How To TRAIN YOUR MIND To Have A Healthy Body! | Dr. Daniel Amen EP 358

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:10Calling all conscious achievers who are seeking more community and connection. I've got an invitation for you. Join me at this year's Summit of Greatness this September 7th through 9th in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio to unleash your true greatness. This is the one time a year that I gather the greatness community together in person for a powerful, transformative weekend. People come from all over the world and you can expect to hear from inspiring speakers like Inky Johnson, Jospree Singh, Vanessa Van Edwards, Jen Sincero, and many more. You'll also be able to dance your heart out to live music, get your body moving with group workouts, and connect with others at our evening socials.

0:53So if you're ready to learn, heal, and grow alongside other incredible individuals in the greatness community, then you can learn more at lewishouse.com slash summit 2023. Make sure to grab your ticket, invite your friends, and I'll see you there. It was 1991 when I ordered my first SPECT scan. SPECT is the study we do at Amen Clinics. I'm already a double board certified psychiatrist. I'd been a psychiatrist for about a decade. I always felt like I was throwing darts in the dark at my patients. There's a great book called The Structure of Scientific Revolution. Because if what I'm doing is right, and I believe it is, it's really creating a revolution in brain health, mental health, care.

1:41And the first step of the revolution Thomas Kuhn wrote about in 1962 is you notice a flaw in the system. And I was taught if you have six of these nine symptoms, You get diagnosed with depression. And then I give you a medication. Right. That's what you did for a while. But some of the people I'd put on Prozac got better. And some of them became suicidal. Some of them became aggressive. Some of them became obsessive and anxious. And I'm like, this isn't working like it should. Right. And in 1991, when I started ordering scans, I scanned my mom. She had a beautiful, healthy brain. I scanned me, and it wasn't healthy.

2:21But I played football in high school. I had meningitis when I was a young soldier. And I had bad habits. I wasn't sleeping. I was eating fast food. And when I scanned myself, I developed a concept. The next 30 years, I've been figuring out how can I have a better brain? Because when I have a better brain, I have a better life. What I realized is depression is not one thing. That's why Prozac didn't work for everyone. For some people, they have really low blood flow and activity in the brain. For some people, it's really high. I always think of people in four big circles. What's the physical functioning of your brain and body?

2:59So it's a biological circle. What's the psychological circle, which is your development? That really matters. And your ability to manage your mind. Social, it's like, well, how's your money? How's your relationships? And spiritual, which most psychiatrists would never touch. but 80 % of the population believes in God and has deep-rooted spiritual belief. And it's ultimately, well, why are you on the planet? And you had lost your sense of meaning and purpose, where you had one life and then, well, all of a sudden you don't have that anymore. What would you say are the three worst things we can do for our brain?

3:41If the brain health is the foundation for our mindset, our heart health, the way we view the world, what are the three worst things we can do? I mean, the worst thing you can do is not care about it. I have a little tiny habit I love. Before you go to do something today, ask yourself, takes three seconds, is this good for my brain or bad for it? And if you can answer that question with information and love, love of yourself, love of your mission, you are going to be better. because when your brain is better, you're better. Number two, you engage in behaviors that hurt your brain. Whether it's head trauma or thinking of marijuana as going green, it's not, it damages the brain.

4:27Alcohol is not a health food. Living in a mold-filled environment. The third thing would be you just never do anything to help your brain, such as table tennis, which is just a great brain game Yes. Because you got to get your eyes, your hands and feet all to work together while you think about this spin on the ball. So I think of it like aerobic chess and people never think about their cerebellum. In the back bottom part of your brain, there is cerebellum actually means little brain. It's 10 percent of the brain's volume, but it has half 50 percent of the brain's neurons. And it's involved in coordination, which is why table tennis is great for your cerebellum, but also thought coordination, how quickly you can integrate new information.

5:17And we know people have ADD, have sleepy cerebellums, people who have autism awfully have damaged cerebellums. Athletics are so important, right? These coordination exercises like martial arts is amazing. As long as you don't hit your head. As long as you don't hit your head. Because the brain is soft about the consistency of soft butter. And your skull is really hard and has sharp bony ridges. This is why the thousands of blows you took to your head are just bad. Helmets don't protect brain damage, protect you from brain damage. They protect you from skull fracture. but inside your brain, your brain is doing this repeatedly.

6:04That's not a good thing. You can't like take your laptop and just drop it repeatedly and expect it to do what it needs to do. How much from these scans you've done where people have had horrible looking scans? I mean, whether it be brain trauma or sexual trauma, whatever it is that they were stuck in some type of brain trauma. And they went on a program of better lifestyle, better habits, spiritual growth, personal development. Were you able to see a significant transformation within a year, five years, 10 years? How long does this take? Now, it depends, right, on how much you played and how many hits and how damaged it is.

6:40And it also depends on the brain you brought into football, because some people brought really healthy brains into football. They had parents who cared, they had reasonable nutrition and so on. And some people brought in terrible brains. Yes. But 80 % of our people get better. And that's the cool thing about the brain. Every day, your brain, and there's an area called the hippocampus. The hippocampus is really important because it's involved with mood and memory. It's Greek for seahorse because it's shaped like a seahorse. And every day, the hippocampus makes 700 new baby stem cells or new baby seahorses.

7:22Every day. Every day. In the brain. in the brain. You're making new cells every day. So neuroscientists, when I was taking neuroscience in medical school, they told us, you know, if you hurt your brain, sort of you're screwed and you're not getting it back. Well, that was a lie that the brain continues to make new neurons throughout life. And every day you're growing those babies. If you put them in a healthy the environment, or you're murdering them. Just the information. Know better, do better.

8:05Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description that will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

8:55Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.