Deepak Chopra On How To Cultivate Inner Peace, Achieve Genuine Happiness, & Heal Your Nervous System

0:00The following podcast is a dear media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, Him and Her. Aha! Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Skinny Confidential, Him and Her show, continuing to kick off the New Year's in a strong way. Today we have Deepak Chopra, who's been a long requested guest on this podcast, somebody Lauren and I have wanted to talk to for years on the show.

0:36Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine, consciousness, and personal transformation. Name one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. He has authored over 90 books, including 25 New York Times bestsellers, such as The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, which has sold over 10 million copies. Chopra is also the founder of the Chopra Foundation and Chopra Global, merging science and spirituality to advance well-being worldwide. He's the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the GOI Peace Award, and the Medal of Honor from the President of India.

1:06It continues to be recognized among Forbes' top 10 most influential spiritual leaders. So for this episode, it's all about spirituality. It's all about connecting with self. It's all about blocking out the noise. Great way to start out the year. With that, Deepak Chopra, welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I wanted to start by asking you with how you get peace in your life when you feel stressed. What is the tools that you use for yourself? Peace is our natural state before it's overshadowed by our conditioned mind.

1:47So the deeper levels of awareness, which we call spirit or soul, is always at peace. but the mind overshadows it because the mind is conditioned through economics, through the news, through social media, through people's opinion. If you want true peace, you have to be independent of the good and bad opinions of the world. You have to be immune to criticism. You have to feel that you're beneath no one, and you have to be fearless. which is our natural state before it gets bamboozled by the hypnosis of social conditioning. So is there a way that you protect your peace on a daily basis? Do you turn off the news?

2:38Do you protect yourself from social media? Is there a meditation practice? What are the things you reach for? I don't get affected by anything. So I don't have to practice anything. So, you know, I watch the news and I see the insanity, and I don't want to be part of it. So, you know, I've checked out from insanity. The world is insane. Climate change, war, terrorism, mechanized death, nuclear weapons, you name it, drones, cyber warfare. So if you participate in that, then you are part of the insanity. I've checked out. So I do look at it. I find it both amusing and tragic, but I'm not involved.

3:32Can I get some tips on how Deepak, my husband, can check out of the news? He doesn't have to check out. He can just not be affected by it. Well, that is a good distinction because what I try, you know, we have a lot of people come on this show and they'll say things like, don't check your phone in the morning, don't watch the news, don't do this. And I understand their intention. Their intention is don't do that because they assume that it affects you. Of course it does. I would suggest for, you know, regular people, I'm not regular, but for regular people, you could schedule checking it like three times a day or four times a day.

4:13and then you focus on it and then check out. At least practice some meditation, mindfulness, go for a walk in the park, you know, listen to some good music, watch Candid Camera. Love your wife. So when you say you're not normal, is that because you've done so much work on yourself? Have you always been this way or has this been intentional? It's been intentional and yes, I've worked on my way. as a medical resident and intern and working in the emergency room, I was burnt out like most physicians are. Most people in the health industry are totally burnt out and are the most unhealthy people. Doctors, psychiatrists, the highest rates of depression, suicide are amongst therapists.

5:09So, you know, I realized that a long time ago. And there was a point in my life where I actually put a pacemaker in, a patient, put him on a machine so he couldn't breathe. He was dying of emphysema, had a heart attack. I did all that to save his life. And then I went out and smoked a cigarette. And that was a pivotal moment. I said, you know, I'm saving lives and killing myself at the same time. So I checked out. And when you say it was a pivotal moment, was that the moment that you decided to... I threw the cigarette. I stopped smoking. Cold. Cold. Everything. One moment. And then what did you do to get to a place where you say, I'm not normal and I can't be affected?

5:59What were the things you did? I realized that what we call normal is the psychosis of the average. nobody is normal because they're all psychotically average which is what we call normal because they bought into this collective insane mind the mind is insane you know you walk around New York City which I love to I watch people I find it totally bewildering that nobody's astonished that they exist. Why do you exist? Aren't you surprised? To be perpetually surprised that you exist, you should be bewildered, bamboozled, awestruck, wondered. And yet people walking around like AI-engineered robots.

