
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Speaker 1: brain by intention, and that's the work. That's the work.
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Speaker 1: Is you learning to manage your brain. You learning to
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Speaker 1: be the operator of this thing that's just happening all
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Speaker 1: the time anyway. So I'll say that again, the brain
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Speaker 1: manages you by default. You manage the brain by intention,
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Speaker 1: and that's the work, that's the opportunity, that's that's the upgrade.
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Speaker 1: So question three, how do I keep my brain healthy?
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Speaker 1: This is the thing that really fascinates me. And I'm
13:31
Speaker 1: you know, when we know, like we all kind of
13:33
Speaker 1: instinctively and inherently know that the brain is the epicenter
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Speaker 1: of us from a physiological and day to day living
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Speaker 1: and functioning point of view. Some people might argue the
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Speaker 1: soul is the epicenter, but I'm not speaking spiritually or philosophically.
13:48
Speaker 1: I'm speaking scientifically and physiologically here. So I'm surprised that
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Speaker 1: we don't care about our brain. We might say we care,
14:00
Speaker 1: but we don't seem to practically behaviorally show that we
14:04
Speaker 1: care about our brain as much as we should. You know,
14:09
Speaker 1: just look at people shoving drugs into their body, fucks
14:12
Speaker 1: up their brain, people under sleeping. I know, there's a
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Speaker 1: few variables around it, fucks up your brain. People eating
14:17
Speaker 1: bad shit fucks up your brain. Drinking too much booze
14:20
Speaker 1: fuckx up your brain, or at the very least impact
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Speaker 1: your brain negatively. All of these things, and there's a
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Speaker 1: few others that we can't always easily control, like stress
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Speaker 1: and anxiety has a detrial effect on brain chemistry, neurochemistry,
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Speaker 1: and cognitive function. Right, So keeping our brain healthy it
14:38
Speaker 1: should be something we think about. So it's not complicated,
14:44
Speaker 1: but it needs to be consistent. So think of it
14:47
Speaker 1: like compound interests. So it's the small things that you
14:51
Speaker 1: do every day, the habits that you build to create
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Speaker 1: a calmer, smarter, more resilient brain or system over time.
15:00
Speaker 1: So in this whole question of or process or challenge
15:04
Speaker 1: of keeping our brain healthy, and this is all research based,
15:07
Speaker 1: you know this, so and no surprise for me to
15:09
Speaker 1: say this. The first big piece is movement. So exercise
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Speaker 1: is as close as we can get to a miracle
15:16
Speaker 1: drug for the brain. I spoke about this with doctor
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Speaker 1: Bill yesterday or the day before. It boosts blood flow,
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Speaker 1: supports learning and memory, sharpens focus, improves mood, and dramatically
15:29
Speaker 1: reduces the risk of cognitive decline. So the next not surprising,
15:36
Speaker 1: non negotiable, or super important factor is sleep quality. Sleep
15:39
Speaker 1: is like when we're sleeping. It's when the brain basically
15:43
Speaker 1: repairs itself, clears waste, consolidates memories, and resets our emotional
15:51
Speaker 1: system kind of like just hits the replenish button. So yeah,
15:57
Speaker 1: we need sleeper is super crucial. I know that that's not,
16:01
Speaker 1: you know, a revelation, but it kind of. It's very
16:04
Speaker 1: very protective and restorative for the brain. And then there's
16:09
Speaker 1: fuel or food. So your brain is sixty percent fat,
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Speaker 1: incredibly metabolically active. In other words, it uses a lot
16:17
Speaker 1: of calories. A little known fact is that it uses
16:23
Speaker 1: Your brain uses about twenty percent of your daily calorie intake.
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Speaker 1: So let's say you had two thousand calories in a day.
