The Neuroscience of Becoming Your Best Self w/ Craig Manning

20:01Just Ingredients:Oh, wow. Okay. You're making my mind think. Yes. Okay, so people do tell people to be positive. And I do that all the time to my kids. I know. Be positive today. Have a good day. You said it earlier and I didn't want to. But like in 1952, Norman Vincent Peale came up with the idea of thinking positive. He was a pastor trying to help people move beyond the depression of the Second World War. He was a good guy trying to do good things. But it wasn't accepted in the field of psychology. But it became such a strong fad over time. It's become more accepted. but positivity is very vague. Do we want positive energy?

20:39Yes. But think about positive and negative as energy.

20:42Just Ingredients:Okay. Like always you want to have good energy, but the brain is built to filter thoughts. That's why we have a brain to think and to make sense of the world. Okay. If we're always trying to be positive, we're just turning into robots and becoming super mechanical and not using the brain. And actually we're creating more stress. I'll give an example. A gymnast years ago that I'd worked with had fractured her spine, broke her spine, and was coming back from it. I'll never forget. I was driving out of Cache Valley. She calls me and she says this. She's like, I'm in pain. I'm not doing well. I'm healed.

21:16They tell me I'm fine, but I'm in a lot of pain and I'm not doing well. And I'm like, okay. And she says, but I'm trying to be positive. I'm like, all right. Okay. So how's that working out for you? She's like, well, I keep telling myself I feel good. I feel great. I'm like, wait, wait, wait. You just said, I'm in a huge amount of pain. I'm not doing well. And then you say, do you try to be positive? Like technically that's called lying. You're lying to yourself.

21:40Just Ingredients:Interesting. And the brain knows that when you're lying, it actually triggers more cognitive dissonance and you have more stress and anxiety because you're, there's nothing to trust. Cause now I'm like, Oh my gosh, I tell my kids to be positive all the time. And I'll give you an example. I was telling you earlier that my son plays high school golf and I'm always telling him on the course, which now I'm not ever going to do again. I'm always like, be positive. Tell your mind you can do this. That's still good. Can you see right there? It's good, but it's the specificity. Sorry, but the mind is language.

22:14So the more exact your words are, the greatest sense of control you have. This is why truth is so important.

22:20Just Ingredients:So what should I be telling him instead? Telling him like, you can hit this down that fairway. You can make this shot. Hold the follow through, like specific actions, just like pitching. The more specific it is, the more it's tangible. And now he has a sense of control and the fear won't occupy the space at the same time. Okay. So you're saying the positivity, be positive, is too vague. Yes. Therefore, it's not occupying the brain. It doesn't occupy enough space. So then the negative thoughts can creep in at the same time. Feel that empty space. Yes. So instead, we want to be proactive, which is skills.

22:55Do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to short backswing, hold the follow through. Tell him to focus on what he needs to do on that shot.

23:06Just Ingredients:Tennis, golf, baseball, a business corporate person. You're saying, I'm going to hit this shot down the fairway. Yes. What happens when it doesn't go down the fairway? You just go to where the ball is and you focus on the next shot. You don't worry that like I told my mind this, but it didn't happen? The only reason the central nervous system won't do what you tell it is if you're too vague. Coming back to the vague. Because if I'm your nervous system for a minute and I'm at the base of your brain and you say something vague, the nervous system doesn't know what to do with that. And that's why the performance is vague.

23:38Just Ingredients:So I really can tell my mind whatever I want to tell it and it's going to happen. The more specific you tell your nervous system what to do, the more exact the context the nervous system will do what you tell it to do. That's its job. You have to believe this, though. Well, if you do it a couple of times, that's where the specificity and you see the result, yeah, you believe pretty quick. Okay, so let's say I'm terrified of bungee jumping. Okay, yeah. So I'm just going to tell my brain I'm not terrified of bungee jumping. You want to be careful not to normalize, I'm terrified of bungee jumping or normalize when we say, I can't remember things.

24:15The more you say it, the subconscious just stores whatever you tell it the most. So there's no filter there. We have to be careful of that. The subconscious is not a morality meter. It just does what you tell us. Hence, practice makes permanent. It doesn't make perfect. So if we keep saying to ourselves, I'm getting older, well, then you're storing that memory in your subconscious. Instead of saying, like, I terrified of bungee jumping, you'll say, like, I got to do this and going to do this if I'm going to choose to do it. You've got to focus on the proactive skills and actions of what you're going to do when you bungee jump.

24:49Just Ingredients:Okay, so I did bungee jump to conquer my fear. Good job. My assistant over here, she actually gave me the thought process of what if you like it? Ask yourself what if you like it. Yes. And so I kept telling my brain, I'm afraid because it sounds scary, but I might actually like it. So I've got to go try it to see if I actually like it. So is that sort of a switch? Same thing. That's a switch. You flipped from the reactive to the proactive in that moment. But let's go here for a minute. In 1963, Dr. Joseph Murphy was the first one that came up with the idea that the subconscious is not a morality meter.

25:23It just stores whatever you want in the subconscious. whatever you vividly imagine or repeat, that's what stores memories. Well, we now have brain scans that we can actually see he was right. So we can see it. And when you, vividly is an old school word, but when you're specific and you can mentally rehearse what you're going to do, we've put brain probes on the brain. When you're physically doing it compared to mentally rehearsing it, it's the same part of the brain. Meaning the brain doesn't know you're not doing it if you're specific in going through what you want to do.

26:00Just Ingredients:Okay. So let's take golf for an example. So he could be laying in bed, visualizing the swing, mentally rehearsing it. And it's the specificity. Yes. Being very specific about it. Yes. And that's going to be equivalent to him out there practicing the swing. Yes, absolutely. Wow. Got to be specific. Lay there. I'm doing it with all the athletes I work with, go over in your brain, just keep it to three though. What are you going to do in the game tomorrow? Be specific about it. And I got to be careful about names, but I'm consulting with the Jazz right now and we got some young, great players there, but we're doing this with all the players, like mentally rehearsing pre-game.

