Why Who You Become Matters More Than What You Do Feat. Dr. Josh Axe

24:29Everyone knows the scripture about where there's no vision, the people will perish. I've started to think about this more and how many of our thoughts come from some vision or video playing in our head of a thought or a past event, as you've said, as a memory and how much maybe we should be focusing on our vision, specifically visualization? And is this rooted in scripture even? Is the lack of a vision where dreams go to die, where growth goes to die, where it perishes? I've really spent some time on this lately. And I'm really big, I wrote about it in my book as well, on mental rehearsal, on visualization, because I think a lot of our thoughts come from what we're repeatedly feeding ourselves unconsciously.

25:13And a lot of times what we're repeating to ourselves, as you said earlier, is our past, is a fear, is our worry, is what the enemy's feeding us. And so taking control of what we see in our mind, I think is deeply rooted in scripture. I used to think, ah, one science and one scripture. I actually don't think that anymore. Maybe I'm reading, but maybe I'm not. Maybe this is a new kind of frontier people of faith should be talking more about. And you talk about in the book. I think you say visualize to realize. So just elaborate on your thoughts about visualization, mental rehearsal, vision in general.

25:50Well, it's been one of the most powerful tools in my life in healing and achieving success in life and business and family. And it is very biblical. I think about God himself with Abraham. Says, Abraham, look at the stars of the sky. so numerous how your descendants be. I mean, God uses visualization with Abraham. And so I see this, I see this in the Bible. I see it in, I see it in life and sports for, you know, I had the opportunity back in 2012 and 13 to work with the U.S. Olympic team with the swimmers. And, and Michael Phelps, I remember him doing this interview and they said, because you remember this, he used to, he'd wear his hood and he just would stare.

26:32And they asked him, they said, Hey, what are you doing? Are you, are you visualizing yourself winning? He goes, no, not just winning. I'm visualizing every single moment of the race, jumping off every stroke, that first turn, the second turn, the third, like every last part of it. So when you look at the people that are, that achieve the most success in life, most of the time they take visualization to the absolute furthest ends. And, and so I think it's very, very important. You know, there is a, as talking about sort of my infection and healing from that, I really put that into play. Like I, there's a, there was, there was a doctor who wrote on, he did a, I'm trying to remember the exact study, but there was something done on the placebo effect.

27:16And most people know what the placebo effect is. It's sort of your, that your belief helps you see these results. This happened back in one of the world wars when a doctor ran out of morphine, there was these fallen soldiers who had lost limbs, incredible pain, and they ran out of morphine. And he said, and he told the nurse, he said, well, we have to give them something. So she just started injecting these soldiers with, you know, salt or sugar water, just saline. And, and the crazy part was 40 % of them saw the same pain relief as if they were getting morphine. And that's wild to think about, but we can support the placebo effect, amplify it in three main ways from what I've found.

27:52number one is visualization, being very clear about what it is you want to see, being very, very clear about that. So your body starts moving towards that with neuroplasticity. The second thing is feeling that emotion that you're going to feel when you actually, as if, as if you were in that certain state, your body is driven emotionally. It changes your hormonal system in a really big way. And the third thing is having a plan. This is how I'm going to do it. Okay. Sometimes your body doesn't believe you really. Okay. You're telling yourself you're great, but you got to sort of prove it. So planning as well.

28:23But I think those things definitely help. But back to the idea there about visualization, to me, if you want to realize this is sort of the process I tend to bring people through, I do myself. You visualize, sometimes even before that, I prioritize making sure, hey, that vision I'm seeing, that's truly what I want. I want the family. I want, you know, that, that thing. So it's sort of prioritize, visualize, strategize exactly what you want. You want to schedule it. You want to really put it right into your schedule, what you want to do, and then you'll sort of realize that result. But that's sort of the process that I go personally.

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29:57I think when people say visualization, they don't realize you have many for your life. Some of you are listening to this and go, I don't really have a big vision. I'm not an entrepreneur. I don't want to be wealthy. Well, do you have a family? What if it's true that a family without a vision could potentially, its character could perish. Like a family without a vision. What's your vision for your family? What's your vision for your faith? What's your vision for your happiness level, for your body? Just now, before we were starting the show, my producer, Steven, has been with me a long time. I've lost a significant amount of weight.