6:54You don't need robots. We already are robots. If someone's listening and they feel like they are robotic and they're going through life like that, how would you snap them out of it? Ask my AI to give you a meditation for whatever you want. So you can say, I want a meditation to improve my relationship. I want a meditation to sleep well. I want the right nutrition. I'm in New York City and I'm jet lagged. What do I do? You won't get all of that from ChatGPT or anything, but you'll get it from Deepak Chopra. out here. What's the ideal amount for meditation? For the average person, I would say 20 minutes, 15 minutes, even five minutes.

7:41So it doesn't have to be something crazy to begin with? No. Just be quick? Or you can just stop and do nothing for five minutes. Just stop and just do nothing. And if that's impossible, if that seems difficult, most people don't know how to do nothing. So watch your breath or feel your body, do a body scan and even five minutes. You know, you talk about disconnecting from the news during COVID. We actively canceled all cable in our house and got rid of it. And at the time we got a little bit of pushback because people would say, well, how will you get the news? How will you be informed? How will you stay active?

8:23like if it's privileged to not be paying attention to the news, but we were doing it to protect our peace. And I wonder if you get any of that same kind of criticism if people say, well, how are you doing your part if you're not paying attention? I get a lot of criticism, but it doesn't bother me. I mean, I'm the most criticized person and the most controversial in my field, which is, you know, I'm an endocrinologist, I'm a neuroscientist, but I talk about things that people think are wacko. So they think this guy is a fraud. He's a wacko. So if I were to be affected by criticism, I would be offended for the rest of my life.

9:02And that's not a good way to live, so I'm not affected. Now during COVID, I actually launched a massive meditation program. It was called 21 Days of Abundance through the Internet. millions tens of millions of people heard that because they had nothing else to do you know they were locked under lockdown what do what do you get called a wacko for what are the what are the things that at this point because obviously people see the value in meditation and being mindful and oh you know i use metaphors like quantum mechanics and use terms that people are not familiar with See, what happens is somebody doesn't understand your language, then they think you're crazy.

9:52The average person, for example, doesn't understand medical talk, but they don't think medical doctors are wacko. But the medical doctors speak a language amongst themselves that the average person wouldn't understand. That's true of any legal profession. But when it comes to things like quantum mechanics or mathematics or the nature of reality or consciousness, I come from a tradition which has terms that are almost impossible to translate into English. But I do it. That's been, in a way, my karma to translate ancient wisdom in modern scientific terms. Now people who are experts in science think, what's he doing?

10:43He's not a mathematician, he's not a quantum physicist. It doesn't matter. I talked to quantum physicists and I realized that they're very good at what they do, but they don't understand necessarily the deeper reality that I'm trying to address. consciousness, meaning of death, who are we, etc., what is identity. So it's relatively new to the quote-unquote normal person. But there are people who do understand, and over 40 years have persisted, and so now there's a little bit less criticism because people are finding the benefits, but there's still a lot of criticism. If someone wants to improve their energy, maybe they walk into a room and their energy is off-putting, what's the Deepak prescription that you would give?

11:42By the way, that's a very relevant question because the energy that you have actually tells everything about you. It tells your personal well-being, your social well-being, your financial well-being, your professional well-being, whether you are safe in your community. So if I had to ask you only one question to know how you're doing, I'd say on a scale of, and don't answer because I don't want to hear or you don't want to tell the world, but on a scale of one to ten inside, ask yourself, scale of one to ten, how much energy do I have? And don't think, just see what you come up with. If you answer eight, nine, or ten, you're thriving.

12:32If you answer ten, you're not only thriving, you're flourishing. If you answer six or seven, you're struggling in some area of your life. You're maybe not getting enough sleep, maybe you have a toxic relationship, maybe you're worried about your finances, something is going on. if you score six or seven. If you score five or less, you're suffering and you probably already have a disease which has either been diagnosed or not diagnosed. This is the most important question. How much energy do you have to do everything you want in a given day? So now we can take that question and apply it to any other aspect of your life.