26:37Michael Jordan did it. Dennis Rodman did it. If you don't know this though, you don't do it. You don't even think about doing it, but you want to prime your brain of what you're going to do before you do it.

26:49Just Ingredients:And are they going through the whole game or they're going through scenarios? What are they? How are they prepping? Yes, specific scenarios, preferably around their strengths. But they're going to go through in their head. Okay, when I go up against this player, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. When I go up in this play, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. As you notice, always three. Three things. The conscious mind is finite. It can only handle three things. Dr. Rogers very won the Nobel Prize for that. We cannot have more than three things on your conscious mind at one time.

27:20Just Ingredients:Okay, explain that to me. So let's take a business setting. Someone thinks they can't do something in the business setting. I can't go up against my CFO or something. You've done a one-on-one with them and they're upset about somebody and you're, after meeting with them, you want them to have a clear plan when they leave. Fair, right? Okay. Always make sure they have three things on their mind when they leave. So what are you going to focus on when you leave? What's the number one thing you're going to focus on? I'm going to focus on this. And if they're too vague, this is my job. Because most people are too vague.

27:51Most people don't do the mental work to be specific enough. Hence, there's not enough clarity. So nearly everyone, and we can go through that, it just takes training for them to be more specific in their thought. The accuracy of your thought is where high functioning is.

28:06Just Ingredients:So how do people become more accurate with their thoughts? Yes, just constantly trying to get them to be more aware of their thoughts and what they're saying so that they can be deliberate. in their practice and keep creating good habits all the time. This really is mind-blowing to me because I've always thought like what you tell your brain is what happens. Let's say teenage girls. A lot of, oh, I'm so ugly. So-and-so is so much prettier than me. I'm overweight. The mind starts believing that. The more you tell it, it's like the subconscious just, whatever you repeat the most, gets stored in the subconscious.

28:40Just Ingredients:It's not a good habit. They flip that to say, I am beautiful. I am. The more, yes, but I would say that's good. That's like a belief statement. But you want to be specific and say, I am, I don't know. For me, I'm like, I'm skinny. I'm long. I'm lean. I really like my hair. I like my eye color. I love being bold. Yeah. And it's like, I'm not comparing with others though. Because when you compare with others, that's when you're triggering the fight or flight again. I'm not comparing yourself with others. and some people even here will think that you know you got to be humble yes absolutely but humility is actually when you're stopped comparing pride is what is rooted in the comparison with others it's okay to believe in yourself it's okay to believe and enjoy who you are well i wasn't always like that when i was young i hated how skinny my body was and wasn't big enough strong enough muscular enough especially trying to be a pro athlete now i'm like i wish i had somebody like me teaching me like no you're quick i love being quick i love having a great slice backhand i love being bold i love having good posture you choose who you become let's go back to you figure out your strengths your identity you work on your skill set yep but there's so many out there though that might be aware of their strengths and might work on some skill sets but still are afraid to do so many things in life.

30:01Yeah, so many fears. That's what I spend my life doing, trying to help people break free of fear and just become more fearless and try to unlock their potential, enjoy life as much as possible. Yeah, it's a lifelong pursuit of constantly trying to be in that success, playing to win mindset. It really is like the people that are disciplined and commit to living that life. Yes, it's a lot of work.

30:25Just Ingredients:Okay, so for those that are listening, that are like, yeah, I want to get over this fear. Give them three things that they can do to get over this fear. First, got to be aware of your own thoughts and learn to control your own self-talk so it's yours. So you're in control of your own thoughts in your head. How do you do that? Proactive self-talk. Keep trying to talk to yourself around the do's, not the don'ts. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. And specific. Yeah, specific. Try to be specific. I'd also say have belief statements. It's good to have some belief statements. This goes back to the research around placebos, which we've now proven actually works it's good to believe in yourself like when you have the doubts and fears you got to have that just in that moment like no i got this i can do this uh for me it's supposed to bring good energy so like do some speaking engagements here and there and there was a big one down in vegas like a year ago my wife calls me before it and she's like are you nervous i'm like yeah a little bit and then i'm like but i said to her but i'm gonna crush it like a banana cheese cream cake.

31:23And she starts laughing. And I did too, because it brings good energy. That's what belief statements are supposed to. And we love Pitch Perfect and the actress off that. So that's always been my power statement. I'm going to crush it like a banana cheesecake. But when I was young, I didn't do that. I was always living in fear. I just know the science now. So I don't let my mind ever go to the fear. I just let it always focus on what I'm going to do. But then the third one that is big that we haven't talked about, and everyone that's heard me, I'm sorry that I always say this, but you got to get a journal and write down three things you do well each day with specificity.

31:56When you write down, I did this well, I did this well, I did this well with specifics, you're doing your own research and you'll identify your strengths. The more you do it, you'll start to see a pattern. We establish a pattern of truth by three, need three data points to establish a pattern of truth. That's why we get them to write down three things they're doing well. So because that's starting to wire their subconscious mind to be more success orientated. And that's the ultimate way that we create transformational changes. We need them to do the mental work to reinforce the wiring in their brain so that they're in control of who they become.

32:31Three things they did well and one thing I want to do better. Not what they did wrong, what they want to do better.

32:37Just Ingredients:So four things every night. Write down, yes, Write down three things you did well, one thing you can do better every night. Every athlete I work with and the people on our team work with, that's mandatory. Everyone does that. And I can't just type it on my phone or iPad. I have to handwrite it. Norwegian University showed 250 probes on a brain. When you handwrite, the brain's firing like crazy. When you type it, it's not firing at all. So the neurons are firing. Yes. It's mapping your brain significantly better when you handwrite. Okay, so for my listeners, when you say mapping the brain, I know that's a general term for you, easy to, but what does that mean to someone who has, this is new to them?

33:21Yeah, technically it's neural architecture. So when you write, you are the one in control of mapping connections between one synapse to the next and the subconscious. And the more precise you are, the thicker the connection, the more actual words and when you handwrite, the thicker the connection so the pathways are thickening creating a wire like from one synapse to the next and all of them are interconnected and so the more you do that you're really creating a map in your brain and then the research says so that's called coherence and coherence says every time you have one recall the whole it fires the whole map which is cool so like all your skills and all of that are all interconnected if you organize it.

