Rewiring Your Brain for Happiness | Jameela Jamil EP 589

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

0:12When you think about the neurological benefits of exercise and the fact that within 10 to 15 minutes you have endorphins, you have happy chemicals going through your brain that are de-stressing you making it more likely for you to be able to sleep that night de-stressing you you immediately feel better than you felt beforehand and then if you keep that up every day within a week or two your life starts to genuinely feel differently And so I've been trying to bring my audience along with me on this journey doing that. It's called Move For Your Mind. But I found a way that is like in baggy clothes, eating sugary snacks so we can divorce the idea of calories out, calories in.

0:44We're going against all of exercise culture and all of diet culture because exercise culture and diet culture are just married now. And so we are, we've kind of created this slightly anarchist, rebellious, like exercise movement. Don't work out, but make sure you're moving. Yeah, but like dance in your kitchen, do things that are free, lift water bottles, lift your dog, lift your child. You know, go for a walk every day. Do simple things. Buy a$300 walking machine, which might be expensive for some people. Some people it might be affordable. So if you're a woman and you're afraid of walking at night, I walk on that and I watch my favorite TV shows.

1:15And then I get my half an hour a day and then I feel amazing and I have a great night's sleep. We're trying to find unpretentious, fun and welcoming ways for people at any size with any disability or any stage of pregnancy to join us and not feel ostracized. That's cool. I mean, whenever there's a plus size line for exercise workout, The world goes mad. So what did you want them to wear when they were exercising? You want these people to exercise and work out and be healthy. What do you want to be naked in the gym? The gyms are not a very friendly space. So it's just about finding an alternative way to democratize exercise and bring it back to the people.

1:49It was ours. It got industrialized like a matter of decades ago and turned into this exclusive club where you have a uniform. uniform well you have this uniform that's getting sexier and sexier and sexier every year for all the genders and it's becoming more and more about just becoming a billboard for other people and no one's thinking about the inside it's all very punitive it's a punitive like no pain no gain is the stupidest slogan of our generation well it's also with men it's like you just see men just shirtless everywhere who are just shredded and probably on steroids or human growth hormone and So they're just like so ripped that you're just like, most men are like, I could never get to them.

2:29Yeah. But get to happy. Right. Exactly. That person might be struggling with an eating disorder or some sort of body dysmorphia or orthorexia. Right. You know, we don't know what everyone's story is. Just focus on being happier in an hour than you are right now. Feeling autonomous. So many of us don't feel autonomous in the world because there's so much chaos and we're doom scrolling and we're looking at how the world is falling apart and our kids are changing faster than we were at their age. and everyone feels so like, oh my God, it feels like I'm in quicksand all of the time. It's like, it's a quick way to immediately feel like, okay, my feet are back on the ground and it's just temporary, but then you do it again.

3:05Absolutely. And so that's a big part of what we're doing over at Iway is exercise culture, but also neurology and learning that you can really make fundamental quick changes that it doesn't just have to be medication. I'm pro-medication and it doesn't just having to be access to the best therapy, which no one can afford en masse. There are so many ways you can rewire your own brain. And I think these people, people like Dr. Caroline Leaf, who was both on our podcast, are fantastic and important. And they're about no longer succumbing just to big pharma, but giving the power back to the people to have autonomy in their own recovery.

3:41It's empowering. That's inspiring. So what I'm hearing you say is that when you started to talk to neurologists or brain scientists, you started to learn these ideas just make you happier and healthier overall um and so you started you know mortifying yourself by doing these things yeah and you started on instagram live yeah and you started to see results yeah i'm happier than i've ever been i'm way nicer than i used to be you see it yeah exactly i could feel the energy right away when you walked in here i go something is shifted within you and you yeah now that you're bad before i i said it was just like no but i had a defensive you were adding more of an aggressive energy right yeah i was defensive and I think there's nothing wrong with a little bit of female aggression but I do think that what I had was more of a defensive energy because again I was flying so high and everyone was congratulating me so much that I was like waiting for the shoe drop and also everyone, every podcast I went on someone was trying to trap me or you know so I didn't know what you were going to be like I just didn't know who to trust I knew that the other shoe was going to drop at any moment and I just didn't know when it was going to happen and I had this anxiety and I think also because everything was happening so fast and because I had that anxiety, I think that also accounts for some of my worse, like my poorer decisions with things that I said publicly, subjects I weighed into.

4:56Why am I talking about global conflict? But I felt pressured to because people are like, your silence on this is deafening. I don't want to think I don't care. I want to know I care about their country, but I don't know anything about their country. That's one of the biggest things when people say, I can't believe we're not supporting this or this or this or this and you not saying something means you don't support it. I'm like, maybe I just don't know what to say. Yeah, and you're expecting... Because I know this, the one thing about eating disorders, I'm expected to know everything about everything.

5:20And my bad for trying to jump in when I didn't know, because I only ever created more mess. And for some reason, the media, like, they know that I'm divisive. They know I'm controversial. They know that I'm outspoken. Yeah. And then they further polarize me by making the headline as egregious and violent as possible. So as Jamila Jamil slams. And often I've just said a really thoughtful thing with, like, a love heart. What did it feel like to you when you had people that maybe seemed like friends or acquaintances, but when you were going through your stuff in the media and people against you or just stopped talking to you for a period of time, how did they make you feel and how is your relationship with certain people like that once they started to come back around?

6:01They'll never be back on the inside ever. And I think it can be helpful in moments like that, as heartbreaking as they are, because it was heartbreaking. Yeah, I know the feeling. You felt very like, you feel very betrayed and you also like, you question yourself, which is never a nice, it's a shaky feeling when you can't trust your gut instinct. But truly, it's also an extraordinary magnifying glass of clarity that I'm so grateful for. Because I have this extraordinary pool of people now left, who I know have got my back, who don't care, who don't look at the internet, who challenge me when I'm wrong with grace and love.

6:38And they maintain the most fundamental quality that I think we all need, which is to have the benefit of the doubt. 100%. It's the benefit of the doubt is going to carry us to a better society. Yes, it is.

6:54Thank 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 Podcast 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.

7:49Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show. Thank you.