13:18How happy are you at work on a scale of 1 to 10? On a scale of 1 to 10, how good is your relationship or relationships? On a scale of 1 to 10, are you feeling secure about your finances? So, you know, well-being is a very complex thing. It's not just, you know, your blood pressure or your cholesterol, which is what doctors say. Oh, your cholesterol is fine, this, that, go. Here's a prescription. Well-being is having a joyful, energetic body, having love and compassion in your heart, having a creative mind, and most importantly, having joy, lightness of being. You mentioned disease. Do you believe that disease comes from your mother, your father, things you're holding, traumas?

14:14So the current science, you know, it keeps science very interesting in that as we learn more, we change our opinions. That's a good thing about science. It's not like religion or ideology, communism or socialism or capitalism. But those are opinions. In science, the attitude is always get more information and be willing to change your mind. But now we know for sure that less than 5 % of chronic disease, and that includes things like cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disease, even mental issues like schizophrenia or psychosis, less than 5 % is due to what are called fully penetrant gene mutations.

15:15Let me explain that to you. A mutation is a genetic mistake. It's like an error in your genes. Only 5 % of those mutations guarantee disease. The well-known example that the average person is familiar with is because Angelina Jolie had something called a Baraka gene and she had a preventive mastectomy, which was the right thing to do because that gene predicts that she would have gotten cancer, breast cancer. So she did what would be advised by any doctor. That's less than 5%. It's probably less than 2 % according to the latest science. So even for that, by the way, now there is new technology emerging.

16:08It's called gene editing. So you can edit genes as you edit your email. Metaphorically speaking, you read the barcode of a gene, you cut it out, and you insert the right gene, voila, the disease is gone. Right now, that is already approved in the United States for sickle cell anemia, which kills a lot of people. But now they're looking at it for neurological disorders, soon for cancer, etc. And then also because of COVID and all the research went into what do you call immunology and vaccines, notwithstanding what RFK or other people like that might say, you know, they think they're experts. It takes 11 years to learn immunology in the medical school.

16:59But during COVID, they used something called messenger RNA technology to make vaccines. That technology now will be used to create vaccines for cancer, for heart disease, for autoimmune illness, for actually slowing down the aging process. So science is progressing very fast. And notwithstanding all the critics, the Chinese are ahead of this right now, and so are many Europeans, because we have this backlash here. I heard Russia was developed, maybe Russia's ahead in some of that cancer. A lot. Russia, China, many European countries. America used to be, but now it's lagging behind, because, you know, the anti-science sentiment that has been propagated by politicians in the United States.

17:54So that 5 % will be taken care of. 95 % of disease is not genetically determined. Even if you have the mutation, it doesn't predict the disease. So that's called epigenetics. That's a new science. It's been around now only for 20 years. Epigenetics means how you sleep, how you manage your stress, exercise, nutrition, relationships, emotions and biological rhythms determine almost everything, your lifestyle. Of those I would say sleep, managing stress, because if you have stress it doesn't matter what you do, doesn't matter what the best food you take, whatever, if you have stress, it overrides everything because it causes inflammation in the body and stress people that are more likely to drink or take drugs to relieve their stress or get addicted or have poor relationships, unhealthy emotions.

19:06So I would say if you have stress, it doesn't matter what you do. So I would say stress, management, sleep, movement, exercise, relationships, social engagement, nutrition, and you covering 95 % of illness, preventing, and even in some cases reversing. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand, Squarespace makes it easy to create a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything from products to content to time, all in one place, all on your own terms.

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24:41Speaking of stress management, a lot of people struggle with stress. I used to struggle a lot with stress. What was a trigger for me or not a trigger but a turning point for me was Conversations like this realizing that stress is going to do nothing but harm to me, right? So once I kind of looked at it through that lens It tell him what I call your stress. He'll laugh She would say that I was looking for a saber-toothed tiger to attack me I said well he would stress I say there's no saber-toothed tiger, but the but the point being is I rationalized ridding my life of stress knowing that the outcome of stress will be disease and discomfort later in my life.