34:03This is really why we have a brain. We have a conscious mind for information sorting, which means filtering our thoughts, and then information storage. So really, not to be positive or negative, but to store information in there, skills. And it's up to you, whatever you store. But the more organized it is, the more it's firing and connecting through all the other skills. It's like an organized library that you can pull out knowledge whenever you need to to use it. Let's take a quick break to hear from our show sponsor.

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35:13Just Ingredients:They come in tons of flavors, are easy to toss into a backpack, gym bag, or car, and they're the kind of snack I don't have to hesitate saying yes to. Head to scoutorganic.com to shop because Scout is having a huge sell. From August 14th through the 23rd, you can use my code JUSTINGREDIENTS to save 25 % off your entire order or 30 % off when you spend$75 or more. If you're getting ready for back to school, this is the time to fill the pantry. Now back to the show. Okay, so these neurons are making these connections, the synapses. I tell people, so tell me if this is right or wrong, that these connections are sort of like rivers in our brain.

35:57Just Ingredients:Yeah, right. And like, let's say we always get mad when somebody yells in the house or something. Our brain has these rivers and it follows these rivers and we've got to try to make a new curve of the river. Good job. Well said. Such a good image. Yes. Yeah, we create bad habits, right? Bad mental habits that are like the rivers. To change it, you've got to replace it with the new stronger one. Okay. It's like a lot of addictions are just bad mental habits. And people will say to me, you're an expert at changing bad habits. Technically, I'm not. I'm an expert at just creating new habits. And if you create the new ones, the old ones will erode over time if you start reinforcing them.

36:32Just Ingredients:Okay, so we're going to create these new turns in the river so that we react differently, we do differently. And we're creating these new... Make sure they're the dominant ones. And we're creating these new rivers or new turns in the rivers by self-talk. Specific self-talk and handwriting with your own words. Okay, so that's why it's so important scientifically. So important scientifically to get a journal and write down at the end of the day the things you're doing well. It is really not good to write in a journal what you're doing wrong. But you do want us to put something to improve. And so for me, I'm thinking I would start being like, I did this bad.

37:08Just Ingredients:I did this bad. I did this. I couldn't improve on this. So how do you? You want to keep it to the three to one ratio because the research has proven when you go reactive is the speed of thought speeds up. So we actually have 2.91 times the negative thoughts once you go reactive. Wow. You just get faster and faster with your negative thoughts of how terrible you are. We can measure it now. It's like the car rental hurts. It's spelled as Hertz. So the speed of thought per second is measured. A panic attack is around 30 Hertz per second, whereas flow state is 8 to 12. So most people live in that 12 to 30 range in life.

37:45Interesting. But flow state is 8 to 12. So you can see when you're in flow state, your brain is slower, not faster.

37:51Just Ingredients:Like meditating. Yes. It sure slows it down. Yeah. Meditation is 8 or lower when you're in that almost meditative state. But that's why athletes will say the game slowed down for me. Everything slowed down. Yes. Because you've learned to be more relaxed and calm while still being aware. Interesting. Yeah. Okay, so back to something you said earlier, you talked about memory playing a part of a successful brain. Yes. So is memory for the same reason as the handwriting? Yes. Memory recall is critical because your memory is with, as scientists, we believe why we have memories is so we can predict what's going to happen next.

38:30Just Ingredients:Okay. And this is like animals at the top of the food chain have the best memory recall, hence that's why they can adapt the best. So the better memory you have, the better you can adapt. And so memory, it's called memory recall. But here's something that other than learning and fear being opposites, like this is massive. The opposite of fight or flight, which is our biology, by the way, doesn't make us bad people. We're born with a limbic system to protect ourselves. It's never going to help us to be high functioning, but it keeps us safe. The direct opposite of fight or flight is memory recall.

39:03Just Ingredients:Oh, wow. So think about this with your son. Yes. So think about this with your son. When he gets into that fight or flight response, he's losing his memory. Yes. He loses memory, so he can't remember all of his skills. Interesting. That's huge for athletes. Yes. Okay. So athletes start saying negative things like that shot sucked. Yes. That gets them in fight or flight. Yes. Which loses their memory recall of how to do just shots. Just one reactive thought. You're inhibiting your memory recall at some level. Hence, you won't be performing at your absolute best. Just one. That is incredible. Just one.

39:43A full-blown fight or flight, which by the way, lasts 22 minutes. This is why marriages. So this is some marriage stuff. So many times in marriage, a spouse is mad at their other spouse about something. After a while, they're just mad. The other one's mad because they've forgotten what they're mad about because it's the opposite. Can you see memory recall? In sport, we call it choking. when you get in a full-blown spiral, reactive thoughts where it's full-blown, 22 minutes at last of full-blown if no one's throwing more fuel on the fire. That's what's called choking. You lose all your memories from all your training.

40:15Just Ingredients:No wonder why sports psychology is such a huge thing. Well, memories are huge. The best athletes I've ever, musicians, not just athletes, musicians, people I've ever had the opportunity to work with, phenomenal memories, unbelievable. This one guy worked with the Milwaukee Bucks for years. It was amazing his awareness and memory about everything. It was like 10 years later, he's like, Doc, do you remember that first session you did when we were in Utah? I'm like, yeah, I remember it. He's like, yeah, you talked about this, this, this, and this. And I'm going, I don't remember that, but I'm glad you remember that.

40:50Just Ingredients:Oh, interesting. Yeah, crazy memory. Unbelievable. Okay, so let's go back to, you say, a 22-minute spiral. Yes. but they don't know they're in it for 22 minutes right you're just saying they've now said i can't ever swing right i can't ever hit the ball right and that shot sucked is that enough to then spiral them for 22 minutes cut not quite that would be kind of a mild to moderate one a full-blown where they're like i stuck i'm terrible i'm useless i'm throwing your club on the ground yeah that's a full and if you don't say anything it'll it's like fuel let it just subside and then you can be reasonable with them.

