I used to work in an Alzheimer's Clinic when I was trying to get into medical
school and once in a while these older folks they would have dementia parts of
the brains would literally wither like the flesh would wither it's not just the
thinking and the electricity and hidden painting abilities would come out and
I'm not talking like they're gonna be at in a museum at some point but a dramatic
change in their in the way they wrote in their ability to paint landscapes and
those kind of things make me think there's a lot of untapped potential
so those examples when I take you know when I take care of brain injured it's
not all of sad cases they can be phenomenal in some ways and you learn
that there's so much going on in the brain that we are not seeing on the
daily level so I think there's a lot of potential we haven't we haven't tapped
into that we could if we structured things better anything difficult where
you have to think is good for your brain if you ask you saying bol how do I get
stronger legs to run its intuitive but the flesh in our skulls it's meant to
think and feel and that is the power of self growth and it's a Thinking Machines
of thinking flesh that you actually have to use or to protect itself because it's
an energy hog right it's three pounds the use of 20% if you're not using parts
of it it'll program itself to let those parts of the garden with it so the
diversity of thinking and the depth of thinking just one level past what you're
used to is the way to keep the whole garden flourishing and it is a garden
when there's chemicals there are things moving there different types of brain
cells it's not just neurons so I would try to give that metaphor analogy if you
will that it's a garden and you have to irrigate it and stimulate and tend to
all the corners particularly the ones you're starting to neglect
then the creative things happen you can just sit down have them happen you got
to work and dream and go hard and on top of that something creative comparable so
now we have the understanding that the brain is meant to think the brain is
also meant to command your body to move and absolutely the minute you don't use
your left hand the right parietal lobe of the motor strip says and I could have
used much I'll shave down that I'll shave down that density of those brain
cells a little bit so that's what movements in court and then the other
thing is navigation when you see old people and they lose their way home well
that is a particularly address also many things are global in the brain but
navigation is in the temporal lobe and they have dementia in that area
navigation also is a spatial awareness is a function of the brain and sometimes
when we're on our phones too much we don't have that so my kids that some
don't look down not religiously or adamantly but try to just remember our
route I just looked up and see how see how far you can get I think those habits
will help us as we get less young and those are practical things we can do
during the day and as far as the the other element is brain training it
doesn't have to be some weird game that's not intuitive
I think brain training just means learning as a habit one step past where
you're comfortable if you're reading and you know it your pains and it's an idle
if it's too hard it's not even engaged I'm like I'm not gonna win this race I'm
not gonna pick in a second gear so just just like video games just good enough
to get to the next level right they don't hit you with the fifth level the
tilt level upfront its level 1 to level 2 level 2 to level 3 that's what
learning is so despite your knowledge and intellect
it's just that level right beyond you that is brain training so you don't have
to bind you just have to challenge yourself in
thing brains a hybrid vehicle it grew it evolved through thousands and thousands
and thousands of years of lots of food scarcity you didn't eat all the time and
so it's got a backup mechanism called ketone so after 16 hours if you don't
put blue goes in and the liver is done the releasing the glucose that's held
onto through backage reserve then I'll start burning fat clip off those oxygens
and hydrogen's and they'll make key tones out of it intermittent fasting can
also help you lose weight I think that's why most people aren't interested in it
but it's the way the brain prefers to get its fuel source and it's based on a
diet lessons about dieting learn through
controlling epilepsy and seizures and kids in areas where there's no medicine
now intermittent fasting is back and forth glucose and then ketones glucose
and then ketone but for kids if you just get them almost nearly all ketone as the
source that goes up to the brain through an all fat diet their seizure
you know so that's proof that food changes mind so this whole myth about
you only use 20% of your brain no we use on a present brain and pictures show
that but to get things done we might only use 15 because efficiency it's
about ruts like dominoes falling in a certain path and the best way I can
explain it is as you grow the brain the the way the electrical electricity flows
the way the connections a prioritize is a bit like skiing down a mountain
creating these electrical grooves of sort where if you see something you see
a cliff and fear it goes down a certain path and every time you do that and
you've reinforced it it actually becomes less expensive energy wise to follow and
fall into that habit so these pathways these habits in our mind these rituals
these things that are good for us we want to hold on to those but a lot of
them have become deeply carved you know routes down the mountain and filling
those in burying them and finding healthy ones is gonna be an energy
expending process the effort will be harder in the beginning and then as you
create a new route down the mountain you can condition yourself to have a
more favorable and constructive responses that's the best way I can
explain is why effort will lead to change and your most effort will be
spent in the beginning and then you can change your emotional and cognitive
responses by conditioning yourself to find a different different route dynamo
depression OCD and and obesity the drive to eat it can all
be modulated and they're all housed near each other that speaks to what they are
is is an imbalance of the emotional drive with the ability for the frontal
lobes to tamp down some of these instincts it's instinctive to eat
sometimes it can feel instinctive to be depressed and sometimes obsessive
compulsion is is a part of our brain and it's a natural part of our brain if it's
okay to have those feelings when you have too much
the imbalance isn't just electrochemical in those emotional hubs it's a it's the
frontal lobes not accessing their potential to tamp down some of the
emotions that thinking of creating new habits and creating new values
creating less triggers in your life that's the opportunity that we all have
I think that's the project you're working on what's the stuff we do
control without zapping ourselves and without putting pills in us those things
set the boundaries but the frontal lobe regulation of how we feel is in your own
command thought can change how fat your heartbeat why wouldn't we believe that
thought can change those subcortical structures about anxiety and depression
if you get depressed you're sort of you know that you can get stuck but people
who aren't having those mental health issues but just want to be better and
live a more rich life in the sense of personal experience we can think about
our lives and our habits and triggers and create effects inside that's the
mind-body connection is is mind down the body and many people feel you know body
back up to and that's where meditation and
meditative breathing come in it's not a simple one it's not a quick fix it's not
gonna be a bullet it actually takes work you mentioned
repetition it takes work it takes effort and there is no shortcut to it but it's
a glacial change that can happen over a few months to a few years and I think
once you know people go to the gym they can't not go to the gym anymore I think
people who find these rituals and habits that make them feel better they become
addictive to that and they're constructive and they're not
pharmacologic you exercise it releases it at shower itself the brain says hey
I'm feeling good this is good I like this I'm gonna create a new rut I'm
gonna remind you feel good when you run the brain will shower itself with growth
factors there are growth factors brain says hey you know the electrochemical
balance is better with those so I think that's where you get the runner's high
it's not just a drowning it's not dopamine's a happy chemical I'm jacked
up I'm on adrenaline it's just such a complex ecosystem and rather than
feeling intimidated by that to me I just see opportunities on how people can you
know improve their lives changing what shows up on the counter is powerful and
if we ate less and if we ate efficiently and we did you know it's a less carbon
imprint I think all of those things it's good for the planet it's good for us
it's mind and body and and then it's also communal you know then then it goes
to the next generation it's not just something I did and then I think it can
perpetuate so it's not just an individual thing