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Speaker 1: That little motherfucker in your skull uses twenty percent of
16:38
Speaker 1: two thousand calories is four hundred calories, so four hundred
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Speaker 1: of your two thousand calories, So it uses about twenty
16:47
Speaker 1: percent of calories, so four hundred of those two thousand
16:49
Speaker 1: in this theoretical example would go just for brain fuel. So,
16:55
Speaker 1: like I said, your brain sixty percent fat. It's incredibly
16:57
Speaker 1: metabolically active, and it relies heavily on great nutrition. If
17:02
Speaker 1: it doesn't get great nutrition, even if it gets the calories,
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Speaker 1: it can't work as well. So AMEGA three is antioxidants, polyphenols,
17:11
Speaker 1: whole foods, And of course your brain is largely water also,
17:16
Speaker 1: so it needs to be hydrated, so well fed, well
17:19
Speaker 1: hydrated to keep it working well and ultraprocessed crap, albeit
17:25
Speaker 1: still lots of calories. But it's kind of like putting
17:28
Speaker 1: really shitty fuel in your car. When your car needs
17:31
Speaker 1: ninety eight octane and you're putting ninety one octane or
17:37
Speaker 1: eighty one octane, it'll kind of go, but it's certainly
17:42
Speaker 1: not going to run. So you're putting something in it,
17:45
Speaker 1: but you're not putting in the optimal fuel for that
17:48
Speaker 1: particular system. And it's the same with your brain. Also,
17:52
Speaker 1: we know stress is a factor in terms of brain function.
17:55
Speaker 1: Brain health. So managing stress is ruual. And again, this
18:01
Speaker 1: is a multi dimensional thing, isn't it me saying manager stress?
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Speaker 1: That doesn't help I understand that because there's no solution
18:09
Speaker 1: in that, but just highlighting the fact that stress is
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Speaker 1: an issue. Stress itself isn't the problem as in a
18:16
Speaker 1: one off, but it's the unrelenting, constant, unmanaged stress, constant anxiety,
18:24
Speaker 1: constant overthinking, constant all those physiological symptoms that are attached
18:30
Speaker 1: to that overthinking that's what does the damage and the inflammation,
18:34
Speaker 1: that's what does the damage to the brain over time.
18:37
Speaker 1: So you know, slow breathing, movement, recovery, rituals, healthy boundaries,
18:45
Speaker 1: any kind of meditative practice, whatever meditation looks like for you.
18:49
Speaker 1: For me, and we spoke about this the other day,
18:52
Speaker 1: for me, meditation has been on a motorbike. So the
18:55
Speaker 1: thing that would excite a lot of people's nervous system
18:58
Speaker 1: or switch on there, you know, their sympathetic nervous system
19:01
Speaker 1: through the roof, For me, it actually makes me calm,
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Speaker 1: It actually gives me joy, It actually weirdly relaxes me.
19:11
Speaker 1: And in terms of keeping your brain working, well, don't
19:13
Speaker 1: forget learning so constantly training our brain just like we
19:18
Speaker 1: train our biceps and our quads and our back and
19:20
Speaker 1: all our bits and pieces. Our brain loves to be stimulated.
19:24
Speaker 1: It loves to learn. Might you might not necessarily love it,
19:28
Speaker 1: but your brain stays young by forming new neural pathways.
19:31
Speaker 1: And that happens when we expose ourselves to new ideas,
19:35
Speaker 1: new lessons, new information. So our brain, like our biceps
19:39
Speaker 1: and triceps and quads, our brain needs to be stimulated.
19:43
Speaker 1: There needs to be some what would the analogy be,
19:47
Speaker 1: almost like progressive overload to keep it adapting, to keep
19:51
Speaker 1: it creating those new neural pathways, to keep it healthy.
19:55
Speaker 1: So read stuff, practice stuff, ask questions, solve problem, explore
20:01
Speaker 1: new things, have new conversations with new people, expose yourself
20:05
Speaker 1: to different ideas, stay curious. We're nearly there. Also we
20:10
Speaker 1: know from keeping your brain healthy point of view, human
20:13
Speaker 1: connection matters a lot, and it matters more than people think. Like.
20:18
Speaker 1: Good relationships are literally protective for your brain. They protect
20:26
Speaker 1: cognitive function. They keep your brain, believe it or not,
20:30
Speaker 1: bigger and healthier while isolation while social disconnection while loneliness
20:39
Speaker 1: literally shrinks your brain and can be associated with cognitive
20:45
Speaker 1: decline or in other words, your brain not working as
20:47
Speaker 1: well as it could or should, and of course I
20:50
Speaker 1: need to. I can't finish this section without talking about
20:53
Speaker 1: the obvious brain killers, you know, smoking drugs, excess of alcohol,
20:59
Speaker 1: chronic anger. People don't think about that, chronic anger. You're
21:03
Speaker 1: getting yourself into a state all the time, producing all
21:06
Speaker 1: of those stress hormones all the time, which produces inflammation
21:12
Speaker 1: in your brain and in your body, which is super destructive,
21:18
Speaker 1: super inflammatory, super super negative impact on your body. And
21:24
Speaker 1: of course sitting on your ass for years at a time.