41:26But as somebody in a full blown, you can't really reason with them. You got to just wait for a little bit for the emotion to come down to actually communicate.

41:34Just Ingredients:So I shouldn't tell my son be positive during those times. Well, we want to nip it in the bud before it gets too bad on the course. And that's why he wants skills, those belief statements to try to prevent him from going, letting that spiral get too bad. But can we hit this for a minute though? Let's go back to the conscious mind again. When And I said, you can have three things. It takes three loops around the reverberating nerve, which is what the mind is technically. It takes three loops to create a memory. What that means is the brain is actually built to filter. We have a right to filter, to filter our emotions, to filter our thoughts, to organize them for a minute.

42:12We're not perfect. So it's okay to have, you're going to have a reactive or a negative thought at times. the sooner you're aware of it though and the sooner you know how to pull yourself out of it the healthier you become it's not to never have a bad thought okay it's just to you the ones that's filtering it and controlling it and choosing for yourself is there a time and a place to choose to be reactive i don't know that's up for the individual to choose once they learn to control

42:37Just Ingredients:their own mind okay so because it does sound like you have to be perfect but you're saying we don't we're gonna have a negative thought of like oh i could have done that podcast better but as long as it doesn't loop three times you haven't created a permanent memory if you don't dwell on it yes it's the dwelling but every time every time i speak for the most part i'm like oh i wish i hadn't said that okay so that's reactive yeah now i'm like okay but i i've trained myself okay next time i'll say it this way better okay i used to be the worst dweller hence donna seeing the therapist back when i used to beat myself up like dwelling is not good but it's okay to be like oh, this isn't good, but what am I going to do about it going forward?

43:19That's been a critical skill.

43:21Just Ingredients:Because dwelling makes a deeper river if we're saying those synopsis are rivers. Yes. Dwelling makes it deeper. It's like a scab that you keep picking at. And we need to make that curve in the river by saying something else and building those. Change a new one, yes. Building those walls, basically. And I've taken this further because it's what I do for a living, right? And there's times I wake up at 4 a.m. and I'm like, I have thoughts in my mind that are waking me up. because at like three or four is when your conscious mind is the most asleep and that's when you're subconscious when something's in there that's irritating you want attention oh interesting yeah so often awake i'm like yeah i don't really agree with that thought that's bugging me so then i just lay there and go over this new thought i agree with and go over it three times to be able to move forward from it or something something bothers me and i'll go okay i'll focus on this this and this tomorrow so i have a plan so now i'm occupying the space so that the bad river is not occupying a new river I'm occupying of how I'm going to deal with it.

44:15I mean, it's taken years, but now after there's sometimes after I'm like, yeah, that was good. That was good. That was good. I'm like, oh, oh, why did I say that? That was so silly. I'm like, all right, but it's hard. Like it takes willpower. Like, okay, next time I'll say it this way. Like you see, you've got to be specific of what you're going to do better to counteract the already bad habit. If If you're vague, it's not an even playing field, as I mentioned before. The fears, the doubts, all of that, those take over the place fast if you don't keep owning this space.

44:49Just Ingredients:Okay, I have so many questions. I don't know which one to ask you first. We'll start with the 3 or 4 o 'clock a.m. in the morning. The subconscious is taking over. Is that why we start dreaming at that time of the night? Well, we oscillate throughout the night through the circadian rhythms, I'm sure you know. But, yeah, 3 or 4 is when the anxieties want attention. And so that's what dream therapy is, is usually dreams are like multiple different things are on your mind that are manifesting in different ways. I have some of my greatest ideas at 4 a.m. in the morning. Great. When you have deep thought, too, when you're reflective and can consolidate memories.

45:25Yes.

45:26Just Ingredients:Okay. That was one of my questions. My next question, we were talking about memory. I feel like my memory is getting worse and worse. So I'm like, I've got to work on this. So do you give certain skills? Yes, we work on memory a lot. So what's an easy one I could work on? Something is so big. They call it the modern day meditation now. It's really good to go for a 20 minute walk each day without your cell phone. No input. So if you go for a walk without any input and just have your own thoughts, they've done research out of Maryland, I think it was. Within 10 minutes, your mind shifts from to do's and all this, what's not happening, to more reflective and consolidation, meaning you start to be more aware of your own thoughts.

46:05you're more just metacognition meaning thinking about thinking more aware of your own thoughts and that awareness is critical because once you are aware you have a choice and then consolidation is a key word when you go for walks you want to consolidate the memories you want to consolidate it's such a big skill to consolidate the memories you want to consolidate and how are we doing that so like go for a walk and think through the things that's why gratitude is big i'm grateful for this I'm grateful for this. So you're reinforcing good memories. My wife, she just left for Australia yesterday. I'm going on Monday.

46:40I have some work still to do. But every trip I come back, I always on the flight, Australia is good because it's so long. But every flight, I don't listen to music. I don't read a book yet. I spend time mapping my brain on the memories I want to remember. So every trip, I'll always come back. It's maybe a little weird, extreme. I actually have never shared this with anyone. So I'm just sharing it right now. Oh, I love it.

47:01Just Ingredients:I love it. But when I come back from any trip, I will go over my brain. Okay, I landed at this time. This person picked me up or I went here. We got this for dinner. We did this. And then we went to bed. We woke up. We did this. We did this. We did this. Like I re-go over the whole trip in my brain because I want the experience. That's why we're doing that, right? To have experiences, not just to be transactional and take a box, especially when it's vacation time. But even if it's business, I always like to go over and consolidate the memories I want to consolidate so I remember them. So just by like repeating what happened on the vacation, you're telling your brain to store those as memories.

47:41Thickening those connections between the synapses and consolidating the memory. Yes. Just takes a little bit of mental work. It's amazing how good your memory can get.