30:26And he's like, so what's really different? And really there's, you know, I've obviously changed what I'm doing nutritionally. But one of the other things that I did is I've got, I actually think my body is conspiring with my mind now to get me to look like what I wanted to. I actually, for the first time ever, started to really visualize, mentally rehearse what I wanted to look like. And actually, more importantly, what I wanted to feel like, because I've been a muscular, bigger guy most of my life. I just can't carry it anymore. And so, but what would that guy feel like? To your point, it wasn't just seeing, it was how would it feel to be there?

30:59Well, my back wouldn't be quite as sore because I've got some disc issues. You know what's really interesting? This weight has come off so much faster and easier than it ever did just when I was doing the nutrition. But now when I'm visualizing and seeing the body that I wanted and taking the requisite actions and to your point, scheduling it, not only is the weight come off much faster, but my body is feeling the way that I visualized it feeling. And because your body is chasing that, that neuro biochemistry that you're repeating to itself over and over again. So I just want to acknowledge what a powerful part of the book I think that is.

31:34And it's just, I'm glad that people of faith are starting to embrace this, knowing that it's faith-based as well. What if for you, just curious, because I'm going to ask you a health question in a minute, because it's just for me, so we'll go to the Biblio stuff diet in a minute, but is there a sacred ritual or something spiritually or physically that you refuse to sacrifice in your life, let's say beyond prayer. So I know obviously prayer, but is there something you do that's like, it's non-negotiable for your health or your mental wellbeing, whether that be a, I'm making it up cold plunge or sauna or a walk.

32:11Like, is there something for you that's a non-negotiable? Cause obviously you're unbelievably fit. You came back from something with your back. That sounds just unbelievably difficult. Is there something that's a non-negotiable ritual or strategy for you? Yeah, I would say first thing in the morning, spending time with God. It's what I call a spiritual triathlon. And so what I will do first thing when I get up is I'll talk with God and I'll get grateful. And I do this either when I'm in bed. I mean, literally, sometimes I just roll out of bed and go first thing to my hands and knees and just say, God, I'm just so grateful for my health, my amazing wife, my two daughters, that I have a job where I get to help people that I just love.

32:52I'm grateful for. So I, so I really try and do that first thing. Oh, and sometimes I'll just roll out of bed and I try and go on a walk. Part of that's also a health practice. I want to get sun to kind of set my cortisol levels, but I'll go outside and I'll just, and sometimes I'll just walk and, and just tell God. And sometimes I'll listen to praise and worship music. And sometimes I'll lift my hands and say, God, you're so good. I'm so grateful. And so I think starting my morning out with, um, with the opposite of entitlement with gratitude, I deserve nothing, but I've been given everything and more than I could have ever hoped or dreamed.

33:25When I start that out with like that perspective changes my entire day. Now, after that, I tend to like to go inside and then I will open my Bible or a book about the book and I'll sit there and I'll read and really kind of sit on something and then I'll maybe pray and meditate on that for a minute. But I try and do that every morning. And when I do that, I mean, it just, it just, you know, starts my entire day off right. I love that. I'm, I'm, our rituals are very similar. Our routines are very similar. All right. This is an Ed, my lead question. Everybody gets to listen in on, and I think it'll open up people's minds about something.

33:57So I've become, I'll call it obsessed with health and wellbeing and longevity. And inside of that obsession, um, through doing the show for the last eight years and some health stuff in my family and my dad dying. And I don't have the greatest genetic pool. You know, I got the heart disease gene and the cancer gene. And so does my wife. So my kids have it probably too. So I become obsessed with HRV, heart rate variability. Now this is not in your book. This is not in any one of our notes. I just want to ask about this. And by the way, bring people's attention to it. And so heart rate variability, everybody is not your heart beat your your heart rate every minute it's the variability in beats and as i understand it the more i've understood it um it's a mortality measurement and a health measurement and you want it to be you know you're nodding so maybe i'm wrong no no no you're not you're not right you're definitely right okay you want it to be you want it to be higher not lower and i'll just be transparent with the audience mine is like unbelievably low like 13 like 14 12 8 and you didn't even want to be below 50 in most cases.

35:05And so, and there's a connection between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. Some of it could be mental is what I'm hearing, that it could be kind of my body and fight or flight response or anxiety or worry. I'm just curious about your overall thoughts about heart rate variability. It has nothing to do with what's in your book or anything like that. And how much of that do you think is mental versus nutrition, physical, genetic. Wow. You didn't expect that. Well, yeah, I actually have studied HRV quite, quite a bit. I know. And I've used it with, uh, as a marker for helping patients quite a bit as well.