25:15But for people that are still stressed right now, what are maybe some practices or things they can do to start ridding their life of stress outside of understanding that it's doing them no good? There's a nerve in the body called the vagus nerve, which is the anti-stress nerve. It's part of a system in our body called the parasympathetic nervous system. People who are stressed, they have the sympathetic overdrive, which is the tiger response which you're talking about. You know, you're always thinking you're going to be eaten up by a tiger, metaphorically speaking. So the opposite of that is called the rejuvenation, rest, repair response.

25:57That's a part of our nervous system called the parasympathetic nervous system. in that parasympathetic nervous system, there's a nerve called the vagus nerve. Vagus is a Latin word, but you could say the closest English word is vagabond. It's the longest nerve in the body. Moves from the brain, affects your eye movements, your facial expressions, your breathing, your heart rate, everything in the body that's healing. Also goes to the microbiome, which is the bacterial genes, and there's bilateral traffic from the brain to your body and from your body back to the brain. So if you smile, you activate the vagus nerve.

26:43There are certain eye exercises, clockwise and anticlockwise, looking at the distance close by, you activate the vagus nerve. If you sing, you activate the vagus nerve. If you chant, you activate the vagus nerve. If you take a deep breath or do breathing exercises, it activates the vagus nerve. If you put awareness in the heart and think of someone you love, it activates the vagus nerve. If you do yoga, it activates the vagus nerve. If you squeeze your sphincters, Kegel exercises, you know, anal sphincter, urethral sphincter, vaginal sphincter, squeeze and release. Hold on, if you squeeze your sphincter.

27:25And then release them. It activates your vagus nerve. Correct. Oh my God, I'm going to be squeezing mine all the time. So those are the things. Now, I mentioned this to somebody who was doing research on electroceuticals to simulate the vagus nerve. I said, you can stimulate it with all these things. And this guy was the head of R &D for the number one pharmaceutical company. He flew all the way from Morocco, not Morocco, from Paris to see me in Aspen. I said, you don't have to cut a patient and put electricity in it because vagus nerve stimulation reverses epilepsy and also helps people with arthritis and asthma and autoimmune illness, even cancer, heart disease.

28:11See, you can do this. And he said, then how do we make money? So, you know, he said it, obviously, the pharmaceutical company. He said, we're a public company. We can't tell everybody to do yoga or smile. So there you are. This is how the world is run. You know what's so weird is when I was pregnant with my last baby, in my meditation, I wanted to start humming. That's the best thing. Naturally. It was so weird. I wanted to just hum. Not only did you benefit yourself, but the baby. Well, now when the baby's here, and I touch my face to him, and I hum, and he goes into like a hypnosis. This is well documented scientifically.

28:52You discovered it yourself. Congratulations. But this is why it's very important to read poetry to your baby, to play good music to your baby, to hum and actually do everything like good sleep and rest and breathing techniques. All that affects the baby before it's born. What kind of poetry should I read to him? Poetry that makes you happy. Okay, so there's not someone that you would recommend? Well, my favorite poets are people like T.S. Eliot, Rumi, Shakespeare. Okay, that's such good advice. I love that advice. I'm going to go home and read him poetry and hum in his ear. That's it. You can do the same to me.

29:36This is a random question, but do you like frequency music like 528 hertz? It's very good. I don't listen to it, but yeah, it works. Okay. That's so interesting what you said about activating the vagus nerve. I feel like when you do a meditation and you say, ah, that activates it too, right? 100%. Or, hmm, or, oh, any humming sound. Or even singing. Singing will activate the vagus, especially if you're singing joyfully, having a shower. I love that. You often speak of the five causes of suffering. Can you share that message with this audience? Very interesting. The five causes of suffering is, I would say, not knowing who you are at a very deep level, clinging and grasping at experience, which is ungraspable.