47:52Just Ingredients:Okay. So what if you just don't want to remember it? Great. Yeah. You just let it go. Yeah. Well, I'm sort of laughing because I went to Italy like a month ago with some friends and I'm like, I can't even remember what we did half the days. And it was only a month ago. Probably so busy. Yeah. Sometimes I feel like there's things I want to store and things I don't want to store. That's the thing in the end, the more I've learned, again, this is a little more higher level on the applied side, but the more you learn this stuff, you realize this is your life. It's up to you what you want to remember.

48:22It's your choice as hell, what you create. Instead, it's not about how big your house is, your car. happiness really is you. You create your own happiness of how you view yourself and how you view your life. Yeah.

48:34Just Ingredients:Oh, I love that. Okay. So you really think if I just tell my brain, recap the day, I'm going to remember things better. I'm going to store those memories. Specific about what happened. It's the more specific, the more it occupies the space. What I did learn about the memories is how important it is. So I already had done some things because I love handwriting so much. So it's just kind of been nice that that was good. Okay. Talking about memory, is it a myth then, or is it true? Like they say, as you age, do like crossword puzzles or, you know, all these memory type things. Yes. It's very good for your brain to challenge your brain.

49:13That's the, it's called cognitive strain. So yes, it's really important to do something to strain your brain so that it keeps strong making those connections and thickening that that's why learning is so big too i try to do an hour a day of studying every day in my field just to keep learning and keep strengthening the pathways all the time so i do seven days a week an hour a day just constantly studying every time i study i'm handwriting the key words not all of it but the key words to code my mind just to try to keep aging well and have a good memory what do you mean by key words yeah we call them relevant cues.

49:50So a sentence is long, but you break it down to the two to three relevant words of that sentence. And that's how you remember it. That's actually kind of the secret of really unlocking it is breaking it down into relevant cues. And you remember the cues. That's what people have photographic memories do. But the myth is that technically we don't age, we don't lose our memory because of aging. We lose our memory because of bad mental habits, meaning we're developing the amygdala and creating too much gray matter in the amygdala and not the hippocampus.

50:21Just Ingredients:Through the fear. Yes. So the fear is truly creating the gray matter that is nothing. Yes. Our mind needs some strain. You know, our body needs strain. Like fasting has actually been proven to be great for increasing plasticity. Because when you fast, it pushes your brain to our energy sources, our heart and our brain. And it really pushes to make those connections in the synapses when you fast. Interesting. What's so healthy? And I mean, just the things you do, I studied it when my wife talked me through it. It's like eating healthy, fasting, eating the right, you know, those things are so big for your brain.

50:59Just overindulging is not good for the brain.

51:02Just Ingredients:Well, we could do a whole episode probably on the nutrients and food and everything for the brain. But I do talk about lifestyles a lot. And what I've been thinking this whole time is when you're saying that when you're in fight or flight, you lose your memory. Well, people are walking around all day long in fight or flight. They're in chronic stress all day long. Life is busy. Their work is stressful. Their marriage is stressful. Kids are stressful. So how do we combat that? Yeah. And so that everything you talked about, fight or flight, we're just kind of mindless women with that. we're probably not eating the best foods or the right sodas or everything because we're not aware of it.

51:40That's what survival is. We're reacting. When you react, you're not aware. The opposite. I love the word awareness. The more aware you are of your thoughts, of you, the more aware of the situation, the more aware of the environment. Awareness gives you choice. That's why I'm so big on awareness. And the more we learn, the more skills we gain, the more aware we are, the more choice we have in life. And that's where life really becomes free. And actually, it's funny that's what i do with all the athletes we're helping them to become more aware the more aware they are the more free they are the more the more free they're the more they play freely and the more successful than they are yes when you talked about a successful mind at the very

52:18Just Ingredients:beginning basically a successful mind is one that is aware of its thoughts that's saying not vague things yeah deliberate things yeah i want to say the word positive but now you got me scared to say that word yeah positive is like energy always like positive is good but we just want that positive distinct thoughts yes perfect that can then untap our potential yes is a successful mind yes and we help the successful mind through handwriting memory great skills yeah and the direct positive thinking yeah you're not gonna be able to say you did it really well ever again no yeah and people still will, but here's the point is I would say, and I've seen it over and over, the highest functioning people are the most accurate of thought.

53:03They're the most deliberate and on purpose how they live. And that's their choice, but they are very deliberate. There's been sessions with some of these, you know, keeping them confidential, but some of the athletes at the top of their game, and they're sitting across from me in their house and their eyes are boring through my eyes and like every word out of my mouth needs to be exact because trust is everything. The only reason I'm there is because they trust. People will say they trust me. I don't think it's me. They trust the truth I'm speaking because they have to if they can't trust it. There's so many demands on their time.

53:39So many people want to pay to them so much money. Like I'm not there if I'm not precise and exact with everything because that's truth. There's two ways we establish truth in this world. Number one is validity. Valid means real, not fake, real. Well, how does something real? You establish whether something's real. Is it precise and exact? Second is validity, which means reliability, which means a pattern of truth. And the research proved we need three data points to establish a pattern. And so that's how you do it. Precise and exact thoughts and looking for multiple data points to build from there.

54:14And that's where I think through the years, I believe, of earned trust with people. You can lose it and you earn it all the time. And I think that's what's always worked when they trust it and you're precise. Then you trust yourself, you trust others, you relax.

54:32Just Ingredients:Well, I was just about to say in all of this, though, you have to trust yourself. You have to trust that your brain really will do what you're telling it. So perfect. And the more you trust yourself, the more, the better memory recall you have. It's so accurate. Okay. I'm just thinking about me going home and telling my teenage boys and older boys about this episode, right? And they're going to be like, oh, so I'm going to tell my brain I can fly and I'm going to be able to fly. Like they get sarcastic with it. And I know that from, I will tell them all the time, like your brain does what you think all the time.

55:06Yes. It's good. Yes. And they're saying that because there's the fluffy side, but when you're precise and exact yeah there's nothing fluffy it's all real

55:15Just Ingredients:and so trust goes up dramatically okay but can you say something like i'm going to get a hundred percent on this college exam i would be careful about that because you're setting an outcome that is maybe not within your direct control rather i'd tell somebody it's like you could tell yourself i'm going to crush it at this then focus on what are you going to do to do it well focus on the process not the results focus on what you're going to do and the results will take care of themselves. Okay, so that's key. We've got to always be direct with the process, not the result. Yes, be very specific about the process and the skills you're going to focus on to get the results.