35:43So here's what I'll say. Number one, everything else pairs in comparison to, in terms of impacting HRV to stress. I mean, it is by far the greatest thing that impacts it. And so, so for you, Ed, my guess is you don't have fear. You don't have worry. You don't have anxiety. Like, like you don't, it's not that for you. It's most likely the speed of which you do things in busyness. One thing that I was, you know, that I noticed about people that tended to be successful in certain areas, they would run. It was almost like a rush to do things. There was a speed at which they did everything, whether it was sweeping the floor or eating or doing anything.

36:19that is probably the single and it's almost something programmed in you that you can reprogram in your brain that impacts hrv so i'll give you an example when you walk do you walk fast yes walk slow when you eat fast eat slow it's actually just slowing down okay everything in life you know rather than going like like you know i think about like uh if you're listening to an audiobook right we've i've got friends that listen on like 3-0 speed i can't even you know i can't keep up with three Oh, but it's like, you know, bring it back to one, bring it back to point eight, just literally everything in your life, slow it down.

36:57That philosophically, or scientifically in a way is the single biggest thing that will impact HRV. It's also not overbooking your schedule. Like if you would go to Europe and you would say, I'm not going to literally think about work for a month. I'm just going to go there with my wife. Maybe my kids come and I'm going to have some gelato. I'm going to walk up and down the streets. I'm going to read a novel. I mean, it's that, that's the biggest way you fix HRV. Now sleep, that also is how you get better sleep. Food can make a difference for sure. But, but that single-handedly is the biggest HRV fixer.

37:33Okay. Thank you. I, I, I'm glad we're talking about it because I want people to begin to, like, I'm, I'm so, I'm so obsessed with it, that I work on it in my coaching to get people in their creative state to get them in the parasympathetic state, not sympathetic. And so I, but I, you are right us achievers. That's why I bring it up. We're addicted to stress. And by the way, it's the combination of, I train very hard in the gym. So I'm putting my body through physical stress. I like pacing. I'm fast. Everything's in a hurry. I've even bragged about my ability to function during stress, which is high because I'm so familiar with it.

38:05But those of you that are even younger, if you think it's not taking a toll on your health overall, it is it. There's a price to be paid eventually. And I'm just at the stage of my life now where it's like, Hey, I, I, I've started many of what you just said, but, um, that is a measurement. Most people aren't talking about do they want to know what their cholesterol is or, you know, their blah, blah, blah. Take a look at your HRV. It'll tell you an awful lot about where you're at and you can get a monitor very easily. You're ordering a polar or whatever to take a look at it. So, okay. Now that we're on the nutrition side.

38:37I worded this question purposely for you. Here's what I said. I said, if Jesus sat at your kitchen table, actually someone helped me word this. What would you ask him about health, healing, or the body? If you could ask him something, what would you ask him?

38:56Wow. I didn't see that one coming. That's a great question. I think I would ask him,

39:05uh wow yeah good i mean that's that that's i i honestly i i almost never get stumped and and this this one has me a little bit so let me let me start with one and then maybe go to a second here i i think the first thing i would say is part part of my question has to do with this is like how much how much attention should we pay to it you know the reason i say that is is that that, that, you know, something Paul says is, uh, is listen, uh, physical training, that's of some value of the greatest value is training spiritually. Right. So Paul says, he said, it's of some value. It's not the most value.

39:45So, so, so, so one thing that I, I think I've, I've seen in some patients, the people that are sickest, most of them are, um, so focused on what the things they can do to get healthy, which is hard. There's a saying, and it's, if you have 99 problems until you have a health problem, then you have one problem. And I think if we've had a health problem, we've all experienced that. But I think that that is something that makes people sick. It's an obsession about thinking about their health constantly, when a lot of times I think it's like, well, no, you actually don't need to think about it as much.

40:18I think what I would ask Jesus is, what, you know, um, what are some, what, what's the most, what are the most healing practices? Give me in ranking order. Like if you had to rank them, Jesus, like what are the most healing practices I can do to live in a state of longevity? Now, by the way, I would ask him a lot of other health questions before I'd ask a health question, but when I got to the health question, that's a really good one. Uh, and so I think I would just ask him, yeah, what are the most healing habits? um yeah i think that's what i would ask him you know sorry you got you just come in mind spinning with that question i love it made me spin i was no i was prepping last night and made me spin and you know what was interesting i'll tell you what came to me i couldn't come up with the words but i almost came up with the answers that was really weird like i i couldn't come up with the words i would ask but almost i had a knowing of the answer of the question i hadn't even asked.