21:27
Speaker 1: We'll chuck that in as the final one. And none
21:29
Speaker 1: of this, you know, our brain needs movement, our body
21:32
Speaker 1: needs movement, and none of this is fancy. It's just
21:35
Speaker 1: daily kind of brain friendly living. All right. I'm not
21:40
Speaker 1: positive about this next section, but fuck it, I'm going
21:43
Speaker 1: to do it anyway. You may or may not resonate
21:45
Speaker 1: with this. I was trying to think of, how can
21:47
Speaker 1: I explain, explain on an interesting way, on a pretty
21:52
Speaker 1: fundamental level, the anatomy and the physiology. So, in other words,
21:56
Speaker 1: what's in the brain and how it works? What are
21:58
Speaker 1: the bits of the brain where are they? That's the anatomy.
22:02
Speaker 1: The physiology is how does it work. And I know
22:06
Speaker 1: for some of you this will be confusing, some of
22:07
Speaker 1: you fascinating, maybe enlightening, But here we go. So I've
22:12
Speaker 1: come up with a bit of a metaphor. Imagine your
22:14
Speaker 1: brain as a massive, old, but upgradeable house that you've
22:21
Speaker 1: lived in your whole life. You didn't pick the floor plan,
22:25
Speaker 1: you didn't choose the day corps. You just woke up
22:27
Speaker 1: here one day as a kid, and you've been learning
22:31
Speaker 1: the layout of that place ever since. So this house
22:34
Speaker 1: has a few key rooms that run the whole operations.
22:37
Speaker 1: So downstairs, near the front door is the security office
22:43
Speaker 1: in this place. That's the amygdala. We call that. Generally,
22:46
Speaker 1: we see that as the emotional epicenter of the brain.
22:50
Speaker 1: So the amigdalar, it's got motion senses, alarms, and a
22:53
Speaker 1: guard who's very enthusiastic but not always very accurate. He
22:57
Speaker 1: thinks every noise is a threat designed to keep you
23:00
Speaker 1: alive but not comfortable. And when he senses real danger
23:05
Speaker 1: or sorry, when he senses danger, real or imagined, he
23:08
Speaker 1: slams the shutters, locks the doors, and sends panic signals
23:12
Speaker 1: through the whole house. And often that dude does that,
23:15
Speaker 1: the security dude, the amigdala the security office in our metaphor,
23:20
Speaker 1: he does that for no logical reason, but because of
23:23
Speaker 1: a perception. And which is why you know our overthinking
23:29
Speaker 1: can turn into all these this cascade of physiological problems.
23:32
Speaker 1: And also why we can we can. We have the
23:35
Speaker 1: capacity to literally invent a problem out of thin air,
23:39
Speaker 1: and while there is no real problem, it actually becomes
23:43
Speaker 1: a real problem for us as an experience, not because
23:46
Speaker 1: in our external world there's some kind of danger, but
23:49
Speaker 1: because our internal world, in our internal world, there's a story,
23:53
Speaker 1: and that becomes a problem. So right next to the
23:57
Speaker 1: security office is the memory filing room. We call that
24:00
Speaker 1: the hip of campus, and that's where new memories get sorted, labeled,
24:05
Speaker 1: and stored. When the security when the guard in the
24:07
Speaker 1: security office panics, the memory team can't work properly, which
24:11
Speaker 1: is why fear and stress often shut down clear thinking
24:15
Speaker 1: and learning, which is why performing under pressure is such
24:21
Speaker 1: a skill. Like if you see somebody like I guess
24:25
Speaker 1: my story out of this is when my training partner
24:29
Speaker 1: died at the gym, mark when he temporarily died when
24:31
Speaker 1: he had a cardiac arresque cardiac arrest and he was
24:35
Speaker 1: on the floor and all of the things that happen
24:38
Speaker 1: when somebody is dead on the floor were happening. All
24:42
Speaker 1: of those physiological changes. Not a very pretty sight. And
24:44
Speaker 1: in the middle of all of that, everyone in that room,
24:50
Speaker 1: thankfully other than me, everyone panicked, nobody was thinking clearly,
24:55
Speaker 1: nobody was helpful. So people who are normally quite capable
25:02
Speaker 1: and quite confident and competent in certain situations, they become