55:53Just Ingredients:So instead of I'm going to crush it at this game, or I'm going to crush it at the speaking event, in my case, I'm going to say I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. Yes, yep, perfect. Yep. Okay, so my boys play sports. Instead of I'm going to crush it at this game, it's going to be I'm going to hit the shot down the fairway and get it. You can blame it on me. Tell them before they leave every day to go to play, tell them like, give me the three things you're going to focus on today. And they will be vague because they're probably teenagers and most people are mentally lazy and you're going to say, okay, that's too vague.

56:26Be specific. What are you going to do to get your shot off? Not just, I'm going to get my shot off or I'm going to hit the ball straight. I'm like, well, what are you going to do to hit the ball straight? What are you going to do to get the shot off? Get them to put the work in. And when they do that, they're already priming their mind to actually do it when the time comes.

56:41Just Ingredients:Well, I think most people are vague because I think when people first believe that the mind is powerful enough to do this, they start very vague of like, okay, I'm going to have a good day today. And then they don't have a good day. And so then they're like, nope, the mind doesn't do what you tell it to do. I'm going to connect a big dot for you because you wouldn't be where you were if it wasn't for the quality in everything you do. And quality is mental, not physical. Okay. The quality of life, it requires mental discipline to actually focus on the little details. Quality is always the mental side.

57:13And you wouldn't be where you're at with your business and what you do without the quality of attention and figuring out the right ingredients of everything. That's precision and exactness. That's accurate thinking. And that is where the quality is. The quantity is, most people are putting enough quantity of effort in in life. Where their gap is, the quality is not up with their quantity. they'll go and work harder and harder physically but the quality is not there if you don't put the

57:40Just Ingredients:quality in you're not getting better okay well then i have a question for you on executive level in corporate business i do love the details i love the exactness right but i love that with my products right yeah but a lot of corporate people will tell me you're too far in the weeds you need to pull out and be at a bigger level that's because they're wanting you away from the actual part of the business that they think they have others to probably manage that and they want you doing more building brand and whatnot yeah but it's okay just make sure you've trained somebody to pay attention to the quality the details that you've been doing because if you don't it'll drop off when you're not over it hence it's critical to train people so that there's a succession plan there that you've got to train them more than anything how you think and what you're looking for in your products and you got to train them so that you trust them.

58:36I've got people I trust and I trust them because I've trained them for years and years and years. So I know how they think.

58:42Just Ingredients:So people just listening to this and life in general, we all need to probably think more specific in our life to have a better quality life. To have better quality, there's got to be more attention. I've never seen anyone be successful accidentally in my life. Everyone had to pay the price to get to where they're at. Even two snowboarders I worked with on the U.S. Olympic team with Red Bull that were illiterate, could not read and write. They spent their whole life on snowboards. But when it came to, so basically their brain, say if their brain was a library, their subconscious, they had not a lot of general books on the shelves but when you go down the snowboarding aisle every book is in the right order and organized like when you started talking they were afraid to talk to me at first because they were insecure about their stuff I'm like I'm from Australia like there's no you don't need to worry about me I'm like there's nothing judgmental about me we're from a little bit of a backward country sometimes but I love it so and I'm like but when we start talking about the details of how they do their runs, unbelievable detail.

59:52These are the kids that would wear their pants around their knees during that era. And the detail of what they're trying to do once I was like, okay, give me more details. They're like, oh, that's what you want? Yeah, this is what I'm doing.

1:00:04Just Ingredients:Unbelievable. I've never seen anyone accidentally be highly competent in life. Okay. So athletes are very specific. Yes. I mean, I just interviewed Noelle Pica's Pace. Yes. And she was talking about how each turn down the race is very specific. Yes. And so in her mind, she's seeing each specific turn. Yep. And that's what we're talking about as well. Every athlete, every single one had so many that they've made millions, hundreds of millions of dollars and they're always a little guarded and they get traded to a team that I work with or something like that. And they're always like cautious. And I'm like, just give me one session.

1:00:42They come in. I'm like, here's the science and here's why truth. And every time, as soon as I talk about truth, they're like, yeah, I'm in.

1:00:49Just Ingredients:So those professional athletes were watching basketball, tennis, whoever. Yeah. They've been trained by you. They're prepping before the game. I'm going to do this. I can do this. I'm going to do this. Every game. And they're successful. And after every game, they go over, I did this well. I did this well. I did this well. I want to do this better. And if they're not doing it and they're listening right now, they need to keep doing it. It doesn't have to just be an athlete. This can be the stay-at-home mom. This can be the employee. This can be anyone. So even as you say this, if you go home at night, no matter what you do, I do it still to this day.

1:01:22And you write down three things you did well that day. And one thing you want to go better, your brain has closure. You're actually training your brain to see the good of what you did in the world. And you're training your brain to activate the part of your brain that can relax and enjoy life. So you can actually shut down and go to sleep and rest and recover for the next day. But if you go home, your mind's bouncing everywhere, or even worse, you focus on what you did wrong, you're actually triggering cortisol and releasing cortisol into the bloodstream. Blood flow slows down, healing slows, anxiety goes up, pain goes up.

1:01:55Just Ingredients:Hormones get messed up. Yes, yeah, absolutely. The opposite of cortisol, when you're focusing on the good, it releases dopamine, serotonin, and the endogenous opioids, which is the brain's body's natural morphine. blood flow increases muscles relax healing increases calm increases anxiety lowers i'm gonna talk for the moms raising those kids i know at night i would be like shoo i was too mean to someone so i should have done this different i should have been nicer i should have why didn't i do this right so that whole time i'm releasing cortisol you're triggering cortisol yeah so a lot okay and i know from the science of cortisol and what it can do to hormones yeah it's not good.