41:11What's crazy. When you said that my first answer was going to be some just things he did. Like my first answer was going to be wake up early in the morning by yourself and go and pray. That was the first thing that just, you know, yeah. Yeah. Same here. And, and also for me, it's like, you know, surrender a whole bunch of this to me. We're on my time and my schedule anyway, you know, have some peace about it. And I think the things, every time health comes up, there's this background thing in all of our minds of like, uh, an unknowing or an, uh, lack of peace about it. And I, I, it gives me peace to just think I could sit and talk with Jesus about health.

41:53We, we talk about them with everything else. Why couldn't we talk about that? Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Abercrombie Kids knows how to make outfitting easy. Mix and match sets are their ultimate outfit hack for fall. Their sweatshirts and sweatpants are super cozy, and they always have the cutest colors and patterns. Shop fall's easiest outfit at Abercrombie Kids in the app, online, and in stores.

42:26I wanted to ask you that. The other thing, you know, I almost look at like some of the things that I've done in my health, like addicting distress. It's almost like a vice. Like I almost get high off of stress. If that makes any sense, I feel a lot under stress. I feel alive. And sometimes this may sound really weird, but when there's no stress in my life, like I used to watch my dad, he could not sit still like on a weekend. You know what I mean? Like his day is one day off. my dad works six days a week my dad you relax watch some football no my dad's up cleaning the yard doing something on the roof doing this doing and i think to some extent i don't do that physically but i've done that in my mind it's almost like a vice what would have been much more virtuous of my dad and i love my dad but would have been like spend some time with me spend some time in prayer and you actually have one of the eight steps bust vices by building virtues.

43:24What does that mean for you? Well, coming off your last question, I think it's becoming like Christ, right? So here, if somebody wants to become the greatest version of themselves, here's what I think the Bible says about it. There's two things you want to do. Number one, grow in character, become like Christ. Number two, take whatever unique talent God gave you and take that to the highest level possible. Think about Michelangelo. I mean, his life is really amazing. When you read on Michelangelo, he lived, actually, he had one of the greatest, he was one of the longest living people in that day, lived to be 88 years old.

44:00And so he used that gift to honor God. You think about Mother Teresa, you think about MLK. They both actually had these unique skills of caring for others or leading revolutions. But I think those are the things. If you want to be your best self, become more Christ-like, higher and more loving, more wise, more just, more kind, and take that unique gift God's given you to the highest level possible. And so I think that's what we want to do. And so I think the other thing I want to say is when it, most people are not, now you mentioned John Maxwell earlier, by the way, he's somebody, when I, he actually moves pretty slow in a good way.

44:40When you hear him speak yes he pauses he takes his time and so covered he's not trying to and this is something i need to get better at but watching and watching him is convicting because he's so good at that but but that's something where i think you know growing in character is not something that's highlighted today as much as it should be or what people will do is pick one virtue or character quality and they will take that to the moon but then that but they will leave the others untouched. You know, there was a study I had on my book. It's something like the number one reason why CEOs are fired today isn't poor performance.

45:21It's a moral failure. The number one reason why executives are fired today. So, so, so that's obviously - At the time we're recording this, there's quite a story in the news right now. It just won't come out, but you know what I'm talking about. There's a, there's a story in the news right now about Yeah. A guy at a concert and yeah. Oh, exactly. Yes. And so that's just a prime example, but I think, I think so. So, so number one thing we should be focused on is growing our character and secondarily growing in that unique skill God has given you. And, and, you know, I did this via John Maxwell book years ago.

45:52I read a book he wrote called today matters. And he said in the book, he wrote these things called character cards and it had like Bible verses and other just questions on it. I made those for myself and I said, okay, I'm going to grow as an encourager. I'm going to become more patient, more kind, and really meditating on those things. So I think that's a, you know, today, like in leadership, you probably noticed this. Over the last 10 years, all of a sudden, Harvard and everyone else said the number one quality of a leader is, you probably know this, but it's empathy. They'll say that's the number one quality.

46:22Listen, that's not the number one quality of a leader, okay? It's a quality, but it's not the number one. By the way, it's very different than compassion. Empathy is you feel like you take action because you feel something or you feel bad for somebody. Compassion is whether I feel it or not, I'm going to do the right thing. I'm going to rush to help you right now. And actually having certain qualities that get in balance, for instance, you know, one of the things Aristotle talks about is if you want to truly be virtuous, it's not having one virtue. It's having both. It's being loving and truthful at the very, very same time.