25:07
Speaker 1: the opposite of that. So being able to perform under pressure,
25:12
Speaker 1: being able to perform in the middle of stress, being
25:14
Speaker 1: able to perform when things aren't going well is something
25:20
Speaker 1: we need to hopefully try to develop. So upstairs in
25:26
Speaker 1: our house, with the bright lights and big windows, that's
25:29
Speaker 1: the executive office. We call that the prefrontal cortex. So
25:32
Speaker 1: that's where all the smart stuff happens. So this is
25:37
Speaker 1: the smart part of the house. It does the planning
25:39
Speaker 1: and the reasoning and the critical thinking and the decision
25:44
Speaker 1: making and the emotional regulation, the long term thinking, and
25:49
Speaker 1: it's incredible, but it can be slow to activate. And
25:53
Speaker 1: if the security office downstairs hits the alarm, the executive
25:58
Speaker 1: office often gets low down instantly, So no meetings, no decisions,
26:03
Speaker 1: no logic, just survival mode. So when the amigdala, remember
26:07
Speaker 1: the emotional epicenter, When that goes nuts, then quite often
26:11
Speaker 1: the prefrontal cortex where logic and decisions and critical thinking happen,
26:15
Speaker 1: that goes offline and it just goes into survival mode.
26:21
Speaker 1: So down the hall from that is the habit workshop,
26:24
Speaker 1: the basal ganglia. Now this is where your routines and
26:27
Speaker 1: default behaviors are built and stored. And once something becomes
26:32
Speaker 1: a habit in your brain, it's like installing automated lighting.
26:36
Speaker 1: You don't think about it, it just happens. So good
26:40
Speaker 1: habits feel like helpful upgrades. Bad habits feel like wiring
26:44
Speaker 1: errors that you can't undo, even though you actually can.
26:49
Speaker 1: And then there's the control panel, the autonomic nervous system
26:53
Speaker 1: that quietly regulates breathing and heart rate and digestion and
26:58
Speaker 1: body temperature without thinking in inverted commons, without the prefrontal
27:03
Speaker 1: core text needing to come online and make these decisions,
27:07
Speaker 1: so that all just that happens despite you, not because
27:10
Speaker 1: of you, and all behind the scenes. These are behind
27:13
Speaker 1: the scenes jobs that you don't notice until something goes wrong.
27:18
Speaker 1: Then we notice the shit out of it and scattered
27:21
Speaker 1: through the house as the renovation team. That's neuroplasticity. So
27:24
Speaker 1: every thought, every repetition, every reaction becomes a blueprint for
27:29
Speaker 1: a tiny remodel. It's slow but relentless. So use a
27:34
Speaker 1: room enough and it strengthens. Avoid it long enough and
27:37
Speaker 1: it weakens. So learn something new, as I was talking
27:41
Speaker 1: about before and keeping our healthy, our brain healthy. Learn
27:44
Speaker 1: something new, so train our brain and we literally build
27:48
Speaker 1: new circuitry and the person. And the interesting part is
27:54
Speaker 1: you're not just the person living in the house. You're
27:56
Speaker 1: also the apprentice builder and the trainee site manager. You
28:01
Speaker 1: can teach the security office not to freak out at
28:03
Speaker 1: every noise. You can strengthen the executive office so it
28:06
Speaker 1: stays open during those tough traumatic times. You can clean
28:11
Speaker 1: up the memory room by sleeping well. You can redesign
28:15
Speaker 1: the habit workshop one behavior at a time, and you
28:19
Speaker 1: can guide the renovation team by choosing what to practice
28:23
Speaker 1: and repeat. So the brain House, the brain Dash House,
28:27
Speaker 1: will never be perfect, but you and I can absolutely
28:31
Speaker 1: learn to run it better. And once we understand the
28:34
Speaker 1: different rooms, the wiring and the systems, we can stop
28:38
Speaker 1: being dragged around by the house and instead start shaping
28:41
Speaker 1: it into something that we can actually survive and thrive
28:47
Speaker 1: in something we can live well in. All right, Question
28:52
Speaker 1: five is why does my brain sometimes work against me?