1:02:37Just Ingredients:No, it's not good at all, especially for like our progesterone. Our progesterone is a calming hormone. It's not good for that. So these moms are doing a trigger of cortisol without even knowing they are. I can even tell you even worse if you want to know what happens. That's the chronic low-grade stress. What we're doing is triggering these inflammatory signals that is hurting our aging. We're going to age poorly and there's going to be decline when we're doing that all the time. With our cognitive function. Yes. Yes. It's not good for the brain. It's mistakenly triggering the inflammatory signals in the brain and it's going to contribute to aging fast.

1:03:14Just Ingredients:So these moms that are doing this at night need to say, I did this good today. I did this. I did this well. I did this well. I did this well. I want to say this better with my son or daughter. I'll say this better. And if you stay on that path for a while, those habits change and you start getting really good at, okay, next time I want to say that better, because there's no end to learning like we talked about. I want to say that better. I want to phrase that better. And you start putting all your brain to that kid that's struggling. How can I say this just right to motivate him? How do I approach it this way?

1:03:46So instead of all this wasted energy spiraling on what you did wrong, now all of a sudden you're channeling all your mental energy down the success-oriented path, and you just become so much more constructive. You start constructing and figuring out ways to say it and create context to communicate more purely to your kids in a way that's building them all the time. I'm trying my best to do that as well. The more we head down that path and the more you channel that, you just get so much better at coming up with the solutions and figuring things out.

1:04:20Just Ingredients:So that's why you say learning is forever because the opposite of fear is learning and learning is how to figure out how to say those things better to your mind and self-talk better yes how to say it better have you mastered self-talking though no i think it's an ongoing thing that just but that's fun like to answer your question is when you understand the mind is language and your mind is your self-talk like this is why all this science is now coming out of all these like introverts that we've always thought they need to be more extroverted but we're now seeing like these are some of the smartest people on the planet they just had so much enjoyment in their life just in their own thoughts they don't need all this external tribal experience all the time to feel enjoyment they actually get it from their own depth of their own thoughts and now giving them permission to be an introvert is helping them because they're the artists and the creators and the designers i've got one of these kids that just it's unreal as she's getting older the stuff that comes out of her mouth she is funny and delightful and the words that words are big in our home.

1:05:24I've got kids. I've got a kid that's, he's going on a mission, church mission right now, and I can't keep up with him. He's like too quick and witty for me. And he's always.

1:05:33Just Ingredients:Oh, fun. Yeah. Oh, that's fun. He's banter. It's fun with him. It is fun raising kids and just seeing their different personalities. That is for sure. I'm going to go try to teach my kids a lot of this from today to help them. Because if kids can learn this at an early age. We've set them up for success in anything, in college life, sports, marriage. That's the thing about the mind. Wherever those mental habits go, it's where you go. So it applies, they say, in unanticipated context. So you use it in sport and marriage everywhere, just wherever the mental skills are, you'll be using them. Okay.

1:06:08Just Ingredients:I'm going to end with one last question. I always tell my kids to say, like, I can do this. Tell your brain you can do this. So is that not, is that too vague? No, it is vague, but it still is good because it's channeling the mind down that proactive direction. It's really good. I would call it a belief statement. That is, I can do this. I got that. You need those belief statements. They're like shots of confidence when you need it into the belief into the bloodstream. Every client I have, I want them to have at least two belief statements. I tell myself every day I'm healthy and strong. And those are your two beliefs.

1:06:42I'm going to be healthy and strong. I am right now and when something's hurting them, I say something, I'm going to be healthy and strong just because it channels energy in a good direction. That goes back to the energy. So belief statements, the positive energy, we need it. So every day I want to create positive energy and I'm going to be healthy and strong. I'm going to crush this today. Saying those positive things, can you test the energy on machines? I'd like to. That's a good question. And we can see it, but I need to check that one. I don't know for sure.

1:07:16Just Ingredients:I definitely can feel it. I can feel it when I'm, it creates motive when you always believe in yourself. Right. Okay. I have one last question. I lied. I am fascinated with everything that you do and all the athletes you've worked with. Can you tell me your most favorite story over all the years of working with, you don't have to say the athlete's name, but some experience that happened with some athlete learning how to do this? Yeah. Can I, can I, I know this is not what you're asking, but in the end, after all these years being involved with sports so long, I just care about helping people. And when every now and then I come back to my desk, there's a ripped out piece of paper with a thank you on it.

1:07:54That means more to me. But to answer your question is there's, there's so many great athletes I've had the pleasure of working with, but yeah, one of them was, I met with this athlete. It was game six. we'd gone it was coming out of covid and we'd flown back and we had to go back to a hotel because we're worried about certain people getting covid and so i always would meet this athlete last thing at night after he does everything else and he answers the door and i mean physical specimen obviously and it's like 11 30 12 at night and he says doc i don't owe you anything i'm like okay where are we going with this because his brain is busy and that's my job to keep it organized it's game six tomorrow and we need to win it because game seven is back to another location he says i don't know it talks about his position coach then he says i don't know the club i don't know nike anything i'm just going to go and be unapologetically myself and i'm like and there's all the work we've done that's exactly where we want people to be just get to a place that you're just so good just being you, there's no fear.

1:09:00Now you can just go and just let it all out. I love that. And we won the championship.

1:09:05Just Ingredients:Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. So out of everything you've said today, because it's a lot, especially for people that are new to this, what is the one takeaway you want them to have? Just always have a learning mentality. Stop judging yourself all the time. Stop judging other people. Just always realize we're human beings and we're always learning and always trying to get better. Because if we understand that, like this planet, we're really just, we're just a bunch of people here trying to do the best we can and let's build people up. Let's not put people down, including ourselves. Oh, I love that.

1:09:37Yeah.

1:09:38Just Ingredients:Okay. So you have written though a book, Fearless Mind. Oh yeah. We didn't even touch upon that. We were going to. Yeah. Is all of this in that book? No, not at all. I wrote that 15 years ago. It's in my mind, a little dated. I enjoyed it I wrote it more for myself I've been writing a book since then I just haven't had time to finish it it's like 200 pages now it's getting a bit too big yeah no I have a lot of content I put out there on YouTube and different things that I'm just always creating content because I love learning well then that was my next question is where can people find you yeah just Dr.