46:56and um because if you're just truthful without love well you're going to say something mean and if you're just loving sometimes you're enabling somebody and we do that today enabling them to just stay where they're at so so that's part of what i get into there is that sort of idea brother i just think you're you're so brilliant i just love conversation with you um i knew this would be good today and everybody was right and this was god's timing all right last question for you um you talk about worship music and living a long time so i want to take you to the end of life so now you're at the end of your life and uh i'm a big worship music guy too drives my kids crazy because it's basically all i listen to now a little country but mainly worship music and my favorite guy like many people right now has been brandon lake for a long time and my favorite brand lake song i love gratitude i love a lot of his music but he has a song called pour me out and it's typically the last song i listen to before i go on stage when i speak because i i want to be a if i can be somehow get out of me and let the holy spirit take over and just be a vessel and i but i do think about at the end of my life what would being fully poured out you know poured myself out be like and i wonder for you like at the end you know, a hundred years from now or whenever it is that your time here ends, what would be, what would be the full poured out version of you as a healer, as a teacher?

48:21What would that look like for you? I'm really curious. Well, you know, I, I, I've actually thought about this a little bit because there's a, there's a scripture that many of us know and it's, uh, you know, and it's where Paul is saying like, run to win the race, you know, leave it all in the field, do everything you can. And, uh, and for me, number one, it's becoming a certain type of person and It's becoming more like Christ. It's becoming like my grandfather. It's becoming like those people that left a legacy here on earth for good. That's the other thing. I mean, you can grow in your skill, as we talked about.

48:57But if you don't do it with virtue, with character, you end up destroying the world. Even though you've done great things, you could do great evil in the world. So for me, I would say, number one, being a great son to God, that I'm walking with God, and that I've really focused on growing more like him in my character. The two biggest things that I need to work on are patience is by far number one, by the way. It's nothing else is even as close as that. And after that, it was probably just going out of my way to be extra kind. you know and so and i think that's what you know when i think about jesus when you think about the greats it's not just that you're not mean it's that you go to the point of being ridiculous of being kind and gentle and an encourager and wise you just be you just you just really go out there with it so one thing that i want to be able to continue to do even more so is say god how can i just be ridiculous ridiculously kind you know and so i think Those are some things that are ridiculously patient and those things I need to work on.

50:03The other thing is being a great husband and father. I'm so blessed to have such an amazing wife. And there's this idea, Mother Teresa said, if you want to change the world, go home and love your family. And so talking about the most virtuous person, maybe during the past 100 years, as an example, that's one of the things she's known for saying. And so for me, it's being a great husband, being a great father. And it's in order to do that spending time, right. Spending time with kids. And also the last word that kind of comes to mind here is that I'm ultra intentional because it is so easy to let busyness sort of dictate, you know, what you do in the world, dictate what you do.

50:42And so it's being ultra intentional about like, just for instance, some things like family dinners, that we do family dinners, that we pray at every meal. We're going to hold hands. When my daughter is in bed, I'm putting my five-year-old to bed right now because my wife's putting our one-year-old to bed and putting my hand on her and just saying, you know what? You're a child of God. He created you to do mighty things. He's got a great plan for your life. You're a great swimmer. You're so kind. Just calling out the greatness in her. So I think if I, you know, get to the end of my life, if I grew in those areas, if I was a great husband and father, I feel like I will have, you know, run a good race.

51:17Amen, man. What a great answer. What a good interview, huh? Like we should, we should probably. This is great. No, brother. I'm just listening. I'm just really listening. Soaking it all in. You guys, uh, that was Josh Axe, Dr. Josh Axe. And I like him. I'm inspired by him. And I bet you are as well. Two books you should get, at least for now. Think this, not that. Go grab that one. And then the Biblio Diet. It's the combination of really the different things we talked about today. You can get in both those books in much more detail. Josh, thanks for doing this today. It was extraordinary. Like, I already know this is reverberating through the internet when it comes out.

51:52I already know it. So thank you. Well, thanks so much, Ed. Again, I've followed for years. It's an honor. You've been an inspiration to me. So again, thanks so much for having me. All right, everybody. Man, this is so good. Thank you, God. All right. Hey, everybody, God bless you. Share this with someone who needs it. That's all I ask. Max out your life. Take care. This is the Ed Myland Show.