28:56
Speaker 1: So let's start with a big, uncomfortable truth. So, your
29:00
Speaker 1: brain isn't built to make you happy or joyful. It's
29:05
Speaker 1: not built for happiness or fulfillment or personal growth. It's built,
29:10
Speaker 1: as I've said to you before, it's built for survival,
29:12
Speaker 1: for safety, to keep you safe. So that's how it
29:15
Speaker 1: comes out of the factory. That's the factory setting. So
29:19
Speaker 1: when your brain in inverted commas works against you, it's
29:23
Speaker 1: usually not trying to ruin your life. It's trying to
29:26
Speaker 1: save your life. It's trying to protect you by using
29:30
Speaker 1: I guess ancient software. In a modern world, there aren't
29:36
Speaker 1: too many sabertoothed tigers. There aren't too many threats that
29:39
Speaker 1: were imminent threats two ten thousand years ago. It's different now, obviously.
29:45
Speaker 1: But your brain's first job is literally to keep you alive,
29:49
Speaker 1: not to help you thrive, not to help you innovate
29:51
Speaker 1: or become a bloody ig Instagram superstar or podcast or
29:57
Speaker 1: success or. Your brain's job is literally key you alive.
30:02
Speaker 1: And so that's what it does. It prioritizes predictability over possibility,
30:06
Speaker 1: familiarity over improvement, certainty over growth, safety over progress. And
30:13
Speaker 1: that's why you can desperately want to change but still
30:17
Speaker 1: cling to old habits, and why you avoid discomfort even
30:22
Speaker 1: when you know that that discomfort is probably the thing
30:25
Speaker 1: that you need to be doing or leaning into or embracing.
30:27
Speaker 1: And it's why you can overthink, catastrophize, freeze, procrastinate, and
30:32
Speaker 1: self sabotage. So the brain's not trying to punish you,
30:36
Speaker 1: it's trying to protect you from perceived risk. The problem
30:42
Speaker 1: is your brain can't tell the difference between a real
30:46
Speaker 1: threat and actual legitimate, genuine threat, a social threat, an
30:51
Speaker 1: emotional threat, and what we might call a growth opportunity
30:57
Speaker 1: that just feels scary to survival wiring. Giving a presentation
31:03
Speaker 1: might feel like meeting a tiger, not for me, but
31:07
Speaker 1: maybe few. Having a tough conversation for some people feels
31:10
Speaker 1: like just immersing themselves in danger. Trying something new can
31:16
Speaker 1: feel like a threat to stability. But I guess here's
31:20
Speaker 1: the kicker. The same brain that tries to keep you safe,
31:22
Speaker 1: that same brain is also trainable, so you can manage it.
31:27
Speaker 1: The security guard in your head. The amigdala can learn
31:30
Speaker 1: the difference between danger and discomfort. The prefrontal cortex can
31:35
Speaker 1: be strengthened, Your automatic fear responses can be what can
31:39
Speaker 1: they be recalibrated, recalibrated, and your habits can be changed.
31:43
Speaker 1: We can create new neural pathways. Those habits can be
31:47
Speaker 1: reprogrammed and rewritten. So when your brain seems to be
31:49
Speaker 1: working against you, remind yourself it's not broken, lazy, or defective.
31:54
Speaker 1: It's just doing what it was built to do. It's
31:57
Speaker 1: just doing its job. But based on an out dated
32:00
Speaker 1: rule book. Your job is to create a new one. Alrighty,
32:05
Speaker 1: So I've just hit the pause button here because I'm
32:08
Speaker 1: looking at the time and I'm realizing I didn't know
32:12
Speaker 1: that this would take so long. So I'm going to
32:16
Speaker 1: make this two parter. So I'm going to call that
32:20
Speaker 1: the end of part one. I'll be back tomorrow to
32:25
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully getting something out of this. I just
32:27
Speaker 1: think it's really important. Maybe it's just to me, maybe
32:30
Speaker 1: because I'm just fascinated with the brain and the mind
32:34
Speaker 1: and the intersection and human behavior. And maybe it's because
32:39
Speaker 1: I'm getting old and I think, fuck, I want my
32:40
Speaker 1: brain to work as well as it can for as
32:42
Speaker 1: long as it can, but maybe you want that for
32:44
Speaker 1: you too. Nonetheless, I'll be back tomorrow, same bat channel
32:52
Speaker 1: for part two. See then,