1:10:14Craig Manning on YouTube right now ton of videos there I have a website it's thefearlessmind.com. Yeah, I have a website there. Probably a little more for my existing clients, but if people want to get in there and figure out how to walk around it, there's a private AI on there that we spend a lot of time training. Actually, that's kind of fun. If people got on there and check that out, there's a private AI that is pretty good. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.

1:10:40Just Ingredients:Okay. So are you and your team members taking clients or no? Yes, I have assistance at taking clients. Okay. I'm pretty full. You might have a lot of people after this podcast episode wanting some help. It's fascinating everything that you're teaching. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate the time. Your questions have been really good. Well, thank you so much for being here. I always end my podcast with asking five similar questions. So you ready for these? All right. First question. What emerging health topic are you most excited about right now? I love, that's a good question. I love just this, the brain scans that are helping us show this chronic low-grade stress.

1:11:22And singly, what this is, giving somebody like me as a Gen X permission, we don't need to be intense to be productive, to be successful, which for me, I was always like, you got to want it. You got to drive, drive, drive, drive. Big, hairy, audacious goals. We're actually proving that's wrong because it actually triggers the fight or flight interesting yes so this is the key the opposite of intensity is like the nervous system responds to context which is self-talk we've got to get better at communicating and articulating our thoughts and not so much in a demand which i love the i love learning that we don't need to be intense uptight people we just and i thought for so long like relaxed or calm meant detached like checked out.

1:12:05That's not what it needs to mean. We can be relaxed and calm and still stay attached and still stay aware, meaning we don't need to be intense.

1:12:14Just Ingredients:Interesting, because our generation did grow up with like, you got to work harder, do more, you got to go, go, go. Yes. So instead of that intensity, and I do that, I feel like I got to go, go and work harder. We just need more context to our brain. Yes. Better self-talk, better communication, and learn to relax. Relaxing does not mean you're not paying attention. I don't know how to relax. I know. I'm the same. I've been working at it. Like when you said that, I'm like, yeah, I know. I didn't know how to do that. I've been working at it, trying to figure out how to learn to really relax while still being aware.

1:12:47I don't want to, you know, detach from life. I want to stay engaged in life. But yes.

1:12:51Just Ingredients:Okay. I'm going to work on that. Relax, but still be engaged with life. Yes. That's a good goal. Yeah. All right. Question number two, what's a piece of advice you give your younger self? Oh, just go back to the learner. I wish somebody had taught me that learning is the opposite of fear. Just always keep learning who you are and learn what your strengths are and play to your strengths. I think that is such a great thing. I'm going to make my kids go really think about like, what are your strengths? You guys all have different ones. Okay, number three, what's the one health practice you'll never compromise on no matter how busy life gets?

1:13:24I've just kicked the habit of drinking Diet Coke and I'm loving not drinking that.

1:13:28Just Ingredients:That's a good one. Yeah, so I'd say The biggest thing is, though, I don't know, I'm just pretty disciplined at just eating good food. I don't talk about it much, but I really just try to eat good food. Good for you. Obviously, I'm a big proponent of that. Like I said earlier, we could do a whole podcast, I bet, on the nutrients of the brain. Do you focus on stuff like that or not really? I've studied it more and more lately as well. But yes, I just kind of did it to stay in shape. And now I'm realizing all of the other stuff that my wife kind of educates me on all of that stuff. and she's so good at, yeah, she's in Australia right now, but every morning eggs on toast and she's so good.

1:14:03Just Ingredients:Have you studied ketones at all with the brain? No, not really. Okay. I'm going to check into that. That's your next one to go study up on because we had Dr. Ben Bickman on the show and he loves ketones. So it got me really intrigued and I've been studying about it and it's amazing thing for the brain. So it's great. Okay. Fourth question. What's your favorite Just Ingredients product and why? I just love the protein powders. Yeah, I love them. My favorite also. So yeah. Last one. What is the best ingredient you've found to life? The best ingredient is learn, like we talked about, what are your strengths?

1:14:40Who are you? And focus on what skills you want to develop because this is your life. So to me, I always visualize it. Know who you are. Once you know who you are, then you're going to know what you want in life. And there's flow state right there. So learn to control and master who you are, and then you'll know the journey you're on in life. That's your journey. It's not anybody else's, and it's not a competition with others. Just work on your own and let others work on theirs and help each other. That's where collaboration and community is, not always competing with everybody else.

1:15:10Just Ingredients:I love that so much. And just from my memory, when we compare ourselves with others, because I've loved teenagers that do that, We automatically put ourselves in that reactive state, which is the fight or flight survival mode, which is going to lose the memory recall. And even go specific, like as soon as we compare, comparison leads to insecurities because there's always no one's perfect. For sure. And insecurities leads to the need for approval. And that leads to the superiority, inferiority loop. Which is what? Where we always, every time we walk in a room, you either, you're judging yourself on whether you're more superior than that person because you're in better shape or you have more hair or whatever it is.

1:15:50Or you walk in another room and your bald head is more aerodynamic than somebody else's bald head and it never ends. You're just, that loop never ends once you're in it. You're always comparing to everyone around you all the time.

1:16:01Just Ingredients:The river. Yes. Synopsis gets stronger and stronger and stronger. All the time. but you've got to get out of that loop by just being good being you and building around what your strengths are and who you are and what you get to a stage in life you figure out what you really love in life and you spend your energy focused on those things well i have learned so much from you today my mind is just racing with thoughts i could have asked you 50 more questions even like this about the comparing but thank you so much for being here listeners i know you have probably learned a lot as well so go check them out on youtube because they'll learn more from you from your videos, more things like this, right?

1:16:37Just Ingredients:And so check them out. And thank you again so much for being here. It has been an honor talking with you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for being here and being part of this community. Don't forget to subscribe to the Just Ingredients podcast. We've got so much more to share with you. And if you're not already, come join us daily on all social media platforms at just.ingredients. Until next time, keep choosing what nourishes you.